Global Advisory Panel

Past President, The Brookings Institution; Retired U.S. Marine Corps four-star General; Former Commander, NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan; Former Special Presidential Envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, Washington DC, United States

John R. Allen, a retired U.S. Marine Corps four-star general, held significant leadership roles both in the military and in diplomatic missions. Notably, he commanded the NATO International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan during its peak troop deployment. Following retirement, he served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense on Middle East Security, leading discussions within the Middle East peace process. At the behest of President Obama, he later served as Special Presidential Envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, significantly expanding the coalition to 65 members.

Allen’s military career includes commanding NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, making him the first Marine Corps general officer to lead a theater of war. He played pivotal roles in various operations, including combat in Iraq’s Al Anbar province, where he supported the emergence of the tribal “Awakening movement” against Al Qaeda. He also served as Deputy Commander of the U.S. Central Command and as principal director of Asia-Pacific policy at the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Beyond his military service, Allen is a Strategic Advisor to Microsoft, a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the US Naval Academy’s Board of Visitors, appointed by President Biden. Allen was President of The Brookings Institution for nearly five years, during which time he co-authored several books, including “Turning Point: Policymaking in the Era of Artificial Intelligence” and “Future War and the Defence of Europe.” He coined the term “hyperwar” and holds multiple AI-related patents while advising various tech startups.

Calvin Grieder has held various executive positions at Swiss and German companies active in the areas of control technology, automation, and system engineering. In these roles, he was primarily responsible for successfully establishing and expanding international business.

In 2001, Calvin Grieder moved from Swisscom to Buhler Group, where he acted as CEO for 15 years. In 2014, he was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Buhler Group and appointed to the Board of Directors of Givaudan, becoming Chairman of the Board in 2017. In 2019 he was elected to the Board of Société General de Surveillance (SGS), becoming Chairman of the Board in 2020.

Other roles of his include Chairman of the Board of Directors of AWK Group, member of the Advisory Board of ETH, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, as well as Member of the Board of Trustees of Avenir Suisse.

Calvin Grieder has a Master of Science from ETH Zurich and has completed the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard University. He is a citizen of Switzerland and was born 1955 in the USA.

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Holcim, Zurich, Switzerland

German national born in 1966, Jan Jenisch joined Holcim as Chief Executive Officer on 1 September 2017. From 2012 he served as Chief Executive Officer of Sika AG which develops and manufactures systems and products for the building materials and automotive sector. Under his leadership, Sika expanded into new markets and set new standards of performance in sales and profitability.

Jan Jenisch joined Sika in 1996 and went on to work in various management functions and countries. He was appointed to the Management Board in 2004 as Head of the Industry Division and he served as President Asia Pacific from 2007 to
2012.

Jan Jenisch has studied in Switzerland and the US and is a graduate of the University Fribourg, Switzerland with an MBA (lic. rer. pol.). He is a non-executive Director of the privately held Glas Troesch.

President, Basel Institute on Governance; Former President, International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC, Berne, Switzerland

Peter Maurer is President of the Board of the Basel Institute on Governance and a leading voice internationally on humanitarian and related issues. He joined the Basel Institute in October 2022, following over 10 years as President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Born in Thun, Switzerland, Peter Maurer has had a distinguished career in the Swiss diplomatic service. Among various positions he served for five years as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, where he worked to integrate Switzerland into multilateral networks. Prior to joining the ICRC, Peter Maurer was the Swiss Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in charge of five directorates and around 150 diplomatic missions around the world.

In recognition of his long humanitarian and diplomatic service, Peter Maurer has received the prestigious awards of Commander of the Order of the Oak Crown by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and of Knight Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit by Germany.

Among other engagements, he is Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on the Future of Good Governance, a Member of the Advisory Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and a Member of the Board of Directors of Zurich Insurance.

Peter Maurer holds a PhD in History and International Law from the University of Bern. He has been awarded honorary PhDs from the University of Basel and Waseda University.