NC State College of Management

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Marshall Memorial Fellowship gives Matheny a chance to meet with European government, technology leaders

Photo of Sam Matheny July 6, 2007 - Sam Matheny (MSM ‘99) works in a world of high-tech communications. He also has a strong interest in diplomacy and international relations, and hopes to find a way to make a difference with his life.

As part of the new media group at Capitol Broadcasting in Raleigh, NC, Matheny “does a lot with digital communications – TV, satellite, wireless. These are all things that are making our world smaller,” he said. How people in other countries use that technology is something he sought to explore when he got the opportunity to travel to five European countries as a Marshall Memorial Fellow in March 2007.

The opportunity came after he “asked an intriguing question about diplomacy” while attending a World Affairs Council meeting in Raleigh, said Millie Ravenel, executive director of the North Carolina Center for International Understanding (NCCIU) and participant at the meeting.

“He is smart, inquisitive, almost like a Renaissance man,” she said. “I got to know him through a global lens, talking about international issues, yet he had never been out of the country before.”

Ravenel said that she thought he would be an ideal candidate for the German Marshall Memorial Fellowship, which arranges international exchanges for leaders in government and business on both sides of the Atlantic.

“He’s already a leader but I think he’s emerging as a spokesperson in the community,” she said. He’s articulate and global-thinking. I thought it would be wonderful if he could understand the issues that the Marshall Fellowship addressed, and felt that he would represent North Carolina well.”

The goals of the Marshall Fellowship matched Matheny’s personal philosophy. “I have a great belief that in order for someone to do something, you have to understand the circumstances, and the best way to understand is to go out and get involved, to participate, rather than just reading about something,” he said.

That’s what drew him to the World Affairs Council meeting on Diplomacy in an Age of Terrorism in Raleigh several years ago, and later to another meeting where public policy leaders discussed North Carolina’s changing demographics. Matheny joined the NCCIU’s subsequent trip to Mexico as part of its Corporate and Foundation Leaders Latino Exchange program, and became hooked on global engagement.

“The idea of sitting across the table from someone in their country, going into their home, seeing where and how they live, sharing a meal, learning what’s important to them – that will better enable me to have an impact here,” he said.

Matheny had plenty of opportunities to do just that during his Marshall Fellowship travels. In each country a typical set of meetings included sessions with journalists, politicians, people who execute government policy, business leaders, foundation leaders, and even high school students.

One of their sessions was at the European Union in Brussels, where they met with members of parliament from Portugal, Germany, Spain, and Italy. This was followed by a visit to NATO.

“One of our NATO hosts was the guy who had to determine NATO’s reaction to and role following the attacks in New York on September. 11, 2001,” Matheny said. He learned that NATO had been structured envisioning U.S. support if another NATO country were attacked rather than what happened, which was European support of the U.S. when it was attacked. Parish is now a senior planning officer in the Political Affairs and Security Policy Division.

Learning more about the meaning of the EU and its membership requirements were major take-aways from the fellowship experience, Matheny said. To be admitted to the EU, a country has to prove that it has a true free market economy and that it is a bona fide democracy. This is a big deal for countries like Romania and Bulgaria. It’s also important to consider this in the context of the continent’s history, he said. “We had a lot of discussion about the sharing of power and structure of the EU, and its ramifications for the spread of democracy.”

In Hamburg, Germany, his group met with the lead architect for that city’s downtown redevelopment activities. “Hamburg is the world’s eighth largest sea port,” he said. “We talked about how to manage growth while reorganizing the downtown. This stop was particularly interesting for one of the other fellows, an American who works with affordable housing in New York City.

He also met with people who matched his personal and professional profile, “members of the digital community,” he said.

In France, for example, he met with a consultant for several of the television networks who was working on the transition from analog to digital technologies. In Germany, he met with the technology leaders for the country’s counterparts to the Public Broadcasting System and the FCC in the States, “so I got to learn the broadcasters’ and regulators’ perspectives.” In Bucharest, he met with delegates from the Romanian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, again an FCC-like organization.

“It was a very interesting time to be in Romania,” he said, “because the prime minister and president at the time were in a deadlock about dissolving the government and starting over. They were working on political reforms and moving toward universal suffrage. That made for some good conversations.”

Matheny noted that Romania also posed some interesting contrasts. Despite its poverty, there was so much construction under way that it seemed the national symbol should be the construction crane, he said. Visiting some of the government buildings also provided some insight into communist-era government. “Their parliament building is the second largest building in the world in terms of square footage under roof, just behind our Pentagon” he said, “but there aren’t any private offices.”

The third kind of meetings followed his personal interests.

“I’ve always worked with early stage technologies, and was interested in learning how technology transfer was happening there; particularly, how their universities and think tanks worked to develop and spin off new technologies, to commercialize it,” he said.

He met with program developers and faculty members at the Athens Information Technology Institute and at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) in Belgium. One of the technologies being developed in Athens involved sensor networks created by security cameras and microphones that can track people based on visual or aural profiles. “They placed second in an international competition for this,” he said.

“UCL has spin-offs just like we do here,” he said, including video encoder and encryption technology. “I met with the CEO of intoPIX, Jean-Francois Nivart, to discuss how the technology came about, how funding worked in a European university, and ways that we might work together in the future. Jean-Francois will be in the first graduating class of their executive MBA program, so we had that in common.” Matheny was in one of the last classes of MSM’s at NC State’s College of Management, concentrating his studies in the area of technology management. The college stopped offering the master of science in management in 2002, when it began offering the MBA degree instead.

Following their meeting, the researcher invited Matheny to his home, an 1800’s-era house, about an hour and a half from Brussels. The contrasts of old and new were vivid.

“Here was a guy who was making computer chips to put into digital cinema servers. He drove a dual-fuel car that runs on propane or gasoline, and heated his house with wood. And his father was the mayor of Durbuy, a center of commerce in medieval times and once known as the smallest city in the world.”

In France, Matheny also had a chance to meet with Thierry Bruet, an artist whose work he and his wife admired on an earlier trip to Paris, as well as a distant cousin, Anna Matheny Cartier, and her family.

“She lives in Bouilly, so at 6 a.m., I took the train to her town, spent the day and caught the 4:30 p.m. train back to Paris.” While there, he had another truly international experience. “My cousin’s husband, Jean, had been a photographer in Russia, and his former guide, Moussa, was visiting with his wife and son. Moussa now works in Geneva as a press agent for the Russian government. So, in that house in that little town, we had lunch with people from three countries, and I can tell you, jokes and punch lines are universal.”

The meetings launched new relationships that Matheny expects to extend to colleagues in the States, connecting people who may be interested in discussing joint projects.

“My personal network has increased exponentially, both in the U.S. – through the 15 other fellows – and in Europe,” he said. “And then there’s the entire body of German Marshall Fellowship alumni – 1500-plus alumni who have been involved with this program since the 1980s.”

“Obviously, there was something in all of us that led us to be nominated. For some, this experience may lead to new jobs or life changes, and for others, it’s a heightened understanding of how we can apply what we learned.

“People tend to fear what they don’t know. But I ask, what does it take for someone to get involved if they want to make a change? Understanding. International experiences like this are a big step toward increasing understanding.”

Alumni Profile:

Marshall Memorial Fellowship gives Matheny a chance to meet with European government, technology leaders

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