Board of Directors, Executive Committee

Brad Smith is the president of Microsoft, where he leads a team of more than 1,400 business, legal and corporate affairs professionals in 56 countries. He serves as the company’s chief legal officer and leads work on a wide range of issues involving the intersection between technology and society, including cybersecurity, privacy, ethics and artificial intelligence, human rights, immigration, philanthropy and environmental sustainability. Described by the New York Times as “a de facto ambassador for the technology industry at large,” Smith has testified numerous times before the US Congress and other governments on key policy issues. Smith joined Microsoft in 1993, first spending three years in Paris leading the legal and corporate affairs team in Europe. In 2002, he was named Microsoft’s general counsel and spent the following decade leading work to resolve the company’s antitrust controversies with governments around the world and companies across the tech sector. This past decade, Smith has spearheaded the company’s work to advance privacy protection for Microsoft customers and the rights of DREAMers and other immigrants, including bringing five lawsuits against the US government on these issues. Prior to joining Microsoft, Smith was an associate and then partner at the law firm of Covington and Burling, where he is still remembered as the first attorney in the long history of the firm to insist (in 1986) on having a personal computer on his desk as a condition for accepting a job offer. In addition to his work at Microsoft, Smith is active in several civic organizations and in the broader technology industry. He has served on the Netflix board of directors since 2015 and chairs the board of directors of both Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) and the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship program. Smith grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, where Green Bay was the big city next door. He attended Princeton University, where he met his wife, Kathy (also a lawyer). He earned his J.D. from Columbia University Law School and studied international law and economics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland. He can be followed on Twitter @bradsmi and LinkedIn at bradsmi.

Pamela Passman is Chair, Corporate and Managing Director of APCO Worldwide’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 helped found KIND. She was the Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Global Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, and led Microsoft’s regulatory compliance work across a range of issues related to cloud computing, and its global government relations and public policy work. 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 is a senior associate (non-resident) of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) with the Political Economy Program and Human Rights Initiative. She serves on the Board of Kinaxis Inc., a Toronto-listed SAAS supply chain management company. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on its Nominating and Governance Committee. Ms. Passman is a graduate of Lafayette College, where she serves on its board of trustees, and the University of Virginia School of Law.

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.