Nominated by CGI members, the honorees are chosen based on their innovative and effective approaches to making positive global change, and on their work's potential for scalable growth and sustainability. They are leaders whose efforts transcend borders, change lives, and set an example for us all.

Suraya Pakzad
Executive Director, Voice of Women Organization

Suraya Pakzad is executive director of the Voice of Women Organization. VWO is one of the leading and most effective NGOs in Afghanistan. The charity’s main goal is to strive for the freedom and empowerment of women in Afghan societies. In 1998, the Voice of Women Organization was begun in secret by Pakzad in Herat, during the oppressive rule of the Taliban. Today she is helping women to organize, to run, and to win elections in Afghanistan openly. Pakzad supports programs in prisons for women and their children. In their communities, she creates education centers, health centers, food centers, business development programs, shelters, and programs for legal assistance for abused women. Pakzad also partners with Traveling Mercies, building community water systems in Herat Province. Many more programs are being planned and discussed. On March 10, 2008 Suraya was honored as a recipient of the International Women of Courage Award in Washington, D.C., presented to her by then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Dr. Jean W. Pape
Director, Les Centres GHESKIO

Dr. Jean W. Pape, MD, is the founding and current director of GHESKIO and a professor of medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Dr. Pape graduated from the Weill Cornell in 1975. After completion of postdoctoral training in infectious diseases at Cornell, he returned to his native Haiti to study child diarrhea. Dr. Pape noted an increase in adult mortality related to diarrhea and with GHESKIO published the first comprehensive description of AIDS in the developing world in 1983. He has become an international leader in efforts to implement programs for the prevention and control of AIDS and tuberculosis in Haiti and other resource-poor countries, providing counsel to international organizations on bioethics, health disparity, and global infectious disease. He has received numerous international awards for his work including the Carlos Slim Award for Global Health, the Bill and Melinda Gates Award for Global Health, and the Institut de France Prix Christophe Merieux. In 2003, Dr. Pape was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine.

Andrea Jung
Chairman and CEO, Avon Products

As chairman and CEO of Avon Products, Andrea Jung is a leading crusader in improving the lives of women. Today, thanks to her commitment to women’s empowerment and economic advancement, Avon provides earning opportunities to more than 6.2 million independent Avon Sales Representatives in over 100 countries. Jung has also been the driving force behind major philanthropic achievements in women’s health and empowerment through the Avon Foundation for Women, which is the world’s largest corporate philanthropy for women. Through her vision, the Avon Foundation has raised more than $725 million to help eradicate breast cancer and end all forms of violence against women. Under her watch, Avon philanthropy is working to keep women secure and healthy around the world, through grassroots programs in more than 50 countries and global partnerships with organizations like UNIFEM, the U.S. State Department, Vital Voices and the Avon Center for Women and Justice at Cornell Law School.

Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim
Chairman, Mo Ibrahim Foundation

Dr. Mo Ibrahim is a global expert in mobile communications with a distinguished academic and business career. In 2006 he set up the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to support great African leadership. The foundation focuses on two major new initiatives to stimulate debate around, and improve the quality of, governance in Africa. The Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership recognizes and celebrates excellence, and the Ibrahim Index of African Governance provides civil society and governments with a comprehensive and quantifiable tool to measure progress. Sudanese by birth, Dr. Ibrahim is also the founder of Celtel International, one of Africa’s most successful companies. Dr. Ibrahim has received a number of awards which recognize his work as an academic, businessman and philanthropist, among them the GSM Association Chairman’s Award, the telecommunication industry’s highest accolade, and the BNP Paribas Prize for Philanthropy. In 2008, Dr. Ibrahim was listed by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

His Excellency Dr. Leonel Fernández
President of the Dominican Republic

Dr. Leonel Fernández is president of the Dominican Republic, founder and honorary president of the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE), and president of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD). President Fernández was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York City attending New York City public schools. He graduated from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) with honors in law. He is member of the Circle of Montevideo, Carter Center Council of Freely Elected Heads of State and Government, Foreign Affairs Magazine in Spanish, Inter-American Dialogue, and the Club of Madrid. He has served as chairman of the U.S.-Caribbean Executive Club, sponsored by the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC.