Sid Balman

Sid Balman is Creative’s Director of Transnational Initiatives, which explores the domestic and international connections between such issues as countering violent extremism, global health, migration and crime.

The past four years he has been the Managing Director of turner4D, a 15-year-old global campaigning and strategy firm. He led a team at Turner that was among a handful of pioneers in applying web-based strategies in distinct, yet critical areas of CVE. On behalf of a range of clients – including governments, faith-based organizations and foundations — they developed a curriculum for community leaders to employ online strategies to identify, track and mitigate extremist activity; and conducted training workshops in East Africa, South Asia and the United States.

His experience in international affairs, digital and social media strategies, content, business development, policy and advocacy grow out of a 25-year global career, in which he served throughout the turbulent; 1990s as United Press International’s diplomatic and national security correspondent; helped found the first Web-based publishing syndicate to focus on issues of importance to women and girls; led strategic communications and advised the board of Interaction — the largest U.S. alliance of international humanitarian organizations – and built an international strategy consulting firm that was acquired by a larger company.