MCC’s 20th Anniversary Partners for Prosperity Tribute Dinner

Alice P. Albright is the Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation where she provides strategic leadership and vision to the agency helping deliver on programmatic priorities. Ms. Albright has more than 30 years of international experience in the private, non-profit and public sectors.

Prior to MCC, Ms. Albright served as the CEO of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). As a political appointee of the Obama Administration, between 2009 and 2013, she was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank). Beforehand, she was the Chief Financial and Investment Officer for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI). Prior to working in international development and government, Ms. Albright was a banker focusing on emerging markets, working principally at J.P. Morgan.

Ms. Albright has served on two G7 Gender Equality Advisory Councils, appointed first by the President of France for the 2019 G7 and subsequently by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for the 2021 G7. Additionally, she has served on the Boards of Williams College and Mercersburg Academy.

Ms. Albright received her MIA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and her BA from Williams College. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. to be the Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations as well as the Representative of the United States of America in the Security Council of the United Nations on January 20, 2021. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 23, 2021, and sworn in on February 24, 2021, by the Vice President of the United States of America. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a career diplomat, returned to public service after retiring from a 35-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service in 2017.

From 2013 to 2017 she served as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, where she led the bureau focused on the development and management of U.S. policy toward sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to this appointment, she served as Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources (2012-2013), leading a team in charge of the State Department’s 70,000-strong workforce.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield’s distinguished Foreign Service career includes an ambassadorship to Liberia (2008-2012), and postings in Switzerland (at the United States Mission to the United Nations, Geneva), Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria, and Jamaica. In Washington, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs (2006-2008), and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (2004-2006).

After retiring from the U.S. State Department in 2017, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield led the Africa Practice at Albright Stonebridge Group, a strategic commercial diplomacy firm chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She was also the inaugural Distinguished Resident Fellow in African Studies at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University from fall 2017 to spring 2019.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield was the 2017 recipient of University of Minnesota Hubert Humphrey Public Leadership Award, the 2015 recipient of the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award and the 2000 recipient of the Warren Christopher Award for Outstanding Achievement in Global Affairs. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, where she also did work towards a doctorate. She received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of Wisconsin in May 2018 and an honorary Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Liberia in May 2012.

George W. Bush served as 43rd President of the United States of America from 2001 to 2009. As Commander in Chief, President Bush worked to expand freedom, opportunity, and security at home and abroad. He entered office with a robust domestic agenda. His first initiative as President was the No Child Left Behind Act, a bipartisan measure that raised standards in schools, insisted on accountability in return for federal dollars, and led to measurable gains in achievement – especially among minority students. Faced with a recession when he took office, President Bush cut taxes for every federal income taxpayer, which helped lead to an unprecedented 52 straight months of job creation.

New free trade agreements enacted by the Bush Administration opened up American goods and services to new markets of more than 130 million consumers. Additionally, President Bush worked with Congress to modernize Medicare with a prescription drug benefit and introduced market forces to the healthcare system by establishing Health Savings Accounts. The Bush Administration also focused on a variety of environmental issues, including efforts to reduce emissions and create the world’s largest marine protected area.

Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, President Bush responded with a comprehensive strategy to protect the American people and wage a global war on terror. His administration built global coalitions to remove violent regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that threatened America, liberating more than 50 million people from tyranny. Recognizing that liberty and hope are the best alternative to the extremist ideology of the terrorists, he provided unprecedented American support for young democracies and dissidents in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere. President Bush also launched global HIV/AIDS and malaria initiatives that have saved millions of lives, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

President Bush grew up in Midland, Texas, as the eldest son of Barbara and George H.W. Bush – later the 41st President of the United States. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School. President Bush also served as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard. Following business school, he returned to Midland and met Laura Welch. They were married in 1977. After working in the energy business in West Texas for several years, President Bush moved to Dallas and joined a group of partners that purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise. In 1995, he was sworn in as the 46th Governor of Texas.

After the Presidency, President and Mrs. Bush founded the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas. The Bush Center is home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum and the George W. Bush Institute, a nonpartisan public policy and leadership development center that engages communities across the United States and around the world by developing leaders, advancing policy, and taking action to solve today’s most pressing challenges.

Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera is the current President of Malawi. He was sworn into office on June 28, 2020 at Malawi Square at Bingu International Convention Centre, Lilongwe.

Before joining frontline politics, Chakwera was President of the Malawi Assemblies of God from 1989 until he resigned on May 14, 2013 to contest in the 2014 General Elections as a presidential candidate for the Malawi Congress party. That presidential election was marred by irregularities forcing the Electoral Commission to petition the High Court for permission to conduct a manual audit of the ballots. Though Chakwera was supportive of the audit, his rival, Arthur Peter Mutharika of Democratic Progressive Party took an injunction to stop it forcing the Commission to announce the results. Mutharika was declared winner by 8.6 percent margin. Following the declaration, Chakwera announced that he would not challenge the results to give Mutharika a chance to prove himself in the highest office. In the meantime, Chakwera won a parliamentary seat and became the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly.

He served as Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly until February 2019 when he submitted his nomination papers to the Electoral Commission for the second time to run for presidential election in the May 21, 2019 elections. The elections were highly contested and marred by irregularities. The Commission used widespread correction fluid on results sheets. Despite complaints and accusations about the irregularities, the Commission declared Mutharika winner by a margin of 3.1 percent. However, on the day that Mutharika was inaugurated for a second term, Chakwera announced his decision to challenge the election result.

He and State Vice President Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima filed a petition to the Constitutional Court demanding a fresh presidential election. After a six-month hearing, the five-judge panel of the court unanimously nullified the 2019 presidential election on account of “massive, serious, and widespread irregularities” that violated multiple provisions of the Constitution and laws governing elections.

The court ordered that a fresh poll be held within 150 days of the ruling, but President Mutharika appealed the judgment to the Supreme Court, which unanimously upheld the decision of the lower court. At the end of the fresh the election which took place on June 23, 2020, under the oversight of a newly constituted Electoral Commission, Chakwera won with 58.57 percent of the vote. Chakwera was born on the rural outskirts of Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi on April 5, 1955 to Earnest Person Chakwera and Mallen Mwale, who were subsistence farmers.

Their home was typica lrural, without electricity or running water or privileges of any kind. Their poor surroundings exposed the children to sickness so regularly that two of Chakwera’s brothers born before him died in infancy. His father named him Lazarus to express his faith that he would defy the odds and live long as the Bible character who was raised from the dead. He has a sister and a brother. Chakwera is married to Monica and together they have four children and 12 grandchildren.

In 1977, the year they were married, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy) Degree from the University of Malawi. He got his honours degree from the University of the North, Sovenga, South Africa. In 1991, he got his masters from the University of South Africa. The Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois, USA awarded him a doctorate in 2000. The Pan Africa Theological Seminary awarded him Professorship in 2005. He has served in a number of roles of executive leadership both in Malawi and internationally: He was Chairman of the Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM) 1997-2014; Board Chairman for All Nations Theological Seminary 2008-2013; Board Member of the Global University, Springfield, Missouri, USA, 1999 – 2005.

He was also Board Chairman of the Pan Africa Theological Seminary (PATHS) 2004 – 2014; Chairman of Assoc. of Pentecostal Theological Education in Africa (APTEA) - 2011-2014; President of Africa Assemblies of God Alliance (2004-2013); Secretary of World Assemblies of God Fellowship (2005-2017); co-chair of the Facilitation Team created to resolve the Budget and Section 65 Parliamentary impasse between Cabinet and Opposition in 2008; Chairman of Malawi’s Petroleum Control Commission and the National Council for Sports. President Chakwera has promised to govern by a set of five principles that he calls The Chakwera SUPER HI-5, which highlight the five policy focus areas that will be high on his gubernatorial agenda: Servant Leadership; Uniting Malawi; Prospering Together; Ending Corruption; Rule of Law.

Dr. Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu is the current President of Kosovo, taking office on April 4, 2021. She was elected a member of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo in five terms. In previous terms, she chaired the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on European Integration and was the Deputy Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Reform.On February 3, 2020, Vjosa Osmani was elected the first female Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo. On November 5, 2020, Vjosa Osmani became Acting President of the Republic of Kosovo, which she held until March 22, 2021.

During 2006-2010, Vjosa Osmani served as the Chief of Staff of President Sejdiu and Senior Advisor on Legal Affairs and International Relations. She has represented the President on the Commission for the drafting of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo. She was a member of the representative team of the Republic of Kosovo in the case before the International Court of Justice regarding the country’s declaration of independence.

Since 2006, she has been lecturing at the Faculty of Law at the University of Prishtina and has also lectured at the University of Pittsburgh as a visiting professor. For several years, she has also lectured at RIT – Kosovo (AUK), AAB – Riinvest College and has held thematic lectures at other universities in Europe and the United States.

She graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Prishtina, while she completed her Master and Doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, USA.

She has been honored by the University of Pittsburgh with the Sheth International Award. She is a member of the Board of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and a member of the Steering Committee of the Young Deputies of the World Bank and the IMF.

She speaks English, Turkish, Serbian, Croatian and communicates in Spanish. She is married to Prindon Sadriu and has two twin daughters, Anda Elisa Sadriu and Dua Tiara Sadriu.

Juan Sebastián Chamorro is a Nicaraguan economist, businessman, and politician. He was a pre-candidate for president in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election until he was detained in a wave of arrests of opposition candidates and other civic leaders. He was released from prison and banished from Nicaragua in February 2023.

For his Kellogg fellowship, Chamorro will work independently on a project titled "Violation of every right in Nicaragua, a Personal and Collective Perspective." During his time on campus, he will engage the Notre Dame community on these projects and the situation in Nicaragua with scholarly and/or educational activities of the Institute.

In 1997 Chamorro began his first public service role in Nicaragua, as director of agriculture policy at the Ministry of Agriculture. From 2002 to 2006, he served in the administration of then-President Enrique Bolaños as director general of the Millennium Challenge Account Nicaragua, deputy minister of finance and public credit, technical secretary of the presidency of the republic, and coordinator of the National Public Investment System. Most recently, Chamorro was executive director of the economic think tank Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUNIDES).

He holds a PhD in agricultural and applied economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in economic development and econometrics, and a Master’s degree in economics from Georgetown University.

Ms. Shalini Tripathi joined MCA-Nepal in 2019 as the Deputy Executive Director (Management), supporting MCA-Nepal to manage a USD 630 million program co-funded by the US Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact fund of USD 500 million and the Government of Nepal’s fund of USD 130 million. The program aims to increase the availability and reliability of electricity, maintain road quality and facilitate power trade between Nepal and the region to help spur investments and accelerate economic growth. The Electricity Transmission Project (ETP), a national pride project, and the Road Maintenance Project (RMP) are two projects under the program. Ms. Tripathi brings with her over 20 years of diverse experience working in the development, government, and nonprofit sectors.  She has previously served as Deputy Head of Facility at Governance Facility, a policy and governance nonprofit organization, and as National Project Manager for a UNDP-supported state reforms project at the Ministry of General Administration. Shalini holds a Master’s degree in International Business Management from Himachal Pradesh University, India and a Post Graduate Diploma in Human Rights from Indian Institute of Human Rights, New Delhi, India.

Mr. Johanns served as a U.S. Senator from Nebraska from 2009 until 2015. In the 111th-113th Congresses, his committee assignments included Agriculture, Appropriations, Banking, Commerce, Veterans Affairs, Indian Affairs, and Environment & Public Works. He was United States Secretary of Agriculture from 2005 until 2007 and was twice elected Governor of Nebraska, serving from 1999 until 2005. Mr. Johanns has served on the board of directors of Deere & Company since 2015. He previously served as a director of Burlington Capital/ATAX from May 2015 until September 2019. Mr. Johanns serves on several advisory councils and boards of directors related to advancing agriculture policy, farmer financing, and renewable energy, including the Farm Foundation, the Flinchbaugh Center for Ag Policy at Kansas State University, Ag America Lending, and the Center for Infrastructure and Economic Development, where he is a national co-chair. Johanns joined Corteva’s Board in June 2019.