(Austria)

An award-winning entrepreneur dedicated to applying ethical values in business. Austria's ‘Business World Magazine’ Entrepreneur of the Year for 2003, Faramarz Ettehadieh has been the Founder and President of the Imperial Kapitalbeteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Linz since 1972. The company has grown steadily, through the application of ethical principles and values, into an international organisation – the Imperial Finance Group.

The Group offers financial services and develops real estate projects including business centres, hotels and housing in various European countries, including Austria, Germany, Italy and Hungary. The Imperial Finance Group has around 400 employees and 50.000, founded the Partner Bank and was co-founder of the only daily economic newspaper in Austria, WirtschaftsBlatt.

Faramarz holds a 1972 Mag.rer.soc.oec. and a 1974 Doktor rer.soc.oec, both from the Kepler Universität Linz. His international experience spans more than 70 countries, supporting sustainable educational projects in developing regions and lecturing in Business & Ethics. As well as being a member of the ebbf, Farmarz is Chairman of the Board of the Two Wings Network for social economic development through entrepreneurship.

Whilst the ebbf concentrates on promoting ethics in business, the Two Wings Network is focused on coherent development in the Third World. Faramarz has written an article entitled ‘Focusing on service, one man builds a financial empire on spiritual principle’. LINK  TO ARTICLE

(Germany)

former CEO of PFW Aerospace AG, with an impressive track-record in driving organisational change through innovative, values-driven strategies.

Ruediger just left his position as Chief Executive Officer at PFW Aerospace AG, a leading tier one supplier in the Aviation and Aerospace industry with some 2,000 employees.

He joined the company in January 2007 and quickly implemented a full-scale restructuring programme, including values-driven strategies that drove its staff towards meaningful motivation and responsible behaviours.

Before that, Ruediger was the Managing Director at Elcoteq Communications Technology GmbH, a Public Company in the Electrical/ Electronic Manufacturing industry.

There, he transformed the company to reach the enviable and unique point of not only saving two German production plants from closing but also selling those plants to Chinese customers - reversing the usual production trend of outsourcing to China.

Between the end of 2003 and the end of 2006, Ruediger was also Managing Director of Elcoteq Elektronik GmbH.

Previously, he was Director at SCM and IT (CNE and IE Europe) Elcoteq SE.

(USA)

Mr. Henck is the CEO of AEGON Asia.

He had previously worked as President, Sun Life Financial Asia and as a member of the corporation’s senior executive team. During his five years there, reported earnings increased over 30% per year and reported sales figures even faster: by 2005, fully 1/3 of Sun Life Financial’s worldwide individual life insurance sales were being generated in Asia.

Prior to joining Sun Life Financial, Mr. Henck was Senior Vice President of the AIG Life Division of the American International Group from 1997 to 2000. Prior to that, he spent 23 years with the U.S.-based Aetna, Inc., the last ten years as the senior executive in Asia working out of the regional headquarters in Hong Kong that he started in 1987. Mr. Henck joined Aetna in 1974 after graduating with a B.S. (Mathematics) degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. Mr. Henck qualified as a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in 1978.

Mr. Henck is a Past Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, having led the organization during the historic 1997 year of Hong Kong’s handover. He also served two terms as Chairman of the Asia Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce from 1993 – 1995. As a frequent spokesman for American business interests in Asia, Mr. Henck testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1996 and appeared numerous times on local and international television as well as in print media. He continues to serve as Vice Chairman of the Asian Corporate Governance Association and is a member of the Board of Supervisors of China Pacific Life Insurance Company.

(USA)

Dr. Marcic is a former professor at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management and former Director of Graduate Programs in Human Resource Development. She is the author of 12 published books on women, values-based organizations, and management. Previously, she was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Economics-Prague, teaching MBA students and practicing managers. During the past 25 years, Dorothy has conducted over 2000 keynote addresses and seminars on topics such as leadership, women and leadership, business ethics, and high-performing organizations, including topics on her book, Managing with the Wisdom of Love: Uncovering Virtue in People and Organizations. As a consultant, she has worked with executives at Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola Corp, AT&T Bell Labs; the Governor and Cabinet of North Dakota; the US Department of State; and Hallmark Corporation. She has worked with health care organizations in the US and Latin America and served as a faculty member in Health Administration. While in Europe, she served as advisor to the US Ambassador of the Czech Republic and was a delegate to the UN Economic and Social Develop Summit in Copenhagen. In 2008 she will be delegate to the UN Commission on the Status on Women.

Dorothy began her career in the arts as a production assistant on the TV program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and had her own weekly radio shows, the most recent being Mind Your Business at WLSU-FM. Several years ago, Dorothy started experimenting with the arts, integrating them into her leadership training programs. This led her to using music as a learning tool and became the catalyst for studying the depiction of women in Top-40 music, demonstrated in her book and the subsequent musical theater production, both named RESPECT (see the Respect Musical Website). Both the book and the theatrical production have been very successful around the world with over 2000 performances and 500,000 audience members in such locations as Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Atlanta, and Sydney, Australia. In addition, Dorothy just workshopped a new musical, I’m Gonna Make You Love Me, and she is working on two more, one of which is farce. Her current team includes Tony-nominated producer Bill Franzblau and the three-time Tony winnng choreographer/director Hinton Battle.

Other books she has written include Understanding Management (a textbook with Southwestern that has sold over 150,000), Bottom Line: A Tale of Greed, Arrogance and Murder in Corporate America (a business novel), Management International, and four Golden Books (Look at Me, Look at My Farm, Look at My Town, and Look at My House).

(India / South Africa)

Award-winning business woman and Shell’s highest ranking female employee world-wide. Jyoti Munsiff is an Advisory Trustee of the Honorary Counsel of the International Business Leaders Forum. Born in Mumbai, Jyoti joined Shell in 1969 in the legal department and, since then, has worked in almost every Shell business and function all over the world.

In the mid-eighties Jyoti was invited to be Secretary to the Committee of Managing Directors which, at the time, was the top leadership team managing Shell business and functions worldwide. She was voted Business Woman of the year in 2005 at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards.

Jyoti is the former Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer at Royal Dutch Shell. She was also General Counsel-Corporate with Shell International Limited and Legal Adviser and Company Secretary of the Shell Transport and Trading Company plc.

She is a Director of and Honorary Counsel to HRH The Prince of Wales Business Leaders' Forum and Governor of the College of Law. Jyoti is also a trustee of the Imperial War Museum Development Trust and Chairman of the IWM Trading Company. 

(Italy)

Co-founder of the ebbf and expert in bringing ethical values and the concepts of a new world order into business. Beppe Robiati is the co-founder of the ebbf, an industrialist and the CEO of SCAC Italia. He has spent his lifetime combining his business activities with a parallel educational and spiritual role, which aims to bring the concepts of a new world order into business.

A combination of publications and lectures delivered in a number of countries around the world has allowed him to share his ideas and expertise with business people, civil society, professors, academics and students. His ethical approach includes a view of human resources as a mine rich in gems and a business model that looks at the benefit of that approach to stakeholders. Underlying spiritual principles have allowed his entrepreneurial career to prosper, whilst setting a practical example that transforms words into action.

Working with a team of collaborators, Beppe has built an extensive curriculum spanning a wide range of business issues. His pillar remains the concept of ethical behaviour, both as a vision in a new world order and as a practical instrument in the business and socio-political arena.

He has written a number of books, including ‘Faith and the World Economy – a joint venture’. He also presents at over 50 conferences every year on subjects ranging from CSR to economics and the new world order to business ethics. Beppe is Chair at the University of Bari and he is currently running a Masters in Ethical Business at the IFOA management school in Italy. 

(France)

Co-founder of the ebbf and retired business executive with an extensive operational background in management in Western Europe. Eric (Ezzat) Zahrai was educated in Iran in Finance and Administration before studying Business Strategy in Insead Fontainebleau and Combustion Engineering in Ecole de Chauffe, Paris, France.

After five years in East Africa as Branch Manager of a British firm, he established his home in France and became assistant to the General Manager at Gamlen Naintré & Co, a French company focused on manufacturing and marketing speciality chemicals for marine and industry.In 1970, the French company was acquired by Sybron Corporation of Rochester New York, a Fortune 500 listed organisation – and Eric was appointed President of the French subsidiary.

In 1974, the Gamlen group of companies in France, UK, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain became one profit centre. Eric was appointed as CEO of the new group and continued developing the business until his retirement. He then formed Tacor International, a family-owned consulting and publishing firm and published several books of Club of Rome members and other prestigious authors.

In 1990, together with a long-time friend, he founded the European Bahá'í Business Forum to promote business ethics, CSR and emerging values for a global economy.Eric is also a Director of ‘Cercle d'Ethique des Affaires, Paris’, a member of the ‘European Movement’ and several non-profit organisations. He is a French citizen and has three children.