The council is sociocratically elected every two years by our General Assembly to hold the vision of the network.
Abdul Otman (Suderbyn) born in Libya, raised in France, and initially joined Suderbyn Ecovillage as a European Solidarity Volunteer to a now committed Council Member working to be an agent of change, and recently elected chairperson of Baltic Ecovillage Network.
He holds an engineering degree in Digital Technologies from Telecom SudParis and a Masters of Science in Information and Communication Technologies from the Asian Institute of Technology. He brings his strong IT background as well as Project & Operations Manager with significant experience in building teams and inspiring them to be agents of change.
Charlie Lenglez (Los Portales) Born in Belgium, I was introduced, at the age of 20, to the Jungian psychology and dreamwork and co-founded the Los Portales community, along with my “soul family ». Passionate about working with dreams as a tool for personal development and group cohesion, I’ve been involved in teaching and training for 35 years, specializing in the integration of innovative and alternative learning strategies, that take our differences into account and create a co-learning environment. Trained in Sociocratic Governance with John Buck and Gilles Charest, I’m a trainer and consultant in organizations and have been active at the GEN Europe Governance working group for several years. I was also the RIE (Iberian Ecovillage Network) general coordinator for six years.
Through what I learn every day with Los Portales and the networks, I am deeply convinced of our responsibility as “guardians of the Planet” and of the importance of co-creating and co-learning not only among humans, but with all terrestrial and other dimensions. The time we live in is a real challenge, …and we can only make it together.
Riccardo Clemente (Popolo Degli Elfi, Italy) is a member of an ecovillage in Tuscany with 250 residents, and has been President of the Italian ecovillage network since 2015. He is experienced as a facilitator and has been part of the CLIPS ecovillage incubator project since its inception.
He has been active in the GEN network since 2012, as part of the National Network working group, has been attending the National Networks meetings since their beginnings, as well as working in several projects such as Bridgedale 360, youth exchanges, and many more. He studied at Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT, Wales) where he has been teaching earth construction for 10 years.
Steffen Emrich (gASTWERKe, Germany) studied city and regional planning with a strong focus on participatory approaches. After a few years working for urban activist groups he started working for development aid organisations, first in Sarajevo empowering children and youth, then as a consultant focusing on conflict prevention and children affected by armed conflict, mainly in East- and Central Africa.
Besides his professional career, Steffen was always also a political activist engaged in several environmental and peace groups. His first Community experience was in Arcosanti /Arizona – USA in 1996, and he now lives in gASTWERKe ecovillage. Steffen was one of the first sociocracy trainers in Germany and for the last 5 years he was supporting many communities in Germany as a community adviser. He was serving the GEN Germany Board for 4 years and was active at the GEN-International Fundraising and International projects working groups for several years.
Susan Balet (Amalurra, Basque Country) studied Business Administration in the city of Barcelona. With some work experience in a multinational company she soon started working in the social sector specializing in social entrepreneurship and social impact measurement.
In 2012 she met Irene Goikolea, the founder of Amalurra community who introduced her to the community movement which she had never heard about before. She then joined Amalurra and started getting actively involved in GEN EU in 2014. Also a member of the international team for the RIE network, (Iberian Ecovillage Network) she has been a participant of the National Networks working group since. Trained in GEN’s ToT, with experience in sociocracy, Erasmus + and European Solidarity Corps projects she is a strong believer that we can walk together towards a more conscious, healthy and nature connected society, and being part of GEN EU is a way to walk that path.
