Directors and Advisors
Board of Directors
Amber Chand
Amber Chand is the Founder and President of The Women’s Peace Collection, a mission-based enterprise that supports craftswomen in regions of conflict and post-conflict. A major focus of Amber’s work is to support peace-building initiatives in regions of conflict and offering craft as a symbolic expression for reconciliation.
Previously, Amber was one of the visionary co-founders behind Eziba, a multi channel retailer of handcrafted objects from around the world founded in 1999. During the company’s five- year history she was instrumental in creating and dramatically growing a socially responsible enterprise that directly contributed to the economic and cultural viability of artisan communities worldwide.
She is an active member of the Business Advisory Council for Women for Women International, a global organization supporting women in regions of conflict. She sits on the Board of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts, a philanthropic organization that grew out of the Beijing 1995 Conference. In 2006, she was invited to join the Wise Women Circle at the World Bank/IFC, an advisory group that offers support to micro craft enterprises around the world
Adam Ruderman
Adam Ruderman has been an entrepreneur for over 25 years, creating or helping to create 7 companies and organizations, mostly within the field of organic food and sustainable agriculture. All of the enterprises have had a social mission and a sense of purpose. His New York City restaurant and catering company, Herban Kitchen (1994-2004), provided healthy and tasty all-organic meals, educated the public about organic food and forged ties between local family farmers and the restaurant community.
Adam believes in the power of private enterprise to produce both financial and social returns, and to improve the world as part of the organizational mission. Adam believes that all organizations need to be responsible for their actions and create sustainable practices. Adam also believes that non-profit organizations must provide real value and create self-funding mechanisms that provide streams of revenue which insure their long-term survival.
Adam received his BA in Political Economy from Williams College, grew up in New York City, and now resides in Northeastern Pennsylvania with his wife, Katie, and sons, Jake (5) and Phineas (3).
Lynnea Bylund
Lynnea Bylund is Founder of Catalyst! House, Inc. Lynnea has over two decades of experience in administration, marketing and business development in the telecommunications and information processing industries. She is a nationally recognized spokeswomen for the emerging alternative video and information delivery industries and has appeared on CNN, PBS, NBC, as well as numerous trade and national publications including Wall Street Journal, Barons, Radio Communications Report, Wireless Week, America’s Network and Private Cable Magazine. She is the founder of two small business-based wireless trade associations USIMTA and USIPCA, federal registered lobbyist, has lobbied on Capitol Hill and at the FCC where she has spoken out strongly against the cable TV monopoly, illegal spectrum warehousing and ill conceived congressional schemes to auction our nation’s precious airwaves to the highest bidder.
In 1995 Lynnea became the first female in the world to be awarded a Broadband PCS operating permit, one of only 17 winners, along with Sprint, AT&T, Pacific Bell, etc.
Lynnea lived in Brasilia, Brazil working in the Executive Offices with the First Lady of Brazil, Ruth Cordosa, Communidade Solidaria, and her Senior Advisory Staff, UNICEF, UNESCO to introduce viable sustainable solutions into the social sectors of Brazil. Lynnea has traveled to speaking engagements in Asia, Europe, South America, and the South Seas.
In Brazil, she held TV, radio, and newspaper press conferences, she lectured to the Federal Environment Authority, met with universities and policy leaders regarding sustainable technology solutions, co-paneled the Nucleus Integration of Science (NIC) Conference with consciousness-revolution authors Elisabet Sahtouris and Peter Russell, and has recently accepted an invitation to become a permanent advisory board member to the NIC – the Brazilian NGO which is the Latin American representative to Mikhail Gorbachev, Stephen Rockefeller and Maurice Strong’s Earth Charter – other members include Elisabet Sahtouris (Gaia – Biology Revisioned) and Peter Russell (Global Brain, White Hole in Time).
Lynnea worked on a special project with the co-founder of America Online, Clive Smith to develop his latest technology called New Deal – a software suite that revitalizes the older 286/386/486 PCs for education and under-privileged markets. Lynnea has assisted in raising money, opening foreign markets, opening domestic markets, arranging political connections, attending high level meetings at the United Nations and the World Bank to brainstorm media events based on New Deal’s technology.
Matou Coulibaly
Biography coming soon.
Daniel Da Hien
Biography coming soon.
Advisors in the US
Barbara Bonner
Fundraising and Institutional Advancement
A private consultant to nonprofits in the areas of fundraising, management and board strengthening, Barbara spent over 25 years managing and leading the fund raising efforts of cultural institutions in New York City and the Berkshire region.
Barbara served as Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, MA from 2006 to 2009 and before that as Vice President of Bennington College where she oversaw the planning, staffing and early implementation of a $100 million capital campaign. Before Bennington she held senior positions at The Cathedral Museum at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, The Asia Society, and the Museum of the City of New York. Additionally, she has served on many boards. In New York she was a trustee of the Erick Hawkins Dance Foundation, a member of the committee for The Dance Collection of Lincoln Center and chaired the board of Women in Development.
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