Thomas Homer-Dixon holds the Centre for International Governance Innovation Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Canada. Bestselling author of The Upside of Down and the Governor General’s award-winning book The Ingenuity Gap, Dr. Thomas Homer Dixon’s work focuses on threats to global security in the 21st century, and how societies adapt to complex economic, ecological and technological change. His presentations provide a wake-up call that is pertinent to any audience, and provide solutions to the many complex problems that governments, corporations and individuals face.
Manfred Max-Neef began his career as Professor of Economics at University of California, Berkeley, served as Rector of the Universidad Austral de Chile and teaches and lectures globally. He received the Right Livelihood Award in 1983 and has received honorary degrees from Japan, Jordan and Colombia. In 1981 he wrote the book ‘From the Outside Looking In: Experiences in Barefoot Economics’ for which he is best known. In 1991 he published ‘Human Scale Development’. His books focus on practicing ‘economics as if people matter.
Dr. Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics and a tireless advocate of people centered economics, died Tuesday June 12. She had agreed to share her immense knowledge and wisdom with our conference, as she has done so generously throughout her life whenever she was asked. Elinor Ostrom is singular and irreplaceable. Her Nobel prize was awarded for her ground breaking research demonstrating that ordinary people are capable of creating rules and institutions that allow for the sustainable and equitable management of shared resources.” We will be announcing in the next few weeks how we will bring her important work to the conference in tribute to her memory. Our thoughts are with her family, colleagues and friends as well as global society. We have lost a champion who strove to make the world a better place and made an enormous contribution.
Richard G Wilkinson studied economic history at the London School of Economics before training in epidemiology. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Nottingham Medical School and Honorary Professor at University College London. In 2009 he co-authored with Kate Pickett, The Spirit Level, which shows that societies with more equal distribution of incomes have better health, fewer social problems and are more cohesive than ones in which the gap between the rich and poor is greater.
Stefano Zamagni is Vice director of the Bologna Center, Senior adjunct professor of International Economics and Professor of economics and former dean of the economics faculty at University of Bologna. He has taught at the University of Parma, University of Bocconi (Milan), and Johns Hopkins University. His many publications include: Economics; A European Text, 2002; Relational Complexity and economic behaviour, 2002; The Italian Non-profit at the Crossroad, 2002; A Civil Economic Theory of Cooperative Firms, 2005; and Cooperation, 2008.
Neva Goodwin is Co-Director of the Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University. She holds a Masters’ degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a Ph.D. in Economics from Boston University. She is engaged in the development of “contextual economics” that will have more relevance to real world concerns than does the dominant economic paradigm.
Vera Negri Zamagni is a Senior adjunct professor of International Economics and Chair and professor of economic history, University of Bologna. She earned her Ph.D. in economic history from University of Oxford (UK) and a Laurea in history and philosophy from Catholic University of Milan (Italy). Her recent publications include Cooperative Enterprise: facing the challenge of globalization, co-authored with Stefano Zamagni (2010); L’industria chimica italiana e l’IMI (2010); and Finmeccanica (2009).
William Rees is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP). Dr. Rees’ work is in the realm of human ecology and ecological economics. He is best known as the originator of ‘ecological footprint analysis,’ set out in his book Our Ecological Footprint (1996) co-authored with then PhD student Mathis Wackernagel. He is presently supervising several eco-footprint projects ranging from the sustainability implications of globalization to getting serious about urban sustainability. He is also developing a new focus on human cognitive processes and innate behaviour as barriers to sustainability.
Dr. Ronald Colman is founder and executive director of GPI Atlantic, a non-profit research group dedicated to developing comprehensive accounts and measures of wellbeing and sustainable development. GPI Atlantic has constructed a full Genuine Progress Index for Nova Scotia, Canada (www.gpiatlantic.org). Ron has a PhD from Columbia and is currently working on bringing measures of natural, human and social capital into Bhutan’s National Accounts.
John Fullerton is the Founder and President of the Capital Institute. He had an 18 year career at JPMorgan during which he managed multiple capital markets and derivatives businesses around the globe and venture capital investment activity. Mr. Fullerton is currently a director of Investors Circle, New Day Farms, Inc., and an Advisor to Natural Systems Utilities. He is a participant/author of the UNEP Green Economy Report. He has a BA in Economics at the University of Michigan, and an MBA at the Stern School of New York.
Claudia Sanchez Bajo has a PhD in Development Studies and is currently freelance researcher and consultant and chief editor of the Chine Actuelle review, Brussels. She published, among other titles: The Debt Trap (2011) co-authored with Bruno Roelants; and The Political Economy of Regionalism – Business Actors in Mercosur in the Petrochemical and Steel Industrial Sectors in (2001). Her two main fields of research are the role of entrepreneurial actors in regional integration processes and cooperation processes between cooperatives.
David Erdal obtained an MA in Chinese at Oxford, an MBA from Harvard and a PhD from Saint Andrews University, Scotland. He was born into a family that owned a paper manufacturer and in 1985 took over as head of the 1,500-employee firm, Tullis Russell, and led its full employee-buyout in 1994. His most recent book is ‘Beyond the Corporation: Humanity Working’ (Bodley Head, 2011)
Stephen C. Smith is Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy, is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University. He received his PhD in economics from Cornell University and has been a Fulbright Research Scholar and a Jean Monnet Research Fellow. Smith is the co-author with Michael Todaro of Economic Development (11th Ed., Addison-Wesley and Pearson, 2011); Smith is also author or coauthor of some three dozen journal articles, and numerous other publications.
Peter A Victor studied at University of Birmingham and University of British Colombia. He is one of the founders of the emerging discipline of ecological economics and the first President of the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics. His most recent book is Managing without Growth: Slower by Design, not Disaster. (Edward Elgar, 2008). In 2011 Dr. Victor was awarded the Molson Prize by the Canada Council for the Arts for his lifetime contribution to economics and the environment.
Avner Ben-Ner is Professor at the Center for Human Resources and Labor Studies (formerly the Industrial Relations Center) in the Carlson School of Management, and Affiliated Professor in the Law School at the University of Minnesota (USA). His current research focuses on: (1) the determinants and effects of organization design and ownership; (2) the determinants of inclinations to trust, be trustworthy, cooperate and other process-regarding preferences; (3) the effects of different dimensions of individual identity and group diversity on social and economic behaviour; and (4) the place of the non-profit sector in the changing market economy.
Bernard Brun, Co-Master of Ceremonies. Since 2009, Bernard Brun is responsible for the Canadian government relations of the Desjardins Group. He links and ensures a cohesive dialogue between the Desjardins Group, members of Parliament, the Crown corporations and various associations. M. Brun practiced law for sixteen years with Desjardins Financial Security where he focused on computer & information technology law, intellectual property, financial institutions law and corporate commercial law.
Denyse Guy, Co-Mistress of Ceremonies. Denyse Guy has been Executive Director of the Canadian Co-operative Association since January 2, 2012. For nearly 30 years, she has worked as a manager and educator/trainer in the co-operative sector in Canada and overseas. Prior to her arrival at CCA, she served for more than 10 years as Executive Director of the Ontario-Co-operative Association (On Co-op); before that, she was the coordinator of Windfield Co-operative Homes, a co-op housing project in Guelph, Ontario. She also has worked as a group leader and community organizer with Canada World Youth.
