Stephen Salyer

Stephen Salyer is president and chief executive officer of the Salzburg Global Seminar, an independent international organization whose mission is to challenge present and future leaders to solve issues of global concern. Proposed in 1947 by a young Austrian as a "Marshall Plan of the Mind," Salzburg is recognized for programs that build professional networks, facilitate cross-cultural problem-solving, and propose strategic approaches to global challenges. Salzburg's program is centered at historic Schloss Leopoldskron, an Austrian palace once owned by Max Reinhardt, and today a well-equipped, inspirational setting for advancing thought toward action. The world's leading experts and rising private- and public-sector leaders gather in Salzburg to address subjects from independent media to climate change, new economic architecture to the future of philanthropy, and to produce policy recommendations and concerted action plans.

Before assuming the Salzburg presidency in 2005, Mr. Salyer was chief executive of Public Radio International (PRI), a leading provider of news and cultural programming to more than 800 US radio stations. Mr. Salyer also served for nine years as vice president of WNET/Thirteen in New York City, the flagship producer for the PBS television network. His recent board service includes Guidestar USA, Inc., Davidson College, MacPhail Center for Music, Salzburg Global Seminar, Public Interactive, LLC and Public Radio International. Mr. Salyer credits attending a Salzburg seminar with changing his career focus to public service media. Before joining public broadcasting, Mr. Salyer directed the Population Council's Public Issues Program, and was the youngest person ever appointed to a U.S. presidential commission. He holds degrees from Davidson College, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and was a Root-Tilden Scholar at New York University Law School.