AAI Board of Directors

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Washington DC Office
1523 16th St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Telephone 202.232.7020
Fax 202.232.7023
admin@asiaamerica.org

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Metro Manila,
Philippines Office

Meet Our Board of Directors

The Asia America Initiative (AAI) is supported by a distinguished board of directors with diverse experiences from the highest levels of Government, Business and the Academy.

The Board is:

Albert Santoli - President, of Asia America Initiative
Andrew J.Koval - President, MedPharm, Inc.
Karl D. Jackson - Director of Asian and SE Asian Studies, Johns Hopkins Univ.
William R. Hawkins - Senior Fellow for National Security Studies, U.S. Business and Industry Council
Mitzi Pickard Deputy for Development, The Asia Society and President, Philippine-American Chamber of Congress
Richard Lee Armitage - US Deputy Secretary of State (2001 - 2005)
Mark Bayliss - President, Visual Link Internet Company
David F. Day - Attorney and Professor of Law, University of Hawaii
Bruce Fritch - Founder, Fritch Consulting, leading strategic consultant
Roland Eng - Ambassador at Large, Cambodia
Bing Branigin - Public Relations and Media Consultant

Philippine Trustees:

Amb. Albert del Rosario - Ambassador
Hon. Senen Bacani - Former Secretary of Agriculture
Hon. Antonio Santos - Undersecretary of Defense
Atty. Jose Lorena
Atty. Renato Cervantes
Hon. Rashdi Abubakar - Former Mayor of Jolo, Sulu

Board Member Biographies

Albert Santoli is President of the Asia America Initiative and an innovator in peace mediation through community-based social and economic development . He is also Editor of e-publications China in Focus and Asia in Focus. He is the former Senior Vice-President of the American Foreign Policy Council [AFPC] and Director of the Asia-Pacific Initiative and was In addition, he has worked as a foreign policy and national security advisor in the United State House of Representatives. In 2003, his Development for Peace in Sulu project in Muslim Mindanao received a Philippines Presidential Citation. In 2004, he received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the U.S. Business and Industry Council. In December 2006, Mr. Santoli/AAI was named as a finalist for the OneWorld.net Person of the Year Award. He is a former- Senior Fellow at Freedom House; and a former-Consultant to the Refugee Program of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. And he is a Lifetime Member of the Disabled American Veterans.

Mr. Santoli is the author of numerous books and monographs, including the New York Times best-selling EVERYTHING WE HAD, An Oral History of the Vietnam War, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Award and selected to the American Library Association’s All-Time Best Books List. He is also the author of TO BEAR ANY BURDEN: The Vietnam War and Its Aftermath; NEW AMERICANS: Immigrants and Refugees in the U.S. Today; LEADING THE WAY; and EMPIRES OF THE STEPPE: Russia and China, From Antiquity to 1912.

He has been a guest lecturer or panelist at Harvard University; Columbia University; the U.S. Naval Academy; the University of California; George Mason University; Nebraska University; the State University of New York; the Institute of World Politics, Washington, D.C.; the National University of Singapore; Chulalongkorn University, Thailand; and the National Defense University of the Philippines; the U.S. Army War College and the U.S. Marine Corps University.

Andrew J. Koval is CEO of MedPharm, Inc, a pharmaceutical company that specializes in assistance to international humanitarian initiatives. He has twenty-five years experience in international development, in which he has negotiated host government bilateral agreements; and designed, secured financing and administered programs in ten countries and on three continents totaling over $600 million.

In 1984, Mr. Koval designed and implemented the world's first monetization of EEC food commodities by an American NGO and administered the funds generated to support development projects in Egypt. In 1985 initiated, negotiated and brought to successful conclusion the world's first monetization of PL 480 food commodities by an American NGO. As MENA Regional Director, responsible for oversight, supervision and management of the programming activities of 19 countries within the Middle East with targeted development And as the Director of Africa Development Group, he put in place the framework for a long term development strategy and responsible for the Africa Development Fund.

He developed and managed major multi-million-dollar emergency relief and reconstruction programs: War of Biafra 1968; Cyclone Reconstruction East Pakistan 1970; Was of Bangladesh 1972 to 1974; Algerian Earthquake 1980; War of Afghanistan 1986 to 1988. As Managing Director and Founding Member of the Board of North Africa Middle East Foundation, secured a seed capital grant and structured the Foundation to invest in profit making development projects, ventures and joint-ventures- the profits of which were specifically mandated for reinvestment in development work.

Karl D. Jackson is Director of Asian Studies and C.V. Starr Distinguished Professor of Southeast Asia Studies and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He taught for 19 years at University of California, Berkeley. Served as the National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States from 1991-1993, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asia at the National Security Council, 1989-91, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia 1986-1989. In the business world, Dr. Jackson has held positions as Managing Director, International Foreign Exchange Concepts, New York, N.Y., 1993-96, Senior Advisor at Cerberus Capital Partners, New York, N.Y., 2000-2004, and President of the U.S.-Thailand Business Council, 1994-2005. Until 2007, he was Advisor to the President of the World Bank and the Executive Vice President of the Bank’s International Finance Corporation.

William R. Hawkins is Senior Fellow for National Security Studies at the U.S. Business and Industry Council Educational Foundation, where he specializes in international economics and national defense issues. Before joining the USBIC, he served as a Senior Research Analyst in the U.S. House of Representatives 1994-99.

Mr. Hawkins also hosted the weekly radio program "In the National Interest" which was heard nationally on the Information and Entertainment America Network from 1997-2000. Mr. Hawkins taught Economics at Appalachian State University, the University of North Carolina-Asheville and Radford University. During the past 30 years, Mr Hawkins has published over 200 articles, including pieces in The Naval War College Review, Parameters (Army War College), The National Interest, Strategic Review, Army, The Journal of Economic History, Seapower, the Weekly Standard, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Policy Review, Military History, Military Heritage and National Review among others. He is a frequent writer of op-ed columns and wrote a nationally syndicated column for the Knight-Ridder Tribune Newswire.

Mitzi Pickard is Assistant Director for Business Development at the Asia Society in Washington, DC. She is a founding member and former President of the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce. She is the former Executive Director of the Philippine Centennial Coordinating Committee/USA. She is former President of the Philippine American Heritage Federation. She is also a founding member of the Philippine American Women Involved in Development, established by professional women to provide low interest loans to “poor but deserving Filipinos” for livelihood projects [patterned after the micro-loan program of the Grameen Bank].

Richard L. Armitage served as Deputy Secretary of State from 2001-2005. He is currently President of Armitage International Associates LLC. He had been engaged in a range of worldwide business and public policy endeavors as well as frequent public speaking and writing. Previously, he held senior leadership and negotiating positions in the Department of State and Defense, and the Congress.

Mr. Armitage was awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service four times, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Award for Outstanding Public Service, the Presidential Citizens Medal, presented by the President to citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of service, and the Department of State Distinguished Honor Award.

Mark Bayliss is founder and CEO of Visual Link, Inc. an international internet hosting company based in Winchester, Virginia. He is also President of World Air Waves and Cobaltacks,com. Inc. He is Director the Virginia Internet Service Provider Association and has testified before the US Congress and participated in a number of national and international conferences and symposiums on Internet protocol. Visual Link is a pioneer in the new IPV6 internet protocol. An innovator in e-commerce in developing nations, Mr. Bayliss has spoken at the White House to president commission on E-commerce. He was chosen by state department to train Russian technology delegation on Internet free enterprise.

David F. Day is professor at the University of Hawaii’s Business School and Richardson School of Law. He is one of the Asia Pacific Region’s leading international ADR [arbitration – dispute resolution] practitioners. During his 30 years of legal practice, Prof Day had been involved in U.S. government work, Asian government and private sector representation in Washington; high technology, telecommunications, computer, software, and Asian investment work in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley; together with a broad array of Asian investment and development work in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. In recent years, Prof Day has been actively involves in many infrastructure projects in many Asian countries, including Vietnam, as well as China.

Prof Day has also been instrumental in the creation, development and training of arbitrators and mediators in North America, Hawaii, Guam and South East Asia. He is a frequent speaker at international symposiums and conferences and is on the panel of arbitrators and mediators of many leading ADR institutions including, the Inter-American Arbitration Commission, the American Arbitration Association (AAA), the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), and the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB).

Bruce Fritch is founder and CEO of Fritch Consulting, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of America’s most effective business consulting firms. He previously headed marketing planning for NCNB Corporation (now Bank of America). Other clients include consumer services, manufacturing, health care, major trade associations and professional organizations, such as Deloitte & Touche, Cushman & Wakefield, KPMG, USX, Wachovia, Boise-Cascade, Ford, Weyerhaeuser, American Petroleum Institute, American Plastics Council, Michelin, Duke Energy, and Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

His Excellency, Roland Eng, Ambassador at Large is currently Ambassador at large for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cambodia. He served as the Cambodian Ambassador to the United States from 1999 to 2004. Prior to his posting in Washington, Ambassador Eng resided in Bangkok from 1994 to 1999. During that time, he re-established Cambodia’s diplomatic relations with Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Ambassador Eng’s career in public service has taken place amid some of the most turbulent times in his country’s history. In 1979 he became the Private Secretary to His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia. He served the non-communist resistance (FUNCIPEC) from 1981 to 1990, operating primarily along the Thai-Cambodia border. Ambassador Eng participated actively in the Paris Peace Agreement which established the United Nation Operation in Cambodia in 1992. With the return of democracy to Cambodia, Mr. Eng became, was appointed Ambassador to the United Nations for the Supreme National Council of Cambodia in New York. He served as a Member of Parliament and concurrently became the First Minister of Tourism in the Cambodia Cabinet in 1993.

Educated in France, he received his Baccalaureate from the Lycee St. Exupery in Marseilles, France and his BA in Public Administration from the University of Law and Political Science in Aix en Provence, France. He has contributed to several articles related to conflict-resolution; His latest publication on “creating local-level stability and empowerment in Cambodia” can be found in Fordham University Press’s Human Security for All: A Tribute to Sergio Vieira de Mello. Ambassador Eng is fluent in Cambodian, French, English and Thai. He is currently an advisor to the Cambodian government and an Ambassador at Large.

Maritess “Bing” Cardenas Branigin has over 25 years experience and expertise as a media and PR expert, both in the government and in the private sector. In this age of globalization, she and has well-placed contacts in the Philippines and in the United States. She grew up in the Philippines and for years, lived in other Asian countries.

Prior to coming to the U.S., she was a special assistant in the ministry of information in the Philippines. She was a former Special Consultant to an ambassador in Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital, with media and community outreach and lobbying functions.

She is former National Capital Region Chair of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), she has traveled across the U.S. and has contacts among the leaders in the Filipino American community nation-wide.