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Ambassador William G. Walker, Rockville, Maryland, USA, Chairman Emeritus

Former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador and Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN in Eastern Slavonia, Croatia, Ambassador Walker led the Kosovo Verification Mission in 1998-99. He is credited with alerting the international community to the severity of sectarian violence in Kosovo just prior to the NATO bombing.

Richard S. Lukaj, Greenwich, Connecticut, USA, Chairman
Board member of the National Albanian American Council (NAAC); former Senior Managing Director at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. Lukaj is CEO of the Bank Street Group, LLC, an investment banking firm. He is active with several Albanian-American civic organizations.

Shaun Byrnes,
Retired US Diplomat, former head of  KDOM, member of the Board for International Studies of Indiana University. 

Ronald Cami,  San Francisco, California, USA
Ron is General Counsel at TPG Capital, one of the world’s largest private equity firms and part of the Texas Pacific Group. A graduate of Harvard and Rutgers, Ron’s family roots are in Dibar, Macedonia. He is a former senior partner at the law form of Cravath Swain Moore in new York City.

Vjosa Dobruna, Prishtina, Kosova
A pediatric doctor by training and profession, Vjosa became an activist in the 1990s assisting victims of the growing violence in Kosovo and in telling Kosovo’s story to the world. She founded the Center for Protection of Women and Children, and became co-Minister of Democratization in the first UNMIK government. She is at present Chair of the Board of RTK, Kosovo’s public broadcaster.

Gazmend Haxhia, Tirana, Albania
President of the Albania Center for Management Services and Avis Rent-A-Car Albania, Gazi is a graduate of Tirana and Columbia Universities. He teaches Business Ethics and Entrepreneurship in the MBA programs at Tirana University and Bled Business School, Slovenia, and was a founder of the Polis University for Architecture and Urban Planning in Tirana.

James Hooper, Falls Church, Virginia, USA
Managing director of the Public International Law and Policy Group, Hooper served with the U.S. State Department for more than 25 years. As head of the Balkan Action Council and Washington director of the International Crisis Group, he worked extensively on issues affecting Kosovo.

Akan Ismaili, Prishtina, Kosova
A pioneer in information technology in Kosovo, Akan founded IPKO Net, Kosovo's first internet provider and now Kosovo’s leading private sector supplier of mobile telephone, internet and cable television services. He now manages the Fundway investment trust and serves on the Boards of IPKO Net and the IPKO Foundation. Akan was the original “incorporator” of the AUK Foundation in Kosova.

Louis Sell, Whitefield, Maine, USA
Formerly a diplomat with the U.S. State Department and then principal with the International Crisis Group, Louis worked on the Dayton Accords and for more than ten years led policy initiatives throughout the Balkans. During the start-up of A.U.K. he served as Executive Director in both Prishtina and the US, playing a key role in AUK’s founding.

Lindita Tahiri, Ph.D., Professor at the Faculty of Philology, University of Pristina
Lindita Tahiri is a professor at the Department of Journalism and the Department of English at the Faculty of Philology, University or Prishtina. In addition to working at the University of Prishtina for 25 years, she has during ten years been responsible for programs of the European Commission and the Kosovar civil society. She has graduated and received her PhD at the University of Prishtina, and has studied as Fulbright student in the graduate program of the University of Chicago, USA as well as at the University of East Anglia, England in the MA program in Linguistics. She has been awarded the Humphrey fellowship for the year 2010/2011, for specializing in journalism studies at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism of Maryland University, USA.

James Watters, Ph.D., Rochester, NY, USA (representing Rochester Institute of Technology)
RIT’s Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration, Dr Jim Watters is a key link between AUK and RIT, and with RIT’s other programs around the globe. He holds a Ph.D. in higher education management from Cornell.

Michael Zubkoff, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
Mike is Director of the MD-MBA Program at Dartmouth, Professor and Chair of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School & Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center,  and Professor of Economics and Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth & Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Mike is a member in the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine.

Søren Jessen-Petersen was the fifth of the six Special Representatives for Kosovo of the United Nations Secretary General (SRSG), during the nine years of UNMIK’s administration of the country. More perhaps than any other SRSG, Søren Jessen-Petersen is widely respected and admired in Kosovo for his two years of service from 2004 to 2006 and is known as a true friend of this country.

Rezart Spahia (General Counsel), Tirana, Albania
Formerly a lawyer at the law firm offices of Cravath Swain and Moore LLP in New York and London, Rezart is now an entrepreneur based in Tirana. He has a degree in history from the University of Tirana, a Juris Doctor degree from the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College and a Master of Laws degree from the New York University School of Law. Rezart has been involved with various not for profit initiatives including as board member and Vice-Chairman of the National Albanian American Council and has served as AUK Foundation's General Counsel since its inception, donating his services pro bono.