Jane Wales is Vice President of the Aspen Institute and Executive Director of its Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation (PSI). She is the founder of the Global Philanthropy Forum and its regional affiliates, and the former host of the nationally syndicated National Public Radio interview show WorldAffairs.

Previously, Ms. Wales served in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of the National Security Council. She simultaneously served as Associate Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where her office was responsible both for advancing sustainable economic development, through science and technology cooperation, and for developing policy for securing advanced weapons materials in the former Soviet Union. In the Carter Administration, Wales served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of state.

In the philanthropic sector, Ms. Wales chaired the international security programs at the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the W. Alton Jones Foundation, and she directed the Project on World Security at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. From 2007 to 2008, she served as acting CEO of The Elders, chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and founded by Nelson Mandela. In 2008, Wales also chaired the Poverty Alleviation Track for the Clinton Global Initiative. Ms. Wales is a member of the board of directors for the Center for a New American Security and OpenCorporates, and is Chair of the Board of FSG.