IREX
International Research & Exchanges Board

IREX Board of Directors

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Avis T. Bohlen (chair) has been on the IREX Board since 2002. Currently adjunct professor at Georgetown University, she retired from the US Department of State in 2002 after some 30 years of government service. A career Foreign Service officer, Ambassador Bohlen’s posts included, among others, assistant secretary of state for arms control, US ambassador to Bulgaria, deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Paris, and numerous positions dealing with European issues and strategic affairs and arms control. Since her retirement, Ambassador Bohlen has been a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center and a member of the International Commission for the Balkans. She serves on a number of boards, including those of the Stimson Center, the Defense Advisory Committee of the Center for Naval Analysis, the Atlantic Council, and the American College of Sofia. Ambassador Bohlen earned her master's degree from Columbia University and received her bachelor's degree from Radcliffe College.

John J. Roberts (chair emeritus) has been with American International Group (AIG), a global insurance and financial services company, for over 40 years and has held executive positions both overseas and in the United States. Mr. Roberts serves as director at The Geneva Association, The Adams Express Company, and Petroleum and Resources Corporation. Mr. Roberts also is a trustee with The Starr Foundation, The Juilliard School, and Washington College. He has also served as chairman on a number of business and economic councils in Central and Eastern Europe.

Mark G. Pomar (ex officio) is president of IREX after serving as managing director, vice president, and director of media programs. Before joining IREX in 1994, he held several senior positions in the US government, including executive director of the Board for International Broadcasting and chief of the USSR Division of Voice of America. From 1975 to 1982, Dr. Pomar was an assistant and later associate professor of Russian studies at the University of Vermont. He is the author of a monograph on the Russian jurist Anatoly Koni, as well as scholarly articles on Russian drama, Pushkin, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy.

Adrian A. Basora is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and director of the Project on Democratic Transitions, focusing on the post-Communist economic and political transitions in Eastern Europe and their implications for other key transitional societies. He is past president and trustee of Eisenhower Fellowships (EF). As a career Foreign Service officer, he served as the US ambassador in Prague from 1992 to 1995 and with the White House from 1989 to 1991 as National Security Council director for European affairs during critical periods of American foreign policy. Earlier, he held varied political and economic assignments in Europe, Latin America, and Washington.

Patrick Butler became a vice president at The Washington Post Company in 1994, with responsibility for public policy, new business development, and special corporate projects. He is also president of Newsweek Productions, supervising the production of nonfiction television programming for PBS and cable networks. Mr. Butler was a founder of the Times Mirror Center for The People & The Press (now the Pew Research Center). His government service includes associate editor of the White House Editorial Office, chief political speechwriter, and transition director of speechwriting and research under President Gerald R. Ford. Mr. Butler served as a member of the National Council on the Humanities from 1988 to 1994.

Robert Clough is vice president of US small business sales and marketing for the Microsoft Corporation. Previously, he was regional director for Eastern Europe with responsibility for sales, marketing, and business operations of Microsoft's eight subsidiaries in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, and Russia, as well as for business development in the non-subsidiary territories of the Baltics, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Albania. Prior to this he served as the general manager of the newly opened Microsoft office in Moscow in 1992 after becoming involved in Russia's nascent computer industry while conducting research for his doctoral dissertation at Moscow's Plekhanov Institute of Economics.

Nancy S. Dye became the 13th president of Oberlin College in 1994. Previously, she was dean of the faculty and professor of history, as well as acting president, at Vassar College. Dr. Dye also served as professor of history and associate dean of the college of arts and sciences at the University of Kentucky. As a historian of modern United States history, Dr. Dye has focused her research on the history of American women and workers. She is the author of several books and numerous articles, reviews, and essays, and she has served on the editorial board of The Journal of American History. She is currently chair of the board of directors of the Great Lakes Colleges Association and a member of the Board of Trustees of Pomona College.

Edward M. Fouhy was the founding executive director of the Pew Center on the States and the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. He was also editor of Stateline.org, an online news service tracking innovative public policy at the state level. He is a consultant to the Government Performance Project, a journalism-research initiative that grades all 50 state governments. Mr. Fouhy is a career journalist—a reporter, news producer, and news executive for more than 30 years. He has won five Emmy awards for his work. He joined CBS News in 1966 and went to Saigon as bureau chief at the height of the war and served as senior Washington producer of the "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" during the Watergate years. Mr. Fouhy has served as the Washington bureau chief, vice president, and news directors for CBS News. He also held executive positions at ABC News for prime-time news magazine programs and was executive producer of the 1988 and 1992 presidential debates. Internationally, Mr. Fouhy has provided consulting expertise to independent news organizations in Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Adriaan Jacobovits de Szeged served 34 years in the diplomatic service of the Netherlands. His positions included 3rd Secretary in the Moscow embassy, permanent representative to the United Nations in New York, director-general of political affairs of the foreign ministry at The Hague, permanent representative on the North Atlantic Council (NATO) in Brussels, and, in his final position, ambassador to the United States, from 1993-1997. Since his retirement as a diplomat, he has served on the Board of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations, as a member of the Advisory Council on International Affairs to the Dutch government and parliament, and as special representative of the European Union for Moldova. Since 2004 he as been a member of the Board of Population Services International (PSI).

A. Elizabeth (Beth) Jones is currently an executive vice president for APCO Worldwide. She spent 35 years in the US Foreign Service, where she achieved the highest rank of career ambassador serving as US ambassador to Kazakhstan and in numerous high-ranking US government positions throughout Europe, Eurasia, South Asia, and the Middle East. As assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasia for the US Department of State, Ambassador Jones designed US policies for NATO and European Union countries, Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Ambassador Jones received her  Master of Arts in International Relations, Strategic Studies from Boston University’s Berlin Campus and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Swarthmore College. She speaks Russian and German and has a basic knowledge of Arabic.

Michael A. McFaul is a senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and also serves as a Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and associate professor of political science at Stanford University. Before joining the Stanford faculty in 1995, he worked for two years as a senior associate in residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center. Dr. McFaul is also a research associate at the Center for International Security and Cooperation and a senior advisor to the National Democratic Institute. He is the author and editor of several books on Russia, Eurasia, and US-Russia relations, and his articles have appeared in numerous professional journals. Dr. McFaul contributes regular commentary for leading newspapers and television news programs. He served as senior consultant and commentator for CBS News during Russia’s 1995 parliamentary elections and as a commentator and advisor for CNN during Russia’s 1996 presidential, 1999 parliamentary, and 2000 presidential elections.

Frank Ponzio is the founder of The People Technology Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting the development of information technology and study of software engineering to reduce the digital divide in the US and Eastern Europe. He is the president and founder of Symbolic Systems Inc., a software consulting company servicing a wide range of industries since 1968. Mr. Ponzio also serves as an adjunct professor in computer science at the graduate school of Monmouth University and speaks internationally about information technology at organizations including the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS). He serves on the advisory board for Stevens Institute of Technology and is a member of the board of directors for the Project on Ethnic Relations in Princeton, New Jersey.

Abdul-Aziz Said is the senior ranking professor at American University in Washington, DC, and director and co-founder of the School of International Service’s International Peace and Conflict Resolution Division, making him responsible for developing a wide range of innovative educational, research, and outreach programs. Said also occupies the Mohammed Said Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace and is the director of American University’s Center for Global Peace. In these positions, he has been an advisor, moderator, consultant, and facilitator for numerous projects, including consulting with the US Department of State, the US Department of Defense, the United Nations, and the White House Committee on the Islamic World.

Armen Sarkissian is a professor and director of the Eurasia Programme at the Judge Institute of Management, Cambridge University Business School, and founder of Eurasia House International in London. He is an expert on state-building structures and free market transition processes in CIS countries, Eastern Europe, and China. Dr. Sarkissian served as prime minister of Armenia from 1996 to 1997 and was Armenia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and other European countries. In addition to his many advisory and board positions with international businesses including Alcatel, British Petroleum, Bekaert (Belgium), Brazil Invest, and Cambridge Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Sarkissian also advises nonprofits and universities including EastWest Institute, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and Global Politics. He has authored some 50 academic articles and three books on theoretical physics, astrophysics, computer modeling, political science, and transition economics. Dr. Sarkissian is an honorary senior research fellow at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary & Westfield College, London University and a faculty member of the World Economic Forum and a frequent speaker since 2002 at its annual forum in Davos.

Hasan A. Tuluy is director of the Operations & Country Services Department (Middle East & North Africa Region) at the World Bank. Mr. Tuluy joined the department in May 2003. Prior to that he worked in various capacities in the World Bank. Namely, Director for Strategy and Resource Management of the Corporate Strategy Group; Country  Director, Africa Region (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Sao Tome & Principe); Principal Country Officer, Africa Region (Sahel Department, Country Operations Division);  senior environmental economist / coordinator METAP Programme (Europe, Middle East & North Africa Region, Technical Department, Environment Division); and (sr.) economist, Africa Region (Occidental/Central Africa Department, Country Operations Division). Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. Tuluy worked as a senior advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture in Morocco, Tunisia, and Guinea.  He also worked in other capacities, including senior analyst and vice president of AIRD, Inc.; consultant for Madagascar Rice Sector reform at the World Bank; consultant for the research department of the World Bank; assistant professor of economics at the Fletcher School; and researcher at the Stanford Food Research Institute.

Barry Zorthian is partner in the government and public affairs firm of Alcalde & Fay after retiring as vice president of Time Inc. He has an extensive background in government, journalism, and communications. He is a former senior officer in the US Foreign Service with service in a wide variety of assignments both in the United States and overseas. During his more than seven years in the Foreign Service, Mr. Zorthian was stationed in India and Vietnam, where he was chief US spokesman for four and a half years during the Vietnam War. After a number of years in print and broadcast journalism, he spent 13 years with Voice of America, the last five as program manager. Mr. Zorthian has served on the boards of numerous professional, civic, and charitable organizations, including the Board for International Broadcasting, which oversees Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Mr. Zorthian is also a retired US Marine Corps Reserve colonel with four years of active service during World War II.