Steve Grove is CEO and Publisher of the Minnesota Star Tribune, where he leads the company’s operations and directs its strategy. Alongside a new management team, he is leading the transformation of storied Minnesota institution towards a new vision – to become the leading model for local news in America. 

Before becoming CEO in April of 2023, Grove served as Gov. Tim Walz’s commissioner of employment and economic development, where he led the administration’s efforts to grow and protect the Minnesota economy during a dynamic and challenging four years in state history.  

Prior to that, Grove spent 12 years as an executive at Alphabet’s Google and most recently was the founding director of the Google News Lab, which he developed to help media companies and startups drive innovation in the news industry. 

Grove also led Google’s civic engagement work, including the company’s nonpartisan voter information and get-out-the-vote efforts. He previously built YouTube’s news and politics team, launching the first partnership programs for news organizations, nonprofits, and political candidates. Before that, Grove was a journalist for The Boston Globe, ABC News, and the Northfield (Minn.) News, his hometown newspaper. 

A Minnesota native and a graduate of Northfield High School, he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and economics from Claremont McKenna College and a master’s degree in public policy analysis from Harvard. Steve and his wife Mary are the co-founder of Silicon North Stars, a nonprofit that helps underserved youth find career pathways in technology. They moved to Minneapolis from Silicon Valley in 2018 and are the proud parents of six year old twins, a yellow lab, and two farm cats.