The IREX Board of Governors brings together leaders from the private and nonprofit sectors, media, and government who help ensure IREX stays mission-driven, accountable, and positioned to deliver results. Board members’ perspectives—and a willingness to ask hard questions—strengthen how IREX sets priorities, manages risk, and measures impact. Learn more about our board members.

IREX is at an inflection point. Its work in education, youth development, and leadership is increasingly consequential, and the operating contexts it faces are more complex. Board leadership that is grounded in experience and focused on outcomes helps IREX navigate those realities with discipline and confidence.

Great boards don’t just govern—they help leaders see around corners. They connect strategy to networks, open doors to partners and resources, and keep the organization focused on what matters most. IREX is grateful for the Board’s service and looks forward to working with its members to strengthen IREX’s ability to learn, adapt, and deliver meaningful benefits for the communities it serves and the public it is accountable to.

Board of Governors

David Gross (IREX Chair)

Ambassador David Gross is a partner in the Washington DC law firm Wiley Rein LLP. He is one of the world’s foremost experts on international telecommunications and Internet policies, having addressed the United Nations General Assembly and led more U.S. government delegations to major international telecommunication conferences than anyone else in modern history. 

David draws on more than 40 years of experience as a lawyer, global policymaker, and corporate executive to assist global companies seeking to enter or expand their international businesses. He also advises international organizations as well as national governments regarding global issues. He has often testified before the US Congress.

He was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as the U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the U.S. Department of State from 2001 to 2009, and he was unanimously confirmed by the US Senate for the rank of Ambassador. During his time in government, David led bilateral, senior level discussions and dialogues with more than 70 different countries, and he was the head of the US delegation for three APEC Ministerial meetings, as well as many treaty-writing and other conferences at the International Telecommunication Union. 

David also served as head U.S. government negotiator for both phases of the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and he co-led the U.S. delegation at the formal heads of state summits in Geneva (2003) and Tunis (2005).

Rob Mosbacher, Jr. (IREX Vice Chair)

Rob Mosbacher, Jr., is chairman of the board of Mosbacher Energy Company, a family-owned energy business headquartered in Houston, Texas. He served as the ninth president and CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) from 2005 to 2009, an independent agency of the U.S. government that has facilitated over $50 billion in investments in developing countries around the world. Since that time, he has served as co-chair of the Consensus for Development Reform (CDR), a platform of leading conservative and private sector voices for more effective U.S. global leadership through reforming and improving our approach to global development. 

He played an instrumental role in the drafting and passage of the BUILD Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation passed in 2018, that combined OPIC and the Development Credit Authority of USAID, into a new US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The DFC has new powers previously lacking from OPIC, that enable it to compete more effectively against other international development finance corporations, multilateral development banks, and other superpower economic development players, such as China. 

Under the BUILD Act, the DFC was required to create a Development Advisory Council of outside experts to report directly to the board of the DFC on how well the agency is discharging its statutory obligation to maximize the development impact on the host countries of all projects approved and funded by the DFC. Rob Mosbacher served as chair of that advisory council for the for the first four years and continues to serve on it. 

He also serves on the board of the National Archives Foundation. In 2009, he re-joined the board of Devon Energy, a large, independent oil and gas producer, and served on the board of Calpine Corporation, one of the largest independent power companies in the U.S., until the company was taken private in March 2018. 

He received a law degree in 1977 from Southern Methodist University, and a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in 1973.

Vipul Amin

Vipul Amin is fund head of Carlyle Equity Opportunity Fund and fund head of Carlyle Global Partners. Mr. Amin is based in Washington, DC. Since joining Carlyle in 2000, Mr. Amin has been actively involved with Carlyle’s investments in current and past portfolio companies including TAMKO Building Products, Signode Industrial Group, Accudyne Industries, HD Supply, PQ Corporation, John Maneely Company and Rexnord Corporation. 

Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Amin was with Bowles Hollowell Connor and Co. in Charlotte, NC. Mr. Amin is on the boards of directors of TAMKO Building Products, Accelerate Learning, Medforth Global Healthcare Education, NEP Group, TCW and IREX.

Mr. Amin received an MBA from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Duke University. 

Liliana Ayalde

Ambassador Liliana Ayalde  retired from the U.S. Foreign Service following a distinguished 38-year career with assignments in Washington, D.C. and abroad. She dedicated her diplomatic career to foreign affairs, development, defense, and security in Latin America and the Caribbean.  

Ambassador Ayalde served as the Civilian Deputy to the Commander and Foreign Policy Advisor at the United States Southern Command in Miami until September 2019 and was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to the Federative Republic of Brazil between 2013-2016. Prior to this appointment she served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs in the Department of State.

In 2008, she was confirmed as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Paraguay. Previously, she held key federal government positions across Latin American and the and Caribbean and spent several years posted in Colombia, Bangladesh, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.

Steve Carey

Steve Carey serves as chair of Potomac Strategic Development, a trusted partner in business development, advocacy, and communications for federal programs and projects on and off Capitol Hill, with over 30 years of Capitol Hill and related federal experience. He served as a legislative director for two members of the House Appropriations Committee and as a legislative assistant to the ranking member of the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Industry and not-for-profit organizations benefit from Steve's guidance and his bipartisan relationships with key lawmakers and policy officials.

Steve has been published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Steve served as the NCOIC of the Classified Material Control Center at MCAS Kaneohe and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps. He is an alumnus of the University of Michigan, received the Lifetime Eagle Scout Achievement Award, and is married with two children.

Chris Chibwana

Chris Chibwana is a program officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where he manages a portfolio of grants advancing evidence‑informed policymaking and women’s economic empowerment across Africa. His work focuses on strengthening institutions and coalitions that enable governments and civic organizations to use data and evidence to design policies that expand economic opportunity, build social trust, and improve outcomes for women and communities. This includes supporting initiatives that connect research, learning, and practice to foster more accountable, dynamic, and effective public systems.

Previously, Chris served as partner and head of Africa at IDinsight, leading strategy and partnerships with governments, foundations, multilaterals, and civil society organizations to increase the effectiveness of public policy through rigorous evidence and learning. He also led the Hub for Agricultural Policy Action at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), where he worked with governments to strengthen policy processes and institutional capacity. Earlier in his career, he spent seven years with USAID missions in Malawi, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, designing and managing programs spanning agriculture, food security, private sector development, and women’s nutrition and livelihoods.

Chris holds a master's degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University and a bachelor's degree in agribusiness management from the University of Malawi. He has also been affiliated with the International Food Policy Research Institute and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, contributing research that has informed evidence‑based policy reforms and institutional strengthening efforts.

Karen Hanrahan

Karen Hanrahan is a visionary executive leader with over 25 years of experience driving large-scale social impact initiatives and building public-private partnerships across Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States.

She has held senior roles at the U.S. State Department, Department for International Development, the United Nations, White & Case, Amnesty International, and a Fortune 500 company, and has served as a CEO, Chief Innovation Officer, political appointee, and corporate social impact leader. As President and CEO of the GLIDE Foundation, she led 230 employees in advancing equality, breaking cycles of poverty, and strengthening families, while forging innovative partnerships with leaders such as Warren Buffett, Google, Twitter, GAP, and local government. A lawyer by training, Karen is widely recognized as a collaborative change agent.

An alumna of Harvard Business School’s executive leadership program, the University of Washington School of Law, and The American University School of International Service, Karen holds a J.D. and Master's degree in International Affairs with a concentration in Peace and Conflict Resolution. She has studied Arabic and French and lived in the Middle East and North Africa.

Nathaniel Heller

As executive vice president at both Geneva Global and its parent nonprofit, Global Impact, Nathaniel oversees all philanthropy advisory work spanning private foundations, ultra-high net worth individuals and families, and international nonprofits. He and his teams help develop giving strategies and grantee portfolios, cultivate peer donors to launch donor collaboratives and pooled funds, and support high-impact non-governmental organizations raising and diversifying their revenue. Nathaniel also serves as president of Capital for Good, an entity in the Global Impact Ventures family of organizations that provides fiscal sponsorship to high impact charitable projects and programs.

Prior to joining Geneva Global, Nathaniel served as an executive vice president at Results for Development (R4D), where he oversaw many of the organization’s technical teams aimed at strengthening health, education, and nutrition systems in low-income countries. Earlier in his career, Nathaniel co-founded and led Global Integrity, an international non-governmental anti-corruption organization working in more than 100 countries to strengthen government transparency and accountability safeguards. From 2017 to 2019, he co-chaired the Open Government Partnership (a multi-stakeholder partnership spanning governments and civil society) and was the catalyst behind the establishment of the OpenGov Hub, the world’s first thematic co-working space focused on open government issues. He began his career working at a non-profit investigative journalism organization (the Center for Public Integrity) and at the US Department of State.

Nathaniel holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware and completed his graduate work at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He currently serves on the boards of IREX, Development Gateway, and World Bicycle Relief.

Niloofar Razi Howe

Niloofar Razi Howe has been an investor, executive and entrepreneur in the technology industry for the past 25 years, with a focus on Cybersecurity for the past 15. Ms. Howe is a Senior Operating Partner at Energy Impact Partners, a VC fund investing in companies shaping the energy landscape of the future.

She serves on the Board of Directors of Morgan Stanley Private Bank, NA and Morgan Stanley Bank, NA (Risk Committee, Operations and Technology Committee), Pondurance (as Executive Chair), Tenable (NASDAQ: TENB), Composecure (NASDAQ: CMPO), Recorded Future, Swimlane and on the Board of Advisors of Dragos, Enveil, RangeForce, Noetic Cyber, and Picnic Threat. She is a life member at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Senior Fellow, Cybersecurity Initiative at New America, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. She has served as Chair and as a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. Ms. Howe serves on a number of US government advisory boards including on the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency’s Advisory Council.

A graduate with honors from Columbia College, Ms. Howe holds a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

Jeff Krilla

Jeff Krilla serves as vice president of Global Public Policy at Kosmos Energy, where he leads initiatives to transform natural resources into national prosperity. He is a decorated diplomat and veteran. He has served as a deputy assistant secretary of state, leading high-level U.S. delegations across five continents to forge socially responsible partnerships, and he served with honor as a naval attaché and intelligence officer. Deeply committed to philanthropy, he co-founded the Krilla Kaleiwahea Foundation, a Native Hawaiian organization that has been instrumental in disaster recovery and community rebuilding following the Maui wildfires.

Jeff has over a decade of experience on Capitol Hill, where he served as chief of staff and majority counsel for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. In the private sector, he chaired the Africa and corporate responsibility practices at Dentons, LLP, and spearheaded the inaugural U.S.-Africa Business Forum for Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Jeff is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club and holds degrees from Georgetown University, the Naval War College, and the University of Pennsylvania. He resides in McLean, Virginia, with his wife and four children.

Karim Lesina

Karim Lesina is the Executive Vice President, Chief External Affairs Officer for Millicom since November 2020. In this role, Karim oversees the group's Government Relations, Regulatory Affairs, Corporate Communications and ESG functions. His focus is on developing and driving Millicom’s global engagement to support of business objectives and particular responsibility for special situations and reputation strategies.

Before joining Millicom, Karim held the position of Senior Vice President, International External and Regulatory Affairs at AT&T, directing the internal international and regulatory affairs teams, as well as the external and regulatory affairs teams across AT&T and its global affiliates. Before his term at AT&T, Karim was at Intel as the Government Affairs Manager for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Karim is an active member in several industries and community organizations, including current service as Co-Founder of the Center for Latin America Convergence, Co-Chair of the Corporate Council of the Meridian International Center, as Vice Chair of the Audit committee and Board member of IREX.

Born in Dakar (Senegal), Karim is an Italian-Tunisian national and has a master’s degree in Economics of Development at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.

Vaithehi Muttulingam

Ms. Muttulingam currently serves as treasurer of Siharum Advisors LLC, a registered investment advisory and private wealth management firm, where she also advises on corporate governance and business strategy. She is also a co-founder and chief operating officer of Sahana Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in strategic communications and marketing for mission driven organizations. Previously, she held leadership roles as the chief financial officer (CFO) and chief compliance officer (CCO) at Arrowstreet Capital, a global asset management firm. During her tenure at Arrowstreet, she played a pivotal role in shaping the firm’s financial, operational, and risk management strategies, helping the firm grow from $200 million to over $50 billion in assets under management. 

Her dedication to public service is evident in her work with several nonprofit organizations. Ms. Muttulingam served as vice-chair on the board of trustees of the Perkins School for the Blind and on the executive committee of Refugees International, Inc for over a decade.  Additionally, she sits on the board of the Fund for Global Human Rights.

Ms. Muttulingam holds a MBA and a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of Oregon and is both a certified public accountant (CPA) and a CFA® charterholder. She is a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society, the Massachusetts Society of CPAs, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and is a dedicated CFA exam grader.

Jean-Louis Sarbib

Jean-Louis Sarbib is currently consulting on international affairs and serving on a number of non-profit boards. He chairs the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) Advisory Board on the G20 Compact with Africa.

From March 2009 to December 2018, he was chief executive officer at  Development Gateway, an international nonprofit social enterprise whose mission is to support the use of data, technology, and evidence to create accountable institutions that listen and respond to the needs of their constituents and are efficient in targeting and delivering services that improve lives. From 1980 to 2006, Mr. Sarbib was at the World Bank where he occupied a number of senior positions: vice president for Africa, vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, and senior vice president for human development. Upon leaving the Bank and before leading Development Gateway, Mr. Sarbib joined Wolfensohn & Company, a private equity firm, as a managing director. He was a non-resident senior fellow at The Brookings Institution and taught at Georgetown University. Prior to joining the World Bank Mr. Sarbib taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and worked for the French government. 

Mr. Sarbib is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris (now Mines Paris Tech) and holds a master's degree in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania. He attended the general manager course at Harvard Business School.

Aleem Walji

Aleem is founder and CEO of the 5in5 Impact Alliance. 5in5 is a non-profit organization committed to ending ‘learning poverty’ by transforming public education systems to improve foundational literacy and numeracy at national scale with a focus on Africa and Asia. 

For more than two decades, Aleem has worked as a senior leader in international development including roles as the CEO of the Aga Khan Foundation USA and Syria, founding lead for Google.org in Africa, Innovation Practice Manager at the World Bank and Senior Advisor for Strategy and Partnerships at the IMF. His roles have focused on strategy and program management, fundraising and partnerships.  

Aleem is a graduate of Emory University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed his bachelor's degree in Near Eastern studies and anthropology and his master’s degree in international development and regional planning. Aleem has also completed a program on digital transformation at MIT related to artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud computing, blockchain, internet of things, and cybersecurity.

Aleem has served on the board of directors of Interaction and IREX, the Global Partnership for Social Accountability at the World Bank, Geneva Global Advisors, and the Advisory Board to the USAID Administrator.

Wade Warren

Wade Warren is a globally recognized leader in international development, with more than three decades of experience shaping U.S. foreign assistance policy and practice. He spent 27 years at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), including serving as acting administrator, where he oversaw a workforce of 12,000 and an annual budget exceeding $40 billion. His senior leadership roles at USAID spanned the Bureaus for Policy, Planning and Learning, Global Health, and Africa, and he also served at USAID Missions in Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Wade was acting chief operating officer for the State Department’s Office of the Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance (F), helping coordinate foreign aid across agencies. Earlier in his career, he spent nine years on Capitol Hill as an analyst and speechwriter and served as chief financial officer of the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute, a nonprofit providing training to communications professionals from the developing world.

From 2018 to 2025, Wade served as Deloitte’s chief strategy officer for International Development, advising clients such as USAID, MCC, DFC, the World Bank, UN, and EU. His work focused on supporting contract delivery, enabling technology adoption across development agencies, and providing thought leadership through global platforms including the UN General Assembly, Tidewater, and the Brookings Blum Roundtable.

Wade holds a degree in history from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a graduate degree in international business from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He currently chairs the board of the Society for International Development – US Chapter.

Aaron Williams

Aaron Williams is Senior Advisor Emeritus, International Development & Government Relations, at RTI International.

Mr. Williams served as Peace Corps director (2009–2012); executive vice president of RTI International’s International Development Group (2012–2018); and vice president of international business development for RTI (2003–2009). In 2015, he was appointed as the U.S. Alternative Representative to the executive board of UNICEF. His career spans public service and the private sector, including three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. Before returning to RTI, Williams served as a senior official at a U.S. foreign assistance agency, reaching the rank of career minister in the Senior Foreign Service. His awards include the USAID Distinguished Career Service Award (1998) and the Presidential Award for Distinguished Service (1988, 1992).

He received an MBA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a BS in Geography from Chicago State University.