Speakers
24th IB Asia Pacific Annual Regional Conference
25 – 28 March 2010, Singapore
Greg Mortenson is the co-founder of Central Asia Institute and founder of the international service-learning program Pennies for Peace. Born in 1957, Mortenson grew up on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. His father Dempsey, founded Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC). His mother, Jerene, founded the International School Moshi, which has been an IB world school since 1977. Mortenson served in the U.S. Army in Germany (1977-1979), where he received the Army Commendation Medal, and graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1983.
As of 2009, Mortenson has established over 130 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 38,000 children served, including over 27,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before. Mortenson is a living hero to rural communities of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he has gained the trust of Islamic leaders, military commanders, government officials and tribal chiefs from his tireless effort to champion education, especially for girls.
Mortenson is co-author of New York Times bestseller ‘Three Cups of Tea’ which has sold 3 million copies, been published in 34 countries, and has been a New York Times bestseller for over 130 weeks since its January 2007 release, and Time Magazine Asia Book of The Year. Three Cups of Tea is required reading for U.S. senior military commanders, for officers in the Norwegian War College, Forsvarsnett, for U.S. Special Forces deploying to Afghanistan, Pentagon officers in counter-insurgency training, and Canadian Defense Ministry members.
In March 2009, Mortenson received Pakistan’s highest civil award, Sitara-e-Pakistan (“Star of Pakistan”) for his dedicated and humanitarian effort to promote education and literacy in rural areas for fifteen years. Mortenson has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
