The following volunteers helped organize the 2003 conference of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) conference in Crete, whose theme was "Constructing Agoras of the Global Village."

Evelyne Andreewsky, Ph.D. Senior Researcher at the French National Research Institute; author of over 150 articles and books; president of the Systems Science European Union; active member French Systems Science society and European Program for Modeling Complexity; editorial board of Cybernetics and Human Knowing and Res-Systemica among others; elected to Honorary Fellowship of the world Organization of General Systems and Cybernetics.

Nikitas A. Assimakopoulos, Ph.D. Professor of the Department of Informatics at the University of Piraeus, Greece. Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Applied Systems Science and the Greek Journal Operations Research. He has lectured at Chelsea College, University of London, and Athens University; published about 70 articles; given 65 papers at conferences and given numerous invited lectures at national and international conferences and research organizations. He was consultant to the British Post Office and the Agricultural Bank of Greece. He holds the Professional title FOR of the British Operational Research Society.

Oguz N. Baburoglu, Ph.D. Founder in Turkey of Arama (Search) Participatory Consulting, Ltd. www.aramasearch.com. His clients in the United States are the Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Vermont state legislatures, Mohican and Seneca tribes, and many NGOs. In Turkey, he has worked with many corporations and organizations including Sabanci University. Internationally, he has worked with the likes of Fiat Auto, Workplace Australia, and Telecom Italia. He is on the editorial committee of the Work and Dialogue book series, author of numerous articles, and co-editor of the recent Educational Futures: Shifting Paradigm of Universities and Education.

Kenneth D. Bailey, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology, UCLA. President-elect 2003-2004, the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS). Author Social Entropy Theory and Sociology and the New Systems Theory:Toward a Theoretical Synthesis.

Surinder Batra, Ph.D. Director and Principal Consultant, Centre for Interactive Management, India, with international clients such as ILO Geneva, German Agency for Technical Cooperation, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta. Some of the Interactive Management themes have been strengthening national capabilities to cope with the demand for ecological refrigeration servicing practices in India; strengthening linkages between producers and users of technology in Ghana; impact analysis of Information Technology on organizational effectiveness in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. He has authored three books published in India, including his last, Organizational Development.

Sabrina Brahms, M.A. Currently completing her doctoral degree in the social systems arena of peace and conflict resolution. She has participated in the use of Interactive Management as a conflict resolution method between Palestinians and Israelis and in the bicommunal peace work between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, which is reported in an article with Dr. Christakis "Boundary-Spanning Dialogue for the 21st Century Agoras" in Bela H. Banathy's upcoming book. She is coordinator and facilitator of the International Systems Institute's annual dialogues and has recently completed work as a guest editor for an issue of World Futures.

Dimitri A. Christakis, M.D., M.P.H. Assistant professor of Pediatrics University of Washington; director of the Child Health Institute at U of W; Associate Editor of the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. He is the author of over 40 peer-reviewed publications and has participated in CWA projects as an expert on pharmaceutical products, patient safety, and medical diagnostics.

Nicholas A. Christakis, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H. Full professor, medicine and sociology Harvard University; formerly on faculty universities of Pennsylvania and Chicago; author of over 40 peer-reviewed articles; editorial board of several medical journals including British Medical Journal; founding director of three privately-held, successful, high technology companies; consultant for several corporations, university panels, and government agencies; member of the CogniScope facilitation team.

Quan Yang Duh, M.D. Assistant Chief, Surgical Service, at the VA Medical Center, San Francisco, California. Associate Professor in Residence at the San Francisco Medical School, University of California. Identified as one of the "Best Doctors in America," Dr. Duh has been an invited speaker and conference presenter at numerous scientific and professional meetings. He serves (or has served) on the editorial review board of over a dozen professional medicine/health care journals, and currently is on the Editorial Board of Surgery. A prolific author, Dr. Duh has published three books, over seventy (70) refereed articles, fifteen book chapters, as well as other written works in the medical and health care fields

Riane Eisler. Best-selling author of The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future, that has been translated into 17 languages. Author of numerous other books. Honored as the only woman among twety great thinkers including Vico, Hegel, Spengler, Adam Smith, Marx, and Toynbee for her lasting contributions to macrohistory. President of the Center for Partnership Studies. A charismatic speaker who keynotes conferences worldwide, and a consultant to business and government.

Ali Granmayeh, Ph.D. A change agent and trusted advisor to senior managers for over fifteen years, working as a strategy and technology consultant in Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America. He is currently managing a global research project at MIT's Center for eBusiness on the adoption curves and impact of wireless technologies. He was co-founder (along with Russell Ackoff and others) of INTERACT: the Institute for Interactive Management. He has also been a partner at Monitor Company, a global strategy consultancy, and at CWA Ltd. He is co-editor of the book, Internal Markets: Bringing the Power of Free Enterprise inside the Organization.

Jifa GU, Ph.D. Professor in School of Knowledge Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; president of Systems Engineering Society of China; President of International Federation for Systems Research. His current research "is to find the methods, which may synthesize the data, information, model, knowledge and the decision-maker's judgment and wisdom in solving the social and economic system problems using the human-machine cooperation?"

Barbara Marx Hubbard

Aretousa Ieronimaki. Archeological guide and interpreter for 32 years on Crete; self-taught scholar; student of Minoan culture; poet and artist; possessor of a self-deprecating sense of humor. "My knowledge is proof less. So my bio is poor even if my heart may be rich, and my spirit humorous as you may start realizing."

Michael C. Jackson, Ph.D. Professor of Management Systems and Director of the University of Hull Business School; a Fellow of the British Computer Society, past-president for the UK Systems Society; recent president of ISSS; vice-president of the International Federation for Systems research; editor of Systems Research and Behavioral Science. He has written three highly regarded books in systems and management science: Systems Methodology for the Management Sciences, Creative Problem Solving: Total Systems Intervention, and (with Robert Flood) Systems Approaches to Management. He has also edited six other books and published over 100 articles in refereed journals.

Richard Jung, Ph.D., LLD. Director, Center for Systems Research, Czech Republic www.systemsresearch.cz; Chair of the Board, Czech Aspect, a Public Beneficial Association; Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Theoretical Psychology, University of Alberta; Professor at Large of Systems Studies, University of Amsterdam. He is formulating metatheory in the areas of general systems, experience and action, living systems, and complex systems. Among his many consulting and professional assignments, he is on the editorial board of RES Systemica, Journal of the System Science European Union, and a council member of Czechoslovak Interuniversities Program for the Study of the Future.

John J. Kineman, Ph.D.

George Kokkinis. Head of the Department for Development and Training at the Chamber of commerce and Industry of Iraklion, Crete; co-developer of the Center for Entrepreneurial and Technological Development for Crete. He is committed to the message that collaboration and strong international institutions are needed to regulate global problems.

Alexander Laszlo, Ph.D. Co-founder and Executive Director, Syntony Quest International www.syntonyquest.org; core faculty of the Graduate School of Business Administration & Leadership, ITESM (the Monterrey Institute of Technology); former director of ITESM Doctoral Program in Management; adjunct full professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies; former vice president and board member ISSS; editorial boards of Systems Research and Behavioral Science, World Futures, and Latin American Business Review.

Kathia Laszlo, Ph.D. Co-founder and Executive Director Syntony Quest Mexico; tenured core faculty of the Graduate School of Business Administration & Leadership ITESM; Associate Research Fellow of the International Network of the Center for Knowledge Systems; board of directors of the Unity Foundation, the Sages Advisory Panel of the Council for Global Education, and the International Systems Institute; former vice-president ISSS; author of two books and co-author (with Alexander) of the upcoming The Syntony Quest: Evolutionary Vision for Change in Your World.

Marios Michaelides

Gianfranco Minati, Ph.D. Distinguished Consulting Faculty, Saybrook Graduate Institute; president Italian Association for Systems Research; member Interuniversity Center for Research on Cognitive Processing In Natural and Artificial Systems; editorial board Systems Research and Behavioral Science; Italian representative to International Federation for System Research. He is author of many publications in the field of Systemics and has held many seminars in Italy and abroad. He is coordinator of a consistent, open, ongoing glossary for Crete 2003.

Hasan Ozbekhan, Ph.D. Co-founder of Club of Rome (with Aurelio Peccei and Alexander Christakis); principal author (with Peccei, Christakis, and others) of the original Club of Rome proposal; formative influence in creating Doxiadis-SDC. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he was previously Chairman of the Graduate Group in Social Systems Sciences and Professor of Management. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Economic Society and member of Economic Club of New York, the American Economic association, the Comite National Belge de l'Organaisation Scientifique, Mankind 2000, etc. As a consultant he did Science Policy design for Turkey and a large study for the French Government analyzing the nature of present events, which constitutes the basis for present French government policy for the future of Paris.

Elena C. Pell, M.P.A., Founder of Emerging Partnerships, an organization that promotes and supports greater ethnic/race diversity and cross-disciplinary teaming and a stronger systems orientation in technical assistance to community building and planning efforts. Among her many accomplishments, she directed program development for ASPIRA (the nation''s largest Latino youth development organization), was project manager for the US Basic Skills Investment Corporation, and fellow of the Annie E. Casey Foundation specializing in community response to children and family issues.

Markus Schwaninger, Ph.D. Professor of Management at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Visiting professorships, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Bogata, Colombia; Canaria, Spain. Visiting Scholar in UK, Aston University; in USA, MIT; in Canada, University of British Columbia. Consulting assignments on four continents. Author of roughly 150 publications in 6 languages. A principal developer of the Syntegrity design methodology.

Eva Stavrakaki. A Native of Heraklion, Crete; scientific director of drug prevention center in the Municipality of Heraklion. She utilizes the systems approach in her work including the CogniScope.

Reynaldo Trevino-Cisneros, M.S. Advisor for the Presidential Office for Public Policies in Mexico City; facilitator of the national project e-Mexico; co-designer of Results Strategic System, which will deploy, for the entire Mexican society, a set of permanently actualized indicators related to the development of the whole country. He was a member of the team, Guanajuato, Siglo XXI, where he prepared the conceptual branch of the First Interloquium that brought together foreign and Mexican experts to consider, using the CogniScope, the mega trends impacting the world and Mexico to 2010. Vicente Fox participated in these sessions and is reputed to use their insights first as Governor of Guanajuato and now as President of Mexico.

Ioanna Tsivacou, Ph.D. Visiting professor at the Panteion University of Athens; consultant to multinational companies and Greek public agencies; author of scientific papers and books: A Challenge for Systems Thinking: the Aegean Seminar (as editor, in English), and (in Greek) Under the Gaze of the Observer and The Itinerary of the Self in the Workplace. She is the author of the Tsivacou Law of Requisite Autonomy of Distinction-Making, which states that the autonomy of individual distinction-making must be ensured, and monopolies on distinction-making prohibited in order to equitably distribute the power of persuasion among stakeholders.

Evan Vlachos, Ph.D. Former Director of the Environmental Resources Center at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado where he is also Professor of Sociology and Civil Engineering and Associate Director of the International School for Water Resources. Currently he is serving as member of the Advisory Panel on Environmental and Earth S&T in NATO, Brussels (Eastern Europe and Russia). He is also a member of UNESCO's Committee on "Water and Civilization." He is the recipient of the Army's Outstanding Civilian Service Medal (1987), the CSU Oliver Pennock Distinguished Service Award (1988), and the American Water Resources Association's Icko Iben Award (1993). He is The author of a large number of books, monographs and articles on water, demography and futurism

Jennifer Wilby, Ph.D.