Where We Work: USA: Board of Directors

Board of Directors

Lincoln C. Chen, M.D.

Chair

Lincoln Chen is the President of the China Medical Board of New York. Earlier in his career, Chen was the Director of the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard University, Executive Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation, and Takemi Professor of International Health and Chair of the Department of Population and International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. 

Chen has also been a member of CARE's Board since 1991 and served as Chair from 2001-2007. In the 1970s and 1980s, Chen served as a representative of the Ford Foundation in India and in Bangladesh, where he also served as scientific director of the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh. He also serves on the advisory board of the UN Fund for International Partnerships, Commission on Human Security, and the Helsinki Process Track III on human security.    

Susan M. Davis

President & CEO, BRAC USA

Ms. Davis is a thought leader in international development and civil society innovation.  She is a founder and current President & CEO of BRAC USA, a newly created organisation to support BRAC’s global expansion to Africa and other countries in Asia. In addition, she is a founding board member and immediate past Chair of the Grameen Foundation.  She also serves on Ashoka’s international board committee that selects Ashoka Fellows. She is also Senior Advisor to New York University’s Reynolds Programme on Social Entrepreneurship. 

Previously, she led Ashoka’s Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship, co-founded the University Network for Social Entrepreneurship and oversaw Ashoka’s expansion to the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.  In addition, she served as a Senior Advisor to the Director General of the International Labor Organisation.  Before that, she led the global advocacy group, Women's Environment & Development Organisation. 

She has extensive micro-credit experience from her years with the Ford Foundation in Bangladesh, and from her work with Women's World Banking.  She also served as a funder and volunteer representative to start Ashoka Bangladesh. Earlier, she was the Assistant Director of the export trading company of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. 

She serves on numerous other boards including Project Enterprise, Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund, and African Women’s Development Fund USA.  She is on Mary Robinson’s Advisory Council of Realising Rights: the Ethical Globalisation Initiative, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was educated at Georgetown, Harvard and Oxford universities.

Ronald Grzywinski

Vice Chair and Treasurer

Ronald Grzywinski is the chairman and co-founder of ShoreBank Corporation of Chicago. ShoreBank, currently with total assets of $2.2 billion, was established in 1973 as America’s first community development and environmental banking corporation, and provides financing to small businesses and residents in disinvested urban and rural communities.

Grzywinski has been an advisor to local communities, both nationally and internationally, assisting them with local development banking efforts. This includes work with the Southern Development Bancorporation in Arkansas, Grameen Bank and BRAC in Bangladesh, and the Aga Khan Foundation in Pakistan.

In early 2007, Ron, along with ShoreBank co-founder Mary Houghton, was named as a member of the Ashoka Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2005, he was selected as the 2005 recipient of the Independent Sector’s John W. Gardner Leadership Award.   

Richard A. Cash, MD, MPH

Assistant Secretary and Treasurer

Richard Cash is a senior lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), where he has been a faculty member in the Department of Population and International Health for 27 years. Cash is credited with saving millions of lives as a co-developer, and promoter, of oral rehydration therapy to treat cholera and other diarrheal diseases.

Cash has focussed his work on infectious disease problems in the developing world, and on ethical issues in international health research. He was a joint recipient of the 2006 Prince Mahidol Award for "exemplary contributions in the field of public health."

Christina Leijonhufvud

Board Member

Christina has led J.P. Morgan’s Social Sector Finance unit since its inception in late 2007. Outside J.P. Morgan, Ms. Leijonhufvud serves on the Advisory Board for the Center for Financial Inclusion, has been a consultant to Ashoka-Innovators for the Public in their social financial services venture, and has lectured widely on financial globalization and emerging markets risks. Ms. Leijonhufvud has held various risk management positions at J.P. Morgan, including as head of Country Risk Management & Advisory, Credit Portfolio Market Risk Management, Emerging Markets Market Risk Management, and Industry Concentrations. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan in 1996, Ms. Leijonhufvud worked at the World Bank as Country Officer, helping develop reform programs and borrowing strategies for the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia. In 1991, she served on the Economic Reform Committee for the Government of Kazakhstan. Ms. Leijonhufvud earned a M.Sc. degree in Economics from the London School of Economics, a M.A. degree in International Affairs from George Washington University, and a B.A. in Sociology from UCLA.

Bridget Liddell

Board Member

Bridget is Managing Principal at Fahrenheit Ventures, providing leadership to companies seeking to successfully commercialize their products and services in the U.S. market. Bridget has extensive experience in finance, management and governance. Bridget is also the Chair of the New Zealand / U.S. Beachhead Program – a New Zealand government program offering strategic advice and mentoring to businesses seeking access to the U.S. market. She is currently a Director of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, a US$11B pension fund for all New Zealand citizens and previously served as a Director of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. Bridget was Fahrenheit 212’s Chief Operating Officer between 2003 and 2005; she returned to the team to head up its Fahrenheit Ventures commercialization business. She served as a Director of two public companies in New Zealand, Sky City Ltd. and Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Ltd. She has served as a member of the University of Auckland Council, Industry New Zealand – a national economic development agency, Competitive Auckland Ltd. – a regional economic development organization and Auckland Uniservices Ltd. – a technology transfer concern. She was also Director of Research for CS First Boston NZ Ltd. Bridget was Chief Executive Officer of Carter Holt Harvey Plastic Products and served as CEO of University of Auckland Development. Bridget studied Economics and Finance and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst qualification.

Catherine (Cate) Muther

Board Member

Cate is the founder and president of the Three Guineas Fund, a private foundation incorporated in 1994. This California foundation’s mission is to create access to opportunity for women and girls in education and the economy. Cate held the position of Senior Marketing Officer at Cisco Systems between 1989 and 1994. Prior to her time at Cisco, she was the vice president of Corporate Marketing at 3Com and at Bridge Communications, Inc. She began her business career as a consultant in San Francisco at Arthur D. Little, Inc. Cate was a Founding Board Member of Acumen Fund where she served until 2010. Cate has served as a trustee of Mills College and Sarah Lawrence College. She earned an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, an MA degree from Cambridge University, and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College.

Rod Dubitsky

Board Member

Rod Dubitsky is Executive Vice President and Global Structured Finance Specialist of PIMCO Advisory, a division of PIMCO. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2009, he served as a Managing Director and Head of Asset Backed Securities Research at Credit Suisse. During his time at Credit Suisse since 2000, Rod and his group authored numerous special reports on mortgage and non-mortgage ABS topics including articles on student loans, credit cards, autos, Australian Mortgages, second liens, home equity triggers, interest only and piggy back mortgages. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Rod worked at Moody’s for 3 years focusing primarily on subprime mortgage transactions. Prior to joining Moody’s, Rod worked on the buy side for five years with responsibilities that included agency and non-agency MBS, CMOs, interest-rate and mortgage derivatives (including one of the first non-agency CMO swaps), servicing hedging (including buying super-POs and created internal servicing swap to provide transfer pricing hedge) and corporate bonds (bought putable corporates as an inexpensive way to buy convexity). Rod holds an MBA from Duke University.