ISSS Board Members

Photo	Name	Title	Bio and Location	Term
	Michelle Friend	President president@isss.org	Born in Canada 1966. Education: Studied philosophy at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Intellectual development: Specialized first in philosophy of logic and mathematics, then on the philosophy of the logical foundations of the relativity theories. Recently I have been engaged in the philosophy of the environment and policy decisions that are in line with ecological economics. Stuart Umpleby introduced me to second-order cybernetics, systems science and Karl Muller introduced me to second-order science. Most recently I have been also working in the philosophy of chemistry - the environmental politics of chemical practice (research, industrial development, cultural attitudes). I developed an multi-criteria decision aide called the Institutional Compass to make the evaluation. We shall be using the compass "on the ground" in a three year project (2022 - 2025) in Mexico to re-establish the natural hydrological system and appropriate the river for the community. Employment 2001 - present: Teaching in the philosophy department at George Washington University, Washington D.C. 3-year Chaire d'Excellence Université de Lille 01/2020 - 01/2023.	2023-2024
	Gary Smith	President-Elect grs0036@gmail.com	Gary is based in the UK. He is a Senior Expert Systems Engineer at Airbus Defence and Space. He has a passion for understanding, appreciating complexity and the integration of solutions. From 2019 to 2023 he served as VP for Systems Practice. He is an INCOSE certified Expert Systems Engineering Professional and a senior editor of the Systems Engineering Body Of Knowledge. Gary's Linkedin Profile can be found here	2024-2025
	Roelien Goede	Past President roelien.goede@gmail.com	Working as programmer, I soon realized that people do not know what they want, or that is how I perceived it from my functionalist training. Later I learned that multiple perspectives enriches one's understanding and that a model is only one version of the proposed system. I was introduced to systems thinking by the book: "Computers in Context" By Dahlbom and Mathiassen and immediately understood how my thinking was post-functionalistic. I worked for 10 years in a group of systems thinkers in the Netherlands and then I was granted the opportunity to attend the very last edition of the Lugano Summer school presented by Peter Checkland and Werner Ulrich in 2012. Ulrich's message of "Giving a voice to the affected" was something I could relate to being from South Africa - a country known for "not listening to the affected". I also learned that in the corporate world there are involved and affected parties and I'm striving to find technical computer science solutions to design problems that are inherently flexible enough to support different perspectives. I met Gerald Midgley in the group of systems thinkers in the Netherlands and he invited me to ISSS in 2014 in Washington when he was President of the ISSS.	2020-2023
	Jennifer Makar	VP Administration- Managing Director admin@isss.org	Canada
	René Oosthuizen	Secretary and VP Protocol monze@mweb.co.za	René's Bio
	Gary Metcalf	Treasurer and VP Funds Treasurer@isss.org	Gary Metcalf is a Past-President of the ISSS (2008 conference), and an active member of the Board of Trustees. He served on the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Systems Sciences, as the President / VP from 2002 to 2018. His business background includes serving as Director of a small, community-based non-profit organization, then as a manager in two Fortune 50 corporations, running programs for over 30,000 employees each time. He spent 20 years teaching in university programs – in the US and other countries, and has owned and run a small consulting firm since 1998, with his wife and partner, Teresa Daniel, Ph.D.	2023-27
	Haider Al-Shareefy	VP Membership and PR membership@isss.org	I was born and raised in a war-torn country (Iraq) and ended up being a refugee a decade ago. Having experienced social, political turmoil, wars and conflicts, I have come to realise the value of systems literacy in social integration. I describe myself as a Holistic Systems Engineer. My bachelor degree was in aerospace systems engineering. I am currently doing a PhD in Safety Assurance of AI based systems. Technical achievements wise, my journey in Systems Engineering started with project management and business development for a construction company in London. I also worked in a Systems Engineering consultancy firm supporting Bombardier Transport with their flagship Rolling Stock platform (Aventra), covering work package management, V&V and parts modification design. I have a patent grant and 2 more patents are in progress with UK IPO. Then went to venture into setting my own business. Currently, I have a start-up community interest company whose purpose is to develop Humane Technologies, starting with an objective social networking medium (Herospace Universe) where people interact and socialise with a purpose, helping themselves and helping others, unlike purposeless social media systems that led to a great number of social disasters around the globe due to following the mindset of “move fast and break things”. My favourite hobbies currently involve intellectual and philosophical growth in understanding the real purpose of humanity, walking, travelling (travelled across 2 continents so far, planning to travel more), Outdoors, and Latin Dancing like Bachata, Kizomba, and Salsa.
	William Smith	VP Systems Practice	For Bill's full bio, click here I brought with me to ISSS, three systemic questions which pointed to evolutionary lacunae that currently exist in the development of systems and organization theory and practice. Given purpose as the origin of power:- 1. What are the elements or functions, present in every purpose that account for wholeness? 2. How can power be balanced as it moves through the various dimensions of purpose and power i.e. from the whole through the parts to the individual unit, and back? 3. How can we deal with the neglected dark side of power that derives from unconscious purposes, i.e. instincts, emotions, and motives? Together, with all the contributions from Saturday/Wednesday videos, papers, and conferences we have begun to make progress in answering these three questions, and in my tenure as Vice President of Practice, I will do my best to turn our findings into productive research and practice.
	Vacant	VP Conferences
	Jennifer Wilby	VP Research and Publications enquiryisss@gmail.org
	Daniel Ari Friedman	VP Education education@isss.org	As of 2021 I am a postdoctoral human in Davis, California, working with Prof. Brian Johnson (UCD) and Prof. Tim Linksvayer (Texas Tech). Our research is related to distributed physiology and evolutionary genomics in eusocial insects. With groups such as COGSEC I am also working on research related to knowledge management and cognitive security. Since 2019 I have been a co-organizer and facilitator at Complexity Weekend community of practice. In 2019 I completed my Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolution at Stanford University, studying the neurophysiology of collective behavior in ants with Prof. Deborah Gordon. While an undergraduate at UC Davis, I worked on Drosophila genetics with Prof. Artyom Kopp.
	David Ing	Chair, Board of Trustees and BoT Representative to ISSS Board daviding.isss@gmail.com	David Ing is a past-president (2011-2012) of the ISSS. He is currently a Research Fellow for the Creative Systemic Research Platform Institute. He also serves as a Research Fellow for Code for Canada. David is an alumnus of IBM, where assignments over 28 years included management consulting, market development, executive education, and headquarters planning. He resides in Toronto, Canada. Four sons (who attended ISSS meetings as children) have now grown up and are pursuing productive careers.