IofC International Council

The International Council provides leadership to IofC in line with the goals and the decisions of the annual Global Assembly. The Council is made up of nine to eleven members.

The IofC International President is a member of the Council and interfaces at a high level with stakeholders and keeps an oversight on vision, mission and good governance. An Executive Team of four, including the Vice President, Treasurer and Executive Director, has responsibility for day-to-day leadership and management. Other members of the Council may be responsible for particular portfolios and be supported by standing committees made up of people outside the Council.

Born in the former British colony of Natal in South Africa where he grew up under apartheid. He holds dual citizenship of the UK and New Zealand.

Gerald earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Rhodes University and a Doctor of Theology degree from the University of Durban. After lecturing at the University of Durban-Westville, he became Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of South Africa, in Pretoria, in 1988. He is widely published as part of a distinguished academic career, examining such topics as the relationship between the church and state, the complex interplay between theology and human sciences, as well as seeking to understand how religion can both move with the times yet still stay grounded in tradition and history.

Pillay was the Vice Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University in the United Kingdom from 2003 - December 2022, and responsible for the organization, direction and management of the University and staff.

‘The task before us now is how to rebuild our societies and communities with patience and resourcefulness. As we saw at the end of the Second World War, it is not going to be done quickly or easily.’

 ‘What would the pioneers of this movement say if they were here today? I suspect that they would urge us to do something; to be the vanguard of changemakers; to help with the healing of history and continue the work of reconciliation; to be the honest brokers in addressing the predicament in which we find ourselves.’

Zacharia is a practising accountant in Kenya. He has been involved with IofC since 2006 when he was still in high school. Currently, he is the Account Assistant for IofC Kenya and Impact East Africa, a local charitable organization.  

As a young IofC member, he participated in various IofC Kenya programs, including Kenya I Care, Clean Elections Campaign, and Creators of Peace. Zacharia is involved in the local chapter of the Trustbuilding Program, where he handles the financial management.  

Regionally, Zacharia has been involved with the Eastern Africa Youth Forum and oversaw the planning and execution of 6 series of youth conferences between 2011 and 2019. In 2014, he was the chairman of the fourth Eastern Africa Youth Forum in Burundi.  

Zacharia is passionate about IofC’s work and truly appreciates how different people within IofC have impacted his life. 

Yofrina graduated from Education Department in Medan and then continued her study in Department of Communication Science in Jakarta, Indonesia. She found her passion in writing and education. In 2021 she got a scholarship to learn Chinese language and culture in Taiwan and was involved with some IofC activities during her stay there.   

“My first encounter with Initiatives of Change (IofC) was when I attended the 8th Youth Leadership Camp in 2011 organized by IofC Indonesia. Apart from my family, I find support systems through IofC, a network of people who provide me with practical and emotional support. IofC has strength in its people who are committed to living their lives with IofC values, giving their times and energy and taking initiatives to make a better world. Being part of Asia Pacific Coordination Group (APCG) member helps me realize how to work wholeheartedly and what it truly means to be a servant leader.” 

Patrick McNamara has worked with universities, governments, corporations, non-profits, and foundations for over 30 years. He is an expert in conflict management with experience in interpersonal, organizational and international disputes. Patrick is married to Aviva Segall and proud father to two college-aged daughters. His forthcoming book is Partners in Change: 10 Steps to Successful Collaboration to Change the World. 

Patrick met the idea of Moral Re-Armament in 1992 through Michael and Erica Henderson in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. He was a Caux Scholar in 1996, the 50th anniversary of Caux as the international conference centre for Initiatives of Change. He returned in 1997 to support the CSP team and proposed to his wife there. He worked with IofC’s Hope in the Cities team in 1998-2001 under a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, helping to train interracial dialogue facilitators and doing the work of healing history. He was at the South Africa Consultation in 1999 where the idea of renaming MRA was proposed. Patrick has been to Asia Plateau a half-dozen times and served on the team training Indian civil servants, as well as taught conflict resolution and sustainable development in CSP-AP. He served on the board of IofC-USA from 2006-2015, much of that time as Executive Vice President. 

Pilar is an International Educational Consultant and a specialist in Conflict Resolution and Mediation with a Doctorate in Pedagogical Mediation and a Master’s in International Law with an emphasis in Human Rights. As a teacher and curriculum developer she has worked for the Ministry of Public Education in Costa Rica and private International Baccalaureate (IB) schools in different countries; always interested in Peace, Justice and Human Rights education.  She has facilitated dialogues and restorative circles among diverse community groups in the USA, Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia.

Pilar encountered IofC in 2003 as Caux Scholars, since that moment, she has participated in various IofC programs like Action for Life 2, K2C, Encounter XIV of the Americas and Caux Forum. Since 2020, Pilar has been part of IofC LatAm support team. She belongs to a leadership team that organizes the Yo Escucho/Eu escuto weekly sessions to inspire, connect and equip the Latino-American communities. She coordinated the organization of the XV Encounter of the Americas in Porto Alegre Brazil in 2024, and is supporting the implementation of Creators of Peace (CoP) and Trust Building Program (TBP) in the Americas.

Together with her husband Fredric Griffin, Pilar runs the global program iListen Teens, aimed at 11-19-year-old students. Teenagers have a space to listen to their inner voice, to each other, and to the needs of the world. This value-based program aims to foster personal empowerment, multicultural awareness, ethical leadership, and global citizenship responsibility, in order to produce agents of change.

Assaad met the Moral Rearmament movement in 1988 and came to experience a change of heart. 

Prior to this time, Assaad had played an active role in the Lebanese civil war which took place from 1975-1990. He was primarily a senior official with responsibilities in the security and intelligence services of the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF). In 1985, he co-negotiated the Tripartite Agreement on behalf of LF. Following the civil war, Assaad co-created the WAED –National Secular Democratic party in 1990. Since 1994, however, he has had no political commitments. 

In February 2000, Assaad wrote a public letter of repentance and apology to his victims from the civil way. Continuing these healing efforts, in 2005, he initiated and coached the production of a documentary called You and I: Knowing each other’s religion.

Assaad serves as an Advisory Board member and as an ex-general coordinator for a gathering of 31 NGOs called Wahdatouna Khalsouna (Unity is our salvation) working for civil peace in Lebanon. In addition, in 2012 he co-created an organization called "Fighters for Peace” (FFP), an NGO of ex-civil war fighters from all denominations working together for civil peace, healing and immunizing against violence. He authored an autobiography titled The Truth Even with a Trembling Voice in 2016 in both French and Arabic. Represents FFP in a forum it helped to co-found called Forum for Memory and Future in Lebanon. Assaad has been a member of the Global Peace Builders Network since 2016. In 2018, Assaad received training at Clingendael Institute about insider mediation with UNDP.

Assaad is a member of Moral Rearmament-Lebanese Chapter of Initiatives of Change. 

Tapan Parekh, aged 42, is an entrepreneur, lawyer and internet solutions expert. He is the founder of Dot Solutions, a website agency he started in 2002 that specializes in website design and digital marketing.

Tapan has been associated in a voluntary capacity with Initiatives of Change since 1996, when he first attended a children's program at Asia Plateau, Panchgani. Over the years he has volunteered in organizing youth conferences in India among several other programs and initiatives at Asia Plateau and in Mumbai, India. In 2005 Tapan represented IofC India at the Under 40’s gathering in Kenya. He also spent a month volunteering in Caux the same year. Having been actively engaged with Initiatives of Change (the organization and the movement) for over 28 years he has developed a well-rounded appreciation of its ideas and strives to live by its ideals in both his personal and professional life. He well understands the constraints under which our network operates and recognizes the challenges that we need to surmount to create a greater impact in the world.

Tapan has been part of various communications strategy groups and IT related deliberations and decision making for Initiatives of Change globally over the last 20 years. He was part of a Technology Review Group during 2013-14 under IofC International that helped plan technology adoption in IofC teams worldwide. He has served on the board of Initiatives of Change (India) since 2014 and is actively involved in supporting IofC India with all its technology and legal compliance needs. He additionally serves on the Executive Committee of IofC India that looks into the day to day functioning of Asia Plateau and Initiatives of Change - India.

In addition to full time involvement in his web agency, He is also a visiting faculty at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (TISS) where he teaches a Masters level course on website design. 

Tapan holds a BSc (Physics) and LLB degree in law from the University of Mumbai, an MBA from the University of San Francisco with a focus on Entrepreneurship in addition to a Diploma in Cyber Law from NALSAR University, Hyderabad. He currently lives in Mumbai, India with his wife and daughter.

More information available soon.

Chris lives with his wife, Anne, in a converted barn on his family’s farm in the west of England. They have two sons and four grandchildren.

In addition to being involved in farming, for forty years Chris was a full-time volunteer with IofC, starting in 1969. For more than 30 years he was on the Board of IofC UK, 11 years on the Board of IofC USA, and served on the IofC International Council from 2003 – 2008.

Since stepping down from IofC governance responsibilities in 2012, he has been involved in the programme Initiatives for Land, Lives and Peace, and more recently trained as a Reader in the Church of England.

One of his other passions is fishing, especially in Welsh rivers.