McCue, Ashe Named To Head RFE/RL’s Corporate Board
WASHINGTON DC – The Board of Directors of RFE/RL, Inc. has approved the appointment of Susan McCue to serve as the Chair of RFE/RL’s corporate board, effective April 10, 2013. McCue succeeds Dennis Mulhaupt, who resigned from the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) on April 9. McCue will be supported in her efforts on the RFE/RL Board by Victor H. Ashe, who will serve as board Vice Chair and Chair of RFE/RL’s Audit Committee
“RFE/RL welcomes the leadership of Governors McCue and Ashe on our corporate board,” said RFE/RL’s Acting President and CEO Kevin Klose. “Their commitment to objective and uncensored journalism in our broadcast region is well documented, and we look forward to working with them as RFE/RL seeks new ways to inform, engage, and connect with our audiences.”
McCue and Ashe are joined on RFE/RL’s corporate board by fellow BBG governors Michael Lynton, Michael Meehan and Secretary of State John Kerry.
“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work more closely with RFE/RL’s talented and dedicated journalists. For more than six decades, RFE/RL has been a shining example of the critical role free media play in achieving, then building free societies. In 28 languages and 21 countries, RFE/RL sets a standard for professional journalism on all platforms — over the air, online and mobile.”
“I am honored to work closely with Susan McCue as we continue to build RFE/RL and its vital work of bringing objective news to nations, which do not fully enjoy that right,” Ashe said.
McCue and Ashe were appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July 2010 to serve on the BBG, which oversees all civilian U.S. international broadcasting including RFE/RL, Voice of America, Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio and TV Marti and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN)–Radio Sawa and Alhurra Television.
At the BBG, McCue is also chair of the Governance Committee, co-chair of the Communications and Outreach Committee and chair of its subcommittee on Innovation. She is President of Message Global, a strategic advocacy firm she founded in 2008 for social action campaigns. She was the founding President and CEO of The ONE Campaign to combat extreme global poverty and was Chief of Staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from 1999 to 2007. Before that she held numerous communications positions in government and campaigns. She is currently Vice Chair of Humanity United and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Ashe serves as a member of the BBG’s Governance Committee and its Strategy and Budget Committee, is Corporate Board Vice Chair of RFA, sits on RFA’s audit committee and chairs the audit committee of MBN. He was U.S. Ambassador to Poland from June 2004 to October 2009, capping a long career as a public servant that included service from 1988-2003 as the mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee and service in both houses of the Tennessee state legislature. Ashe was a Fellow at Harvard University’s JFK Institute of Politics in 2004 and has been appointed to different federal positions by five U.S. Presidents, beginning with President Ronald Reagan.
About RFE/RL
RFE/RL is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, and television — reach influential audiences in 21 countries, including Russia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the republics of Central Asia. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).