Michael R. Meyer

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Michael Ryder Meyer, author and journalist, is currently chief speechwriter for the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon. He is also completing a book on the fall of Communism, and was the author of "The Alexander Complex" published by Times Books. Before his post at the United Nations, Meyer was at Newsweek Magazine for two decades, most recently (2001-2007) as Europe Editor for Newsweek International, where he also oversaw the magazine's coverage of the Middle East and Asia.

1 Biography
2 Published works
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and education

He holds a B.A. from Hamilton College and received graduate degrees from Columbia University School of Journalism and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

[edit] Career

Meyer worked at The Washington Post and Congressional Quarterly before joining Newsweek in 1988.

Between 1988 and 1992, Meyer was Newsweek's bureau chief for Germany, Central Europe and the Balkans, writing more than 20 cover stories on the break-up of communist Europe and German unification. During this period, he witnessed firsthand many of the key events of 1989 and the fall of communism, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the revolutions of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. He was the last western journalist to interview the Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceauşescu, just before he was shot. He went on to cover the collapse of the Soviet Union, from Moscow to the Baltics. Beginning in the early '90s, he traveled widely throughout the Balkans, writing of the coming war in Europe and covering the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Meyer is the winner of two Overseas Press Club Awards.

From 1993 through 1999, Meyer was Newsweek's general editor for business and technology, covering the Internet revolution and receiving several prizes including the 1995 Computer Press Award. He was Newsweek's Los Angeles bureau chief from 1992 to 1993, the second-largest of Newsweek's bureaus, where he wrote and reported stories from the politics of immigration to Hollywood's studio wars to the Los Angeles riots, for which he shared in a 1993 National Magazine Award for General Excellence.

From 1999 to 2001, Meyer took a sabbatical from Newsweek to work on a diplomatic posting with the United Nations mission in Kosovo, where he was a senior staff officer for the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe with principal responsibility for nation-building and civil society. He was hired to start the first news agency in that region and was founding director of KosovaLive. He returned to Newsweek in 2001 as Europe Editor for Newsweek International, where he also oversaw the magazine's coverage of the Middle East and Asia.

Meyer is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was an Inaugural Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.

[edit] Marriage and children

He lives in New York City with his daughter, Tatiana, and wife, Suzanne Seggerman. His son, John Mix, is a freelance game journalist currently under the employment of HookedGamers and his daughter Brooke is at college at St. John's College in Annapolis, MD. His oldest son Nick is founder of music-sharing site Reble Music and online game Kings of Chaos.