Global Tibetan Professional’s Network
འཛམ་གླིང་བོད་མིའི་ཆེད་ལས་མཐུན་ཚོགས།
The professionals are the members of Global Tibetan Professional’s Network [GTPN], a growing group of Tibetan professionals with chapters in India and North America. The audience was facilitated by Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Empowering the Vision Project at New Delhi. The objective of the audience was said to be to introduce and update His Holiness of the activities of GTPN. For more details, please visit: www.empoweringvision.org
His Holiness the Dalai Lama Meets with North American Tibetan Professionals
Saturday, 10 October 2009, 1:37 p.m.
New York: The North American Tibetan Professionals Conference, which concluded successfully on Wednesday, 7 October, was graced by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
In his keynote address delivered on Monday, 5 October, His Holiness applauded the initiative of gathering all the Tibetan professionals together and urged the Tibetan professionals to come out with the concrete suggestions to improve education and career development initiatives within the Tibetan community in exile. His Holiness also urged the professionals to shoulder more responsibilities within the community.
Richard Gere, an ardent supporter and friend of Tibet, also addressed the conference during the inaugural session. In his address, Richard Gere urged the Tibetan professionals to bring a new paradigm to the Tibet movement with their active and skillful participation. He said that the Tibetan professionals are in a position to make a real difference in terms of capacity building as well as in social and economic development within the community both in and outside of Tibet.
During the 3-day conference, the participants discussed four broad issues: (i) Networking of the Tibetan professionals; (ii) Establishing a resource base to nurture future Tibetan professionals; (iii) Role of Tibetan professionals in strengthening the community and (iv) Connecting the Tibetan professionals to contemporary Tibet.
The speakers at the conference included Dr. Tsewang Ngodup, a faculty physician at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis; Tsewang Namgyal, an investment banker who graduated from the prestigious Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona; Kaydor Aukatsang, the United States representative of the Brazilian environmental organisation Instituto Terra; Yodon Thonden, lawyer and Director of the New York based Isdell Foundation; Nima Dorjee, a professional engineer based in Canada; Losang Rabgey, Executive Director of Machik non-profit organisation; and Dicki Chhoyang, a Montreal based urban planner and a former representative of Trace Foundation in Amdo (Tibet).
Other speakers and plenary moderators were Professor Nawang Phuntsog of California State University at Fullerton; Lobsang Sangay, a senior fellow at Harvard Law School; Sonam Topgyal, a senior financial analyst at Stanford University; and Tashi Rabgey, Lecturer and Founding Director of the Tibet Sustainable Governance Program as well as Co-Director of the Tibet Center at the University of Virginia.
Tenzin Kelsang Choephel said of the conference, “The event really marks a historical moment in the diaspora community and I’m excited by the energy and momentum generated the conference.” Another participant, Thondup Tsering, said, “Personally it was very uplifting to see so many bright young Tibetan professionals from all over the US and Canada. Everyone was there because they cared about enriching our community and being a vital part of our struggle. I was inspired and encouraged by the quality of the speakers and the participants.”
The conference recommendations included, among others, strengthening the existing network of the Tibetan professionals in North America, establishing smaller networks within individual professional fields, instituting a volunteer corps of the professionals to work in the Tibetan communities in India and Nepal, and strengthening and sharing existing databases of Tibetan professionals.
The conference also formed an ad hoc committee to draft a proposal to be submitted to the Central Tibetan Administration and the Delhi based non-profit Empowering the Vision to work out a clear structure and mechanism to coordinate the functioning of various Tibetan professional networks and their interplay with existing Tibetan community organisations.
The conference was attended by 150 Tibetan professionals belonging to 18 different broad-base professional backgrounds, such as Academic & Research; Business & Finance; Medicine & Health; Information Technology; Law & Governance; Philanthropy & International Development; Architecture & Engineering; Social Policy and Community Service; Education, Library Science and Museum etc. They came from 21 states in the United States and 3 provinces in Canada.
The conference was organised by the Office of Tibet, New York.
(source: tibet.net)
November 11th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Dear Tibetans,
It is really inspiring to see how we, Tibetans are doing and to see those world standard professionals. I am glad and millions thanks to the head behind the organization of this Conference. We need this bond, this bridge and connection due to the reality of our living in Diaspora.
It was a great success to start with, but I hope every individuals will believe that he/she can make a difference and contribute with full commitment toward this noble connection, especially the Vision of Empowerment!
Thanks
Palden Rgyal
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