A former journalist and editor at ‘The Wall Street Journal’, now president and CEO of The Atlantic Council, Fred Kempe’s life and career spans from the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall to the ongoing war in Ukraine and other geopolitical threats. A passionate advocate for American engagement in the world, Kempe sat down with Monocle’s Chris Cermak in Washington ahead of a US presidential election that could send the superpower in two very different directions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fred Kemp has had a career in journalism and advocacy that spans the end of one Cold War to the possible beginning of another.
Born in Utah to German immigrants, Fred made his name as a foreign correspondent during the 1980s for the Wall Street Journal in Vienna and Berlin, rising to become editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels before becoming president and CEO of the Atlantic Council, a long running organization that promotes transatlantic ties, but that had struggled to define itself for a new era at the time that Fred joined in 2007.
Fred is the author of numerous books, perhaps Most notably Berlin, 1961, Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth.
He is also the author of a daily column called Inflection Points, which reflects his view that the world is once again at an inflection point, the fourth of the past century, after World Wars I and 2 and the end of the Cold War.
I'm Chris Chermack and I spoke to Fred Kemp in Washington, D.C.
on the big Interview.
Fred Kemp, welcome to the Big Interview.
It's a pleasure to be here.
We know each other very well.
I don't mind saying to our listeners out there that you are one of my journalism mentors because you have been involved in my career for a very long time, since my teens.
And I wanted to take you back to the beginning of your journalism career.
And I was curious who your mentors were when you got into journalism.
That's such an interesting question.
My mentors were people you wouldn't expect.
I'm not going to give you a big name.
I'm not going to give you someone who's written a best selling book or someone who's won a Pulitzer Prize.
My mentor was a high school teacher by the name of Clairann Jacobs at Skyline High School in Salt Lake City, Utah.
She knew I had talent.
She knew I loved to write.
But what I didn't like to do is hand in my assignments on time.