Mario Lubetkin has been IPS Director General since 2002. Attracted by the News Agency’s original coverage of human rights, environment and development issues, he joined IPS as a journalist in 1979 at the Headquarters in Rome. He later returned to his native Uruguay as a correspondent and served as Regional Director for Latin America for seven years, before being appointed Director General.

Lubetkin served as correspondent for several Italian and Latin American print media, and as communications adviser for several UN agencies and regional integration organizations. He has coordinated communications projects with the Governments of Brazil, Finland, Italy, Spain and Uruguay, among others.

Between 2000 and 2007, he coordinated “Tierramérica”, a Communication Project of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank, which is the most important communication platform on environment and sustainable development in Latin America.

In the last years, he actively supported communication efforts at the United Nations and Civil Society major summits, both personally and with his team, also through the publication of the TerraViva conference papers. Also in the recent period, he has focused in the new scenario of emerging countries, particularly IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa).

Since 2006, he teaches at the Master in Communication for international relations of the Libera Università di Lingue e Comunicazione IULM of Milan. He has coordinated several seminars about communication and development at the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (UIMP) of Santander and is the co-editor of a series of books on Communication and development, together with the Spanish cooperation.

Mario Lubetkin is Vice-President of Media Watch Global and founder of the Com+ Alliance of Communicators for sustainable development, together with other international organizations.