Mr. Jarosław Wałęsa, MEP

Political Leader

Poland

Jarosław Wałęsa is currently serving as a member of the European Parliament. Prior to his election, Wałęsa served two terms in the Polish Parliament from 2005 to 2009 and on the European Union Commission and Foreign Affairs Commission. In 2012, Wałęsa authored and championed a written declaration in support of the Global Zero Action Plan, which was adopted by the European Parliament in January 2013 and sent to the European Commission, Member States and then-U.S. President Barack Obama. In addition to his work with Global Zero, Wałęsa also serves as deputy chair of the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) European Parliament Section.

Min. Margot Wallström

Diplomat

Sweden

Minister Margot Wallström currently serves as Sweden’s minister of foreign affairs. Prior to this role, she served as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, as well as environment commissioner and vice president of the European Commission, a post she held from 2004 to 2010. Having long been involved in politics, she was first elected as a member of the Swedish Parliament in 1979. Following her service in parliament, she held several ministerial positions, including minister of civil affairs, minister of culture, and minister of social affairs. Throughout her career, she has been actively involved in advocating for the participation of women in peace and security-related issues. She was the co-founder of the European Union intern-institutional group of women and a supporter of the 50-50 Campaign for Democracy, both efforts to promote a more gender-balanced European Union. Wallström has received numerous awards, including the Monismanien Award for Freedom of Speech and the Goteborg Award on Sustainable Development.

Prof. Wang Jisi

National Security Expert

China

Professor Wang Jisi is the dean of the School of International Studies and director of the Center for International and Strategic Studies at Peking University. He is a member of the foreign policy advisory committee of the Foreign Ministry of China and president of the Chinese Administration for American Studies. He is a former professor of the National Defense University of the People’s Liberation Army and the former director of the Institute of International Strategic Studies at the Central Party School, the most prestigious training institution for Communist Party officials. Wang is a founding member of the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles and an advisory council member of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at The Brookings Institution. He is also on the editorial boards of “The American Interest,” “Global Asia” and several Chinese scholarly journals. He was named one of 2012’s 100 Top Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy for his work in relaying Chinese views of America.

Mr. Frederick W. Whitridge Jr.

Civic Leader

United States

An entrepreneur and investor with great interest in international security issues, Frederick Whitridge, Jr. is the president and founder of the Archipelago Corporation. Since November 1996, he has been a director of Adaptive Broadband, a company producing microwave radio products. He is also director of DFI Corporate Services Inc. and DFI International. From 1988 to 1992, he held the position of chief investment officer and vice president of the North American office of the Swedish Wallenberg Group.

Rev. Tyler Wigg-Stevenson

Civic Leader

United States

The Reverend Tyler Wigg-Stevenson is an ordained Baptist minister and founder and director of the Two Futures Project, a movement of Christians for nuclear threat reduction and the abolition of nuclear weapons worldwide. He is also the chairman of the Global Task Force on Nuclear Weapons, an initiative of the World Evangelical Alliance, and policy director for Faithful Security, the national religious partnership on nuclear weapons danger. He has been highly involved in nuclear policy for more than a decade, working under Senator Alan Cranston as the first staff member of the Global Security Institute, where he now serves on the board of directors. He has worked extensively to rejuvenate faith-based activism on nuclear weapons issues.

Rt. Hon. Baroness Shirley Williams

Political Leader

United Kingdom

The Right Honorable Baroness Shirley Williams was a member of the House of Lords, where she was leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2001 to 2004. She began her career as a journalist for The Daily Mirror and Financial Times and in 1960 became secretary of the Fabien Society. Earlier in her career, Lady Williams was a member of the House of Commons and served as a Labour cabinet minister of education and science. She was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations International and serves on several other boards, including the Moscow School of Political Studies and the International Crisis Group. Williams passed away on April 12, 2021.

Mr. Jon Wolfsthal

National Security Expert

United States

Jon Wolfsthal is Senior Advisor to Global Zero and director of the Nuclear Crisis Group. From 2014 to 2017, he served as special assistant to former U.S. president Barack Obama and senior director for arms control and nonproliferation at the National Security Council. He has also served as special adviser to then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden for nuclear security and nonproliferation and as a director for nonproliferation on the National Security Council. He supported the Obama administration’s negotiation and ratification of the New START arms reduction agreement with the Russian Federation, and helped support the development of nuclear policy, including through the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review.

Amb. Wu Jianmin

Diplomat

China

Ambassador Wu Jianmin’s career in international diplomacy spanned nearly half a century. He was part of the Chinese mission to the United Nations in New York from 1971 to 1977, and served as counselor for China at the UN from 1985 to 1988. He was spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry before serving as ambassador to the Netherlands from 1994 to 1996, permanent representative to the UN Office in Geneva from 1996 to 1998, and ambassador to France from 1998 to 2003.

Later in his career, he became president of China Foreign Affairs University and deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He served as chairman of Shanghai Center for International Studies, vice-chairman of China Institute of Strategy and Management, and a member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Committee of the Foreign Ministry.

Ambassador Wu passed away in June 2016.

Wu was a member of the Global Zero Commission.