Co-chairs

Tony Blair

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Tony Blair served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Since leaving office he has spent most of his time on work in the Middle East, in Africa and on the fight against religiously-based extremism. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation and its Centre on Religion and Geopolitics track extremism across the world, providing thought leadership and education programs to counter extremist ideology.

Leon Panetta

Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and Former Secretary of Defense

A U.S. Congressman for 16 years, Leon E. Panetta was named Director of the Office of Management and Budget for the Clinton Administration in 1993 and then Chief of Staff to the President. Later, as Director of the CIA, he oversaw the operation that brought Osama bin Laden to justice. Named Secretary of Defense in 2011, Secretary Panetta led the effort to develop a new defense strategy, conducted critical counterterrorism operations, strengthened U.S. alliances, and opened up opportunities for everyone to serve in the military.

Senior Advisers and Commissioners

Farah Pandith

Former Special Representative to Muslim Communities and Adjunct Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

A diplomatic entrepreneur and foreign policy strategist, Farah Pandith is a member of Secretary Jeh Johnson’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. As a political appointee in the George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack H. Obama administrations, she has served in positions at the National Security Council, U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. Department of State, most recently as the first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities. A CVE pioneer and author, she has traveled to nearly 100 countries and launched global youth-focused initiatives and networks to counter violent extremism and continues to do so from outside government most notably co-founding Halcyon, an innovative global organization dedicated to mobilizing youth against extremist ideologies.

Juan Zarate

Former Deputy National Security Adviser for Combatting Terrorism and Senior Adviser, CSIS

The Honorable Juan Zarate is a Senior Adviser at CSIS, the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Financial Integrity Network (FIN), and the Chairman and Senior Counselor for the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance (CSIF) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mr. Zarate also serves as the Senior National Security Analyst for NBC News and MSNBC and is a Visiting Lecturer of Law at the Harvard Law School. Mr. Zarate served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism from 2005 to 2009, was the first-ever Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, and is a former federal prosecutor. Mr. Zarate sits on several boards, including the Vatican's Financial Information Authority, and is the author of multiple publications, including his most recent book, Treasury's War: The Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare (2013).

Commissioners

Ahmed Abbadi

Secretary General, Mohammadian League of Scholars, Morocco

Dr. Ahmad Abaddi is Secretary General of the Mohammadian League of Religious Scholars (Rabita Mohammadia des Oulémas). He was a professor of Islamic studies, comparative history of religions, tafsir, and Islamic thought at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Marrakesh, and a professor of sociology of North Africa in the program of cooperation between Cadi Ayyad University and the University of De Paul in Chicago. Dr. Abaddi has been appointed to a number of councils in Morocco including the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, the National Council for Human Rights, and the Higher Council for Education.

Scott Atran

Directeur de Recherche, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Founding Fellow, Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict, University of Oxford

Professor Scott Atran is Senior Research Fellow, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford and Co-Founder of ARTIS Research and of the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict at Oxford. He is tenured as Research Director in Anthropology at France’s National Center for Scientific Research, Institut Jean Nicod-Ecole Normale Supérieure, in Paris. He also holds positions as Research Professor of Public Policy and Psychology, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and currently serves as a member of the UN Security Council Advisory Board on Youth, Peace, and Security.

Monika Bickert

Head of Product Policy and Counterterrorism, Facebook

Monika Bickert is Facebook’s head of product policy and counterterrorism. Bickert joined Facebook in 2012 as lead security counsel, advising the company on matters including child safety and data security. She was a formal federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice for over a decade.

Ambassador (ret.) Nicholas Burns

Professor, Harvard Kennedy School

Nicholas Burns is Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School. He serves on Secretary of State John Kerry's Foreign Policy Advisory Board. In a long diplomatic career, he was U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, U.S. Ambassador to NATO and to Greece, and State Department Spokesman. He also served on the National Security Council staff for Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg

Chairman, Spitzberg Partners, LLC; Distinguished Statesman, CSIS; and Former Minister of Defense of Germany

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg served as German Federal Minister of Defense and as Federal Minister of Economics and Technology in the cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel. As Minister of Defense, he led the most significant structural reform of the German armed forces since the Bundeswehr’s founding in 1955. Baron zu Guttenberg is a Distinguished Statesman at CSIS as well as Chairman and Founder of Spitzberg Partners, an international advisory and investment firm that focuses on new technologies and geopolitics.

Stephen Hadley

Former National Security Adviser and Chairman, United States Institute of Peace

Stephen J. Hadley is a principal of RiceHadleyGates LLC, an international strategic consulting firm founded with Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, and Anja Manuel. Mr. Hadley is also Board Chairman of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), and executive vice chair of the Board of the Atlantic Council. Mr. Hadley served for four years as the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from 2005 - 2009. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Hadley was the Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor, serving under then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Sherman Jackson

King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture, University of Southern California

Sherman Jackson is the King Faisal Chair in Islamic Thought and Culture and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California and an Adjunct Scholar and a Member of the Board of Advisors at ISPU. He is the author of a plethora of books, including Islam and the Blackamerican, the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam, and Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi.

Fred Khosravi

Co-Founder and Partner, Incept, LLC and Board Member, CSIS

Fred Khosravi is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Incept, LLC, a health sciences and medical technology development company. Mr. Khosravi is a Silicon Valley medical device entrepreneur who has, over the last 25 years, pioneered development of life-saving technologies such as stents and angioplasty devices for coronary artery interventions, minimally invasive implantable heart valves, and life-improving technologies such as intraocular lenses for treatment of cataracts. A co-founder of 14 medical companies, Mr. Khosravi also held senior management positions in large medical device companies such as Guidant Corporation (now part of Abbott), Boston Scientific Corp, and Alcon Surgical Corp and is the author or coauthor on over 160 issued or filed patent applications, involving unique and novel medical devices.

Nancy Lindborg

President, United States Institute of Peace

Nancy Lindborg has served since February 2015 as President of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), an independent institution founded by Congress to provide practical solutions for preventing and resolving violent conflict around the world. Prior to joining USIP, she served as the assistant administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) at USAID. From 2010 through early 2015, Ms. Lindborg led USAID teams focused on building resilience and democracy, managing and mitigating conflict and providing urgent humanitarian assistance.

Mohamed Magid

Imam, All Dulles Area Muslim Society and Chairman, International Interfaith Peace Corps

Imam Mohamed Hagmagid is the Executive Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS), the Chairperson of the International Interfaith Peace Corp (IIPC), and the former President of the largest Muslim organization in North America, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Imam Magid has a long history of commitment to public service through organizations such as The Peaceful Families Project, Annual Twinning of Mosques and Synagogues, Fairfax Faith Communities in Action, Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington Assembly and the Buxton Interfaith Initiative. He also has extensive experience in public health advocacy, development, countering violent extremism, and peace building in West Africa.

Martha Minow

Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor, Harvard Law School

Martha Minow, the Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law, has taught at Harvard Law School since 1981, where her courses include civil procedure, constitutional law, family law, international criminal justice, jurisprudence, law and education, nonprofit organizations, and the public law workshop. She served on the Independent International Commission Kosovo and helped to launch Imagine Co-existence, a program of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, to promote peaceful development in post-conflict societies.

Vali Nasr

Dean and Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies

Dr. Vali Nasr is Dean and Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He is a Middle East scholar, foreign policy adviser, and commentator on international relations. He is the author of The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat and The Shia Revival. He served as a Special Adviser to the President’s Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2009 to 2011.

Mark Penn

President and Managing Partner, The Stagwell Group

Mark Penn served as White House Pollster to President Bill Clinton for 6 years and was a key adviser in his 1996 reelection and second term in office. Mr. Penn also served as Chief Strategist to Hillary Clinton during her Senate campaigns and her 2008 Presidential run. He was also Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Microsoft, where he was responsible for working on core strategic issues across Microsoft’s products, value propositions, and investments and leading the company’s competitive research and analysis, and is the author of the best-selling book, Microtrends.

Dina Powell

Head of Global Impact Investing, Goldman Sachs, and Former Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs and Deputy Undersecretary of State for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy

Dina Powell is head of Goldman Sachs’ Impact Investing business and president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. She also serves as global head of the Office of Corporate Engagement and is a member of the Partnership Committee. Ms. Powell joined Goldman Sachs as a managing director in 2007 and was named partner in 2010. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, she had an exemplary career in government, serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs and Deputy Undersecretary of Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy. Ms. Powell also served as a member of the senior staff of the White House as Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel.

Jane Rosenthal

Executive Chair of Tribeca Enterprises and Co-Founder of the Tribeca Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Institute

Jane Rosenthal is Executive Chair of the multi-platform media company Tribeca Enterprises, which operates a diverse network of branded entertainment businesses, including the Tribeca Film Festival, Tribeca Studios, and Tribeca Film Festival International. A distinguished producer, Rosenthal cofounded the Tribeca Film Festival following the attacks on the World Trade Center, evolving from an annual event to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan into one of the foremost innovative storytelling events in the United States. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and sits on the boards of the Tribeca Film Institute, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at The World Trade Center, the Child Mind Institute, and the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Dean’s Council, and Interlude.

Brad Smith

President and Chief Legal Officer, Microsoft

Brad Smith is Microsoft’s President and Chief Legal Officer, responsible for the company’s corporate, external, and legal affairs. In addition to his work at Microsoft, Mr. Smith is active in several civic and legal organizations and in the broader technology industry. He works to advance several significant diversity and pro bono initiatives, serving as Chair of the board of directors of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) and as Chair of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD).

Frances Townsend

Executive Vice President for Worldwide Government, Legal and Business Affairs, MacAndrews and Forbes Incorporated

Frances Fragos Townsend is an Executive Vice President for Worldwide Government, Legal and Business Affairs at MacAndrews and Forbes Incorporated and President of the Counter Extremism Project. From 2004 to 2008, Ms. Townsend served as Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and chaired the Homeland Security Council. She also served as Deputy National Security Advisor for Combatting Terrorism from May 2003 to May 2004.

Kent Walker

General Counsel, Google

Kent Walker serves as Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Google. Before joining Google, he was Deputy General Counsel of eBay Inc., where he managed corporate legal affairs, litigation, and legal operations. Earlier in his career, Mr. Walker was an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the United States Department of Justice, where he specialized in the prosecution of technology crimes and advised the Attorney General on management and technology issues.

Jay Winik

Author and Historian

Jay Winik is one of the nation's leading historians. He is the author of three consecutive New York Times bestsellers, most recently 1944 and April 1865. He is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an elected Fellow of the Society of American Historians, and served on the Governing Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a presidential appointment, as well as the boards for American Heritage magazine and the journal, World Affairs.

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