Hyderabad 2008 - Speakers

Plenary Speakers

Lord David Puttnam of Queensgate, C.B.E.  President of UNICEF UK

David Puttnam was educated in London at Minchenden Grammar School.  He completed his education through evening classes at City and Guilds, London.  After ten years in the advertising industry, he spent thirty years as an independent film producer.  His many award winning films include The Mission, the Killing Fields, Local Hero, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone and The Memphis Belle.  He was Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Columbia Pictures from 1986 to 1988 - the only non-American to ever run a Hollywood Studio.

David retired from film production in 1998 to focus on his work in education.  He was Chancellor of the University of Sunderland from 1998 to July 2997, and has been Chancellor of the Open University since September 2006.  He was founder (in 1998) and is Chair of Trustees of the national Teaching Awards.  In addition to having served as the first Chair of the General Teaching Council for England (2000-2002), he has also served on a variety of other public bodies.  He was founding Chair of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, and for ten years chaired the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television.  He was also Vice-President and Chair of Trustees at BAFTA from 1994-2004, and was awarded a BAFTA Fellowship in 2006.  In 2006 he became Deputy Chairman of Channel Four, in April 2006 Chairman of Futurelab and in April 2007, chairman of Profero.  Also in April 2007 he was appointed Chairman of the Climate Change Bill's Joint-Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee.  His most recent appointment is Chairman of the North Music Trust Board at The Sage Gateshead.

In July 2002, David was appointed President of UNICEF UK, and has played a key role in promoting UNICEF's advocacy, awareness and fundraising objectives.  In 2003, following a fact-finding mission to Cambodia, he launched UNICEF UK's End Child Exploitation campaign.  He has also travelled to Bosnia, Nigeria, Jerusalem and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, South Africa, Mozambique and Laos to help raise awareness of issues that affect children ranging from trafficking and conflict to child labour and the need for universal primary education, clean water and immunisation.  In the UK he has been instrumental in helping to forge new fundraising partnerships within the film, music and property industries, and has spoken at numerous events.

David was awarded a CBE in 1982, received a Knighthood in 1995 and was appointed to the House of Lords in 1997.  In France he was been honoured as a Chevalier ('85), Officer ('92) and, most recently (2006) Commander of Arts and Letters.

Professor Brenda Gourley has been Vice-Chancellor of The Open University since 2002.  She shares with The Open University a social justice agenda and a belief in education as a tool to tackle growing inequalities in the global society.

Professor Gourley is a member of the board of the International Association of Universities and the Longer Term Strategy Group of Universities UK.  She chairs the Association of Commonwealth Universities as well as the Talloires Network of Global Project on literacy.

A frequent speaker on a broad range of platforms and issues as well as a contributor to publications around the world, Professor Gourley has also received honorary degrees from the University of Nottingham, University of Abertay, Richmond University, Allama Iqbal Open University and the University of Quebec.  She has been named as one of the Global Business Network's 'remarkable people'.

Professor Brenda Gourley was previously Vice-Chancellor at the University of Natal for eight years.  Professor Gourley is a qualified Chartered Accountant and began her career in the private sector before moving into academia.

Professor Sugata Mitra is Professor of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, UK.

Professor Mitra works in the areas of Cognitive Science, Information Science and Educational Technology.  He has been working on these areas as well as on Physics and Energy for more than 30 years.

His contributions include a number of inventions and first-time applications.  Among other applications, he is credited with having started the database publishing industry (particularly the Yellow Page industry) in India and Bangladesh, as well as having implemented the first applications of digital multimedia and Internet based education in India.  His experiments (often referred to as "The Hole In The Wall" experiments) with children and the Internet have been reported worldwide since 1999.

His current research interests include technologies for remote and rural education, distance education, instructional robotics, self organizing systems, and collaborative systems on the Internet.

Mr Mark East, Managing Director, Education Division (International) Microsoft Corporation.

Mark East is accountable for the Education Operations in Microsoft International including Western Europe, Central/Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific, Greater China and Latin America. This includes all sales and development programs from the smallest primary school to the largest university. 

East joined Microsoft UK in 1988 in a role to promote the use of Microsoft® technology to the UK education community. In 1990, he was awarded the Microsoft President’s Award by Bill Gates for his contribution to the success of Microsoft technology deployments in the UK education sector. 

Since joining Microsoft, east has managed sales and marketing teams in both Enterprise, Small Business & Home & Retail business divisions with a specialisation on public-sector. East was appointed to the Microsoft UK board or directors in 2000. 

East lived in Seattle, Washington for 2 years whilst leading the worldwide Education division before returning to the UK to provide Education leadership to Microsoft’s international subsidiaries. In September 2005, East was awarded the Microsoft achievement award for sustained high level contributions to Microsoft leadership in the education community. 

In 2007, east was appointed chairman of Digital Pipeline, a UK registered charity, whose aim is to empower communities through access to technology www.digitalpipeline.org. Mark is also currently sponsoring the building of a secondary school in the Mauta village on Mfangano island, Lake Victoria, Kenya. 

Before joining Microsoft, East was sales and marketing manager for a Microsoft partner specialising in sales to education and government markets. 

In his spare time, East enjoys playing football every week and spending time with his three children. He is an ardent supporter of the UK football club Queens Park Rangers (QPR), having worked for the club in his youth. He is “still” learning to play golf.

Gordon Freedman, Blackboard's Vice President, Education Strategy, drives strategic initiatives and builds government and senior institutional relationships in higher education and K-12 globally.  In addition to these responsibilities, Freedman organizes Blackboard’s worldwide research and survey efforts on policy development and institutional innovation in education.  Freedman is currently heading up Blackboard’s global white paper initiative exploring how human capital development, institutional reform, and adaptation to millennial learners can lead the way to transformation in higher and further education. Last year, Freedman and Blackboard’s President of North American Higher Education, Peter Segall, conducted interviews with 60 US and Canadian leaders about the institutional challenges facing North American institutions (see www.Blackboard.com/research).

Freedman joined Blackboard from his consulting company, Knowledge Base, LLC, a provider of expert advice for transforming education through e-Learning, media, and enterprise technology.  Prior to that Freedman led Prometheus, a course management system developed by George Washington University, to market prior to its sale to Blackboard and headed TextCentric, a digital textbook platform associated with Carnegie Mellon University. Freedman is co-founder of the International School of Monterey, a California charter school. He is an expert on virtual education in K12, online learning in higher education, and digital textbooks. 

Dorothy K. Gordon is the Director-General of Ghana’s Advanced Information Technology Institute (the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT), which provides IT training and consulting and promotes context-appropriate R&D in information and communication technology. Her current work focuses on how best to accelerate development in Africa by helping countries to take fuller and more creative ownership of the development of ICT, and to tap into the opportunities that exist within the global innovation economy.

As a specialist in international development with more than 20 years experience, she has consulted to businesses and governments and has worked globally in the public sector and with civil society organizations, with increasing management and leadership responsibilities. She is currently Chair of the E-Government Commission of WITFOR 2009 (the World IT Forum) and President of the IPv6 Forum-Ghana. She is also the Africa spokesperson and Eminent Expert for World Summit Awards-Ghana, and a member of the Champions Network of UNGAID (the UN Global Alliance for ICT for Development). Dorothy holds degrees from Ghana and the UK.

Professor Stephen Heppell, CEO of Heppell.net, Professor of New Media Environments at Bournemouth University, Emeritus Professor Anglia Ruskin University, Visiting Professor University of Wales, Newport and Executive Chairman LP+.

Stephen Heppell founded Ultralab in the 1980s, moving there from the UK Government's groundbreaking Microelectronics Education Programme. Over a score of years Ultralab grew to become Europe's leading learning technology research centre with projects that pioneered multimedia CD ROMs and on-line communities in the 1980s – i.e. before the web.   Ultralab has been described as “Europe's leading research institute pioneering leading edge applications in support of proven educational precepts" (Oracle Corporation 1999) and Stephen Heppell as "Europe's leading online education expert" (Microsoft 2006).

Stephen Heppell was the guiding "father" of a number of social networking projects in the 1980s, Schools OnLine for the Department of Trade and Industry in 1995/6, Think.com from 1999 and Tesco Schoolnet 2000.  He left Ultralab to found his own flourishing policy and learning consultancy Heppell.net which now has a portfolio of international projects including:  Learnometer and HorizonTAL.

Stephen Heppell chairs the charity Inclusion Trust with its flagship project for children excluded from school by behaviour or circumstances:  Notschool.net;  is a board member of Teachers.TV - a UK public service TV and broadband channel for professional development of teachers;  and he sits on BAFTA's Film Committee guiding the BAFTA Film Awards and other cinema related work.  In June 2006 he was awarded the Royal Television Society's Judges’ Award for Lifelong Services to Educational Broadcasting.  He is retained by a number of organisations (including the BBC) to help with future policy and direction, is an Associate of KPMG, and is retained by the UK government in horizon scanning work to advise of future directions for educational policy.
As Executive Chairman of LP+, he is involved with developing a Chinese language learning community for 20 million Chinese school students, in partnership with China's Sun New Media corporation.

"Money alone won't make the Internet fly. Ultimately, its success lies with kids and other folk who don't follow dot-com stocks. That's where Stephen Heppell comes in. He's a digital do-gooder, helping to bring ordinary people into the Internet age "  (Wall Street Journal 2000).

Parallel Working Session Speakers

(in alphabetical order)

Margaret Adeogun is the University Librarian at the University of Eastern Africa, Baraton, Kenya.  She attended the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and the University of South Africa (UNISA).  She holds M.L.S and DLitt.et Phil. degrees.

Martin Belcher, Senior Programme Manager, INASP

Martin is responsible for the design, management and implementation of INASP’s training and capacity development activities in the areas of ICTs, information systems and bandwidth management and optimisation. In 2007 this involved INASP facilitating, sometimes directly but mainly through the use of local partners, over 50 skills development workshops to over 800 participants from 300+ institutions in Africa, Latin America and South Asia. Prior to joining INASP in 2001, Martin has a background in Web based systems development, instructional design, GIS and archaeological research within various departments at the University of Bristol, UK.

INASP (The international network for the availability of scientific publications) is a small UK based charity that works to improve access to, production and use of information (with particular focus on research based information). INASP’s vision and mission are:

"Effective access to, use, validation and communication of information are key drivers of democracy, good governance and poverty reduction."

"Enable a sustainable network of stakeholders that owns and drives access, use, dissemination and communication of research information."

Further information: http://www.inasp.info/

Professor Robert Cormack gained an MA in sociology at the University of Aberdeen before undertaking graduate studies at Brown University, USA.  He was appointed a Lecturer in Sociology at Queen's University of Belfast in 1973, and has spent 28 years at Queen's successively becoming Senior Lecturer Reader and Professor of Sociology. From 1993-95 he was Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences before becoming Pro-Vice-Chancellor in 1995.  He was the Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Higher Education - a joint research centre of Queen's University and the University of Ulster.

He worked on a number of Council of Europe projects over the years most notably on a working party set-up to advise on the restructuring of Pristina University in Kosovo after the war.

In 2001 he was appointed the Principal of UHI Millennium Institute - the institution charged with creating the University for the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Professor Cormack is a member of the UHI Board of Governors, and Chairs the UHI Academic Council and Executive Board.

He is the author of many articles, reports and books mainly on equal opportunities issues in the context of Northern Ireland, and on higher education matters.  He holds Honorary Professorships from the Queen’s University of Belfast and the University of Aberdeen.

Professor Cormack is a member of Universities Scotland (US), a previous Council member of the Society for Research on Higher Education (SRHE), and a previous member of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)

Professor Cormack is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow (1972), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA 1999), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE 2008).

Associate Professor Laura Czerniewicz is the director of the Centre for Educational Technology (CET) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa, previously the director of UCT’s Multimedia Education Group. Prior to working in the field of educational technology in higher education, she worked in educational publishing and in publishing training in South Africa, Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa. She also has experience in a range of educational roles including materials/ resources development, organisational development, policy development and research. 

Laura is interested in how ICT-mediated teaching and learning plays out in diverse, divided and developing contexts and she has studied access and use across several higher education institutions under the auspices of the Virtual Möbius Project. She also has an interest in theories and models framing understandings of educational technology in this emerging domain of practice and enquiry, and has written about the nature of educational technology as a new scholarly and professional field.

Sir John Daniel is President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning, a Commonwealth intergovernmental agency headquartered in Vancouver, Canada that helps developing countries apply technology to increase the scale and scope of learning in support of development.

A graduate of the universities of Oxford and Paris, he has worked in ten universities in five jurisdictions. He was President of Laurentian University, Canada (1984-90); Vice-Chancellor of the Open University, UK (1990-2001) and Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO, Paris (2001-04). Among his 260 publications his is best known for his book Mega-universities and Knowledge Media: Technology Strategies for Higher Education, which established his reputation as a leading thinker about how technology can help academics to enhance their effectiveness as teachers and enrich their impact as intellectuals. He has received 27 honorary doctorates from universities in 16 countries.

Dawie de Jongh works as professor in the Centre for Business Mathematics and Informatics of the North West University. 

He teaches Quantitative Risk Management to M.Sc. students as well as Finance and Investments to actuarial students.

He holds a Ph.D in Mathematics and worked in industry for most of his life. He held senior positions in GENCOR (now BHP Biliton) and also in ABSA Bank.

Dawie and his IT Specialist daughter Hanlie Steynberg developed a Transaction Cost Analysis system for the South African market. They serve clients on both the buy side and the sell side.

Paul Duldig is Vice President Services and Resources at the University of Adelaide, Australia. 

Paul has a Masters degree in Economics from Adelaide.  After a career in the public service, starting as a transport policy advisor and ending up as General Manager Finance in the Treasury of South Australia, Paul joined the University of Adelaide in 2001.  Amongst other things, he has responsibility for IT, and is convinced that technology will fundamentally change the business model of Universities in the next decade.

Thomas Fogwill is a senior computer scientist at the South African Meraka Institute.  His research interests include experimental software development, knowledge-based computer reasoning and mathematical logic. 

In addition, Thomas has a special interest in Linux and open source software, and is actively involved in its development,  distribution, and application. In line with this interest, he currently leads Scubuntu, an open source project to develop a Linux distribution that caters specifically for scientists."

Ann-Marie Furney is School Education Director, Western NSW Region, NSW Department of Education and Training.

Ms Furney began her career in education as a classroom teacher of English and History. She has held a number of senior leadership positions in the NSW Department of Education and Training including the principalship of a large regional secondary school, Chief Education Officer School Improvement and School Education Director. Throughout her career Ms Furney has maintained a strong focus on pedagogy and teacher professional learning.

Ms Furney is currently on secondment as the School Education Director supporting the Interactive Classrooms Project across NSW. In this role she represents students, teachers and Principals as the “Senior User” of the Interactive Classroom equipment suite. The Interactive Classroom Project is a $56 million investment in the delivery of a Video Conference and Interactive Whiteboard technology to each of the 2,200 government schools in NSW.

Recent career highlights include the design and development off the secondary multi campus model of education in Dubbo city and the development of iTeach21 a technology training centre supporting teacher professional learning powered by technology. The iTeach 21 approach is currently being adopted by other regions in NSW. Ms Furney has been actively involved in action research projects focused on teacher use of ICT in the classroom.

Currently Ms Furney is leading a team who are focused on expanding opportunities for teachers and students to collaborate, to create new learning and expand their knowledge and experience base via virtual technologies. Ms Furney receives regular invitations to speak to teachers, parents, school leaders and educational administrators at regional, state and national conferences.

Ms Furney’s involvement in other organisations includes:

Membership of the Australian Institute of Management

Chairperson of the Macquarie Conservatorium of Music

Membership of the Institute of Senior Education Administrators

Tim Gore is Director, The Centre for Indian Business, the University of Greenwich.

Tim has worked closely with educationalists, institutions, companies and governments to improve bilateral and multilateral educational links in Hong Kong, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and India over a 23 year career. He has led the development of programmes on creativity for professionals with the Singapore Government (CREST); established e-learning and blended learning programmes for Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai; led the establishment of the British University in Dubai; and helped Jordan establish an evaluation framework for its ICT led Jordan Education Initiative. His most recent role was Director, Education at the British Council in India where he was responsible for growing the knowledge partnership between India and UK. In addition, Tim led the establishment of the UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) which has ₤26 million funding from the UK and Indian governments and sponsors over a 5 year period and has already established over 200 educational partnerships.

Tim is pursuing a doctorate in business administration focussing on higher education. His research concerns the positioning of universities as knowledge producers in a globalising world. He first qualified as an archaeologist with a specialisation in non-destructive testing, and also holds two masters as an applied linguist and in business administration. He is also a Chartered Marketer. He speaks Arabic and French. He was awarded an OBE for services to education in June 2008.

Begoña Gros holds a PhD in Pedagogy. She has been a lecturer at the University of Barcelona since 1988 and holds the Advanced Research accreditation from the AQU (2004). In recent years, she has supervised research at the Faculty of Education Sciences (2001-2003) and has been head of research at the Institute for Education Sciences at the University of Barcelona (2004-2007). 

She has participated in a number of research and innovation projects at national level (R+D Programme of the Ministry for Education and Science, MQD of the Catalan Regional Government, etc.) and at international level (Fifth Framework Programme, E-learning Programme, Minerva). She sits on a number of scientific committees of national and international journals (International Journal of Web Based Communities, Educational Research and Development, etc.). She has published a number of papers on virtual learning environment design and materials for university teaching. 

She is currently the primary researcher of the research group set up by the Catalan Regional Government Environments and materials for learning (EMA). Her specialisation focuses on studying the integration of information and communication technologies in education and learning.

Jason Howard has always been an 'early adopter' and thrives on the challenge of the practical application of new technology to connect people and solve problems.

After graduating with a Commerce/Law degree, Jason worked in the innovative Legal Technology Group of Blake Dawson Waldron in Sydney before founding StudyLink in 1991.

During his 17 years as Chief Executive, StudyLink has grown into a leading global student recruitment business by using internet communities and technology to improve marketing, student communication, information gathering, decision making and application processes.

StudyLink Background: Our philosophy is simple - StudyLink helps people achieve their potential by finding them the right course and institution to meet their needs and aspirations.

StudyLink gathers the information that prospective students need to review in order to make the right decision. This information is published through StudyLink’s own premier education directory at www.studylink.com as well as a number of other leading commercial, government, education agent and peak body web sites, such as the Association of Commonwealth Universities, Times of India, Yahoo!, The Guardian, Education Queensland and Study Melbourne amongst others.

John Kirkland is Deputy Secretary General (Development) of the Association of Commonwealth Universities. 

He also acts as Executive Secretary General to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom and Marshall Aid Commemorative Commission.  He has also written widely on university research management issues, and directs the ACU’s Global Research Management Network.

Piyushi Kotecha is the first, pioneering CEO of the Southern African Regional Universities Association ( SARUA), leadership organization based at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

SARUA is a bold, new initiative designed to develop a higher education agenda of relevance, growth, development and integration in higher education in the SADC region as part of a continental drive to revitalize the role and impact of universities with key partners in the African Union (AU), NEPAD and SADC.  Her contribution is increasingly recognized in key continental and international higher education development circles. Previously, she was the driving force in the transformation of the South African Universities Vice-Chancellors Association (SAUVCA) as well as in the inception of Higher Education South Africa (HESA).  

Professor C. M. Leung is the Vice President (Technology & Development) at the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK).  Prior to joining the OUHK in 1998, he was a physics professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the USA for 20 years.  He received his Ph. D. in Astronomy from the University of California at Berkeley.  His professional interest is in computational astrophysics and technology-enhanced education.  In Hong Kong he pioneered studio teaching and synchronous distance learning using Internet and ISDN technology, and promoted Web-based instruction.  At the OUHK he is responsible for the planning and development of physical facilities and technology infrastructure in teaching, administration and student support services (e.g., he directs the development of the Campus Phase II and Centre for Innovation projects).  He oversees the operation of three units: Information Technology, Educational Technology and Publishing, and Library

Professor L.K. Maheshwari

Born on July 5, 1945 at Kasganj (Etah) in India, Professor Maheshwari obtained his M.Sc. (Physics) degree from the University of Lucknow (India) in 1965, and M.Sc.(Tech.) Electronics and Ph.D. degrees from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani (India) in the years 1967 and 1971 respectively.  He has published several research papers in the areas of Semiconductor electronics, Instrumentation, Educational development and University-Industry linkages, etc. both in national and international journals. Professor Maheshwari has served on the faculty of BITS since 1971 and has held offices of Chief, Instrumentation Centre; Dean, Research & Consultancy and Deputy Director. He is currently the Vice Chancellor of BITS and also the Director of BITS, Pilani-Campus.

He was invited by the Government of Mauritius for having discussions on establishing a BITS Campus in Mauritius. The ITESO University, Guadalajara, Mexico also invited him to address the plenary session during the International Conference on ‘School- Industry Partnership Asia- Jalisco 2005’.

He has visited a number of universities/institutions in USA and other countries and participated in establishing educational collaborations with many institutions. Dr. Maheshwari is also the recipient of the year 1995 ‘Scientists of the Year’ award established by the Gian Chand Jain Memorial Foundation, Ambala (India). He is a Fellow of Institution of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineers (India), Member of IEEE, USA and WACE, USA.

Mr. Georges Malamoud, Managing Director, Program for ICT in Higher Education and Research, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie/The French-speaking University Agency (AUF). 

Georges Malamoud heads the network of 42 digital campuses established by the AUF, in universities and institutes all over the world, mainly in least developed and developing countries. These campuses provide local services to the academic community and to partners, depending on their mastering of information and communication technologies. Mr Malamoud was formerly Director of strategic programming in the same agency.

After his graduation from the Ecole Normale Supérieure, rue d'Ulm in Paris, his career began in government research centers, and then starting in 1986 in private organizations in several roles: IT manager in an advertising company and in an industrial international company; manager of digital imaging for Kodak-France; expert for several publishing houses for multimedia products. He has been with the AUF since 1996.

Originally a statistician and economist, today his fields of expertise are the usage of multimedia applications and the evolution of the internet through successive shifts, in  the context of cultural diversity and solidarity.

Buhle Mbambo-Thata is the Executive Director, Library services, University of South Africa. 

Previously she was University Librarian, University of Zimbabwe in Harare. She has extensive knowledge of information and communication technology (ICT) environment in African libraries through her involvement with African Libraries as Chair of Africa Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Her research interests are in information literacy, and women and ICT. She holds a DPHIL in Information Science.

Bob Moon had a secondary school teaching career, working in London and as Headteacher of Oxford's largest school before moving into the University sector.  He has been Professor of Education at The Open University since 1988 where, most recently, he has Directed the 'Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa' (TESSA) programme which extends across nine countries and a range of African Universities. He has advised a number of countries on the development of teacher education strategies (including Albania, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa).  He has also been adviser to a range of international organisations including the OECD, The World Bank and UNESCO. He has published extensively in the areas of teacher and curriculum development, open and distance learning and international education. His most recent book The Power of Pedagogy (with Jenny Leach) was published by Sage in October 2008.

Kay Moore works in the Learning and Teaching Institute at Sheffield Hallam University and is a Principal Lecturer in Digital Fluency.

In this role she is leading a major strategic initiative to establish digital fluency as a core graduate skill and an essential element of professional development for all staff. Kay has considerable experience of managing cultural change in higher education. She previously worked as Change Manager on a large convergence project which brought about the successful merger of libraries, IT functions and the Learning and Teaching Institute into one new department. Kay has previously led the development of the Universities online information literacy tutorial, InfoQuest and has been involved in learning centre design. She has a Masters in Learning and Teaching and a Postgraduate Diploma in Library and Information Science.

Dr. Don Olcott, Jr. is Chief Executive of The Observatory of Borderless Higher Education (OBHE). 

Dr. Olcott is a past President and immediate past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA).  He serves on the Executive Committee of the UK’s Council of Validating Universities (CVU) and external internationalisation strategy committee of the Open University.  Dr. Olcott is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (FRSA).     

Dr. Olcott  is a member of the editorial boards of the American Journal of Distance Education, Open Learning , the Journal of Continuing Higher Education,  India’s Open U. e-Learning Journal, and the European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning. He has published extensively in the areas of leadership, faculty development for distance education, organizational change, and higher education policy.  Dr. Olcott has received numerous national and international awards for leadership, research and publications in higher education and distance learning. 

Dr. Olcott is an internationally known speaker and he has consulted to colleges, universities, and corporations across the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.  He was a 1993 graduate of Harvard University’s Institute for the Management of Lifelong Education and a 2005 graduate of UCEA’s Executive Leadership Academy at New York University.  He received his bachelors and masters' degrees from Western Washington University and his doctorate in higher education leadership from Oregon State University.  Don’s personal interests include golf, music, languages, travel and history

Alex Parrillo  - International Sales Manager,Jenzabar, Inc.

As International Sales Manager, Alex Parrillo is responsible for expanding Jenzabar’s presence in the global higher education marketplace.  During his nine years at Jenzabar, he has assisted hundreds of institutions in assessing their administrative computing needs and establishing client-tailored solutions. Alex Parrillo has played an integral role in developing Jenzabar into a leading provider of software and services exclusively for higher education. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Business Administration from Colby College. 

Sashi Parthasarathi - Vice President of Client Relations, Jenzabar, Inc. 

As Vice President of Client Relations for Jenzabar, Inc., Sashi Parthasarathi brings over 20 years of experience managing finances, human resources and professional services. Prior to the merger of Jenzabar and Quodata, she served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Quodata Corporation, where she also held the role of Manager of Administrative Services. Ms.Parthasarathi holds a Masters Degree in Industrial Relations and Business Administration from the University of New Haven, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Illinois.

Ashok Patil had been educated at Military School, Satara, University of Pune, Pune (1978), Asian Institute of Management, Philippines (1989), and World University, USA (1992).  He holds a Graduate Degree in Microbiology, Mastsers Degree in Business Management (MBA) (1978), Programme for Development Managers (PDM) from AIM, Manila, and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) from World University, USA. 

Dr. Ashok Patil has nearly 35 years experience in the field of education and research, rural health, rural development, biotechnology, financial management, networking of NGOs, institutional promotion in India and abroad.  Before taking up the charge as Vice Chancellor of Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences – Deemed University, he served in various capacities of the University and its Parent Body (Pravara Medical Trust) as chief Executive Officer (CEO), Pro-Vice Chancellor and Joint Managing Trustee.   

He has been serving as President of International Association of Agricultural Medicine and Rural Health (IAAMRH) since 2000.  He has been the Associate Member of TUFH-WHO Center, The Netherlands, Executive Member, WONCA - working group on rural practice.  He has been serving as Management, Technical and Research Consultant on various international and national institutions including BioGia Biologics Ltd., Sweden, Ideal Biotech Ltd., Amersham Biotech Ltd, National Institute of Environmental Studies, Japan, Institute of Agricultural Medicine, Poland.  He was the Director of Maharashtra State Finance Corporation (MSFC), Mumbai, India. He was the Member of Environment Sub Committee Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industries (FICCI), New Delhi.

Dr. Charles Quist-Adade is a Sociology professor at Kwantlen University College. Prior to joining the Department of Sociology in 2005, Dr. Quist-Adade Quist-Adade taught at the University of Windsor. He also taught at Wayne State University and Central Michigan University, and Michigan State University, all in the USA. Dr. Quist-Adade specializes in racialization and ethnicity. His other areas of teaching and research interest are Media and Society, Globalization, Sociology of the Family, Diaspora Studies, and Social Theory 

Dr. Quist-Adade is the author of In the Shadows of the Kremiln and the White House: Africa’s Media Image from Communism to Post-Communism, several chapters in books and scores of scholarly and popular press articles. He has presented several papers at conferences in Canada, the USA and Russia.  Dr. Quist-Adade has won several teaching awards, including being cited twice in the Academic Edition of Canada’s premier newsmagazine Maclean’s as the top three most popular and one of 10 best professor at the University of Windsor, Ontario.

Dr. Quist-Adade combines academic with community service. He is the editor and publisher of Sankofa News a publication with a commitment to promoting multiculturalism in Canada and beyond. He is the President-elect of the Ghana-Canada Association of BC and the Managing Editor of the Burnaby, BC-based Afri-Can magazine. He was awarded the 2004 Black Community Leadership Award by the Windsor and District Black Coalition.

Dr. Quist-Adade began his career in his native Ghana as a journalist before moving to Russia where he pursued graduate studies while he worked as a correspondent of the London (U. K.)-based Gemini News Service. While in Russia, he also stringed for BBC Africa Service, the London-based African magazines, New African, African Concord and West Africa. 

Dr Peter J. Scott is the Director of the Knowledge Media Institute of the Open University, (http://kmi.open.ac.uk). 

Peter's own research group in the institute, the Centre for New Media, prototypes the application of new technologies and media to learning at all levels. Peter’s current research interests range widely across knowledge and media research. Three key threads at the moment are: tele-presence; streaming media systems; and ubiquity. In June 2008 he coordinated the launch of The Open University into the Apple iTunes U. portal. He has a BA (1983) and PhD (1987) in Psychology. Before joining the Open University in 1995, Dr Scott lectured in Psychology and Cognitive Science at the University of Sheffield.  He has a textbook in each of these subjects, with a range of associated teaching multimedia support applications. He is currently the president of the European Association of Technology Enhanced Learning.

Dr Len Shaffrey is a member of the Walker Institute for Climate Systems Research at the University of Reading and of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science.

His research interests include the variability of the coupled ocean-atmosphere climate system and decadal climate prediction. Dr. Shaffrey recently lead the development of the UK's new high resolution coupled climate model, HiGEM. Dr Shaffrey will also be leading the submission of climate change projections using HiGEM to the next IPCC assessment report on climate change.

Professor Kamal Singh has been Vice-Chancellor of Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University since 2005. 

She shares with the University a student centric agenda and a belief in using Information Technology as a tool to tackle growing inequality in quality education between rich and poor universities. 

A frequent speaker on a broad range of educational problems, she gets involved in social activities for promoting education amongst the masses. 

Professor Kamal Singh was previously Director, Board of College and University Development in Nagpur University, where she was Professor and Head in the Physics Department.  She works in the area of electrochemical sensors and ferroelectricity.

Susan E. Stroud is the founder and Executive Director of Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP), a non-profit organization in Washington, DC that works both domestically and internationally with governments, higher education institutions, international organizations and donors to develop programs and policies that support young people to bring about improvements in their communities. 

Susan served in the Clinton White House Office of National Service as senior advisor to the director.  During that time, she played a key role in drafting National and Community Trust Act of 1993 which created the AmeriCorps program and the Corporation for National Service – the new federal agency that administers national and community service programs.  She later went on to senior positions at the Corporation for National Service and continued to serve on the White House Domestic Policy Council.  

Susan worked at the Ford Foundation from 1998 - 2001 to design youth civic engagement policies and programs around the world, working with governments, universities, donor organizations, and NGOs in South Africa, Mexico, Russia and other countries.

Prior to working in Washington, DC in 1993, Stroud was the founding director of Campus Compact, a national coalition of over 1,000 university and college presidents committed to civic engagement and service-learning, and the Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University.

Stroud is a senior fellow at Tisch College for Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University and Vice Chair of the Board of Director of the Paul J. Aicher Foundation.

Bradley Tipp is responsible for helping our customers and partners architect our technology into solutions that meet their needs in education. Brad spends most of his current time helping our customers and partners understand how they can use software + services to have the most appropriate solution with Microsoft’s live@edu program. 

Brad joined Microsoft in 1996, working in the public sector team as a systems engineer working on Directory and systems management technology. 

Since joining Microsoft, Brad has led technology solutions in Directories, Education solutions, Security, Embedded Operating Systems, High Performance Computing, and Open Standards. He is a technologist at heart. 

Before joining Microsoft, Brad worked for British Petroleum on IBM Mainframe and wide area networking, and for Marks and Spencer plc on Client Server UNIX and Windows NT based systems management services.

In his spare time Brad entertains his two young boys while his wife gets a break from him being away!  When not doing that he plays with computers and racing cars in equal measure.

Jan Zanetis is a career educator with 20+ years in the primary, secondary and tertiary classroom. 

Currently she is the Market Manager for Education at TANDBERG, the global leader in videoconferencing solutions.  She came to TANDBERG from Vanderbilt University where she served as the Director of the Virtual School. At the Virtual School she developed thousands of hours of interactive video lessons for  secondary classrooms featuring Vanderbilt faculty as presenters.  The Virtual School became a leading distance learning provider during her directorship.

Zanetis is well-known for presenting professional development sessions for educators and has keynoted various Education Technology conferences.  She co-wrote the book “Videoconferencing for K-12 Classrooms: A Program Development Guide,” has contributed several articles in various education journals and is looking forward to the publication of a second book in December, 2008.  Zanetis currently serves on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Distance Learning Association and is the president emeritus of the Special Interest group within the International Society for Technology in Education, SIG-IVC.