Edward M. Fouhy (chair) 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. 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.
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.
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.
Avis T. Bohlen 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.
Walter L. Cutler was a career US Foreign Service Officer. He was twice ambassador to Saudi Arabia, ambassador to Tunisia and Zaire, and was ambassador-designate to Khomeini's Iran before diplomatic relations were broken. In addition to a previous assignment to Iran, he served in Algeria, Cameroon, Korea, and Vietnam. He was also Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations, and Staff Assistant to the Secretary of State. Following his diplomatic service, Cutler directed Meridian International Center, of which he is now President Emeritus. Ambassador Cutler is also a Senior Advisor to the Trust Company of the West. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs. He regularly visits Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Ambassador Cutler is a graduate of Wesleyan University and holds an M.A. from the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy.
Patricia de Stacy Harrison is the president and chief executive officer of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the leading funder of public radio and public television programming for the American people. Under her leadership, Ms. Harrison has strengthened public service media through the strategic focus of CPB in three important areas: Digital, Dialogue, and Diversity. Prior to joining CPB in 2005, Ms. Harrison served as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs and Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. A former entrepreneur, Ms. Harrison is a frequent speaker and writer on the subjects of leadership, communication strategy and constituency building. She is the recipient of many awards and honors, including the 2008 Leadership Award from the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the U.S. Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award. She also sits on the boards of the National Italian American Foundation, The American University in Rome and the Meridian International Center.
Ms. Harrison received her B.A. from American University, Washington D.C., and an honorary doctorate from the American University of Rome in 2002. She is a former Thomas Colloquium on Free Enterprise guest lecturer at Youngstown State University, Ohio, and was a visiting fellow at the Institute for Public Service of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, in 2002, and at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, in 1992.
Susan King, former vice president for external affairs for Carnegie Corporation of New York, became dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication on January 1, 2012. She is also the school’s John Thomas Kerr Distinguished Professor.
Prior to Carnegie, Ms. King worked nearly five years in the U.S. Department of Labor as the assistant secretary for public affairs and as the executive director of the Family and Medical Leave Commission. Her journalism career included stints with ABC, CBS and NBC News. She was also an independent journalist reporting for CNN and ABC Radio News. She was a local television news anchor at stations in Buffalo, N.Y., and Washington, D.C. and has hosted the “Diane Rehm Show” and “Talk of the Nation” for National Public Radio.
Ms. King has a bachelor’s degree in English from Marymount College in Tarrytown, N.Y., and she earned her master’s degree in communications from Fairfield University in Fairfield, C.T.
Jonathan C. Knaus is Vice-President, Agent Sales & Implementation for Western Union Business Solutions. In this role, he is responsible for selling and implementing the Business Solutions international payment service to Western Union agents around the world. Previously, he lived and worked for twenty years in Moscow and recently relocated to Florida. While based in Moscow, Mr. Knaus spent the last five years as Regional Vice President, Eastern Europe & CIS with Western Union leading five regional offices in Istanbul, Kiev, Moscow, Tashkent, and Zagreb.
Prior to Western Union, Mr. Knaus was General Director of American Express International Services, Moscow. In this capacity, he was responsible for growing the Global Network Services operations across Russia and the 11 F.S.U. republics. Before that, he was Director of New Business Development and Merchant Services Expansion, Russia & CIS and Finance Director, Russia & CIS for American Express in Russia. From 1996 to 1998, he worked as Finance Director for Eastman Kodak, from 1994 to 1995 as Finance Director for Unisys and from 1991 to 1994, as Financial Controller/Finance Director for the Aeromar Joint Venture. Jonathan began his career as an Auditor with McGladrey, Hendricksen and Pullen.
Mr. Knaus served for seven years as Chairman of the Finance Committee and Board member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia and five years on the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement Russia. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Commerce, Accounting and Business Administration from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He has two children.
Marcia Sloan Latta, Ed.D., CFRE, has over 25 years of experience in philanthropic leadership having served as an executive at private and public universities and hospitals. Through her consulting firm of Latta Strategies, she provides guidance and solutions for non-profit management, board governance, and fundraising issues. Dr. Latta has provided leadership for multiple fundraising campaigns, including at DePauw University, where she served as vice president for advancement, and at Bowling Green State University, where she was vice president of the foundation, and campaign director. Dr. Latta began her career as a congressional aide on Capitol Hill and volunteered in Costa Rica before beginning her work in advancement. She is a former president of the northwest Ohio chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), founding president of the Bowling Green Community Foundation and presently sits on the boards for Sauder Historic Village and the F&M State Bank, among other organizations. Dr. Latta has received awards from CASE and Women in Communications and has been named Northwest Ohio's Outstanding Fund Raising Executive, a Woman of Influence from the Western Ohio Girl Scouts, and one of northwest Ohio’s Top 20 Leaders Under the Age of 40. In 2002, she presented in Moscow, Russia at IREX’s symposium for university presidents from the former Soviet bloc countries. Dr. Latta holds a doctor of education degree in leadership and policy studies from BGSU.
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.
Greg Rigdon serves as Executive Vice President of Content Acquisition for Comcast Cable, responsible for overseeing the strategic direction of the company’s content portfolio including the negotiation of programming agreements for cable systems.
Before joining Comcast, Mr. Rigdon was Executive Vice President, Programming, Business Development and Strategy at Charter Communications. He also previously held senior roles in programming strategy, business affairs and commerce at AOL. Mr. Rigdon holds a B.A. with high honors from Oberlin College and an M.A. in Russian Studies from Princeton University.
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.
Kate Thompson is a Partner with Deloitte Consulting responsible for leading a global portfolio of foreign assistance programs in governance, statebuilding and private-sector development. She is a specialist in fragile states with a sound working knowledge of how multi-disciplinary assistance programs can leverage the interdependencies between governance, the private sector and civil society to spur growth, stability and development in transitional and conflict-affected economies. In Ms. Thompson’s first career, she was a senior executive and consultant to several of the world’s largest airlines and luxury hotels in Asia, Europe and North America. She holds an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University and a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Arizona.
Hasan A. Tuluy is the Regional Vice President for Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC) at the World Bank. Prior to that, he worked in various capacities at the World Bank, including Vice President for Human Resources; Director of the Operations & Country Services Department (Middle East & North Africa Region); 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.