Jean-Louis Billon
Chairman of the Board
Jean-Louis Billon is recognized as a leading human rights proponent in Africa.
Jean-Louis was appointed to Minister of Trade Ivorian Government: Minister of Trade in 2012 by then-President Alassane Ouattara. In October 2021, Jean-Louis announced his candidacy for the presidential election scheduled for 2025.
Jean-Louis is also a businessperson who has been at the head of 12 different companies. Currently, he holds the position of Chairman for Sucrivoire SA, Chairman at Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Cote-d'Ivoire, Chairman for Compagnie Hôteliére de la Lagune SA and Chairman for Societe Africaine de Plantations d' Heveas SA. Mr. Billon is also on the board of Rubber Estates Nigeria Ltd. (former Chairman), Comafrique Technologies and Movis International SA and Member of Le Conseil National du Patronat Ivoirien, Member of Conseil Economique et Social and Member of Fédération des Industries et Services de Cote d'Ivoire.
He previously occupied the position of Chairman at Sifcom, Chairman for SIFCA COOP, Chairman at Sifca SA, Managing Director at Unipar Carbocloro SA, Chairman at Ghana Rubber Estates Ltd., Chairman for UUREL, and Chairman of Warel.
Mr. Billon received a graduate degree from the University of Montpellier.
Dr. Alan W. White, Ph.D.
Co-Executive Director, Board of Directors
Dr. White currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of the Advocacy Foundation for Human Rights (AFHR) in Washington, DC.
Dr. White is a retired US Federal Law Enforcement Senior Executive, where he served as the Director of Investigations, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Office of Inspector General, US Department of Defense, Washington, DC, responsible for oversight of all DCIS criminal investigative and law enforcement operations worldwide.
Dr. White also served as a Senior Executive with the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, where he served as the Chief of Investigations responsible for directing all war crimes and criminal investigations for the Office of the Prosecutor concerning those bearing the greatest responsibility for the civil war in Sierra Leone.
Dr. White's efforts led to multiple indictments and convictions, including former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who was the first sitting Head of State indicted and convicted of war crimes, receiving a 50-year sentence.
Dr. White is also a partner in BW Global Group, LLC, Washington, DC, where he provides a wide variety of consulting services involving human rights violations, anti-corruption, and governmental affairs globally and engages various governments and legislatures seeking justice and accountability for their clients, including prosecutions, sanctions, and other remedies.
Dr. White is also the President of AW Associates, LLC, and provided consulting services, such as an Executive Mentor for the US State Department working with the Ministries of Interior and Justice in Afghanistan to establish anti-corruption, anti-terrorism, and anti-kidnapping programs.
Dr. White served as the Executive Director for the United Kingdom, DFID $35 million government-wide anti-corruption Program in Uganda known as Strengthening Uganda's Anti-corruption Response (SUGAR), Kampala, Uganda. Dr. White developed a government-wide Anti-corruption Program Response coordinating criminal, civil, and administrative actions against those individuals and companies involved in bribery, fraud, and corruption.
Dr. White established worldwide Anti-corruptions & Anti-Fraud Programs for the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Dr. White served on Active Duty and as a Reservist in the United States Air Force as a Special Agent for the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), conducting global investigations involving criminal, fraud, counterintelligence, counterespionage, anti-terrorism, and counterterrorism matters stationed in the United States and Europe.
Dr. White served as a Police Officer for the City of Moraine, Ohio conducting law enforcement duties and is a graduate of the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy. Dr. White received the Moraine Police Valor Commendation for engaging and arresting an armed robbery suspect while exchanging gunfire.
Jeffrey C. Birrell
Co-Executive Director, Board of Directors
Jeff is a public relations and government affairs specialist with 35-plus years of experience in Washington, D.C. Jeff has implemented programs in Washington, DC, New York, London, Paris, Moscow, Riyadh, Seoul, Tokyo, and Kuala Lumpur, and in many African cities, including Abidjan, Morocco, Tripoli, Libreville, Kinshasa, Brazzaville, Johannesburg, and Dar as Salam.
Jeff is the founding member of the BW Global Group, The Grace Group, LLC., the U.S.-Africa Development Corporation, and served as the Executive Vice President and co-founder of the African Leadership and Development Council (ALDC), a not-for-profit supporting Africa’s future leaders. Jeff was a founding partner of Barron-Birrell, Inc., which represented Gabon, the Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Korea, and South Africa.
Jeff has consulted with many Heads of State and corporate CEOs. Jeff co-led U.S. Congressional Delegations (CODELs) to Europe and Africa. Jeff was awarded a PRSA Silver Anvil, the Society’s Highest Award for International Crisis Management.
Jeff has consulted with U.S. private sector concerns with African business interests and provided consulting services to Ambassador Jean Ping, then President of the United Nations General Assembly and Chairman of the African Union. Jeff played a key role in establishing the Gabonese National Parks (11 percent of the total Gabonese landmass) – and preserving essential environmentally threatened forests for generations to come.
The Honorable Kenneth P. Moorefield
Chairman, AFHR Advisory Board
Ambassador Moorefield is the Chairman of the AFHR Advisory Board and brings a career of exceptional leadership skills and experience to the Foundation.
Ambassador Moorefield has enjoyed dual careers in the Department of Defense and the Department of State.
After graduating from West Point, Ambassador Moorefield served combat tours as a U.S. Army Airborne Infantry Platoon Leader in the Dominican Republic operation and in Vietnam as a Mechanized Infantry Company Commander and Vietnamese Infantry Battalion Adviser. Ambassador Moorefield is the recipient of the Silver Star, Bronze Stars for Valor and Service, the Army Commendation Medal (V Device), and the Purple Heart.
More recently, Ambassador Moorefield served as the Deputy Inspector General for Special Plans and Operations for the U.S. Department of Defense. Ken was awarded the IG Distinguished Service award for his innovative solutions to U.S. security interests worldwide. Ken served within the U.S. Department of State as a Senior Representative and Foreign Affairs Senior Advisor to the Iraq/Afghanistan Inter-Agency Transition Planning Group, where he supervised joint civilian-military teams that produced assessments on key national security objectives and issues; timely recommendations improved U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ken was the Co-Recipient of the Secretary of Defense Exemplary Service Award.
Appointed in 2002, Ken served as the U.S. Ambassador to the West African Republics of Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe. As U.S. Ambassador, Ken played a vital role in representing U.S. interests in the strategically important Gulf of Guinea. Ken negotiated directly with coup leaders and multiple African Heads of State and successfully reestablished democratic governance in Sao Tome. Ken was awarded the Department of State Superior Honor Award for Heroism.
Critically, Ambassador Moorefield led the U.S. Government’s Central African environmental strategy to halt the degradation of the invaluable Congo Basin tropical rain forests. Ken was recommended for the Department of State’s highest Environmental Accomplishment Award.
Ken also held senior diplomatic positions at U.S. embassies in London, Paris, Brussels, Caracas, Lima, Saigon, and Hanoi. As Special Assistant to the U.S. Ambassador in Saigon, Ken organized the evacuation for tens of thousands of “high-risk” Vietnamese citizens and received the Department of State Superior Honor Award for Heroism.
Ken served as National Director of the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program, “ACTION Agency.”
Ken is currently a Senior Advisor and Member of the Board of Directors at CogentInfor Technology and is an active member on the Board of Directors for the Enough Is Enough Foundation.
Ambassador Moorefield earned a Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy (Class of 1965) and did his Graduate Studies in International Affairs at Georgetown University.
Raymond Steven Orzel
AFHR Advisory Board
Raymond Orzel retired as a U.S. Diplomat as the inaugural Director and Executive Co-Chair of the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) – a Presidential initiative – at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. As the Head of Delegation, Raymond led the United States’ role as the TFTC Director / Executive Co-Chair with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and partnering with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries in: (1) identifying, tracking, and sharing information about terrorism- financing networks; (2) coordinating joint disruptive designations actions; and (3) offering capacity-building and training assistance to countries in the region to counter terrorism-financing threats.
Prior to the TFTC, Raymond was a Senior Special Agent and executive with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). Raymond is a subject matter expert in Anti-Money Laundering (AML), the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Countering-the-Financing of Terrorism (CFT), Tax Fraud (Kovel Privilege), the USA PATRIOT Act and U.S. Sanctions and Regulatory Compliance regimes. Raymond is a court-certified financial expert witness, Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator (CCI), and Forensic Accountant with over thirty-two years of comprehensive law enforcement, investigative, intelligence, legislative, policy, oversight, and regulatory experience.
Raymond currently serves as a Financial Crimes Investigations Trainer and Consultant for U.S. and International Law Enforcement, and Training Associate at Analysis International, Limited, which provides outstanding training for the financial intelligence community focusing on the exploitation of Financial Intelligence to deal with the growing threats from Terrorists, Extremists, Organized Criminal Networks, Money Launderers and Human Traffickers. Raymond is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy supporting the Center’s Mission to secure America’s founding principles and freedom through forthright national security analysis and policy solutions. Raymond is also a Founding Partner of ORZEL GLOBAL LLC, which specializes in analytics, due diligence, training, and the use of global financial intelligence in anti-money laundering, commercial, counterterrorism, counterproliferation, and asset investigations.
Raymond has been recognized for investigative excellence by, the United States, Congress, Departments of Treasury, Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as well as both foreign law enforcement and foreign intelligence agencies (New Scotland Yard, Swiss Federal Police, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and Saudi Arabia and Bahrain Interior Ministries). Raymond has comprehensive experience in international settings and in developing and delivering training through productive partnerships with multinational partners. Raymond has served as a Senior Counterproliferation and Counterterrorism Fellow for the U.S. House of Representatives Committees on Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security writing legislation, preparing Congressional briefs and white papers, and conducting Congressional Investigations.
Raymond has received commendations for meritorious service to the FBI National /Joint Terrorism Task Force (NJTTF & JTTF) and Strategic Information & Operations Center (SIOC); the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC); Swiss Task Force Terror USA; the United Nations Special Court for Sierra Leone (UNSCSL); US-Saudi Joint Task Force on Terrorist Financing (JTFTF), the Iraq Threat Finance Cell (ITFC), and the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force. Raymond is the recipient of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA), 2007 National Award, for his role in the Virginia Tech Shooting Response Investigation.
Raymond is a graduate of Michigan State University earning a B.A. in International Relations and he holds graduate Certificates in Forensic Accounting and Taxation from Georgetown University and the University of Michigan, respectively.
Abbe Jolles
Attorney, AFHR Advisory Board
Abbe Jolles is a Washington, DC-based International Human Rights litigator, (AJGloballegal.com). She represents clients worldwide including conflict zones. In addition, she serves as a corporate human rights advisor to various global corporations. Abbe is a founding member and executive officer of Hear Their Cries (HTC). She has tried hundreds of cases in the US and around the world.
In 2015 Abbe was nominated as Global Justice Ambassador. She was considered again in 2021. Also, in 2021 she evacuated a family of five, including a disabled mother and an infant, out of Afghanistan.
She is a senior advisor to Global Liberty Alliance and general counsel to American Council for Women, Peace and Security.
She advises the US House and Senate on human rights issues and advises Congressional witnesses including whistleblowers. She has also testified before Congress.
Abbe has achieved several “firsts:” She is the first American woman admitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the first American admitted to the African Court on Human and People’s Rights. She achieved a landmark ruling, a historical first, in the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UNICTR) and is a recognized expert on incitement to genocide.
In addition, she served on the Discipline Council for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and is admitted to the Special Tribunal of Lebanon (STL).
She represents those in workplace disputes worldwide, including before the United Nations Dispute and Appeals Tribunals (UNDT, UNAT) in New York, Nairobi, and Geneva. Abbe attended Antioch College (Yellow Springs, Ohio), the London School of Economics (London, UK), and the University of Oregon School of Law (Eugene, Oregon). She is admitted to the Washington, DC Bar. She speaks English and French.
