After an open call for new WL Board of Directors members was launched in September last year, we are glad to welcome on board Dr. Cari E. Autry (East Carolina University, USA), Dr. Marcel Bastiaansen (Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands), and due to their successful reelection, to have again with us serving for the WLO three reelected members: Dr. Antonio Bramante (Leisure Management Consultant and Visiting Professor, Brazil), Zhongqiang (Victor) Ma (WL Games, Qingdao City, China) and Dr. Ling Ping (Hangzhou Normal University, China). We thank them for their willingness to contribute to the development of WLO’s programmes and activities.
Additionally, we would like to give special thanks to our now former Board member, Dr. Stephen Anderson, who for many years has served the Board and Executive Committee of the WLO. Dr. Anderson has always been an active Board member and has contributed in very varied ways to the WLO: he has chaired the Thomas and Ruth Rivers International Scholarship, the WL Strategic Priority Grants (SPGs) program and has been member of the Membership Committee. At the same time, this new year that begins is also an important one for the organization regarding its working strategy. 2020 was the last year for the organization to close its five-year Strategic Plan, giving way to a new beginning on which unforeseen circumstances like the COVID-19 pandemic (and hence the adaptation of all activities until that moment scheduled) has suddenly become a priority. We would like to thank Dr. Richard Hayes and Dr. Bree Hayes for their leadership in WLO Strategic Plan’s development process. Keep reading this news for more information of the current WLO Board of Directors. For detailed information on the newly adopted Strategic Plan, please click here.
Coming from The Netherlands, the USA, Brazil and China, five members are (re)joining the WLO Board of Directors, who will serve for the period 2021-2023. They have been elected by current members of the Board after an open nomination process that closed in November last year.
The newly (re)elected members of the Board are:
- Cari E. Autry – East Carolina University, USA
- Marcel Bastiaansen – Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
- Antonio Bramante, Leisure Management Consultant and Visiting Professor, Brazil (reelected)
- Zhongqiang (Victor) Ma – WL Games, Qingdao City, China (reelected)
- Ling Ping – Hangzhou Normal University, China (reelected)
These new and reelected five members of the Board of Directors join the current Board members:
- Joanne A. Schroeder – WLO Chair, Vancouver Island University, Canada
- Lawal Mohammed Marafa – WLO Vice – Chair, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Cristina Ortega Nuere – WLO Chief Operating Officer (COO), Spain
- Yvonne Klerks – Ministerie van OCW, The Netherlands
- Cari E. Autry – East Carolina University, USA
- Miklos Banhidi – Szechenyi Istvan University, Hungary
- Marcel Bastiaansen – Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
- Antonio Bramante, Leisure Management Consultant and Visiting Professor, Brazil
- Giyasettin Demirhan – Hacettepe University, Turkey
- Zhongqiang (Victor) Ma – WL Games, Qingdao City, China
- Lénia Marques – Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Ling Ping – Hangzhou Normal University, China
- Arianne Reis – Western Sydney University, Australia
- Carlos Alberto Rico – Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia
- Atara Sivan – Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
- Maria Luisa de Souza Dias – SESCSP (Serviço Social do Comércio in the state of São Paulo), Brazil
- Lucetta Tsai – National Taipei University, Taiwan
- Marie Young – University of the Western Cape, South Africa
- Jane Zhou – Zhejiang University, China
We thank our Board members for accepting this new challenge, and express our satisfaction for counting on such a diverse and committed group of people conforming our main governance body.
We also take this opportunity to thank this year’s leaving Board member, Dr. Stephen Anderson, whose mandate had expired, for his valuable contribution to the organization in the past years, and hope to maintain the collaboration with them through different mechanisms in the future. The composition of the current WLO Board of Directors can be checked here.
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