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.
