Speaker Biographies
John J. Danilovich is the CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Prior to his appointment as CEO by President Bush, Ambassador Danilovich served as the American ambassador to the Republic of Costa Rica from 2001 to 2004, and then as ambassador to the Federative Republic of Brazil. Ambassador Danilovich served on the board of directors of the Panama Canal Commission from 1991 to 1996 and chaired the commission’s Transition Committee prior to the transfer of the canal to the Panamanians. Ambassador Danilovich has been a director of the Stanford University Trust, a trustee of the American Museum in Britain, a director of the U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Commission, and has served in leadership positions for several charitable organizations.
Mauro De Lorenzo is a resident fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at AEI, where he studies private sector–based approaches to development in post-conflict and post-socialist countries; Chinese investment and political influence outside the Pacific region, particularly in Africa; and democratic accountability in aid-receiving countries. In 2005, Mr. De Lorenzo worked as a consultant to Afghan construction companies in Kabul, and prior to that he was a research associate at both the American University in Cairo and the Makerere Institute of Social Research in Kampala, Uganda, focusing on refugee policy and the wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. In 2002, he researched and was associate producer of The Price of Aid, a BBC documentary about U.S. food aid to Africa.
Simeon Djankov is the creator of the Doing Business series. In his dozen years at the World Bank, he has worked on regional trade agreements in North Africa, enterprise restructuring and privatization in transition economies, corporate governance in East Asia, and regulatory reforms around the world. Simeon was a principal author of the World Development Report 2002. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and has published over 70 articles in academic journals, including in Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Public Economics, and Journal of Comparative Economics.
Aart Kraay is a lead economist in the Development Research Group at the World Bank. His research interests include international capital movements, growth and inequality, governance, and the Chinese economy. He has also worked for the China department of the World Bank and was a team member of the 2001 World Development Report “Building Institutions for Markets.” Mr. Kraay has taught courses in macroeconomics, international economics, and growth at Georgetown University, the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Sherri Kraham is the managing director for development policy at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). She is responsible for developing policies related to MCC’s innovative approach to international development assistance, working with the development community to identify and incorporate best practices, and overseeing the annual process of evaluating country policy performance and the selection of countries eligible for assistance from the Millennium Challenge Account. Prior to joining MCC in 2004, she worked at the U.S. Department of State for seven years. She served as an adviser to an under secretary of state and, as such, oversaw various U.S. foreign assistance programs, including development, humanitarian assistance, democracy promotion, human rights, peacekeeping, and security. She spent several years implementing programs related to Iraq, and immediately prior to joining MCC, she completed a year-long assignment in Iraq as the director of the Program Review Board, working with the Coalition Provisional Authority as part of the first civilian team dedicated to reconstruction efforts.
Guido Schmidt-Traub is the team leader of the Millennium Development Goal Support Team in the United Nations Development Program’s Bureau for Development Policy, which assists countries in preparing and implementing national development strategies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Formerly, Mr. Schmidt-Traub was the associate director at the UN Millennium Project, directed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs. Mr. Schmidt-Traub’s technical work focuses on economics, infrastructure, and environmental sustainability. Previously, he was a partner at IndexIT Scandinavia, a strategic advisor for technology companies, and managed a private investment fund for European technology companies.
Paul Wolfowitz is a visiting scholar in foreign and defense policy studies at AEI, where he studies development issues. He has spent more than three decades in public service and higher education. Most recently, he served as president of the World Bank and deputy secretary of defense. Prior to that, he was dean and professor of international relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He has also served as under secretary of defense for policy, 1989–1993, and U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, 1986–1989. He was the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, 1982–1986, and director of policy planning at the Department of State. He worked as deputy assistant secretary of defense for regional programs at the Department of Defense, and as special assistant to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1973–1977.
View Event Details
