The Future of Development: Approaches and Partnerships for a New Reality

About the Speakers

Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation

Mark Suzman is CEO of the Gates Foundation and a member of its board of trustees, where he leads the organization in advancing its mission—help every person have the opportunity to live healthy, productive lives. He is deeply committed to building partnerships and fostering a culture that drives meaningful impact. Currently, he is guiding the historic 20-year acceleration of the foundation’s mission ahead of its planned closure in 2045. During this time, the foundation will spend $200 billion to ensure: no mother or child dies of a preventable cause; the next generation grows up in a world without deadly infectious diseases; and, hundreds of millions of people break free from poverty, putting more countries on the path to prosperity.

Mark's upbringing in apartheid South Africa instilled in him a desire to use the advantages afforded to him to help tackle injustice and inequality. He began his career as a journalist, writing for the Johannesburg Star and the Financial Times. In 2000, Suzman joined the United Nations, where he helped implement the Millennium Development Goals under the leadership of then Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He also served as senior advisor, policy and strategic communications in the Office of the Secretary General, and policy director at the United Nations Development Program.

Suzman joined the Gates Foundation in 2007 as director of Global Development Policy, Advocacy, and Special Initiatives. He has served as managing director of Country Offices, president of Global Policy and Advocacy, and chief strategy officer, overseeing the foundation’s expansion in India, China, Africa, and Europe, and managing government, private philanthropists, and civil society partnerships. Suzman holds a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.

Ambassador Mark Green (ret), former Administrator of USAID, U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania, and Congressman (WI-8)

Ambassador Mark Green (ret.) served as Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2017 to 2020. Before that he served as President of the International Republican Institute, one of the world's leading democracy promotion organizations. Green served as the US Ambassador to Tanzania from mid-2007 to early 2009, as well as four terms in the US House of Representatives representing Wisconsin’s 8th District. He has also served as Executive Director of the McCain Institute, President of the Initiative for Global Development, President of the Wilson Center, and Senior Director at the US Global Leadership Coalition. 

While in Congress, among other things, he played a leading role in crafting legislation establishing both the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).  At USAID, he pioneered an approach to development assistance he called the "Journey to Self-Reliance" and launched a new emphasis on private sector engagement and collaboration. 

Green (ret.) is the author of the "Stubborn Things” blog (which can be found on Substack). Green has also served on the MCC’s Board of Directors during both the Obama and Trump Administrations, on the Bush Institute’s Human Freedom Advisory Council, and on the Board of Consensus for Development Reform. He holds a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. He has received special honors from President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and President Ivan Duque of Colombia, as well as an honorary Doctor of Science from Georgetown University. He began his career in foreign policy and international development as a secondary school teacher in a Kenyan village.

Gyude Moore, former Liberian Minister of Public Works

W. Gyude Moore served as Liberia’s Minister of Public Works with oversight over the construction and maintenance of public infrastructure from December 2014 to January 2018. Prior to that role, Moore served as Deputy Chief of Staff to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Head of the President’s Delivery Unit (PDU). As Head of the PDU, his team monitored progress and drove delivery of the Public Sector Investment Program of Liberia—a program of over $1 billion in road, power, port infrastructure, and social programs in Liberia after the civil war. As one of the President’s trusted advisors, he also played a crucial role in supporting President Sirleaf as Liberia responded to the West Africa Ebola outbreak and shaped its post-Ebola outlook.

Currently a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development, and previously a senior policy fellow, Moore’s policy analysis and research focus are governance, the financing of infrastructure, and Africa’s response to the changing landscape of external actors. His focus tracks the policies of traditional, aspiring, and emerging actors on the continent, especially the rise of China and its expanding role in Africa. Moore is a lecturer at the University of Chicago’s Harris School for Public Policy where he teaches a class on the role of infrastructure in the practice of foreign policy and international development. Moore provides expert analysis and is frequently quoted in print, on radio, and on television. His writing has been published in newspapers and magazines like Africa Business, The Hill, Quartz, Foreign Policy, and Mail & Guardian in South Africa. Moore is also a Senior Fellow at the Breakthrough Institute. He currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the Master of Science in Foreign Service Program at Georgetown University and on the Board of Directors of Management Sciences for Health and the Charter Cities Institute. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Berea College and a master’s degree in Foreign Policy and International Security from Georgetown University.

Vera Songwe, Chair and Founder of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility

Vera Songwe is the former Under-Secretary-General at the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and is currently the Founder and Chair of the private sector Liquidity and Sustainability Facility, a capital markets infrastructure firm aimed at facilitating liquidity provision for emerging markets.

Songwe previously served as a senior adviser to the Bank of International Settlements. She also served as Regional Director Africa covering West and Central Africa for the International Finance Corporation. During her tenure at the World Bank, she served as Country Director for Senegal, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Mauritania. Prior to becoming Director, Songwe was a Lead Economist at the Bank and the Advisor to Managing Director Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She is a member of the World Bank Group team that raised a historic US$49.3 billion dollars in concessional financing as part of the International Development Association (IDA) 16th replenishment. She has extensive experience working in Asia for over a decade where she was the lead economist for the East Asia Regional at the World Bank. Songwe has worked and lived in countries spanning Mongolia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Senegal and Morocco, managing different World Bank programs and the economic and growth policy dialogue.  

Prior to joining the Bank, Songwe was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Southern California and at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. She has published several articles on governance, fiscal policy, agriculture and commodity price volatility and trade. She is currently a nonresident senior fellow in the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution as well as Co-Chair of the High-Level Expert Panel on Climate Finance. She is also a Co-Chair of the Food System Economics Commission and a member of the African Leadership Network.  

Dr. Songwe holds a PhD in Mathematical Economics from the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics from the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium. Songwe holds a BA in Economics and a BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.