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Soft spoken and pragmatic, Huebner chuckled when he recalled how his son won the van - which once chauffeured Bill Gates around Paris - in a raffle.
Minivans are not "in" on the Champs-Élyseés. But beneath his quiet façade, Huebner is a fairly well-known personality in Paris. His 14 years as publisher of the International Herald Tribune, one of the world's leading newspapers, left him with deep friendships and strong professional ties to the City of Lights.
Over spring break, Huebner hosted 20 GW students for the International Media Seminar, and the parade of world-renowned journalists that spoke with the group illustrated that Huebner not only has connections, but he is also willing and eager to use them.
Participants in the seminar - the majority of which were SMPA students - heard presentations about the future of media from a broad range of journalists and media personalities including the former Washington Post Paris Bureau Chief, Time magazine correspondents and CNN's Paris Bureau Chief, Jim Bitterman.
Huebner first conceived the idea to bring students to Paris in 1995 while serving as a professor at Northwestern University, and when he became SMPA director this fall, he brought the program to GW.
After nearly five years without permanent leadership, SMPA has seen Huebner hire three new professors, create a director's advisory council of student representatives and take GW students to Paris for the seminar.
"I think that great things lie in store for SMPA with Professor Huebner as its new director. He knows anyone that's anyone," said journalism major Caitlin O'Connor.
Huebner's connections criss-cross the globe, the result of an international career as a professor, publisher and presidential speechwriter. He established strong roots in Paris throughout his career and when his family moved back to the States over a decade ago Huebner and his wife kept their Parisian apartment.
