RConversation: Global Voices Seeks Executive Director: Are you the one?

Are you passionate about citizen media, journalism, free speech, and bridging the media digital divide? Are you globally minded and multicultural? Do you have experience managing an organization?

If so, you may want to apply for the post of Global Voices Executive Director. Here's the job description:

Global Voices is seeking an Executive Director to oversee the Global Voices Online, Rising Voices, Global Voices Advocacy projects and the community that supports these endeavors. Global Voices is a multinational virtual organization, supported by the paid and volunteer efforts of over 100 people on every continent. Our executive director must possess a wide range of professional and personal skills to help our project reach its potential as the leading international citizen media community online.

The Executive Director will be responsible for the following:

Management oversight of Global Voices major programs, including direct management of team leaders for the website, language translation, advocacy and outreach projects

Draft and manage operating budgets for the organization

Fundraising responsibility, which includes grant writing and creating networks to increase funds

Maintaining relationships with past, current and future foundations and corporations in order to maintain and increase funding base

Financial management of the organization

Maintaining relationships between a governing board, advisory board, paid staff and volunteer staff

Overseeing PR/media relations for the Global Voices network of projects

Extensive travel in the course of representing Global Voices

Specifically, we are seeking a director with

Strong leadership skills

Experience managing a multilingual, multicultural team

Experience supporting nonprofit or commercial projects through corporate and foundation fundraising

Experience working with mainstream news outlets and journalists

Experience with or strong understanding of citizen media, including blogging, podcasting, and videocasting

Experience managing substantial ($1m+) budgets

Strategic planning experience, preferably in a nonprofit or media context

The ability to work independently and be able to produce results

To work effectively with our community, we would prefer that candidates:

Have experience living and working internationally, or have traveled extensively in the developing world

Are active bloggers or creators of online media

Are multilingual, with fluency in English and at least one other language

Have experience working in diverse, multicultural environments.

The ideal candidate must have a passionate commitment to the values and goals of Global Voices, they will be joining a well established team of editors and authors who are dedicated to amplifying the voices of world. There is no geographic requirement associated with this position - Global Voices has no office, headquarters, etc. - but substantial travel is expected. Candidates must have access to broadband internet connectivity and comfort working in a wholly virtual environment. We strongly welcome candidates from outside North America and Europe and encourage people currently working on the Global Voices project to apply.

To express your interest, please send a cover letter and CV to “edjob AT globalvoicesonline DOT org” by December 7th.

Some people want to know: Why don't either of the two co-founders of Global Voices (myself and Ethan Zuckerman) want this job?

There are a number of reasons. When we convened a meeting of international bloggers in late 2004, then started a blog to track what bloggers outside of N.America and W.Europe were saying, we never imagined that the whole thing would turn into a full-blown NGO. But that's what has happened. As Ethan recently wrote on his blog, he has founded and run an NGO in the past and doesn't feel up to running another one - he wants to spend more time writing. I made the decision last year to come to Hong Kong University - not only to teach journalism but more importantly because I want to be able to focus on research and writing about the Internet and China, because I believe that the future of both relate to one another, and I also think that with my skillset I might be able to do some original and useful work in this area. I can't run an NGO and do this kind of work at the same time, unfortunately. Furthermore, both Ethan and I feel that founders of organizations do not necessarily make the best long-term managers of organizations, be they non-profits or for-profit businesses. And finally, both of us feel that given the nature of the GV focus and community - with most contributors from the non-West and most of the content being about countries other than N.America and Western Europe - we hope that we can hand over the running of GV to somebody who is better representative of the community we seek to support and amplify.

So. If you think you're qualified, please apply. If you know somebody else who is, please pass this onto them. Many thanks.

Comments

Rebecca, congratulations on this huge milestone for GVO. I've followed your work from afar and love the vision of building bridges and connecting people via the blogosphere. Its an incredible opportunity for someone with the qualification and more importantly the passion. I look forward to seeing GVO grow to the next level!

Posted by: Elliott Ng | December 04, 2007 at 08:39 AM