José Manuel Durão Barroso served as the eleventh President of the European Commission from 2004 to 2014, being reelected by an absolute majority in the European Parliament in 2009. During his presidency, Mr. Barroso focused on strengthening and deepening Europe’s political and economic union, driving the vital reforms of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. As Prime Minister of Portugal, he embarked in a number of difficult reforms that reined in public expenditure.

Recently, Barroso was appointed the Frederick H. Schultz Class of 1951 Visiting Professor of International Economic Policy and a policy fellow of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD) at Princeton University. Barroso also teaches at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and at the University of Geneva. Mr. Barroso has been awarded with several State decorations, such as the Grand Official title of the French Légion d’Honneur, and with more than thirty Honorary Degrees from academic institutions.

Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat has held a number of key senior positions, including Chief White House Domestic Policy Adviser to President Jimmy Carter (1977-81); US Ambassador to the European Union (1993-96); Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade (1996-97); Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs (1997-99); and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration (1999-2001).

During the Clinton Administration, he had a prominent role in the development of key transatlantic initiatives, including the negotiations of the Transatlantic Agenda with the European Union, the development of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) among European and US CEOs, and the negotiation of agreements with the European Union regarding the Helms-Burton Act and the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act.

Anders Åslund is a Resident Senior Fellow with the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center. He is a leading specialist on Eastern European economies, especially Russia and Ukraine. He also teaches at Georgetown University, and he has served as an economic adviser to several governments, notably to the Russian government from 1991 to 1994, and to the Ukrainian government from 1994 to 1997.

Mr. Bajnai was elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary with the Socialist Party of Hungary (MSZP) in April 2009, taking over at the helm of the financial crisis. In just one year, Mr. Bajnai successfully stabilized the economy, passing several structural reforms. In May 2010 he stepped down, returning to the business world. He currently serves as Group Chief Operating Officer of Meridiam Infrastructure. Earlier, Mr. Bajnai held positions as Head of the National Development Agency, as Minister at the Ministry of Local Government, and as Minister at the Ministry of National Development and Economic Affairs.

Between 2000 and the end of 2005, he was CEO of Wallis Investment, Consulting and Asset Management Ltd. Between 1995 and 2000, he was Managing Director and Deputy CEO of CA IB Securities Plc. Mr. Bajnai also served as President of Budapest Airport.

Romualdo Massa Bernucci has served as permanent representative of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group in Washington, DC since May 1, 2017. Previously, he served as Director for EIB operations in Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, and Western Balkans and since 2016 in Germany, Poland, and Baltic and Scandinavian countries. He was appointed deputy director general in 2016. Mr. Massa Bernucci joined EIB in 1985 and built extensive expertise in the financing of projects in infrastructure, energy, and corporate sectors, both in Europe and in Sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt, and Western Balkans, where he also contributed to the establishment of the Western Balkans Investment Framework.

Prior to joining EIB, Mr. Massa Bernucci held positions as an economist in the research departments of Fideuram SpA in Rome and the Nuovo Banco Ambrosiano in Milan (both institutions have been subsequently incorporated in the Banca Intesa San Paolo group). From 1983 to 1985, he served as an economist in Addis Ababa for the United Nations Commission for Africa where he contributed to research publications on the social and economic conditions of African countries and also assisted with the coordination of emergency aid during the severe drought which hit the Eastern Africa region in 1984.

Neil R. Brown joined KKR in 2014 and is the Director of Policy and Research of the KKR Global Institute. Previously, Mr. Brown served on the senior staff of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senator Richard Lugar and was a senior adviser at Goldwyn Global Strategies. He is a fellow at the German Marshall Fund and serves on the boards of The Lugar Center, US Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative Advisory Committee for the US Department of Interior, Merton College Charitable Corporation, and Association of American Rhodes Scholars. Mr. Brown graduated with a BA from Harvard University and Masters in Science and Masters in Philosophy from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

Ms. Geduldig is EVP, Public Affairs at S&P Global. Previously, she served as Managing Director, Global Government and Public Policy and Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs at Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

Prior to joining S&P, she was Managing Director and Head of Federal Government Relations at the Financial Services Forum. From March of 2008 to November of 2011, Ms. Geduldig served as Chief Financial Counsel to Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), handling a wide range of issues including financial markets, housing, banking, taxes, manufacturing, international trade finance, and playing a key role in drafting and advising Senator Corker on the “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.”

She also spent two years as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Banking and Finance at the US Treasury Department. In 2013, Courtney and John Dearie, EVP at the Financial Services Forum, co-authored the book “Where the Jobs Are: Entrepreneurship and the Soul of the American Economy”.

Ambassador Gray worked in the White House for twelve years, first as Counsel to the Vice President during the Reagan administration and then as White House Counsel to President George H.W. Bush.

In this capacity, he was counsel to the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief, and was instrumental in the enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and the Energy Policy Act of 1992, as well as the development of a cap-and-trade system for acid rain emissions. In 1993, he received the Presidential Citizens Medal. During President George W. Bush’s administration, Mr. Gray was US Ambassador to the European Union and US Special Envoy to Europe for Eurasian Energy.

Ambassador C. Boyden Gray is the Founding Partner of Boyden Gray & Associates, a law and strategy firm in Washington, DC, focused on constitutional and regulatory issues.

Steve Hanke is a professor of applied economics and co-director of the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is a senior fellow and director of the Troubled Currencies Project at the Cato Institute, and a contributing editor at Central Banking in London. Hanke is also a member of the Charter Council of the Society of Economic Measurement and of Euromoney Country Risk’s Experts Panel. In addition, he currently serves as a member of the Supervisory Board of Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. in Amsterdam.

Previously, Hanke has served numerous roles in US and foreign government including as: a senior economist on President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1981 to 1982, a senior adviser to the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress from 1984 to 1988, and a state counselor to both the Republic of Lithuania from 1994 to 1996 and the Republic of Montenegro from 1999 to 2003.

Hanke is a well-known currency and commodity trader. In the past, he played an important role in establishing new currency regimes in Argentina, Estonia, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ecuador, Lithuania, and Montenegro. Hanke has also held senior appointments in the governments of many other countries, including Albania, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, and Yugoslavia.

Stefano Itri is responsible for US Government Sales and leads the US International Office in Beretta USA. He has 20 years of experience in the Defense Market with focus on Southeast Asia, in particular Singapore, Australia and the Middle East.
Prior to Beretta he has been employed for over 10 years by WASS, a Finmeccanica Company, first as a Program Manager, then in the Sales Department. For Beretta he also manages the institutional relationships with the Embassies in Washington DC. Itri graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from La Sapienza University in Rome.

Maureen Kline is vice president of public affairs and sustainability for Pirelli Tire North America, responsible for the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Ms. Kline is chair of the board of the Tire and Rubber Association of Canada, and the advisory board of the Corporate Responsibility Association, where she co-chairs a thought leadership council on brand and reputation management. In February 2016 she was named a 2015 Corporate Responsibility Superstar by CR Magazine. Previously Ms. Kline managed Pirelli’s global public affairs and international communications from the company’s headquarters in Milan, Italy. Prior to her public affairs and communications career, Maureen worked as a journalist. She was a Milan correspondent for the Wall Street Journal Europe and BusinessWeek, among others, and has also written for BusinessWeek, and Reuters BreakingViews. She continues to write a column on sustainability for Inc.com.

Maureen Kline holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics. She is based in New York.

Andrius Kubilius was Prime Minister of Lithuania from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. He is the leader of the conservative political party Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats.

Kubilius became a member of the pro-independence Sąjūdis movement, who favored separation from the Soviet Union. He later became the Executive Secretary of the Sąjūdis Council. Soon after the re-establishment of Lithuania’s independence, Kubilius was elected to the Seimas (parliament). Since then Kubilius has been an active figure in Lithuanian politics. He became a member of the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats in 1993.

Kubilius led the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats Party into elections on October 28, 2008. Conservatives defeated the Social Democrats, making Kubilius the main candidate for Prime Minister. On November 27, 2008 Kubilius was officially appointed as Prime Minister of Lithuania. He received eighty-nine votes in favor, twenty-seven against, and sixteen members of the Seimas abstained. In 2012 Kubilius became the first prime minister of Lithuania to serve the whole term in office.

Laura Lane joined UPS on November 1, 2011 as President, Global Public Affairs. She is responsible for all worldwide government affairs activities for UPS in the over 220 countries and territories it serves.

Prior to joining UPS, Laura was Managing Director and Head of International Government Affairs at Citigroup. Before joining Citi, Ms. Lane was VP for Global Public Policy with Time Warner where she represented the company on the federal and international levels on all issues.

In her government career, Ms. Lane served as a trade negotiator in the Executive Office of the President in the United States Trade Representative’s Office (USTR). In this role, she negotiated market access commitments on trade in services with China as part of its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and served as U.S. negotiator on the first-ever WTO Financial Services Agreement.

Before joining USTR, Ms. Lane served in the U.S. Foreign Service. She worked in the Trade Policy and Programs office in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 1995-1997. She served as the State Department representative on the US Basic Telecommunications negotiating team, which concluded the first-ever global agreement on basic telecommunications in 1996.

In her overseas assignments, Ms. Lane was the economic and political-military affairs officer at the American Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda from 1993-1994. She led the evacuation effort of American citizens from Rwanda in April 1994 with the outbreak of the civil war. Laura subsequently delivered a TED talk on her experiences on “When to Follow your Heart and Write your own Rules” and shared her perspectives on the Rwandan genocide in the PBS/Frontline documentary “Ghosts of Rwanda.”

Ms. Lane is also Chairman of the Board for the Coalition of Service Industries (CSI), Vice Chairman of the Board of the German American Business Council and a member of the Board of the Atlantic Council, US Chamber of Commerce and the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital. She also serves as Vice Chairman of the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA) and Johnson & Johnson’s Global Public Health Advisory Forum. Finally, in 2014 and again in 2016, she served as Corporate Chair of the Global Partnership Initiative for Refugees International.

Ms. Lane was born in Evanston, Illinois but grew up in Frankfurt, West Germany. She graduated summa cum laude from Loyola University with a Bachelor’s degree in political science and history and summa cum laude from Georgetown University with a Master of Science degree in Foreign Service.

Enrico Letta took office as Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po in September of 2015. Dr. Letta served as Prime Minister of Italy in 2013 and 2014, and led a grand coalition, which was the first in the history of the Italian Republic to include representatives of all the major candidate-coalitions that competed in the elections.

Prior to that he served as Minister for European Affairs (1998-99); Minister for Industry, Commerce, and Crafts (2000); and Minister for Industry, Commerce and Crafts, and Foreign Trade (2000-2001); and as Undersecretary of State to Prime Minister Prodi (2006-08).

Mr. Letta led Italy at a difficult time and launched ambitious reforms, such as the “Decree of Doing,” aimed at spurring Italy’s economic recovery. His whole career and thought have been shaped by a strong commitment to Europe. He is the author of many books on international and economic affairs, with particular reference to EU enlargement.

Sir David Manning is a Senior Adviser to TRHs the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and HRH Prince Henry of Wales. He was the British Ambassador to the United States from 2003 to the 2007, and prior to that was the UK Permanent Representative at NATO and the Foreign Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister and Head of Defence and Overseas Secretariat.

Sir David began his career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1972 and has been the Head of Policy Planning, the British Ambassador to Israel, and the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Defence and Intelligence. He is a Non-Executive Director at the BG Group, a nominated member of the Council of Lloyds of London, and the Chair of IDEAS at the London School of Economics.

Andrea Montanino is a nonresident senior fellow. He Currently serves as Chief Economist at Confindustria, the Confederation of Italian industries. He previously served as Director of the Global Business and Economics Program, leading the Council’s work on global trade, growth, and finance. Montanino formerly acted as Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), representing the governments of Italy, Albania, Greece, Malta, Portugal, and San Marino.
Before joining the IMF, he was a Career Officer in the Italian Ministry of Finance from 2006 to 2012. He also previously spent four years (2001-05) at the European Commission in the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs, where he worked on the reform of the EU budgetary rules and was responsible for the long-term sustainability analysis of European countries.

As Director General at the Treasury Department, he worked extensively to alleviate the impact of the great recession on the business sector, drafting and implementing a number of laws and developed innovative relationships with the private sector. As a member of the cabinet and Economic Adviser to the Italian Minister of Finance, Montanino contributed to a comprehensive public budget reform policy effort, which was later implemented on a national scale.

Richard L. Morningstar is the Founding Director and Chairman of the Global Energy Center at the Atlantic Council. He served as the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan from 2012 to 2014. Prior to his appointment, he was the Secretary of State’s Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy. Prior to that, Morningstar lectured at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and Stanford Law School, and was a Senior Director at Albright Stonebridge Group.

From 1999 to 2001, he served as United States Ambassador to the European Union. Prior to this, Morningstar served as Special Adviser to the President and Secretary of State for Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy, where he coordinated within the executive branch and with other governments and international organizations to promote US Policies. From 1995 to 1998, he served as Ambassador and Special Adviser to the President and Secretary of State on assistance for the new independent states of the former Soviet Union, where he oversaw all US bilateral assistance and trade investments. From 1993 to 1995, he served as Senior Vice President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

Bart Oosterveld is the C. Boyden Gray fellow on global finance and growth and the director of the Global Business & Economics (GBE) Program at the Atlantic Council. In this capacity, Mr. Oosterveld leads the Council’s work on global trade, growth, and finance. Among many other things, the GBE program houses the EuroGrowth Initiative at the Council and supports the Council’s work in the areas of economic sanctions, trade and trade policy, and provides timely commentary on macro-economic and financial market developments.

Prior to joining the Atlantic Council in 2017, Mr. Oosterveld worked at Moody’s Investors Service for almost two decades. In his most recent role as Moody’s managing director and chief credit officer, Mr. Oosterveld was responsible for credit strategy and ratings quality for ratings in the Americas across all asset classes. During the road to recovery after the 2008-09 financial collapse, from 2010 to 2014, Mr. Oosterveld supervised the global team of sovereign risk analysts and coordinated the execution and rollout of rating changes on sovereign nations and multilateral development banks as Managing Director and Global Head of Sovereign Ratings. Among other positions, Mr. Oosterveld was also chair of Moody’s Investors Service’s Macroboard, its chief credit officer for all governmental ratings, as well as a management representative to the company’s board of directors.  

Mr. Oosterveld graduated with degrees in the philosophy of law and the history of Spanish literature from the University of Amsterdam. He holds master’s degrees in public policy from Columbia University and in economics from Georgetown University. Bart is native or fluent in Dutch, Spanish, English, and German.

Anne van Praagh is Moody’s Managing Director and head in the Credit Strategy & Research team. She leads a team responsible defines and develops Moody’s macroeconomic views and provides strategic insights on emerging global risk trends and credit developments. The team produces a quarterly macro forecast as well as research on key credit trends such as growth and productivity, monetary and fiscal policy, political risks, trade, climate change, technology, and infrastructure.

Prior to assuming her current assignments, Van Praagh served as the rating agency’s head of Sovereign Risk for the Americas, Asia Pacific and Middle East regions, and CCO for Public Sector Ratings. She also held various positions as a rating analyst in the U.S. public finance, infrastructure, and project finance teams. Anne was an investment banker in Morgan Stanley’s public finance group, and worked for the U.S. federal government. She has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Int’l and Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University’s Elliott School of Int’l Affairs.

Dr. Schwarzer became the Otto Wolf director of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) Research Institute in 2016. She deals with a wide range of issues, but specializes in German-European foreign policy, European institutions, transatlantic relations, and European Union (EU) political and economic affairs. Additionally, she served as a senior director of research at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Prior to that, she led a research group on European integration at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs for eight years. During this time she held multiple advisory roles for the governments of France and Poland.

Dr. Schwarzer has held multiple prestigious academic positons, most notably at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies where she held a senior research professorship. Dr. Schwarzer holds a PhD in political economy from the Free University of Berlin co-supervised by the London School of Economics. She completed her master’s in political science and in linguistics at the University of Tubingen.

Earl Anthony Wayne is a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global Business and Economics Program. He was confirmed by the US Senate in 2010 as a Career Ambassador, and has held a variety of diplomatic and policy positions domestically and abroad.
From 2011 through July 2015, Wayne served as the US Ambassador to Mexico. From 2009 to 2011, Wayne served in Kabul, Afghanistan, as Coordinating Director for Development and Economic Affairs and then as Deputy US Ambassador. From 2006 to 2009, Wayne served as the US Ambassador to Argentina, where he promoted US commercial interests, improved the US image in the face of strong anti-Americanism, and strengthened cooperation against terrorism and human and drug trafficking. Ambassador Wayne received a Presidential Meritorious Service Award, a Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service, and the State Department’s Cordell Hull Award for Economic Achievement.