BIOGRAPHIES
A-G, H-N, O-U, V-Z

Ivo Opstelten
Mayor of Rotterdam
Mr. Opstelten is the Mayor of Rotterdam. Born in 1944 in Rotterdam, after his graduation in Dutch Law at the University of Leiden in 1969, he worked with the secretary of the municipality of Vlaardingen, before he became Mayor of the municipality of Dalen in 1977. Since this position he has worked as the Mayor of Doorn, Delfzijl and Utrecht. Between these jobs, he worked for the Ministry of Domestic Affairs and became Mayor of Rotterdam in 1999.

Kevin Parker
Global Head of Asset Management, Deutsche Bank
Kevin is a Member of the Group Executive Committee and is the Global Head of Asset Management. Based in New York, he reports to Josef Ackermann, Chairman of the Group Executive Committee and Spokesman of the Vorstand. Prior to his current role, Kevin served as the Global Head of Equities and the Global Head of Equity Derivatives. Kevin joined Deutsche Bank from Morgan Stanley & Co. in June of 1997 where he was Managing Director and Chief Information Officer, a position he held since 1993. From 1988 to 1993 he served as Head of Asian Equity Derivatives for Morgan Stanley, in Tokyo. Kevin earned a B.S. in Management and Finance from New York University in 1981.

Richard D. Parsons
Chairman & CEO, Time Warner
Richard D. Parsons is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Time Warner Inc., whose businesses include filmed entertainment, interactive services, television networks, cable systems and publishing. He became CEO in May 2002 and Chairman of the Board in May 2003. Since becoming CEO, Mr. Parsons has led Time Warner’s turnaround and set the company on a solid path toward achieving sustainable growth. In its January 2005 report on America’s Best CEOs, Institutional Investor magazine named Mr. Parsons the top CEO in the entertainment industry.

Before becoming CEO, Mr. Parsons served as the company’s Co-Chief Operating Officer, overseeing its content businesses as well as its Legal and People Development functions. Mr. Parsons joined Time Warner as its President in February 1995, and has been a member of the company’s Board of Directors since January 1991. Before joining Time Warner, Mr. Parsons was Chairman and CEO of Dime Bancorp, Inc. Previously, he was the managing partner of the New York law firm Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler. Prior to that, he held positions in government, as counsel for Nelson Rockefeller and as a senior White House aide under President Gerald Ford. Mr. Parsons received his undergraduate education at the University of Hawaii and his legal training at Union University’s Albany Law School.

Mr. Parsons’ civic and non-profit commitments include Co-Chairman of the Mayor’s Commission on Economic Opportunity in New York; Chairman Emeritus of the Partnership for New York City; Chairman of the Apollo Theatre Foundation and service on the boards of Howard University, the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Natural History. He also serves on the boards of Citi and Estee Lauder.

Anthony Pratt
Chairman, Pratt Industries
Anthony Pratt is Chairman of Pratt Industries and Group Deputy Chairman of Visy Industries. His father, Richard Pratt, is Chairman of Visy Industries (headquartered in Melbourne, Australia), which is the world’s largest privately-owned paper and packaging company.

Anthony graduated from Monash University, Melbourne, with a Bachelor of Economics with Honors in 1983. After graduation he joined the consulting firm of McKinsey & Co, before joining Visy as Joint General Manager of Visy Board. In 1988 he became Deputy Chairman of Pratt Holdings in Australia.

Anthony moved to the United States in 1991 to oversee the company’s expansion into America. Since his arrival, Pratt Industries has grown five-fold in sales and earnings and now employs more than 3,500 workers at mills and plants throughout the U.S.A.

Anthony was selected by Muhammad Ali to sit on the National Board of the Muhammad Ali Museum and Education Center in Louisville, Kentucky. He is an active participant in numerous environmental and natural resource groups, including the Global Climate Change Group and serves on the board of the Pratt Foundation.

Mr. Pratt now oversees Pratt Industries in the United States as Chairman & CEO of the company in addition to his responsibilities with Visy Industries and Pratt Holdings. He resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

Charles Prince
Chairman & CEO, Citi
Chuck Prince is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Citi. Previously, Mr. Prince was Chairman and CEO of Citigroup’s Corporate and Investment Banking Group. Mr. Prince began his career in 1975 as an attorney at U.S. Steel Corporation and in 1979 joined Commercial Credit Company (a predecessor company to Citigroup). He was named Executive Vice President in early 1996. Mr. Prince was made Chief Administrative Officer of Citigroup in early 2000 and Chief Operating Officer in early 2001. He was named Chairman and CEO of the Corporate and Investment Banking Group in 2002, became CEO of Citigroup in 2003 and Chairman in 2006.

Mr. Prince is a member of the Board of Directors of Citi and of Johnson & Johnson. He is a Trustee of Juilliard School of Music. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy and the Board of Overseers of Weill Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Business Council, and the Business Roundtable; he is also co-chair of the Partnership for New York City and chairman of the Financial Services Forum.

Mr. Prince is a graduate of the University of Southern California, from where he also received a master’s degree in International Relations and a law degree. He also holds a Master of Laws degree from Georgetown University.

Anjali Rao
Anchor/Correspondent, CNNI Asia Pacific
Anjali Rao co-anchors CNN’s prime-time evening news and business show, “World News Asia”, live from CNN’s regional production center in Hong Kong. She also hosts ‘Talk Asia’, the half-hour regional chat show featuring in-depth interviews and topical discussion with leading business, political and entertainment figures.

Prior to joining CNN in 2006, Rao worked for a decade at broadcasters in Australia, Asia and Europe. She started her career as a producer and reporter at Hong Kong’s Wharf Cable Television (now i-cable) and worked on Channel 7’s “Today Tonight” program in Australia before joining Hong Kong’s Star News Asia. While at Star TV she won the top prize at the 2004 Amnesty International Human Rights Press Awards for her story “Toxic Trail”, a Focus Asia piece on the effects of widespread use of pesticide in southern India. In the summer of 2004 Rao moved to the U.K., becoming a presenter for the British terrestrial broadcaster Five’s Five News program and the Sky News channel.

Born in Hong Kong, Rao was educated mainly in the U.K. She received a bachelor’s degree with honors in Sociology and Media Studies from London’s City University.

Shubha Umesh Raul
Mayor of Mumbai
Dr. Shubha Umesh Raul was elected Mayor of Mumbai on March 10, 2007. She is the third woman to be elected to the position of the 124 year old civic body. A former city legislator and physician, Dr. Raul’s focus as mayor includes improving infrastructure, making Mumbai a greener city, promoting tourism and education. Dr. Raul is married and has two daughters, ages 15 and 12.

Beto Richa
Mayor of Curitiba
Elected in 2004, Carlos Richa is one of several city mayors from the diverse immigrant community in the state capital. Mr. Richa Jr (or ‘Beto’) entered politics at age 29 in 1994 when he became a deputy for the state of Parana and was re-elected in 1998, doubling his votes. In 2000 he was chosen as the vice mayoral candidate in Curitiba for the campaign of Cassio Taniguchi, and he was made responsible for public works in Mayor Taniguchi’s administration.

In 2006, Curitiba hosted the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties on the Convention on Biodiversity, confirming the city’s drive to improve its standing internationally. More recently, Mayor Richa addressed the city’s most pressing challenge by approving a light rail transit system to relieve congestion on the city’s busiest bus routes.

Born in Londrina in 1965 and of Lebanese migrant descent, Mr. Richa comes from a political family – his father served as Mayor of Londrina then Governor of Parana state between 1983 and 1986. Because of his father’s political career, Mr. Richa spent his early childhood in Brasilia. He then graduated from the Bom Jesus High School in Curitiba and attended the Catholic University of Parana, where he studied civil engineering.

Oh Se-hoon
Mayor of Seoul
Oh Se-hoon was elected Mayor of Seoul in July 2006. Prior to becoming Mayor, Oh Se-hoon was a national assemblyman from May 2000 to May 2004. He entered politics as an active advocate on the environment and was the Director of the Korean Federation for the Environment Movement from 2000 to 2004 as well as being involved in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Oh Se-hoon was born in Seoul on January 4, 1961. He obtained degrees in Commercial law and Civil Procedure from Korea University and has been practicing law for over twenty years. He has two daughters.

John So
Lord Mayor of Melbourne
Lord Mayor John So was the first directly elected Lord Mayor of the Melbourne City Council in 2001, and was re-elected in November 2004 for a second term. A businessman and Justice of the Peace, he has qualifications in science and education from the University of Melbourne. Actively involved in tourism and ethnic community welfare issues, he was a Commissioner of the Ethnic Affairs Commission (1991–93) and a former Councillor of the City of Melbourne (1991–96 and 1999–2001).

He has also been Vice President of the Melbourne Chinatown Traders Association. The Lord Mayor’s vision for Melbourne includes creating closer links between the city and the water, including the Yarra River and Docklands. Lord Mayor So also looks forward to celebrating Melbourne’s expanding links with Asia, particularly Council’s sister city relationships with Osaka, Japan and Tianjin, China, increasing the number of direct flights to and from Melbourne, and being an active member of the Business Partner City Network. The Lord Mayor believes Melbourne’s parks, gardens, waterways, infrastructure, and friendly attitudes are the best things about Melbourne.

Jerry I. Speyer
President & CEO, Tishman Speyer
Mr. Speyer is one of the two founding partners of Tishman Speyer and has been President & CEO since its formation in 1978. He is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He is Vice Chairman of the Museum of Modern Art and New York Presbyterian Hospital; Vice Chair, Board of Trustees, Rand Corporation and Chair of Executive Committee; chairman emeritus of Columbia University; chairman emeritus of the Real Estate Board of New York; chair emeritus of the Partnership for New York City; and past president of the Board of Trustees of the Dalton School.

His board affiliations include Siemens AG, Yankee Global Enterprises and Carnegie Hall. He is a member of the Economic Club of New York and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Speyer graduated from Columbia College in 1962 and Columbia University Graduate School of Business in 1964.

Rob Speyer
Senior Managing Director, Tishman Speyer
Mr. Speyer is Chair of the company’s Management Committee, which oversees its business activities globally. Mr. Speyer is also responsible for Tishman Speyer’s day-to-day business in the New York metropolitan area. Previously, he was responsible for several acquisitions and developments in New York, including Tishman Speyer’s first new office development in Manhattan in over a decade.
Mr. Speyer was appointed by Mayor Bloomberg as Chair of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, the not-for-profit corporation for the City of New York. Mr. Speyer also serves on the Board of Visitors of Columbia College, the Board of Trustees of the New York City Police Foundation, and the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of the Real Estate Board of New York. He graduated magna cum laude from Columbia College in 1992, and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

John Street
Mayor of Philadelphia
John Franklin Street was elected Mayor of Philadelphia on November 2, 1999. Mayor Street’s flagship policy in his first term was the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, which saw housing renewal schemes and the demolition of the city’s poorest neighborhoods; he also inherited some of the worst public schools in America and embarked upon a privatization program. The Mayor began his public career as a community activist. He was then elected to Philadelphia City Council in 1979. For nearly 20 years, Street represented the city’s Fifth Council District. He was chosen unanimously by members of the council to serve as its president in 1992, and again in 1996. Street retired from Philadelphia City Council, as required by the city charter, in 1998 to run for mayor.

Mayor Street was born in 1945 in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Conshohocken High School and then studied English at the Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. In 1975 he gained a Juris Doctorate from Temple University Law School. Following his graduation, Street undertook clerkships with the Common Pleas Court and the United States Department of Justice. In his first professional job, Mayor Street taught English at an elementary school. He also practiced law privately prior to entering into public service. An avid fitness enthusiast, Mayor Street jogs 15 to 20 miles and bicycles between 30 to 40 miles each week. The mayor set up the city Office of Health and Fitness after Philadelphia was dubbed America’s fattest city by Men’s Fitness magazine.


Kadir Topbaş
Mayor of Istanbul
Dr. Kadir Topbaş was elected as Mayor of Istanbul on March 28, 2004. Previously, he was advisor to the Mayor of Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, from 1994 to 1998, contributing to the restoration works of palaces, mansions, and monuments by the Metropolitan Municipality. He also worked as the Vice President of the Board of Monuments and Preserving the Primary Cultural Assets of Istanbul, Ministry of Culture.

Dr. Topbaş has a political background going back more than thirty years. He was elected Mayor of Beyoğlu in 1999. During his tenure, he implemented his “Beautiful Beyoğlu”project, which was regarded as an exemplary project for the whole city. A member of Proposal Group for Local Governments Reform Project, Dr. Topbaş’s works include Beyoğlu: City that Connects Cultures, published in collaboration with Bilgi University, Beyoğlu from Past to Today I-II and Beyoğlu in Memories, published in collaboration with TAÇ Foundation. He is also a member of Board of Trustees and Board of Directors of TAÇ (History and Environment Foundation) Foundation.

Dr. Topbaş was born in Yusufeli, Artvin in 1945. He graduated from the Faculty of Theology of Marmara University in 1972, and the Department of Architecture of Mimar Sinan University in 1974, after which he worked as a self-employed architect for years. Dr. Topbaş is married with three children.