¶ Afsaneh Beschloss
Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss is an Iranian-American investment banker. She has advised governments, central banks, and regulatory agencies on global public policy and financial policy as well as energy. She is married to Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian.
Beschloss is a member of the board of directors of the Bretton Woods Committee, where she is also on the Global Advisory Council and co-chair of the Future of Finance Working Group.[1] She is on the Visiting Committee for the Center for Development Economics at Williams College,[2] and is an agenda contributor and member of the World Economic Forum (WEF).[3]
Beschloss has been a director of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and chairman of the board for the PBS Foundation,[4] a global director of the World Resources Institute (WRI),[5] a board member for the Center for Global Development (CGD),[6] the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)[7] and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance,[8] and a trustee of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation,[9] among others. She is an official “activist” of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.[10]
She formerly served as a trustee for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Urban Institute[11] and the Ford Foundation, where she chaired the Investment Committee and participated in the Sustainability Advisory Committee.[3:1] She has served as a member of the Finance Committee for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund,[12] and is former chair of the World Wide Web Foundation.[13]
Beschloss has written articles published by Chatham House, The Globe and Mail, and the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies via Oxford University Press, among others.[14][15][16]
¶ History
Beschloss was born in Iran in the 1950s. Her father, Mohammad Mashayekhi, was a prominent education reformer and president of a national teacher training university during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Her father was initially barred from leaving the country following the overthrow of the shah during the 1979 revolution, but Beschloss’s family eventually made it to the United States in the 1980s, settling in the Washington, D.C., area.[17]
¶ Education
Beschloss received a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Economics from the University of Kentucky, and her MPhil (Honours) in Economics from the University of Oxford, where she also taught international trade and economic development.[18]
¶ Career
After studying in the United Kingdom, she began her career in the United States at JPMorgan Chase in Corporate Finance.[19]
Motivated to contribute more meaningfully, she soon joined the World Bank. There, Beschloss rose quickly through the ranks and developed direct and deep knowledge of the Global South. She began to focus on energy and infrastructure in the early 1980s. She spent time based in Senegal and then went on to establish the World Bank’s Natural Gas Group, investing in gas and power projects that aim to replace coal in emerging markets.[20] She also worked at Shell International's Group Planning scenario team in London, England.[10:1]
In the 1990s, President Bill Clinton invited Afsaneh and Michael Beschloss to attend a dinner for the British Prime Minister. Some years later, President George W. Bush also invited them to a White House dinner for Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla.
Beschloss was a member of the 1994 class of the World Economic Forum's Global Leaders for Tomorrow program.[21]
As an increasingly senior and successful investment leader, she became the Director and Chief Investment Officer in 1997. She was responsible for the investment of the World Bank’s assets as well as external assets from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), central banks and sovereign funds. From 1999-2001, she served as Vice President and Treasurer on behalf of the Group.
Leveraging her experience in investment and asset management, Beschloss left the World Bank and joined the Carlyle Group in 2001. There, she served as Managing Director & CEO of Carlyle Asset Management.[22]
¶ RockCreek
Beschloss is the founder and CEO of RockCreek, a global investment and advisory firm serving foundations, endowments, pension funds and other institutional investors. She created the firm through a management buyout, buying 60% of the business in 2003. Under Beschloss’ guidance, RockCreek manages approximately $14 billion and leverages a team with experience across relevant sectors to bring a deep understanding of global markets to investment decisions. In recent years, Beschloss bought back RockCreek Group from Wells Fargo Asset Management.[23]
Beschloss was elected to the board of governors of American Red Cross in 2013.[24] She was appointed as a trustee for the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University in June 2015.[11:1] In February 2018, Beschloss was appointed to the board of trustees for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.[25] Beschloss co-chaired the 2018 Conference of Montreal for the International Economic Forum of the Americas.[15:1][26] Beschloss was a speaker at World Bank Live on April 13, 2019.[20:1]
In 2019, Beschloss joined the board of trustees for the National Geographic Society.[27] In April 2020, Beschloss was appointed to the board of directors of the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley.[28] Beschloss was appointed to the Georgetown University board of directors in October 2020.[29]
In March 2022, Beschloss was appointed as a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation.[30] Beschloss was a member of the Advisory Board for CNBC's Delivering Alpha 2022 Investor Summit.[31]
¶ Activities
Beschloss is a big supporter of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama and liberal organizations. In 2008, she contributed $25,000 to the Obama Victory Fund, $10,000 to the Democratic National Committee and $2,300 to Obama for America.[32] She has provided additional funding to the Senate Majority PAC.[33]
¶ Awards and Recognition
Beschloss is the recipient of the 2020 Great Immigrant and Great American Award from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.[17:1]
¶ External links
Afsaneh Beschloss. The Bretton Woods Committee. http://archive.today/2022.06.26-142545/https://www.brettonwoods.org/person/afsaneh-beschloss ↩︎
Afsaneh Beschloss. (2018, June). Center for Development Economics at Williams College. https://web.archive.org/web/20200924205931/https://cde.williams.edu/files/2018/06/Afsaneh-Beschloss.pdf ↩︎
Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss. World Economic Forum. Retrieved February 23, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.02.23-184047/https://www.weforum.org/people/afsaneh-mashayekhi-beschloss ↩︎ ↩︎
Bartheld, E. (2020, September 30). PBS Foundation Board of Directors Elects Afsaneh Beschloss as Chair. PBS. http://archive.today/2022.06.26-070353/https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/pbs-foundation-board-of-directors-elects-afsaneh-beschloss-as-chair/ ↩︎
Afsaneh M. Beschloss. World Resources Institute. Retrieved June 26, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.06.26-140709/https://www.wri.org/profile/afsaneh-m-beschloss ↩︎
Afsaneh Beschloss. Center for Global Development. Retrieved June 26, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.06.26-141002/https://www.cgdev.org/page/afsaneh-beschloss ↩︎
Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved June 26, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.06.26-142253/https://www.cfr.org/bio/afsaneh-mashayekhi-beschloss ↩︎
Afsaneh Beschloss. (2020, January 27). Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. http://archive.today/2022.06.25-080848/https://www.gavi.org/governance/gavi-board/members/afsaneh-beschloss ↩︎
Board of Trustees. Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Retrieved June 26, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.06.26-144104/https://www.ddcf.org/who-we-are/our-people/board-of-trustees/ ↩︎
Afsaneh Beschloss. RFK Human Rights. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.06.25-200655/https://rfkhumanrights.org/afsaneh-beschloss ↩︎ ↩︎
Altman, A. (2015, June 30). Institute for Advanced Study Appoints Three New Trustees - Press Release. Institute for Advanced Study. http://archive.today/2022.06.25-234027/https://www.ias.edu/news/newtrustees-2015 ↩︎ ↩︎
Rockefeller, S. C., & Heintz, S. B. (2002). 2002 Annual Report (p. 3). Rockefeller Brothers Fund. https://web.archive.org/web/20220626232655/https://www.rbf.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/2002-AR-web-optimized.pdf ↩︎
World Wide Web Foundation Appoints Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss as New Chair. (2015, October 30). World Wide Web Foundation. http://archive.today/2022.06.28-070757/https://webfoundation.org/2015/10/world-wide-web-foundation-appoints-afsaneh-mashayekhi-beschloss-as-new-chair/ ↩︎
Beschloss, A. (2021, October 27). Can the G20 agree a global carbon price? Chatham House. http://archive.today/2022.06.26-145025/https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/10/can-g20-agree-global-carbon-price ↩︎
Beschloss, A. (2018, June 10). Business must take up the fight against inequality. The Globe and Mail. http://archive.today/2022.06.26-145124/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-business-must-take-up-the-fight-against-inequality/ ↩︎ ↩︎
The Economics of Natural Gas, Pricing, Planning & Policy. (2011). Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. https://www.oxfordenergy.org/shop/the-economics-of-natural-gas-pricing-planning-policy/ ↩︎
Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss. (2020). Carnegie Corporation of New York. http://archive.today/2022.06.25-200444/https://www.carnegie.org/awards/honoree/afsaneh-mashayekhi-beschloss/ ↩︎ ↩︎
Afsaneh Beschloss. LinkedIn. Retrieved June 26, 2022, from https://www.linkedin.com/in/afsanehbeschloss/ ↩︎
Ramiz, M. (2020, August 5). Afsaneh Beschloss guides investment in greener futures. Hayat Life. http://archive.today/2022.06.25-195511/https://hayatlife.com/2020/08/05/afsaneh-beschloss-green-investment/ ↩︎
Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss. (2019, April 13). World Bank Live. http://archive.today/2022.06.25-200018/https://live.worldbank.org/experts/afsaneh-mashayekhi-beschloss ↩︎ ↩︎
Class of 1994. (1994). World Economic Forum. https://web.archive.org/web/20160816174540/http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GLT_ClassOf1994.pdf ↩︎
Afsaneh Beschloss to Join The Carlyle Group: World Bank Executive to Head Firm’s New Asset Management Group. (2001, April 16). The Carlyle Group. http://archive.today/2022.06.25-233327/https://www.carlyle.com/media-room/news-release-archive/afsaneh-beschloss-join-carlyle-group-world-bank-executive-head ↩︎
Afsaneh Beschloss. RockCreek. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.06.25-081408/https://www.therockcreekgroup.com/team-members/afsaneh-beschloss/ ↩︎
American Red Cross. (2013, June 5). Red Cross Announces Four New Members of its Board of Governors. PRNewsWire. http://archive.today/2022.06.26-070702/https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/red-cross-announces-four-new-members-of-its-board-of-governors-210245951.html ↩︎
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute appoints six new members to Board of Trustees. (2018, February 21). Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. http://archive.today/2022.06.26-143825/https://www.dana-farber.org/newsroom/news-releases/2018/dana-farber-cancer-institute-appoints-six-new-members-to-board-of-trustees/ ↩︎
A new globalisation: Managing uncertainty (p. 11). (2018). International Economic Forum of the Americas. https://web.archive.org/web/20220626150357/https://forum-americas.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/programmeMontréalang2018v5.pdf ↩︎
Afsaneh Beschloss and Kevin J. Maroni Join National Geographic Society Board of Trustees. (2019, April 2). National Geographic Society Newsroom. http://archive.today/2022.06.26-144359/https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2019/04/02/afsaneh-beschloss-and-kevin-j-maroni-join-national-geographic-society-board-of-trustees/ ↩︎
Blum Center Welcomes New Board Members Michelle Nunn and Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss. (2020, April 9). Blum Center for Developing Economies. http://archive.today/2022.06.26-143532/https://blumcenter.berkeley.edu/blum-center-welcomes-new-board-members-michelle-nunn-and-afsaneh-mashayekhi-beschloss/ ↩︎
DC Resident Named to Georgetown University’s Board of Directors. (2020, October 16). Georgetown University. http://archive.today/2022.06.26-140050/https://www.georgetown.edu/news/afsaneh-mashayekhi-beschloss-named-to-georgetown-universitys-board-of-directors/ ↩︎
Chang, A. (2022, March 15). The Rockefeller Foundation announces Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss joins its Board of Trustees. The Rockefeller Foundation. http://archive.today/2022.06.26-141654/https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/news/the-rockefeller-foundation-announces-afsaneh-mashayekhi-beschloss-joins-its-board-of-trustees/ ↩︎
Delivering Alpha. CNBC Events. Retrieved June 28, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.06.28-070402/https://www.cnbcevents.com/delivering-alpha-2022/ ↩︎
Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss - $12,300 in Political Contributions for 2008. Campaign Money. Retrieved June 21, 2013, from http://archive.today/2013.06.21-072632/http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/afsaneh-mashayekhi-beschloss.asp?cycle=08 ↩︎
Donor Search - Afsaneh Beschloss - Page 2. OpenSecrets. Retrieved December 23, 2024, from https://www.opensecrets.org/search?page=2&q=Afsaneh+Beschloss&type=donors ↩︎