Baker , Akram
Palestine

Akram Baker is co-founder and Executive Committee Member of the Arab Western Summit of Sills (AWS) based in Berlin, Germany. In his professional life, Baker is Managing Director of Brandicate Consultants, an organizational development and human resources management consultancy in Berlin, Germany and Ramallah, Palestine. He has led many HR restructuring processes including those at the Palestine Monetary Authority and the Central Bank of Egypt. Baker is a member of the World Economic Forum initiative, Young Arab Leaders, and is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the ESCP EAP’s Perspective-Europe in Paris. He was HR Manager in charge of international employer branding and marketing at Daimler Financial Services in Europe. In the early 1990’s, Baker was Senior Communications Advisor to the late Faisal Husseini, Minister for Jerusalem Affairs in the Palestinian Authority and to the Palestinian negotiating teams on the economy and the environment. He is a frequent speaker and commentator on Human Resources topics and Middle East policy issues appearing on the BBC, CNN, ARD, ZDF, and published in the International Herald Tribune, UPI, Die Zeit (Germany), The Daily Star (Beirut), and Bitterlemons International, among others. Baker speaks English, German, and Arabic and is an avid musician.

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Barno, David W.
United States

Lieutenant General David W. Barno has served as the Director of the NESA Center at National Defense University since April 2006. During a thirty-year Army career, he commanded units at all levels from Lieutenant to Lieutenant General. Barno commanded over 20,000 U.S. and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom for nineteen months from 2003-2005. He previously served in combat as an infantry officer with Army Ranger battalions in the Panama and Grenada invasions. As Director of the NESA Center, Barno has traveled widely in the Middle East region and has lectured at a variety of civilian and military institutions, including Harvard, Yale, Tufts, and West Point. He is a frequent consultant to government agencies on counter-insurgency, the war on terror and the changing nature of conflict. Barno holds a M.A. degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University and a B.S degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He also is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College.

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Berger, Samuel R.
United States

Samuel R. Berger is Co-Chairman and co-founder of Stonebridge International, LLC. He is involved across nearly all the firm's engagements and regions, with a particularly strong focus on Asia, Russia and Central Asia and the Middle East. He is also Chairman of the DB Zwirn Global Advisory Board, an international investment fund and merchant capital provider with more than $4 billion in capital under management and 15 offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. As former National Security Advisor, Berger was pivotal in shaping America's role in the post-Cold War era. Through his efforts to build relations with China, managing financial crises in Asia and Latin America, driving critical peace negotiations in the Balkans and the Middle East, and expanding foreign trade, he worked closely with leaders around the world. Berger's extensive relationship and knowledge of global issues is further strengthened by his corporate background with the Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson, where he headed the firm's international trade group. Earlier, he served as Deputy Director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, Special Assistant to former New York City Mayor John Lindsay and Legislative Assistant to former U.S. Senator Harold Hughes (Iowa) and Congressman Joseph Resnick (N.Y.). Berger received his B.A. from Cornell University in 1967 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1971. He is the author of Dollar Harvest (1971), a book on American rural politics, and numerous articles on international affairs.

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Brownlee, Jason
United States

Jason Brownlee is an assistant professor of Government and Middle East Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. Professor Brownlee researches and teaches about authoritarianism, democratization, and foreign intervention. His first book, Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization, was published in 2007 by Cambridge University Press. His most recent articles have appeared in World Politics, the Brown Journal of World Affairs, and Arab Studies Journal.

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