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Mr. Georg Milbradtis is Chairman of the board of the Forum of Federations. His political career includes being minister-president of the federal state of Saxony and chair of Saxony’s Christian Democratic Union. He has been a member of the Bundesrat as well as the Parliament of Saxony. Among other functions, he has held posts such as minister of finance for the state of Saxony, treasurer of the City of Münster and was a member of the German parliament’s conciliation committee. Prof. Milbradt maintains an association with the faculty of economics at the University of Münster, where he earned degrees in politics and economics. |
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Mr. Abay Tsehaye Abay is the National Security Advisor to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. He is a Member of the House of Peoples' Representatives, elected from Axum Zone in Tigray Regional State, and is the chairman of the board of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.
Prior to holding these posts, he was the Public Organization and Participation Advisor to Prime Minister Meles from October 2005 to December 2006; a Cabinet member for the Tigray Regional State, from May 1995-to-May 2001; and was the Political Advisor to the President of Transitional Government of Ethiopia from September 1991-to-May 1995. |
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Mr. Alexander Alvaro has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Germany since 2004. A jurist, he is one of the youngest MEPs and also serves as the European Parliament’s vice-chair of the committee on budgets and a substitute member of the committee for civil liberties, justice and home affairs. He served on the national board of the German Young Liberals and was their prime candidate for the EP in 2004. After training as a banker, he read law at the Universities of Bremen, Mannheim, Lausanne and Düsseldorf. He is co-author of the book, The State of Fundamental and Human Rights in the EU. |
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General John de Chastelain is a retired Canadian soldier and diplomat. He heads the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, which is responsible for ensuring the decommissioning of arms by paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. He was part of the negotiations leading up to the Good Friday Agreement in 1988 that brought peace to Northern Ireland. In 1993, he served as Canada's ambassador to the United States. He was promoted to the rank of general in 1989 and chief of Canada’s defence staff. His military career began in 1960 with a BA in history from Canada’s Royal Military College and a commission in the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. |
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Mr. Ramón Galindo was elected in 2006 to a six-year term as senator of the Republic of Mexico where he is the president of the Senate Committee on Municipal Development, and member of the Committee on State Reform. He was a Federal House Representative in the National Congress from 2003-2006, Mayor of the city of Juárez, from 1995-1998, president of the Mexican Association of Municipalities in 1996, a House Representative in the State Congress of Chihuahua from 1989-1992 and Director of Social Development for the City of Juárez from 1992-1995). He has been an active member of the National Action Party (PAN) since 1970. |
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Prof. Johanne Poirier is a member of the Public Law Centre, at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), and an expert on constitutional and legal aspects of federal governance, intergovernmental agreements, the Supreme Court and the European Union. Ms. Poirier studied at Queen’s University in Kingston, On.,;McGill University, in Montreal, Canada; and worked as a clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada. Professor Poirier completed her graduate studies jointly at the University of Cambridge and the ULB, specializing in comparative federalism. She has published numerous works on law and intergovernmental agreements in Belgium, Canada, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. |
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Mr. Vicente Carlos y Plá Trevas consultant to the Presidency of Brazil’s Caixa Econômica Federal and former deputy head of Federative Affairs Secretariat of the Institutional Relations Secretariat, Presidency of Brazil. Mr. Trevas is a sociologist who has worked for and advised government of Brazil, at the highest levels. Mr. Trevas’s career includes working with organizations such as Brazil’s national public security and citizenship program, the Inter-American Network on Decentralization, local governments, and citizen participation in the RIAD program of the Organization of American States. He has also worked with the consultative forum of states, provinces, departments and municipalities of MERCOSUR, the South American free-trade zone. Mr. Trevas is a graduate of political studies at La Sorbonne. He began his career teaching sociology and social development and then joined the public service, working for the Administrative Development Foundation of Sao Paolo. |
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Prof. Dr. iur. Thomas Pfisterer is a former judge of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court and he had served for 25 years in the Swiss judicial system. He was also a Governor of the Canton of Aargau and a member of the Swiss Senate. He taught Constitutional and Administrative Law and Mediation at the University of Saint Gallen. A graduate of the Universities of Basle, Berne, Yale (USA) and Swiss Bar Association, Prof. Pfisterer is currently an Attorney at Law associated with the Law firm Voser Attorneys at Law/ Rechtsanwälte in Baden. |
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Mian Raza Rabbani, a lawyer and constitutional scholar, is a member of the Senate of Pakistan and a Deputy Secretary General of the Pakistan People’s Party. He is Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and serves on a number of other parliamentary committees, including Law, Justice, Human Rights, Rules of Procedures and Privileges, Defense Production and Planning and Development. He was the Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination. As Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms he co-authored the 18th, 19th and 20th Constitutional Amendments and as Chairman of the Implementation Commission he oversaw the process of devolution under the 18th Amendment. He has dedicated his political career to safeguarding the rights of individuals and minority groups through the principle of federalism. Mr. Rabbani has served also as Federal Minister of State for Law and Justice and Leader of the House and Opposition in the Senate. He was awarded Pakistan’s highest civil award for his Parliamentary Services and is a recipient of the Services of Human Rights Award of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and for the struggle for the rights of the Provinces he is the recipient of the Bacha Khan and Bizenjo Awards in Pakistan. |
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Mr. Roger Wilkins is Secretary of the Attorney-General’s Department, a position he has held since September 2008. Prior to that he was head of the Government and Public Sector Group Australia and New Zealand with Citi and was Citi’s global public sector leader on climate change from 2006-2008. From 1992-2006, Mr Wilkins was the director-General of The Cabinet Office in New South Wales where he played a leading role in areas of reform in administration and law, corporatization and micro-economic entities. Prior to that he held an academic position at Sydney University Law School. Mr. Wilkins was also involved in negotiating agreements on competition policy, international treaties, mutual recognition, electricity, the environment and health reform. |
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Past Chair of the Forum of Federations |
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2009-2013
Prof. Dr. Vijay Kelkar was Chairman of the board of the Forum of Federations. He was the chairman of India’s Finance Commission until Jan. 31, 2010. (In India, the post of Finance Commission chairman carries the rank of a federal cabinet minister.) Dr. Kelkar has held senior positions in India’s public service, with international organizations and in the private sector. His other key posts with the government of India include that of advisor to the minister of finance, in the rank of a minister of state, from August 2002 to September, 2004; finance secretary, 1998-1999; chairman, Tariff Commission, 1997-1998; secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, 1994-1997. Internationally, Dr. Kelkar was executive director at the International Monetary Fund for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan from 1999-2002; and director & coordinator, international trade division of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Geneva, Switzerland, 1991-1994. More info |
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