Frederick S. Kempe

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Biographical Information

"Fred Kempe has held the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of the Atlantic Council since December 1, 2006...

He comes to the Council from a long and prominent career at the Wall Street Journal, where he won national and international recognition while serving in numerous senior editorial and reportorial capacities...

"As managing editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe from 1992–1997, he founded and managed the Central European Economic Review (CEER), which covered the countries of the former Soviet bloc. In 1993 he also co-founded Convergence, a magazine on Europe’s digital economy.

"Mr. Kempe joined Journal in 1981 in London before opening the paper's Vienna bureau in 1984. He transferred to Washington, D.C. in 1986 as chief diplomatic correspondent, and in 1990 opened its Berlin bureau. As a reporter, he covered a number of significant stories, including the rise of Solidarity in Poland and the growing resistance to Soviet rule, the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia and all his summit meetings with Ronald Reagan, war reporting in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon in the 1980s and the American invasion of Panama. He also covered the unification of Germany and the collapse of Soviet Communism.

"Mr. Kempe has written three books that have been published in several languages: Divorcing the Dictator: America's Bungled Affair with Noriega; Siberian Odyssey: A Voyage into the Russian Soul; and Father/Land: A Personal Search for the New Germany. His fourth, Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev and the World’s Most Dangerous Place will be released May 10, 2011 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons...

"He serves on a number of Boards of Directors, including the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., and is on the advisory board of the Transatlantic Policy Network as well as the international advisory council of Atlantik-Bruecke e.V. in Berlin. He also serves on the Senior Advisory Group of Admiral James Stavridis, Commander, U.S. European Command (EUCOM). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

"Mr. Kempe speaks German and is the son of German immigrants who came to the United States before World War II. His wife, Pamela Meyer, is the CEO of Simpatico Networks. They live with their daughter, Johanna, in Washington, D.C."