Executive Committee

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.

Research Coordinator

Jurgen De Wispelaere

Jurgen De Wispelaere is a political theorist turned public policy scholar, specializing in the political economy of basic income. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Götz Werner Chair of Economic Policy & Constitutional Theory, University of Freiburg, as well as an Associate Professor (Docent) in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tampere University. He has published extensively on the politics of basic income and is the co-editor of four volumes as well as the Founding Editor of the interdisciplinary journal Basic Income Studies. Jurgen has been a member of the BIEN EC in 2002-2004 and also co-organised the BIEN Congresses in Montreal (2014) and Tampere (2018).

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.

Hubs Supervisor

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.

Affiliates Coordinator

Olaf Ostertag

Awaiting text.

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 who is now Priest in Charge of St Mary Abchurch in the City of London. 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 has edited two editions of 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.

Volunteer Coordinator

Anja Askeland

Anja has been active in the basic income movement since she co-founded BIEN Norway in 2012. From 2014 to 2016 she served as Secretary of BIEN. She has been active in the founding of Unconditional Basic Income Europe(UBIE) in 2014, later she was part of the Coregroup in 2017 whose main task was to organize an event adjacent to the BIEN Congress in Lisbon. She has been one of the initiators of the Nordic basic income cooperation – UBI Nordic, and she was the coordinator of UBI Nordic conference in Oslo 2019. She is also one of the co-founders of Mission Possible 2030, in 2019. Anja has a bachelor in development studies from University of Bergen. She is self-employed and does work related to coordination and administration within the cultural sector.

Bank account trustees (not members of the Executive Committee): Jake Eliot, Annie Miller, Simon Duffy, Reinhard Huss

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

Hubs Supervisor

The Hubs Project involves building regional BIEN hubs in Africa, Asia and Latin America and professionalising BIEN’s day-to-day activities. The project aims to strengthen the basic income ecosystem and BIEN’s role in it.

Regular oversight of the Hubs project
Meeting with BIEN coordinator and regional hubs managers to check progress and course correct
Strategic support to coordinator and regional hubs managers
Reporting to the BIEN EC about project progress
Connecting with partners and donors around the project.

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

Tasks related to the different posts

BIEN Congresses

Basic Income

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