Ann Florini

Founding Member

Ann Florini is Clinical Professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, where she directs programs at the Washington DC campus.

Before joining Thunderbird in July 2019, she spent a year as Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. Prior to that, she worked in Singapore, first as the founding director of the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the National University of Singapore (2006-2011), and then as Professor of Public Policy at Singapore Management University (2011-2018), where she created and ran the unique Masters of TriSector Collaboration.  She has held senior appointments at a number of think tanks and research institutes, including as Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution (2002-2012), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Center for International and Strategic Affairs at UCLA, and the United Nations Association of the USA.

Professor Florini has spearheaded numerous international projects focused on innovative approaches to global problem-solving and governance, including the Study Group on Global Energy Governance at the National University of Singapore (2009-2011), the Global Governance Initiative on behalf of the World Economic Forum (2002-2006) and the International Task Force on Transparency, Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University (2000-2005). She is currently working with the Global Commission on Adaptation to address governance of climate adaptation.

She is author, co-author, or editor of numerous books and monographs, including: China Experiments: From Local Innovation to National Reform (with Hairong Lai and Yeling Tan, Brookings Press 2012); The Right to Know: Transparency for an Open World (Columbia University Press, May 2007); The Coming Democracy: New Rules for Running a New World (Island Press, 2003/Brookings Press 2005); and The Third Force:  The Rise of Transnational Civil Society (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace/Japan Center for International Exchange, 2000). In addition, she has published numerous scholarly and policy articles in journals such as Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Asian Management Insights, Brookings Review, Energy PolicyForeign PolicyGlobal Environmental Politics, Global GovernanceGlobal PolicyHarvard International Review, the Journal of Civil Society, the Journal of Energy and Natural Resources LawInternational Studies Review, International Security, and International Studies Quarterly.

Her undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive education teaching focuses on cross-sector collaborations involving business, government, and civil society.

Prof Florini received her Ph.D. in Political Science from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Master’s in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.