Gordon Mott

GORDON MOTT is no stranger to war and international terrorism.

As a foreign correspondent, he started his career with the Associated Press, covering the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua, the civil war in El Salvador, and the genocide of indigenous tribes in Guatemala.

On the morning of 9/11, Mott was serving as Executive Editor of Cigar Aficionado, a post he held for 23 years. From the magazine’s headquarters in lower Manhattan, he spotted the first plane flying toward the Twin Towers at an unusually low altitude, and from that instant he was thrown into the horrors of the terror attack and their wrenching aftermath.

Two years later, the traumas of 9/11 were still haunting him, every time he set foot in Grand Central Station, and then and there the first seeds of 10/10 were sown.

Mott graduated from Harvard College in 1974, and after his time with the AP, he served as bureau chief in Mexico for the San Jose Mercury News. In 1992, he helped Marvin R. Shanken launch Cigar Aficionado and turn it into a highly successful magazine.

Over the years, Mott has written extensively about Cuba, and he has contributed to The New York Times, Travel and Leisure, and Food and Wine magazines. Since 1981, he has been married to Donna Lilly. They have one daughter, Elizabeth. They live in Queretaro, Mexico, and have a dog named Tequila