International Council and Executive Team

The International Council provides leadership to IofC in line with the goals of Initiatives of Change International and the decisions of the annual Global Assembly. The Council is made up of nine to eleven members elected by the Global Assembly. Day-to-day leadership and management is delegated to an Executive Team of four members of the Council, including the Executive Vice-President and the Treasurer. For a more detailed description, see the Articles of Association. Its Secretary is Nathalie Renia.

Current Members

Omnia Marzouk (President) (Egypt/UK)

Omnia was born in Madrid, and spent her formative early school years in Egypt. She moved to Australia as a teenager and studied medicine at Sydney University while her father served as Egyptian Ambassador. At university she was the first woman to be awarded the Hamilton Mott Scholarship at Wesley College for all round contribution to College life. She obtained her MD thesis, with distinction, from Liverpool University and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (FRCPCH) and a Fellow of the College of Emergency Medicine (FCEM). She has been working as Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine for 16 years at UK’s busiest Children’s Emergency Department – Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool. She was Clinical Director of the Emergency Department for 7 years and is currently Associate Medical Director.

Omnia is an accredited mentor, and has a Diploma in Medical Education and in Advanced Medical Management. She is active in many educational roles serving locally on the executive of the School of Paediatrics as RCPCH Regional advisor. She is currently RCPCH National Chair for Paediatric Emergency Medicine training and has taken part in two RCPCH “Train the Trainers” delegations to Jordan and Kurdistan. She has received local, regional and national awards in recognition of her different roles.

Omnia met IofC while at school in Australia and has been actively involved since. For many years, she has been particularly involved in intercultural and interfaith dialogue within the UK as well as taking part in similar initiatives in countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. She is committed to building bridges of understanding between the west and the Muslim/Arab world.

Omnia heads up the portfolio for international programmes, conferences and actions.

Read more about Dr Marzouk here.

Edward Peters (Executive Vice President) (UK)

Edward Peters has worked with Initiatives of Change for 40 years, in some 40 countries. He was responsible for formal training programmes for young people from 1981-83 and 1995-2000. He was a commissioning editor & monthly columnist of For A Change magazine from 1990-96. From 1993-98 he served as international co-ordinator of Foundations for Freedom, a programme of courses aimed at strengthening democracy in Eastern Europe. He was Chair of the national Clean Slate Campaign - a millennium initiative in the UK in 1999. From 2002-2008 he managed the global internet work of Initiatives of Change. From 2009-2010 he assisted Rajmohan Gandhi during his Presidency of IofC International, including organising the ‘Voyage of Dialogue and Discovery’ which took the Gandhis to 15 countries in the first half of 2010. Edward’s wife is Swedish, they have two children in their twenties, and live on the west coast of Sweden. Edward has been Executive Vice President since October 2010.

Lorne Braun (Treasurer) (Canada)

Lorne Braun (Treasurer) currently works as a consultant to Canadian NGOs doing humanitarian work throughout the world. His first career was in building technology, compliance and management. The past 27 years were spent in international development: working and consulting with NGOs, the private sector, and the Canadian Government. He also spent four years teaching international non-profit management at a college in North Vancouver. Lorne has an MA in Conflict Analysis and Management from Royal Roads University in Victoria, Canada. His research on the Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict has led to facilitated dialogue work in Canada and the UK. Lorne has been a member on various Boards including his local church, the Vancouver Airport multi-faith chaplaincy, and several Canadian and international NGO coalitions. He has travelled extensively, including three years working in Ethiopia with his wife Joyce and daughter Megan. For several recent years, Lorne served as Chair of the IofC Canada Council. Lorne has been Treasurer of the IA since October 2008.

Lorne heads up the finances area.

Fabiola Benavente (Mexico)

Fabiola Benavente was born in Chiapas, Mexico. She obtained her degree in International Marketing from the University of Monterrey (UdeM), nominated for the Suma Cum Laude Award. She first came across Initiatives of Change (IofC) during university in 1998 and has since then been part of building an Initiatives of Change team in Mexico. Her interest in conflict transformation lead her to take part in IofC’s Caux Scholars Programme in 2001. She worked for two years for Initiatives of Change-UK doing marketing for For a Change magazine, in London. After working briefly in the corporate world as a Marketing Specialist for a global company, in 2007 she took a position as Director of Leadership Development at a private think tank in Mexico City, running an ethical leadership programme for young leaders. With IofC she has also taken part in organizing 'Trust and Integrity in the Global Economy' (TIGE), a conference in Caux, Switzerland (2009,2010). Fabiola lives in Belgium. She spends her spare time supporting a social enterprise she co-founded which engages people, organizations and companies in tree-planting in Mexico.

Fabiola heads up the portfolio for fundraising.

Chris Breitenberg (USA)

Chris Breitenberg received his B.A. in religion from Davidson College before working for two years with IofC in Washington, DC, as a Communication Assistant, Researcher and Programme Developer. After participating in IofC's Action for Life program in Asia, he returned to the US to teach and manage conferences for a leadership education company in Washington, DC. That lead to several years of experience as a coordinator for IofC programs in North America, Europe and Asia. He currently serves as Director of Communications for Initiatives of Change International.

Chris heads up the portfolio for communications.

Hennie de Pous-de Jonge (Netherlands)

Hennie de Pous-de Jonge worked for several years with MRA in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, after training to be a teacher. On her return to the Netherlands she became editor of Nieuw Wereld Nieuws, later called Ander Nieuws, the Dutch MRA/IofC publication. She has with her husband organised programmes and conferences for families and youth both in the Netherlands and in Caux. From 1980 till 1990 she held different positions in the Christian Democratic Party (CDA) both national and local. From 1990 till 2000 she taught in a primary school in a multicultural area in the centre of The Hague. Since 2000 she has been involved in intercultural and interreligious dialogue in the Netherlands resulting in several conferences in Caux on the Spiritual Factor in Secular Society and A Heart and A Soul for Europe. She is author of the book Reiken naar een nieuwe wereld (2005), which deals with the history of Oxford Group, Moral Rearmament and Initiatives of Change in the Netherlands since 1924 and takes an honest look at the development of the movement and its ideas against the historical background. In 2008 she rewrote it in English with an international public in mind, taking her own country as a case study. It was published by Caux Books with the title Reaching for a new world. She is married to Johannes de Pous. They have three grown up children.

Hennie heads up the Partnerships with other Agencies portfolio.

Shoufeng Hsu (Taiwan)

Shoufeng Hsu is from Taiwan and has been associated with IofC for 22 years, mostly working on various initiatives related to youth development in Taiwan and Asia Pacific. He is on the board of IofC in Taiwan and is a member of the Asia Pacific Regional Coordination Team that serves IofC network in that region. Shoufeng believes that IofC is in a unique position to address moral and spiritual issues, with a universal message that speaks to people of all faiths and none. As a professional interpreter who works with IofC on a voluntary basis, he feels called to be a bridge of communication across cultures and generations. Shoufeng is married to Ouyang Huifang, who has worked with IofC for over 20 years and is the incumbent Secretary-general of IofC Taiwan.

Shoufeng shares responsibility for the training and people development portfolio.

Antoine Jaulmes (France)

Antoine Jaulmes is an engineer from the Paris School of Mines (Paris Tech) later trained in business and finance at HEC Business School, Antoine Jaulmes has worked for 27 years with PSA Peugeot Citroën, holding various positions in production and R&D, ranging from cost controller to plant manager and project director - he was particularly happy to be involved in the launch of two new car assembly plants, one in France and one in Slovakia; he is now Director of the PSA-FIAT joint R&D Platform. A longstanding writer and currently Director of the publication of the French magazine Changer, he is also the Secretary of IofC France board, Vice-President of the Caux Foundation and a member of IofC International Council. His interests include protestant theology and inter-religious dialogue, reconciliation and change in professional as well as personal life, history, sport (rugby, a ruffian's game luckily played by gentlemen!), nature and garden. He has four Franco-Dutch children in their teens or early twenties. His conviction is that IofC has been endowed with a few keys which could help unlock our global crises and conflicts (bringing together opposed communities, overcoming religious barriers and other prejudices and creating dialogue; reconciling the spiritual and the material and helping each individual find a balance and a purpose in life…) and that it is the responsibility of IofC to offer support and contribute to solving issues currently threatening humanity in the best way possible. If we don’t do it, nobody will do it in our place.

Nombulelo Khanyile (South Africa)

Nombulelo Khanyile was born in Kroonstad, South Africa in 1951. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Fort Hare, and in 2005 obtained an MBA specialising in Tourism. After graduating she worked with Initiatives of Change in several countries including UK, USA, Canada, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Nombulelo worked for a spell as Research Officer for Mobil Foundation, as well as a Student Advisor for Vista University. Since 2003, Nombulelo has helped coordinate the Clean Africa Campaign Leadership Training Programme, now known as the Harambee Leadership Training Programme, which aims to to nurture and prepare young people for ethical living and servant leadership in Africa. She is also one of the coordinators of Creators of Peace, and has great interest in reconciliation work and programmes that empower women to be change agents. Since 2007, she has been a member of the African Coordination Group whose mandate is to care, listen, support, nurture and coordinate the work of Initiatives of Change in Africa. She was married to Vusi for 21 years, and they have three children, two boys Thulani and Phakade, and a daughter Ndoni.

Andrew Lancaster (Australia)

Andrew Lancaster lives in Australia where he was born in 1947. In 1965 he interrupted his Civil Engineering studies to make himself available for the program of MRA/IofC.  Since then he has worked with IofC in a number of countries including India, Canada, UK and New Zealand. For the last 35 years he and his wife Margaret have made their home in Canberra . Since the 1980s he has been a member of IofC Australia’s Council of Management. From 2003 to 2006, he served as National Coordinator in Australia. For four years from October 2006 he served on IofC’s International Council and on the Executive Committee of IofC International and then at the IofC Global Consultation in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, he was selected to serve for a further two years.  He is also a member of the Council of the CAUX-Initiatives of Change Foundation in Switzerland which owns and maintains the IofC international conference centre in the village of Caux. Andrew and Margaret have three adult sons and three grandchildren.