Facilitators

Sofia Bustamante, Turn up the Couarage

Sofia is an experienced community builder, entrepreneur social technology innovator with over 15 years experience of working with social processes.

As a “healthy-community” builder, Sofia specializes in balancing both individual and group development, supporting groups to develop their own culture toward conflict and sustainable living. She has supported hundreds of individuals and many organizations with her capacity as a mediator, facilitator, coach and therapist. She has designed training programmes to support social interveners such as her holistic model for personal transformation and her 6-day coaches training course. She speaks regularly on the topic of leadership outside authority,

As a social technology innovator, she pioneers techniques in collaboration; bridging the online/offline divide, with a particular focus on creativity through conflict transformation. Through her recent innovations which including both her contribution to the core of the Confluence model (a Meta Collaboration tool) and a range of holistic peer-development workshop designs such as The Applied U-Process and Evolution Lounge, Sofia actively supports network-based change organisations and learning communities such as Pioneers of Change, AIESEC and The Cooperation.

Sofia is co-founder of The Melanin Partnership, a Brixton-based think-do tank addressing the societal need to strengthen the ever more fragile sense of community in urban settings through constant participatory-led innovation and a core holistic practice.

Her recent clients include Bananalink, Changemakers, Young Enterprise and Barking and Dagenham Council.

Sofia has a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, London.

Simone Poutnik, The Hub Brussels

Simone has 8 years of experience in facilitating knowledge networks & multi-stakeholder participation processes, coordinating projects and servicing members.

She is Co-founder/Co-Director of The Hub Brussels and leads member attraction, community building and participatory space design. She is also on the Board of The Hub World Ltd. The Hub is a fast growing network of collaborative work and meeting spaces, that facilitate collaboration between social innovators across different sectors, in the physical and virtual space, currently present in 15 cities around the world.

Simone is an Associate at CommunityIntelligence? Ldt., a transformation agency and social enterprise, which enables profound change in culture and capabilities of organizations through the skillful, client-specific integration of Communities of Practice, Theory U, Art of Hosting, Developmental Coaching, Appreciative Inquiry and the CIL Innovation Architecture.

She has been a delegate at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, designed a partnership project for rural development in India in 2003. She is a practitioner of the art of hosting, and has designed and facilitated interactive workshops and group processes in Belgium, Germany, Italy and India in English, German and Italian. Her clients include the European Commission, The European Social Fund, CBI - centre for the promotion of imports from developing countries, SIEMENS Energy and AIESEC.

Simone holds a masters degree from the International University of Perugia/Italy in Communication Systems for International Relations with master thesis on Multi-stakeholder engagement.

Hendrik Tiesinga, Reos Partners

Hendrik is a partner in Reos Partners and an experienced facilitator and designer of multi-stakeholder change processes. He is passionate about finding new ways of learning and collaboration that enable deep shifts in individuals, organizations and social systems. Hendrik is currently working on multi-stakeholder projects that seek to transform the global financial system and the education sector in the UK.

Prior to joining Reos in 2007, Hendrik managed the European Corporate Governance Service, a joint-venture of 7 organizations across Europe specialized in research and advice on corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. As part of this role, Hendrik facilitated ongoing inter-organizational policy development and change processes.

Since 2004 Hendrik has been a steward of the London Pioneers of Change network and the UK ‘Art of Hosting’ community. In both capacities he has designed and facilitated innovative workshops and learning programmes on collective learning, sustainability and leadership. In 2004 Hendrik was part of a team that facilitated meetings between Palestinian and Israeli citizens near Jerusalem using the Art of Hosting methodology.

Hendrik holds an MA in Philosophy from the University of Amsterdam and an MA in Organization Studies from the Warwick Business School.