| R. Marcus Palmer Ambassador Mark Palmer is a long-time fighter for democracy and human rights both inside and outside government. He participated in the American civil rights movement and remains active in pursuit of better opportunities for African-Americans. In the U.S. State Department from 1964 to 1990, he specialized and served in the communist countries, wrote speeches for six secretaries of state and three presidents, including President Reagan’s speech to the British Parliament in 1982 which led to the establishment of the National Endowment for Democracy, and was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and then U.S. Ambassador to Hungary during the crucial period for bringing down Europe’s communist dictators. For his contributions to assisting with the liberation of Poland, the Baltic States, and Hungary, he has received awards from democratic governments and human rights organizations. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ambassador Palmer became an investor in the former communist countries, including establishing the first national independent commercial television stations in six countries, and building a major real estate complex at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. He is President of Capital Development Company LLC, which invests in the United States and overseas. Ambassador Palmer is Vice Chairman of the Center for Communications, Health and the Environment and also serves on the boards of the International Centre for Democratic Transition, Council for a Community of Democracies, SAIS Johns Hopkins University, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, American Academy of Diplomacy, Freedom House and New Tang Dynasty Television. He graduated from Yale University in 1963, Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude. He is the author of “Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World’s Last Dictators by 2025”, whose policy recommendations form the basis for the ADVANCE Democracy Act of 2007.
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