Steven W. Korn
President and Chief Executive Officer
Steven W. Korn was named President and CEO of RFE/RL, Inc. on June 3, 2011.
From 1996-2000, Mr. Korn served as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of CNN, where he oversaw all operational, financial, technological, and other non-editorial functions for the CNN News Group on a global basis. In addition, he served on the supervisory board of German television news channel n-tv and on the board of CNN Plus, a Spanish language news service based in Madrid. Previously, Mr. Korn served as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc. (TBS), where he was responsible for all legal affairs of TBS and its subsidiaries worldwide.
Following his 17 years at Turner Broadcasting, Mr. Korn assumed the role of publisher of the Daily Report, a legal newspaper, and GC South magazine, both located in Atlanta, Georgia. Before joining Turner in 1983, he was an attorney specializing in civil litigation involving media, entertainment and telecommunications issues.
Mr. Korn serves as a director on a variety of public and private company boards and as a trustee for a range of leading cultural and educational not-for-profit institutions, including Brown Shoe Company, Vassar College, SV Investment Partners and Precision IR Group. From 2000-2007, Korn served on the Board of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) where he was Chairman of the Investment and Compensation committees and was a member of the Executive, Strategic Planning, Finance and Budget, Programming, and Presidential Search committees.
Mr. Korn received a bachelor’s degree with honors from Vassar College in 1975, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa, and a juris doctor degree from Cornell University in 1978. At Cornell, he served as chancellor of the Cornell Law School Moot Court Board and a member of the National Moot Court Team.
John Giambalvo
Vice President of Finance / Chief Financial Officer / Treasurer
John Giambalvo became RFE/RL’s Vice President of Finance, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer on April 1, 2012, succeeding Michael R. Marchetti. Mr. Giambalvo has been associated with U.S. international broadcasting since 2004, when he joined the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) as Policy and Program Coordinator, where he served as liaison with all five BBG broadcast networks and worked with the BBG’s CFO on capital planning and federal budget issues. In 2009, he was named Deputy Chief Financial Officer at RFE/RL, assisting the CFO in directing the worldwide fiscal functions of the corporation, supervising Finance Division staff and ensuring that RFE/RL’s strategic planning is aligned with budgetary constraints.
Mr. Giambalvo, a 1997 graduate of the Duke University School of Law, served as an Associate at Hale and Dorr LLP from 2000-2003 and as an Associate at White & Case LLP from 1997-2000. He also holds a Master’s degree from the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University and has earned a B.S. in Business Administration at the State University of New York at Albany.
Beth Portale
Vice President and Chief of Staff
Beth Portale works closely with the President on corporate strategy and operations. She manages a broad portfolio of special projects, including serving as RFE/RL's point person with the Broadcasting Board of Governors as it implements its strategic plan for U.S International Broadcasting. She also oversees RFE/RL's departments of Audience Research and Program Evaluation; and Communications and Government Relations.
Ms. Portale has been with RFE/RL for more than 15 years. In 1995 she assisted with RFE/RL's relocation from Munich to Prague and subsequently assumed managerial positions in both the Administration and Finance divisions. More recently, she oversaw the company's relocation to a new custom-built headquarters in Prague; creation and implementation of a corporate multimedia strategy; and the launch of a new Internet Technology infrastructure.
Prior to joining RFE/RL, Ms. Portale taught English in Germany and in China as a Princeton-in-Asia Fellow; and worked in the editorial division of The New Yorker magazine. She holds a BA in English Literature from Princeton University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Julia Ragona
Vice President of Content, Distribution, and Marketing
Julia Ragona is responsible for content, strategy, operations, distribution and marketing across 28 languages and 19 language services in RFE/RL’s fast-moving media environments and closed societies. As head of the Content, Distribution and Marketing Division, her portfolio includes management and supervision of content production and its alignment with target audiences, platforms and delivery strategies via external partnerships and traditional and alternative delivery channels; budgetary, administrative and crisis management as well as oversight of business development and marketing initiatives.
Julia joined RFE in May 2003 to manage the organization's re-branding, and served as Director of Marketing and Affiliate Development and Chief Broadcast Operations Officer before taking on her current duties. Prior to joining RFE/RL, she spent seven years in Moscow in the private sector, as managing director of an international marketing firm, a management consultant advising Russian and Western companies and as Regional COO and Business Development Director of a leading international law firm’s network of CIS offices. She has also worked in international film production and as a global strategy analyst on Wall Street.
A fluent speaker of Russian, Italian and Spanish as well as conversational French, Portuguese and Czech, Julia holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Soviet Studies and U.S. Foreign Policy from Vassar College.
Dale Cohen
Vice President of Administration
Dale Cohen was appointed Vice President of Administration in November 2011. In this role, Mr. Cohen oversees RFE/RL’s human resources, legal, and security departments. He has served as an executive at a number of leading media companies, most recently as Senior Director, Human Resources - News and Programming at National Public Radio (NPR), and as Associate General Counsel, Media for Cox Enterprises, Inc.
Between 1994 and 2005, Mr. Cohen worked at Tribune Company, serving as Vice President, Human Resources and Legal Affairs for the Baltimore Sun Company, as Operations Editor and Senior Counsel at Chicago Tribune Company, and as Senior Counsel / Publishing and Interactive at Tribune Company. Before joining Tribune Company, Cohen was a Litigation Partner for Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, and Litigation Associate at Reuben & Proctor/Isham, Lincoln & Beale.
Mr. Cohen has taught at the Emory University Journalism Program, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and at the Merill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. He is a graduate of Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University and the Northwestern University School of Law, and is a board member of the MLRC Institute in New York and the Communications Law Forum of the American Bar Association.
John Lindburg
Vice President and General Counsel
Corporate Secretary
John Lindburg provides legal and policy guidance and advice to the President, senior executives, and RFE/RL's Board of Directors. As Corporate Secretary, he is responsible for all corporate documents. He also serves as in-house counsel and legal representative of RFE with domestic and foreign law firms and other entities regarding legal matters, and manages project relationships with outside counsel.
Mr. Lindburg has been involved with U.S. international broadcasting since he first joined the federal service in 1973 as Assistant General Counsel with the United States Information Agency, Office of the General Counsel. He served as General Counsel to the Board for International Broadcasting from 1988-1995, where he assisted in the transfer of RFE operations from Munich to Prague and helped draft the U.S. International Broadcasting Act of 1994. He then served as Legal Counsel and Acting Chief of Staff of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) from 1995-2000, where he worked closely with Congressional staff to help draft the broadcasting section of the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998.
Before joining RFE in 2003, Mr. Lindburg served as Deputy Secretary and Deputy General Counsel at the National Gallery of Art, Office of the Secretary and General Counsel. He holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Yale University, studied as a Fulbright Scholar at the Central University of Venezuela, and earned a Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University and a JD from George Washington University, National Law Center.