International Advisory Council

MRFCJ benefits from the experience and expertise of an International Advisory Council which is available to the Trustees of the Foundation in relation to its activities. The initial International Advisory Council consists of the following:

Richard C. Blum

Richard C. Blum is the Chairman and President of Richard C. Blum & Associates, Inc., the general partner of Blum Capital Partners, L.P., a long-term strategic equity investment management firm that acts as general partner for various investment partnerships ...more

Richard Branson

Richard Branson founded Virgin in 1970 as a mail order record retailer. With around 200 companies in over 30 countries, the Virgin Group has now expanded into leisure, travel, tourism, mobile, broadband, TV, radio, music festivals, finance and health and through Virgin Green Fund is investing in renewable energy ...more

Gro Harlem Brundtland

Gro Harlem Brundtland gained international recognition in the 1980s as a leading advocate for the concept of sustainable development and as the Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission). She was Prime Minister of Norway for a total of ten years...more

Ray Chambers

Ray Chambers is a philanthropist and humanitarian who has directed most of his efforts towards at-risk youth. He is the founding Chairman of the Points of Light Foundation and co-founder, with Colin Powell, of America’s Promise - The Alliance for Youth. ...more

Sir Gordon Conway

Sir Gordon Richard Conway is an agricultural ecologist and Professor of International Development at the Centre for Environmental Policy of Imperial College of London. Gordon was a pioneer of sustainable agriculture and also served as President of the Rockefeller Foundation ...more

Al Gore

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is cofounder and Chairman of Generation Investment Management, a firm that is focused on a new approach to Sustainable Investing. Mr. Gore is the author of An Inconvenient Truth, a best-selling book on the threat of and solutions to global warming ...more

Vartan Gregorian

Vartan Gregorian is the twelfth president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, a grant-making institution founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1911. Prior to his current position, which he assumed in June 1997, Gregorian served for nine years as the sixteenth president of Brown University. ...more

Thomas C. Heller

Thomas C. Heller is the Executive Director of Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), based in San Francisco with offices in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Beginning in 2008, Heller has been a core team member directing Project Catalyst — an analysis based project in support of the Copenhagen Climate process. ...more

Mo Ibrahim

Mo Ibrahim is an expert in mobile communications and founder of one of Africa’s most successful companies, Celtel International. In October 2006, Dr. Ibrahim launched the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to support good governance and great leadership in Africa. ...more

Musimbi Kanyoro

Since September 2007, Musimbi Kanyoro has served as the Director for the Population and Reproductive Health Program of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. From 1998-2007 she was the General Secretary (CEO) of the World YWCA, a membership organization with operations in 125 countries...more

Mitchell Kapor

Mitchell Kapor is a pioneer of the personal computing revolution and has been at the forefront of information technology for 30 years as an entrepreneur, software designer, angel investor, and activist. He serves on the advisory Boards of Generation Investment Management (sustainable, long-term investing) ...more

HH Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned

Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned has been actively engaged in education and other social reforms in Qatar for many years and has played a major role in spearheading national and international development projects. ...more

Amy Robbins

Amy Robbins is the Founder of The Nduna Foundation, which focuses its efforts and investments in conflict and post-conflict countries in Africa, working to improve nutrition and food security; supporting those who work diligently to treat and eliminate pediatric HIV/AIDS ...more

Judith Rodin

Dr. Judith Rodin has been president of the Rockefeller Foundation since 2005. She was previously president of the University of Pennsylvania, the first woman to lead an Ivy League institution, and provost of Yale University. She participates in the annual World Economic Forum and serves on several boards ...more

Jeffrey Sachs

Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is also Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ...more

Jeff Skoll

Jeff Skoll is a philanthropist and social entrepreneur. As founder and chairman of the Skoll Foundation, Participant Media and the Skoll Global Threats Fund, he is bringing life to his vision of a sustainable, peaceful and prosperous world. Jeff was the first President of eBay ...more

Sir Crispin Tickell

Sir Crispin Tickell is the Director of the Policy Foresight Programme at the James Martin School for the 21st Century at Oxford University. He is associated with other British universities as well as universities in the United States ...more

Camilla Toulmin

Camilla Toulmin is Director of the International Institute for Environment & Development (IIED), having formerly run the Drylands Programme from 1987-2002. An economist by training, her work has focused on social, economic, and environmental development in dryland Africa ...more

Jane Wales

Jane Wales is the President & CEO of the World Affairs Council of Northern California; host of the nationally-syndicated National Public Radio interview show It's Your World; and Co-Founder of the Global Philanthropy Forum ...more

Margot Wallstrom

Margot Wallström has been a long-time advocate of the rights and needs of women throughout her political career - first as Swedish Minister and later as Environment Commissioner and Vice-President of the European Commission. Since her appointment to the European Commission in 1999 ...more

Tim Wirth

Timothy Wirth is the President of the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Fund. Both organizations were founded in 1998 through a major financial commitment from Ted Turner to support and strengthen the work of the United Nations. ...more