Professional Affiliation

former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs; Chairman and CEO of Public Affairs Engagement, LLC; Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute; former Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors

Expert Bio

Ambassador James K. Glassman is the Founding Executive Director of The George W. Bush Institute, dedicated to research and action in four areas: education reform, global health, human freedom and economic growth. In the capacity of Executive Director, Glassman oversees all of the research and programming at the Institute.

Glassman served as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs from June 2008 to January 2009, leading the government-wide international strategic communications effort. Among his accomplishments at the State Department was bringing new Internet technology to bear on outreach to foreign publics, an approach he christened “Public Diplomacy 2.0.”

Prior to his State Department post, from June 2007 to June 2008, he was chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), directing all non-military, taxpayer-funded U.S. international broadcasting, including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Alhurra TV. He continued to serve as a governor of the BBG, representing the Secretary of State, during his post as Under Secretary.

Since February 2010, Ambassador Glassman has moderated “Ideas in Action,” a weekly series on public policy issues airing on more than 100 public television stations around the country. He was previously moderator of two weekly TV programs in the late 1990s: “Capital Gang Sunday” on CNN and “TechnoPolitics” on PBS.

Glassman has had a long career as a journalist and publisher. He served as president of the Atlantic Monthly magazine, publisher of the New Republic magazine, executive vice president of U.S. News & World Report, and editor and co-owner of Roll Call, the Congressional newspaper. Between 1993 and 2004, he was a columnist for the Washington Post and the International Herald Tribune. Shortly after graduating from college, he started Figaro, a weekly newspaper in New Orleans.

Glassman has written two books on investing. His third book will be published by Crown in spring 2011. His articles on finance, economics and foreign policy have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street, Los Angeles Times and various other publications.

From 1996 to 2008, Glassman was a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. He was formerly a member of the Policy Advisory Board of Intel Corporation and was Senior Advisor to AT&T Corporation and SAP America, Inc.

He is a graduate of Harvard University, where he was managing editor of the daily newspaper, The Crimson. He is married to Beth Ourisman Glassman and has two children, two stepchildren and three grandchildren. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland and Falls Village, Connecticut.