Judith A. McHale

Notable work and positions

Cane Investments LLC — President and Chief Executive Officer
U.S. Department of State — Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (2009–2011)
Discovery Communications — President and Chief Executive Officer (2004–2006); President and Chief Operating Officer (1995–2004)
Board member — Paramount Global, Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Ralph Lauren Corporation

Biography

Judith A. McHale is a media executive and former U.S. government official who spent two decades helping build Discovery Communications from a single cable channel into a global media company. The daughter of a U.S. Foreign Service officer, McHale was born in New York City and grew up in Britain and apartheid-era South Africa. She joined Discovery Communications in 1987 as general counsel and rose through the ranks to chief operating officer, and ultimately president and chief executive officer, a period during which the company's revenues grew roughly tenfold to more than $3 billion annually and its programming expanded to more than 170 countries. She helped launch the Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership, which provided free educational programming to more than half a million students across Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, and forged Discovery's international content partnership with the BBC. In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated McHale to serve as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs; she was confirmed by the Senate and served until 2011, focusing on expanding the State Department's digital and social media outreach. She later founded and led Cane Investments LLC, a family investment fund focused on technology and environmental start-ups. McHale has served on the boards of Discovery, Viacom/Paramount Global, Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Ralph Lauren Corporation, Host Hotels and Resorts, DigitalGlobe, SeaWorld Entertainment/United Parks & Resorts, and Pepco Holdings, among others, and was appointed by Maryland Governor Parris Glendening to the Maryland State Board of Education.