Terms Of Reference Podcast

Tibor Vörös has over 15 years of experience both in academic and corporate environments. He has worked in various management areas (knowledge management, decision making, business intelligence, information systems) as practitioner, but he also researched these topics and evaluated corresponding frameworks from the theory point of view. Vörös holds an MSc in Maths, Physics and Information Technology and is a Senior Lecturer at Central European University Business School. His research work ranges from social media to cultural and strategic issues for corporations. More recently Mr Vörös spent considerable time on various business simulations and created unique storyboards to help students experience real life problems in classroom situations. Current research work concentrates on the relationship of culture and technology. CEEMAN has selected Mr Voros as the winner of the Innovation in Course Design category for the CEEMAN Champions’ Award 2010.

Sue Miller is Director of Programming and Training for Peace Corps Georgia, and oversees the development and delivery of training programs for Peace Corps volunteers in Georgia, as well as bearing responsibility for programmatic direction, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, site development, and strategic partnerships for the three Peace Corps projects in Georgia: English Education, Organizational Development, and Peace Corps Response. Prior to assuming her current position, she worked for over 10 years for development organizations in Latin America, Africa, Russia, Georgia, and East Timor on community and international development programs.

Phil Bright is a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Specialist at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community – a technical assistance organization covering the island nations of the South Pacific.

Phil’s work focuses on supporting census activities and includes capacity building, planning, implementing and analyzing census data. Prior to joining SPC he was a Research Assistant at Curtin University of Technology.

Sigrid Gruener is a program manager at the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation who focuses on peace building, security and development. Prior to joining the Foundation, she worked as a practitioner, trainer and researcher in the field of development, peace building and conflict transformation for International Solutions Group, Relief International, and Columbia University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution. Sigrid earned a master's in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

In 2005, American writer and editor Ken Budd's father collapsed and died after a heart attack.

After that shock, with his 40th birthday looming, Ken had a few questions about his own life that suddenly seemed more urgently in need of answers. Over the next couple of years, he traveled the world, volunteering with a wide range of organizations, and wrote a book that covers his adventures as a ‘voluntourist' in six countries, travels he made with and without his wife Julie, in pursuit of the answer to the question, “What am I doing that matters?”

Fresh out of university, Tim Ludford volunteered in Nigeria with poverty-focused British development organization VSO. On his return, he got a job selling mobile phones, but his volunteering experience had made him realize development was a career, and that it was possible to get paid for helping people. He put out a few feelers, and landed a job in London with JICA, Japan's overseas aid development organization. 

Ludford works now as an independent humanitarian aid and development consultant, has operated extensively in Iraq, and as a program evaluator for organizations including UNICEF and Plan International.

Michael Klein is the Director of the Washington. D.C.-based International Solutions Group, a humanitarian aid and development-focused management consulting firm that specializes in program performance, private sector development, capacity building and information technology development.

Barbara Pierce Bush is the daughter of former President George W. Bush and co-founder in 2009 of Global Health Corps, which provides opportunities for young professionals from diverse backgrounds to work on the front lines of the fight for global health equity.

Global Health Corps pairs its fellows with organizations that require new thinking and innovative solutions, and works right now in Burundi, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, the United States, and Zambia.

During a 35-year-long career, oilman Rod MacAlister has mostly worked in Africa, managing businesses, but also keeping an eye on and supporting the communities in which he was working. 

He served as president of the U.S. African Development Fund for several years, and with primatologist Jane Goodall, built an orphanage and sanctuary for chimpanzees in the Congo that is the largest in Africa. 

Other projects he has spearheaded include building toilets for rural schools in Gabon, and establishing a medical clinic in the Congo. 

Rod now works in Gabon, running a small, independent company that produces 10 percent of the country’s oil. In the spring of 2013 he spoke with Terms of Reference host Stephen Ladek.

Claire Hajaj is an independent political analyst and writer who over the course of her career has produced recommendations for G20 responses to the Arab Spring, the UN’s first integrated strategy for Iraq, and advised the UN on a five-year plan for development and peace consolidation in Kosovo. She has also worked as a journalist, and a public affairs consultant.