Africa Advisory Board

Ambassador Lannon Walker (Ret.), Chairman, entered the Foreign Service of the United States of America in 1961, beginning a diplomatic career which spanned 38 years. All but one of his tours with the Foreign Service was either in Africa or focused on African affairs in Washington, D.C. Among the senior positions he held were Ambassador to Senegal, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire, as well as Deputy Chief of Mission, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Deputy Inspector General. Ambassador Walker retired from his position with the Foreign Service in 1999 at the rank of Career Minister. Currently, as President and CEO of Africa Strategy Corp. and chairman of JWI’s Africa Advisory Board, Ambassador Walker returns frequently to Africa, where he is able to apply his deep understanding of the region on clients’ behalf.

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Christian Brachet is a former senior official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), serving as Deputy Secretary of the Fund and then Deputy Director of the African Department. After first joining the IMF in 1967, Mr. Brachet held positions including a number of assignments in the Western Hemisphere and then in the IMF’s Policy Development and Review Departments. He was Director of the Fund’s European Offices from 1996-99. Mr. Brachet has worked on a variety of policy issues related to Fund operations and financial facilities. He led a large number of surveillance and use-of-Fund-resources missions in Latin America at the time of the debt crisis of the early 1980s, as well as in Europe and Africa. More recently, Mr. Brachet has served as permanent consultant to the IMF. Mr. Brachet is a graduate of the Institute of Political Studies of the University of Paris, where he also studied Law, Economics, and Literature.

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General Carlton W. Fulford, Jr., USMC (Ret.) is a highly respected and much-decorated U.S. military expert who in 2003 retired from the Marine Corps as Deputy Commander of U.S. European Command, a position that included extensive work on U.S.-Africa relations. General Fulford subsequently served as Director of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Department of Defense regional center. Previous assignments with the Marine Corps included Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific; Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Bases, Pacific; Commanding General, I Marine Expeditionary Force; Commanding General, III Marine Expeditionary Force; Commanding General, 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade; and Commanding Officer, Task Force Ripper (Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm). Gen. Fulford has served as Director, The Joint Staff; Vice Director, the Joint Staff; and Commanding General Marine Corps Bases, Japan. He is on the Board of Trustees for the Institute for Defense Analysis and co-chairs the Board of Visitors for National Defense University.

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Ambassador Cameron Hume (Ret.), in his 40 years with the U.S. Foreign Service, served as Ambassador to Algeria, South Africa and Indonesia. In addition, he was Chief of Mission in Khartoum, Sudan, and represented the U.S. at peace talks that ended Mozambique’s civil war. Ambassador Hume’s extensive experience in Africa also includes a Foreign Service assignment in Tunisia, several missions related to conflicts in central Africa, and Peace Corps service in Libya. The U.S. State Department honored Ambassador Hume with three Superior Honor Awards and a Distinguished Service Award. He has been a guest scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace and a senior fellow at Harvard University, and he now teaches at Georgetown University. Ambassador Hume is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and the state of New York, and has published three books and numerous articles on international affairs. He is a member of NOAA’s Ocean Exploration Advisory Board and consults on environment policy and negotiation strategy.

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Admiral H.G. Ulrich, III, USN (Ret.) pioneered the Global Maritime Domain Awareness movement, and is a recognized leader in that field. During his 35-year naval career, Admiral Ulrich served simultaneously as Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet; Commander, Naval Striking and Support Force North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); and Commander, Allied Joint Command Naples. Admiral Ulrich’s final tour was as Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe (COMNAVEUR) and as Commander, Allied Joint Forces Command Naples (JFCN). His many sea and shore assignments included deployments to Africa. Stateside, Admiral Ulrich served on the staffs of the Joint Chiefs of Naval Operations; as Director of Cruise Missile Plans and Policy; and as Director of Surface Warfare. Under his leadership, the Navy’s Task Force EXCEL (Excellence through Commitment to Education and Learning) created and implemented ground-breaking tools and processes for training sailors.

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