Indian American Journalist Romesh Ratnesar Named Senior Vice President of Engagement at the Atlantic Council
- An accomplished media leader and former State Department official, he most recently managed Bloomberg Opinion’s editorial board.
The Atlantic Council has named Romesh Ratnesar as its senior vice president of engagement effective June 24, the Washington, D.C.-based think tank announced on March 29. An accomplished media leader and former State Department official will lead the council’s events and communications teams.
The Indian American most recently managed Bloomberg Opinion’s ten-person Editorial Board, where “he conceived, assigned, wrote, and edited editorials on global economics, finance, and domestic and foreign policy,” the announcement said. He was also a Bloomberg TV, radio, and social media commentator.
In a statement, Retnesar noted the council is “renowned for its relevant and rigorous work across the world’s most pressing issues.” He said he’s “thrilled to be joining such an innovative and dynamic organization, and to help shape its future direction.”
Before Bloomberg, he was deputy editor and international editor of Bloomberg Businessweek and deputy managing editor of TIME Magazine, where he was also a staff writer and foreign correspondent reporting extensively from the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. He managed TIME’s Baghdad bureau in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion. As the magazine’s foreign editor, oversaw its coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Earlier, he worked as chief of staff to U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Richard Stengel.
He is the author of “Tear Down This Wall: A City, a President and the Speech that Ended the Cold War,” an account of President Reagan’s 1987 address at the Brandenburg Gate.
He has been awarded fellowships by the Hoover Institution, the New America Foundation, the Aspen Institute and the French-American Foundation. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He received his M.A. and B.A. in history, with distinction, from Stanford University. He is married to Laura Strickler, senior investigative reporter and producer at NBC News.
(Top photo, courtesy of the Hoover Institution.)