International Council

The International Council is a group of independent experts that advise the Transparency International movement on specific activities and objectives. They support the work of the movement with diverse experience and expertise of Council Members; promote the exchange of knowledge with external individuals and institutions; and represent Transparency International at external events and conferences. Further information can be found in the Terms of Reference.

Please see below the current members of the International Council. If you have any questions please contact [email protected]

John Githongo has over 23 years experience in the anti-corruption field focussing on government, media, civil society and the private sector. He founded and served as founder-Executive Director of the Kenyan chapter of Transparency International in 1999. He also served as a Board member of Transparency International in Berlin.

Daron Acemoğlu is an Institute Professor at MIT and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, and the Society of Labor Economists. His academic work covers a wide range of areas, including political economy, economic development, economic growth, inequality, labor economics, and economics of networks. He is the author of five books, including Why Nations Fail: Power, Prosperity, and Poverty and The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty (both with James A. Robinson). Acemoglu has received numerous awards and prizes, including the Carnegie Fellowship in 2017, the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize in 2018, and the Global Economy Prize in 2019. He was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal in 2005, the Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in 2012, and the 2016 BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award.

Azeddine Akesbi is a Professor of Economics at the Center of Education Planning (COPE), Rabat. He was the Secretary General of Transparency Morocco between 2004 and 2008. He has been involved in piloting a number of anti-corruption projects; has published articles on economical and social issues and has supervised publications on education and anti-corruption awareness. He has been a member of the Board of the Moroccan Association of Economists (AMSE). Azeddine was in charge of the Open Budget Intiative and Index Survey in Morocco (2006, 2008, 2010, 2015). Azeddine has a PhD from the Institute of Education, London and a doctorate in Economics. His work as a consultant has been with different institutions including UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF, Conseil Supérieur de l’Enseignement, ministerial departments and also NGOs.

Sion Assidon has served as deputy Secretary General of Transparency International’s national chapter in Morocco as on the international Board of Transparency International. A mathematician by training, he was the founding Secretary General of Transparency Maroc and remains a member of its National Council. He is active in several NG0s in the Moroccan civil rights movement including AMRASH which works for sustainable development in villages of the ATLAS mountains and Espace Associatif which promotes the work of NGOs in Morocco.

Alma Balcazar is a lawyer, specialising in Corporate Law and studies in Business Ethics and Compliance from the Ethics Resource Center Institute in Washington DC. She was manager of Corporate Integrity at Millicom International Cellular and director of the private sector area of Transparency International Colombia from where she led research studies and publications; and she is a founding partner and current director of GRCOMPLIANCE SAS - a firm specialised in assisting public and private organizations in the prevention of bribery, corruption, fraud and money laundering. She has worked as a consultant working on intiatives for the Colombian government and models of reference at regional level across Latin America; has designed a mechanism for the private sector in Honduras under the OAS Anti-Corruption Mission; and was part of the consulting team for an initiative led by Transparency International in the United Kingdom: "Principles of Transparency for the Pharmaceutical Sector in Latin America".

Robert Barrington is Professor of Anti-Corruption Practice at the Centre for the Study of Corruption in the University of Sussex. He was formerly the head of TI-UK, where he led the campaigns to secure the Bribery Act, a national Anti-Corruption Strategy and the introduction of Unexplained Wealth Orders. Previous roles include Director of Governance & Sustainable Investment at F&C Asset Management, and CEO (Europe) of the environmental research group Earthwatch Institute. Robert is a member of the ICAEW’s Corporate Governance Committee, and UK government advisory roles have included the Ministry of Justice’s expert group drafting the official guidance on the Bribery Act, the BEIS Export Guarantees Advisory Committee and the Cabinet Office’s post-Brexit Procurement Transformation Advisory Panel. Publications include ‘How to Bribe’, ‘Adequate Procedures – Guidance to the UK Bribery Act’, ‘Fair Play’, ‘Countering Small Bribes’ and ‘Corruption in the UK’. He holds a degree from Oxford University and a PhD from the European University Institute. He was a member of the international Board of Directors of Transparency International 2017-19.

Jermyn Brooks joined Transparency International in 2000, following a career with PwC, and has held roles as Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of TI-Secretariat; has served twice as a member of the International Board; and has lead TI's Global Business Integrity Programmes for most of last two decades. Jermyn has also been the Chair of the Global Network Initiative; a Board member of International IDEA, Stockholm and a Board member of the HD Centre, Geneva (Peace mediation activities). Jermyn has participated in many activities with many outside organisations, mostly in support of TI positions.

Emile Carr is one of the founding members and current chair of Transparency International’s national chapter in Sierra Leone. He is a taxation accountant by trade who has spent his early professional life working in the United Kingdom. Carr held various roles in Sierra Leone’s private and public sector. . From 2007 to 2011, he served as vice-chair of the National Anti-Corruption Strategic Committee. He is currently client partner at Leone Consultants.

Brian Cooksey's anti-corruption work has focused on grand corruption in Tanzania for the last 30 years and taken the form of journalism, lobbying, presentations and more or less academic writings. Brian's current interest lies in climate change governance, where he quotes "corrupt practices if not constrained will contribute significantly to the end of human life on earth". Brian has been involved in a research project on the social and economic impact of COVID-19 in East Africa.

Boris Divjak is an economist by training and an anti-corruption activist who founded the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) branch of the non-governmental organisation Transparency International (TI) in 2000. He is a freelance consultant from late 2016, specialising in private sector development, business environment, regulatory governance and anti-corruption with more than twenty years of global professional experience in these fields. He works with various multilateral and bilateral organizations, such as the World Bank, European Commission, OSCE etc. and has served on the TI Board.

Suelette Dreyfus holds an academic appointment at the University of Melbourne in computing and information Systems. She has expertise in digital privacy and cybersecurity, as well as teaching emerging technologies. She is the author of the first mainstream book about computer crimes in Australia, now translated into seven languages. She is also the executive director of Blueprint for Free Speech, supporting freedom of expression worldwide. Prior to entering academia she worked as a professional journalist on a large daily newspaper.

A lawyer by training, Lilian Ekeanyanwu is the head of the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-Corruption Reforms (TUGAR), a government of Nigeria institution with the mandate to provide coordinated data through empirical research, and facilitate inter-agency coordination. Lilian has done significant work in anti-corruption research and programming including coordinating a country-specific methodology for conducting Corruption Risk Assessments in Nigeria and the Country’s response to treaty obligations relating to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), including UNCAC review of Nigeria and Nigeria’s review of other countries. As the Head of TUGAR, Lilian has coordinated the development of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy on the platform of the Inter Agency Task Team (IATT) and is also coordinating the monitoring and evaluation of the NACS for which TUGAR is the secretariat.

Onyi Ough is an international development practitioner with over 17 years of experience specialising in anti-corruption. In 2018, she established the Nigerian-based non-government organization Step Up for Social Development and Empowerment (Step Up Nigeria) and launched the Catch Them Young Initiative which is aimed at promoting anti-corruption education in primary schools. Catch Them Young has already reached almost 20,000 children across Nigeria. She is the author of four anti-corruption storybooks for children that aim to teach kids about the impact of corruption. Her books have been approved for use in three Nigerian states. She has also co-produced two animated films for kids on anti-corruption. Onyi has worked in Zambia, Nigeria and United Kingdom on a range of projects related to anti-corruption and service delivery. She has a master’s degree in Development Studies from the London School of Oriental and African Studies.

Professor Paul Heywood holds the Sir Francis Hill Chair of European Politics at the University of Nottingham, UK. His research focuses on political corruption, institutional design and state capacity; he is author, co-author or editor of nineteen books and over eighty journal articles and book chapters. Heywood currently leads the Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence (GI-ACE) programme, designed to identify new initiatives that can help developing countries tackle the scourge of corruption. He served as the European Commission UK expert on corruption (2012-16) and has also advised the UK Joint Anti-Corruption Unit (JACU). He is Lead Editor of Curbing Corruption.com, a resource that supports sector-based practical anti-corruption interventions and he serves on the Advisory Board of the ICRN. Professor Heywood is a Trustee of TI-UK, where he chairs the Advocacy and Research Committee.

Karen Hussmann is a public policy expert with extensive experience in governance, anti-corruption issues, health-sector integrity, and fragile states. Her experience includes having been the director of an EU financed anti-corruption programme in Colombia, senior consultant for the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre and the EUROsociAL II Programme in Latin America, and accountability expert with UNDP in Afghanistan. She has also worked and collaborated with Transparency International in different roles since 1995. She is currently an independent consultant working with partners on policy development, implementation of anti-corruption standards, applied policy research and anti-corruption training.

Geo-Sung Kim became an anti-corruption advocate after 12 years of his activities in human rights and democratization movement. He was the founding Secretary General (1999-2004), Vice-Chair (2004-2007), and Chairperson (2007-2014) of TI-Korea (South). He served two terms as a board member of the TI movement (2004-2010). He was the standing Executive Officer of the Council for the Korean Pact on Anti-Corruption and Transparency, a coalition of sectors (2005-2009). In recognition of his achievements in and contribution to the anti-corruption movement in Korea, he was awarded the Order of Civil Merit (Moran Medal) by the Korean government in 2006. He studied theology and sociology and received his PhD in theology at Yonsei University (2009). He has taught as an adjunct professor/lecturer in several universities and has held various positions at the Korean government including as a Commissioner of the Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption (2005-2008), the Inspector General of Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education (2014-2018), and most recently as the Senior Secretary to the President of the Republic of Korea for civic and social agenda (2019-2020).

Huguette Labelle has served for a period of nineteen years as Deputy Minister of different Canadian Government departments including Secretary of State, Transport Canada, the Public Service Commission and the Canadian International Development Agency. A former Chancellor of the University of Ottawa, former Chair of transparency International and former Board member of the UN Global Compact. She has also served on several additional boards. She is currently Chair of the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments, Chair of the IACC Council, Vice-Chair of the Rideau Hall Foundation Board, Vice-Chair of the International Senior Advisory Board of the International Anti-Corruption Academy, member of the Advisory Group to the OECD Secretary General on Anti-Corruption and Integrity, member of the Board of the Global Centre for Pluralism, Board member of Global Financial Integrity, Board member of the Aga Khan Museum, member of the IIRC Governance and Nominations Committee, member Advisory Board RESOLVE and Chair of the Selection Committee for Master's Scholarships on Sustainable Energy Development.

Pascal Lamy holds an MBA from HEC, and also studied at Sciences Po, and ENA. Between 2005 and 2013 he was the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). He began his career as a civil servant in the French Inspection générale des finances and in the Treasury. He subsequently became an advisor to the Finance Minister Jacques Delors, and then to Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy. In Brussels from 1984 to 1994, he was Head of Cabinet to the President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, including the role of G7 Sherpa. In November 1994, he joined the team responsible for the rescue of Credit Lyonnais, and later became CEO of the bank, led at the time by Jean Peyrelevade. From 1999 to 2004 Pascal Lamy was EU Trade Commissioner in under Commission President Romano Prodi. He is the President Emeritus of the Jacques Delors Institute.

Chong San Lee started work in the public sector after graduating from the University of Malaya. He joined the oil & gas industry and worked in USA and Malaysia and held various posts as the Company Secretary, Tax Department Manager and finally as the Financial Controller of the ExxonMobil group of companies in Malaysia. Upon retirement he was involved with the Malaysian Chapter of Transparency International (TI) and held various positions including president. Chong San was elected to the International Board of Directors of TI in 2007; was the Chair of the Board Audit Committee and eventually chaired the Board Finance Committee. Chong San was appointed as a Senior Advisor and was an individual member for numerous terms.

Mark Mullen headed the Georgia office of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), from 1997 until 2003. From 2006 to 2010 he lived in London where he was a Sloan Fellow at London Business School. He is the chair of Transparency International Georgia from 2001 until 2015 when he was elected to the International Board. He has been a member of the board of the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (chair from 1999 until 2004), of Goodenough College in London, of the British Georgian Society, and a civic program (Radarami.org). He is the founder of Orbeliani and served as its Chair until Dec 2016.

Akere Muna has devoted the past two decades to fighting corruption. He is a former President of the Cameroon Bar Association and of the Pan African Lawyers Union and was called to the English Bar. Akere founded the Cameroon chapter of TI, and went on to serve as Vice-Chair of the International Board of Directors. He later became Chair of the Council of the IACC. He has played a key role in several institutions: President of the Economic Social and Cultural Council of the African Union, Member of the IMF Advisory Group for Subsaharan Africa, Chair of the AU African Peer Review Mechanism, Sanctions Commissioner of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Chair of the Vetting Panel of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), and more. In 2018 Akere ran for President in Cameroon and resigned from his positions within the AfDB, IAAF, the IACC and Ecobank Cameroon. He continues to serve as Member of the AU High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa. He is the Head of the African Union Working Group of the Common African Position on Asset Recovery (CAPAR) and consults for organizations such as the UNDP on matters of corruption and good governance.

Trevor Munroe is a political scientist by training and profession, with Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Government from the University of the West Indies and a Doctorate in Political Science from Oxford University. His career as a political scientist spanned over forty years of teaching, research and publications. As a Professor at the University of the West Indies, Trevor served in the Leadership of the University’s Administration, won many scholarly awards from the UWI, and was granted Visiting Fellowships to Harvard University, other Universities in North America and Europe. As a Civil Society Advocate, Trevor has been a Leader in Jamaica’s Trade Union Movement, in Citizens Action for Free and Fair Elections (Jamaica’s official Election Observation Body), and advocated successfully for anti-corruption legislation while serving for ten years as a member of Jamaica’s Senate.

Kumi Naidoo is a South African human rights and environmental activist. He was International Executive Director of Greenpeace International (from 2009 to 2016) and Secretary General of Amnesty International (from 2018 to 2020). He is the first Global Ambassador for Africans Rising for Justice, Peace & Dignity. He serves as Professor of Practice at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. Kumi is also a Visiting Fellow: at University of Oxford and an Honorary Fellow at Magdalen College.

Donal O'Leary has worked as a volunteer for Transparency International (TI) for more than 15 years, in the water sector and public procurement. He is also one of the founders of the Water Integrity Network (WIN), which was 'incubated' in the TI Secretariat and is now an independent organization. Over the last 8 years, he has represented TI on the Steering Committee of the OECD Water Governance Initiative. Donal is also a member of the Partnership in Transparency Fund (PTF) which is based in Washington DC. Prior to joining TI, Donal worked as a technical specialist with the World Bank for more than 23 years, focusing on the preparation and implementation of projects in the energy and water sectors in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. Donal has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.E. and M.Eng. Sc. in chemical engineering from the National University of Ireland.

Natalia Soebagjo's professional experience began with an Indonesian conglomerate and went on to focus on the capital market, serving on capital market related bodies during the early years of the revival of the securities industry after the government deregulated the financial market in 1988. She left the industry after the 1998/99 Asian financial crisis to engage in consultancy work. Currently she is Independent Commissioner at PT AIG Indonesia and publicly-listed PT Hero Supermarket Tbk. She has served on various bodies and committees such as the Independent Team for National Bureaucracy Reform under the Vice-President of Indonesia, the 2015 Selection Committee for the Commissioners of the Corrruption Eradication Commission established by the President of Indonesia and the National Committee for Governance Policy appointed by the Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs. Natalia sits on the board of various civil society organizations, including WWF Indonesia, IDH Indonesia (The Sustainable Trade Initiative) and the Centre for Strategic & International Studies in Jakarta. She chaired the Executive Board of Transparency International Indonesia (2011-2017) and most recently served two terms on the International Board of Transparency International.

Jacques Terray was the director and vice-chairman of TI France. He holds degrees from the Sorbonne Law School and the Columbia Law School. On graduating, he joing the Paris law firm Gide, where he become the head of the banking and finance department. Terray was also French counsel to the worldwide derivatives association, the ISDA, until his retirement in 2002. He is founding member of an NGO forum addressing tax havens, and contributes to Transparency International's work on financial transparency relating to the G8 and G20. Terray was on the TI International Board.

José Ugaz is a lawyer from the Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP); a Professor of Criminal Law at the PUCP and a senior partner of Benites, Vargas & Ugaz law firm. José is a former Special State Attorney for the Fujimori/Montesinos case; former Chair of Proética (the Peruvian Chapter of Transparency International); a former TI Individual Member, Board member and Chair of the Internatinal Board; a member of Proética and Board member of both TI Brazil and TI Ukraine.

JC Weliamuna is a Sri Lankan constitutional & human rights lawyer with 30 years of extensive practice and is an anti-corruption and human rights activits. He was the first Executive Director of the Transparency International Sri Lanka and later served as a member of its International Board. He has played a major part in the civil society movement of the country to re-establish democracy. He has contributed to mainstream anti-corruption agenda nationally, regionally and globally. He has contributed to various national and international forums and institutions in the field of governance, anti-corruption, constitutional, and human rights law while contributing to governance reforms. He has served as a member in public and private (mainly not for profit sector) institutions and higher educational institutions and has worked extensively as an expert with leading international organizations, both at policy and operational level, on asset recovery. He served as the Chairman of Sri Lanka’s first Presidential Task Force for Recovery of State Assets, prior to him being appointed as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Australia. Presently he is serving as an Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Governance, Griffith University.

For more than ten years, Maria Fernanda has been a journalist leading and participating in award-winning teams that have uncovered corruption at the local and international levels. She has a Master’s degree in Corruption and Governance from the University of Sussex, where she graduated with distinction. Since returning to Costa Rica, Maria Fernanda has served as the Executive Director of The Voice of Guanacaste, a local investigative news outlet covering urgent issues for the Latin American region such as climate change, corruption and local politics. The newspaper is fostering alliances with media outlets around the world to fight against disinformation and fake news. Maria Fernanda believes transparency is the best way to achieve a more egalitarian society.

Claudia Escobar Mejía is a former judge of the Guatemalan court of appeals and is recognised internationally as a corruption fighter. She is currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Shar Schar School of Policy and Government and a researcher at the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at George Mason University. Claudia is also the Executive Director of the organisation Be Just and a member of the Board of Directors at Integrity Initiatives International and Integrity Sanctuary. She collaborates closely with other Human Rights organizations.

Manzoor Hasan is currently serving as the Executive Director of the South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies (SAILS), and the Chair of the UN Convention against Corruption Coalition (UNCAC) since June 2014. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University, in Bangladesh. Previously, he worked as the Deputy Executive Director of BRAC. Manzoor was also the Regional Director (Asia-Pacific) of Transparency International in Berlin and the founding Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh from 1996 to 2003. He has been awarded the Officer of Order of the British Empire for his work on transparency.

Ezra Limiri Mbogori’s working life spans over 30 years in the field of human rights, civil society and social justice activism - with a particular interest in efforts to hasten the coalescing of African countries towards a Pan-African vision of the African continent. Ezra graduated from Nairobi University and has a Master’s of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has served on the leadership and governance structures of numerous international organisations. Ezra is a fellow at the Kellogg International Leadership Program and at the Kennedy School Mason Fellows Program.