Caroline Seville, ICDE Communication, Events and Partnerships Manager

Caroline was educated in Germany and England. In the private sector she worked as a business and development manager at an accounting practice in before taking up a job as the membership marketing manager at the British Contact Lens Association. After completing three years in that position she moved to WorldDAB, the global industry organisation responsible for defining the standards of the Eureka-147 family which includes DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting). During her three year stint at WorldDAB she coordinated the communications revamp and oversaw the organisation of international conferences and workshops for a range of industry sectors from silicon chip manufactures, automotive industry, government and broadcasting regulators and product manufactures. She is now responsible for the communications, events and partnerships at ICDE.

Torunn Gjelsvik, Secretary General, ICDE

Torunn Gjelsvik assumed the position as Secretary General for International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) in January 2020. She has held several executive leadership positions in various educational institutions and organizations, including the national membership organization Flexible Education Norway. From 2015 to 2018 she was Head of Development at the ICDE Secretariat, and her international experience covers policy development, international networks, events and project management related to the global field of online, open and flexible education. She is a frequent speaker at international conferences and events related to the field.
Torunn Gjelsvik was serving as a member of the Executive Committee of EADL (European Association for Distance Learning) and was Norway’s representative in the Nordic Distance Education Network NVL from 2018 to 2020. She has been a member of the Orientation Board of CNED (The National Centre for Distance Education in France) since 2016.

Manoj Singh, CEO and SVP,Global Partnerships and development, RUBIKA Group

Dr. Manoj K. Singh is the CEO of RUBIKA Group, India-a wholly owned subsidiary of RUBIKA, France and the Vice President for Global Development and Partnerships for RUBIKA Group. Established in 1987 by the Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Grand Hainaut, RUBIKA is a  Grand Ecole registered with Ministry of Industry that is composed of Supinfocom—an institute for 3D animation, film-making and computer graphics ,Supinfogame—an institute for video game, interactivity and simulation and ISD (Product Design,Transport Design & Digital Design).
Recognized as the 1st Video Game school in France (Le Figaro, 2015) and 2nd in the Animation Career review’s “World’s Best Top 25 Animation Schools”” 2019 and 2020 listing, RUBIKA has over 3200 alumni spread over +50 countries worldwide. ISD-Rubika’s student design projects have received over 39 international awards in the last 3 years.
Prior to this he served as the Vice Chancellor of the DSK World University, Pune, ranked as India’s No.1 Institute in Design by KPMG in 2016.The campus offered Master’s Program in Transportation Design, Product Design, Digital Design, Animation & Video Gaming in collaboration with RUBIKA, France  & Bachelors & Masters in Interior & Fashion Design by Coventry University, UK. He is the Managing Partner of Anisha Education Society-an initiative by KOLTE-PATIL group & the President of Future Schools @ India Program. He runs an IT company ALPHA CEOLUTION in Singapore and happens to be the founder President of CEO Clubs in Singapore, Malaysia & Vietnam.
He initiated future schools @India initiative with an objective to impart the world-class education in K-12 segment based on real-time collaborative technologies and research embedded competencies. There are two K-12 schools operational in Pune and both these schools are Microsoft Showcase Schools.

Dr. Nicola Paravati, Head of International Affairs Office, International Telematic University UNINETTUNO

Graduated at Università degli Studi di Bologna in 1998 with a final thesis on “Education in the Digital Era”, he is currently Head of International Affairs Office of UNINETTUNO, where he is also the coordinator for global cooperation projects, focused on technology, education and social inclusion.
He is a member of the Executive Committee of OpenupEd (www.openuped.eu), the representative of the ICDE ON MEDSE (Mediterranean and Southern Europe) and delegate for UNINETTUNO at the main global associations of Distance Teaching Universities. Coordinator and speaker in several worldwide conferences and seminars on e-learning and new approaches to the global higher education system.

Omar Wajdi Abushabab, Managing Partner at Career International for Sports Training & Development. - International Palestinian Triathlete

As the first International Palestinian Triathlete, alongside his brother, racing & competing around the world representing his country, has been the primary focus of his life for the last decade.
A such demanding lifestyle required constant moving & traveling which made committing to an on-campus University almost an impossible task to achieve. Thus, being a Business student at UNINETTUNO, offered him great flexibility in being able to balance his educational and sporting needs without compensating any of the two.
By having the full control of structuring his university's learning path, he has found not only that he was more dedicated towards his studying material, but also the tendency to enjoy what he was learning has increased.
- Link on his Training day, hosted on the International Triathlon Union:  https://youtu.be/ZdPfY6hLpAE

Makha Ndao, Task Force on Education Management and Policy Support (ADEA-TFEMPS)

Makha is an international Consultant in Education. He worked as a civil servant in Senegal and as staff in several International Development Institutions.
Over the years, he has gained extensive experience in working and conducting education policies, plans and strategy analysis, as well as formulating education and poverty reduction programs and projects with a range of stakeholders and actors, including multilateral, regional and bilateral agencies, as well as governments, NGOs and CSOs in Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, the Gulf, Asia, Eastern Europe and in post-conflict and fragile states.
http://www.adeanet.org/

Raky Gassama, Knowledge Management Officer, ADEA

Raky Gassama has over 5 years of experience in the internal coordination of evidence-based policy dialogue initiatives, networking, external communication and knowledge sharing, and a focus on program and event coordination at national, sub-regional and regional levels.
Raky contributed to the involvement of new partners such as youth networks in policy related discussions through the development and coordination of Communities of Practice. She also brings to ADEA a rich institutional memory as she has been working with the Association since 2011.
http://www.adeanet.org/

Andreia Inamorato, Researcher into open education, Scientific Officer, European Commission, Joint Research Centre

Andreia is a researcher, lecturer and international consultant into open education and educational technology. Currently she works at the European Commission, Joint Research Centre (2013-present).
Her role involves research and policy support on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for Learning, Skills and Open Education. Her work contributes to finding opportunities and challenges of ICT and open educational practices’ implementation at a policy level to innovate and modernise teaching, learning and training practices.
Her current focus is on the promotion and uptake of openness in higher education institutions and EU Member States. For example, she has led the OpenEdu Project of the European Commission and conceptualised the OpenEdu Framework, which helps higher education institutions to go open.
She also carries out research on digital certificates and blockchains. Andreia has published several scientific research reports produced as a result of my research projects.
Andreia holds a PhD in Educational Technology from the Open University of the United Kingdom (2011) and a Masters in Research Methods for Educational Technology from the same institution (2003).
She also has a Masters in Linguistics and Literary Studies in English Language from the University of São Paulo, Brazil (2001).
She has worked as an open educational resources (OER) researcher for the Open University (2006-2011) and has since been involved in several other OER and ICT-related research projects in the UK, Brazil, Spain and abroad. Andreia also runs DigiLearn, a consultancy service focusing on awareness raising and continuous professional development on open educational practices for government bodies, private and public higher education institutions and high profile enterprises in Brazil and Latin America.

Prof. Alessandro Caforio, Head of Research and Innovation,International Telematic University UNINETTUNO

Alessandro Caforio is Head of Research and Innovation at International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, where he coordinates the design and the management of research projects focused on ICT technologies applied to teaching and learning processes and to the evolution of UNINETTUNO e-learning platform, on social inclusion, innovation and accessibility for minor opportunities groups to Higher education, and innovation in programs and curricula. He is furthermore Contract Professor for "Psycho-technologies and Learning processes" and "Instructional design in e-learning" courses (UNINETTUNO - Faculty of Psychology). He has been involved and managed European projects in the Lifelong Learning, Tempus and Erasmus+ programs; his international research activities are focused on technologies and processes for teaching, training and learning.
Since 2013 he is a member of the Quality Assurance Body of UNINETTUNO. He is in charge of professors and tutors' training for UNINETTUNO, introducing them to psycho-pedagogic, organizational and technological models of the university.
His skills range from cognitive psychology to front-end web design, from user requirement analysis and design of e-learning systems to experimental pedagogy.
https://www.uninettunouniversity.net