The Foundation’s Advisory Board, responsible for judging our annual competition entries, consists of individuals from varied backgrounds who have achieved eminent positions in their respective fields of endeavour.


Professor Warwick Fox, PhD

Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Central Lancashire, UK.


Warwick has published widely in environmental philosophy in particular and his books include A Theory of General Ethics: Human Relationships, Nature and the Built Environment, and Toward a Transpersonal Ecology: Developing New Foundations for Environmentalism. He is represented in leading anthologies and encyclopedias in the area and has also served on the editorial advisory boards of some of the leading journals in the field including Environmental Ethics, Organization and Environment and Environmental Values.


Warwick’s main university teaching has been in the areas of ethical theory, applied ethics, environmental ethics, the philosophy of conservation, the philosophy of mind and the nature of the interior lives of humans and other animals, and the tangled trio of free will, determinism, and moral responsibility. He has also lectured internationally to a wide range of university and broader general interest audiences in countries ranging from Australia, Bermuda, England, Finland, Greece, and Italy to Japan, New Zealand, Scotland, Sweden, and the US.


Warwick’s web site

The Hon. Dr Michael Frendo, LLD, LLM, MP

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Parliament of Malta


Michael has wide experience in European and International Affairs as well as regional and infrastructure development, science and technology.


A lawyer with a specialization in European Community Law, he was a member of the European Convention with responsibility for drafting the European Constitution. He was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and he is a signatory to the Lisbon Treaty. 


He has held ministerial responsibilities for Foreign Affairs, science, technology, infrastructure, shipping and aviation, telecommunications and information technology. He has served as Chair of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group and Chair of Commonwealth Connects.


He is part-time Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Malta and was previously PN Director of Press and Media and Editorial Director of three newspapers. He has published a number of books on European Affairs.

Professor Randy Malamud PhD

Professor and Associate Chair, Modern Literature, Ecocriticism and Cultural Studies, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA


A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, Randy teaches English Literature and Eco-criticism at GSU and has lectured and written widely in both subjects. His books include The Language of Modernism and two books about TS Eliot’s drama. His fourth book, Reading Zoos, analyzes zoos as a cultural phenomenon, bringing together the perspectives of cultural studies, ecocriticism, and postcolonial studies. His most recent books are Poetic Animals and Animal Souls and A Cultural History of Animals in the Modern Age. He has written numerous essays, articles and book reviews on English literature, animal and cultural studies, art and photography and is a regular speaker at international conferences.


Dr Malamud is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. He is on the faculty of The Kerulos Center. He serves on the Editorial Boards of Society and Animals and Brill's Human-Animal Studies book series, and Palgrave Macmillan's Book Series on Animal Ethics. He is also an international associate of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies at the University of Canterbury and a Patron of the Captive Animals’ Protection Society.


Randy’s web page

David Pilling

Asia Editor, Financial Times, Hong Kong


David is the Financial Times’ Asia editor overseeing the FT’s coverage of the Asia region from Afghanistan to Australia, including China, India and Japan.  In addition to directing the work of correspondents in the region, and overseeing the editing and commissioning teams in Hong Kong, Pilling is also an assistant editor at the FT.  He writes the editorial leaders from Asia and a weekly column on Asian business, politics and economics. 


Since joining the FT in 1990, he has had experience on the international and main news desks in London and has worked in Santiago, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was previously global pharmaceuticals and biotechnology correspondent and, prior to his current appointment, Tokyo Bureau Chief. 


He has won several reporting prizes, most recently for coverage of Japan and China, both individually and as part of FT teams. In 2011, he was named Best Foreign Commentator of the Year at the Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards which celebrates the work of the finest print and online commentators and their editors.

Dr Astrid Vargas, DVM, PhD

Conservation Biologist. Research Associate, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA


Spain’s leading newspaper, El País, named her as one of the top 100 people of the year across Spain and Latin America. A leading conservation biologist with global experience, Astrid qualified in veterinary medicine from the University of Madrid and gained her PhD in conservation biology from the University of Wyoming.  Her career has spanned many countries and many species, most recently in Spain with the Spanish Ministry of the Environment.


While working at the Smithsonian Institution and elsewhere, she has been involved with many different mammal species including the golden lion tamarin, Mexican wolves, Siberian tigers and Elds deer.  Her work was instrumental in the recovery and re-introduction of the black footed ferret in the United States from a situation where there were only 18 animals of this species known to be in existence in the wild.  She has worked in Madagascar on programs involving the fosa and the golden crowned sifaka. For the past several years she has been a central figure in the recovery program in Spain and Portugal for the Iberian lynx – the world’s most endangered cat.


Throughout her career, Astrid has received widespread recognition for her work in the international press and through many prizes and awards including, among others, the Premio Adenex in the region of Extremadura and the Environmental Career Achievement Prize awarded by the Junta de Andalucia.

Alan Weiss, PhD

Business Consultant, Educator, Author, Public Speaker. Newport, RI, USA


Alan is “one of the most highly regarded independent consultants in America.” (New York Post) and brings a broad business perspective to the Advisory Board.


He has published over 500 articles and 40 books, including his best-seller, Million Dollar Consulting. His newest is Million Dollar Speaking, and his next is Million Dollar Coaching. His books have been on the curricula at Villanova, Temple University, and the Wharton School of Business, and have been translated into German, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Korean, and Chinese.


As a consultant, his clients include several of the world’s leading corporations including Merck & Co, Hewlett-Packard, The New York Times Corporation, GE and Mercedes-Benz among others; as well as organizations such as The Federal Reserve.  His delivers 30 keynotes a year at major conferences, and he has been a visiting faculty member at Case Western Reserve University, Boston College, Tufts, St. John’s, the University of Illinois, the Institute of Management Studies, and the University of Georgia Graduate School of Business. He has held an appointment as adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Rhode Island where he taught courses on advanced management and consulting skills.


He is an inductee into the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame®, the concurrent recipient of the National Speakers Association Council of Peers Award of Excellence and the first ever non-journalist to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Press Institute.


His PhD is in psychology and he is a member of the American Psychological Society, the American Counseling Association, Division 13 of the American Psychological Association, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He has served on the Board of Governors of Harvard University’s Center for Mental Health and the Media and on several other non-profit Boards.


Alan’s web site

Keith Wheeler, PhD

Chair, Commission for Education and Communication, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)


Keith brings over 30 years experience and a number of high-level appointments in the field of environmental policy, sustainability, education and communication.


He currently serves as Chair of the Commission for Education and Communication for IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). He is President of the Foundation for Our Future, Chief Executive Officer for ZedX Inc., an international agro-environmental knowledge management and IT company, Senior Partner of WorldViews LLC, President of the board of Trustees of the Paul F- Brandwein Institute, a Director of SweetSpring Salmon Inc., a Director of the John Burroughs Association and a former Director of the Keystone Center, an international NGO focused on environmental conflict resolution. 


Keith served on President Clinton’s Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) Education and Communication Task Force; was Co-Chair of the White House Initiative Education for Sustainability, and Co-Chair National Forum for Partnerships Supporting Education about the Environment. He served on the White House OSTP National Environmental Technology Strategy Working Group. He was the first Executive Director and CEO of Global Rivers Environmental Education Network (GREEN), a 135-nation international nongovernmental organization that was the recognized leader in watershed education and conservation.


Keith holds a graduate degree from Cornell University and undergraduate degree from Syracuse University. He has presented keynote addresses to business, scientific, technologic and education conferences throughout the world on a variety of sustainable development, conservation, knowledge management and education issues. He has authored over two-dozen peer review publications, dozens of general publications and published a book entitled Education for Sustainability: A Paradigm of Hope for the 21st Century.

Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, PhD

Founder, Cassava Republic Press, Abuja, Nigeria.


Selected, in 2008, as one of only twenty people on the African continent to for Desmond Tutu's African Leadership programme, Bibi is the founder of Cassava Republic Press - a commercial and social enterprise listed as one of the top global brands to watch by the iconic Monocle magazine. Through Cassava Republic and other activities, Bibi is focused on redeveloping a reading and writing culture in Nigeria - part of the bigger project of re-imagining Nigeria's future and being part of African cultural and intellectual renaissance. Cassava Republic authors have been awarded multiple international literature awards including the Caine Prize, the Orange Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.


With a PhD in gender studies from the University of Warwick, UK, Bibi had an academic career as well as a commercial and consulting career.  She has worked for the BBC and consulted to the European Union, UniFem and ActionAid. She is the founder of the NGO RAW focused on returning the joy of reading to communities in and around Abuja.


Bibi sits on the editorial board of a number of influential journals and is a life-long committed feminist, vegan and eco-princess!