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NIGD Staff and Clusters
NIGD operates on a project basis. Each project is supervised by a project supervisor who is in charge of the project budget. The project supervisor is directly responsible to the board. In addition to the projects, and since mid-2007, NIGD organises its (day to day) operations in the form of clusters (see below).
NIGD was founded in 1997 by Reino Hjerppe, Veli-Pekka Niitamo, Heikki Patomäki, Katarina Sehm-Patomäki, Vappu Taipale, Riku Warjovaara, and Matti Wuori. The board is elected at its annual meetings. In 2008, NIGD's membership includes 88 persons.
NIGD Staff
Raphael Hoetmer, NIGD coordinator
Raphael serves as coordinator in NIGD's Lima Office.
Mikael Böök, project supervisor
Mikael coordinates NIGD's practical-political work around the setting up of a currency transactions tax (CTT), and the website on CTT . He was active in setting up ATTAC Finland. Mikael furthermore is a coordinator of an ongoing project "Democratization of Information with a Focus on Libraries", which also aims at linking the Library and the World Social Forum process.
Teppo Eskelinen, project coordinator
Teppo in 2006-2007 coordinated NIGD’s third world debt project, jointly organised with ATTAC Finland. He is a researcher of political philosophy, focusing on issues of global social justice, and the concept of development. He has worked as a journalist, and has been active with many Finnish NGOs, namely ATTAC, and Friends of the Earth Finland. The core of Teppo's activities, both professional and non-professional, is the notion of global social justice as both an intriguing intellectual challenge and an ideal motivating political work.
Jaakko Valli, project coordinator
Jaakko coordinated the La Sarita project in 2007.
Robyn Milburn, producer NIGD News and Notes
Robyn is main producer of the NIGD monthly news bulletin, NIGD News and Notes. She also assists with the editing of other NIGD written works. Robyn is based in Toronto, Canada.
Heikki Patomäki, NIGD research director
Heikki is a professor in international relations at the University of Helsinki. He is one of the founding members of NIGD. He served as Chairperson of NIGD in 1998-1999 and 2007, and as member of the board in 1998-2002.
Ruby van der Wekken, NIGD Secretariat and WSF coordinator
Ruby coordinates NIGD Secretariat including NIGDs Finances and is NIGD's WSF coordinator. She has been particularly involved in issues and initiatives around the African Social Forum process, and she is editor of the NIGD monthly news bulletin, NIGD News and Notes. Ruby is also part of the core team working on the CTT, and other issues related to global financial markets.
NIGD Clusters
Besides NIGDs projects, the (day to day) work of NIGD is organised according to the following clusters:
NIGD Newsletter cluster
NIGD News & Notes is produced by Robyn Milburn, with Ruby van der Wekken. On the News & Notes editorial board sit Azril Bacal, Marc Becker, Francine Mestrum, Katarina Sehm-Patomäki, and Teivo Teivainen.
Cluster coordinator is Ruby van der Wekken.
NIGD website cluster
The website cluster is composed of Mikael Böök, Marc Becker, Raphael Hoetmer, Matti Kohonen, Robyn Milburn, Jaakko Valli and Ruby van der Wekken.
Cluster coordinator is Marc Becker.
NIGD Research and Funding cluster
This cluster is made up of Francine Mestrum, Heikki Patomäki and Jaakko Valli.
NIGD Administration cluster
The administration cluster is composed of Robyn Milburn and Ruby van der Wekken.
Ruby van der Wekken coordinates the cluster and is NIGD Finance officer.