The Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s Board of Trustees announced it has selected Kyle Wingfield, opinion columnist and blogger for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, as the next president and CEO of Georgia’s free-market think tank.

Wingfield, a native of Dalton and graduate of the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, was a Wall Street Journal editorial page writer based in Brussels, Belgium, from 2004-2009 before joining The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in May 2009.

He will join the Foundation as president in April, filling the position left vacant after Kelly McCutchen resigned in December 2017 to become executive director of HINRI.org. McCutchen spent nearly 25 years as an executive at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, the last seven as president and CEO.

“The impressive caliber and quality of the applicants from across the nation and the state speak to the respect the Foundation has earned since its founding in 1991 as Georgia’s free-market public policy research organization,” said Rogers Wade, chairman of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

“The Foundation has enjoyed Kyle’s reasoned writings over the past nine years as well as his attendance at Foundation events. The Board was especially impressed, through a lengthy interview process, by his articulate voice on issues, his respect among state leaders, and his understanding of free-market policy, the Foundation’s needs and the challenges Georgia faces.

“The Foundation was named one of the world’s best independent think tanks in 2017. We look forward to Kyle guiding the Foundation to the next level and building upon Kelly’s legacy of leadership and integrity in the policy arena,” Wade added.

Wingfield said he is “thrilled and enthusiastic” about becoming part of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

“I have always appreciated the work of the Foundation,” he said.

“This is an exciting opportunity for me to work with a team of experts who demonstrate thoughtfulness, principle and rigor behind everything they do, and to build upon the tradition and the motto: ‘Changing Georgia Policy, Changing Georgians’ Lives.'”

More about Kyle Wingfield:

Recognized by the Georgia General Assembly as UGA’s top undergraduate in 2000, Wingfield received the Grady College’s John E. Drewry Young Alumnus Award in 2006, was named to the UGA Alumni Association’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2012 and is a member of UGA’s Board of Visitors.

In addition to serving as Atlanta Journal-Constitution Opinion columnist and blogger since May 2009, his column is syndicated in 10 Georgia newspapers.

He was a finalist for the Reason Foundation’s 2013 Bastiat Prize for Journalism.

Before joining The Wall Street Journal Europe in October 2004, he worked for the Associated Press in its Montgomery and Atlanta bureaus.

Wingfield is an Eagle Scout and leads the one of the Atlanta Area Council’s largest Cub Scout packs.

He is a member of the Leadership Georgia Class of 2018.

Kyle and his wife, Emily, live in Atlanta and have two young sons who attend a charter school.