GDP Launch Meeting Participant Bios

Andy Alm -- Andy Alm's work with education and environment organizations has kept
him at the rapidly moving interface of communications and technology
since the mid-1980s. He has worked with organizations around the world
to introduce the use of computer networks for internal and external
communications, and to integrate online networks with time-honored
communications practices

Most recently he led development for the World Conservation Learning
Network's online collaborative portal <http://wcln.org>. This project
of IUCN, the World Conservation Union, aims to link existing networks
of practice among conservation educators regionally and globally, and
to foster new ones. Andy is a member of the IUCN Commission on
Education and Communication.

As technology consultant for the International Education and Resource
Network (iEARN) since 1991, he has helped link tens of thousands of
teachers and more than a million students in more than 90 countries for
multilingual collaborative learning and professional development
<http://iearn.org>.

He produced the online collaborative curriculum authoring system now
available to 7,000 teachers in the Cobb County School District in
Georgia, USA, a tool that allows educators to capture and share their
best practices, and to demonstrate how those practices meet or exceed
local education standards. That authoring system grew out of the
Education for a Sustainable Future project, where between 1997 and
2002, teachers created curriculum units as part of the first
comprehensive U.S. implementation of sustainable development education
<http://ffof.org/esf/>.

His work in communications was built on a background as an
environmental writer and editor, with more than a decade spent as a
professional journalist. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from
Humboldt State University and a MS in Agriculture/Environmental
Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Andy runs his consulting business from his old farmhouse in Arcata,
California.

Patrice Barrat -- Patrice Barrat is a founder and the Executive Director of Bridge Initiative International. The goals of the Bridge Initiative are to facilitate the emergence and the development of:

• reflections, agreements and action programs at national and international levels in favour of social, economical, cultural and political evolutions; and
• a neutral space of mediation to allow actors of globalization to take part in encounters, debates, media events and to provide a better information for citizens.

The work of Bridge Initiative started in 2001, after Patrice had produced, with Evelyn Messinger from Interact US, a unique satellite dialogue (VIS-à-VIS: THE GLOBALIZATION DIVIDE) between participants to the World Economic Forum in Davos and the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre.

Patrice Barrat is also a television Producer/Director and President of Article Z,  the Paris-based multi-media production company that creates new formats such as daily documentary chronicles, and the new format Mad Mundo which focuses on globalization issues from a citizen's perspective.

Barrat has won many awards in 29 years of journalism, including the Amnesty International award, BAFTA award, FIPA Golden Award and Adolf Grimme Preis for documentaries like FAMINE FATIGUE, DROWNING BY BULLETS, the VIS à VIS series, SARAJEVO: A STREET UNDER SIEGE and THE OTHER ALGERIA. Films he produced were also featured at the Cannes Film Festival (CONDOR: AXIS OF EVIL) and in Locarno and Rotterdam (HOW ARNOLD WON THE WEST).

Barrat started in radio at RTL in 1976, was a foreign affairs correspondent for Nouvelles Littéraires, became chief editor of Gamma Television and founded the television press agency Point du Jour in 1988. Patrice  Barrat also founded Internews Europe in 1995,  a non-profit organization which launched several projects to support television professionnals and productions around the world: in the Caucasus, in Algeria, in the Former Yugoslavia. These projects received grants from the European Commission, UNESCO and UNHCR. He was the first Secretary General of Internews International. Barrat was also a board member of INPUT (International Conference of Public Television) of the One World Group or Broadcasters and of Causes Communes.

Download a description of The Bridge Initiative's Open UN project, a public dialogue between official participants to the UN Millennium Summit, UN representatives and civil society voices.

Long (12-page description)
Summary (2 pages)

Juanita Brown -- Juanita Brown, Ph.D. is the founder of Whole Systems Associates, an international consortium of professionals dedicated to strategic inquiry and the renewal of complex systems. Since 1974 she has served as a thinking partner, organizational strategist and dialogue host with leaders in business, government, and civil society in the United States, Latin America, Canada, Europe and the Pacific Rim. With her partner, David Isaacs, Juanita is also the co-originator of the World Café, an innovative approach to large scale dialogue and collaborative learning being used on six continents.

Ms. Brown has served as a Senior Affiliate with the MIT Sloan School's Organizational Learning Center (now the Society for Organizational Learning). She has been involved with the Institute for the Future and the Norwegian Center for Leadership Development, and has collaborated as program faculty at several universities including the John F. Kennedy University School of Management, and Columbia University. She serves as a Fellow of the World Business Academy and has been honored among the World Who’s Who of Business and Professional Women.

Juanita’s early work was in the non-profit sector, including experience with re-forestation efforts in Mexico and community development with Mexican-American agricultural workers in California. Ms. Brown lived in Chiapas, Mexico and helped to develop the Na-Bolom Center for Scientific Studies, which focuses on dialogue and education regarding environmental and social issues in Southern Mexico, including the Lacandon rainforest and it’s peoples.

Ms. Brown received her B.A. in sociology from Antioch College and her M.A. from Cornell University in consumer economics. Her Ph.D. focused on collective intelligence and the role of conversation as a core process for societal co-evolution. She is fluent in Spanish. Her new book, The World Café: Shaping our Futures Through Conversations that Matter, co-authored with David Isaacs and the World Café Community was published by Berrett-Koehler in 2005.

Tom Callanan -- Tom Callanan is a Program Officer at the Fetzer Institute, a private operating foundation located in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  Fetzer’s purpose statement reads: “To serve Spirit for the transformation of self and society.”  Following from this, Fetzer supports those projects that promise true transformative change for those personally involved in the work and for the organizations, professions, fields, and communities touched by their work.

With the Institute for 11 years, Tom is the chair of one of Fetzer’s four program areas: The Global Conversation Team.  That program area supports global leadership development and conflict transformation efforts across a variety of domains using the tools of generative conversation.  During his time with Fetzer, Tom has had the opportunity to support, attend and/or help facilitate numerous cross-disciplinary gatherings including The Call of the Time Dialogues, The Synthesis Dialogues, The Spirit of Human Rights Dialogues, The State of the Possible Retreats, Quest for Global Healing, The State of the World Forum, and The Parliament of World’s Religions. A center-piece of Tom’s recent work has been with the Collective Wisdom Initiative, a 4-year effort to map, research, and support the emerging  field of practice around various approaches to dialogue.  Another of Tom’s current programs is bringing Nobel Peace Laureates together in conversation to help facilitate a more coherent and powerful moral and spiritual voice in the world. 

Prior to joining Fetzer, Tom’s career included work as a newspaper and magazine journalist, corporate organizational development facilitator, and Outward Bound Wilderness Instructor.  Tom has three children: Bapu (21), Kaitlin (15), and Tucker (13).  He lives with his wife, Kim, and his two youngest children in Kalamazoo. 

Thais Corral -- Thais is the Director of capacity development of South South North (www.southsouthnorth.org), an international project that works to promote climate change and poverty reduction. She is the founder of three non-profit organizations, two in Brazil--REDEH (Network for Human Development) and CEMINA (Communication, Education, Information on Gender) and one in the USA, called WEDO (Women Environment and Development Organization).

Her accomplishments include:

(1) the mobilization of women during the UN Conference on Environment and  Development (UNCED) through the Women's Action Agenda 21 and Planeta FEMEA, organized by women  at the Global NGO Forum in 1992. 

(2) The conception and implementation of a women’s radio network that link 400 women’s radio programs throughout Brasil.

(3) Coordination of a national consultation on Agenda 21 for the themes: Reduction of Inequalities and Sustainable Cities. In 1993, she also coordinated (ICONS) International Conference on Indicators on Quality of Life and Sustainable Development, which gathered a wide range of stakeholders to forge sustainable development in Brazil and internationally.

(4) The conception and implementation of the project, “Agents of Citizenship of Water” in the semi-arid region of northeast Brazil. The project strengthens community leaders in the effective use of scarce resources through technology. It was recognized as a “best practice” at the Second World Conference on Water in 2003.

Thais sits on the board of directors for LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development), and ABDL (Associação Brasileira para o Desenvolvimento de Lideranças).  She is also on the Steering Committee of the Global Leadership Network (GLN).

Thais was the recipient of the “100 Heroines Award” and the “Award Abril Mulher” for her contribution to the improvement of the status of women in Brazil. She was also recognized as “the Woman of the Year in 2001” by Brazilian National Council of Women and received the “Rio Mulher Award” in 2004.

She is fluent in Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian and French.

John Drexhage -- John Drexhage is Director of IISD's Climate Change and Energy Program.  With a team of 15 staff and associates across Canada and overseas, John’s work on climate change is based on 12 years of experience on the issue, first as a domestic advisor and international negotiator on climate change and then as an expert analyst for IISD.  John’s expertise covers a broad range of areas related to climate change, and he is currently focusing on the Kyoto Mechanisms, post-2012 climate change regimes, and more fully exploring linkages between adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development.  John is also a Leading Author with Working Group 3 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  Prior to his current position with IISD, John was Associate Director, with the International Relations Directorate, (Environment Canada) coordinating the Government's policy positions in formal negotiations on climate change. Prior to this position in 1998, his other roles with Environment Canada in respect of Climate Change, included Manager Climate Change - International, Global Air Issues Branch and Senior Policy Advisor, Domestic Climate Change Program representing Environment Canada in federal- provincial negotiations on domestic actions on climate change.

Drexhage holds a Masters of Arts International Affairs, from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, a Bachelor of Education from the University of Toronto (Canadian History/Political Science), and a Bachelor of Arts from Calvin College, Grand Rapids Michigan (Political Philosophy and History).

Peggy Dulany -- Peggy Dulany is Chair of The Synergos Institute. Drawing from her experience living and working in Rio de Janeiro as a young woman, she realized that the people most affected by adverse living conditions also have the greatest energy and motivation to solve their problems. The resources they lack are the connections to the economic and political realms where necessary changes can affect whole communities.

Ms. Dulany founded Synergos in 1986 to facilitate relationships between grassroots leaders and political or business leaders, people who otherwise would not have access to each other, so that they can develop long-term relationships and forge new paths in overcoming poverty.

Her career has included heading a Boston-area public high school program for drop-outs for six years and consulting with the United Nations and the Ford Foundation on health care and family planning in Brazil, the U.S. and Portugal, and with the National Endowment for the Arts on nonprofit management and planning. She was Senior Vice President of the New York City Partnership for five years, where she headed the Youth Employment and Education programs.

Ms. Dulany is an honors graduate of Radcliffe College and holds a Doctorate in Education from Harvard University. She is also Chair of ProVentures, a business development company for Latin America and Southern Africa. She sits on the boards of Cambridge College, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Africa-America Institute, among others. She loves to ride, hike and cross-country ski in the Rocky Mountains.

Marc-André Franche--Marc-André is especially interested in developing and supporting institutions and mechanisms for conflict prevention. He serves as Program Adviser for the Latin American and Caribbean Bureau of the United Nations Development Programme. In this capacity he is part of the project team on democratic dialogue which systematizes and shares knowledge on democratic dialogue, promotes a community of practice and delivers support to countries through a Support Network. Additionally, he develops regional initiatives and provides policy advice to improve the functioning of particular institutions, such as parliaments, or in particular areas or sectors, such as small arms and the security sector. Marc-André also provides support and advice to UNDP Country Offices on conflict prevention initiatives and promotes experience sharing between them.

Marc-André is from Montréal and has worked in the Latin American region for the last eight years as part of the national human development report teams in Colombia and Bolivia and the Technical Secretariat in charge of the National Dialogue 2000 in Bolivia.

Katherine Fulton -- Katherine is a partner of the Monitor Group and president of the Monitor Institute, the vehicle through which the Group applies its knowledge, expertise, skill and capital to complex social problem solving (www.monitorinstitute.com). Katherine’s career path has been shaped by two passionate interests: the use of private resources for public purposes, and the connection between leadership and learning. She has explored these themes through leadership positions in organizational consulting and journalism, and through teaching and volunteer service.

Prior to moving to the Monitor Institute, Katherine was the co-head of the consulting practice at another Monitor company, Global Business Network. During much of the past decade at GBN, she helped organizations in more than 12 industries manage more skillfully through increasing uncertainty. In recent years, her consulting practice increasingly focused on the future of philanthropy and non-profits, and she has given more than three dozen major speeches on the subject. She is the co-author of two new publications, Looking Out for the Future: An Orientation for Twenty-First Century Philanthropists and What If? The Art of Scenario Thinking for Nonprofits. Her efforts have won her both a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University and a Lyndhurst Foundation prize for community service. Her innovative course design at Duke University was featured in Time magazine. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College, where she was also the captain of the women’s basketball team. She currently resides in northern California with her partner Katharine Kunst.

Ernesto Garilao -- Prof. Ernesto D. Garilao is a faculty member of the Washington Sycip Graduate School of Business of the Asian Institute of Management, and the Executive Director of the AIM-Mirant Center for Bridging Societal Divides. Since 2001, the Center has trained over 500 leaders including corporate executives, military commanders, local government officials, community leaders, Islamic religious leaders, and civil society leaders. The Center also runs the Mirant Leadership Fellows Program, a two-year training and mentoring program which aims to improve the capacity of the bridging leaders to achieve their leadership goals within the context of the societal divides they seek to resolve.

Prof. Garilao is also the lead convenor of Pagtabagan Basulta, a consortium of 10 Manila-based civil society organizations who collaboratively engage local government and non-government institutions of the provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and TawiTawi to improve the income, health, literacy and participation of its citizens.    

Prof. Garilao spent 21 years with the Philippine Business for Social Progress, a private grant-making and operating foundation supported by business corporations, and served as its executive director for 15 years. In 1992, he served as Secretary for Agrarian Reform under the government of President Fidel V. Ramos, where he stewarded the agrarian reform program. He also served from 1994 to 1998 as the vice-chair and lead convenor of the Social Reform Council, the highest policy-making body of the Philippines antipoverty program.

Mr. Garilao holds a Master in Management (With Distinction) from the Asian Institute of Management (1982) and a Master in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (1988). He received his Bachelors of Arts in Behavioral Science from the Ateneo de Manila University (1968). He serves on the boards of various national and international organizations.  He is a weekend farmer, treks, and scuba dives and is a mean pastry and dessert critic.  

Glennifer Gillespie -- Glennifer Gillespie specializes in organizational learning, the practice of dialogue in organizations and communities, coaching, and women’s leadership. During the 1990’s, she was Senior Project Manager for the Education Portfolio of the Independent Development Trust (IDT) where she was responsible for setting up and managing the National School Building Project and the 1000 Schools Project. The Projects aimed at improving the quality of education in one thousand disadvantaged schools in South Africa using a whole system collaborative approach between non-profits, teacher unions, parent organizations, churches, communities, the private sector and government.

Glennifer is a trustee of The Ashland Institute, a non-profit dedicated to promoting dialogue in communities and organizations. She is a Senior Associate at DiaLogos, and serves on the faculty of their 10-month Leadership for Collective Intelligence program. She teaches the Leadership for Collective Learning and Action and other advanced leadership programs in South Africa. Glennifer served on the South African Government of National Unity’s Culture of Learning Committee in 1995.

Recent research projects included a learning history of national scenario projects in South Africa and Guatemala for the UNDP (2000), a report on the impact of mentoring on the lives of young women for the Fetzer Institute (2002), and a chapter on women’s circles for the book Fabric of the Future. Current and recent clients include the Providence Healthcare System, BP, the California Teacher’s Association, and Hewlett Packard.

Born, raised and educated in South Africa, Glennifer has at various times in her life worked as a film and theatre critic, a journalist, a high school teacher, and as the Director of Women’s programs in a non-profit organization. She spent eighteen years living in an intentional spiritual community, and the most abiding and compelling theme in her life remains a passionate interest in the evolution of human consciousness. She divides her time between South Africa and the United States.

Amar Inamdar -- Amar Inamdar is the Senior Specialist in the office of the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO) at the World Bank Group. He works on the design and implementation of dispute resolution processes between Bank-supported private sector projects and locally affected people. He has a background in ecosystem complexity, organisational design and cross-cultural dispute resolution. Between 2000 & 2002 he successfully mediated settlement of an eight-year dispute between Rio Tinto and civil society groups in Indonesia . He was a major contributor to the UK Government's White Paper on 'Making Globalisation Work for the Poor' in 2000. He is the founder of a successful consulting practice in Oxford, UK, and has practical experience of private sector investment strategies in the Caspian, China, SE Asia, East & Southern Africa, and the Middle East . He obtained his first degree at Oxford and his PhD at Cambridge, UK.

Uday Khemka -- Uday Khemka is a Director and partner of the SUN Group, and is a Director of his family’s charitable trust. Mr. Khemka is on the advisory and governing boards of business schools in Europe and in Asia, and on the investment committees and boards of trustees of investment funds in the US, Europe and Asia. After working as a banker at Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley, Mr. Khemka returned to his family’s business and founded its technology investing venture capital subsidiary, SUN Technology, of which he is also CEO. It is here that he has become aware of the significant potential threats posed to human society by new technologies.

In addition to his role at the Khemka Foundation, Mr. Khemka’s community interests include his chairmanship of Youthreach, an Indian charitable institution that seeks to harness the power of the private sector to empower charitable and NGO organisations across India. In this respect Youthreach today is partnered with and provides resources to over forty charitable institutions across India focused on family and children’s issues and the environment. Mr. Khemka’s community interests have made him particularly concerned with issues related to rural development, the breakdown of the family and environmental degradation. Mr. Khemka’s interest in microfinance is centred around his belief that the development of rural entrepreneurship is a critical priority in India, a country expected to have the highest population of rural unemployment and landlessness in the world. He is currently working on the idea of a ‘rural entrepreneurship and microfinance’ institution in India’s agricultural Punjab province.

Mr. Khemka read history at Cambridge, where his thesis was on Mahatma Gandhi’s ethical and political philosophy, before doing his MBA at Harvard University where he was a Baker scholar.

Arun Maira -- Arun is Chairman of The Boston Consulting Group in India since 2000. He combines rich hands-on leadership and consulting with thought-leadership as an author and speaker on the subject of organizational transformation and multi-sector collaborative processes for change and development.

Born in Lahore in 1943, Arun received his bachelors and masters degrees in physics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. He began his career in the Tata Adminstrative Service in 1965 and worked for 25 years in several senior positions in the Tata Group, India’s premier industrial conglomerate. Prior to joining BCG in India, he worked in the USA with Arthur D.Little, the international consulting company, for 10 years where he served as Leader of ADL’s Global Organisation Practice and Managing Director of Innovation Associates—an ADL subsidiary.

Arun has advised clients across a wide variety of industries and in many countries on issues of strategy and organization. He has spoken at numerous international seminars all over the world, and has published articles in several business journals. He is the author of three books: The Accelerating Organisation: Embracing the Human Face of Change (McGraw Hill International), Shaping the Future: Aspirational Leadership in India in Beyond (John Wiley and Sons), and Remaking India: One Country, One Destiny (Response Books—a division of Sage Publications).

Arun is deeply engaged at present with collaborative processes for addressing issued of development in India and internationally, and the role of business corporations in these processes.

He is on the boards of several educational institutions in India, a member of the National Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Chairman of the Confederation’s Leadership Summit, Advisor to the UN Global Compact, and a trustee of Aspen India.

Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz -- Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz is co-founder and Executive Director of the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD). His previous experience encompasses responsibility in a diverse range of capacities at the interface of international trade and sustainable development. These include: General Director and co-founder, Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano (1994-1996, Quito); Chargé d'Affaires, Counselor and First Secretary, Colombian Mission to the International Organisations in Geneva (1990-1994); Principal Advisor, Colombian Minister of Economic Development (1988-1990, Bogotá); Consultant to UNDTCP (1998 Bangkok); and Chief of Administration, Office of the President of Colombia (1987-1998 Bogotá). Mr Meléndez-Ortiz was a negotiator and delegate for Colombia in the Uruguay Round, the UNCED process, UNCTAD VIII, the Climate Change Convention, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Montreal Protocol and bilateral trade and investment-related negotiation processes. He also acted as Spokesperson for the G-77 in several fora and as served as Chair of the UN Standing Committees on Commodities and on Trade Preferences.

Mr Meléndez-Ortiz has sat on a number of boards, panels and commissions, and worked as a consultant to several international and non-governmental organisations, development co-operation agencies and various governments. He has been a member of the Inter-American Commission on Biodiversity; the AVINA Foundation Grant Review Panel on Economic Growth and Sustainable Development; WWF's Expert Panel on Trade and Sustainable Development; the UN Secretary General Millennium Project Task Force on Trade; the WTO's Director General NGO Advisory Group; the Steering Committee of UK DfID's Project on Global Trade and Finance Architecture; and the Board of Intellectual Property Watch. Mr Meléndez-Ortiz was also listed in the Roster of Dispute Settlement Experts of the GATT (1993-1997); a founding Advisor to the Center for International Sustainable Development Law, McGill University (Canada); Chairman of the Group on Environment Trade and Investment of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Commission on Economic, Environment and Social Policy; and an advisor to the World Bank/WWF's Trade and Poverty Programme.

Mr. Meléndez-Ortiz has edited and published several books on international trade and sustainable development in English, French and Spanish; and is since 1997 the publisher of the international periodical "BRIDGES" and its sister publications. His education on administration and management, economics and social studies was at Harvard University and Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá. He lives in Switzerland with his wife and two daughters.

Cécile Molinier -- Cécile Molinier is the UNDP Resident Representative/ Resident Coordinator in Mauritania. In her capacity, she prepared and implemented the 2003-2005 Country Programme, focusing on Governance and poverty alleviation. She also led a dialogue project for the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) involving all key components of civil society, including political parties. She has also facilitated donor coordination on key development issues, including achievement of the MDGs in Mauritania, and she led the donor coordination group on Governance.

Prior to her work in Mauritania, Cécile was the UNDP Resident Representative/ Resident Coordinator in Togo, where she focused on HIV/AIDS among many issues, and launched the MDG reporting process. She also has served as the UNDP Resident Representative/Resident Coordinator in Sao Tomé; Principe and the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Tunisia; and the Special Assistant to the Director General for Development and International Economic Cooperation.

Cécile holds an MA in English from London University with Honours, an MA in English Literature from Université de Paris III – Sorbonne, with highest honours, an Agrégée de l’Université in English, and an MBA with honours in Management (Organizational Behaviour), from Pace University.

Cécile’s mother tongue is French, and she is bilingual in English, with fluency in Spanish, Portuguest, and German. She resides in Nouakchott, Mauritania.

Dumisani Nyoni -- A graduate of Psychology from Cambridge College, in the United States, Dumisani Nyoni works on the coordinating team of Pioneers of Change—a global network of young leaders, activists, social entrepreneurs and change agents between 25-35 interested in understanding and have an impact on the systems that affect the communities, insitutions and societies around them.

Dumisani is a youth activist, leader, motivator and consultant with a range of experiences from building and coordinating global action networks, facilitating large and small gatherings, workshops and conferences as well as advising organizations on strategy development, team building and the inclusion and participation of youth in programs and processes.

Having worked with the  Earth Council at its former Headquarters in Costa Rica, Dumisani helped to launch the youth component of the international  Earth Charter Initiative for which he continues to act as an advisor. Dumisani has also worked as a Youth Coordinator at the  Youth Employment Summit (YES) Campaign, where he helped to organize the first  global summit on Youth Employment, and to establish YES Country Networks in over 70 countries which are youth-led multi-stakeholder coalitions that are launching projects around the world to create sustainable livelihoods for youth.

An inspirational and motivational speaker, Dumisani has spoken and presented at events and conferences around the world including the  Youth Employment Summit in Alexandria, Egypt, the  Harvard International Development Conference at Harvard University, as well as facilitating numerous workshop and forums internationally covering a wide ranges of themes.

Dumisani serves as an advisor and board member to innovative organizations globally such as  TakingITGlobal,  EnVision Leadership,  EcoVentures International,  the Global Youth ACTION Network,  The Sweet Mother Tour,  IDEAS and Zimele Institute at the  Organization of Rural Associations for Progress (ORAP) in Zimbabwe. Dumisani is also a member of the  Global Leadership Network

Dumisani is also a writer and a keen musician.

Dominique Peccoud -- Dominique Peccoud has been Special Adviser to the Director-General of the International Labour Organization for Socio-Religious affairs since 1996. In addition to this position, he oversees also relations between the ILO and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and works on the philosophical, spiritual and religious foundations of international organizations’ strategies and legal instruments. He has just published a book about the strategy of the ILO : “Philosophical and Spiritual perspectives on Decent Work”.

A member of both the French Academy of Agriculture and the French National Academy of Engineering, Fr. Peccoud advises organizations (governmental and non governmental) on the ethical dimensions of social and economic issues and on problems regarding the application of new technologies. Prior to joining the ILO, he was President of the Purpan Group, a graduate university for technology, civil engineering and agriculture in Toulouse (France).

Dr. Peccoud holds a doctorate in theoretical computer science from the Sorbonne in Paris and master's degrees in philosophy and theology from the Society of Jesus University in Paris.

Theresa Ratnam Thong -- Ms. Theresa Ratnam is a Co-owner / Director of Asian Management Research Consultancy (AMReC), where she has worked for the last 25 years with special focus on human, organization and community development. Prior to joining AMReC in 1985, she was working with a private welfare organization that was deeply involved in the promotion of social awareness, growth and commitment towards people development.

Ms. Ratnam is part of the Facilitators' Network Services Malaysia, a group devoted to promoting and advancing facilitation in the Region. She was among twenty-five facilitators selected worldwide to help facilitate in the meetings of the multi-stakeholder process during the Implementation Conference at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. She co-facilitated the United Nations Country Team Retreat on the Millennium Development Goals Draft Report for Malaysia, which was attended by the Heads of respective UN Agencies from the Region. Ms. Ratnam was also the Lead Facilitator for the CEOs Roundtable Dialogue during the Women@Work Summit in August 2003, and the Chief Facilitator at the Malaysia Water Forum, an event that was co-organised by the Malaysian Water Partnerships under the Department of Irrigation and Drainage, Malaysia in June 2004.

Ms. Ratnam has been involved in the writing and co-facilitating of one of the modules for the Professional Diploma in Training and Development for the Centre for Continuing Education, University Malaya. She has been appointed to be the Chairperson of the Residents' Representative Council - Zone One, part of a Local Agenda 21 Initiative. She is also the Chairperson of the Lafite Management Corporation.

She was trained in Community Development in the Asian Social Institute, Philippines. She is a Certified Professional Facilitator, the first Malaysian to be certified by the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) in Ottawa, Canada. She served as the Regional Coordinator for Asia and Member of the IAF Board (2001 -2003).

Oscar Rojas -- Oscar Rojas is a medical doctor graduated from Universidad del Valle Medical School, in Cali, Colombia; holds a graduate diploma in Public Health and a MSc  in Community Health and Epidemiology from London University. Dr Rojas is a  social development practicionner who has devoted his profesional career to work in the areas of education, health, and capacity building of civil society organizations.

Doctor Rojas has been Viceminister of Health of Colombia, General Director of the University Hospital in Cali, President of the Valle University, and Vice-President of the Foundation for Higher Education and Carvajal Foundation, two of the leading  NGOs in the country. He has worked also as international consultant to the World Bank, the Interamerican Development Bank, and the World Health Organization. At the time Dr. Rojas is tthe Executive Director of AlvarAlice Foundation an NGO devoted to social development work in the slums of the City of Cali, Colombia, in the areas  of vocational training of youth, income generating activities, microcredit, conflict resolution and peace building.

Alioune Sall -- Mr. Alioune Sall holds a Doctorate in Sociology from Université de Paris VII. Prior to being assigned to African Futures as Regional Coordinator, in 1996, he held several positions in UNDP Headquarters in New York and South Africa. Before joining UNDP, he conducted research focusing on development of pastoral societies and human resources development in the Sahel. He has been associated, in various capacities, with major future studies, including "The Sahel facing the future", published by OECD, and "Senegal 2015". He is the editor of the book "Africa 2025: What Possible Futures for Sub-Saharan Africa?" published in 2003 by the University of South Africa (UNISA). He is the author or co-author of several papers on human development. Mr. Alioune Sall is currently the Executive Director of the African Futures Institute, recently established in Cape Town as a successor to the UNDP project African Futures.

Marco Stoffel -- Dr. Marco Stoffel is chairman of a European real estate investment group. He is the founder and president of two foundations: Borderline Personality Disorder Research Foundation, medical research (www.borderlinereserach.org), and Third Millennium Foundation, education and human rights (www.seedsoftolerance.org). Marco Stoffel is member of The Rockefeller University Council and Chairman of the Human Rights Watch Advisory Board. He holds degrees from Harvard Law School and Freiburg University/Switzerland. His wife Sue is an art historian and they have three daughters Laura, Amanda and Carla.

Larry Susskind -- Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Susskind is the Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is an author, professor and mediator of complex multi-party disputes. He has been a member of the faculty at the MIT for 35 years teaching about environmental planning, negotiation and international treaty-making (web.mit.edu/dusp/epg).

Larry was co-founder of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School (www.pon.harvard.edu) -- a multi-university center devoted to improving the theory and practice of conflict resolution. He is also the founder of the Consensus Building Institute (www.cbuilding.org) -- a not-for-profit that provides mediation services in complex disputes around the world. Through CBI he is working to resolve long-standing Bedouin land claims in Israel and was part of the team that successfully mediated the Tzalmon National Park dispute between Arabs and Jews in Israel. He is also part of efforts to forge agreement on an air quality management plan for Mexico City as well as strategies for incorporating public dispute mediation techniques into the resolution of facility siting disputes in Korea.

At MIT, he is co-director of the Science Impact Collaborative (web.mit.edu/dusp/epg/music/index.html) which is testing new ways of resolving science-intensive policy disputes. He is the author of many books including Breaking the Impasse (Basic Books, 1987), Transboundary Environmental Negotiation (Josey-Bass, 2001), Environmental Diplomacy (Oxford, 1995), and The Consensus Building Method:  Techniques for Achieving Multi-party Agreement (Jossey-Bass, forthcoming).

A'yen Tran -- A’yen Tran is the Director of New Media and Outreach for Chat the Planet, a global media project encompassing mainstream television and web initiatives. In addition to her work with Chat the Planet she belongs to the Young Leadership Committee of the non-profit organization Seeds of Peace. A’yen also works as the Director of Outreach with the Arts Political Action Committee Downtown for Democracy in her free time.

A’yen has a background in the non-profit world, working as the Assistant Liaison to the United Nations with the Global Youth Action Network, and as a grantwriter for Chat the Planet initially. She has worked with such luminaries as Eve Ensler and Jennifer Baumgardner and is featured in a pro-choice film with Gloria Steinem. Her pro-choice work and electoral activism have led her to contribute to the book Our Bodies, Ourselves, and be featured numerous times in Glamour magazine, Salon.com, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and other publications.

Before working at non-profits, A’yen worked in music marketing for Giant Step Records. With an avid interest in the arts she recently worked closely in the installation of the show of the artist Swoon for the Deitch Projects in Manhattan. While studying for her bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in European history and political theory, she frequently made presentations to the Committee for Socially Responsible Investing. She was awarded the Tow Fellowship for Thesis Research while studying at Columbia, bringing her to London’s British Library for archival research about Burma and British India.

Andre van Heemstra --

Education
1962 Gymnasium Beta (Netherlands)
1963 GCE Spanish A-level
1969 Master of Dutch Law, cum laude (University of Utrecht, Netherlands)

Family Status
Married;  three children:  two daughters and a son

Career
1970 Joined Unilever on 1st February
1970-1980 Various marketing and sales functions with Lever’s Zeep Maatschappij, Unilever’s home care company at the time in the Netherlands
1975 Half year attachment with Lever Brothers, USA
1980-1984 Marketing and sales director East Africa Industries, Unilever’s subsidiary in Kenya
1984-1988 Managing director G&A Baker, Unilever’s home and personal care division in Turkey (Euro 100 million turnover, 750 FTE)
1988-1990 Senior marketing member Food and Drinks Co-ordination, Unilever head-office Rotterdam, Netherlands
1990-1992 Senior regional manager Foods, North Europe
1992-1996 Chairman Langnese-Iglo, Unilever’s ice cream and frozen foods subsidiary in Germany (Euro 1.0 billion turnover, 5,000 FTE)
1996-2000 President East Asia Pacific, Unilever’s regional business group covering South East Asia, Australasia, Japan and South Korea (Euro 3.2 billion turnover, 15,000 FTE)
2000-2005 Member of the board of Unilever and of its executive committee, with specific responsibility for HR

Pierre Vuarin --Pierre Vuarin is Programme Director at the Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation in Paris. He has the responsibility for programs on sustainable food systems, training of social leaders, and coordination on a range of Chinese and Latin American activities. He co-created and directs the global network, “Farmers, Peasants and Globalization” in America, Africa, Europe, China, and Vietnam. This initiative brings together over five hundred people on five continents who are leaders of organizations of farmers, indigenous people, fishermen, researchers, and former or likely future ministers of agriculture. Mr. Vuarin is committed to finding solutions, proposals, and opportunities to improve the extremely dramatic situations of small farmers, rural communities, and the urban poor who face poverty, hunger and malnutrition.

Prior to joining the Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation, Mr. Vuarin worked as an agronomic engineer in the south of the France. He was one of the leaders of a social movement of farmers against the enlargement of a military camp (Larzac) from 1970 to 1981. This battle lasted 11 years during which a large, multistakeholder alliance of people was created. Prior to this, he served as a civil servant in the French Agriculture Ministry where he had responsibility for mountain and rural development policy. He has also worked as a researcher in various NGOs on training and rural development issues in Europe and Africa. He is a member of the International World Social Forum. He created the Citizen Mosaic of 1300 stones from all over the world in the city of Porto Alegre. He is co-creator of the French committee "Pour le retour du beau temps" to mobilize people against the climate change. Mr. Vuarin is trained as an agronomic engineer. He has two children and lives in Paris.