FPRI Elects New Vice Chairman and Five New Trustees

• March 6, 2018

The Foreign Policy Research Institute is pleased to announce that Devon Cross has been elected Vice Chair of its Board of Trustees. Ambassador Adrian Basora, Joseph Field, James T. Hitch III, Murray S. Levin and Lee Woolley have also been elected as New Trustees.  Cross joins the Hon. Dov S. Zakheim, former Undersecretary of Defense, and Samuel J. Savitz as Vice Chairs.  Bios are below.

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Devon Cross is the Director of The Policy Forum on International Security Affairs.  Originally established in London, The Policy Forum conducts a series of off-the-record press roundtables featuring senior government officials and outside experts on US defense and foreign policy issues. Prior to joining PFISA, she was the President of the Donors’ Forum on International Affairs (New York City), the Executive Director of The Gilder Foundation (NYC), the President of Donner Canadian Foundation (Toronto, Canada), and Director of Research at the Smith Richardson Foundation. She served the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board (2000-2009) and continues to serve on the boards of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments; The Peter Munk Charitable Foundation; and JINSA. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; The Philanthropy Roundtable’s National Security Working Group; The New World Symphony; IQ2US Advisory Board, Technion Munk Advanced Defense Research Institute, and Delphi Capital (2005-2008). She studied National Security Studies/US Foreign Policy at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies; and received her BA in History from Bryn Mawr College.

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Ambassador Adrian A. Basora is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and co-Chair of its Eurasia Program. Previously Amb. Basora was the Director of the Eurasia Program, and its predecessor, the Project on Democratic Transitions, an in-depth assessment of the political, economic and social transitions of postcommunist Europe/Eurasia twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Ambassador Basora also serves as Past President and trustee of Eisenhower Fellowships, actively participating in an EF global leadership network that includes the former President of Turkey, a recent Prime Minister of Taiwan and over 100 past and current cabinet ministers, plus several hundred other leaders such as CEOs, university rectors and NGO and media directors in over 50 key countries.

Earlier, as U.S. Ambassador in Prague, 1992–95, Basora worked with Czech and Slovak leaders to assure a successful transition during the periods preceding and following Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Divorce.” He led implementation of American assistance programs and guided U.S. policy in support of the Czech transition to a successful market economy and consolidated democracy, thus helping to lay the groundwork for Czech entry into NATO, the OECD and the European Union. As a career Foreign Service officer on detail to the White House 1989 to 1991, Basora served as National Security Council Director for European Affairs and participated in the reshaping of U.S.-European Union relations and in the U.S. response to the fall of the Berlin Wall and to the Gulf War. He also served as Deputy Chief of Mission and then Chargé d’Affaires in Madrid, Political Counselor in Paris, and held varied political and economic assignments in Europe, Latin America and Washington. He is fluent in French and Spanish and retains a working knowledge of Czech, Romanian and Italian.

Ambassador Basora is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a trustee of the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) and an Independent Director of the Quaker Investment Trust. He holds an MPA in International Affairs from Princeton University and undergraduate degrees from Fordham University and the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris.

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Joseph M. Field founded Entercom Communications Corp. in 1968 and has been its Chairman since 1968. Mr. Field served as Chief Executive Officer at Entercom Communications Corp. from 1968 to May 3, 2002 and its President from 1968 to September 1998. Before entering the broadcasting business, he practiced law for 14 years in New York (including service as an Assistant United States Attorney) and Philadelphia. He serves as a Director of The Philadelphia Orchestra Association, the Curtis Institute of Music, The Mary Louise Curtis Bok Foundation, the Settlement Music School, the American Interfaith Institute, the National Liberty Museum, the Jewish Education and Vocational Service (JEVS), and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Field served as a Director of the National Association of Broadcasters from1992 to 1996. Field holds a B.A from the University of Pennsylvania (where he was a student of FPRI founder Robert Strausz-Hupè) and an LL.B. from Yale Law School. In 2017, he was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

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James T. Hitch, III began his career with the Chicago Office of Baker & McKenzie in 1975. He became an International Partner in 1982, and remained in the Chicago Office until 1997, when he relocated to the Firm’s offices in Russia and Ukraine. Hitch retired as a Principal on December 31, 2010, and became Senior Counsel to the Firm’s Washington, DC Office. He fully retired from the firm in 2011. Hitch has over 35 years of broad experience in advising multinational corporations on their trade, investment, and related business activities in the various countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. He regularly contributes to various business and legal publications, including his article: “Ukraine’s New Anti-Corruption Law: Will It Really Stop Corruption in Ukraine?” published in The International Lawyer (Fall 2011, Vol. 45, No. 3) of the ABA SIL.

Hitch graduated with a J.D. cum laude degree from the Harvard Law School in 1975, and with an A.B. magna cum laude degree from Princeton University in 1971, as well as with a Certificate of Distinction from its Russian Studies Program and with a major in International Affairs from its Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.  Hitch also studied at Leningrad State University (USSR) in 1970 and at the Law Faculty of the University of Zagreb (Yugoslavia, now Croatia) in 1973-1974.  He is proficient in Russian, Serbian, and Croatian.

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Murray S. Levin is Special Counsel with Pepper Hamilton LLP, a firm he joined in1970. In recent years, Levin has done a large volume of work in the products liability area for many medical devices, biologic and pharmaceutical companies. In pursuing his interest in international law, Levin has been involved in the trial of a Pakistani-Bangladeshi dispute in federal court, a Portuguese labor matter which came before a Labor Tribunal in the Portuguese Azores, a trial in the French courts, licensing disputes between English and American companies, and the defense of Italian manufacturers in U.S. products cases. He has also handled matters in the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Holland. Levin is a member of the Board of Directors of the Union Internationale des Advocats and served as President of the American Chapter from 1995-1996. He is also on the Board of Directors of Friends’ Central School. Levin received a B.A. from Haverford College and went to Law School at Harvard.

 

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Lee James Woolley is the Region President for BNY Mellon Wealth Management’s Mid-Atlantic Region stretching from southern New Jersey through Richmond, VA, with the major markets of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, DC being the core of the region.  Lee is responsible for all aspects of the wealth management business, including portfolio management, trust administration, private banking and business development.  Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Lee was the managing director of National Advisory Services at Northern Trust in Chicago Illinois.  He is a graduate of Knox College in Galesburg, IL with a Bachelors degree in Political Science and Economics and holds a Masters of Management degree in finance from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.  Lee is passionate about community service and serves on the boards of the World Affairs Council, North Central College, the Sunday Breakfast Club and the Philadelphia Freedom Valley YMCA.  Lee is also engaged with the Friends of Independence National Historic Park and as an Associate Member of the Consular Corps Association of Philadelphia.