Prime Min. Michel Rocard

Political Leader

France

Prime Minister Michel Rocard was a former prime minister of France, serving from 1988 to 1991, and member of the European Parliament for 15 years. His father was a nuclear physicist who worked on France’s atomic bomb program. He served on the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and wrote and spoke extensively about the threat posed by nuclear weapons.

Rocard passed away on July 2, 2016.

Sen. Wasim Sajjad

Political Leader

Pakistan

Sen. Wasim Sajjad is the head and senior partner of Sajjad Law Associates and a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. In 1985, he was elected to the senate, where he went on to hold the positions of chairman of the Senate of Pakistan and minister for justice, law and parliamentary affairs. In his time as law minister, Sajjad established the Federal Judicial Academy in Islamabad in order to train lower court judges in case handling and management. He was secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee for Pakistan and was elected honorary fellow at Wadham College, Oxford in 1992 for his contributions to education and politics.

Chancellor Helmut Schmidt

Political Leader

Germany

Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was the minister of defense and minister of economy and finance before being elected as the chancellor of Germany in 1979. He co-founded the American Enterprise Institute World Forum with Gerald Ford and was co-publisher and managing editor of the German newspaper Die Zeit. He passed away on November 10, 2015.

Hon. Kazuya Shimba

Political Leader

Japan

The Honorable Kazuya Shimba is a member of the House of Councilors in the Japanese Diet and served as Japan’s senior vice minister of defense. His current responsibilities include the Committee on Cabinet and Committee on Fundamental National Policies. He was previously a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense and the Special Commission on Political Ethics and the Election System. His areas of expertise include diplomacy, defense, energy issues and the Middle East.

Mr. Jaswant Singh

Political Leader

India

Jaswant Singh was a prominent Indian politician who served as minister for external affairs, defense minister and finance minister. Singh was particularly well known for the economic reforms made during his two tenures as finance minister. As a young man, he served in the Indian Army. From 2006 to 2007, Singh was a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He lead the Opposition in India’s upper house of Parliament, the Rakya Sabha until 2009.

Singh passed away on September 27, 2020.

Pres. Mário Soares

Political Leader

Portugal

The former president and prime minister of Portugal, Mário Soares was founder and chair of the Mário Soares Foundation and a deputy to the European Parliament where he served as a member of the Commissions of Foreign Affairs, Human Rights and Common Security and Defense. As president of Portugal from 1986 to 1996, he oversaw the nation’s entry into the European Union. He was also the first constitutionally elected prime minister since the 1974 revolution, a position he held from 1976 to 1978 and again from 1983 to 1985. As foreign minister from 1974 to 1975, he played a role in negotiating the liberation of Portugal’s overseas colonies. Soares received many awards and distinctions, including the Human Rights International Award and the Simón Bolivar Prize.

Soares passed away on January 7, 2017.

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.

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.