New Board Members for International Crisis Group

Brussels The International Crisis Group is pleased to announce that, following their election at the Board of Trustees meeting held in Dublin on 27-28 March 2004, twelve new members will join ICG's Board from 1 July 2004.

The new members are Adnan Abu-Odeh, Pat Cox, Stanley Fischer, Swanee Hunt, Shiv Vikram Khemka, Bethuel Kiplagat, Trifun Kostovski, Victor M Pinchuk, George Robertson, Ghassan Salamé, Lena Hjelm-Wallén, and Ernesto Zedillo.

The newly constituted 56-member Board includes fifteen members from North and South America, 22 members from Western and Eastern Europe, nine members from Africa and the Middle East and ten members from Asia and Australasia. The new members bring to ICG an impressively wide range of experience in international relations.

• Adnan Abu-Odeh served as Political Adviser to King Abdullah II of Jordan from 1999 to 2000 and was previously in a variety of posts, including senator in the Jordanian House of Parliament (1998-1999), Jordan's permanent representative to the UN (1992-1995), and Political Adviser to King Hussein (1988-1991).
   
• Pat Cox is President of the European Parliament. He has been an MEP since 1989, representing the constituency of Munster in the Republic of Ireland. Before entering politics he worked both as an economics lecturer and as a journalist and television presenter on Irish television.
   
• Stanley Fischer is President of Citigroup International, responsible for the Finance, Legal, Risk, and Human Resources functions. Prior to joining Citigroup, he was the First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (1994-2001).
   
• Lena Hjelm-Wallén served as Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden (1998) and Minister for Foreign Affairs (1994-1998). She is currently Chair of the Board of Directors for the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.
   
• Swanee Hunt, founder and chair of Women Waging Peace, served as US Ambassador to Austria from 1993 to 1997, hosting negotiations and several international symposia to focus efforts on securing peace in the neighbouring Balkan states.
   
• Shiv Vikram Khemka, a founder of SUN Group in India, provides leadership in all areas of the private investment group's activities. He is also a visiting fellow of the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University and serves on the Corporate Governance Committee of the World Economic Forum.
   
• Bethuel Kiplagat  served as Permanent Secretary in Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1983 to 1991 and has been a senior consultant in conflict resolution activities ever since. He facilitated peace talks for Uganda (1985-1986) and Mozambique (1988-1992), and he has been intensively involved in peace and security issues in the Horn of Africa.
   
• Trifun Kostovski is a member of the Macedonian Parliament and founder of KOMETAL TRADE Gmbh and serves as a member of the Business Advisory Council of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. He is actively involved in financing and supporting a great number of NGOs and humanitarian activities.
   
• Victor M Pinchuk , founder of Interpipe Scientific and Industrial Production Group, serves as an elected Member of Parliament in Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada and is highly active in supporting philanthropic and community endeavours.
   
• George Robertson  (Lord Robertson of Port Ellen) was Secretary General of NATO from 1999 to 2003. He was Defence Secretary of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 1999 and Member of Parliament for Hamilton and Hamilton South from 1978 to 1999.
   
• Ghassan Salamé is a UN Special Adviser on Iraq. As culture minister, he was one of the most highly regarded cabinet members in post-independence Lebanon, and he later served as Senior Political Advisor for the late UN Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
   
• Ernesto Zedillo  was Mexico's president from 1994 to 2000, overseeing the creation of a new era of democracy and economic stability in his country. He currently heads the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.

Twelve present Board members will be retiring after two years or more of distinguished service, and all of those not currently holding other executive office have been invited to continue their association with ICG by becoming Senior Advisers. We express our warmest gratitude for their contribution to Daniel Abraham, Richard Allen, Saud Al Sabah, Louise Arbour, Oscar Arias Sanchez, Jorge Castañeda, Marika Fahlen, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Mo Mowlam, Ed Van Thijn, Simone Veil, and Shirley Williams.