The AFS Board of Trustees is excited to welcome three new members:
- Wendy Kuran (Associate Vice President for Development and Alumni Engagement: Duke Kunshan University and China; Duke University),
- Filipa Santos (Regional Data Protection Officer for JAPAC at the L’Occitane Group)
- Roman Wuellner (Senior Finance Director for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland at Haleon).
They will serve three-year terms, contributing their expertise and leadership to support AFS’s mission of developing Active Global Citizens.
Two new members were also added to the AFS Partner Director Representatives, who work in conjunction with our Board of Trustees: Sherifa Fayez (AFS Egypt), and Anja Kajander (AFS Finland), while Gatot Sam (AFS Indonesia) was re-elected to this position for another term.
The Board leadership was also re-elected to serve another term, confirming Ernesto ReyMoreno as Chair, and Lennart D’hulst as Vice Chair.
AFS remains committed to expanding the reach and impact of intercultural education. The AFS Board’s leadership will be pivotal as AFS works to adapt to new challenges and seize opportunities for growth and impact in the coming years.
For more information about AFS Intercultural Programs and its Board of Trustees, please click here.
Wendy Kuran is an AFS alumna from the flagship study abroad program in Finland and parent to an alum from the program to Chile. She served on the AFS-USA Board from 2019-2025, including a term as Chair. Professionally, Wendy is Associate Vice President for Development and Alumni Engagement for Duke Kunshan University (DKU) and Duke in China. She speaks, teaches, and writes about the development of philanthropy in China. From 2007 to 2012, Wendy served as Associate Dean for Centers and Global Corporate Relations at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, accountable for the school’s industry-facing strategies and initiatives. Prior to her transition to academia, she pursued a 25-year career in the health care industry, holding senior-executive positions in hospital administration, health insurance design and management, consumer wellness, prescription drug management and new product development at UnitedHealthcare, PacifiCare Health Systems and St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, CA. Wendy earned her A.B. in English Magna cum laude from Princeton University and her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Throughout her career, Wendy has been a board member and consultant for a broad array of nonprofit organizations.
Filipa Santos is an international corporate lawyer and privacy professional with over 20 years of experience working across Europe and Asia. Dual‑qualified in Portugal and Macau, she has built a career advising multinational organizations on legal strategy, data protection, governance, and regulatory compliance. Filipa currently serves as the Regional Data Protection Officer for JAPAC at the L’Occitane Group, where she leads privacy strategy across 22 markets and supports senior leadership in navigating complex and fast‑evolving regulatory landscapes. Filipa’s connection to AFS spans over two decades. An alumna of the AFS Year Program (Portugal–USA, 1999–2000), she has remained an active volunteer and served in multiple volunteer leadership roles, from Hosting Coordinator and Chapter President in Lisbon to Chair of the Board of AFS Portugal, and more recently, as a Board Member of AFS Hong Kong. Filipa is deeply committed to advancing intercultural learning, global citizenship, youth empowerment, and the mission and values of AFS.
Roman Wüllner is a seasoned finance executive and transformation leader with more than 20 years of experience in multinational corporations across Europe. He currently serves as Senior Finance Director for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland at Haleon, a global consumer health company, where he leads a diverse finance team and oversees all financial and statutory responsibilities across multiple entities. Throughout his career, Roman has focused on strategic transformation, financial governance, and people-centered leadership. He has a proven track record of building high-performing teams, driving growth, and guiding organizations through change. Before joining Haleon, he held senior finance and leadership roles at Mars Inc. and Procter & Gamble. An AFS alumnus from Germany to the United States (1994/95) and long-term volunteer, Roman is deeply committed to intercultural learning and global citizenship. He has served on the Supervisory Board of AFS Germany for nearly a decade, helping to guide the organization through significant transformation and growth.
Sherifa Fayez has been National Director of AFS Egypt Intercultural Educational Programs since 2004. Fayez spearheaded restructuring the developmental plans of the organization to focus on intercultural communication through training and impactful intercultural projects for youth and communities. Fayez facilitated the startup and development of partner offices in the region (KSA, India, Kenya and Tunisia). She holds a Masters degree in Intercultural Relations from University of the Pacific in California, and an Economics degree from American University in Cairo. Fayez lives in Egypt and specializes in trainings with focus on intercultural competency targeting different age groups and professionals in Egypt, the Middle East, Africa and the United States. Her work as an educator aims at lifting the veil of the pervasive reductionist perspectives on the Middle East and promoting active global citizenship as a practice in everyday settings.
Anja Kajander serves as the Partner Director/CEO of AFS Intercultural Programs Finland, a role she has held since March 2020. Based in Helsinki, Finland, she leads the organization’s efforts to promote intercultural education and global citizenship. She has over 15 years of experience in P&L management roles across diverse industries, including the non-profit, listed and family owned companies. She has served on corporate boards for more than 10 years, 8 of them as board chair. Anja holds an M.Sc. (Econ) from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration (1993), and is a Certified Board Chair (2017) and a certified business coach (2025). She has written two award winning books on brands. Anja was an AFS exchange student in Lancaster, PA, USA, in 1984–85.