Board of Directors old

Kenneth Anderson (Chairman) is professor of law at American University Law School in Washington, DC. He previously taught at Columbia Law School and at Harvard Law School, where he was the John Harvey Gregory Lecturer on World Organization (1993-95). An expert in the legal fields of micro-finance, venture capital investment, non-profit organizations and international human rights, Professor Anderson has published widely on these subjects. In addition to his academic publications, he was the legal editor of Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know (edited by Roy Gutman and David Rieff, 1999) and is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement (London) and the Los Angeles Times Review of Books. Long involved in the campaign to ban land mines, Professor Anderson was the founding director of Human Rights Watch's Arms Project.

Ying Chan established The University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre in September 1999. She set up the first professional postgraduate journalism programme in Hong Kong and launched Hong Kong's first fellowships for working journalists. Ying's honours include a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, a George Polk Award for journalistic excellence and an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists. She taught at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and was on the board of the Asian American Journalists Association. She has written for Hong Kong and US publications, including The Nation magazine, Village Voice, Ming Pao and The Hong Kong Economic Journal. She has reported for 60 Minutes, NBC News with Tom Brokaw and Dateline. Her 1995 prize-winning documentary, 'Snakeheads: People Smuggling and the Modern Slave Trade', was showcased at the Amsterdam and Tokyo film festivals and has aired widely in the United States.

Sheila Coronel is Professor of Professional Practice at the Stabile Center for Investigative journalism at Columbia University. She began her reporting career at the Philippine Panorama, before joining the staff of the Manila Times as a political reporter. Sheila has also written special reports for The Manila Chronicle and contributed to The New York Times and The Guardian. In 1989, Sheila and her colleagues founded the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) to promote investigative reporting. The PCIJ trains journalists in investigative skills, and has provided an environment for in-depth, groundbreaking reporting.

As executive director (1973-1991) of the Fondation pour une Entraide Intellectuelle Européene, Annette Laborey worked to support independent intellectuals, journalists and creative artists in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia and, later on, in the Baltic States and the DDR. Since 1991, she has been executive director of the Open Society Institute in Paris, the Western European liaison and resource office for the Open Society Institute and the Soros foundations.

Gerald Nagler was founder and executive director, and later chairman, of the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. He has worked on human rights issues and supported and co-operated with NGOs in building civil societies in repressive countries in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe for 25 years. Mr Nagler has initiated many human rights projects especially on independent media, the Rule of Law and minority conflicts. Before 1982 he was CEO of an international trading company.

For eight of his 15 years at the American Civil Liberties Union, Aryeh Neier was executive director. He went on to found and become executive director of Human Rights Watch. In 1993, he joined the Open Society Institute as president. Mr Neier is a frequent contributor to the Nation and the New York Review of Books. His articles have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review and Foreign Policy. He has written more than 100 op-ed articles for such newspapers as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune. Author of five books, including War Crimes: Brutality, Genocide, Terror and the Struggle for Justice (1998), Mr Neier has contributed chapters to more than 20 books.

Alexander Papachristou is president of the Near East Foundation, which supports specific communities in Jordan, Egypt, Palestine, Sudan, Morocco and Mali in their struggle to free themselves from deep poverty, as well as the effects of conflict, migration and/or climate change, through civil society action. Prior to holding this position, Mr Papachristou engaged in cross-border corporate finance in advisory and proprietary roles since 1989. From 1994 to 2007, he held a variety of positions with NCH Capital Inc, which runs a series of limited partnerships investing in private equity and public securities in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Romania and Bulgaria, including senior consultant, managing director and general counsel. Mr Papachristou lived in Russia from 1989 to 1993, where he opened and ran the Moscow office of the international law firm White & Case and wrote a column for the Moscow Times. Previously, Mr Papachristou was associated with the law firm of Clifford & Warnke in Washington, DC and served as policy assistant to New York Governor Mario C. Cuomo. He also served as law clerk to US District Judge Myron H. Thompson in the Middle District of Alabama. Mr Papachristou serves on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations, including International Social Service (US Branch).

Bernard Poulet is chief editor at the French economic monthly L'Expansion. He is also in charge of the Expansion think-tank and of Forum de L'Expansion. He is former editor-in-chief (1998-2001) of the political and social affairs weekly Courrier International. Mr Poulet spent more than 10 years at L'Evénement du Jeudi in various positions, from head of the foreign desk to deputy editor-in-chief and finally editor-in-chief of the current affairs weekly. Prior to that, his career took him from South America to the Middle East, working in both print and television. He holds degrees in history and sociology from the Institut d' Etudes Politiques.

John Ryle is Legrand Ramsey Professor of Anthropology. He has worked as a social researcher in Brazil and Sudan and is currently a visiting professor at Bard College, New York. He is a contributor to numerous publications including the Guardian, the Financial Times, Granta, The New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement, where he is Africa Editor.

Sasa Vucinic has been managing director of MDLF since co-founding it in 1995. Previously, he worked in Prague as a media consultant to the Soros Foundations. In that position, he designed and oversaw projects assisting independent media organizations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. From 1990 to 1993, Mr Vucinic was the editor-in-chief and general manager of Radio B-92 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia's most important and respected independent radio station. He began his journalism career as a reporter at the weekly political newsmagazine Non, eventually becoming its editor-in-chief. Mr Vucinic is a Senior Ashoka Fellow.