Founding Executive Director

Dr. Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob brings a unique combination of communications and international development expertise with spiritual formation to the challenge of democratic renewal. A scholar and a Benedictine spiritual director, Dr. Jacob brings both academic expertise and personal urgency to some of the most challenging questions of our time. He has served in senior leadership roles in academic and multilateral institutions across three continents.

Before co-founding GCRD, Dr. Jacob was the Executive Director of the Center for Information, Democracy and Citizenship and Panitza Memorial Endowed Professor at the American University in Bulgaria. He previously served as Under-Secretary-General for Research, Evaluation and Foresight at the Organisation of Southern Cooperation (formerly Organisation of Educational Cooperation) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He has held senior academic appointments at the American University of Nigeria, where he served as Dean of Graduate School and Research, and at Dickinson College, USA. He has held visiting appointments at New York University's Centre on International Cooperation and at Cardiff University's School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies in Wales.

His research findings on AI-Enhanced Reflexive Control and algorithmic manipulation have been presented at the EU Parliament and analysed at NATO Cognitive Warfare training and demonstration exercises. His work spans peace journalism in conflict zones, communication for social change, and policy and research consultancies at governmental and intergovernmental organisations, including the UN, World Bank, and US Institute of Peace.

Dr. Jacob holds a PhD in Communication Studies (Strategic Communication) from the University of Leeds, UK, and an MA in Peace Studies from Lancaster University, UK. His doctoral research was supervised by the eminent communication scholar and historian Professor Philip M. Taylor (1954–2010), whose pioneering work on political communication and public diplomacy has profoundly shaped his own.