Experience

The American Society of Cinematographers

• United States
• Entertainment Providers
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Chief Executive Officer

  • Nov 2019 - Present

  As CEO of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), McCarthy is responsible for overseeing the Society's events, educational program and the publication of its monthly magazine, American Cinematographer. The ASC was founded in 1919 to advance the creative and the technological sides of cinematography, and to bring cinematographers together to exchange ideas and promote the motion picture as an art form. Today the ASC is a leading voice in the transformation of the entertainment industry into the digital realm.



The American Academy in Berlin

• President

  • Sep 2018 - Apr 2019

  As President of the American Academy in Berlin, McCarthy was responsible for managing the Academy and its 48 staff and 24 residential fellows. He oversaw the Academy's public events programming, fellowship program, budgeting, fund-raising and communications functions. During his time in Berlin he organized and hosted events for German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, New Jersey governor and former US ambassador to Germany Phil Murphy, Yale historian Timothy Snyder and New York Metropolitan Museum of Art President Daniel Weiss. The American Academy in Berlin was founded in 1994 as an independent, non-partisan, privately funded institution, with a mission to sustain and enhance the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and Germany. Each year the Academy hosts two dozen residential fellows every year from the humanities, social sciences, public policy, and the arts, to pursue independent projects in Berlin. In addition the Academy invites shorter term visitors to speak on current affairs, economics and the arts.



Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall

• United States
• International Affairs
• 1 - 100 Employee

• President & CEO

  • Jul 2012 - Aug 2018

  As President & CEO of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, a non-partisan foreign affairs forum in LA, McCarthy devised and successfully executed a turn-around plan to reverse a $724,000 deficit and flagging membership. Within three years of taking over he returned the organization to profitability and increased membership by 40%. He achieved this with a strategy of diversifying programming to attract new and younger attendees, cutting unnecessary costs and increasing fundraising from donors. In 2016 he pioneered an annual conference on Asia with 500 attendees and 50 speakers that now commands international attention. In 2018 McCarthy and his team organized the Future of the Automobile conference at the Petersen Automotive Museum in LA. Under his leadership the number of events produced by the World Affairs Council has doubled to 72 per year, and the topics have expanded from foreign affairs to include arts and culture, the future of technology, American presidential history and space exploration. He has negotiated invites and secured funding for events with headline speakers including Bill Clinton, Elon Musk, Ben Bernanke, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Senator John McCain and Japanese premier Shinzo Abe. McCarthy has built up and raised funds for a highly-regarded education program that sponsors public high school students from disadvantaged neighborhoods around Los Angeles to participate in LAWAC events. He also conceived and launched a popular program screening foreign films. McCarthy gives frequent public talks on subjects such as America's role in the world, the future of Asia, the challenged in the Middle East and the changes in the world of media and technology.



READY FOR MEDIA

• United States
• Public Relations and Communications Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Media training consultant

  • Jun 2013 - Jul 2018

  Media training for executives, entrepreneurs, authors and television acting talent to get them "ready" for press interviews in print and on TV, and for public appearances and speeches. Helping clients to establish a presence on camera and in person and learn how to relate to an audience. Giving advice on ways to promote the brand name within an interview, answer concisely, use "handy facts" and statistics, lead the interviewer, and address and pivot away from awkward questions. Assist clients in finding and distilling their own story to tell.



CBS News

• Correspondent

  • 2009 - 2011

  McCarthy devised and led a 10 month-long CBS news series on the deployment of a US Marine Corps battalion to Afghanistan in 2010. McCarthy and cameraman/producer Randall Joyce embedded with the Marines in Helmand province, and focused on the work of a bomb disposal squad. The series, titled “The Thundering Third” won an Emmy and Edward R Murrow Award. He reported from Cairo's Tahrir Square during Egypt’s anti-Mubarak uprising and did an extended feature on preserving Sanaa, the ancient capital of Yemen. He reported on California's snow pack in the Sierras and followed the debate over shutting down the San Onofre nuclear plant in San Diego country. He traveled along China’s ancient Silk Road, reported on Shanghai’s real estate boom and did in-depth reporting on cyber attacks on US corporations. McCarthy traveled with and Interviewed Defense Secretary Robert Gates on an extended trip to Baghdad and Kabul.



ABC News

• Correspondent

  • 2006 - 2009

  Spearheaded Iraq coverage as main Baghdad correspondent for ABC News during General Petraeus’s “Surge” of US troops, traveling widely throughout the combat zone, and winning an Emmy in 2008 for "Where Things Stand" series about everyday life in Iraq in the midst of war. Covered the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein in 2006 and General Petraeus's "battle against the car bombs" in Baghdad in 2007. He also covered the natural gas boom in Wyoming, gold mining in California, protecting endangered species in Laos and big wave surfing in Hawaii. He reported on life in Mexico City during the swine flu epidemic and King Abdullah's co-ed boarding school in Jordan. McCarthy travelled the length of Yangtze River in China to examine that country's economic development and filmed a report to camera inside the eye of Category 4 hurricane from a C-130 hurricane hunter.



TIME Magazine

• Bureau Chief

  • Jan 1998 - Dec 2005

  TIME magazine LA Bureau chief responsible for 32 full and part time staff covering 13 western states of US from 2000 to 2005. Hired and mentored new contributors, and coordinated all news coverage from the area with editors in New York. After 9/11 attacks reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Opened TIME’s bureaus in Kabul in 2001 and Baghdad in 2003, hired and trained local staff, established security protocols, managed news assignments and oversaw budgets. Won two Emmys for joint work with ABC on Iraq war.East Asia correspondent based in Shanghai from 1998 to 2000. Reported from China, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Japan. Won Asian Human Rights Press Award in 2000 for cover story on Chinese woman victim of acid attack in Xian. Covered the fall of Indonesian dictator Suharto and the death of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot and the colorful career of Philippines President Estrada.



The Independent Newspaper, London

• Foreign Correspondent

  • 1987 - 1995

  Bangkok correspondent covering South East Asia, 1987-91. Tokyo bureau chief covering Japan, Koreas, 1991-1995. Covered Aung San Suu Kyi's campaign for democracy in Burma, the restoration of the Angkor temples in Cambodia, the death of Kim Il Sung in North Korea, the bursting of Japan's economic bubble, monastic life in Kyoto and cutting edge car manufacturing at Toyota.