Officers of the Eurasia Center

Dr. Gerard Janco, President of the Eurasia Center

Dr. Gerard J. Janco is the Founder and President of the Eurasia Center.  Dr. Janco has been a leading force in creating new analytical approaches to understanding recent developments occurring within 21st Century Eurasia. His approach is to access, then understand, the dynamic interrelationships between European and Asian nations after collapse of the Soviet Union. Dr. Janco's models include the economic and military ties compelling European integration, disintegration of the socialist state, and the reemergence of Eastern Europe and Central Asia nations.   Such change is coupled with rapid globalization including trade with Asia, South America, the Middle East, and Africa which is essential for understanding the new Eurasia.

A central feature of Dr. Janco's approach is identifying how the United States can develop lasting relations with these new nations. The new Eurasia encompasses the geo-eco-political landscape of Europe and Asia - regions rich in terms of their history, cultures, peoples, languages, and natural resources.  Such dynamic interactions have lasted over many centuries. After the collapse of the Soviet empire, there is a greater and freer movement of peoples, ideas, and goods.  Such move is facilitated by the Internet.  Dr. Janco's extensive research documents that Eurasian and American policy makers, politicians, business leaders, and educators must understand each other while providing a realistic economic development framework within which to fully nurture these new developments.  

Dr. Janco, as an expert in Eurasian affairs, founded The Eurasia Center in 1988 as The Center for Soviet-American Relations. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the name was changed to The Center for American-Eurasian Studies and Relations.  This was a watershed event making it the first organization in America to adopt the term "Eurasia".  With broad acceptance of the term for this rapidly evolving region of the world the name was shortened to simply "The Eurasia Center".  He created the well regarded Eurasia Report in 1990 as Publisher and Editor.  The Eurasia Report has been newly renamed as "The Eurasia Journal", and it continues as  a leading journal on Eurasian affairs.

Dr. Janco founded the Eurasian Business Coalition (EBC) in 1996.  The EBC is an alliance of businesses from America and Eurasia to promote investments and two-way trade. He has been instrumental in organizing a number of Eurasian "Roundtables".  These events led to The Eurasia Center becoming a prime sponsor of the annual World Russian Forum in Washington, D.C. since 2001.

Dr. Janco is a credentialed expert in international security and political affairs having earned a double Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He received his Masters Degree in National Security Studies at the George Washington University's School of Public and International Affairs in Washington, D.C. USA.  He has worked for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in the United States Congress, at the United States Institute of Peace, and for the Atlantic Council of the United States. He has lectured extensively at universities in America and also at some of the oldest universities in Eastern Europe including the Charles University in Prague, Jageillonian University in Cracow, Comenius University in Bratislava, and related universities in Russia. He has been instrumental in setting up American liaison offices in Prague and Moscow.  Dr. Janco has been further energized to bring even greater numbers of programs and initiatives for greater progress to Eurasian and America.

 

 

Earl Rasmussen, Executive Vice President of the Eurasia Center

Earl Rasmussen has over 25 years experience in research and development, technology integration, and business management.  He has lived and traveled extensively to over 30 countries with strong international relationships.  Throughout his career he has bridged the gap between technology innovation and business implementation to successfully transform organizations.  He has interfaced directly with senior management across various organizations in investment analysis, strategy development, and investment/program oversight.  His principle focus with the Eurasia Center is to further efforts in developing strategic relationships with international businesses and to promote economic growth in Central and Eastern Europe regions.

Mr. Rasmussen spent 20 years with the military in the information technology area where he focused in technology transition.  He was involved with the testing and fielding of more than 20 systems and identified future technology requirements to meet operational needs. He was a principle technical advisor with the Army’s Software Centers where he managed software engineering modernization initiatives.  Additionally, he led a Joint Service working group affecting training and career development for over 120,000 acquisition and technology professionals across the Department of Defense.

As a senior consultant, Mr. Rasmussen developed a practice area providing business planning and analysis across multiple government agencies and departments.  As director of Business Transformation he was responsible for Business Reengineering, Business Analysis, Project Management, and Training capabilities providing critical services to multiple clients across government.  Mr. Rasmussen’s most recent efforts have been focused on the international area.  He has traveled extensively world-wide developing strong personal and business relationships. He has assisted companies in technical innovation, identifying new markets, and developing future strategies to include market access and developing strategic business partnerships. 

Mr. Rasmussen holds a B.S. degree in Physics from the U.S. Military Academy and a M.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois.  He is active in several professional, non-profit, and international trade organizations. He is a Certified Acquisition Professional with DoD certifications in Program Management and Information Technology; and is a licensed Professional Engineer.

 

Directors of the Eurasia Center

Erwin Epstein

 

Dr. Erwin H. Epstein, Vice President, Director, International Education Program

Dr. Erwin H. Epstein is the Director of the Center for Comparative Education and Professor of Cultural and Educational Policy Studies at Loyola University Chicago.  He has been a Fulbright Professor in Mexico and has lectured on Comparative Education at universities also in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Germany, Nicaragua, Peru, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. His research focuses on sense of nationality among schoolchildren in socio-economically marginalized communities, school choice, education and democratization, and comparative theory.

He is a former president both of the Comparative and International Education Society and of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies, and for 10 years was Editor of the Comparative Education Review.  His contributions to and interactions with the Eurasia Center ensure the continuing enrichment and enhancement of the academic community’s business education programs.

 

Richard Trifan

 

Richard D. Trifan, Vice President, Government Relations and Business Marketing

Richard’s primary mission is to promote American and European/Asian businesses interrelationships and have them be supported at the government level as well as within the global business community.  Richard’s business focus is in strategically growing a market presence at the global level, leveraging his experience in international trade, import-export regulations, and optimization of supply-side and demand-side logistics channels to create “win-win” business partnerships.  He is always current on emerging technologies and applications such as SAP, offered to optimize revenue realization and EBIT by strategic business unit. Richard Trifan holds an MBA in marketing from the Stanley Silberman Business School at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and a BBA in management and finance from the same institution.  He has held several international roles as Director of Global Supply Chain for Conair Corporation and as a Practice Director of Supply Chain at BDO Seidman LLP, one of the “big five” tax and audit firms in the United States, based in New York.

Richard has also consulted with Amtrak, Diam International (a France-based retail cosmetics display firm), Tallan, a leading-edge Web design firm, and has worked for Colgate-Palmolive, Nabisco-Kraft, and the multi-national firm Reckitt-Benckiser in migration of SAP enterprise application systems, managing teams of several dozen employees and contract personnel.  Richard’s senior consulting roles have been within the IT sector as well as in the international operations arena, always optimizing business process and profitability within its supporting technology. He is a member of CLM (Council of Logistics Management), APICS (American Production and Inventory Control Society), a Greenbelt in the Six Sigma and 5S disciplines, and is ITIL-certified to lead global IT initiatives.

 

 

Petrovsky

 

Dr. Vladimir Petrovsky, Director of Russian Studies

Dr. Vladimir Petrovsky is the new Director of Russian Studies and the Eurasia Center’s Representative in Russia. He has been a premier expert on Russian politics and Far Eastern Studies for over 15 years. Dr. Petrovsky has also been a journalist and political commentator on Russian affairs as well. He is the Chairman of the Board of the Russian Political Science Association in Moscow and Member, Russian Academy of Military Sciences. He is a Professor of Political Science at Moscow State University (MGU) and was a professor at the Moscow University of International Relations (MGIMO). He conducted research at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences. In addition, Dr. Petrovsky worked for the United Nations Development Program in Russia, the EU Delegation in Russia, the Russian Public Policy Center Foundation, and USAID/Moscow.

As a journalist, he has worked for the BBC Russian Service, the Moscow Tribune, and Literaturnaya Gazeta. Dr. Petrovsky received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Institute of Far Eastern Studies from the Russian Academy of Sciences and another Ph.D. in International Relations from the Institute of the USA and Canadian Studies (ISKAN) Russian Academy of Sciences. He has been an advisory member to the Russian Federation Council and the State Duma. He has also been member of International Institute for Strategic Studies and President of the Russian National Peace Council.

 

 

Mark Goff

 

Mark Goff, Director of Public Relations and Corporate Communications

As Director of Public Relations and Corporate Communications, Mark Goff can provide the right services for organizations seeking to expand their operations domestically and internationally, as well as assisting governments improve their public image abroad. Mark is a marketing and corporation communication consultant based in the Midwest, specializing in government relations and issues management. He has more than 25 years’ experience working with large corporations on complex public issues, including S.C. Johnson & Son, South African Breweries, Cellnet Technology, Applied Computer Solutions and Kuusakoski Oy of Helsinki, Finland. He was part of the team that assisted Delta Airlines in its successful resistance to a hostile takeover bid in 2007.

Mark previously was chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Jim Moody, a member of the House Public Works and Ways and Means Committees. He has been active in a number of international trade organizations, including the Chicago World Trade Center and the International Trade Association of Greater Chicago. He is also a member of Rotary International, working with the International Youth Exchange Program. Mark holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs from the University of Wisconsin.

 

Ralph Winnie

Ralph Winnie Jr., Director of Global Business Development and the Eurasian Business Coalition's China Program

Ralph E. Winnie, Jr. has been selected as the new director of the Eurasian Business Coalition’s China Program. Ralph has been responsible for advising domestic and foreign clients regarding international tax minimization strategies and joint venture partnerships in China. He has been a VIP guest of the Guangxi Investment Promotion Agency at the annual China-ASEAN Exposition in Nanning, negotiating and establishing relationships with potential Chinese business partners for firm clients. Ralph also works with various coalition and industry groups in Washington, D.C. and has published a definitive article on Taxation of International Athletes which recently appeared in Tax Notes International.

Ralph E. Winnie, Jr. has extensive experience and expertise dealing with members of Congress, U.S. agencies and foreign governments. His foreign governmental contacts are on the highest level, having reviewed an agreement between an Asian Government and the Government of the United States for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to taxes on income and capital. Ralph similarly assisted this same foreign governmental entity by developing relationships with members of Congress in an effort to located medical equipment for the Army Hospital in that country. Ralph E. Winnie, Jr. received an LL.M. in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center in 2002 and graduated magna cum laude from Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in 1999. He is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar.

 

Svetlana Janco

Svetlana Janco, Director of the Charitable Program for Eurasia

Svetlana Janco is the new Director of the Eurasia Center’s Humanitarian Program. The Eurasia Center’s Charitable Program has a long history of helping the poor and vulnerable members of the societies of the former Soviet Union. It has also sought to assist International Relief Agencies during worldwide emergency situations, by urging citizens to donate to the International Red Cross and other important relief partners. The Eurasia Center has highlighted efforts to provide relief for victims of Katrina, the December 2004 Tsunami, the earthquakes in Pakistan, China, and the cyclone in Myanmar.

The Eurasia Center has assisted orphans for over ten years in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of the Eurasia. It continues to do so through its new program of involving school children in America to adopt an orphanage in Eurasia in order to provide them with clothing, toys, books, and the assistance they need. The Eurasia Center’s Charitable Program is creating a new program to get donors and corporations supply computers and computer-based education to Eurasian orphans and disabled children that would never have access to such opportunities in order to develop their full potential and learn about the world. Our partner in Russia, Herman Obuhov, is a pioneer in this field.

 

 

Iryna Whittaker, Director of Public Relations and Women's Studies

Iryna Whittaker is the Director of Public Relations and Women’s Studies at the Eurasia Center. Originally from the Ukraine, Iryna is deeply committed to the positive development of women’s issues in Eurasia. The Eurasia Center has made presentations to a number of women’s groups visiting from Russia and Ukraine. Iryna works with Galina Venediktova, the Center’s assistant director of Women’s Studies in Moscow.

As a counterweight to rising problems, there has been a growing feminism movement in Russia and Eurasia as women in Russia and other independent states are uniting to seek find solutions to the current problems that they are facing.  Their issues require serious research and a sharing of experience and solutions through interchange of ideas with American women. The Eurasia Center has published carefully tailored reports and works with the local nonprofits in Russia and other parts of Eurasia in order to bring these issues to the level of visibility they deserve. Iryna Whittaker believes that there are success stories that the Eurasia Center Women’s Studies Program would like to highlight: successful women in business, and those women who have been successful in developing NGOs in Eurasia, in different fields of endeavor, and most importantly in politics.

 

 

Brendan Howe

Brendan Howe, Director of the Korea and Southeast Asia Programs

IBrendan Howe is Director of the Eurasia Center’s Korean Progand Southeast Asia Program. He has been a permanent faculty member of the Graduate School of International Studies at Ewha Womans University, Seoul, since September, 2001. Previous research and teaching positions have been held at the Centre for International Security Studies, Sydney University; Korea National Defense University; the East-West Center, Hawaii; Georgetown University; University Malaysia Sarawak; Beijing Foreign Studies University; and Troy University programs on US bases in Korea and Japan. Brendan received his PhD (Political Science) from the University of Dublin, Trinity College, an MA in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent at Canterbury, and took Modern History at Oxford University. He is a Director of the Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA) Executive Committee, and has served as an adviser for the Korean Ministry of Unification, the Central Officials Training Institute, and the Korea Institute of Public Administration. He has published extensively in the fields of Northeast Asian Security; Foreign and Security Policy Decision-Making; Normative War-Fighting; Rational Modeling; and International Society and Organization.

 

 

Yury Vasilchenko, Eurasia Center Associate

Yury Vasilchenko was born in Belarus but has also lived in Ukraine, Netherlands and now resides in Washington, DC while attending American University. He is close to a completion of his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with dual concentrations in International Business and Management. Yury is fluent in both Russian and English and had taken numerous Russian language and translation courses while in school. His other attributes include a fondness of – and expertise in – technology as well as communication.

Yury has been with Eurasia center since May 2007 and has helped organize many events, including US-Russia World forums, various seminars, as well as social events. Yury is also the webmaster for The Eurasia Center’s websites and is closely involved in other organizational affairs.

Professionally, Yury aspires to start an Export Import company, as to simultaneously pursue his love for business and travel. He would like to concentrate on Ex-Soviet countries because of the cultural and linguistic advantages he already posses.

 

 

Chimgae Turmrbaatar 

Chimgae Turmurbaatar, Mongolia Country Director

Ms. Chimgae Tumurbaatar is U.S educated and earned her Master’s of Science Degree in Professional Accounting in 2007. Prior to coming to the U.S. Ms. Chimgae Tumurbaatar has worked close with Mongolian Government and Domestic as well as International NGO’s where she developed extensive experience dealing with Members of Parliament.

Her Mongolian governmental contacts are on the highest level including Ministers, Former and Current Parliament Members as well as Local Leaders. She serves as a Treasurer to MSNCA, Inc and Senior Financial Adviser to Mongolia Society, Inc.

 

Profiles and pictures of additional staff members will be added in the coming weeks.