Richard M. Lobo, IBB Director

Richard Lobo was nominated by President Obama to be Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau in February, 2010, and was confirmed to the post by the Senate in September of that year.

As IBB Director, Lobo provides day-to-day management of Agency operations including oversight of the technical, professional, and administrative support as well as strategic guidance and management of other programs.  In addition, he serves as the principal liaison for the Board with other U.S. government agencies, foreign governments, and private-sector organizations.

Lobo represents the Broadcasting Board of Governors as a member of the DG5, comprised of Directors General of the five largest international broadcasting agencies, and is the U.S. representative to the RIAS Berlin Commission, which promotes exchanges in the field of broadcast journalism between the Federal Republic of Germany and the U.S.

Lobo was president and chief executive officer of WEDU (PBS) Tampa/St. Petersburg/Sarasota and chairman of the Florida Public Broadcasting Service. Lobo also served as president of WTVJ in Miami, where he began his career as a reporter. He was station manager of WNBC-TV in New York, and vice president and general manager of NBC stations in Chicago and Cleveland. He has served as director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, appointed by President Clinton.

Under his direction as president of WTVJ, the station won the Peabody, the duPont, and the Edward R. Murrow Awards for its coverage of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Andrew.

Lobo was honored recently with the Gold Circle Award by the Suncoast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for outstanding service to broadcasting. He has also won an Emmy Award for broadcast editorials, and was honored with the New York Black Citizens for a Fair Media’s Community Service Award, the Wall Street Chapter of IMAGE’s Hispanic Executive Award, and the Leadership Award of the Chicago Latino Committee on the Media.

Lobo has served as a member of the TV Board of the National Association of Broadcasters and on the board of the Florida Association of Broadcasters. He is a recent inductee into the Tampa Bay Business Hall of Fame. The Sarasota Chapter of the American Jewish Committee presented Lobo and his wife with its Civic Achievement Award.

He is an Alumnus of Distinction of the University of Miami School of Communication, where he majored in journalism/radio-TV-film. Lobo is a Captain (Retired) in the U.S. Army Reserve. A second generation Floridian, grandson of Cuban immigrants, he is married to Caren Lobo and has three children and five grandchildren.

The IBB manages a global network of transmitting sites and an extensive system of leased satellite and fiber optic circuits, along with a rapidly growing Internet delivery system servicing the 61 language services of the BBG networks. For the agency’s federal components, the IBB provides research, manages the evaluation of broadcasts and is responsible for VOA editorials, along with support services including human resources, Equal Employment Opportunity, procurement, security, administrative, and graphics.