Founding Advisors

Simon Anholt

Simon is an independent policy advisor to the Heads of State and governments of 57 countries. He is the Founder of The Good Country Index and the Anholt - Ispos Nation Brands Index. Simon is also a TED and Youtube talks sensation with more than 12 million views on his videos. His 2020 book, The Good Country Equation: How We Can Repair the World in One Generation, was called "a masterpiece" by Zaid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights.

Brett Henning

Brett is the Co-Founder and Director of The Sortition Foundation, which campaigns to introduce stratified random selection (also called sortition) in government. He is an Astrophysicist and the author of The End of Politicians: Time for a Real Democracy, which was called "a book for visionaries" by James Kelsey-Fry. Brett also authored Legislature by Lot: Transformative Designs for Deliberative Governance.

Shaolan Hsueh

ShaoLan is a two-time TED speaker. She is the Founder and Creator of Chineasy - one of the world's most popular methods of learning Chinese outside of Chinese-speaking countries. Chineasy was named one of the 'World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies' by Fast Company in 2015. ShaoLan is also the author of Chineasy: The New Way to Read Chinese, which has been translated into 19 languages.

Peggy Liu

Peggy is a World Economic Forum 'Young Global Leader' and is Chairperson of JUCCCE, which has been at the heart of the greening of China since 2007. She has been called "one of the most innovative thinkers in Asia" by The Economist. Peggy has also been referred to as a "Hero of the Environment" by Time and as the "Green Goddess" of China by Global Times.

Isaac Shongwe

Isaac is the Founder and Chairman of Letsema. He has also served as Chairman of the Wits Business School in South Africa. Additionally, Isaac is a Board Member of The Aspen Institute, The Ragon Institute, and Endeavor (South Africa).

He additionally has served as an Executive Director and Board Member of Barloworld Ltd.

Ed Martin

Ed is the former CEO of GoodXChange. He has served as a Senior Advisor for the Nobel Peace Prize Forum and as Chief Omniwin Officer of the 5th Element Group. Ed has additionally served as Chair Emeritus to the Association of National Advertisers Research and Measurement Council.

Alvaro Umaña Quesada

Alvaro served as Costa Rica's first Minister of Natural Resources from 1986 to 1990. He has also served as Leader of the Energy and Environment Group at the UN Development Program (UNDP). Alvaro was additionally Chairman and Founding Member of The World Bank Inspection Panel. He has also served as the Senior Advisor to the Executive Director for Central America, Mexico, Spain, and Venezuela at the International Monetary Fund.

Kunal Sood

Kunal served as the former Executive Producer and Spokesman of TEDx at the United Nations General Assembly. He is the Founder of Novus Summit Inc., X Fellows, and X Impact Group. Kunal is additionally the Founder and CXO of #WeThePlanet. He serves as the Global Ambassador for Peace at The Non-Violence Project and is an Ambassador for OpenEXO and Singularity University.

Lara Stein

Lara is the Founder and former Director of TEDx. She led the expansion of TEDx into a global movement. Lara is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Bona Global. She is additionally the former Executive Director of Women's March Global (for all initiatives outside the U.S.) Lara has also served as the former Managing Director for Global Development at Singularity University.

Sterling Speirn

Sterling is a Senior Fellow and former CEO of the National Conference on Citizenship (chartered by the U.S. Congress). He is also former President and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Sterling served as former President of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (formerly known as the Peninsula Community Foundation). He additionally served as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship.

Ketan Patel

Ketan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Greater Pacific Capital. He served as a former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs Investment Banking Division. Additionally, he founded the Strategic Group of Goldman Sachs. Previously, Ketan served as a Partner at KPMG. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors and of the European Strategy Team while at KPMG. He is the author of The Master Strategist: Power, Purpose and Principle. He leads the "Capital as a Force for Good" initiative and works closely with UNCTAD and the World Academy of Art and Science to change the way capital and finance are allocated.

Nouriel Roubini

Nouriel formerly served as a White House Senior Economist for International Affairs (1998-2000). He has also served as a Consultant for several private and public institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Nouriel has been a long-term Professor of Economics at NYU Stern School of Business. Additionally, he is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Roubini Macro Associates, LLC.

Tara Kangarlou

Tara is an award-winning, Iranian-born journalist, author, and humanitarian. She has reported, written, and produced for global news outlets such as CNN and Al Jazeera America. Her work has also appeared in TIME and Vanity Fair. Until recently, she served as a Fellow at the EastWest Institute and the McCain Institute for International Leadership and is a frequent on-air and print contributor to various international news outlets. In 2016, Tara founded Art of Hope - which focused on providing mental health support through Art Therapy for Syrian refugees and vulnerable host communities in Lebanon. Tara's highly acclaimed debut book, The Heartbeat of Iran, was released in June 2021 (IG Publishing - NY).

Sarah McCue

Board Member

Sarah McCue is a renowned advocate for the use of information and communication technologies to promote development in developing countries. She has authored several technical books and served in leadership roles at the United Nations, World Bank, Cisco Foundation, and Google, among others. Her accomplishments include funding online mentoring for African women with Elon Musk’s support and contributing to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Trade.Gov program. She is currently the President of WorldQuant University, which offers a no-cost online masters degree program in quantitative analytics. In addition to her professional achievements, Sarah is dedicated to promoting women’s empowerment and serves on the Women’s Advisory Board for Girls Scouts Nations Capital. She also holds positions as an adjunct faculty member at several top universities, including American University’s Kogod School of Business MBA program, Georgetown University’s Technology Management, and George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs.

Jim Clark

Founder/Executive Director

Jim Clark is the founder and executive director of the Global Partnership. By creating one of the first online companies using the “make a difference” ethic, Jim Clark was named by New York magazine in 1995 as one of the “New Media Elite." and has been an essential actor of various american non-profits, from both his board member and consultant position. Rich from his former position as founder of the World Technology Network (WTN), he worked with Fortune, TIME, CNN, Science, Nature, NYSE, Microsoft, Nasdaq, Salesforce and 1,500+ of the world’s top innovators over the last 25 years. His extensive experience in non-profit management, and his commitment to civic engagement have allowed him to reach leading positions in two presidential campaigns (Clinton 1992, Clinton 2016), strengthening his commitment to pro-democratic efforts.. These experiences led him to attend a high-level meeting held at the UN Office for Partnerships in 2019, where he launched his latest project, the non-profit organization The Global Partnership for Civic Engagement.

Olena Tregub

Board Member

Olena Tregub is an international professional with over 15 years of experience in policy analysis and reform implementation, focusing on corruption prevention in the economic and security sectors. She is the Secretary General of NAKO, an international oversight body created by Transparency International to strengthen democratic oversight over defense spending. Olena led the national authority for international development assistance coordination at Ukraine’s Ministry of Economic Development, overseeing a portfolio of international development projects and programs totaling 12 billion USD. Before joining the Ukrainian government, Olena co-founded the consulting company Global Education Leadership in the USA, implementing professional development programs for young North Americans studying abroad in Poland, Ukraine and Costa Rica.

Olena’s expertise covers organization governance and accountability structure, risk management and internal control, ethics/anti-corruption and investigations, and senior-level management. She has received several awards for her reform anti-corruption work and was recognized by New Time Magazine as one of Ukraine's 100 most influential women. As a board member of our civic engagement organization, Olena brings valuable experience and knowledge to our team.