Meet the Speakers:

Johnathan TurleyJ.B. and Mauric C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law; Director of the Environmental Law Advocacy Center; Executive Director, Project for Older Prisoners

Jonathan Turley is a nationally recognized legal scholar who has written extensively in areas ranging from constitutional law to legal theory to tort law. After a stint at Tulane Law School, Professor Turley joined the GW Law faculty in 1990, and in 1998, became the youngest chaired professor in the school’s history.

He is the founder and executive director of the Project for Older Prisoners (POPS). He has written more than three dozen academic articles that have appeared in a variety of leading law journals including those of Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, and Northwestern Universities, among others. He most recently completed a three-part study of the historical and constitutional evolution of the military system.

Professor Turley has served as counsel in some of the most notable cases in the last two decades, including his representation of the Area 51 workers at a secret air base in Nevada; the nuclear couriers at Oak Ridge, Tennessee; the Rocky Flats grand jury in Colorado; Dr. Eric Foretich, the husband in the Elizabeth Morgan custody controversy; and four former U.S. Attorney Generals during the Clinton impeachment litigation. Professor Turley also has served as counsel in a variety of national security and terrorism cases, and has been ranked as one of the top 10 lawyers handling military cases.

He has served as a consultant on homeland security and constitutional issues, and is a frequent witness before the House and Senate on constitutional and statutory issues as well as tort reform legislation. He also is a nationally recognized legal commentator; he ranked 38th in the top 100 most cited ‘public intellectuals’ in a recent study by Judge Richard Posner and was found to be the second most cited law professor in the country.

He is a member of the USA Today board of contributors and the recipient of the “2005 Single Issue Advocate of the Year” – the annual opinion award for the Aspen Institute and The Week magazine. More than 400 of his articles on legal and policy issues regularly appear in national newspapers. He also has

worked as the CBS and NBC legal analyst, respectively, during national controversies.

Eric L. LewisPartner

Eric Lewis practices in the areas of international insolvency, cross border disputes, and serious fraud cases.  Currently, Mr. Lewis serves as Global Legal Coordinator for the Algosaibi family of Saudi Arabia, the victims of the largest fraud in the history of the Middle East, as well as counsel to the Liquidators of Carlyle Capital Corporation,  the Liquidators of Madoff International Securities Limited, the Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Company, and a number of hedge funds and family-owned Middle East conglomerates.

Mr. Lewis also represents Guantanamo and Afghan detainees in litigation seeking redress and accountability for torture and religious abuse while in U.S. custody.

He has served as principal U.S. counsel to the liquidators of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in multi-jurisdictional criminal and civil litigation.  Mr. Lewis led the trial team that obtained a $1 billion fraud and racketeering judgment against a BCCI front man and enforced the judgment through the courts of Saudi Arabia, the first non-Arab League judgment ever enforced in that country.

Mr. Lewis has particular expertise assisting European, Middle Eastern, and Latin American clients dealing with the complexities of U.S. civil and criminal proceedings.  Previously, he has represented a large U.K. pension fund with respect to losses suffered in the collapse of WorldCom, a leading hedge fund in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation, and the Executive Director of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme in connection with United Nations and U.S. investigations.

An expert in offshore asset tracing and trusts, he serves as a Director of the Jersey International Business School in the Channel Islands.

Mr. Lewis was selected by Washington DC Super Lawyers (2007-2012) and by Super Lawyers Corporate Counsel Edition (2009) as one of "The Top Attorneys" in Business Litigation in the Washington, D.C., area.  He is also featured in Who’s Who as an expert in international insolvency.

Renée Lettow LernerAssociate Professor of Law, The George Washington University

Professor Lerner works in the fields of U.S. and English legal history, civil and criminal procedure, and comparative law. She focuses particularly on the history of U.S. procedure and legal institutions, and how they have diverged from those of England, and on the differences between current adversarial and nonadversarial legal systems. She regularly speaks to groups of U.S. and non-U.S. judges about comparative procedure and institutions. She is the author, with John Langbein and Bruce Smith, of the book History of the Common Law: The Development of Anglo-American Legal Institutions (2009).

Professor Lerner received an A.B. summa cum laude in history from Princeton University. She did graduate work as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in English legal history. At Yale Law School, she was Articles Editor of the Yale Law Journal. She served as a law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and to Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. From 2003 to 2005, she served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Shireen T. HunterVisiting Professor, Georgetown University

Shireen T. Hunter is a visiting scholar at the Center for Christian-Muslim Understanding where she directs a project on Reformist Islam funded by the Carnegie Corporation Of New York. She is also a Non- Resident Distinguished Scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies where she directed the Islam Program from 1998 to 2005. She is the author of seven books and three monographs and the editor and contributor of seven books and three monographs. She has contributed to more than 35 edited volumes and written forty journal articles.

Her latest publications include, Reformist Voices of Islam: Mediating Islam and Modernity (M.E. Sharpe, forthcoming in June 2008); Islam And Human Rights: Advancing A US--Muslim Dialogue (edt) (CSIS Press, 2005); Modernization, Democracy And Islam (co edt & contributor) (Praeger, 2004); Islam In Russia: The Politics of Identity And Security (M.E .Sharpe, 2004); Islam: Europe's Second Religion (edt) (Prager,2002).

James D. FilpiSenior Counsel, Commercial Law Development Program

James D. Filpi is a Senior Counsel with the Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) in the Office of the General Counsel of the United States Department of Commerce.  CLDP provides consultative services to assist political, regulatory, judicial and commercial leaders to augment their policies, laws and organizational structures in order to improve the legal environment for doing business around the globe.  Mr. Filpi primarily advises governments in North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

Prior to joining CLDP, Mr. Filpi practiced law with the International Competition Group of the Washington, DC office of the law firm Goodwin Procter, LLP, where he advised foreign and domestic clients regarding commercial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, federal administrative procedures, corporate restructurings, banking, and consumer protection.  Prior to his legal career, Mr. Filpi managed research and development programs for the Washington, DC-based strategic research firm the Advisory Board Company and tracked commerce and trade legislation for a member of the United States Congress.

Mr. Filpi received his Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as a student representative in the Center for Applied Legal Studies, representing refugees from Western Africa.  Mr. Filpi was a staff member of the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review and spent a portion of his legal study focusing on transnational law at the University of Hong Kong.  Mr. Filpi also holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in Psychology from the University of Virginia. 

Mr. Filpi is a member of the American Bar Association Section of International Law and is a Vice Chair of the Middle East Committee.  Mr. Filpi is also a member of the Maryland Bar Association Section of Business Law and the District of Columbia Bar Association Section of International Law.  Mr. Filpi is admitted to practice law in Maryland and the District of Columbia. 

Mr. Filpi formerly served as member of the Board of the LD Access Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that promotes rights for the learning disabled and is the founder of the St. Anselm's Abbey School Alumni Association Charity Golf Tournament in Washington, DC. 

Robert EisenDepartment Chair, Department of Religion, Professor

Robert Eisen is Professor of Religion and Judaic Studies at George Washington University in Washington D.C. He received his B.A. at Yale University in 1983, and his Ph.D. in Jewish thought at Brandeis University in 1990. His areas of interest include medieval and modern Jewish philosophy, biblical interpretation, religious ethics, and comparative religion. He is author of three books, Gersonides on Providence, Covenant, and the Chosen People (State University of New York Press, 1995); The Book of Job in Medieval Jewish Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2004); and The Peace and Violence of Judaism: From the Bible to Modern Zionism (Oxford University Press, 2011). He has also co-edited two volumes: Philosophers and

the Jewish Bible (University of Maryland Press, 2008) with Charles Manekin, and Just Peacemaking in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Pilgrim Press, forthcoming) with Glen Stassen and Susan Thistlethwaite. Professor Eisen has also received a number of grants and awards to support his research, including a Fulbright research grant at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1999-2000. He was also given a teaching award in 2005 from George Washington University in recognition of his contributions in the classroom. 

Professor Eisen has also been active in adult education initiatives. He served from 1991-2008 on the Board of Directors for the Foundation for Jewish Studies which brings lecturers to Washington from academic institutions all over the world. He has also lectured and taught widely in the Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Washington and elsewhere.

Professor Eisen is also active as a consultant on issues of religion and international conflict with a particular interest in fostering better relations between the West and the Islamic world. He has participated in a number of high-level dialogues and consultations in Washington and abroad concerning this issue. He is a member of the C-1 Committee, an organization of Muslim and Christian leaders that grew out of the World Economic Forum and is devoted to improving relations between Muslims and Christians throughout the world. He is on the advisory board of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. He has also worked with the United States Institute of Peace in Washington.

Wilhelmus ValkenbergOrdinary Professor of Religion and Culture, The Catholic University of America

Pim (Wilhelmus G.B.M.) Valkenberg was born in the Netherlands where he studied theology at the Utrecht State University and the Catholic Theological University of Utrecht. After his MA in theology (with specializations in dogmatic theology and phenomenology of religions) and an MA in pastoral studies, he worked for the Diocese of Breda as a specialist on adult education, and for the Netherlands School of Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion as research fellow.

After the public defence of his dissertation on Thomas Aquinas and the use of Scripture in his theology, he became an assistant and associate professor of dogmatic theology and the theology of religions at the Catholic University of Nijmegen (1987-2007), where he studied Arabic and Islam as well. He contributed to the establishment of a new Department of Religious Studies in 1991 with a focus on interreligious dialogue, and as associate dean of education between 1999 and 2004 he was responsible for the development of new programs of intercultural theology and pastoral studies. He was a visiting fellow at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) in 1999, St. Augustine’s College in Johannesburg (South Africa) in 2000 and 2002, and the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana) in 2004. Between 2006 and 2011 he was a visiting professor and an associate professor of theology at Loyola University Maryland with a focus on Christian-Muslim relations.

He has taught courses on World Religions,Phenomenology of Religion, Monotheism and the doctrine of God, Contemporary Christologies, Theologies of Interreligious Dialogue, Theological Hermeneutics in Intercultural and Interreligious Perspective, Mission in Various Religious Traditions, Comparative Mysticism, Christology and Interreligious Dialogue, Medieval Theology, Peace Ethics, and the Mysteries of the Life of Christ in Theology and Music.  

Dr. Valkenberg’s recent research concentrates on Christian-Muslim dialogue in the context of Abrahamic partnership, both in the present and in the past.  His publications include books in English on St. Thomas Aquinas (Words of the Living God, Leuven 2000), on Abrahamic dialogue in the Middle Ages (The Three Rings, Leuven 2005) and on interreligious dialogue (The Polemical Dialogue, Saarbrücken 1997). His most recent book in English is: Sharing Lights on the Way to God: Muslim-Christian Dialogue and Theology in the Context of Abrahamic Partnership (Amsterdam / New York: Editions Rodopi, 2006), containing reflections on Muslim-Christian dialogue and readings of texts by Thomas Aquinas, Jalaluddin Rumi, al-Ghazali, Said Nursi and Fethullah Gülen from the perspective of a comparative Muslim-Christian theology. His recent articles (in Dutch, English, and German) include a comparative theological study of the concept of revelation in Christianity and Islam (2009), an analysis of the background of the Muslim “Common Word” document and its Christian reception (2010), and two articles about Nicholas of Cusa’s theology of learned ignorance and its relation to his “faithful interpretation” of the Qur’an (both 2011). 

His research interests include topics in Christian theology such as hermeneutics and Christology, and traditions of Muslim exegesis (tafsir), theology (kalam) and mysticism (tasawwuf). His current projects include an interreligious reading of texts about the “People of the Book” in the Qur’an (with co-author Prof. Asma Afsaruddin, Indiana University) and a textbook on World Religions from a comparative theological perspective (Anselm Academics, to be published in 2013). This last book will contain a chapter on experiential learning and service-learning as methods to learn from religious others.

Dr. Valkenberg lives in Baltimore together with his spouse Theodora van Gaal who works as Director of Education and Youth Ministry for the Catholic Commuinity of South-Baltimore, and their children Yanah (15), Joris (12), and Sophie (10). His older children Irene and Antonie live in Maastricht in the Netherlands.

Fahad AlhomoudiPresident, Founder Western Studies Institute

Dr. Alhomoudi is the founder and president of the Western Studies Institute. In the past he served as Head of Research Accreditation and Quality

Assurance, Vice-Dean for Academic Research and Publication, and professor at the School of Law of Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University. He worked as a consultant for Princess Norah bint Abdulrahman University. Through his role as Fulbright Scholar, Alhomoudi has engaged in extensive Intercultural/Interfaith Dialogue initiatives, including the establishment of the Western Studies Institute. He has been a visiting professor and lecturer at McGill University, Loyola University, and Melbourne University. He was awarded a BA in Principals of Religion and an MA in Islamic Studies from Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University followed by a PhD in Islamic Studies from McGill University. His academic research has focused on Prophetic Tradition, Islamic Law and Environmental Law, and Methodology of Muslim Scholars. He is a member of several international committees and associations, and has published numerous books and articles.

Peter C. PhanEllacuria Chair of catholic Social Thought, Office of the President, Georgetown University

Peter C. Phan, a native of Vietnam, emigrated as a refugee to the U.S.A. in 1975. He obtained three doctorates, the Doctor of Sacred Theology from the Universitas Pontificia Salesiana, Rome, and the Doctor of Philosophy and the Doctor of Divinity from the University of London. He was also awarded the honorary Doctor of Theology from Chicago Theological Union and the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the College of Our Lady of the Elms. He began his teaching career in philosophy at the age of eighteen at Don Bosco College, Hong Kong. In the United States, he has taught at the University of Dallas, Texas; at the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, where he held the Warren-Blanding Chair of Religion and Culture; at Union Theological Seminary, N.Y.; at Elms College, Chicopee, MA; and at St. Norbert College, De Pere, WI. and at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, where he is currently holding the Ignacio Ellacuría Chair of Catholic Social Thought. He is the first non-Anglo to be elected President of the Catholic Theological Society of America. In 2010 he was given the John Courtney Murray Award, the highest honor of the Catholic Theological Society of America, in recognition for outstanding and distinguished achievement in theology.

His publications range far and wide in theology. They deal with the theology of icon in Orthodox theology (Culture and Eschatology: The Iconographical Vision of Paul Evdokimov); patristic theology (Social Thought; Grace and the Human Condition); eschatology (Eternity in Time: A Study of Rahner’s Eschatology; Death and Eternal Life); the history of mission in Asia (Mission and Catechesis: Alexandre de Rhodes and Inculturation in Seventeenth-Century Vietnam) and liberation, inculturation, and interreligious dialogue (Christianity with an Asian Face; In Our Own Tongues; Being Religious Interreligiously). In addition, he has edited some 20 volumes (e.g., Christianity and the Wider Ecumenism; Church and Theology; Journeys at the Margins; The Asian Synod; The Gift of the Church; Directory on Popular Piety and Liturgy). His many writings have been translated into Italian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, and Vietnamese. He is general editor of a multi-volume series entitled Theology in Global Perspective for Orbis Books and a multi-volume series entitled Ethnic American Pastoral Spirituality for Paulist Press. His writings have received many awards from learned societies.

Liesl Anna RiddleAssociate Dean of MBA Programs and Associate Professor of International Business

Area of Expertise: Diaspora Homeland Investment, National Trade and Investment Promotion, Cross-Cultural Management, International Marketing, Middle East/North Africa

Publications: Journal of International Business Studies, International Marketing Review, Small Business Economics Journal, and Public Administration & Development.

Editorial PositionsEducation, Business & Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues editorial board memberJournal of World Business, special issue on Multinationals in the Middle East, guest editor

Professional Activities: United Nations ad-hoc expert on Diaspora Entrepreneurship, Member of the Academy of International Business, Academy of Management, American Marketing Association

Current Research: Mobilizing Diaspora Homeland Investment Capital Project, Middle East Managerial Values Project

Grants: GW-Center for International Business Education and Research

Other: Dr. Riddle has written extensively on the topics of trade and investment promotion and diaspora roles in homeland economic development. She has conducted fieldwork in Egypt and Turkey and among diaspora communities in the U.S. (Afghan, Armenian, Cuban, Ghanaian, Iranian, Liberian, and Palestinian communities). Dr. Riddle co-authored the first diaspora-focused article to appear in the Journal of International Business Studies in 1999. She is the director and one of the founding members of the diasporas, policy, and development research program within GW’s Elliott School’s Institute for Global Studies. Dr. Riddle is the recipient of the 2007 Academy of International Business Best Reviewer Award and several GW teaching excellence awards.

Robert WeinerProfessor of International Business

Dr. Robert J. Weiner teaches international finance, economics, and strategy. He is concurrently Associate Director of GEFRI (Global and Entrepreneurial Finance Research Institute), a GW chartered research center, and Membre Associe, GREEN (Groupe de Recherche en Economie de l'Energie et des Ressources Naturelles), Departement d'economique, Universite Laval, Quebec. He received his PhD in 1986, and has been at GW since 1994, serving as Chairman of the International Business Department from 2001-2005.

Professor Weiner has also taught at Harvard University, Brandeis University, and the Royal Complutense University (Spain). He has lectured to executives in Russia, Spain, and the United States. He was the Gilbert White Fellow at Resources for the Future, an energy think-tank, from 2005-2006, and Visiting Professor of International Economics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) from 1997-1998.

Professor Weiner has been Research Fellow in the International Energy Program, Center for Business and Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and consultant to the International Petroleum Exchange; the New York Mercantile Exchange; the U.S. Department of Energy; the U.S. International Trade Commission; the Harvard Institute for International Development; the World Bank; and private clients. He has won research awards from the Ministere des Affaires Internationales, Quebec; Resources for the Future; the Columbia Center for the Study of Futures Markets; and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Professor Weiner has authored or coauthored four books (Energy and Environment; Oil Shock; Oil and Money; and Oil Markets in a Turbulent Era), and more than fifty articles on environmental and natural resource economics, focusing on energy security, risk management, and oil and gas markets and companies. His articles have appeared in scholarly business and

economics journals such as the Journal of Business, Journal of International Business Studies, and Economic Journal.

Professor Weiner's current research interests and projects include financial innovation in commodity markets, foreign investment and joint ventures in the Russian petroleum industry, oil and gas trading and derivative markets, risk management in the oil and gas industry, national income accounting for sustainable development, transfer pricing in multinational enterprise, and privatization and the behavior of state-owned enterprises in the world petroleum market.

Edward BurtonPresident and Managing Director, U.S. Saudi Arabian Business Council

Edward Burton was appointed President and Managing Director of the U.S.-Saudi Arabian Business Council (USSABC) in March 2006. Through this position, he works with both the public and private sectors to promote the interests of the U.S.-Saudi business relationship.

Prior to joining the Business Council, Mr. Burton served as the Commercial Attaché at the American Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He managed a staff of 27 officers, commercial specialists and other local direct hire personnel serving offices in the cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dhahran. He was responsible for all U.S. Foreign Commercial Service (USFCS) operations in Saudi Arabia and had oversight of all USFCS management, administrative, and fiscal matters in the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in the Kingdom. He also supervised USFCS operations in Manama, Bahrain through a partnership arrangement with the U.S. Embassy in Manama. Mr. Burton was appointed directly by former U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans to serve as the USFCS Regional Coordinator for the agency’s Iraq Reconstruction Regional Initiative.

Prior to being assigned to the Embassy in Riyadh, Mr. Burton was the Director of the U.S. Export Assistance Center in Philadelphia. Before joining the U.S. Department of Commerce, Mr. Burton served former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman as the State of New Jersey’s International Trade Director.

Mr. Burton holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Charleston and a law degree from the Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He practiced law in the State of New Jersey. Mr. Burton received certified international trade and management training at the Thunderbird School of International Business and the Harvard Business School of Publishing.

Michael BennettHead of Derivatives and Structured Finance, World Bank

Michael Bennett is the Head of Derivatives and Structured Finance in the treasury department of the World Bank. He has spent over ten years with the World Bank, splitting his time between the World Bank’s Paris office and its Washington DC headquarters. Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked in the structured finance field in Tokyo, Hong Kong and New York. He has published articles in various legal and financial journals on topics including the opportunities and challenges facing the Islamic fixed income market, the role of Sukuk in development, structured products, and the regulation of financial derivatives in Asia. He also worked on the World Bank’s only Sukuk issue to date, a Malaysian ringgit 760 million Sukuk issued in 2005. He graduated from Columbia University Law School in New York.