kancketill_name = "Kate Ancketill"
kancketill_bio ="After studying politics as a postgrad, Kate worked for Amnesty International for seven years, in research and policy writing. \n Starting at GDR Creative Intelligence as an assistant in 1997, Kate became a partner at after two years and bought the company after four. \n GDR stands for Global Design Resources and was originally established to provide a confidential design agency selection service. In 2000, Kate reoriented the company's work towards research into innovation in design, experiential marketing, technology, new media, packaging and service within the retail and hospitality sectors, tapping into an extensive network of thousands of the world's most inspirational designers, architects, technologists, academics and strategists for source material. \n In 2007, Kate won the Jennifer d'Abo Memorial Scholarship for female entrepreneurs, and has been selected as one of the top 100 in the Courvoisier Future 500, 2009."
 
jdillon_name = "Justin Dillon"
jdillon_bio = "Justin Dillon has been a musician all his life. A member of the band Dime Store Prophets in the 1990s, Justin left to pursue music in the band Tremolo. Tremolo was featured on television shows, \"The Mountain\" and \"North Shore\", as well as a variety of MTV shows, including Pimp My Ride, Newlyweds, Bands Reunited, and Dismissed. With the release of their first album, Love Is the Greatest Revenge (2005, Flagship/Universal Records), Tremolo did something unique: they committed to donating 50% of the royalties to charities chosen by their fans. Dillon came across the issue of Human Trafficking while touring Russia. He met scores of girls whose ambitions to travel west were being exploited by traffickers. During his visit, his young female interpreter shared with him the many opportunities offered her to go west. Dillon investigated the bogus job opportunities and became incensed by how easy it was to trick their victims. After sharing with some of the women about the dangers of these proposals, he vowed to do something about it when he returned home. Upon arriving back to the United States, he looked for organizations addressing the issue and found them few, small, and under-funded, but passionate. He immediately began hosting benefit concerts to support and spread their work. These benefit concerns soon grew into a \"rockumentary\" combining both critically acclaimed artists and social luminaries in the film, CALL+RESPONSE."

gfurman_name = "Greg Furman"
gfurman_bio = "Greg Furman is the President of Furman Communications & Marketing. He is also the Founder/Chairman of The Luxury Marketing Council, which consists of 1,600 CEOs and top marketing executives of 675 US and international luxury firms. Greg is also a Professor at New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business. His diverse background includes serving as the head of public affairs and issues management for Sun Oil's Canadian Subsidiary, Suncor; Managing Director of Advertising and Sales Promotion for the New York Stock Exchange, and head of J. Walter Thompson's corporate image public relations business."

rgupta_name = "Ruchira Gupta"
rgupta_bio = "Ruchira Gupta is a journalist, activist, Emmy winner and policy-maker focused on issues related to violence against women and children. She partnered with twenty-two women in prostitution to make the documentary film, The Selling of Innocents. Afterwards, she founded Apne Aap Women Worldwide (A2W2), a non-profit organization that supports women and children in India. Her book Confronting the Demand for Human Trafficking is used in India to train law-enforcement officers to combat trafficking. She recently received the Abolitionist Award at the House of Lords in the United Kingdom"

tjacob_name = "Tom Jacob"
tjacob_bio = "After receiving his B.A. in political science from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan, Tom spent time in the financial arena working on leveraged buyouts. Then seeking to help make the world a better place, Tom entered the nonprofit realm and eventually served as the Director of Development for the Chicagol and Alzheimer's Association. Utilizing his diverse background, he then spent ten years in Executive Search/Recruiting focusing on human resources, non-profits, and finance. Tom has served on the Boards of a Chicago theatre company and an organization focusing on the needs of urban teens. Recently disabled due to multiple sclerosis, Tom continues his volunteer activities and has strong interests in immigrant services, animal welfare, and most importantly, combating human trafficking."

skara_name = "Siddharth Kara"
skara_bio = "Siddharth Kara is one of the world&#39;s foremost experts on human trafficking and contemporary slavery.  He is the first Fellow on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery at the Harvard Kennedy of Government, where he also teaches on these subjects.  Kara best known as author of the award-winning book, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, the first of three books he is writing on the subjects of human trafficking and contemporary slavery.  Sex Trafficking was named co-winner of the prestigious 2010 Frederick Douglass Award at Yale University for the best non-fiction book on slavery.  Kara&#39;s is the first book on modern slavery to receive the award.  Kara&#39;s next book, Bonded Labour: Inside the System of Slavery in South Asia is due out in 2012. <br/><br/> Kara first encountered the horrors of slavery in a Bosnian refugee camp in 1995.  Subsequently, Kara set aside his business career and has traveled to more than twenty-five countries across six continents to research these crimes, directly interviewing over one thousand former and current slaves of all kinds, witnessing firsthand the sale of human beings into slavery, and confronting some of those who trafficked and exploited them.<br/><br/>  Kara currently advises the United Nations, the US government, and several other governments as well as private foundations and nongovernmental organizations on antislavery research, policy, and law.  His ongoing work has been regularly covered by CNN, the BBC, and CNBC.  He is a regular contributor to the CNN Freedom Project. Previously, Kara was an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, then ran his own finance and M&A consulting firm.  He holds a Law degree from England, MBA from Columbia University, and BA from Duke University."

cokumu_name = "Caroline Okumu"
cokumu_bio = "Born and educated in England, and raised in Austria, Caroline Okumu started her career with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Vienna, Austria, serving the United Nations Women&39;s Guild (UNWG) and The Vienna International School (VIS). Okumu pursued educational and employment opportunities in the United States, where she served as the Assistant Comptroller for British global business services giant Rentokil Initial, plc., Washington, D.C. In pursuit of global opportunities, Okumu then served as the Manager for International Compensation, at Cable and Wireless, USA, a British telecommunications company headquartered in Vienna, Virginia. She managed a team of financial analysts in supporting the International and National Sales organization. Okumu currently serves as Director, Special Events at Smith Fairfield, Inc. (SFI), a full-service integrated communications and event management consulting firm specializing in Public Relations, Media Relations, Public Affairs, Marketing, Direct Response and Event Management. In addition, Okumu recently acquired a position to support The Society of White House Military Aides. Okumu is bilingual, her second language being German, and is currently pursuing admission into an EMBA entrepreneurial program at the London Business School, London, England. Her passion for human rights, in relation to women and children, keeps her active as a volunteer for several organizations, globally." 

sseshadri_name = "Sridhar Seshadri"
sseshadri_bio = "Sridhar Seshadri obtained his PHD at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently the Professor of Information, Risk, and Operations Management at the University of Texas.  He has also been a faculty member at New York University and the Administrative Staff College of India.  During his teaching career, he was awarded the Stern School of Business Teaching Excellence Award (1998) and recognized as the Stern School of Business Undergraduate Teacher of the Year in 1997.  His current research projects focus on equilibrium asset pricing, operations management, optimization, risk management, and supply chain management. His professional service includes serving as the Associate Editor, Naval Research Logistics; Associate Editor, Management Science; Senior Editor, Flexiible Services and Manufacturing (FSM); Area Editor (Inventory, Reliability and Control), Operations Research Letters; and Senior Editor (Supply Chain and Stochastics), Production and Operations Management.  He has recently consulted the Chrysler Corporation for offshoring auto component manufacturing and Equus Consulting in forecasting FMCG demand."