Transparency International, a global anti-corruption organization, has elected José Ugaz as chairman of the board, and Elena Panfilova as vice-chair. For the past nine years, these roles previously were held by Huguette Labelle and Akere Muna, respectively.

Ugaz was ad-hoc state attorney of Peru for several corruption cases against the criminal network of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, one of the biggest corruption cases in Latin American history. Fujimori fled the country in 2000 after allegations of systematic and widespread abuse of power.

From 2000-2002, Ugaz’s office opened more than 200 cases against 1500 government officials and other associates of Fujimori. Under his mandate, $205 million in assets were frozen abroad and $75 million were recovered.

In 2002, Ugaz became President of Proetica, TI’s national chapter in Peru. He was an official at the World Bank’s anti-corruption unit from 2004 to 2006. He became an individual member of TI in 2008 and has served on TI’s board of directors since 2011.

Panfilova founded TI’s national chapter in Russia in 1999, serving as its executive director until July 2014, when she became the chapter’s chair. Since August 2014, she has headed the Laboratory for Anti-Corruption Policy, which she founded in 2008, working to promote transparency and civil society.

New Board Members

TI’s board of directors, consisting of 12 members, also elected six new board members:

Sion Assidon, deputy secretary  general of TI’s national chapter in Morocco;

Emile Carr, founding members and current chair of TI’s national chapter in Sierra Leone;

Jeremy Carver, president of the British Branch of the International Law Association, and former partner with law firm Coward Chance (now Clifford Chance) for 30 years;

Mercedes de Freitas, executive director of Transparencia Venezuela;

Mark Mullen, chair of TI’s Georgian chapter since 2001; and

Elisabeth Ungar Bleier, executive director of TI’s chapter in Colombia since 2009.

A brief description of their full bios can be found here.

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