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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dr. David Willows is British and studied at the Universities of Durham, Oxford and London, UK. He is currently Director of External Relations at the International School of Brussels (ISB), Belgium. With experience working and writing in the fields of Education, Philosophy, Marketing and Brand Development, Pastoral Care and Counseling, David is a regular presenter at international conferences, blogger and author of several books and articles in these fields. He is currently serving on the Board of the European Association of Communication Directors (EACD) and a Member of the Commission on Marketing and Communications for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). He is co-editor of the new ECIS/CIS book on Effective Marketing, Communications and Development in International Schools.