Senior Fellows

Giorgio Balestrieri

Marty Borruso

John L. German

Carlos A. Lithgow, Jr.

Giorgio Balestrieri

Giorgio Balestrieri is President of the Rotary Club of New York (www.nyrotary.org ). He is an international consultant in “Sea-Land & Airport Cross Border Security” and an expert in advanced Homeland Security technologies and methodologies to counter narco-terrorism.

Commander Balestrieri is a former navy officer, graduate of the Italian Navy Cammanding Schol and Captain of a combat ship. He received a degree from the Navy College/University of Pisa, in “Defense & Security Sciences” and has over 40 years’ experience in NATO) and national operations, in international affairs, liaison and negotiations for regional development and conflict prevention.

An involved member of the Rotary Club of New York for over 20 years, Giorgio is best known for implementing the International Days in the mid-90s and in the founding in November 2001 of the International Breakfast Meetings at the UN. He also, with Ambassadors and Fellow Rotarians, started the process for the approval of the United Nations Public-Private Alliance for Rural Development in 2003.

In March 2005, as the Chairman of the International Service Division of New York Rotary, he was a key player in the peace development process in the Caucasus with the Declaration signed by the representatives of over four hundred Rotarians who came to Ankara from Armenia, Azerbaijan, George and Turkey.

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Marty Borruso

Marty Borruso is currently a principal at Medesco (www.medesco.net), based in New Jersey, which provides clients with optimally configured technology solutions to meet the demand for low cost and high efficiency energy sources. Medesco, LLC consults, designs, and installs on-site Tri-generation (Combined Cooling, Heating and Power or CCHP) energy systems for mid-size and large facilities. These systems are custom configured to each facilities energy profile to optimally balance cost efficiency, environmental footprint and energy security.

Previously Marty was Chief Executive Officer of Fuel BioHoldings, a Biodiesel fuel business he founded. In 2005, he built and operated a 12 million gallon Biodiesel production facility in Newark, New Jersey, which he later sold. Marty has spent 30 years working as an entrepreneur, engineer, and chemist in pollution prevention, waste treatment, metal finishing, lean manufacturing, co-generation, and alternative fuels. He began his business career in 1976 at the D France Corporation where he was vice president and worked on integrating pollution prevention programs in manufacturing processes.

In 1983, he founded Plating Systems Incorporated, a metal finishing company that was also involved in industrial waste treatment and process system development, including implementation of ISO standards in manufacturing. In 1990, he founded an engineered systems company which designed and built automatic plating machines, industrial wastewater systems and over 50 co-generation sites. Marty is involved in environmental issues in New York and New Jersey working on Brownfield remediation as well as contributing to the consumer tax credit for Biodiesel in heating oil in the recent gas tax reduction legislation.

Marty holds a BS in Forensic Chemistry from John Jay College in NY City.

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John L. German

At the United Nations, John L. German represents People to People International (founded by President Eisenhower) and other civil-society organizations, and serves as the NGO (non-governmental organization) representative to the Technical Subgroup of the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group on Informatics (informally, the Working Group on Informatics) of the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and as Senior Advisor to the United Nations Public-Private Alliance for Rural Development.

German serves as Director of Non-Profit Computing, Inc. (a nonprofit organization), an all-volunteer organization he founded in 1984. NPC arranges computer donations, procurement, and logistics worldwide. It also advises and assists international organizations on strategy, institutional partnerships, and technology – information and communication technologies, Web 2.0, new media, social media, social networking, online and user-produced video, mobile text messaging campaigns, and the like – for attraction, engagement, advocacy, and activism. NPC is a member of the United Nations Global Compact.

For The Rotary Club of New York, German serves as Co-Chair of its International Service Division.

His paid-job career, after he lived and worked briefly in South Africa, was in international banking, first with a major Brazilian banking group, in Brazil, and then with Citibank, in Brazil and then in the USA. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS from Pennsylvania State University.

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Carlos A. Lithgow, Jr.

Mr. Carlos A. Lithgow, Jr. is a Senior Consultant at Commerce Coverage Group-EAC Brokerage Inc in New York City, specializing in Property & Casualty Insurance and benefits for small and large businesses. Having worked at major investment companies throughout his career, he has also consulted with US and International Institutions in terms of risk and portfolio management. He has also advised High Net Worth individuals and Family offices throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America on asset management and domestic and offshore estate planning. He served an instrumental role in opening up a new Financial Center for Dreyfus Service Corporation in Coral Gables, FL where his group built a client base into one of the top performing offices in the country.

Mr. Lithgow has a Masters Degree in Finance from Florida International University and is a board member and spokesperson for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s NYC patient services group.

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“The United Nations can only do its job properly with partners. We will need to forge even closer ties to civil society groups, foundations, academic institutions, the media, labour unions, and the private sector. Each has unique contributions to make.”

-Ban Ki-moon
UN Secretary-General,
Address to UNA-USA Business Council
for the UN,
New York, 10 January 2007

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