Our Board

Gary Cohen is executive vice president of BD, a global medical technology company. He is a board director of the Perrigo Company, the US Fund for UNICEF and the Accordia Global Health Foundation. He also serves as chair of the CDC/Corporate Roundtable on Global Health Threats and an advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative. Gary and the BD team are extensively engaged in collaborations across the public, private and NGO sectors to address health needs in developing and emerging countries. He has served as an advocate, speaker and expert panelist on global health, child immunization, HIV/AIDS and health system strengthening, in venues including the United Nations, World Bank, World Economic Forum (Davos) and Council on Foreign Relations. Gary founded Together for Girls, a new partnership to address the human rights and public health impacts of sexual violence against girls.

Carlos Dominguez is a senior vice president in Cisco’s Office of the Chairman of the Board and CEO. Dominguez has been with Cisco since 1992, spending most of his career with service providers, including cable operators, mobile operators, and content providers. He ran Worldwide Service Provider Operations for three years. He co-leads Cisco's Mexico and Brazil Boards, which oversee new business in those countries. He was recently named one of the "Top 50 Hispanic Executives" in the United States by Hispanic Engineering and Information. Before joining Cisco, Dominguez held management positions at Timeplex, Inc. and at New Jersey Bell/Bell Atlanticom.

Prior to his retirement James Down was vice chairman for Mercer Management Consulting, responsible for the day-to-day management of the firm. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Oxfam America, Outward Bound, Horizon Lines, Shawmut Construction and Agility Holdings and serves on the Board of Visitors for the Engineering School of Columbia University. Mr. Down received a B.S. in engineering from Columbia University and a M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Phil Jacobs joined The Pendleton Consulting Group in 2010, after retiring from AT&T/Bellsouth in 2007. Jacobs began his telecommunications career in 1973 as a marketing communications consultant, and in 1983 was named operations manager of strategic planning in the newly formed BellSouth Corporation. During his tenure with BellSouth, Mr. Jacobs held positions of increasing responsibility including vice president of sales for national accounts; president of BellSouth Business Systems; chief operating officer of Optus Communications, an Australian company of which BellSouth owned a stake; president of Georgia operations; and president of Planned Communities Services. After BellSouth merged with AT&T, Jacobs served as president of Business Communications Services for AT&T Southeast through October 2007.

Matt James is the founding president and CEO of the Center for the Next Generation (TCNG), a California-based nonprofit policy research and communications organization dedicated to address some of the seemingly intractable problems in the nation. Prior to founding TCNG James was executive vice president at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. In addition, James served as Chief of Staff at the U.S. House of Representatives and was the communications director for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He is immediate past board chair of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health and a current board member. He was the board vice-chair of Grantmakers in Health and has served on advisory committees for the Council on Foundations, Independent Sector and many other nonprofit organizations.

Bob Jeffrey is the chairman and CEO of J. Walter Thompson (JWT), a global advertising network composed of 9,600 employees in more than 300 offices across 89 countries. Jeffrey took the worldwide reins of JWT in 2004, after having served as president of JWT North America for three years and before that, president of JWT’s flagship New York office for three years.

Andrew Klepchick is a principal at Homrich Berg (HB), an Atlanta-based wealth management firm. Prior to joining HB, Mr. Klepchick founded two successful businesses – Creative Financial Group (CFG), a financial advisory firm, and Robert Andrews Securities, a full service broker dealer. In February 2001, CFG and Robert Andrew Securities were acquired by and became wholly owned subsidiaries of Synovus, a diversified financial services holding company. From 2005-2007, Mr. Klepchick held the position of president and CEO of Synovus Financial Management Services. Mr. Klepchick is a graduate of Furman University.

Charles H. McTier is a trustee of the Robert W. Woodruff, Joseph B. Whitehead, and Lettie Pate Evans Foundations. McTier has been associated with these foundations for more than 35 years. Active in regional and national foundation associations, he served as chairman of The Foundation Center Board of Trustees, vice chairman of the Council on Foundations and chairman of the Southeastern Council of Foundations. For nine years he was a Commissioner of the Joint Commission on Accreditations of Health Care Organizations. He is a graduate of the Goizueta Business School of Emory University and currently serves as a Goizueta Executive Fellow.

Douglas W. Nelson is the retired president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation and a member of its Board of Trustees. He is nationally known for his leadership and advocacy on behalf of family-centered, community-based responses to the needs of at-risk children and vulnerable families. Nelson currently serves as co-chair of Living Cities: the National Community Development Initiative; co-chair of the Board of Trustees of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, Inc; and a member of the Board of the National Academy on Aging.

David Ratcliffe is the retired chairman, president and chief executive officer of Southern Company, one of America’s largest producers of electricity. Having worked with Southern Company and its subsidiaries since 1971, Ratcliffe became president, CEO and chairman of Southern Company in 2004. In addition to the CDC Foundation, he currently serves on the boards of the Edison Electric Institute, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and CSX Transportation and is a member of the Georgia Bar Association. Ratcliffe received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Valdosta State University and a law degree from Woodrow Wilson College of Law.

John G. Rice is vice chairman of GE and president & CEO of GE Technology Infrastructure. Rice began his General Electric career in 1978. In 2000, Rice was named president and CEO of GE Energy. He was named vice chairman of GE and president & CEO of GE Industrial in 2005 and was named vice chairman of GE and president & CEO of GE Infrastructure in 2006. Rice earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and currently serves on the Board of Trustees there. Rice is also a trustee of Emory University and the Walker School, is on the International Advisory Board of King Fahd University in Saudi Arabia, and is past chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

Amy Robbins is the executive director of The Nduna Foundation, her family foundation focused on improving the lives of children. Robbins was co-founder and chief operating officer of Glenview Capital Management until 2004. Prior to forming Glenview, Robbins spent eight years with First Chicago/Bank One in Corporate Banking in their Chicago, New York and Hong Kong offices. Robbins serves on the boards of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, the National Fish and Wildlife Federation, KIPP Academy Charter Schools, Teach for All and the Teacher's Training Institute in partnership with Hunter College. She also is actively involved with the Robin Hood Foundation, The Acumen Fund, International Medical Corps, and The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Robbins recently received UNICEF's Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award for her support and transformative leadership in Niger, Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia.

Dr. David Satcher completed his four-year term as the 16th Surgeon General of the United States in February 2002. He also served as assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services from February 1998 to January 2001, and as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1993 to 1998. Dr. Satcher currently serves as director of the Center of Excellence on Health Disparities at Morehouse School of Medicine and occupies the Poussaint-Satcher-Cosby Chair in Mental Health at the Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Satcher has received more than 40 honorary degrees and numerous awards. Most recently he received the Sackler Award from Research America for sustained leadership at the national level and the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute Visionary Award for engagement in research and education in the State of Georgia.

Robert Yellowlees is the retired chairman of the boards of Global Payments Inc. and NDCHealth. Mr. Yellowlees began his career with IBM in 1960. He joined National Data Corporation in 1992 as chairman of the board and chief executive officer. Prior to that he served as an NDC board member beginning in 1985. Mr. Yellowlees is currently on the boards of the Woodruff Arts Center, the High Museum of Art and the Aperture Foundation. Mr. Yellowlees is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the Advanced Management Program of the Harvard Business School.