"The MEII stands out as one of the most important efforts to promote the economic development of Palestinian businesses and one that will truly make a difference."
Madeleine K. Albright served as the 64th Secretary of State of the United States. In 1997, she became the first woman Secretary of State and the highest ranking woman in the history of the US government. From 1993 to 1997, Dr. Albright was the United States permanent representative to the United Nations. Dr. Albright is the founder of The Albright Group LLC, a global strategy firm, and holds an endowed chair at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, serves as Chairman of The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, as well as The Pew Global Attitudes Project. She is President of the Truman Scholarship Foundation and serves on the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Institute.
Ziad Asali, M.D., is the President and founder of the American Task Force on Palestine. He has been a member of the Chairman’s Council of American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and was the Chairman of the American Committee on Jerusalem. Dr. Asali received his M.D. from the American University of Beirut Medical School in 1967. He completed his residency in Salt Lake City, Utah, and then practiced medicine in Jerusalem before returning to the U.S. in 1973. He was the Medical Director and Chairman of the Board at the Christina County Medical Clinic in Taylorville, Illinois and served as Chairman of the Board of Physicians Health Association of Illinois before he retired in 2000. Dr. Asali has testified before Congress on a number of issues; served as a member of the U.S. official delegation to the funeral of Chairman Yasser Arafat; and as a member of the U.S. official delegation to observe Palestinian Presidential elections in January 2005. Dr. Asali was also a member of the official delegation of the U.S. Department of State to monitor the launch of the MEII program in 2007.
Berl Bernhard served as Chairman of the Aspen Institute from 1991 to 1996. He is a partner in the law firm of DLA Piper specializing in international law, corporate investigations, legislation and aviation. He directed the United States Commission on Civil Rights under President Kennedy and served in the State Department as Special Counsel to Under Secretary W. Averell Harriman and later as Executive Counsel to Secretary of State Edmund Muskie. In 1965, President Johnson named him Director and Counsel of the White House Conference "To Fulfill These Rights". A graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Law School, he was a law clerk to Federal Judge Luther W. Youngdahl. He has served as a board member of a number of public and private companies, as a Trustee of Dartmouth College, Overseer of the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration and the Board of Higher Education of the District of Columbia.
Henry E. Catto has served as director of the U.S. Information Agency and has been ambassador to Great Britain, deputy representative to the Organization of American States, ambassador to El Salvador, ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, assistant secretary of defense, and U.S. chief of protocol. He is a contributing editor to American Journalism Review magazine, serves as chairman of the Atlantic Council of the United States, and is on the Advisory Board of Direct Relief International.
Nafez Husseini is the Chief Technology & Telecommunications Officer of the Greece-based Consolidated Contractors Company, a multi-billion dollar engineering group and the largest construction company in the Middle East. Nafez is very active in promoting knowledge-based economies and has been a key founding member of the Palestine Education Initiative. He is a strong advocate of the leading role of the Palestinian Private Sector in transforming and building capacity of the local economy and in the resiliency and contribution of SMEs to economic development in conflict situations. A native of Jerusalem, Nafez holds a Bachelor's degree from the American University of Beirut and a Master's from California State University - Sacramento specializing in Management and Information Technology.
Ann McLaughlin Korologos is a Chairman Emeritus of the Aspen Institute, having served as Chairman from 1996 through August of 2000, is also Chairman of the RAND board of trustees. From 1990-1995 she served as president of the Federal City Council, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization comprised of 150 top business and civic leaders dedicated to improving the nation's capital. She served as a Trustee and is a former visiting fellow of The Urban Institute, a private, nonprofit policy research and educational organization in Washington, DC. She is a member of the Board of Directors of The Dana Foundation. She was a top official in the Departments of Treasury and Interior and served as U. S. Secretary of Labor under President Reagan. From 1989-1990 she served as Chairman of the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism.
Elizabeth A. Liechty is a senior partner at the Charter Financial Group, a private financial planning services firm. Charter is affiliated with Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp., a broker/dealer and registered investment advisor, a leader in financial planning in the United States for the past 50 years. She provides financial planning for clientele that ranges from Fortune 500 executives to those who receive pro bono services, especially, hospice patients and their families. In addition to her professional commitments, she provides financial expertise to several non-profit organizations including, Hospice of the Chesapeake's Spiritual and Bereavement Care Center and their Beads for Brit program that provides food and shelter for patients served by the Damonsville Project in South Africa. She chairs the financial committee of the Board of Directors for Sante Fe Soul Foundation, an organization that provides integrative medical care for the uninsured in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is the co-chair of the Board of Directors for KidsPeace, a private foster care agency in Baltimore, MD. In 2008, she received the Legacy Award, Lincoln Financial Advisors humanitarian award for the combination of professional designations and community service.
CRN200902-2026446
William E. Mayer is the Senior Partner of Park Avenue Equity Partners, a private equity fund. From the fall of 1992 until December 1996, Mr. Mayer was a professor and Dean of the College of Business and Management at the University of Maryland. Mr. Mayer was with The First Boston Corporation (now Credit Suisse) for 23 years where he held numerous management positions including President and CEO. Mr. Mayer is currently a board member of BlackRock Kelso Capital and Lee Enterprises and is a trustee of the Columbia Group of Mutual Funds. Over the past 30 years, he has been a board member of numerous other public and private companies. In July 2006, Mr. Mayer became Chairman of the Board of the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.
Randa Masri is an international business development consultant experienced in identifying and maximizing new business opportunities for companies working in the Middle East. She is the president of Connections, LLC a firm specializing in the development of women-owned businesses and job creation for women and youth in Palestine. Ms. Masri is also presently serving as an advisor to the president of AMIDEAST and working on a range of funding and fundraising initiatives. Since 2007, Ms. Masri has served on the Board of Directors at the American Task Force for Palestine and a board member at the Welfare Association. She was also involved with the World Affairs Council as an adviser on Middle East Programs. She has worked in the real estate business since 1986. She provided relocation-consulting services and represented clients from the Middle East in some of the most notable Real Estate transactions in the Washington, DC area. She holds a graduate certificate in Non-Profit Management from Georgetown University.
Ambassador Pickering is vice chairman of Hills & Company, an international consulting firm providing advice to U.S. businesses on investment, trade, and risk assessment issues abroad, particularly in emerging market economies. He retired in 2006 as Senior Vice President, International Relations for the Boeing Corporation. His career as a U.S. diplomat spanned five decades, serving as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Ambassador to the United Nations, Ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, Nigeria, Jordan and El Salvador. He also served on assignments in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. He has held numerous other positions at the State Department, including Executive Secretary and Special Assistant to Secretaries Rogers and Kissinger and Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Oceans, Environmental and Scientific Affairs.
Jim Pickup is President of the Middle East Investment Initiative (MEII); a partner at DLA Piper, an international law firm; and General Counsel of the Aspen Institute. He is also an advisor for Middle East Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, and serves on the board of directors of the Iraq Middle Market Development Foundation (IMMDF), which is working across Iraq to provide large commercial loans to private Iraqi businesses. In 2000 and 2001, Jim served as Sen. George Mitchell's representative when the senator chaired the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee, an international committee established to examine the crisis between the Israelis and Palestinians and make recommendations to prevent its recurrence. He played a significant role in the committee's activities and the drafting of its report, which has become known as the Mitchell Plan. Jim is a member of the Aspen Institute Middle East Strategy Group, and was an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow. In 2007, he was named by DLA Piper as the firm's national pro bono partner of the year. Jim graduated magna cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center; received a Master in International Affairs degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs; and graduated with honors (M.A. hons.) from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
George Salem is a Strategic Advisor to the law firm of DLA Piper and helps direct development of the firm's Middle East and Gulf region practice. He served as Solicitor of Labor from 1985 to 1989, and is a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He co-founded the Arab American Institute in 1985 and currently serves as its chairman. He has served on the board of directors of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and is a past president of the National Association of Arab Americans. In 2003 he was named to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy's Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim World, which was assembled at the request of Congress to study the State Department's public diplomacy efforts in these regions. Mr. Salem is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who in American Politics, Who's Who in Finance and Industry, The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers and The International Who's Who of Labor Lawyers, as well as in Chambers USA America's Leading Business Lawyers and Washington, DC Super Lawyers.
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