Ron Ciccone was Managing Director of Turner Broadcasting Middle East/Africa for 25 years. He is a distinguished diplomat of the media industry, introducing CNN to heads of government from Tunisia to Tehran. During the first Gulf War he assembled a family of CNN affiliates throughout the region and the news channel effectively replaced state controlled media as the channel of choice. He went on to develop the CNN Arabic service and CNN Turk. A master trouble shooter and negotiator, he nurtured the fledging cable systems in Israel and was the first media representative to sign a broadcast agreement with post-revolutionary Iran.

Born in Senegal, Ron has graduate degrees in Political Science and Islamic Studies from the United States and France. He is a lifetime Arabist, fluent in Arabic, French and Italian. He was amongst the first American university graduates to serve in President Kennedy's Peace Corps and received a Presidential Citation for his work with refugees during the Biafran War in Nigeria.

His professional career began in Washington DC with the African Labor Institute, Capitol Hill, and later with Sawyer Associates representing Middle Eastern and African Governments. He joined CNN in 1986.

Ron is a dual citizen of the US and Britain and currently divides his time between London and Dubai, where he serves on the board of Translux Holdings and The Arabian Gulf Fund.