Advisory Board

Ambassador (ret.) Richard E. Hoagland is the Security and Political Program Chair and board member of the Caspian Policy Center. He was U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, October 2013-August 2015. Before returning to Washington in September 2013, he spent a decade in South and Central Asia. He was U.S. Deputy Ambassador to Pakistan (2011-2013), U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan (2008-2011), and U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan (2003-2006). He also served as U.S. Charge d’affaires to Turkmenistan (2007-2008). Prior to his diplomatic assignments in Central Asia, Ambassador Hoagland was Director of the Office of Caucasus and Central Asian Affairs in the Bureau of Europe and Eurasian Affairs, Department of State (2001-2003). In that position, he wrote and negotiated four of the key bilateral documents defining the Central Asian states’ enhanced relationship with the United States in the aftermath of 9/11. His earlier foreign assignments included Russia where he was Press Spokesman for the U.S. Embassy (1995-1998). During the course of his career, he received multiple Presidential Performance Awards, State Department Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards, as well as the Distinguished Honor Award.

Dr. Kangas is a Professor of Central Asian Studies at the Near East South Asian Center for Strategic Studies and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University. His areas of interest include Central and South Asia, the former USSR, transnational threats and terrorism, international security organization, and energy security. Dr. Kangas has published both books and articles on Central Asia. He was previously a Professor of Central Asian Studies at the George C. Marshall Center for European Security and Deputy Director of the Central Asian Institution at the Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He furthermore advised the Combatant Commands, NATO, and other US government agencies on Central and South Asia, Russia, and the South Caucasus.

Mr. Erzhan Kazykhan is the Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan for International Cooperation. He previously served as Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to the United States (2017-2021) and Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (2014-2017). Before becoming Ambassador to the United Kingdom, he held the position of Assistant to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan since 2012 and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan since 2011. Mr. Erzhan Kazykhan has previously served as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, as well as the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Austria, Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the International Organizations in Vienna and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. Born on August 21, 1964 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, he earned his bachelor’s degree in Oriental studies from the Saint Petersburg State University in 1987. He continued his studies at the Moscow Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991; the Foreign Service Training Institute in New Delhi, India, in 1992; and the Foreign Service Training Center in Washington, D.C. in 1993. Ambassador Kazykhan holds PhD in History from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. He is the author of numerous articles on Kazakhstan’s foreign policy issues, multilateral diplomacy and the role of the United Nations. He speaks Russian, English and Arabic, and is the recipient of several State Awards.

Rear Admiral (ret.) Ron MacLaren is a senior fellow and board member of the Caspian Policy Center. He was born in Seoul, Korea, but was raised in Mexico, Peru and the Panama Canal Zone. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Auburn University. He received his commission as a Supply Corps officer through the ROTC in 1979. He has served in leadership positions both on land and at sea. He has extensive expeditionary logistics experience having held command of the Navy Cargo Handling and Port Group 3, the Navy Supply Support Battalion 2, the Naval Operational Logistics Support unit, the Navy Cargo Handling Battalion (NCHB) 12 and the Naval Supply Center Pensacola 109. He has broad joint and combined staff experience having served as chief of staff, Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Force; deputy director, United States Pacific Command Deployment and Distribution Operations Center; deputy director of Logistics, United States Joint Forces Command 206 and Logistics Response Cell watch chief, United States Atlantic Command 206. He also mobilized as the group commander, Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group Forward Golf in 2007-2008 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. After selection to flag rank, MacLaren was assigned as the assistant deputy chief of staff for Logistics, Fleet Supply and Ordnance, U.S. Pacific Fleet in October 2009. He was recalled to active duty in March 2010 to serve as director, Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office (JCASO). JCASO was established by the Department of Defense to orchestrate, synchronize and integrate program management of contingency acquisition across combatant commands, U.S. Government agencies and Multi-National operations during pre-conflict operations, contingency operations and combat operations. He was promoted to the two star rank in October 2013, the highest rank achievable in the Supply Corps for a Reserve Officer. In this position, he led collaborative business development efforts with foreign governments, multi-national forces, government agencies such as the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury, the General Services Administration, the Department of Commerce, the President’s U.S. Trade Representative’s office, the National Security Council as well as the Army, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and the Navy. He spent 5 years conducting business development for the U.S. Government in the countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Latvia and Lithuania. Concurrently, MacLaren pursued a civilian career in hospital operations from 1983 to 2004 where he operated hospitals as the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Materials Management retiring in 2004.

Mr. Murat Mercan is both a diplomat and a scholar.  He graduated from the Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering of Boğaziçi University in 1981.  He received his Master's Degree from the same Department in 1984, and completed his Ph.D studies in 1989 at the Department of Decision and Information Sciences of the University of Florida.  He then worked as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Quantitative Business Analysis of Cleveland State University and at the Department of Management of Bilkent University. He became an Associate Professor in 1995 and continued teaching at Bilkent University. Ambassador Mercan is a Founding Member of AK Parti (the Justice and Development Party). He worked as a Member of the Party’s Central Decision Making and Administrative Board (2001-2009), and was Deputy for Eskişehir during the 22nd and 23rd terms of the Turkish Parliament. From 2002 until 2007, he was Chairman of the Turkish Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Interparliamentary European Defense and Security Assembly, and the Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He served as the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Turkish Grand National Assembly during the 23rd term of the Parliament (2007-2011), as Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Türkiye (2012-2014) and as Chairman of the World Energy Council Turkish National Committee (2014-2017).  In 2017, he was appointed as Turkish Ambassador to Japan and held this office until he assumed his duties as Ambassador of Türkiye to the U.S. in March of 2021. He retired in January 12,2024. 

David Moran is the CPC's UK Adviser. He was in the UK Foreign Office from 1985 to 2023 and served as British Ambassador to Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and (non-resident) to Liechtenstein and the Kyrgyz Republic. From May 2021 to August 2023 Mr Moran was the UK Government’s Regional Climate (COP26) and Energy Ambassador for Europe and Central Asia. His other posts were to Nairobi, Moscow, Paris (at the OECD), Tbilisi and Yerevan (in both cases as Chargé d’Affaires with the personal rank of Ambassador). Mr Moran’s many policy and operational roles in London included Head of the Foreign Office Global Economic Issues Department and Cabinet Office Deputy Director for Early Warning and Transnational Issues. Before joining the UK Civil Service he worked for the State of Oregon and as a professional blues pianist.

Aziza Umarova is a thoughtful practitioner who brings regional insight and analysis, an expert on the development and the political economy of reforms in Central Asia. A former development practitioner with the largest UN agency, her experience includes serving as Advisor on Public Sector Innovation at UNDP’s Global Center for Public Sector Excellence in Singapore and leading UNDP’s governance portfolio in Uzbekistan. Since 2017, she has devised and delivered numerous public policy projects through her own boutique strategy consulting company SmartGov, working closely with the governments of Central Asia on institutional reforms. Umarova engaged in a variety of roles: OECD’s monitoring expert on the Anti-Corruption Istanbul Action Plan in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Azerbaijan; Associate Editor for Eurasia at GovInsider, the platform on public sector innovation, catering to the audience of over 1.1 million government officials worldwide. Umarova is a regular speaker and author of numerous articles on public governance reforms, including a chapter in the book “Public Service Evolution in 15 Post-Soviet Countries: Diversity in Transformation” (Palgrave, 2021). Umarova is a certified Independent Director and currently serves as an Independent member of the Boards at two State Owned Enterprises. She holds a master’s degree (MA) from St Andrews University, Chevening scholarship (2006). She worked and lived in the United Kingdom, China, Austria, and Singapore. Research fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.

Marsha McGraw Olive, Ph.D., is a scholar and practitioner of Russian and Eurasian affairs. She is currently on the faculty of Johns Hopkins SAIS, an Advisory Board member of the Caspian Policy Center and Eurasia Foundation, and Global Fellow at the Wilson Center. In March 2024 she moderated the B5+1 Forum in Almaty, the first public-private dialogue ever held in Central Asia. Earlier she received a George F. Kennan Fellowship to develop a new US regional strategy in Central Asia. Dr. Olive’s thirty-year career in the region began in 1991-92, when she joined the newly-created Soviet unit in the World Bank and participated in its first mission to Central Asia. She led strategic planning and managed investment and grant portfolios in Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Central Asia with the World Bank and as Senior Vice President of the Eurasia Foundation. As the Bank’s Country Manager in Tajikistan, she participated in major regional infrastructure and water projects such as CASA-1000 and the Rogun Dam feasibility study. From 2018-2022 she was the lead consultant on the World Bank’s Regional Engagement Framework for Central Asia (REFCA). Dr. Olive earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins SAIS. She is the author of monographs on Russia and Central Asia. Her most recent book is Owning the City: Property Rights in Authoritarian Regimes (Agenda Publishing 2022).

Bruce Pannier studied Central Asia at Columbia University under the legendary Central Asian scholar Edward Allworth. Pannier went to Tashkent State University in the summer of 1990, and in 1992-1993 led a sociological research project co-sponsored by the University of Manchester and the Soros Fund for Cultural Initiative in villages in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, and has been a frequent visitor to the region since then. He worked for the Prague-based Open Media Research Institute in 1995-1997 before joining Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, where he worked 1997-2022. Pannier has written for Jane’s Intelligence, Freedom House, The Economist Intelligence Unit, the Cairo Review, the FSU Oil & Gas Monitor, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy Research Institute, BNE Intellinews, and Eurasianet.  

Dr. Eric Rudenshiold is the Senior Fellow for Caspian Affairs and served under Presidents Trump and Biden as National Security Council Director for Central Asia. He has extensive experience on a range of foreign policy issues, including democracy and human rights, international affairs and development, and counter terrorism. His areas of regional expertise include the Caucasus and Central Asia, Eurasia/Europe, and multilateral organizations. From his work at the NSC, on Capitol Hill and at USAID, Dr. Rudenshiold brings hands-on knowledge of Washington’s institutional and political environment to the Caspian Policy Center. At the NSC he received three awards of distinction and guided the U.S. inter-agency policy process on U.S. interests in Central Asia; national security issues including on counter-terrorism, Russia, Iran and China; and Trans-Caspian and Caucasus issues. Prior to serving at the NSC, Dr. Rudenshiold served in a variety of capacities for the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2007 to 2018, including: acting roles as Deputy Assistant Administrator, Country Office Director, Director for South/Central Asia, Senior Officer in Charge for Central Asia, and Senior Adviser. He received numerous Superior Honor and other awards during his tenure with the U.S. Government. Before joining USAID, he served in senior diplomatic roles with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as with UNDP and a number of assistance implementers. Having lived and worked overseas for more than a dozen years, including in the former-Soviet Union, he has extensive experience across the Europe and Eurasia region. Dr. Rudenshiold also worked as a journalist and editor, has published broadly and is a frequent speaker and lecturer. He taught graduate-level courses at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs from 2009 to 2018. His PhD in International Affairs was awarded from the University of Virginia.

James Sharp worked in the UK Foreign Office from 1987 to 2022, including a four year secondment to the Home Office. His final post was as British Ambassador to Azerbaijan, having earlier served as Ambassador to Kazakhstan and (non-resident) Kyrgyzstan from 2002-05. He has had a number of other roles dealing with former Soviet countries, including at the OSCE in Vienna, and a short stint covering for the Ambassador to Turkmenistan.  He also spent several years at home and overseas specialising in migration issues (including in Hong Kong as the UK Border Agency’s Asia Pacific Director). His initial focus lay in the Middle East, having read Modern Middle Eastern Studies at university and having worked for British Aerospace in Saudi Arabia, before serving at the British Embassy in Cairo.

Dr. Cagaptay is the Beyer Family fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute. He has conducted extensive research on US-Turkish relations and the domestic political and cultural situation in Turkey. He has been published in both academic journals and international news media and appears regularly on television news outlets. He previously taught at Yale University, Princeton University, where he was the Ertegun Professor at Princeton’s Department of Near Eastern Studies, Georgetown University, and Smith College.

Richard Spooner holds B.A and M.A. degrees in Russian Studies from Yale University and while pursuing these studies completed semester programs in Moscow and in Leningrad. In the 1980s he worked as Sr. Project Manager in the Moscow office of the US-USSR Trade & Economic Council and then as Head of the Moscow office of the American Trade Consortium, which included Chevron Corporation, before relocating to Kazakhstan in March of 1992, where for 15 years he coordinated a team of Western legal, financial and technical consultants who advised the Government of Kazakhstan on attracting foreign investment to the oil and gas sector, including the Karachaganak, CPC and Kashagan projects, and then administering those contracts. Subsequently he worked as an independent consultant, providing risk assessment and litigation support to clients already active or considering engagement in FSU countries. He has long-standing relationships with leaders in business and government in Kazakhstan and a unique understanding of how both systems operate and interact. While working in the private sector, where he currently advises a major US corporation on an investment project in the agroindustry, he has monitored and analyzed political, geopolitical and economic developments in Kazakhstan, Central Asia and the entire Caspian region for the last 30 years. Resides in Astana. 

Dr. James Jay Carafano is a leading expert in national security and foreign policy affairs. Carafano previously served as the Vice President of Heritage Foundation’s Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy and served in the US Army for 25 years.  He is an accomplished historian and teacher as well as a prolific writer and researcher.

Dr. Starr is the founding Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies program, a transatlantic research center between Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and the Institution for Security and Development Policy. Dr. Starr was also the founding Chairman of the Kennan Institute and was involved in planning the University of Central Asia and the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. He has conducted extensive research and published both articles and books on the history, development, and domestic situations of greater Central Asia, as well as on US policy in Central Asia. Dr. Starr furthermore writes about the region for media outlets and journals.