Our Global Development Program advisory panel is comprised of a group of esteemed experts from outside of the foundation who offer a wide range of experiences and perspectives. This panel plays an important role in strengthening our work by offering independent assessments of our strategies and helping us evaluate results.
Rajat Gupta (Chair)
Rajat Kumar Gupta is the former managing director of McKinsey & Company worldwide. Gupta has directed a number of projects aimed at helping companies develop new product/market strategies and reorganize for improved effectiveness and operations capabilities. He has a broad range of consulting experience with a variety of industries, including telecommunications, energy, and consumer goods. Gupta is chairman of the board of the Indian School of Business and was recently nominated co-chairman of the United Nations Association of the USA. He also served as the United Nations Secretary-General's special advisor on UN Reform, and serves as chairman of the board of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
Amina Ibrahim
Amina Ibrahim is senior special assistant to the President of Nigeria on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Ibrahim's current position builds on her former role as national coordinator for Education for All (EFA) at the Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria. In this capacity she coordinated the development of a National Action Plan that included such cross-cutting areas as HIV/AIDS and macroeconomic strategies for poverty reduction as proposed in the World Bank Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, led a national coalition of 124 civil organizations working on education issues, and participated in the establishment of the Africa Network Campaign on EFA (ANCEFA) to advocate for free, quality education in sub-Saharan Africa. Ibrahim served as coordinator of the Task Force on Gender and Education for the U.N. Millennium Project. She was the founding partner and executive director of the Afri-Projects Consortium, an engineering consulting firm covering key sectors such as education, agriculture, water, and health. Ibrahim is a member of the National Human Rights Commission in Nigeria and the Education Advisory Panel of the World Economic Forum.
Kavita Nandini Ramdas
Kavita Nandini Ramdas is president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, a nonprofit grantmaking foundation that advances women's human rights worldwide. She has dedicated herself to mobilizing private philanthropic resources to strengthen women's economic independence, increase girls' access to education, defend women's health and reproductive rights, prevent violence against women, and advance women's political participation. Prior to her leadership role at the Global Fund for Women, Ramdas was a program officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, where she worked on U.S. poverty and economic development as well as international population issues. She serves on several boards and councils, among them the Women’s Funding Network, the Ethical Globalization Initiative, and the Women's Rights Prize of the Gruber Foundation. Ramdas is the recipient of numerous philanthropic and leadership awards, including Fast Company's Social Capitalist Award in 2007 and the African Women's Development Fund’s Woman of Substance Award in 2005.
Ernesto Zedillo
Ernesto Zedillo served as President of Mexico from 1994 to 2000. He is currently director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, a professor in the field of international economics and politics, and an adjunct professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. Zedillo has been an active voice in international development issues. Currently the chair of the Global Development Network, he previously served as chairman of the U.N. High Level Panel on Financing for Development, co-coordinator of the Task Force on Trade for the U.N. Millennium Project, and co-chairman of the International Task Force on Global Public Goods. He serves on the World Bank's Commission on Growth and Development, and is a member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum; the Trilateral Commission; the International Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations; and the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group.
Philip Zelikow
Philip Zelikow is the White Burkett Miller Professor of History at the University of Virginia. Zelikow was executive director of the 9/11 Commission, an independent bipartisan commission chartered to prepare a complete account of the circumstances surrounding the events of September 11, 2001, and to provide recommendations designed to guard against future attacks. As a career diplomat, he served in the U.S. State Department in the 1980s and on the National Security Council staff for President George H. W. Bush. He recently returned to the State Department as Counselor of the Department in the George W. Bush Administration. In 2001 he directed the Carter-Ford commission on federal election reform, which successfully guided legislation and spending to revamp America's election systems. He has also been a professor of public policy and history at Harvard University. He was director of the Miller Center for Public Policy at the University of Virginia and director of the Aspen Strategy Group, a bipartisan foreign policy forum.