Board

Board of Directors

Bennett Freeman

Mr. Freeman manages Calvert's Social Research Department and directs its research and advocacy work. From 2003 until early 2006, he led Burson-Marsteller's Global Corporate Responsibility practice advising multinationals on policy development, stakeholder engagement and communications strategies related to human rights, labor rights and sustainable development. During the Clinton Administration he served in three positions as a political appointee in the State Department, most recently as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from 1999 to early 2001. In that capacity, he led the development of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, the first human rights standard forged by governments, companies and NGOs for the extractive sectors. Earlier in his career he was Manager, Corporate Affairs for General Electric and a presidential campaign aide to former Vice President Walter Mondale. Mr. Freeman earned an MA in Modern History from Oxford and an AB in History from Berkeley, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Oxfam America and the Steering Committee of Amnesty International USA's Business and Human Rights program.

Harold Freilich

Harold I. Freilich is a partner in the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where he is a member of the Corporate, Securities and Finance practice group and focuses on international and domestic financing transactions. He advises equity investors and project lenders in some of the world's most challenging emerging markets, including Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union, Eastern and Central Europe, South America, and Asia.

Mr. Freilich also counsels industrial, high-technology, natural resources, and financial services firms (including broker-dealers, banks, and venture capital providers) in domestic and cross-border securities offerings. He also advises clients in general corporate and business transactions, securities regulatory, enforcement, and litigation matters, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial real estate matters.

Mark Hanis

Mark Hanis is the Founder and President of the Genocide Intervention Network. Genocide Intervention Network's mission is to empower individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide. As a grandchild of four Holocaust survivors, Mark has a deep understanding of individual persecution and of hope and opportunity. Outraged by the international community's inaction when the Darfur conflict began, Mark began on a journey that still continues today.

Genocide Intervention Network's mission and programs are grounded a deep commitment to the communities of those who face or are at risk of genocide. It's members educate their communities, advocate for action from their elected officials, and fundraise directly for civilian protection and human security. It is an unprecedented organization who's goal is to change the way the United States and the international community respond to the world's worst crimes against humanity. Genocide Intervention Network has expanded its efforts beyond Darfur, to include conflict areas such as Burma, Sri Lanka and Congo, by building a broader movement that calls for a restoration of the moral and practical legitimacy of international leadership.

Mark also spent seven months in Sierra Leone at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), during which time he worked alongside many refugees which opened his eyes further to the conditions of the underclass.

Mark has been honored with Ashoka, Echoing Green and Draper Richards Fellowships and is a 2009 World Economic Forum Global Leader. Mark and Genocide Intervention Network have been featured in the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor and The New Republic, and Mark has appeared on a number of media outlets, including CNN Headline News, NBC, MSNBC and NPR

Ed Marcum

Ed Marcum is the Director of Investments at Humanity United, a mission-based investment group that promotes and defends equal dignity and rights for all human beings by working to end the practices of slavery and mass atrocities. Ed has held senior management positions at a number of international NGO's. Prior to joining Humanity United, Ed was the Deputy Executive Director of World Links, where he oversaw programs activities focused on improving educational outcomes and economic opportunities for youth in developing countries through the use of information and communications technology. Before coming to World Links, Ed served as Executive Director of Global Education Partnership, an NGO that provides entrepreneurship and job skills training to low-income youth in Kenya, Tanzania, Guatemala and Indonesia.

Ed holds a BA in Political Science from UC Berkeley and a MBA/MA degree from The Wharton School/Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.

Joan Platt

Joan Platt is a Vice Chair of Human Rights Watch's California Committee North.

Paul H. Schwartz

Paul H. Schwartz is a partner in the Cooley Godward Kronish Litigation department. He joined the Firm in 1998 and is resident in the Colorado office.

Mr. Schwartz's practice has included a variety of trial and appellate litigation and counseling services covering numerous areas, including securities and corporate governance, venture capital, intellectual property, commercial contracts, privacy law, commercial torts, bankruptcy, employment law, and white collar criminal defense. Among other high profile matters, he has represented several public company officers in investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and related litigation; directors of J.D. Edwards & Co. in litigation challenging that company's merger with PeopleSoft, Inc.; Walter J. Hewlett in a case challenging Hewlett-Packard's merger with Compaq; and Pacific Gas & Electric Company in the largest bankruptcy confirmation trial in U.S. history. Public companies Mr. Schwartz has successfully represented include Allos Therapeutics, Inc. and Raindance Communications, Inc. From 1994 to 1995, Mr. Schwartz served as law clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer and Retired Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the Supreme Court of the United States. He earlier served as law clerk to Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. From 1995 to May 1998, he was associated with the law firm of Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore, LLP in Atlanta, Georgia.

Advisory Board

Holly Burkhalter

Ms. Burkhalter is a frequent witness before Congress, publishes articles and opinion pieces regularly, and writes a column on human rights law and policy for Legal Times, the quarterly legal newspaper. Her most recent publication is a chapter in the Council on Foreign Relations publication, Humanitarian Intervention: Crafting a Workable Doctrine (2000). Ms. Burkhalter graduated from Iowa State University in 1978 (Phi Beta Kappa) and received the University's "Outstanding Young Alumnus" award in 1984. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the advisory committees of Mental Disability Rights International and of the International Justice Mission. She is a founding board member of the International Labor Rights Fund. Ms. Burkhalter was appointed by President Bill Clinton to be a member of the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace and confirmed in that position by the U.S. Senate for a four-year term.

Anthony Lake

Anthony Lake is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. Dr. Lake most recently served as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1962 and his State Department career included assignments as U.S. Vice Consul in Saigon and Hue, Special Assistant to the National Security Advisor, and Director of Policy Planning. Dr. Lake was Five College Professor of International Relations at Mount Holyoke College and has also worked for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and International Voluntary Services. He is the author of several books, including Somoza Falling and The "Tar Baby" Option: American Policy Toward Southern Rhodesia, and co-author of Our Own Worst Enemy: The Unmasking of American Foreign Policy. In addition, he edited After the Wars and was a contributing editor to Legacy of Vietnam: The War, American Society and the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy. Dr. Lake received his Ph.D. from Princeton University.

Trevor Neilson

Trevor Neilson is a senior advisor APCO Worldwide, a global public affairs firm with offices in major cities throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Prior to that, Mr. Neilson was executive director of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC). During his tenure at the GBC, he helped grow corporate membership to more than 200 multinational companies who are involved in the fight against the world's deadliest diseases. He also opened and managed offices in New York, Paris, Beijing, Geneva and Johannesburg, and established partnerships in 20 countries around the world.

Mr. Neilson served as director of public affairs and special projects at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he was responsible for grant-making, government relations and public affairs. He also was the spokesperson and managed relationships with the United Nations, governments, corporations and NGOs. In addition, he worked for Bill and Melinda Gates on personal projects and served as spokesperson for the Gates family.

Mr. Neilson worked in the Clinton White House in the Office of Scheduling and Advance, and the White House Travel Office. He is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Wikimedia Foundation advisory board, the Genocide Intervention Network advisory board, the Business & Human Rights Resource Center and a number of other organizations. He is vice-chairman of Saflink, a technology company focused on biometric security solutions for government agencies in the United States, and is a visiting practitioner at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute in the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership, where he lectures on the role of philanthropy and corporate responsibility in public policy and international relations.

John Prendergast

John Prendergast is Co-Chair of ENOUGH. Previously, John worked at the White House and State Department during the Clinton administration, where he was involved in a number of peace processes throughout Africa. John also has worked for members of Congress, the UN, human rights organizations, and think tanks. He has authored eight books on Africa, the latest of which he co-authored with actor/activist Don Cheadle, entitled "Not on Our Watch." John travels regularly to Africa's war zones on fact-finding missions, peace-making initiatives, and awareness- raising trips involving network news programs, celebrities, and politicians.

David Scheffer

David Scheffer has joined Northwestern Law as a faculty member holding an endowed professorship and serving as the new Director of the Center for International Human Rights. He teaches International Human Rights Law and International Criminal Law. He was previously the U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues (1997-2001) and led the U.S. delegation in U.N. talks establishing the International Criminal Court. During his ambassadorship, Scheffer negotiated and coordinated U.S. support for the establishment and operation of international and hybrid criminal tribunals and U.S. responses to atrocities anywhere in the world. He also headed the Atrocities Prevention Inter-Agency Working Group.

During the first term of the Clinton Administration, Scheffer served as senior adviser and counsel to the U.S. Representative to the United Nations, Dr. Madeleine Albright, and served from 1993 through 1996 on the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council. Scheffer recently held visiting professorships at Northwestern Law, Georgetown University Law Center, and George Washington University Law School and taught earlier at Duke University School of Law and Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. He has published extensively on international legal and political issues and appears regularly in the national and international media. He is a CNN Legal Analyst. Scheffer is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bars, the American Society of International Law (formerly serving on the Executive Council), and the Council on Foreign Relations, and is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Law Students Association.

Gayle Smith

A Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Director of the International Rights and Responsibilities Program and Energy Opportunity Program, Gayle Smith served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from 1998-2001, and as Senior Advisor to the Administrator and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Agency for International Development from 1994-1998.

Smith was based in Africa for over 20 years as a journalist covering military, economic, and political affairs for the BBC, Associated Press, Reuters, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Toronto Globe & Mail, London Observer, and Financial Times. Smith has also consulted for a wide range of NGOs, foundations, and governmental organizations including UNICEF, the World Bank, Dutch Interchurch Aid, Norwegian Church Relief, and the Canadian Council for International Cooperation. She won the World Journalism Award from the World Affairs Council and the World Hunger Year Award in 1991, and in 1999 won the National Security Council's Samuel Nelson Drew Award for Distinguished Contribution in Pursuit of Global Peace. Smith is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the boards of Oxfam America, the Africa America Institute, USA for Africa, and the National Security Network. She also serves on the policy advisory boards of DATA, the Acumen Fund, and the Global Fairness Initiative, and is the Working Group Chair on Global Poverty for the Clinton Global Initiative.