About the Presenters
Jean Francois Rischard
Jean-François Rischard is a national from Luxembourg, with
a US green card, and is married, with three children. He is 57
years old. He has graduate and post-graduate degrees in Economics
(University of Aix-Marseille, licence and DES, 1971 and 1973),
a Law Doctorate (Luxembourg, 1971), and a Masters in Business
Administration (Harvard Business School, 1975, with first and
second year honors). He speaks and writes fluent English, French
and German. From 1975 to 2005, he worked at the World Bank, and
became Vice-President of the institution from 1992 on.
He lives in Paris, after having spent more than 20 years in the
United States and especially Washington D.C., where he maintains
a home and many links. He has straddled the Atlantic for much
of his student and working life, and is well versed in both U.S.
and European ways of doing business and corporate governance bents.
He has worked in some 60 developed and developing countries, and
maintains – beyond Europe – an extensive network of
relationships with government and business leaders throughout
North America, Latin America, the Middle-East, Asia, and parts
of Africa. He is an avid reader with a broad range of interests
in finance, business and markets, world events and trends. He
likes skiing and golf.
Hafsat Abiola
www.kind.org
Hafsat abiola is a young activist who works to promote women,
youth, and democracy in Nigeria, her home country, and around
the world. She is a founding member of several initiatives including
Global Youth Connect, Youth Employment Campaign, and Vital Voices:
Women in Democracy. She is a member of the World Wisdom Council
and the World Future Council. Hafsat is the author of many articles
published in international and national media, and assistant editor
of Imagining Ourselves, an international anthology of women, that
will be published in 2006.
Hafsat is also the Executive Director of the Kudirat Initiative
for Democracy, KIND, an NGO that seeks to empower democracy and
development in Nigeria by strengthening organizations and creating
initiatives that advance women. KIND’s main programme is
Kudra, a programme that offers leadership training to 750 young
women across Nigeria each year.
In recognition of her work, hafsat was selected as a Global Leader
of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 2001 and as an Ashoka
Fellow in 2003, and received awards from the State of the World
Forum, the Association for Women’s Rights in Development,
the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and the National Association
of Nigerian Students. She sits on several boards including Educate
Girls Globally, Women’s Learning Partnership, Youth Employment
Campaign, and Institute of Noetic Sciences. Hafsat graduated from
Harvard College in 1996 and received an honorary doctorate degree
from Haverford College in 2003.
"For your work on issues of women and youth leadership programs
in Nigeria and for your efforts to promote community voices, Haverford
College proudly confers on you the degree of Doctor of Public
Letters," honoris causa, May 18, 2003. Haverford's honorary
doctorate heralded a year of recognition for KIND.
In October, Hafsat Abiola was inducted as an Ashoka fellow. According
to Jan Piercy, former Executive Director of the World Bank, "Time
after time, Ashoka's social entrepreneurs have defined the future–and
then have persuaded the world's established institutions to follow."
With her induction, KIND's Executive Director joins an esteemed
community of social entrepreneurs and visionaries. The recognition
also provided a three year grant to support KIND's Young Women's
Leadership program. Also in December, honour came from the home
front with Hafsat receiving the Meritorious Award from the National
Council of Women's Societies' Lagos Chapter, to empower women.
Jane Goodall
www.janegoodall.org
In 1965, Jane earned her Ph.D in Ethology from Cambridge University.
Soon thereafter, she returned to Tanzania to continue research
and to establish the Gombe Stream Research Centre.
Through the years her work continued to yield surprising insights,
such as the unsettling discovery that chimpanzees engage in a
primitive form of brutal “warfare.” In early 1974,
a "four-year war" began at Gombe, the first record of
long-term warfare in nonhuman primates. Members of the Kasakela
group systematically annihilated members of the "Kahama"
splinter group.
In 1977, Jane founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife
Research, Education and Conservation to provide ongoing support
for field research on wild chimpanzees. Today, the mission of
the Jane Goodall Institute is to advance the power of individuals
to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment
for all living things. The Institute is a leader in the effort
to protect chimpanzees and their habitats and is widely recognized
for establishing innovative community-centered conservation and
development programs in Africa and the Roots & Shoots education
program in nearly 100 countries.
Dr. Goodall's scores of honors include the Medal of Tanzania,
the National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal, Japan's prestigious
Kyoto Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific
Research 2003, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, and
the Gandhi/King Award for Nonviolence. In April 2002 Secretary-General
Annan named Dr. Goodall a United Nations “Messenger of Peace.”
Messengers help mobilize the public to become involved in work
that makes the world a better place. They serve as advocates in
a variety of areas: poverty eradication, human rights, peace and
conflict resolution, HIV/AIDS, disarmament, community development
and environmentalism. In 2003, Queen Elizabeth II named Dr. Goodall
a Dame of the British Empire, the equivalent of a knighthood.
Dr. Goodall has received honorary doctorates from numerous universities,
including: Utrecht University, Holland; Ludwig-Maximilians University,
Munich; Stirling University, Scotland; Providence University,
Taiwan; University of Guelph and Ryerson University in Canada;
Buffalo University, Tufts University and other U.S. universities.
read more about her biography at http://www.janegoodall.org/jane/study-corner/Jane/bio.asp
Austin Gutwein
www.hoopsofhope.org
In the spring of 2004, I watched a video that showed children
who had lost their parents to a disease called AIDS. After watching
the video, I realized these kids weren’t any different from
me except they were suffering. I felt God calling me to do something
to help them. I decided to shoot free throws and on World AIDS
Day, 2004, I shot 2,057 free throws to represent the 2,057 kids
who would be orphaned during my day at school. People sponsored
me and we were able to raise almost $3,000. That year, the money
was used by World Vision to provide hope to 8 orphan children.
From that year forward, hundreds of people have joined me in a
basketball shoot-a-thon called Hoops of Hope. By doing something
as simple as shooting free throws, Hoops of Hope participants
have raised over $120,000. The children left behind by AIDS now
have access to food, clothing, shelter, medical care and finally
a school!
This year, our goal is to raise $150,000 to build a medical lab
in Sinazongwe, Zambia. This lab will enable medical staff to test
parents from HIV/AIDS prior to administering medication for the
disease. The medication will allow parents suffering from HIV/AIDS
to prolong their life and keep their children from becoming among
the 15 million children already orphaned by this disease. I hope
you'll join us by participating or sponsoring a participant. It's
an awesome event that will leave an impact not only on the lives
of the kids we're helping, but on yours as well.
In Him,
Austin
John Dennis Liu
www..earthshope.org
Biography:
John D. Liu is an American of Chinese descent who has lived in
China since 1979. Mr. Liu helped to open the CBS News bureau at
the time of normalization of relations between China and the United
States and worked for CBS for more than a decade as producer/cameraman.
Mr. Liu has also worked with RAI Italian State Television and
ZDF German State Television.
Since the mid-90’s Mr. Liu has directed the Environmental
Education Media Project that uses media to help educate about
environmental issues worldwide. In this role, John has made many
films on environmental topics including “A Steppe Ahead”,
“Line in the Sand”, “Because They’re Worth
It”, “Jane Goodall – China Diary” and
many more. Mr. Liu has produced and directed films for BBC, National
Geographic and others broadcasters. Mr. Liu is currently leading
the “EARTH’S HOPE” initiative engaged in communicating
about Integrated Poverty Eradication and Large-Scale Ecosystem
Rehabilitation based on lessons learned through the documentation
of the Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation.
In 2006, Mr. Liu was awarded a fellowship for the communication
of Science by the Rothamsted Research Institute in the UK.
Download Liu CV
Download Article about Earth's
Hope
Marc Kielburger
www.freethechildren.com
Marc Kielburger is the co-founder and chief executive
director of Leaders Today, a world renowned youth leadership organization.
He is also the chief executive director of Free The Children,
the world’s largest network of children helping children
through education.
An award-winning social advocate, Marc is also a leadership specialist
and a New York Times best-selling author. He has traveled to more
than 50 countries, visiting underprivileged children and helping
with development initiatives.
As chief executive director of Free The Children, Marc oversees
a unique, youth-driven charity that has changed the lives of more
than one million young people around the world The organization
has built more than 500 schools in Asia, Africa and Latin America,
providing daily education to more than 50,000 children. Free The
Children has earned four Nobel Peace Prize nominations and facilitated
high profile partnerships with organizations such as the United
Nations and Oprah’s Angel Network.
Marc graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, having
completed a degree in international relations. He won a coveted
Rhodes Scholarship and went on to complete a law degree at Oxford
University with an emphasis on human rights law.
He is the co-author of national bestsellers Take Action! –
A Guide to Active Citizenship, Take More Action, and most recently,
New York Times best-seller Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material
World. Together with Craig Kielburger, Marc is also a syndicated
columnist carried by the Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun and Huffinton
Post as well as for Canada’s most widely read women’s
magazine, Canadian Living.
Marc was also recently selected by the World Economic Forum as
one of the 250 Young Global Leaders.
Marc’s work has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show,
CNN, BBC.
read more of his biography. click
here
Dr. Mechai Viravadya
http://www.pda.or.th/eng/
Mr. Mechai Viravaidya is the Founder/Chairman of the Population
and Community Development Association (PDA), one of Thailand's
largest and most successful private, non-profit development organizations.
Since 1974, PDA has initiated community-based family planning
services, poverty reduction, rural development and environmental
programs, as well as HIV / AIDS prevention activities throughout
Thailand. Mr. Mechai played a large role in the success of Thailand's
national family planning program, which resulted in one of the
most rapid fertility declines in the modern era as the rate of
annual population growth declined from over 3% in 1974 to 0.8%
in 2002, and the average number of children per family fell from
seven to under two.
Mr. Mechai was appointed to the Thai Senate in 1987 and again
in 1997; each term for three years. Then in 2000, under Thailand’s
new constitution, he was elected to serve a six year term. He
was appointed as a Minister to the Office of the Prime Minister
in 1991 and 1992, when he assisted Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun
as the chief architect in establishing a comprehensive national
HIV I AIDS prevention policy and program. This initiative is regarded
as the most outstanding national effort by any country, and by
2004 Thailand had experienced a 90% reduction in new infections
of HIV.
He has also served as Government Spokesman, Deputy Minister of
Industry, CEO of the Provincial Waterworks Authority, Chairman
of Krung Thai Bank and the Telephone Organization of Thailand.
He was appointed as the Ambassador for UNAIDS in 1999.
Mr. Mechai has received numerous awards including 1997 the United
Nations Population Award, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public
Service in 1994, the Paul Hoffman Award and the United Nations
Gold Peace Medal in 1981. He has been granted decorations from
the Governments of Thailand, Australia and the Federal Republic
of Germany. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Institute
of International Development in 1988-89, and holds several honorary
doctorate degrees from Universities in Thailand and abroad. Mr.
Mechai Viravaidya was born on January 17, 1941.
Marie So
Marie So, Co-Founder marie@venturesindev.org
Marie So graduated from Harvard Kennedy School’s Masters
in Public Administration/International Development (MPA/ID) program.
Marie has working experiences in both public and private sectors.
In public sector, she worked with the United Nations, the United
Nations Development Program in Suva, Fiji on a rural banking and
gender land rights project; the Dubai Development and Investment
Authority in the United Arab Emirates for bilateral trade and
investment strategy between China and Dubai. In private sector,
Marie gained experiences in engineering field, in consumer products
with Procter and Gamble and in the financial sector with Merrill
Lynch. Marie also earned her Masters in International and Public
Affairs (MIPA) from Hong Kong University and her bachelor degree
in Economics, Industrial Engineering, and Management Science from
Northwestern University (BSc). She also attended the United World
College (UWC) of the Pacific. Marie grew up in Hong Kong and enjoys
scuba diving, modern dancing, traveling and painting. Marie is
also fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, and French.
Carol Chyau
Carol Chyau,
Co-Founder carol@venturesindev.org
Carol Chyau graduated from Harvard Kennedy School’s Masters
in Public Administration/International Development (MPA/ID) program.
During the course of her studies at Harvard, Carol worked with
the United Nations Development Programme in New York City and
Thailand. She completed projects studying Information Communication
Technologies in Thailand and Growing Sustainable Business projects
in New York. She also studied Internet connectivity in rural areas
in Cambodia as a World Resources Institute case writer. Carol
has also worked in microfinance with EDPYME Edyficar in Lima,
Peru. Carol graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s
joint-degree Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business
(BS/BA) with concentrations from the Wharton School in Finance
and Management with minors in Spanish and Fine Arts. While studying
at Penn, Carol spent a semester living and studying in Santiago,
Chile. She enjoys traveling, photography, biking and art history.
Carol is fluent in Mandarin and Spanish.
East Asia Regional Council of
Overseas Schools (EARCOS)
Brentville Subdivision, Barangay Mamplasan, Biñan, Laguna,
4024 Philippines
Phone: +63 (49) 511-5993/5994 | Fax: +63 (49) 511-4694
