Netherlands. Ms. Voorbraak is currently working as World Bank consultant on fragile and post-conflict states.  Ms. Voorbraak has most recently served as deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Previously she served as senior governance advisor at the World Bank and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, negotiating, among others, sexual and reproductive health and rights during the Dutch EU Presidency.  She was posted as a first secretary (gender) in Pakistan. Before that she worked as a program officer in UNDP, New York (poverty alleviation) and worked in field offices of the United High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Cameroon, Pakistan and South Africa.

Greece. Mr. Efthymiou has had a distinguished career in politics and in journalism. Between 2004 and 2012, he served simultaneously in the parliamentary assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and in the Hellenic parliament, rising to leadership positions in both.  He was elected president of the OSCE parliamentary assembly in 2010, and was for three years, from 2009 to 2012, chief whip of the governing party PASOK. He participated in key parliamentary committees, among them defense and foreign affairs, and also European affairs, as a member of parliament. From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Efthymiou served as minister for education and religious affairs, introducing a number of educational reforms.

Finland. Colonel Virtanen, Finnish Defense Forces, has served most recently as chief of the training sector in the personnel division of the Defence Command. A graduate of the military academy, he has held a variety of positions in his career, among them, commander of the Uusimaa Jaeger Battalion. In 2009, he was asked to be the secretary of a working group on general conscription; the group’s report on the future of general conscription was widely accepted by the country’s political parties. He has worked as a UN military observer in the former Yugoslavia and as an assistant to the first chairman of the EU military committee in Brussels. Colonel Virtanen has published or co-published several studies, including one on the 1956 Hungarian uprising, and another on Finnish and Austrian security policy.

United States. Mr. Trotti is an Argentine-born journalist based in Miami, Florida, where, since 2000, he has worked at the Inter American Press Association (IAPA). He is currently press freedom director as well as director of the Press Institute, the IAPA’s educational arm. He writes a Spanish language column, “Mensajes y Sociedad”,  that appears in 30 major newspapers, including El Nuevo Herald (Miami), El Comercio (Peru), El Universal (Mexico), La Presna (Nicaragua), and El Universal (Venezuela). He is the author of numerous essays and books on issues related to freedom of the press and to the treatment of journalists. Mr. Trotti was educated at Colegio Universitario Cordoba (Argentina) and at Clayton University. 

Estonia. Ms. Rute is the European Commission’s representative in the Fellows Program. Since 2009, she has been director for biotechnologies, food, and agriculture research, DG Research and Innovation, at the European Commission (EC). Prior to this position, she was EC director of SMEs competitiveness and entrepreneurship. Before joining the Commission, Ms. Rute was CEO of the Estonian Credit and Export Guarantee Fund KredEx. She was educated as agricultural economist at the Estonian University of Life Sciences, earned her MBA from Danube University (Krems, Austria), and received an MA in international politics from CERIS, Brussels. 

Germany. Ambassador Michael became ambassador to Bangladesh in August 2009. He has held many positions since entering the German foreign service, among them: head of division, foreign trade promotion, Federal Foreign Office, Berlin; deputy head of mission, German Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand; consulate general and deputy head of mission, Hong Kong; deputy head of division, Federal Foreign Office, Bonn; and head of economic/commercial department, German Embassy in Seoul.

Poland. Mr. Kobielski has served most recently as counsel with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in various proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights. In this position, he was responsible for defending more than one hundred cases brought by Polish nationals against Poland. Previously, he worked for the Ministry of Justice. Educated at the University of Warsaw, he holds master’s degrees in law and in international relations. Since 2007, Mr. Kobielski has lectured in the area of public international law at the Institute of International Law, University of Warsaw, where he is continuing his Ph.D. studies on expropriation in international law.

United States. Mr. Garver has most recently served as the senior advisor to the Global Infrastructure and Private Capital Group with Patton Boggs, LLP, a global law firm based in Washington DC. While there, he worked with global investment funds on infrastructure finance and development projects around the world. Previously, Mr. Garver served as the secretary to the Global Steering Committee for DLA Piper, LLP, one of the largest law firms in the world. Mr. Garver also serves as a managing partner to the private investment firm Arcadia Capital Group, which invests in emerging growth companies and operates a private hedge fund focused on international cross-asset arbitrage investments.

United States. Commander Le, U.S. Navy, has most recently served as the executive assistant to the commander, U.S. Seventh Fleet.  Previously, he commanded USS Lassen (DDG 82), forward deployed to the western Pacific Ocean and home ported in Yokosuka, Japan.  He has served in five ships and two afloat staffs during his 20-year career.  Educated and commissioned at the U.S. Naval Academy, Cmdr. Le holds a bachelor’s degree in economics with merit, a master’s degree in operations research with distinction from the Naval Postgraduate School, and an MBA summa cum laude from Touro University.  He is a designated joint qualified officer, having graduated from the U.S. Naval War College non-resident seminar program and the Joint Forces Staff College and served in the joint training (J-7) directorate at U.S. Joint Forces Command. 

Denmark. Ambassador Lassen comes to Harvard directly from Damascus, where she for the last three years has served as Denmark’s ambassador to Syria and to Jordan. Previous assignments include: Head of Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Executive Secretariat; Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary of State; Special Advisor to the Prime Minister (Middle East and Transatlantic Affairs); Embassy Secretary for Political Affairs at the Danish Embassy in Washington, D.C. Ambassador Lassen has a  Master’s degree and a Bachelor’s degree (Business and International Relations) from Copenhagen Business School.

United States. Colonel Krumm, United States Air Force, comes to Harvard from Hollomon Air Force Base, New Mexico, where he has been commander of the 49th Wing. The wing supports national security objectives by deploying worldwide to support peacetime and wartime contingencies. Previously, he was a CSAF Fellow at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., and commander with the 43^rd  Fighter Squadron , Tyndall AFB (Florida). Colonel Krumm entered the Air Force as a distinguished graduate of the ROTC program at Auburn University. He has served in a variety of flying, staff and command assignments and has commanded at the flight and squadron level. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Weapons School and a command pilot with more than 2,800 hours in the F-22 and F-15C.

United States. Colonel Fontes, United States Army, comes to Harvard from Afghanistan, where she served most recently as commander, Regional Support Command – North, NATO Training Mission.  A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Colonel Fontes has had a distinguished career in the military, with assignments in Pakistan, Tajikistan, South Korea, and Germany, to note just a few of the many places in which she has served. Colonel Fontes is the recipient of numerous military decorations, including the Defense Superior Service Medal, Bronze Star, and Defence Meritorious Service Medal.

Switzerland. Ms. Dussey combines experience in law enforcement, diplomacy, management consulting and executive coaching. She has most recently worked at IMD, a world leader in executive education. As Director of Partnership Programs, she has been responsible for developing IMD’s custom programs for multinational companies, designing transformational learning and development initiatives that blend capability building with business impact. She also coaches executives in the areas of leadership and public speaking. She serves as a consultant to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), training diplomats across the African continent and in Asia in multilateral diplomacy, negotiations and complex decision-making.

Switzerland. Ambassador Dussey has most recently served as the head of the Crisis Management Center of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Center coordinates the governmental crisis response system during major incidents affecting Swiss citizens abroad (disasters, political upheavals, terror attacks, hostage-taking). Previously, he headed the International Security Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Among other diplomatic postings, he served as political counselor at the Embassy of Switzerland in Moscow (Russia) and as diplomatic adviser to the president of the Swiss Confederation. Prior to joining the diplomatic corps of the Foreign Ministry, he served for five years at the Strategic Intelligence Service of the Swiss Ministry of Defense.

Nigeria.Lieutenant General Dambazau (retired) served most recently as Army chief of staff. He held many positions during his long career in the military, including general officer (commanding two divisions), chief of Army standards and evaluation, and principal general staff officer to the Minister of Defence. He is the founder and chairman, board of trustees, of the Foundation for the Victims of Child Abuse and the Nigerian Society for Victimology. He also serves as a director of the New York-based International Police Executive Symposium.  He was a member of the faculty, National Defence College, Nigeria, with appointments as directing staff, and then subsequently as director, department of higher military organization and operations (for the course on leadership, national security and strategic studies).