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. 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 over 25 years of experience in advising and supporting educational initiatives around the world. As an academic director and teacher in international schools, as well as in extracurricular programs, she mentors teachers, collaborates with parents, and develops innovative educational approaches, focusing on fostering a culture of trust, collaboration, and respect. Trained in Montessori pedagogy, she was awarded the Montessori Practitioner of the Year Award in 2016 in the UK. Rebecca holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Strasbourg and a Master's degree in Gender and Development from Erasmus University in the Netherlands.
"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.
« J’ai accepté de rejoindre le Conseil d’Administration de Gemmes pour contribuer à un développement prometteur d’actions de transformation de la jeunesse. Je crois à la puissance de l’inspiration par l’image, la musique, les rencontres, pour développer la capacité d’être, de penser et d’agir différemment pour transformer le monde. J’aime accompagner des chercheurs de sens et de directions nouvelles pour faire émerger ce qu’ils ont de meilleur en eux. »
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."
