Prospective Parents: Council of Advisors
Green School has built a core group of men and women who are willing to devote time, energy, intellectual and financial resources to help guide and support Green School in its next critical stage of growth. We have sought people who are activists in every sense of the word: creative problem solvers of ingenuity, thoughtfulness and heart who are interested in taking an active role in helping Green School execute its mission. This synergistic group is composed of individuals from around the world who represent a wide array of disciplines, in keeping with our commitment to build a generation of global citizens who are knowledgeable about and inspired to take responsibility for the sustainability of the world.
John M. Barbera
A CEO/COO/Presidential senior executive with over 35 years of international experience in the Cable TV industry, Internet, and broadcast television, John has spent the last 6 years developing China-based media opportunities for investment and corporate clients. Barbera was one of the original team hired by Ted Turner in 1978 to launch the world’s first commercial satellite network. He then worked with Ted on developing the Cable News Network (better known today as CNN). In 1994, John formed his own consulting firm to specialize in the convergence of television and the Internet for start-up ventures and established media. Among other activities, John built the sales infrastructure and negotiated the initial cable network distribution for the highly successful Internet and television start-up C|NET, the first Internet-based venture to bridge television with online technology. John currently runs his own International consulting business, China Media Advisory, helping international and domestic communications companies improve all aspects of their operations and strategy.
Joan Irving
Joan Irving has extensive experience in different volunteer capacities with independent schools and other non-profit educational institutions. She has dedicated her professional and personal life to enhancing the life experience of children and protecting their futures. After graduating from Mount Allison University, in New Brunswick, Canada, with a degree in English and French literature she married and had four children. During this busy period she took on volunteer jobs as PTA president of her children’s school and vice president of the Netherwood Foundation (a private school for girls), and then as president of Mount Allison Alumni and on the Board of Governors and Senate of Mount Allison. Later, she became president of The Duke of Edinburgh Awards of New Brunswick and Vice Presidents of The Duke of Edinburgh Canada. She later joined the board of the National Ballet School of Canada as well as the board of Outward Bound Canada, and spent two years in Geneva as Director of Finance for the International Institute of Learning . Ms. Irving also sits on the board of the Atlantic Council of the World Wildlife Fund and the St. Andrews Arts Council.
Beth Travers
Beth Travers spent 20 years on Wall Street in various roles from fixed income research/sales and marketing in the institutional fixed income markets as well her most recent venture as Managing Partner of Hedges Lane Financial, an exclusive marketer for hedge funds/private investment vehicles. Ms. Travers has also worked for Highland Financial Holdings and Bear Stearns in marketing, research and sales positions. She also served as Senior Vice President at Nomura Securities and Prudential Securities in the respective firms’ structured sales groups, six years in total. Ms Travers has spoken widely on fixed income arbitrage.
Ms. Travers is a founding angel for 100 Women in Hedge Funds and serves on boards of various charities. She holds a BA from Muhlenberg College and spent a year at the London School of Economics during her undergraduate degree. Beth is also a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and a certified holistic health counselor. Beth is an avid athlete and yogini, and has studied lifestyle and sports nutrition for over 15 years. She also has a strong interest in sustainable living and everything that supports that.
Michael Gordon
Michael Gordon was born in 1951 in London, England. He was the founder and creator of Bumble and bumble, one of the beauty industries most successful, independent companies of all time. Bumble and bumble was synonymous with style, fashion and cool for over twenty-five years. The product company became one of the most sought after and claimed lines, recognized for its imitable style, tongue and cheek freshness and individuality.
Michael's philosophy has always been about combining alternative health practices with a deep study of yoga and meditation, which he found indispensable to leading a balanced life.
He sold Bumble and bumble in 2006 to Estee Lauder and is now working on projects that are very dear to his heart. Karmic Management, Inc., one of his projects, helps individuals marry their entrepreneurial spirit with their inner life, as well as it focuses on helping others. Michael is also making a documentary film of Vidal Sassoon to celebrate the icon's extraordinary life
Dennis Heffernan
Dennis Heffernan is a principal and co-founder of Van Zorge, Heffernan, and Associates. Mr. Heffernan has over ten years of experience in doing business and consulting in Indonesia, and has recently provided political commentary for CNBC, the New York Times, the Economist magazine and other media.
Before coming to Indonesia in 1992, Mr. Heffernan spent twenty years in state and national politics in the USA. He served directly with two state governors, and was also Assistant to the Speaker, Ohio State House of Representatives. Mr. Heffernan worked for eight years in Washington DC, both as a campaign consultant and lobbyist. He advised congressional candidates in 8 states, and also managed a 20-state lobbying network as a Vice President for government relations at Cole National Corporation. Mr. Heffernan also worked closely with Congressman Charles Vanik, a member of the Ohio Delegation and a ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee.
As an entrepreneur, he developed real estate in Ohio, Massachusetts and Florida. In Florida, he also owned and operated a 136-room luxury resort hotel in Palm Beach, Florida – The Brazilian Court Hotel.
Mr. Heffernan has also served on the Board of Directors of Penril Datacomm Corporation, a publicly listed company on NASDAQ. In community service, Mr. Heffernan served as Trustee and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Ohio University, an 18,000-student institution and his alma mater. In 2005, Mr. Heffernan spent six weeks in Aceh, as the advisor to Co-ordinating Minister Alwi Shihab, who was responsible for the tsunami emergency disaster relief in Aceh.
Stefan Sagmeister
Stefan Sagmeister formed the New York based Sagmeister Inc. in 1993 and has since designed for clients as diverse as the Rolling Stones, HBO, and the Guggenheim Museum. Having been nominated five times for the Grammies he finally won one for the Talking Heads boxed set. He also earned practically every important international design award.
In 2008 a comprehensive book titled "Things I have Learned in my Life so far" was published by Abrams. Solo shows on Sagmeister Inc's work have been mounted in Zurich, Vienna, New York, Berlin, Tokyo, Osaka, Prague, Cologne,Seoul and Miami. He teaches in the graduate department of the School of Visual Art in New York and lectures extensively on all continents.
A native of Austria, he received his MFA from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and, as a Fulbright Scholar, a master's degree from Pratt Institute in New York.
Nattalia Sinclaire
Originally from Ireland, Nattalia Sinclaire has been a resident of Bali since 1988 and is firmly committed to the growth of education on the island. Ms. Sinclaire is a widely experienced and committed Montessorian: she is a trained AMI Preschool, Primary, and Special Education, Montessori Directress, and has worked with children in Europe, North America, Australia and Asia.
In 1998 Ms. Sinclair founded and headed the Montessori School in Bali.
Dr. Ralph Z. Sorenson
Dr. Ralph Z. “Bud” Sorenson is General Partner of the Sorenson Limited Partnership and brings a vast array of experience from the worlds of business and education, with a strong focus on entrepreneurial learning. He specializes in venture capital investing in a diverse range of start-up companies, primarily in the Front Range of Colorado. In addition, he serves or has served on the boards of directors of a number of publicly traded companies, including Whole Foods.
Dr. Sorenson is President Emeritus of Babson College and Professor Emeritus at the College of Business and Administration of the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he served as Dean of the College. He is also a Co-Founder of the Asian Institute of Management in the Philippines and served as Adjunct Professor of Management at the Harvard Business School, where he taught general management courses in the MBA program.
From 1981-89, Dr. Sorenson served as Chairman, President and CEO of Barry Wright Corporation, a publicly traded company that manufactured industrial and computer-related products.
Santo Volpe
Santo Volpe, a British citizen, was raised and educated in the United States and currently divides his time between Monaco and Florence. Married with two daughters, Mr. Volpe has been involved in the world of finance since the early 1990s and currently advises financial firms in Europe, North America and Asia. He is also active in many charitable and philanthropic organizations, including the International School of Florence, and the Pattaya Orphanage Trust in Thailand.
Alan Wagstaff
Alan Wagstaff has forty years experience in the field of education. He has served as a classroom teacher, principal, and as an international consultant in holistic education. The consultancy work placed him in a key advisory role to fourteen schools across New Zealand, Canada, and Australia. In particular he has developed creative systems to assist schools with: policy formation; curriculum innovation; parent education; behavior management; co-operative learning; student assessment; learning support; values education; literacy and literacy support; teacher development and appraisal; and facilitative school management structures. These improvement structures successfully married the objectives of mainstream education with holistic principles, environmental care, and child-centered pedagogy. Some 1000 adult students have been inspired by his on-campus courses in the last eight years. Alan was the author of Green School’s first curriculum and ran an orientation program in holistic strategies for the school’s first roster of teachers.
Dr. Juergen Zimmer
Dr. Juergen Zimmer is a transcontinentally experienced and respected innovator in education. His concept is characterized by UNESCO as a “new standard of educational excellence for the world community of the 21st century” and “world-class innovative effort in the field of education”. He is a Professor emeritus for Educational Science at the Free University of Berlin. There he founded the International Academy for Innovative Education, Psychology and Economy. In Thailand he is the co-founder and president of the School for Life in Chiang Mai and the executive director of the Beluga School for Life in Phan Nga, and the director for international affairs of the Rural and Social Management Institute in Bangkok. He was member of the German UNESCO Commission and acts now as Conseiller Cultural of the African Diplomatic Academy in Paris/France. One of his masterpieces is the development of United Schools for Life, of “Open Learning Villages” (UNESCO) with an unique combination of excellent schooling and entrepreneurial centers of excellence.
If you'd like to join this group, please write to us by here for more information.
