Young Professionals Network

Dr. Bonfield was director of the Zimbabwean NGO, Inter-Country Peoples’ Aid, and then a program development specialist at the Bernard van Leer Foundation in the Netherlands, focusing on HIV/AIDS and growing up in indigenous societies. In October 2005, she joined The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund as chief executive from the Aga Khan Foundation, where she was director of policy. Dr Bonfield was appointed as a board member for the Big Lottery Fund in October 2012, where she sits on both the U. K. Funding and International committees.

Before retiring in 2009 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel after twenty-one years of service in the US Air Force, Atallah's military career included aviation, special operations, intelligence, and counterterrorism. In his last military posting, he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as Africa Counterterrorism Director (2003-09), while concurrently holding positions as East Africa Director (2003-07) and Country Director for Morocco and Tunisia (2007-09). He was Air Force Defense Attaché accredited to six West African countries; Director of the Sub-Saharan Africa Orientation Course at the Joint Special Operations University; and instructor pilot with over 4 000 flight hours, including combat flight time. A native of Beirut, Lebanon, fluent in Arabic and French, Atallah holds a Bachelor of science in Electrical and Biomedical Engineering from the University of Connecticut and a Master’s degree of science in International Relations from Troy University.

She has worked for KAS since 2001 and has over 18 years of experience in program directorate in various countries (Palestine, Jordan, Thailand) with a focus on conflict resolution, democratization and transformation processes, geopolitics and regional security as well as EU Neighborhood Policy. She holds a PhD in political science.

Castro Neves was a career diplomat starting in 1968, having served in Buenos Aires, London, Ottawa, and at the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC. He was ambassador of Brazil in Paraguay (2000-04), China (2004-08), and Japan (2008-10). He has taught at the Rio Branco Institute, the University of Brasilia, and the School of Post-Graduate Studies in Economics of Fundação Getúlio Vargas. He was also deputy chief of economic affairs in the National Security Council, executive secretary for strategic affairs of the presidency, and general secretary of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He graduated from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and holds a master’s in economics from the University of London.