Gordon R. McInally is the President of Rotary International for 2023-24. He is a member of the Rotary Club of South Queensferry, Lothian, Scotland. Gordon’s Rotary Theme for2023-24 is “Create Hope in the World” and he seeks to promote the importance of “Peace”, which is much more than the absence of conflict.
Eve Conway-Ghazi’s unwavering commitment to Rotary has continued to grow ever since she was given the life-changing opportunity of being selected as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. Thanks to Rotary, she graduated with a Master of Science Degree in Broadcast Journalism from Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, the home of Rotary International.
Eve has worked as a multimedia journalist for 35 years, including 20 years for BBC News. One of Eve’s proudest accomplishments was starting the Rotary Young Citizen Awards in association with BBC News in 2007.
Eve was President of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland in 2016/17. She was Vice-Chair of Rotary International’s End Polio Now: Countdown to History Campaign Committee from 2016-2023 and a Director of the Rotary Action Group for Endangered Species from 2015-2022.
Eve joined Redbridge Rotary Club in the London District in 2000. She became the first female District Governor of Rotary in London in 2012/13. She organised numerous Rotary activities in connection with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and sat on Rotary GB&I’s Olympics/Paralympics Committee.
As District Governor, Eve started a successful Vocational Training Team project with the District Governor of the Mumbai District in India to stop mothers and babies dying in childbirth in the poor, rural, tribal area of Jawhar.
Eve is passionate about achieving Rotary’s goal of a polio-free world and, as President of Rotary GB&I, launched the Purple4Polio campaign engaging Rotarians across Britain and Ireland and successfully raising public awareness about Rotary with more than 900 media reports about our End Polio Now campaign.
She travelled with British Rotarians to take part in National Polio Immunisation Campaigns in India and arranged for the Health Correspondent from the Independent to report on this in 2017 and also filmed with TV Presenter Konnie Huq for BBC News and Rotary in 2009.
When she was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, Eve never would have imagined that she would one day become Rotary International Director sitting on the RI Board for two years and she is delighted to be able to give back for the amazing opportunities that Rotary has given her.
Eve and her late husband, Robert Ghazi, are Major Donors to The Rotary Foundation and members of the Bequest Society.
Outside of Rotary, Eve is Chair of The Media Circle, part of The Circle NGO founded by singer-songwriter and activist Annie Lennox to empower women and girls globally.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind KCMG KC served as a Minister in the UK Government from 1979-97 including in the Cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. From 2010-15 he was Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament with oversight over the UK Intelligence Agencies, MI6, MI5 and GCHQ. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1986 to 1990, Defence Secretary from 1992 to 1995, and Foreign Secretary from 1995 to 1997. He was appointed by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as a member of their Eminent Persons Panel on European Security. He was also a member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Panel. Currently, he is a Visiting Professor at King’s College London and a Distinguished Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
Lord Mayor Professor Michael Raymond Mainelli MStJ, took office as the 695th Lord Mayor of the City of London in November 2023. He is Chairman of Z/Yen and previously served as a Sheriff of the City of London from 2019–2021. He is an Emeritus Gresham Professor of Commerce at Gresham College, and founder of the Long Finance initiative. His topic - Create Wealth, Share Prosperity, Protect the Environment – Promote & Strengthen Positive Peace.
Dr Fatou Bensouda served as Chief Prosecutor of the ICC from June 2012 to June 2021, after having served as a Deputy Prosecutor in charge of the Prosecutions Division of the ICC from 2004 to 2012. Before that she was Minister of Justice and Attorney General of The Gambia from 1998 to 2000. She has also held positions as a legal adviser and a trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). She is currently High Commissioner of The Gambia to the UK. Topic : No Peace without Justice (to be confirmed).
As a global philanthropist, Steve Killelea has laid the foundations to develop an entirely new understanding of peace. He founded the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) in 2007, as an independent not for profit global research institute analysing the intertwined relationships between business, peace, and economic development. Steve’s funding and thought leadership behind the Institute would see him recognised as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People on reducing the onset of armed violence. He is also the founder of the Global Peace Index, the world’s leading quantitative measurement of global peacefulness, ranking 163 countries, and independent territories. Rotary International signed a strategic partnership with the IEP in 2017.
Ms Irina Georgieva Bokova is the immediate past Director-General of UNESCO. Irina Bokova was Director-General of UNESCO from 2009–2017 and is currently patron of the International Science Council. During her political and diplomatic career in Bulgaria, she served two terms as a member of the National Parliament, and deputy minister of foreign affairs and minister of foreign affairs ad interim under Prime Minister Zhan Videnov. She also served as Bulgaria's ambassador to France and to Monaco, and was Bulgaria's Permanent Delegate to UNESCO. On 15 November 2009, she took office as the ninth Director-General of UNESCO, marking two firsts: she became both the first female and the first Southeastern European to head the agency.
Rotary and UNESCO have had close ties ever since Rotarians were involved in the founding of UNESCO in 1945.
Nicki Scott is the immediate past Vice President of Rotary International (2022-23). She will moderate a panel discussion with Rotarians involved with Inter Country Committees (ICCs).
Summer Lewis co-ordinates the Rotary-IEP Partnership, and she will moderate a fireside chat with Positive Peace practitioners.
Juvenal Shiundu is a Naval Architect with over 40 years global experience in the maritime, ports and the shipping industry. He has held senior Leadership roles in several organizations and previously worked for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for 22 where he retired in 2019 as Director of Technical Cooperation Division. Following his retirement, Juvenal was appointed Chairman of the Kenya National Shipping Line Limited until 2022 when he co-founded the Maritime and Blue Economy Insights Limited (MARIBEI). He is currently involved in various advisory boards and organizations and has received several awards, including the Freedom of the City of London, recognizing his contributions to the maritime industry, international diplomacy, and charitable causes. He is Past President of the Rotary Club of Westminster West, London. Juvenal will share his insights on “ How to leverage the Blue Economy to Promote and Strengthen Positive Peace ”.
Professor Maryna Dolzhenko is Professor of Cardiology, Dr Sc Medicine, President - Ukrainian Primary Care Cardiovascular Association and Head of Cardiology Department Shupyk NUHC. She is also Head of the Ukraine Section, Ukraine-RGB&I Inter Country Committee(ICC). Professor Maryna will explain how the RGB&I – Ukraine ICC Promotes and Strengthens Positive Peace. Rtn Prof Maryna is Founder and Past President of the Rotary Club of Kyiv Synergy. She developed strong ties with Rotary in London when she jointly led the initiative to create a Rotary Peace Square in Kyiv with Rotarian Tetiana Gick from RC Westminster West in 2018. The Rotary Peace Square in Kyiv serves as a focal point for residents and Rotarians in their resolve to withstand the enormous painful challenges caused by the Russian invasion. Professor Maryna and her fellow Rotarians have been working tirelessly on various humanitarian relief efforts, creating hope for Ukrainians and she will provide examples of how the ICC promotes Positive Peace.
Professor Ann Frisch is Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Senior Adviser and Unarmed Civilian Protector Nonviolent Peaceforce. Her topic is “ Hope is a planet to live on: It is possible!” The fierce urgency of now! We are at the crossroads of a crisis involving theworst weapons of terror, presenting both the possibility of the end of civilization as we know it and a planet to live on. Rotarians remind the world that we, the people of the world, got rid of 50,000 nuclear weapons forty years ago and saved Planet Earth. We must save it again, now with 14,000 to go (140 times the number needed to end civilization as we know it.) Rotarians know how to rekindle the relationships that will help us create Hope In the World. Rotary needs a planet to live on. Hope is the springboard for action to disarm and dismantle nuclear weapons forever. With hope, our clubs, our districts, our zones, are all working together for a world free of nuclear weapons. YES!
Professor Fiona Macaulay: Director, Rotary Peace Centre, in the Department of Peace Studies and International Development, University of Bradford, UK. She is Professor of Gender, Peace and Development, and teaches in the areas of international development, security sector, sustainable cities, peacebuilding, and gender and violent conflict. A Latin America specialist, her research focuses on Brazil, especially on criminal justice reform, the intersection of police and politics, practical solutions to tackling gender-based violence, and women's movement influence on public policy. Before joining the University of Bradford, she taught at the Universities of Newcastle, Oxford, and London, and was Brazil researcher at Amnesty International. She is a Director and Trustee of PeaceJam UK, which works with Nobel Peace Prize winners to inspire young people to make positive changes in themselves and the world
Reverend Debbie Hodge, PPRGB&I, Director Rotary Action Group Against Slavery RAGAS). 'From bombs to Freedom': a journey that starts on July 7th 2005 and ends with the story of a Slavery Survivor and how positive peace is the mechanism to ensure radicalisation and human trafficking and Modern Slavery are ended.
Maria Vittoria Gargiulo was the Project Manager and Head of the Organising Committee of the Rotaract Model United Nations (MUN) held in Salerno in Italy, which took place from 10th - 14th September 2023. She is also known as Mavi and is a Rotaractor and Rotarian based in Salerno. She is a Rotary-IEP Positive Peace Activator who belongs to the inaugural European cohort which passed out in November 2021. Mavi is a physicist from the Rotary Club Salerno Est and Rotaract Club Campus Salerno dei Due Principati, the first University based Rotaract in Italy. The Rotaract MUN website is at: https://salerno2023.rotaractmun.org/
At the recent Rotaract MUN, Mavi said that “What sets Rotaract Global Model United Nations apart is that it goes beyond a mere simulation; it transcends into an actual decision-making process. It serves as a platform where young professionals, university students, and passionate youth from around the world, including Rotaractors and Rotarians, can unite their voices to address global challenges. The beauty of Rotaract MUN lies in its global reach, with each year's conference taking place in a different country and being organized by a different Rotaract Club. Rotaract MUN Salerno 2023 has been an incredible journey for all of us. It has shown us the power of dialogue, collaboration, and diplomacy. It has reminded us that peace is not just the absence of conflict but the presence of justice, understanding, and compassion.”