seven-member Board of Directors

Pierre Avanzo

Chairman of the Board of directors

Pierre discovered his passion for leadership development during his first twenty-year long career in management consulting at McKinsey & Company. Serving others, and allowing them to discover and tap into their own potential, is what profoundly motivates him. After training in coaching and facilitation, he created Leadership Inside, a leadership advisory firm, offering services ranging from executive coaching to coaching management teams or organizing holistic development programmes. Working with a stimulating international team of coaches, Pierre strives to remain at the forefront of innovation in adult development thanks to constant renewal.

"As an executive coach, I realized that our educational systems and culture were ignoring the ABCs of personal development. Adults don’t know themselves, and they have never learned how to do so. Yet, this is the absolute prerequisite for being able to progress and transform oneself. Therefore, what could be more relevant than equipping young people, right from their adolescence, with these introspective skills? It is this aspect of Gemmes that I find most fascinating. By helping young people become aware of their way of being and by encouraging them to write their future, Gemmes will unlock an unexpected transformational potential for a positive impact in society. Future generations will be able from an early age to take on and solve issues that adults of today are unsuccessfully tackling and have been too slow to respond to."

Caroline Avanzo

Founder of Gemmes and member of the Board

After training as a lawyer at the Paris Bar and working for a law firm, Caroline developed a passion for the field of human rights. She worked for various human rights NGOs in New York (Human Rights Watch), Paris (International Federation for Human Rights), New Delhi (Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative; Housing and Land Rights Network; Working Group on Human Rights in India and the UN) and Geneva (World Organization Against Torture). She then joined the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva, and worked as an investigator with the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar. She left the UN in 2019 to devote herself entirely to young people, and created Gemmes in 2020.

"I am convinced that all human beings are noble in their essence, overflowing with qualities waiting to be unlocked. With Gemmes, I want to create an innovative and welcoming space for young people. We aim to provide them with keys to understanding their internal world, but also the world around them, so as to inspire them and give them the impulse to act for a better world."

Rebecca Teclemariam-Mesbah

Member of the Board

Rebecca is passionate about education and has more than 25 years of experience advising and supporting educational initiatives around the world. As Academic Director of an innovative international school in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, she has mentored teachers, collaborated with parents, and developed unique educational approaches with a focus on promoting a culture of trust, collaboration and respect. She has extensive practical experience as a Biology teacher, as well as in Religious Education and the Visual Arts. Rebecca began her career as a teacher and researcher in Neurobiology in France and the Netherlands. She lectured on Research Policy in Amsterdam, and worked on supporting capacity building for research in development projects in Bangladesh. She then moved to Bosnia and Herzegovina where she developed programmes for children and youth with the Bahá’í community. Rebecca holds a PhD in Neuroscience and a Master’s degree in Gender and Development. She is a Montessori teacher and teacher-trainer, and received the Montessori Practitioner of the Year Award in 2016. Rebecca is also a multi-talented artist: her work is on display in private collections around the world; she has published and illustrated several children’s books, inspired by her Ethiopian roots and her life in the Balkans; and recently wrote a musical piece performed in Kosovo.

"I am an optimist and always awed by human potential. Offering opportunities to children and youth, to discover and develop the breadth of their character and give meaning to their lives is a cause I am passionate about. They are the ones who can transform and bring light to the world. Gemmes, an energetic and multidimensional endeavour, which embodies a positive and holistic vision of the human being through action and reflection, is definitely exciting!"

Muriel Ott

Member of the Board

After graduating from ESSEC Business School, Paris, in 1989, Muriel first worked for three years in management consulting in London at LEK. She then joined the Mergers & Acquisitions team of LVMH Group in Paris, within which she then moved on to other roles in finance (management controller, financial director). After eleven years in finance, she moved to Portugal and then Germany. Next, she then relocated, with her family, to Japan for four years, where she created and developed an educational structure for children who were failing academically at the French-Japanese school in Tokyo. On returning to France in 2008, she trained in conflict resolution and obtained a state diploma in mediation. Since 2017, she has been working as Secretary General of the NGO Le Projet Imagine, whose mission is to inspire people to take action through documentaries and programmes fostering civil action.

"I agreed to join the Board of Directors of Gemmes to promote activities centred around youth transformation. I believe in the power of inspiration through images, music and gatherings to develop the capacity to be, to think and to act differently in order to transform the world. I love accompanying those who seek meaning and new directions, to reveal the very best they have within."

Baptiste Larseneur

Member of the Board

After graduating from the University of Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas in private law and business law, Baptiste began his professional journey as an advisor within the High Assembly. A specialist in legislative drafting, he contributed to the writing of amendments, resolutions, and bills on various subjects. After several years in parliamentary work, he spent four years abroad in the Dominican Republic, where he developed an entrepreneurial project. Upon returning to France, he joined the Institut Montaigne, where he now coordinates studies and projects related to the development of human capital and economic development in regions. Passionate about education, which has always been an integral part of his professional activities, he has authored several studies, reports, and articles on the subject for the past decade.

"After graduating from the University of Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas in private law and business law, Baptiste began his professional journey as an advisor within the High Assembly. A specialist in legislative drafting, he contributed to the writing of amendments, resolutions, and bills on various subjects. After several years in parliamentary work, he spent four years abroad in the Dominican Republic, where he developed an entrepreneurial project. Upon returning to France, he joined the Institut Montaigne, where he now coordinates studies and projects related to the development of human capital and economic development in regions. Passionate about education, which has always been an integral part of his professional activities, he has authored several studies, reports, and articles on the subject for the past decade."

Claudia Bartholemy

Member of the Board

After studying literature in Geneva, Claudia turned to journalism, before embarking on a parallel career teaching languages. She set up a bilingual French-German program in a private school before becoming a professor of foreign language didactics at the Haute École Pédagogique in Lausanne in 2007. Claudia trains teachers in Switzerland and abroad (France, Poland, Israel) and participates in national and international research projects. She also works as an expert and designer of teaching materials in various contexts (Swiss Maturité, Maturité professionnelle, Goethe Institut, Centre européen de langues vivantes, Deutsche Welle). Since 2018, Claudia has been the pedagogical director of private schools in Switzerland. In parallel, she has been a lecturer and researcher at the University of Lausanne for many years.

"In an increasingly fast-paced, complex and globalized world, Gemmes is a magnificent project that reminds us that union is strength, difference is richness, and idealism is human emotional nourishment. I am surrounded by young people every day, and I am deeply confident in their capacity for resilience, creativity and critical thinking. They need to be equipped to dare to live differently together, and Gemmes gives them these tools to strive for a better, fairer, more peaceful and more united world."

Philippe Joannis

Member of the Board

Philippe is a coach for executives and teams. After studying engineering and philosophy, he led the Apple Education Division. He now helps leaders and groups take a more conscious approach to leadership, helping them to question their mental models, beliefs, and worldviews, and to take responsibility for their impact on others and their environment. Philippe is also passionate about illusionism and magic and is a member of the "Magic on Purpose" group which aims to use magic for bigger causes than just entertainment. He claims that the first coach was a magician – Merlin – who accompanied one of the first legendary leaders – Arthur – on his quest for self-discovery.

"I have long dreamed of another school, where we would learn what we don't learn in our own schools, and yet what is essential: empathy, emotional intelligence, creativity, the ability to listen and engage, to take initiative, to explore our inner selves and develop our own talents... My encounter with Gemmes - via the SPARKS program - made me realize that it was possible to create new learning experiences within the education system itself. I'm convinced that the world will be transformed by the younger generations who will learn earlier than the rest of us to reveal their unique talents, to commit themselves to the common good and to serve the movement of evolution by bringing out new ways of being in the world, relying on analytical intelligence as much as that of the heart and body, and putting relationships with others at the heart of every action. I believe Gemmes can make a significant and very concrete contribution, which is why I enthusiastically accepted the invitation to serve on its Board of Directors."

Lily Neyestani

Advisory Board member

Lily has worked for over 20 years at UNESCO, whose purpose is to "Contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture". She is currently Chief of Global Cooperation in Education at UNESCO and of the Inter-Agency Secretariat for Sustainable Development Goal 4 (ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all). For several years, Lily was Education Advisor to the Director-General of UNESCO. Prior to this, she worked for 12 years in several UNESCO offices, including Mexico and Senegal, where she worked closely with governments, civil society and young people to advance the universal goal of quality education for all.
"As UNESCO's Constitution, drafted in 1945, states: ‘since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed’. It is with this objective in mind that I have worked throughout my career to help build peace through education. At UNESCO I work at the global level. Supporting an organization like Gemmes - which puts into practice on the ground the very principles we promote around the world – makes my work even more meaningful. It's an honor for me to be an advisory Board member at Gemmes."