William Webster
Executive Director of CCI

William is one of the founders and Executive Director of Civic Concepts International, where he oversees international youth projects. After working with youth from Congressional Youth Leadership Council, he brought with him from Washington DC the idea of starting a youth leadership campaign in Central Europe based on multicultural understanding and the promotion of democratic ideas. William founded the International Youth Leadership Conference and Civic Concepts International as a way to make this initiative a reality.

Lore Breitmeyer-Jones
Financial and Legal Director

Lore serves as the Financial and Legal Executive of Civic Concepts International, the organization which hosts IYLC. Lore graduated with an economics degree from Georgetown University (SFS ’90) and came to Prague in 1992 to open her first business, RED HOT & BLUES RESTAURANT, which she is still successfully running to date. Lore is also the proud mother of a twelve year old girl, Katie, who hopes to attend the 25th IYLC in Winter 2013.

Ismayil Khayredinov
Conference Director

Ismayil holds a Bachelor's Degree in Economics and Cybernetics from Tavrida Vernadskiy National University (Ukraine). In 2006, he was closely involved with IREX Ukraine Media Partnership Program and was part of 4 US-based internships. He was previously an intern at the Canadian House of Commons (2004, Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program) and an exchange student in the United States (2002, Future Leaders Exchange Program). He was an IYLC participant in winter 2005 and served as the Logistics Coordinator for the 9th, 10th, and 12th IYLCs. Ismayil has been a facilitator at the 14th and 15th IYLCs, and is now looking forward to managing his first conference in the capacity of the Conference Director.

Katarina Fagosova
Project Assistant

Katarina received a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and International Relations from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Charles University in Prague in 2006 and she is currently fulfilling her Master’s Degree in Political Science there. She also studied at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, where she took courses dealing with Australian Political Institutions and the place of Indigenous Australians in the political system of Australia. Last year Katarina participated in organising the 8th NGO market – an annual event organised by Forum 2000. She loves travelling, photography and meeting new people. Being new to the IYLC team she looks forward to her first conference and its participants.

Kiryl Stsezhkin
Networking Team

Kiryl is a newcomer to CCI. This May he joined our networking team, which is in charge of developing the International Youth Leadership Network (IYLN). Kiryl is a last year student at the Department of Humanities at Charles University in Prague. His major is Sociology and Philosophy of History. He speaks Russian, German, Czech, and English. Kiryl was born in Belarus, where he has studied at the department of philosophy at European Humanities University in Minsk. He came to Prague in order to continue his education in 2005. He is interested in traveling and collecting books. Kiryl considers his work at CCI a unique opportunity to gain new experiences and develop his skills in the field of multicultural relations.

Davey Kim
Networking Team

Davey studied Sociology and Linguistics at UC Irvine, in Orange County, California. He has also attended University College Utrecht International School, in the Netherlands for a year exchange program. After developing an appreciation for foreign relations in Holland, he decided to move to Prague as an English teacher as of 2007. With a profound interest in social issues, foreign cultures, conflict resolution, and world languages, Davey is glad to be with the CCI team. He is Canadian and he loves playing ice hockey. He spent most of his life however in Southern California, and so he also enjoys relaxing in the sun, and eating as much as he can.

Adil Bouzaffour (Morocco)
Born in Morocco, Adil holds an MBA in Organizational Leadership Management from Johnson and Wales University (US), a Projects Management certification from Bryant University (US), and a Bachelor's of Science in Software Engineering from Al Akhawayn University (Morocco).  He is currently a business consultant at Metlife Insurance, and enjoys working for an international company that serves customers from around the globe. International business, diversity management are subjects of a special interest to him as he believes that in today's world, where all aspects of the economy are to a large extend very inter-related, and where business is not only conducted face-to-face but also virtually and via various means of technology, and where locations of business partners are becoming increasingly meaningless. He believes there is a way to manage teams effectively by overcoming all cultural barriers, and by creating a harmonious global management environment whose ultimate goal is to produce results to best help foster the prosperity of peoples from all nations. He enjoys playing soccer, reading fiction, and watching he favorite TV show: the "Lost"

Fatima Khakwani (Pakistan)
Fatima has done her Bachelor's in Computer Engineering and an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Pakistan. She was the President of the Debating Society and Literary Society at the university and is passionate about public speaking. In 2004 she attended a summer program at the Erfurt University, Germany which sparked her interest in youth mobilization and international affairs. Upon her return she worked closely with the Ministry of Youth Affairs in Pakistan and helped develop the first youth policy in Pakistan and worked closely on the commonwealth projects. Apart from being the TA for her professor of Finance at university, she worked as a financial consultant for the Asian Development Bank and together with another consultant wrote the first ever private sector review of Pakistan to give investors a clearer picture of the economy and its various sectors. Her hobbies include dancing and choreographing, hiking, kayaking and biking across California where she lives. She was a participant at the CCI conferences held in Dubai in 2006 and since then has been closely attached with CCI. She was a facilitator at the 11^th IYLC and the 14^th IYLC and the experiences and friendships have enriched her life and brought her back for another fulfilling chapter at the 16^th IYLC. Her hope is to see every participant contribute and capture from this conference its essence, its lessons, its friendships and its enjoyment.

Farah Jamal (Canada)
Farah has completed her Bachelor of Arts in Honours Political Science from Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. She has also studied in Japan at Akita International University where she completed course work in International Business Studies. In September of this year, Farah will be beginning the Masters program in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Professionally, she has worked as an Assistant Resource Specialist for World Accord, a local NGO working on development projects in Central America and South East Asia. At World Accord, Farah worked on various research projects, including funding research and statistics and the Rwandan genocide. Furthermore, she has conducted research on the topic of terrorism for Until Well Being is Achieved (NGO), where her report can be found in the online publication archive of the organization. Most recently she completed a research contract with the Economics department at WLU for the project titled, “ Overcoming obstacles to efficient and cost-effective US-Canada supply chains: Canadian trucking industry perspectives.” Farah also voluntarily served as coordinator of BELIEF; a women’s leadership conference held monthly addressing issues of female empowerment, development and leadership in Waterloo, Ontario. She is an Alumni of the 14 th IYLC and has worked as a facilitator last January at the 15 th IYLC. Farah’s hobbies include traveling, reading relentlessly, writing and most of all, dancing.

Matt Gillespie (Ireland)
Matt graduated from Queen's University Belfast in 2007, where he attained a degree in English and Politics. His research and study interests include the politics of sustainable development, state building after intrastate war, linguistics and the perception of crime in the media. A graduate of the 12th IYLC in January 2007 and a facilitator at the 14th and 15th IYLCs, Matt has worked as a policy intern for the US House of Representatives Committee on Small Business in Washington DC, working on US-China economic relations and helped prepare the 7th Annual US-China Inter-Parliamentary Exchange in 2005. In 2006 Matt returned to Washington to work as a manager for the only international leadership, peace, professional development and internship programme in the world, the Washington-Ireland Program for Service and Leadership (WIP), where he organised and ran events such as Congressional speaking breakfast on Capitol Hill as well as coordinating program logistics. Matt worked for Co-operation Ireland administering a US State Department grant sheme in 2007 and was WIP Alumni Director in that time. Matt is currently completing a trip round the world visiting previous IYLC participants in many corners of the globe, which started and will end in Prague at the 16th IYLC. 

Patricia Stallings (USA)
Patricia participated in the IYLC in the winter of 2006 under the sponsorship of Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, USA. Her experience in Prague was her first trip outside of the US! She graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 2006 with BS (Honors) in Policy & Management, Environmental Policy as an additional major, Engineering Studies minor and Pre-law concentration. Since graduation, she has worked in London, England for UBS Investment Bank as an in-house consultant in their global IT implementation project. She is currently studying for her MSc in Management, Organizations and Governance at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She is primarily interested in Organizational Change and Strategy with a Social Science perspective.
In her spare time, she loves spending time with friends, traveling around the world, exploring London and mentoring young adults so they too will concentrate on their studies and follow their ambitions.

Victoria Mbogo (UK)
Victoria is a recent graduate from Swansea University, in the United Kingdom, where she received a bachelor’s degree in Law. Victoria has a vast knowledge of British Law but has specialised in Public and Criminal International law. Academically she keenly observes the relationship between law and global governance in the international arena. Victoria is especially interested in African development and hopes to interact with and help develop governance in Kenya where she is originally from. Victoria has worked with NGO’s in the UK, namely an organisation local to her university, Asylum Justice that offers free legal advice to asylum seekers. Additionally she has been involved with organisations such as Lawyers Christian Fellowship who seek to develop human rights and legal process in East African States. Victoria is passionately behind the aims of Civic Concepts International, she firmly believes in the need to develop young people for their role within their society and the IYLC provides part of that in bringing together people from all over the world. As a past participant, she attended the 11th IYLC in July 2006 where she learned a lesson that impacted her world view greatly. That lesson was the importance of maintaining a people centred view point in being a world leader because leaders lead people not statistics, a fact that she believes is all too often forgotten. Such was the gravity of her experience that she was fortunate enough to return to Prague for the 14th and 15th conferences as a facilitator. These were opportunities that she feels privileged to have had and is thoroughly looking forward to the 16th IYLC and the adventures that lie in store. In her spare time Victoria is a keen singer and has held and a committee position in her University’s Gospel Choir. Additionally she loves dancing, travelling, reading, and the occasional game of Squash.