Terence Ward

Born in Boulder, Colorado, Ward grew up in Saudi Arabia and Iran. He studied at the American University in Cairo, specializing in Islamic political movements while singing in the Gama Show.[1] He graduated from University of California, Berkeley in Political Science.[2][3] Based in Athens, he advised clients across the Gulf for the management consulting firm, MEIRC ((Middle East Industrial Relations Counselors), now based in Dubai. In Switzerland, he received his MBA from the International Management Institute (now IMD) in Lausanne and an International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance - IDHA in Bossey.[4] He then served on humanitarian missions for the 1999 East Timorese independence referendum and the Open Society Foundation in Burma.[5] [6]

Ward's first book, Searching for Hassan: An American Family's Journey Home to Iran, chronicles his family’s odyssey back to Iran after 30 years to find a long-lost friend.[7] Originally released in 2002 and translated into Italian, French, German, Indonesian and two different editions in Iran. In March 2020, Simon & Schuster published a new, updated edition with the title Searching for Hassan: A Journey to the Heart of Iran.

His next work, The Guardian of Mercy: How an Extraordinary Painting by Caravaggio Changed an Ordinary Life Today, explores Caravaggio and his masterpiece, “The Seven Acts of Mercy,” in two parallel stories set in Naples four hundred years apart.[8] The book led to his participation with Cardinal Turkson at the Vatican Press Conference on September 1, 2016 (World Day for the Care of Creation)[9] to present Pope Francis’ declaration of the "eighth act of mercy" – Care for Our Common Home – an all-encompassing ecological vision of protecting Mother Earth and tackling climate change.

His latest book, The Wahhabi Code: How the Saudis Spread Extremism Globally, takes a critical look at the role of Saudi Arabia in fostering jihadi extremism in the Islamic World and beyond. [10] He was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour on CNN on the complex subject. [11]

He has also appeared on: PBS, C-SPAN, NBC, BBC, NPR, RAI-TV, Toscana Oggi; and contributed to the Los Angeles Times, CNN, LitHub, Huffington Post, Washington Life, L'Ecologist, Il Manifesto,La Stampa, the Global Policy Council of AT Kearney and the Trilateral Commission. [12] [13] [14] [15]

Along with his wife Idanna Pucci[16] whom he married in 1995, Ward produced the documentary Black Africa, White Marble, which recounts Pucci's battle against Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso over the controversial transfer of Brazza's remains from Algiers to a newly constructed, multi-million dollar mausoleum in Brazzaville. The film premiered at the African Film Festival New York in 2012 and screened around the world, winning the Silver Punt Audience Award for best documentary at the 33rd Cambridge Film Festival, Best Documentary at the Annecy Italian Film Festival and Best Documentary Feature at the Berlin Independent Film Festival. Pucci and Ward also produced a narrative feature by Sharon Greytak, Archaeology of a Woman, which stars Sally Kirkland and Victoria Clark and won a Golden Remi award at WorldFest Houston. Their next project was the documentary short Talk Radio Tehran, which follows three high-spirited women who fulfill their aspirations in spite of the gender apartheid system that dominates daily life in Iran. It won Best Short Film at the Middle East Now Festival in Florence in 2016 and aired on BBC for the International Day of the Woman (2018). [17]  [18] 

Ward is a member of PEN International [19] and the Rome-based ISMEO[20] (Associazione Internationale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l’Oriente), and serves as an Ambassador for Religions for Peace (RFP) [21] the world's largest interfaith coalition.

• Searching for Hassan: An American Family's Journey Home to Iran (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002) ISBN 978-0618048441
• The Guardian of Mercy: How an Extraordinary Painting by Caravaggio Changed an Ordinary Life Today (Arcade Publishing, 2016) ISBN 978-1628725926
• The Wahhabi Code: How the Saudis Spread Extremism Globally (Arcade Publishing, 2018) ISBN 978-1628729719
• Searching for Hassan: A Journey to the Heart of Iran (Tiller Press, 2020) ISBN 9781982142773

As producer:

• Eugenia of Patagonia (2004)[22]
• Black Africa, White Marble (2012)
• Archaeology of a Woman (2012)
• Talk Radio Tehran (short) (2015)[23]

• Official website
• Terence Ward on Simon & Schuster
• Terence Ward on Libreria Editrice Fiorentina