Ann Margaret Veneman is an American attorney who served as the fifth executive director of UNICEF from 2005 to 2010. She previously served as the 27th United States secretary of agriculture from 2001 to 2005. Veneman served for the entire first term of President George W. Bush, and she left to take the UNICEF position. Appointed by the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on January 18, 2005, she took over the post on May 1, 2005. A lawyer, Veneman has practiced law in Washington, DC and California, including being a deputy public defender. She has also served in other high-level positions in both the state and the federal government of the United States, including being appointed secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, serving from 1995 to 1999, as well as United States deputy secretary of agriculture, serving from 1991 to 1993. Throughout her public career, Veneman was the first woman to serve in a number of positions, including secretary of agriculture, deputy secretary of agriculture, and California's secretary of food and agriculture. She was also just the second woman to lead UNICEF, following her predecessor, Carol Bellamy.
The chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is the head of the Federal Reserve, and is the active executive officer of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The chairman presides at meetings of the Board.
Sherrie Rollins Westin is an American businesswoman. She is the president of Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization that produces the television series Sesame Street.
Catherine Bertini is an American public servant. She is the 2003 World Food Prize Laureate. She was the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program from 1992 to 2002. She served as the UN Under-Secretary for Management from 2003 to 2005. Currently she is a distinguished fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Chair of the Board of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the Chair of the Executive Board of the Crop Trust.
The Society for International Development (SID) was founded in Washington, D.C., United States, in 1957.
Melville Peter McPherson is president emeritus of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. He previously served as a special assistant to President Gerald Ford, administrator of USAID under President Ronald Reagan, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Treasury, President of Michigan State University from 1993 to 2004, and Chairman of Dow Jones.
Mina Nguyen is an American executive at Jane Street Capital. In October 2017, she was appointed as a member of the SEC's Investor Advisory Committee. Prior to Jane Street, she was a Managing Director at AQR Capital Management and senior adviser to its founder Cliff Asness. Nguyen was deputy assistant secretary of Business Affairs at the US Treasury Department from 2006 to 2007, appointed by then-Secretary Hank Paulson. Her career in business and government has revolved around regulations for private pools of capital, retirement security, leverage and derivative use at investment funds and ESG investing. In the 2004 US Presidential Campaign she served as National Business Director for the Bush-Cheney ticket.
William Raymond Steiger is a Public Policy Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.. He served as Chief of Staff at the United States Agency for international Development from 2017 to 2021. Previously, Steiger was the chief program officer at Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, an organization affiliated with the George W. Bush Institute, which works to reduce deaths from cervical cancer and breast cancer in low- and middle-income countries. He was the Special Assistant to the Secretary for International Affairs and the Director of the Office of Global Health Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) during the George W. Bush administration, with a portfolio that included HIV/AIDS, malaria, avian flu and pandemic-influenza preparedness.
Kul Chandra Gautam is a distinguished diplomat, development professional, and a former senior official of the United Nations. Currently, he serves on the boards of several international and national organizations, charitable foundations and public-private partnerships. Previously, he served in senior managerial and leadership positions with the United Nations in several countries, in a career spanning over three decades. As a former deputy executive director of UNICEF and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, he holds extensive experience in international diplomacy, development cooperation, and humanitarian assistance.
Lael Brainard is an American economist serving as the 14th director of the National Economic Council since February 21, 2023. She previously served as the 22nd vice chair of the Federal Reserve between May 2022 and February 2023. Prior to her term as vice chair, Brainard served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, taking office in 2014. Before her appointment to the Federal Reserve, she served as the under secretary of the treasury for international affairs from 2010 to 2013.
Omar Abdi is a Somali-Canadian diplomat. He serves as the Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Torild Skard is a Norwegian psychologist, politician for the Socialist Left Party, a former Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a former Chairman of UNICEF.
Catherine Mary Russell is an American attorney and political adviser who is the current Executive Director of UNICEF. Russell previously served as Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, and Chief of Staff to then-Second Lady of the United States Jill Biden.
Margaret Ann "Peggy" Hamburg is an American physician and public health administrator, who is serving as the chair of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and co-chair of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP). She served as the 21st Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from May 2009 to April 2015.
Zina Harman was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Alignment between 1969 and 1974 and as Chairman of UNICEF from 1964 to 1966.
In his "A New Beginning" speech on June 4, 2009, at Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt, President of the United States Barack Obama stated that "I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings." During the speech, he also committed to "host a Summit on Entrepreneurship this year to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world".
Leonor "Liling" Mirasol Magtolis-Briones is a Filipina academician, economist, and civil servant who served as Secretary of Education under the Duterte administration. She is also professor emeritus of public administration at the National College of Public Administration & Governance (NCPAG) of the University of the Philippines Diliman and was chairman of the board of directors of Silliman University in Dumaguete.
Gayle Elizabeth Smith is the former CEO of the One Campaign. Smith was formerly Coordinator for Global COVID Response and Health Security at the U.S. Department of State. and was the former Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Heath Price Tarbert is an American lawyer and former government official who most recently served as the 14th Chairman and a Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Prior to leading the CFTC, he served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Markets and Development and as acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. As of July 1, 2023, he is Chief Legal Officer and Head of Corporate Affairs for Circle.
Nina Schwalbe is an American public health researcher who is the founder of Spark Street Advisors, a public health think tank based in New York City. Schwalbe specializes in vaccines. She has previously worked at Gavi, UNICEF and USAID.
