Innovation Summit - Meridian International Center

Speaker Biographies
Tara D. Sonenshine was sworn in as Under Secretary of State for Public
Diplomacy and Public Affairs on April 5, 2012. Ms. Sonenshine was formerly
Executive Vice President of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Prior
to that she was a strategic communications adviser to many international
organizations including USIP. Ms. Sonenshine served in various capacities
at the White House during the Clinton Administration, including Transition
Director and Director of Foreign Policy Planning for the National Security
Council and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of
Communications for the NSC. Ms. Sonenshine has had a distinguished
career in communications and government, with high-level experience in
broadcast, print, and online media. Her broadcast career began at ABC News in New York, and
Ms. Sonenshine went on to become editorial producer of ABC News’ Nightline. She was also an
off-air reporter at the Pentagon for ABC’s World News Tonight. A former contributing editor for
Newsweek, Ms. Sonenshine is the author of numerous articles on foreign affairs published in the
New York Times, Washington Post, and other newspapers. She is the recipient of 10 News Emmy
Awards and other awards in journalism for broadcast programs on domestic and international
issues.
Lynn Taliento is a Partner in the Washington, D.C. Office of McKinsey &
Company. In 1999, Ms. Taliento co-founded McKinsey’s first group dedicated
to working on social sector issues, and she now leads McKinsey’s Social
Sector Office for the Americas. Ms. Taliento spent 2010 leading McKinsey’s
pro bono work with the Government of Haiti and President Clinton to create
the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, drawing on the Firm’s experience
building a similar entity after the tsunami in Indonesia. Ms. Taliento has
published many reports, including And the Winner Is… Capturing the Value
of Philanthropic Prizes, a seminal report on best practices in prizes, and
Engaging the Public in Social Issues. She also wrote Capacity Building
in Nonprofit Organizations, which includes an assessment tool that has been translated into 13
languages and is now being revised with the Gates Foundation. Ms. Taliento serves on the boards
of President Clinton’s Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and water.org, co-founded by Matt Damon.
Leànne Viviers is the SME Toolkit Programme Manager at the International
Finance Corporation Sustainable Business Advisory. She is an experienced
Project Manager and Management Consultant who has contributed to
transformational projects across a range of enterprises and organizations on
optimizing performance. Her MBA in Consulting and Social Entrepreneurship
from the University of Oxford significantly bolsters her ability to devise business
solutions that promote sustainable socio-economic change globally, with
particular concentration in private sector (SME) development in Africa.
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