THE AUTHOR

CHARLES MITCHELL Charles (Chuck) Mitchell has spent more than half of his working life in foreign lands, providing him ample opportunity to commit numerous cultural faux pas and witness the day-to-day workings of business, social and political life on several continents. Chuck began his journalism career as a reporter for the Rand Daily

Mail in South Africa before joining United Press International as southern Africa correspondent, covering wars and independence struggles in Rhodesia, Angola and Mozambique. As UPI bureau chief based in Nairobi, Kenya, Chuck traveled to more than 20

African and Middle Eastern nations reporting on famine, conflict and economic development for UPI as well as several British newspapers. Moving to Moscow in 1986 with UPI, Chuck reported on the transformation of the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev’s “terrible twins”, glasnost and perestroika, covering the Chernobyl nuclear disaster as well as three U.S.-Soviet summits and

Gorbachev’s historic visit to China. Chuck later served as Foreign Editor of the Detroit Free Press newspaper and as Senior European Editor for WorldBusiness magazine, traveling and reporting extensively in Europe. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he is currently the Publishing

Director for The Conference Board, a not-for-profit business and economic research organization based in New York City. He coaches Little League and resides in Bedford Hills, New York with his wife, Fiona, and their three children