Class of 2005 Bios

Lusine Abovyan is President of Abovyan Consulting, a company offering valuation, audit, registration and licensing of intellectual property rights. As a former constitutional law specialist for the Armenia Legislative Strengthening Program, she worked with the Armenian Parliament to rewrite the country's constitution, establishing free speech, asserting parliamentary power, and improving legislative-executive relations.

Lusine served as legal counsel for Internews Armenia and was a law lecturer at the American University of Armenia, teaching Media Law and Intellectual Property Law. She began her career at Shant TV where she wrote and produced television shows aimed at promoting economic and legal reforms in Armenia. She covered legal and economic issues as the News Department Director.

Marianne Camerer is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town (UCT) where she focuses on ethics, leadership, and accountability. She previously directed the Building Bridges Programme, a leadership development platform, at The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, also at the University of Cape Town. In 2014 she initiated the flagship Emerging African Leaders Programme which now has over 100 alumnus from ten African countries. Beyond research and teaching she works with a team of facilitators to develop innovative executive training for senior public officials and social entrepreneurs in Africa, with a particular focus on ethical leadership and accountability.

Prior to joining UCT, Marianne co-founded the international anti-corruption NGO Global Integrity and headed anti-corruption research at the Institute for Security Studies. Marianne is passionate about leadership development and  qualified as an integral coach through UCT's Centre for Coaching at the Graduate School of Business.

She currently serves on the advisory board of the Centre for the Advancement of Public Integrity (CAPI) at Columbia Law School. Marianne holds Masters' degrees in public policy and political philosophy from Oxford and the University of Stellenbosch. Her Ph.D. in Political Studies, from the University of Witwatersrand, focused on "Corruption and Reform in Democratic South Africa."

The Honourable Marvin Dames currently serves as the Minister of National Security for The Commonwealth of the Bahamas. He previously served as 23-year veteran of the Royal Bahamas Police Force with his last post as the Deputy Commissioner of Police.

In 2011, Marvin joined the corporate team responsible for opening the luxury resort, Baha Mar, in Nassau. In this executive role, he was responsible for providing advice and direction on Baha Mar's security-related needs during all phases of the project from design to operations.

Marvin has received training from the FBI Academy in the United States, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police College in Ottawa, Canada, and a five-month Strategic Leadership Programme in the United Kingdom in addition to other international postings and assignments. 

Bakhodir Ganiev is a consultant to the Asian Development Bank where he consults on issues of education, finance, and small business development.

A native of Uzbekistan, he also works to advance its economic growth, social transformation, and political modernization, and supports active participation of youth in development processes. He previously chaired the Central Council of the Civic Movement of Youth of Uzbekistan "Kamolot", the largest NGO in the country, which has over 4 million members.

He is also a member of boards of numerous organizations and many minister-level state commissions, including commissions on prevention of human trafficking, AIDS, and juvenile crime.

A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he was elected to serve a five year term in the national parliament in 2009. Previously, he served as Deputy Director of the Antimonopoly Policy Improvement Center, a think tank specializing in policy analysis on competition enforcement and private sector development.

As a former foreign investment specialist at the Tashkent City Mayor’s Office and a mayor’s advisory board member, Bakhodir has firsthand experience in developing commercial enterprise through public-private partnerships.

Paromita Goswami seeks to empower some of India’s poorest and most marginalized citizens: the residents of the Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts of the state of Maharashtra. To protect their rights and help them access justice, she has created several non-profit organizations including Elgar Pratishthan, which concentrates on the economic and educational development of rural communities, and Shramik Elgar, a 10,000-member union of rural workers.

Trained as a lawyer, Paromita has brought legal challenges on behalf of these members to India’s Supreme Court. Regarded as one of the top labor organizers in the region, she built a training center for rural community organizers. She is also involved in strengthening elected representatives of local self governance, organizing women against violence and implementation of social justice legislation. 

Darius Gudelis served as Chairman of the Board at vip:communications, a Lithuanian public relations, lobbying, and advertisement firm specializing in integrated communications for the private and public sector. His focus was on investing in regional media and business development in Central and Eastern Europe. He also co-founded the Institute of Strategic Research, a policy research and analysis organization. He is also co-owner of the Lithuanian basketball team, BC RYTAS VILNIUS.

Elected the youngest mayor in the history of Lithuania at age 26, Darius rose early to national prominence and established a track record for economic improvement and a reputation for ethical government. In 2004, Darius became manager of Valdas Adamkus’s presidential campaign and was credited with guiding Adamkus to victory, later becoming his Chief Domestic Policy Advisor.

Irène C. Hors is Deputy Director of the Public Governance Directorate at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). She leads efforts to design and implement strategic, evidence-based and innovative policies to strengthen good governance.

She was previously the first-ever OECD adviser in Beijing, where she is laid the groundwork for China's engagement with the organization, including providing strategic advice to OECD headquarters on the development of the OECD-China relationship, building and facilitating contacts with the Chinese administration, tracking policy developments and providing insight into the OECD-China relationship.

Previously, Irène served as Coordinator of the China Governance Program at the OECD in Paris and was a manager in the Anti-Corruption Division. She has degrees from École Polytechnique and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.

Hauwa Ibrahim, J.D., S.J.D., M.L., is an internationally known human rights lawyer, currently serving as President of The Peace Institute, who was awarded the European Parliament Sakharov Prize for freedom of thoughts in 2005. She has defended over 150 cases involving women sentenced to death by stoning and children sentenced to amputation of limbs under Shariah law. Brought up in a small village in northern Nigeria, Hauwa was born into a culture that did not encourage schooling for girls beyond elementary school. Through sheer persistence and the gracious support of others, she attended teachers’ high school for women, the local university in Jos, Nigeria and continued to law school.

Prior to launching her legal practice in 1996, she was a prosecutor in the Ministry of Justice in Bauchi State. Hauwa has taught at Harvard University, University of Rome, and over a dozen universities around the world. She is the founder of the project, “Mothers Without Borders” which focuses on diverting youth from extremism.

In 2014, President Jonathan of Nigeria invited her back to Nigeria to join efforts of rescuing the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. She was invited by His Royal Highness Prince Hassan Bin Talal of Jordon in 2015 and in 2017 she was invited by the acting President of Nigeria to assist with allegation of human rights abuses against the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Hauwa is a member of the groundbreaking Global Information and Democracy Commission, a panel of 25 prominent figures formed by Reporters without Borders in September 2018 to draft an International Declaration on Information and Democracy. She also serves as a consultant to many human rights and non-governmental organizations.

Hassan Jabareen is a Palestinian human rights lawyer and the founder of Adalah, a law firm practicing human rights law in Israel. He has served as Adalah’s general and legal director since its establishment in 1996.

Over the last 25 years, he has litigated scores of landmark constitutional law cases regarding Palestinian citizens of Israel, including the Palestinian leadership, and international humanitarian law cases concerning Palestinians in the 1967 Occupied Territory before the Israeli Supreme Court. Also, since 1998, he has been an adjunct lecturer for a course that he initiated on the legal status of the Arab minority in Israel and other law courses in the Faculties of Law at Tel Aviv, Hebrew, and Haifa Universities.

He has received several awards for outstanding public interest lawyering and top human rights law prizes. He has also published several academic articles in edited books and law reviews on the citizenship status of the Palestinians.

Hassan was a Senior Robina Law Fellow at Yale Law School and a research fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. He holds an LLB in Law and a BA in Philosophy from Tel Aviv University, an LLM in International Human Rights from American University Washington College of Law, and a PhD in Law from Hebrew University.

Joaquín Jácome-Diez is a Panamanian lawyer and a senior partner at Jácome & Jácome where he practices international law and foreign direct investment and corporate law. Previously, as Minister of Trade and Industry for the Republic of Panama (1999- 2004), he negotiated on a Free Trade Agreement with the United States and successfully shepherded the first four rounds of talks.

During his tenure in office, Joaquín was also responsible for the negotiation of trade agreements with several other Central American countries, as well as Taiwan and Singapore. He led trade delegations to the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, and represented Panama in international trade negotiations before the World Trade Organization.

Prior to becoming Minister, Joaquín served as the Chief Legal Advisor to Econogrupo, a leading Panamanian financial institution, and he held diplomatic positions in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Lithuania through the Embassy of Panama.

Emlyn Jones is a Family Medicine Physician at Kaiser Permanente in California. She completed a joint MD/Master of Health Science Research degree at the Yale School of Medicine in 2007. While at Yale, Emlyn participated in a clinical research fellowship with the Doris Duke Foundation investigating the economics of substance abuse treatment and also traveled to South Africa to investigate the immune response to hepatitis B vaccination in HIV positive children.

She received her undergraduate degree from Emory University. During that time, she worked in Tanzania for Population Services International, as a Technical Trainer for the U.S. Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa and interned for the Carter Center's Trachoma Control Program in Atlanta.

Mi-Hyung Kim oversees the legal affairs for the Kumho Asiana Group, one of South Korea's largest conglomerates, a responsibility involving oversight of a number of companies involved in the manufacturing, construction, and transportation businesses.

As a member of the Kumho Cultural Foundation, Mi-Hyung has helped promote the fine arts in Korea and abroad, and worked to unify and support the cultural community in Northeast Asia. Long committed to a peaceful Korean peninsula, she was instrumental in organizing the 2008 historic performance by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Pyongyang, North Korea.

As a business and investment leader, Radha Kuppalli has been developing innovative finance and commercial solutions to addressing climate change and restoring and protecting nature for over 20 years. Her career has spanned executive leadership in the asset management industry, investment in real assets and private equity, business development and growth execution, and board roles in the finance, manufacturing, and environmental sectors. She is currently building businesses aligned with the transition to a net zero and nature-positive future. For 17 years, Radha was an integral staff member and executive of New Forests—building the world’s leading asset manager in forestry and natural capital. She was a Board Director and held executive positions in strategy, portfolio management, product development, capital raising, and sustainability. She has global investment experience in forestry, land, and carbon and biodiversity markets, including Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Radha began her career on the ground floor of the carbon markets, advising corporates and governments on opportunities and risks of climate change and energy policies around the world. She holds graduate degrees from Yale University in business and environmental management. Radha believes in collaboration, diversity, and sharing ideas openly and with courage to shape teams and business leaders for the transition to a sustainable future.

Molly Anna Martínez serves as Executive Administrator (COO) of Plymouth Church, renowned for its role in racial justice, women's rights, and food security. Additionally, as a certified end-of-life doula, she is working to address gaps in hospice care for persons of color, providing coaching on compassionate listening as an essential tool for health and organizational reform. 

Prior to Plymouth, Molly has held positions at World ENABLED, a disability-rights organization and International Disability Alliance, working to build relationships across business, government, and non-profit sectors on inclusive city design. Molly holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University with a specialization in organizational development.

Sascha Müller-Kraenner is CEO of Deutsche Umwelthilfe (Environmental Action Germany), a leading environmental, nature conservation, and consumer advocacy organization. He is also a founding partner and board member of the Ecologic Institute, a non-profit applied environmental policy research institute with offices in several European and North American cities.

From 2007-2014, Sascha built and led The Nature Conservancy's regional program in Europe. From 2003-2006, he served as the Heinrich Böll Foundation's Director for Europe and North America as well as head of the Foundation's program on foreign and security policy. From 1998-2002 he served as Director of the Foundation's office in Washington DC.

Sascha serves on several boards of scientific and non-profit institutions. His latest book, Energy Security, was published in 2008. Sascha and his family live in Berlin, Germany.

Henry Njoroge works to expand Kenya’s information technology sector. He currently runs Xtranet Communications which aims to capture the growing opportunities arising out of the rapid growth of mobile telephony and fiber optic cable technology on the East African Coast. He hopes to provide employment to hundreds of jobless youth in Kenya through initiatives including call centers, outsourcing and business process engineering.

He is also Chairman of the Kenya Youth Business Trust, a non-profit organization affiliated to Youth Business International, whose aim is to empower the poorest of the poor through entrepreneurship by giving microloans. Henry was previously CEO of UUNET and Openview Business Systems, and he has established and expanded several other IT companies in Kenya, Angola, Zambia, and Uganda.

Khuat Thi Hai Oanh is a medical doctor graduated from Hanoi Medical University, with a Master Degree on Sexual and Reproductive Health Research from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She co-founded the Institute for Social Development Studies (ISDS) in 2002, and the Center for Support Community Development Initiatives (SCDI) in 2010 – both are Vietnamese non-governmental organizations. Khuat is currently the Executive Director of SCDI. Aiming at contributing to Sustainable Development Goals agenda, SCDI focuses on community empowerment and creating enabling environment for the most marginalized and vulnerable populations, such as sex workers, drug users, people living with HIV, their spouses and children, poor migrants, ethnic minorities as well as LGBTIQA people.

In her other capacities, Khuat is the Chair of Vulnerable Community Support Platform of Vietnam (VCSPA), Chair of Council of Representatives of APCASO – an Asia Pacific network of civil society organiations working on health and human rights. She is a member of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee on HIV and Viral Hepatitis for World Health Organization.

In 2009, the World Economic Forum honored Khuat as a Young Global Leader. In 2014, she was given Dedoner Clayton Award by the French Pasteur Institute and Nobel Laureate Françoise Barré-Sinoussi. In 2017, she was listed among the 50 Most Influential Vietnamese Women by Forbes Vietnam.

Vicente “Vince” Santiago Pérez is an avid environmental advocate and renewable energy investor currently serving as chairman of Alternergy group, a wind, solar and mini-hydro power developer.

His philanthropy is dedicated to the environment and conservation. Vince has long been involved with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) starting with arranging debt-for-nature swaps. He was a founding trustee of WWF-Philippines in 1996. Pérez was elected to the International Board of WWF, the governing body of the global WWF network, and currently a member of the boards of WWF-China and WWF-US.  He is also a member of the Advisory Boards of the Bhutan Foundation, New Zealand Trade Enterprise, Geneva-based Pictet Clean Energy Fund and the Yale Center for Business and Environment.

Vince also served as Philippine Energy Minister from 2001 to 2005. He boosted energy self-sufficiency, promoted clean indigenous energy, and crafted an ambitious renewable policy framework.

Prior to 2001, Vince had 17 years’ experience first in Latin American debt restructuring at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, and later in debt trading and capital markets in emerging countries at Lazard in London, New York, and Singapore. At age 35, he became a General Partner at New York investment bank Lazard Frères as head of its Emerging Markets Group.

Vince obtained an MBA from the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1983 and a Bachelor's Degree in Business Economics from the University of the Philippines in 1980.  After his participation in the World Fellows Program, he briefly taught an MBA class on renewable power investing at the Yale School of Management. He is also a published author and poet.

Vince resides in Manila and Melbourne with his wife Maria and daughter Siena, and enjoys diving, yoga, Filipino martial art “stick-fighting,” and zen meditation.

RUI Chenggang was one of China's most prominent news journalists, serving as an anchor on China Central Television. As a co-founder, anchor, and director of China’s first international television channel, Chenggang aimed to restore and promote a balanced global image of Chinese society.

As CCTV's only bilingual business anchor, Chenggang interviewed many of the world's top politicians, business leaders, and economists. In 2006, Chenggang was named by the World Economic Forum as one of the 100 Most Influential Media Leaders of the World and is the author of the book, Life Begins at 30.

Henrique F. Salas-Römer is President of Proyecto Venezuela, one of the political parties that make up the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, a coalition of opposition parties in Venezuela. Henrique is also Assistant Chairman of the International Democratic Union, a working association of over 80 Conservative, Christian Democrat, and other parties of the center and center-right from over 60 countries.

Elected to the National Congress at age 32, Henrique served for two years before being elected Governor of Carabobo, the third largest state in Venezuela. He was elected to four terms as Governor of Carabobo, serving from 1995 to 2004 and from 2008 to 2012. As Governor, Henrique worked to create a solid infrastructure for Carabobo, concentrating on public services and housing for its marginalized citizens. He also improved the state’s educational system by dedicating funds to and gathering international corporate support for the development of strong schools.

He served as President of the National Governor’s Association of Venezuela from 2001 to 2004, where he advocated for decentralized government and greater local control. From 2002 to 2007 Henrique was also Vice President of the UPLA, a union of Latin American political parties.

Prior to his political career, he worked in the private sector for Chase Manhattan Bank, IBM International and was head of Strategyon, a Venezuelan think-tank.

Dr. Matthew Spence is Affiliate at CISAC, and a Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners, where he focuses on cybersecurity and emerging technologies.

Prior to entering the private sector, Matthew spent six years in senior national security positions in the U.S. government. From 2012 to 2015, Matthew served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy, where he was the principal advisor to three Secretaries of Defense for U.S. defense policy in the Middle State. He was responsible for fourteen countries in the Middle East, including Syria, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, and the Gulf states. During his time at the Pentagon, Matthew traveled to the region over 30 times, testified before Congress, and played a central role in U.S. military planning, arms sales negotiations, and cybersecurity in the Middle East.

Matthew also served in a senior role on Secretary of Defense Ash Carter’s confirmation and transition teams. He received the Secretary of Defense Award for Outstanding Public Service.

From 2009 to 20012, Matthew worked at the White House on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Economic Affairs and as Senior Advisor to two National Security Advisors. In that capacity, he traveled with and briefed President Obama in foreign trips, joined hundreds of national security meetings with the President’s cabinet, and prepared the National Security Advisor for several hundred of the President’s Daily Intelligence Briefings He worked on issues ranging from cyber security, trade, Asia policy, and the operation against Osama bin Laden. He also served on the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team.

Matthew is the co-founder and serves on the board of the Truman National Security Project, was a Lecturer in International Relations at Oxford University, and has been widely published in national security and foreign policy, including in the Yale Law Journal, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. Trained as a lawyer, Matthew also practiced criminal and international law in California, and served as a law clerk for Judge Richard Posner of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. A Marshall Scholar and Truman Scholar, Matthew received his doctorate in International Relations from Oxford University; J.D. from Yale Law School; and B.A. and M.A. in International Policy Studies from Stanford University. Dr. Spence is also a Senior Fellow at the Yale Law School Center for Global Legal Challenges and the NYU Center on Law and Security. He was born and raised in southern California.

Kazushige "Kazu" Tanaka is a senior government official of Japan working for Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) as Director of Policy Planning and Coordination Division, Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau.

As one of the Japanese ministry’s leading policymakers, Kazu has worked to create a more efficient and environmentally friendly economic system. He has served as a diplomat serving on his country's delegation to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Energy Agency (IEA). He has held a number of critical positions in METI and other government agencies, including the Governing Board Representative of Japan to the IEA, and the Vice Chair of the Standing Group on Long-Term Cooperation of the IEA. In the Europe division, he worked on the possibility of a free trade agreement between Europe and Japan. As Director of Energy Supply and Demand Office, he revised existing energy plans after the 2011 earthquake.

Kazu earned his MPhil from the University of Sussex in development studies in 2000.