Stephen Salyer

Stephen Salyer is president and chief executive officer of the Salzburg Global Seminar, an independent, non-governmental organization based in Salzburg, Austria and Washington, D.C.. He has been president and chief executive officer of Public Radio International (PRI) and senior vice president at WNET/Thirteen in New York City, the flagship producer for the PBS television network.

Biography
Salyer was elected president and chief executive officer of the Salzburg Global Seminar in September 2005. Founded in 1947 by a young Austrian studying at Harvard University who wanted to create a “Marshall Plan of the Mind,” Salzburg facilitates cross-sector development of strategic solutions, conducts international leadership development programs for rising stars in government, business, NGOs and academe, and offers model curricula and content to policy and education networks worldwide. Though an American organization, Salzburg’s program is centered at the historic Schloss Leopoldskron on the southern outskirts of Salzburg.

Professional career
Prior to assuming the Salzburg presidency, Salyer served as president and chief executive officer of Public Radio International (PRI). Under his leadership PRI became a leading developer and distributor of programs with a global perspective, and a leader in using digital technology to reach younger audiences. His vision defined PRI’s mission: to help Americans understand their diverse, interdependent world. Salyer played a leadership role in designing and launching such ground-breaking programs as: Marketplace, the business program with the largest audience in U.S. radio or television; PRI’s The World, the only daily international news hour produced for the American market; and Studio 360, the pre-eminent arts and culture magazine on public radio. He brought global news to American listeners by forging an expansive partnership with the BBC World Service to make its 24-hour news channel available to PRI’s 800+ stations nationwide. Salyer also co-founded Public Interactive, LLC, the leading force in public broadcasting enabling on-line community and audience interaction, and chaired its Board from 1999-2005. PRI recently reached agreement with NPR to extend Public Interactive’s tools and services to all public stations in the United States.

Salyer also served for nine years as a vice president and then as senior vice president at WNET|WNET/Thirteen in New York City, the flagship PBS producer, where he led departments responsible for national program development, international co-production, education, and communications. As head of the station’s Education Division, he formed in 1983 an experiential design department, the WNET Learning Lab, which pioneered early computer-based, interactive media instruction. Before joining public broadcasting, Salyer directed the Population Council's Public Issues Program, and was the youngest person ever appointed to a presidential commission, serving while still an undergraduate at Davidson College as a member of the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future.

Salyer's recent board service includes Guidestar USA, Inc., Davidson College, MacPhail Center for Music, Salzburg Global Seminar, Public Interactive, LLC and Public Radio International.

Salzburg Global Seminar
After joining the Salzburg Global Seminar in September 2005, Salyer initiated a strategic review of the institution’s mission, goals, strategy, measures of success, financial sustainability and governance. Since its adoption, the resulting strategic plan has guided Salzburg’s emergence as a reinvigorated institution – encouraging a cross-cutting focus on issues and outcomes, attracting new financial support, and creating a platform on which its 25,000 Fellows in 160 countries can engage and collaborate.

Among the programs launched and personally led by Mr. Salyer are initiatives on “Strengthening Independent Media” and “Optimizing Institutional Philanthropy.” Both are drawing together leading donors and thought leaders from all parts of the world to challenge current strategy and to chart innovative alternatives. In addition, Salyer proposed establishment of the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change. Students and faculty from five continents have participated each of the past three summers, creating a media literacy curriculum co-distributed by UNESCO worldwide and establishing a unique research network to examine how media frame vital global issues. With Salyer’s encouragement, a new relationship has been formed with the world-renowned Salzburg Festival, bringing leading artists and writers to Schloss Leopoldskron for readings, lectures and discussions in August of each year. Among participants in this "Writer in Residence Program" have been Nobel Prize Winner Orhan Pamuk and Pulitzer Prize Winners Richard Ford and Jeffrey Eugenides.

Education
Salyer has received numerous awards and fellowships, including U.S.-Japan Leadership Fellow (1996); British-American Fellow (1990); Root-Tilden Scholar, New York University School of Law (1976-1979); Administrative Fellow, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (1975); Thomas J. Watson Fellow (1974). He is a graduate of Davidson College from which he also received an honorary doctorate in 2003, and of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.