January 9, 2006

McClatchy CEO Pruitt Elected as New Board Chair of The James Irvine Foundation

Toyota's Patricia Pineda Elected Vice Chair

San Francisco—The James Irvine Foundation Foundation today announced the election of Gary B. Pruitt as the new Chair of its Board of Directors, and Patricia Salas Pineda as Vice Chair. Pruitt succeeds Peter W. Stanley, who retired from the board in December 2005 and served as Chair since 2003.Pruitt was first elected to the Irvine board in 1999 and is currently Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of The McClatchy Company, a leading newspaper and Internet publisher headquartered in Sacramento, California. With a 149-year legacy, the company's Web sites and newspapers include the Sacramento Bee, the Fresno Bee, and the Modesto Bee. He has served as Irvine’s Vice Chair since 2003.

Long active in professional, business, and civic groups throughout the state, he currently serves on the boards of the Associated Press, the Newspaper Association of America, and the Mutual Insurance Company. He previously was on the Board of Directors of the Crocker Art Museum; the Board of Advisors of the University of California, Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy; the California Business Roundtable; and various committees for the California Newspaper Publishers Association.

Pineda was first elected to the Irvine board in 1994 and is currently Group Vice-President of Corporate Communications and General Counsel of Toyota Motor of North America. Pineda currently serves as a trustee of RAND Corporation, and as a director of Levi Strauss & Company and the California Manufacturing Association. Pineda is also a member of the California Air Resources Board.

About The James Irvine Foundation

The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of California to participate in a vibrant, inclusive, and successful society. The Foundation’s grantmaking is organized around three program areas: Arts, Youth, and California Perspectives, which focuses on improving decision-making on the significant issues that are shaping California’s future. Since 1937 the Foundation has provided more than $900 million in grants to nonprofit organizations throughout California. With current assets of more than $1.7 billion, the Foundation expects to make grants of $69 million in 2006 for the people of California.

For more information about the Irvine Foundation, please visit our Web site at www.irvine.org or call 415.777.2244.