USC Center on Public Diplomacy Welcome New Members to Advisory Board

Four leaders from the public policy, media and advertising, and public diplomacy sectors have joined the advisory board of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School. The new board members are: Simon Mainwaring, branding consultant and advertising creative director; Barry Sanders, President, Board of Commissioners of the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department; Gillian Sorensen, Senior Adviser and national advocate at the United Nations Foundation; and Amra Tareen, CEO of Allvoices.com. Short biographical sketches of the new board members are provided below.

"Our Advisory Board brings together a diverse blend of professions and backgrounds to assist in advancing the Center's ambitious goals," said Philip Seib, director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. "We are fortunate to have such a dedicated group of individuals committed to exploring public diplomacy's vast potential and we look forward to the new perspectives brought by Simon, Barry, Gillian, and Amra."

The CPD Advisory Board is responsible for guiding and supporting the development of the Center as an international resource.

For a full list of CPD Advisory Board members, click here.

New CPD Advisory Board Members

Simon Mainwaring is a branding consultant, advertising creative director, blogger, and speaker. A former Nike creative at Wieden & Kenney, Portland and worldwide creative director for Motorola at Ogilvy, he now consults for brands and creative companies that reinvent their industries and enable positive change. His experience has spanned the globe, having worked at many of the world's best advertising agencies in Asia, Europe and the U. Mainwaring is a Senior Advisor to InterCulture and a member of the Steering Committee of Project Peace on Earth, the AdAge Power 150, and TED.

Barry Sanders is President of the Board of Commissioners of the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department, Chairman of the Los Angeles Parks Foundation and President of the Board of Commissioners of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. He is also currently an adjunct professor in Communications Studies at UCLA teaching courses on "The Images of America Around the World" and "Public Diplomacy." An international corporate lawyer by trade, Sanders recently retired from the global law firm of Latham & Watkins after over 35 years of partnership. He is Chairman of the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council on International Policy.

Gillian Sorensen is Senior Adviser at the United Nations Foundation and a national advocate on matters related to the United Nations and the U.S.-UN relationship. She was formerly the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for External Relations on appointment by the Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Sorensen was also Special Adviser for Public Policy and for over 12 years she was the New York City Commissioner for the United Nations and Consular Corps, head of the city's liaison with the world's largest diplomatic community.

Amra Tareen is founder and CEO of Allvoices.com, a global people's media company where anyone can report news or their stories from anywhere in the world via cell phone or computer. Tareen started Allvoices.com after 9/11 to provide a social media platform for people to report news, share opinions and perspectives. Prior to Allvoices.com, Tareen was a partner at the venture capital firm Sevin Rosen Funds where she focused on investment opportunities in the communications infrastructure and next-generation carriers.