Council Members

One year ago CSIS convened the Executive Council on Development to explore how the U.S. government and private sector can work together to support the economic success of developing countries.

Cochairs

Thomas A. Daschle (D-SD) is a distinguished politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He is one of the longest-serving Senate Democratic leaders in history and the only one to serve twice as both majority leader and minority leader. Senator Daschle has contributed to the discourse on almost every major public-policy issue of the last three decades, including economic and national-security challenges, health care, climate change, and financial-services reform. He currently serves as senior policy adviser in DLA Piper’s government affairs practice.

 

Carly Fiorina began her business career as a secretary and became the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company, serving as CEO and chairman of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005. Today, in addition to leading Carly Fiorina Enterprises, she is engaged in politics, including launching her own Senate campaign in 2010 and serving as the vice chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Ms. Fiorina is also actively involved in philanthropy. She is the founder of the One Woman Initiative and serves as the chairman of Good360. She is also a senior adviser to CSIS.

 

Thomas J. Pritzker is executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corporation and chairman and CEO of The Pritzker Organization, a family merchant bank. He is also chairman of the Marmon Group, Inc., on the board of directors of Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., and sits on the CSIS Board of Trustees.

 

Vin Weber (R-MN) is a prominent and successful strategist in the Republican Party. He represented Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 1993 and was elected a member of House Republican leadership. He is a trusted adviser to senior officials in the administration and on Capitol Hill, and he has counseled numerous presidential campaigns. Mr. Weber is highly sought after by the media for his policy analyses. He currently serves as partner and cochairman of Mercury/Clark and Weinstock.

 

Honorary cochair

Henrietta H. Fore served as former administrator of USAID and director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, holding the rank of deputy secretary of state; the under secretary of state for management; and the 37th director of the United States Mint. She has also served on the boards of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Ms. Fore is currently chairman of the board and CEO of Holsman International and sits on the CSIS Board of Trustees.

 

Members

 R. Hunter Biden is chairman at Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC and is counsel to Boies, Schiller & Flexner, LLP. He currently serves as chairman of the board of World Food Program USA. Previously, Mr. Biden was a founding member of the law firm of Oldaker, Biden and Belair, LLP; was appointed by President Clinton to serve as executive director of E-Commerce Policy Coordination under Secretary of Commerce William Daley; and was senior vice president at MBNA America Bank.

 

Edward D. (Ned) Breslin is CEO of Water For People. He started working for water- and sanitation-sector NGOs in 1987 in northern Kenya. Mr. Breslin lived and focused on these issues for nearly 20 years in Africa before returning to the United States in 2006 to work at Water For People. His work encourages alternatives to conventional sector programming with a greater focus on accountability. He is a 2011 recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

 

Helene D. Gayle is president and CEO of CARE USA. Previously, Dr. Gayle was the director of the HIV, TB and Reproductive Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and had a 20-year career with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Public Health Service, retiring as a rear admiral and assistant surgeon general. She is a medical doctor and an expert on public health, global development, and humanitarian issues. Dr. Gayle also sits on the CSIS Board of Trustees.

 

Mark Green (R-WI) is president and CEO of the Initiative for Global Development. He has also served as senior director at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and is on the board of directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. From 1999 to 2007, Ambassador Green represented Wisconsin in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he helped craft a variety of innovative foreign policy initiatives, including the Millennium Challenge Act. After his service in Congress, he served as the U.S. ambassador to Tanzania, where he oversaw the largest Millennium Challenge compact and a number of global-health programs.

 

John J. Hamre is president and CEO of, and Pritzker Chair at, CSIS. Before joining CSIS, he served as the 26th U.S. deputy secretary of defense. He previously served as the under secretary of defense (comptroller), on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and with the Congressional Budget Office. In 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appointed Dr. Hamre chairman of the Defense Policy Board, a position he continues to hold in the current administration.

 

Benjamin W. Heineman Jr. is a widely respected lawyer who served as GE’s senior vice president for law and public affairs from 1987 to 2005. Before that, he served as assistant secretary at the then-U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare and as managing partner of Sidley & Austin. He is the author of books on the American presidency, British race relations, and corporate ethics. He also sits on the CSIS Board of Trustees.

 

E. Neville Isdell served as CEO of The Coca-Cola Company from June 2004 to July 2008 and chairman of the board from June 2004 to April 2009. Before becoming CEO, he worked for Coca-Cola in numerous other positions of increasing responsibility in locations across the globe. In his 43 years with the company, Mr. Isdell expanded its legacy of corporate responsibility, and in 2006, Coca-Cola returned to Fortune’s list of the “World’s Most Admired Companies,” where it is now ranked fourth. Mr. Isdell also sits on the CSIS Board of Trustees.

 

Farooq Kathwari is chairman, president, and CEO of Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. He has been chairman and CEO since 1988 and president since 1985. Under Mr. Kathwari’s leadership, Ethan Allen has been transformed into a leading interior design company whose vertically integrated business model feeds its success. Mr. Kathwari serves on several nonprofit boards and on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islanders. Mr. Kathwari is also a CSIS Advisory Board member.

 

Paula Luff is vice president of corporate social responsibility at Hess Corporation, where she works to build and manage the company’s corporate social responsibility and philanthropy functions. Prior to joining Hess, Ms. Luff served as senior director of global philanthropy for Pfizer Inc. She has also worked with CARE.

 

Robert Mosbacher Jr. is the former president and CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, where he managed private-capital investment in emerging markets around the world. He currently serves as chairman of Mosbacher Energy Company (MEC), an independent oil- and gas-exploration and production company in Houston, Texas. Mr. Mosbacher previously served as president and CEO of MEC.

 

Andrew S. Natsios served as administrator of USAID, where he managed reconstruction programs in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Sudan. At USAID, he has also worked as director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and as assistant administrator for the Bureau for Food and Humanitarian Assistance (now the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance). Mr. Natsios served for 12 years in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, after which he was secretary of administration and finance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and then manager of Boston’s Big Dig project.

 

Bea Perez is chief sustainability officer of The Coca-Cola Company, where she is responsible for creating and overseeing an integrated sustainability strategy, setting global goals and commitments, assessing and driving scaled investments, and managing global sustainability partnerships and programs. Ms. Perez joined Coca-Cola in 1996 and has held several positions of increasing responsibility, most recently chief marketing officer in North America.

 

Katherine Pickus is divisional vice president of global citizenship and policy at Abbott. She is also vice president of the Abbott Fund, the company’s philanthropic foundation. Prior to joining Abbott, Ms. Pickus served as the special assistant for national security affairs to the vice president of the United States. In addition, she was with the United States Information Agency, at that time, a branch of the U.S. Department of State, where she worked with private-sector organizations to develop and implement democratic institution building programs worldwide. During her career, she has partnered with USAID and United Nations on various initiatives.

 

Josette Sheeran served as executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the world’s largest humanitarian agency. Prior to working with WFP, Ms. Sheeran served as undersecretary for the U.S. Department of State, as deputy U.S. Trade Representative, and as CEO and president of Empower America. In 2012 she was appointed vice chairman of the World Economic Forum.

 

Anne-Marie Slaughter served as director of policy planning for the U.S. Department of State from 2009 to 2011, the first woman to hold that position. Upon leaving the State Department, she received the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award for her work leading the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. Prior to her government service, Dr. Slaughter was dean of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She is a frequent contributor to the media, which includes publishing op-eds in major newspapers, magazines, and blogs around the world and curating foreign policy news. She is currently the Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton.

 

Mark Suzman is managing director for international policy and programs at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he leads a team that helps build strategic relationships with governments, NGOs, and other key partners to increase awareness, action, and resources devoted to global development and health priorities. Prior to joining the foundation, Dr. Suzman held several positions at the United Nations and worked as a correspondent for the Financial Times.

 

Carolyn Y. Woo is CEO and president of Catholic Relief Services. Previously, she served as dean of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. Earlier in her career, Dr. Woo held the position of associate executive vice president for academic affairs at Purdue University.

 

Rhonda I. Zygocki is executive vice president of policy and planning for Chevron Corporation, a position she has held since 2011. She is responsible for Strategic Planning; Policy, Government and Public Affairs; and Health, Environment and Safety. From 2007 to 2011, Ms. Zygocki served as vice president of policy, government and public affairs. Earlier, she was corporate vice president of health, environment and safety for Chevron from 2003 to 2007. Ms. Zygocki joined Chevron in 1980 and has held positions in posts all over the world, including Canada, the United States, and Australia. She serves on the boards of directors of the United States Energy Association and GBCHealth; the board of trustees of the San Francisco Ballet; and the advisory board of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Canada Institute.

Project on U.S. Leadership in Development

Related
Executive Council on Development, Project on U.S. Leadership in Development