Board of Directors, Executive Committee

Pamela Passman is Global Chair, Corporate Advising and Managing Director of APCO's New York office. She works with clients on organizational purpose and impact, managing risk in global operations and the intersection of technology and policy. Ms. Passman is the former President of the Center for Responsible Enterprise and Trade (CREATe.org) and Vice Chair of the Ethisphere Institute, distinct entities that promote leading practices and provide solutions to manage governance, compliance and risks for companies and their global value chains. It was during her time at the Microsoft Corporation that Ms. Passman worked closely with Brad Smith and Angelina Jolie to found KIND. She was the Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Global Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, and led Microsoft’s public policy and regulatory compliance work across a range of issues related to cloud computing, and its global government relations. Ms. Passman also had leadership responsibility for Microsoft’s philanthropic programs and its cross-company global corporate citizenship efforts. Ms. Passman first joined Microsoft in 1996 and until 2002 led the Legal and Corporate Affairs organization in Asia, based in Tokyo, with a focus on Japan, Korea, and the People’s Republic of China. Prior to joining Microsoft, she practiced law with Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. and Nagashima & Ohno in Tokyo, Japan. Ms. Passman serves on the Board of Kinaxis Inc., a Toronto-listed SAAS supply chain management company and chairs its Nominations and Governance Committee and serves on its Audit Committee. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on its Nominating and Governance Committee. Ms. Passman is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and of Lafayette College, where she serves on its board of trustees and chairs its Student Life Committee and serves on its Audit and Compensation Committees.

Robert Cundall serves as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Prior to joining Lincoln Center in 2016, he held the positions of Managing Director at the Museum of Arts and Design, and Chief Operating Officer at the Seattle Art Museum. He previously held finance and operations positions with Mobil Corporation, and served as Vice President of Worldwide Operations for the Business Software Alliance, a leading technology trade association. Mr. Cundall was also Chief Financial Officer for the 1993 Presidential Inaugural Committee, and Treasurer of the 1997 Presidential Inaugural Committee. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Sonia Nazario has spent more than 20 years reporting and writing about social issues, most recently as a projects reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She has won numerous national journalism and book awards tackling some of this country’s most intractable issues: hunger, drug addiction and immigration. In 2003, her story of a Honduran boy’s struggle to find his mother in the U.S., entitled “Enrique’s Journey,” won more than a dozen awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, the George Polk Award for International Reporting, the Grand Prize of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and the National Assn. of Hispanic Journalists Guillermo Martinez-Marquez Award for Overall Excellence. Expanded into a book, Enrique’s Journey became a national bestseller, won three book awards, and became required reading for incoming freshman at 71 colleges and scores of high schools across the U.S. In 1998, Nazario was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for a series on children of drug addicted parents. And in 1994, she won a George Polk Award for Local Reporting for a series about hunger among schoolchildren in California. Nazario, who grew up in Kansas and in Argentina, has been named among the most influential Latinos by Hispanic Business Magazine and a “trendsetter” by Hispanic Magazine. In 2012 Columbia Journalism Review named Nazario among “40 women who changed the media business in the past 40 years.” She is now at work on her second book.

Maya Ajmera is the President and CEO of Society for Science and Publisher of its magazine, Science News. The Society is best known for its award-winning journalism, world-class science competitions, and its suite of outreach and equity programs. Maya founded the Global Fund for Children (GFC), a nonprofit organization that invests in innovative, community-based organizations working with some of the world’s most vulnerable children and youth. Under her 18 years of leadership, GFC grew from a vision into one of the largest networks of grassroots organizations working on behalf of vulnerable children. Maya served as the inaugural Social Entrepreneur in Residence for Duke University and Visiting Professor for the Practice of Public Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke. She was a Visiting Scholar and Professorial Lecturer at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and continues to serve as an adjunct there. Maya is also an award-winning children’s book author of more than 20 titles with more than 5 million readers worldwide. Maya holds an A.B. from Bryn Mawr College and a M.P.P. from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

Ronald Schechter is a Retired Partner and Senior Counsel at Arnold & Porter, a DC-based international law firm. He has served on the firm’s Policy, Compensation, Ethics, and Pro Bono Committees. Ron has a career-long commitment to pro bono work. He has represented numerous individuals in political asylum, VAWA, and other immigration cases and has litigated several cases challenging government policies regarding immigrants rights. Ron also serves on the Board of Directors of The Welders, a DC-based playwrights collective.

The Honorable Rafael Borrás is currently the President/CEO of the Homeland Security and Defense Business Council, leading an association of industry leading firms supporting the homeland security sector of the federal government. Most recently, he was an executive with A.T. Kearney (2014 – 2020), leading domestic security transformation, efforts predominantly in the Middle East. Mr. Borrás was appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the Under Secretary for Management at the Department of Homeland Security. He was also appointed by the President to serve as Acting Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of DHS in September, 2013. Prior to his appointment with DHS, Mr. Borrás served as a Vice President and corporate officer with URS Corporation, a global engineering services firm from 2000 – 2010, responsible for multiple P&L groups and major public and private infrastructure projects throughout the U.S. Prior to joining URS, Mr. Borrás served in senior executive positions with multiple federal agencies and local governments. He is also a Fellow in the National Academy of Public Administration. He received the lifetime distinguished service award from the Homeland Security and Defense Business Council for his transformation success at DHS.