Yale University Announces 2010 Yale World Fellows

Yale University announces the selection of 15 Yale World Fellows for 2010. The Yale World Fellows Program is the University’s signature global leadership development initiative and a core element of Yale’s ongoing commitment to internationalization. Each year since 2002, the University has welcomed a group of exemplary mid-career professionals from a wide range of fields and countries for the four-month leadership program.

This year’s World Fellows include a senior advisor to the largest progressive Islamic organization in Indonesia; a leading advocate for drug policy reform in Mexico; a Tunisian pro-democracy proponent who is one of his country’s most successful business entrepreneurs; and a Sudanese diplomat who leads the developing world’s negotiations on climate change. Brief biographies of the 2010 World Fellows are below.

“This year’s pool of candidates to the Yale World Fellows Program was the deepest and most talented to date,” said the program’s director, Michael Cappello, M.D., professor of pediatrics, microbial pathogenesis, and public health. “The 2010 Fellows have each demonstrated an extraordinary ability to influence dialogue on issues of national, regional and global significance. We look forward to their engagement with the Yale community.”

Selected from a pool of nearly 1,500 applicants, this year’s cohort brings the total number of Yale World Fellows since the program’s inception in 2002 to 155 Fellows, representing 72 countries.

“This is a tremendous opportunity,” said Wolfgang Proissl, a 2010 World Fellow who served until recently as the Brussels bureau chief for the Financial Times Deutschland. “The chance to dig deeply into some of the most pressing issues of the day with Yale’s renowned faculty and diverse student body is very exciting.”

From August to December, the 2010 World Fellows will enroll in a specially designed seminar taught by leading Yale faculty; audit any of the 3,000 courses offered at the University; receive individualized skill-building training; and meet with U.S. and foreign leaders. Past World Fellows have met with then-U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy, Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan; and former National Democratic Committee Chair Howard Dean, among others.

The Yale World Fellows Program has at its core three main goals: to provide advanced training to emerging leaders from diverse disciplines and countries, to link this network of world leaders to each other and to Yale, and to expand international understanding among the Yale community.

Yale President Richard C. Levin expressed his admiration for the 2010 Fellows’ achievements, noting that “over the last nine years, the World Fellows Program has significantly broadened the Yale community’s perspective on international affairs and helped develop the next generation of global leaders.”

The Yale World Fellows Program is currently accepting nominations for the 2011 Program. Please visit www.yale.edu/worldfellows for more information.

2010 Yale World Fellows

May Tony Akl (Lebanon)
Foreign Press Secretary, Office of MP Michel Aoun
Akl advises former Prime Minister Aoun, who heads the Free Patriotic Movement and the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc. She is a founding member of the Free Patriotic Movement.

Subhashini Chandran (India)
CEO, Woodbriar Group; Managing Director, Tea Estates India Ltd.
Chandran is a business and social entrepreneur who owns and manages the largest privately owned tea plantation business in India, with diversified interests in insurance services and real estate.

Lumumba Di-Aping (Sudan)
Deputy Permanent Representative, Sudan Mission to United Nations
A diplomat and chief negotiator on financial and economic affairs, Di-Aping represented developing countries as chair of the Group of 77 and China at the recent Copenhagen climate change conference.

Ana Hernandez (Mexico)
Founder, Collective for an Integrated Drug Policy
Hernandez is a leading advocate for drug policy reform in Mexico. She was formerly deputy director of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center.

Sergey Lagodinsky (Germany)
Fellow, Global Public Policy Institute
An expert on German foreign policy, transatlantic relations, global security, and international law, Lagodinsky is also lead spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Berlin and the Jewish Caucus of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

Fares Mabrouk (Tunisia)
Founder and CEO, Viamobile
A successful business entrepreneur in mobile banking and oil logistics, Mabrouk is also founder of the Arab Policy Institute, the first “think and action tank” dedicated to nurturing democracy in Tunisia.

Kala Mulqueeny (Australia)
Senior Counsel, Asian Development Bank
Mulqueeny is an environment and energy lawyer and a lecturer at the University of the Philippines Law College. She leads work on environmental courts, sustainable electricity and water regulation, and carbon capture and storage regulation in Asia, and initiated a post-tsunami governance and legal aid project in Sri Lanka.

Alexey Navalny (Russia)
Founder, Minority Shareholders Association
Navalny spearheads legal challenges on behalf of minority shareholders in large Russian companies. He is also co-founder of the Democratic Alternative movement.

Wolfgang Proissl (Germany)
Brussels Bureau Chief, Financial Times Deutschland
A champion of European integration, Proissl has been responsible for defining the editorial line on European affairs and global governance for the Financial Times Deutschland and its affiliated news magazines. A reporter, editorialist, and frequent television commentator, he helps shape public opinion on European issues.

Marvin Rees (United Kingdom)
Director, The Bristol Partnership
A BBC Radio talk show host and member of the National Community Forum, Rees is a leading voice on race relations and race equality in the U.K.

Azizullah Royesh (Afghanistan)
Founder & Director, Marefat High School
Royesh, a former mujahideen resistance fighter, is now a leading advocate for equal access to primary and secondary education, directing a school for 3,500 Hazara minority students in Afghanistan.

Ricardo Teran (Nicaragua)
Co-Founder & Managing Director, Agora Partnerships
A successful businessman, Teran promotes development of “social impact entrepreneurs” by helping to start and grow companies in Latin America.

Diana Tsui (Hong Kong)
Director of Corporate Social Responsibility and CEO of the KPMG Foundation
As the creator of KPMG’s corporate social responsibility strategy, Tsui leads programs with a special focus on education and sustainable development. She was previously a managing director of Mercy Corps and the head of community affairs in the Asia Pacific region for Nike.

Thembi Xulu (South Africa)
Medical Director, Right to Care
A medical doctor, Xulu leads technical operations and provides strategic direction for Right to Care, the largest NGO in South Africa engaged in delivery of care for people living with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other health conditions.

Arif Zamhari (Indonesia)
Senior Advisor, Nahdlatul Ulama
A rising leader of the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia (some 40 million members), Zamhari promotes moderate and progressive Islam. He is involved in Track II diplomacy through leadership of the International Conference of Islamic Scholars Forum.