Chair of the Advisory Board
Mircea Geoană served as NATO’s Deputy Secretary General from 2019 to 2024. As the Alliance’s “innovation champion” and Chair of NATO’s Innovation Board, he contributed to the creation of the Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) and the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF). He played a key role in strengthening transatlantic security, advancing NATO’s defense strategy and fostering global partnership.
He is a proeminent public figure in Romania, with a distinguished domestic and international career, as an Ambassador of Romania to the US, Minister of Foreign Affairs or President of the Romanian Senate. Nonetheless, Mircea Geoana is the Founder and President of Aspen Institute Romania since 2006
Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook is a German-American political and economic strategist, currently Executive Vice President at the Bertelsmann Stiftung in Berlin, where she leads work on economic security and resilience.
Previously, she was Director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations and spent over a decade at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, co-founding and leading the Future of Diplomacy Project and the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship. She has also served on the Management Board of the European Policy Centre and worked as a strategy consultant at Roland Berger in Europe and China.
A former CNN International journalist, she is an Eisenhower and Truman Fellow and sits on several European advisory boards, including the German-American Fulbright Commission. She holds degrees from Brown University, the London School of Economics, and Harvard Kennedy School.
Dr. Rebecca Harding is CEO of the Centre for Economic Security and an independent trade economist specializing in digital and sustainable trade, supply chain finance, and geoeconomics. She also serves as Chief Economic Adviser to the Defence Security and Resilience Bank and is affiliated with Earendel Associates and the T3i Partner network.
Founder of the advisory firm Rebeccanomics, she works on international and sustainable trade initiatives, including projects for the ITFA and the Sustainable Trade Forum. In 2022, she received the “Net Zero Entrepreneur of the Year” award.
She has built three data-driven technology businesses, published extensively, and held senior roles at Deloitte, London Business School, the Work Foundation, and UK Finance. A former Specialist Adviser to the UK Treasury Select Committee, she also served as Director and Trustee of the German-British Forum.
Natalia Gavrilița is co-founder and director of Partnerships for New Economy and serves on the boards of Moldova’s National Bank, ECFR, and the Martens Centre.
She was Moldova’s Prime Minister from August 2021 to February 2023, leading the country through the fallout of Russia’s war in Ukraine, managing Europe’s largest wave of Ukrainian refugees, steering energy diversification away from Russian gas, and advancing major anti-corruption and governance reforms. Under her leadership, Moldova gained EU candidate status.
Previously, she served as finance minister in 2019 and worked at the Global Innovation Fund in London, as well as in Moldova’s Education and Economy ministries and at Oxford Policy Management across Africa and Asia.
Gavrilița holds a bachelor’s in International Law (Moldova State University) and a master’s in Public Policy (Harvard).
Andrei Iancu is a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell and one of the leading voices in intellectual property law and innovation policy. He is a former Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and
Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a position to which he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. Andrei has decades of experience representing plaintiffs and defendants in
IP matters across the technical and scientific spectra, including medical devices, genetic testing, therapeutics, the Internet, telephony, TV broadcasting, video game systems and computer peripherals.
He represents clients in litigation and trials before the district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission and the USPTO, the Federal Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court, and also counsels clients on obtaining, licensing, enforcing and defending against IP rights globally
Camille Grand is Secretary General of the European Aerospace, Security and Defence Industries Association (ASD), representing Europe’s aerospace, security, and defence industries. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of ICCAIA, the global association of aeronautical industry bodies, as part of the rotating Europe–US leadership framework.
Previously, he was Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment at NATO (2016–2022), where he led work on capability delivery, missile defence, aviation, armaments, and technology cooperation, chairing the Conference of National Armament Directors and co-chairing the NATO-Industry Forum. He later served as Distinguished Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), focusing on defence and technology in European security.
Earlier in his career, he held senior roles in the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence, led the Fondation pour la recherche stratégique (FRS), and contributed to leading European think tanks. An associate professor at Sciences Po Paris, he is a recognised expert in defence policy, armament and technology, NATO and EU security, and nuclear and missile defence.
Paolo Gentiloni is Co-Chair of the United Nations Group of Experts on the Debt Crisis, where he leads high-level efforts to address sovereign debt vulnerabilities and promote sustainable financial solutions for developing and emerging economies. In this role, he works to advance coordinated international responses to mounting debt pressures and to strengthen global financial stability.
Formerly European Commissioner for Economy (2019–2024) and Prime Minister of Italy, Gentiloni brings extensive experience in economic governance, fiscal policy, and multilateral cooperation. His work bridges national leadership and global policy, focusing on resilient economies and a more effective international financial architecture.