The International Board

John Szemerey, Belgium

The Honorary Chairperson

John Szemerey is a political journalist. He retired in summer 2005 after working over 30 years in the information services of the European Commission, Brussels. Before that he had been features writer with a Fleet Street agency and he had been Westminster columnist for two newspapers. He is now Chairman of the International Division of the Chartered Institute of Journalists, the oldest and most senior professional organisation of journalists in the world.

John, 69, was born in Hungary but escaped to England with his parents in 1949, when the Communists were tightening their grip on the country. He had most of his education in England, although he also won an exchange scholarship for a year at a top school in the USA. He studied financial and administrative management at the University of Louvain, Belgium.

When Britain joined the European Community in 1973 he immediately applied for a job with the European Commission. As a political columnist he felt he must know at first hand how the EC worked.  He was successful and was one of the first Brits to work for the Commission when he started there in January 1974.

“Intending to stay at the Commission for two or three years,” says John, “I found the work so interesting and the international situation – working alongside colleagues from other European countries – so challenging and stimulating, that I stayed for over 30 years.”

Prof Rudolf J. Siebert, USA/Germany

Rudolf J. Siebert was born in Frankfurt a.M., Germany. He studied history, philology, philosophy, sociology, psychoanalysis, and theology at the University of Frankfurt a.M., the University of Mainz, the University of Munster, and the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. from 1947 - 1955.

Professor Siebert has taught, lectured, and published widely in Western and Eastern Europe, the United States, and Canada. He is a professor of Religion and Society in the Department of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA. 

He is the director of the Center for Humanistic Future Studies at Western Michigan University since 1980, the director of the international course on the "Future of Religion" in the Inter-University Center for Post-Graduate Studies in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia/Croatia since 1975, and the international course on "Religion and Civil Society" in Yalta, Crimea, and Ukraine since 1999. The Inter-University Center is sponsored by the University of Simferopol, Simferopol, Ukraine, and Western Michigan University. 

Professor Siebert's main works are The Critical Theory of Religion: Frankfurt School, and From Critical Theory to Critical Political Theology: Personal Autonomy and Universal Solidarity. From 1955 to the present, Professor Siebert has developed the critical or dialectical theory of religion out of the critical theory of society, from the endeavors of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt, globally known as the "Frankfurt School," and in continual discourse with sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, economists, philosophers, religiologists, and theologians from the United States, Canada, England, Belgium, Holland, France, Germany, Yugoslavia / Croatia, Israel, and Columbia.

The dialectical theory of religion emphasizes the three global alternative futures of society: Future I - the totally administered society; Future II - the entirely militarized society; and Future III - the reconciled society. It stresses the three global alternative futures of religion: Future I - religious fundamentalism; Future II - total secularization; Future III - the open dialectic between the religious and the secular aiming at a post-modern reconciliation between a reformed religion and a transformed secular enlightenment.

Prof Michael Brenner, USA

Michael Brenner is a recognized authority on risk assessment & management, American foreign policy, and geopolitics. He is a "Fellow" of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and a Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations SAIS-Johns Hopkins.  He also is Emeritus Professor of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. He was the Director of the International Relations & Global Studies Program at the University of Texas until 2012.

He has been an advisor to the United States government, a consultant to global corporations, a prominent participant in the programs of leading Washington think tanks and a prolific commentator on public affairs. His record of publication on a broad span of international issues is complementary to his extensive activities in the policy realm. 

He contributes essays regularly to the Huffington Post, the National Journal, and the Pakistani Spectator and also has written for al-Arabiya. Prof Brenner’s consulting includes the United States Departments of State and Defense, the Foreign Service Institute, Westinghouse Corporation and Mellon Bank.

Professor Brenner has worked in the energy field for 30 years. He directed a project on International Energy & Natural Resource Issues sponsored by the Exxon Educational Foundation that produced a series of 20 case studies. He contributed studies of the Persian Gulf Reflagging Crisis, Oil as a Coercive Instrument in the 1970s, United States – China Bilateral Nuclear Accord, and US-France Dealings in Nuclear Energy. In addition, he organized the Pittsburgh Energy Seminar while at the Graduate School of Public & International Affairs, was Rapporteur for the Conference on Technology Transfer: Government & Industry in the Energy Sector at M.I.T. In the environmental policy field, he has conducted research on environmental management issues at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (La Jolla), Natural Sciences Research Council (London), and the Center For International Affairs (Harvard University).

He is the author of America’s Environmental Dilemma (Lexington Books) and The Scientific Advisory Function (Scripps Brenner is the author of numerous books, and over 70 articles and published papers on a wide range of topics. His most recent works are:; Democracy Promotion and Islam; Fear and Dread In The Middle East (also translated into Arabic);; Toward A More Independent Europe  (Royal Institute of International Relations), Brussels), Narcissistic Public Personalities & Our Times.

His writings include books with Cambridge University Press (Nuclear Power and Non-Proliferation), the Center For International Affairs at Harvard University (The Politics of International Monetary Reform);  Institute of International Affairs at Cornell University (The Functionalist Theory of European Integration); the Brookings Institution (Reconcilable Differences, US-French Relations In The New Era) and publications in major journals in the United States and Europe, such as World Politics, Comparative Politics, Foreign Policy, International Studies Quarterly, International Affairs, Survival, Politique Etrangere, and Internationale Politik. Prof Brenner has directed multinational research projects with colleagues in France, England, Germany and Italy supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, NATO and the Commission of the European Union.

Brenner is an invited lecturer at major universities and institutes in the United States and abroad, including Georgetown University, UCLA, the National Defense University, the State Department, Sorbonne, Ecole des Sciences Politiques, Royal Institute of International Affairs, International Institute of Strategic Studies (London), King’s College of the University of London, German Council on Foreign Relations, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and Universita di Firenze.

Brenner has held previous teaching and research appointments at Cornell, Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Brookings Institution, University of California – San Diego, University of California – Berkeley, and Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the National Defense University.  He also has been a Fellow of the Center on France & the United States in Paris.

His memberships include: APSA, ISA, IISS, Forum du Futur (Paris).

Prof Brenner is proficient in French and English.

Prof Willem Vervoort, Australia/Neatherlands

Willem Vervoort has an undergraduate degree from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and a PhD in field hydrology from the University of Georgia, USA. He has been working at the University of Sydney, Australia since 1999.

He works with variety projects related to water, agriculture and the environment as groundwater interactions in stochastic ecohydrological models to predict vegetation distributions, measuring transmission losses from semi-arid rivers, probabilistic forecasting of rainfall, droughts and river flows, managing uncertainty in hydrological modeling, identifying spatial and temporal variability in groundwater levels and quality.

He works internationally with capacity building projects and research projects, collaborating with various universities and research organisations in Mexico, the UK, the Netherlands, and in India. 

Prof Kamal Kishore Sharma PhD

• Former CEO ArcelorMittal Aktau in Kazakhstan, an MNC
• Former Vice Chancellor at Ansal University Gurgaon

a Public Policy Fellow of IIM Ahmedabad (PhD), has earlier served as a Class I Civil Service Officer with Government of India in Railways (IRTS).

He has spent 29 plus professional years in formulating institutional strategies, executing, learning, leading & coaching. Apart from his well-grounded expertise in Leadership & General Management, he has deep interests in public policies in areas of education, environment, agriculture and water.

He is currently involved in a social impact e-commerce startup that is solving last mile marketing challenges for farmer crops.  He is energetic, entrepreneurial & very widely connected & respected in Government, Corporate & Grassroots circles.

Dr Prashant Srivastava PhD, Australia

Dr Prashant Srivastava has served as editor and reviewer of several international journals and is Technical Editor of Remediation Australasia magazine. He has authored several research papers, book chapters and popular articles, and has been invited to present his work in several international conferences. He has been organising CleanUp conference series in Australia and overseas since 2015.

He received his PhD and Masters in soil science from GBP University of Agriculture and Technology in Pantnagar, India, and subsequently obtained another PhD degree in environmental soil chemistry from the University of Sydney, Australia.

He conducted his post-doctoral research at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory of the University of Georgia, USA. His research focuses on fate and transport of environmental contaminants and nutrients in soil, water and plants. He also holds tertiary qualifications in project/program management.

Dr Prashant Srivastava is Principal Scientist and Business Manager at Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE), based in University of South Australia in Adelaide, South Australia. He heads the research demonstration and outreach programs working closely with mining and oil sectors, environmental practitioners, regulatory authorities, and scientific researchers from around Australia. He has worked in both academia and industry. 

Dr Vyom Parashar PhD, USA

Dr Vyom Parashar is an inventor, traveller and wildlife enthusiast aiming to bring phenomenal change in the chemical manufacturing industries by eliminating waste and its management. A senior scientist at NanoTheransotics Inc USA (New York), he has developed next generation of products to be used in medical and agriculture industries.