Appointed in October 2021, Mena Mark Hanna serves as the General Director & CEO of Spoleto Festival USA, based in Charleston, South Carolina. During his tenure, Spoleto Festival has presented two world premiere operas, including Omar, winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Music, in addition to several international and national premieres compositions, plays, and productions. In spring of 2024, Spoleto will present the world premiere opera Ruinous Gods, commissioned and developed by the Festival. Previously, Dr. Hanna served as the Founding Dean and Professor of Musicology and Composition at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin and the assistant artistic director and dramaturg at Houston Grand Opera. He holds a Bachelor of Music in music composition from the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University and received Temple University’s inaugural Honors Distinguished Alumni Award. He earned his master’s in musicology and a Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) in music composition and critical writing at Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar, continued executive studies at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He also served as the creator and curator of the Edward W. Said Days and a trustee of Gingko Library in London. Currently, Dr. Hanna sits on the board of the Mahler Foundation and on the advisory board of The Time in Children’s Arts Initiative in New York. Recently, he was selected as a member of the Liberty Fellowship Class of 2025.