Pres. Cassam Uteem

Political Leader

Mauritius

A current member of the board of directors for the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance in Sweden, the Haut Council de la Francophonie and a founding member of the Global Leadership Foundation, Cassam Uteem served as the president of the Republic of Mauritius from 1992 to 2002. As a member of Mauritian Parliament for 16 years prior to his presidency, he held the posts of deputy prime minister, minister of industry and industrial technology and minister of employment, social security and national solidarity. Uteem was also appointed United Nations secretary-general’s special envoy and head of the United Nations electoral observation mission in Burundi. He was awarded the insignia of Grand Commander of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean, the highest honor of his country.

Min. Hans van den Broek

Diplomat

Netherlands

Minister Hans van den Broek is president of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations and of Radio Netherlands. He was a member of the advisory board to the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament until the end of its mandate in 2010. After entering Dutch Parliament in 1976, he served as state secretary for European affairs, minister of foreign affairs and European commissioner of foreign relations until 1999, when he retired from European politics. He is active in supporting political leadership and good governance as a member of the Global Leadership Foundation and a member of the board of advisors to the Global Panel Foundation. In 2005, he received the honorary title of Minister of State, a prestigious, lifetime honor bestowed upon Dutch leaders who have made significant contributions to the country.

HRH Princess Mabel van Oranje

Civic Leader

Netherlands

Her Royal Highness Princess Mabel van Oranje is a founder and co-chair, together with Martti Ahtisaari and Joschka Fischer, of the European Council on Foreign Relations. She is also chair of the advisory committee of Girls Not Brides, an organization committed to ending the practice of child marriage. Princess Mabel was the chief executive officer of The Elders, the international advocacy director of the Open Society Institute from 2003 to 2008 and the executive director of the Open Society Institute in Brussels from 1997 to 2003. She founded and was the executive director of the European Action Council for Peace in the Balkans from 1993 to 1997.

Princess Mabel co-founded the Dutch foundation War Child and served on its board from 1995 to 1999. In 2005, the World Economic Forum named her one of its Young Global Leaders. She is also an advisor to multiple non-profits including Crisis Action and the Coalition for the International Criminal Court.

Dr. Evgeny Velikhov

National Security Expert

Russia

Dr. Evgeny Velikhov is an accomplished Russian scientist in the field of plasma and thermonuclear controlled fusion and is the current president of the National Research Center at the Kurchatov Institute and head of the Public Chamber of Russia. Since the mid-1970s, he has been the head of scientific studies on thermonuclear controlled fusion in the USSR and Russia. From 1977 to 1996, Velikhov served as vice president of the Soviet/Russian Academy of Sciences and in 1986 he oversaw the cleanup of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. Velikhov has also been a principal arms control negotiator, having major impact on the development of U.S.-Russian nuclear treaties in the 1980s and 1990s.

Velikhov is a member of the Global Zero Commission.

Col. Gen. (ret.) Vladimir Nikolaevich Verkhovtsev

Military Commander

Russia

Retired Colonel General Vladimir Nikolaevich Verkhovtsev is former chief of the 12th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense in the Russian Federation. A career military officer, Verkhovtsev graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. Until 2003, he was the first president of the Karachay–Cherkess Republic. He was also awarded the Order of Military Merit (Russia).

President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga

Political Leader

Latvia

The former president of Latvia, Dr. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders and the Club of Madrid, a group of over 90 former presidents and prime ministers who have come together to support democratic leadership and governance. She held her post as Latvia’s leader from 1999 to 2007, serving as the first female head of state in a post-Communist Eastern European country. As president, she played a major role in Latvia’s entrance into NATO and the European Union. In 2005, she was named special envoy to Secretary-General Kofi Annan on United Nations reform. Prior to her presidency, she was head of the Latvian Institute, an organization devoted to promoting Latvian awareness. She has regularly participated in the World Economic Forum and the American Academy of Achievement since 2000.

Dr. Frank von Hippel

National Security Expert

United States

Dr. Frank von Hippel is a professor of public and international affairs at Princeton University, where he is co-founder and co-director of the Program on Science and Global Security. He currently serves on the national advisory board of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. He is also the co-chair of the International Panel on Fissile Materials. A trained nuclear physicist, he previously served as assistant director of national security in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he played a major role in developing the International Nuclear Materials Protection and Cooperation Program. From 1983 to 1991, he served as chairman of the Federation of American Scientists, an agency that collaborated with the Committee of Soviet Scientists for Peace and Against the Nuclear Threat to provide technical support for Gorbachev’s nonproliferation initiatives, such as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. He has worked extensively on policy proposals relating to the control of nuclear materials, providing the technical framework necessary to make nonproliferation efforts a reality. He has won numerous awards for his work, including a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship and the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Hilliard Roderick Prize for Excellence in Science, Arms Control and International Security.

Hon. Eckart von Klaeden

Diplomat

Germany

The Honorable Eckart von Klaeden is vice president for external affairs at Daimler AG. He served as a member of the German Bundestag from 1994 to 2013, most recently holding the position of minister of state to the Federal Chancellor. After studying law at the Universities of Würzburg and Göttingen, he joined the military acquiring the rank of reserve lieutenant commander before running for Parliament. He was the parliamentary secretary of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group on the Committee of Inquiry on Visa Affairs until 2005. He was also a member of the board of trustees for the Middle East Peace Forum. Since 2016, von Klaeden has served as the chairman of the board of trustees for Aspen Germany.