Mario Lubetkin has held the position of Directeur de Cabinet of the Office of the Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) since 1 August 2015.

From 3 February 2014 to 31 July 2015, he was Director of the Office for Corporate Communication, also at FAO, Rome. Between 2002 to January 2014, he served as Director-General of the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, where he began his professional career as a journalist in 1979.

During his professional life, Mr. Lubetkin has coordinated communication projects with the governments of Finland, Italy, Spain, Uruguay, and Brazil, along with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and has provided advice for communication projects in Europe and South America. In 2012, he was nominated as a member of the United Nations Advisory Group for the International Year for Cooperatives (IYC).

Mr. Lubetkin has also collaborated extensively with the media in Italy, Brazil, Uruguay and Ecuador. He has acted as a high-level communication consultant for various organizations in Latin America and the European Union, and for private sector entities in the United States.

He was a founding member of Com+, an alliance of communication experts for sustainable development from distinguished international organizations and the media, and was the founder and vice president of Media Watch Global in 2003.

Mr. Lubetkin has been the a professor of a master’s degree course in communication for international relations at IULM University in Milan (Italy), and was also the director of seminars on communication for development at the Universidad Menéndez Pelayo (UIMP) in Santander (Spain). He is the author of numerous articles and has coordinated the publication of various books on political communication, communication networks and technologies, and coherence in communication for development.