Board of Trustees

Jack R Meyer

Acting Chair & Vice Chair of AUW Board of Trustees; Chair of AUWSF Board of Directors

Jack R. Meyer is Former Senior Managing Partner at Convexity Capital Management L.P. located in Boston.  He co-founded the firm with managing partners, Dave Mittelman and Maurice Samuels in July 2005. Before Convexity, Jack was President and CEO of Harvard Management Company, which manages the University’s endowment assets, pension funds, charitable trusts and pooled income funds totaling in excess of $31 billion by the end of his term. Prior to HMC, Jack was Treasurer and Chief Investment Officer of the Rockefeller Foundation where he managed the Foundation’s endowment, valued at $2 billion.  Before the Foundation, he was Deputy Controller of New York City, where he managed $20 billion in total assets, including the City’s pension funds, sinking funds, and treasury funds. He also held various investment management positions with Lionel D. Edie, a New York City investment firm and at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.  Jack currently serves as the Chairs of the Board of Directors of the Asian University for Women Support Foundation, and the Boston Ballet.

Education:

MBA, Harvard Business Schoo, USA

BA, Denison University, USA

Ariful Islam

Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee of AUW Board of Trustees; Chief Financial Officer, BRAC University

A business leader with over 27 years of professional experience across Asia Pacific. Led development of new strategic direction & business transformation and in priority markets for British American Tobacco (BAT) Group as Finance Director and top team member of various markets & clusters. Currently working as CFO of BRAC University since December 2020 and leading Finance, IT, Procurement, International Office & Scholarship functions. Strengthening governance & collaboration across functions with enterprising spirit. Spearheaded sustainable financing initiatives for the new campus project, developing and implementing new ERP & Student Lifecycle Management systems as well as modernizing IT infrastructure. Led the development & roll out of University’s new strategic framework as member of Strategy Project Team. Steering the business transformation of IPDC Finance PLC, a leading Non-Banking Financial Institution as Chairman of the Board and the Board Risk Committee since November’23.

Education:

MBA in Finance, Institute of Business Administration, Dhaka University, Bangladesh.
BSc with Honors in Economics,  Scottish Church College, Calcutta University, India
Advance Diploma in Management Accounting,  The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK)

Barrister Rashna Imam

Secretary of AUW Board of Trustees; Managing Partner of Akhtar Imam & Associates

Rashna is the Managing Partner of Akhtar Imam & Associates and an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh (both divisions). She is ranked as a leading lawyer in renowned international legal directories. Before joining the firm, Rashna gained expertise as a corporate associate at Baker & McKenzie (London Office), through advising global giants like Arcelor Mittal and Schneider Electric on M&A and post-acquisition integration.

At the firm, her specializations include corporate and commercial law, constitutional law, banking and finance, foreign investment, labour and employment and dispute resolution. She regularly represents her clients before the Supreme Court in judicial review proceedings against decisions of public bodies, in company litigation and in commercial arbitrations (as both counsel and arbitrator) under different rules of arbitration (ICC, UNCITRAL, FOSFA, GAFTA, Arbitration Act 2001 of Bangladesh, etc.).

She has advised, among others, different entities of Visa on establishment of a liaison office, payments systems and mobile financial services, British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) on the scope of trade promotional activities in view of anti-tobacco laws, Japan Tobacco International (JTI) on unfair competition, Philip Van Heusen on labour and employment matters, Department of International Development (DFID), Bangladesh on establishing a Credit Information Bureau for microfinance, Ernst & Young (E & Y) on foreign exchange control laws, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) on proposed reform of the Companies Act, 1994 to create an enabling business environment in Bangladesh, Proctor and Gamble on anti-trust and contract laws, HP on parallel import and Mitsubishi on whistleblowing laws.

She has made inroads in establishing and enforcing health rights in Bangladesh through public interest litigation (PIL) and advocacy. Her landmark cases in this regard include PIL for establishment of a legal framework for emergency medical services for road accident victims and protection of good Samaritans, and PIL for formulation of guidelines for prevention of medically unnecessary C-sections, both of which she filed on behalf of the leading NGO, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) and the case leading to the judgment directing reform of the Human Organ Transplantation Act 1999. She was invited by UNDP (Malaysia) to address the entire the Judges of the Federal Court of Malaysia on PIL. Her stellar work through PIL earned her international recognition/fellowships: Asia 21 Young Leader (2018) and Global Programme for Women’s Leadership (2019) and awards and recognition in Bangladesh. Leading national daily newspapers and magazines have published feature stories on her. She regularly engages with all levels of stakeholders (governmental and otherwise) to bring about law and policy reform.

Kamal Ahmad

Founder, Asian University for Women

Kamal Ahmad is the Founder of Asian University for Women. He has served on the staffs of the World Bank; Rockefeller Foundation; UNICEF; and the General Counsel of the Asian Development Bank based in Manila, Philippines. He is admitted to practice law in the State of New York.

Education:

JD, University of Michigan, USA

BA, Government and Economics, Harvard College, USA

Lynne Anne Davis

Former President & Senior Partner, FleishmanHillard Asia Pacific

Lynne Anne Davis is Former President & Senior Partner of FleishmanHillard Asia Pacific, an award-winning network of 18 owned offices in 10 countries, including three brands and a number of emerging market start-ups. She leads growth strategies, business expansion, and enhancement of the global consultancy’s reputation for quality consulting and creativity, thought leadership, and being employer of choice in the industry. To this end, she led the establishment of the firm’s Global China Practice, including an innovative China Masters Exchange to fast-track top Mandarin-speaking graduates in the West before transferring to FleishmanHillard’s Greater China operations. She is a sought-after speaker and commentator on industry issues, and passionate advocate of Shared Value.  Ms. Davis was Jury President in the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.  In 2013, she was named “Global Women’s Champion” by NAFE and received The Holmes Report’s “Individual Achievement Award”. She was voted as one of “Asia’s Most Admired Agency Leaders,” and debuted on PRWeek’s Power List in 2014.

Education:

BA Journalism, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA

Tim DeVoogd

Professor, Cornell University

Dr. Tim DeVoogd is a neurobiologist at Cornell University, active in research and teaching. For much of his career, he has studied neuroanatomical effects of learning, looking at neural consequences of song learning and spatial learning in songbirds. He and his students have shown that these two forms of learning are similar in mechanism and brain localization to equivalent forms of learning in mammals–with which birds have not had common ancestors perhaps 300 million years. In his professional life, he has chosen research collaborations and teaching commitments that have brought him into close contact with scientists and students in more than a dozen countries (sabbaticals at Oxford, University of Cape Town, and National University of Singapore). In Qatar, Singapore and South Africa, he has taught students for whom English was not their first language. Through these interactions, he became interested in scientific exchange as a vehicle for understanding.

Education:

Ph.D., University of Illinois, USA

BA, Hope College, USA

Meenakshi Gopinath

Founder and Director of WISCOMP (Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace)

Meenakshi Gopinath is currently Founder and Director of WISCOMP (Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace), an initiative that seeks to promote the leadership of South Asian women in the areas of peace, security and regional cooperation. She is also Chair, Board of Governors, Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Life Trustee- India International Centre (IIC), and Principal Emerita of Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, where she served as Principal for 26 years from 1988-2014. She has been a member of the University Grants Commission (UGC), India. Dr. Gopinath was the first woman to be nominated to the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) of India. She is a member of multi-track peace initiatives and people-to-people dialogues in South Asia. She has authored among others Pakistan in Transition, and co-authored Conflict Resolution – Trends and Prospects, Transcending Conflict: A Resource book on Conflict Transformation and Dialogic Engagement and has contributed chapters and articles in several books and journals on Gandhi, the politics of Pakistan, Conflict Resolution, Gender and Peace Building et al. Her interests include issues of human rights and gender, conflict transformation and Buddhist and Gandhian philosophy and the performing Arts. She also headed the Task Force of the   SAKSHAM Report of the University Grants Commission that initiated several policy reforms on Gender Equity on Higher Education Institutes in India.

Tim Ibell

Dean of the Faculty of Engineering & Design, University of Bath

After graduating from the Universities of Cape Town and Cambridge, Tim spent two years in industry before completing postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge. He joined the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Bath in 1997. In 2002, Tim spent a year in the United States on a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award. He was promoted to Professor in 2003 and held the role of Head of Department from 2005 to 2008, and again from 2010 to 2013. Tim was Associate Dean (Graduate Studies) from 2008 to 2013, followed by Associate Dean (Research) from 2013 to 2017. After a year at Cambridge as the Sir Kirby Laing Professor of Civil Engineering, he returned to Bath in 2018. Tim was President of the Institution of Structural Engineers in 2015, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He and his team have received six best journal-paper awards, including three each from the Institution of Structural Engineers and Institution of Civil Engineers. He was also the 2008 winner of the Mary Tasker ‘Best Teacher’ award.

Education:

Ph.D, University of Cambridge, UK

MS, University of Cambridge, UK

BA, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Colin Koop

Partner, SOM

Colin has been the driving force behind some of SOM’s most unexpected projects since joining the firm in the early 2000s. A focus on the human experience is the foundation of Colin’s design philosophy, which he applies across a range of project types including education, transportation, culture, workplace, and urban planning. Clients and collaborators appreciate his genuine interest in understanding the complexities of each project and confronting and resolving these challenges through rigorous dialogue. Colin’s designs for MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing and for a habitat on the Moon both demonstrate his passion for science, technology, and human-centered design. His relentless attention to detail and an emphasis on the best possible user experience are behind SOM’s design for the Walt Disney Company’s New York City headquarters at 4 Hudson Square. The monumental National Museum of the U.S. Army, which opened to the public in January 2021, allows visitors to experience the story of the oldest branch of the United States military from a soldier’s point of view. Colin also brought the design for Moynihan Train Hall in New York to the finish line, which has been hailed as one the most important U.S. infrastructure projects of the century. Most recently, Colin led SOM’s competition-winning designs for the 2026 Olympic Village in Milan and for The New York Climate Exchange, a new, net-zero-energy campus on Governors Island that will be a first-of-its-kind international center for developing solutions to the climate crisis. As a founding partner of SOM’s Talent, Equity, Diversity, and Development team, Colin is invested in creating the most productive and inspiring culture for SOM’s talent to grow, prosper and make a lasting impact on the built environment. Commercial Observer included Colin in its 2021 Power 100 list.

Richard Miller

President Emeritus, Olin College of Engineering

Richard K. Miller was appointed President and first employee of Olin College of Engineering in 1999; in June 2020 and became President Emeritus and Professor of Mechanical Engineering; He then served as the Jerome C. Hunsaker Visiting Professor of Aerospace Systems at MIT (2020-2021).  Previously, he served as Dean of Engineering at the University of Iowa, Associate Dean of Engineering at USC in Los Angeles, and assistant professor of engineering at UCSB in Santa Barbara.

Miller is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors, and a Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).  He is  co-recipient of the NAE Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education twice—in 2013 and again in 2022.  He also received the 2017 Brock International Prize in Education, and the 2011 Marlowe Award from the American Society for Engineering Education.  In 2014, he received the  Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award and in 2002 he received the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award from the University of California at Davis.

Miller has served as Chair of the Board on Higher Education and Workforce of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and as Chair of the Engineering Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation (NSF).  He has also served on advisory boards and committees for Harvard University, Stanford University, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the Lemelson Foundation, and others. In addition, he has served as a consultant to the World Bank in the establishment of new universities in developing countries. Miller earned his B.S at the University of California, Davis, his S.M. from MIT, and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.

Education:

Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, USA

S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

B.S., University of California Davis, USA

Adeline Pang

Partner, White & Case

Based in the Melbourne office, Adeline is a Partner in the Firm’s Energy, Infrastructure, Project and Asset Finance Group, a global team dedicated to providing business and strategic advice to clients regarding financing transactions, which enable the completion of major projects.

Adeline has over 17 years; experience and advises on the development of major infrastructure and energy projects, with particular focus in the renewables, power and transport sectors.

Adeline has acted for independent power producers, sponsors and financiers in relation to the development of energy storage, wind, solar, geothermal and gas-fired projects in Asia and Australia. She works together with clients to develop optimal project structures and practical solutions to meet her clients’ commercial objectives.

Firdausi Qadri

Senior Scientist and Director of the Center for Vaccine Science at ICDDR,B

Dr. Firdausi Qadri is a Senior Scientist and Director of the Center for Vaccine Science at ICDDR,B, an international health research organization located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dr. Qadri specializes in immunology with over 25 years of experience working on infectious diseases such as cholera, typhoid and enterotoxigenic escherichia coli (E.coli). She also serves as Chairperson for the Institute for Developing Science and Health Initiatives upon receiving the Christophe Merieux Prize in 2012 for her research on infectious enteric diseases. Her other notable research contributions are in the areas of genomics, proteomic technology and diagnostics, and vaccine development.

A founder of the Bangladesh Society of Microbiologists, Dr. Qadri is also the International Ambassador for the American Society for Microbiology in Bangladesh and a fellow of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences. In addition to being listed in the “Top 100 Asian Scientists” publication by Asian Scientist Magazine, Dr. Qadri most recently received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in August 2021.

Dr. Qadri received her BSc and MSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Dhaka in 1975 and 1977 respectively before completing her PhD in Biochemistry/Immunology in 1980 from the University of Liverpool.

Education: 

Ph.D., in Biochemistry/Immunology, University of Liverpool, UK

Bsc and MSc,  Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Alpna Seth

Former Chief Executive Officer, President, and Board Director of Nura Bio

Alpna is a biotech and pharmaceutical industry leader with 25+ years of experience as a senior executive and as a board director for global/ public as well as start-up/private companies. Her healthcare industry experience also includes life sciences tools, industrial biotechnology, diagnostics, health care delivery and management consulting. Alpna has lived and worked across North America, Asia, and Europe. She brings a distinctive blend of strategic cum business expertise, scientific depth, organizational leadership, and governance skills.

Most recently, until her retirement in 2022, Alpna was CEO, President, and Board Director of Nura Bio, a San Francisco based venture-backed neurology biotech company. Previously, she was Chief Operating Officer at Vir Bio, a pioneering infectious disease company. During her two-decade career at Biogen, she played a prominent role in shaping the company’s growth and in advancing several new drug candidates from R&D to market. Alpna was instrumental in establishing Biogen’s strategic expansion in Asia and as a founding Managing Director based in India. After four years in Asia, she returned to Biogen’s US global HQs to spearhead its largest multibillion-dollar neurology drug franchise world-wide. Most recently as Senior Vice President, she relocated to Europe for three years to spearhead the creation of a global biosimilars business headquartered in Switzerland. Prior to joining Biogen, she was a management consultant in the health care industry for several years.

Over the past several years, Alpna has been serving as an independent Board Director of NASDAQ and NYSE publicly listed companies, that include, Seagen (acquired by Pfizer for $43B+ in Dec 2023), Bio Techne, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, and Keros Therapeutics.

Alpna holds a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and conducted her postdoctoral research at Harvard University in Immunology and Structural Biology. Additionally, Alpna is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program and has served as a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School and Harvard Medical School.

Education:

Postdoctoral Research in Immunology and Structural Biology, Harvard University, USA

Ph.D., in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, USA

Advanced Management Program, Harvard Business School, USA

Vijay Subramanyam

Principal, Advisory, KPMG LLP

Vijay Subramanyam is a Principal in the Advisory practice of KPMG and is based out of Silicon Valley, California. He has served at KPMG for more than 2 decades and has been associated with the Mumbai and Bangalore offices prior to this. Vijay has extensive experience in helping his clients transform through growth enablers, process excellence, business model change, technology integration, embedding governance and digital innovation. He has helped clients in a variety of engagements that include Strategic Planning, Transformation Planning, Emerging Technology Integration, IT Strategy and Digital Transformation, Program and Project Management, Change Management, Cyber Security, Risk Management, and Regulatory Compliance. Vijay has been associated with the West Coast Advisory board of the Asian University for Women Support Foundation since October 2020, where he has helped plan and execute on a number of fundraising events for the Support Foundation, and has also served as a mentor for students and alumni of AUW.  He  is a member of the Rotary Club of Saratoga.  He firmly believes in the positive influence education has on the path to being successful and self-sufficient, and in the compelling value proposition and purpose of AUW.

Education:

Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Management, NITIE, Mumbai, India
B. Tech in Manufacturing Engineering, National Institute of Foundry & Forge Technology (now known as National Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Technology,) Ranchi, India

Meredith Woo

Former President, Sweet Briar College

Professor Meredith Woo was the 13th President of Sweet Briar College. Prior to this appointment, Professor Woo served as Director of the Higher Education Support Program of Open Society Foundations, the Buckner W. Clay Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, and Associate Dean for Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan. Professor Woo has also taught at Northwestern University and Columbia University. She briefly worked as a Visiting Scholar at the Japan Ministry of Finance.

Professor Woo’s academic work focuses on comparative international politics with a focus on East Asia. She has produced six books, numerous scholarly articles, and an award-winning film that premiered at the Smithsonian Institution in 2006.

Education:

Ph.D., Political Science, Columbia University, USA

MA, International Affairs, Columbia University, USA

BA, Bowdoin College, USA

Rubana Huq

Vice Chancellor, Asian University for Women

Dr. Huq who earned wide prominence as the first female president of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers’ and Exporters’ Association (BGMEA), is a published poet who earned her PhD in Literature from India’s Jadavpur University.  Dr. Huq has been a trustee of AUW and, was more recently, elected as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees.  She was instrumental in launching AUW’s Pathways for Promise program that enables exceptionally talented workers from Bangladesh’s ready-made garment (RMG) factories to enroll at AUW.  She was named as one of BBC’s top 100 women in the world in 2013 and again in 2014.  Dr. Huq is currently also a Visiting Fellow at the Stern School of Business at New York University and the Asia Center at Harvard University.

Secretary, Secondary and Higher Education Division, Ministry of Education

Secretary of Education in the Government of Bangladesh serves as an ex-officio member.

Foreign Secretary, Government of Bangladesh

Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the Government of Bangladesh serves as an ex-officio member.