Speakers

Abdulla Ahmed Alshehhi holds a senior strategic role as Chief Operating Officer within Dubai Cares, a UAE-based global philanthropic organization that works towards providing children and youth in developing countries with access to quality education. The organization has successfully launched education programs reaching over 21 million beneficiaries in 60 developing countries. In his current position, Abdulla oversees the management of projects undertaken by different departments within the organization to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of operations. His responsibilities include supporting the donor relations and partnerships process and evaluating the performance and impact of implemented programs to achieve the desired outcomes. In addition, Abdulla also oversees the Outreach department at Dubai Cares, as well as the Community Engagement function. This responsibility involves supervising the implementation of community engagement initiatives locally and globally. Abdulla holds a Higher Diploma in Applied Electronics and Computers System from Higher Colleges of Technology.

Adil is a Community Development practitioner who is passionate about mobilizing skills, funds and other resources and channeling them for projects where they are needed most in the community in the Upper West Region, Ghana. Issah believes firmly that everyone has something to contribute and can thus help bring about sustainable progress in all communities. As a project management professional with over 7 years of experience and a lifelong advocate for volunteerism.

Ahmad is the Founding CEO of Naua (2016), a not-for-profit social impact platform that aims to promote a culture of giving and philanthropy (Naua.org) and volunteering (Nahno.org) by connecting civil society actors within a common framework for measuring impact. Previously, Ahmad served as the Director of Research and Policy at the Jordan Investment Commission (2010 – 2016) and was a part-time lecturer at the Business School of the University of Jordan (2009). Before that he was a Program Support Officer at Hydro One Networks, Canada (2007). Ahmad is also a founding member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community in Amman (2011 – 2016) and was the first elected curator. Ahmad has an MBA (2009), BSc in Math (2006) and BA in Economics (2006) from McMaster University, Canada.

Alan has worked in senior management positions within Volunteer Scotland for more than 8 years. Alan regularly represents the interests of volunteers and persuades third sector and public sector leaders of the value and their role in delivering 'volunteering for all'. Alan has a strong background in organisational management and partnership development, with over 20 years of experience as a management consultant and a management educator. Alan recently led more than 100 sector stakeholders, including colleagues in Scottish Government, in the development and successful launch of Scotland’s 10-year Volunteering Action Plan.

Alasdair is a 17 years old youth living in a rural area of South West Scotland. He is currently a member of Dumfries and Galloway Youth Council and serves as their Spokesperson on Transport. He is also a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament for Galloway and West Dumfries and a member of the UK Youth Parliament for South Scotland. Outside of these roles, Alasdair helps on his family’s 800-acre beef and sheep farm, where he owns his own small flock of sheep.

Dr. Chadwick El-Ali is a Senior Research & Policy Officer at UKCDR. She completed her doctorate at the University of Bath. Her research explored the role of volunteering within development projects in Sierra Leone and how this interacts with employment and citizenship. At a broader level she is interested in volunteering as a response to crisis, the connection between volunteering and development in policy and practice, and the role of volunteerism within the SDGs.

Amaru has 20+ years of work experience at multinational companies with specialty in Pharma and CPG, currently working for SC Johnson & Son as General Manager for Venezuela & Ecuador. Member of the board in the Venezuelan American chamber of commerce (Venamcham). University Professor and co-creator of the “Responsible Leadership” cathedra in IESA School of Management. Youngest president in history of United Way Venezuela (locally Dividendo Voluntario para la Comunidad). Multiplied by ten times monetary donations received and beneficiaries in the last two years, whereas transforming the way private companies, international cooperation and public sector work together to tackle Venezuela’s social crisis.

Amjad is the manager / orchestrator of the Volunteer, Youth and Education Developoment Unit at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies based in Geneva, a global team focused on volunteering management, youth innovation and engagement and education programming. He has worked in different perspectives of humanitarian work, interfaith engagement and peace building. He applies his extensive knowledge on peace building, humanitarian affairs and development work and interfaith engagement in many domains, including as board member of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, People Beyond Borders and Eduspots. His publications include journal articles, several book chapters and a book on "Lessons from Aceh". Amjad is an alumni of the International Visitors Leadership Program and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, and has an M.Eng from Imperial College, London, an MBA from U21 Global Singapore/Manipal Global Nxt Malaysia and a PhD from Exeter University.

Ana Paula is the Co-Founder and CEO of Proa, a digital platform that connects NGOs with volunteers and companies to scale their impact activities that currently connects 690 NGOs with a pool of 120,000 volunteers and 30 companies. She has also founded Peru Voluntario, a network of NGO leaders that develops research about volunteerism in Peru for public policy advocacy. With more than 15 years in the social organization sector, Ana Paula is passionate about creating tech solutions to social issues.

Andronica is the Senior Sustainability Specialist at Discovery. She is a qualified educator with a Postgraduate in Business Administration and pursuing Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. She began her career in the public sector with the National Department of Education before moving to the private sector, where she leads various multi-sector collaborations. She has over 20 years of experience in the social investing sector, and her key interests are health, education, gender, and youth. Before joining Discovery, she worked for Standard Bank of South Africa serving in various roles in Public Sector Banking, Sponsorships, and Corporate Social Investment. She was key in establishing Discovery's Group Volunteer Programme, with an ambition to make volunteering part of the company's DNA. She was also instrumental in establishing the Social Value Model for Discovery, a multi-stakeholder collaboration centred on strategic insight, strong partnerships, replicability, and community ownership. She currently serves on the Buskaid SA Board of Directors as well as the National Business Initiative (NBI) Gender Based Violence Advisory Group.

Arjun is a development volunteer and activist working on community development and social work since 1995. He is working as a national coordinator of Nepal Development Initiative (NEDI), a national NGOs working on climate justice and social entrepreneurship movement as well as he is Secretary General of NGO Federation of Nepal, an umbrella of 6500 NGOs of Nepal and co-chair of Catalyst2030. Mr Bhattarai has contributing to coordinate volunteer organizations and CSOs in Asia for sustainable development, civic space, climate justice and disaster risk reduction and humanitarian response.

Arthur is Interim Secretary General, ActionAid International, a global federation working in 46 countries to achieve social justice, gender equality and poverty eradication. He is also a member of the Transitions Assistance Practice Group (TAPG) hosted by the Institute for Integrated Transition (IFIT) in Barcelona, as well as Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Civic Research Network (CRN). He holds a master’s in governance and development.

He coedited, with John De Coninck, a Book on Uganda’s Civil Society and authored other papers, including ‘Uganda’s New Civic Activism: Beyond Egos and Logos’, ‘Modified activism after Ethiopia’s New Dawn’.

Begoña is the Head of Diversity, Social Projects and Culture at Iberdrola S.A. Passionate about human development and social innovation, she leads the strategic development and execution of the Company's Global Corporate Volunteering Programme, which offers Iberdrola's 42,000 employees the opportunity to be agents of change, participate in improving the social scenario, and contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Begoña has more than 30 years of experience in the field of Human Resources, and is also responsible for the areas of diversity, inclusion, and culture of the Company.

Economist with an international master's degree in Cooperation and Development, and IESE executive program in Strategic Management and Social Leadership, she started working on Corporate Volunteering in 2006, as CSR manager at Grupo Vips.

Since 2015, she has been Project Director at Volies, leading the design of strategies, research, training and the development of new projects to increase the impact and professionalize employee engagement programs management. She also coordinates the Voluntare Network and has created and led the #COMPANIES4SDGs campaign to share and take action for the Sustainable Development Goals. The program reached more than 500.000 employees in 45 countries.

Caroline is the Community Relations Manager for UPS in the Indian subcontinent, Middle East and Africa (ISMEA based in Dubai.

In her role, she manages strategic philanthropy, community partnerships and volunteerism. One of her core focus areas and interests is developing and implementing programs of high-impact, high-visibility community involvement.

She started her career in customer experience and transitioned to social impact by founding an organization called Still A Mum. In the 8 years she ran it, Still A Mum became an internationally recognized nonprofit receiving funding from Meta, acclaimed by media outlets such as BBC and won numerous awards. She is a Facebook Community Leadership fellow and a Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) fellow.

Cathy is the Vice Director of Social Impact and The UPS Foundation. Cathy manages the UPS Foundation’s Volunteerism Philanthropic Investment Strategy, supporting the distribution of over $17 million annually to support programs in areas of volunteerism and community involvement, including UPS’s global volunteer and giving platform, UPS Community Connections, powered by Benevity.

Additionally, she also manages The UPS Foundation Board of Trustees activities, Foundation Operations and is responsible for the strategy and funding investments for UPS’s Fight against Human Trafficking Impact Fund as well as managing the companywide Employee Giving Program. UPS employees contribute more than $45 million annually.

A UPS employee for 25 years, Cathy held prior positions in Finance and Learning & Talent Development. Cathy sits on the board of the International Association for Volunteer Effort and serves on the Points of Light Corporate Service Council.

A native of Illinois, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Social Work at Western Illinois University. She and her husband Jeff live in Milton, Georgia, with their two daughters.

Originally from the Philippines, Dr Chris Millora is Senior Research Associate and Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of East Anglia (UK). He leads the 3-year research project ‘Literacies of Dissent’ (www.literaciesofdissent.com) exploring the literacy and learning dimensions of youth social movements in the Global South. He was the lead researcher of UN Volunteers’ 2022 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report and author of the upcoming research on youth and student organizing during COVID-19 commissioned by the Global Campaign for Education. More about Chris’ work at www.chrismillora.com.

Cliff is writer, researcher and consultant in International Development, specializing in volunteering. After an initial career in academia, he moved into economic and social development and held a CEO role in International Volunteering for more than 20 years. In 2017, he joined the Third Sector Research Centre at the University of Birmingham, UK as an Associate Fellow and has worked with academics, practitioners and activists in different countries on research and articles. He has written on a range of issues relating to volunteering for development, most recently on measuring impact, climate change and on the impact of COVID-19.

Colin has worked in the humanitarian sector for 27 years in a range of crises (earthquakes, conflict, flooding, disease outbreaks and refugee situations). He is the Global Head of Disaster Preparedness & Response for Plan International and supports Plan’s country offices preparedness activities for future crises. He also supports country offices respond to new crises. He manages the core surge capacity within the organisation. He is regularly involved in discussions with UN agencies and peer agencies. He was the first elected President of Sphere, the leading humanitarian standard used by humanitarian agencies globally to ensure programme quality and effectiveness.

Daniel is the Program Manager of the African Union Youth Volunteer Corps (AU-YVC) – a continental youth leadership program which works with young African professionals through volunteerism and exchange across Africa. He brings over ten years’ experience in continental program management and policy development working with the African Union Commission and other International Organizations. He brings on board program development, implementation and monitoring skills, policy development, international relations and youth development expertise combined with continental level perspectives.

Daniel Adugna holds a B.Sc. in Management Information System from the Munich University of Technology, Germany; Master’s in business administration (MBA) from the Lincoln University, USA (Extension, Ethiopia); and a second Masters in Development Finance from the Frankfurt Business School.

David leads GenU’s Global Volunteer Initiative (GVI) which helps countries create or scale volunteer engagement programmes to help accelerate results across a range of issues for children and young people. He previously managed the parliamentary engagement portfolio at UNICEF headquarters In 2015-16, Ponet led UNICEF’s movement-building initiative on the global refugee crisis, a coalitional effort that sought to engage the public in multiple countries around the crisis to positively influence public opinion and discourse. Before joining UNICEF he was Director of Research for an investment research firm and has previously held positions in government and on political campaigns. He has a PhD in political science.

Everything David does centers on leveraging the power of young people as changemakers so as to bring about positive social change to society.

Debbie has been the Secretary General to Volunteering Taiwan since 2001. For her long-term engagement in civil society, she builds up the collaboration with governments, academics, voluntary organizations, and business sector based on the context of volunteering. In 2016, she advocates “volunteering 2.0” to promote the new module in cultivating the youth to develop their career planning through their volunteering. The concept of “From Volunteers to Social Entrepreneurs” is now the focus for her to serve as the mentor in the universities and various speech occasions. She is also the co-founder of Formosa Social Innovation Center to provide the co-working space and consultation for the social enterprise starters.

Deedar has been a volunteer since 2009, when he led the foundation of a non-profit organization called ADDESSO. In 2015 he started an active collaboration at the National Volunteering Council of Mozambique (CNV), leading project design and management, partnership raising, among several responsibilities. In 2018 he was elected Vice-president of CNV, position he holds so far. Currently he´s also the Country Leader of Good Deeds Day in Mozambique and Technical Advisor to the State Secretariat for Youth and Employment on volunteering matters, with emphasis on the establishment of a National Volunteering Program framework, project design and cooperation.

Denise has been Chief Executive with Volunteer Now since 2017. She has extensive experience in public and organizational volunteering policy development, local volunteering infrastructure engagement, volunteering research, supporting good practice in volunteering, young people and volunteering, older people volunteering and events volunteering. She has knowledge of, and expertise in, working with volunteers and volunteering issues gained over many years working in the voluntary and community sector.

Diane joined Google in July 2012 and has served in a variety of roles including leading Google’s employee giving and volunteering for 5 years and various roles in human resources from culture, to employee onboarding, to change management.

Diane comes to Google with over 25 years in the not-for-profit sector, and spent the prior 13 years leading a nonprofit consultancy. That experience gave her the great opportunity to work with hundreds of companies to design, implement and enhance their corporate social responsibility programs. Diane is passionate about making the world a better place and believes that in leveraging and unlocking the skills and passions of their employees, companies have a unique opportunity to make significant positive social impact and make their workplaces stronger.

Diane is a mother of two young adults, an avid runner, a pretty good cook and really enjoys being with interesting, smart people who have a good sense of humor. She graduated from the University of Colorado with a BA in English, has a Certificate in Corporate Citizenship from Boston College and is a graduate of the Stanford University Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders. She is a Jefferson Award winner for Public Service and a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum.

Diane is a Chair of the Fundraising Committee and Corporate Volunteering Representative to the IAVE Board of Directors.

Dipti is the head of Americas for Toniic, a global impact investing organization. She has fifteen+ years of experience working with startups, venture capitalists, multinationals, family foundations, family offices, individual philanthropists, nonprofits and corporate foundations on their social impact strategy. Dipti was most recently vice president at The Philanthropy Workshop and the founding executive director of Pledge 1%. Dipti has held senior leadership roles at a wide range of for profit and nonprofit organizations. She holds an MBA and Bachelors of Art in English from Santa Clara University.

Elizabeth, who holds a Doctorate and Master’s Degree in Guidance and Counselling, is a professional counsellor and a lecturer in one of Nigeria’s Federal Colleges of Education. She also is an active volunteer for her community, her state and for IAVE Nigeria. She first served on the IAVE board as Regional Representative for Africa from 2014 through 2017.

She served as the IAVE Nigeria youth president from 2001 to 2007, and actively involved the IAVE Youth members in Nigeria in community development projects, humanitarian activities that included helping the less privileged and destitute, and mentoring youth on career guidance, peer influence and good citizenship. She also is a member of Alvan Volunteer Service at her college, bringing literacy to communities that lack basic and adequate educational provision and attention; organizing workshops/seminars for entrepreneurial skill development, debates and quiz competitions for schools within the state.

Elizabeth is the Africa Regional Representative to the IAVE Board of Directors.

Emma leads the United Nations Volunteer Programme’s global policy and advocacy work to strengthen and integrate volunteerism in the 2030 Agenda through evidence, research and policy guidance. Emma managed the inter-governmental process on the Plan of Action to Integrate Volunteerism into the 2030 Agenda and the Global Technical Meeting in 2020 on behalf of the UN system.

Emma has over 20 years of experience leading development policy and programme initiatives with the United Nations, the former UK Department for International Development (DFID) and civil society in Africa, Asia, and Latin America with a focus on governance, social development, and human rights.

Estelle has been Global Head Engagement & Volunteering since 2014, based in Switzerland at Novartis Headquarters. She is a member of the Novartis Learning Institute Leadership team, the Novartis Learning Council and the People & Organization and Country Coordination Novartis Emergency Management teams.

Estelle joined Novartis in 2007 with increasing responsibilities in Vaccines Western & Eastern Europe (2007-2010), Pharma Commercial Operations Asia, Middle East & Africa, Global Human Resources (2010-2014) and Corporate Responsibility (2014-2022).

Previously, she co-led a non-profit organization “IBBY” (International Board on Books for Young People) as Director & Program Head of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition given to an author and an illustrator in children’s literature. Prior to that, she was the Global Head Legal Services and member of the Executive Committee at the headquarter of DHL. Estelle started her career in the hospitality and airline industry, traveling being still one of her passions to-date.

Estelle has been volunteering her entire life, starting at the age of ten, teaching Mathematics and German to children of migrant families in her home town. Most recently, since 2017, she acts as Vice-President and member of the BASAID Board of Directors, a non-profit organization, providing development aid in underserved communities in four continents around four strategic priorities: health, education, water & sanitation and agriculture.

Estelle has studied Political Economics in Freiburg, Germany and holds an MBA. A global citizen at heart, she worked and spent most of her life in different countries around the world, from the French West Indies via Mexico to Ex-Yugoslavia. She currently calls France her home, where she lives with her family, two Weimaraner dogs and raised – during COVID – five orphan ducklings, recently released back to the wild.

Eva is a Director in Credit Suisse’s corporate citizenship team in London. She leads Credit Suisse's Financial Education Initiative, a global program that focuses on financial education for girls that is implemented in several countries across the world. Current not for profit partners in this program are Girl Rising (in Ghana and Mexico), Plan International (China and Brazil), Room to Read (Tanzania) and Teach for All (Uganda, Colombia, Cambodia). These partners are supported by Aflatoun International, the technical specialist in financial education.

Eva also co-manages the Global Citizens Program, the Bank’s flagship pro-bono program that she set up in 2010. Over the years she has led the evolution and integration of this program into the bank’s talent development offering. To date, more than 440 assignments have been completed in over 60 countries. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Eva has worked in both the not for profit and government sectors and lived in several countries.

Felicitie is Volunteering Manager at WCVA (Wales Council for Voluntary Action), enabling organisations to deliver high quality volunteering opportunities in Wales and trustee of WCIA (Welsh Council of International Affairs), a charity inspiring people in Wales to learn and act on global issues. Felicitie, a passionate advocate of youth volunteering and leadership, campaigns for the Power of Youth, recognizing the value young people bring to society and the voluntary sector. She has built a network of future leaders in Wales, enabling young people to access leadership opportunities and recently founded a national equality, diversity and inclusion forum for volunteering.

Francesco is an Italian national, though only moderately proud about it. He has worked in Paris, Bangkok, Tokyo and Seoul, coordinating research and development programs focusing on international voluntary service and non-formal education. Holding a Masters in Development Anthropology from La Sorbonne, he has taught at the School of Social Work of the University of Illinois and is a PhD Candidate in Global Studies at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, where he is looking at the acquisition of social and cultural competences through international volunteerism as a mean to decrease social interaction anxiety and intergroup uncertainty, and to increase subjective well-being.

Fredrick is the Secretary and National Coordinator to the Volunteer Involving Organizations Society – Kenya, a Network that brings together several reputable Volunteer Involving Organizations to work with government to develop volunteering enabling infrastructures.
He is Good Deeds Day Kenya Representative.
Fred has enhanced collaborations with relevant Government Agencies, companies and development agencies. He has led the development and reviews of the Kenya National Volunteerism Policy and a Draft Volunteerism Bill. He has participated and represented in many volunteering convening.
Fred is a continuing Student of Development Studies at Daystar University.

Gabriel is a Social entrepreneur specialized in volunteering and corporate social responsibility, one of the founders and now manager of Atados in Rio de Janeiro, the biggest social engagement platform in Brazil. With a network of more than 3000 NGOs across the country, has coordinated projects with companies such as Coca-Cola, Shell, L’Oréal and UHG to create activities, programs and technology for corporate volunteering. Has led the Atados sales team and is now the Product Manager for all tech initiatives.

Gauri leads the Volunteering portfolio at the Tata Sustainability Group. Her key responsibilities include driving the Tata volunteering strategy across the Tata Group, capacity building of Tata Group of companies in the area of volunteering and managing Tata Engage, the flagship volunteering programme of the Tata Group. Additionally, she actively supports the community services team in it's CSR and Disaster Response function.

Gauri has 18 years of diverse work experience in strategic positions with both Non-Government Organizations and Corporate Foundations. Prior to joining TSG, Gauri has spent over a decade with the Mahindra Group, steering programs in the education and livelihoods verticals, along with being responsible for statutory compliance, building synergy across Mahindra Group companies and reporting on CSR to internal and external stakeholders. Gauri has also worked with Save The Children, India as a Program Officer for the USAID and SARIQ supported 1) Prevention of human trafficking programme & 2) Livelihood training & rehabilitation programme for survivors of sex trafficking.

Gauri holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and a Diploma in Social Entrepreneurship from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

Gauri is a music enthusiast, a passionate cook and baker and an avid traveler interested in exploring different cultures.

Giselle is Founder and Managing Director of the Volunteer Center of Trinidad & Tobago (VCTT) and is working to eliminate wasted human capital. Giselle inspires the best minds to volunteer their time to tackle the most pressing development challenges and mobilises international networks and resources to escalate Caribbean volunteering. Through online volunteering, organisations like VCTT have been able to convene and manage large numbers of volunteers to reach those most at risk of being left behind. The VCTT team is unveiling the emerging role technology and artificial intelligence can play in scaling the reach and impact of volunteers.

Manages the Scholarships and Grants Department at the " The Lottery ". As the manager of the Scholarships and Grants Department at the Erez Lottery, he is responsible for managing the entire system of scholarships and special grants. The essence of the Lottery's existence is to raise funds from the public through lotteries and games of chance to fulfill public goals and improve the quality of life of the community in Israel in the fields of education, health, community sports, art, and environmental quality. The Lottery is the largest provider of scholarships in Israel (about 350 million NIS per year).

The scholarships are divided into several levels such as collaborations with government ministries, collaborations with local authorities (over 200 authorities) and more. The scholars are all committed to volunteering, so as part of his role, Erez manages a volunteer array of about 30,000 students and is in constant contact with hundreds of different associations and organizations. In addition, he manages community social projects that touch the lives of thousands nationwide in Israel.

The Scholarships Division, in cooperation with the Volunteer Council, conducted a measurement of the impact on scholarship recipients during the Corona period, and Erez will share the results of the measurement and its impact with the conference participants.

Guillermo Correa - Founder and Executive Director of the Argentine Network for International Cooperation- RACI, the argentine National platform of NGOs. He has more than 20 years of experience in working for the local and international civil society.

Kettering Foundation´s fellow and Co-Chair of the Argentine C20 in 2018.

Member of the Board of Directors of CIVICUS – The World Alliance for Citizen Participation. In 2014, he was elected to join the Steering Committee of AGNA - Affinity Group of National Associations- CIVICUS, in representation of Latin America. Also founder and member of the Regional Executive Committee of Innovation for Change (I4C) Latin America. He teaches in various universities in Argentina and around the world focusing in the situation of democracy, citizen participation and Civil Society.

Hannah is the former Chair of Dumfries and Galloway Youth Council from 2020-2021, and former Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament for Galloway and West Dumfries.

In 2019, Hannah won the Dumfries and Galloway Youth Award for Participation for her hundreds of hours’ worth of work committed to DG Youth Council, SYP and other voluntary initiatives in her local community. Two years later in 2021, Hannah was once again nominated for a DG Youth Award, winning the Inspiring Voice award for her continuing commitment and dedication to youth democracy, participation and volunteering.

Through her work with DG Youth Council, Hannah led on a number of projects and initiatives that focused on several key work areas, such as: providing Youth Work opportunities in some of our most rural communities, improving Mental Health Services and tackling Climate Change on a local level.

Hannah is currently an active Young Leader, and chair of the Dumfries and Galloway Young Women’s Network.

Helge joined Norec (formerly FK Norway) in 2001, being closely involved in its strategic and operational development since then. He is currently working as Senior Adviser to the Agency, in particular as regards Agenda 2030, South-South and Triangular Cooperation, and matters relating to the UN organisations, the OECD/DAC/Global Partnership Initiative, as well as international think tanks, networks and associations of volunteering, including the Volunteer Groups Alliance and the Research, Policy, Practice and Learning group. Helge has previously worked in Ethiopia for 11 years as Resident Representative for Norwegian Save the Children.

Hiba is a strategist, business analyst, and social entrepreneur with a Tech-First mindset. She got her BCs degree in Management Information Systems, and currently, she is a Strategic Marketing Planner at Paltel - A leading telecom operator in Palestine-where she gained experience and skills in data and business analysis, marketing, strategic planning, and intrapreneurship.

Hiba committed herself to voluntary work since her childhood, which improved her social entrepreneurship and drove her to establish Sawaed19: A social tech startup that changes the way we manage volunteering towards making the journey a joyful and impactful one.

She believes in the complementary relationship between the business and social institutions that shall harness their powers for efficient, challenge-driven initiatives.

Ruach (“Good Spirit”) is the leading organization in the field of volunteerism in Israel, specializing in matching volunteers with organizations. Our goal is to make volunteering in Israel efficient, effective and accessible by working directly with social organizations, businesses and municipalities. Among our key initiatives is Good Deeds Day. Ido came to Ruach Tova after holding several management positions at tech companies. During his tenure, he has overseen the creation of a “volunteering marketplace” website, instituted custom-designed yearlong corporate volunteer programs, and advanced comprehensive volunteer programs within Arab communities.

Dr. Jacob is the Deputy Director at the Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment and Associate Professor at Wits Business School, South Africa. His professional experience spans over 20 years of work experience in civil society, academia and consulting in various parts of the world including: Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Europe. His research interests are centered on power, civic agency, volunteerism and philanthropy.

James is Executive Director of the International Forum for Volunteering in Development (Forum). Prior to joining Forum, he spent nine years in various roles with Voluntary Service Overseas, most recently as Volunteering for Development Leadership Advisor and Country Representative for Ireland. He has served as Coordinator of the Volunteer Groups Alliance and Chair of the Post-2015 Volunteering Working Group, and worked with Better Care Network and Lumos on responsible volunteering. He is the Chair of University College Dublin Volunteers Overseas.

Jamila is a ESG leader working at the intersection of technology, social impact, diversity, equity and inclusion. For the past 16 years she has held various roles within Dell Technologies from Global Service Delivery Manager to Senior Regional Manager and Director of Team Member & Community Engagement.

Jamila is currently the Director of Global ESG Strategic Account Partnerships and is committed to helping underserved youth gain access to technology and exposure to STEM careers. She has represented Dell Technologies at the United Nations headquarters sharing, with global leaders, the importance of private sector partnerships with public entities and highlighting Dell Techs pro bono collaboration with the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund. Most recently she shared insights with the White House Leadership Development Program.

Karen is a democracy, human rights, and governance specialist with over 15 years of experience working with civil society, governments, and local partners to strengthen democracy in developing and transitional contexts. Karen serves as the Deputy Director of Program Management at Democracy International, where she oversees project implementation in several countries including Bangladesh, Kosovo, Ukraine, Ethiopia, and El Salvador. Previously, Karen worked with IFES on electoral and political participation in closing democratic spaces. She also lived in Afghanistan serving as the technical lead on a local governance project with DAI, and as well as in Ghana where she worked with grassroots partners on youth and women’s empowerment programs. Karen holds an MA in international relations and economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS.

Kenn is the Founder and President of Civil Society Consulting Group. He pioneered the study of corporate volunteering in the United States as lead researcher and co-author of Volunteers from the Workplace in 1979 for the National Center for Voluntary Action in the U.S. Since then, he has researched and authored several studies on corporate volunteering, including A New Competitive Edge (1986), Global Companies Volunteering Globally (2011), The Big Tent: Corporate Volunteering in the Global Age (2012), and Corporate Volunteering in a Post-Pandemic World (2022).

During his career, Dr. Allen has served as executive director of NCVA, as a member of the original staff team and subsequently as Senior Vice President of the Points of Light Foundation. He has been affiliated with IAVE for over 40 years – as member of the board of directors, World President, Interim Executive Director and Senior Consultant. He earned his Ed.D in Human Resource Development at George Washington University. His dissertation was “The Role and Meaning of Community Service in the Lives of CEOs of Major Corporations.” He has contributed to the growth of volunteering through his work in some 35 countries.

Khaled is a full-time advocate of sustainability, impact & efficiency. Over the past 14 years, he has been profoundly involved in the fields of energy, investment promotion, youth empowerment, impact & social development in Jordan & MENA. Currently pursuing further his social and youth development work & passion as the deputy director of outreach at the Crown Prince Foundation in Jordan. Khaled holds a B.Eng in Electrical Engineering from McGill University, Canada (2007) & a Master’s Degree in e-Business Management from the University of Salento, Italy (2009).

Khaled is the founder of the Algerian volunteers network, member of the African Union linkage platform, IAVE Africa GNVL North Africa representative, official at the presidency office in charge of civil society affairs and diaspora, currently Focal point for social entrepreneurship in Algeria in partnership with UNICEF in addition to a role as programme coordinator at Adwaa Right for democracy and human rights in partnership with UNHCR. On the other hand, Khaled was a consultant with the CROSC, president of the Algerian National Association of Voluntary Service, Head of Training and Development National Voluntary Association, Responsible for the qualification of leadership and Human Resources development for Algerian Muslim Scouts - Wilaya of Algiers 2011 to 2015.

Ksenija Works with CSV Lazio - regional Volunteer Support Centre based in Rome, Italy on developing its Studies, research and documentation center. An expert on the ILO Manual for the Measurement of Volunteer Work, she co-edited the book “Accounting for the Varieties of Volunteering. New Global Statistical Standards Tested”, Springer 2021. Practitioner-researcher, she collaborated in international research projects on the third sector and is ready to defend her doctoral dissertation on the nature and future trends of religious voluntary associations at the WWU in Münster, Germany. She contributed to various European civil society projects resulting in policy recommendations.

Kuule the Executive Director at Yes Empowerment Services, Uganda. Before taking on the role of Executive Director Kuule served in different capacities as a Programs Manager at Yes Empowerment Services. He previously worked as the Community Development Field Supervisor at Young and Powerful Initiative – South Rwenzori Anglican Diocese; and Finance and Administrator at Agape of Hope Female Youth Development Association. Kuule is highly experienced at mobilizing and publicizing volunteer work, creating partnerships and collaborations, enhancing volunteering strategies, leadership and governance. For the last 6 years he has been at the forefront in disaster response and preparedness especially during the floods and landslides around Mountain Rwenzori in Uganda.

Lorrie is Director of Corporate Strategy for the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE). In that capacity she facilitates the Global Corporate Volunteer Council and the Research Working Group on Disaster-Related Corporate Volunteering. She designs and chairs conferences and forums and is the co-author of Corporate Volunteering for a Post-Pandemic World (2022). Lorrie was Vice President of The Conference Board, a global think tank, and Executive Director of the World Trade Institute at the World Trade Center in New York. She graduated with a Master in Public Administration degree from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Lucien is the Programming Director of I Have A Right Foundation Inc., an NGO based on the island of Dominica – a beautiful gem in the middle of the Caribbean. IHARF was founded by Ms Valarie Honore in 2017 to promote the rights of youth, girls and women so that…. Lucien believes that was have a fundamental responsibility to advocate for those who are unable to do so for themselves while providing the best opportunity and environment for others to realize and maximize their strengths and potential. She holds a degree in Psychology and Human Resource management and had been a Secondary School teacher for 10 years where she worked with various student groups in volunteering efforts.

María José holds a degree in Political Science from the University of Costa Rica, Master in Latin American Studies and PhD in Rule of Law and Global Governance from the University of Salamanca, Spain. Her areas of publication and research are political parties, electoral system, gender and public opinion. She is currently a professor and researcher at the University of Costa Rica and vice chancellor of student life, this office is also home to the university's volunteer program.

Mark is an experienced STEM teacher, partnerships leader, and impact strategist. Currently he leads global impact partnerships, product donations, and skills-based volunteerism for Viasat, a space technology company. With deep experience in both the NGO and corporate sectors, Mark has built programs for Disney Parks, Fidelity Investments, Points of Light Foundation, Hasbro, Verizon, KIPP Public Schools, and more.

Mark is the Chief Executive Officer of Volunteering Australia. He draws on his extensive experience in the social purpose and commercial sectors to lead Volunteering Australia to build a stronger, more connected and resilient Australian community through volunteering.

Prior to joining Volunteering Australia, Mark was a senior executive at National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples and held senior investment banking and institutional funds management roles with Goldman Sachs, JBWere, nab, and Macquarie Bank.

Mark holds a Batchelor of Science (Politics and International Relations (Hons.)) from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a Graduate Diploma in Human Rights from School of Advanced Studies at the University of London and is studying for a Master of Public Policy at the Australian National University.

Driven by a strong belief in the transformative power of compassion, Mark applies his skills and expertise as a Non-Executive Director of Community Council for Australia, a member of the Emergency Relief National Coordination Group, and sustainable food company, Growrs Ltd. In addition to a passion for human rights, Mark is active in fighting for animal rights and is Deputy Chair of Australia's leading animal protection organisation, Animals Australia.

Mary is a great desire for community development, promotes volunteerism internationally and very big in contributing towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), resilient in goal 4, (Quality Education) 10 (reduced inequalities) and goal 17 (partnering for the goals). She has a strong interest in reading books, basically a book worm, She is a strong believer that time is used wisely with reading hence you gain knowledge and power of storytelling to enhance visioning.

A Financial advisor by profession registered with the South African Financial Services Board (FSB) who worked for over 20 years in the Insurance Industry left the industry to put a vision of Lungelo Youth Development into action. A vision of creating a resource Centre for children development and a platform to address societal issues affecting the youth by Building Capabilities & Exploring Opportunities.

Matt is the Partnership Specialist at the Inter-American Foundation (IAF), a nimble and transformative U.S. government agency that invests in community-led development across Latin America and the Caribbean. He is responsible for leading efforts to identify, develop, implement and manage partnerships to bring greater technical and financial resources to bear to achieve IAF’s grassroots development goals. Prior, in addition to numerous strategic advisory roles, Matt was President of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), fighting for human rights in Latin America and at the U.S. border.

Previously, he spent fifteen years in the senior leadership of Partners of the Americas, a non-profit organization that brings together people, governments, and local organizations to address challenges in the hemisphere, including building resilient civil societies and by promoting citizen engagement and transparency. Matt was also part of the Brookings Initiative on International Volunteering and Service, working with global and cross-border volunteering advocates to form the Building Bridges Coalition (BBC), and then to serve as its chair. He also led President Obama’s 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund.

Matt is the Vice Chair of the IAVE Board of Directors.

Mauricio leads the Transforma País program at the National Youth Institute of Chile, a lawyer by profession but his passion is working in the social world and promoting the Volunteer Ecosystem and youth participation from the State through volunteering in order to encourage new leadership and social changes from youth.
I have been linked to volunteering and youth issues in the last 17 years, participating in different volunteering, organizations and events in Chile as well as in Peru, Paraguay, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia.

Maya is a not-for-profit executive with a record of successfully leading teams and developing and delivering award-winning holistic services models. She has qualifications in education, accounting and business management.

Since 2018, as Executive Director of Court Network, Maya has been leading a team of 500 volunteers and 30 staff member who provide support, information and referral to people attending court, and advocating for the needs of all court users.

Maya was a winner of 2019 Impact 25 award and in 2020 she was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in recognition of her advocacy efforts for victims of family violence.

Milena is working as a program assistant on a program for youth in ADP- Zid. For several years she was engaged in various volunteer positions. She was professionally engaged as a volunteer coordinator. She took participation in many international programs for young people, creating the programs and made a lot of trainings for youth about volunteering in Montenegro.

She received the 2012 Most Active Voluntary Award. Also, since 2018 she was professionally engaged in the ADP-Zid, she has coordinated a large number of actions as well as projects. Also, Milena is engaged in programs that are aimed at encouraging and developing youth policy, as well as programs that are completely focused on young people. She has participated in a large number of exchanges, trainings through the Erasmus program, as well as through the Youth in Action program. She participated in the production of a publication on volunteering in Montenegro, as well as in numerous conferences both in Montenegro and abroad with the aim of promoting youth policy. Now, Milena is a part of working group in Ministry of sport and youth with the aim to develop new Strategy of youth 2022- 2026 and a new Law for Youth.

Dr Mohsen is a senior project manager at the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cambridge (UK). Mohsen brings over a decade of experience working in multilateral development organisations, including as senior technical advisor at the Asian Development Bank and United Nations Development Programme. Mohsen has previously led research for HQ in Germany on research evidence for the Volunteerism Agenda 2030. He has also authored Pakistan’s national youth volunteering strategy and conduced country national situation analysis on volunteer infrastructure for voluntary national review to be submitted to UN in 2022. His doctoral research work focused on critically analysing how youth volunteering can be mainstreamed in multi-level sustainable governance processes in Asia-Pacific.

Nichita works at the Voluntary Center RVC as a PR and Partnership manager. He organized and hosted a multitude of events for volunteers across the country. This includes: Good Deeds Day, the largest volunteer project in Moldova, organized by the RVC team, "Volunteer of the Year" for distinguished volunteers, and Summer School BE.DO.HAVE. - for all ages etc.

Nichole joined IAVE as Executive Director in October 2019. Nichole has significant executive experience across environmental and social justice sectors and has led the engagement of a large network of global volunteers. Her roles have included Mission Director/Head of PR at Stonyfield Organics, International Director of Learning at Earthwatch, Senior Manager, Outreach and Mobilization at Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) and Executive Director at Friends of the Public Garden and Boston Common.

At Earthwatch Nichole led the implementation of a citizen-science volunteering program related to fresh water across 36 cities globally, developed and managed a sustainability leadership volunteering program that built a climate leadership network of 1400 finance executives across five continents. Nichole’s role at UUSC saw her lead the design and implementation of a capacity building strategy for global social justice grantees, and train and mobilise volunteers for disaster relief in Africa and Haiti.

Nichole has extensive leadership, management, fundraising and communications experience, gained working with teams of staff and volunteers in different parts of the world. Importantly Nichole herself has been a volunteer for much of her life and partnerships building has been a common theme throughout her career.

Nichole holds a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) from Rutgers University and a Master of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy from Tufts University.

Oscar is a professor at the National University of San Martín, teaching volunteering at the Degree in Management of Civil Society Organizations. Since 1986 he is a member of the International Association of Voluntary Efforts (IAVE) where he served in several positions, being Latin American Representative on the International Board of Directors from 1996 to 2002.

Oscar is a member of the Drafting Commission of the Universal Declaration of Volunteering developed in Amsterdam, January 2001, “International Year of Volunteers”. From 1996 to 2000 he was an International UNESCO Consultant for the National Volunteer Program of Brazil.

Paul volunteers in youth development and volunteerism, environment, and disaster relief. He retired in 2020. His work career included government and NGO roles as advisor, coordinator, manager, and director of efforts to develop human resources and strengthen organizations in the US and Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Middle East, and the Pacific. Paul has lived in seven countries and traveled to over fifty-five countries. Paul has a Master of Arts degree in Cultural Anthropology from the State University of New York at Buffalo and while there was a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Cultural Transmission.

Paulino is currently the part-time Executive Director of the Philippine Coalition on Volunteerism (PhilCV) and the Liaison Officer of the League of Corporate Foundation-Health Committee. He was the Executive Director of Philex Group Foundation, Inc. – the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of the country’s largest mining company, Philex Mining Corporation. Prior to this, he was Assistant Executive Director of Metrobank’s socio-civic arm, Metrobank Foundation, Inc. where he helped oversee the implementation and mobilization of various projects. Mr. Buenconsejo has over 25 years of experience in CSR work, ranging from operational planning to policy-making. Paul is an active consultant on stakeholder engagement and is also a member of the LCF-CSR Institute’s Speakers Bureau.

Perdita is the CEO and founder of the NGOs “Gemeinsam leben & lernen in Europa” (Living and learning together within Europe) and has her own consulting agency. Being an active volunteer for over 30 years now, she is also promoting volunteering in various ways: Within her organisation “Gemeinsam leben & lernen in Europa” she initiated and coordinated many volunteer led projects on national and international level, especially ones involving young volunteers. By providing trainings, coaching and opportunities she has empowered hundreds of people to become not only volunteers but also active citizens. In the past years many of the volunteer projects she initiated empowered youth. The organisation has won many awards for its work, e.g. the “Citizens prize” of the European Parliament or the “Active Citizens of Europe Award”.

Dr Peter lectures in Sustainability, Ecology and Communities at Murdoch University. An elected Councillor at the Town of Victoria Park he has extensive overseas experience including with the United Nations.

He is on national and international volunteer research committees and coordinates the Western Australian SDG Network. He is also Deputy Convenor of the One World Centre board and a member of the Work that Reconnects Steering Group focused on Active Hope. Peter has focused on volunteering for development and sustainability policy, research and practice for over 30 years and is passionate about the Sustainable Development Goals.

Rebecca works with Local Government in Scotland leading on work around Youth Participation, Climate Change and providing support to vulnerable young people through various Youth Work initiatives. Rebecca also has a specialist knowledge in engaging with young people with rural and isolated communities having working in one of the United Kingdom’s most rural areas in South West Scotland, Dumfries & Galloway.

Rebecca is a highly experienced professional within the Youth Work Sector and has studied Social Policy at the University of Glasgow. Rebecca has delivered inputs on her work at national conferences across the UK as she believes that partnership and collaboration is the best way to make significant difference in the lives of young people and communities.

With a Bacherlor’s degree in Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and a Master’s degree in Global Development and Social Justice, Ronel is a social entrepreneur and development practitioner from Haiti. He has over 10 years of experience in the development sector in Haiti working in different managerial positions to address key development issues including: youth development, organizational capacity building, community development, sustainable agriculture and food security. Ronel is the co-founder and the CEO of ACTIVEH), Haiti’s largest youth organization and unique student placement organization in Haiti that provides volunteering, internship and professional development training to over 1000 young professionals annually. Since 2019, he has been working as Program Director for a local NGO in rural Haiti to build the capacities of community organizations and improving the living conditions of over 25000 peasant farmers.

Ronit is the CEO of the Israeli Council for Volunteering and Director of the School for Volunteering. She is a researcher of inter-sector volunteering and is a lecturer at the Hebrew University about volunteer management and civic engagement. Ronit volunteers as a mentor and director in social organizations.

The Israeli Volunteering Council is a leading and well-established infrastructure organization, aimed at promoting the culture of volunteering, for all ages and sectors in Israeli society.

The council develops, manages, and integrates the infrastructure, programs, and services necessary to promote volunteering in Israeli society.

Our main clients are volunteer organizations from all sectors, and we support them by giving them the tools and knowledge they need to initiate and strengthen volunteering and professional, significant, and influential social participation.

Ruth is the Head of Corporate Sustainability at Discovery, a global company headquartered in South Africa. She has over 40 years of experience in the non-government, government and corporate sectors.

She first joined Discovery Limited in 2004 and was responsible for establishing an independent social investment vehicle, the Discovery Fund, which has a clear mandate of investing in the delivery of primary healthcare services. She also launched the Employee Volunteer Program within Discovery with the intention of linking volunteerism to beneficiary organizations of the Discovery Fund. Since then, volunteering has been an integral part of the company’s culture. Ruth was also tasked with the responsibility of establishing and running a second investment vehicle, the Discovery Foundation, with the objective of investing in training medical specialists within the public health sector. Both mandates were to meet very specific health needs within South Africa.

As the Head of Corporate Sustainability, Ruth has led the team that implemented a multi-stakeholder initiative, with volunteering as a central component. The aim was to implement a sustainable development approach to addressing multiple challenges within one single community, utilizing appropriate volunteer skills. Within her role, Ruth has presented Discovery’s CSI philosophy and program on a range of national and international platforms.

Ruth is the Chair of the IAVE Board of Directors.

Saffrey is the Head of Innovation for The Leap Co. In this role, Saffrey leads the development of regional partnerships and collaborations, with a focus on the future of the impact business ecosystem in the Caribbean. Working with multiple stakeholders and sectors, Saffrey also advises on strategies for building sustainable communities. Believing that the most significant challenge facing the Caribbean is how it can achieve sustainable economic growth alongside social equity, Saffrey is committed to developing long lasting, impactful change for our Communities. She believes that change must be sustainable, and that sustainability is achievable.

Saffrey is looking forward to presenting on civil societies response to the COVID pandemic, as we work towards creating more resilient and ready responses to global health disasters for non-profits.

Dr. Saleh a philanthropist and strategist as well as an analyst who embraces the principles of exemplary leaders, Dr. Saleh’s model behaviour and leadership inspires others. He is also a contributor to social development and a change maker, especially for youth development. He enjoys his tour of duty in charity works and moments in voluntarism. Besides being a true believer in influencing positive change through social entrepreneurship and sustainable development initiatives, he is also a friendly and supportive leader who always encourages his team to learn and grow. An avid promoter of avant-garde and innovative ventures in education and social development, Dr. Saleh is a strategic thinker and visionary leader.

In an effort to promote sustainable development, NAMA collaborates with government agencies, NGO partners, implementing agencies, and service providers to gather best models and resources to benefit the education and third sector. NAMA believes that the empowerment of the sectors is through institutional grants and partnerships building, supported by excellent project management and continuous improvement through latest techniques in monitoring, evaluation and impact measurement.

Sam is the Founder and Chief Executive of SVA, an ed-tech charity in New Zealand and Australia that uses volunteerism as a tool to change people’s lives. Sam is a Trustee of the Prince’s Trust NZ, adjunct fellow at the University of Canterbury and serves on Westpac Bank’s Sustainability Panel.

Sam has lived his life in the public eye and built a career of service. His relentless energy to mobilise people has a magic ability in building movements that matter! Sam is former Young New Zealander of the Year and won the prestigious High-Tech Award for ‘Impact for Good’ with the SVA for work during Covid19.

Samuel is the Coordinator for IAVE’s Global Network of Volunteering Leadership (GNVL) in Africa and is also the National Coordinator of Volunteer Involving Organizations Network (VIONet) Sierra Leone. He is a passionate volunteer and a youth activist. Previously, Sam was the Project Support Officer, at VSO International – Sierra Leone as a National Volunteer, Coordinator and Founder of Sierra Leone Association of Volunteers which is a community-based organization established to promote volunteering for development. VIONet, co-founded by VSO and United Nations Volunteers, is the biggest volunteer network that is advancing volunteering for development in Sierra Leone.

Shalabh co-founded and leads iVolunteer - India’s largest social enterprise for volunteer-ing and employee engagement. He also created iVolunteer Awards, India’s only recogni-tion focused on volunteering. Shalabh also founded ICICI Fellows (now India Fellow), a youth social leadership program, and JobsForGood, a boutique HR consultancy for social enterprises.

Shalabh serves on the Affiliates Assembly of Points of Light Foundation, the CII Council for India@75. He is a visiting faculty SPJIMR, Mumbai and was India’s first Commonwealth Professional Fellow in 2003.

Sofia has more than 17 years of experience in the field of volunteering, starting as a volunteer herself in the field of youth leadership, and after completing her university studies she dedicates herself fully to international cooperation and management of volunteers in Latin America and the Caribbean.

She has extensive experience in NGOs at the international level and currently serves as Manager of the Global Campaign for the response to COVID-19 and Manager of Volunteer Programs for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Regional Office of Habitat for Humanity International.

Sofia holds a Bachelor’s in the field of Customs Administration and International Trade from the University of Costa Rica, as well as a master’s degree in Human Rights and Peace Education from the Institute of Latin American Studies of the National University of Costa Rica. Currently studying at the Sorbonne University in Paris for a specialization in Latin America.

Sónia is a Social Entrepreneur, author, and consultant. She is the co-founder of the Portuguese Volunteering School, created in 2008 and the creator of the 4 steps Training Methodology for Volunteer Managers. She is specialized in developing social innovative initiatives using volunteering as a tool for inclusion.

Anthropologist with a master's degree in humanitarian action. She has worked in the USA, Mozambique, East Timor and Togo with NGOs, the UN, and the EU.

Currently she is the Executive President of Pista Mágica and coordinates the Global Volunteer Leadership Network (GNVL) in Europe at the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE).

Stephanie, is the head of Global Giving, leads TELUS’ award-winning community programs. With 15 years of experience, Stephanie is an engaging leader with a natural ability to build strategy, enablement and connection across global teams. Stephanie has enabled the TELUS team to volunteer more than one million hours annually for the past five consecutive years and facilitated over 435,000 volunteers globally to give through TELUS Days of Giving resulting in 10 million volunteer hours contributed since 2000.

Stephanie lives in Vancouver, Canada, where she enjoys time with her two young children, two poodles, and her large Italian family.

Tania is an Assistant Professor for Public Administration and Nonprofit Management at the American University of Beirut and a leading scholar on civil society and volunteering in the Arab World. Her research focuses on the fields of civil society and gender issues, social justice, volunteering, disaster management and e-government. Her research has appeared in many academic journals including Voluntas, Nonprofit policy forum, and The Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership. She was part of the research consortium that wrote the “2022 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report. Building equal and inclusive societies” . She recently published a book on the Beirut explosion titled: "International and Local Actors in Disaster Response: Responding to the Beirut Explosion"

Thomas Boesen was appointed as Borealis Vice President, Middle East in May 2018. With more than 28 years of industry experience across Europe and Middle East, he occupied various positions including the Chief Financial Officer for Borouge where he led the development and successful implementation of Borouge 2030 Strategy.

In his current role, he is responsible for Borealis shareholder interests in Borouge and in this capacity, he is a Director of the Borouge Board and a member of the Executive Committee, Nomination and Remuneration Committee, Audit Committee and Borouge 4 LLC Board Project Steering Committee.

He holds a M.Sc. in Economics and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.

Thomas Boesen is a Danish citizen. He is married and has two sons and a daughter.

Tinatin is a versatile, committed and results-driven professional with a successful background planning, organizing and supporting Youth Volunteering and Youth Services within the non-profit sector and global setting. Possesses excellent interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to successfully lead teams. Works well on own initiative and thrives in challenging work environments.

Tinatin, Helping Hand’s founder and an executive director, made it her mission to introduce and promote the culture of volunteering in Georgia. She is an expert in the field of volunteering; since 2008 she has researched and developed a variety of volunteer programs. She also consults, trains and supports youth volunteers and those who lead volunteers. She has written a number of volunteer management books in Georgia. Her many years of work experience includes program implementation, development and management. As an Local Expert, she Developed Youth Volunteering Education National Strategy and Action Plan, to submit Georgian Government to approval, Project supported by the UNICEF Georgia. Tinatin received a bachelor's degree from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology in 2005, and a Master's degree in philosophy in 2007.

Tony is the founder and CEO of Better Impact, a software company that has been helping the nonprofit and governmental sector in over 20 countries since 2001. He has spoken at volunteer sector conferences on five continents, including IAVE conferences in Europe, Asia and Latin America, focusing on topics such as technology trends in the volunteer sector and new perspectives in data collection. He brings to this panel discussion his combined insights into present and future technology offerings and the operations of volunteer engaging organisations.

Undral is the Director of the Democracy Education Center (DEMO), a Mongolian NGO. Undral holds a Master's degree in Economics from the Institute of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic. She is a certified trainer, facilitator, mentor, researcher, and author of numerous publications in NGO management, social accountability and volunteering.

Apart from the DEMO, Undral is the Chair of the Network of Mongolian Volunteer Organizations (NMVO), member of several Working Task Groups (2003-2019) in drafting the Law on Non-Profit Organizations, and was awarded as the Civil Society Sector’s Woman of the Year by the Government of Mongolia in 2016.

Vladimir is a senior statistician in the ILO Statistics department, member of the team which develops guidance and tools for the measurement of work, including volunteering, in household surveys. Before joining the ILO, in 2017, he had worked for 12 years in the National Bureau of Statistics of Moldova, contributing to the development of surveys and production of statistics on topics like labour force, child labour, forced labour, labour migration, volunteer work, time use, etc.

Vladimir is deeply convinced that reliable volunteer work statistics are crucial for the development of efficient, inclusive development policies. The ILO tools can help produce such statistics and make visible the great but invisible effort of volunteers.

Wendy is a Senior Consultant for Volunteering Leadership at IAVE. She is the former Chief Executive Officer for Volunteer Now and has worked within the voluntary & community sector for over 25 years. She is a former Board member of IAVE and was Senior Advisor to IAVE’s major global research project on national leadership structures for volunteering. She has recently been working as a senior consultant to IAVE on a strategic developmental initiative for the organization.

She is a past chairperson of CO3 (Chief Officers Third Sector) and joint chairperson of the Voluntary & Community Sector and Government Joint Forum. In 1998 Wendy attended the Federal Executive Institute in Virginia, USA and completed their Leadership for a Democratic Society Programme. Over the years she has represented the voluntary & community sector and volunteering on a number of strategic groups, for example, she was a member of the UK London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Advisory Group for volunteering and a member of the DCAL NI 2012 Leadership Group.

Previously in 2010 Wendy was appointed to the Board of Directors of the International Association for Volunteer Effort and has led on the development of a Global Network of National Volunteer Centers. For ten years (2002-2012) Wendy served as a Board member for the National Museums of Northern Ireland. In 2001 Wendy was awarded the OBE for services to volunteering.

Wolfgang has spent the last 40 years working to advance volunteer engagement both from paid and volunteer leadership positions in nonprofit associations. As the Executive Director of the Augsburg Volunteer Center since its beginning in 1997, he has had the opportunity to promote, support and develop volunteering at the local, regional and national level in Germany – as co-founder of the Augsburger Tafel food bank and as co-founder of the Augsburg Community Foundation, and as treasurer for Bagfa, the German association of volunteer centers.

At the European level he was co-founder and president of the European Forum for Applied Criminal Politics since 2007 with focus on volunteering in prisons and has implemented European-funded projects, working on cross-border partnerships in tune with innovative developments around volunteering and collaboration with the European Volunteer Center. Under his leadership the Augsburg Volunteer Center was the host organization for IAVE’s 25th World Volunteer Conference in 2018.

Wolfgang is the Treasurer, Europe Regional Representative and Chair of the WVC 2022 Host Search Committee to the IAVE Board of Directors.

Yvette is a passionate youth leadership enthusiast with an academic background in Nutrition and Food Science who has strategically transferred her skillset to the world of youth and volunteerism. She is a Business Performance Specialist, Arab Cluster at DHL Global Forwarding.

Previously, she was the Regional Manager for Business Development for Middle East and Africa, managing partnerships and working with organisations that work with AIESEC. Through her work and activism, she led the implementation of projects on SDG awareness dubbed Youth 4 Global Goals by the UN to reach 2000+ students in Mwanza-Tanzania. By managing the partnership relations of organizations such as PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, Standard Chartered Bank, Kilimanjaro Aviation and Stanbic Bank, she supported initiatives to fund students in Tanzania have international student volunteer experiences.

Prior to this, she served as the Country Director for AIESEC in Tanzania where she spearheaded several innovation and leadership initiatives targeted at youth capacity building and empowerment.

Zsé has worked in the national volunteer development organisation both in her native Hungary and in Ireland and also worked as volunteer manager for small and large organisations both as a volunteer and paid staff. She recently developed an interest in good governance for voluntary organisations and supported small organisations in rural Ireland. She has a background in volunteer management and training and worked with organisations in Ireland, Hungary, and other European countries from Scotland to Serbia.

Zsé is passionate about volunteering and sustainable volunteer engagement. She is a proud Blood Bikes East volunteer in Dublin.