Marc Ginsberg

Marc Charles Ginsberg (born October 18, 1950) has served as US ambassador to Morocco from 1994 to 1998; Deputy Senior Adviser to the President of the United States for Middle East Policy (1978–1981); White House Liaison for the Department of State (1977–1978); Legislative Assistant to Senator Edward Kennedy (1970–1977); foreign policy/national security contributor to CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, MSNBC, BBC, Al Arabiya, CBC and Fox News. From 2000 to 2012, he was a senior vice president of APCO Worldwide and from 2002 to 2011 he was founding president of Layalina Productions, Inc.^[1][2] He was one of three founding directors of Sutton Place Gourmet, and practiced international corporate law in the U.S. and the Middle East from 1981 to 1993. He also served as Deputy Press Secretary for Foreign Media in the 1992 Clinton Presidential campaign and, in 2000, was Al Gore's co-coordinator for national security in his presidential campaign.

Early life

Ginsberg was born in 1950 in New York and from 1960 to 1968, was raised in Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, and fluently speaks English, Hebrew, Arabic, and French.^[2][3][4][5] He earned a B.A. from American University and was a M.B.A. candidate at Georgetown University before earning his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978.^[2][6]

Career

As a college freshman, in 1971, Ginsberg began serving as a legislative assistant to Senator Edward Kennedy when he was Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Refugees until 1977.^[1][5] In 1977, the United States Secretary of State (Cyrus Vance) appointed him to serve as White House Liaison. Under President Jimmy Carter, from 1979 until 1981, he was Deputy Senior Advisor to the President for Middle East Policy. In 1994, he was appointed Ambassador to Morocco by President Bill Clinton making Ginsberg the first Jewish American to be appointed as an ambassador in an Arab country.^[3][5] He was the first US diplomat to Morocco to be awarded the Highest Order of Ouissam — a knighthood — by Hassan II, the king of Morocco at that time.^[3] Between 1998 and 1999, he served as the US Special Coordinator for Mediterranean Trade, Investment and Security Affairs.^[2] Ginsberg has also worked as a reviewer of US foreign and economic policy for groups such as the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Brookings Institution.^[5]

From 2000 to 2012 he served as senior vice president & managing director of APCO Worldwide — a global corporate public affairs and communication consultancy — he coordinated strategic client relationships and business planning throughout the Middle East.^[7]

He also was co-founder and served as president of Layalina Productions. Layalina is a non-profit producer of commercial Arabic language television, the first US organization to produce such content for broadcasting in the Arabic world.^[2][5] Layalina has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. and in Amman, Jordan.^[7]

In 2013 he became CEO of the One Voice Movement Foundation and CEO of Peaceworks LLC (www.onevoicemovement.org) and resigned in November, 2014. He remains a Senior Adviser. With offices in Israel, Palestine, the UK, and the US, the One Voice Movement fosters grassroots advocacy among the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians to promote a two state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

He regularly contributes articles to prominent outlets such as The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the International New York Times, the Baltimore Sun, and the Huffington Post.

He serves on the Middle East Advisory Board of the Rand Corporation and on the boards of other Middle East organizations. He also served a two-year term on the board of directors of the AARP Foundation (2009–2011).

References