Sam Gregory to Step Down as Executive Director of WITNESS
Effective August 28, 2026, after 25 years with the organization, including the last three and a half as Executive Director and more than two decades in senior leadership roles prior, Sam Gregory will step down as Executive Director of WITNESS.
Sam joined WITNESS in 2000, leading its programmatic work through major changes in the media and technology landscape, ensuring that each worked in support of human rights: the emergence of social media and citizen journalism, the mobile documentation and livestreaming era of the 2010s, and now today’s generative AI and synthetic media moment.
He has been a strong thought leader for the organization and a recognized figure in the field advocating for our collective confidence in what we see and hear while pioneering global responses to AI and its implications for human rights. In 2024, WITNESS, under his leadership, received the inaugural Peabody Award for Global Impact, recognizing “media or organizations that have profoundly changed the world for the better” and for its work “tirelessly championing the power of emergent media technologies in defence of human rights around the world.”
“WITNESS has an extraordinary team and the mission has never mattered more,” said Sam. “The organization is positioned to lead on the questions that will define the coming decade — including the fight for reality in the age of AI, the use of video by frontline witnesses to defend human rights, and the trustworthiness of what we see and hear. I’m proud of what we’ve built, and I’ll be championing it from a different vantage point in the years ahead.”
“Over the course of Sam’s 25-year tenure, he has helped shape and advance WITNESS’s mission and visionary programmatic work.” said Adelin Cai and Leonardo Custódio, Board Co-Chairs. “The Board is grateful for Sam’s leadership, the partnerships and coalitions he’s built along the way while establishing communities that have strengthened WITNESS and its impact. Today, he leaves an organization that has shaped the field and secured human rights impact through three successive technology transformations. We appreciate his many contributions to the field, and wish him well in what’s next.”
As we prepare for Sam’s departure, The Board’s Transition Committee will conduct an external search for an Interim Executive Director, someone who will focus on continuity planning and assessment as we move toward a full Executive Director search. We are working to have an interim leader in place as soon as possible and will keep you updated as this process moves forward.
Sincerely,
Sam and the WITNESS Board of Directors