Bios 2015

General John R. Allen commanded the International Security Assistance Force–Afghanistan and United States Forces–Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013. Prior to assuming command of the NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Allen commanded at every level in the Marine Corps through Marine Expeditionary Brigade. He has served as the Marine Corps fellow to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a commandant of the Marine Corps fellow, and was the first Marine officer to serve as a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is currently senior advisor to the secretary of defense on Middle East security. Allen holds a bachelor’s in operations analysis from the Naval Academy, a master’s in national security studies from Georgetown University, a master’s in strategic intelligence from the Defense Intelligence College, and a master’s in national security strategy from the National War College. 

Prior to his designation in the Cabinet of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco in October 2013, Youssef Amrani was minister delegate for foreign affairs and cooperation, a post he had held since January 2012. In November 2008, he was appointed secretary general at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, a position he held until his election as secretary general of the Mediterranean Union in July 2011. Amrani has also served as an ambassador of Morocco to Colombia, Chile, and Mexico. From 2003 to 2008, he served as ambassador and director general of bilateral relations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. He was the head of office of the secretary of state for the Arab Maghreb Union from 1989 to 1992. Afterwards, he was appointed as consul general in Barcelona. He holds a degree in economics from the University Mohammed V in Rabat and graduated from the Institute of Management in Boston.

Urban Christian Ahlin has been the speaker of the Riksdag in Sweden since 2014. He has been a member of the Swedish parliament since 1994, representing the Västra Götaland County East constituency. He was formerly foreign policy spokesman for the Social Democrats. Between 1985 and 1990, he was chairman of the Social Democratic Youth League in Skaraborg County. Between 1991 and 1998, he was chairman of the Social Democratic Party in Mariestad, and between 1999 and 2002, he was the deputy secretary general of the Social Democratic Party. Since 2005, he has been chairman of the Social Democratic Party in Skaraborg.

Miguel Arias Canete has been the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy since November 2014. Arias Canete studied law at the Complutense University of Madrid. After graduating in 1974, he joined the Spanish Civil Service working as a state attorney. In 1978, he became a professor of Law at the University of Cadiz. In 1982, he left his teaching post after being elected a member of the Parliament of Andalusia, a post he held until 1986. He became a member of the European Parliament upon Spain’s accession in 1986. He stayed until 1999, heading the Committees on Agriculture and on Regional Development. Arias Canete served as minister of agriculture and fisheries of Spain from 2000 until 2004, and as minister for agriculture, food and environment from 2011 until 2014, before being selected to head his Party List in the European Parliamentary elections.

Lisa Balter Saacks is the vice president of business development at Gust, a global platform to source and manage early stage investments. She is in charge of all business development and strategic partnership efforts globally and speaks frequently on various trends in early stage investing. Before joining Gust, she held senior positions in the financial and media worlds, including as vice president of strategic partnerships at SecondMarket, where she also created and managed Alchemy Magazine, a publication on the alternative asset class. Previously she was vice president and international publisher at the financial media organization, The Deal LLC, where she ran the firm’s custom media and events division. She began her career in finance at the European-based Creditanstalt Investment Bank. Balter Saacks holds a master’s in international finance from Columbia University’s School of International Affairs and a bachelor’s in international relations from the University of Michigan.

Carl Bildt was most recently Swedish minister for foreign affairs from 2006 to 2014. He held the post of prime minister from 1991 to 1994. From 1995 to 2001, he had different EU and UN assignments related to the conflicts in the Balkans, notable the first high representative in Bosnia. He is chairman of the Global Commission on Internet Governance and co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations. He tweets at @carlbildt.

Paul Bledsoe is president of Bledsoe & Associates, LLC, a strategic public policy firm specializing in national and global communications on tax policy, energy, natural resources, and climate change. From 2009 to 2012, he was senior communications strategist and spokesperson for the American Energy Innovation Council. Bledsoe was also senior policy advisor on the staff of the Presidential National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Off-Shore Drilling. He served as director of communications of the White House Climate Change Task Force under President Clinton from 1998 to 2000, and from 1995 to 1998 was special assistant to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. Previously, he was press secretary and legislative assistant to several members of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds a bachelor’s with honors and a master’s from Ohio State University. 

Dr. Hande Özsan Bozatli started her political career in local Turkish politics in Istanbul and soon became president of the EU and International Relations Committee as well as vice-president of Istanbul Provincial Council. In this capacity, she got involved within the Assembly of European Regions (AER) and was elected president of the Committee in charge of Culture, Education and Youth. In May 2013, Bozatli was elected president of the AER. Since then she has been promoting the interests of AER on the European stage in Brussels, connecting with key decision-makers and aligning with other partner networks to promote the regional dimension in Europe. She is a member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in the Council of Europe and an outspoken supporter of greater dialogue between the regions from EU and non-EU countries.

General Philip M. Breedlove assumed duties as supreme allied commander, Europe, and commander of U.S. European Command in 2013. From 2012 to 2013, he was commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe. He has also been commander of the U.S. Air Forces Africa, commander of the Headquarters Allied Air Command at Ramstein Air Base, and director of the Joint Air Power Competence Centre at Kalkar Germany. He holds a master’s degree in aeronautical technology from Arizona State University and a master’s degree in national security studies from the National War College. Breedlove holds several decorations and awards, including the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, and four awards of the Legion of Merit.

Elmar Brok is a member of the European Parliament for the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats). He is the chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs at the European Parliament and is a member of the Conference of Committee Chairs, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, and the delegation for relations with India.

Patricia Buckley joined Deloitte as the director for economic policy and analysis in September 2012, with responsibility for advising Deloitte’s leadership team on changing U.S. and world economic conditions. She regularly contributes to Deloitte’s Eminence Practice with a focus on economic policy, and is a frequent speaker at Deloitte-sponsored events. Prior to joining Deloitte, Buckley served as the senior economic policy advisor to four secretaries of commerce. Her duties included providing regular economic briefings to the secretary in preparation for White House meetings, press events, and discussions with business and foreign leaders. Her responsibilities included strategic initiatives related to U.S. competitiveness, revitalizing the manufacturing sector, and reforming the country’s immigration system. Buckley has a Ph.D. in economics from Georgetown University.

Christopher Campbell is the majority staff director to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. As such, he designs, manages, and coordinates the U.S. Senate Republican agenda in the areas of international and domestic taxation, international trade, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the U.S. National Debt, and oversight of 10 presidential cabinet secretaries. He has been named by Roll Call each of the last four years as one of the 50 most influential staffers on Capitol Hill. Previously, he served as legislative director to Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), where he coordinated and managed the senator’s legislative activities. Immediately prior to rejoining Senator Hatch’s staff, Campbell owned a business-consulting firm that specialized in business strategy with clients from all sized companies, from all regions of the country, and from a wide variety of industries. He received an M.B.A. from Thunderbird School of Global Business Management and a bachelor’s from the University of California, Santa Barbara in political science.

Steve Clemons is Washington editor-at-large for The Atlantic and National Journal as well as for Atlantic Media’s digital financial publication, Quartz. He is an MSNBC contributor and comments frequently on politics, economics, and foreign affairs on national television and radio outlets. Clemons is publisher of the political blog, The Washington Note. He is also a senior fellow and founder of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. Previously, Clemons was the executive vice president of the Economic Strategy Institute. He also worked on Capitol Hill as a senior policy advisor on economic and international affairs to Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), and was the first executive director of the Nixon Center.

Sir Kim Darroch has been the prime minister’s national security advisor since January 2012. He was formerly the U.K. permanent representative to the EU and prime minister and head of the Cabinet Office European Secretariat. He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1976, and served in protocol, news, and planning departments before being posted to Tokyo from 1980-84. On return to London, he was desk officer for the Channel Tunnel project, co-secretary of the UK-French Channel Tunnel Treaty Group, and then private secretary to three successive ministers of state. From 1995-97, he headed the Eastern Adriatic Department, dealing with the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Bosnia conflict.

Gilles de Kerchove was appointed European Union counter-terrorism coordinator in September 2007. He coordinates the work of the EU in the field of counter-terrorism, maintains an overview of all the instruments at the union’s disposal, closely monitors the implementation of the EU’s counter-terrorism strategy, and fosters better communication between the EU and other countries to ensure that the EU plays an active role in the fight against terrorism. Before that, he was director for justice and home affairs at the Council Secretariat. De Kerchove is a European law professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, the Free University of Brussels, and the Université Saint Louis-Brussels.

Nina dos Santos is a London-based news anchor of CNN’s The Business View and a correspondent. She also frequently anchors CNN Marketplace Europe. Dos Santos began her career in print news with internships at theFinancial Times Group and Dow Jones & Co before moving into broadcast news as a presenter with Bloomberg Television, later with Sky News and NBC News. Her past print work has been published in The Wall Street Journaland The International Herald Tribune as well as in Vedomosti in Russia and Handelsblatt in Germany.

Karim El Aynaoui is currently managing director of the OCP Policy Center and advisor to the CEO and chairman of OCP, a global leader in the phosphate sector. OCP Policy Center is an autonomous Moroccan think-tank created by OCP Foundation to further policy debate and analysis of key social, economic, and geopolitical issues that affect the future of the private sector and the country. From 2005 to 2012, El Aynaoui worked at Bank Al-Maghrib, the central bank of Morocco. There he was the director of economics and international relations, providing strategic leadership in defining and supporting monetary policy analysis and strategy. Before joining Bank Al-Maghrib, he worked for eight years at the World Bank, both in its Middle Eastern and North Africa and Africa regions as an economist. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Bordeaux, where he also taught for three years.

Steven Erlanger became the London bureau chief of The New York Times in August 2013, after five years as bureau chief in Paris and, before that, four years as bureau chief in Jerusalem. He has served as Berlin bureau chief, bureau chief for Central Europe and the Balkans based in Prague, and chief diplomatic correspondent based in Washington. From 1991 to 1995, he was posted in Moscow, after being Bangkok bureau chief and Southeast Asia correspondent from 1988 to 1991. A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, he graduated from Harvard College in 1974 and studied Russian at St. Antony’s College, Oxford.

Nora Fisher Onar is a fellow at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington and a research associate of the Centre for International Studies at the University of Oxford. She taught international relations at Bahçeşehir University and was an inaugural Ronald D. Asmus Policy Entrepreneurs Fellow at The German Marshall Fund of the United States. She has published in numerous policy and academic fora from Foreign Affairs and the Guardian to Cooperation and Conflict and Millennium. She received her doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford and holds masters and undergraduate degrees from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University.

After a two year voluntary military service, Roland Freudenstein studied political science, economics, Japan studies, and international relations in Bonn and Los Angeles. Having worked as a research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations, he became a member of the foreign and security planning staff of the European Commission in Brussels in the 1990s. Subsequently, he became the director of the Warsaw office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and later held a leading function in the foundation’s central office in Berlin. After coming back to Brussels in 2004, he represented the German city state of Hamburg to the EU. Since 2008, he has been the head of research and deputy director of the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies. He has contributed to debates and published extensively on European integration, international security, German-Polish relations, global democracy support, and recently about the changes in the Middle East.

Daniel Fried assumed his position as the U.S. Department of State’s coordinator for sanctions policy in January 2013. Prior to that, he served as special envoy for closure of the Guantanamo Detainee Facility starting on May 2009, with the additional responsibility as the secretary’s special advisor on Camp Ashraf (Iraq) from November 2011. Fried served as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs from 2005 until 2009 and as special assistant to the president and senior director for European and Eurasian affairs at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2005. Fried was Polish desk officer at the State Department from 1987 to 1989 as democracy returned to Poland and Central Europe. He served as political counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw from 1990 to 1993.

As Chubb’s senior vice-president and chief diversity officer, Trevor Gandy is responsible for developing and implementing a diversity strategy that fosters innovation and market leadership. He also chairs Chubb’s Women of Color Initiative Steering Committee, which is charged with accelerating the development and advancement of multicultural women within the company. In addition to his chief diversity officer responsibilities, Gandy serves on Chubb's Administrative Committee and has oversight for corporate responsibility. He has been featured in articles published by the Chicago Tribune, Catalyst, Business Insurance Magazine, TheGlassHammer.com, andDiversityInc Magazine. He serves as executive committee chair of The Conference Board Council of U.S. Diversity & Inclusion Executives. Additionally, he represents Chubb on the Re: Gender (formerly the National Council for Research on Women) Corporate Circle Advisory Board, Center for Talent Innovation Task Force, and Catalyst Expert Community. 

Kristalina Georgieva is currently vice president of the European Commission, responsible for budget and human resources. In this role, she is responsible for managing the EU budget and ensuring that it is invested in the best way to serve EU citizens. She is also in charge of the internal organization of the European Commission as an institution, and ensures that its resources are used to deliver on priorities. From 2010 to 2014, she was European commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response. During her term in that office, she oversaw the delivery of life-saving assistance to nearly 500 million children, women, and men affected by conflicts and natural disasters around the world.  

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff has been a member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2004. Between 2009 and 2014, he served as deputy leader of the liberal group ALDE. Lambsdorff also heads the FDP Delegation (German Liberal Party) in the European Parliament and is a member of the FDP’s Executive Committees at the federal, state (North Rhine-Westphalia) and local level (Bonn). He was chief observer of the EU Election Observation Missions to Libya, Guinea, Bangladesh, and Kenya. Before becoming an MEP, Lambsdorff worked in the Political Department of the German Foreign Office in Berlin and in the German Embassy in Washington, DC. He has a master’s in history and master’s in foreign service from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s equivalency in history, political science, and public law from Bonn University.

Megan E. Greene is a non-resident fellow with GMF’s Europe Program. She is a managing director and chief economist at Manulife Asset Management, responsible for forecasting global macro-economic and financial trends and analyzing the potential opportunities and impacts to support the firm’s investment teams around the world. Previously, Greene ran her own London-based economics consulting practice, Maverick Intelligence, serving clients who used her analysis of economic, political, policy, and social developments and the impact these were likely to have on the global economy. Prior to Maverick, she was director of European economics at Roubini Global Economics and the euro crisis expert at the Economist Intelligence Unit. She has a bachelor’s in political economy from Princeton University and a master’s in European studies from Nuffield College, Oxford University.

Suhasini Haidar is the diplomatic and strategic affairs editor of The Hindu, and was presenter of the signature show, “World View with Suhasini Haidar” on CNN-IBN. Prior to this, Haidar was a foreign affairs editor and prime time anchor for India’s leading 24-hr English news channel CNN-IBN (2005-14) and a correspondent for CNN International’s New Delhi bureau. Over the course of her 20-year reporting career, Haidar has covered the most challenging stories and conflicts from diverse countries such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Libya, Lebanon, and Syria. In India, she has covered the foreign affairs beat for over a decade, and her domestic assignments include political profiles and in-depth reporting from conflict zones.

In 2006, after over two decades at The Washington Post, John Harris founded Politico, a newspaper that covers national politics and has become almost instantly recognized as an authoritative voice on the goings-on in Washington. Harris spent 21 years at The Post, covering local politics, Virginia state politics, and national issues. During the Clinton years, Harris covered the White House and eventually used that experience to write a history of the Bill Clinton presidency called The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House. Harris is on the Board of Trustees of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Susan N. Herman was elected president of the American Civil Liberties Union in October 2008, after having served as a member of the ACLU Board of Directors and Executive Committee, and as general counsel. She holds a chair as Centennial Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, where she currently teaches courses in Criminal Procedure and Constitutional Law, and seminars on Law and Literature, and Terrorism and Civil Liberties. Her most recent book, Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy(Oxford University Press 2011), winner of the 2012 IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize, was published in an updated paperback edition in March 2014. Herman received a bachelor’s from Barnard College as a philosophy major, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Nicholas Hodac is governmental programs executive for IBM Europe. In this role, he is the European lead for trade policy and is also responsible for governmental affairs with the Belgian Governments. Prior to joining IBM Europe, Hodac worked for Ford of Europe as head of the Brussels EU Affairs Office, General Motors Europe (GME) as manager EU Affairs in its governmental affairs office located in Brussels, and in the European Parliament as an assistant advisor to the EPP-ED Group in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee.

Gregory Scott Horowitt is the co-founder and managing director of T2 Venture Creation, a multi-disciplinary venture capital fund and ecosystem advisory firm focused on building high impact technology and healthcare enterprises. He is an advisor and consultant to many of the world’s top development organizations, including the Aspen Institute, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, U.S. Department of State, and National Academies of Science, as well as CORFO (Chile), iNNpulsa (Colombia), Skoltech (Russia), and Ruta N (Medellin). Horowitt is also the co-founder of Global CONNECT, an innovation and ecosystem think tank based at the University of California, San Diego, that helped create the early frameworks around innovation ecosystems. Prior to CONNECT, Horowitt’s life was as an entrepreneur and investor, having been involved with a number of Silicon Valley startups and venture capital, including serving as an entrepreneur-in-residence for SK Global, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.

Rosalind L. Hudnell is a vice president of human resources at Intel Corporation and serves as director of global employee communications and external relations. Since joining Intel in 1996, she has held various management positions in community relations, government relations, charitable contributions, media outreach, employee volunteerism, and workforce development. During her tenure as Intel’s chief diversity officer, the company achieved significant progress and received numerous awards for leadership in workforce diversity. Ms. Hudnell’s contributions include co-founding the Intel Black Leadership Council and driving the development of Intel’s Global Women’s Initiative, the Hispanic Leadership Council, and the growth of employee affinity networks. Most recently, she led the STAY WITH IT™ Initiative for President Obama’s Council on Jobs & Competitiveness, which focused on getting more students to complete degrees in engineering and computer science. Ms. Hudnell completed her undergraduate studies at St. Mary’s College and did advanced study at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

David Ignatius’ twice-weekly column on global politics, economics, and international affairs began appearing onThe Washington Post’s op-ed page in 1999. Prior to becoming a columnist for the newspaper, Ignatius was the assistant managing editor of business news. He also served as The Post’s foreign editor, supervising the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. From 1986-90, he was editor of the newspaper’s Sunday “Outlook” section. Before joining The Post in 1986, Ignatius spent ten years as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, where he covered the steel industry, the U.S. Justice Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Senate, and was the Middle East chief diplomatic correspondent.

Masafumi Ishii is the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Belgium and representative to NATO for Japan. Before assuming his current role, Ishii was the director-general of the International Legal Affairs Bureau for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan. Previously, Ishii was the ambassador and director-general for global issues and the deputy director-general at the Foreign Policy Bureau. He also served as the minister for the Embassy of Japan in the United States and in the U.K. Prior to that, Ishii served as the private secretary to the minister for foreign affairs. He was also the director of the second Southeast Asian division in the Asian Affairs Bureau, and before that he was the director of the planning division at the Foreign Policy Bureau.

Congressman Darrell Issa is the U.S Representative for California’s 49th district, a seat he has served in since 2001. As a senior in high school, Issa enlisted in the United States Army where he received an ROTC scholarship and attended Sienna Heights University. Upon his graduation, Issa was commissioned as a U.S. Army Officer, completing his active-duty service in 1980 and obtaining the rank of captain. After his military service, the congressman turned to private business, eventually serving as CEO of California-based Directed Electronics, and serving as chairman of the Consumer Electronics Association. Issa, a member of the Republican Party, sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, where he is chairman of the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. He served as chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee during the 112th and 113th Congresses.

Mahmoud Jibril is the leader of the National Forces Alliance and previous interim prime minister of Libya. He has both a masterss degree in political science and a Ph.D. in strategic planning and decision-making from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. After completing his doctorate in 1984, he taught strategic planning and decision-making at the university for several years. He also wrote several books and ran leadership training programs in several Arab countries. He later became the head of the Libyan National Planning Council. In 2009, he was given his position as chairman of the NEDB, which was founded in the mid-2000s to encourage investment in Libya. Before the uprising, he was involved in a project called “Libyan Vision” with other intellectuals, which sought to establish a democratic state.

In June 2014, Dr. Zoran Jolevski became the Republic of Macedonia’s minister of defense. Previously, he had been that country’s ambassador to the United States since March 2007. In October 2010, he was also appointed as a non-resident ambassador to Mexico, and in April 2011, he was appointed as the non-resident ambassador to Brazil. In October 2011, Jolevski was appointed permanent representative to the Organization of American States. From January 2000 to June 2004, he was the secretary general of the Cabinet of the President of the Republic of Macedonia.

Dr. Choi Kang is the vice president for research and the director of the Center for Foreign Policy and National Security at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Previously, he was the dean of planning and assessment at the Korean National Diplomatic Academy, professor and director general for American Studies at the Institute for Foreign Affairs and National Security, research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, and senior director for policy planning and coordination on the National Security Council Secretariat. He holds several advisory board memberships including the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Unification of the National Assembly; Ministry of National Defense; Ministry of Unification; and the Air Force Development Committee.

Peter Kellner is president of pioneering online survey research company YouGov, and was chairman of the company from 2001-07. He has written for the Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Observer, Evening Standard,and New Statesman. Kellner has also been a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and the Policy Studies Institute, London. Before joining YouGov, he acted as a consultant on public opinion research to the Bank of England, Corporation of London, Foreign Office, National Westminster Bank, and Trades Union Congress.

Roderich Kiesewetter has been a member of the German Bundestag since October 2009, and was reelected in 2013. He studied economics in Munich, Germany, and Austin, Texas, from 1983 to 1986. Kiesewetter underwent general staff officers’ training from 1995 to 1997 and received the General Heusinger Award. He has served in various command and staff positions, including at the EU Council the NATO headquarters (in Brussels and Mons), and the German Federal Ministry of Defense. He has held the position of battalion commander and has served in several operations abroad. He was head of the chief of staff’s office at the NATO headquarters from 2006 to 2009.

In December 2014, Konstantin Kosachev was appointed to the chairperson of the Council of the Federation Committee on Foreign Affairs. From 2012 to 2014, he was the head of Rossotrudnichestvo (the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation), as well as the special representative of the president of the Russian Federation for relations with the CIS countries. Kosachev was elected to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth convocations. He has served as deputy head of the “Otechestvo – Edinaya Rossiya” faction, deputy chairman of the state Duma committee on foreign affairs, and chairman of the committee on foreign affairs.

Ivan Krastev is chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia and permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He is a founding board member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the advisory board of the ERSTE Foundation, and member of the advisory council of the Center for European Policy Analysis and the European Cultural Foundation. He was editor-in-chief of the Bulgarian Edition ofForeign Policy and was a member of the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London (2005-11), associate editor of Europe’s World, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Democracy and Transit – Europäische Revue. His latest book in English is In Mistrust We Trust: Can Democracy Survive When We Don’t Trust Our Leaders? (TED Books, 2013).

Dr. Charles Kupchan is the senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council. In this capacity, he is U.S. President Barack Obama’s principal advisor on Europe and leads the interagency process on the development and implementation of the president’s European policies. Prior to his service at the White House, Kupchan was a professor of international affairs in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and Government at Georgetown University, from which he is taking a leave of absence. He was formerly a Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Marwan Lahoud has been chief strategy and marketing officer of AIRBUS Group since 2007. He ran MBDA as chief executive officer from 2003 until he rejoined AIRBUS Group (EADS at that time). Lahoud began his career at the French defense procurement agency DGA in 1989. In early 1995, Lahoud was appointed special advisor to the French Ministry of Defense. In May 1998, he joined Aerospatiale as vice president development. In June 1999, he was appointed senior vice president of strategy and planning for Aerospatiale Matra, where he also served as senior vice president for military affairs.

Elena Lazarou is head of the Center for International Relations of the Getulio Vargas Foundation FGV) and assistant professor at the FGV School of Social Sciences. Her current research focuses on the impact of the crisis of the euro on the EU’s external relations and EU-Brazil relations. She also coordinates a pilot program on think tanks and foreign policy in Brazil. Dr. Lazarou received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2008. She has held post-doctoral research positions at Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is affiliated to the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy and a visiting professor at Sciences-Po Grenoble. She has published several articles, edited volumes, and book chapters and is a regular contributor to the Brazilian press.

Christian Leffler obtained a bachelor's degree in politics and international relations from the London School of Economics. After doctoral studies at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, he joined the Swedish Foreign Service in 1980. He joined the European Commission in 1996, where he took up the post of commission “antici” and head of the unit in the Secretariat General, responsible for the coordination of relations with the Council of Ministers. In 1999, he became the deputy head of the private office of the European commissioner for external relations. From 2002 until 2007, he was director in charge of the Middle East and South Mediterranean in the European Commission’s Directorate General for External Relations. During 2010, Leffler was deputy director general of the DG for development and relations with African, Caribbean, and Pacific States. Leffler took up his current position at the beginning of 2011. 

Marc Leland is co-chairman of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He has served as president of Marc E. Leland & Associates, an investment advisory firm, and as assistant secretary of the treasury for international affairs, senior advisor to the Mutual Balanced Force Reduction Negotiations in Vienna, Austria, and general counsel of the Peace Corps. Leland has practiced law as a partner in Proskauer, Rose, Goetz & Mendelsohn in London, England and Cerf, Robinson & Leland in San Francisco, and has been managing director of the J. Paul Getty and Gordon P. Getty Trusts in Washington, DC. Leland received his bachelor’s from Harvard College, master’s from Oxford University, and JD from the University of California Berkeley School of Law. He was a Ford Foundation Fellow at the Institute of Comparative Law, Paris, France, and a faculty fellow in French and Soviet law at the Harvard Law School.

Sir Michael Leigh is a Transatlantic Academy Fellow, consultant, and senior advisor to GMF. He focuses on European Neighborhood Policy, Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East as well as the future of the EU. He runs a program at GMF on the implications of the gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean. In 2006, Leigh became director-general for enlargement with the European Commission after serving for three years as external relations deputy director-general with responsibility for European Neighborhood Policy, relations with Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle East, and the Mediterranean countries. He began his current role after more than 30 years in EU institutions, including as a cabinet member for various commissioners and as director in the Task Force for the EU Accession Negotiations. He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Dr. Timo Lochocki holds a bachelor’s in social psychology (2007) from the University of Washington, a master’s in political science (2010) from Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and Universitet i Bergen, Norway, and a Ph.D. (2013) from Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. His doctoral thesis “Hard Times in the Lands of Plenty: How right-populist parties can seize their electoral niche in Western Europe” was graded as summa cum laude. He has published on European integration, migration, and comparative politics with a focus on right-populist parties in academic journals, national newspapers, and for various think tanks. He is a consultant with the Institute of European Democrats and the German Mediendienst Integration (media service integration) and a lecturer at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. In addition to his native German, Lochocki speaks fluent English and Norwegian, and has a working knowledge of French and Swedish. 

In August 2013, Douglas E. Lute was sworn-in as the ambassador of the United States to NATO. From 2007 to 2013, Lute served at the White House under Presidents Bush and Obama, first as the assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan, and more recently as the deputy assistant to the president focusing on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. In 2010, Lute retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant general after 35 years on active duty. Prior to the White House, he served as the director of operations on the Joint Staff, overseeing U.S. military operations worldwide. He served multiple tours in NATO commands including duty in Germany during the Cold War and commanding U.S. forces in Kosovo. He holds degrees from the United States Military Academy and Harvard University.

Carlos Menchaca, New York City council member, is chair of the Committee on Immigration, co-chair of the Brooklyn Delegation, and a member of the LGBT Caucus. He authored, introduced, and passed legislation to create the first municipal identification card program in New York City and worked to secure funding for the largest public defender program for undocumented immigrants in the nation. Menchaca represents an incredibly diverse district of front-line communities in New York: a large Chinese and Latino immigrant population, the second largest public housing development in the city, and a waterfront community heavily affected by Hurricane Sandy. After a successful first round of Participatory Budgeting last fiscal year, Menchaca plans to bring a broader vision of participatory democracy to this diverse district by encouraging community involvement in the entire budget, legislative, and policymaking process.

Daniel Mitov graduated from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” specializing in political science. He has participated in the international exchange programs of the Marshall Memorial Fund, and the “Programme des personnalites d’avenir” of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2002, Mitov worked at the Political Academy for Central and Southeast Europe as part of the Bulgarian School of Politics team and Razum magazine. In 2006, he became executive director of the Democracy foundation, and then vice president of Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) party. Starting in 2010, he worked for the U.S. National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Iraq, where he was program manager of the political party development program. As an official NDI representative, he has also worked in Brussels, Libya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, Yemen, Tunisia, and others.

Senator Christopher Murphy is the junior senator from the state of Connecticut, having been first elected in 2012. A member of the Democratic Party, he serves on the Appropriations Committee, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee, and the Democratic Steering & Outreach Committee. Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Murphy served Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District for three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. During that time, Murphy served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Energy and Commerce Committee, and the Committee on Financial Services. Before his service in the U.S. Congress, Murphy served in the Connecticut General Assembly for eight years, both as a state representative and a state senator. He earned his undergraduate degree from Williams College and his J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Marc Otte was named the director general of Egmont in 2014. He was the director of policy planning for the ministry of foreign affairs in Belgium from 2011 to 2014, the EU special representative for the Middle East peace process from 2003 to 2011, and was an advisor on defense and security policy to the high representative for common foreign and security, Javier Solana. He joined the Belgian ministry of foreign affairs in 1976 and held various assignments, including consul general in Los Angeles, ambassador to Israel, and director for security policy and disarmament. He holds a master’s in political and social sciences and a post-graduate degree from the Institute for Developing Countries at the University of Louvain in Belgium. 

Gideon Rachman is chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times. His book Zero-Sum World was published by Atlantic in 2011 and has been translated into eight languages. He writes an award-winning weekly column on foreign affairs for the Financial Times. Before joining the paper in 2006, he worked for The Economistfor 15 years in a range of jobs, including as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Bangkok, and Washington. Rachman studied history at Cambridge University and has been a visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Edgars Rinkēvičs was appointed Latvian minister of foreign affairs in 2011. Prior to his current post, he held several political posts including chancery of the president of Latvia (2008-11), secretary of state to the Ministry of Defence (1997-2008), and deputy head of the Latvian delegation for accession negotiations with NATO (2002-03). From 1995-97, he worked in the Ministry of Defence in several roles, and was a journalist for “Latvijas Radio.” He earned a master’s degree in political science from the University of Latvia in 1997 and a master’s degree in national resource strategy from the U.S. National Defence University, Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

Francois Roux has served as the director general of European affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belgium since April 2012. From 2011 to 2012, he served as ambassador to the permanent representative to the United Nations office and other international organizations in Geneva. Between 2008 and 2011, Roux was chief of staff in the private office of Olivier Chastel, former secretary of state for European affairs. Roux earned a master’s in economics from the University of Paris (Assas), a master’s in public affairs and international relations from the University of Louvain, and studied at Sciences Po in Paris.

Dev Sanyal is the executive vice president of strategy and regions, and a member of the Group Executive Committee of BP. He is responsible for Europe, Asia, strategy and planning, risk management, government and political affairs, policy, group integration, and governance. Dev Sanyal joined the BP Group in 1989 and has held positions with the firm in London, Athens, Dubai, Istanbul, and Vienna. He has been general manager, FSU and Eastern Europe; chief executive officer, BP Eastern Mediterranean Fuels; chief executive officer, Air BP International; head of the Group Chief Executive’s Office; and group treasurer and chairman of BP Investment Management Ltd. He was appointed executive vice president in January 2012.

Dr. Daniela Schwarzer is senior director of research and the director of the Europe Program at The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), having joined GMF’s Berlin office in January 2014. Previously, she headed the European Integration Division at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs) from 2008-14. She joined SWP in 2005 as a senior fellow. In February 2014, Schwarzer was appointed as a senior research professor at the School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. She has been an adjunct faculty member of the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin since 2010 and has taught in graduate programs in universities in Europe and China since 2001. Schwarzer holds a Ph.D. in political economy from Freie Universität Berlin, co-supervised by the London School of Economics, and a master's in political science and linguistics at the University of Tübingen.

Professor Brenda Shaffer is currently a visiting researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies. She is on sabbatical from the University of Haifa, where she is a professor in the School of Political Science. She specializes on energy and foreign policy, energy security policies, the Caucasus, Caspian energy, and Eastern Mediterranean energy issues. She previously served as the research director of the Caspian studies program at Harvard University. Shaffer is the author of a number of books, including Energy Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), and Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity (MIT Press, 2002). Among her articles are “Natural gas supply stability and foreign policy” (Energy Policy, 2013) as well “Energy Resources and Markets in the Eastern Mediterranean Region” (GMF, 2012)

Andrew Small is a transatlantic fellow with GMF’s Asia program, which he has helped lead since 2006. His research focuses on U.S.-China relations, EU-China relations, Chinese policy in South and South-West Asia, and China's role in “problem” and fragile states. He was based in GMF’s Brussels office for five years, where he established the Asia program and the Stockholm China Forum, GMF’s biannual China policy conference. He previously worked as the director of the Foreign Policy Centre's Beijing office, as a visiting fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and was an ESU scholar in the office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. His articles and papers have been published in Foreign Affairs, the Washington Quarterly, The New York Times, and the International Herald Tribune as well as many other journals, magazines and newspapers. He recently completed a book on China-Pakistan relations. Small was educated at Balliol College, University of Oxford.

George Soros is the founder and chairman of Open Society, a network of foundations, partners, and projects in more than 100 countries. His commitment to the idea of open society — where rights are respected, government is accountable, and no one has the monopoly on the truth — makes the Open Society Foundations unlike any other private philanthropic effort in history. Soros began his philanthropy in 1979, giving scholarships to black South Africans under apartheid. In the 1980s, he helped undermine communism in Eastern Europe by providing copying machines to help distribute banned texts, and supporting cultural exchanges with the West.

Angela Stent is the director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and a professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University. She is also a senior non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-chairs its Hewett Forum on Post-Soviet Affairs. From 2004 to 2006, she served as a national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council. From 1999 to 2001, she served in the Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State. She is a member of the senior advisory panel for NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Bruce Stokes is the director of Global Economics Attitudes at the Pew Research Center. He is also a non-resident fellow at The German Marshall Fund of the United States and an associate fellow at Chatham House. He is a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he is a member. For 23 years, he was the international economics columnist for the National Journal, a Washington-based public policy magazine. He is the author many Pew surveys, including most recently Faith and Skepticism about Trade and Investment; Global Public Downbeat about Economy; A Fragile Rebound for EU Image on Eve of European Parliament Elections; Support in Principle for U.S.-EU Trade Pact; Indians Reflect on their Country and the World. He is coauthor, with Andrew Kohut, of the book America Against the World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked (Times Books, 2006).

Dr. Stephen F. Szabo is the executive director of the Transatlantic Academy (TA), which works to strengthen the transatlantic partnership. He received his Ph.D. from Georgetown University in political science and has a bachelor’s and master’s from the School of International Service at American University. His fluency in the German language assists in his work with the partners of the TA to shape the research content of each term, assist in the recruitment and selection of fellows, and manage the Academy. Szabo also served as a professor of national security affairs at the National Defense University (NDU) and chairman of West European Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. He has written on German foreign and security policies, generational politics in Europe, and transatlantic security and political relations.

Daniel Twining is senior fellow for Asia at GMF. He leads a 15-member team working on the rise of Asia and its implications for the West through a program of convening and research spanning East, Southeast, and South Asia. He previously served as a member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff; as the foreign policy advisor to U.S. Senator John McCain; and as a staff member of the U.S. Trade Representative. Since leaving government, he has worked with the U.S. National Intelligence Council on a range of projects related to global strategic futures and Asian security. He holds a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University, where he was the Fulbright/Oxford Scholar from 2004-07, and has taught at Georgetown University. He writes regular columns for Foreign Policy and Nikkei and has lived in India, Colombia, Georgia, the United Kingdom, Benin, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, and Thailand.

Elected as the first full-time president of the European Council in November 2009, Herman Van Rompuy took office when the Lisbon Treaty came into force on Dec. 1, 2009. In 2012, he was re-elected for a second term, serving until November 2014. At the time of his first election, Van Rompuy was prime minister of Belgium. Prior to that, he had served as speaker of the Belgian House of Representatives (2007-08) and in several government positions, including as vice-prime minister and minister of budget (1993-99).

Armando Varricchio is a diplomatic advisor and G7/G20 sherpa of the prime minister of Italy. A former ambassador of Italy, he has held many roles in the Italian government, including deputy security general for the ministry of foreign affairs (2012-13), deputy diplomatic advisor to the president (2006-09), and first counsellor of the Italian embassy in Washington (2002-06). Varricchio also served as chief of staff to the minister of European affairs (1998-99). He has a master’s in international relations from the University of Padua.

George Voinovich is a former senator from the state of Ohio. He is a member of the Republican Party, previously serving as the governor of Ohio and the mayor of Cleveland. Voinovich began his political career as the assistant attorney general of Ohio in 1963. He is widely known for his electoral successes, first as governor in 1994 winning by the largest margin of that year and then as senator when he won more votes (3.4 million) than any other candidate in Ohio’s history. He served on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and is considered by some as the Senate’s leading expert on the Balkans. In addition, Voinovich served on the Select Committee on Ethics, the Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on Environment and Public Works, and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. He earned a bachelor’s in government from Ohio University and a J.D. from the Ohio State University.

Eckart von Klaeden is a lawyer by training. He started his political career as a spokesman of the CDU in Lower Saxony before he became a member of the German Federal Parliament in 1994. There he held a number of posts: from 2000 to 2005 as parliamentary secretary, from 2005 to 2009 as foreign policy spokesman of the CDU/CSU faction in the German Federal Parliament, and from 2006 to 2010 as treasurer of the CDU. From 2004 to 2013, he was a member of the federal board of the CDU, and since 2006 he has also been a member of the executive committee. In 2009, he assumed office as minister of state of the federal chancellor. In November 2013, von Klaeden joined Daimler AG as vice president, external affairs where he is responsible for external relations and Daimler’s political dialogue worldwide.

Ambassador Lamberto Zannier, an Italian career diplomat, became secretary general of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) in July 2011. From 2008 to 2011, he was the UN special representative for Kosovo and head of the United Nations interim administration mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). From 2002 to 2006, he was the director of the Conflict Prevention Center of the OSCE. His previous senior positions include permanent representative of Italy to the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague (2000-02), chairperson of the negotiations on the adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (1997-2000), and head of disarmament, arms control, and cooperative security at NATO (1991-97).

Dr. Dieter Zetsche has been a member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG since December 1998, and chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG since January 2006. He is also head of Mercedes-Benz Cars Division. After attending school in Frankfurt and obtaining the Abitur (university entrance examination), he studied electrical engineering from 1971 to 1976 at the University of Karlsruhe and graduated as an engineer. He joined the research department of the then Daimler-Benz AG in 1976 and became assistant to the Development Manager in the Commercial Vehicles business unit in 1981. Zetsche completed a doctorate in engineering in 1982 at the University of Paderborn. Since 1984, as part of the Daimler-Benz Commercial Vehicles Management Development Team, he has been responsible for the coordination of international development activities.