Uniting
Research and Policy

Mark Bauman is an award-winning impact communications and international media executive, specializing in multiplatform content strategies and organizational leadership. He has been recognized with numerous broadcast and print journalism honors, including an Emmy, more than a dozen Cine Golden Eagles, and various film festival awards. Before taking the helm at Grid.news and Virtual Wonders, he oversaw the Smithsonian Institution’s commercial media units, including "Smithsonian," & "Air & Space" magazines, Smithsonian Books, Smithsonian.com, and the Smithsonian Channel partnership with Showtime. Previously, Bauman served as Chairman of National Geographic's Cross Platform Committee. As Executive Vice President of National Geographic Television, he oversaw more than 400 hours of programming, as well as National Geographic's Digital Video, tripling NG's YouTube traffic, garnering 3 million subscribers and more than a billion video streams.

Before National Geographic, Bauman, who is fluent in Spanish, Russian, Czech and Italian, was based in Eastern Europe and Latin America for ABC News, where he ran Baghdad and Balkan coverage. He has covered war and genocide in Central Africa, Lebanon, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq for many of the best print and broadcast media outlets in the world.

Bauman also serves on the Boards of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Archipelago, the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, the Ocean Exchange, the Marine Fish Conservation Network, and the Washington Youth Summit on the Environment. He has advised political campaigns, global NGO’s, the World Bank, and the United Nations on communications strategies.