Inaugural board
The members of the International Fund’s inaugural Board are listed below. Their broad range of expertise and deep experience in the media and international development sectors will help to shape the International Fund's strategic priorities and direction through its first fully operational phase.
Maria Ressa
Co-chair
Maria Ressa is the co-founder, CEO and President of Rappler, the digital news site in the Philippines known for its hard-hitting investigative journalism.
A journalist in Asia for more than 35 years, she has endured political harassment and arrests, and been forced to post bail ten times to continue her work. Awarding her the Unesco/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in April 2021, the jury said: “Maria Ressa’s unerring fight for freedom of expression is an example for many journalists around the world. Her case is emblematic of global trends that represent a real threat to press freedom, and therefore to democracy.”
For her work on disinformation and fake news, Ms. Ressa was named Time magazine’s 2018 Person of the Year and has received many other international awards. Before founding Rappler, Ms. Ressa focused on investigating terrorism in Southeast Asia, running CNN’s Manila bureau for nearly a decade, followed by the Jakarta bureau from 1995 to 2005. She wrote “Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia,” published in 2003; and “From Bin Laden to Facebook: 10 Days of Abduction, 10 Years of Terrorism,” published in 2013.
Mark Thompson
Co-chair
Sir Mark Thompson is Chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide where he oversees all aspects of the business in the U.S. and around the world. He also serves as the editor-in-chief of CNN.
Sir Mark is also the Chairman of Ancestry.com, and Deputy Chair of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He stepped down as President & CEO at The New York Times Company in the summer of 2020 after an eight-year tenure in which the 170-year-old news brand was transformed into a digital powerhouse. Digital subscribers jumped to nearly six million, up from half a million when he joined, while digital revenues topped $450 million at the end of 2019. Sir Mark’s appointment at The New York Times Company followed an eight-year term as Director General of the BBC. He is widely credited with expanding the BBC’s digital reach and overseeing development of the BBC iPlayer.
He joined the BBC from Channel 4 where he was Chief Executive from 2002 to 2004. Before Channel 4 he held a series of senior posts at the BBC including Director of Television. His BBC career began as production trainee. He went on to edit several news programmes including The Nine O’clock News and Panorama before becoming Controller of BBC Two.
His book, “Enough Said: What’s Gone Wrong with the Language of Politics?” was published in the UK and US in September 2016.
Gina Chua
Board member
Gina Chua is executive editor of the digital media start-up Semafor. Chua has extensive experience leading newsrooms, having recently served as the executive editor of Reuters and previously as editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post and The Asian Wall Street Journal.
Pascal Lamy
Board member
Pascal Lamy is vice president of the Paris Peace Forum, former European commissioner for trade, director general of the World Trade Organization, and coordinator of the Jacques Delors Institute.
Nanjala Nyabola
Board member
Nanjala Nyabola is the founder of the Kiswahili Digital Rights Project, member of the United Nations secretary general’s High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism, and founding member of the Africa Digital Rights Network.
Julie Posetti
Board member
Julie Posetti is a multi-award-winning Australian journalist and deputy vice president and global director of research at the International Center for Journalists, where she leads a team producing critical research on the contemporary crises and opportunities within the field of journalism.
Bettina Tucci Bartsiotas
Board member; Chair of the audit and finance committee
Bettina Tucci Bartsiotas is a former Assistant Secretary-General and Controller of the United Nations. Ms. Tucci Bartsiotas currently serves in boards and on committees of a number of international entities, including as Treasurer of the United Nations Federal Credit Union, as a member of the Independent Oversight Advisory Committee of the World Food Programme, a member of the Finance Commission of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and Chair of the Audit and Compliance Committee of the Sport Integrity Global Alliance. Ms. Tucci Bartsiotas is also a member of the Council of the University for Peace based in Costa Rica, and a member of Group of Women Leaders/Voices for Change.
Ms. Tucci Bartsiotas has previously served as Director of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Institute (UNICRI) in Torino, Italy; Director of Budget and Finance/Chief Financial Officer at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria; Deputy Director/Head of Budget at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in New York, USA. In addition to leading her own business as a Certified Public Accountant in the Washington, D.C. area, she worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).
Stefan Löfven
Board member
Stefan Löfven served as the Prime Minister of Sweden from October 2014 to November 2021 and leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2012 to 2021. Currently, Mr. Löfven is president of the PES, which brings together labor and social democratic parties across the European Union, the UK, and Norway. Mr. Löfven also chairs the boards of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) as well as the Olof Palme Memorial Fund.
Mr. Löfven’s background includes extensive experience from various domestic and international assignments. In 2022, Mr. Löfven was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to co-lead a High-level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism in preparation for the Summit of the Future. He was previously the international secretary of the Swedish trade union IF Metall and, subsequently, its chair (2006–12).
Mr. Löfven was also a board member of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (2006–12), a board member of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (2010–12), deputy chair of the Swedish Trade Council (2004–12), and a board member of the Olof Palme International Centre (2002–2006).