Senior Management Profiles
International Broadcasting Bureau
Director (Currently Vacant)
The Director is appointed by the U.S. President and confirmed by the Senate, and reports directly to the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The Office of the Director is responsible for planning, organizing and directing the global broadcast network of the Voice of America and Radio and TV Martí, as well as providing technical support for the broadcasts of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcast Networks.
Return to the TopDanforth W. Austin, (Acting) Deputy Director
Fulfills the responsibilities previously delegated to the IBB Director, pending appointment of a presidential nominee to that statutory position. Mr. Austin is also Director of the Voice of America, a position he has held since October 2006.
Danforth W. Austin is a news media executive with a business and journalism background, who has served in a number of senior positions with The Wall Street Journal, including Vice President and General Manager, where he was responsible for U.S. advertising, circulation, marketing and production operations.
Most recently he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., the community media subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co., with 3,000 employees in nine states, overseeing both operating and support functions, including news, advertising, circulation, Internet development, production, technology, finance and human resources.
Marie Skiba Lennon, Chief of Staff
The IBB Chief of Staff has direct oversight of Human Resources, Contracts, and Security functions, and coordinates efforts by Engineering and all other IBB elements in supporting the broadcasting entities operating under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
Marie Skiba Lennon has served in the U.S. Government for more than 35 years. During Marie’s more than 35 years. She has held positions in the Department of the Navy, the Department of Defense, the Environmental Protection Agency, WORLDNET Television, and VOA, where she was most recently Chief of Staff.
For more than 15 years, she has been actively involved in employee mentoring, upward mobility, and staff development activities.
Ken Berman, (Acting) Director of Engineering and Technical Services
The Director of Engineering and Technical Services provides executive leadership in the planning, development, and operation of all the engineering and technical systems necessary to communicate with the people of the world by radio, TV, and the Internet, including a world-wide satellite and transmitting station network, as well as planning for the use of new technological improvements and efficiencies.
Ken Berman has been the Information Technology Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau/Broadcasting Board of Governors since July, 2004, where he brought together several disparate offices that handle Internet (including the VOA Web site); audio and video production tools and archiving; and help desk and network support to all computer users in the Agency.
In addition, Ken is the manager of the IBB's Anti-Censorship Program, overseeing a technical staff of networking engineers, computer programmers, and contractors that concentrate on developing technical countermeasures to foreign government's Internet filtering and censorship efforts.
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Gary Thatcher, Director of the Office of Marketing and Externam Liason
The Director of the Office of Marketing and External Liaison oversees all IBB marketing support activities and represents the agency in its numerous and growing relationships with other governments, international broadcasters and private entities.
Gary Thatcher, a veteran journalist and editor, has been at the International Broadcasting Bureau since June 2000. Prior to becoming Director of Marketing and External Liaison, he was IBB’s Associate Director of Program Support, overseeing program placement, marketing, international media training and external affairs. He also handled a number of major assignments for the BBG, including creation and launch of Radio Sawa. From late 2003 until early 2004, he served in Baghdad as Director of Strategic Communications for the Coalition Provisional Authority.
Prior to joining the U.S. government, he was foreign editor, then national editor, of the Chicago Tribune, supervising the Tribune’s worldwide and U.S. news bureaus. He was also national editor of The Christian Science Monitor, and served as an editor or correspondent in Boston, Atlanta Johannesburg, Washington, Moscow and Munich. He was a news executive, deputy director and acting director of Radio Free Europe.