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Ms. Gerry is a unique personality that epitomizes the multi-multi challenges of today: multi-identity, multi-stakeholder, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-skilled. Before I met her, I was a bit afraid that she might be over the top, but in fact she proved to be the perfect moderator and inspiratrice for a complex multi-level and multi-disciplinary meeting. Multi-appreciated.
Rob van Tulder, Professor
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Gerry is an inspiring moderator, she catches your eye with her special appearance, and then captures your attention when she shows that she knows very well what she is talking about! When I participated in a learning event about co-operation between civil society and the private sector in the field of development, I was happy to meet Gerry and to experience how she spiced the event up by connecting the different parts of the program and stimulating people to actively participate in the discussions.
Leonoor van Munster, Senior Policy Officer
Directorate for Sustainable Economic Development (DDE), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands
Dear Gerry,
First of all, an amazing amount of 'thank you's' for having been such an excellent "ambassador" at the makeITfair Youth Roundtable! I have to admit, when I first heard about you I was hesitant. But after our first meeting, I was completely convinced that you should host the makeITfair Youth Roundtable. A roundtable that dealt with an important but highly complex subject matter: the environmental and human rights issues that are involved in the production of our electronic gadgets such as phones, laptops and mp3 players. And rightly so: I have received nothing but raving reviews about your performance from all the makeITfair youth organizations who came from all over Europe!
Your natural charisma, sincere engagement and knowledge on fair trade issues and high level of professionalism (without ever losing the personal Gerry-touch) is what really makes you stand out of the crowd. You did not just limit yourself to "your part": in the weeks before the Roundtable, you went out of your way to help brainstorming about how we could achieve the best results. I really enjoyed working with you and very much appreciate all the work you did during the preparations and the actual event. I could not have wished for a better and more engaged host of the conference than you.
Ginney Liu, Project Officer
MakeITfair, www.makeITfair.org
Two days of talking about sustainability in tea, coffee, and cocoa production chains with all kinds of stakeholders. Just add Ms. Gerry as a speaker and moderator and she connects with everyone and knows how to interconnect all participants. She opens up what people don't dare to express and she even sang a beautiful song. As well Ms. Gerry took up her role as ambassadrice for fair supply chains and made everyone wear her campaign-badge. People from all parts of our world, with different world visions, were proud to wear this button. Respect Gerry! A refreshing input at a conference about an important subject as sustainability.
Farah Karimi, Executive Director
Adrie Papma, Director Management Operations & Private Sector
Oxfam International / Novib (Netherlands)
Dear Gerry,
Just a quick note to say how delighted I was to meet up with you. You do remarkable work and are a warm and delightful person. With very best wishes.
David Norris, senator in the 'Seanad Éireann' (Irish senate)
www.senatordavidnorris.ie
About the national Fairtrade Campaign and the campaignfilm he made with Gerry: 'Ms. Gerry goes shopping for Fairtrade'. He is an Irish civil rights campaigner, James Joyce-scholar and candidate for 2011 elections of President of the Republic of Ireland>>
Very charming, very professional, very enjoyable!
Big thanks to you Gerry for being such a lovely host at the makeITfair Youth Roundtable in Amsterdam!
Jochen Dallmer, www.konsum-global.de
Ms. Gerry is a remarkable chairwoman who listens carefully to what moves the people in the audience. She knows how to make a conference dynamic, insert a nice dose of humour and at the same time she is well able to summarise the discussion. Respect, I recommend her. And I really mean this.
Lodewijk de Waal, Director
Humanitas
Ms. Gerry as the presenter and trainer of our group of 70 professionals functioned surprisingly well! The participants get out of their daily patterns and ways of thinking which makes one more open to focus on the real issues. Partly this is caused by Gerry being a novelty, but even more because of her skills. Ms. Gerry has the know-how, is not afraid to address difficult issues, knows how to involve everybody and takes strong control of the meeting but at the same time there is a little wink. Unique!
René Kars, manager
Municipal child care and family support centre, Amsterdam, district South
Gerry,
On behalf of the Dutch Youth Council I want to thank you for your contribution and devotion as a host and inspiratrice on the makeITfair Youth Roundtable in March 2009. You gave this event 'Schwung' which created an atmosphere of solidarity and motivation among the participants out of 40 different countries. Again, praise!
Stijn Otten
Member of Committee Dutch Youth Council, www.jeugdraad.nl
In the beautiful Dialogues House of ABN-AMRO in Amsterdam I was asked to give a presentation about my work as director of the Brazilian development-organisation IBISS. I was accompanied by Mayra. She is a young girl from one of our IBISS-projects and she received in December 2008 the International Children's Peace Prize. This Prize is connected to the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize and so Bishop Desmond Tutu gave Mayra the Prize. In the Dialogues House Mayra and I wanted to tell the audience a lot about the fight of IBISS against social exclusion, the fight of Mayra for peace and access to education for children and young people from the extremely violent favelas of Rio de Janeiro. A good journalist or moderator is always needed because we want to put everything in the spotlights. Somebody who asks concrete questions and stimulates the audience to participate in the discussion. That is why we were so happy that Gerry was moderating. Gerry was well prepared and knew about the matter, knew which subjects were interesting to start upon and provoked in a light way a valuable discussion. Inspiratrice Gerry is in a way a very Brazilian person. We know a lot 'transformistas' in Brasil. IBISS even works together with two of them in our AIDS-prevention projects and they all (including Gerry) are smooth talkers!
Gerry ensured that the work of IBISS and Mayra was transparent and accessible for the audience. A real pleasure to work with her! I sincerely recommend Gerry for other organisations and conferences. Gerry, thank you very much for your serious commitment to our work in Brasil. Beijão.
Nanko G. van Buuren, Diretor Executivo
IBISS, www.ibiss.info
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References by people with a Gerry-experience:
Ms. Gerry is a unique personality that epitomizes the multi-multi challenges of today: multi-identity, multi-stakeholder, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-skilled. Before I met her, I was a bit afraid that she might be over the top, but in fact she proved to be the perfect moderator and inspiratrice for a complex multi-level and multi-disciplinary meeting. Multi-appreciated.
Rob van Tulder, Professor
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Gerry is an inspiring moderator, she catches your eye with her special appearance, and then captures your attention when she shows that she knows very well what she is talking about! When I participated in a learning event about co-operation between civil society and the private sector in the field of development, I was happy to meet Gerry and to experience how she spiced the event up by connecting the different parts of the program and stimulating people to actively participate in the discussions.
Leonoor van Munster, Senior Policy Officer
Directorate for Sustainable Economic Development (DDE), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands
Dear Gerry,
First of all, an amazing amount of 'thank you's' for having been such an excellent "ambassador" at the makeITfair Youth Roundtable! I have to admit, when I first heard about you I was hesitant. But after our first meeting, I was completely convinced that you should host the makeITfair Youth Roundtable. A roundtable that dealt with an important but highly complex subject matter: the environmental and human rights issues that are involved in the production of our electronic gadgets such as phones, laptops and mp3 players. And rightly so: I have received nothing but raving reviews about your performance from all the makeITfair youth organizations who came from all over Europe!
Your natural charisma, sincere engagement and knowledge on fair trade issues and high level of professionalism (without ever losing the personal Gerry-touch) is what really makes you stand out of the crowd. You did not just limit yourself to "your part": in the weeks before the Roundtable, you went out of your way to help brainstorming about how we could achieve the best results. I really enjoyed working with you and very much appreciate all the work you did during the preparations and the actual event. I could not have wished for a better and more engaged host of the conference than you.
Ginney Liu, Project Officer
MakeITfair, www.makeITfair.org
Two days of talking about sustainability in tea, coffee, and cocoa production chains with all kinds of stakeholders. Just add Ms. Gerry as a speaker and moderator and she connects with everyone and knows how to interconnect all participants. She opens up what people don't dare to express and she even sang a beautiful song. As well Ms. Gerry took up her role as ambassadrice for fair supply chains and made everyone wear her campaign-badge. People from all parts of our world, with different world visions, were proud to wear this button. Respect Gerry! A refreshing input at a conference about an important subject as sustainability.
Farah Karimi, Executive Director
Adrie Papma, Director Management Operations & Private Sector
Oxfam International / Novib (Netherlands)
Dear Gerry,
Just a quick note to say how delighted I was to meet up with you. You do remarkable work and are a warm and delightful person. With very best wishes.
David Norris, senator in the 'Seanad Éireann' (Irish senate)
www.senatordavidnorris.ie
About the national Fairtrade Campaign and the campaignfilm he made with Gerry: 'Ms. Gerry goes shopping for Fairtrade'. He is an Irish civil rights campaigner, James Joyce-scholar and candidate for 2011 elections of President of the Republic of Ireland>>
Very charming, very professional, very enjoyable!
Big thanks to you Gerry for being such a lovely host at the makeITfair Youth Roundtable in Amsterdam!
Jochen Dallmer, www.konsum-global.de
Ms. Gerry is a remarkable chairwoman who listens carefully to what moves the people in the audience. She knows how to make a conference dynamic, insert a nice dose of humour and at the same time she is well able to summarise the discussion. Respect, I recommend her. And I really mean this.
Lodewijk de Waal, Director
Humanitas
Ms. Gerry as the presenter and trainer of our group of 70 professionals functioned surprisingly well! The participants get out of their daily patterns and ways of thinking which makes one more open to focus on the real issues. Partly this is caused by Gerry being a novelty, but even more because of her skills. Ms. Gerry has the know-how, is not afraid to address difficult issues, knows how to involve everybody and takes strong control of the meeting but at the same time there is a little wink. Unique!
René Kars, manager
Municipal child care and family support centre, Amsterdam, district South
Gerry,
On behalf of the Dutch Youth Council I want to thank you for your contribution and devotion as a host and inspiratrice on the makeITfair Youth Roundtable in March 2009. You gave this event 'Schwung' which created an atmosphere of solidarity and motivation among the participants out of 40 different countries. Again, praise!
Stijn Otten
Member of Committee Dutch Youth Council, www.jeugdraad.nl
In the beautiful Dialogues House of ABN-AMRO in Amsterdam I was asked to give a presentation about my work as director of the Brazilian development-organisation IBISS. I was accompanied by Mayra. She is a young girl from one of our IBISS-projects and she received in December 2008 the International Children's Peace Prize. This Prize is connected to the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize and so Bishop Desmond Tutu gave Mayra the Prize. In the Dialogues House Mayra and I wanted to tell the audience a lot about the fight of IBISS against social exclusion, the fight of Mayra for peace and access to education for children and young people from the extremely violent favelas of Rio de Janeiro. A good journalist or moderator is always needed because we want to put everything in the spotlights. Somebody who asks concrete questions and stimulates the audience to participate in the discussion. That is why we were so happy that Gerry was moderating. Gerry was well prepared and knew about the matter, knew which subjects were interesting to start upon and provoked in a light way a valuable discussion. Inspiratrice Gerry is in a way a very Brazilian person. We know a lot 'transformistas' in Brasil. IBISS even works together with two of them in our AIDS-prevention projects and they all (including Gerry) are smooth talkers!
Gerry ensured that the work of IBISS and Mayra was transparent and accessible for the audience. A real pleasure to work with her! I sincerely recommend Gerry for other organisations and conferences. Gerry, thank you very much for your serious commitment to our work in Brasil. Beijão.
Nanko G. van Buuren, Diretor Executivo
IBISS, www.ibiss.info
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