2016 Great Immigrants

The Honorees

 
Noubar Afeyan
Born in Lebanon
Entrepreneur, venture capitalist, philanthropist
 
Selu Alofipo
Born in Samoa
Artist, White House “Champion of Change”
 
Samantha Bee
Born in Canada
Actress, comedian
 
Len Blavatnik
Born in Ukraine
Industrialist, philanthropist
 
Roberta Capp
Born in Brazil
Physician and Public Health Expert
 
Jim Carrey
Born in Canada
Actor, Comedian
 
Mariano Castillo
Born in Peru
Journalist; Soros Fellowship for New Americans recipient
 
Marcelo Claure
Born in Brazil
CEO of SoftBank International and former CEO, Sprint
 
Nadia Comaneci
Born in Romania
Five-time Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics
 
Ron Daniels
Born in Canada
President, Johns Hopkins University
 
Michaela DePrince
Born in Sierra Leone
Ballerina, Dutch National Ballet
 
Jaha Dukureh
Born in Gambia
Founder, Safe Hands for Girls
 
John L. Estrada
Born in Trinidad and Tobago
U.S. Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago
 
Florent Groberg
Born in France
U.S. Army Captain (Ret.)
 
Peter Blair Henry
Born in Jamaica
Dean, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University
 
Farnam Jahanian
Born in Iran
Provost, Carnegie Mellon University
 
Sally Jewell
Born in England
Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior
 
Jan Koum
Born in Ukraine
Co-founder and former CEO, WhatsApp
 
Fei-Fei Li
Born in China
Computer Scientist, Google
 
Viet X. Luong
Born in Vietnam
U.S. Army Brigadier General
 
Iqram Magdon-Ismail
Born in Zimbabwe
Technology Entrepeneur
 
Vikram Malhotra
Born in India
Chairman of the Americas, McKinsey & Company
 
Mehret Mandefro
Born in Ethiopia
Physician, anthropologist, filmmaker
 
Michael Moritz
Born in Wales
Chairman, Sequoia Capital
 
Bharati Mukherjee
Born in India
National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author
 
Peter A. Nadosy
Born in Hungary
Managing Partner, East End Advisors
 
Graham Nash
Born in England
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter
 
Jacqueline H. Nguyen
Born in Vietnam
United States Circuit Judge
 
Deogratias Niyizonkiza
Born in Burundi
Founder and CEO, Village HealthWorks
 
Bennet Omalu
Born in Nigeria
Forensic Pathologist, Discoverer of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)
 
Jorge M. Pérez
Born in Argentina
Chairman and CEO, Related Group of Florida
 
Thuan Pham
Born in Vietnam
CTO, Uber Technologies, Inc.
 
Sundar Pichai
Born in India
CEO, Google
 
Ana Luz Porzecanski
Born in Uruguay
Conservation Biologist, Director, Center for Biodiversity & Conservation, Museum of Natural History
 
Wolfgang Puck
Born in Austria
Chef and restaurateur
 
Azita Raji
Born in Iran
Former Ambassador to Sweden, United States of America
 
Shaiza Rizavi
Born in Pakistan
Partner, Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co.
 
Isabella Rossellini
Born in Italy
Actress, model, filmmaker
 
Aziz Sancar
Born in Turkey
Biochemist and Biophysicist, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
 
Piers J. Sellers
Born in United Kingdom
Former NASA astronaut; Deputy Director, NASA Sciences and Exploration Directorate
 
Hari Sreenivasan
Born in India
Anchor and Senior Correspondent, PBS NewsHour