Director General of ARIJ, a filmmaker, and media specialist. Rawan Damen has 20 years experience in academic and professional media management, television and digital training.

She first joined ARIJ as an independent trainer, head of ARIJ Jury since 2017. She became an ARIJ board member in 2019 and the director general of ARIJ in early 2020.

Before joining ARIJ, Ratan Damen worked on producing and directing more than 30 hours of documentaries and investigative stories, published in different languages. She was a senior commissioner at Al Jazeera Network for about 10 years (2006 – 2016), leading a team who produced more than 250 documentary and investigative TV episodes. She also led large interactive multi-language international platforms.

Rawan Daman received a master’s degree with honours in media and communication from the University of Leeds in the UK, 2003. She was awarded the Media Creativity Award from the Arab Thought Foundation in Beirut, 2015.