Former Prime Minister of Spain

José Maria Aznar

José María Aznar was born in Madrid in 1953 and served as the Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He is currently Executive President of FAES (The Foundation for Social Studies and Analysis), Distinguished Scholar at the University of Georgetown where he has taught various seminars on contemporary European politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School since 2004. He is also a member of the board of directors of News Corporation and the International Advisory Board of the Atlantic Council of the United Status.

http://www.friendsofisraelinitiative.org

Former US Representative to the United Nations

John R. Bolton

American conservative and nationalist political figure who has served in several Republican presidential administrations. He worked as the interim Permanent US Representative to the UN from August 2005 until December 2006 on a recess appointment. He resigned in December 2006 when his recess appointment would have ended because he was unable to gain confirmation from the Senate. Bolton is currently a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Fox News commentator, and of counsel to the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, in their Washington D.C. office. He is also involved with a broad assortment of other conservative think tanks and policy institutes, including the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), Project for the New American Century (PNAC), Institute of East-West Dynamics, National Rifle Association, US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the Council for National Policy (CNP).

http://www.friendsofisraelinitiative.org

Former President of Peru

Alejandro Toledo

He was President of Peru from 2001 to 2006. Peruvian politician and economist, he was elected in 2001 defeating former President Alan García. Toledo came to international prominence after leading the opposition against President Alberto Fujimori, who held the presidency from 1990 to 2000. After his presidential term, Toledo left Peru and went to the USA where he was a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University during the 2006-2008 academic years. Dr. Toledo is currently a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., and also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution.

http://www.friendsofisraelinitiative.org

Last president of Czechoslovakia, first president of the Czech Republic, playwright and former dissident

Václav Havel

Without question among the greatest of the communist-era dissidents, Vaclav Havel’s life-story itself bears witness to his famous statement of principle, that "love and truth" can "conquer hatred and lies". Born into a high-ranking family in Prague in 1936 he would go on to write some of the most inspiring plays and political essays in communist Eastern Europe. His tract The Power of the Powerless is regarded by many as the seminal essay on the role and purpose of the dissident movement in what was then referred to as the Eastern Bloc. Immediately after Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution in 1989 he was appointed the country’s first non-communist president since 1948, a position he retained until the break-up of Czechoslovakia on January 1, 1993. He then became the first President of the Czech Republic and remained as such until retiring from high politics in 2003. He is the recipient of numerous awards, not least the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- the highest civilian award in the United States.

Former First Minister of Northern Ireland. Nobel Peace Prize in 1998

Lord William David Trimble

Politician from Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland. He is currently a life peer for the Conservative Party. He shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with John Hume of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. He served as Member of Parliament for Upper Bann from 1990 until 2005, when he was defeated in the British general election and resigned the leadership of the UUP soon afterwards. In June 2006 he became a member of the House of Lords as The Right Honourable William David Trimble by the name, style and title of Baron Trimble, of Lisnagarvey in the County of Antrim. In April 2007 he announced that he was to leave the UUP and join the Conservative Party.

Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center

George Weigel

He is a Catholic theologian and one of America’s leading public intellectuals. A native of Baltimore, he was educated at St. Mary’s Seminary College in his native city, and at the University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto. Weigel is the author or editor of nineteen other books, he has written essays, op-ed columns, and reviews for the major opinion journals and newspapers in the United States, and is a contributor to Newsweek. A frequent guest on television and radio, he is also Vatican analyst for NBC News. His weekly column, "The Catholic Difference," is syndicated to sixty newspapers around the United States. His scholarly work and his journalism are regularly translated into the major European languages. From June 1996, as a Senior Fellow of the Center, Weigel prepared a major study of the life, thought, and action of Pope John Paul II. Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II was published to international acclaim in the Fall of 1999, in English, French, Italian, and Spanish editions. Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Czech, and Slovenian editions were published in 2000. A Russian edition was published in 2001, a German edition in 2002, and a Romanian edition in 2007; Chinese and Ukrainian editions are in preparation. A documentary film based on the book was released in the fall of 2001 and has won numerous prizes.

Italian philosopher and politician

Marcello Pera

Marcello Pera was the President of the Italian Senate from 2001 to 2006. Born in Lucca, he graduated in accounting, and worked for the Banca Toscana and for the Camera di Commercio in Lucca. He went on to study philosophy at the University of Pisa, concentrating on the works of Karl Popper and his open society theory, and advocating these principles during the difficult 1970s, the anni di piombo. His academic career began in 1976 at the University of Pisa. He then went on to pursue research activities internationally: Visiting Fellow, University of Pittsburgh, 1984; Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT, Cambridge, Mass., 1990; Visiting Fellow, Centre for the Philosophy of Natural Sciences, London School of Economics, 1995-96. He taught Theoretical Philosophy from 1989 to 1992 at the University of Catania. In 1992 he became a full professor of Philosophy at the University of Pisa. Marcello Pera has written for many newspapers such as Corriere della Sera, Il Messaggero, and La Stampa, and to the news magazines L’Espresso and Panorama.

Italian politician, journalist and author

Fiamma Nirenstein

She is a member of Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative coalition government (first elected in April 2008) and is Vice-president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. As a jouralist and author the underlying idea that runs through all Fiamma Nirenstein’s work is the connection between totalitarianism, terrorism, anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel.[citation needed] Nirenstein was born in Florence, Italy and lives part of the year in Gilo, a neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. Nirenstein teaches Middle East History at Luiss University in Rome. She is a member of the Global Forum against Antisemitism instituted by Nathan Sharansky. She is a member of the board of the Italian Foundation Magna Carta and a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and of the Hudson Institute, Washington. She was director of the Italian Institute of Culture (Istituto Italiano di Cultura) in Tel Aviv in ’93 and ’94. She has introduced and written prefaces for translations of the works of Bernard Lewis, Nathan Sharansky, and Ruthie Bloom in Italy.

British historian and writer

Andrew Roberts

Roberts was born in London, England, and was raised in the Church of England (Anglican) and attended Cranleigh School. At Cranleigh’s, he was expelled for drinking, climbing on a roof and cling-filming the lavatories. He went on to a Cambridge crammer to prepare for his Oxbridge exam and was admitted to Cambidge. His ’teenage rebellion’ phase now ended, he buckled down to studying. He took a first class honours BA degree in Modern History at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he is an honorary senior scholar. Roberts began his post-graduate career in corporate finance as an investment banker and private company director with the London merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., where he worked from 1985 to 1988.

Spanish Industry Minister from 1977 to 1980

Carlos Bustelo

Carlos Bustelo graduated in Economics from Madrid University in 1958. He worked as an economist at the OECD in Paris from 1963 to 1965. From 1968 to 1973 he was the Executive Director of the IMF. He was President of the Madrid Court of Jurisdiction until December, 2009.

Managing Director at Rhône Group, Rhone Capital, L.L.C.

Roberto F. Agostinelli

Robert F. Agostinelli is the co-founder of Rhône a privately controlled investment and private equity firm currently managing approximately 4 billion USD. The firm has offices in New York, Paris and London (1996 to present). Prior to Rhone Mr. Agostinelli was a Senior Managing Director in the banking group of Lazard Frères, with responsibility for that firm’s international banking business (1987-1996). Before joining Lazard, Mr. Agostinelli spent five years with Goldman Sachs, where he founded its international mergers and acquisitions business in London (1982-1987.) Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Mr. Agostinelli worked with Jacob Rothschild in London (1981). Mr. Agostinelli is a director of Magnesita Refratários S.A., (BOVESPA: MAGG3.SA) Magnesita is a global leader in the mining and refractory business. He is a director of Venice Holdings s.r.l. (the holding company of Marco Polo). Marco Polo is a leading electronics retailer in Italy. He is a Board member and former Vice-Chairman of the Council of the United States and Italy; a member of the Investment Committee of Corporate World Opportunities of BSI/Generali Group; and a director of and advisor to a number of European and U.S. philanthropic and civic institutions with a focus on freedom, democracy and support of the United States Military; including a founding member of the Friends of Israel Initiative ("FOI") created by President Jose Maria Aznar, and a Member of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation – the American Patriots Campaign Cabinet. The Council on Foreign Relations and a Board Member of the American Italian Cancer Research Foundation. Mr. Agostinelli is 57 years old, an American citizen; has 5 children and resides in Paris and London. He received a B.A. from St. John Fisher College, an MBA from Columbia Business School and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Publisher, writer, member of the House of Lords

Lord Weidenfeld of Chelsea

Born in Vienna in 1919, George Weidenfeld left Austria for England in 1938. During World War II he worked with the BBC Overseas Service and in 1948 founded the publishing firm, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, with Nigel Nicolson. In 1949 he became Political Advisor and Chef de Cabinet in Israel to President Weizmann, and spent a year in this capacity. A British citizen since 1946, Lord Weidenfeld was awarded a peerage in 1976. From 1992 to 1994, he was Vice-Chairman of the University of Oxford Campaign and since 1994, Vice-President of the Oxford University Development Programme. He is involved with the Europaeum, a network of ten leading European universities. In 1996 he founded together with Lord Rothschild and Lord Alexander the Club of Three (Britain-France-Germany) which later incorporated AMEURUS (America-Europe-Russia). His Institute for Strategic Dialogue, created in 2006, runs a number of political task forces and cultural and educational bridge-building initiatives. Also in 2006 he initiated the Weidenfeld Scholarships and Leadership Programme in Oxford. Among other appointments he is Chairman of Weidenfeld & Nicolson; President of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue; and columnist for Die Welt, Welt am Sonntag , Bild am Sonntag and the Huffington Post.