The Board of Trustees

David Lee is the General Director of Magticom, the largest telecommunications operator in Georgia and took up his position in March 2004. David is also the President of the AmCham’s Board of Directors and is a Chartered Accountant with an MBA from Warwick Business School. A Russian speaker, he has worked extensively in the former USSR and served as a Royal Naval Officer for 9 years.

Mrs. Sheehan brings more than 30 years experience in the field of migration, including eight years with IOM in the Caucasus. From 1998-2002 she was the Chief of Mission in Yerevan, and from 1998-2002 she was the Regional Coordinator for the Caucasus based in Tbilisi. After a three year break from the region during which she opened the IOM office in Sri Lanka to provide emergency response, and livelihood replacement for tsunami victims, Mrs. Sheehan returned to Tbilisi as Chief of Mission for the Georgia Office where she currently works. She has also served as Deputy Director of Volunteer Programs to the Governor of California on issues related to the influx of Southeast Asians after the Vietnam war; Director of the International Catholic Migration Commission training program in Sudan for Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees involved in a U.S. resettlement program; and nine years in a law office dealing with immigration. She began her career with the United Farm Workers Union in California and Arizona, advocating for the rights to unionize and strike, on political campaigns and with voter registration.

An attorney with an extensive background in tax and financial services, Mrs. Richardson served as commissioner of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service from 1993 to 1997. Mrs. Richardson began her career as a clerk at the U.S. Court of Claims (now the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit) and then joined the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service. She later became the first woman promoted to executive rank in the history of the Office of Chief Counsel. In 1977, she joined the law firm of Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan in Washington, DC. She was appointed to the Internal Revenue Service Commissioners Advisory Group, serving as a member from 1988 to 1990 and as Chair in 1990. Currently, Mrs. Richardson is involved with Oakwood Enterprises LLC.

Mrs. Richardson serves on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States and on the DC Bar Committee on Multidisciplinary Practice. She is also a member of the Financial Women’s Association, the Washington Women’s Forum and the Council of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. She serves on the George Washington University Law School Advisory Board and the boards of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the U.S.-Russia Business Council and Eurasia Foundation. She has also served as a member of the Board of the National Cathedral School, the Development Board of the Hospital for Sick Children and the Women’s Campaign Fund. She has been profiled in a number of major national newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today. Mrs. Richardson was named “Woman of the Year” in 1993 by the Financial Women’s Association, and she is the recipient of several distinguished awards for her service. She holds a BA in political science from Vassar College and a J.D. with honors from The George Washington University Law School, where she was also editor of the Law Review.

Dr. Boden was the German Ambassador to the OSCE in Vienna from 2002-2005. He entered the diplomatic service in 1968, completing assignments in the political department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bonn, to various diplomatic missions including to Soviet Russia and Italy and as a political counsellor in the German Bundestag. Dr. Boden was the Deputy Chief Negotiator for Germany in negotiations on the reduction of conventional forces in Europe (CFE) in Vienna from 1989-1992. In 1995 he became Head of the OSCE Mission in Georgia and, from 1999 to 2002 went back to the Caucasus as SRSG of the UN Secretary General in Georgia and Head of UNOMIG. Dr. Boden is now retired from the foreign service but continues to work on contracts with the OSCE/ODIHR. He is also an Adjunct Professor of International Relations at the University of Potsdam. He holds a PhD in Slavic Philology from Hamburg University and was appointed Honorary Doctor by the Tbilisi School for Political Studies in 2006.

As President of Eurasia Foundation, Mr. Beebe-Center is responsible for defining and executing the strategic goals of the Foundation as approved by the Board of Trustees. Mr. Beebe-Center joined the Foundation in 1993. He established the Foundation’s first field offices and ran the Moscow regional office for two years. In 1995, Mr. Beebe-Center returned to the United States to serve as the Vice President for Projects and Development before becoming Executive Vice President. Prior to joining the Foundation Mr. Beebe-Center worked for several years in U.S.-Soviet projects ranging from intergovernmental technical exchanges to commercial joint ventures. Mr. Beebe-Center holds a BA in Soviet Studies from Brown University and an MA in Russian Studies from Harvard University.

Andrew Coxshall is the Managing Partner for KPMG in the South Caucasus. Andrew has over 20 years of experience working in a number of different countries around the world including Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Uganda, Botswana, South Africa and the UK. He specializes in finance and audit issues in the infrastructure, government and healthcare sectors, with additional experience in communications, financial services, industrial markets, consumer markets, World Bank projects and mining. Mr. Coxshall holds a Masters of Business Administration from Heriot Watt University and is a Chartered Accountant.

Danielle del Marmol was born in Brussels, of a Wallonian mother and a father who had immigrated from North Caucasus. She has a doctor’s degree in Law from Brussels University. After practicing at The Bar, she joined the Ministry of Economic Affairs and was then appointed attaché at the Bank Commission.

There, she met her future husband, François del Marmol, himself a Belgian diplomat. She accompanied him to Moscow, his first assignment and then decided to take the entrance examinations to the diplomatic career. She passed the examinations and returned to Brussels with their three children to do her training period as a diplomat (1984-1986), while traveling from time to time to Addis Abbeba (Ethiopia), where her husband was posted.

Danielle del Marmol’s first assignment as a diplomat (1986-1990) was at the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the European Union. Between 1990 and 1994, she worked as Economic Counselor at the Embassy of Belgium in Rome. In 1993, the year in which Belgium held the presidency of the UE, she worked temporarily at the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU, where she participated to the preparation of the first cooperation agreement between Israel and the EU.

Between 1995 and 1999, Danielle del Marmol was appointed Economic and Social Counselor at the King’s Cabinet. Her next assignment, from 1999 to 2003, was Ambassador to the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in Vienna, where she dealt, among other matters, with the fight against racism and antisemitism. Her last post before arriving to Israel (2004-2006) was Roving Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Armenia and Georgia.

Sabine Freizer is the Director of the International Crisis Group’s Europe Program, based in the Brussels Office. Mrs. Freizer entered the Crisis Group as the Caucasus Project Director in July 2004. She holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and a MA from the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium), which she obtained as a Fulbright Scholar. She specializes in civil society and conflict prevention and her main areas of expertise include the Balkans, Caucasus, Turkey and Moldova.

Before joining the International Crisis Group, Mrs. Freizer served with the OSCE in several countries of Eurasia. She worked as a Political Officer for the OSCE Election Observation Missions in Azerbaijan and Georgia in 2003-2004; the Human Dimensions/Legal Expert in Tashkent from 1999-2000 and as the Civil Society Coordinator for the OSCE Mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sarajevo from 1996-1998. Mrs. Freizer has published articles about Kosovo, Serbia and Nagorno-Karabagh in a number of scholarly journals and news media including the EU Observer, the European Voice, openDemocracy.net and IslamOnline.net. Her expert analysis has been sought by local and international media outlets including BBC, Deutsche Welle, RFL and AFP.

Mr. Matthews is a partner in the Moscow office of Baker & McKenzie – CIS, Ltd and the Managing Partner of its Baku office. Before serving as the first resident partner in the Baku office, Mr. Matthews practiced in the Moscow office. A member of the Firm’s Banking & Finance Group and Major Projects Group, he advises on all types of cross-border finance transactions, including financing in the oil and gas industry, and related structuring, credit support, taxation, customs and currency control issues. Since January 2003, he has been resident in both Moscow and Baku. Mr. Matthews is also a member of the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Junior Achievement Azerbaijan. He earned his JD from the University of Florida College of Law in 1986, where he was a member of the Law Review, and he holds a BA in political science with a concentration in Soviet and East European Studies from the University of Florida.

Roy Southworth is the Country Manager for the World Bank Office in Tbilisi, Georgia. Mr. Southworth has had a long career in the Bank, joining in 1979 as an agricultural economist, and has worked throughout Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He completed field assignments in Tanzania and Croatia before coming to Georgia in January 2004. Mr. Southworth graduated with High Honors from Washington State University with a BA in Economics. After a stint in Peace Corps in Ethiopia he attended Stanford University where he earned a PhD from the Food Research Institute. Mr. Southworth has extensive experience in the development, implementation and evaluation of investment operations in agriculture and rural development. Since 2001 he has been working on country operations and management of field offices in the Europe and Central Asia Region.

Jonathan Stark is the appointed CEO of the cascade Capital Holdings since 2005. In previous years Mr. Stark served as the Executive Director and principal shareholder of the Resolution Consultants Ltd, a start up Armenian licensed Insurance Broker; General Manager at HSBC Insurance (Armenia); Director of Marine and Cargo Division at HSBC Insurance Brokers in London. In 2001-2007 he was the Board Member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia. Currently he is the Advisory Board Member of Children of Armenia Fund and Junior Achievement of Armenia. Mr. Stark has Significant international conference, seminar and lecturing experience including Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Baltic States, Mongolia, UK, USA, Greece, Spain

From 1994-1999, Dr. Tarschys was Secretary General of the Council of Europe. He has also served as Secretary of State in the Swedish Prime Minister’s Office, as a Member of the Swedish Parliament and Chairman of its Standing Committees on Social Affairs and Foreign Affairs. In 2000, Dr. Tarschys represented the Swedish Government in the Convention drafting the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. He chairs the National Council on Medical Ethics and the boards of institutes concerned with educational mobility, growth policy and aging.
Dr. Tarschys has PhDs from Stockholm University and Princeton and an honorary doctorate from Cluj (Romania). His research interests include comparative politics, human rights, public policy, government growth, accountability and budgetary policy. His most recent publication is Reinventing Cohesion: The Future of EU Structural Policy. From 1983-1985, he was Professor of Soviet and East European Studies at Uppsala University. Currently, Dr. Tarschys is Chairman of the Political Science Department at the University of Stockholm.

Ambassador Yalowitz was appointed Director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College on July 1, 2003. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin and holds a Russian Institute Certificate, MA and Master of Philosophy degree from Columbia University. He retired from the U.S. Department of State on September 30, 2001 after 36 years as career diplomat and member of the Senior Foreign Service. He served twice as a U.S. ambassador: to the Republic of Belarus from 1994-1997; and to Georgia from 1998-2001. He was chosen for the Ambassador Robert Frasure award for peacemaking and conflict prevention in 2000 for his work to prevent the spillover of the Chechen war into Georgia. His other foreign assignments included two tours of duty in Moscow, The Hague and the US Mission to NATO in Brussels. His domestic assignments have included Country Director for Australia-New Zealand Affairs, Deputy Director for Economics of the Office of Soviet Union Affairs, and Congressional Foreign Affairs Fellow. Ambassador Yalowitz previously taught political science at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He also served as the Area Studies Chair on the former Soviet Union (1993-94) and Dean of the Senior Seminar (1997-98) at the Foreign Service Institute, the U.S. government’s training institution for American diplomats and other professionals preparing for foreign service. He has been adjunct professor of government at Georgetown University, visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, a diplomat-in-residence at American University and a member of the Institutional Review Board of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

George Zarubin has worked with Eurasia Foundation since 2000, when he served initially as the Regional Director for the Foundation’s South Caucasus Cooperation Program, a cutting edge program bringing Armenian, Azerbaijan and Georgian organizations together to work on regional projects in the areas of trade, transportation, environmental and media issues. During his next five years with Eurasia Foundation in Washington, he served as Executive Director and then Vice President of Program Development, during which time he coordinated the Foundation’s fundraising activities throughout Eurasia and managed special program initiatives in Iran, the Middle East and North Africa. Mr. Zarubin returned to the South Caucasus in 2007 to lead the localization of the Foundation’s offices in the region, creating the Eurasia Partnership Foundation. From 1995-1999, Mr. Zarubin was the Executive Director of Soros Foundation Kazakhstan. His work at the Soros Foundation Kazakhstan focused on civic education, higher education, media, culture, rule of law and support for micro-credit programs. Prior to working in philanthropy, Mr. Zarubin practiced law for six years in California and three years in Russia where he worked as a legal adviser to the Novorossiysk Shipping Company. Mr. Zarubin holds a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and received his JD from McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific. He also holds an LLM in Admiralty Law from Tulane University Law School.