ebbf advisory council

An introduction to ebbf, its core vision, core values, governance can be found clicking here.

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Arthur Dahl (Switzerland / France / USA)

A research scientist with over 40 years of international experience in environmental sustainability. Arthur Dahl brings to the governing board more than 40 years’ international experience in the environment and sustainability. He holds a PhD in Marine Biology from the University of California.

Douglas Henck (USA)

Mr. Henck was 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.
 

 

Dorothy Marcic (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.

 

Faramarz Ettehadieh (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.

François Couillard (Canada)

François Couillard has been an active ebbf member since 2001. His career encompassed over 30 years of developing and executing strategies for businesses and non-profits. He is currently the CEO of the Canadian Association of Optometrists, a 5,500 member Canadian healthcare professional association. He has held leadership positions for large corporations like Johnson & Johnson and Nordion. He was also Chief Operating Officer of two of Canada’s largest non-profits: the Canadian Red Cross and VON Canada. He has consulted for clients in the fields of healthcare, strategy and social innovation.


François enjoys working with communities of interest on high stakes issues. He has served on numerous advisory councils and boards, including Canada’s Advisory Council on National Security and Europe’s Association of Imaging Producers and Equipment Suppliers (AIPES). He was the President of the board of the Ottawa Community Immigrant Service Organization (OCISO) and Co-Chair of HEAL, Organizations for Health Action, representing over 650,000 healthcare professionals in Canada. He is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC), holds a MBA in Marketing and International Business from McGill University and a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical Engineering) from the Université de Sherbrooke. He lives in Ottawa, Canada where the best way to find him is to catch him on his bike rides or ski outings in the nearby hills.

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Jyoti Munsiff (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.

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W. ​Gijs van de Fliert (USA)

He was one of the early members of ebbf in 1992, while working for Citibank in Portugal, as its Country Risk Manager, and member of this subsidiary’s management team. 

In 1992, Gijs accepted a position in portfolio management with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, in Washington DC, USA.  Following portfolio management, his career included assignments in investment operations during the 1997 Asia crisis in Southeast Asia, working on problem investments and recoveries, including half year assignments in both Thailand and the P.R. of China, coaching local staff in developing a world view in development investment practices.  
He then pioneered IFC’s framework for Operational Risk Management followed later-on by collaborating on an Integrity Risk framework for addressing fraud and corruption in IFC projects.  

He is a proponent of entities that promote the wellbeing of staff, the environment, and the larger community.  

Besides his professional career, Gijs has been active in community building activities, serving on Bahá’í institutions (elected and appointed) including financial and/or other administrative capacities.  

His joy in live is to serve his fellowmen and improve processes.  He is an effective team player, collaborator, and mentor with an affinity to work with people of diverse backgrounds, temperaments, and talents.

Beppe Robiati (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.

Philippe Gerling (USA)

Raised in Belgium later obtained an MBA from the University of Dallas, Irving, TX. 

He worked in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for a design and construction consultant and then moved to Guam where he worked for Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. promoted to operations manager and later general manager.  
Shortly after the change in ownership, Philippe was assigned owner-liaison responsibility during the construction of Nissan Guam’s new facilities on Guam from design stage to furnishing and move in.  
His management experience, besides typical business operations, involved him in disaster preparedness for major events such as hurricanes and earthquakes.  He did lead the organization in successfully improving its customer service and satisfaction in a multi-ethnic community.  
Besides his business activities Philippe was active with NGOs that include the Bahá’í community, the Guam Chamber of Commerce, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Guam, Crime Stoppers and the Rotary Club.  
He joined ebbf in the early 2000’s and attended his first ebbf international conference in London in 2014.  This conference inspired him to collaborate with three young professionals in Guam to organize monthly meaningful conversations under the ebbf banner over 4 years.  
Philippe left Guam in early 2021 and relocated to the Dallas-Fort Worth area where he resides now.

 

Monica Martinez (Chile)

Monica is passionate about serving and transforming companies and their teams into ecosystems and trustful communities. Monica is an experienced facilitator of Soul-driven Leadership and enjoys witnessing the progress of others. She resides in Chile, together with her husband and three lovable children.

Monica is a Chemical Engineer with 25 years of professional experience, graduating with an MBA with honours from Regis University in Colorado, USA, oriented to International Business Development. She is certified as a Project Manager at the University of Denver and is certified as an International Coach and Facilitator. She is also certified with Prosci for Change Management. C-level Coach.

Monica is currently a member and co-directing ebbf Hispanos, member of the council on innovation and technology for the US embassy, Director of Strategy 2 Succeed and  Co-founder and current Vice president for FUPAHEP an NGO to provide answers and manage access to treatment and opportunities for all on the issue of viral hepatitis for Chile.

Wilfried Claus (The Netherlands)

Currently Program Director Innovation HR&O Strategy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague. His career is a mix of executive responsibilities, consultancy and science. He was Strategic Management consultant at Berenschot and the Strategy Development Group. Had senior executive positions with Ericsson (VP Ericsson Telecommunications NL), ASML (CSVP HR&O) and Teijin (Director HR&O Teijin Aramid and Director Strategy High Performance Fibers BG).

Wilfried holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Leuven and an Executive MBA from Columbia University in New York. He participated in The Challenge of Leadership program at Insead, Fontainebleau. In his search for the truth on leadership and change he has studied the concept of Wholesome Leadership in India and facilitates leadership programs together with Pragati Leadership Institute.

Wilfried is convinced that business is crucial for building the future of a sustainable, peaceful and joyful world. Creating the opportunities for meaningful work and welfare by serving humanity. A never-ending source of inspiration for creating value. An inspiring work place with a culture of trust, respect and opportunities for growth for the individual, the organization and the society.