WASHINGTON, DC – The Atlantic Council today named David Ensor – a seasoned media executive and longtime journalist with business and diplomatic background – as its new Executive Vice President for External Relations, further strengthening its top management team at a time of historic growth in the organization’s size and influence.

“David Ensor brings to the Atlantic Council unique leadership capabilities, communications skills, and editorial judgment that he honed through a remarkable international career,” said Frederick Kempe, President and CEO of the Atlantic Council.  “Few people have David’s global management and front-line experience.”

Said Ensor: “I am delighted to be joining the team at the Atlantic Council, which is such a vibrant place–seeking to better understand some of the world’s most difficult problems and working to address the policy challenges facing the United States and its allies.”

For four years, ending in 2015, Ensor was Director of the Voice of America (VOA), the US government media company, where he helped increase its audience by 40 percent, introducing dozens of new programs, while managing a budget of $200 million and a global staff of 1,700 employees, contractors, and stringers. On his watch VOA increased its global audience to 187 million people, reached in 45 languages on radio, television, the Internet, and social media. He co-founded a daily Russian language TV news show responding to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Crimea, and developed a partnership with the BBC World Service to help fight Ebola. 

Prior to joining VOA, Ensor served as a US diplomat for sixteen months in Kabul, Afghanistan, leading a robust wartime American effort in communications and public diplomacy.

Ensor is an award-winning CNN, ABC News, and NPR correspondent, who served in Washington, Warsaw, Rome, and Moscow during his over thirty years in journalism. He covered the break-up of the Soviet Union, the end of Communism, the first Chechen War, and a broad range of US national security stories following the 9/11 attacks.  He also brings business experience to the Atlantic Council, having served as a senior executive for four years at the Swiss trading firm, Mercuria Energy Group, one of the world’s five largest independent energy traders and commodity asset operators. 

Most recently, Ensor was a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, where he researched and wrote on international broadcasting and digital media issues.

Please email press@AtlanticCouncil.org for more information.