Margaret Abbott has worked in the not-for-profit sector in both the UK and the US for more than 30 years and has lived in the UK since 1989. Her various roles have included serving as a trustee, development director, volunteer, corporate foundation director and community foundation grants officer.

In 1998 she established ASK Associates, now a leading educational fundraising and management consultancy in the UK. As a Principal of ASK Associates, she focuses on helping independent schools in the UK and Europe develop and increase their fundraising potential.  In addition to strategic guidance, she also provides search and recruitment to schools hiring development and external relations staff. 
She has a highly successful track record in fundraising for independent schools in the UK.  She served as the Director of Development of The American School in London from 1994 - 1998 and is familiar with “best practice” in all areas of development. Prior to moving to the UK, she was the Executive Director of The Coca-Cola Foundation and was responsible for all the philanthropic and community programmes of The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta Georgia.

She was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, and received her degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She has been a frequent speaker for the CASE Schools Conference, ECIS, the Institute for Development Professionals in Education (IDPE) and the Association of Marketing and Development in Independent Schools. 

Ben Bryant is Professor of Leadership and Organization at IMD in Lausanne.

He is a highly effective teacher, facilitator and speaker. He has presented his research at many leading academic institutions and is a regular speaker at management conferences around the world.

For more than 15 years, Ben’s focus has been in developing leadership in and of organisations. His research and teaching centres on three levels:

1. Organisational leadership: How leaders shape and change organisational culture
2. Leadership in senior teams: How to build effective teamwork from competing interests
3. Personal leadership effectiveness: through self-awareness and mindfulness

His models and frameworks of leadership have been used in the development of top teams, senior and middle executives, and in the development of strategy, strategy execution and strategic change. His research into innovation cultures has been used to guide several organizations to create more innovative climates and to generate new sources of value creation. He frequently works with senior teams to help them build a climate of trust, openness, challenge and commitment. Ben is passionate about helping managers reduce boundaries created by functional silos, national borders, and to work conflict and tension. His most recent research focuses on the reflective capabilities and the "mindfulness" of leaders in complex organisations, and the capacity of leaders to develop from within.

Ben has extensive experience in the facilitation of senior executive development programs at IMD, London Business School and the Australian Graduate School of Management. He is the Director of IMD’s intensive leadership development programme ‘Mobilizing People’. He is also responsible for the highly practical and reflective leadership modules on the Executive MBA at IMD, which combines classroom and distance learning. Prior to coming to IMD, he was a Fellow of the Centre for Management Development at London Business School where he was Director of the Global Business Consortium, the flagship in-company development program for senior executives. His guest speeches, programs and consulting have been delivered in Europe, the USA, Asia and Australia for groups of senior executives from companies including Oracle, Holcim, APM Terminals, Daimler, Mars, British Telecom, Millicom, Emirates Airlines, Standard Chartered Bank, SKF, RWE, Ericsson, GlaxoSmithKline, Zurich Financial Services, Danish Rail, Danish Radio, BBC, and Verbund.

Jim Buckheit is the founding head of Vistamar School in Los Angeles, an innovative high school serving one of the most diverse student populations in the United States. His experience as an independent school head spans 33 years at diverse institutions, including the Common School in Massachusetts, the Anglo-American School of Moscow, St. Paul Academy and Summit School in Minnesota, Frankfurt International School in Germany, and Baylor School in Tennessee.

In each of these posts, he developed new programs, raised academic standards, and provided strong financial and managerial leadership. An avid student of pedagogy and human development, he has maintained a classroom role throughout his career, teaching at every level, from early childhood through college. He is a frequent contributor to professional journals and a popular consultant in the fields of global education, organizational psychology, non-profit governance, and curriculum reform. Jim completed his secondary education at the first United World College in Wales and earned both a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and history and a master’s degree in educational psychology at the University of Chicago. Jim and his wife, Kathryn, have two adult children and live in Playa del Rey, California.

Matthew Chuck is a science graduate from Cambridge University, and was a senior commercial manager with one of America’s most successful materials’ companies, based in Frankfurt. He developed his interest in international education both as a parent and as a trustee of the Frankfurt International School, in which role he contributed to several long-term projects in various capacities, including Chair of the Trustees’ Committee, and Treasurer.

He returned to the UK in 2002 to set up his own consultancy, during which time he has participated in the Strategic Planning of a number of European international schools, and co-authored books on Strategic Planning and Governance in the ECIS/CIS Effective International Schools series. He is now a co-director of Executive Training and Consultancy Ltd, assisting the heads of organisations large and small to develop their strategic thinking, and to apply it to improve their performance and deliver better value.

Dominic Currer is currently Director of the International School of Zug and Luzern. He was educated in the UK and received degrees from the University of Southampton. After brief flirtations with defence intelligence and banking, he took the plunge, and trained to become a teacher of History.

Dominic successfully taught a range of subjects up to A level in the UK before moving abroad 13 years ago. Since then he has spent all of his time in Switzerland in various positions, making the move into administration 10 years ago. He has served on CIS accreditation teams, orchestrated a school merger, and been most recently involved in the construction of a new middle school and a new high school.

Following the merger of three Swiss international schools, Dominic has worked closely with the HR department of a large Biotech’ company and Price, Waterhouse Coopers to construct a model of head evaluation which combines elements of CEO evaluation from the business world with models from education.

Dr. David Hawley is the Director of Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific, one of the twelve United World Colleges (UWCs), located on five continents. The United World Colleges are committed to making education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. Dr. Hawley served as Headmaster and President of Atlanta International School in Georgia prior to going to Canada. Earlier responsibilities included roles as principal and teacher at schools in Latin America and Europe.

After graduating from Framingham State College with a degree in Earth Sciences and Biology, Dr. Hawley's career in education began as a science teacher at a school in Guatemala. Subsequently he attended Harvard University where he received his Masters Degree in Educational Technology and a Doctorate in Administration, Planning and Social Policy.  When asked to list a major goal for the College, Dr. Hawley stated, “I want Pearson College to be viewed across Canada and around the world as one of the world’s pre-eminent schools promoting true international understanding and positive change for the new century and essentially become a “demonstration site” for peace and sustainability.”

Adele Hodgson’s experience spans the business and not for profit worlds ranging from banking, to medical research, to education. She is the author/editor of three books, and numerous articles on strategic planning, marketing and development, and governance. She worked very successfully with the Frankfurt International School for 12 years.

Some of her most recent activities have involved advising local government and economic development agencies on the establishment and effective management of schools, strategic planning for mature schools, curriculum development, teacher recruitment and governance training.   Adele has been involved in the establishment of two international schools in Europe – Dresden International School, and Thuringia International School and is currently advising PHORMS AG on the establishment of a network of bi-lingual schools in Germany. (To date five Phorms schools have been opened.)    Adele’s expertise is sought by international school boards worldwide and she is a regular presenter at ECIS and other educational conferences.   She has hands on experience of the CIS/NEASC accreditation process, and excellent knowledge of the full IB Programmes, AP, and British “A” levels... Financial modeling for start ups, and Crises Management Planning.  Educational memberships include the ECIS Governance Committee.

Adele Hodgson has a BA Hons Economics and Business Administration University of Strathclyde, and is fluent in German, French and English.

Mary Langford has worked almost every facet of school life: admissions, alumni, public relations, marketing and communications, administration and personnel, teaching, and head in European-based schools offering a combination of US, UK and IB curricula. She has also been a consultant advising expatriate families seeking school placements in the UK and abroad, and in her early career before moving to Europe she worked on Capitol Hill and in a Washington embassy. Her undergraduate studies were undertaken at The College of William and Mary in Virginia, George Mason University, and University of Texas where she received a BA.  She later earned an MA in International Education from the University of Bath where her dissertation research (under the supervision of Prof. Jeff Thompson and Mary Hayden) was funded in part by an ECIS Fellowship.

Mary’s articles have been published in Britain, Europe, the Far East, and in the USA; she was a contributing author in International Education: Principles and Practice and The Essential Guide for International School Teachers. She is also a consulting editor for The Good Schools Guide International. Mary has spoken at wide range of seminars, conferences and workshops (including ECIS, The Association of International Schools in India, European Association of Relocation Agents, Chartered Institute of Linguists, US State Department, University of Bath, Independent Schools Council (UK), and numerous PTAs and international women’s clubs), and she has been interviewed for newspapers, radio and television on the subject of international education and the effects of mobility on children and families.

She was recently featured on the first Financial Times ‘Ask the Expert’ live discussion on international education on FT.com.    She has visited over 70 international schools worldwide, and has served on accrediting teams with CIS, ECIS, NEASC and MSA in schools in Denmark, Belgium, Hungary, the US, Vietnam, Switzerland, Chile, Spain and Panama. In 2007, Mary joined ECIS as the Deputy Executive Director. Amongst her responsibilities at ECIS is oversight of ECIS certificate programs including the ITC (International Teacher Certificate) in collaboration with University of Cambridge International Examinations;  ILMP (International Leadership Management Program) in collaboration with Fieldwork Education and the National Association of Head Teachers;  and the SISG which she developed with Adele Hodgson.

Since 1997, Diana Maughan has been working in partnership with Peter B. Ditchburn in providing services for Canadian independent schools. Diana is a past Chair of York House School in Vancouver and during that time founded the first Chairs Session at the Canadian Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) Annual Conference in 1994. Through Ditchburn and Maughan Partners, Diana has presented on a regular basis to the CAIS Annual Conference to new Heads and Chairs on the importance of the partnership between the Head and the Chair and Board.

During the last twelve years Diana has worked with Chairs and Heads within the United World Colleges movement. In addition she has visited faculty and students at eleven UWC colleges. In 2003, Diana was appointed Chair of Lester B. Pearson UWC of the Pacific in Victoria, BC. She has also had experiences on three Head Search Committees with the most recent one being the hire of David Hawley to the position of Director of Pearson College. Now acting as Honourary Chair she remains on that school’s board and continues to work with United World Colleges International (UWC) as a Board Director and Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee.

Corinne Rosenberg is an intercultural and global diversity training consultant with twenty years international experience in the design, development and delivery of training workshops and seminars for major corporations, non-profit agencies and educational institutions, in the United States, Britain and across Europe.

She has worked across wide- ranging industrial sectors with corporations including General Electric, Monsanto, Proctor and Gamble, Kraft, Powergen, UBS, Diageo, Vodaphone, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Rolls Royce.  She has consulted on intercultural issues within mergers and acquisitions, has designed workshops for international HR, and for corporate management groups as well as coaching senior managers.  This work has included global diversity workshops, expatriate training, multicultural teambuilding, and an 18 month diversity project for the top 1000 leaders in Royal Dutch Shell. She is on the faculty of the International Teaching Certificate run by the European Council for International Schools and University of Cambridge International Examinations, and she has also led workshops for the International Leadership Management Program (ILMP) run by ECIS, Fieldwork Education, and the National Association of Head Teachers.    She also runs individual and small group coaching sessions on the management of intercultural careers and repatriation.

With a strong focus on effective US/European interactions, she ran a 6 month longitudinal study to evaluate behavioural change in an EMEA team through group coaching on effective virtual communication.   She has published articles on this topic, as well as on repatriation and the “portable career.”  

Corinne worked in the US for twelve years, initially as a senior trainer and tTraining manager for a cross-cultural training consultancy in Chicago.  She later developed, instituted and trained facilitators for a diversity training programme for 28 offices across the country for the Anti-Defamation League as part of the nationally acclaimed World of Difference Institute.

Corinne is currently consulting and training with Kent County Council Children's Services on intercultural and transition issues for the professional teams, and strategies for management of a diverse group of social workers.  

Corinne's holds a BA honours degree in American Studies and an MSc is in Strategic Training and Development, in which she has a distinction. She was trained as a counsellor, and holds a diploma in Adult Education. Corinne is a member of CIPD, SIETAR.  She grew up in the UK, has lived in Israel and the US, and currently resides in London.

John Stopford is Professor Emeritus of the London Business School, where he was the founding Chairman of the Strategic and International Management Area.  He is also Chairman of TLP International Inc. and of the Advisory Council of Helperby Therapeutics Plc.  Professor Stopford is a board-level consultant and coach for chief executives, as well as designer of senior executive education programs for many multinationals. His services have been retained by governments, including Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and the UK.  Assessing the effectiveness of boards and working closely with boards of educational and not-for-profit organizations has been a particular preoccupation in recent years.

He has published over 20 books and monographs and more than 90 scholarly articles. His first book, Managing the Multinational Enterprise (with Louis Wells, 1972) was a best seller in the USA and Japan. Rival States, Rival Firms (with Susan Strange, 1991) won the book prize of the US Academy of Management in 1992 and Rejuvenating the Mature Business (with Charles Baden-Fuller, 1994) won the innovation award of Choice magazine. His latest book, The Future of the Multinational Company (joint editor), was published by Wiley in 2004. He is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business and has been elected as one of the 25 Founding Fellows of the Strategic Management Society in the USA.

Professor Stopford’s first job was in the Rotterdam docks in the 1950s. He trained as a craft apprentice at Baker Perkins in the UK and then as an engineer at Oxford and at MIT, where he worked in the Saturn 1 program. He worked for Royal Dutch/Shell in the Netherlands and the UK and was later managing director of a subsidiary of Booker McConnell in Guyana. He taught at Harvard, where he earned his doctorate as a Ford Foundation Fellow, and at the Manchester Business School, before joining London in 1971.  He was Dean of the Murmann School in Germany in 2008 and he has held appointments as visiting professor at Wharton and MIT (USA), Stockholm (Sweden), the Murmann School (Germany) and Aoyama Gakuin and Nihon Universities (Tokyo). He has also been a senior staff member at the United Nations, and served as non-executive director of Shell (UK) Ltd. and the Land Warfare Centre of the British Army, as Board Advisor to Vickers plc, as director of numerous small companies and on various UK committees of enquiry.   For many years he has run panels and has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davros.

John Stopford is the son of an international educator who was a housemaster at Oundle School in the UK then head of Trinity College, Ceylon and Achimota in Ghana before becoming Bishop of London. John Stopford is married to Sally and has two sons and three grandchildren.  He is a member of the Steering Committee and an Officer of the Order of St. John, a Governor of Goodenough College in London and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.  He made two first ascents in the Himalayas in the 1950s and is now a keen hill walker.  Music, theatre and reading are among his other hobbies.

Paul Strebel is the Sandoz Family Foundation Professor at IMD (International Institute for Management Development, named by the Financial Times as the top business school in Europe (3rd in the world) for executive education programmes (ref: Financial Times, 14.5.07) .   He focuses on governance, strategic breakpoints and the leadership of change over time, for which he has developed the principles of trajectory management.  His work on the anticipation and management of breakpoints and change has influenced many organizations such as HSBC, ABB, ABN Amro, Bosch, ECB and the UN.

He recently received the Award for Research on Leadership from the Association of Executive Search Consultants for his article on “ The Case for Contingent Governance” published by the Sloane Management Review. He has published articles in many leading publications including the Harvard Review and the Harvard Business Press.

Prof. Strebel is the Director of IMD’s Forum for the exchange of best practice in High Performance Boards as well as being a keynote speaker and seminar leader. Among his most recent clients are Credit Suisse, Nokia, and Coloplast. Prof Strebel is on the board of several companies and prior to his current position was Director of the Breakthrough Programme for Senior Executives. He is Swiss, of South African origin and received his BSc from Cape Town University, MBA from Columbia University in New York, and PHD from Princeton University.