Maggie King leads the Market Research and Patient & Public Empowerment Programme in the Department of Health in England. This wide ranging programme combines engaging with people to better understand the patient experience in healthcare together with developing innovative methods to help people access quality health care information.
Maggie has been with the Department of Health for 5 years. She has worked as a communications and customer insight specialist and has delivered major organisational change programmes in a number of central and local government organisations.
Dr Stuart Gowland is a Urologist and also Director of the New Zealand Mobile Surgical and Rural Health Development Project.
With an advisory board of 12 Clinicians representing a selection of New Zealand’s Nurses, General Practitioners, Surgeons and Anaesthetists the Mobile Surgical Bus project was promoted and after its development commenced surgery in rural New Zealand in March 2002.
Some 8,000 day surgical cases have been completed by the ‘bus’ at small country hospitals reinvigorating them with a new high profile ‘raison d’être’. Communities in all sorts of ways regularly show their huge appreciation of this service.
Shortly after the start of surgery, followed the implementation of the Rural Health Development component involving an advanced form of electronic distance collaboration termed ‘Teleporting’. This technique uses a combination of multiple camera selection and control to give the feeling to a user of being at the remote site, able to move around, look where they want to and to select devices such as X-rays, ultrasound or computers for viewing.
Starting with a ‘virtual private network’ in New Zealand this has now expanding to sites at major health institutions. At this point in the USA, Memorial Sloane Kettering and the Cleveland Clinic are involved but soon to join are sites in the UK and Australia.
Dr Gowland was awarded the New Zealand Governments Queen’s Service Order in the New Years Honours list of 2000 for services to medical standards and rural health.
Hoda Baraka, PhD CIT Minister's Senior Deputy Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
Dr. Hoda Baraka is the First Deputy to Minister of Communications and Technology. Earlier, she was appointed as the Senior Advisor to the Minister for IT infrastructure Sector at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
Dr. Baraka has twenty five years of extensive experience as a consultant in the field of information technology in both public and private sectors. She has been an active member in the field of Information Technology, particularly in information systems analysis, design, automation, project management, planning, scheduling, reporting, and team organization in different governmental sectors since 1983. Her consulting achievements include policy development, infrastructure development, ICT for community development, sustainable development, Human Resource development, capacity building & training. Her achievements are greatly clear in many re-engineering projects.
Dr. Baraka is a participant in many national projects in both private and government sectors. She also has achievements in formulating Public Private Partnerships (PPP), establishing protocols and business linkages among various stakeholders, supervising national ICT projects in the fields of education, e-government, e-health, e-content, national databases, and geographical information systems.
Dr. Baraka is the Project Director of the Egypt ICT Trust Fund, a mechanism created between the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the United Nations Development Program to promote the use of ICT in development. She has now supervised five successful projects under the trust fund, namely the Smart Schools, ICT for Illiteracy Eradication, Mobile ICT Unit, Community Knowledge Generation e-Library, and Community Development Portal projects.
As for her E-Learning activities, Dr. Baraka is in charge of the E-learning pillar in the National ICT Strategy of Egypt. She participated in setting the policies and plans for reforming education in Egypt using Information and Communication Technologies. She is supervising the plans of the E-learning Competence Center established in cooperation with Cisco Systems at the Smart Village. She is the Egyptian Education Initiative Director; Launched under the auspices of H.E. First Lady of Egypt; Sharm El sheikh May 2006; in cooperation with WEF and 7 multinational IT companies. In cooperation with the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood she introduced ICT in Girls schools and one Classroom school.
In addition, Dr. Baraka is a Full Professor since 1994 at the Computer Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt. She has supervised more than 30 research activities for M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees. She has participated as keynote speaker and associate speaker in several national and international events as well as academic conferences addressing information technology, econtent, e-learning, networking, databases and software engineering.
Mike joined The Innovation Unit in November 2002 as the Lead Director. The Unit itself was established as a result of the Education White Paper 'Schools: Achieving Success'. The intention is to be able to encourage and respond to innovative approaches to teaching and learning and school management from across the school system and beyond.
Mike worked in schools for thirty years, with twenty years experience as a senior manager. He led four schools: a community school in the West Midlands, a very large specialist technology school in Newcastle upon Tyne, a large voluntary aided Church of England specialist Language College with a sixth form of 400 in Cumbria and, most recently, was Principal and Chief Executive of an International 3-18 school in Brussels that has students from 65 countries.
He is passionate about the role of education in developing people and communities and about the importance of the teacher's role in this. He has particular interests in the reform of public services, the leadership of education, the future of schooling, post-16 education, specialist schooling and the role of schools in the community.
Mike is also keenly interested in the interface between policy and practice and is a founder member of the Governing Council of the National College for School Leadership, a former member of the Governing Council of the Technology Colleges Trust and of the Qualifications Committee of QCA. In September 2006, Mike was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Wolverhampton for his service to education, both regionally and nationally.
In November 2006, The Innovation Unit became a company limited by guarantee, with Mike as its first chief executive.
He has four grown up children, all of whom attended comprehensive schools in the Midlands and the north of England and who then went on to graduate from Universities in the UK.
Lev Gonick Vice President for Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer, Case Western Reserve University
Lev Gonick is Vice President for Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
He is co-chair of the CIO Executive Council's higher education committee. He is also the founder of OneCleveland now known as OneCommunity, the award winning project to create a connected community throughout Northeast Ohio through high speed wired and wireless network connectivity. He is the Chairperson of the New Media Consortium's New Horizon Project providing an annual environmental scan of new technologies and their potential impact on the academy.
Additionally, Dr. Gonick previously served as president of the board of the New Media Consortium. In 2007, he and Case Western Reserve University were recognized with a ComputerWorld Laureate for launching the Cleveland 2.0 project to leverage technology to address community priorities. This included the much referenced launch of Cleveland+ in SecondLife. In 2006, he was recognized by ComputerWorld as a Premier 100 IT leader and honored in the same year by CIO magazine with a CIO 100 Award.
He also serves on the board of the National LambdaRail (NLR), the nation's next generation advanced networking research effort. Finally, he serves on numerous community Boards including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland and the Bellefaire JCB for Children, and Lawrence School for Dyslexic and other differently-abled learners.
Jean Johnson CEO, Inclusion Trust and Director, Notschool
Jean has worked in the education field for twenty five years, beginning her career teaching in East London schools working with difficult and disaffected teenagers. She began working with new technologies in 1993 and was one of the first teachers to pilot the use of the Internet in schools. She was part of the early developer group of schools for Oracle’s Think.com, contributing to the final design of the software.
Since then she has been involved in a number of high profile online projects both in the UK and abroad; working with schools as far apart as Sweden, Finland, USA, India, Japan and New Zealand. Projects have included Web for Schools, Learning in the New Millennium and Schools Online. Her work within Europe was influential in developing a model for the use of the Internet in schools in the EU.
In 1998 she was presented with an award as Teacher of the Year. Since 2000 she has led the charity the Inclusion Trust (formerly TheCademy ). Its flagship project, Notschool.net, is a research project working in the field of social inclusion for disadvantaged youth, focussing particularly in the creative and innovative use of multimedia to develop learning. Jean has written a number of reports and papers including extensive work on Internet based accreditation and content delivery models.
Jean is a frequent presented at conferences and has contributed to a number of TV and radio programmes. She has been described as the ‘pre-eminent expert internationally’ in the use of ICT to engage disaffected and excluded students.
Dr. Federico Casalegno Director, MIT Mobile Experience Laboratory Associate Director, MIT Design Laboratory
Federico Casalegno is presently director of the MIT Mobile Experience Laboratory and associate director of the MIT Design Laboratory.
He has been working as research scientist at the MIT Media Lab, Smart Cities group, and worked at Motorola Inc., USA, from 2004 to 2007 as technology and product innovation analyst, designing pioneering products, experiences and services for mobile devices business.
From 1994 to 2000 he has been working with Philips Design on connected communities and new media environment to inform design and product experience planning.
Dr. Federico Casalegno is a social scientist with interest on the impact of networked digital technologies in human behavior and societies. He teaches and research at the MIT, rethinking and designing interactive media to foster connections between people, ideas and physical places using cutting edge information technologies.
He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology of Culture and Communication from the Sorbonne University, Paris V (July 2000), with a focus on mediated communication and social interaction in networked communities and wired cities.
Federico Casalegno published several scientific paper, books and articles. He was awarded for the Living Memory, connected community project, Best Concept prize, by the American Leading Industrial Designers I.D. Magazine, 2001 and the Silver Prize Design Concept awarded by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).
Alderwoman Marijke Vos is responsible for Environment, Health and Social Support, Public Space and Nature as well as Personnel and Organisation.
Before she took on the position of Alderwoman she was a member of the Dutch Parliament (from 1994 until 2006). While holding this position, her responsibilities included chairmanship of the parliamentary inquiry into irregularities in the construction industry.
Alderwoman Mrs. Vos is responsible for the protection and extension of the nature and ecological areas in Amsterdam and the region of Amsterdam. This helps not only the quality of life in the city, but has also a large economic value. This includes various measures to save energy, to reduce CO2 emissions and to stimulate sustainability.
Further responsibilities include the social support and care for those citizens who are in need of help, like homeless, elderly and disabled people.
Paul Pelosi, Jr. is President of the San Francisco Commission of the Environment, and was appointed to the Commission on the Environment by former Mayor Willie Brown in 2003. As sales manager of a leading home mortgage organization in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. Pelosi has more than a decade of experience in banking and finance. He holds a joint
J.D. and M.B.A. with a concentration in World Economies and Global Sustainable Development from Georgetown University
Chris Luebkeman Director for Global Foresight & Innovation, Arup Group
Chris Luebkeman refuses to be categorized. He has constantly, and consistently, occupied the ‘spaces between’ professions. He utilizes his enthusiastic belief in our Zeitgeist in his current position as Director for Global Foresight and Innovation at the Arup headquarters in London.
His experiences have enabled him to specialize in being a generalist with a view to being "in league with the future." He was listed as one of the ten futurist speculators and shapers “who will change the way we live”, in Wallpaper Magazine, July/August 2002. As an educator, he taught in the Departments of Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology [ETH] in Zurich, the University of Oregon, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT].
Since 2003, Chris and his team (Arup Foresight, Innovation + Incubation) have conceptualized and facilitated over 60 workshops worldwide, including Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, Russia, USA, Holland, and the UK, that explore the potential impact of leading drivers of change on the future of business. Over the years, the workshops have involved over 4000 participants, who have contributed to challenging the official futures and how they relate to different areas of business, including the retail and hospitality sectors. As well as assessing emerging trends and technologies, a series of workshops specializing in the future of the hotel explores how foresight by design can lead to enhanced business results. Research results have been visualized in creative outputs, including drivers of change cards and other innovative publications. Building upon insights gained from these events, Chris and his team have created a holistic body of knowledge that aims to inspire the future of business and advance the development of a sustainable built environment.
Keynote Speeches include:
IEA - International Energy Agency Executive Business Conference - 2001
ACSA - American Collegiate Schools of Architecture Annual Technology Conference - 2001
ECCREDI-TRA - Innovation in Construction Annual Meeting - 2000
ARCC/EAAE - Architectural Research Centres Consortium & European Assoc. Architectural
Education – 2004
VISIO 2030 - Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries, Helsinki - 2005
SUS - Sustainable Buildings Symposium, Canada – 2005
DFC – Design Futures Council, Sustainability Leadership Summit – San Francisco 2005
IBG/BATIMAT – Intelligent Buildings Group Symposium at BATIMAT – Paris 2005
IHT – Institute for Highways and Transportation Presidential Address – London 2005
BUDMA – Polish Construction Technology Platform Conference – Poland 2006
IHIF – International Hotel Investment Forum – Berlin 2006
Sample of Invited lectures and presentations in 2005/2006: American Institute of Architects [AIA] Executive Board, AIA Denver, Australian Property Council, British Telekom, Design Futures Council Executive Board, Deutsche Telekon, Green Building Council, European Union Research Directorates, US Gypsum, Warsaw School of Economics. 2007: National Retailers Association Annual Congress – New York
After studying legal sciences and writing his Ph.D. at Cologne University, Dr. Thiel started his professional career in the Federal Civil Defence Agency in 1988. In 1990 he entered the Federal Ministry of the Interior, where he initially worked as a desk officer in the Directorate-General on “Displaced Persons” and then in a Division on “Organisational Matters” which he headed as from 1997.
From 2002 to 2006 Dr. Thiel was the President of the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW). Since 1 April 2006 he has been acted as the Deputy Head of the Directorate-General “Administrative modernisation, administrative organisation” at the Federal Ministry of the Interior and at the same has been the head of the Project Group on “Further Development of the Work of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution” since 1 June 2007.
Lydia Murray became Chief of Staff for the President of the Chicago Transit Authority in May 2007. Prior to this she worked for six years for the city of Chicago where her most recent duties were as Deputy Chief of Staff for Management for Mayor Richard M. Daley. At the Chicago Transit Authority, Mrs. Murray assists the President in overseeing a $1 billion budget and operations that provide 1.6 million rides daily to residents and visitors to Chicago and its suburbs.
Lydia’s accomplishments at the City included assisting with the implementation of the City’s Enterprise Financial and HR System, the development of an Award winning on-line vendor contract and payment website and the advancement the City’s Transparency initiatives. As Deputy Chief of Staff for Management, her efforts led to the development of a comprehensive Citywide Performance Management Program. This program used information from they City’s 311 system to set performance targets to hold departments accountable for service delivery. Through careful monitoring of performance metrics Chicago saw savings of more than $30million dollars on top of adding the equivalent of over 100 employees to the City’s workforce in less than two years.
Lydia’s public service includes a stint as Director of Charlotte, North Carolina’s Welfare-to-Work program. Prior to this she spent four years in the Mayor’s Office in New York City working for Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a Senior Policy Analyst, Director of the Mayor’s Action Center and Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Planning of Housing, Preservation and Development.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies and Political Science from The College of Wooster in Ohio and a master’s degree in Urban Policy from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. When not on the job, Lydia enjoys attending Cubs games with her husband Tom, and learning from and playing with her 4-year-old son, Colin.
Joanne Caddy is a Policy Analyst at the OECD's Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development (GOV).
She is currently responsible for leading work on “Open and Inclusive Policy making” which examines OECD country experience in fostering public engagement. In 2006, she was seconded to the New Zealand State Services Commission (SSC) for a year, where she served as a Senior Advisor and helped draft the SSC “Guide to Online Participation”. This Guide was written on a wiki, with inputs from a broad community of practice, and was published online in 2007.
Her contributions to the field of public participation include the following OECD reports: Citizens as Partners: Information, Consultation and Public Participation in Policy-making (2001) (and accompanying handbook of the same title); Open Government: Fostering Dialogue with Civil Society (2003), Promises and Problems of E-democracy: Challenges of Online Citizen Engagement (2004), Evaluating Public Participation in Policy Making (2005).
From 1998-2000, she worked for SIGMA, a joint programme providing support to public administration reform in Central and Eastern European countries, based at the OECD and financed mainly by EU-Phare.
She earned a BA in Natural Sciences at Cambridge University (UK), an MA in Political Science at The Johns Hopkins University (USA) and a doctorate in Political Science at the European University Institute (Italy).
Geoff Mulgan became Director of the Young Foundation’s precursors (ICS and MAC) in the autumn of 2004 and oversaw the Foundation’s launch in 2005.
Between 1997 and 2004 Geoff had various roles in the UK government including director of the Government’s Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister’s office. Before that he was the founder and director of the think-tank Demos, described by the Economist when he left as the UK’s most influential think-tank. He has been chief adviser to Gordon Brown MP; a consultant and lecturer in telecommunications; and an investment executive. Geoff began his career in local government in London where he pioneered policies to support creative industries that have been emulated all over the world. He has also been a reporter for BBC TV and radio and a columnist for national newspapers. He has lectured in over 30 countries and is a visiting professor at LSE, UCL and Melbourne University, and a visiting fellow at the Australia New Zealand School of Government.
Geoff is a board member of the Work Foundation and the Design Council, chair of Involve (a charity bringing together practitioners in democracy and public engagement) and member of the International Steering Committee of the Program of Innovations and Excellence in Chinese Local Governance (IECLG). From late 2006-8 he will be chairing a Carnegie Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society in the UK and Ireland. He has been involved in the design and launch of dozens of organisations – ranging from the first plans for what later became Learndirect to the establishment of the Social Exclusion Unit and Job Centre Plus.
Recent publications (other than those published directly by the Young Foundation):
Good and Bad Power: the ideals and betrayals of government (Penguin, 2006) - described as ‘terrific’ by Alan Ryan in Prospect; ‘dazzling’ by Peter Preston in the Observer; and ‘a classic’ by Peter Hennessy in the Tablet.
Connexity (Harvard Business Press and Jonathon Cape, 1998)
Saturday Night or Sunday Morning (Comedia, 1987)
Communication and Control: Networks and the New Economies of Communication (Blackwells, 1991)
Politics in an Antipolitical Age (Polity, 1994)
Life After Politics (Harper Collins, 1997)
Geoff is profiled in two recent books – The New Alchemists by Charles Handy (Hutchinson, 1999) and Visionaries by Jay Walljasper (Utne Books, USA, 2001).
Tom Bentley Executive Director, Department of Premier & Cabinet Director of Applied Learning, Australia and New Zealand School of Government
Tom Bentley is Executive Director for Policy and Cabinet in the Department of Premier & Cabinet in Victoria, Australia and Director Director of Applied Learning in the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. Between 1999 and 2006, he was Director of leading UK think tank Demos.
Prior to that he was a special adviser to David Blunkett MP, then Secretary of State for Education and Employment, where he worked on issues including school curriculum reform, social inclusion and creativity.
Tom’s work focuses particularly on democracy and governance, public services and learning. Under Tom's leadership, Demos came to play a leading role in the formation of policy ideas and analysis of government reform, and became known as a ‘do tank’, providing consultancy and practical partnership alongside its more familiar forms of research and policy ideas.
His publications include: Learning beyond the classroom: education for a changing world, (Routledge, 1998) The Creative Age: knowledge and skills for a new economy (Demos, 1999), The Adaptive State: strategies for personalising the public realm (Demos 2003), Letting go: complexity, individualism and the left (Renewal, 2002), and Everyday Democracy: why we get the politicians we deserve (Demos, 2005).
Tom Steinberg is the founder and director of mySociety, a charitable body that runs many of the best-known democracy websites in the UK, from WriteToThem.com, to PledgeBank.com to the volunteer-founded TheyWorkForYou.com to the No10 petitions website. mySociety's missions are to build websites which give people simple, tangible benefits in the democratic and community aspects of their lives, and which teach the public and voluntary sector how they can use technology better to help citizens.
Nick Yeo Development & Communications Manager, TakingITGlobal
Nick Yeo is a self-styled global nomad, having lived his teenage years in Canada, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. He completed the International Baccalaureate program in 2000, and received an Honours Bachelors Degree in History and Philosophy from McGill University in 2003. Nick’s internationalist upbringing has mentally prepared him for today's ever-shrinking global village, which he brings in his current role of Development & Communications Manager for TakingITGlobal. His responsibilities include all fundraising, sponsorship and external communications efforts. TakingITGlobal was recently recognized as a Tech Museum Laureate in the Education category, and Nick represented the organization at the awards ceremony in San Jose.
Raul’s interest in volunteering started when he was in high school. In 2005 he decided to start volunteering online. He has collaborated as online project manager in projects in Sierra Leone (for which he received an award from the United Nations) and Kenya. He has recently co-founded the organization WECAN 4 PEACE that aims to be a network where actions for Peace are made a reality through local and global communication and networking. He also owns the Sydney based production company Think-makers Productions where he develops projects with a strong social message.
Malcolm Crompton Managing Director, Information Integrity Solutions P/L
Malcolm Crompton is Managing Director of Information Integrity Solutions P/L, advising private and public sector organisations on building trust through the way they collect and use personal information. He is also a Director of Bellberry Limited, a private not-for-profit organisation that provides health ethics committee services.
He was Australia’s Privacy Commissioner for five years until April 2004. He led the implementation of Australia’s private sector privacy law. Malcolm has advised APEC regularly on implementation of the APEC privacy framework, including leading seminars 2005 and in 2007.
In the previous 20 years, Malcolm held senior executive positions in the Australian Public Service. He has degrees in Chemistry and Economics.
His work was recognised in 2004 when he was awarded the inaugural Chancellor’s Medal for distinguished contribution to the Australian National University.
Dr Ian Brown is a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, and an honorary senior lecturer at University College London. His work is focused on public policy issues around information and the Internet, particularly privacy, copyright and e- democracy. He also works in the more technical fields of information security, networking and healthcare informatics.
Since 1998 Dr Brown has acted as an adviser to Privacy International, the Open Rights Group, the Foundation for Information Policy Research and Greenpeace. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the British Computer Society, and has consulted for the US Department of Homeland Security, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Allianz, McAfee, the BBC, the European Commission and the UK Information Commissioner’s Office. He is on the advisory boards of the EU-funded Privacy and Identity Management for Europe (PRIME) and Privacy enhancing shaping of security research and technology (PRISE) projects.
Dr Brown’s work has been covered by the BBC, CNN, CBC and numerous newspapers and magazines. In 2004 he was voted as one of the 100 most influential people in the development of the Internet in the UK over the previous decade.
1975-2005 banking in Nordea Bank and its predecessors with tasks from trading, inter-national and domestic banking to Executive Vice President, Retail Executive Manage-ment, Group Processing and Technology, Head of Payments and Electronic services
2006 - TietoEnator, Helsinki, Head of Executive Advisors
Various board and steering group memberships (past & present) including:
Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research (CKIR) - Helsinki School of Economics
Cisco Trusted Adviser
EU Task force for e-invoicing – Chair for Standardization Work Stream
Finnish National Advisory Board for the Ubiquitous Information Society – Chair for Electronic Identification Group
Microsoft Executive Circle
Mobey Forum – Chairman 2000-2005
SSH Communications Security Oyj
Visa International Advisors
Awards
Knight, First Class, of the Order of the White Rose of Finland 2002
Institutional Investor in 2000-2003: one of the most influential technologists of the 20th century
First award by the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications for promoting the Infor-mation Society 2004
Associate Professor Di Fleming Director, Accelerated Knowledge Technologies Pty Ltd
Entrepreneur, Innovator and Educator
Di’s success has been realised across education and industry alike. She is currently a consultant/company director of Accelerated Knowledge Technologies Pty Ltd and board member of the Victorian Government’s Growth Areas Authority. Previous appointments include founding director of Digital Harbour Pty Ltd and lab.3000 – centre for excellence in digital design with associate professorships at The University of Melbourne and RMIT University. As Principal of Kilvington Girls’ Grammar she was awarded Telstra Victorian Business Woman of the Year (1998–1999) and the National Telstra/AusIndustry Award. Di is a fellow of the Australian College of Education and the Australian Council of Educational Leadership and is a recipient of the Hedley Beare Educator of the Year Award.
Di believes that the strength of all organisations lies in "finding the extraordinary in the ordinary" by creating a culture where people can imagine, improvise and innovate so as to build their creative capital for the benefit of all.
Professor Madeleine Atkins Vice-Chancellor, Coventry University
Madeleine Atkins studied law and history as an undergraduate at Cambridge University before qualifying as a Secondary teacher. She taught for four years in a large comprehensive school in Huntingdon before returning to higher education to complete her PhD at Nottingham University.
Following various post-doctoral research positions, she became a lecturer in education management at Newcastle University, developing a keen interest in the use of new technologies to support effective learning. Having held the positions of Head of Department, Dean and Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Newcastle University, Professor Atkins became Vice-Chancellor of Coventry University in September 2004.
Professor Atkins is a member of HEFCE’s Strategic Advisory Committee for Business & Community. Nationally, she is a Board member of the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship and a member of the UUK Employability, Business and Industry Policy Committee (EBIPC). Regionally, she is a member of Advantage West Midlands’ Council for Innovation and Technology.
Alan November is an international leader in education technology. He began his career as an oceanography teacher and dorm counselor at an island reform school for boys in Boston Harbor. He has been director of an alternative high school, computer coordinator, technology consultant, and university lecturer. He has helped schools, governments and industry leaders improve the quality of education through technology.
Audiences enjoy Alan’s humor and wit as he pushes the boundaries of how to improve teaching and learning. His areas of expertise include planning across curriculum, staff development, new school design, community building and leadership development. He has delivered keynotes and workshops in all fifty states, across Canada, and throughout the UK, Europe, Asia and Central America.
Alan was named one of the nation's fifteen most influential thinkers of the decade by Classroom Computer Learning Magazine. In 2001, he was listed one of eight educators to provide leadership into the future by the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse. His writing includes numerous articles and bestselling book, Empowering Students with Technology. Alan was co-founder of the Stanford Institute for Educational Leadership Through Technology and is most proud of being selected as one of the original five national Christa McAuliffe Educators.
Each summer Alan leads the Building Learning Communities summer conference with world-class presenters and participants from all over the world. Visit novemberlearning.com/blc for more details.
Dr. Meena M. Munshi is a Senior Economist in the Sustainable Development Department, South Asia Region of the World. Bank. She brings substantial technical and project knowledge, 16+ years field experience in the Bank with senior responsibilities and has been an agent for change within the Bank. Dr. Munshi has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics and has worked in different capacities in Africa, Latin American and Middle-East and North Africa regions, and during the last ten years, South Asia – in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Currently, she is based in Bangladesh as Coordinator of the Agriculture and Rural Unit and also has lead responsibility for South Asia Region’s Community Driven Development (CDD) programs. She has designed and implemented several projects in watershed management, rural water supply and sanitation, empowerment and poverty reduction/livelihood improvement and specializes in Community Driven Development approaches and local level governance and institutions.
Prior to her tenure with the World Bank, Dr. Munshi was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for South Asian Studies in the University of Virginia; and taught developmental economics at the University of Virginia and Sweet Briar College, Virginia.
Dr. Rashid Bajwa is the CEO of National Rural Support Program (NRSP), which currently works with 6 million poor of Pakistan. NRSP is Pakistan’s largest multi-sector development organization and has successfully operated within the country since the early 1980s. Dr. Bajwa is also the Chairman of the Pakistan Microfinance Network, and on the board of directors for two other national Rural Support Programmes. He is a distinguished member of various committees and forums formed by the Government for poverty alleviation, where he represents the civil societies. Dr Bajwa holds a Master in Public Health, and is a medical doctor. Prior to NRSP, Dr. Bajwa has been working with the Government of Pakistan as member of the Civil service, in some of the remotest and difficult most areas of northern Pakistan. This enabled him to do policy advocacy for poverty alleviation and as a result many more rural support programmes have been set up by him, and he continues to provide support to them as member of their BOD.
In the past ten years, Dr. Bajwa has successfully transformed NRSP into the country’s principal agency, known for the largest nationwide Community Organizations network, leading community training programme and the greatest number of service delivery channels with the government and private agencies. NRSP has 4500 employees, and is being operated through 10 regional offices, 120 field offices, and 2 fully independent sub programmes. Following the tragic earthquake of October 2005, Dr. Bajwa successfully transformed NRSP into an earthquake relief agency without curtailing the core development activities. Along with infrastructure development, training and income enhancement among others, NRSP is more importantly about education. NRSP’s training methodology has been replicated in the region under the UNDP SAPAP. NRSP trained the VELUGU programme staff in Andhere Pradesh India.
Dr. Bajwa has successfully lead Pakistan’s largest microfinance programme, which resulted in government’s recognition of MFIs as banking institutions. NRSP holds the largest national micro credit portfolio in the country, and has acquired a microfinance bank license, with its first ever micro credit bank launch on the 31st of December 2007.
Nomhle Canca
Chief Executive of South Africa’s Blue IQ company
Nomhle Canca is the CEO of Blue IQ Investment Holdings, a company owned by the province of Gauteng. The company invests in infrastructure development to stimulate economic activities by the private sector. She also sits on the Boards of a number of listed companies in South Africa. Raised in the US where she lived in exile with her parents, she obtained her BA in Economics and Political Science from Emory University in Atlanta in 1987 and worked as a Stock Broker before returning to South Africa in 1991. Upon her return, she spent three years at Anglo American Corporation before becoming executive director of Womens’ Investment Portfolio Holdings (Wiphold), the first listed women’s empowerment group in South African History. She has served on the Katz Tax Commission and was a founding member of both the Women’s Development Bank (WDB) 1991-1995 and Wiphold (1994-2002).
Hugh McPhail has led the development of the New Zealand E-government Strategy since 2001. Based in the Information and Communication Technologies Branch of the State Services Commission, the Strategy aims to promote change and the use of technology to transform the way that government works. Particular areas of focus have been the opportunities that technology provides for government to engage with people, the challenges that the use of network technologies raises for security and privacy, and the scope for making better use of information held by government to deliver user-centred services.
Hugh’s current role is Manager, E-government Strategy & Policy. Earlier in his career he worked in trade policy and trade administration, including serving on WTO dispute settlement panels.
