Dr. Sasha Toperich

Dr. Sasha Toperich is the Senior Executive Vice President at Transatlantic Leadership Network

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Sasha Toperich is a Senior Executive Vice President at the Transatlantic Leadership Network in Washington D.C. From 2013 to 2018, he was a Senior Fellow and Director of the Mediterranean Basin, Middle East and Gulf initiative at The Center for Transatlantic Relations, SAIS, at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington D.C.

To learn more, please visit:http://sashatoperich.com/digest-newsletter/

Dr. Toperich is a Non-resident Fellow at the Soran University Research Center in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board at the Mediterranean Development Initiative (MDI) in Tunis, Tunisia.

Publications

Toperich is co-author of two papers in the book Unfinished Business:The Western Balkans and the International Community (Brookings Institution/CTR, 2012), titled The Regulatory Environment in the Financial System in Bosnia and Herzegovina and How to Improve It and A New Paradigm for the Mediterranean: EU-U.S.-North Africa-Southeast Europe.

He is co-editor of the Brookings Institution/CTR publications:

Toperich is also a Featured Columnist at U.S. Military.com, a Contributor to The Hill, and has often contributed to Huffington Post. He also testified at the congressional hearings in Washington D.C.

For complete list of published articles, please visit: http://sashatoperich.com/publications/

Diplomacy

Toperich was appointed Presidential Envoy of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United States. He was the first high-ranking diplomat to officially visit Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein. From 2009-2010, Toperich served as a Counselor at the Permanent Mission of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations. From 2011-2012, he served as an advisor to the member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bakir Izetbegovic.

Philanthropy

Toperich founded the America-Bosnia Foundation (ABF), established to foster stronger political, cultural, and educational ties between the United States and the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The foundation organizes concerts, exhibitions, lectures, panel discussions, conferences, and educational seminars in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United States. ABF’s mission is also to strengthen democratic values in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and to preserve its multiethnic and multicultural character.

In 1997, Dr. Toperich became the President of the Children Foundation of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)

In 1998, he was awarded the title of UNESCO Artist for Peace.

With Shinichiro Okuyama (Japan), he co-founded the World Youth Leadership Network (WYLN), a not-for-profit organization that aims to unite the international youth community through goodwill work and cultural exchange. The organization was launched at the UN headquarters in New York, in April of 2004. The WYLN has contributed and donated computers to schools and universities in Liberia, organized a fundraising concert in Monrovia for the Louis Arther Grimes School of Law, and set up an IT center in Benin in collaboration with the Benin Education Fund and the World Bank.

In association with Laughing Buddha Music Inc., Toperich launched the Visas for Life project, an educational and diplomatic story of a Japanese diplomat, Chiune Sugihara, who saved over 6000 Jews during World War II by issuing transit visas through Japan while serving as a Japanese Consul in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Also in 2004, Toperich served as a project manager for the European Youth Peace Summit held in Sarajevo, bringing together over 500 youth leaders from all over Europe.

Concert Pianist

Toperich’s performances were broadcasted on radio and television programs throughout the world. He has performed concerts in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Germany, Egypt, France, Italy, Israel, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, the United States, and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. He has performed at the Carnegie Hall, het Concertgebouw, Kioi Hall, and other well-known music venues around the world. He has played concerts with conductors such as Zubin Mehta and Kazushi Ono.

The Dutch VPRO Television made a documentary film titled, Sasha Toperich Plays Rachmaninov at Cristofori in Amsterdam.

His 1997 concert in Washington, D.C. was broadcast nationwide on the National Public Radio (NPR) and earned him a nomination for Best Debut Artist. In 2004, he became the first concert pianist to perform in Monrovia (Liberia), a concert organized by Jacques P. Klein, United Nations Special Representative in Liberia. United Nations broadcasted this concert live throughout the African continent.