Introducing our Ageing IntelligenceÂŽ Ambassadors
To introduce you to Ageing Intelligence® we asked 10 people around the world, who agreed with our manifesto of Ageing Intelligence®, to share their life experience with us. They and their stories don’t want to teach anything or represent any role model. They simply chose to tell who they are to help us show how much richness there is in each of us regardless of our age, our background, our trajectory in life. So we would like you to meet the ambassadors of Ageing Intelligence®. Ten stories of real life, from real people, with diverse cultural and professional backgrounds. Ten profiles of people like each one of us: extraordinary and unique, whatever the stage of life we are in. The launch coincides with United Nations’ International Day of Older Persons, which celebrates healthy ageing, and an awareness abd appreciation of older people - this is particularly important through the COVID-19 pandemic and in light of how it has affected older people. Here we can recognise their contributions to their own health and roles in society, so we can strive for an inclusive and fair society.
Enjoy.
Christopher Owens The Photographer Specialising in portraiture Christopher produces engaging and insightful images for both editorial and commercial briefs. "I always set out to capture the character and personality I meet in the session. Trying to dismiss any preconceptions I may have about the sitter allows for a level playing field and gives chance to a more honest and truthful portrait to flourish. I aim to make images that not only show a likeness but cut through to the essence of the subject. I want pictures that the sitter's close friends and family will recognise them in" After studying an art & design foundation course and photography HND at Newcastle College Christopher lived in London where he assisted and was mentored by acclaimed portrait photographer Harry Borden. In 2007 Christopher was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to photograph musicians Maximo Park making him one of the youngest photographers to be collected by the gallery at the time. Clients have included The Guardian, Little White Lies Magazine, Stool Pigeon Magazine, BT Broadband, EMI, Virgin Records, Brewin Dolphin, NUFC Foundation, Sunderland AFC, Siemens, Square One Law, Sintons Law, Mincoff's Solicitors, Hotel Du Vin, Hilton, Mill Volvo, Benfield Motors, Gateshead Thunder Rugby League, Royal Holloway University, National Portrait Gallery London, Entrepreneurs Forum, Lookers PLC, Newcastle College, MS Life as well as many independent PR firms and magazines.
Producing this work with NICA has been a wonderful experience which I shall remember as a moment forever tied to this time. The opportunity to spend the morning making portraits in Milan and then Boston in the afternoon was equally as exciting as it was strange and my experience and knowledge of photographing people was tested in every session from directing subject, language barriers to poor internet connections. The frustrations of wanting to be physically present and relinquishing much of the control I normally have has been dwarfed by the positivity of the experience. I’ve been moved by the spirit, knowledge and generosity of time offered to me by all the contributors, they have each left a lasting impression on me and provided some beautiful memories within a dark period of time. I am privileged to have collaborated with them and the process has confirmed my belief that a portrait is not simply made in a camera but on either side of it.
John Cohn IBM Fellow in MIT-IBM Watson AI Research Group John Cohn is an IBM Fellow in the MIT-IBM Watson AI Research Group based in Cambridge, MA. John earned a BSEE from MIT (’81) and a Ph.D in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (‘91) where he was named a Distinguished Alumni in 2014. John has authored more than 40 technical papers, contributed to four books and has >120 worldwide patents. In 2005 John was elected a Fellow of the IEEE for contributions to high speed integrated circuit design. John is active in education issues at a local, state and national level. In 2019, John was awarded the IEEE CAS John Choma Education award for his efforts at STEM promotion. He is so passionate about promoting STEM careers that he spent 9 days living and inventing in an abandoned steel mill as part of Discovery Channel’s technical survival show “The Colony”. John lives with his family in a restored 19th century schoolhouse in Jonesville Vermont and is eager to share his love of science and technology with anyone who will listen.
I've found that the more serious my life and work get, the more important it for me to make time for Play. I found that bringing play to my work has helped make me more creative, more resilient, and has helped me connect better with people all over the world. My interest in Play has also been a steppingstone to some of the best jobs I've had it in my four decades of work. I really love a quote from George Bernard Shaw, he said, "We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing".
Mark Culliton Founder of College Bound Dorchester & Boston Uncornered As the founder of College Bound Dorchester, Mark is the vision behind the solution of Boston Uncornered. Before becoming CEO in 2007, he was Vice President for Business Development at Lighthouse Academies, Chief Operating Officer of B.E.L.L., among other roles in both the public and private sector. Mark spent four years in India as a child and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand for three and a half years following his graduation from the University of Michigan. Mark earned his MBA from Yale University. He serves on the board of Roxbury Community College. He and his wife, Mary, are raising two teenage boys in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Easily obsessed, having run 3 marathons in crocs, you are likely to find him these days hanging upside down at his rock climbing gym.
As we age we cannot afford to allow what we know to define what is possible when striving for social justice. We must learn from our experience and share what knowledge we have attained, but we must be careful not to get set in our ways or stuck in our thinking. We must live into our years by continuing to explore and question and be curious and ensure that we are not living now dreaming about before. If we have the courage and humility, we can help yesterday’s truths become tomorrow’s memories and help usher in a better and more just world.
Christine Kretz VP Programs and Partnerships International Space Station US National Laboratory Christine Kretz is the Vice President of Programs and Partnerships for the International Space Station (ISS) US National Laboratory. Christine’s role is to lead a team that identifies opportunities for leveraging the facilities of the ISS to enable science and technology research that will benefit life on Earth. Prior to joining the ISS, Christine worked for IBM, starting in 1998 as a manager in the Research Division where her responsibilities included IT security for eight labs globally. From the Research Division, Christine took a corporate position and was named the Global Operations Manager for IBM Life Sciences, an emerging business area for IBM at that time. Christine has also held the positions of Healthcare Solutions Executive on the IBM Global Healthcare Industry team, as well as roles as a Client Executive and Complex Opportunity Manager in Healthcare / Life Sciences. Most recently, she managed the Research Division Healthcare and Life Sciences organisation. Throughout her career Christine has made time for volunteer work and has served as a paramedic, Girl Scout leader and the manager of the IBM Research Family Science Saturday program. Christine holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA in Operations from Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh where she is a Director at Large of the Alumni Board and a member of the Business School Alumni Board.
I’ve been lucky to have good mentors and insights from friends and colleagues as well as being a mentor myself. As a younger person, I benefited from the experience of those older than I and always from my own group of friends and colleagues. As I get older, I benefit from the insights and ideas of younger people I’m lucky enough to work with and I hope I add a value to them from my own experiences. These shared experiences and variety of insights are what has enriched my life so much.
Jim Edwardson Founding Director of the Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University Jim was the founding Director of the Institute for Ageing and Health – Newcastle University’s first research institute – and co-founded VOICE with Lynne Corner. After a PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry and posts at Imperial College, and St George’s Hospital Medical School, he returned to Tyneside as Director of the MRC Neurochemical Pathology Unit and Professor of Neuroendocrinology at Newcastle University. Active in the early growth of the Alzheimer’s Society he is an honorary Vice President of the society. Jim’s involvement with carers and people with dementia brought home the vital importance of public engagement. He was the first Chairman of the NE Regional Forum on Ageing - strapline ‘nothing about us, without us’. Jim is now Chair of Newcastle University’s Retired Staff Society and actively involved in VOICE.
‘None of us is as smart as all of us’ – I don’t know who first said this, but it’s true, and it is the reason why NICA will surely succeed as it harnesses the knowledge, life experiences and wisdom of a global older population.
Ermanno Lazzarin Founder of ERAL55 Ermanno founded ERAL55 in 1976 after working part-time as a shop assistant in a surveyor’s shop. He is an icon of mens style in Milan and one of the few forging a different path from the wider fashion industry’s movement toward streetwear and casual style. Lately, he himself, his store, and his private label Sartoria Lazzarin have garnered a loyal following across the world in Japan, where sophisticated, discerning menswear customers are embracing his “old school” charm and philosophy around dressing.
I have always thought that fashion is a declaration of our freedom. The freedom to choose whether to conform to what others tell us or to be who we are. When I opened the windows of my store in the heart of Milan, Italy in 1976, I always did everything so that the fashion I designed and displayed did not resemble anyone, let alone a model that repeated itself with the fashion seasons. I did everything so that those who passed in front of my windows would not look at them without passion, without love or hate, and that the reflection of their image in the glass would resemble a man who is not at all ordinary. In fact, extraordinary, just like any of us, whatever the culture, the origin, the stage of life.
Paul Parravano Co-Director of the Office of Government & Community Relations at MIT, Boston Paul Parravano has been part of the MIT community since 1991. His role in the Office of Government and Community Relations involves guiding and fostering communication and understanding between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and all levels of government, major constituency groups, and MIT’s surrounding community. He serves as a liaison and resource for people within MIT who may need to work with external parties and those in the surrounding region who have a similar need to interact with the Institute. Mr. Parravano works closely with the MIT Washington office, accompanying MIT’s President on regular visits to Washington, to meet with leadership from the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. He also serves as host for campus visits by elected officials and other dignitaries.
Aging intelligence provides humanity with the skills, knowledge, creativity and talent to maximise health, independence, education, and safety for all. Technology offers us the tools to accomplish innovative goals for everyone, no matter their stage in life, or possible level of disability.
Francesca Vecchioni President of Diversity, journalist & consultant Francesca Vecchioni is an expert in communication, media languages, hate speech and human rights. She is an inclusion trainer, with a deep knowledge on discrimination, diversity management and unconscious bias and President of Diversity – a non-profit organisation committed to promoting social inclusion and organisational well-being through research, training, monitoring, consultancy and advocacy activities. Francesca is also a diversity and inclusion consultant for some of the main Italian and foreign companies. By combining Institutions, Universities, Media and the business world, she created the Diversity Media Awards (DMA), a research project and media event dedicated to the representation of all areas of diversity in communication, and the Diversity Brand Summit (DBS), which identifies the brands considered more inclusive - always with reference to the areas of diversity -, and measures the economic value generated on the basis of an annual consumer based research (Diversity Brand Index). In 2018, with Diversity, she created and promoted the #diversitywins and “Lega del Lieto Fine� campaigns and conceived the first experiment of unified network transmission of a TruLive streaming event shared by the main Italian broadcasters.
There was a definite turning point, which led me to found Diversity and engage as an activist. It was the moment in which I fully understood the responsibility that everyone has to their own personal sphere, and how much this sphere can always grow. I realized it thanks to motherhood. Before the birth of my daughters, I was convinced that I should constantly teach them something, but the truth is that I learned a lot. The great value of growing, and of going through each phase of our life, is understanding what we still have to learn. It is to unhinge prejudice.
Marco Pozzi Film Director Marco graduated in Literature at the Catholic University of Milan, and is currently a film and advertising director, and a university professor where Marco is in charge of developing creative and cross-media projects. In 2015 he founded Quelquechose, a cross-media communication and audio-visual content production studio formed by a team of creative and communication professionals. He has carried out research in the History of cinema theories at the Catholic University of Milan and has taught Theory and technique of film and television direction for over a decade at the ILUM University of Milan. Marco was a part of the group “Ipotesi Cinema�, co-ordinated and directed by Ermanno Olmi. He has also directed commercials and institutional films for prestigious Italian and international companies and has created video installations for institutions, museums and companies. Marco has conceived and co-ordinated the creative development of cross-media communication projects and apps for institutions, museums and brands. As a film director he made the short fiction films Assolo, Doom and Cra-cra obtaining important prizes and awards in important international festivals (Venice, Clermond Ferrand, Theran, Valencia, Montreal).
I have always preferred Visions to Previsions in the belief that only visionaries manage to be truly revolutionary. I dream of a world in which the human being is able to SEE, to really see what he is looking at. A world that lives the sense of time and gives meaning to Time, accepting the sense of limit, finitude. A world that reads crises (ecological, Covid19, etc.) as an opportunity. A world in which Humanity, Technology and Ethics go hand in hand. An original, unruly and imaginative human ecosystem in which Intelligence and Consciousness walk together.
Jeffrey Schnapp Faculty Director of metaLAB at Harvard & Co-founder of Piaggio Fast Forward Jeffrey Schnapp is the faculty director of metaLAB (at) Harvard, a knowledge design laboratory based at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. He is also co-founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Piaggio Fast Forward, a Boston-based robotics company dedicated to developing a sustainable mobility ecology with healthy lifestyles and social connectivity available to all, regardless of age or abilities. Trained as a cultural historian, his work is informed by an approach that places human factors at the center of innovation in the design, technology, and mobility fields. His autobiographical entanglements with the theme of mobility include a long-term scholarly book project entitled Quickening - An Anthropology of Speed, a fifteen-year stint as a road racer competing in the American Federation of Motorcyclists championship, and a current passion for gravel biking on Vermont’s backroads. Going on 66, he belongs to a generation of active seniors who are trying not just to think about the role of technology with respect to aging and human resilience, but also to shape that technology in the service of qualitatively meaningful solutions.
My experience has taught me that, contrary to conventional assumptions, senior citizens are no less engaged by and enmeshed in the world of technology than are their children and grandchildren. So-called “digital natives” may have developed a natural affinity for joysticks, apps, and electronic devices, but they don’t necessarily possess a deep understanding of the technologies that they rely upon, nor do they necessarily nurture a critical understanding of their powers, limitations, and effects. Most have an only limited understanding of “what is going on under the hood” on their smart devices. I encounter few twenty-somethings but many people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies at the helm of leading technology firms, individuals whose life experience powerfully informs their ability to shape products that contribute to human wellbeing and environmental sustainability. So ageing intelligence, rather than being external to tech, seems to me integral and it is thanks to the cross fertilization between the new and the old that the most meaningful forms of innovation take shape.
Lorella Zanardo Women’s Rights Activist Lorella Zanardo is a women’s rights activist and author of the documentary “ The body of women “ a denunciation of the banal and humiliating representation of women on television, in a short time it was seen by millions of people, translated into six languages with great national and international response. In her book “The Body of Women” published by Feltrinelli Lorella deepened the theme of the influence of the media in our lives. Together with other activists, she conceived the educational path “ New eyes for the media ”, to train adolescents on the subject of image education as an instrument of active citizenship. For seven years, she has dedicated herself to raising the level of awareness on the representation of women in the media. Lorella is on the Board of Directors of Winconference , an international organisation of professional women. She is a Speaker appreciated at international conferences on the theme of female empowerment and women’s rights, a lecturer in Eastern countries during the transition of the nineties and trainer and consultant on projects of the European Community. A Member of the Commission for the drafting of the “Internet Bill of Rights” of the Italian Parliament, Lorella was one of the first women to hold executive positions in large organisations in Italy and Paris for years. She has dealt with Diversity Management, Complex Organisations Management and Female Leadership, and as an entrepreneur created a consultancy company linked to sports as a team building practice.
I believe that living means taking sides. My lifelong I tried to be a real citizen, to take part, to struggle against indifference. “I care” has always been my motto. Therefore I never spent a single day in life without engaging in what I considered the important issues in society.
with many thanks to
John Cohn Mark Culliton Jim Edwardson Christine Kretz Ermanno Lazzarin Paul Parravano Marco Pozzi Jeffrey Schnapp Francesca Vecchioni Lorella Zanardo and Christopher Owens
Š Newcastle University
Photography credit: Christopher Owens