Professor Suheil Badi Bushrui is a distinguished author, poet, critic, translator and media personality, well known in the United States, Europe, and the Arab world. Widely recognized for his seminal studies in English of the works of W. B. Yeats and for his translations of Yeats’ poetry into Arabic, Professor Bushrui is also the foremost authority on the works of Kahlil Gibran. In his capacity as an eminent Gibran scholar and as Chairman of the International Association for the Study of the Life and Works of Kahlil Gibran, Professor Bushrui actively works with a network of researchers and enthusiasts located throughout the world, including Asia, Africa, North America, and Europe. At present, Professor Bushrui – who also holds the title of Research Professor Emeritus – is the Director of the Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace in the Center for Heritage Resource Studies at the University of Maryland. The Chair is the first academic forum in the world devoted to the preservation of Gibran’s legacy and the promotion of East-West intercultural relations.

Balz Manhart is the Mayor of Quarten, a lovely community on the Lake of Walensee in the Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland and geographically one of the largest communities of St. Gallen. He is a distinguished and esteemed personage in the canton, and for many years he was the Cantonal Representative of his home region. In 1997/1998 he served as the President of the Cantonal Parliament. As former President of the Region of Sarganserland-Walensee, Balz Manhart has been actively involved in furthering the quality of life and development in the area. He is well respected for his efficiency, for his personal leadership, as well as for his commitment to community well-being. Balz Manhart is married and has three grown daughters.

Gerhard Müller is a professor of physics at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, USA. He was born in Switzerland and studied physics at the University of Basel, where he earned his Ph. D. in 1980. Prof. Müller did postdoctoral research work at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the State University of New York at Stony Brook for two years before he joined the faculty at the University of Rhode Island. Prof. Müller has published over a hundred research articles and one book in the areas of magnetism, statistical mechanics, and quantum chaos. He has presented numerous papers at international conferences and held talks at universities and research laboratories in North America, Europe, and Asia. Prof. Müller served as Chairman of the URI Physics Department for three years. For some fourteen years Prof. Müller and his wife, Christine Müller, a pianist and music teacher, were hosts, editors, and producers of a weekly radio interview show, “Many People – One Planet”, on WRIU Kingston 90.3 FM. Prof. Müller’s website can be found at www.phys.uri.edu/people/muller.html.

Vladimír Smékal is a professor of psychology at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He was born in Czechoslovakia and studied psychology at the University of Brno, where he earned his Ph.Dr. in 1967. Between 1964 and 1969 Prof. Smékal worked two years at the Child Guidance Clinic and four years at the Research Institute of Child Psychology and Patopsychology, where he led the Department for Psychodiagnostics. Between 1980 and 1985 he did postdoctoral research at the Department of Psychology at the University of Brno. From the 1^st of January 1990 he served as the elected Chairman of the Institute of Psychology at Masaryk University. In 1997 he participated in founding the new School for Social Studies at Masaryk University, where he was Director of the Research Center for Personality Development and Ethnicity. The Center is mainly oriented to the longitudinal study of children (ELSPAC―European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood). Professor Smékal is still working at the Center teaching Personality Psychology and Psychology of Religion. He has published almost 300 articles (most of them based on the analysis of research data) and was editor of four monographic collective studies. Professor Smékal has published an important book entitled “Invitation to Personality Psychology―Man in the Mirror of Consciousness and Behaviour”, and two popular books, “About Human Nature―Short Essays about Mind and Spiritual Culture of Personality” and “Do You Know How to Live”. Professor Smékal is an adherent of Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy. He often lectures at national and international conferences in Italy, the United Kingdom, Russia, etc. and is a frequent speaker on radio and television.

The Hon. Dr. Rolf Widmer is a State Councillor of the Canton of Glarus, Switzerland and Director of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Environment. He studied economics at the University of St. Gallen with several semesters abroad at the University of California and Oxford University. In 1999 he received his PhD and subsequently founded the SWC SA, a consulting enterprise that specialised in administration, social insurance and empiricism. He is President of the communal branch of the Swiss Christian Peoples Party and a board member of the Glarus Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Widmer is among the most popular politicians in his canton, because he values the qualities of honesty and reliability, integrity and mutual respect. He is married and has a baby son.

Dr. Assad Ghaemmaghami is the founder and director of the International Academy for Human Sciences and Culture in Walenstadt, Switzerland, which incorporates the Institute of Psychology for Peace Research and Peace Education and the Psychology Counselling and Research Institute for Sexuality, Marriage and the Family. He completed high school in Switzerland and studied psychology and education at the University of Zurich. His dissertation, which he wrote under Professor Konrad Widmer, was titled A Holistic Model for Drug Therapy and Preventive Education. The study was based on six years of research on addiction and received the mention: "Based on wide practical experience and presented with emphatic educational and therapeutic ability". Dr. Ghaemmaghami is a psychotherapist and training analyst. He is also the founder of a new therapeutic and educational concept of psychology, the Psychology of the Capacity to Know and to Love, which he has developed in over seventeen years of research. This theory is based on a well-defined model of the soul and the knowledge that man is a being of infinite positive potential, subject to education and training.