Executive Committee posts and postholders
Chair
Sarath Davala
Sarath Davala is an Indian sociologist based in Hyderabad, India. He co-founded India Network for Basic Income and Mission Possible 2030 – both organisations working on basic income related issues. From 1993 to 2000, he was an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. Between 2010 and 2014, he was the Research Director of the Madhya Pradesh Basic Income Pilot Project. He is the co-author of the book: “Basic Income: A Transformative Policy for India”, which summarised the findings of the MP BI pilot study. He is currently co-leading another basic income pilot with waste collectors in the city of Hyderabad, India, a project initiated by University of Bath, and supported by European Research Council. Sarath is also collaborating with different agencies to innovate solutions to reach cash the last mile in the rural parts of India.
Vice Chair
Hilda Latour
Hilde Latour has a background in biomedical sciences and cultural anthropology and years of experience in program- and knowledge-management. She is a life member of BIEN, board member of Basisinkomen Nederland (dutch BIEN) and co-founder of Mission Possible 2030 – Basic Income the key to SDG. As a Guest lecturer at the blockchain minor – International Financial Management and Control at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, she explores the boundaries of paradigm shifts, such as Building Commons on the blockchain, a new narrative for Basic Income
Secretary
Diana Bashur
Diana Bashur, MA: After working for the UN and other international agencies in development and political analysis in New York, Vienna and Damascus, Diana returned to university to research a different approach to peacebuilding. Currently at the University of Vienna, she is researching Basic Income as a tool for peacebuilding with a focus on the Middle East and a particular interest in its potential for social cohesion. Diana was elected BIEN Secretary in August 2021.
News service editor
Peter Knight
Peter Knight joined BIEN in 2017. He is a PhD (Stanford University) economist and strategic analyst with broad international experience in digital transformation, e-development, e-government, distance education, electronic media, telecommunications reform, international banking, foundation work, and teaching. Peter is devoted to leveraging information and communication technologies to accelerate social, economic and political development. He currently focuses on promoting thought, communication, and action across three areas: sufficiency, sustainability, and innovation; he is Coordinator of the Sufficiency4Sustainability Network.
Features editor
Tyler Prochazka
Tyler Prochazka is the opinion editor for BIEN. He is the chairman of UBI Taiwan and a PhD student at National Chengchi University.
Volunteer recruitment officer
Leah Hamilton
Leah Hamilton, MSW, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Appalachian State University and Senior Fellow at the Jain Family Institute. She teaches social welfare policy and conducts research related to family financial stability and basic income.
Academic research/editor
Toru Yamamori
Toru Yamamori is a professor at the Faculty of Economics, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, He has been working at the intersection of heterodox economics, history and philosophy of economics, and oral history. He contributes to international journals such as Cambridge Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Methodology, Ethics and Social Welfare, and Basic Income Studies. His theoretical research on the concept of need in economics has been recognised with the award of the 2017 K. W. Kapp Prize from the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy. His oral historical research on the intersectionality between women’s liberation movements and claimants unions movement in the long 1970s Britain won the 2014 Basic Income Studies Best Essay prize.
Affiliate and public outreach
Julio Linares
Julio Linares is an economic anthropologist from Guatemala. He holds an Msc in Anthropology and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a MA in Applied Economics and Social Development from National ChengChi University (國立政治大學) in Taipei, Taiwan. His research focus dwells on the relationship between money, direct democracy and unconditional basic income. Julio is currently based in Berlin, Germany, where he explores these topics in practice with the Circles UBI project. Julio is currently serving his second term as Public Outreach for BIEN. He speaks Chinese, English, Spanish, German and a bit of Hungarian.
Dr. Neil Howard
Neil is a Lecturer in International Development at the University of Bath. His research focusses on the governance of exploitative and so-called ‘unfree’ labour and in particular the various forms of it targeted for eradication by the Sustainable Development Goals. He currently co-leads a pilot in India trialling UBI and participatory action research as potential policy responses to indecent or exploitative work in Hyderabad, India. Neil is also a founder and editor of the Beyond Trafficking and Slavery platform publishing at openDemocracy.net.
Website manager
Mike Valentine
Mike Valentine is a web marketer and SEO Consultant with 20 years of experience in Content Management Systems and an interest in UBI.
Treasurer
Malcolm Torry
Dr. Malcolm Torry was elected as BIEN’s treasurer in 2021 following five years in the voluntary post of General Manager, during which time he facilitated the stabilisation of BIEN’s registration, administration, and financial affairs. He is a priest in the Church of England, and for thirty-four years served full time in South London parishes. For twenty years he was Director of the Citizen’s Basic Income Trust in the UK, for ten years he was a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics, and he is now a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath. He has written several books on Basic Income, and edited the Palgrave International Handbook of Basic Income: https://torry.org.uk/basic-income.
Social Media Manager
James Grant
James has been contributing to BIEN’s online presence since 2018, becoming the Social Media Manager for the organisation in 2021. He studied International Relations at Queen Mary, University of London, and currently works in the tech sector, focused specifically on Virtual Reality technology.
Bank account trustees (not members of the Executive Committee): Jake Eliot, Annie Miller, Mark Wadsworth
Chair of the International Advisory Board: Philippe Van Parijs
Tasks related to the different posts
The task of the EC
BIEN’s purpose is: To educate the general public about Basic Income, that is, a periodic cash payment delivered to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement; to serve as a link between the individuals and groups committed to, or interested in, Basic Income; to stimulate and disseminate research about Basic Income; and to foster informed public discussion on Basic Income throughout the world.
The task of the EC is to ensure that BIEN fulfils its constitutional purpose and to set policy to that end.
General duties of EC members
- To attend EC meetings, and if not attending to send apologies. At least 50 % of meetings must be attended between one General Assembly and the next
- To fulfil and develop the tasks related to the post to which you were elected
- To work with any working group(s) to which you are allocated in order to fulfil the tasks allocated to the group(s) by the EC
Individual duties
Chair
The role of the Chair is to collectively develop a vision, mission and long-term strategy for BIEN. In all aspects the Chair should work closely and in consultation with the Vice-Chair.
She / he should seek new partnerships globally and develop meaningful collaborations with people and organisations that will further the strategic objectives of BIEN in terms of strengthening research about Basic Income, its dissemination worldwide in as many languages as possible so that basic income discussion becomes rigorous and robust. In addition to these strategic aspects of the role, Chair in consultation with the Vice-Chair and the EC members should fulfil the following tasks:
- To chair meetings of the EC and the General Assembly
- To propose policy and initiatives for BIEN and to lead them
- To ensure that decisions made by the EC conform to BIEN’s purpose
- To take any urgent decisions required between EC meetings
- To represent BIEN to other organisations and individuals
- To liaise with the congress Local Organising Committees over the content of congresses
- To submit an annual report to the General Assembly
- To raise funds for BIEN and make it financially sustainable
- To encourage new organisations to affiliate to BIEN, and work for growth of membership
Vice Chair
- To fulfil all of the functions of the Chair whenever the Chair is absent
- To fulfil any of the tasks of the Chair by mutual agreement
- To support and help the chair in proposing policy goals and initiatives for BIEN and to assist with leading them
Secretary
- In consultation with the treasurer, to keep an up to date register of BIEN members and of members of the EC
- To take minutes of EC and GA meetings
- In consultation with the Chair, to prepare meeting agendas
- To prepare papers required by the EC
- To send agendas, minutes and other papers to EC members before EC meetings and to BIEN members before meetings of the GA
- To receive correspondence and ensure that it is acted on
- To undertake correspondence as required by decisions of EC and GA meetings
- To ensure that all requirements of registration by the UK’s Charity Commission are met
- To administer elections, including proposing tellers to the EC
Treasurer
- To keep income and expenditure accounts along with evidence of income and expenditure
- To make payments as agreed by the EC
- To submit regular financial reports to EC meetings
- To prepare annual accounts
- To liaise with the auditor over auditing of the accounts
- To prepare budgets if asked to do so by the EC
- To manage the bank and other accounts
- To propose financial rules to the EC
BI News Editor
- In consultation and cooperation with the EC and Chair to develop news policy
- To oversee BI News posts on the website
- To issue monthly BIEN Bulletin emails
- To supervise the work of the volunteers allocated to the news service
- To ensure that guidelines agreed by the EC are adhered to by volunteers
BI Features Editor
- In consultation and cooperation with the EC, Chair and News Editor to develop features policy
- To identify eminent scholars and policy makers and commission features in line with BIEN policies
- To oversee BI opinion posts on the website
Social media manager
- In consultation and cooperation with the EC, Chair and News Editor to develop social media policy
- To oversee social media channels
- To supervise the work of the volunteers allocated to social media
- To ensure that guidelines agreed by the EC are adhered to by volunteers
Academic editor/research
- To oversee any research repositories and/or research communication channels as agreed by the EC
- To facilitate research collaborations with other organisations
- To oversee BI research posts on the website
Affiliate and Social Outreach
- To maintain an up to date register of affiliated organisations and their contact details
- To liaise between affiliated organisations and the EC
- To convene meetings of representatives of affiliated organisations at and between congresses
- To oversee BIEN’s relationships with international and other organisations in consultation with the Chair and in conformity with policy set by the EC
- To assist with convening meetings between BIEN and other organisations both at congresses and on other occasions in consultation with the Chair and Congress local organising committees
Website Manager
- To manage the website and liaise with its other users in consultation with the Chair and in conformity with policy set by the EC
Volunteer Recruitment Officer
- To oversee the recruitment, allocation and training of volunteers
- In consultation with the Chair and in conformity with policy set by the EC to liaise with volunteers and to manage volunteer policy
Congress Organizer (appointed by the EC and the Local Organising Committee)
- To co-ordinate the Local Organising Committee (LOC) that plans the congress
- To liaise between the EC and the LOC by attending EC meetings and in other ways
Bank account trustees
- To facilitate the relationship between BIEN and the Charity Commission
- To facilitate the efficient management of the bank account
