The Eighth World Congress of Jesuit Alumni

The Committee of the Eighth World Congress of the Jesuit Alumni organises the event that is to take place in the city of Medellín, Colombia, from 14 to 18th of August 2013.

Several important meetings were held starting February 2012 to prepare the congress that is to take place at Colegio San Ignacio, Medellin.
The Committee of the World Union of Jesuit Alumni (WUJA) including the President of the Union, Mr. Thomas Bausch U.S., the Chaplain Father William Currie SJ (from the University of Sofia Tokyo) and delegates from France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Burundi, Nigeria, Brazil, Hong Kong, India and Colombia paid a visit to Medellin.

We also met the Board of Directors of the Latin American Confederation of SJ Alumni with representatives of Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico. Also the Colombian Federation of SJ Alumni had a parallel meeting with representatives of the nine schools of the Jesuits in Colombia.
The meetings were held at the Colegio San Ignacio de Medellín.

The previous Congresses of the World Union of Jesuit Alumni were held in Bilbao/Spain, Rome/Italy, Versailles/ France, Bilbao-Loyola/Spain, Sydney/Australia, Kolkata/India and Bujumbura/Burundi. It is the first time, the World Congress will take place in America. Hence we are preparing to offer the best to our congressmen.

The theme of the Congress is “Jesuit education and social responsibility, how can we serve?”. Seven speakers will be addressing this central issue, including Father General of the Society of Jesus, Adolfo Nicolás SJ who will be the first speaker.

The speakers’ panel includes:

1. Father Adolfo Nicolás

Father Nicolás is the Superior General of the Society of Jesus. He’s a Theologist specialized in Semiology. He is based at The Curia Generalizia in Rome.
Born in Spain in 1936, he succeeded the Dutch Father Peter Hans Kolvenbach sj in 2008.
He has spent a great part of his life as a Jesuit in Asia, especially in Japan where he got to be Provincial of the Society.
He holds a PhD in Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome, stayed in Asia for forty-four years, in Tokyo as professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Sofia and in the Philippines as director of the East Asia Pastoral Institute (EAPI) in Manila. Between the years 2000 and 2004, he worked in the Pastoral Center for Migrants in Tokyo. From 2004 until his election as Superior General, he acted as president of the Asia-Pacific Provincials’ Conference. He was co-responsible of all the East Asia jesuit region that spans from Myanmar (Burma) and China to Micronesia in the Pacific, including the province of Australia. Besides his native Spanish, he speaks five languages: Catalan, Japanese, English, French and Italian.

2. Chris Lowney

Chris Lowney is a known lecturer on leadership and business ethics.
He worked for 17 years with J. P. Morgan & Co, as an administrative director and member of the Board of Directors in New York, Tokyo, Singapore and London. Before joining JP Morgan, Chris was a Jesuit seminarist for seven years. He graduated from Fordham University where he also got his master’s degree and was made member of Phi Beta Kappa.
He is the author of the successful book Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company that Changed the World that was a best-seller. He currently lives in New York, where he is a consultant for the Catholic Medical Mission Board.

3. Gunter Pauli

Born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1956, Gunter Pauli graduated from Loyola University in Antwerp and obtained his MBA from INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France) in 1982. He is the founder of ZERI Foundation (Zero Emissions Research Initiative). He founded a number of companies, associations and held a number of prestigious international positions. His entrepreneurial activities span business, culture, science, politics and the environment.
He is dedicated to design and implement a society and industries that respond to people’s needs using what is locally available. His visionary approach supported by dozens of projects on the ground landed him an invitation to present his cases at the World Expo 2000 in Germany. There he constructed the largest bamboo pavilion in modern days that became the most popular pavilion with 6.4 million visitors.
Since 2009 he has taken responsibility for the design of an economic development concept based on GNH (Gross National Happiness) principles and values as part of his advisory role in designing an economic development strategy for Bhutan.
Gunter has published numerous books and articles. Fluent in seven languages and having resided on 4 continents, he is a world citizen.

4. José Antonio Ocampo

José Antonio Ocampo is one of the most prominent economists in Latin America. He has received numerous academic distinctions, such as the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought in 2009 and the Alejandro Ángel Escobar National Science Award in Colombia in 1988.
After finishing high school at Berchmans School in Cali, Colombia, he attended the University of Notre Dame where he got degrees in Economics and Sociology in 1972. In 1976, at the age of 23, he received a PhD in Economics from the University of Yale. He was Minister of Agriculture and Finance in Colombia, as well as Director of the Economic Commission for Latin America.
He is currently a professor, Director of the Economic and Political Development Concentration, member of the Committee on Global Thought and co-President of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University.
He’s held numerous positions at the United Nations and in his home country of Colombia. Amongst them: Joint Secretary-General of the United Nations for Economic and Social Affairs, Executive Secretary of CELAM and Minister of Finance in Colombia.
He has published extensively on topics of macroeconomic theory and policy, international financial matters, social and economical development, international trade, and the economic history of Colombia and Latin America.

5. Fr Augustin Kalubi sj

Jesuit from the Central African province and an expert on the educational field and Jesuit education, Augustin Kalubi sj has been principal of several schools in Africa and is a renowned international lecturer.
He was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and joined the Society of Jesus in 1983 after finishing studies in Applied Pedagogy.
Father Kalubi sj finished his studies in Philosophy at the Facultés Saint Pierre Canisius, Kimwenza. He also studied mathematics at the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de Bukavu and got his masters degree in Theology at the Jesuit School of Theology in Boston.
Father Kalubi is currently the Delegate for Education in the Central Africa Province (ACE) of the Society of Jesus; there, he has been Coordinator of Jesuit Schools. He has also been assistant of Editions Loyola and Director of the Loyola Center for Teachers’ Professional Reconversion. Kalubi also took part in the Congregation of Procurators in 1999 and in the 35th version of the General Congregation of the Society of Jesus. He also attended the launch of the World Union of Jesuit Alumni Congress held in Bujumbura and the Congreso Internacional de Fe y Alegría in Quito in 2010

6. Carlos Raul Yepes

Carlos Raul Yepes is an alumnus of the Colegio San Ignacio in Medellin and chairman of Colombia’s greatest bank.
Born in Medellin in 1964, Carlos Raul Yepes is characterized by his Ignatian Spirit and the humanization process he has managed to introduce to his country’s banking sector. He has a personal commitment to social responsibility as a means to improving society by generating wealth.
He graduated from Law School at the Pontifical Bolivarian University in 1987. He specialized in Business Law at the Universidad Externado in Bogota and has taken specialized courses in several universities abroad, in the USA including Delaware, Yale School of Management and Wharton. He held a number of prominent positions in various large industrial companies and banks
He was a delegate for Colombia in the Latinoamerican Round Table for Corporate Governance by OCDE – IFC Organization and Confecámaras, Founding Member and President of the Circle of Companies Issuing Securities of the Colombia Stock Exchange and the BID. He also taught at several universities.

7. Swati Gautam

Swati Gautam comes from the land that has practiced unity in diversity through thousands of years – India. Born in Gujarat (Western India), Swati graduated from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata (Eastern India) with a major in Political Science. She is comfortable in 7 languages: Hindi, English, Bengali, Sanskrit, Punjabi, Gujarati and Marwari.
Swati did her Masters in broadcasting from the University of Sheffield, UK. She has also been a faculty member at St Xavier’s College, Calcutta for 5 years where she imparted communication and media related content to graduate students.
Swati is a keen contributor to the leading English dailies of India: The Statesman, The Telegraph, The Times of India, The Pioneer and many more. She has also edited and co – authored two Coffee Table books. Fresh out of College, Swati set up what is today India’s only customized lingerie brand: Necessity-SwatiGautam. In doing so she’s reaching out to impoverished and marginalized women by equipping them with much needed skills and further more, by providing them employment too.
Building on her Indian heritage and Jesuit values, Swati is also a Governing Body member of Howrah South Point – an NGO led by Fr Francis Laborde that has 9 centers and 8 schools that touch the lives of tens of thousands of children and adults who are in need of education, health facilities, disability support and much more. Having been a motivator who’s used to public speaking, Swati hopes to channelise her oratory into lighting a little lamp at the WUJA World Congress at Medellin, for she believes that the mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled…