Non-Resident Fellows

ROB MAJTELES is an impact investor and entrepreneur with decades of operating, investment, and board experience, including having run three companies as a CEO. Rob has long been viewed as a force multiplier as a board member and as a fund advisor. He focuses on impact as the driving factor in entrepreneurial and investment success, and is a passionate advocate for climate and sustainability and social impact growth initiatives that both serve the planet and create enormous financial wins.

HENDRIK OHNESORGE is Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Political Science and Managing Director of the Center for Global Studies at the University of Bonn. His research focuses on International Relations theory, global power shifts and soft power, German and European foreign and security policy, transatlantic relations and U.S. foreign policy, and charismatic leadership and individual agency in international affairs. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Münster and a Master’s degree from the University of Bonn. He completed his PhD (Dr phil) in political science summa cum laude as valedictorian of the Faculty of Arts Class 2018/19. In January 2025, he completed his habilitation and was bestowed the Venia Legendi as Privatdozent. He has held guest lectureships at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Milano, Universiteit Leiden, and the University of St Andrews. He was visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Harvard University, and he currently serves as Non-Resident Visiting Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University. Author of eleven books and more than thirty journal articles and book chapters, his latest books include The Anthem Handbook of Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in the Age of AI (2026, ed. with Naren Chitty, Craig Hayden, and Chenjun Wang), Soft Power and Charismatic Leadership in German-American Relations (2025), Theorien der Internationalen Beziehungen: Einführung (2025, with Xuewu Gu), and Politisches Denken nach Kant: Perspektiven aus der Politischen Theorie und den Internationalen Beziehungen (2025, ed. with Manuel Becker and Theresa Gerlach).

MARCEL RAMÍREZ is a public policy and public administration specialist with more than 25 years of experience advising governments, international organizations, NGOs, and academic institutions across Latin America. His work spans public-sector reform, fiscal and tax policy, public financial management, governance, decentralization, climate and biodiversity finance, sustainable development, and regional economic development.

He is a PhD candidate in Public Administration at the University of Victoria (Canada), where his research focuses on public policy, institutional change, and the political and administrative processes through which reforms are developed and sustained. As a Non-Resident Visiting Fellow at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs, he collaborates with Professor Jens Rudbeck on research exploring Peru’s extractive industries and their relationship with social conflict, environmental degradation, and land disputes.

CALIN TRENKOV-WERMUTH is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Oxyria Group, a geopolitical risk and strategic advisory firm, with more than twenty years' experience advising senior U.S., UN, NATO, and EU officials on international security challenges. At the United States Institute of Peace, he led the Security Sector Governance team, with extensive work in Ukraine from 2022–2025, and he directed U.S. Department of Defense–funded strategic evaluations of U.S. security cooperation. Earlier, at the United Nations, he was lead author of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact and served in its Office of Counter-Terrorism and Department of Peacekeeping Operations. He has held research positions at the EU Institute for Security Studies, RAND, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and has taught at Cambridge, Columbia, NYU, West Point, and Hamilton College. Calin is the author of United Nations Justice (UN University Press), with recent work in the Journal of Democracy, Foreign Affairs. He holds a PhD and MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and an AB from Hamilton College.

XIAOYUE (ROCKIE) ZHAO is an international development and disability inclusion professional with over a decade of experience across education and the nonprofit sector. She currently serves as Manager of Global Development and Government Relations at Special Olympics East Asia, where she develops partnerships with the United Nations, governments, academic institutions, and the private sector to advance the inclusion and meaningful participation of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Her work focuses on inclusive education, youth engagement and Special Olympics athlete leadership, employment, gender, and digital inclusion. Prior to joining the Special Olympics, she worked as a special education teacher for five years. Xiaoyue holds an MS in Global Affairs from New York University and a master’s degree in Special Education from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

ROBERT J. MAJTELES is an impact investor and entrepreneur focused on climate, sustainability, and social impact ventures. He is a Senior Advisor, Impact for Sandy Spring Climate Partners; Senior Advisor, Impact for Eneration; and serves on the boards of Circularity2 and Clara. Rob is also on the faculty of Parsons/The New School. A former CEO of three technology companies and founder of Treehouse Capital, he has decades of leadership, investment, and board experience across private and public companies. A cancer survivor and lifelong learner, he is a passionate advocate for innovation that advances both social good and financial success. He holds degrees from Columbia University and Stanford Law School.

ALLAN MARKS is an advisor, lawyer and board director with decades of experience in international project finance, energy and infrastructure. He serves as Commissioner of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. He is a Nonresident Visiting Senior Fellow at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs and also a Senior Fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment at Columbia University’s Climate School. He teaches law and finance at both the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA, where he is Affiliated Faculty at the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy, and teaches on energy, ethics and sustainability at GW Law, where he is a Distinguished Scholar in Energy Law & Sustainability. Allan is a retired partner at Milbank LLP, where he handled over $100 billion of energy and infrastructure transactions around the world for more than 30 years as a member of Milbank’s Global Project, Energy & Infrastructure Finance Group as well as the firm’s Private Equity, Renewable Energy, Latin America, and Global Risk & National Security practices. He is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and a Contributor to Forbes.

MICHAELA MILLENDER is a researcher specializing in far-right extremism, terrorism, and political violence, with a focus on the intersection of humanitarian issues and security. She has over a decade of experience in the non-profit and think tank sectors, most recently managing the research team at The Soufan Center. Michaela is the author of studies including “Accelerating Hate: The Impact of October 7 on Terrorism and Political Violence in the West,” “Identities Destroyed, Histories Revised: The Targeting of Cultural Heritage and Soft Targets by Illicit Actors,” and “The Exploitation of Gender and Masculinities on the Far-Right.” She holds an MSc in Global Affairs from New York University and a BA in International and Area Studies from the University of Oklahoma.

ARISTOTLE TZIAMPIRIS is professor of international relations and chair of the Department of International and European Studies at the University of Piraeus, where he also directs the MSc Program in American Studies. He serves as vice president of Greece’s National Documentation Center, a standing fellow at New York University’s Remarque Institute, and an academic advisor to the Hellenic American Leadership Council. His work focuses on international relations in Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, and he is the author or editor of more than ten books, including The Monroe Doctrine and the Greek Revolution (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) and The Emergence of Israeli-Greek Cooperation (Springer, 2015). His commentary has appeared in The New York Times, The Jerusalem Post, and The National Interest, among others. He holds a PhD in government and an MSc in European studies from the London School of Economics, and a BA in political science from Middlebury College.

CGA NON-RESIDENT VISITING SENIOR FELLOW

HELIDAH OGUDE-CHAMBERT is a Migration and International Development scholar with 15+ years’ experience in conflict-affected settings. Her work focuses on migration, forced displacement, conflict prevention, social cohesion, and inclusion. Using critical theories and mixed methods, she examines how political elites exploit emotions and discourse to influence media and policy, shaping inequalities.

A Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre, she begins as Departmental Lecturer in Migration and Development at Oxford in Fall 2023. She has worked with the World Bank, South African government, and International Crisis Group. At CGA, she will publish a working paper and host events on 2023 Global Refugee Forum initiatives.

CGA NON-RESIDENT VISITING DISTINGUISHED FELLOW

HENDRIK W. OHNESORGE is Managing Director of the Center for Global Studies and a Research Fellow in International Relations at the University of Bonn. He holds degrees from the University of Münster and Bonn, where he earned his PhD summa cum laude. A former Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley and Associate at Harvard's Weatherhead Center, his research focuses on power dynamics, soft power, U.S. foreign policy, and leadership in global politics.

His recent books include Soft Power and the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy (2023). As a non-resident CGA fellow, he will re-examine soft power's origins in realist thought and its role in U.S. policy today.

CGA NON-RESIDENT VISITING SENIOR FELLOW

APRIL PHAM is a feminist and women’s rights advocate, April is the Senior Gender Advisor and Chief of Gender Unit at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), with over 30 years’ experience in social justice, human rights, migrant and refugee rights, and gender-based violence in development and humanitarian settings.

She began as a youth worker in Australia, later advocating for legislative reforms to protect migrant and refugee women. Her activism shaped her state government work on policy, prevention, and reforms addressing violence against women.

CGA NON-RESIDENT VISITING SENIOR FELLOW

MICHAEL TRAN is is a Managing Director on the Global Energy Strategy Research team at RBC Capital Markets in New York, specializing in energy market fundamentals. He also leads RBC’s Digital Intelligence Strategy (DIS), leveraging data science to identify investment opportunities driven by societal changes and real-time events. With nearly 15 years in research, trading, and investment banking at UBS and BP, he is a trusted advisor to Canadian governments on energy policy.

Michael serves on the Advisory Board of Orbital Insight, the Board of the New York Energy Forum, and the USAEE Business Committee. A frequent media commentator, he graduated with distinction in Finance and Economics from the University of Alberta. As a CGA non-resident senior fellow, he focuses on big data, energy markets, and global energy security, empowering future energy leaders.

CGA NON-RESIDENT VISITING SENIOR FELLOW

ANDRAS VAMOS-GOLDMAN is a retired Canadian diplomat, international lawyer, and social entrepreneur, has focused on international justice since 2000. As Canada’s UN legal adviser, he helped establish the Sierra Leone Special Court and the ICC. He later founded Justice Rapid Response, professionalizing international investigations, earning him an Ashoka Fellowship in 2014.

An adjunct professor at NYU's Center for Global Affairs since 2018, he joined the Board of Diplomats Without Borders in 2019. As a CGA fellow, he advocates for accountability and diplomacy in conflict resolution.