Speaker Biographies 2013
Michael Abramowitz, Director, Committee on Conscience, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
Michael Abramowitz directs the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for the Prevention of Genocide, which educates the public and policymakers about threats of genocide and other crimes against humanity. Before his appointment in February 2009, Abramowitz worked at The Washington Post as a reporter, a White House correspondent, and the national editor during his nearly 30 years at the paper. Abramowitz was also a media fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a non-resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund.
Ai Ping, Vice Minister, International Department, Communist Party of China
Ai Ping started his career in the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in 1977. There he has served in several positions including the deputy division director, the division director, the director general of the bureau of African affairs, and the director general of the bureau of South and Southeast Asian affairs. Ping also served as the ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. He assumed the office of vice minister of the international department of the CPC Central Committee in 2010
Nazar Al Baharna, Visiting Research Scholar, Georgetown University
An academic, entrepreneur, and former minister of state for foreign affairs of Bahrain, Nazar Al Baharna has considerable expertise in international relations, foreign policy, education, energy management, and technology. Al Baharna spearheaded policy and strategy reformation in his country. He also contributed to several major transformations in Bahrain including education and training reform, and revisions to the labor market and economic policy to enhance Bahrain’s productivity. Al Baharna was central to human rights reforms in Bahrain, which led to the country’s first human rights report and plan of action to present to the UN Human Rights Council. He is the former vice president and dean of engineering of the University of Bahrain.
Irakli Alasania, Defense Minister, Georgia
Irakli Alasania is the Georgian minister of defense. In 2012, he co-founded the coalition “Georgian Dream.” He was also the founder and chairman of the political party Our Georgia-Free Democrats and the founder of the Alliance of Georgia. Previously, he was a permanent representative of Georgia to the United Nations and the chairman of the government of the autonomous republic of Abkhazia. Alasania served as the deputy secretary of the Georgian National Security Council. He was also the first deputy minister of state security, where he was responsible for planning and executing anti-terrorist activities. Alasania was the chief of service on security issues in the office of the NSC and served in the Embassy of Georgia to the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Luis Amado, Chairman, Banif - SGPS, SA
Luis Amado is the chairman of Banif (Banco Internacional do Funchal, SA,) non-executive member of the board of Sociedade de Desenvolvimento da Madeira, and guest professor at Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas at the business school of Universidade de Lisboa. Amado is also councilor to the Economic and Social Council. Previously, he was an auditor for the National Defense Institute, Court of Accounts. Amado has served in the regional parliament in Madeira and the national parliament in Lisbon. During his political career, he has held key positions such as deputy minister for internal affairs, deputy minister for external affairs and development cooperation, and minister of state and foreign affairs.
Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Chair, Institute for Democracy and Human Rights
Dewi Fortuna Anwar is deputy secretary for political affairs to the vice president of the Republic of Indonesia. She is a research professor at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, where she was the deputy chairman for social sciences and humanities for nearly a decade. Anwar is also the chair of the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights at the Habibie Center. She is a member of the board of advisors of the Center for Information and Development Studies in Jakarta, the Institute for Peace and Democracy and the Bali Democracy Forum. Anwar was also a member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on disarmament matters.
Louise Arbour, President, CEO, International Crisis Group
Louise Arbour is the president and CEO of the International Crisis Group. She previously served as the United Nations high commissioner for human rights. Arbour was appointed by the Security Council of the United Nations chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. She has also received 39 honorary degrees and is affiliated with many distinguished professional societies and organizations. In 2009, Arbour became a member of the advisory board for the 2011 World Bank Development Report: Conflict, Security and Development. In 2010, she joined the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security, and in 2011 she became a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy.
Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, European External Action Service
During Baroness Catherine Ashton’s career, she has worked in the Department for Education and Skills and in the Department for Constitutional Affairs and Ministry of Justice. Lady Ashton was appointed leader of the House of Lords and lord president of the Queen’s Privy Council in June 2007. In her position as trade commissioner, she initiated a free-trade agreement with South Korea and promoted trade as a catalyst for global development.
Katinka Barysch, Deputy Director, Centre for European Reform
Katinka Barysch is the deputy director of the Centre for European Reform and also runs the center’s research programs on Turkey and Russia. Before joining the Centre in 2002, she was an analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit in London. Until 1998, she served as a consultant in Brussels and was involved in formulating the European Commission’s strategy concerning Eastern European candidate countries. In addition, Ms. Barysch has served as an advisor for several organizations, including the EU Select Committee of the House of Lords and the World Economic Forum. Ms. Barysch holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Munich University and a master’s degree in international political economy from the London School of Economics.
Mohammed Belmahi, Advisor to the Chairman, OCP Group
Mohammed Belmahi is an advisor to the chairman and CEO of OCP Group. He also served as the Moroccan ambassador to the U.K. from 1999-2009 and as Morocco’s ambassador to India and Nepal from 1996-1999. He was previously an executive at the ONA Group (Casablanca) from 1988-1995, serving mainly as the director general of its real estate and tourism sector, which he set up. Mr. Belmahi has held various high-level positions in the Moroccan government such as the director general of the Moroccan National Tourist Office (1986-1988) and the director of tourism at the Ministry of Tourism (1982-1986). He served both as a consultant and as a staff member at the United Nations Centre for Housing, Building, and Planning (1974-1976).
Assia Bensalah Alaoui, Ambassadeur Itinerant de Sa Majeste Le Roi, Kingdom of Morocco
Assia Bensalah Alaoui, has a master’s degree in English studies and a Ph.D. in law (Paris II). She has been both a professor of English and law at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco. She is the vice-chair of the Morocco-Japan Friendship Association, a member of several think tanks, and sits on the board of trustees on various associations, including the l’Institut Royal d’Etudes Stratégiques, l’IRES, (Morocco), Moroccan British Society, and the Club de Rome. From 2002-2003, she co- chaired the EU high-level panel on dialogue between cultures and peoples in the Euro-Mediterranean area, which produced the Prodi Report. Her latest publication is Climate Change and Arab Food Security, which was published in 2010.
Stephen Biegun, Vice President, Ford Motor Company
Stephen Biegun is a corporate officer and vice president for Ford Motor Company, where he oversees all aspects of Ford’s international governmental relations including the company’s trade strategy and political risk assessment around Ford’s global manufacturing locations. Biegun is a third generation Ford Motor Company employee and serves on the board of the Trans- Atlantic Business Council, and as co-chair of the Business Coalition for Transatlantic Trade. Prior to joining Ford in 2004, he was the national security advisor to the U.S. Senate Majority Leader. He served in the White House as executive secretary of the National Security Council. He also served 14 years as a foreign policy advisor in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sweden
Carl Bildt has been Swedish minister for foreign affairs since 2006. Prior to his current position, he held the post of prime minister (1991-1994). Among his previous assignments, Bildt was the UN secretary general’s special envoy for the Balkans (1999-2001), high representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina for reconstruction and the Peace Implementation Process (1996-1997), as well as the European Union’s special representative for Former Yugoslavia and co-chair of the Dayton Peace Talks on the former Yugoslavia (1995). He is a fellow at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
Fatih Birol, Chief Economist, International Energy Agency
Dr. Fatih Birol is the chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris. He is responsible for the IEA’s flagship World Energy Outlook publication, which is recognized as the most authoritative source of strategic analysis of global energy markets. He is also the founder and chair of the IEA Energy Business Council, which provides a forum to enhance cooperation between the energy industry and energy policymakers. He is the chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Energy Advisory Board and has served as a member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Group on Sustainable Energy for All. Forbes Magazine named Birol one of the most powerful people on the world’s energy scene.
Laura Blumenfeld, Senior Transatlantic Fellow, German Marshall Fund of the United States
Laura Blumenfeld was most recently a reporter at The Washington Post, where she covered presidential politics, the Middle East, national security issues, and contributed to a regular column for the Post’s Federal Page titled “Off Camera: The Private Side of Public Lives.” Blumenfeld is a frequent lecturer on counter-terrorism and the Middle East, appearing on Charlie Rose, Good Morning America, Prime Time Live, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, The Today Show, CNN, Fox News, and Oprah. She is also a New York Times best-selling author for her book, Revenge: A Story of Hope. Blumenfeld earned her bachelor’s degree in English literature from Harvard College and holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University.
Julian Borger, Diplomatic Editor, The Guardian
Julian Borger is The Guardian’s diplomatic editor and also runs a blog on global security on The Guardian’s website. He covered the United States for the paper for more than eight years and was Washington bureau chief during the Bush administration. Prior to that, Borger spent a decade as a foreign correspondent covering the Bosnian war from Sarajevo and the Middle East from Jerusalem. He started his professional life as an economist, working for two years in southern Africa, but switched over to journalism in the 1980s. Borger reported from Africa for the BBC before moving to Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall and working at The Guardian.
Victor Borges, President, Foundation for Development and International Exchanges
Victor Borges was the minister of foreign affairs, cooperation, and communities of Cape Verde from 2004-2008. He also served as minister of education, for culture and sports (2001-2002) and human resources development (2002-2004). Borges was a fellow visitor to the Bureau of European Policy Advisers in October 2009, and a member of the Consultative Committee of the Banco Cabo-Verdiano de Negócios. He is a member of the scientific committee of the Atlantic Tri-Continental Initiative in Morocco, as well as serving on the advisory board of Casa de Africa. Borges holds a D.E.A. in education sciences from the University of Paris VIII, as well as a master’s degree in psychology.
Elmar Brok, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, European Parliament
Elmar Brok has served as a German member of the European Parliament since 1980 and is currently the chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs. He is a member of the European People’s Party and European Democrats, former substitute of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, and member of the delegation for relations with the United States. Mr. Brok studied politics and law at the Centre for European Governmental Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Before his election to parliament, he worked as a radio journalist and newspaper correspondent.
Tom Brookes, Managing Director, Energy Strategy Center, European Climate Foundation
Tom Brookes started his career as a journalist, covering technology, regulation and broader European politics and moved into communications, public affairs and media relations in the late 90’s. Following regulatory and standards work for Alcatel, and others, Tom joined an international public affairs consultancy and worked on his first competition case in 2000. That case, IMS Health, became the defining case on the balance between Intellectual Property and competition law in the EU. Tom worked on the Microsoft competition case in Europe from 2002, representing Microsoft as press spokesman on the case and acting as political advisor to Microsoft’s General Counsel for the following five years. Tom also worked on mergers, international trade issues, regulatory issues in copyright, environment and other areas. He then left consultancy and joined Apple as Director of Government Affairs, Europe. In May 2009 Tom moved to become Managing Director of the Energy Strategy Centre at the European Climate Foundation. He is now working to progress the policy response to climate change, with responsibility for external communications, public affairs and political communications strategy for the ECF, its affiliates and network.
Matthew Bryza, Director of the International Centre for Defence Studies, Estonia
Matthew Bryza is the director of the International Centre for Defense Studies in Estonia. He served as a U.S. diplomat for 23 years. His most recent assignment was as the U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan from 2011-2012. From 2005-2009, Bryza served as the deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia. In this role, he was responsible for energy in the South Caucasus, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, and Eurasia. Bryza served as the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE’s Minsk Group mediating the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and as U.S. mediator of the Cyprus, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia conflicts. From 2001-2005, Bryza served in the White House as the director for European affairs on the National Security Council Staff.
Jacek Bylica, Principal Adviser and Special Envoy for Non-proliferation and Disarmament, European External Action Service (EEAS)
Jacek Bylica has been the principal adviser and special envoy for non-proliferation and disarmament at the European External Action Service (EEAS) since February 2013. Prior to joining EEAS, he headed NATO’s WMD Non-Proliferation Centre from 2008-2013. From 2004-2008, he was Poland’s ambassador to the United Nations Office in Vienna. During his more than two decades in the Polish Foreign Service, Bylica divided his professional activities between Asia and international security affairs. He studied in Warsaw, Moscow, Beijing, and Boston and holds degrees in international relations and law.
Christopher Caldwell, Senior Editor, The Weekly Standard
Christopher Caldwell is a weekly columnist at the Financial Times, a senior editor at the Weekly Standard and a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. He is the author of Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West. Caldwell graduated from Harvard College, where he studied English literature.
Stephen M. Carmel, Senior Vice President, Maritime Services, Maersk Line Limited
Stephen M. Carmel is the senior vice president of Maritime Services at Maersk Line, Limited. He graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1979, and also holds a masters in economics and an M.B.A. from Old Dominion University. Carmel is a member of the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel, a 2009 senior fellow at the Homeland Security Policy Institute at The George Washington University, and sits on the Board of Trustees of the Old Dominion University Research Foundation. He is also a member of various industry and academic associations including the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, World Affairs Council of Hampton Roads, and the American Economic Association.
Jorge Castañeda, Global Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Latin American Studies, New York University
Jorge Castañeda was appointed as the global distinguished professor of political science and Latin American studies at New York University in 1997. He was the foreign minister of Mexico from 2000 to 2003 and is a renowned intellectual, political scientist, and prolific writer having written more than 15 books. Castañeda is also a regular columnist for the Mexican daily Reforma, the Spanish daily, El País, and TIME. In 2008, Castañeda was elected a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an international member of the American Philosophical Society.
Marc Champion, Member of the Editorial Board, Bloomberg View
Marc Champion is a member of the editorial board at Bloomberg View, writing on Europe and the Middle East. Previously, he was a foreign correspondent and editor at the Wall Street Journal in Europe for 12 years, including as Istanbul bureau chief. He also worked at the Financial Times as European news editor and as editor-in-chief of The Moscow Times.
Nick Coleman, Global Head of Cyber Security Intelligence, IBM
Nick Coleman is the global head of Cyber Security Intelligence at IBM. For the past three years, he has led the worldwide IBM Cloud Security program. Prior to his current role, Coleman worked for the United Kingdom government as the reviewer of security. He also produced “The Coleman Report,” which is published by the U.K. Cabinet Office and placed in the Houses of Parliament. Coleman was appointed advisor to the European Security Agency where he serves in the Permanent Stakeholders Group. He is a fellow at the Institution of Engineering and Technology and a fellow at the British Computer Society. Coleman was also the founding CEO of the Institute of Information Security Professionals.
Iain Conn, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Refining & Marketing BP
In his role as an executive director of the BP Group, Iain Conn is chief executive of refining and marketing and also holds regional responsibility for Europe, Southern Africa, China, India, and Asia Pacific. He has worked for nearly all sectors of the BP Group including as group vice president of refining and marketing between 2000-2002, when he was responsible for marketing operations in Europe, and for the integration of Veba Oel into BP. Prior to that, he was with BP Exploration in Texas, BP Oil in Ohio, and BP Exploration in Colombia, as well as corporate center roles including as executive assistant to the group chief executive. His career began in oil trading and various commercial roles in refining, supply, and logistics for BP Oil International.
Titus Corlátean, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Romania
Titus Corlátean is the minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania. Prior to his current role, he served as the minister of justice in Romania. He was a member of the European Parliament, and was the first vice chairman of the body’s committee on legal affairs. Prior to this, Corlátean served as a senator and chairman of the foreign policy committee in the Romanian Senate. He was a member of the lower house of the Romanian Parliament and a member of the government’s delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Corlátean has published several writings including European and International Protection of Human Rights (2012) and Succession of the States in International Law (2012).
Massimo D’Alema, President, Foundation for European Progressive Studies
Massimo D’Alema was elected as the first president of Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) in 2010. He held office as prime minister of Italy from 1998 to 2000. In December 2000, he was elected president of the Democrats of the Left. In 2004, D’Alema became a member of the European Parliament, where was the chair of the EP delegation for relations between the EU and the Mercosur. In 2006, he was appointed deputy prime minister and foreign secretary in the Romano Prodi government. He is currently a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and, since January 2010, he has been the chairman of COPASIR, which is responsible for parliamentary control on intelligence services.
Pieter De Crem, Minister of Defense, Belgium
Pieter De Crem is the Belgian minister of defense. Under his leadership, Belgian defense went through a profound transformation, focusing on restoring the financial health of the department and investing in state-of-the-art military equipment. The department was then able to significantly increase its participation in international operations and become a reliable, important and respected partner in the field of international security and defense. De Crem plays a leading role in strengthening the military cooperation between allied countries. In 2010, he gave new impetus to the concept of “pooling and sharing” military capabilities among European allies. He also strengthened Belgium’s military ties with its neighboring countries and with NATO allies.
Karel De Gucht, Commissioner for Trade, European Commission
Karel De Gucht currently serves as the European commissioner for trade. Previously, he had served as the development & humanitarian aid commissioner, Belgian deputy prime minister, and Belgian minister of foreign affairs. He has a law degree from the Free University of Brussels, and at the age of 26 became a member of the European Parliament. After 14 years in parliament, Commissioner De Gucht became a Belgian senator, and a year later was elected to the Flemish Parliament as a member of the Vlaams Liberaal Democraten, and served as party chairman from 1999–2003. In 2002, he received the title of minister of state. Commissioner De Gucht is a lawyer and teaches at the Free University of Brussels.
Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer, Paris Office Director, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Prior to joining the German Marshall Fund as the director of the Paris Office, Dr. Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer served as the advisor for U.S. foreign policy and transatlantic relations at the Policy Planning Department of the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. Since 2010, she has also been an advisor to USEUCOM Commander and SACEUR as part of the Next Generation Advisory Panel. In addition, Dr. De Hoop Scheffer is a scholar at several French and Canadian universities and institutions. She is also the co-editor-in-chief of Politique Américaine (with Dr. François Vergniolle de Chantal).
François de Kerchove, Director of the Cabinet of Didier Reynders, Deputy Prime-Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Belgium
François de Kerchove has been the director of the Belgian Cabinet of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, and European Affairs since December 2011. He has also served as the Belgian ambassador in the European Union’s Political and Security Committee since June 2011. He started his diplomatic career in 1989 at the Foreign Ministry’s Department of Diplomacy, and since then has held several high-level positions, including as the second secretary in Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain; the head of commercial section in Tokyo; and the minister-counsellor in Berlin. De Kerchove has a master’s degree from the London School of Economics.
Raghida Dergham, Columnist and Senior Diplomatic Correspondent
Dr. Raghida Dergham has been a columnist and senior diplomatic correspondent for the London-based Al Hayat since 1989. In addition to covering the crucial U.S.-Soviet Summits in the 1980s and the 27th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, she has conducted hundreds of interviews with government leaders and heads of state throughout the world. She was named one of the 100 Most Powerful Arab Women in 2011 by ArabianBusiness.com. Dergham is a contributing editor for LA Times Syndicate Global Viewpoint, a contributor to The Huffington Post, and has frequently contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, and Newsweek.
Milo Djukanovic, Prime Minister, Montenegro
Milo Djukanovic has been the prime minister of Montenegro since December 2012, a position that he has held several times. He was first elected prime minister of Montenegro in 1991 at the age of 29. He served three consecutive terms until 1998, when he became the president of Montenegro remaining in office until 2002, when, as a leader of the Democratic Coalition for European Montenegro, he was again nominated to be prime minister. In 2003, he was re-elected prime minister. He oversaw the renewal of Montenegrin independence via a referendum in 2006. After the foundations of independence were consolidated, Djukanovic withdrew from being prime minister. In 2008, he resumed his prime ministerial duties until he withdrew once more in 2010.
Anna Dolidze, Fellow, Transatlantic Academy
Dr. Anna Dolidze is an assistant professor of law at Western University, where she is also a visiting scholar at the Center for Transitional Justice and Post Conflict Reconstruction. Dolidze is a Joachim Herz fellow at the Transatlantic Academy of the German Marshall Fund. She has worked with a number of international organizations including Human Rights Watch, the Russian Justice Initiative, and Save the Children. Dolidze was the president of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, one of the largest legal advocacy organizations in Georgia. She has served on a number of public bodies including the civic supervisory board of the Millennium Challenge Georgia Fund and the committee for monitoring human rights in the penitentiary.
Nina Dos Santos, Host, World Business Today, CNN
Nina dos Santos is a London-based news anchor of CNN’s World Business Today and a correspondent. She also frequently anchors CNN Marketplace Europe. Dos Santos began her career in print news with internships at the Financial 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 Journal and The International Herald Tribune as well as in Vedemosti in Russia and Handelsblatt in Germany. Dos Santos holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Imperial College London and a master’s degree in economics. She is a native speaker of English, French, and Italian, and also speaks German and Portuguese.
Lyse Doucet, Chief International Correspondent and Presenter, BBC World
Lyse Doucet is the BBC’s chief international correspondent and a presenter for BBC World TV and World Service Radio who is regularly deployed to report and anchor special news coverage from the field. She played a key role in the BBC’s coverage of the Arab Spring across the Middle East and North Africa and been covering major stories in the region for the past 20 years. She is a regular visitor to Afghanistan and Pakistan from where she has been reporting since 1988. Her work has also focused on major natural disasters including the Indian Ocean tsunami, and more recently Pakistan floods. Before joining the BBC’s team of presenters in 1999, Lyse spent 15 years as a BBC foreign correspondent.
Barry Eichengreen, Professor of Economics and Political Science, U.C. Berkeley
Barry Eichengreen is the George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee professor of economics and professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London. Eichengreen is chair of the Academic Advisory Committee of the Peterson Institute of International Economics. He is also the author of Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System (2011). Eichengreen was awarded the Economic History Association’s Jonathan R.T. Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2002.
Ine Eriksen Søreide, Member of the Norwegian Parliament
For more than a decade, Ine Eriksen Søreide has been a member of the Norwegian parliament for the Norwegian Conservative Party. Currently, Søreide is the chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense as well as the Enlarged Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. She also serves as the head of the European Consultative Committee and the head of the Delegation for Relations with the European Parliament. In 2007, Søreide graduated from University of Tromsø where she received a graduate law degree. In 2010, she was a delegate at the 63rd General Assembly of the UN.
Steven Erlanger, Paris Bureau Chief, The New York Times
Steve Erlanger began working at The New York Times in 1987 as a metro reporter and later became bureau chief in Bangkok, Moscow, Central Europe, the Balkans (based out of Prague), and Berlin. He became the Jerusalem bureau chief in 2004, and in 2008, became the Paris bureau chief. He has also been the newspaper’s chief diplomatic correspondent in Washington, DC, and cultural news editor. Before he started with The New York Times, Erlanger was with The Boston Globe for 11 years, where he served as a European correspondent based in London, assistant national editor, assistant foreign editor, and reported from Eastern Europe, Canada, and Iran. He holds a degree in political philosophy from Harvard College, where he was also a teaching fellow.
Laurent Fabius, Minister of Foreign Affairs, France
Laurent Fabius serves as the French minister of foreign affairs, a position he has held since May 2012. He previously served as the president of the National Assembly from 1988-1992 and later from 2000-2002. His previous appointment was as the minister for the economy, finance, and industry from 2000-2002. He became the youngest ever prime minister of France, at the age of 37, from 1984-1986. He has been a politician for the Seine-Maritime region since 1978 and a member of the Executive Committee of the French Parti Socialiste since 1979. Fabius holds degrees from the Ecole Normale Supérieure and the National School of Public Administration.
Werner Fasslabend, President, Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy
In addition to being the president of the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES), Dr. Werner Fasslabend is a member of the managing-committee of the Austrian People’s Party and president of the Austrian-Slovak-Society as well as the parliamentary friendship group to Iran. Since 2004, he has also been the president of the Political Academy of the Austrian People’s Party. From 1990-2000, he was Austria’s minister of defense. During his tenure he initiated a far-reaching reformation in the Ministry and adapted the organization of armed forces to the new threat scenario. From February 2000 until December 2002, he was the speaker of the Austrian parliament.
Daniel Fata, Transatlantic Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Daniel P. Fata is a transatlantic fellow with GMF and is a vice president at the Cohen Group in Washington, D.C. He served as the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO policy from September 2005 to September 2008. He assumed his duties at the Pentagon in 2005, after working on Capitol Hill for four years as policy director for national security and foreign affairs on the U.S. House of Representatives’ Republican Policy Committee and policy director for national security and trade on the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee.
Elsa Fornero, Minister of Labor and Social Services, Italy
Elsa Fornero has been the minister of labor, social policies, and equal opportunities since 2011. She is the author of many publications focusing on public and private pension systems, pension reforms, population aging, households saving, retirement, and life insurance. Her research concentrates on financial literacy and financial education. She is a professor of political economy at the University of Turin in the faculty of economics; a research fellow for the Network for Studies on Pensions, Aging, and Retirement; and a member of the scientific council of Observatoire de l’Epargne Européenne, Paris. Minister Fornero was awarded the La Mela d’Oro Prize in 2011 for “Women: Innovation and Human Capital” by the Marisa Bellisario Foundation.
Franco Frattini, Justice and Chamber President, Italian Supreme Administrative Court
Franco Frattini is a justice and chamber president of the Italian Supreme Administrative Court. He served as the Italian foreign minister from 2002 to 2004 and 2008 to 2011. Previously, he served as the minister of public administration and intelligence and then as the president of the Intelligence Committee of the Italian Parliament. Frattini served as vice president of the European Commission and European commissioner for justice, freedom, and security. Since 2012, he has served as president of the Italian Society for International Organization, a non-profit organization, working under the supervision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Frattini is the first politician to fill this position, previously reserved for diplomats and academics of the highest level.
Michael Froman, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics, U.S. National Security Council
Michael Froman is responsible for coordinating policy on international trade and finance, energy security and climate change, development, and democracy issues on the U.S. National Security Council. He serves as the U.S. sherpa for the G20 and G8 Summits, and is also the chair of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, a group of the largest industrial and emerging economies. He serves as the U.S. government co-chair of the Transatlantic Economic Council, the U.S.-India CEO Forum, and the U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum. Previously, Froman served numerous roles at Citigroup.
Roland Freudenstein, Head of Research and Deputy Director, Center for European Studies
Roland Freudenstein 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. In 2004, he represented the German city state of Hamburg to the European Union. He is currently the head of research and deputy director of the Brussels-based Center 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.
Stefan Füle, Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, European Commission
European Commission The Honorable Štefan Füle has served as the commissioner for enlargement and neighborhood policy in the European Commission since February 2010. Prior to his appointment as commissioner, he held the position of minister of European affairs of the Czech Republic (2009) and permanent representative of the Czech Republic to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (2005–2009). He was also appointed ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United Kingdom (2003–2005), and the Republic of Lithuania (1998–2001).
Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European Studies, University of Oxford
Professor of European studies at the University of Oxford and an Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow at St. Antony’s College at Oxford, Timothy Garton Ash not only teaches, but writes as well. He has authored nine politically charged books, which have been linked to European transformation for the past three decades. Garton Ash is also an international affairs columnist for The Guardian and his essays are often published in the New York Review of Books. He also directs a multilingual project on global free expression in the internet age at Oxford called Free Speech Debate.
Kristalina Georgieva, Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid, and Crisis Response, European Commission
Kristalina Georgieva has been European commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid, and crisis response since February 2010. Prior to her appointment, she was vice president and corporate secretary of the World Bank Group and director for strategy and operations, sustainable development for the World Bank Group. She joined the World Bank in 1993 as a sector manager for environment, East Asia, and the Pacific region. Commissioner Georgieva has a Ph.D. in economic sciences and a master’s degree in political economy and sociology from the University of National and World Economy, Sofia.
Misha Glenny, Broadcaster and Author
Misha Glenny is an award-winning writer and broadcaster whose latest book DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You on cyber crime and its consequences is now being published in over 20 editions around the world. A former BBC Central Europe correspondent who covered the revolutions in Eastern Europe and the wars in the former Yugoslavia, Mr. Glenny has written for most major publications in Europe, the United States, and Japan. In January 2012, Mr. Glenny took up an appointment as visiting professor at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute. In October 2011, he was named the U.K.’s Information Security Journalist of the Year for a series of articles detailing the relationship between IT security and politics.
Nik Gowing, Main Presenter, BBC World TV
Since February 1996, Nik Gowing has been the main presenter on BBC World News. He also fronts the channel’s flagship hour-long news program World News Today. He was a founding presenter of BBC’s Europe Direct, has been a guest anchor on HARDtalk and Simpson’s World, and is a regular presenter for Dateline London. Gowing regularly anchors BBC World’s live coverage from major international events, including the UN World Sustainability Summit in Johannesburg; the India-Pakistan Summit in Agra, India; and the Kosovo crisis in 1999. Gowing fronted coverage of the unfolding drama of Diana, Princess of Wales’ accident, and made the announcement of her death to a global audience estimated at half a billion.
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Member, European Parliament
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff has been a member of the European Parliament since 2004 and currently serves as deputy leader of the liberal group ALDE. He also leads the German Free Democrats’ delegation (FDP). Lambsdorff is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and of the Committee for Culture and Education. In addition, he is a member of the parliamentary delegation for relations with China and Turkey as well as the African, Caribbean, and Pacific states. He is the co-founder of the Atlantic Initiative Germany as well as of the German-Turkish Foundation. Lambsdorff studied history, constitutional law, and international relations at Bonn University in Germany and at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Camille Grand, Director, Foundation for Strategic Research, France
Camille Grand has been the director of the Foundation for Strategic Research since September 2008. Prior to this assignment, he was the deputy director for disarmament and multilateral affairs in the Directorate for Strategic, Security and Disarmament Affairs of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2006-08). Before that, he was the deputy diplomatic adviser to the French minister of defense in 2002-06. He also served as an expert on nuclear policy and non-proliferation in the strategic affairs department of the French Ministry of Defense (1999-2002), and was an associate fellow in the the Institut Français des Relations Internationales (2000-02). Grand holds graduate degrees in international relations, defense studies, and contemporary history.
Marc Grossman, Kissinger Senior Fellow, Jackson Institute, Yale University
Ambassador Marc Grossman served as the under secretary of state for political affairs, until his retirement in 2005 after serving for nearly 30 years in the U.S. Foreign Service. In February 2011, he returned to government as the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, a position he held until the end of 2012. Ambassador Grossman was the vice chairman of The Cohen Group from 2005 to 2011 and recently returned to this position. In January 2013, he was appointed a Kissinger senior fellow at the Jackson Institute at Yale University. He is the chairman of the board of the Senior Living Foundation of the Foreign Service and a board member of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Theresa Hitchens, Director, United Nations Institute for Disarmament
Theresa Hitchens has been the director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament (UNIDIR) since January 2009. Previously, she was the director of the Center for Defense Information and led its Space Security Project in cooperation with the Secure World Foundation. The author of Future Security in Space: Charting a Cooperative Course, she has written on space and nuclear arms control issues for a number of journals and publications. She serves on the editorial board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Hitchens has had a long career in journalism, with a focus on military, the defense industry and NATO affairs. She was the director of research at the British American Security Information Council, a think tank based in Washington and London.
Sarah Holewinski, Executive Director, Center for Civilians in Conflict
Sarah Holewinski has served as the executive director of the Center for Civilians in Conflict since 2006. She has travelled to Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Lebanon, and Israel to lobby for smarter, more compassionate policies for war victims. Holewinski is a frequent commentator on armed conflict with major media outlets and has published op-eds in Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Hill, and International Herald Tribune, among others. Prior to joining the Center, Holewinski was a member of The White House AIDS Policy team throughout U.S. President Bill Clinton’s second term. Holewinski consulted for the William J. Clinton Foundation in Rwanda, where she managed an HIV/AIDS awareness initiative for 40 African First Ladies.
Tomi Huhtanen, Director, Center for European Studies
Tomi Huhtanen started his career by working for the Finnish delegation of the European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament. From 1999 to 2007, he was a political adviser and then a senior adviser for the EPP, mainly focusing on economic and social policy. During this period, he launched the European View policy journal, of which he became editor-in-chief. In 2007, Huhtanen was put in charge of launching the political foundation of the European People’s Party at the Center for European Studies (CES); in the same year, he was nominated to be CES director. Huhtanen studied international politics and economics at the University of Helsinki. He also holds an MBA degree from the United Business Institutes.
David Ignatius, Columnist and Associate Editor, The Washington Post
David Ignatius’ twice-weekly column on global politics, economics, and international affairs began appearing on The Washington Post’s op-ed page in 1999. Prior to becoming a columnist for the newspaper, Ignatius was its assistant managing editor in charge of business news, a position he assumed in 1993. He served as The Post’s foreign editor from 1990 to 1992, supervising the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. From 1986 to 1990, 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.
Toomas Ilves, President, Republic of Estonia
Toomas Ilves was elected president of the Republic of Estonia in 2006 and is currently serving his second term in office. He graduated from Columbia University with a degree in psychology and earned a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. President Ilves’ career began as a journalist for Radio Free Europe before he became involved in politics. In 1993, he was appointed ambassador of Estonia to the United States. In later years, he also served as ambassador to Canada and Mexico. President Ilves became the Estonian minister of foreign affairs in 1996, serving until 1998 when he was elected chairman of the People’s Party. He again served as foreign minister for Estonia from 1999 to 2002 and in 2003 was elected as an MEP.
Alina Inayeh, Director, Black Sea Trust, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Alina Inayeh joined the German Marshall Fund (GMF) in 2007 as the director of the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, a project dedicated to strengthening cooperation and foster development in the Black Sea Region. Inayeh ran the Freedom House office in Ukraine in 2004 and the National Democratic Institute office in Russia between 2000-2003. She has trained NGOs throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union on issues related to NGO development and democratization. Inayeh was a leading civic activist in the 1990s in her native country, Romania, and an active promoter of the NGO sector in the country.
Vladislav Inozemtsev, Chairman of the High Council, The Civilian Force
Vladislav Inozemtsev is a professor of economics and a senior visiting fellow at IWM. From 2002 to 2009, he was head of the scientific advisory board of the Russia in Global Affairs journal, and in 2011, he was the managing director of the Global Political Forum. Inozemtsev is the author of over 600 works published in Russia, France, the U.K, and the United States, including 15 monographs. Between 2011 and 2012, he was a senior advisor to Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian presidential candidate and authored the candidate’s presidential program. Since November 2012, he has been the chairman of the high council of The Civilian Force, a newly established Russian center-liberal pro-European party.
Masafumi Ishii, Director-General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan
Masafumi Ishii is the director-general of the International Legal Affairs Bureau for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan. Before assuming his current role, 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.
Bruce P. Jackson, President, Project on Transitional Democracies
Bruce Jackson is the founder and president of the Project on Transitional Democracies, a multi-year endeavor aimed at accelerating the pace of reform in the post-1989 democracies and advancing the date for the integration of these democracies into the institutions of the Euroatlantic. Jackson served in the office of the U.S. secretary of defense from 1986-1990 before joining Lehman Brothers. He then worked as vice president for strategy and planning at Lockheed Martin Corporation from 1993-2002. In the following year, Jackson served as the chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. He is also the president of the U.S. Committee on NATO.
Mark Jacobson, Senior Transatlantic Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Mark R. Jacobson is a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, where he focuses on emerging security threats and challenges. From 2009-2011, he served at the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Headquarters in Afghanistan as both the deputy NATO senior civilian representative and the ISAF director of international affairs. He previously served in several positions at the U.S. Department of Defense, as a visiting scholar for International Security and Public Policy for The Ohio State University’s Mershon Center, and on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Martin Jaeger, Vice President Global External Affairs, Daimler AG
Martin Jaeger has been the vice president of global external affairs at Daimer AG since 2008, where he defines and defends the company’s worldwide political interests. He is the chairman of the German Association of the Automotive Industry committee dealing with international trade and economic policy issues. After his studies of cultural anthropology, philosophy, and political science in Munich, he joined the German Foreign Office. In the following years, he was head of cultural affairs at the German embassy in Prague. Starting in 2004, he was responsible for press relations for the head of the Federal Chancellery, and one year later took up the post of spokesman for the Foreign Office and the German Foreign Minister.
Tedo Japaridze, Chairman, Parliament of Georgia
Tedo Japaridze is a member of parliament in Georgia, where he serves as the chairman of the foreign relations committee. He previously served as the minister of foreign affairs, the secretary of the National Security Council, and was also the ambassador of Georgia to the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Japaridze served as the deputy minister of foreign affairs and was the head of the political analysis and broadcast division at the ministry of foreign affairs in Georgia. He graduated from Tbilisi University, where he studied Roman-German languages and literature.
Steffen Kampeter, Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Germany
Steffen Kampeter holds several roles in addition to his position as the parliamentary state secretary of the German Federal Ministry of Finance. Since 2012, he has been a member of the advisory council of the Tarabya Cultural Academy and a member of the board of trustees on the German Committee of AIESEC. He is also the district chair of the Christian Democratic Union in the Ostwestfalen- Lippe region and the deputy state chair of the Christian Democratic Union in North Rhine-Westphalia. Kampeter studied economics at Munster University where he worked in the Institute of Transport Economics.
James Kanter, EU Correspondent, International New York Times
James Kanter covers European and global business issues for the International New York Times, including the European Commission, mergers and acquisitions, the European Court of Justice, and the World Trade Organization. He won an M&A International Media Award in 2006, and was twice the winner of the Dow Jones awards for best market-moving story in Europe. His previous experience as an editor and as a reporter includes The Cambodia Daily, Dow Jones Newswires, and the Financial Times and Marketwatch. Kanter received an undergraduate degree in history from Columbia University, a master’s degree in international journalism from City University in London, and a master’s degree from Yale Law School.
Craig Kennedy, President, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Craig Kennedy has been president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) since 1995. He has provided GMF with a strong infrastructure throughout Europe, opening new offices in Paris, Brussels, Belgrade, Ankara, Bucharest, Warsaw, and Tunis to complement the work being done in Washington and Berlin. Kennedy began his career in 1980 as a program officer at the Joyce Foundation in Chicago, becoming vice president of programs in 1983 and president from 1986 to 1992. He left the Joyce Foundation to work for Richard J. Dennis, a Chicago investor and philanthropist. During this same period, he started a consulting firm working with nonprofit and public sector clients.
Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, Senior Director for Strategy, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff is a resident fellow and the senior director for strategy at GMF. He leads GMF’s EuroFuture Project, which explores the economic, governance, and geostrategic dimensions of the euro crisis from a transatlantic perspective. Formerly, Kleine-Brockhoff was GMF’s senior director for policy programs. He oversaw all GMF programs and projects that dealt with the cross-border challenges such as trade, foreign aid, and food security, climate diplomacy and energy policy, and immigration and ntegration. Before arriving at GMF, he served as the Washington bureau chief of DIE ZEIT, Germany’s intellectual weekly.
Christopher A. Kojm, Chairman, National Intelligence Council, Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Christopher A. Kojm assumed his duties as chairman of the National Intelligence Council in July 2009. Prior to his appointment, he had been a professor of international affairs practice at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Kojm served in 2006 as a senior adviser to the Iraq Study Group, and in 2003 and 2004 was the deputy director of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission). He held the post of deputy assistant secretary for intelligence policy and coordination, in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research from 1998 to 2003.
Ivan Krastev, Chair of the Board, Centre for Liberal Strategies
Ivan Krastev is the chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a permanent fellow at the IWM Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna. He was also recently a fellow at the Transatlantic Academy at the German Marshall Fund. Krastev is a founding board member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the advisory board of the ERSTE Foundation. He is also the author of The Anti-American Century (2007) and Shifting Obsessions: Three Essays on the Politics of Anticorruption (2004).
Charles Kupchan, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
Charles Kupchan is a professor of international affairs in the School of Foreign Service and Government at Georgetown University. He is also the Whitney H. Shepardson senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was the director for European affairs on the National Security Council (NSC) during the first Clinton administration. Before joining the NSC, he worked in the U.S. Department of State on the policy planning staff. Prior to his government service, he was an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University. He is the author of numerous books on U.S. foreign policy, including his latest, No One’s World: The West, the Rising Rest. Dr. Kupchan received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and master’s degree and Ph.D. from Oxford University.
Tatiana Lacerda Prazeres, Secretary of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade, Brazil
Prior to her current appointment, Tatiana Lacerda Prazeres was an official of the United Nations in Geneva and worked on international trade issues and foreign trade policy in several countries representing the International Trade Centre. At the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, she coordinated the international sector. She also worked as an international relations consultant for the Brazilian Agency of Industrial Development. She graduated in law and international relations and holds a master’s degree in international law and a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Brasilia and Georgetown University.
Miroslav Lajčák, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Slovak Republic
Since April 2012, Miroslav Lajčak has been the deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of the Slovak Republic. In October 2012, European affairs was also added to his portfolio. He had previously been foreign minister from January 2009 to July 2010, before becoming managing director for Europe and Central Asia in the European External Action Service in December 2010. In 2006, he was the personal representative of the EU high representative for common foreign and security policy to facilitate the referendum on the independence of Montenegro, and from July 2007 to January 2009, served as high representative/European Union special representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Karel Lannoo, Chief Executive, Centre for European Policy Studies
Karel Lannoo has led the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) since 2000. He also directs the European Capital Markets Institute (ECMI) and the European Credit Research Institute (ECRI). He has been the independent director of BME (Bolsas Y Mercados Espanoles), the listed company that manages the Spanish securities exchanges, since 2006 and is also the director of the Fundación Carlos de Amberes, Spain, since 2009. In addition to his professional appointments, Lannoo is a regular speaker and participant at hearings for EU, national, and international institutions, multilateral organizations, and financial centers. He is the co-author of several books and has written numerous articles for think tanks and newspapers.
Thomas Legge, Senior Program Officer, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Thomas Legge is a senior program officer for climate and energy, based out of the German Marshall Fund’s Brussels office. He contributes to GMF’s work on the international climate negotiations as well as domestic EU and U.S. climate and energy policy, including the competitiveness impacts of a carbon emissions trading system and long-term strategies for low-carbon energy systems. He previously worked on environmental policy for Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) in London; the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels; and Comhar – Sustainable Development Council, an advisory body to the Irish government. He also spent three years in the Republic of Georgia working for the European Commission.
Michael Leigh, Senior Advisor, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
At the German Marshall Fund, Michael Leigh focuses the Eastern Mediterranean and South Atlantic cooperation, especially with Brazil. Dr. Leigh became EU director-general for enlargement in 2006 after serving for three years as external relations deputy director-general with responsibility for European Neighbourhood 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. He was admitted to the Order of St. Michael and St. George (United Kingdom) as Knight Commander in January 2012.
Ian Lesser, Executive Director, Brussels Office and Senior Director for Foreign and Security Policy, German Marshall Fund of the United States
Ian Lesser leads GMF’s work on the Mediterranean, Turkish, and wider-Atlantic security issues. Prior to joining GMF, Dr. Lesser was a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and vice president and director of studies at the Pacific Council on International Policy. Previously, he spent over a decade as a senior analyst and research manager specializing in strategic studies at RAND. From 1994-1995, he was a member of the secretary’s policy planning staff at the U.S. Department of State, responsible for Turkey, Southern Europe, North Africa, and the multilateral track of the Middle East peace process.
Stefan Liebich, Member, German Parliament
Stefan Liebich is a member of the German Parliament as well as a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He is also the deputy member of the Defense Committee and Committee on the Affairs of the European Union. Prior to his current roles, Liebich held several positions within the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) in Berlin including deputy chairman and chairman of the PDS in Berlin. Liebich attended the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin.
Linas Linkevičius, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lithuania
Linas Linkevičius is the minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Lithuania. In 2012, he was appointed ambassador to Belarus. Previously, Linkevičius served as the ambassador-at-large for the transatlantic cooperation and security policy department in the ministry of foreign affairs. From 2005 to 2011, Linkevičius was the permanent representative of Lithuania at the North Atlantic Council. He also served as the minister of the national defense from 1993 to 1996. He was first elected to the parliament of Lithuania in 1992.
Oana Lungescu, Spokesperson, NATO
Oana Lungescu joined NATO after a long career with the BBC World Service, where she covered EU and NATO affairs. In 1985, Lungescu joined the BBC’s Romanian Service in London, becoming first deputy head and then editor. In 1997, she was appointed European Affairs correspondent in Brussels, where she covered practically every EU and NATO summit. Between 2009 and 2010, she reported on European affairs from Berlin. Travelling widely across Europe, she documented the impact of the economic and financial crisis in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. Her documentary series “State Secrets,” about secret police archives and her own Securitate file, received a jury’s commendation in the 2010 UACES Thompson Reuters Reporting Europe awards.
Mark MacGann, Senior Vice President, Head of Government Affairs and Public Advocacy, New York Stock Exchange
Mark MacGann is the senior vice president and head of government affairs and public advocacy at the New York Stock Exchange. He was formerly the director-general of DIGITALEUROPE, a trade association representing the information and communications technology and consumer electronics industries in Europe. MacGann joined DIGITALEUROPE after serving as a senior associate partner at the Brunswick Group, which was the leading global communications advisory firm at the time. MacGann was responsible for telecom, media, and technology practice in Europe.
Erika Mann, Head of EU Policy, Facebook
In 2011, Erika Mann joined Facebook’s global public policy team as the company’s lead spokesperson for EU affairs. Previously, Mann was the executive vice president for the computer and communications industry association in Brussels. In 2010, she joined the board of directors of ICANN, where she chairs the audit committee. Mann is a non-resident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council, a trustee of Friends of Europe, and the vice president of the advisory board of the European Policy Center. In 2010, she was the chairperson of the evaluation group for the Risk-Sharing-Finance Facility and she also established her own consultancy in Brussels. From 1994 to 2009, Mann was a member of the European Parliament, where she focused on trade.
João Marques de Almeida, Executive, H Plus Hakluyt
João M. Almeida is an executive at H Plus Hakluyt. Prior to this appointment, he served as a political advisor to José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, for six years. As a political advisor, Almeida covered institutional EU issues, such as negotiating for the Treaty of Lisbon. He also focused on relations between the Commission, the Council, and the Parliament. Prior to his role as a political advisor, Almeida led the unit on foreign policy at the Bureau of European Policy Advisers and he also worked for the strategic planning office of the president of the European Commission where he worked on transatlantic relationships. He also served as the director of the National Defense Institute in Lisbon.
Felicita Medved, President, European Liberal Forum
Felicita Medved is the president of the European Liberal Forum and an independent researcher in the field of political geography, migration, and citizenship studies. She was the vice president of Zares-New Politics, a Slovenian political party, from 2007-2010.She is also a founding member of the Slovenian Institute, NOVUM where she currently serves as president of the board.
Minxin Pei, Director, Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies, Claremont McKenna College
Dr. Minxin Pei is the Tom and Margot Pritzker professor of government and director of the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College. His research has focused on democratization, China’s political development, the Chinese Communist Party, U.S.-China relations, and Chinese foreign policy. He is the author of From Reform to Revolution: The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union (1994) and China’s Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy (2006). Pei joined the German Marshall Fund as a non-resident senior fellow in 2012.
Nickolay Mladenov, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bulgaria
Nickolay Mladenov was the minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria from January 2010 to February 2013. He was previously the minister of defense. Mladenov was a member of the European Parliament for two years, serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee and on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee. He was also vice chairman of the delegation for relations with Iraq and served on the delegations for Israel and Afghanistan. Since 2005, Mladenov has consulted the World Bank, NDI, IRI, and other international organizations in Southeastern Europe, the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Morocco. From 2001 to 2005, Mladenov was a member of the Bulgarian Parliament.
Hassan Mneimneh, Senior Transatlantic Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Hassan Mneimneh is a senior transatlantic fellow for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Islamic World at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He has been a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute where he held a principal role in the conceptualization and implementation of a multi-year project focused on developing and strengthening civil society’s resistance to radicalizing tendencies in the Muslim world. Mneimneh was also a visiting fellow at AEI, where he conducted a year-long exploration of the evolution of radical Islamist formations and their prospects worldwide. Between 2003 and 2008, he directed the Iraq Memory Foundation. Mneimneh regularly contributes analysis and opinion pieces to the London-based Arabic newspaper Al Hayat.
Igor Morgulov, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Russian Federation
Igor Morgulov was appointed the deputy minister for foreign affairs of the Russian Federation in 2011. Morgulov entered the Foreign Service in 1991 and since then he was held several diplomatic positions, both in the central office of the ministry and abroad in China, the United States, and Japan. From 2006 to 2009, he served as the minister counsellor of the Russian Embassy to China. From 2009 to 2011, he was the director general of the first Asian department of the ministry of foreign affairs of the Russian Federation. In May 2012, Morgulov was given a diplomatic rank of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary.
Lisa Mullins, Public Radio Anchor, Reporter, and Producer
Lisa Mullins is a public radio anchor, reporter, and producer. From 1998 through 2012, she was the chief anchor of the daily international news program, “The World,” produced by the BBC, PRI, and WGBH/Boston. Mullins is now producing an audio documentary about the history and relevance of land-grant colleges and universities in the United States. Before working at The World, she produced radio documentaries for Far Reaching Communications about the links between diet and disease. In 2012, Ms. Mullins received a Gracie Award for “outstanding anchor in news or a news magazine” from the Alliance for Women in Media.
Christopher S. Murphy, Member, United States Senate
Senator Christopher S. Murphy is the junior United States senator for Connecticut. Elected in 2012, the Democrat serves on the new chairman of the Europe Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee; and the Joint Economic Committee. Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, he served Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District for three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. During his tenure, he served on the 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, he served for eight years in the Connecticut General Assembly.
Glenn Nye, Senior Resident Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
As a senior resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund, Glenn Nye works on GMF’s sustainable development program. Nye is also a senior advisor at Palantir Technologies, a Silicon Valley data analytics software company. He is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives and works to bring innovative technologies to solving transatlantic challenges in security and commerce. A former Foreign Service officer, Nye spent more than ten years with the U.S. Agency for International Development, serving in conflict zones including Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is the recipient of the U.S. State Department’s Superior Honor Award.
Artis Pabriks, Minister of Defence, Latvia
As an academic, Dr. Artis Pabriks’ research activity is focused mainly on political theory, ethnic policy, multiculturalism, and foreign and security policy. In 1996, he became the first rector of Vidzeme University College and later became a professor. He has worked as a policy analyst and researcher for several NGOs. In 2004, Dr. Pabriks was elected as a member of the Latvian parliament, and, later in the same year, he was appointed as minister of foreign affairs, which he served as until 2007. From 2007 until 2010, Dr. Pabriks was a member of the parliament. He has served as minister of defense since November 2010. He also is currently a professor at the Riga International School of Economics and Business Administration.
Ana Palacio, former Foreign Affairs Minister, member of the Council of State
Ana Palacio is a lawyer specializing in international and EU law, arbitration and mediation. She is the first woman to serve as the foreign affairs minister of Spain. In 2012, Palacio was appointed to serve as a member of the Consejo de Estado, the supreme consultative body on legislation and governmental acts. She is also a member of the advisory board on foreign affairs and security to President Herman Van Rompuy. As a member of the Spanish Cortes, she chaired the joint committee on the EU. She has served as senior vice president and general counsel of the World Bank Group and as executive committee member and senior vice president for international affairs of AREVA.
Pan Wei, Professor, School of International Studies, Peking University
Pan Wei is a professor in the School of International Studies at Peking University in China. He is also the director of the Center for Chinese and Global Affairs. Pan specializes in comparative politics, Chinese politics, and international politics. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied political science. He also has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in international politics from Peking University.
Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities, U.S. Department of State
Farah Pandith has been the special representative to Muslim communities since 2009. Prior to this appointment, she was the senior advisor to the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. Before joining the Department of State, she served as the director for Middle East Regional Initiatives for the National Security Council. She was responsible for coordinating U.S. policy on “Muslim World” outreach and the Broader Middle East North Africa Initiative. She received a master’s degree from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and an A.B. in government and psychology from Smith College.
George Papaconstantinou, Former Minister for Finance, Greece
George Papaconstantinou served as the Greek minister for finance from 2009-2011 and subsequently as minister of environment, energy, and climate change until May 2012. As finance minister, he played a key role during the eurozone crisis, negotiating Greece’s loan agreement with the EU and the IMF and instituting policies to reduce the fiscal deficit and restore competitiveness. As energy minister, he brought legislation to liberalize the energy market and increase renewables, pursued Greek participation in international gas routes, and the exploration of Greece’s hydocarbon potential. Previously, Dr. Papaconstantinou was a member of the Greek National Parliament from 2007-2009 and of the European Parliament in 2009.
Carlos Pascual, Special Envoy and Coordinator, International Energy Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Ambassador Carlos Pascual has been the U.S. Department of State’s special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs since 2011. Prior to his appointment, Pascual served as the U.S. ambassador to Mexico and was the vice president and director of the foreign policy studies program at the Brookings Institution. During his extensive career in public service, Pascual has held positions in the Department of State, the National Security Council, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. He served as coordinator for reconstruction and stabilization at the U.S. Department of State.
Aleksander Andrija Pejović, State Secretary and Chief EU Negotiator, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Montenegro
Aleksandar Andrija Pejović is the state secretary for European Integration, the chief negotiator for the negotiations on accession of Montenegro to the EU and the national coordinator for pre-accession assistance. Since 2010, he has been the ambassador of Montenegro to the EU. Prior to that appointment, he was the director of the Directorate for the European Union in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro. In this position, he engaged in cooperation between his country and the EU on political relations. Pejović has been working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2000.
Mark Penn, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Corporation
Mark Penn is the corporate vice president of Strategic and Special Projects at Microsoft. Penn is credited with inventing both the overnight poll, now standard in high-profile elections, and the “mall test,” a method of showing shoppers prospective ads and learning their reactions in real time. He has helped elect over 25 leaders in the United States, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. He served as chief advisor to President Bill Clinton in the 1996 presidential election and to Hillary Rodham Clinton through her Senate and presidential races. Penn also serves as a strategic consultant to Fortune 500 companies, including Ford Motor Company, Intel, McDonald’s, Merck, and Microsoft. He has been a key adviser to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer since 1998.
Jean Pisani-Ferry, Director, Bruegel
Jean Pisani-Ferry is the director of Bruegel, the Brussels-based economic think tank, and a professor of economics at Université Paris-Dauphine. He was previously executive president of the French prime minister’s Council of Economic Analysis (2001–02), senior economic advisor to the French Minister of Finance (1997–2000), director of CEPII, the French institute for international economics (1992–97), and economic advisor to the European Commission (1989–92). Prof. Pisani-Ferry’s current research focus is on economic policy in Europe. He has regular columns in Le Monde, Handelsblatt, and the Chinese magazine Century Weekly.
Ruprecht Polenz, Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, German Parliament
Ruprecht Polenz has held several positions in the German Parliament including chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He also served as a member of the parliamentary friendship groups for Poland, Israel, and the United States, and vice chairman for the parliamentary friendship group for Turkey. In addition to his service in the parliament, Polenz served as president of the German Atlantic Association for nearly 10 years. He was also a member of the advisory council of the Development and Peace Foundation and chairman and co-founder of the Christian-Muslim Peace Initiative.
Jerzy Pomianowski, Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Poland
Jerzy Pomianowski is a professional diplomat and has been on the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for more than 20 years. He has held several positions there, including serving as deputy director of the Department of Asia, Africa, Australia, and Oceania. He also served as the Ambassador to Japan and headed the Commission of Public Procurement in the Department of Promotion. Pomianowski also worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as the director of the Partnership for Democratic Governance, an international initiative aimed at supporting public administrations in countries destabilized by armed conflict or natural disasters.
Willim Powers, Director, The Crowdwire
William Powers is a journalist and author of the New York Times bestseller, Hamlet’s Blackberry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age. A former Washington Post staff writer, he is a two-time winner of the National Press Club’s Rowse Award for best U.S. media commentary. His writing has appeared in several publications including The New York Times and The Atlantic. Powers has also been featured in major news outlets including NPR, Good Morning America, BBC, and The Wall Street Journal. Currently, Powers is the director of The Crowdwire, which is a project that analyses the role of social media in the 2012 U.S. presidential race.
Kirit Radia, Moscow Correspondent, ABC Television Network
Kirit Radia is ABC News’ digital correspondent in Moscow, where he reports on events in Russia and surrounding countries. In
2012, he covered the country’s contentious presidential elections. Prior to his posting in Moscow, Radia covered the U.S. Department of State. In that role, he reported daily on the wide spectrum of issues related to U.S. foreign policy and international diplomacy. In 2007, he was the first to report the National Intelligence Estimate’s assessment that Iran had abandoned its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Prior to covering the Department of State, Radia was a member of the production staff in ABC News’ Washington bureau.
Edgars Rinkēvičs, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Latvia
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 (2008-2011), secretary of state to the Ministry of Defence (1997-2008), and deputy head of the Latvian delegation for accession negotiations with NATO (2002-2003). From 1995 to 1997, 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 Defense University, Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
Andrés Rozental, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
Andrés Rozental has been a diplomat for 35 years and holds the lifetime rank of Eminent Ambassador of Mexico. He served as Mexico’s ambassador to the U.K. from 1995-1997, deputy foreign minister (1988-1994), ambassador to Sweden (1983-1988), and permanent representative of Mexico to the United Nations in Geneva (1982-1983). Amb. Rozental is president of his own consulting firm, Rozental & Asociados, which specializes in advising multinational companies on their corporate strategies in Latin America. He has been a senior non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution since 2011. He has been a foreign policy advisor to Presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón.
Sima Samar, Chairperson, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission
A renowned advocate of human and women’s rights, Dr. Sima Samar was appointed as the inaugural chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in June 2002. Prior to her appointment as the chair, she was elected as the vice chair of the Emergency Loya Jirga and also served as the deputy chair and minister of women’s affairs in the post-Taliban Interim Administration of Afghanistan. She also served as the UN’s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan between 2005 and 2009. Dr. Samar has participated in many international forums on human rights, democracy and transitional justice. Her
contributions to the same have been widely recognized and she is the recipient of several prestigious awards.
Stefano Sannino, Director General for Enlargement, European Commission
Stefano Sannino joined the European Commission in 2002 as diplomatic advisor to President Romano Prodi and his sherpa to the G8. He was then director for crisis management and representative of the Commission to the PSC, director for relations with Latin America, and deputy director general in DG External Relations in charge of Asia and Latin America. At present, he is the director general for enlargement. In his previous capacity as an Italian diplomat, he was head of the OSCE mission to Yugoslavia, and head of cabinet to the minister for foreign trade. He holds a degree in political science from the University of Naples.
Victoria Samson, Washington Office Director, Secure World Foundation
Victoria Samson has more than 15 years of experience in military space and security issues. Samson has served as a senior analyst for the Center for Defense Information (CDI), where she leveraged her expertise in missile defense, nuclear reductions, and space security issues to conduct in-depth analysis and commentary for the media. Prior to working at CDI, Samson was the senior policy associate at the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, a consortium of arms control groups in the Washington, DC area where she worked to share information between the U.S. Congress, media, embassy officials, citizens, and think-tanks dealing with national missile defense and nuclear weapons reductions. Before that, she was a researcher at the Riverside Research Institute.
Andrei Sannikov, Coordinator, “European Belarus” civil campaign, Belarus
Andrei Sannikov is the coordinator of “European Belarus” civil campaign. He was his country’s deputy foreign minister from 1995-96 until he resigned in protest. In 1997, he co-founded the civil initiative Charter 97. Sannikov was a candidate in the 2010 presidential election and had the second highest percentage of the popular votes. He was incarcerated in a Minsk KGB facility for peacefully protesting at a demonstration after the elections and was recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience. On May 14, 2011, he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, but was released less than one year later. Sannikov was granted political asylum in the U.K. in October 2012, where he continues to campaign for the interests of a democratic Belarus.
Miriam Sapiro, Deputy Trade Representative, United States
As deputy U.S. trade representative, Ambassador Miriam E. Sapiro is responsible for trade negotiations and enforcement with Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. Ambassador Sapiro was the founder and president of Summit Strategies International, a consulting firm specializing in internet and telecommunications policy issues, from 2002-2008. Ambassador Sapiro served as special assistant to President Clinton and counselor for Southeast European stabilization and reconstruction. Prior to this appointment, she served as director of European affairs at the National Security Council. Ambassador Sapiro received her J.D. from New York University School of Law and her bachelor’s degree from Williams College.
Jānis Sārts, State Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Latvia
Jānis Sārts began his career in the Ministry of Defence after graduating from the faculty of history at the University of Latvia in 1994. Within three years, he was promoted as a director of the Defence Policy Department, where he was in charge of development and implementation of Latvia’s annual national plans for membership into NATO. Sārts headed the Defence Section of Latvia’s delegation to NATO and EU in Brussels. He was appointed as a special advisor to Georgia on defense reforms and NATO integration plans. As the state secretary, Sārts has led defense reforms, developed a new state defense concept, and encouraged regional defense cooperation within NATO and the EU.
Gen. Norton Schwartz, Former Chief of Staff, United States Air Force
Gen. Norton Schwartz retired as the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force (CSAF) after serving nearly 40 years in the Air Force. He helped lead a joint special operations task force during the Gulf War in 1991 and later served as the strategic planner for the Air Force, the second-in-command of the U.S. Special Operations Command and the senior operations officer for the U.S. armed forces. He was the head of U.S. Transportation Command and was appointed CSAF in 2008. General Schwartz contributed to a number of innovations during his time as chief, including shifting emphasis from traditional aircraft to remotely piloted vehicle
missions and strengthening execution and oversight of nuclear deterrence activities.
Daniela Schwarzer, Head of Research Division, EU Integration, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik and Thyssen Fellow, Weatherhead Center Harvard University
Dr. Daniela Schwarzer is currently the head of the Research Division of EU Integration at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Politik, in Berlin. She began her political career as the head of the Information Department at the Association for the European Monetary Union in Paris. She served there until 1999, when she became an editorialist and France correspondent for the Financial Times Deutschland. Dr. Schwarzer is the co-founding editor of eurozonewatch.eu and of the European Political Economy Review. From 2007 to 2008, she was a member of the Europe working group of the Whitebook Commission on Foreign and European Policy in the French Foreign Ministry.
Jesse Sevcik, Director, Global Government Affairs, Elanco
Jesse Sevcik is the director of global government affairs for Elanco Animal Health, a diversified animal health company and a division of Eli Lilly and Company. Sevcik joined Elanco in 2008. His responsibilities include overseeing Elanco’s global government affairs team agenda and efforts to advance a favourable global policy environment for animal health, veterinary medicine, and food safety platforms. Previously, Sevcik worked for the American Meat Institute, where he lobbied and managed congressional relations and lobbying activities. Sevcik has also worked with the National Milk Producers Federation, Farmland Industries Inc., and the U.S.
House of Representatives for former congressman Jay Johnson.
Jamie Shea, Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, NATO
Jamie Shea has worked with NATO since 1980, where his positions have included director of policy planning in the private office of the secretary general, deputy assistant secretary general for external relations, director of information and press, NATO spokesman, and deputy head and senior planning officer at the policy planning and multilateral affairs section of the political directorate. Shea is a professor at the Collège d’Europe in Bruges, a visiting lecturer in the practice of diplomacy at the University of Sussex, and associate professor of international relations at American University in Washington, DC. He holds a D.Phil. in modern history from Oxford University (Lincoln College), 1981.
Wendy Sherman, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Ambassador Wendy Sherman was sworn in as the under secretary for political affairs on September 21, 2011. Prior to this position, she served as the vice chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm, and as a member of the Investment Committee of Albright Capital Management, an affiliated investment advisory firm focused on emerging markets. Ambassador Sherman served as the counsellor for the U.S. Department of State from 1997 to 2001, as well as the special advisor to President Bill Clinton and policy coordinator on North Korea. From 1993 to 1996, she served under Secretary of State Warren Christopher as assistant
secretary for legislative affairs.
Steven Simon, Executive Director, International Institute for Strategic Studies
Steven Simon is the executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the U.S. and corresponding director of IISS Middle East. From 2011-13, he served on the national security staff at the White House, where he was the senior director for Middle Eastern and North African affairs. Prior to re-entering government service in 2011, he was principal and senior advisor to Good Harbor Consulting, LLC, in Abu Dhabi, which advises the court of the crown prince and key agencies on security matters. He was also an adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Simon is the co-author of The Age of Sacred Terror (2002), which won the 2004 Arthur Ross Book Award for best book on international relations.
Sándor Sipos, Special Representative to the European Union, World Bank Group
Sándor Sipos is the Special Representative of the World Bank Group to the European Union institutions and other Brussels-based organizations. Prior to his current assignment, he served as sector manager for social protection and labor at the Human Development Network of the World Bank (2003-2008). Previously, he worked on supporting governments during the transition in Central and Eastern Europe in World Bank’s operations, including serving as Country Manager and Head of the World Bank Group’s Office in Zagreb, Croatia (1997-2001). He holds a doctorate in international economics on energy prices from the Budapest University of Economics (1984), where he graduated in 1981.
Andrew Small, Transatlantic Fellow, Asia Program, German Marshall Fund of the United States
Andrew Small is a transatlantic fellow with the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), 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 and as a visiting fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His articles have been published in Foreign Affairs, the Washington Quarterly, The New York Times, and The International Herald Tribune.
Peter Spiegel, Brussels Bureau Chief, Financial Times
Peter Spiegel is the Brussels bureau chief for the Financial Times, overseeing the London-based coverage of the European economic crisis and Europe’s role in global affairs. He and his team have received Society of American Business Writers and Editors awards for their coverage on the eurozone debt crisis. Spiegel spent nearly five years in Washington, DC, covering foreign affairs and national security policy for the Los Angeles Times and the The Wall Street Journal where he focused on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, traveling frequently overseas, including to both war zones. While at the Los Angeles Times, he was co-winner of the newspaper’s top internal journalism award, the 2008 Editor’s Prize, for his coverage of the Bush administration’s surge in Iraq.
James B. Steinberg, Dean, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
Prior to serving as the dean of the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, James Steinberg served as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deputy secretary of state. In addition to authoring and contributing to several books and articles on foreign policy, Steinberg supervised a wide-ranging research program on U.S. foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, while serving as vice president and director of foreign policy studies. Steinberg’s most recent book is Difficult Transitions: Foreign Policy Troubles at the Outset of Presidential Power (2008). In addition to teaching and writing, Steinberg served as the deputy national security advisor to President Bill Clinton from 1996 to 2000. Steinberg received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Philip Stephens, Associate Editor, Financial Times
Philip Stephens began working for the Financial Times in 1982 and served as the newspaper’s economics editor, political editor, and editor of the U.K. edition, before his current position as associate editor and senior commentator. Prior to working for the Financial Times, Stephens worked as a correspondent for Reuters in London and Brussels. He has also written two books, one a biography of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the other entitled, Politics and the Pound, a study of the British government’s exchange rate. He attended Wimbledon College and Oxford University, was a Fulbright fellow, and won the 2002 David Watt Prize for outstanding political journalism.
Ernst Stetter, Secretary General, Foundation of European Progressive Studies
Ernst Stetter was nominated as the secretary general of the then-newly created Foundation for European Progressive Studies on January 30, 2008. He began his professional career as a lecturer in economics at the DGB Trade Union Centre for Vocational Training in Heidelberg, Germany. From 1980 to 2008, he worked for the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) in various positions, becoming head of the Africa Department, head of the Central Europe Unit, director of the FES office in France, and director of FES’s EU office in Brussels. He is an economist and political scientist. He studied in Tübingen and Heidelberg, focusing on international trade, finance, economic and social policy, and development.
Bruce Stokes, Director, Pew Global Attitudes Project
Bruce Stokes is the director of Global Economic Attitudes at the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC. Stokes is a former senior transatlantic fellow for economics at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, where he is currently a non-resident fellow. He is a former international economics columnist for the National Journal, a Washington-based public policy magazine, where he is now a contributing editor. He is also a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he is a member. In 2012, he coauthored A New Era for Transatlantic Trade Leadership (European Centre for International Political Economy, Brussels) and The Case for Renewing Transatlantic Capitalism (demosEuropa, Warsaw).
Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. His areas of specialization are Iran, political reform in the Middle East, and Islamist movements and parties. Prior to joining CFR, Dr. Takeyh was senior advisor on Iran at the U.S. Department of State. He was previously a fellow at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy and has taught at National War College, Yale University, and University of California, Berkeley. Takeyh is the author of several books. His latest is The Guardians of the Revolution: Iran’s Approach to the World (Oxford University Press, 2009).
Jonathan Taylor, Vice President, European Investment Bank
Jonathan Taylor is the vice president of the European Investment Bank (EIB). He is a member of the EIB’s management committee, which draws up the bank’s financial and lending policies, oversees its day-to-day business, and takes collective responsibility for the bank’s performance. Taylor is responsible for the bank’s activities in Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, and the U.K. He also leads the bank’s work on climate action and other environmental lending policies. Previously, Taylor was the director general of financial
services and stability at H.M. Treasury. He has held a range of posts in the private and public sectors. He is a graduate of the University of Oxford in philosophy, politics, and economics.
Sylke Tempel, Editor-in-Chief, Internationale Politik, German Council of Foreign Affairs
Sylke Tempel is the editor-in-chief of Internationale Politik, published by the German Council of Foreign Affairs. She also teaches international relations at the Stanford Study Center in Berlin and at Stanford University. She has served as Middle East correspondent for numerous German magazines. Her collaborative work on the book We Just Want to Live Here won the prestigious Quadriga Prize in 2003. Dr. Tempel holds a master’s degree from the Universität München and was awarded a Ph.D. from the Universität der Bundeswehr.
David Titley, Rear Admiral (ret.), United States Navy
Dr. David Titley is a nationally known expert in the field of climate, the Arctic, and national security. He served as a naval officer for 32 years, rising to the rank of rear admiral. Dr. Titley’s career included duties as an oceanographer and navigator of the Navy and deputy assistant chief of naval operations for information dominance. While serving in the Pentagon, he initiated and led the U.S. Navy’s Task Force on Climate Change. After retiring from the Navy, Dr. Titley served as the deputy undersecretary of commerce for operations, the chief operating officer position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Koji Tsuruoka, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Japan
Koji Tsuruoka is the deputy minister for foreign affairs in Japan. Prior to his current role, Tsuruoka was the deputy vice minister for foreign policy, the director-general at the International Legal Affairs Bureau, and the director-general for Global Issues. He was also the deputy director-general at the Foreign Policy Bureau. Tsuruoka was a professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. He also served as a minister for the Embassy of Japan in the Republic of Indonesia and he was the senior coordinator of the first international organization division at the Economic Affairs Bureau. Tsuruoka studied law at the University of Tokyo.
Niki Tzavela, Member of the European Parliament
Niki Tzavela is a member of the European Parliament and coordinator of the Industry, Research & Energy Committee (ITRE), vice chairwoman of the delegation for relations with the United States, and a member of the delegation to the European Union-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee. Prior to joining the European Parliament, she was executive director for international development of the Antenna TV Group of Greece, vice president of the Kokkalis Foundation, and member of the Greek parliament for the New Democracy Party from 1994 to 1996. Ms. Tzavela has a bachelor’s degree in industrial psychology from Howard University and has a master’s in labor economics from Leeds University.
Justin Vaisse, Director of Policy Planning, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France
Justin Vaïsse became the director of the Center for Analysis, Planning, and Strategy (Policy-Planning staff) at the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs in March 2013. Prior to that, he was the director of research for the Center on the United States and Europe and a senior fellow in the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution. Vaïsse is the author of many articles and books including Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement (2010) and Integrating Islam: Political and Religious Challenges in Contemporary France (2006) with Professor Jonathan Laurence. He received his Ph.D. from Sciences-Po in 2005.
João Vale de Almeida, Ambassador to the United States, European Union
Prior to his appointment, Ambassador João Vale de Almeida served as the director general for external relations at the European Commission. From 2004 to 2009, Ambassador Vale de Almeida was the head of the private office of the European Commission president. Before joining President Barroso’s team in 2004, he held a senior position in the Directorate General for Education and Culture and served as deputy chief spokesman of the European Commission. He joined the European Commission in 1982 at the European Commission Delegation in Lisbon, after spending seven years as a journalist. He holds a degree in history from the
University of Lisbon and has studied journalism and management in the United States, France, Japan, and the U.K.
Athanasios Vamvakidis, Managing Director, Head G10 FX Strategy, Europe, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Athanasios (Thanos) Vamvakidis joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch in 2010 as head of European G10 Foreign Exchange (FX) Strategy. Additionally, he leads the G10 FX research marketing effort in the European region, working closely with his colleagues in the United States and Asia Pacific. Vamvakidis joined from the International Monetary Fund, where he held a variety of positions over 13 years, most recently as deputy division chief. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Macedonia and his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Harvard University.
Frans van Daele, Senior Advisor for International and Government Affairs, Deloitte
Frans van Daele currently serves as Deloitte’s senior advisor for international and government affairs. From 2009 to 2012, he served as the chief of staff to the president of the European Council. Ambassador van Daele joined the Belgium diplomatic service in 1971. Throughout his diplomatic career, he has held numerous high-level positions in the Belgian Foreign Service as chief of staff to the foreign minister, ambassador to the United States, permanent representative to the EU and NATO, and undersecretary for political affairs. He has been involved in the negotiations of many foreign, economic, and security measures for Europe. He holds a master’s degree in philosophy and arts from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.
Harry van Dorenmalen, Chairman for Europe and Country General Manager IBM Netherlands, IBM Corporation
Harry van Dorenmalen has served as the chairman of IBM Europe since October 2010 and represents IBM to European institutions, NATO, and the European Defence Agency on issues of international public policy and business regulation. He has also served as country general manager of IBM Netherlands since 2005. van Dorenmalen began his career at IBM in 1982 as a programmer and has held a number of leadership positions including vice president of IBM’s industrial sector business in EMEA and managing director for IBM’s business with Royal Philips Electronics.
Tony Van Osselaer, Member, Executive Committee, Bayer MaterialScience
Dr. Tony Van Osselaer began his career at Bayer Antwerpen N.V. Belgium where he became the manager of the bisphenol plant. He then headed the plastics department in Antwerp. He was then appointed head of global manufacturing and technology in the plastics business group. Van Osselaer has served on the boards of management of Bayer’s polymers business since 2002. From 2002 to 2004, he was a member of the executive committee of Bayer Polymers and the head of global operations. He is a member of the board of management of Bayer MaterialScience AG and head of production and technology. Van Osselaer is also a member of the executive committee of Bayer MaterialScience AG and head of industrial operations.
Herman Van Rompuy, President, European Council
Herman Van Rompuy was appointed the first permanent president of the European Council on November 19, 2009. He also served as the 49th prime minister of Belgium from 2008–2009. He was first elected to the Belgian Senate in 1988 and was appointed secretary of state for finance and small business that same year. President Van Rompuy also served as the national chairman of the Belgian Christian Democrats (CVP) for five years. He became vice prime minister and the minister of the budget in 1993. In 2004, he became minister of state, and in 2007 he was elected president of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives — a position he held until he took over his prime ministerial duties in 2008.
Steven Vanackere, Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and Sustainable Development, Belgium
Steven Vanackere is the former vice prime minister and minister for foreign affairs and institutional reforms. He was a member of the Flemish Parliament; chairman of the City of Brussels Committee for economic, trade, port; Flemish affairs’ Flemish minister of public health, welfare, and family; and deputy prime minister of civil service, public enterprise, and institutional reforms. Prior to his political career, he was director general for the Port of Brussels and assistant director general of the Society for Inter-Communal Transport in Brussels.
Jean-Luc Vanraes, President, Parliament of the Flemish Community Commission, Brussels Regional Parliament
Jean-Luc Vanraes is the president of the parliament of the Flemish Community Commission and a member of the Brussels regional parliament. In 2000, Vanraes became a member of the council of Brussels. He was then the president of the Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten group in the council of Brussels before becoming the president of the board of the Flemish Community Commission. Since 2009, he has been a member and president of the Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie board. From 2009 to 2011, he was the minister of finance and budget of the government of Brussels.
Ivan Vejvoda, Vice President, Programs, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Until September 2010, Ivan Vejvoda was executive director of the Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project of GMF. He came to GMF in 2003 from service in the Serbian government as senior advisor on foreign policy and European integration to Prime Ministers Zoran Djindjic and Zoran Zivkovic. Prior to this, he served as executive director of the Belgrade-based Fund for an Open Society from 1998 to 2002. During the mid 1990s, he held various academic posts in the United States and the United Kingdom. Vejvoda was a key figure in the democratic opposition movement in Yugoslavia through the 1990s and is widely published on the subjects of democratic transition, totalitarianism, and postwar reconstruction in the Balkans.
Alexander Vershbow, Deputy Secretary, NATO
Alexander Vershbow was previously U.S. assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. In this capacity, he had responsibility for coordinating U.S. security and defense policies relating to the countries and international organizations of Europe (including NATO), the Middle East, and Africa. He joined the U.S. Department of Defense after a 32-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service. He served as U.S. ambassador to NATO (1998–2001), U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation (2001–2005), and U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Korea (2005–2008). Ambassador Vershbow held numerous senior positions in Washington, including special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council (1994–1997).
Pierre Vimont, Executive Secretary General, European External Action Service
Pierre Vimont is the executive secretary general of the European External Action service. He previously served as the French ambassador to the United States from 2007 to 2010. He has also served as the permanent representative of France to the EU. Prior to his appointment to Brussels, he held various positions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the director for European cooperation; deputy director general for cultural, scientific, and technical relations; and chief of staff to the deputy minister for European Affairs. Vimont was also the second secretary to the Permanent Representation of France to the European communities and the first secretary to the French Embassy in London.
Kurt Volker, Executive Director, McCain Institute for International Leadership, Arizona State University
Kurt Volker is the executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University. He served as U.S. ambassador to NATO from 2008-2009. Since leaving the government, Volker has been involved with a variety of think-tank and business consulting activities. He remains active as a senior advisor to the Atlantic Council and a senior fellow with the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Volker previously served as the international managing director for the BGR Group and senior advisor at McLarty Associates.
Lev Voronkov, Professor, Head, Nordic Department, Moscow State Institute of International Relations
Lev Voronkov is a professor and the director of North European studies at the Center for North European and Baltic Studies and the chair of European integration at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). From 1970 to 1988, Voronkov worked for the Institute of World Economy and International Relations. From 1988 to 2001, he served as the director of the International Institute for Peace in Vienna. Since 2001, Voronkov has held several positions at MGIMO. He served as a professor of history and politics of European and American countries. From 2003 to 2008, he was the head of a master’s program in regional studies.
Celeste Wallander, Non-Resident Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Celeste Wallander is a non-resident fellow with the German Marshall Fund’s foreign policy and civil society program. Dr. Wallander is also an associate professor in the school of international studies at American University, and is the director of the school’s master’s program in international politics. She served in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of International Security Affairs as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, where she was the principal advisor to the secretary of defense on all defense and policy matters pertaining to Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia, and the western Balkans. From 2007 to 2008, Dr. Wallander was an advisor on the Obama for America foreign policy campaign team.
Wang Yizhou, Professor and Associate Dean, School of International Studies, Peking University
Former deputy director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Wang Yizhou is currently the associate dean in the School of International Studies at Peking University, as well as a professor of international politics and Chinese foreign affairs. Wang has published several books including Global Politics and China’s Diplomacy (2003), Highland of China Foreign Policy (2008), and Creative Involvement: the New Direction of China Diplomacy (2011). Wang’s most recent research includes China’s diplomacy and its process into a global partnership, international relations theories and its studies in the West and China, and trends in international
institutions and laws.
Abdul Rahim Wardak, Senior Defense and Security Advisor to the President, Afghanistan
General Abdul Rahim Wardak was appointed senior defense and security advisor to the president of Afghanistan in 2012. He previously served as Afghanistan’s minister of national defense. In that role, General Wardak was responsible for the implementation and reformation of the defense sector including the formation of the Afghan National Army. He was responsible for the reformation of the ministry of defense and disarmament and the demobilization and reintegration of the former military and militia forces. General Wardak was also the chief of the general staff for the Afghan Army. As commander of the Mujahedeen forces, he conducted numerous highly successful operations.
Robin West, Co-Chairman, Board of Trustees, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Robin West is the founder and chairman of PFC Energy, an energy industry consultancy, where he has served as a trustee for 15 years. He served in the Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford administrations as an assistant secretary of the interior for policy, budget, and administration and deputy assistant secretary of defense for international economic affairs. He is currently a member of the National Petroleum Council, the Council on Foreign Relations, and a trustee of the Center for the National Interest and on the board of advisors of National Interest magazine. West is also the co-chair of the board of trustees of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Bogusław Winid, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Poland
Bogusław Winid was appointed under-secretary of state for security policy in 2011. Previously, he served as the permanent representative of Poland to NATO in Brussels. He began his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991, in the Department of North and South America. Between 1992 and 1997, he served as the first secretary then as the counselor at the Polish Embassy in Washington, DC. In 1997, he was promoted to deputy director and then director of the Department of North and South America. In 2001, he was appointed deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Poland in Washington, D.C. In 2006, he became undersecretary of state for defense policy at the Ministry of National Defense of Poland.
Dirk Wouters, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Belgium to the European Union
Dirk Wouters serves as ambassador and permanent representative of Belgium to the EU. Previously, Wouters served as the chief of staff to the minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade. Wouters was also the diplomatic advisor and sherpa to Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy. He served as the permanent representative of Belgium to the western EU and as the permanent representative of Belgium to the political and security committee of the EU. Wouters served as the head of the department of European integration and coordination at the ministry of foreign affairs. He also served as the minister counselor at the Embassy of Belgium in Rome.
Yaqing Qin, Executive Vice President and Professor, China Foreign Affairs University
Yaqing Qin is the executive vice president and professor of international studies at China Foreign Affairs University. He is also the vice president of the China National Association for International Studies, the China country coordinator for the Network of East Asian Think-tanks (NEAT), a member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Group of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and member of the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs. He is a member of the Academic Committee of the School of International Relations of Peking University and a member of the Academic Committee of the Institute of Advanced Social Sciences of Fudan University.
Yaqing worked as the special assistant to the Chinese eminent person for the China-ASEAN Eminent Persons’ Group.
Bassem Youssef, Host, Al Bernameg
Bassem Youssef ’s homemade political satire “B+ Show” gained more than five million views in its first three months on YouTube. After nine episodes, Youssef had secured his spot as “the Jon Stewart of the Nile.” The Egyptian channel ONTV quickly offered Youssef a deal to create the show “Al Bernameg.” Youssef had to choose between Al Bernameg and a paediatric cardiology fellowship at a hospital in Cleveland. The show premiered during Ramadan 2011 and became the platform for many writers, artists, and politicians to speak freely. In his capacity as a cardiothoracic surgeon, he assisted the wounded in Tahrir Square during the 18-day uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Youssef holds a Ph.D. in heart and chest surgery.
Mosharraf Zaidi, Campaign Director, Alif Ailaan
Mosharraf Zaidi is the campaign director for Alif Ailaan, a political campaign to help end Pakistan’s education emergency. Until January 2013, he was the principal advisor to the foreign minister of Pakistan. His responsibilities at the ministry included working on Pakistan’s key strategic relationships, communication outreach, and public diplomacy. Over the course of his career as a government advisor, he supported local government reform for the New York City Council, administrative reform in the government of the Punjab for the chief minister of the Punjab, and numerous reform efforts including technology policy, higher education and capital markets reform for the government of Pakistan.
Robert B. Zoellick, Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics
Robert B. Zoellick is a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, as well as a distinguished visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Zoellick was the president of the World Bank Group from 2007 to 2012. He served in President George W. Bush’s cabinet as U.S. trade representative and as deputy secretary of state. Zoellick worked at the Treasury and the State Department in various capacities. He also served as vice chairman, international of Goldman Sachs Group.