Aaron Lobel
For the past two decades, Aaron Lobel has been a media entrepreneur, nonprofit organization executive and television, film and radio producer operating at the intersection of international affairs, strategic communications, public affairs and entertainment. He is particularly known for connecting entertainment producers and writers with cultural and financial counterparts throughout the Middle East.
After 9/11 Aaron Lobel founded America Abroad Media (AAM), an organization dedicated to empowering creative voices and media in the Middle East that embrace universal values. Lobel recruited a bipartisan board of top US foreign policy officials, established partnerships with leading media companies in the Middle East and South Asia, opened offices in Afghanistan and Tunisia, raised tens of millions of dollars from major foundations and the US government, and worked with US Central Command and the US Department of State. In partnership with Public Radio International, Dr. Lobel created and was executive producer of the international affairs show America Abroad which aired for fifteen years on public radio stations around the country. He recruited and worked closely with experienced broadcast journalists Garrick Utley, Marvin Kalb, Margaret Warner, Deborah Amos and Ray Suarez. Building on his relationships in the Middle East, Dr. Lobel founded Black Birch Entertainment, a company that develops and produces purpose-driven television shows and films about the Middle East and the Muslim World.
Dr. Lobel received his PhD from the Department of Government at Harvard University and his BA in international relations from the University of Toronto. He currently serves on the international advisory board of the US Institute of Peace, and on the board of the Edward R. Murrow Center for Global Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Senior Common Room at Leverett House at Harvard University.