Seda Pumpyanskaya is a Senior Adviser on Communications and Outreach to the Council of Europe’s Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland. Before being promoted for this position, from 2005 to 2010, she was the Council of Europe’s Director of Communication under then-Secretary General Rt. Hon. Terry Davis, also serving as a Member of the Executive Board.[1][2][3]
From 1999 to 2004, she held several executive positions in public affairs and communications with the United Nations, working in various locations worldwide, namely Guatemala, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.[4]
Before joining the United Nations, Pumpyanskaya was a journalist and worked with some leading printed media in Moscow, including The New Times and Russian Newsweek. From 1991 to 1996, she was Moscow bureau's Staff Correspondent for Spanish newspaper El País. She also worked for the BBC in London from 1996 to 1997, where she was involved in making a documentary on Mikhail Gorbachev and worked on a special feature on Pope John Paul II, as well as other topics for the BBC’s 'Correspondent' programme.[5] In 1995, she worked for Radio Free Europe in Prague.
Pumpyanskaya, who is a daughter of prominent Russian journalist Alexander Pumpyansky,[6] was educated at Moscow State University, followed by a year of studies at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow. She also completed several executive courses at INSEAD, Said Business School (Oxford University) and Henley Business School.[7]
Pumpyanskaya is a member the European Association of Communication Directors.[2] She actively participates in major global media events, networking with policymakers and senior media executives, including those organised by the World Association of Newspapers. She had multiple speaking engagements and moderated public events with many VIP speakers, including the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, whom she brought to the Council of Europe for its 60th anniversary.[7][8]