Our contributors confirmed

DASHO KARMA URA is president of The Centre for Bhutan Studies in Bhutan which is the forefront in promoting understanding of Bhutan's development philosophy of Gross National Happiness. Dasho Karma Ura earned his undergraduate degree at Oxford University and his Masters in Philosophy of Economics from the University of Edinburgh.  He holds numerous international positions, including Associate Editor of International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management; Executive Committee Member of the School of Well-being, Chulalongkorn University, and San Nagarprada Foundation, Thailand; Member of the Chief Economist’s Advisory Panel, South Asia Region, World Bank. He is also a painter and has written several books. Dasho Karma Ura has kindly agreed to provide inspirational input to our workshop via a video interview.

DHARMACHARI KETURAJA is managing director of Windhorse:evolution, a Buddhist business which started over 30 years ago. After studying economics at Manchester University Keturaja was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 1991 and joined Windhorse:evolution 26 years ago. Based in Cambridge UK, Windhorse:evolution directly employs over 250 people and its annual turnover of more than 10 million euros makes it one of the leading suppliers of giftware in the UK. The business was principally set up to raise money for projects within the Triratna Buddhist community. As well as having success in this area, there has been an on-going exploration of approaches to making the work itself a spiritual practice and clarifying what it means to be a Buddhist business? 

Dr LOPEN KARMA PHUNTSHO is a Research Associate in Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University. Dr Phuntsho finished full Tibetan Buddhist monastic training in Bhutan and India before he received a M.St. in Classical Indian Religions and D.Phil. in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford. 

His current researches focus on Bhutanese historiography, socio-cultural changes in Bhutan and intervention through education, books and manuscripts in the Buddhist Himalaya and the exploration and preservation of Bhutan’s literary heritage. He frequently lectures on Buddhism and Bhutan and is a leading expert on the country. 

Dr Phuntsho is also founding director of the Loden Foundation that runs a pioneering entrepreneurship program helping young Bhutanese realize their dreams by providing them training, moral and technical support, and initial funds to start new entrepreneurial ventures. 

BART WEETJENS is a successful social entrepreneur and a Zen Buddhist teacher. He initiated the use of trained giant African pouched rats, so-called HeroRATS, as an alternative landmine detector and as an appropriate Tuberculosis screening tool. HeroRATS received multiple international recognitions, a.o. the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. Bart has been elected an ASHOKA fellow and a SCHWAB fellow to the World Economic Forum. Born in Belgium, he currently lives with his wife and two daughters in Morogoro, Tanzania. Go to see Bart's TED talk

PROF. LASZLO ZSOLNAI is director of the Business Ethics Center at the Corvinus  University of Budapest and a founder of the Buddhist Economics Research Platform. He is chairman of the Business Ethics Faculty Group of the CEMS (Community of European Management Schools−The Global Alliance in Management Education). He serves as editor of the “Frontier of Business Ethics” book series at Peter Lang Publishers in Oxford. With Luk Bouckaert he founded the European SPES Forum in Leuven, Belgium and he is co-founder of the Hungarian Bhutan Friendship Society. Prof. Zsolnai’s research areas include responsible business, ethical decision making, collaborative enterprise, Buddhist economics, and business sustainability. Visit Laszlo's website.

JOEL MAGNUSON, Ph.D. is an independent economist based in Portland, Oregon, USA. He is a visiting fellow at the Ashcroft International Business School at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England, serves as an international advisor to Anglia’s journal, Interconnections, and is on the faculty at the East West Sanctuary in Nagykovácsi, Hungary. He is the author of Mindful Economics: How the US Economy Works, Why It Matters, and How It Could Be Different (Seven Stories Press, 2008) as well numerous articles in journals and anthologies in the US, Europe, and Japan. His forthcoming book is The Approaching Great Transformation: Creating a New Commonwealth for the End of the Oil Age (Seven Stories Press, 2013). Go to Joel's blog: The Mindful Economist

ZOLTAN VALCSICSAK is international practitioner and advisor in Corporate Social Responsibility  dividing his time between Bhutan, Brussels and Budapest. After having spent 12 years at Levi Strauss designing and managing social and environmental programs in Europe, Middle East and Africa, he established The Social Profit Maker in Brussels that engages and transforms businesses and nonprofits to increase their social profit worldwide. 

Zoltan is founding president of the Hungarian Bhutan Friendship Society and mentor of young entrepreneurs in Bhutan.