MGO benefits from the guidance and advice of two high-level advisory groups – one domestic and one international – which are made up of leading political and intellectual figures from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States.
International Advisory Group Biographies
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Mr. Fernando Cardoso, former president of Brazil (1995-2003), is currently a professor at the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies at Brown University, president of the Club of Madrid and co-chairman of the Inter-American Dialogue. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, New York, and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He holds the “Cultures of the South” chair at the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. In 1988 he was among the founders of the Social Democratic Brazilian Party (SDBP). Cardoso served as the president of the Parliamentary Commission for Territory Administration, Local Power and Environment from 1985 to 1988. He was the opposition leader for the SDBP in the Senate from 1990-1991 and in 1992 was named Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Itamar Franco Administration. From 1993-1994 he served as Minister of Finance and 1993 and was credited with successfully controlling inflation and turning the troubled Brazilian economy around through his Plan Real. In 1995 Cardoso was elected President of Brazil. He was reelected in 1998 and served until 2003. During his time in office, he reduced government involvement in the economy and attracted foreign investment to Brazil.
Jan Eliasson
Jan Eliasson is the special envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations to Darfur. From April to October 2006 he served as Swedish foreign minister and was president of the General Assembly of the United Nations from September 2005 until September 2006. From 1988-1992 he was Sweden's ambassador to the United Nations, where he also served as the Secretary General's personal representative on Iran/Iraq. In In 1992 he was appointed the first Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs of the UN He was involved in operations in Somalia, Sudan, Mozambique and the Balkans. He also took initiatives on issues such as land mines, prevention and humanitarian action. 1994-1999 Eliasson served as state secretary of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. From 2000 to 2005 he served as Sweden's ambassador to Washington, D.C., United States. He was educated at the Swedish Naval Academy and the Gothenberg School of Economics and Commercial Law.
Ashraf Ghani
Ashraf Ghani is currently chancellor of Kabul University. As finance minister of Afghanistan from 2002-2004, he set the path for Afghanistan’s recovery after September 11th, and in 2003, he was recognized as the best finance minister of Asia by Emerging Markets. In 2006 he was nominated by Afghan president Hamid Karzai to succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the United Nations. Dr. Ghani is a member of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, an independent initiative hosted by the UNDP. He has served on the faculty of Kabul University (1973-1977), Aarhus University in Denmark (1977), University of California, Berkeley (1983), and Johns Hopkins University (1983-1991). After joining the World Bank in 1991, he worked on projects in East Asia and South Asia until 1996. In 1996, he pioneered the application of institutional and organizational analysis to macro processes of change and reform, working directly on the adjustment program of the Russian coal industry and carrying out reviews of the Bank’s country assistance strategies and structural adjustment programs globally. He spent five years in each China, India, and Russia managing large-scale development and institutional transformation projects. Dr. Ghani received his doctorate from Columbia University.
Jeremy Greenstock
Jeremy Greenstock is currently the director of the Ditchley Foundation. From 1969 to 2004 he served in the British Diplomatic Service, with postings in Washington D.C., Paris, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. He was political director of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1996-1998, where he was closely involved in efforts to stabilize the Balkans after the Bosnian war. He was knighted in June 1998. Sir Jeremy was the U.K.’s permanent representative at the United Nations in New York from 1998-2003, and was directly involved in some of the key decisions on Iraq, in the UN’s work to counter terrorism, and in the Security Council’s struggle to reduce conflicts in Africa. Between September 2003 and March 2004 he served as the UK’s special representative for Iraq, where he worked alongside Paul Bremer within the Coalition Provisional Authority. Sir Jeremy was educated at Worcester College, Oxford.
Rima Khalaf Hunaidi
Rima Khalaf Hunaidi is the chairperson of the Advisory Board of the Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) and the principal architect of the series. She also chairs the UN Global Democracy Fund Advisory Board, and is a trustee of the American University of Beirut. She is a regular contributor to regional and international policy forums concerned with the state of development in the Arab world. Between September 2000 and February 2006, she served as assistant secretary-general and director, Regional Bureau for Arab States (RBAS), at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In 2005, the League of Arab States honored her with its award for “the Most Distinguished Arab Woman in the Field of International Organizations”. Dr. Khalaf Hunaidi has also pioneered important regional initiatives on Arab education, knowledge acquisition and economic growth. Before joining UNDP, she served in the Jordanian government as deputy prime minister, minister of planning and minister of industry and trade; and as a Senator in the Upper House of the Jordanian Parliament. Dr. Khalaf Hunaidi received her doctorate in systems science from Portland State University.
Anwar Ibrahim
Anwar Ibrahim is the honorary president of AccountAbility and is former deputy prime minister of Malaysia from 1993-1998 and minister of finance for Malaysia from 1991-1998. In 1982 he joined the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and served as minister of culture, youth and sports in 1983. By 1984 he was elected as leader of UMNO youth, as well as minister of agriculture. In 1986 Anwar was minister of education and he became a vice-president of UMNO that same year, prior to his tenure as finance minister and deputy prime minister in the 90s. Highly respected for his principled stance against corruption and his skillful management of the Malaysian economy during the Asian financial crises, he was named finance minister of the year by Asiamoney in 1996 and Asian of the year by Newsweek International in 1998. His calls for democratic reform in Malaysia prompted then prime minister Mahathir to try Anwar on trumped up charges, which led to six years of imprisonment in solitary confinement. His conviction was overturned by the Malaysian Supreme Court in 2004. Since then Anwar has held academic positions at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford; SAIS; and Georgetown. In March 2006 he was appointed as honorary president of the London based organization AccountAbility. Anwar regularly returns to Malaysia where he meets with his political supporters. He is also the advisor of Parti Keadilan Rakyat, the party of which his wife Dr. Wan Azizh is president.
Wolfgang Ischinger
Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger is the new chairman of the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy (“Wehrkunde”). Beginning in May, 2008, Ambassador Ischinger will take up the newly created position of Global Head of Governmental Relations, Allianz SE. He has been Germany’s Ambassador to the Court of St. James’ since 2006; from 2001 to 2006, he served as Germany’s Ambassador to the United States of America. In 2007, he was also the European Union’s Representative in the Troika negotiations on Kosovo. Ambassador Ischinger was state secretary (deputy foreign minister) at the German Foreign Office from 1998 to 2001. He has been a member of the German Diplomatic Corps since 1975 and has served in a number of political posts in Bonn, Washington, New York, and Paris. From 1995 to 1998, he was the German Political Director, representing Germany at a number of international negotiating processes, including the Bosnia peace talks at Dayton, Ohio, and the negotiations on NATO and EU enlargement. From 1993 to 1995, he was director of policy planning at the German Foreign Ministry. Ambassador Ischinger received his M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Igor S. Ivanov
Igor Ivanov is a professor at Moscow State Institute for International Relations. Previously, he served as minister of foreign affairs, from 1998 to 2004, and secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, from 2004 to 2007. Minister Ivanov holds the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. He took part in the work of several U.N. General Assembly sessions, many international conferences, and in particular, co-chaired the Bosnia settlement talk in Dayton, Ohio. From 1991 to 1993, he represented the USSR and then Russia as Ambassador to Spain. Minister Ivanov has published a number of studies and articles on the history of Russian foreign affairs and foreign policy, including at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, USSR Academy of Sciences. Minister Ivanov is a graduate of the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages and holds a Ph.D. in history.
Wu Jianmin
Ambassador Wu Jianmin is the president of China Foreign Affairs University, president of International Bureau of Exhibitions (BIE), executive vice president of China National Association for International Studies and under-secretary-general and spokesman of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). He previously served as China’s ambassador to France (1998-2003); to the United Nations Office in Geneva and to other international organizations in Switzerland (1996-98); and to the Netherlands (1994-95). Earlier, ambassador Wu was director general of the Foreign Ministry’s Information Department and served as the Ministry’s spokesman (1991-94). He was political counselor and deputy chief of mission at China’s Embassy to Belgium and its mission to the European community in Brussels (1980-90) and was counselor at China’s mission to the United Nations in New York (1985-89). In June 2003, Wu Jianmin was awarded Grand Officier, Légion d’Honneur by President Jacques Chirac in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the relations between China and France. He is a graduate of the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute.
Kishore Mahbubani
Kishore Mahbubani is dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and faculty associate for the LKY SPP’s Centre on Asia and Globalisation (CAG). With the Singapore Foreign Service from 1971 to 2004, he served postings in Cambodia, Malaysia, Washington DC and New York, where he served two stints as Singapore’s ambassador to the UN and as president of the UN Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002. From 1993 to 1998 Mahbubani was the permanent secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Singapore. From 1991 to 1992 he was a fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Mahbubani was awarded the President’s Scholarship in 1967. He graduated with a first class honours degree in Philosophy from the University of Singapore in 1971. He received a masters degree in philosophy from Dalhousie University, Canada in 1976, and an honorary doctorate in 1995.
Vincent Maphai,
Dr. Thabane Vincent Maphai is chairman of BHP Billiton, South Africa, and formerly corporate affairs director of South African Breweries and non-executive chair of Castle Brewing Namibia. In an academic career spanning over two decades, he taught at the Universities of Transkei, Witwatersrand, Western Cape and Pretoria. Dr. Maphai was appointed professor of political science at University of Cape Town in 1995. For three years, he was research executive director of social dynamics at the Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria. Dr. Maphai has held research fellowships at universities abroad, including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Oxford. He is also an extraordinary professor in the University of South Africa and chairperson of council of the University of Kwazulu Natal. From 1997-1998 he was appointed by President Mandela to chair the President Review Commission into the Restructuring of the Public Sector. President Mbeki appointed him chair of the South African Broadcasting Corporation from 2000-2003. Dr. Maphai received his doctoral degree from the University of Natal.
Paul Martin
Paul Martin was the 21st prime minister of Canada and is the member of parliament for LaSalle-Émard in Montreal, Quebec. He was first elected to Parliament in 1988. From 1991 to 1993, Mr. Martin was associate finance critic and critic for the environment for the Liberal opposition in the House of Commons. In 1993, he played a key role in developing the Liberal platform for the federal election and co-authored Creating Opportunity: The Liberal Plan for Canada, better known as the “Red Book.” Liberals were returned to power in the 1993 vote and Mr. Martin was sworn in as minister of finance. He served in that role from November 1993 until June 2002. In September 1999, he was named inaugural chair of the G-20. He co-chaired, alongside former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, the United Nations Commission on the Private Sector and Development. He currently co-chairs, with former Mozambican president Joachim Chissano, a high-level panel to give strategic direction to the African Development Bank. Mr. Martin studied philosophy and history at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto and is a graduate of the University of Toronto Law School.
Lalit Mansingh
Lalit Mansingh is an executive committee member at The Institute of Peace and Conflict, New Delhi, India. Prior to his appointment as the ambassador of India to the United States from 2001-2005, Mr. Mansingh served as India's foreign secretary and high commissioner to the United Kingdom. ambassador Mansingh has had a distinguished career in the Indian Foreign Service since June, 1963. He has been high commissioner to Nigeria (1993-95), ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (1980-83) and deputy chief of mission in Washington, DC (1989-92). He has also served in various diplomatic capacities in Geneva, Afghanistan and Belgium. Mr. Mansingh was dean of the Foreign Service Institute and has served as director-general of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and in the Ministry of Finance.
Ayo Obe
Ayo Obe is chair of the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy and an ex officio member of the Steering Committee of the African Democracy Forum. Elected vice president of the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO), Nigeria’s oldest indigenous human rights organization in 1992, Ayo Obe was its president from 1995 to 2003, a period spanning the despotic rule of general Sani Abacha and Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in May 1999. She chaired the Transition Monitoring Group, an NGO election-monitoring/democracy-building coalition, from 1999 to 2001. In November 2001, she was appointed to Nigeria’s 7-member Police Service Commission, the civilian oversight body for the police established under the Nigerian Constitution, as the representative of Nigerian human rights NGOs. She is a trustee of the Goree Institute of Senegal and of the International Crisis Group. Ms. Obe received her LLM from the University of Wales.
Sadako Ogata
Mrs. Sadako Ogata is currently president of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency. Previous to this position, Mrs. Ogata served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 1991 to 2000, was one of the Co-chairs of the Commission on Human Security starting in 2001 and was also appointed as the special representative of prime minister of Japan on Afghanistan Assistance. Ms. Ogata has served in a number of high-level positions at the United Nations, is a scholar in residence at the Ford Foundation, and was a prominent academic figure prior to her time at the United Nations.
Salim Ahmed Salim
Salim Ahmed Salim is the African Union special envoy on the Darfur conflict (since 2004) and the president of the Julius K. Nyerere Foundation (since 2001). In 1979 Salim served as president of the United Nations General Assembly for the thirty-fourth, sixth emergency special, seventh emergency special, and eleventh special sessions. In 1976 he was president of the United Nations Security Council. From 1984-1985 he served as prime minister of Tanzania, before which he served as foreign minister and permanent representative to the United Nations of the United Republic of Tanzania. Following his term as prime minister of Tanzania Salim continued on as deputy prime minister, and minister of defense and national service, from 1986 to 1989. From 1989 to 2001 he was secretary-general of the Organization of African Unity. Dr. Salim studied at the University of Delhi and earned a masters degree in international affairs from Columbia University.
Javier Solana
Javier Solana is secretary-general of the Council of the European Union and high representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. Dr. Solana earned a doctorate in physics and taught solid-state physics at Madrid Complutense University before entering politics. In 1977, Dr. Solana was elected to the Spanish Parliament, and from 1982 onward, he held a number of cabinet posts including minister of culture, government spokesperson, and minister of education and science. In July 1992, he became minister of foreign affairs, a post he held until he became NATO secretary-general in December 1995. In October 1999, Dr. Solana left NATO to become secretary-general of the Council of the European Union and its first high representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. He has been President of the Madariaga European Foundation since 1998, and in 2003 he received the Vision for Europe Award. Dr. Solana received his doctorate in physics from the University of Virginia.
U.S. Advisory Group Biographies
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine K. Albright is a principal of The Albright Group LLC and chair and principal of Albright Capital Management LLC. Dr. Albright was the 64th secretary of state of the United States. In 1997, she was named the first female secretary of state. From 1993 to 1997, Dr. Albright served as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and as a member of the president’s cabinet. She is the first Michael and Virginia Mortara Endowed Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. She chairs both the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and the Pew Global Attitudes Project and serves as president of the Truman Scholarship Foundation. Dr. Albright co-chairs the UNDP’s Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, serves on the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, the board of trustees for the Aspen Institute and the board of directors of the Center for a New American Security. Dr. Albright earned a B.A. with honors from Wellesley College, and master’s and doctorate degrees from Columbia University’s Department of Public Law and Government, as well as a certificate from its Russian Institute.
Richard Armitage
Richard Armitage is president of Armitage International. He was the 13th United States deputy secretary of state, the second-in-command at the State Department, serving from 2001 to 2005. From 1993 to 2001 Armitage was president of Armitage Associates L.C. From March 1992 until his departure from public service in May 1993, Armitage (with the personal rank of ambassador) directed U.S. assistance to the new independent states (NIS) of the former Soviet Union. From 1989 through 1992, he filled key diplomatic positions as presidential special negotiator for the Philippines Military Bases Agreement and special mediator for Water in the Middle East. President Bush sent him as a special emissary to Jordan’s King Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War. In the Pentagon from June 1983 to May 1989, he served as assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. From 1981 until June 1983 he was deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia and pacific affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Armitage graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy.
Samuel Berger
Samuel Berger is chairman and co-founder of Stonebridge International, LLC. He is also chairman of the DB Zwirn global advisory board. Berger served as the 19th United States national security advisor under president Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001. He formerly headed the international trade group of the Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson. Earlier, he served as deputy director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, special assistant to former New York City mayor John Lindsay and legislative assistant to former U.S. Senator Harold Hughes (Iowa) and Congressman Joseph Resnick (N.Y.). Before joining the Clinton administration Berger worked as an international trade attorney. Berger earned his bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University and his juris doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School.
Howard Berman
Howard Berman is representative from California in the United States Congress. He is senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, vice chair of the Judiciary Committee, and chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property. From 1967 until 1973, Berman practiced law in Los Angeles, specializing in labor relations. In 1973, he was elected to the California State Assembly, where he served until 1982, when he was elected to Congress. In his first term in the state legislature, then-assemblyman Berman was named assembly majority leader, the youngest person ever to serve in that leadership capacity. He also served as chair of the assembly democratic caucus and the Policy Research Management Committee of the assembly. Berman received a BA in international relations from the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as an LLB from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
Coit D. Blacker
Coit D. Blacker is the director of Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; the Olivier Nomellini Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education; an FSI Stanford senior fellow; and a professor of political science, by courtesy. He also serves as co-chair of Stanford University’s International Initiative. During the first Clinton administration, Blacker served as special assistant to the president for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC). He has held fellowships at Harvard University, Stanford University and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a graduate of Occidental College (AB, Political Science) and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (MA, MALD, PhD).
Chester A. Crocker
Chester A. Crocker is the James R. Schlesinger professor of strategic studies at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and serves on the board of its Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. He served as chairman of the board of the United States Institute of Peace (1992-2004), and continues as a member of its board. From 1981-1989, he was U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs. Crocker’s previous professional experience includes service as news editor of Africa Report magazine (1968-69) and staff officer at the National Security Council (1970-72) where he worked on Middle East, Indian Ocean, and African issues. He first joined Georgetown University as director of its Master of Science in Foreign Service program, serving concurrently as associate professor of international relations (1972-80). He served as director of African studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (1976-80). Crocker received his B.A. degree from Ohio State University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
Lawrence Eagleburger
Lawrence Eagleburger is currently president of Kissinger Associates, Inc. and senior foreign policy advisor with Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell (a Washington DC law firm). As a member of the board of directors of the Halliburton Company, he is a member of the Audit, the Compensation and the Management Oversight and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees. He is also currently chairman of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims in Washington, DC. Eagleburger was a State Department assistant secretary (1981-82) and undersecretary (1982-84) before serving as deputy secretary of state (1989-92) and secretary of state (1992-93) under president George Herbert Walker Bush, becoming the first Foreign Service officer to hold the latter post. From 1977 to 1981 Eagleburger served as ambassador to Yugoslavia. He received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Wisconsin.
Sylvia Mathews Burwell
Sylvia Mathews Burwell is the president of the Global Development Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As president, Burwell leads four areas of grantmaking: global libraries, financial services for the poor, agricultural development, and special initiatives. Burwell also oversees advocacy activities for the Global Development Program. She joined the foundation in 2001 as executive vice president and served as chief operating officer and executive director from 2002 to April 2006. Before joining the foundation, Burwell served in the Clinton administration as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, assistant to the president, deputy chief of staff to the president, and chief of staff to secretary of the treasury, Robert E. Rubin. Before joining the federal government, Burwell worked for McKinsey and Company, a management consulting firm, where she focused on consulting for financial institutions. Burwell is a graduate of Harvard University and is a Rhodes Scholar.
William Perry
William Perry is the Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor at Stanford University, with a joint appointment at Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI) and the School of Engineering. He is a senior fellow at FSI and serves as co-director of the Preventive Defense Project, a research collaboration of Stanford and Harvard Universities. Perry was the 19th secretary of defense for the United States, serving from February 1994 to January 1997. He previously served as deputy secretary of defense (1993-1994) and as under secretary of defense for research and engineering (1977-1981). His previous business experience includes serving as a laboratory director for General Telephone and Electronics (1954-1964); founder and president of ESL Inc. (1964-1977); executive vice-president of Hambrecht & Quist Inc. (1981-1985); and founder and chairman of Technology Strategies & Alliances (1985-1993). He was the co-director of Stanford University’s Center for International Security And Cooperation from 1988 to 1993. Perry is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received a BS and MS from Stanford University and a PhD from Penn State, all in mathematics.
Thomas Pickering
Thomas Pickering served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1989 to 1992. Currently, he is affiliated with the International Crisis Group, and oversees their international actions as a co-chair. He is also currently chairman of the American Academy of Diplomacy. From 2001 to 2006 he served as senior vice president for international relations at Boeing. From 1997 to 2001, he served as under secretary of state for political affairs. His four decade long career in Foreign Service included ambassadorships in Russia (1993–1996), India (1992–1993), Israel (1985–1988), El Salvador (1983–1985), Nigeria (1981–1983), and Jordan (1974–1978). From 1978 to 1981, he served as assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs. Earlier in his career, he was assigned to the U.S. embassy in Tanzania and later as special assistant to secretaries of state William P. Rogers and Henry Kissinger. Pickering graduated cum laude from Bowdoin College, earned a masters degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
John Podesta
John Podesta is currently president of the Center for American Progress, in Washington, D.C. He is also a visiting professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center. Podesta was the fourth and final White House chief of staff under president Bill Clinton from 1998 until 2001. From January 1993 to 1995, he was assistant to the president, staff secretary and a senior policy adviser on government information, privacy, telecommunications security and regulatory policy. Podesta has held a number of positions on Capitol Hill including: counselor to democratic leader Senator Thomas A. Daschle (1995-1996); chief counsel for the Senate Agriculture Committee (1987-1988); chief minority counsel for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittees on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks; Security and Terrorism; and Regulatory Reform; and counsel on the Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee (1979-1981). In addition, in 1988, Podesta founded with his brother Tony, Podesta Associates, Inc., a Washington, DC government relations and public affairs firm. Podesta is a 1976 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, and a 1971 graduate of Knox College.
Brent Scowcroft
Brent Scowcroft is president and founder of The Scowcroft Group, and currently serves on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards. He has served as the national security advisor to both presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, on the President's Advisory Committee on Arms Control, the Commission on Strategic Forces, and the President's Special Review Board, also known as the Tower Commission. From 1982 to 1989, he was vice chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc. His twenty-nine-year military career began with graduation from West Point and concluded at the rank of lieutenant general following service as the deputy national security advisor. His Air Force service included professor of Russian History at West Point; assistant air attaché in Belgrade, Yugoslavia; head of the political science department at the Air Force Academy; Air Force Long Range Plans; office of the Secretary of Defense International Security Assistance; Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Military Assistant to President Nixon. He earned his masters and doctorate in international relations from Columbia University.
Abraham D. Sofaer
Abraham D. Sofaer has been the George P. Shultz Distinguished Scholar and senior fellow at The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, since 1994, and professor of law by courtesy at Stanford Law School since 1996. His areas of specialization include diplomacy, international law, national security, terrorism and water resources. From 1990 to 1994 he practiced law in Washington, DC as a partner at Hughes, Hubbard and Reed. In 1985 Sofaer became the Legal Adviser of the US Department of State, and served under Secretary of State Shultz and Secretary James Baker until 1990. Prior to that he served two years as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan (1967-69), ten years as Professor of Law at Columbia University, and six years as a US District Judge for the Southern District of New York. Sofaer also clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and then Associate Justice William J. Bremlau, Jr. of the US Supreme Court. He graduated from Yeshiva College with a BA in history and received his LLB degree from New York University School of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the NYU Law Review and a Root-Tilden Scholar.
Strobe Talbott
Strobe Talbott is president of The Brookings Institution, since July 2002. His immediate previous post was founding director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. He served in the State Department from 1993 to 2001, first as ambassador-at-large and special adviser to the secretary of state for the new independent states of the former Soviet Union, then as deputy secretary of state for seven years. Talbott entered government after twenty-one years with Time Magazine. As a reporter, he covered Eastern Europe, the State Department and the White House, then was Washington bureau chief, editor-at-large and foreign affairs columnist. He is currently a member of the participating faculty of the World Economic Forum and a member of the Aspen Strategy Group. He received a B.A. from Yale University and an M.Litt. from Oxford University.
Timothy Wirth
Timothy Wirth is president of the United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund. Wirth began his political career as a White House fellow under president Lyndon Johnson and was deputy assistant secretary for education in the Nixon Administration. He was a congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District from 1975-1987. In 1986, Wirth was elected to the U.S. Senate. Following those two decades of elected politics, Wirth served in the U.S. Department of State as the first undersecretary for global affairs from 1993 to 1997. Prior to entering politics, Wirth was in private business in Colorado. He is a graduate of Harvard College and holds a PhD from Stanford University.
James D. Wolfensohn
James D. Wolfensohn is former president of the World Bank, 1995 to 2005. Currently he is senior advisor at Citigroup. In 2005, Wolfensohn founded the Wolfensohn Center for Development at the Brookings Institution, as well as Wolfensohn & Company, LLC, of which he is chairman. Since 2005, Wolfensohn has also been chairman of the international advisory board of Citigroup. He is a trustee and chairman of the board of trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He studied arts and law at the University of Sydney, and in 1959 earned a master of business administration degree at Harvard Business School.