Elisabeth Mason is an American lawyer and venture philanthropist. She serves as the Founding Director of the Stanford Technology, Opportunity and Poverty Lab at Stanford University. She is also the co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Single Stop USA, a nonprofit that promotes economic mobility by connecting people to untapped US Government benefits.[1][2]
Mason has received numerous awards, including two White House Social Innovation Awards and the Robin Hood Foundation Heroes Award. NY1 named Mason "New Yorker of the Year" in 2015 for her work on anti-poverty initiatives directed at low-income New Yorkers.[3][4]
When she was in College, Mason spent a semester in India, where she worked with Mother Teresa's nuns in a leper colony. After graduating, she joined the Peace Corps and was posted to Costa Rica.[7]
In 1991, she founded Fundacion Kukula, an agency that helped poor youth and their families. Mason served as the Executive Director of the organisation until 1996 and spent seven years in Latin America. During her tenure with Fundación Kukula, she was one of the Founding Members of the Central American branch of the Latin American Children's Movement.[8]
Career
After graduating from Columbia University, Mason joined Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and worked there for one year. In 1999, she joined the Robin Hood Foundation as Managing Director. At Robin Hood, she worked closely with low-income families in New York City and helped found New York's Earned Income Tax Campaign, which has since delivered over $1 billion in tax credits to low-income New Yorkers. Robin Hood’s remit does not extend beyond New York City.[9]
In 2005, Mason joined Atlantic Philanthropies as Senior Advisor. At Atlantic Philanthropies, she helped develop a $1 billion, 10-year spend-down plan to help disadvantaged children. In 2006, she co-founded Single Stop USA, an organisation that helps low-income individuals by assessing their conditions and connecting them to available non-profit programs. A New York-based version of Single Stop had been incubated at Robin Hood; Mason founded Single Stop USA in order to expand the program nationwide.[10]
During her time as the CEO of Single Stop, Mason won several awards and Single Stop grew to have 113 locations in the US. The organization received two White House Social Innovation Fund grants, was named among the Top Ten in Global Social Impact from Fast Company[11] and was called "one of the big ideas in social change" by The New York Times.[12] Mason stepped down from the position of CEO of Single Stop in 2015 and took an advisory board member role. In September 2015, she joined the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, and in 2016 founded the Stanford Technology, Opportunity & Poverty Lab, later renamed the Stanford Poverty and Technology Lab.[13]
Mason has served as an advisor to the United Nations and to local and international agencies on various human and children’s rights, legislative reform, juvenile justice, and community and youth development programs.[14] She has co-authored two papers, Connecting the Dots: Community Colleges, Children, and Our Country’s Future, a book chapter in Big Ideas: Game Changers for Children and Improving Health, Human Services, and Education Outcomes and Reducing Poverty.[15][16] She is also a contributing author at the Huffington Post on issues of education and social policy.[17]
In February 2019, Mason was featured in a World Bank special session broadcast live in 180 countries on the emerging issues in Digital Technologies and Inclusive Development.[18]
Criticism
Mason has often been criticized for her role in the high-profile dispute between the Malaysian government and the heirs of the Sulu Sultanate. She has been said to have links to global legal financing firms like Therium and Silicon Valley tech giants like Facebook, both of which are said to have interests in the oil-rich Sabah region. Therium provided third-party litigation funding to the heirs of the Sulu Sultanate, an amount which Reuters confirmed was about $20 million. [19]
Separately, a Euronews report said, “Elisabeth Mason, another lawyer representing the Sulu heirs, works closely with executives from tech giants Google and Facebook. Famously, both have been accused of backing organizations involved in climate denial and making millions from ads for ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron and Shell or entities like The American Petroleum Institute.”[20]
In April 2023 Maurizio Geri wrote in Real Clear Defence that “there can be little doubt then that as long as Malaysia refuses to budge on exemptions for foreign vessels operating in Sabah and continues to move in a pro-China direction on digital infrastructure, major American tech firms may well have an underlying interest in undermining federal control over Sabah”.[21]
Geri wrote that Mason’s close proximity to “US tech giants raises the question of whether the lawsuit representing the Sulu heirs is linked to interests with a much larger stake in the geopolitical rivalry unfolding in the Asia-Pacific over control of the region’s data networks”. The report adds that funding for Mason’s Stanford Poverty and Technology Lab “came specifically from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the main philanthropic initiative run by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife”.[21]
International presence
Mason - and Paul Cohen of the British law firm 4-5 Gray's Inn Square – was the lead co-counsel for claimants in the high-profile Malaysia-Sulu arbitration case. The claimants proclaimed themselves as the heirs of the last Sultan of Sulu and demanded compensation from the Malaysian government for a colonial-era agreement it stopped honouring in 2013.
The claimants sought US$32 billion from the Malaysian government in lost revenue on account of allegedly violating the colonial era agreement. As the agreement involved Great Britain until at least 1946, the claimants first approached the UK for intervention. After UK's refusal, the claimants approached the Madrid High Court to appoint an arbitrator. The court subsequently appointed Gonzalo Stampa as the sole arbitrator on May 22, 2019.
The Madrid High Court of Justice of Madrid later annulled the arbitrator’s appointment on June 29, 2021. However, Stampa termed it ‘an unauthorised local-court intrusion’ and moved the arbitration seat from Madrid to Paris. The arbitrator rendered his final award in Paris, ordering Malaysia to pay US$14.9 billion in compensation to the claimants.[22]
On June 6, the Paris Court of Appeal declared that the arbitral tribunal had no jurisdiction over the case, annulling the $14.9bn award by Stampa. He is now facing criminal charges in Spain. He was sentenced to six months in prison and banned from acting as an arbitrator for one year for “knowingly disobeying rulings and orders from the Madrid High Court of Justice”.[23] According to Law360, the Spanish courts’ decision to move ahead with criminal proceedings against Stampa marked a significant “victory for the Malaysian government”.[24]
Related Research Articles
North Borneo was a British protectorate in the northern part of the island of Borneo, which is present day Sabah. The territory of North Borneo was originally established by concessions of the Sultanates of Brunei and Sulu in 1877 and 1878 to a German-born representative of Austria-Hungary, a businessman and diplomat, Gustav Overbeck.
The Sultanate of Sulu was a Muslim state that ruled the Sulu Archipelago, costal areas of Zamboanga City and certain portions of Palawan in the today's Philippines, alongside parts of present-day Sabah, North and East Kalimantan in north-eastern Borneo.
The North Borneo Chartered Company (NBCC), also known as the British North Borneo Company (BNBC) was a British chartered company formed on 1 November 1881 to administer and exploit the resources of North Borneo. The territory became a protectorate of the British Empire in 1888 but the company remained involved with the territory until 1946 (1941), when administration was fully assumed by the Crown colony government.
The North Borneo Federation, also known as North Kalimantan, was a proposed political entity which would have comprised the British colonies of Sarawak, British North Borneo and the protectorate of Brunei.
The North Borneo dispute, also known as the Sabah dispute, is the territorial dispute between Malaysia and the Philippines over much of the eastern part of the state of Sabah. Sabah was previously known as North Borneo prior to the formation of the Malaysian federation.
Dato' Sri Azalina binti Othman Said is a Malaysian politician and lawyer who has served as the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration under former Prime Minister Najib Razak from July 2015 to the collapse of the BN administration in May 2018 and in the Anwar Ibrahim Cabinet since December 2022 as well as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Pengerang since March 2004. She served as the Special Advisor to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Law and Human Rights from September 2021 to her resignation in August 2022, Deputy Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat II from July 2020 to her resignation in August 2021, Minister of Tourism from March 2008 to April 2009 and the Minister of Youth and Sports from March 2004 to March 2008 in the BN administration under former Prime Ministers Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Razak and Chairperson of the National Film Development Corporation from June 2015 to her ministerial appointment in July 2015. She created history by being the first female deputy speaker. She is a Member of the Supreme Council and Division Chief of Pengerang of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a component party of the BN coalition. She has also served as the Information Chief of UMNO since March 2023 and also served as the 1st Women Youth Chief of UMNO from April 2001 to September 2004.
Jamalul ibni Punjungan Kiram III was a former self-proclaimed Sultan of the Sulu Sultanate who claimed to be "the poorest sultan in the world". He was known as an unsuccessful candidate for senator in the Philippine general elections in 2007. In 2013, Kiram III sparked a controversy when he revived a dispute between the Philippines and Malaysia by leading an intrusion into the eastern part of Sabah. His daughter is Princess Jacel Kiram, a proponent of the Sabah claim of the Philippines in 2016.
The Madrid Protocol of 1885 was an agreement between the United Kingdom, German Empire and Spain to recognize the sovereignty of Spain over the Sulu Archipelago as well as the limit of Spanish influence in the region. Under the agreement, Spain relinquishes all claim to Borneo.
The Spanish Government renounces, as far as regards the British Government, all claims of sovereignty over the
territories of the continent of Borneo, which belong, or which have belonged in the past to the Sultan of Sulu (Jolo), and which comprise the neighbouring islands of Balambangan, Banguey, and Malawali, as well as all those comprised within
a zone of three maritime leagues from the coast, and which form part of the territories administered by the Company styled the "British North Borneo Company".
The Malaysia–Philippines border is a maritime boundary located in the South China, Sulu and Celebes Seas. It separates the Malaysian state of Sabah, which is on the island of Borneo, and the Sulu Islands of the southern Philippines.
Sharif ul-Hashim was the regal name of Sharif Abubakar Abirin Al-Hashmi. He was an Arab-Muslim explorer and the founder of the Sultanate of Sulu. He assumed the political and spiritual leadership of the realm, and was given the title Sultan, and was also the first Sultan of Sulu.
The Court of Appeal of Paris is the largest appeals court in France in terms of the number of cases brought before it. Its jurisdiction covers the departments of Paris, Essonne, Yonne, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis, and the Val de Marne.
Gustav Overbeck from 1867 von Overbeck, in 1873 Baron von Overbeck, in 1877 Maharaja of Sabah and Rajah of Gaya and Sandakan, was a German businessman, adventurer and diplomat.
The Crown Colony of North Borneo was a Crown colony on the island of Borneo established in 1946 shortly after the dissolution of the British Military Administration. The Crown Colony of Labuan joined the new Crown Colony during its formation. It was succeeded as the state of Sabah through the formation of the Federation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963.
Single Stop is a nonprofit organization that fosters economic mobility and financial stability in the U.S. by connecting people through a coordinated "one-stop shop" platform that links individuals to a comprehensive array of federal, state, and local benefits and resources.
Jamalul Kiram II was the sultan of Sulu from 1894 to 1915. During his long reign, he signed treaties with several nations. He served under both Spain and America.
Thomas Bradley Harris was an American businessman and co-founder of the American colony of "Ellena" together with Joseph William Torrey on the island of Borneo.
The American Trading Company of Borneo was a chartered company formed by Joseph William Torrey, Thomas Bradley Harris together with several Chinese investors shortly after the acquisition over a parcel of land in northern Borneo from the Sultanate of Brunei. The first American settlement in the area soon was named "Ellena", although it was abandoned later due to financial difficulties, diseases and riots among the workers.
Paul Henri Cohen is a British lawyer, author and arbitration counsellor. Called to the bar in 2011, his work has included representing alleged descendants of the last Sultan of the Sulu Empire against Malaysia in a multi-billion-dollar case involving Sabah and a colonial-era agreement.
The Malaysia Sulu case refers to an arbitration case which involving the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu and the government of Malaysia in the Spanish and later French court system.
Gonzalo Stampa, is a Spanish lawyer, author and arbitration judge best known for his arbitration role in the Malaysia-Sulu Case. He is the founding partner of law firm Stampa Abogados in Madrid. According to ICLG, Stampa has over 30 years of legal practicing experience and has served as the arbitrator in more than 172 international arbitrations. He is a Corresponding Academician at the Royal European Academy of Doctors (RAED).
References
↑ "Elisabeth Mason". Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality. Stanford University. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
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