Our Team

Anna joined Leaders’ Quest in September 2009 as Lindsay Levin’s Executive Assistant after having spent the previous five and half years living in rural Italy with her three children. During this time, she learnt Italian, taught English to local people, founded and co-published a monthly English language guide to her local province and set up an events management company specialising in weddings and celebrations.

After studying History of Art, Design and Film, Anna worked in the Advertising sector in the 80s before setting up a successful home redesign and refurbishment business in the 90s based in the Richmond area, working around her growing family commitments. When not working, Anna enjoys indulging her passion for visiting art galleries with her youngest daughter Bella who shares her interest.

Aparna is Programme Coordinator of our fellowship programme with BasicNeeds India in Bangalore. Her interest in the development sector was kindled when she started visiting the coastal areas of her hometown in Kerala to teach the children of fisherman folks English and handicrafts. While completing a BA in Economics, she volunteered at a Trivandrum's State Mental Health Centre where the appalling conditions strengthened her resolve to work in the sector in a professional capacity. Following her graduation with a Masters in Social Work, she worked a social worker for a day-night shelter for children of women in prostitution in Mumbai's red light district. She then joined BasicNeeds India.

Aparna is passionate about working for systemic changes and views fellowship as an apt vehicle. Her other passions in life (other than her husband) include reading (classics and Indian authors), traveling (want to travel around the world), crafts and cooking.

Asha joined Leaders’ Quest’s India team as their Administrative and Accounting Assistant in June 2011. For the 11 years prior to this, she worked  at Saathi, a well-known Mumbai-based NGO as an Accounts Assistant. This is where she learnt many of her office skills. Asha is extremely excited to be part of the growing Leaders’ Quest team in Mumbai. She considers this to be a great opportunity to grow both her skills and experience.

Asha has spent her entire life living in Mumbai and studied until 10th standard in a local school. She has completed a paraprofessional course in 2002 from Nirmala Niketan and has done some courses in adventure sports and trekking.

Asha holds her closest relationships dear to her: those who have supported her in her education and career. She lives with her parents and is engaged to Raghavendra. Asha likes visiting new places, adventure sports, listening to music and spending as much time as possible with her chosen life partner!

Bin is a Programme Coordinator, working on Quests, based in Beijing, China. Growing up in northern China, Bin had experiences in "intercultural dialogues,” including field research in ethnic minority areas in western China during her college years. These experiences raised Bin’s interest in culture, education and relevant social issues, which led her to embark on the journey for discovering cultures.

Bin graduated from Peking University in 2003, with a BA in English language and a BS in Psychology. Then she worked for two years in ActionAid International China, as a Leaders’ Quest Foundation’s Fellow for the first year and peer mentor for the second year. It was in village communities that she expanded her understanding of the unbalanced development in China, as well as the critical role that education plays in this process. To consolidate this experience, Bin completed a masters’ degree in Education at Stanford University, specialising in International Comparative Education.

Bin is passionate about the young generation’s growth in contemporary China. She is a member of the advisory group (specialising in education) of VJoin, a new social enterprise started by a group of Berkeley students, with the aim to bridge young students and NGOs in China and to cultivate the citizenship of Chinese youth.

Bin lives with her husband and parents in Beijing. She loves reading, cooking, tango dancing and hearing stories from people from diverse background.

Biney has recently started working as a Programme Assistant with Leaders’ Quest, based in their Mumbai office. His role is to help in the delivery and preparation of Quests. He is excited about working with the experienced and diverse team at LQ and is positive about the opportunity for his own learning.

Biney studied Media and Political Science but the jobs he took after finishing college accidently made him more interested in the social sector. His insatiable appetite to learn new skills and meet lively people keep him interested in his own life’s Quest.

Chris is a Director of Leaders’ Quest with responsibility for overseeing finance and IT and is Treasurer and Trustee of Leaders’ Quest Foundation. Chris is also an independent consultant and executive coach focusing on leadership, organisational change and working across cultural boundaries.

Chris spent 30 years with Ernst & Young, the last 19 of which as a partner before leaving the company in 2007. A Chartered Accountant, with a background of working in many industry sectors, Chris has focused on working with the Technology, Outsourcing and Professional Services sectors. He has a unique blend of experience in working with global corporates and in entrepreneurial environments.

Chris was European head of the Technology sector at Ernst & Young from 2004-2007. He was Managing Partner of the London office Entrepreneurial Services Group from 1991-1996, becoming national head of this service line in 1994. In 1997 he moved to Reading to run the office and subsequently ran the UK Firm’s South Region for five years.

Chris is the Founder and Chairman of The Friends of Baale Mane Gopalapura, a charity formed to support a home in Bangalore for girls who do not have parents able to care for them. He is a Director of The Innovation Group PLC and Chairman of IV League Talent Ltd, an innovative new recruitment concept in the legal market and also a member of the Appeal committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Chris completed an MSc in Executive Coaching at Ashridge Management College in the UK in 2009. He is married to Shirley and has three sons, Richard, David and John.

Chris has spent 37 years committed to assisting marginalised people either in the UK or overseas.  He has started up, managed or been a trustee of charities specialising in championing new ideas and innovations and has founded and directed three charities: Thrive (formerly Horticultural Therapy), a UK based charity working with disabled people and medical professionals in horticulture, gardening and agriculture; Action on Disability and Development (ADD), a development agency targeting disabled people in the third world; and his current charity BasicNeeds – new initiatives in mental health and development working with mentally ill people in the third world.    Chris was the former Chief Executive of Intermediate Technology Development Group where a major change programme to include institutional and cultural changes was instituted involving staff worldwide.

Chris graduated from University of London with a degree in Rural Environment Studies and later achieved an MSc in International Policy at the School for Policy Studies, Bristol University.  He has been a Trustee of a number of charities including Action Health 2000 (Chair), Digital Links (retired July 2007), Friends of APD (founder Chair retiring September 2007), IDE UK (founder Chair) and in his mid-career on the board of Oxfam where he was appointed Chair of the sub-committees for Africa, Staff (HR) and the Trustee Role and Council Structure whose task was the reorganisation of the Board of Trustees.

Chris has been associated with Leaders’ Quest since its very early days as the founding Chair of Leaders’ Quest Foundation (2004 - 2011).  Additionally he is a founder trustee of Headstrong, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health, Ireland and is a board member of Impetus the venture philanthropy organisation.  Chris was awarded the MBE in 2000 for his work in international disability.

Daniel is a Programme Manager for Leaders’ Quest based in Mumbai and is working to prepare a major Quest for Bain & Co in April 2012. Prior to this, he was a Teach For India Fellow and has taught grades 4 and 5, at a low income private school in Pune, India. He is part of a nationwide movement to end educational inequity in India

Daniel completed his engineering degree in the small town of Mysore in July 2005, after which he worked at Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, the biggest software consulting company in India for a little more than 3 years.

Finding little satisfaction in the software field and with a passion to effect change, he joined Teach For India in May 2009 and taught a huge classroom (61 kids) in a slum for two years. He created and implemented processes for the new organisation and represented Teach For India at the Synergies Conference in New York, a gathering of future leaders from 14 countries.

He enjoys travelling and adventure sports, has an almost insane obsession for movies and is also a decent guitarist.

Diane joined Leaders’ Quest in its infancy at the beginning of 2002 and manages international Quests and Inner Quests with her enthusiastic and capable team.  She brings her worldwide events and IT experience from IBM and the finance sector.

Her passion for travel grew during her time living in Luxembourg.  The fact that she did not have to cross that little piece of water to reach Europe meant most weekends were spent either skiing or exploring new European countries broadening her passion for travel and different cultures.

Growing up in Japan, the US and Kenya inspired to Ella to read Geography at Oxford. After completing her internship at Leaders’ Quest, her taste for the exotic led her to journey across northern India… an experience that has stood her in very good stead when she returned to take on the role of organising Quests!

Eric is a serial social entrepreneur active in the fields of youth empowerment and international development for the past 15 years.

Prior to joining Leaders' Quest, Eric spent seven years as the Chief Executive of Restless Development, now a powerful global champion for the role that young people can and must play in their own lives and as contributors to the development of their communities and countries. Under his leadership, Restless Development quadrupled the scope and impact of its work, engaging more than 500,000 young people in direct programmes each year, training promising youth-led organisations in 40+ countries, forming strategic partnerships with leading companies such as KPMG, Vodafone and Tesco, and serving as a global expert on youth-related issues to national governments and major international aid institutions such as the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development.

Earlier in his career, Eric founded and directed three non-profit organizations empowering young people to address significant social issues, including education for immigrant children, health education for poor urban schoolchildren, and youth civic participation, and did two years of humanitarian service on refugee issues and human rights in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Guatemala. Eric also has three years’ experience as a strategy and management consultant to leading companies and non-profit organisations, focusing on increasing business acumen in the non-profit sector and increasing social impact in the private sector.

Eric has received an Emmy Award, Telly Award, and the National Society of Professional Journalists Public Service Award for his work in various initiatives with young people, and in 2011 was selected as one of the Devex 40 Under 40 International Development Leaders in London.

Fiammetta has recently joined Leaders’ Quest as Programme Manager for China and is based in Beijing, where she has lived for many years. She oversees our Quest and fellowship programmes in the region, supporting strategy, development and delivery and managing the office and team. Driven by the wish to bring about positive change, and by a personal passion for China, Fiammetta has previously worked for the Sino-Italian Development Cooperation and for a UN – China cooperation project, as well as interpreter and consultant.

With a strong interest in foreign languages and cultures, Fiammetta started studying Chinese when she was very young on the wave of her close friendship with a Chinese girl in Italy, who is like a sister to her. She deepened her knowledge of China during many visits to the country and, after graduating from a Master’s in International Studies, moved to Beijing on a scholarship, where she decided to commit herself to addressing social and environmental problems in any way she could. She has volunteered to improve the lives of disadvantaged children, created volunteer-driven pilot projects and mobilised hundreds of volunteers to promote sustainable and equitable development. ‘Sustainable Development’ is also the subject of the MSc she earned from SOAS while working in China.

Fiammetta enjoys going to new places, to the theatre, the cinema and live music shows. She likes playing volleyball and brain stretchers, as well as writing poems and spending time with her family in Italy and anywhere they are.

Fields is a Partner of Leaders’ Quest. Her own interest in leadership has developed over a non-linear, squiggly career spanning different industries, sectors and countries and never following a traditional path.  She is dedicated to being a bridge between belief systems, cultures and sectors, and to inspiring and enabling people to be ‘good ancestors’.   Fields joined Lindsay in early 2002 to help build and develop Leaders’ Quest.

Fields has been lucky to live her multi-disciplinary interests through her work, where she has been active in the arts, higher education and public policy as well as in business and finance. She believes that business leaders have a real opportunity to enable their businesses to make a lasting positive difference to society, and tries to do her bit in business through her work as a non-executive director for different companies. Currently,  she serves on the main boards of BNP Paribas (Paris), Ballapur International Paper (Delhi, India’s largest writing pulp and paper company) and the CDC Group plc (London, the UK’s development finance institution), where she chairs the Development Committee. Looking back, Fields has loved all of her work - as a banker, a partner in strategy firms, a venture capitalist and as CFO of the London Stock Exchange.

Fields has degrees from the University of Virginia, l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Paris) and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and speaks French and Italian fluently. She was thrilled to receive the OBE in 2007 for services to international business and to be awarded a Fellowship of King’s College London in 2011.

Fields loves competing in dressage, being out in nature and cooking with her husband, Paolo. The commute between London and Rome is a bit challenging at times (though pleasant once she arrives!) and so her bolt-hole in Wiltshire gives her the peace and tranquillity she needs, and her horses Diva and Max lift her in dance and bring her back to earth.

Gene is a Partner of Leaders’ Quest and an internationally recognised innovator in organisational development. He has co-founded four companies as well as developed executive leadership in start-ups, companies in transition, non-profits and government agencies. Gene hosted the original pilot Quest to Silicon Valley.  He has co-led Quests in China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

He is currently based in Virginia and is working with a number of boards and executive teams in the US and Europe. In his most recent entrepreneurial venture, Gene co-founded Genomic Health in Silicon Valley in 2000 with a brief to lead development of an organisational infra-structure that would support the growth of a great company. Genomic Health went public in 2005 and is the first genomic applications company to deliver a breast cancer diagnostic test that effectively predicts the risk of recurrence of breast cancer.

In 1988 he and his wife moved from Copenhagen to Kona, Hawaii, for a sabbatical and decided to stay. There he joined the staff of the University of the Nations-Kona, the original campus for this global university that now has more than 500 branch campuses around the world. In various roles, including that of Vice-Chancellor of Operations, he oversaw corporate communications, all support functions and spearheaded the university's organisational and strategic development processes.

Gene was one of the pioneers of Neuro-Linguistic Programme (NLP). In 1982, He co-founded Europe's first NLP training institute and helped develop a network of NLP training institutes in six European countries. Gene holds a PhD in leadership and organisational development from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (Oxford, England) with research focused on the role of the chief executive in organisational transformation. His most recent book is entitled Leadership Expectations: How Executive Expectations are Created and Used in a Non-Profit Setting.

His passion is to catalyse organisational transformation through working with committed leaders who establish cultures that function as strategic drivers for the business as well as nourish the human spirit in the workplace.

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As PA to Melanie Katzman in New York, Gerry wears many hats.  She primarily assists Melanie and other Katzman Consulting coaches in the U.S. and abroad, in addition to overseeing office management for Melanie’s clinical practice and patient care.  Additionally she assists Melanie in her academic research and prepares materials for her public presentations. 

She is delighted to have four hours a week to work with LQ, which allows her to support the many visitors to NY from the LQ global community, to assist in LQ administration and to juggle multiple time zones to coordinate all those Skype and conference calls.

Giles is a Partner of Leaders’ Quest and President of Leaders’ Quest Foundation – USA. He has co-led or participated in Quests to China, India, Brazil, Russia and Southern Africa. He is also a private equity investor in business information companies and a member of Kereitsu Forum, a network of angel investors in early stage companies.

Previously Giles was CEO of LA 411, a specialised yellow pages directory for the film and TV industry, until its sale to Reed in 2000. He began his business career as a strategy consultant with Monitor Group, based in Los Angeles. He holds an MBA from Stanford and read Economics at Queens, Cambridge.

Among his eclectic interests, Giles enjoys mountain biking, antique slot machines, steam trains, skiing and watching Arsenal football (on some weekends). In 2003 his travel book "Us versus Them" was published by Penguin. The book recounted eight trips to places like Buenos Aires, Glasgow and Istanbul in search of classic football rivalries.

Giles grew up in England and now lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Claire and two children.

Gitika recently joined the Leaders' Quest team in Mumbai as a Programme Assistant. She will assist in the preparation and delivery of Quests in India and play a support role in business development for the LQ community. Growing up in India exposed Gitika to the many socio-economic problems facing the country and also to the development initiatives being taken to tackle them. Working with LQ will allow her to learn from a variety of talented professionals and participate in the drive for social change.

Gitika graduated in May 2010 from the College of Wooster with a B.A. in International Relations. She was part of an initiative comprising students and faculty that designed the Global Social Entrepreneurship (GSE) programme at the College of Wooster. In a recent internship, Gitika provided strategic planning and organisational development support to Enable India, an NGO in Bangalore that provides employment and training services to people with disabilities. Gitika's interests include international politics, modern and Islamic art, badminton, dance and travelling.

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Hannah recently completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Mary Washington where she studied International Affairs and French and gained experience within the fields of economics, anthropology and human rights. Hannah often returned home on holidays from her studies at University to teach and volunteer at Harrisonburg High school, where most recently she taught English to a unique group of immigrants and refugees, learning more from her students about community, diversity and acceptance, than she could have ever expected.  Hannah was involved in several collegiate campaigns, including Two Dollar Challenge, where she and other students lived one week outside of their dormitories and apartments, surviving on less than $2 per day to raise poverty and homelessness awareness. She also supported Professor Shawn Humphrey in research for his collegiate microfinance project, La Ceiba, through a course examining microfinance institutions. Last year Hannah interned with Genocide Watch, a human rights organisation that exists to predict and prevent genocide and other forms of mass murder.

Hannah also chaired a community volunteer group, Community Outreach and Resources, during her time at University where she led a group of volunteers, focusing on local sustainability efforts.  In 2005 Hannah performed in ‘Godspell’ at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival!

Jackie joined Leaders’ Quest as Accountant in February 2011, bringing with her extensive experience of similar accounting management roles in various commercial organisations.

Jackie owned her own business for more than five years, providing accounting, financial training, systems implementation and consultancy services to small and start-up businesses in a wide variety of sectors; she found this very rewarding as it often involved in helping people turn their ideas into reality and further develop into successful enterprises.

Jackie was an original committee member of Diabetes UK’s Richmond branch and continues to help with fundraising and promotional events. She was Treasurer and committee member of the New Business Network, a support group for small businesses in the area. Jackie also volunteered in a scheme to help teach English as a second language to immigrant women isolated at home because they could not communicate and so had difficulty integrating into the local community.

On fine weekends Jackie likes to spoil a good walk by attempting to hit a small ball into a far-distant hole in the ground, and regularly tries not to maintain her usual position at the bottom of the score sheet at Richmond Bridge Club. She is very much a local girl, having lived, been educated and worked in the Richmond area for most of her life.

Jade has been a Programme Coordinator at Leaders’ Quest since August 2010 and is responsible for the logistical planning and organisation of Quests, working largely on Quests taking place in China, Kenya, the UK and more recently, Brazil and India. She brings a wealth of programme and event management experience from over four years as a Programme Manager at London Business School and two years as an Events Organiser at the Royal Television Society.

Jade is curious about the world and enjoys immersing herself in different cultures; she loves to travel and tries to visit her family in Ghana as often as possible

Jason is an Associate of Leaders’ Quest and works extensively with LQ on our China programmes. He also began recently to work with us on India programmes. Jason was formerly a researcher and board member of QI Ltd., a company whose aim is to mine interesting information and turn it into entertainment and information products. Its most recent and visible success is the ‘QI Show’ presented by Stephen Fry on BBC2.

Jason has over 10 years of experience in business presentations for occasions such as financial results, investor briefings, television interviews, management conferences and away days. As a coach for Trinity Management Communications, he worked with a wide range of companies from FTSE100 corporations, such as Tesco, Cable & Wireless and Reuters, through to creative production houses and agencies, including Tiger Television, Merchant Design and Makinson Cowell, and educational and voluntary sector organisations, such as South Bank University and Comic Relief. He has also acted as interpreter and translator for a range of organisations from the BBC and Channel 4, to Macmillan Publishing and Amnesty International.

On leaving high school in the US, Jason received a government scholarship to study Mandarin at Taiwan Normal University. He followed that with a BA Hons from the Polytechnic of Central London (now University of Westminster) and a Masters in Linguistics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University.

When he is not travelling around China, Jason lives in London with his wife and two children.

Email Jason Brooks

Jayma is a Programme Director based in Mumbai and has been a part of LQ since 2007. She designs and delivers Quests; working globally with clients, LQ's hosts and an awesome team, manages the local team in Mumbai and is committed to broadening and deepening the LQ Community across India. This combination provides her with a daily dose of reality, challenge and inspiration which gets her out of bed in the morning.

Jayma studied French at the University of Nottingham and spent a very happy year living in France, teaching English and being a 'slave' to an inspiring couple in the Dordogne. She worked briefly at the European Parliament before spending several years working in complex countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Libya and Mozambique for ITE Group Plc, a leading trade show and event organise based in London.

Jayma enjoys yoga, going to concerts, playing the piano and being with her friends and family – through Skype or in person. She has recently vowed to visit a new country every year of her life!

Jennifer brings her commitment to the environment together with twelve years in the commercial sector to manage Leaders’ Quest HR and legal operations.

After reading Classics and Modern Languages at Oxford, she co-founded an ecological design practice, an environmental lifestyle organisation and a local barter-based trading system in North Devon before moving to research consultancy, CIC, where she progressed to become the CEO’s deputy.

Now a confirmed Londoner (though still with environmental concerns and a penchant for yomping through the countryside at weekends), Jennifer thoroughly enjoys all the city has to offer, particularly performing with and helping to run London Concert Choir.

Jeroen is a change management consultant and leadership coach based in Holland. He co-founded The Global Leaders Academy, a global network of leaders in business and society. Members are typically influential individuals holding high-level positions who are committed to creating sustainable well-being for themselves, for their organisations and for the wider planet.

Jeroen started his career as a management consultant at Holland Consulting Group. He then moved to Coopers & Lybrand. He went on to found Drontmann Consultancy, which later became Heart Matters. Heart Matters’ mission is to connect people with themselves (head, heart and hands) and with each other.

He is also a faculty member of AXIALENT a global consultancy company that helps organisations achieve their goals with effectiveness and integrity aligning people’s values with strategy.

He has published several articles on this topic as well as two books, Persoonlijk Succes (Personal Success) in 1993 and Hoofd ontmoet Hart (Head meets Heart) in 2002.With a law degree and a postgraduate degree in management consulting, Jeroen specialises in leadership development and cultural change, working on the individual, team and organisational levels. Stimulating awareness (self-generated insight) and response-ability (the choice to own a task) are central in his work.

Jeroen has carried out performance coaching workshops in several countries in close collaboration with Sir John Whitmore. He is a leading coach for PWC’s Leadership Development programmes on both the European and global levels.

In addition to his other endeavours, Jeroen co-produces the Heart at Work® programme that he designed which facilitates a collective search for core values and is produced in close cooperation with music, theatre, internal branding and communication specialists.
He feels at home in Holland with his wife and their three children.

Julia is an Affiliate Partner of Leaders’ Quest and lives in New York. In 1992 she founded Interaction Event Management, a company that stages high-profile business conferences around the world and hosts a discussion group, The Executive Forum, for senior regional chief executive officers based in Hong Kong. Julia moved to New York in 2002, having lived and worked in Hong Kong for over 15 years prior to that.

Julia’s relationships with senior executives built up over the years give her unique access. Forbes, Fortune and The Economist are among the organisations for which Julia has researched, designed and planned top-level meetings and events. She was responsible for both the 2005 Forbes Global CEO Conference, hosted by Prime Minister John Howard, which took place at the Sydney Opera House and attracted more than 300 company heads from around the world and for the 1999 Fortune Global Forum in Shanghai – a watershed in China’s opening to foreign investment – which was an unprecedented gathering of US and European CEOs and Asian politicians and business people.

Julia has worked with many personalities including: Bill Clinton, Steve Forbes, Jiang Zemin, Thaksin Shinawatra, Michael Dell, Bill Gates and Sumner Redstone.

Julia studied as a linguist and moved to Paris to work for A&M Records where she handled artist promotion and tours. She then moved on to Rondor Music Publishing to join a team working on intellectual property rights’ protection in the days of vinyl and cassettes! Julia returned to the UK to co found a trading company with interests in Turkey and Germany. In 1987 she joined The Economist and in 1990 transferred to Hong Kong to run its executive conference division.

Julia is married, lives in New York and travels frequently to Asia.

Kathryn is a highly effective executive coach, development practitioner and top team facilitator. She has extensive experience in leadership development and executive education and works with companies in a variety of industries: retail, software services, technology, media, music, manufacturing, engineering, construction, entertainment and travel. Her current clients include Southern Health, PPL, MITIE Engineering, UK Music, United Business Media, Gala Coral, Nokia, CFO.com, Association of Train Operator Companies and Bridgepoint

Based in Winchester Kathryn launched her own Personal and Organizational Development Business in January 2003. This was a ‘natural’ next step after a highly successful and progressive graduate career in retailing with Marks and Spencer’s followed by Senior Consultancy roles in Management and Organisational Development and a two year HR Director and Board position.

With all her clients Kathryn works hard to understand their business, prides herself on being observant to the ‘real issues’ and offers constructive and practical suggestions to achieve tangible results. She consistently achieves high levels of trust with those she works with and has long term relationships with many of her corporate clients who have locations throughout the UK, Europe, America and Asia.

Typically Kathryn works with people who are already highly competent but who are curious to explore new insights, broaden their thinking and realise more of their full potential. Authentic leadership is at the heart of all her interventions to maximise and sustain high performance. Clients have described working with Kathryn as “challenging, honest and thought provoking”, “Supportive, pushed hard but always with sensitivity and integrity”, “commercially oriented and of practical relevance”, “I found a new level of energy and motivation”  “found renewed confidence to face the journey.”

Kathryn has always had strong links with her community and charitable sector providing support and guidance in a variety of ways. She is married with two teenage children.

Kemp is an Associate of Leaders’ Quest, based in New York and has extensive strategic advisory and investment banking experience serving media, retail and publishing companies. He is currently Managing Director of Tucker Capital Corporation.

Kemp has developed a particular expertise working alongside management teams to identify transforming strategies that can unlock effective action. Working with for-profit companies in developing their mission focus or non-profit companies determined to acquire greater business discipline, he has been fortunate to have participated on great teams seeking great results. He has been a key architect in the launch of new strategic business initiatives within for-profits like Torstar, Time-Life, Scholastic, Amazon, The Walt Disney Companies, The Blair Corporation and non-profit organisations as diverse as Sesame Workshop, The National Geographic Society and Public Radio International.

Prior to joining Tucker Capital in 1988, Kemp was MD of the International Capital Markets Group for Republic National Bank of New York. He currently serves as a Director of DNA Direct (Chairman), GenomeWeb and The Genetic Alliance in the U.S. He was Chairman of the Board of Direct Medical Knowledge until its sale to WebMD and has served on the boards of The Academy of American Poets, ALL Species Foundation, Birds of North America and Peace Initiatives International.

Kemp began his career in publishing as an editor and later manager of subsidiary rights for Doubleday & Company, Inc. He is the author of three books: Great American Folklore, Hearts of Fire and The Flame Keepers. He has been an occasional on-air correspondent for The Today Show for pieces about American history and earned his BA from Harvard College cum laude.

Kenzie is a Partner of Leaders’ Quest, working on programmes worldwide and leading our work in China. For the past sixteen years, Kenzie has had her own consulting practice, which specialises in organisational development and leadership issues.  Prior to founding the consulting practice, Kenn & K Consulting Ltd, Kenzie worked for more than sixteen years in human resources management with major corporations, including Chase Manhattan Bank, Citibank, Exxon Chemical Asia Ltd, and American Express Int’l Inc. Kenzie’s last corporate position was with American Express Int’l Inc. as Head of Human Resources (Hong Kong) and Management Development (Asia Pacific).  Since 1993, Kenzie has also consulted with and designed/led workshops for major global corporations including Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific, Deutsche Bank, Swiss Reinsurance, Credit Suisse First Boston, Korn Ferry and corporate clients of HKUST’s EMBA programs.

In addition, Kenzie uses her professional knowledge to serve non-profit organisations, such as The Salvation Army and The Society for the Protection of Children.  Kenzie has served as a member of the Steering Committee of The Caring Company Award, a scheme with the mission to build a caring community spirit through cultivating corporate citizenship and strategic partnership between business and social service sector. She is currently also a member of the International Board of Advisors to the University of Victoria, Canada.

Kenzie lives in Hong Kong with her husband, with son Ian working as a lawyer, and daughter Vanessa, an engineer.

Laksha is the Founder and Executive Director of APSA, a leading rights-based child centred community development organisation that has evolved grassroots and macro-level social paradigms to prevent the exploitation and marginalisation of vulnerable children in Bangalore and Hyderabad. As part of this role, Laksha has overseen the development of Nammane, the only 24 hour rescue and rehab centre for children in crisis in Bangalore. Since its inception, it has seen over 10,000 vulnerable children through its doors.

Laksha’s academic background in sociology, social work and law was the foundation he needed to begin his career as a social worker for the urban community development project in Hyderabad. He went on to become the Director of ‘Concerned for Working Children’ (CWC), a rights-based organisation which campaigns to prevent the exploitation of the 111 million child workers in India.

Laksha developed and implemented innovative programmes in over 50 slums and work places across Bangalore and Hyderabad. His commitment and contribution to children’s rights in India has been recognised and he is called upon by the government of India to be part of the advisory committee on issues of child labour.

Laksha is married, with two children and speaks an array of languages including Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, English and Hindi.

Laksha is one of the leaders of our fellowship programme in Bangalore.

Lanying established ActionAid in China in 200, a time of huge change in China when NGOs and social enterprises were still in their infancy. Today, ActionAid China is one of the leading non-governmental development organisations in the country with 18 field offices directly supporting local people to self-initiate changes as well as influence local government to better respond to the needs of the poor. Lanying is now the Policy Advisor for south-east Asia, ActionAid.

In 2008, Lanying launched the Quest Fellowship Programme in China in partnership with Leaders’ Quest Foundation.

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Lindsay Levin is Founder and Managing Partner of Leaders' Quest. Lindsay's long-standing interest in the impact of inspirational leadership combined with her passion for economic and social development issues and for bringing together leaders from different disciplines and perspectives led her to found Leaders' Quest in 2001.

Lindsay is also Chair and major shareholder of Whites Group, with businesses in the retirement care homes and property sectors in the UK. Through the 1990s she was CEO of Whites Group, which at that time included a network of Audi and VW motor dealerships that she went on to sell during 2004. Lindsay has founded a number of start-ups (where her near misses have shaped her learning at least as much as the successes!) and her entrepreneurial companies have been widely recognised for their focus on people and innovation. Lindsay was named as an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 1999.

Lindsay has a keen interest in international development; she is an active supporter of several global NGOs including Oxfam and a number of local NGOs in Asia and Africa. She was a Trustee of the New Economics Foundation from 2005 –2009. She Chairs the International Steering Committee of OneVoice, a conflict resolution movement, working to strengthen civil society in Israel and Palestine and regularly facilitates workshops and dialogues in the region.

Lindsay graduated in Economics from Cambridge in 1985 and started her career with Bain & Company in London. She lives in London with her husband David and their three sons, Zac, Joe and Louis.

Liz is Director of our Quest Fellowship Programme, based in Richmond and working closely with our Country Directors and NGO partners in China, India, Brazil and South Africa. Liz joined Leaders’ Quest in April 2008 and has 13 years’ experience in the international development field, working for international NGOs including VSO and Children in Crisis. She has designed and managed training and volunteering programmes to empower people to fight poverty and inequality in some of the poorest corners of the world.

Liz studied Russian and French at Leeds University, which has led to a lifelong interest in travel, learning languages and seeing the world from others’ perspectives.

Louise is PA to Fields Wicker-Miurin. She spent seven happy years as an EA at McKinsey in London before joining Leaders' Quest in 2006. Louise loves films, music, football, current affairs (American and British), reading and – most of all – her dog, who keeps her fit now that her attempt at world squash court domination has failed.

Mac has been working as a people and organisation development professional since 1984. He is the founder and CEO of Embercombe, a social enterprise that seeks to ‘inspire committed action towards a truly sustainable world’ and has been an associate facilitator with Leaders Quest since 2005. A typical month will see Mac sharing his time between coaching clients from the corporate sector, writing and speaking, hauling firewood from Embercombe’s woods, designing and running leadership programmes for budding social entrepreneurs and sitting out under the stars by a camp fire with whoever else shares his love of trees, streams, children and the night sky.

Alongside his own UK company, Mac also founded a leadership development consultancy in Poland – Pathways Polska. This small and dynamic company develops the leaders of many large corporations such as BP, Whirlpool, PWC and Orlen, while also engaging them with some of Poland’s most vulnerable communities and winning their support. Mac’s work with organisation leaders is motivated by his belief that this is one of the arenas in which we most need to see radical and transformative change.

Over a period of twenty years Mac has been mentored and coached by Native American metis ‘Medicine’ people to learn the cultural and spiritual teachings that once informed the practice of our own British indigenous culture. The values, principles and wisdom of this tradition inform and guide all aspects of his work and way of living.

Mac’s recent book ‘Finding Earth, Finding Soul – the invisible path to authentic leadership’ speaks to the necessity for each of us to gather our courage and step out of the shadows and become ‘the leaders we have been waiting for’.

Mahendra was born and brought up in Mumbai. He is one of the leaders of Leaders’ Quest’s fellowship programme in India, having built his experience with our lead partner organisation there, CORO.

He started development work as a community literacy volunteer in 1989 and gradually evolved to be a leader in CORO, a non-profit organisation devoted to literacy and the empowerment of slum communities. His multi-faceted contribution to the development of CORO has been crucial.

Mahendra is currently Project Director of CORO. He has previously coordinated research on addressing unequal gender norms as a strategy to reduce sexual risk behaviour among young men and violence against women in low-income communities. This work was done in collaboration with the Population Council of New Delhi and the Institute of Promundo, Brazil.

Though originally a school drop-out, he is now completing a postgraduate distance-learning course in social work.

Dr. Mani joined BasicNeeds India over five years ago. He initially acted as a trustee and a consultant for the organisation’s Bangalore Urban Community Mental Health Programme, before becoming its Programme Director.

Dr. Mani has spent his whole career working in the NGO non-profit public health sector. In the early days, he worked with grassroots groups, building personnel and programme functions, before moving into senior management positions at state and national level. Mani’s family background has led him to have a keen interest in the area of mental health.

He believes that there needs to be cooperation between government service providers and organised stakeholders (particularly those more marginalised sections of the community) and that creative solutions need to be developed, to help those with mental illness and their families.

Dr. Mani is one of the leaders of our fellowship programme in Bangalore.

Marian Goodman is a facilitator, consultant and coach to directors, boards and management teams from corporate and government as well as civil society organisations. Her interest has always been people development – building authentic leadership and healthy organisations and working with executive teams in deepening diversity and reflective practice.

She is the Africa-based partner of the Presencing Institute (Massachussetts, USA), currently working with Dr Otto Scharmer on an African Public Health Leadership Initiative in Namibia, which incorporates Theory U as its model for societal transformation. As associate of the Ashland Institute (Oregon, USA) she facilitates a programme called Coming Into Your Own, working with emerging young women leaders. In addition, she designs and runs executive and management development programmes in future-oriented leadership for Cape Town University’s Graduate School of Business and a broad range of private and public sector organisations.

Marian is also an active social entrepreneur, having in 1994 co-founded Educo Africa, a wilderness-based, non-profit leadership development organisation working with at-risk youth. She served as its Executive Director for 13 years and now chairs its Board. Marian is Founding Director of the Stanford Valley Institute, a non-profit social action movement ‘connecting people who are keen to co-create a healthy and sustainable future for all’. She leads the Institute’s initiative on education and sustainable livelihoods, as well as its annual ideas festival called Freewheeling: Future-Thinking.

Marian is a coach and practitioner using the Thinking Environment™ (Nancy Kline, UK). She has a post-graduate degree from the University of Cape Town and has lived and worked in many countries but definitely loves being part of the richly diverse vibrancy that is Southern Africa. She is an Associate of Leaders’ Quest, working mainly on the Africa programmes and currently lives in Cape Town.

Mark is a Partner at Leaders Quest, having joined the organisation in January 2008. He leads Quests in Africa and Brazil, as well as looking after business development and the UK team/presence. He is closely involved in fundraising for the Leaders’ Quest Foundation from alumni, companies and foundations.

Prior to this Mark was Director of the Executive MBA programme at INSEAD and a member of INSEAD’s senior management team. During this time, he helped set up INSEAD’s Social Innovation centre. Mark had previously looked after INSEAD’s fundraising, corporate and alumni relations in Europe and North America. It was during this time that Mark first got to know Leaders’ Quest, participating in a Quest to India in 2005.

Mark’s passion has always been social impact. For six years after college, Mark was in various fundraising and management roles in UK non-profits including the British Red Cross, Diabetes UK and Body Positive (an HIV/AIDS organisation).

Mark is a trustee of Bridges Charitable Trust, the philanthropic arm of Bridges Ventures (a leading UK social investor), and is on the income generation sub-committee of Leap confronting Conflict, an award-winning UK NGO.

Mark has an Executive MBA from INSEAD and a BA in Psychology & Philosophy from Oxford University. His ongoing education comes from he and his wife’s much loved young family of three.

Max is a Partner in Leaders' Quest, and heads our work in India, as well as working on Quests elsewhere in the world. He has experience in a wide variety of global settings, having worked and lived in North America, Europe and Asia. He is an experienced, creative and enthusiastic business person and facilitator.  He has owned his own successful small businesses, worked in the corporate environment, and as a consultant.

Above all, Max is an entrepreneur and ideas person. Since he was a boy growing up in Western Canada, his head has always been filled with business ideas, plans and dreams. He is dedicated to making the world a better place through creative solutions to some of our big problems. He is a student of human nature and the role of psychology in business.

Max is a Canadian, who has lived in South Asia (India and Sri Lanka) since 2000. He has worked with global and Indian organizations on tough sustainability, supply chain, and leadership issues.  Today he lives full time in Mumbai and part time at 'Chestnut Farm' on the island of Öland in Sweden. He enjoys reading, music, squash (not the vegetable), design, travel, photography, writing, old cars and ice hockey (of course!).

Email Max Metcalfe

Melanie is responsible for global marketing and communications at Leaders’ Quest. Based in our London office, Melanie leads our brand development and presence, building our community by sharing stories of human endeavor that inspire and celebrate positive social change.

Before joining Leaders’ Quest at the start of 2010, Melanie led the communications team at youth charity Greenhouse, where she overhauled the brand to bring it into alignment with the energy and values of its people. Prior to this, she was a professional singer/songwriter, touring with her band while also designing, delivering and promoting music, arts and multimedia programmes to engage young people at risk of exclusion in both Australia and the UK.

Melanie holds a Bachelor of Communications in English Literature and Journalism from Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. She is passionate about cooking, travel, yoga, Zumba and writing songs…and trying to improve her French in what little spare time she has left!

Melanie is an Affiliate Partner of Leaders' Quest based in New York. She is also secretary and treasurer of the Leaders’ Quest Foundation, USA and the Brazil Country Head.  A professor for over 20 years and a C-suite executive coach , Melanie devotes increasing amounts of her time training and teaching outside of the conference and class room, facilitating experiences and discussions that stimulate novel solutions to shared problems, promote multi-stakeholder engagement and enrich and motivate individual leaders’ lives that  can become silo’d or stale during the journey of ‘success’.

As the  Founder/President of Katzman Consulting , Melanie has worked with companies such as: Goldman Sachs, Deutsche  Bank, Credit- Suisse, Northern Trust, Carnegie Bank,  United Health Group, MTV Networks (Nickelodeon TV, Logo Channel, VH1 and MTV), Hearst Corp, WPP, Ketchum  along with various non-profit organisations and governmental bodies worldwide. She is a clinical psychologist with an extensive research background and has published ground breaking work addressing diseases of modernisation and urbanisation, the impact of global culture on identity and the impact of social change on women’s wellbeing. She was a pioneer in the diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders, first in the US and later around the world.

While living in Hong Kong, Melanie was a director at The Business Practice, consulting on management practices in Asian markets. In London, she was a Senior Consultant for Psychology @ Work, which funded National Health Service care and research at the University of London by providing consulting services to the business sector. Melanie joined LQ as a Partner in 2005, having been part of the team that delivered the first two Quests specifically designed for business leaders. Melanie has led multiple  Quests in China, India, Brazil,  South Africa, Nigeria, and  Kenya

The co-author of five books and dozens of peer reviewed articles; Melanie is on faculty at Cornell Medical School and the University of London. Melanie is a member of the University of Pennsylvania's Trustees' Council of Penn Women, where she co-chairs the Committee for Advancement of Women Faculty. She received a doctorate in Psychology and is certified in the US and chartered in the UK. Melanie lives in New York where her home is often filled with quests-some of whom actually even know each other.

Email Melanie Katzman

Nigel is Chief Innovation Officer at the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a global NGO which has brought together 534 of the world’s investors, representing assets under management of over $64 trillion, to engage with over 6000 of the largest public corporations on the business implications of climate change.  Nigel has been responsible for developing and launching new programmes in the global supply chain of over 40 multinationals such as Wal-Mart, Unilever and IBM, in the public procurement sector and with global cities.

Prior to joining CDP, Nigel was a member of the MBO team and Senior Vice President of Supply Chain for an automotive component manufacturing company with a turnover of $800million and facilities all over the world.

Nigel has extensive international experience, having worked in Spain, the USA, Germany and the UK at various times in his career. He also has significant experience in emerging markets, having led projects in Brazil, India and China.

Nigel worked for Lucas Industries for seven years as a manufacturing systems consultant, helping multi-disciplinary teams redesign factories and introduce lean manufacturing techniques.  He then moved into operations, running a factory in Manchester before moving into general management.

Nigel studied Mathematics at Cambridge University and completed his MSc at Schumacher College, where he studied climate science and the industrial response to global warming.  He also has first-hand experience of some aspects of climate change having been a member of various scientific and mountaineering expeditions to the icecaps of Greenland, Iceland and Patagonia. Nigel has been a Leaders’ Quest participant on a Brazil Quest in 2008 and an India Quest in 2010.

Rahul has lived in Mumbai all his life, growing up in a slum, in a poorly educated family and therefore has a deep understanding of the community. Rahul has a key role in our fellowship programme in Maharashtra, India. His 12 years’ experience of work with the NGO,CORO, based in Mumbai, working at the grassroots has helped to shape his role in the fellowship programme. Rahul’s involvement in community work goes back to his volunteering as a librarian of community mobile libraries when he was 11 years old, studying in class VI.

Rahul received one of our first fellowships, during which time he led a project on youth personality development and male sexuality. Overcoming the challenges of his background, Rahul is a graduate in Economics and is currently doing LL B (Bachelor of Law). He is one of very few graduates in his community. Mumtaz, Rahul’s wife, is also a social activist and former fellow.

The couple has two children, daughter Reshma and son Kabir. Spending time with their kids, cooking, travelling and reading are things he enjoys most when he is not working. Rahul also has an interest in street theatre as a tool for development and has been involved with dramatic performances.

Rosanda is a leadership and organisational change expert with over 20 years’ experience doing commercial roles in the corporate world. In different guises, she was designing and delivering initiatives to engage employees in changing agenda. More recently Rosanda has been focusing on an eclectic mix of communities, from her local community, to working with young offenders, to supporting the transformation of a rural district in South Africa. She is skilled in moving people from awareness that something needs to change, to actually taking a stand, which requires a personal commitment to do something differently. She focuses on challenging leadership teams and communities to co-create their values and take ownership of building a better future together.

What matters most to Rosanda is getting better at noticing every day actions that unleash people’s energy to build more sustainable communities together.

Rose joined Leaders’ Quest in October 2011 to coordinate the fundraising efforts for the Quest Fellowship Programme.
Rose comes from an NGO sector background in international and cross cultural environments including a school in Beijing, a rainforest conservation project in Cambodia, and over three years at Oxfam in the International Secretariat and Delhi based Indian affiliate.

Rowan currently lives in Cape Town, South Africa and runs a company by the name of The Fresh Group specialising in human capital development. He grew up in South Africa and emigrated to the United States with his family when he was 18 and lived there until the age of 32 when he returned to South Africa.

Rowan is a very committed African and feels very much like his work lies in this country and on this continent. He is married to Jane who runs a PR agency in Cape Town. They recently became pregnant and are expecting their first child in June 2012.

Rowan and Jane live in a seaside town outside Cape Town by the name of Hout Bay and are blissfully happy young Capetonians!

Sasha joined the Leaders’ Quest India team in Mumbai as a Programme Coordinator in September 2011. Sasha sees her role at Leaders’ Quest as a coming together of her passion for sustainability and development issues and her innate organisational skills.

She was initially drawn to the field of wildlife conservation and pursued  a Master’s degree in Animal Physiology in Mumbai. However, her stint at a Fair Trade Organisation, where she managed environmental projects around India, set her on a different trajectory. This led her to pursue a further Master’s degree in International Development & Environment Analysis from Monash University, Australia. She also has a passion for teaching and has taught at university level in both Mumbai and Melbourne and has found teaching and facilitating knowledge to be one of the most rewarding experiences. Her desire to give back to her home country in some measure drew Sasha back to Mumbai or as she refers to it – Bombay.

Sasha loves nothing more than to relax on the beach in her home town Goa and enjoys travelling and experiencing new cultures.

Simon believes passionately in conscious leadership. In 1993, aged 24 he started his first business, Mercator International, a brokerage company. This proved so successful that by 1997 Simon owned a further 3 companies covering commercial consultancy, sports management and IT systems, with offices around the globe. From 1998 he raised millions in venture capital to develop IT solutions. In 2001 valuations in his specific IT sector dropped by 90%, the fallout resulting in the closure of all his businesses. Emotionally and physically shattered by this experience he moved to Seville to recover and learn Spanish.

Simon then ventured to South America where he chanced upon the English explorer, John Blashford-Snell, in a bar in La Paz. Simon joined his expedition into the Amazon. He spent the next 4 years leading scientists and aid workers back into the Amazon, across the Himalayas, Mongolia, and Africa. He managed teams and the constant risks, overseeing scientific research, the building or refurbishing of wells, clinics and schools, and the provision of medical aid.

In 2006, Simon was appointed CEO of the International blindness prevention NGO, Right to Sight. He focused on empowering local talent through training and the establishment of social enterprise models. He raised substantial funds and established partnerships with governments, NGO’s and business. Simon developed 25 projects in 8 African countries and India, resulting in partner clinics achieving 500,000 patients per annum within 4 years. Simon has also been mentoring people of varying ages and experiences for the past 15 years. Having taken time out in a Zen monastery to learn about silence and meditation, he now focuses his energies on fellow leaders, working with them to make the best of themselves in all aspects of their lives.

Simon lives in London, enjoys the chance to sail a boat, catch a fish or play a friendly round of golf. He regularly returns to Seville for a dose of sun, manzanilla and flamenco.

Sophie is the Programme Assistant for the Leaders' Quest Fellowship Programme Team. Previously an intern at Leaders' Quest, she has a BA in Foreign Languages and Business Studies from Nantes University, France and an MA in International Studies and Diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Sophie spent some time studying Mandarin at the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade and completed an internship at UNDP in Beijing. As a dual national, Sophie grew up both in France and the UK, as well as the Czech Republic. Through her travels, she developed a strong cultural awareness reinforcing her desire to work in international development. Since living in London, Sophie has worked in the media industry and in policy at The British Academy.

She enjoys reading travel books and playing badminton, and hopes to travel to China again sometime soon!

Sujata founded our fellowship programme in Mumbai, describing it as her 'dream project’ and ‘the culmination of 20 years’ work’. It's her vision to replicate the model with other partner organisations and expand it across Maharashtra State and beyond.

Sujata is also Co-founder and Director of CORO, a non-profit organisation established in 1989 working towards propagating adult literacy in Mumbai’s slums. Since then, CORO has grown into an integrated community development project, working to respond to the issues identified by community people and particularly focusing on the empowerment of women.

Today, CORO encompasses a federation of around 300 grassroots women’s groups with an outreach of around 10,000 community women. Initiatives include a women's credit cooperative society, guidance centres for accessing basic amenities, legal aid and counselling centres, study classes for primary school children and capacity-building of grassroots activists.

Ulrich is an Associate of Leaders' Quest, is a Member of SIOP and the Commonwealth Club and is passionate about transforming education to better prepare emerging leaders in graduate schools in the technical disciplines (business, sciences, engineering, medicine, law, etc.). Ulrich has a successful track record advising CEOs, Board Chairs, BU leaders and function heads over the past 20 years. He has worked with leaders from organizations of various industries and sizes including start-ups, Fortune 500s in high-tech, financial services, healthcare, CPG and global NGOs. Ulrich is also an entrepreneur having founded two successful businesses in the last 10 years.Ulrich is currently a lecturer at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business where he focuses on the areas of leadership and high performing teams. He is also working on founding his third start up which will focus on advisory services to senior leaders who have to adapt how they lead to successfully grow businesses. He has Board experience, co-founded Passages Consulting, was a Managing Partner at Mercer Delta Consulting and served as a Head of Strategy at the USC Medical Center in Los Angeles CA.

Ulrich completed his graduate studies at Columbia University's Business School and Organization Psychology program, he has a wonderful family with two boys, is a huge soccer fan and is an avid student of human nature.

Vilas has been working with CORO since its inception. Vilas represented one of seven community based organisations that came together to form CORO in 1989. He joined CORO while studying engineering.

Coming from a humble background, Vilas is both sensitive and responsive to the social environment around him. Vilas is a committed and intelligent activist who has taken every opportunity to develop his professional abilities.

The first responsibility Vilas took on for CORO was managing the accounts. Thereafter, he shouldered every responsibility given to him and did his best to shape-up CORO’s activities. He is a creative artist. Vilas wrote a tele-serial produced by CORO on adult literacy learning which was telecasted for two years on a prime time, national television channel. He has also written street plays, songs and campaign material for CORO initiatives.

He is a silent leader, content to be working in the background to ensure that projects happen in the way they are planned. Vilas has done his two years ‘Master of Social Work’ (full time) course as part of his ‘Senior’ Leaders’ Quest fellowship (2007-09). Vilas focused on ‘the management of non-profit organisations’ during his fellowship.

Vilas served as Project Director of CORO during 2006-07. He is responsible for coordinating the fellowship programme in India as well as CORO’s various activities with a focus on budgetary and implementation issues. He also does all of the organisation’s creative writing work.

William first met Leader’s Quest in 2002 when some of the Quest Leaders and participants visited South Africa. At this time he was a maximum security inmate at Johannesburg Prison where he was serving a long sentence for several serious crimes. During his incarceration he a worked extensively with Khulisa, a South African based NGO involved in crime prevention, community  cohesion and social growth, leading and facilitating workshops focussed on rehabilitation, HIV prevention and addressing drug abuse for around 1000 prisoners. He was released in December 2007, after almost eight years in prison.

Shortly after release William established a geotechnical contracting and supply company that offers geotechnical services, equipment and consumables to the civil consulting and contracting sectors, as well as to the geotechnical industry itself. The company designs, manufactures and operates precision geotechnical equipment. He is now in the process of establishing a procurement company to service construction firms in Africa.

William is a citizen of South Africa and is based in Cape Town, which he recently relocated to. His interests outside of work include reading, series Land Rovers, hiking, and he is totally addicted to the sport of paragliding. He travels regularly to explore new sites.