Aaron Sherinian and Tom Miller

Aaron H. Sherinian, Managing Director for Public Affairs

In his capacity as Managing Director for Public Affairs, Aaron Sherinian manages the MCC’s strategic relationship with media outlets and the organization’s ongoing outreach efforts with stakeholders and public institutions.

Prior to this assignment, Mr. Sherinian served as Press Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Quito, Ecuador where he was responsible for Embassy relations with media outlets in the country and acted as the Ambassador’s media advisor in promoting U.S. Government public diplomacy objectives. His diplomatic experience includes a tour as Deputy Political and Economic Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia where he managed coordination and outreach for the U.S. Government’s annual assistance budget of $90 million in that country. He served in the Political and Consular Sections of the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica and in the Office of Policy Planning under two Assistant Secretaries of State for the Western Hemisphere. His experience also includes service at U.S. Missions in Colombia and the Holy See (Vatican).

Before joining the Department of State, Mr. Sherinian worked at the Washington International Trade Association (WITA). He also held positions as a marketing consultant for the Italian distributors for Apple Computer and as a freelance interpreter and writer in Italy.

Mr. Sherinian is a native of Pasadena, California. He holds degrees from the Johns Hopkins University (School of Advanced International Studies – SAIS) and Brigham Young University. In addition to Spanish, he speaks Italian, Armenian and French. He and his wife have two young children.


Thomas A.W. Miller

Tom Miller is a noted market researcher, marketing strategist and public opinion pollster who has worked with Fortune 500 clients and the U.S. Government on major global assignments for 30 years. He is a founding Board Member of Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA) and, since 2006, serves as its Vice President.

With Business for Diplomatic Action, Tom oversees a number of global program initiatives, including the World Citizens Guide program and the development of CultureSpan, a new course on global corporate diplomacy in partnership with the Thunderbird School of Global Management. In conjunction with the Young Arab Leaders organization in the Middle East, he manages the Arab and American Business Fellowship program, which brings young Arab professionals to the United States to learn about American business and culture, and sends young American executives to the Middle East for the same purpose. Tom is the principal author of BDA’s position paper, America’s Role in the World: A Business Perspective on Public Diplomacy (October 2007). This paper serves as the basis of the organization’s efforts to raise public diplomacy and global engagement as a critical national issue for the 2008 U.S. presidential election. He was a lead contributor to the final report of the Secure Borders Open Doors Advisory Committee of the Departments of State and Homeland Security (January 2008), as well as to the report from The Brookings Institution, Voices of America: US Public Diplomacy for the 21st Century (November 2008).

Prior to joining BDA full-time, Tom was Managing Director and a Board Member with the Roper Organization, one of the world’s leading public opinion and market research firms. At Roper for 20 years, Tom managed all of the company’s consumer and public opinion insight services both in the United States and globally, including Roper Reports, Roper Reports Worldwide (a 30-country research program which he created and launched in 1995), Roper Youth Report, Green Gauge Environmental Report (which he created and launched in 1988), and others. He founded and served as Editor-in-Chief of Roper’s The Public Pulse and The Global Pulse newsletters. He directed the comprehensive research program in the USSR and then in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and other former Soviet Republics from 1989 to 2004 that was conducted by Roper for the US government, and managed the West European Opinion Leaders program, also for the government. In addition, Tom oversaw Roper's brand strategy, international research, and marketing consulting practices, and the teams devoted these businesses in the company's New York, London, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Dallas offices.

Before joining Roper, Tom was Managing Director with Hudson Research Europe, a futures think-tank based in Paris, France. With Hudson for six years, Tom oversaw the company's consulting practice, directed its conference programs, and was editor of its bi-monthly newsletter of international forecast, The Hudson Letter. Tom authored many original research reports at Hudson, on the future of the Soviet Union, the European Union, the international montary system, the international labor market, the international commodities market, and many others. He also supervised the GLOBE Project, a comprehensive social, economic and political risk forecasting service for 40 countries, conducted in collaboration with Chase Econometrics of the United States.

His articles and opinions have appeared widely in the global media, including The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, London Times, Le Monde, Advertising Age, Marketing News, Public Opinion, Agence Economique et Financiere, Asahi Evening News, Asia Media Week, and others. He has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs, including Good Morning America, Adam Smith’s Money World, Louis Rukheyser’s Wall Street Week, ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, NBC, MSNBC, and others. Tom is a top-rated public speaker and has given hundreds of speeches before business and government audiences in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia.

Tom received his B.A. magna cum laude with distinction in the major from Yale University, and his M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, where he was a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar. He lives with his family in Manhattan.