Lara Setrakian | |
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Born | United States | February 4, 1982
Education | Harvard University, Horace Mann School |
Occupation(s) | Journalist, Digital Strategist, Entrepreneur |
Notable credit(s) | News Deeply; Bloomberg TV; ABC News; CNN; ForeignPolicy.com; Washington Post; BusinessInsider.com |
Website | https://www.newsdeeply.com/ |
Lara Setrakian (born February 4, 1982, in United States) is an Armenian American journalist, digital strategist and entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Executive Editor of News Deeply, a digital media company that builds single-topic platforms that provide journalistic reporting, expert analysis, dialogues and opportunities for knowledge exchange on the issues they cover.[1] Prior to founding News Deeply, she worked for five years as a Middle East correspondent for ABC News, Bloomberg Television, the International Herald Tribune, Business Insider and Monocle magazine, covering several major news events in the region like Iran’s election protests and the Arab Spring of 2011.[2] As a Middle East correspondent Setrakian covered uprisings, conflicts, politics and economics around the region. She was instrumental in Bloomberg Television’s live on-the-ground coverage of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.[3][4][5] Following the toppling of Tunisia's president Ben Ali during what became known as the Arab Spring, Setrakian arrived in Egypt before the January 25th protest and was reporting live from Tahrir Square when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down.[6] While reporting on the rise of piracy off the horn of Africa, Lara was the first American to interview the new president of war-torn Somalia, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.[7]
A graduate of Harvard University, Setrakian is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum[8] and a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[9] She was named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business [10] and one of Marie Claire Magazine’s Women on Top.[11]
Her work at News Deeply was awarded the National Press Foundation’s Excellence in Online Journalism Award for 2013.[12]
In 2017 Setrakian delivered a TED talk on three ways to fix the news industry.[13] She gave an earlier talk for TEDxYerevan discussing her career as a Middle East foreign correspondent and five key lessons she learned along the way.[14] She has been a frequent speaker on the future of news as a public service, through delivery models that are designed for the digital age.[15]
In the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against men in the media industry, Setrakian came forward as one of several women who accused Mark Halperin of sexual harassment while they were working at ABC News, arguing that this kind of behavior is part of a bigger problem in the news industry that needs to be fixed.[16][17]