Joel Simon has worked tirelessly as a champion of press freedom around the world. For 15 years between 2006 and 2021, he served as the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). He traveled the world defending the rights of journalists, effectively saving lives and getting innumerable people out of harm’s way.
Simon helped establish CPJ’s Emergencies Department, which provides safety information and direct support for journalists under threat, including placement for at-risk journalists at leading journalism schools, the Newmark J-School among them.
Antonio Zappulla is the CEO Designate of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the world’s leading news and information provider. Zappulla joined the Thomson Reuters Foundation as Director of Communications in 2013. In 2014, he was promoted to Director of Strategy and Communications, and appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2016, responsible for overseeing the Development, Communications, and Monitoring functions of the organization.
An outspoken supporter of the business case for human rights, Antonio is the founder of Openly, the world’s first global platform dedicated to coverage of LGBT+ stories with distribution to 1 billion Reuters clients daily.
