Mark Bauman is a media and strategic communications executive, who has been recognized with numerous broadcast, web and print journalism honors, including an Emmy, more than a dozen Cine Golden Eagles, and various film festival awards. Before serving in his current position as CEO of Virtual Wonders, he oversaw the Smithsonian Institution’s commercial media units, including Smithsonian and Air & Space Magazines, Smithsonian Books, Smithsonian.com, and the Smithsonian Channel partnership with Showtime, which gross more than $60 million dollars a year. Previously, Bauman served as Chairman of National Geographic’s Cross Platform Committee, and as EVP of National Geographic Television, where he oversaw more than 400 hours of programming, as well as National Geographic’s Digital Studio (which tripled the Society’s YouTube traffic, garnering more than a billion streams). Before National Geographic, Bauman, who is fluent in Spanish, Russian, Czech and Italian, was based in Eastern Europe and Latin America for ABC News. He has covered war and genocide in Central Africa, Lebanon, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, for some of the best broadcast and print media outlets in the world.