CEO of Foreign Policy Interrupted | Author of Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places | Director | Entrepreneur | Author | Public Speaker.
Elmira Bayrasli is the founder and editor-in-chief of Interruptrr, a weekly newsletter that highlights female expertise. She is the author of From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places, a book that looks at the rise of entrepreneurship globally. She is also the director of Bard College’s Global and International Affairs program. She has lived in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina where she was the Chief Spokesperson for the OSCE Mission. From 1994-2000 she was presidential appointee at the U.S. State Department, working for Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke, respectively. Elmira is a regular contributor on global entrepreneurship for Techcrunch. She also provides analysis on foreign policy, particularly on Turkey. Her work has appeared in Reuters, Foreign Affairs, Washington Post, Quartz, New Republic, Fortune, Forbes, CNN, NPR, BBC, Al Jazeera, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. Elmira sits on several boards, including Invest2Innovate, Our Secure Future, Turkish Philanthropy Funds, and Turkish Women’s International Network.