ISS Board Of Directors

President, ISS

Liz Duffy became President of ISS in July 2015. Previously, she had served for 12 years as Head Master of The Lawrenceville School, a boarding school in New Jersey with 815 Grade 9-12 students, from 42 states and 39 countries. Before leading Lawrenceville, Liz held senior leadership positions at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (WWNFF), and The Ball Foundation. Liz is a trustee of The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and The E. E. Ford Foundation, a trustee emerita of WWNFF, and the chair of the Princeton Alumni Corps board. She has served on the boards of many other educational institutions, including Princeton University, the National Association of Independent Schools, and Cum Laude. She has spoken and written extensively on school leadership and educational trends, and has mentored many new heads and school leaders. Liz graduated from Princeton University magna cum laude with an AB in molecular biology. She went on to earn an MBA and an AM in Education from Stanford University.

Chief Enrollment Officer & Associate Vice President, Teachers College, Columbia University

Tania (Tani) Castañeda, Ed.D. is a higher education professional who has worked in a variety of student affairs and services functions for public and private institutions of all sizes. She is currently Chief Enrollment Officer and Associate Vice President for Teachers College at Columbia University. In this role, she supports the strategic direction of Teachers College and leads the Division of Enrollment Management encompassing the offices of admission, marketing, financial aid and the registrar. Tani has held positions at Rutgers University, Clark University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Boston College. She began her career in executive search and marketing research consulting firms before entering higher education administration. Tani earned her doctoral degree in organizational leadership from Northeastern University and holds master’s degrees in counseling from Boston College and psychology from Brandeis University. She received her bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College.

Director General, Multinational Force and Observers

Liz Dibble was appointed Director General of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) on August 1, 2022 and is based in Rome, Italy. The mission of the MFO is to supervise the security provisions of the Egyptian-Israeli Treaty of Peace. From 2017 to 2022 she served as Chief Operating Officer at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace after an impressive 36-year diplomatic career as a senior US foreign service officer, focusing primarily on the Middle East and Europe as well as on economics. Liz was named one of 100 top global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine in 2011 and was awarded a Presidential Meritorious Service Award in 2009. She has a BS from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and studied at the Pontificia Universidade Catolica in Campinas, Brazil. She speaks Italian, French, and Spanish. In 2017 Liz was the featured keynote speaker at the ISS Mary Anne Haas Women’s Symposium.

Managing Partner, 3rd Eye

Debu Purkayastha is Managing Partner at 3rd Eye, a Venture Capital and Private Equity firm investing in the technology, media & telecoms sectors globally. Debu has significant Investment, M&A and operating experience in US, Europe, Asia & Africa – having lived in three continents, five countries & seven cities across the world. Until 2017, Debu was Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Octopus Investments (global investment firm, AUM $8B+).

Debu spent almost six years at Google, spearheading its M&A and Investment efforts including landmark acquisitions and investments globally. He also led Google’s New Business Development efforts and was instrumental in launching several of Google’s iconic products globally spanning multiple key strategic focus areas. Debu was a founding member of Google “Campus”, the pre-eminent co-working space for startups in London, which led to the “Google for Entrepreneurs” program. Prior to Google, Debu headed Sabre’s Corporate Development/M&A team and was an Investment Banker with Salomon Smith Barney in Wall Street, Silicon Valley & London.

Debu sits on the Boards of Cambridge University/Cambridge Enterprise and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust (Revenues: ~$2.6B – largest Hospital Trust in the UK) amongst others and is the Chair of the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation (500 years old foundation/charity with assets of ~$1.5B), in addition to Advisory Boards including PRS for Music, Unilever and London Business School (Curriculum Committee). Debu spends his personal time working with leading NGOs and governmental institutions in several politically sensitive and conflict zones (including Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Kashmir, etc.) focusing on economic development initiatives. Debu has an MBA from London Business School and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Former Vice President of Human Resources, Johnson & Johnson

Marc Schorpion recently retired after a 35-year career at Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries around the world. From 2014 until 2018, he was the VP of Human Resources at J&J’s corporate headquarters in Princeton, NJ, and before that he served for eleven years as the VP of Human Resources for the Global Pharmaceuticals Group at J&J. He very much believes that the HR function of a company should serve its broader mission and reinforce and reflect its core strengths, which at J&J are R&D and innovation, and that the cultural context is essential in understanding human interactions. An economist by training, Marc received his master’s degree in business/managerial economics from the University of Antwerp. His career has taken his family and him around the world, so his children attended international schools.

VP Business Development, Global Neuroscience & Japan Region, Johnson & Johnson

Lucinda (Cindy) leads the Neuroscience Business Development Team globally and all business development activity in Japan as a Region, including scientific finding, licensing transactions, mergers, acquisition, out licensing, divestitures and alliance management. With over 25 years of broad industry experience, Lucinda began her pharmaceutical career in Canada. In 1999, she joined the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies and has held various USA and Global roles of increasing responsibilities, including Sales, Marketing, New Product Development, Alliance Management, and Business Development Leadership. Lucinda has been responsibility for the leadership and oversight of some of Johnson & Johnson’s longest and largest global commercial alliances. Activity involved in the alliance community, Lucinda currently serves as a Board Member on the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP) , as Chair of their Membership Committee. Lucinda received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alberta, Canada.

Vice President, Public Policy & Government Affairs, Biogen

Cheryl Xu is the Vice President, Public Policy & Government Affairs of Biogen. She started a consulting business in 2005, advising well-known multinational companies on their market access and expansion strategies in China. Cheryl has provided consultations to both the U.S. and Chinese governments on pharmaceutical policies and contributed to the formulations of China’s healthcare reform policies. Past positions included Director of International Finance at Pharmacia. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Peking University, and MBA in Finance from Washington University in St. Louis.