Trygve Lie Symposium - panel participants

John G. Ruggie

John G. Ruggie is the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Business and Human Rights (2005 t.d). He is also the Berthold Beitz professor in human rights and international affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, as well as Affiliated Professor in International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School.

He was United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Chief Advisor for strategic planning to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (1997 to 2001), where he helped design and create the UN Global Compact (now over 7000 companies in more than 130 countries) and the UN Millennium Development Goals, which have brought renewed energy and focus to the fight against global poverty.

Prior to joining the UN, he was Dean of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and taught at the University of California's (UC) Berkeley and San Diego and directed the UC system-wide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Professor Ruggie is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received the Guggenheim Fellowship, the International Studies Association's Distinguished Scholar Award and the American Political Science Association's Hubert H. Humphrey Award for outstanding public service by a political scientist. Ruggie has a BA in politics and history from McMaster University in Canada; a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley; and a Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) from McMaster University, Canada. Ruggie was named as one of the 25 most influential international relations scholars in the US and Canada and i.a. named by Ethical Corporation magazine as one of the top 10 “Ethical Leaders” for 2008.

Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson, the first woman President of Ireland (1990-1997) and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), has spent most of her life as a human rights advocate. 
 
Mary Robinson is a member of the Elders, co-founder and former Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders and Vice President of the Club of Madrid. She is chair of the GAVI Alliance Board. She chairs the Fund for Global Human Rights, is Honorary President of Oxfam International and President of the International Commission of Jurists

Mary Robinson is currently the President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative. She is Chair of the International Advisory Board of the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) which is dedicated to being a global centre of expertise on the relationship between business and internationally proclaimed human rights standards.
The Institute works to raise corporate standards and strengthen public policy to ensure that the activities of companies do not contribute to human rights abuses, and in fact lead to positive outcomes.

Educated as a lawyer, Robinson rose to prominence as an academic (professor in public and criminal law at Trinity Collage in Dublin at the age of 25), barrister, campaigner and a member of the Irish Senate (1969–1989).

Ronnie Goldberg

Executive Vice President Ronnie Goldberg is overseeing our wide-ranging activities on international trade, investment, economic and regulatory matters, and supervising a staff of policy professionals whose expertise covers a host of issues affecting American companies engaged in business abroad and coordinates USCIB policies in relation to international affiliates and serves as the U.S. employer representative on the International Labor Organization’s Governing Body.

Prior to joining USCIB in 1987, she served as vice president for international affairs at the New York Chamber of Commerce and Industry, vice president in the trade and export finance division of Chase Manhattan Bank and was a project director at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (1978-82), specializing in East-West trade, technology transfer and Soviet energy development .

She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Bryn Mawr College with both Woodrow Wilson and Ford Fellowships, a master’s degree in the history of political thought from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an adjunct assistant professor at New York University.

Ministers

Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre, Norway 

Jonas Gahr Støre is Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway. He has a degree in political science from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, and has held a teaching position at Harvard Law School. His first introduction into public life was as Special Advisor to the Prime Minister, followed by a three year tenure as Director-General of the Prime Minister’s International Department. In 1998, Mr. Støre was appointed Ambassador of Norway’s Permanent Mission at the United Nations in Geneva, but served only briefly as he was asked by former Prime Minister of Norway and then Secretary-General of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, to become her Chief of Staff. In 2005, Mr. Støre became Minister of Foreign Affairs in Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s government, following three years as Secretary-General of the Norwegian Red Cross. Mr. Støre belongs to the Norwegian Labour Party.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, Russia 

Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov is the Foreign Minister of Russia. Prior to that, Lavrov was a Soviet diplomat and Russia's ambassador to the United Nations from 1994 to 2004. Lavrov speaks Russian, English, French and Sinhala.

Lavrov was born in Moscow from an Armenian father. He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in 1972. He was sent as a Soviet diplomat to Sri Lanka, where he worked until 1976. He then returned to Moscow and worked in the Department of International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 1981, he was sent as a senior adviser to the Soviet mission at the United Nations in New York City, and worked there until 1988. He worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 1994, when he returned to work in the United Nations, this time as the Permanent Representative of Russia. While in the latter position, he was President of the United Nations Security Council in December 1995, June 1997, July 1998, October 1999, December 2000, April 2002, and June 2003.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa 

Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane was born on the 30th of September 1963 in Makgobaskloof and grew up at Ga-Makanye Village in the Limpopo Province. She was married to the late Mr. Norman Mashabane.

During the 1980s, she was an active member of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and served in the various structures of the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) and the ANC underground structures.

After the unbanning of the ANC in 1990, she served the party in various structures including the ANC Women's League and actively participated in the re-launch of the ANC Women's League in the country. From 2009 to date she has been appointed to the Board of LOC as a representative of the South African Government.

Maria Otero, Under Secretary, Democracy and Global Affairs, USA

Maria Otero was sworn in as Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs on August 10, 2009. She oversees and coordinates U.S. foreign relations on a variety of global issues, including democracy, human rights, and labor; environment, oceans, health and science; population, refugees, and migration; and monitoring and combating trafficking in persons. She also serves as the Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues.

Ms. Otero was formerly the president and CEO of ACCION International, a pioneer and leader in microfinance working in 25 countries in around the globe. Under Ms. Otero's tenure as CEO, ACCION’s network of microfinance institutions expanded its reach from serving 460,000 people to over 3.7 million, through a combined portfolio that grew from $274 million to nearly $3.6 billion. She is a leading voice on sustainable microfinance, publishing extensively on the subject and speaking throughout the world on microfinance, women's issues and poverty alleviation.

Prior to ACCION, Ms. Otero was the Economist for Latin America for the Women in Development office of USAID. She also served for five years at the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA).

In June 2006, Ms. Otero was appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the UN Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Sectors. She sits on the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a position to which she was originally appointed by President Clinton and now holds as the State Department representative. Ms. Otero has chaired the board of Bread for the World, and also served on the boards of the Calvert Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation, the Inter-American Foundation and BRAC Holding of Bangladesh. Born in La Paz, Bolivia, Ms. Otero is currently the highest ranking Hispanic official at the State Department, and the first Latina Under Secretary in its history.

Ms. Otero is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was appointed by Newsweek as one of the United States' 20 most influential women (2005) and Hispanic Business Magazine's 'Elite Women of 2007'. She has received Notre Dame University honored her with the Distinguished Service in Latin America Award, and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Ms. Otero holds an M.A. in literature from the University of Maryland, an M.A. in international relations from Johns Hopkins' Nitze School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS), in Washington, D.C, and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Dartmouth College. From 1997 to 2009, she also served as an adjunct professor at SAIS.

 

Minister of Foreign Affairs Henry Odein Ajumogobia, Nigeria

Henry Odein Ajumogobia was appointed Nigerian minister of Foreign Affairs in April 2010, when Acting President Goodluck Jonathan announced his new cabinet. He came from the position as Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum (July 2007), where he designed and oversaw deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry.

Educated as a lawyer from Harvard University and University of Lagos, as well as a Fellow at the Chartered Institute for Arbitrators (London) he received, inter alia, the Merit Award for Academic Excellence from the Federal Government of Nigeria. He was a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and the ICC International Commission on Arbitration (2001-2006, Paris). He established the legal firm of Ajumogobia and Okeke in 1983. Ajumogobia became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2003, and was appointed Attorney- General and Commissioner of Justice for Rivers State the same year. In this role, he initiated talks with rebel groups in the oil-producing area, including the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. In June 2007 played a key role in negotiating the release of kidnapped workers of the South Korean contracting company Daewoo.