Martin Weiss, Austrian Ambassador to the United States, elected by Salzburg Global’s governing board to become its ninth president. President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Salyer to retire in July after 17-years at the helm.
Washington/Salzburg, April 20, 2022: Veteran diplomat and current Austrian Ambassador to the United States, Martin Weiss, has been elected the ninth president of the international non-profit organization Salzburg Global Seminar and will assume office on August 1, 2022.
Salzburg Global Seminar, based in the United States and Austria, has an outstanding international network of Fellows from over 170 countries, including US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and president of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva. Martin Weiss has served for two years as a member of the organization’s international Board of Directors and was selected following a worldwide search, led by the global search firm Korn Ferry.
Weiss started his career in the Austrian Foreign Service in 1990. Prior to his appointment as Austrian Ambassador to the US in 2019, he served as Ambassador to Israel (2015-19), Director of the Press and Information Department of the Foreign Ministry (2012-15), and Ambassador to Cyprus (2009-12). Throughout his career, he held several postings in the United States, starting as a Human Rights Attaché for the Austrian Mission to the United Nations in New York in 1991, to positions of Political Counselor, Counselor for Congressional Affairs and Public Diplomacy and later Director of the Austrian Press and Information Service at the Austrian Embassy in Washington, and as Austrian Consul General in Los Angeles (2004-09).
Weiss will succeed Stephen L. Salyer, a former US public broadcasting executive who has led the organization since 2005 and was the first Salzburg Global Fellow to serve as its president. During Salyer’s tenure, Salzburg Global’s program became more global in reach, building networks of experts and rising leaders to tackle cross-border problems. The organization has diversified funding from US, European and Asian sources and has invested systematically in the renovations of historic Schloss Leopoldskron. A hotel enterprise launched in 2014 now helps sustain the organization’s non-profit mission.
Salzburg Global’s Board Chairman, Victoria Mars, expressed excitement, saying: “We put the word ‘global’ in our name 15 years ago. Today our choice of president embodies not only our strong Austrian-American origins but also the global scope that sets us apart from other think tanks, conveners, and leadership programs.”
Martin Weiss says: “Being the first non-American President of Salzburg Global is a huge responsibility, one that I will tackle both with humility and enthusiasm. Salzburg Global Seminar is an impressive organization and truly one of a kind. Its home, Schloss Leopoldskron, is a venue that combines exquisite architectural beauty and history, from Archbishop Firmian to Max Reinhardt, the co-founder of the Salzburg Festival. Salzburg Global has filled this unique place with purpose and meaning – for 75 years and counting. It is the aspiration of Salzburg Global to 'challenge current and future leaders to shape a better world.' Isn´t that exactly what we needed then and still need today?”
Salzburg Global Seminar’s founding in 1947—by an Austrian and two Americans—came at a time when the future of the international order was very much in question. Much like in 1947, today’s world needs renewed and better leadership to tackle the immense challenges we face and ever-expanding divides we endure. For its 75th Anniversary this year, Salzburg Global Seminar will celebrate this history and chart its future in the coming decades.