Mario Lubetkin

Background

About Mario Lubetkin

I have over 40 years of experience in international communication and sustainable development. My career started at the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency in 1979, where I later became CEO from 2002 to 2014. Throughout my professional journey, I have coordinated projects with the governments of Finland, Italy, Spain, Uruguay, and Brazil, as well as with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). I have extensively collaborated with international organizations, private sector, civil society and media in the United States, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean a as a high-level communication expert. I have shared keynote addresses at conferences across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean; and contributed to the academic field with two key books:"Communication and Development: Steps Towards Coherence" and "Policies, Networks, and Technologies for Communication for Development." In 2012, I was nominated to the United Nations Advisory Group for the First International Year for Cooperatives. Before joining FAO, I was a Professor at IULM University in Milan and the Director of Seminars on Communication for Development at Universidad Menéndez Pelayo in Santander. In April 2016, I was honored as “Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana” by the President of Italy. I joined FAO in February 2014 as Director of the Office of Corporate Communication. From 2015 to 2019, I served as Directeur de Cabinet of former Director-General, Jose Graziano da Silva, and from 2019 to 2020 of Director-General, QU Dongyu. Since August, 2022 to febrary 2025, I have been the FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, and I've served as Assistant Director-General since 2017.