Steven E. Sokol will join the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh in June 2010 as President and Chief Executive Officer.  In this role, he will oversee all Council operations, including the development and implementation of some 175 programs that reach over 17,000 people annually.  Through these programs—plus a weekly radio show and webcasts—the Council seeks to foster informed, independent, and
critical thinking about important global issues as they affect the nation, the region, and Pittsburgh.

Previously Mr. Sokol served as Vice President and Director of Programs at The American Council on Germany (ACG) from October 2002. His core responsibilities included project development and implementation, fundraising, as well as programming public policy events in New York and at the ACG’s Eric M. Warburg Chapters in 18 cities across the country. He conceptualized and managed the multilateral Young Leaders Study Group on the Future of Europe, which brings together mid-career professionals from eastern and western Europe and the United States for a series of meetings on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition, he organized discussion programs and conferences on a range of issues including transatlantic security and the state of the transatlantic relationship, innovation and technology in the United States and Europe, demographic trends and immigration issues, and other topics of contemporary concern. In his career, he has organized high-level policy discussions in cities including Berlin, Brussels, Istanbul, Paris, Riga, San Diego, Warsaw, and Washington, DC.

Mr. Sokol has 20 years of experience working with foundations, think tanks, and other non-profit organizations in Europe and the United States – and has spent over ten years working at non-partisan membership-based organizations focusing on a range of domestic and foreign policy issues. Prior to joining the ACG, Steve served as Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin. He has also worked as the Head of the Project Management Department at the Bonn International Center for Conversion GmbH (BICC) and as a Program Officer at the Berlin Office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Earlier in his career he worked at a law firm in Washington, DC (Fulbright & Jaworski) and later at a membership organization for local government officials (International City/County Management Association, ICMA).

In addition to his work at the ACG, in 2003, Mr. Sokol launched the Political Salon which brings together mid-career professionals in New York City one or more times each month to discuss pressing foreign policy issues and global concerns. He is a member of several boards, including the newly created German CenterNew York City, the USAble Program at the Körber Foundation, and the Ankelohe Conversations (which convenes authors and journalists annually to discuss topical issues such as global warming and the rise of China). for Research and Innovation in

Mr. Sokol is a frequent commentator on transatlantic relations and German and American political affairs in the U.S. and European media. He is currently working on a Doctorate in Law and Policy at Northeastern University and holds an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from the JohnsHopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. He has also studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Freie Universität in Berlin.

Steven E. Sokol, President and CEO