James Glassman

Ambassador James K. Glassman is widely recognized as an expert on economics, finance, technology, and international affairs. With a career that spans the fields of business, politics, media, and government, he has a unique, multi-discipline perspective on the complex financial matters that weigh most on the mind of American business. James Glassman is able to zoom in on the individual policies and financial issues that dominate the headlines, and then zoom out to put them in a broader economic and political context. He has a knack for making complicated ideas understandable and exciting, and he's been widely praised for his skills as a television moderator, with shows for CNN and PBS. He currently moderates Ideas in Action, which airs weekly in PBS markets around the country.

Gives the Scoop on Finance. He is the author of two books on finance and was, from 1993 to 2004, the primary financial columnist for the Washington Post. He has also written a regular financial column for Reader's Digest and now writes monthly for Kiplinger's Personal Finance. His articles on economic subjects have also appeared frequently in the Wall Street Journal.

Glassman is currently the founding executive director of the George W. Bush Institute, an action-oriented think tank that will be an integral part of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Most recently, he served as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, where he directed strategic communications for the U.S. government and supervised educational and cultural exchange programs and global websites. Before that, he served as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which supervises all taxpayer-funded non-military international TV and radio broadcasting, in 60 languages and more than 100 countries.

Communicating the American Idea. As under secretary, he was praised for his swift successes, his bipartisanship, and his pioneering use of new technologies in communications. Newsweek wrote: "James K. Glassman, as they say in Washington, gets it?. Unlike his failed predecessors, Glassman has finally figured out how to sell the American idea abroad." His extensive television experience includes a three-year stint as host of Capital Gang Sunday, the weekly CNN public affairs panel show, and a similar period as host of TechnoPolitics on public television. He can currently be seen as host of PBS's Ideas in Action, which explores public policy issues, from teacher pay to energy to the use of internet tools in the opposition movement in Iran. He has also appeared on a wide range of news programs as an economic expert, including The Larry King Show, Good Morning America, and 60 Minutes.

Glassman is a former senior fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, where he focused on matters of economics, finance, and technology. He has had a long career in journalism, serving as president of the Atlantic Monthly Co., publisher of the New Republic, editor-in-chief and co-owner of Roll Call, the congressional newspaper, and executive vice president of U.S. News & World Report. A graduate of Harvard University with a B.A. in government, Glassman served as a member of the President's Commission on the 21st Century Workforce, supervised by Secretary of Labor and appointed by the president. In 2003, he was a member of the Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim World, mandated by Congress.