At the time of this interview, Erwin Ariadharma was senior public sector management specialist in the World Bank office in Jakarta.  In this role, he was responsible for providing technical assistance to line ministries and government agencies undertaking reform programs, including the director-general of tax in the Ministry of Finance.  Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked for consulting firms in Indonesia, including Booz Allen Hamilton, KPMG, Moores Rowland, Bearing Point and Grant Thornton.

At the time of this interview, Kathleen Imholz was an expert with the European Assistance Mission to the Albanian Justice System, where she worked on all aspects of the justice system. From 1999 until October 2005, she worked for several years with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the World Bank as an adviser to the Albanian government and the General Secretary of the Council of Ministers. Before that she taught commercial law as a Fulbright Fellow in Albania and worked on a legal education program in the country.

At the time of this interview, Faton Hamiti was the administrative assistant in the Office of the Police Commissioner of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. He initially worked as a journalist in a daily newspaper in Kosovo before the war and then became a language assistant with UNMIK, first with a U.N. Police patrol and later at the police-station level. In 2006 he started working with the deputy police commissioner for operations, and in 2008 he was assigned as personnel/administrative assistant to the police commissioner.

At the time of this interview, Benson Bana was a senior lecturer on public administration and human resource management for the Research and Education for Democracy in Tanzania program at the University of Dar es Salaam. He also consulted and conducted research in the same fields. A Tanzanian citizen, Bana earned a doctorate from the University of Manchester in the U.K. He worked in the Tanzanian public service, and as a human resource training and development manager in a multinational company. 

Limakatso Mokhothu was nominated by one of Lesotho’s main political parties to serve as an electoral commissioner in 2003.  She was one of three commissioners who oversaw Lesotho’s controversial 2007 election.  The following year she was appointed chairwoman of the commission.  Before joining the Independent Electoral Commission, Mokhothu worked on governance issues at the Irish consulate in Lesotho.

 At the time of this interview, Alfred Brownell was the president of the Association of Environmental Lawyers of Liberia (Green Advocates.) In 1997, while a law student at the University of Liberia, Brownell launched Green Advocates and put into place Liberia’s first framework environmental law. Brownell was also the lead campaigner for Liberia’s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, successfully pressing for the passage of legislative reform in the national forestry sector. Between 2000 and 2003, Brownell’s work helped bring about the imposition of sanctions on Liberia’s timber exports, a travel ban and an asset freeze on corrupt government officials. Through the years, Brownell has devoted himself to campaigning for national policies that stem corruption and abuses related to natural resource extraction.  

After playing a prominent role in independence negotiations with the U.K., Sir Peter Kenilorea became the first prime minister of the newly independent Solomon Islands in 1978.   He held that office until 1981, and served in the position again from 1984 to 1986.   He later served as minister of foreign affairs and, from 1996 to 2001, as governmental ombudsman.  In 2001, he became speaker of Parliament.   He was serving his second term in that office at the time of this interview.

At the time of this interview, Bernard Zeneli was the manager of the Brain Gain program, an initiative of the Albanian government supported by the United Nations Development Programme that encouraged skilled professionals to return to the country and contribute to its development.  Previously, he was head of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Pristina in Kosovo, where he developed courses related to policy making, comparative politics, government and international relations.  He also taught at Northeastern University, the University of Tirana and South Eastern European University in Tetovo, Macedonia.

At the time of this interview, Carlos Humberto Vargas García was the chief of studies at the National Academy of Public Security in El Salvador, an institution separate from the national police. From 1992 to 1995, he was the first sub-director of the academy, and he trained in the U.S. and Central America with ICITAP, the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program. He also worked in the private sector, in other universities in El Salvador as a professor of engineering, and for the Instituto Salvadoreño de Formación Profesional, which is in charge of non-formal education.