Conference Opening - Keynote Address: Jean Francois Rischard / Student Keynote:Maia Usui

8:00-10:00

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Announcements

Performance: Jeremiah Singers Ruamrudee International School Singing Group

KEYNOTE STUDENT

MAIA USUI

Title: The New Atlantis

Biography: Maia Usui comes from Japan but has lived in many cites around the world, including Lagos, New York, and Vienna. She is currently a senior and IB Diploma Candidate at the International School Bangkok [but has also attended the United Nations International School, the American School in Japan, and Vienna International School]. Maia is fluent in English, Japanese, German, and French. She serves as Student Council President and has been active in local tsunami relief. Maia is heading to Harvard University in September, where she will study Political Science and Economics. She was ISB’s recipient of the EARCOS Global Citizenship Award in 2006.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

JEAN-FRANCOIS RISCHARD

High Noon: The Urgent Need for New Approaches to Global Problem-Solving

Some 20 burning global problems are on our hands. They must get resolved within the next 20 years, if we are to avoid the massive and adverse planetary consequences many of them bring in their tow. And yet, the current international system is failing to deliver the deep and timely solutions that are required. Why is that, and what are we to do? This presentation invites the participants to engage in some out-of-the-box thinking about how we could come up with a better methodology for global problem-solving while there is still time. It concludes with the thought that besides a new methodology, we also need future generations to espouse a new mindset---something the education system is in an unparallelled position to promote.

Biography: Jean-François Rischard is a national from Luxembourg, with a US green card, and is married, with three children. He is 57 years old. He has graduate and post-graduate degrees in Economics (University of Aix-Marseille, licence and DES, 1971 and 1973), a Law Doctorate (Luxembourg, 1971), and a Masters in Business Administration (Harvard Business School, 1975, with first and second year honors). He speaks and writes fluent English, French and German. From 1975 to 2005, he worked at the World Bank, and became Vice-President of the institution from 1992 on.

He lives in Paris, after having spent more than 20 years in the United States and especially Washington D.C., where he maintains a home and many links. He has straddled the Atlantic for much of his student and working life, and is well versed in both U.S. and European ways of doing business and corporate governance bents.

He has worked in some 60 developed and developing countries, and maintains – beyond Europe – an extensive network of relationships with government and business leaders throughout North America, Latin America, the Middle-East, Asia, and parts of Africa. He is an avid reader with a broad range of interests in finance, business and markets, world events and trends. He likes skiing and golf.

10:00-10:30 coffee break Sponsored by Harcourt International Education Group

Performance: String Quartet, New International School of Thailand Ballroom 1, 2