Left to right, Back row: Hope Shand (Staff), Pat Mooney (Staff), Tim Brodhead (President, Board), Silvia Ribeiro (Staff), Olle Nordberg (Board), Ricarda Steinbrecher (Board), Jim Thomas (Staff), Maria José Guazzelli (Board)
Middle (ends): Charlie (Staff), Veronica Villa (Staff)
Front Row: Erin O'Manique (Staff), Michael Hansen (Board), Nettie Wiebe (Secretary-Treasurer, Board), Neth Dano (Board)
Missing: Kathy Jo Wetter (Staff), Alejandro Nadal (Board), Andrés Barreda (new to board), Praful Bidwai (Board), Regassa Feyissa (Board), Mariam Mayet (new to board), Gregor Wolbring (Board)
Tim Brodhead
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Tim is ETC Group's President. He is President and CEO of the J.W. McConnell Foundation, and past Executive Director of the Canadian Council for International Cooperation. In 2002, Tim was named an Officer of the Order of Canada the highest honour awarded to Canadian citizens.
Nettie Wiebe
Delisle, Saskatchewan, Canada
ETC Group Secretary-Treasurer. Nettie is a farmer and Ethics Professor at St. Andrew's College, University of Saskatchewan. She is past President of the National Farmer's Union and currently serves on the executive council of Via Campesina.
Andrés Barreda
Mexico City, Mexico
Andrés is the General Coordinator of Centre for Social Analysis, Information and Popular Training (CASIFOP) in Mexico City. He holds full-time tenure at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), in the Faculty of Economics, teaching Political Economy and Critical Geopolitics. He has participated in several research projects, in collaboration with social movements, indigenous and workers organizations, as well as several research centres within the UNAM, and with other academic institutions.
Praful Bidwai
New Delhi, India
Former senior editor of The Times of India, Praful is a freelance journalist and regular columnist for several leading newspapers in India. He is an associate editor of Security Dialogue, published by PRIO, Oslo; a member of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists against Proliferation (INESAP) and co-founder of the Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament (MIND). He is a co-recipient, with Achin Vanaik, of the International Peace Bureau's Sean McBride International Peace Prize for 2000. His latest book, co-authored with Achin Vanaik, is New Nukes: India, Pakistan and Global Nuclear Disarmament (Interlink 1999).
Elenita Neth C. Dano
Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Neth is an independent researcher who has extensive experience in development work, especially on issues affecting community-based conservation and development of plant genetic resources in Southeast Asia. She is currently employed as Associate of Third World Network (TWN), on a part-time basis, working mainly on agriculture and biosafety issues in Asia.
Regassa Feyissa
Addis Abba, Ethiopia
Dr. Regassa Feyissa, a physiologist and biochemist by training and is a professional in the area of genetic resources conservation and use. He worked as a germplasm conservation manager at the Plant Genetic Resources Center/Ethiopia (PGRC/E), and later as a Director of the Center, promoting the Center to the Institute of Biodiversity. Together with the earlier Director of PGRC/E, Dr. Melaku Worede, he developed the scientific basis for on-farm/ in situ conservation and enhancement as well as strategies for linking off-farm/ex situ and in situ systems for farmers' varieties (landraces), and for restoring the displaced genetic diversity. He is the founder and the Executive Director of Ethio-Organic Seed Action (EOSA), a technical NGO working on sustainable Agrobiodiversity management and use. He is also a winner of the Slow Food Award for the defense of Biodiversity.
Maria José Guazzelli
Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Maria José Guazzelli is an agronomist. She is founder and coordinator of Centro Ecológico, an NGO based in Rio Grande do Sul, the southern-most state of Brazil, that works with small farmers and promotes ecological agriculture as a tool for sustainable development.
Michael Hansen
Yonkers, NY, USA
Dr. Michael Hansen is a researcher and spokesperson for the Consumer Policy Institute, a division of the Consumers Union of the United States (the same organization that publishes Consumer Reports magazine). Hansen currently works on biotechnology issues and has become a visible opponent to genetic engineering in agriculture. Despite his ideological biases, Hansen is frequently quoted by mainstream media outlets as an impartial scientific expert on the subject of mad cow disease. He is also the author of Biotechnology and Milk: Benefit or Threat?
Mariam Mayet
Richmond, South Africa
Mariam Mayet obtained a BA. LLB.LLM from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. She is the founder and director of the African Centre for Biosafety, a non-profit organisation, based in Johannesburg South Africa. The ACB provides authoritative, credible, relevant and current information, research and policy analysis on issues pertaining to genetic engineering, biosafety and biopiracy in Africa.
Ricarda A. Steinbrecher
Oxford, UK
Dr. Ricarda A. Steinbrecher is a biologist and geneticist. She has specialised in gene regulation since 1982 and has worked as a research scientist in the field of mutational analysis, gene identification and gene therapy in university and hospital settings. Since 1995 she has focused on genetic engineering in food and farming, its risks and potential consequences on health, food security and the environment. She received a first class honours M.Sc. (Dipl.rer.nat.) in biology with a focus on developmental biology at the University of Kiel, Germany and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics with focus on gene regulation at the University of London, UK. She is a member of the Federation of German Scientists and the British Society for Allergy, Nutritional and Environmental Medicine. At present she is Co-Director of EcoNexus, a not-for-profit public interest research organisation based in the UK.
Gregor Wolbring
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Dr. Gregor Wolbring is a biochemist at University of Calgary and an Adjunct Assistant Professor for bioethics At the University of Calgary and University of Alberta. He is the founder and Executive director of the International Center for Bioethics, Culture and Disability, founder and Coordinator of the International Network of Bioethics and Disability and a Member of the Ethics Working Group of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. Member of the Executive of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO (CCU).