 Formally incorporated on April 26, 1927, as the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation, the organization began by funding traditional social welfare programs as well as projects that focused on medicine and medical research.In 1969, Lloyd Morrisett, the Markle Foundation's president at that time, shifted the foundation's focus to mass communications in a democratic society.In 1998, when Zoë Baird became president, she shifted the foundation's focus to accelerating the use of information and information technology to address critical public problems, particularly in the areas of health and national security.