Dr Veronica Ramirez
Associate Director of the Center of Research and Communication, University of Asia and the Pacific Dr Veronica Esposo Ramirez is Associate Director of the Center of Research and Communication (CRC), University of Asia and the Pacific. She manages the institutional, consultancy-based and hallmark research activities under CRC. She is currently heading the research teams on Overseas Filipino Workers and the Evaluation of Philippine Basic Education. Dr Ramirez is an Accreditor of the Philippine Accreditation of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation. She was also involved in training public school administrators on how to do accreditation through the Sterling Silver Project funded by Ford Foundation in 2004. She conducted a benchmarking study on maritime and nursing education in the Asia-Pacific Region in 2002, funded by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, and is a Department of Education K-12 Curriculum Mapping Specialist for Values Education and Art. Dr Ramirez has edited a series of textbooks on Character Education in Grade School and High School and has published three books on integrating values education in the curricula.
Robin Rickard
Country Director, British Council Vietnam Robin Rickard has been Country Director of the British Council Vietnam since August 2009. He manages 160 staff, providing British Council services across Vietnam – a priority country for the British Council (BC) both globally and within East Asia – and acts as the regional strategic lead for Equality and Diversity, and Child Protection. Mr Rickard joined the BC in 1999, serving as Deputy Director, Poland, from 1999 to 2004, and as Deputy Director China and Director Beijing from 2004 to 2009. He studied geography at Durham University, where he gained a BA (Honours) degree in 1979 and followed that with an MA in education and society from Sussex University in 1985. He is a qualified secondary school teacher and is the holder of a professional qualification in management from Middlesex University. Before joining the British Council, Mr Rickard worked for nearly 20 years in the education and public sectors. His teaching experience in the UK includes both mainstream and special education in day and residential schools. In the public sector, he worked in local government in the fields of social inclusion and education. Immediately prior to joining the British Council, he held the posts of Deputy Director of Education & Community Development for the London Borough of Barnet. For many years Mr Rickard has worked as an elected volunteer board member of various local, national and international non-governmental organisations. From 1990 until 1993 he was the elected Chairperson of the UK branch of Amnesty International. Subsequently, he was elected to the International Executive Committee of Amnesty and served as the elected Vice-Chairperson of the global movement until 1999. In 1990 he founded a charity for people with communication difficulties in England.
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