Advisory Board
Bill Liao, Switzerland
Bill Liao, entrepreneur, philanthropist, diplomat and author, is the co-founder of the social network service XING and CEO of Finaxis AG, a privately held company in the financial services industry. Bill is a special diplomatic envoy for St Kitts and Nevis, with a special interest in sustainable development and the environment. He is also founder and co-ordinator of WeForest.com, which will reforest twenty million square kilometres of stripped land, and Neo.org, a global citizenship initiative. Bill is dedicated to the vision that business and enterprise, conducted fairly and with respect for the environment, can and will create a better environment for work, life and the world that we all share. This vision is captured in his book: Stone Soup; a Secret Recipe for Making Something from Nothing.
Esra’a Al Shafei, Bahrain
Esra’a Al Shafei is the founder and Executive Director of MideastYouth.com, a grassroots, indigenous digital network that leverages the power of new media to facilitate the struggle against oppression in the Middle East and North Africa. She is driven by her passion for civil engagement, freedom of speech, and employing innovative solutions to pervasive and persistent human problems. Her advocacy on the internet bridges seemingly impenetrable barriers of faith and geography to unite young people committed to fostering constructive discourse in the Middle East. She is also the director of a series of international campaigns for rights for ethnic, religious, and intellectual minorities. Among those she runs is the influential global campaign to free an imprisoned Egyptian blogger at FreeKareem.org. She is a recipient of the Berkman Award from Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society for “outstanding contributions to the internet and its impact on society,” and is currently a TED Fellow and an Echoing Green Fellow. Most recently, her project won a ThinkSocial Award for serving as a “powerful model for how social media can be used to address global problems.”
Jeroen Hermkens, the Netherlands
Jeroen Hermkens is an innovative, analytical, creative, persistent designer/entrepreneur with a special interest in new technology and its usability and impact on society. His personal vision is to help people carve out a life they love supported by transparent, easy-to-use technology. Jeroen is the initiator of the European Summit for Global Transformation. He lives in Rotterdam, where he runs his firm, Het is Simpel, aiming specifically at clear and easy interaction, communication and concept design. He also operates as Chief Technology Officer and Key Interaction Designer for NEO.org. Jeroen won the Dutch Design Award for the project ‘Virtual Prison’ for the Dutch Ministry of Justice. Jeroen graduated in 1995 with a Master’s Degree in Industrial Design Engineering with a specialisation in interaction design from Delft University of Technology.
Letha Sandison, Uganda
Letha Sandison is an artist and business consultant who believes in collective gain, environmental protection, and community building. Her strategic vision is at the heart of Wrap Up Africa, an organization she founded and runs. In 2007, Letha and her family moved to Uganda, where she saw firsthand the challenges faced by local pediatric cancer patients. In Wrap Up Africa, she’s created a business model that uses market resources to address medical and development issues. While the primary beneficiaries of W.U.A.’s programs are African families struggling with cancer, Wrap Up Africa also funnels money into the local economy, providing jobs, building capacity, and maximizing limited resources. Sandison spoke at the LiveStrong Global Cancer Summit in Dublin, Ireland will present at the World Cancer Congress in China, August 2010. She is a 2010 participant at the Clinton Global Initiative.
Ralph Schonenbach, Germany
Ralph Schonenbach is the CEO of Trestle Group and on the Board of Trestle Group Foundation. He has held senior positions with the firms Andersen and Ernst & Young. Over the span of his career, he has established several successful consulting practices with a primary focus in the financial services industry and has advised high-level executives around the world on how to transform the way they manage and deliver services, as well as how to tackle the pressures brought about by resource constraints. Through Trestle Group Foundation, he is passionately involved with providing support to both women and emerging entrepreneurs in developing countries. Ralph frequently speaks at conferences and has authored a variety of publications. He earned a degree in Business Management from Goucher College.
Rebecca L. Self, Ph.D., Switzerland
Rebecca Self helps clients envision their goals and then get there with velocity. From individuals to some of the world’s largest corporations, projects have included global rollout of complex training programs and organization-wide cultural transformation for clients such as AP Møeller Mærsk, Volvo, Nokia Siemens Networks, Emerson, Avaya, and StorageTek. Her passion lies in unleashing the potential of young global leaders. Self is the Director of Coaching Programs for the Trestle Group Foundation. She’s written for newspapers, magazines, Fortune and Global 500 companies and the NBC-TV affiliate in San Diego. Self earned her B.A. at Hampshire College and M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Colorado, where she taught for nearly a decade. She has been a member of the faculty of the University of Idaho and Franklin College Switzerland. She served as Senior Editor for US West’s Center for Digital Culture and was Director of Content Development for Gronstedt Group.
Stacey Monk, USA
Stacey is the CEO and co-founder of EpicChange. A former management consultant who has spent her career working with leaders in the public and private sectors to successfully create, lead and navigate organizational change. She is a graduate of the Heinz School of Public Policy & Management at Carnegie Mellon University, and previously worked with Deloitte Consulting, Genentech and the Santa Clara Social Services Agency before launching her own firm, Funken Consulting. After a life-changing trip through Africa in 2007, Monk left her for-profit career to create Epic Change.
The European Summit has been possible with the help of generous volunteers, including:
Reinder Schonewille, Doris Ragettli, Lieke Fortuin, Cheryl Cooper, Bertrand van Buchem, Thea Bogish, Judith Van Den Dool, Mark Querfurth, Phil Benz-Howell, Amy Sample Ward, David Wilcox, Robert Jon Eckart, Noelle Kabel, Bo Keijmel, Martijn Poll, Maurice Pahladsingh, Dymphe Warmerdam, Marcella Nihof, Veronica Antkowiak, Janny Meerstadt, Mark Broderick, Jack Cullen, Cliff Adams, Stanley Kolader
