Members of the Club of Budapest

(1) Prof. Dr. Ervin Laszlo

Ervin Laszlo is the author or editor of sixty-nine books translated into as many as nineteen languages, and has over four hundred articles and research papers and six volumes of piano recordings to his credit. He serves as editor of the monthly World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution and of its associated General Evolution Studies book series.

Laszlo is generally recognized as the founder of systems philosophy and general evolution theory, serving as founder-director of the General Evolution Research Group and as past president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences. He is the recipient of the highest degree in philosophy and human sciences from the Sorbonne, the University of Paris, as well as of the coveted Artist Diploma of the Franz Liszt Academy of Budapest. His numerous prizes and awards include four honorary doctorates.

His appointments have included research grants at Yale and Princeton Universities, professorships for philosophy, systems sciences, and future sciences at the Universities of Houston, Portland State, and Indiana, as well as Northwestern University and the State University of New York. His career has also included guest professorships at various universities in Europe and the Far East. In addition, Laszlo worked as program director for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). In 1999 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Canadian International Institute of Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics.

Laszlo serves as president of the Club of Budapest and head of the General Evolution Research Group, which he founded. He is an advisor to the UNESCO Director General, ambassador of the International Delphic Council, member of the International Academy of Science, World Academy of Arts and Science, and the International Academy of Philosophy. He is the former president of the International Society for Systems Sciences.

(2) Lady Fiona Montagu

Lady Fiona Montagu was born in Zimbabwe, educated in Switzerland and has a background in television. She lives at Beaulieu in the south of England, now home of the world famous National Motor Museum of Britain, but originally home to a huge Cistercian Abbey in 1204.She hosts events/situations there concerned with Cultural Heritage and Environmental Issues and she supports many charities especially those benefitting the Youth in all our countries.

Fiona Montagu is dedicated to the human future and studies practical metaphysics with a view to raising global consciousness by building bridges of awareness, compassion and co-operation between the nations of our planet, using as one of her vehicles the Club of Budapest International. One of her main interests is Ethics in Business and the Media and thus she is working towards creating Retreats for Visionary Leaders (spirituality in business) at her beautiful home, where the spiritual light that attracted the monks so long ago, continues to burn brightly. Lady Fiona Montagu was the first Ambassador of the Club of Budapest International.

(www.clubofbudapest.org). She is an International Advisor to Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams' World Centres of Compassion for Children (www.wccci.org). She is a member of the Advisory Board for KidsRights (www.kidsrights.info) and serves with Hon Chairmen M Gorbachev and R Muller on The World Wisdom Council dedicated to improving Global Ethics especially in the media. Lady Montagu also serves as a Trustee of Yasuhiko Kimura's organisation Vision-in-Action.

Fiona Montagu is a philanthropist, dedicated to the future of Humankind and is patron of many charities including the Hunger Project. Her metaphysical co-worker is Gillian R Wright (www.lucid-living.com)

(3) H.E. Oscar Arias

Dr Oscar Arias has received honorary doctorates of different universities such as those from Harvard, Washington, Illinois, Oviedo, Franklin and Marshall, Southern Connecticut, Dartmouth, Ithaca, and Quinnipiac, as well as of other prestigious educative institutions. He has also received numerous prizes, among them the Prize Jackson Ralston, the Prize Prince of Asturias, the Prize of La Paz Martin Luther King, the Humanitarian Prize Albert Schweitzer, the Medal of the Freedom of Filadelfia, and the Prize of the Américas.

The president of Foundation Arias, an organization dedicated to furthering the peace, Dr. Arias drew up the peace plan which was used as a basis for negotiations to end the Central American conflict. During a 1987 Central American summit, Dr. Arias presented his peace plan which called for an immediate cease fire in all guerrilla wars, a suspension of outside military aid, general amnesty and negotiations between conflicting parties, as well as long-term measures such as free elections and general reductions in armed forces. The Arias plan was a great stride toward peace and a base for future progress. (born 13 September 1940) is the current President of Costa Rica, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his efforts to end civil wars then raging in several Central American countries.

He is also a recipient of the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism and a trustee of the Economists for Peace and Security. In 2003, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court's Trust Fund for Victims.

· In August 2007, Arias was affected by tendinitis, and in April 2008 he cancelled some activities because of muscular pain in his lumbar region. Subsequently, due to increasing difficulty in speaking over the course of several weeks, Arias went to the Philadelphia Ears, Nose and Throat Associates medical center in the United States in 2008, where it was determined that he had a nonmalignant cyst on his vocal cords. As a result, it was announced that doctors advised him not to speak for one month, saying that if this did not help, surgery would be considered!

(4) H.E. A.T. Ariyaratne

Spiritual leader. A. T. Ariyaratne is the founder and President of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement of Sri Lanka. Sarvodaya is grassroots community development organization that combines Buddhist philosophy with Gandhian methods. Founded in 1958 to counter the top-down industrialization model of economic development, Sarvodaya has been successfully promoting alternative development in villages for over 40 years. This movement is active in nearly one-third of Sri Lanka's 33,000 rural villages, where it organizes communities to develop water supplies, preschools, and even village banks (See "A Village Revolution," YES! Winter 1997/1998).

As for Ariyaratne, he has held office in many international organizations and has been a much sought-after speaker at conferences and forums. He is the author of several books and articles on development, peace and religion. For his contribution toward development and peace, A. T. Ariyaratne has received several international awards including the King Baudouin Award for International Development and the Jamnalal Bajaj Award for Propagating Gandhian Values Outside India.

Ariyaratne is also one of the country's best-known figures. He has been recognized internationally, receiving awards from nations as diverse as Belgium and Japan.

(5) Sri Bhagavan

Sri Bhagavan (used to be called Kalki or Kalki Bhagavan by devotees, however, he prefers to be called just Bhagavan) the founder of the Golden Age Foundation in India, is considered to be the living Avatar capable of giving enlightenment. Not only to a few individuals, but to the whole mankind.
According to Kalki, Earth will start entering the Golden Age, the age of enlightenment, in June 2004 during the Venus Transit. This process will come to a conclusion at the next venus transit in 2012.
The time in front of us, says Kalki, will be filled with unprecedented changes, challenges and turmoil. It is not much mankind can do about it. But those who have worked on setting all their relationships right will have a much easier ride than others. Kalki is building (open in June 2004) a new spiritual center in Golden City 80 km outside of Chennai in India. The main building, Shakti Staala, can hold 5 000 people. When 5 000 people will start meditating continuously, certain energies supporting enlightenment will start vibrating not just in The Golden City but across the globe, as the energies will rise due to the power generated by the group meditation. This energy will in turn affect the chakras taking individual humans into different states.

(6) Thomas Berry

Historian, Author, Geologian

Thomas Berry was born in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1914. From his academic beginnings as a historian of world cultures and religions, Berry developed into a historian of the Earth and its evolutionary processes. He describes himself as a "geologian".

Berry received his Ph.D. in European Intellectual History with a thesis on Giambattista Vico's philosophy of history. Widely read in Western history, he also spent many years studying the cultural history of Asia. He has lived in China and traveled to other parts of Asia. He authored two books on Asian religions, Buddhism and Religions of India (distributed by Columbia University Press).

For two decades, he directed the Riverdale Center of Religious Research along the Hudson River. During this period he taught at Fordham University where he chaired the history of religions program and directed 25 doctoral theses. His major contributions to the discussion on the environment are in his books The Dream of the Earth (Sierra Club Books, 1988 reprinted, 2006), The Great Work: Our Way into the Future (Random House, 1999) and, with Brian Swimme, The Universe Story (Harper San Francisco, 1992). His latest collection of essays is Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community (Sierra Club Books and University of California Press, 2006).

"In these opening years of the twenty-first century, as the human community experiences a rather difficult situation in its relation with the natural world, we might reflect that a fourfold wisdom is available to guide us into the future: the wisdom of indigenous peoples, the wisdom of women, the wisdom of the classical traditions, and the wisdom of science." –Thomas Berry. He has devoted his career to understanding how Western religion and culture have failed to sustain a nurturing relationship between humans and the Earth.

(7) Karlheinz Böhm

Karlheinz Böhm (sometimes Carl Boehm) was born March 16, 1928 in Darmstadt, Germany, he is an Austrian actor. The son of the conductor Karl Böhm, he is best known internationally for his role as Mark, the psychopathic protagonist of « Peeping Tom », directed by Michael Powell. Before that, he had played the young Emperor « Franz Joseph I of Austria » in the three "Sissy" movies.

A committed man since 1968.
The big change in Böhm´s life came in 1968. I started asking questions, and could see that we all have to take a moral and ethical stand. So the consciously apolitical offspring of a family of artists became a politically aware one." In Kenya a few years later, he learned firsthand what poverty is all about. In Europe, we associate Ethiopia mainly with drought-induced famines, and with Karlheinz Böhm's fund-raising campaigns on behalf of "Menschen für Menschen". And Ethiopia is indeed one of the world's poorest countries, but in a sense it is also one of the richest: A multi-ethnic state with a population of over 60 million, Ethiopia has a fascinating culture and an eventful history. Isn't this where some of the most ancient human remains were discovered? And wasn't this the place where the Kingdom of Axum – one of the earliest Christian monarchies – flourished centuries ago?

(8) Raffi Cavoukian

Raffi is an internationally acclaimed family entertainer, songwriter, author, and ecology and children's advocate. Over his 25-year career he has created 13 albums, 3 concert videos and numerous children's books based on his music, with total sales of over 15 million. In 2000, he founded the Troubadour Institute, which acts as a catalyst to move us toward a child-honoring society. His recent autobiography, The Life of a Children's Troubadour tells the story of his unique life and career, including his efforts to blend respect for both children and Nature. This children's troubadour writes and sings music for children in order to deliver a message of hope, peace, and respect for the planet and its people. His beloved songs encourage children and adults alike to pitch in and make the world a cleaner, healthier place. One of his most recent songs, entitled "Turn this World Around," is a tribute to Nelson Mandela, whom Raffi admires greatly.

(9) Paulo Coelho

The Brazilian author PAULO COELHO was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist.

Coelho wrote song lyrics for many famous performers in Brazilian music, such as Elis Regina and Rita Lee. Yet his most well known work has been done with Raul Seixas. Together they wrote such successes as « Eu nasci há dez mil anos atrás" (I was born ten thousand years ago), "Gita" and "Al Capone", amongst other 60 songs.

His fascination with the spiritual quest dates back to his hippie days, when he travelled the world learning about secret societies, oriental religions, etc.

In 1982 Coelho published his first book, « Hell Archives", which failed to make any kind of impact. In 1985 he contributed to the Practical Manual of Vampirism, although he later tried to take it off the shelves, since he considered it "of bad quality". In 1986, PAULO COELHO did the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage.

In the following year, COELHO published The Alchemist. Slow initial sales convinced his first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become one of the best selling Brazilian books of all time.

The Alchemist was one of the most important literary phenomena of the 20th century. It reaches the first place in bestselling lists in 18 countries, and so far has sold 30 million copies.

The book has been praised by different personalities ranging from the Nobel Prize Kenzaburo Oe to the singer Madonna, who considers it one of her favourite books. It has equally inspired many projects – such as a musical in Japan, theatre plays in France, Belgium, USA, Turkey, Italy and Switzerland. It is also the theme of two symphonies (Italy and USA) and had its text illustrated by the famous French artist Moebius (author of the sceneries for the Fifth Element and Alien).

His work has been translated in 67 languages and edited in more than 150 countries.

PAULO COELHO is: Messenger of Peace for the UN, Ambassador of European Union for Intercultural Dialogue for the year of 2008, Member of the Board of the Shimon Peres Institute for Peace, UNESCO special counsellor for "Intercultural Dialogues and Spiritual Convergences", Board Member of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

(10) Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1965

B.A., University of Chicago, 1960

Teaching Interests and Areas of Expertise

Creativity and Innovation, Managing Flow

Current Reaserch Interests

Professor Csikszentmihalyi is the director of the Quality of Life Research Center (QLRC) at the Drucker School. The QLRC is a non-profit research institute that studies "positive psychology"; that is, human strengths such as optimism, creativity, intrinsic motivation, and responsibility.

Professional Activities

Professor Csikszentmihalyi is a member of the American Academy of Education, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Leisure Studies.

Selected Publications

"Good Business: Flow, Leadership and the Making of Meaning", New York: Viking, 2003.

"Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet", New York: Basic Books, 2001.
"Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life: New York: Basic Books, 1997.

"Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention", New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
"The Evolving Self: "A Psychology for the Third Millennium", New York, Harper Collins, 1993.

"Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience", New York: Harper & Row, 1990.

His research and theories in the psychology of optimal experience have revolutionized psychology, and have been adopted in practice by national leaders such as Bill Clinton and Tony Blair as well as top members of the global executive elite who run the world's major corporations.

(11) H.H. The XIVth Dalai Lama

His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. He was born in a small village called Takster in northeastern Tibet. Born to a peasant family, His Holiness was recognized at the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, as the reincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lamas are the manifestations of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, who chose to reincarnate to serve the people. Dalai Lama means Ocean of Wisdom. Tibetans normally refer to His Holiness as Yeshin Norbu, the Wish-fulfilling Gem, or simply, Kundun, meaning The Presence.

Leadership Responsibilities
In 1950, at 16, His Holiness was called upon to assume full political power as Head of State and Government when Tibet was threatened by the might of China. In 1954 he went to Peking to talk with Mao Tse-Tung and other Chinese leaders, including Chou En-Lai and Deng Xiaoping. In 1956, while visiting India to attend the 2500th Buddha Jayanti, he had a series of meetings with Prime Minister Nehru and Premier Chou about deteriorating conditions in Tibet. In 1959 he was forced into exile in India after the Chinese military occupation of Tibet. Since 1960 he has resided in Dharamsala, aptly known as "Little Lhasa", the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.

His Holiness continues to present new initiatives to resolve the Tibetan issues. At the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in 1987 he proposed a Five-Point Peace Plan as a first step towards resolving the future status of Tibet. This plan calls for the designation of Tibet as a zone of peace, an end to the massive transfer of ethnic Chinese into Tibet, restoration of fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms and the abandonment of China's use of Tibet for nuclear weapons production and the dumping of nuclear waste, as well as urging "earnest negotiations" on the future of Tibet and relations between the Tibetan and Chinese people.

(12) Waris Dirie

Waris Dirie (born 1965 in Somalia) is a Somali model and a former UN advocate for the abolition of female genital mutilation. In 1997, Waris Dirie gave up modeling to focus on her work against female genital mutilation. That year UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed her Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. In 2007 she received the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur for her humanitarian work.

Her autobiographical novel Desert Flower, which tells the story of her own childhood and genital mutilation, has been printed in numerous languages and topped best-seller lists in Europe.

Dirie now lives in Vienna, Austria with her son, Aleeke (born 1997), by her former companion, the American jazz musician Dana Murray.

(13) Riane Eisler

Bestselling Author & Macrohistorian: Biography : Riane Eisler's story begins in Vienna, Austria, where as a small child she and her family had to flee from the Nazis. They emigrated to Cuba and eventually to the U.S. Riane has said that this trauma could have destroyed her, but instead, it led to her life-long quest to understand why horrible things like the Holocaust can happen – and what we can do so they do not happen again. Riane has become an eminent social scientist, attorney, author, and social activist. She is best known for her international bestseller The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future, now in 23 languages, including Chinese, Russian, Korean, Hebrew, Japanese, and Arabic.

Her newest book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics – hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as "a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking," by Peter Senge as "desperately needed," by Gloria Steinem as "revolutionary," and by Jane Goodall as "a call to action" – proposes a new approach to economics that gives visibility and value to the most essential human work: the work of caring for people and nature. Riane emphasizes that specific actions can change one's life and help one to see in a new way because all change begins with the individual. Her work gives people grounded hope that change is possible and that we are not doomed to despair and destruction. As Riane says, "caring pays - in dollars and cents."

Riane has had a powerful response from very diverse groups around the world because her common theme of caring helps people "connect the dots." She is sought after to keynote conferences worldwide, and is a consultant to business and government on applications of the partnership model introduced in her work. International venues have included Germany at the invitation of Prof. Rita Suessmuth, former President of the Bundestag (the German Parliament) and Daniel Goeudevert (Chair of Volkswagen International); Colombia, invited by the Mayor of Bogota; and the Czech Republic, invited by Vaclav Havel (President of the Czech Republic).

Her other books include the award-winning The Power of Partnership and Tomorrow's Children, as well as Sacred Pleasure, a daring reexamination of sexuality and spirituality, and Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life, which statistically documents the key role of the status of women in a nation's general quality of life. Riane holds degrees in sociology and law from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). She taught pioneering classes on women and the law at UCLA and is a founding member of the General Evolution Research Group (GERG), a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and World Business Academy, and a commissioner of the World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality, along with the Dalai Lama and other spiritual leaders. She is also co-founder of the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV), www.saiv.net. She is president of the Center for Partnership Studies, www.partnershipway.org, dedicated to research and education. Her compassion for people has led her to pioneering work in human rights that has expanded the focus of international organizations to include the rights of women and children. Her research on systemic cultural transformation has impacted many fields, including history, sociology, economics, psychology, and education. She is the author of over 200 essays and articles in publications ranging from Behavioral Science, Futures, Political Psychology, and The UNESCO Courier to Brain and Mind, Yes!, the Human Rights Quarterly, The International Journal of Women's Studies, and the World Encyclopedia of Peace. Riane has been honored with the Humanist Pioneer Award and the first Alice Paul ERA Award. She is the only woman among twenty great thinkers, including Hegel, Adam Smith, Marx, and Toynbee, selected for inclusion in Macro history and Macro historians in recognition of the lasting importance of her work as a cultural historian and evolutionary theorist. A true believer in great partnerships, Riane has been happily married for 30 years to the eminent social psychologist and author David Loye.

Riane can be contacted at center@partnershipway.org Her websites are www.partnershipway.org www.rianeeisler.com and www.saiv.net

(14) Vigdis Finnbogadottir

Elected as President of Iceland in 1980, and re-elected in 1984 and 1988, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, heads the magnificent land in the north. She was born on April 15^th 1930 in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. Her father was a civil engineer and professor at the University of Iceland. Her mother served as the chairman of the Icelandic Nurses Association for 36 years. Vigdis Finnbogadottir has known the value of education and service all her life.

Vigdis Finnbogadottir taught French at an experimental college where she was responsible for planning and developing the French teaching department.

Vigdis Finnbogadottir served as director of the Reykjavik Theatre Company from 1972 to 1980. Under her guidance the Company flourished and she was especially active in opening channels for Iceland playwrights.

Vigdís Finnbogadottir, the fourth President of the Republic of Iceland, was the first woman in the world to be elected a constitutional Head of State.

(15) Milos Forman

Date of Birth: 18^th of February 1932, Cáslav, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]

Birth Name: Jan Tomas Forman.

When his parents died in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, Jan Tomás became an orphan very early on. Later, he studied direction at the School of Cinema in Prague. In his Czechoslovakian films, Cerný Petr (1964), Lásky jedné plavovlásky (1965), and Horí, má panenko (1967), he created his own style of comedy. During the invasion of his country by the troops of the Warsaw pact in the summer of 1968 to stop the Prague spring, he left Europe for the United States. In spite of difficulties, he filmed Taking Off (1971) there and achieved his fame later with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) adapted from the novel of Ken Kesey, which won five Oscars including one for direction. Other important films of Milos Forman were the musical Hair (1979) and, certainly, his biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Amadeus (1984), which won eight Oscars.

Some quotes of Milos Forman:

"Give me $100,000 and I will make the film for $100,000. Give me $10m and I will make the film for $10m. Give me $100m and I will spend it."

"It's funny to realize, but in my relatively short life I have lived through six or seven different social and cultural systems: first the Democratic Republic of Czechoslovakia, then the limited democracy before World War II, then the Nazi regime. After the Nazi regime there was a kind of democracy again for three years, then came the Stalinist regime, then the reformed Communist regime, and now I am living in a free country".

(16) Peter Gabriel

Peter Brian Gabriel: born 13^th of February 1950, in Chobham, Surrey, England.

He first came to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. More recently he has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. He has also been involved in various humanitarian efforts.

Gabriel founded Genesis in 1967 with fellow Charterhouse School pupils Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips, Mike Rutherford, and drummer Chris Stewart. The name of the band was suggested by fellow Charterhouse alumnus, the pop music impresario Jonathan King who produced their first album From Genesis to Revelation. A lover of soul music, Gabriel was influenced by many different sources in his way of singing, mainly Otis Redding and other soul singers. He also played the flute on Cat Stevens' Mona Bone Jakon album in 1970.

Gabriel has been interested in world music for many years, with the first musical evidence appearing on his third album. This influence has increased over time, and he is the driving force behind the WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) movement. He created the Real World Studios and record label to facilitate the creation and distribution of such music by various artists, and he has worked to educate Western culture about the work of such musicians as Yungchen Lhamo, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Youssou N'dour.

He has a long-standing interest in human rights, and launched WITNESS, a nonprofit organization which trains human rights activists to use video and online technologies to expose human rights abuses. In 2006 his work with WITNESS and his long standing support of peace and human rights causes was recognized by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates with the Man of Peace award.

(17) H.E. Hans-Dietrich Genscher

Hans-Dietrich Genscher (born March 21, 1927) is a German politician and member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). He was Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1974 to 1982 and, after a two-week pause, from 1982 to 1992, making him Germany's longest serving Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor. Genscher was born at Reideburg (Province of Saxony), near Halle, in what later became East Germany. At a young age, Genscher joined the Hitler Youth and later served as a member of the Air Force Support Personnel (Luftwaffenhelfer) in the Army from 1943 to 1945. After reaching 18 years of age (1945) he became a member of the Nazi Party, despite regulations encouraging active duty military members to avoid holding membership in political organizations (these regulations were widely ignored in the later days of German dictator Adolf Hitler's Germany).

Genscher fought as a young man in the Wehrmacht at the end of the Second World War. In 1945, he participated in Wenck's ill-fated relief effort during the Battle for Berlin which Hitler saw as a last roll of the dice to save the besieged city. While Wenck's attack was unable to relieve or save the city of Berlin, he was able link up with the remnants of Colonel General (Generaloberst) Theodor Busse's 9th Army. Together, they marched what was left of both armies, along with many civilians, to the American lines and surrendered. For this reason, Genscher briefly became an American and British prisoner of war. After World War II, he studied law and economics at the universities of Halle and Leipzig (1946-1949) and joined the East German Liberal Democratic Party (LDPD) in 1946.

In 1972 while Minister for the Interior, he rejected Israel's offer to send an Israeli special forces unit to Germany to deal with the Black September hijacking of the 1972 Summer Olympics which led to the Munich massacre. The German government said they could deal with it themselves. They were wrong and it ended in a bloody shootout at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base which left 11 hostages, 5 terrorists, and 1 German policeman dead. In the SPD-FDP coalition, he helped shape Brandt's policy of de-escalation with the communist East, commonly known as Ostpolitik, which was continued under Helmut Schmidt after Brandt's resignation in 1974.

Genscher was one of the FDP's driving forces when, in 1982, the party switched sides from its coalition with the SPD to support the CDU/CSU in their Constructive Vote of No Confidence to have Helmut Schmidt replaced with Helmut Kohl as Chancellor. Despite the great controversy that accompanied this switch, he remained one of the most popular politicians in West Germany. He retained his posts as foreign minister and vice chancellor through German reunification and until 1992, when he stepped down for health reasons. Some believe his 18-year tenure as foreign minister made him the longest-serving holder of such an office anywhere in the world.

(18) H.E. Arpad Goncz

Former Hungarian President Árpád Göncz is a well-known politician and legendary figure in Central and Eastern Europe. In the Second World War he was conscripted and ordered to Germany; however, he deserted and joined the resistance movement. After the war, in 1945 he joined the Independent Smallholders' Party and was the leader of the party's youth organization for Budapest as well as personal secretary to the general secretary. After the party was dissolved at the communist takeover, he worked as a manual laborer.

In the Hungarian revolution and war of independence of 1956 he worked in the newly recreated Hungarian Peasant Alliance. After the Soviet intervention on 4 November 1956, he participated in the writing of several memoranda and helped to transfer a manuscript of Imre Nagy abroad. He was arrested in May 1957 and sentenced to life imprisonment on 2 August of the same year, without the possibility of appeal. In 1960 he participated in the hunger strike of Vác. Along with more than 4,000 other revolutionaries and freedom fighters, he was released from prison under amnesty in 1963.

In the following decades, he worked as a specialized translator, translator of over a hundred literary works, and writer. Some of his notable translations include J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, and Lord of the Flies by William Golding. His own works include both novels and dramas; Saurusok (1974), Magyar Médeia (1976), Rácsok (1979) and Találkozások (1980). He was a founding member of the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) in 1988. In 1989 became President of the Hungarian League for Human Rights.

(19) Rivka Golani

Rivka Golani is recognized as one of the great violists and musicians of modern times. BBC magazine included her in its list of the 200 most important instrumentalists and the five most important violists currently concertizing. Her contributions to the advancement of viola technique have already given her a place in the history of the instrument and have been a source of inspiration not only to other players but also to many composers who have been motivated by her mastery to write specially for the viola. More than 215 pieces have been written for her, of which more than 50 are concertos, a record matched by no other violist in history.

Ms. Golani's awesome technique, riveting stage presence, and superbly sensitive musicianship have made her a favorite with music-lovers and critics alike. Rivka Golani is also a painter of distinction, and has worked closely with composers as a visual artist in presenting multi-media performances of works for viola and orchestra. Exhibitions of her paintings have been held throughout Britain, Germany, Israel and North America.

(20) Jane Goodall

Dame Jane Goodall, DBE (born Valerie Jane Morris Goodall on 3 April 1934) is an English UN Messenger of Peace, primatologist, ethnologist, and anthropologist. She is well-known for her 45-year study of chimpanzee social and family interactions in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, and for founding the Jane Goodall Institute.

Goodall has been married twice. On 28 March 1964 she married aristocratic wildlife photographer Baron Hugo van Lawick at Chelsea Old Church, London, becoming Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall. The couple had a son, Hugo, affectionately known as 'Grub', who was born in 1967. They divorced in 1974. In 1975 she married Derek Bryceson (a member of Tanzania's parliament and the director of that country's national parks) and they remained married until his death in 1980.

Jane and her younger sister, Judy, both suffer from prosopagnosia, a neurological condition which impairs the recognition of human faces.

Goodall is best known for her study of chimpanzee social and family life. In 1977, Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which supports the Gombe research, and she is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. With nineteen offices around the world, the JGI is widely recognized for innovative, community-centered conservation and development programs in Africa and a global youth program, Roots & Shoots, which currently has over 8,000 groups in over 100 countries. Today, Goodall devotes virtually all of her time to advocacy on behalf of chimpanzees and the environment, traveling nearly 300 days a year. Goodall is also a board member for the world's largest chimpanzee sanctuary outside of Africa, Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Jane Goodall's involvement in tropical forests and conservation has led her to be actively involved in a number of environmental issues, and to found the Roots & Shoots youth group. She has also endorsed the Forests Now Declaration, calling for new market based mechanisms to protect tropical forests. She is a patron of the Optimum Population Trust.

(21) Krishna Gopala

Mr. Gopala is well known as "Man with a Mission". Mr. Gopala's dream for India is a "Country joining the developed league of nations by 2020". This dream is the mission of his movement "Voice of India". He currently serves as the Chairman of Voice of India.

Mr. Gopala is also affiliated with Professor Ervin Laszlo's Club of Budapest through Speakers Academy which involves honorary members such as H.E Mikhail Gorbachev, H.E The XIV th Dalai Lama, H.E Desmond Tutu, Milos Forman and Masami Saionji, as Advisory Board of Club of Budapest and Vice Chairman Netherlands Chapter. He is also a Honorary Faculty member of Speakers Academy.

Mr. Gopala has served on advisory boards of select entrepreneurial companies, and as Venture Partner of a VC firm. Mr. Gopala had an illustrious professional career advising and close working with top management of prestigious Fortune 500 companies. He is alumni of Harvard Business School and graduated with distinctions from James Cook University of North Queensland, and University of Delhi.

Mr. Gopala is currently authoring books at differing stages of completion including The Voices, A Country of my dreams, Life Quotient with well known personality Albert De Booij and Blown Away with technology luminary Dr. Ken Sakamura in Japan. Mr. Gopala is at present based in Netherlands and spends time in Tokyo, Los Angeles and Delhi.

(22) Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, born March 2, 1931 in Privolnoye, Stavropol Krai is a Russian politician. He was the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1985 until its collapse in 1991.

Gorbachev's attempts at reform—perestroika and glasnost—as well as summit conferences with United States President Ronald Reagan, contributed to the end of the Cold War, and also ended the political supremacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Gorbachev is currently the leader of the Union of Social-Democrats, a political party founded after the official dissolution of the Social Democratic Party of Russia on October 20, 2007.

• In 1990, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community".

• On May 4, 1992, Gorbachev was awarded the first ever Ronald Reagan Freedom Award at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

• In 1993 Gorbachev was awarded a Legum Doctor, honoris causa from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He was also given an honorary degree from The University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

• In 1995, Gorbachev received an Honorary Doctorate from Durham University, County Durham, England for his contribution to "the cause of political tolerance and an end to Cold War-style confrontation".

• For his historic role in the evolution of glasnost, and for his leadership in the disarmament negotiations with the United States during the Reagan administration, Gorbachev was awarded the Courage of Conscience award October 20, 1996.

• Gorbachev, together with Bill Clinton and Sophia Loren, were awarded the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for their recording of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.

• In 2005, Gorbachev was awarded the Point Alpha Prize for his role in supporting German reunification. He also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Münster.

(23) Václav Havel

Václav Havel is a Czech writer and dramatist who was born on October 5 1936. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989-1992) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993-2003). He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, some of which have received international acclaim. He has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, and the Ambassador of Conscience Award.

Beginning in the 1960s, his work turned to focus on the politics of Czechoslovakia. After the Prague Spring, he became increasingly active. In 1977, his involvement with the human rights manifesto Charter 77 brought him international fame as the leader of the opposition in Czechoslovakia; it also led to his imprisonment. The 1989 "Velvet Revolution" launched Havel into the presidency. In this role he led Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic to capitalism and multi-party democracy. His thirteen years in office saw radical change in his nation, including its split with Slovakia, which Havel opposed, its accession into NATO and start of the negotiations for membership in the EU, which was completed in 2004.

He has his own detailed website (available in Czech and English): www.vaclavhavel.cz/

(23) Hazel Henderson

Hazel Henderson is a futurist and an evolutionary economist who was born in Bristol, England in 1933. She is the author of several books including Building A Win-Win World, Beyond Globalization, Planetary Citizenship (with Daisaku Ikeda), and Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy.

Henderson is now a television producer for the public television series Ethical Markets. She has been Regent's Lecturer at the University of California (Santa Barbara) and held the Horace Albright Chair in Conservation at the University of California (Berkeley). She has also been a traveling lecturer and panelist. Recently, she has served on the boards of such publications as Futures Research Quarterly, The State of the Future Report, and E/The Environmental Magazine (USA), Resurgence, Foresight and Futures (UK). She advised the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment and the National Science Foundation from 1974 to 1980. She is listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in Science and Technology, and in Who's Who in Business and Finance.

Henderson has been in good part concerned with finding the unexplored areas in standard economics and the "blind spots" of conventional economists. Most of her work relates to the creation of an interdisciplinary economic and political theory with a focus on environmental and social concerns. For instance, she has delved into the area of the "value" of such unquantifiable as clean air and clean water, needed in tremendous abundance by humans and other living organisms. This work led to the development, with Calvert Group, of the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators.

In 2005, Henderson started Ethical Markets Media, LLC to disseminate information on green investing,socially responsible investing, green business, green energy, business ethics news, environmentally friendly technology, good corporate citizenship and sustainable development by making available reports, articles, newsletters and video gathered from around the world.

In 2007, Henderson started Ethical Markets TV to showcase video of people and organizations around the world with socially responsible endeavors. Practicing what she preaches, Henderson sought out highly efficient technology to stream the video, MIPBS Cast which uses significantly less energy than most other video platforms.

(25) Bianca Jagger

Bianca Jagger was born Bianca Pérez-Mora Macías on May 2, 1950 , in Managua, Nicaragua) is a social and human rights advocate and a former actress. It was a visit to Nicaragua in early 1979 with an International Red Cross delegation that motivated Jagger as she was so shocked by the brutality and oppression that the Somoza regime carried out there. This trip persuaded her to commit herself to the issues of justice and human rights.

Jagger is a Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador, Chair of the World Future Council, Chair of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, and a member of the Director's Leadership Council of Amnesty International US. ^[2]

She was formerly married to Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones.

(26) Miklós Jancso

Miklós Jancsó is a Hungarian film director who was born in Vác on 27^th September 1921.

He studied law, ethnography and history of art and then film direction in the Budapest School of cinema between 1946 and 1950. In the 1960s and 1970s he came international attention winning the prize for best direction at the 1972 Cannes film Festival for his film "Psaume Rouge". In the following years he taught cinema all around the globe from the US to Italy, all the while directing films but never attaining the success he know in the 60s and 70s.

He married the director Márta Mészáros.

(27) Ken-Ichiro Kobayashai

Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi (小林 研一郎, Kobayashi Ken'ichirō^?,) is a Japanese conductor. He was born on 9^th April in 1940.

Kobayashi attended Tokyo Music Academy, and rose to international fame as winner of the 1st International Conductors Competition on Hungarian television in 1974. Since then he has been at the head of some of the most famous orchestras in Germany, Austria, Britain and The Netherlands. He was the first conductor of the Hungarian State Symphony (since renamed National Philharmonic Orchestra) from 1984, and is currently first conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.

(28) Gidon Kremer

Gidon Kremer (Latvian: Gidons Krēmers) was born on 27 February 1947 and is a Latvian violinist and conductor. In 1980 left the USSR and settled in Germany.

Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish origin, his father being a Holocaust survivor. He began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving instruction from his father and his grandfather, who were both professional violinists. He went on to study at the Riga School of Music and with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. Kremer's first concert in the West was in Germany in 1975, followed by appearances at the Salzburg Festival in 1976 and in New York City in 1977. In 1981, Kremer founded a chamber music festival in Lockenhaus, Austria, with a focus on new and unconventional programming; since 1992 the festival has been known as "Kremerata Musica" and in 1996 Kremer founded the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, composed of young players from the Baltic region. He was also among the artistic directors of the festival "Art Projekt 92" in Munich and is director of the Musiksommer Gstaad festival in Switzerland.

Kremer is known for his wide-ranging repertoire, extending from Antonio Vivaldi and J.S. Bach to contemporary composers.

(29) Hans Küng

Hans Küng was born March 19, 1928 in Sursee, in the Canton of Lucerne in Switzerland. He is a Catholic priest, a theologian, and a prolific author. Since 1995 he has been President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic (Stiftung Weltethos). Küng remains a Catholic priest in good standing, but the Vatican has rescinded his authority to teach Catholic theology. Though he had to leave the Catholic faculty, he remained at the University of Tübingen as a professor of Ecumenical Theology, serving as Emeritus Professor since 1996. Neither his bishop nor the Holy See has revoked his priestly faculties.

(30) H.R.H Irene van Lippe-Biesterfeld

Princess Irene Emma Elisabeth of the Netherlands (born August 5, 1939), Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld, is the second child of then Princess Juliana of the Netherlands (later Queen Juliana) and Prince Bernhard, a prince of Lippe-Biesterfeld.

Because of the invasion of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany during World War II the Dutch Royal family chose to live in exile in Canada, where Irene attended Rockcliffe Park Public School, in Ottawa. As a teenager, she was dubbed by the Dutch press as "the glamorous Princess of the Netherlands." During the war, the Royal Dutch Brigade (the formation of Free Dutch soldiers that fought alongside the Allies) was named for Princess Irene. This was continued after the war as the Regiment Princess Irene.

Princess Irene studied at the University of Utrecht, then went to Madrid to learn the Spanish language.

In Madrid, she met Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma, eldest son of Carlist pretender to the throne of Spain Xavier, Duke of Parma. In the summer of 1963, Princess Irene secretly converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. Amplifying the crisis over a Royal conversion to Catholicism and a marriage without approval of the Dutch States-General (which the Princess, then second-in-line to the throne, knew she would never get), were the still very fresh memories of General Franco's support for Nazi Germany. For the second in line to the throne not merely to convert to Roman Catholicism but associate with an alleged leader of Franco's party, caused shock and consternation in the Netherlands.It was suggested that Princess Irene was a pawn of General Francisco Franco who tried to maximize the event to his benefit. Because she had failed to obtain the approval of the States-General to marry, Irene lost her right of succession to the Dutch throne. She agreed that she would live outside of the Netherlands.

After the marriage, Irene was very active in her husband's right-wing political cause, but over time they drifted away from right wing extremism to left wing sympathies and became a part of the international jet-set crowd. The couple had four children, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1981.

Irene returned to live in the Netherlands with her children and became involved in various personal development workshops, trying to "find herself." Her connection with nature, that she says she had felt since childhood, intensified, and in 1995 she published her book Dialogue with Nature. The book outlined her philosophy that human beings are alienated from the natural world, but the Dutch media seized upon passages that recounted conversations she said she had with the trees and dolphins.

In 1999 Princess Irene purchased a farm near Nieu-Bethesda in South Africa, turning it into a sanctuary. In 2001, she helped establish the Nature College in the Netherlands. The Princess is an honourable member of The Club of Budapest.

(31) Shu-Hsien Liu

SHU-HSIEN LIU is Chair Research Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei. Shu-Hsien Liu has written many books including "Essentials of Contemporary Neo-Confucian Philosophy (Resources in Asian Philosophy and Religion)"and "Harmony and Strife: Contemporary Perspectives, East & West" among many others.

(32) Eva Marton

Éva Marton was born on June 18, 1943 in Budapest. She is a Hungarian dramatic soprano, particularly known for her operatic portrayals of Puccini's Turandot and Tosca, and Wagnerian roles. Marton studied voice at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest.

She retired from the operatic stage after performing the role of Klytemnestra in Elektra in Spain in Feb/March 2008.

(33) Federico Mayor

Federico Mayor Zaragoza was born in 1934 in Barcelona. He is a Spanish scholar and politician. He served as Director-General of UNESCO from 1987 to 1999.

Mayor obtained a doctorate in pharmacy from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1958. In 1974 he co-founded the Severo Ochoa Centre of Molecular Biology at the Autonomous University of Madrid and of the High Council for Scientific Research.

Political posts:

Mayor's political postings have included: undersecretary of Education and Science in the Spanish Government (1974–1975) in the last government of the Franco era, deputy in the Spanish Parliament (1977–1978), advisor to the President of the Government (1977–1978), Minister of Education and Science (1981–1982) and deputy in the European Parliament (1987). In 1978 he became Deputy Director-General of UNESCO. In 1987 was elected Director-General of UNESCO, and he was re-elected for a second mandate in 1993. After deciding not to run for a third term, in 1999 he returned to Spain to create the Foundation for a Culture of Peace, serving as its President. In December 2002 he was appointed to chair the European Research Council Expert Group (ERCEG). In 2005 he is designed Co-President for the High Level Group for the Alliance of Civilizations, by the United Nations Secretary-General. He is member of the Honorary Board of the International Coalition for the Decade for the Culture of Peace and Nonviolence.

UNESCO

During his 12 years as head of UNESCO (1987–1999) Mayor gave new life to the organization's mission to "build a bastion of peace in the minds of all people", putting the institution at the service of peace, tolerance, human rights and peaceful coexistence, working within the scope of its powers and remaining faithful to its original goals. Under Mayor's guidance, UNESCO created the Culture of Peace Programme, whose objectives revolve around four main themes: education for peace; human rights and democracy; the fight against isolation and poverty; the defence of cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue; and conflict prevention and the consolidation of peace.

Through the Foundation for a Culture of Peace, created in Madrid in March 2000, under the patronage of the Department of Education of the Community of Madrid, Mayor continues the task he began as director-general of UNESCO: that of promoting the transition from a culture of violence and force, to a culture of peace and tolerance. In December 2000, the Foundation organised an international conference attended by major figures in the struggle for justice, freedom, and peace. At the end of the conference, the Declaration of Madrid was adopted unanimously.

Publications

In addition to numerous scientific publications, Mayor has also published books of poetry.

(34) Zubin Mehta

Zubin Mehta was born on 29^th April 1936. He is an Indian conductor of Western classical music.

Zubin Mehta was born into a Parsi family in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, the son of Mehli and Tehmina Mehta. His father Mehli Mehta was a violinist and founding conductor of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. Zubin is an alumnus of St. Mary's (ISC) High School, Mazagoan, Mumbai. Zubin initially intended to study medicine, but eventually became a music student in Vienna at the age of 18, under the eminent instructor Hans Swarowsky. Zubin has conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bavarian State Opera and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra among others.

He is known for his dynamic interpretations and as being flamboyant and forceful in performance. Since 2005, he has been the main conductor (together with Lorin Maazel) of the new opera house of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències in Valencia.

His life has been documented in Terry Sanders' film Portrait of Zubin Mehta and in a book by Martin Bookspan and Ross Yockey entitled Zubin: The Zubin Mehta Story. His autobiography, written with Renate von Matuschka is "Die Partitur meines Lebens".

In 2001, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award.

(35) Edgar Mitchell

Edgar Dean Mitchell, D.Sc. was born on 17^th September 1930. Edgar is an American pilot and astronaut. As the lunar module pilot of Apollo 14, he spent nine hours of February 9, 1971 moon walking on the Fra Mauro formation, making him the sixth man to walk on the Moon.

Mitchell was born in Hereford, Texas. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial management from Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1952. The following year he joined the US Navy. While in the Navy he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and a Doctor of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics.

NASA experience

Mitchell was selected to be an astronaut in 1966 and was seconded from the Navy to NASA. Ed Mitchell remained with NASA until he retired from the Navy in 1972.

Other interests

Mitchell's interests include consciousness and paranormal phenomena. During the Apollo 14 flight he conducted private ESP experiments with his friends on Earth. In early 1973, he founded the nonprofit Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) to conduct and sponsor research into areas that mainstream science has found unproductive, including consciousness research and psychic events. Mitchell says that a teenage remote healer who lives in Vancouver and uses the pseudonym Adam Dreamhealer, helped him heal of kidney cancer at a distance. Mitchell said that while he never had a biopsy (the definitive test for cancer), "I had a sonogram and MRI that was consistent with renal carcinoma." Adam worked (distantly) on Mitchell from December of 2003 until June of 2004, when the "irregularity was gone and we haven't seen it since".

Views on UFOs

Mitchell has publicly expressed his opinions that he is "90 per cent sure that many of the thousands of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, recorded since the 1940s, belong to visitors from other planets".

Other projects

Edgar Mitchell is one of the astronauts featured in the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon. Mitchell has written several articles and essays, as well as two books: Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science and The Way of the Explorer. He is currently the Advisory Board Chairman of the Institute for Cooperation in Space, co-founded by Dr. Carol Rosin^[14] and is a member of INREES.

(36) Edgar Morin

Edgar Morin, from his real name Edgar Nahoum (נחום), was born in Paris on 8th July 1921. Edgar is a sociologist and a philosopher.

He defines his way of thinking as "co-constructive ". He explains: "I speak of a collaboration of the exterior world with our own minds to construct reality", (« c'est-à-dire que je parle de la collaboration du monde extérieur et de notre esprit pour construire la réalité »). Edgar is of Jewish origins and took part in the 1942 à 1944 En 1955, il anime un comité contre la guerre d'Algérie. Il défend, en particulier, Messali Hadj.

He wrote one of the first ethnological essays ,La Métamorphose de Plozevet (1967), in contemporary French society. He was and is interested in emerging cultures which are looked down upon by intellectuals. He is the emeritus director of research of the CNRS. His work has a strong influence on modern thinking around the world and also created the Association For Complex Thinking. Morin is part of associations which promote peace and non-violence.

His works are many and varied from books to co-directing films and documentaries.*

(37) Robert Muller

Robert Muller was born in Belgium in 1923 and works with the United Nations. Assistant Secretary General for 40 years, his ideas about world government, world peace and spirituality led to the increased representation of religions in the UN, especially of New Age Movement. He has become known as the "Philosopher" of the UN.

Muller was raised in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France during World War II. After the war he earned a Doctorate of Law at the University of Strasbourg and in 1948 won an essay contest on how to govern the world. The prize was an internship at the newly created United Nations and he spent the next 40 years working on world peace in his position as Assistant Secretary General.

In the World Core Curriculum Manual, a text explaining Muller's educational project, it's explicitely written that "the underlying philosophy upon which the Robert Muller School is based will be found in the teaching set forth in the books of Alice A. Bailey by the Tibetan teacher, Djwhal Khul." Both Bailey and Khul are famous theosophists.

Robert Muller was honored by the New York Open Center in 2005 for his "Lifetime Dedication to World Peace and Global Education";

(38) Mary Robinson

Mary Therese Winifred Robinson (Máire Mhic Róibín in IrishJ) was born on 21 May 1944. She was the first female President of Ireland, serving from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister, campaigner and member of the Irish senate (1969–1989).

She is credited by many as having revitalised and liberalised a previously conservative political office. She resigned the presidency four months ahead of the end of her term of office to take up her post in the United Nations. Robinson has been Honorary President of Oxfam International since 2002, she is Chair of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and is also a founding member and Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders. Robinson is also one of the European members of the controversial Trilateral Commission.

She serves on many boards including the GAVI Fund. Robinson's newest project is Realizing Rights: the Ethical Globalization Initiative, which promotes equitable trade and development, more humane migration policies and better responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa. The organization also promotes women's leadership and supports capacity building and good governance in developing countries. She is Chancellor of the University of Dublin. Since 2004, she has also been Professor of Practice in International Affairs at Columbia University, where she teaches international human rights. Robinson also visits other colleges and universities where she lectures on human rights.

In 2004, she received Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award for her work in promoting human rights.

(39) Peter Russell

Peter Russell is a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, of The World Business Academy and of The Findhorn Foundation, and an Honorary Member of The Club of Budapest.

At Cambridge University (UK), he studied mathematics and theoretical physics. Then, as he became increasingly fascinated by the mysteries of the human mind he changed to experimental psychology. Pursuing this interest, he traveled to India to study meditation and eastern philosophy, and on his return took up the first research post ever offered in Britain on the psychology of meditation.

He also has a post-graduate degree in computer science, and conducted there some of the early work on 3-dimensional displays, presaging by some twenty years the advent of virtual reality.

In the mid-seventies Peter Russell joined forces with Tony Buzan and helped teach "Mind Maps" and learning methods to a variety of international organizations and educational institutions.

Since then his corporate programs have focused increasingly on self-development, creativity, stress management, and sustainable environmental practices. Clients have included IBM, Apple, Digital, American Express, Barclays Bank, Swedish Telecom, ICI, Shell Oil and British Petroleum.

His principal interest is the deeper, spiritual significance of the times we are passing through. He has written several books in this area -- The TM Technique, The Upanishads, The Brain Book, The Global Brain Awakens, The Creative Manager, The Consciousness Revolution, Waking Up in Time, and From Science to God.

As one of the more revolutionary futurists Peter Russell has been a keynote speaker at many international conferences, in Europe, Japan and the USA. His multi-image shows and videos, The Global Brain and The White Hole in Time have won praise and prizes from around the world. In 1993 the environmental magazine Buzzworm voted Peter Russell "Eco-Philosopher Extraordinaire" of the year.

(40) Masami Saionji

Descended from the Royal Ryuku Family of Okinawa, Masami Saionji was born in Tokyo, Japan. She was educated in Japan at Gakushuin Women's Junior College and studied English in the United States at Michigan State and Stanford Universities. At an early age she became a Master (Shihan) of Japanese Classical Dance, and taught students for more than ten years.

While in her teens she came in touch with the peace vision of philosopher Masahisa Goi, who later designated her as his successor and adopted daughter. She heads several peace organizations, including the Goi Peace Foundation, founded in Japan, and the World Peace Prayer Society, headquartered in New York. She is perhaps best known for her leadership of the international Peace Pole Initiative, which places visual reminders of peace in key locations around the world. In November 2001, she was named an honorary member of the Club of Budapest in recognition of her exceptional efforts for world peace.

Masami Saionji has authored twenty books in Japanese and seven in English (some of which have been translated into other languages). She has lived in North America and Europe, and travels extensively on speaking and seminar tours. She and her husband, the descendant of a Japanese prime minister, have three daughters. They currently live in Tokyo.

(41) H.E. Karan Singh

Major-General Shriman Rajrajeshwar Maharajadhiraj Shri Dr. Karan Singh Indar Mahindar Bahadur, Sipar-i-Sultanat (1931- ) is an Indian politician, author, diplomat and present titular Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. He was born as the "Yuvraj" (Crown Prince) i.e. heir-apparent to the then ruler of the state of Jammu and Kashmir Maharaja Hari Singh, in the royal family of Jammu and Kashmir. He received the Padma Vibhushan in 2005.

Karan Singh was born on March 9, 1931 in Cannes, France, to the last ruler of the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu also known (The Royal House of Jammu and Kashmir), Maharaja Hari Singh and his wife Maharani Tara Devi.

In 1949, at age of eighteen, he was appointed as the regent of Jammu and Kashmir state after his father stepped down as the king, following the state's accession to India. He served successively as regent, Sadr-i-Riyasat and governor of the state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1965-1967. He was then, successively, Union Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation from 1967-1973, Minister of Health and Family Planning from 1973-1977 and Minister of Education and Culture in 1979-1980. In 1990-1991, he served as Indian Ambassador to the US.

From 1967-1980, and in 1990, Karan Singh served as an MP in the Lok Sabha; since 1996, he has been an MP in the Rajya Sabha. He served as Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, Jammu and Kashmir University, and Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is an active member of several boards, organizations, and foundations, including the Author's Guild of India, the ICCR, the Auroville Foundation, the Indian Board of Wildlife, and several others.

(42) Sir Sigmund Sternberg

Sir Sigmund Sternberg is a British philanthropist, businessman and Labour Party donor. He has worked in promoting dialogue between different faiths. Successes in this area include:

· Relocating a Roman Catholic convent at Auschwitz.

· Organising the first papal visit to a synagogue in 1986

· Negotiating the Vatican's recognition of the state of Israel

He established the Sternberg Foundation in 1968 and was one of the co-founders of the Three Faiths Forum. Sternberg is Jewish and was born in Hungary on June 2, 1921. He emigrated to Britain in 1939 and was naturalised as a British citizen in 1947.In 1998 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion; he has also received recognition and awards from many other countries.

(43) H.E. Rita Süssmuth

Rita Süssmuth was born on 17^th February 1937 in Wuppertal in Germany and is a politician and a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).From 1985 to 1988, Süssmuth was federal minister of youth, family and health (also of women, since 1986) under Chancellor Helmut Kohl. She was a member of the German Federal Diet (Bundestag) from 1987 to 2002. After the resignation of Philipp Jenninger in 1988 she became president of the Bundestag. She held the post until 1998, when the Social Democrats (SPD) became the strongest group in parliament. From 1986 to 2001, Süssmuth was president of the Frauenunion (the organization of the female members of the CDU) and therefore had a strong influence in her party.

Süssmuth graduated as a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Münster in 1964. From 1966 until 1982, she was a faculty member in education at University of Dortmund, Ruhr University, and their predecessor institutions. Since 2005, she has been president of the OTA Hochschule, a private university in Berlin. In 2006 she was awarded the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal for Sexual Reform for her courageous and far-sighted HIV/AIDS politics while federal minister.

(44) H.E. Desmond Tutu

Desmond Mpilo Tutu (born 7 October 1931) is a South African cleric and activist who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. In 1984, Tutu became the second South African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Tutu was elected and ordained the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, and primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa). Tutu chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and is currently the chairman of The Elders. Tutu is vocal in his defense of human rights and uses his high profile to campaign for the oppressed. Tutu also campaigns to fight AIDS, poverty and racism. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, and the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2007.

Although Tutu wanted to become a physician, his family could not afford the training, and he followed his father's footsteps into teaching.

After the fall of apartheid, Tutu headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He retired as Archbishop of Cape Town in 1996 and was succeeded by Njongonkulu Ndungane.

At a thanksgiving for Desmond Tutu upon his retirement as Archbishop in 1996, Nelson Mandela said: His joy in our diversity and his spirit of forgiveness are as much part of his immeasurable contribution to our nation as his passion for justice and his solidarity with the poor.

The Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation is a New York-based non-profit organization. Its mission, in collaboration with the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre and Peace Trust, is to support and promote the creation of a culture of peace throughout the world. In the spirit of our founder, Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and the South African experience, we are dedicated to advancing reconciliation, peace-building, non-violence, conflict resolution and ethical leadership so that all may live in a more peaceable and sustainable world. http://www.tutufoundation-usa.org/home.html

(45) Liv Ullmann

Liv Johanne Ullmann, was born on the 16th of December 1938, in Tokyo, Japan.

Attended schools in Trondheim, Norway; studied acting in London.

Family: Married Gappe Stang, 1960 (divorced 1965). Daughter, Linn, by Ingmar Bergman, 1966.
Married Donald Saunders, 1985.

Norwegian stage and film actress, b. Japan. She is best known for her roles in nine films directed by Ingmar Bergman, e.g., Persona (1966), Shame (1968), Cries and Whispers (1972), and Autumn Sonata (1978). Ullmann began directing with the Danish film Sofie (1992) and has also directed the Norwegian Kristin Lavransdatter (1995) and the Swedish Private Confessions (1998) and Faithless (2000), both with screenplays by Bergman.

(46) H.E. Richard von Weizsäcker

He was President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1984 to 1994.

Weizsäcker was born in Stuttgart as the son of the diplomat Ernst von Weizsäcker and brother of physicist and philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. His grandfather Carl von Weizsäcker had been Minister President of Württemberg He lived several years in Switzerland and Denmark due to his father's diplomatic duties. When he was 17 years old, he moved to Britain and studied philosophy and history at Balliol College, Oxford. Later he studied in Grenoble in France. After the outbreak of World War II, he served in the German Army, finally as a captain of the Reserve. He was wounded in East Prussia in 1945 and was transported home to Stuttgart. Then he continued his study of history in Göttingen and eventually studied law. As a law student he was a member of his father's defense team at the Eleventh secondary Nuremberg Trial.

Weizsäcker is famous for his speeches. He gained wide national and international attention and respect with his speech on the fortieth anniversary of VE Day in which he referred to May 8, 1945 as "the day of liberation from the inhuman system of Nazi tyranny". This helped to redefine the meaning of this event as a positive landmark in German history rather than a point of agony as it was often referred to before. In his public addresses and in his writings, Weizsäcker has been a strong and articulate advocate of democratic principles, tolerance, and social responsibility. He has been actively involved in food aid activities targeted at relieving global hunger problems.

(47) Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel born Eliezer Wiesel on September 30, 1928 is a Jewish writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of over 40 books, the best known of which is Night, a memoir that describes his experiences during the Holocaust and his imprisonment in several concentration camps. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. The Norwegian Nobel Committee called him a "messenger to mankind," noting that through his struggle to come to terms with "his own personal experience of total humiliation and of the utter contempt for humanity shown in Hitler's death camps," as well as his "practical work in the cause of peace," Wiesel has delivered a powerful message "of peace, atonement and human dignity" to humanity. Recent years: In 2008 Wiesel gave the convocation speech at Appalachian State University. The money paid for his appearance covered costs of travel and the rest went to his various charitable institutions.

In early 2006, Wiesel traveled to Auschwitz with Oprah Winfrey, a visit which was broadcast as part of The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 24, 2006. Wiesel said that this would most likely be his last trip there.

In September 2006, he appeared before the UN Security Council with actor George Clooney to call attention to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

On November 30, 2006 Wiesel received an honorary knighthood in London in recognition of his work toward raising Holocaust education in the United Kingdom.

On February 1, 2007, Wiesel was attacked in a San Francisco hotel by a twenty-two year old holocaust denier named Eric Hunt. Hunt was convicted and faces up to 3 years imprisonment at his August 13, 2008 sentencing.

On April 25, 2007, Wiesel was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree from the University of Vermont.

During the early 2007 selection process for the Kadima candidate for President of Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly offered Wiesel the nomination (and, as the ruling-party candidate and an apolitical figure, likely the Presidency), but Wiesel "was not very interested". Shimon Peres was chosen as the Kadima candidate (and later President) instead.

In 2007, Elie Wiesel was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Lifetime Achievement Award.

On April 9, 2008, Wiesel was presented with an Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters at the City College of New York.

(48) Betty Williams

Betty Williams (born 22 May 1943) was a co-recipient with Mairead Corrigan of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her work as a cofounder of Community of Peace People, an organization dedicated to promoting a peaceful resolution to The Troubles in Northern Ireland. She heads the Global Children's Foundation and is President of the World Centers of Compassion for Children International. She is also the Chair of Institute for Asian Democracy in Washington D.C. and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Nova Southeastern University. In 2006, Williams was one of the founders of The Nobel Women's Initiative along with sister Nobel Peace Laureates Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Jody Williams and Rigoberta Menchu Tum. Six women representing North America and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa decided to bring together their experiences in a united effort for peace with justice and equality. It is the goal of the Nobel Women's Initiative, to help strengthen work being done in support of women's rights around the world.

(49) Mohummed Yunus

Muhammad Yunus (Bengali: মুহাম্মদ ইউনুস, pronounced Muhammôd Iunus), born 28 June 1940, is a Bangladeshi banker and economist. He previously was a professor of economics and is famous for his successful application of microcredit - the extension of small loans. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Yunus is also the founder of Grameen Bank. In 2006, Yunus and the bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below." Yunus himself has received several other national and international honors. He is the author of Banker to the Poor and a founding board member of Grameen Foundation. In early 2007 Yunus showed interest in launching a political party in Bangladesh named Nagorik Shakti (Citizen Power), but later discarded the plan. He is one of the founding members of Global Elders. Yunus also serves on the board of directors of the United Nations Foundation, a public charity created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner's historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes. The UN Foundation builds and implements public-private partnerships to address the world's most pressing problems, and broadens support for the UN.

Muhammad Yunus was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Grameen Bank, for their efforts to create economic and social development. In the prize announcement The Norwegian Nobel Committee mentioned: Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries.

(50) Franz Alt

Born in 1938 Studies: Political Science, History, Philosophy, Theology. 1967 Ph.D. Doctoral Thesis on Konrad Adenauer. Professional Career: 1968 Editor and reporter with Südwestrundfunk
(South German Radio and Television). 1972-1992 Head and presenter of the political program "Report" From 2003: Freelance writer of background reports and commentaries for over 40 newspapers and magazines and guest lecturer/speaker at conferences and events worldwide.

(51) Helga Breuninger

www.breuninger-stiftung.de Dipl. rer pol., Dipl. Psych. Born 1947 in Stuttgart. Degree in economics and psychology. In 1980 received a doctorate from the University of Essen with a thesis on character building during teacher training. In 1980 set up the Helga Breuninger Foundation to encourage education and development. Since 1980 Curator of the Heinz Breuninger Foundation for the promotion of universal history, medicine, psychology and economics. In 1982 founded and headed own research institution at the University of Essen to develop a system for the treatment of learning disorders and school performance problems. The Breuninger Foundation: The Breuninger Foundation is a charitable organization which came into existence in 1968 after being established by the Stuttgart businessman Heinz Breuninger in cooperation with his daughter *Dr. Helga Breuninger who manages the foundation today. " As a private and independent institution we believe that we are responsible for stimulating the ability to master the challenges of our current age. We are a creative and flexible team featuring visionaries, strategists and doers not only developing new ideas, but also implementing these in cooperation with numerous partners on local and global level in an exemplary approach. In this process we attach great importance to focusing on a culture of encounter and exchange.

(52) Suheil Bushrui

Professor Suheil Badi Bushrui is a distinguished author, poet, critic, translator, and media personality who is well known in the United States, the Middle East, India, Africa, and the Arab world. Presently, Bushrui was the first incumbent of CIDCM's Bahá'ì Chair for World Peace, a position to which he was appointed from 1992 to 2005. He is the founder and current Director of UM's Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project. Well known for his seminal studies in English of the works of W.B. Yeats and for his translations of Yeats' poetry into Arabic, Bushrui is also the foremost authority on the works of Kahlil Gibran. Bushrui not only publishes widely, but also maintains a full schedule presenting lectures at international conferences, scholarly seminars, literary gatherings, and student-organized events at the University of Maryland and other local, national, and international campuses. Professor Bushrui is an active participant in many international organizations dedicated to the promulgation of peace and conflict resolution. He is a founding member of the International Dialogue on Transition to a Global Society. He also serves on the Board of Governors of The Temple of Understanding, a world-wide interfaith organization which is an affiliate of the United Nations, and he is an International Fellow of the Temenos Academy in London. Bushrui was recently appointed Creative Member of The Club of Budapest.

(53) Gustavo Correa

(54) Rüdiger Dahlke

He was born ont the 24th of Juli 1951 in Berlin (Ost), ist eine bekannte Persönlichkeit im populär-psychotherapeutischen Bereich. July 1951 in East Berlin, is a known personality in popular-psychotherapy.

Er wuchs in Freising auf und studierte in München Medizin .He grew up in Freising and studied in Munich medical school. 1978 promiverte er "Zur Psychosomatik des kindlichen Asthma bronchiale". In Mitte der 1970er Jahre wurde Dahlke Arzt für Naturheilkunde.the mid-1970s Dahlke is Doctor of naturopathy. An Thorwald Dethlefsens Institut für außerordentliche Psychologie machte er eine Ausbildung zum Reinkarnationstherapeuten und wirkte dort von 1977 bis 1989. 1989 gründete er das Heilkundezentrum Johanniskirchen in Niederbayern.Dahlke is representative of the so-called "Munich school, which includes various healing methods, including reincarnation therapy or therapeutic fasting. Er hält zahlreiche Vorträge, Seminare und Schulungen, publiziert zu esoterisch-philosophischen und politischen Themen wie zu Fragen der Psychosomatik . He holds numerous lectures, seminars and training courses, is published on esoteric philosophical and political issues such as on issues of Psychosomatics.

(55) *Gedeon Dienes (if this is the right one, I'm afraid he has passed away)

Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1916 of Hungarian parents.

During the war he served in the Hungarian army on the Russian front-line and lucky enough he survived. During the time of the Nazi occupation he worked with the Swedish Red Cross to rescue jews and after the end of the war he was awarded with the Freedom medal (Szabadság érdemérem, bronz 1946). By that time he spoke English, French, German, Swedish, Italian and Russian. So he became a secretary at the Foreign Office and soon was sent with the foreign minister to Paris to the peace conference. In the 1960's he worked in the Publishing House of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as a translator and editor, later at the Institute for International Cultural Relations (head of dept. 1964-1973), Institute for Cultural Research (head of the library, and special scientific advisor, 1973-1991). At this time he joined the work of Unesco. He represented Hungary in various Unesco Projects, incl. "European Cultural Data Bank" between 1977 and 1982 when, commissioned by Unesco, published relevant working documents and final reports with a detailed introduction. He took an active part in the Unesco Project "Framework of Cultural Statistics". During these decades- beside official work - he took part in the reviving cultural life of the country too. With his mother's background, his studies and practice in dance he was very much interested in ballet and dance generally.

Dienes died on 1 October 2005.

(56) Steve Dillenburg

Summit Investment Partners have shut down its socially responsible investment mutual fund, the only one of its kind in Greater Cincinnati.

Summit's board voted to liquidate the four-year-old Summit Apex Total Stakeholder Impact Fund in mid-January. Steve Dillenburg, the fund's manager and a Summit managing partner, resigned from the firm the same day. "It was a big disappointment to me," Dillenburg said. "It did not attract funds at the rate we had hoped for."

Summit started the fund in December 2000. Its assets declined as the stock market plunged the next two years. It grew to $4.5 million by the end of last year, but that was not enough. It needed $11 million to break even.

Still, Dillenburg said the fund just needed more time.

"I wouldn't bring a fund to the table unless it had five years," Dillenburg said. "My partners at Summit grew impatient."

(57) Peter Eigen

Peter Eigen (* June 11, 1938 in Augsburg, Germany) is a jurist. He is founder and Chair of the Advisory Council of Transparency International (TI), a non-governmental organization promoting transparency and accountability in international development. Headquartered in Berlin, it supports National Chapters in more than 90 countries. Since 2004, he is the married to Gesine Schwan, the social–democrat candidate for the federal presidential elections in Germany in 2004 and 2009. A lawyer by training, Eigen has worked in economic development for 25 years, mainly as a World Bank manager of programmes in Africa and Latin America. Under Ford Foundation sponsorship, he provided legal and technical assistance to the governments of Botswana and Namibia, and taught law at the universities of Frankfurt and Georgetown.

Eigen is a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP), an independent authority on Africa launched in April 2007 to focus world leaders' attention on delivering their commitments to the continent. The Panel launched a major report in London on Monday 16 June 2008 entitled Africa's Development: Promises and Prospects.

(58) Duane Elgin

Duane Elgin is an American author, speaker, educator, consultant, and media activist. For more than three decades, he has researched and written about the personal and collective dimensions of the human journey. His name is especially linked to the topic of voluntary simplicity, on which he wrote several publications.He has worked as a senior social scientist with the think-tank, SRI International where he coauthored numerous studies on the long-range future for government agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the President's Science Advisor. He has also worked as a senior staff member of a joint Presidential-Congressional Commission on the American Future.

Over the past twenty years, Duane has co-founded three non-profit organizations concerned with media accountability.He has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in economic history from the University of Pennsylvania, and an honorary Doctor of Philosophy for work in ecological and spiritual transformation from the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA.

(59) Peter Engberg

I was born 1970 in Helsinki Mlk, Finland. I started playing guitar at the age of 10. First influences were mainly jazz; Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. After three years of practice and playing Parker's omnibook I got into Pop/Jazz-conservatory. At the age of 17, I had done all the exams there was to do at that level. So I took a year off and finished High-School. At the age of 18 I went to California, Musicians Institute, for a Year. That was really something, I learned a lot and practiced a lot with great teachers as Scott Hendesson, Joe Diorio, Peter Sprague and many more.

After finishing GIT in 1990 I came back to Finland. After doing some freelancer-gigs, jazz and pop, I started to play in Samuli Edelmann Band in 1991. That was the first big group I played with. I got into Sibelius-academy jazz department in 1992 and did my Master Degree in 2000. I taught in Stadia Pop/Jazz-Department from 2001 to 2007. Nowadays I work with various groups playing jazz, rock, Brazilian music and pop and do also some freelance gigs, live and studio. I have my own studio, Golden Eye Studios, and a company, Impossible Music Oy. I release own records and produce, compose and arrange for other people too.

(60) Barbara Gaughen

Robert Muller is a long-time friend and supporter of Mark-Age. We have published interviews with him when he was Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations. After he retired and met and married his cosmic partner, Barbara Gaughen, they developed and published this book. She is an educator, author, global public relations consultant, and public speaker, based in Santa Barbara, California. Dr. & Mrs. Muller live most of the year at his small farm overlooking the University of Peace in Costa Rica, where he serves as Chancellor. Robert Muller created World Core Curriculum and is known throughout the world as the "father of global education." There are thirty-three Robert Muller schools around the world and more being established each year. His theme is: "A people without a vision will perish, as it says in the Bible. Today this applies to the entire humanity. National visions are no longer sufficient and have become largely detrimental to the right evolution and progress of our planet and of humanity. We need new ideas, new visions, new ideals, essentially global ones." This book is the beginning of two thousand ideas to be introduced to the world by the year 2000.

(61) Rosi Gollmann

Rosi Gollmann was born in 1927. Her parents raised her with strong christian beliefs and her childhood was characterized by war. These factors created in her the wish to study theology and dedicate her live to social tasks. She worked as a teacher for religion and looked well after whosoever was in need of help around her. After reading an article about the situation of indian orphans she started innumerable auxillary actions for the orphanage in ANDHERI, Bombay.

Under her functioning as the first chairwoman of ANDHERI the project developed from mere dealing with symptoms to the prevention of reasons for underdevelopment. After 1974 she started with an initiative for the healing of blind people in Bangladesh. Nowadays the "Andheri-Hilfe Bonn e.V." carries over 500 projects which focus on motivating, building the awareness of, and organizing all the people inolved. Also in Germany she made a plea for a change of mind and solidarity on part of the society for the afflicted people. Although she handed over the leadership of the organization, she is still actively working with all people participating in the project: "ANDHERI- That's her life!"

(62) Peter Hesse

He was born on April 5, 1937 in New York. After schooling mainly in Germany, studies in economics in Munich and further Management-training. From 1971 to 1998 he was President of family-business "Schmincke Artist's Colors". Parallel activities as Management-trainer, engagement in employers' associations and in politics, since 1981 in development politics and in field-work. Honorary Consul of Iceland. Married, no children.

The "Peter Hesse Foundation SOLIDARITY IN PARTNERSHIP for ONE world in diversity" was established on December 7, 1983 to sustain small self-help projects for deprived people in Haiti.

Peter J. Hesse wanted to secure private charity-initiatives which he had started in Haiti after an initial Christmas-visit in 1980. The establishment of a small "General independent Foundation" was a relatively bureaucratic venture with a rigid formal structure - but still easier to establish than a German Association, because it only needed one founder who was willing to give a minimum amount of money - here DM 200.000. This Foundation is a "NGO in SPECIAL CONSULTATIVE STATUS with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations - ECOSOC".

The Foundation has "Curators", a group of German top development politicians from the two mayor political parties (3 CDU and 2 SPD - as listed in the German section of this homepage). It also has a "Board of Directors", the founder being its chairman, his sister Dr. Ariane Hesse being the Vice-President. Other board-members are Thomas E. Hesse, Mathematician and Organizational Consultant, and Eckart Flöther, MA in Theology, management-consultant and author.

(63) Jurriaan Kamp

Jurriaan Kamp studied international law at the University of Leiden. He worked from 1979 to 1984 on the staff of the European Parliament, and from 1984 to 1986 as economics editor of the NRC Handelsblad, a leading Dutch newspaper. Between1986 and 1990 he worked as a freelance correspondent in India for this newspaper as well as for the magazine Elsevier and for various broadcasting companies. From 1990 to 1993 he was chief economics editor of the NRC Handelsblad.

In 1994 Jurriaan Kamp and Hélène de Puy established the Ode publishing company, which issues a monthly magazine of which Kamp is the editor in chief. Ode is a current-affairs magazine that publishes the other face of the news. It reports on such issues as the abuses of free trade, doing responsible business, home schooling, the challenge of sustainable energy and the promising future of organic farming. Ode goes beyond the familiar dilemmas and searches for thinkers who ask new questions. Ode also organizes meetings at which inspiring visions are shared within small and large groups. Kamp is co-initiator of the Treaty of Noordwijk aan Zee (December 2000), with signatories from around the world.

This treaty contains basic principles for an economics in which people matter, not money and power.
Jurriaan Kamp has written other books published by the Dutch press Lemniscaat: It Is Possible (1998) and Because People Matter (2000). He frequently gives public lectures and presentations. Jurriaan Kamp is married to Hélène de Puy; together, they have four children: Devika, Majlie, Nina and Wali.
Jurriaan's email: jjk@odemagazine.com

(64) George Kibedi

Was born on the 14^th of May 1920 in Budapest, Hungary

Economist and planner. Taught as professor at the National University of Colombia and Chile (economics, business, administration, industrial sociology) and at the Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada (management, tourism). Author of various books on management, reserarch methodology and quality management. Published more than hundred studies on integrated regional management, solidaristic society development.

Consultant of ILO (International Labour Office), governments and national industry associations on sustainable development, planning, quality management, innovations in the enterprises and institutions.

Prepared various world congresses on education, regional development, and tourism. During various years was president of the World Association of Professional Training in Tourism.

President of the Advaita Educational Society, Toronto, Canada, which is engaged in bettering the educational systems.

(65) Swami Kriyananda

At the age of 22, Swami Kriyananda began the adventure of his lifetime: the search for joy in God. His guide was the great yogi, Paramhansa Yogananda.

In the 59 years since, Kriyananda has become one of Yogananda's foremost disciples, inspiring thousands all over the world. His two consuming desires are "to find God, and to help others find Him." Teacher of meditation and yoga to thousands; author of over 90 books and composer of more than 400 songs; founder of 7 communities worldwide: Swami Kriyananda shines out as one of the great spiritual lights of our time.

(66) Meryem Le saget

Meryem Le Saget is a management consultant based in Paris. She advises companies ans lectures on management and the future in France and abroad. Her current focus is: lecturing on advanced management practices and major transformations effecting today's organizations, consulting to CEO's and executive teams on processes for leading change, strategic visioning, managing transitions & culture change, writing books and articles which help individuals and companies successfully shape their future. Her book entitled "Le Manager Intuitif: une Nouvelle Force" was awarded the Paris-Dauphine Prize for the best management book. In 1996 she created her own consulting company, partnering with other international consultants and eminent business thinkers. Meryem is a well know writer about management subjects in France, a skilled senior consultant working with SV and many other approaches to leadership development, strategy and organization change.

Meryem comes over to the United States frequently, and has been a continuing source of inspiration in Europe for her discriminating import of some of the best thinking from America. Her book on the Intuitive Manager reviews some of the best thinking about organizations and management from the states, including a chapter on Team Performance and Arthur M. Young's process theory. To those of us who have been able to enjoy her company, she has brings wonderful sensitivity and insight to her work.

(67) Angaangaq Lyberth

Angaangaq Lyberth is an Eskimo-Kalaallit Elder whose family belongs to the traditional healers of the Far North from Kalaallit Nunaat, Greenland. His name means "the man who looks like his uncle".
Uncle, as he is frequently called, bridges the boundaries of cultures and faiths in people young and old. His work has taken him to five continents and over 40 countries around the world including South Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Arctic Europe, Russia, and Siberia.

As a traditional healer, storyteller and carrier of a Qilaut (drum), Angaangaq conducts Healing Circles, Intensives and sweat lodges integrating the wisdom of traditional Inuit teachings from the unwritten healing traditions of the Eskimo-Kalaallit people. Angaangaq is internationally respected in native communities as an Elder of the Canadian-based Four Worlds International Institute for Human and Community Development and with the World Council of Elders.

(68) Barbara Marx Hubbard

She has written five books, delivered more than 80 keynote speeches and given more than 75 interviews. She is currently President of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution, which she co-founded with Sidney Lanier in 1992. Hubbard believes that humanity, having "come to possess the powers that we used to attribute to the gods", is presently in a critical and dangerous "Late Transition" to "the next stage of human evolution" which began in 1945 with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She promotes the idea of Conscious Evolution, defined as "evolution of evolution, from unconscious to conscious choice" or "an awakening of a 'memory' that resides in the synthesis of human knowing, from spiritual to social to scientific", as "the only solution" for avoiding global destruction and entering into a utopian "future of immeasurable possibilities."

(69) Avon mattison

Avon Mattison (Director)

Avon Mattison is a Peace-building and Organizational Consultant with over three decades' experience. She works with innovative leaders, groups and organizations committed to cooperatively building Cultures of Peace inter-gene rationally and inter-culturally for the children of this and future generations. She is Founder of Pathways to Peace (PTP), an international peace-building, educational and consulting organization. PTP has Consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and is an official Peace Messenger of the United Nations (UN). PTP is tax-exempt, not-for-profit, non-partisan organisation.

(70) Hans Jürgen Müller

(71) Zev Naveh

A PERSONAL INTRODUCTION

I was born in 1919 in Amsterdam, but grew up in Germany and in 1935. I immigrated to Israel (then Palestine) thanks to the "Youth Alijah" organization, who rescued thousands of youngsters like me. Together with other members of the Zionist Pathfinder Movement we stayed for two years in the Kibbutz (collective settlement) Ginegar in the Jezreel Valley, working half a day and learning half a day. In 1938 we founded or own Kibbutz "Mazuba" in the foothills of the Western Galilee. Here, among other jobs, I helped to reclaim the rocky slopes for cultivation by uprooting the dense shrub cover, removing the rocky outcrops and using these for the construction of terraces, similar to those built already more than 2000 years ago in the same sites. Then, my main occupation was to work as shepherd of goats and sheep and finally as cattle herder and breeder for milk and meat production. This marked the beginning of my attachment to the rocky Mediterranean hill and mountain landscape, and its rich natural and cultural assets, resulting from a very long human history of co evolution with these landscapes and their utilization for good and worse.

Since 1965 at Technion, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and from 1970 until retirement 1989 with secondary appointment at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, teaching general agronomy, systems ecology and landscape ecology, restoration ecology and vegetation engineering for biological protection and erosion control.1982-1989 Founder and director of Ecological Garden of Technion.

(72) Gunter Pauli

Recommend This

He built the world's first biodegradable factory. And now, armed with laptops and attitude, Gunter Pauli and his "green team" plan to outmaneuver Procter Gamble and the detergent giants.

Ecover is a small company with a big idea: to reinvent the cleaning business around the world. Gunter Pauli is a young CEO with a new model of enterprise: the company as open economic system and closed ecological system. From its headquarters in Malle, Belgium, a village outside Antwerp, Ecover is challenging Procter & Gamble, Lever Brothers, and the other global packaged-goods giants. At one level, it sounds profoundly mundane: Doing the laundry. Washing the dishes. Cleaning the windows. At another level, it is mundanely profound: a $20 billion industry in North America alone, 7 billion pounds of laundry detergent last year, and one of the world's most overlooked sources of environmental destruction. Cleaning, it turns out, can be a dirty business. Enter Ecover. The company sells everything from laundry powder and dishwashing liquid to shampoos and car wax. Its products use only natural soaps and renewable raw materials: vegetable extracts, sugar derivatives, natural oils. To make them, Pauli has built the world's most ecological factory.

(73) Nicanor Perlas

Nicanor Perlas was born in 1950, and graduated with highest honors in agriculture from Xavier University. He gave up his master's degree after being drawn into the struggle against the Marcos-promoted Baataan nuclear plant in 1978 and had to leave the Philippines after organizing a conference to expose its dangers. After the fall of Marcos Perlas was able to return to the Philippines, founding the Centre for Alternative Development Initiatives (CADI). For the past five years Perlas's focus has almost exclusively been on social movements and their power to change the world. He counts as one of his major achievements that, with Walden Bello, he convinced the Philippine NGO scene in 1996, through major talks, the formation of networks and a big civil society conference that the issue for the future of the Philippines, is the value system underpinning globalization. Perlas warns that the developments we are facing demand a deeper, ethical and spiritual response: we face a system not just a management crisis. Thus he asks how our sense of identity and humanity will be affected by current technological advances (in genetic engineering, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence) which could lead to the proliferation of half-human half-machine "silicone beings" in the near future.

(74) Kambiz Poostchi

Born in 1948, Management-Consultant and Coach, study of Architecture at the University of Vienna, H.D.I. trainer (Herrmann-Dominanz-Instrument), certified INLPTA-Trainer (Neurolinguistic Programming), certified Professional in Business Communication. Publications in the field of architecture on the influence of earthquake hazard on architectural design, and about indigenous architecture in Iran and in hot arid zones. Presentations and management-seminars all over Europe.

Topics of the seminars: Corporate Identity + Business Communication, Presentation + Rhetoric, Team-training and Social Competence, Certified training courses for NLP-Practitioner/Master-Practitioner, Certified Training courses for Business-Coaching, Developing Learning Corporations

(75) Paul H Ray

As of the year 2000, there are 50 million adults in the United States who have the worldview, values and lifestyle of the "Cultural Creative's". (There are probably about 80-90 million Cultural Creative's in the European Union as well.) While Cultural Creative's are a subculture, they lack one critical ingredient in their lives: awareness of themselves as a whole people. We call them the Cultural Creative's precisely because they are already creating a new culture. If they could see how promising this creativity is for all of us, if they could know how large their numbers are, many things might follow. These optimistic, altruistic millions might be willing to speak more frankly in public settings and act more directly in shaping a new way of life for our time and the time ahead. They might lead the way toward an Integral Culture. Sherry and Paul will be leading a retreat on the Garden Isle of Kauai the weekend of November 2-4 with Ellen Schwartz, author of "Taking Back our Lives in the Age of Corporate Dominance."

(76) Bibi Russell

Bibi Russell is a fashion designer and former international model from Bangladesh. Born in Chittagong, Bangladesh, she studied in London College of Fashion, earning a graduate degree in 1975. In the next five years, she worked as a model for different magazines including Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Harper's Bazaar. She also worked as a fashion model in fashion shows until 1994, working with Yves Saint Laurent, Kenzo, Karl Lagerfeld and Giorgio Armani. Having returned to Bangladesh in 1994, Bibi opened Bibi Productions, her own fashion house, fusing indigenous Bengali cultural elements into her line. With assistance from UNESCO, she organized her first European fashion show in Paris in 1996. As of 2004, her company employed 35,000 weavers in rural Bangladesh. Bibi is currently promoting Bangladeshi fabrics and handicrafts for domestic and international markets under the slogans 'Fashion for Development and Positive Bangladesh'. To date, she has provided work for over thousands of weavers and artisans and has presented several shows in Europe, most of which were supported by UNESCO. Her work has been internationally recognized having received among others, the 'Honorary Fellowship' of the London Institute in 1999, title of 'Designer for Development' by the UNESCO in 1999, the title 'Artist for Peace' by the UNESCO in 2001 and the Peace Prize 2004 by the United Nations Associations of Spain.

(77) Celia Russo

Pedagogue, member of the Planetary Consciousness Network and President of ENPC Graduate School of International Business, France. Founded in 1747, the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC) is the oldest French "Grande Ecole". It is widely recognized as one of the most prestigious and elite institutions in France.

ENPC graduates have experienced successful careers in both the private and public sectors, holding key leadership positions in France's leading companies and top positions in the French administration. The ENPC School of International management was founded in 1988 by the late President and Dean Celia Russo. She envisioned the creation of an international management school based upon a collaborative environment, holistic values, cultural diversity, social responsibility and self-empowerment.

The Celia Russo Memorial Scholarship

To commemorate the work and memory of its founder Celia Russo, the ENPC School of International Management has introduced the Celia Russo Memorial Scholarship. In keeping with Celia´s belief in the value of cross-cultural interaction and the strong international focus of the School, these full or partial scholarships are open to citizens of all countries, worldwide.

(78) Elisabeth Sahtouris

Elisabet Sahtouris is a Greek-American evolutionary biologist, futurist, business consultant, event organizer and UN consultant on indigenous peoples. She is a popular lecturer, television and radio personality, author of EarthDance, Biology Revisioned co-authored with Willis Harman and A Walk Through Time: From Stardust To Us.

She has been invited to China by the Chinese National Science Association, organized Earth Celebration 2000 in Athens, Greece, and has been a United Nations consultant on indigenous peoples. She was a participant in the Humanity 3000 dialogues of the Foundation for the Future and in the Synthesis Dialogues with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. She consults with corporations and government organizations in Australia, Brazil, and the United States. Dr. Sahtouris completed her postdoctoral work at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and taught at the University of Massachusetts and MIT. She was a science writer for the Horizon/Nova television series. She has lived extensively in Greece and the Peruvian Andes. She promotes a vision she believes will result in the sustainable health and well-being of humanity within the larger living systems of Earth and the cosmos.Gaia seminars and co-work with James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis.

(79) Vinay Sansi

"Global Cooking" is the slogan of Vinay Sansi, an extremly creative cook, who teaches in schools a way of global thinking / consciousness connected to food.

Vinay Sansi is lawyer and sociologist who turned his passion into profession. He runs the restaurant "Kulturoase Shiva" in Bermatingen am Bodensee since 1992. His motto is "East meets West" and he considers spices as a major ingredient. In his own TV-Show (together with Armin Moser) he proved that exotic spices in Germany are wrongly underrated in comparison to pepper, paprika or garlic.

You can enjoy tasteful "World burgers" or other specialities flavoured with spices from all the five continents in his restaurant. Vinay Sansi, a truly global thinking person!

(80) Gerhard Schweter

President of Two Wings Network, an organisation that administers a voluntarily levy of the swiss PartnerBank for development issues which are deployed in integrated development projects. Author of the book "Two Wings". Dr. Gerhard Schweter and the PartnerBank developed innovative financial products, whose revenues are used to assist projects that are rated as notably eligible in association with the Club of Budapest.

The idea of an " Change-the-world"-equity fund is as simple as far-reaching: The investor invests in especially ecological companies that at the same time are eminently successful. A part of the earnings is reinvested in those notably eligible projects that were identified as especially innovative and effective. First of all the "Change-the-world"-projects. Dr. Gerhard Schweter is also member of "GLOBArt", an independent cultural initiative (NGO) and he published the book "Two wings".

(81) Akio Shoji

Akio Shoji

Representative Director and President of Aleph Inc.

He is a Representative Director and President of Sapporo-based Aleph Inc., and also runs a number of companies including Bikkuri Donkey hamburger chain. Mr. Shoji, who was born in Iwate Prefecture in the northern part of Japan, was a jazz drummer before going into the restaurant chain business. With his belief that harmonious coexistence with nature is an essential requirement for the safety and security of food, he has been deeply involved in environmental issues such as biodiversity, and has implemented various pioneering measures to save resources and energy as well as developing environmental technology. In 2004, he received the Minister's Prize in the field of environmental friendliness from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

(82) Surjo Soedakar

Surjo R. Soekadar, born 4th July 1977 in Wiesbaden, Germany, studied medicine at the Johannes-Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg and at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, USA. Doctoral thesis at the department of neuropsychology under the advisory of Herta Flor with emphasis on neuroplasticity and phantom limp pain. Surjo R. Soekadar is very engaged in the field of international co-operation and leads a working group that deals with the construction and organisation of health care centres within poor countries.

(83) Gregor Staub

Gregor Staub, born on the 3rd of June 1954. He is a Swiss memory trainer.

(84) Richard Tarnas

Richard Tarnas (born February 21, 1950), author of The Passion of the Western Mind (1991) and Cosmos and Psyche (2006), is a cultural historian and professor of philosophy and psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, and founding director of its graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. Tarnas is known for his integrative work in epistemology and cosmology. His first book, The Passion of the Western Mind, provides an interdisciplinary framework for "understanding the ideas that have shaped our world view", which he describes as "a new perspective for understanding our culture's intellectual and spiritual history . . . focusing on the crucial sphere of interaction between philosophy, religion, and science", as well as his key concept of Participatory Epistemology, later discussed in relation to Transpersonal psychology by Jorge Ferrer, Christopher Bache, and others. It has been suggested that Tarnas' work is an important contribution to the movements sometimes called Integral thought or Integral theory. His second book, Cosmos and Psyche, challenges basic assumptions of the modern world view, postulating the existence of a consistent correspondence between planetary movements (specifically the astrological aspects) and archetypal patterns of human experience, also called astrology.

(85) Jane Taylor

Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face - the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited and the wealth and confusion that man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man. Edward Steichen (early 20th century photographer).

Jane Taylor is a writer and photographer who has lived in Amman, Jordan since 1989. Her photographs have been used not only in her own books, but also in a wide range of magazines and books, and in advertising/marketing campaigns. Her photographic archives are available to publishers, designers and advertising agencies – wherever spectacular images are required. Apart from extensive coverage of Jordan (including many aerial shots), the archives include Yemen, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Ethiopia, Iran, Peru, Turkey, China, Nepal, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. She has also photographed in Iraq for UNICEF and other relief agencies in April-May 1991 and Jan.-Feb. 1992 to show the effects of the war and sanctions on the people of Iraq, in particular the children.

(86) Deepti Tewari

(87) Aleandro Tommasi

(88) Bernd Weikl

Bernd Weikl (born Vienna, 29 July 1942) is an Austrian operatic baritone, best-known for his performances in the operas of Richard Wagner. He studied first in Mainz and then in Hannover, where he made his operatic debut as Ottakar in Der Freischütz in 1968. From 1970 to 1973 he was a member of the company at the Düsseldorf Opera. Weikl debuted at the Salzburg Festival in 1971 as Melot in Tristan und Isolde, at the Bayreuth Festival in 1972 as Wolfram in Tannhäuser, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1975 as Figaro in The Barber of Seville and at the Metropolitan Opera in 1977 as Wolfram.

(89) Herman Wijffels

H.H.F. (Herman) Wijffels (IJzendijke, March 13, 1942) is a Dutch economist and politician for the CDA. From 1981 to 1999 he worked for the Rabobank ultimately as chairman of the board of directors and from March 15, 1999 until April 1, 2006, he was chairman of the Social-Economic Council (Sociaal-Economische Raad, SER). Since November 2006 he has been a Dutch representative at the World Bank, succeeding Ad Melkert. For the 2006-2007 Dutch cabinet formation, Wijffels was recommended by informateur Rein Jan Hoekstra to lead the negotiations between the CDA, PvdA and ChristianUnion. On December 22, 2006, Queen Beatrix appointed him as Hoekstra's successor as informateur.

(90) Georg Winter

The only thing I can find is his book on Amazone (Case Studies in Environmental Management in Central and Eastern Europe (International Network for Environmental Management (INEM) Casebook) by Georg Winter, ...

(91) Aguida Zanol

Aguida Zanol is an artist and founder of the Instituto Reciclar-T3 in Brazil, which was one of the "Projects around the World" at the World Exhibition "Expo 2000" in Hanover.

The project, initiated by the well known Brazilian artist Aguida Zanol combines three sectors which so far rarely have been connected in an equally fruitful way: art, ecology and social development.

The Reciclar-Institute educates people who up to that point have been living on and near refuse. Paper collectors or children living off waste, they learn to see the junk as a resource which can be used to produce practical goods for the daily use with nearly no financial input. On top of that, Aguida Zanol shows them how to turn refuse into fashion design, craft, and even recognized art. The increase in value and the psychological increase of self confidence with this project supersedes that of other social projects of this kind. And not at last, the Reciclar-Institute has proven to be a discovery place for creative waste recycling. The institute run by Aguida Zanol was one of the most recognized projects at the Expo 2000.