NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of the Smithsonian 's National Air
Job Titles:
- Chairman of PBS Foundation
- Economist
- Founder and CEO of RockCreek
Afsaneh Beschloss is an economist and leader in the private and multilateral sectors who has focused her career on harnessing the power of finance to solve some of the world's biggest challenges. An expert in climate policy and investments, she has found new ways to implement sustainability and inclusion into global finance for three decades.
Ms. Beschloss is the founder and CEO of RockCreek. Previously, she was Managing Director and Partner at the Carlyle Group. She was Treasurer and Chief Investment Officer of the World Bank and worked at J.P. Morgan. Ms. Beschloss has advised governments, central banks, and regulatory agencies on global public policy and financial policy as well as energy. She led the World Bank's energy investments and policy work on areas including sustainable investing, renewable energy, power, and infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions and founded its Natural Gas Group as a transitional fuel.
Ms. Beschloss is Chair of PBS Foundation and a trustee of the Institute for the Advanced Study. She serves on the boards of the World Resources Institute; the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bretton Woods Committee-where she co-chairs the Future of Finance Working Group; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; Georgetown University; and the Center for Global Development.
She was recognized by Carnegie Corporation in their Great Immigrants, Great Americans 2020 list, received the Institutional Investor Lifetime Achievement Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award, and been listed among the "Most Powerful Women in Banking" by American Banker.
Ms. Beschloss holds an MPhil (Honors) in Economics from the University of Oxford, where she taught international trade and economic development. She is the co-author of The Economics of Natural Gas and author of numerous journal articles on energy, finance, renewable energy, and impact investing.
Job Titles:
- Officer
- Chief Explorer Engagement Officer
Anthony Jackson is recently retired from leading the Center for Global Education at Asia Society, which strives to enable all students to graduate from high school prepared for college, work in the global economy, and 21st century global citizenship. The Center is a platform for advancing education and global competence for all youth through empowering professional development of teachers and school heads, systemic change and public engagement. While heading the Center, Jackson founded the International Studies Schools Network, a global network of schools dedicated to developing students' global competence, which now operates as a program of Community Catalyst Partners, LLC. He also founded the Global Cities Education Network, which now at Digital Promise continues the work started at the Center to engage leaders from high performing school systems worldwide in discussion and collaborative problem solving. Trained in both developmental psychology and education, Jackson is one of the nation's leading experts on secondary school education reform and adolescent development. Jackson directed the Carnegie Corporation's Task Force on the Education of Young Adolescents which produced the groundbreaking report Turning Points: Educating Adolescents in the 21st Century, and co-authored the seminal follow-up blueprint Turning Points 2000, considered one of the most influential books on middle school reform. He co-authored, with CRE member Veronica Boix-Mansilla, the book Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World, a second edition of which will be published in the fall of 2022. He holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, and M.A. and Ph.D. in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan.
Beth Comstock is a writer, corporate advisor and nature conservationist. She built a career as storyteller, marketer and innovation champion, as GE's first female Vice Chair, as well as Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer. She was President of Integrated Media at NBC Universal and earlier she held a succession of marketing and communications roles at GE, NBC, CBS and Turner Broadcasting/CNN. She is a director at Nike and EVgo and Trustee at National Geographic Society. Beth graduated from the College of William and Mary with a degree in biology. Her first book, Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity and the Power of Change was published in 2018.
Job Titles:
- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bechtel Group, Inc
Prior to being elected chairman in April 2017, Brendan was named Bechtel's chief executive officer in September 2016. He was Bechtel's president and chief operating officer from 2014-2016.
Brendan first began working for the company during summer breaks in high school. After joining the company full time, he took on roles of increasing responsibility in field construction, project management, and executive leadership. Brendan is
Job Titles:
- Brand Officer
- Chief Communications, Marketing, and Brand Officer
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer of Edelman Global Advisory
Deborah Lehr serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Edelman Global Advisory, a strategic business consulting firm. In addition, she is the Executive Director of the Paulson Institute, a think tank founded by former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.
Deborah previously built and managed three successful consulting businesses representing diverse Western and Chinese companies. Deborah is the founder and Chairman of the Antiquities Coalition,focused on fighting the illicit trade in antiquities. Deborah also served in the U.S. Government where she was the Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for China, a Director of Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, and involved in export control and trade policy issues at the Department of Commerce.
Deborah is on the Board of the World Monuments Fund, the Middle East Institute, the International Advisory Board of the London School of Economics, and the Sesame Workshop Global Advisory Board. Deborah is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. UNESCO has nominated Deborah as one of its inaugural list of accomplished global women. She also received the prestigious Hadrian Award from the World Monuments Fund for her work in fighting the illicit trade in antiquities.
Job Titles:
- Chief Education Officer
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
As chief education officer, Grayson will further the Society's efforts to amplify and extend the work of National Geographic Explorers into classrooms, communities and with young people, in support of the Society's mission to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. She will work to advance the organization's vision for millions of educators and young people to develop an "Explorer Mindset" by 2030.
Job Titles:
- Appointed Vice Chairman & President of Global Client Services
Dina Powell McCormick has been appointed Vice Chairman & President of Global Client Services and a Partner of BDT-MSD. BDT & MSD Partners was established in 2023 through the combination of BDT & Company, the merchant bank to the closely held, founded in 2009 by Byron Trott, and MSD Partners, a premier investment firm that since 2009 has invested on behalf of Dell Technologies Founder Michael Dell, his family, and other like-minded investors. In her new role. Powell McCormick will join the senior leadership of the firm, drawing on her years of experience in the public and private sectors to broaden and deepen the firm's relationships throughout its global client network.
Powell McCormick joins BDT & MSD Partners from The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., where she was Global Head of Sovereign Business, focused on growing the franchise and broadening the firm's network with some of the world's most important institutional investors. She also held the role of Global Head of Sustainability and Inclusive Growth, playing an instrumental role in furthering the firm's investment goal of advising and financing clients on climate finance investment opportunities, and served on the firm's Management Committee and the Firmwide Client and Business Standards Committee.
Powell McCormick initially joined Goldman Sachs in 2007, and from 2007 to 2017 she served as Head of the firm's Impact Investing Business and served in various roles during that period, including Head of the Urban Investment Group, President of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, and President of Goldman Sachs Gives. She led the development of Goldman Sachs' inclusive growth initiatives, including 10,000 Women, 10,000 Small Businesses, and One Million Black Women - programs that have positively impacted the lives of tens of thousands of female entrepreneurs and small business owners around the world.
Earlier in her career, Powell McCormick served in the U.S.government for more than a dozen years, including as Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel and Senior White House Advisor, as well as Assistant Secretary of State and Undersecretary for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy. In 2017, she served as Deputy National Security Advisor.
She is currently Chairman of the Robin Hood Foundation Board, Trustee of the National Geographic Society Board, Trustee of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Member of the Board of Mount Sinai Hospital, and a Member of the Board of the Atlantic Council. Additionally, she is a member of the Advisory Council of the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership and the Stanford University Freeman Spogli School.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of the Schmidt Ocean Institute
Dr. Jyotika Virmani is the Executive Director of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, a philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing oceanographic science, research, and exploration. Prior to this, she was the Executive Director of Planet & Environment at XPRIZE and the Rainforest XPRIZE, a competition for innovations in biodiversity assessment technologies. She was also Executive Director of the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE to spur innovations of unmanned and autonomous deep-sea technologies to map the seafloor rapidly, accurately, and at a high resolution. Dr. Virmani joined XPRIZE in 2014 as the Technical Director for the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE, a competition for pH sensor development to measure ocean acidification. Before joining XPRIZE, Dr. Virmani was the Associate Director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography and a Senior Scientist at the UK Met Office. She has a Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography from the University of South Florida. As a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar, she earned a M.S. in Atmospheric Science from SUNY at Stony Brook. She also has a B.Sc. in Physics from Imperial College London and is an Associate of the Royal College of Science. She is a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and The Explorers Club and a Member of the American Meteorological Society and American Geophysical Union. She is co-Chair of the UN Ocean Decade Technology & Innovation Working Group and serves on Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's Board and the U.S. IOOS Federal Advisory Committee.
Dr. Paula Kahumbu is one of Africa's best-known wildlife conservationists. She is the CEO of WildlifeDirect which seeks to change hearts and minds and laws so that Africa's wildlife endures forever. She is the brainchild of the Hands Off Our Elephants campaign with Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta, the First Lady of the Republic of Kenya. The campaign is widely recognized for its singular successes in advocacy and the engagement of the people of Kenya to support the protection of elephants resulting in a decline in poaching by over 90%. She is the producer and host of Africa's first wildlife documentary series made by native Africans called Wildlife Warriors which shines a light on African conservation heroes and heroines, as well as the wildlife that they are saving. The series reaches over 50% of Kenyans and has been broadcast across Africa. She spearheads the Wildlife Warriors Kids clubs in public schools which takes thousands of children across Kenya on field and camping experiences into National Parks. Paula is the winner of the Whitley Gold Award 2021, Rolex NatGeo Explorer of the Year 2021, The Whitley Award 2014, National Geographic Howard Buffet Award for conservation leadership in Africa and is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. Paula received her PhD in Ecology from Princeton University where she studied elephants in coastal Kenya.
Job Titles:
- Chief Scientist for the New Millennium Program
- Secretary for Science and Research at the Smithsonian
Ellen Stofan is the Under Secretary for Science and Research at the Smithsonian. She oversees its science research centers as well as the National Museum of Natural History and the National Zoo. The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, Office of International Relations, Smithsonian Scholarly Press and Scientific Diving Program also report to Stofan. Her focus is the Smithsonian's collective scientific initiatives and commitment to research across the Institution, especially addressing issues such as biodiversity, global health, climate change, species conservation, astrophysics and the search for life outside Earth's solar system.
Job Titles:
- Publisher and CEO of the Washington Post
Frederick J. Ryan, Jr. is publisher and CEO of The Washington Post. During his time at The Washington Post, it has been recognized for excellence in journalism with multiple Pulitzer Prizes and twice named by Fast Company Magazine as the World's Most Innovative Media Company.
He previously served as president and CEO of POLITICO, which he co-founded in 2007.
Job Titles:
- Chief Science and Innovation Officer
Job Titles:
- Information Officer
- Chief Technology and Information Officer
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Jean Case, the National Geographic Society's chairman of the board of trustees, is a philanthropist, investor, and internet and impact investing pioneer who advocates for the importance of embracing a more fearless approach to innovate and bring about transformational breakthroughs. Her career in the private sector, including as a senior executive at AOL, spanned nearly two decades before co-founding the Case Foundation in 1997.
In addition, Jean currently serves on the boards of National Geographic Partners and the White House Historical Association, and is a member of the advisory boards of the Brain Trust Accelerator Fund, Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative, and Georgetown University's Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016 and has received honorary degrees from Indiana University and George Mason University. In January 2019, her first book, Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose, was published by Simon & Schuster. That same month, it was named a national bestseller.
Finally, Jean and her husband, Steve, joined The Giving Pledge and publicly reaffirmed their commitment to give away the majority of their wealth to fund worthy charitable causes.
Jeremy A. Sabloff (B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1964; Ph.D., Harvard University, 1969), an archeologist, is an External Faculty Fellow and Past President of the Santa Fe Institute and Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus of the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught at Harvard University, the University of Utah, the University of New Mexico, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Pennsylvania (where he was the Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum from 1994-2004). He also was an Overseas Visiting Fellow at St. John's College, Cambridge, England. Sabloff is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (elected in 1994) and the American Philosophical Society (elected in 1996), and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected in 1999). He also is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was the American Anthropological Association's Distinguished Lecturer in 2010. He received the Society for American Archaeology's inaugural Award for Excellence in Latin American and Caribbean Archeology in 2011 and the Society's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. He also received the Lucy Wharton Drexel Medal from the University of Pennsylvania Museum in 2014 and the Alfred Vincent Kidder Award for Eminence in the Field of American Archaeology from the American Anthropological Association in 2016. Sabloff is the author/co-author and editor/co-editor of over two dozen books and monographs. His principal scholarly interests include: ancient Maya civilization, the rise of complex societies and cities, the history of archeology, and the relevance of archeology in the modern world.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Translational Medicine and Chemical Engineering at Stanford University
Joseph M. DeSimone is the Sanjiv Sam Gambhir Professor of Translational Medicine and Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. He holds appointments in the Departments of Radiology and Chemical Engineering with courtesy appointments in the Department of Chemistry, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, and Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Previously, DeSimone was a professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and of chemical engineering at North Carolina State University. He is also Co-founder, Board Chair, and former CEO (2014-2019) of the additive manufacturing company, Carbon.
DeSimone is responsible for numerous breakthroughs in his career in areas including green chemistry, medical devices, nanomedicine, and 3D printing, also co-founding several companies based on his research. He has published over 350 scientific articles and is a named inventor on over 200 issued patents. Additionally, he has mentored 80 students through Ph.D. completion, half of whom are women and members of underrepresented groups in STEM.
DeSimone has received numerous major awards and recognitions, including the U.S. Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (1997); the American Chemical Society Award for Creative Invention (2005); the Lemelson-MIT Prize (2008); the NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2009); the AAAS Mentor Award (2010); the Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment (2017); the Wilhelm Exner Medal (2019); the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2019 U.S. Overall National Winner); and the Harvey Prize in Science and Technology (2020). He is one of only 25 individuals elected to all three branches of the U.S. National Academies (Sciences, Medicine, Engineering). In 2016 DeSimone was recognized by President Barack Obama with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest U.S. honor for achievement and leadership in advancing technological progress. DeSimone received his B.S. in Chemistry in 1986 from Ursinus College and his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1990 from Virginia Tech.
Justin Brashares is the G.R. & W.M. Goertz Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Justin's activities at Berkeley include directing the campus' Biodiversity, Livelihood and Health Initiative, and serving as a faculty affiliate in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Center for African Studies, and Program in Range and Wildlife Management. In his research and outreach activities, Justin engages students, partners and stakeholders in North America, Africa, South America and Asia to advance science and conservation action. Through his work, Justin combines tools and approaches from ecology and conservation biology with new perspectives from interdisciplinary science to study how our rapidly changing planet impacts wildlife, and to highlight and communicate the everyday consequences of these impacts for people. Justin's recent efforts include research on the impact of COVID-19 on global wildlife consumption and trade, studies of the ecological and socio-ecological consequences of megafire, drought and cannabis legalization, and research and leadership to support state, federal and international 30×30 efforts. Outside of research, Justin serves as an advisor to more than two dozen state, federal, Tribal and non-profit groups.
Job Titles:
- Officer
- Chief Storytelling / Officer
Yarnall has been a keynote speaker at conferences around the globe and has addressed the UN General Assembly, Scandinavian royals, and rock concert stadiums. She specializes in storytelling, data visualization, information graphics, cartography, and visual narratives, and has written extensively on these subjects.
Kamal Bawa is a Retired Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Founder-President of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), one of India's top-ranked environmental think tanks based in Bangalore.
Bawa has done extensive work in the Himalayas for a number of years on a wide range of issues from biodiversity conservation to climate change. His latest coffee table book Himalaya: The Mountains of Life, a companion volume to Sahyadri: India's Western Ghats, was published in 2013. He has authored or edited more than 10 books, and special issues of journals. Bawa has also published more than 200 papers. Among the many awards he has received are: Bullard Fellowship at Harvard University (1972, 2009) Guggenheim Fellowship (1987), Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment (1992), Giorgio Ruffolo Fellowship at Harvard University (2009), the Gunnerus Prize in Sustainability Science from the Royal Norwegian Society of Letters and Sciences (2012), the international MIDORI Prize in Biodiversity from the Aeon Foundation in Japan (2014), an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta (2014), Linnean Medal in Botany by the Linnean Society of London (2018). He is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (elected in 2022). Bawa is also the founding Editor-in Chief of two interdisciplinary journals: Conservation and Society and Ecology, Economy and Society.
Job Titles:
- Officer
- Chief Advancement / Officer
Job Titles:
- Vice Chairman
- Chairman of the KIPP Foundation
- Founder and Chair of City
Katherine Brittain Bradley is the founder and chair of CityBridge, an education-focused not-for-profit based in Washington, D.C. CityBridge makes early stage investments in education sector entrepreneurs and helps bring their best ideas to market.
Katherine serves as chair of the KIPP Foundation, the nation's largest operator of public charter schools, serving more than 113,000 students, the majority of whom are low income students of color. She is also a board member for the National Geographic Society and the D.C. College Access Program. She graduated from Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs in 1986 and served as a Princeton Trustee for twelve years. She and her husband David Bradley live in Washington D.C. and have three adult sons
Job Titles:
- Board Member of National Geographic Partners
- Managing Partner of Maxply Capital
Kevin Maroni is the Managing Partner of Maxply Capital Management, LLC. Maxply Capital is an investment partnership focused on long term capital appreciation with public and private securities.
Previously, Mr. Maroni was a Senior Managing Partner at Spectrum Equity, a leading private equity firm providing capital to innovative media, software and information services companies.
Mr. Maroni joined SpectrumEquity at inception in 1994 as a founding principal. During his tenure, the firm invested in over 100 transactions across the US and Europe. He continues to be a special limited partner of the firm, now investing Spectrum EquityIX. He has served on numerous public and private company boards, led multiple board committees and spoken frequently at investment industry conferences. Prior to Spectrum, Mr. Maroni worked at TimeWarner in corporate development and was an analyst at Harvard Management Company.
Mr. Maroni is currently a board member of National Geographic Partners; a member of the President's Council at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he is co-chair of the MGH fund; a Vice Chair of the HBS Fund at the Harvard Business School; a Trustee of the Noble and Greenough School; a Trustee emeritus of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation (where he served on the Executive Committee and was Treasurer); a Trustee emeritus of the University of Virginia College Foundation and a Trustee emeritus of the Park School, where he served as Board Chair. Mr. Maroni has a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Harvard University.
Waldron was a postdoctoral researcher at the Universities of Manchester and Edinburgh, and served on the faculty in the geology department of Colgate University. She holds a Ph.D. and a master of philosophy in geology from Yale University and an A.B. in geology from Colgate University.
Kristi Craig - Chief Investment Officer
Job Titles:
- Chief Investment Officer
- Member of the Advisory Board
Craig is a member of the advisory board for the 1921 Institute, a non-profit dedicated to developing the infrastructure for equitable success and the investment committee for Rebalance360, a company dedicated to the democratization of high-quality, low-cost investment advice and financial planning. She earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Georgetown University and is a CFA charter holder.
Job Titles:
- Chief Human Resources Officer
Mark Moore was a managing director at Bain Capital in Boston before retiring in 2015. Bain Capital is one of the world's leading private, alternative asset management firms, with approximately $75 billion in assets under management. He helped lead the company's investments in media, internet and telecommunications. Additionally, Mark took a leading role in investments in Asia with particular focus in China, Japan, and Korea. Mark sits on several boards of directors for companies in new media, internet, and sharing economy. Prior to Bain Capital, Mark worked with McKinsey & Company and small entrepreneurial ventures.
Mark received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1996 and his B.S.E. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan. He sits on the Board of Trustees of the Fessenden School. Mr. Moore has a strong interest in reefs (scuba diving), renewable energy (where he worked in this area at Bain), and education in general. Mark and his wife, Inna Feyns Moore, live in Wellesley, Massachusetts with their three children.
An enthusiastic supporter of National Geographic, Mark was a longtime member of the COA and a founding member of the International Council of Advisors in 2013 (which was later replaced by the Hubbard Council). Mark's excitement for the Society is rooted in his passion for media and content companies and the Society's unique and powerful voice. Mark joined Enric Sala on the Pristine Seas expedition to Millennium Atoll in 2009 and has been an ardent champion of ocean exploration and protection ever since.
Mark's passion for the ocean led him to travel with NG Expeditions to the Galápagos Islands in 2013 and explore Baja California and the Sea of Cortez with Sylvia Earle in 2011. Mark was instrumental in the development of the National Geographic Foundation for Science and Exploration in Asia, thanks to his introduction of National Geographic to key leaders in the region.
He joined the board of trustees in 2016.
In addition to his duties with the Federal City Council, Mayor Williams is a Senior Advisor to King and Spaulding, LLP. He serves on several company boards as well as the boards of Urban Institute and the National Geographic Society.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- President
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
Nancy serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Geographic Society, where she chairs the Compensation Committee. She is a member and Chapter Chair of the Silicon Valley Women Corporate Directors Foundation. She is a m ember and former chair of the Advisory Council of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University; an advisor to the UC Davis Center for Energy Efficiency; and co-chairs the Yale School of Management Program on Entrepreneurship. She also serves on the Investment Advisory Committee of Prime Coalition.
Job Titles:
- President of the Rockefeller Foundation
Raj Shah is president of the Rockefeller Foundation, a global institution committed to promoting the well-being of humanity around the world through data, science and innovation. Under his leadership, the foundation raised and deployed more than $1billion to respond to the COVID pandemic at home and abroad, launched a Pandemic Prevention Institute to prevent future health crises, and created a $10 billion Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet to help secure a just and green recovery. In addition,Raj serves on the Biden Administration's Defense Policy Board and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Previously, Raj was the 16th Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development where he reshaped the $20 billion agency's global operations and secured bipartisan support for America's leading development and humanitarian role in the world. He led the U.S. responses to the 2010 Haiti earthquake and Pakistani floods, 2011 East African famine and the 2014 Ebola pandemic. For efforts in support of U.S. national security and foreign policy, Raj was awarded the U.S. Global Leadership Award. Previously, he previously served as Chief Scientist and Undersecretary for Research, Education and Economics at the Department of Agriculture where he created the National Institute for Food and Agriculture. In both roles, Raj was appointed by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Raj also founded Latitude Capital, served on the United Nations High Level Panel on Pandemics, and taught as a Distinguished Fellow in Residence at Georgetown University. Earlier, he served at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he created the International Financing Facility for Immunization which helped reshape the global vaccine industry and save millions of lives.
Raj is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the Wharton School of Business. He has received numerous honorary degrees, the Thomas Jefferson Medal from the University of Virginia, and the Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award.He is married to Shivam Mallick Shah and they have three children
Job Titles:
- Professor of Ecology and Sustainable Development at Columbia University
Ruth DeFries is a professor of ecology and sustainable development at Columbia University in New York. She uses images from satellites and field surveys to examine how the world's demands for food and other resources are changing land use throughout the tropics. Her research quantifies how these land use changes affect climate, biodiversity and other ecosystem services, as well as human development. A particular focus of her work is in the globally-important tiger landscape of central India, with research that underpins management approaches to reconcile needs of both people and wildlife. She has also developed innovative education programs in sustainable development. DeFries was elected as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, one of the country's highest scientific honors, received a MacArthur "genius" award, and is the recipient of many other honors for her scientific research. In addition to over 100 scientific papers, she is committed to communicating the nuances and complexities of sustainable development to popular audiences through her books "The Big Ratchet: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis" and "What Would Nature Do?: A Guide for Our Uncertain Times".
Job Titles:
- Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer
- Inclusion Officer
Job Titles:
- Founder of Pan - African
- Honorary Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences
Strive Masiyiwa is the Founder of pan-African technology companies, Econet Group and Cassava Technologies. He serves on several international boards including Unilever Plc, Netflix, and National Geographic Society, and the Global Advisory boards of Bank of America, the Council on Foreign Relations (USA), Stanford University, Bloomberg New Economy Forum, and the Prince of Wales Trust.
Job Titles:
- Vice Chairman 1962 - 1965? ) ( Chairman 1966 - 1967 ) ( Advisory Chairman
Veronica Boix Mansilla is a Principal Investigator and Steering Committee member at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education. With a background in cognitive science, human development and education, she examines how to prepare our youth for a world of increasing complexity and interdependence. She studies (a) quality disciplinary and interdisciplinary research and education among experts, teachers and youth; (b) global and intercultural competence as it develops among learners and teachers in various world regions; and (c) she examines the conditions and interventions that foster the successful adjustment of immigrant-origin youth in their new land. Veronica's work has produced frameworks and practical tools to support educators interested in quality teaching, learning, curriculum, research, assessment, professional development, and program evaluation. Her writing on interdisciplinary work and evaluation has informed National Academies of Science, National Science Foundation, International Baccalaureate's interdisciplinary initiatives. Her work on Global Competence education set the foundation for the US Department of Education global competence framework for international Education the OECD and UNESCO. Her Re-imagining Migration framework served as the foundation for new welcoming curricula and teacher education programs in the US, Argentina and Greece. Veronica has served as an advisor at a variety of institutions including the Asia Society, Association of American Colleges and Universities, Council of Chief State School Officers, the Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, the International Baccalaureate, OECD, UNESCO among others. She teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and has taught at the University of Buenos Aires. Has an honorary doctorate by the International University of Catalunya. She is the author of multiple papers and books including "Educating for Global Competence: Preparing our youth to engage the world" Second Edition 2022 with Tony Jackson, and "Big Picture Thinking" with Andreas Schlelcher
Victor Caivano is a visual journalist born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied journalism and photography at the University of Texas at Austin, and in 1997 he began his career as a photojournalist at The Associated Press. That led him to settle in several countries: United States, Honduras, Mexico, Brazil, and Spain. Caivano has covered everything from small human stories to wars and hurricanes. His experiences include the 3,000-kilometer march of Mexico's Zapatista guerrillas, a gold rush in the middle of the Amazon jungle, the 2012 London Olympic Games, and the Pope's visit to Brazil. In 2014, he was appointed as a multi-format news director for AP's Southern Cone countries, becoming the first photographer in charge of text and television coverage at the agency. In 2019 he went back to doing stories with video and photos based in his home country. He has been invited as a lecturer and jury member in several international photography meetings.
Job Titles:
- President of the Georgia Institute of Technology
Ángel Cabrera is the 12th president of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Cabrera came to Georgia Tech on Sept. 1, 2019, after serving for seven years as president of George Mason University (GMU) in Virginia.
Cabrera has been named a "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum, a "Star of Europe" by Bloomberg Businessweek, a "Henry Crown Fellow" by the Aspen Institute, and a "Great Immigrant" by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. He has received honorary degrees from Miami Dade College and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Cabrera also serves on the boards of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, the Bankinter Innovation Foundation, the Harvard College Visiting Committee, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, and the National Geographic Society.
Cabrera earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Georgia Tech, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar. He also holds a B.S. and an M.S. in computer and electrical engineering from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. His academic publications have been cited thousands of times, and he has been featured or quoted in leading media around the world.
He is married to management scholar and Georgia Tech classmate, Elizabeth. Their son, Alex, is a recent Georgia Tech graduate and currently a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University. Their daughter, Emilia, is a graduate of Harvard University. Cabrera is the first native of Spain to serve as president of an American university.