Speakers
24th IB Asia Pacific Annual Regional Conference
25 – 28 March 2010, Singapore
Each day will contain one or two keynote addresses by leading global visionaries. Current speaker list includes Greg Mortenson (co-author of “Three Cups of Tea”), Professor James Tooley (Privatization of education expert), and K. David Harrison (linguist, author of “When Languages Die”) and many more.
An internationally known scholar, James Tooley is Professor of Education Policy at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. He was the founding President of The Education Fund, Orient Global from 2007 to 2009, and the founder of the E. G. West Centre at the University. For his ground-breaking research on private education for the poor in India, China and Africa, Professor Tooley was awarded gold prize in the first International Finance Corporation/Financial Times Private Sector Development Competition in September 2006.
Prior to joining Newcastle University, Professor Tooley previously taught and researched at the Universities of Oxford and Manchester, England; Simon Fraser University, Canada; and University of the Western Cape, South Africa. His PhD is from the Institute of Education, University of London. His first job was a mathematics high school teacher in Zimbabwe.
He has been described in Philanthropy as “a 21st century Indiana Jones” travelling to “the remotest regions on Earth researching something that many regard as mythical: private, parent-funded schools serving the Third World poor.” His work has been widely covered in publications including Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly to London’s Financial Times, Spectator, and Independent. His work has been featured in a PBS documentary, alongside the work of Nobel Laureate Mohammed Yunus, and a documentary for the BBC.
George 
Walker was director general of the IB from 1999 until his retirement in 2006. He studied chemistry at Exeter College, Oxford, UK and gained both MA and MSc degrees. He then studied music at the University of Cape Town. After teaching science at Watford Boys’ Grammar School he won a Salters Institute scholarship to carry out further research at the University of York, UK and was then appointed lecturer in the university’s department of education.
Walker then decided to return to school, first as deputy head of a state comprehensive school, followed by two headships of state comprehensives in the UK. During this period he helped to create the Centre for the Study of Comprehensive Schools. He was made an honorary fellow of the University of York and in 1987 was appointed to the UK national curriculum science working party. He was also invited to join the Headmasters’ Conference as an additional member. In 1992 he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to UK education.
In 1991 Walker was appointed director general of the International School of Geneva, Switzerland (Ecolint), the world’s oldest and largest international school which educates more than 4,000 students of 130 different nationalities on three large campuses. He remained in this post until he joined the IB eight years later.
Walker has been visiting professor of education at the University of Bath, UK since 1997 and was awarded an honorary degree of doctor of education (EdD) by the university in 2003. He was a member of the governing Council of the University of York from 2001 until 2005. He is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute (CCMI) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
Walker’s publications include a collection of essays and lectures on the nature of international education published under the title ‘To Educate the Nations 2’ by Peridot press in 2004. In the same year ‘International Education and the International Baccalaureate’ was added to the Fastback series published by Phi Delta Kappa in the USA. Educating the Global Citizen (John Catt) appeared in 2006 and in 2007 the IB published An A to Z of School Leadership. He has just completed a study of Marie-Therese Maurette, a former director of Ecolint and an early pioneer of international education.
Greg Mortenson is the co-founder of Central Asia Institute and founder of the international service-learning program Pennies for Peace. Born in 1957, Mortenson grew up on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. His father Dempsey, founded Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC). His mother, Jerene, founded the International School Moshi, which has been an IB world school since 1977. Mortenson served in the U.S. Army in Germany (1977-1979), where he received the Army Commendation Medal, and graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1983.
As of 2009, Mortenson has established over 130 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 38,000 children served, including over 27,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before. Mortenson is a living hero to rural communities of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he has gained the trust of Islamic leaders, military commanders, government officials and tribal chiefs from his tireless effort to champion education, especially for girls.
Mortenson is co-author of New York Times bestseller ‘Three Cups of Tea’ which has sold 3 million copies, been published in 34 countries, and has been a New York Times bestseller for over 130 weeks since its January 2007 release, and Time Magazine Asia Book of The Year. Three Cups of Tea is required reading for U.S. senior military commanders, for officers in the Norwegian War College, Forsvarsnett, for U.S. Special Forces deploying to Afghanistan, Pentagon officers in counter-insurgency training, and Canadian Defense Ministry members.
In March 2009, Mortenson received Pakistan’s highest civil award, Sitara-e-Pakistan (“Star of Pakistan”) for his dedicated and humanitarian effort to promote education and literacy in rural areas for fifteen years. Mortenson has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.