Timothy Garton Ash,Petr Olegovich Aven,Jan Pieter Balkenende,Steven Anthony Ballmer,Ed Balls,José Manuel Durão Barroso

Timothy Garton Ash, CMG (born 12 July 1955) is a British historian, author and commentator. He is Professor of European Studies at Oxford University. Much of his work has been concerned with the late modern and contemporary history of Central and Eastern Europe. He has written about the Communist regimes of that region, their experience with the secret police, the Revolutions of 1989 and the transformation of the former Eastern Bloc states into member states of the European Union. He has examined the role of Europe and the challenge of combining freedom and diversity, especially in relation to free speech.
Garton Ash was educated at Sherborne School, an independent school for boys in the market town of Sherborne in Dorset in South West England, followed byExeter College at the University of Oxford, where he studied Modern History. For post-graduate study, he went to St Antony's College, Oxford, and then, in the still divided Berlin, the Free University in West Berlin and the Humboldt University in East Berlin. During his studies in East Berlin, he was under surveillance from theStasi, which served as the basis for his 1997 book The File.[1]
In the 1980s, Garton Ash was Foreign Editor of The Spectator and a columnist for The Independent. He became a Fellow atSt Antony's College in 1989, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution[2] in 2000, and Professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford[3] in 2004. He has written a weekly column in The Guardian since 2004 and is a long-time contributor to the New York Review of Books.[4] His column is also translated in the Turkish daily Radikal and in the Spanish daily El País,[5] as well as other papers.
Awards and honours
Somerset Maugham Award for The Polish Revolution: Solidarity (1984)
Prix Européen de l'Essai Charles Veillon (1989)
Premio Napoli, for journalism (1995) [7]
Order of Merit from the Czech Republic
Order of Merit from Germany [8]
Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
Honorary doctorate from St Andrew's University, Scotland
Hoffmann von Fallersleben Prize for political writing (2002)
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
George Orwell Prize for journalism (2006)
Kullervo Killinen -prize from Finland (2006)
Honorary doctorate from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium[9]

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is the first pan-European think tank.[1] Launched in October 2007, its objective is to conduct research and promote informed debate across Europe on the development of coherent and effective European values based foreign policy.
ECFR's founding chart was signed by former European prime ministers, business leaders, public intellectuals and activists. It has offices in seven European capitals – Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Warsaw and Sofia – and is led by its Director, Mark Leonard and CEO Dick Oosting. ECFR's Council brings together over 160 prominent and influential Europeans from 27 countries.
A–M[edit]
Adam Smith Institute
Africa Research Institute
Bow Group
Boyd Group
Bright Blue
British Future
British Institute of International and Comparative Law
Bruges Group
Building and Social Housing Foundation
Catalyst
Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion
Centre for Cities
The Centre for Cross Border Studies
Centre for Defence and International Security Studies
Centre for the Economics of Education
Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion
Centre for Economic Policy Research
Centre for Policy Studies
Centre for Social Justice
Centre for Social Cohesion
Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
CentreForum
Chatham House
City Mayors Foundation
Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit
The Constitution Unit
Compass
Cornerstone Group
Cordoba Foundation
CIVITAS
Civitatis International
Credos
Demos
Ekklesia
Electoral Reform Society
European Council on Foreign Relations
Fabian Society
Foreign Policy Centre
Global Ideas Bank
Global Vision
Global Warming Policy Foundation
Gold Mercury International
Green Alliance
Green House Think Tank
Halsbury's Law Exchange
Hansard Society
The Henry Jackson Society
Independent Transport Commission
Innovation Unit
Institute for Fiscal Studies
Institute for Government
Institute for Jewish Policy Research
Institute for Public Policy Research
Institute for Social Inventions
Institute for Strategic Dialogue
Institute of Advanced Study
Institute of Economic Affairs
Institute of Race Relations
Institute of Welsh Affairs
International Growth Centre (IGC)
International Institute for Environment and Development
International Institute for Strategic Studies
International Longevity Centre – UK
Involve
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Jubilee Centre
King's Fund
Legatum Institute
Local Government Information Unit
MigrationWatch UK
Million+
Mutuo
N–Z[edit]
National Institute of Economic and Social Research
New City Initiative
New Economics Foundation
New Local Government Network
New Philanthropy Capital
New Policy Institute
New Politics Network
Nuffield Council on Bioethics
Nuffield Trust
One World Trust
Open Europe
Overseas Development Institute
Oxford Research Group
Policy Connect
Policy Exchange
Policy Network
Policy Studies Institute
Politeia
Population Matters (formerly known as the Optimum Population Trust)
Progress
Quilliam
RAND Europe (an independent division of the RAND Corporation)
Re-Define
Reform
Renewable Energy Foundation
Resolution Foundation
ResPublica
Royal Air Force Centre for Air Power Studies
Royal Institute of Public Administration (defunct)
Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies
Royal Society of Arts
Scotland's Futures Forum
Scottish Constitutional Commission
Selsdon Group
Smith Institute
Social Affairs Unit
Social Market Foundation
Society of Conservative Lawyers
Science and Technology Policy Research (SPRU)
Stockholm Network
The Intergenerational Foundation
The Wilberforce Society
Theos
Unlock Democracy
Von Hügel Institute
Young Fabians
Young Foundation
The Work Foundation
Z/Yen

Greece


William Waldorf Astor III, 4th Viscount Astor (born 27 December 1951) is an English businessman and politician who sits as an elected hereditary peer in the House of Lords. He is a member of the Astor family.
William Waldorf III is the son of Viscount William Waldorf "Bill" Astor II (1907—1966) and Sarah Kathleen Elinor Norton (1920—2013). From his father's later marriages, he has three younger half-sisters: Emily (born 1956), Janet (born 1961), and Pauline (born 1964). From his mother's remarriage to Thomas Michael Baring, he has a younger half-brother named Edward Richard Philip Baring (born September 1962).[1] He was educated at Eton College, and on 14 January 1976 married Annabel Lucy Veronica Jones, daughter of Timothy Angus Jones and Patricia David Pandora Clifford. They have three children:
  • Flora Katherine Astor (born 7 June 1976)
  • William Waldorf "Will" Astor IV (born 18 January 1979)
  • James Jacob Astor (born 1981)
His heir is his elder son, Will, who married model Lohralee Stutz, daughter of Serge Alain Stutz and Michelle Bourdeau, at East Hendred, Oxfordshire on 5 September 2009. They have a son named William Waldorf Astor V (born 4 May 2012) and a daughter named Allegra Annabel Astor (born 14 August 2013).[2]
His wife Annabel's stepfather was his uncle Michael Langhorne Astor. Her daughter from her first marriage, Samantha, is married to Prime Minister David Cameron.
Astor was a Lord-in-Waiting (a House of Lords whip) from 1990 to 1993. He was then made a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security. In 1994, he moved to the Department of National Heritage where he served until leaving the government in 1995.[3]
He was a member of the Founding Council of the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford.[4]
Viscount Astor is Deputy Chairman of Silvergate Media Ltd and director of Networkers Plc (since 2007) and trustee of Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham.
The Astor family is a family known for its prominence in business, society, and politics in the United States and Englandduring the 19th and 20th centuries. The Astor family is of German origin, appearing in North America during the eighteenth century with John Jacob Astor.
John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor) was the youngest of four sons born to butcher Johann Jacob Astor (1724–1816) and Maria Magdalena Vorfelder (1730–1766). John and his eldest brother George (born Georg) (1752–1813), known as 'George & John Astor', were flute makers, who came to England c. 1778 from Walldorf, Germany. While working in England, he learned to speak English and anglicized his name. In 1783, John Jacob left for Baltimore, Maryland, and was active first as a dealer in woodwind instruments, then in New York as a merchant in furs, pianos, and real estate. After moving to New York, John met and married Sarah Cox Todd (1762–1842). Sarah was the daughter of Scottish immigrants Adam Todd and Sarah Cox. They had eight children, including occasional poet John Jacob Astor, Jr. (1791–1869) and real estate businessman William Backhouse Astor, Sr. (1792–1875).[1]
John Jacob's fur trading company established a Columbia River trading post at Fort Astoria in 1811, the first United States community on the Pacific coast. He financed the overland Astor Expedition in 1810–1812 to reach the outpost, which was in the then-disputed Oregon Country. Control of Fort Astoria played a key role in English and American territorial claims on the region. John and George's brother Henry (born Heinrich) (1754–1833) also emigrated to America. He was a horse racing enthusiast, and purchased a thoroughbred named Messenger, who had been brought from England to America in 1788. The horse became the founding sire of all Standardbred horses in the United States today. The third brother Melchior remained in Germany. During the 19th century, the Astors became one of the wealthiest families in the United States. Toward the end of that century, some of the family moved to England and achieved high prominence there. During the 20th century, the number of American Astors began to decline, but their legacy lives on in their many public works including the New York Public Library. English descendants of the Astors hold two hereditary peerages: Viscount and Baron.

Petr Olegovich Aven (Petr O. Aven) (Russian: Петр Олегович Авен; b. March 16, 1955) is a Russian businessman, economist and politician. He heads Alfa-Bank, Russia's largest commercial bank.
Born in Moscow, his father, professor of computer science Oleg Aven (Russian: Олег Иванович Авен), was half Latvianand half Russian[2][3] and his mother was from a Jewish family.[4] His paternal grandfather Janis Aven was a Latvian rifleman.[2] Petr Aven graduated from Moscow State University in 1977 and holds a PhD in Economics (1980). Subsequently, Petr was a senior researcher at the All-Union Institute for Systems Studies at the USSR Academy of Sciences and then spent time at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria (1989–1991).
Aven went on to become the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations for the Russian Federation (1991–1992), serving as Russia's representative to the Group of Seven and conducting a number of high-level trade and economic missions to Western capitals. In 1993 he joined the Russia's Choice movement and was a candidate for State Duma.
In October 1994, Aven met Alfa Group's Mikhail Fridman, and soon became an Alfa Bank shareholder serving as a member of the Supervisory Board of the Alfa Group Consortium. From 1994 until June 2011, he served as the President of Alfa-Bank Russia. Currently Aven is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Alfa Banking Group.[5] Aven is also Chairman of the Board of Directors at AlfaStrakhovanie Group, Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of CTC Media, Inc.[6] In 2012, the Alfa Group together with Viktor Vekselberg of Renova Group and Leonard Blavatnik of Access Industries sold their aggregate 50% stake in TNK-BP to state-owned Rosneft for $28 billion.[1]
Petr Aven holds a number of public facing positions:
Since April 2006, Petr Aven has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
In 2007, Mr. Aven became Chairman of the Russia-Latvian Business Council.
Petr Aven is the author of some scientific papers and articles on economic and trade issues and is quoted in the financial and trade press on matters related to the Russian economy and trade policy. Mr. Aven has acted as a guest professor and lecturer at some universities, including Yale University, Bar-Elan University (Israel), and the University of Glasgow and has published two books on econometrics and on economic reform and numerous articles in Russian and international journals, including in Communist Economies and Economic Transformation in Economic Policy. Yale University Press and the Kiel Institute of World Economics, and other scientific and academic institutes have published Mr. Aven's monographs.[11] Aven is a visitor to Western capitals where he gives lectures on economic developments in Russia.
He has received a number of international awards, including the best manager in the financial services sector in Russia in 2004 by Institutional Investor.[12]
Petr Aven is a supporter of the arts and theatre in Russia. Aven along with Stan Polovets and three fellow Russian Jewish billionaires, Mikhail Fridman, Alexander Knaster, and German Khan, founded the Genesis Philanthropy Group whose purpose is to develop and enhance Jewish identity among Russian-speaking Jews worldwide.[13][14][4]

Jan Pieter "Jan Peter" Balkenende (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjɑn ˈpetər ˈbɑlkənˌɛndə] ( listen)) (born 7 May 1956) is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 July 2002 until 14 October 2010.
He previously served as a Member of the House of Representatives from 19 May 1998 until 22 July 2002. After then CDA Party leader and Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stepped down after an internal power struggle, between him and then CDA Party Chair Marnix van Rij. Balkenende succeed him in both positions, and became the CDA Lijsttrekker for the Dutch general election of 2002. The CDA became the surprising winner of the election, gaining 14 seats (from 29 to 43) and becoming the largest party in the House of Representatives. This success was in part owed to Balkenende and to his neutral attitude in the debate with LPF leader Pim Fortuyn, for not having participated in the supposed 'demonization' by the political Left. Fortuyn was assassinated during the national election campaign on 6 May 2002.
Balkenende became Prime Minister of the Netherlands, leading the Cabinet Balkenende I but it collapsed after just 87 days in office because of internal conflicts within the LPF that destabilised the government. After the Dutch general election of 2003, Balkenende who again as CDA Lijsttrekker gained 1 seat and formed the new Cabinet Balkenende II. The cabinet fell on 30 June 2006 after the D66, the smallest coalition party withdrew its support of the cabinet over the way Minister for Integration and Immigration Rita Verdonk had handled the crisis around the naturalization of Member of the House of Representatives Ayaan Hirsi Ali. A rump cabinet Balkenende III was formed and stayed in office until theDutch general election of 2006. Balkenende again as Lijsttrekker lost three seats but the CDA remained by far the largest party with 41 seats. After the cabinet formation, the new Cabinet Balkenende IV took office on 22 February 2007. The cabinet fell on 20 February 2010 as the result of disagreement between CDA and Labour Party over the extension of ISAF mission in Afghanistan. For the Dutch general election of 2010, Balkenende for a fourth time asLijsttrekker resigned his position as Party leader taking political responsibility after the CDA's disappointing results in the election. He remained as Prime Minister of the Netherlands until the new Cabinet Rutte was installed on 14 October 2010.[1][2]
After his premiership, Balkenende retired from active politics and became a Partner Corporate Responsibility at the professional services firm Ernst & Young and became professor of Governance, Institutions and Internationalization at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.[3][4]

Steven Anthony "Steve" Ballmer (born March 24, 1956)[3] is an American businessman who was the CEO ofMicrosoft from January 2000 to February 2014,[3] and is the current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. As of 2014, his personal wealth is estimated at US$20.7 billion, ranking number 32 on the Forbes 400.[1] It was announced on August 23, 2013, that he would step down as Microsoft's CEO within 12 months. On February 4, 2014, Ballmer retired as CEO and was succeeded by Satya Nadella; Ballmer resigned from the Board of Directors on August 19, 2014 to prepare for teaching a new class and for the start of the NBA season.[4][5]
On May 29, 2014, Ballmer placed a bid of $2 billion to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).[6] He officially became the Clippers owner on August 12, 2014.[7][8]
Ballmer was the second person after Roberto Goizueta to become a billionaire in U.S. dollars based on stock options received as an employee of a corporation in which he was neither a founder nor a relative of a founder. Ballmer is the 51st richest person in the world according to Forbes, with an estimated wealth of $20.7 billion.[1] While CEO of Microsoft in 2009, Ballmer earned a total compensation of $1,276,627, which included a base salary of $665,833, a cash bonus of $600,000, no stock or options, and other compensation of $10,794.[64]

Edward Michael "Ed" Balls (born 25 February 1967) is a British Labour Party and Co-operative Party[2] politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Morley and Outwood since 2010, and is the current Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.
From 2005 to 2010, he was the MP for Normanton and he served as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families under Gordon Brown from 2007-10.
Balls is married to current Shadow Home Secretary and fellow Labour MP Yvette Cooper. In June 2007 they became the first married couple to serve together in a British Cabinet when Cooper became Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Balls' father is the zoologist Michael Balls; his mother is Carolyn Janet Balls (born Riseborough).[3] His younger brother is Andrew Balls the head of European Operations at the bond and investment firm PIMCO. Balls was born in Norwichand educated at Bawburgh Primary School in Norwich, Crossdale Drive Primary School in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, and then the private all-boys Nottingham High School, where he played the violin.[4][5] He went on to attend Keble College,Oxford, where he gained a First in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, graduating -according to John Rentoul in the Independent -ahead of David Cameron.[6] Later he attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government,Harvard, where he was a Kennedy Scholar specialising in Economics.[6]
Balls joined the Labour Party in 1983 while still at school.[4] While at Oxford he was a partially active member of the Labour Club, but also signed up to the Conservative Association, "because they used to book top-flight political speakers, and only members were allowed to attend their lectures" according to friends.[7] He was a founding member of the all-male drinking club, The Steamers and suffered embarrassment when a contemporary photo of him wearing Nazi uniform appeared in the papers.[8]
Balls was from 1989 to 1990 a teaching fellow in the Department of Economics, Harvard University.[9]
He joined the Financial Times in 1990 as a lead economic writer until his appointment as an economic adviser to Shadow Chancellor Gordon Brown in 1994. When Labour won the 1997 general election, Brown became Chancellorand Balls continued to work as an economic adviser to him. He went on to serve as Chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers.
While he was chief economic adviser to the Treasury, Balls attended the Bilderberg annual conference of politicians, financiers and businessmen in 2001 and 2003, and returned to the United Kingdom on Conrad Black's private jet on both occasions. In 2010 when after details were reported in the press, Balls commented, "It saved the taxpayer the cost of a plane fare and on both occasions I declared it at the time to the permanent secretary in the normal way."[10]

José Manuel Durão Barroso (ipa: [ʒuˈzɛ mɐˈnu̯ɛl duˈɾɐ̃u̯ bɐˈʁɔzu], born 23 March 1956) is a Portuguese politician who was the 11th President of the European Commission, serving from 2004 to 2014. He served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 6 April 2002 to 17 July 2004.
Durão Barroso (as he is known in Portugal) graduated in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon and has an MSc in Economic and Social Sciences from the University of Geneva (Institut européen de l'université de Genève) in Switzerland. His academic career continued as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. He did research for a PhD at Georgetown University and Georgetown's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. but his CV does not list any doctoral degree (except honorary).[1] He is a 1998 graduate of the Georgetown Leadership Seminar.[2] Back in Lisbon, Barroso became Director of the Department for International Relations at Lusíada University (Universidade Lusíada).
Barroso's political activity began in his late teens, during the Estado Novo regime in Portugal, before the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974. In his university days, he was one of the leaders of the underground Maoist MRPP (Reorganising Movement of the Proletariat Party, later PCTP/MRPP, Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers/Revolutionary Movement of the Portuguese Proletariat). In an interview with the newspaper Expresso, he said that he had joined MRPP to fight the only other student body movement, also underground, which was controlled by thePortuguese Communist Party. Despite this justification there is a very famous political 1976 interview recorded by the Portuguese state-run television channel, RTP, in which Barroso, as a politically minded student during the post-Carnation Revolution turmoil known as PREC, criticises the bourgeois education system which "throws students against workers and workers against students."[3] In December 1980, Barroso joined the right-of-centre PPD (Democratic Popular Party, later PPD/PSD-Social Democratic Party), where he remains to the present day.
In 1985, under the PSD government of Aníbal Cavaco Silva, President of Portugal, Barroso was named Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs. In 1987 he became a member of the same government as he was elevated to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (answering to the Minister of Foreign Affairs), a post he was to hold for the next five years. In this capacity he was the driving force behind the Bicesse Accords of 1990, which led to a temporary armistice in the Angolan Civil War between the ruling MPLA and the opposition UNITA. He also supported independence for East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, then a province of Indonesia by force. In 1992,Barroso was promoted to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, and served in this capacity until the defeat of the PSD in the 1995 general election.
In opposition, Barroso was elected to the Assembly of the Republic in 1995 as a representative for Lisbon. There, he became chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. In 1999 he was elected president of his political party, PSD, succeeding Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (a professor of law), and thus became Leader of the Opposition. Parliamentary elections in 2002 gave the PSD enough seats to form a coalition government with the right-wing Portuguese People's Party, and Barroso subsequently became Prime Minister of Portugal on 6 April 2002.
As Prime Minister, facing a growing budget deficit, he made a number of difficult decisions and adopted strict reforms. He vowed to reduce public expenditure, which made him unpopular among leftists and public servants.[citation needed]. His purpose was to lower the public budget deficit to a 3% target (according to the demands of EU rules), and official data during the 2002–2004 period stated that the target was being attained.
In March 2003, Barroso hosted U.S President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister JoséMaría Aznar in the Portuguese island of Terceira, in the Azores. The four leaders finalised the controversial US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. Under Barroso's leadership, Portugal became part of the "coalition of the willing" for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, sending non-combat troops.
Barroso did not finish his term as he had been nominated as President of the European Commission on 5 July 2004. Barrosoarranged with Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio to nominate Pedro Santana Lopes as a substitute Prime Minister of Portugal. Santana Lopes led the PSD/PP coalition for a few months until early 2005, when new elections were called. When the Portuguese Socialist Party won the elections it produced an estimation that by the end of the year the budget deficit would reach 6.1%,[4] which it used to criticise Barroso's and Santana Lopes's economic policies.

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