We are a business-led organization. Our Center excels because it has real-world focus that's integrated across multiple managerial functions and industry sectors. To that end, we enlist experts whose proficiency will be essential to helping members craft best-in-class strategies and implementation frameworks for their companies.

David J. Vidal, Research Director, Global Corporate Citizenship. He has held positions at: the Council on Foreign Relations, The Partnership for New York City, the U.S. Department of State, The New York Times, and The Associated Press. Vidal is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Fulbright Scholar, and a White House Fellow. He earned a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from Columbia University.

Meredith Armstrong Whiting, Senior Research Fellow at The Conference Board since 1987, has authored and co-authored numerous publications on a wide variety of issues, including environmental affairs, sustainability, energy and carbon management, and health and safety. She has also written on public policy topics, such as public/private partnerships, disabled-worker practices, and land conservation.

Whiting's previous experience includes service in public and congressional affairs management in the office of Vice President George H.W. Bush, Director of Public Liaison at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and as founder of her Washington-based issues management firm.

Richard Wells, senior research fellow, is president and founder of The Lexington Group, a management consulting firm that specializes in sustainability strategies. Over the past 25 years, Wells has consulted throughout Latin America to major private companies, national governments, local communities, multilateral banks, and non-governmental organizations on strategies to promote economic and social sustainability. His particular emphasis has been on engaging the private sector in addressing key problems of economic, social, and environmental sustainability in Latin America. Wells has pioneered community-based initiatives to link large and small companies with communities to promote local development, and is now taking this expertise to address "base of the pyramid (BOP) markets" in Latin America to help establish links between large companies and micro-enterprises serving the needs of the poor.

Carolyn Cavicchio, Senior Research Associate, founded and led the Philanthropy Division at Changing Our World prior to joining The Conference Board in 2007. With almost 20 years of experience in the field, Carolyn is a national expert in corporate community involvement and philanthropic programs, as well as a strategic planner, facilitator, analyst and program developer. She has co-authored several publications dealing with philanthropy and public-private partnerships and has a Masters degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA from Temple University.

Dinah Koehler, Sc.D., Senior Research Associate, earned her Doctor of Science degree in Environmental Science and Risk Management from Harvard's School of Public Health, did coursework at MIT Sloan and Harvard Business School, received an M.A., Law & Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a BA from Wellesley College. Her research, writing, environmental management, and public policy experience and practice span 17 years in the public and private sectors and academia, most recently with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Research.

Among her areas of expertise are corporate sustainability reporting models and performance ratings systems, energy intensity and sustainability indicators, trade and sustainability, international relations and environmental policy, capital markets and environmental health, finance, decision sciences, and climate change. She held a variety of other consulting, business and academic positions in Europe, and the United States—including as a Research Fellow at the Wharton School and Visiting Scholar at INSEAD—and is fluent in German and proficient in French, Italian and some Hungarian.

Sumita Ghosh, Research Analyst of The Conference Board is a graduate in Economics and International Relations from the American University and is a young regional specialist on China-India-US relations and development. Previous to joining The Conference Board, Ms. Ghosh lived in China and India where she conducted research and due diligence studies, financial valuations, and advised multinational companies and investors and high-performing Chinese and Indian mid-market businesses on regulatory and societal risk, opportunity and strategy. Ms. Ghosh has held positions at The United Nations Development Program in Washington, D.C. and in Beijing and with The Economist Group, Claydon Gescher Associates and Tiger Capital Partners in China and India. In addition to knowledge of Hindi and Bengali, Ms. Ghosh is fluent in Mandarin Chinese following studies at Bennington College, Middlebury College, George Washington University and Peking University.