Larry Kilman Appointed Associate Director of the American Graduate School in Paris

Press release // Paris, 31 October 2017 – The Board of Administrators of the American Graduate School in Paris (AGS) has announced the appointment of Larry Kilman as Associate Director of the school, a not-for-profit American-accredited institution known for its international relations and diplomacy graduate programs.

Mr Kilman will work with Ruchi Anand, AGS Professor and Vice-President for Development, to focus on development and advance the school’s mission of fostering peace through education.

Mr Kilman has been involved with AGS since 2011 as a regular guest speaker, and more recently as a faculty member, teaching courses on NGO management and animating the school’s NGO Blog. He will continue these activities while carrying out his new tasks.

“We are happy and honored that Larry Kilman has accepted to take on this mission,” said Eileen Servidio-Delabre, the President of AGS. “His experience, combined with his career-long dedication to defending values that converge with those of AGS, makes him the perfect leader to take the school mission’s further.”

Mr Kilman’s career spans over forty years in media and communications in the US, Europe, and Asia, with the common thread of defending information as a tool of democracy. He worked as a journalist with press, broadcast, and international news agencies, primarily The Associated Press (AP) and Agence France Presse (AFP), and served as a publication editor for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. He is the former Secretary-General of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), where he was mainly responsible for the organization’s advocacy and development of freedom of expression worldwide.

Parallel to his new academic duties at AGS, Mr Kilman is keeping a practitioner’s hat, working with UNESCO as a specialist consultant on the safety of journalists and the issue of impunity. He has authored a UNESCO report on the subject: An Attack On One is an Attack on All: Successful Initiatives to Protect Journalists and Combat Impunity (UNESCO, 2017). He also serves as Associate Director for Communications for the London-based Institute for Media Strategies, which provides advice and training to news media companies around the world. See Larry Kilman’s profile on the AGS website

Working with all main types of stakeholders in global communications – media outlets, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs – has given Mr Kilman a thorough understanding of world affairs, with privileged insight into the new challenges brought by the digital age. It has also inspired him to pass on his experience and principles through academia.

”I am delighted and honored to be associated with AGS and am looking forward to working together with the professors, students, alumni and professional staff to further its mission, which is nothing less than educating a new generation of international leaders,” said Mr Kilman.