Smiling white man in his sixties with a beard and glasses

Peter Stone

President

In August 2020, Professor Peter Stone was elected as President of the Blue Shield, after serving on the international Board as a member from 2014-2017, and as Vice-President from 2017-2020.

He is the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection (CPP) and Peace at Newcastle University (UK), and has served as Chair of the UK national committee of the Blue Shield since its founding in 2012. He was previously Head of the School of Arts and Cultures and Director of the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies at Newcastle University, prior to which he worked for for English Heritage, as a field archaeologist, and history teacher. He has published widely on heritage management, interpretation, education, and CPP. Peter was Honorary CEO of the World Archaeological Congress (1998-2008), and has worked with colleagues in China since 2007 on the better management of the historic environment.

Peter has been involved in CPP since 2003 when he was advisor to the UK’s Ministry of Defence regarding the protection of cultural property in Iraq. He has written 17 papers on CPP and co-edited, with Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly, The Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Iraq (2008) and edited Cultural Heritage, Ethics and the Military (2011). His article ‘The 4 Tier approach’ led directly to the establishment of a CPP Unit in UK forces, and he advised the UK Government on the ratification of all parts of the 1954 Hague Convention.

Head and shoulders of an asian man with grey hair in a suit

Kidong Bae

Elected Board Member

Kidong Bae is the Director General of the National Museum of Korea; Chair of the ICOM-Asia Pacific Regional Alliance; Chair of the Korean Committee of Blue Shield and has been a Board Member of Blue Shield International (BSI) since 2017. He is has now been re-elected for his second term on the Board by the 2020 General Assembly of Members.

In earlier years, being an archaeologist and an anthropologist, he worked as a professor of Department of Anthropology at Hanyang University while he led diverse museum projects: he served Director of the Hanyang University Museum and established the Jeongok Prehistory Museum, which he served as a founding director.

His field of interest also focuses on cultural heritage protection and communications among museums and cultural heritage institutions at international level. He served as a spokesperson of the ICOM National Committee from 2014 to 2020, where he successfully accommodated the voices from diverse national committees and prompted their participation. As a board member of BSI, he took the initiative to develop accreditation for training courses to enhance and stabilize the education programmes for those people involved in armed conflicts and cultural heritage protection. Also, he has been a trusted chair of Korean Committee of BSI, working to communicate with cultural heritage institutions and relevant ministries in Korea to develop cooperation regarding cultural heritage protection.

black man in a white shirt with short hair and dark rimmed glasses

Hamady Gaye

Elected Board Member

Hamady Gaye (50 years old) is of Senegalese nationality, where he is the Curator of Libraries. He is the Secretary General of the Senegal Blue Shield National Committee, and the Head of the Conservation and Preservation of Collections Department at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar (UCAD). He was elected to the International Board of the Blue Shield in August 2020.

M. GAYE’s university course at UCAD leads to a professional Master 2 in documentary information sciences, option: Heritage valuation, a professional license in documentary information sciences, a diploma of aptitude for the functions of librarian; and a Diploma in Emergency Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis from ICCROM.

Mr GAYE is a library marketing specialist (stationed in the Public Relations Department of the Central Library of UCAD from 2011 to 2018), and is particularly active in emergency and heritage aid. In this capacity, he is a member of the Senegalese “Memory of the World” committee, the Sources Commission of the Editorial Board of the General History of Senegal and the Senegalese Association of Librarians.

He is the author of several communications and scientific publications on the theme of heritage and its safeguarding:

The West African cultural heritage in the effect of political-ideological issues: a heritage in sursis? Lessons of the past. Conference “Coping with Culture: Culture in Times of Geopolitical Challenges”, November-11-14, 2019, Hamburg, GERMANY
Popular legitimacy as a factor in a preventive strategy for safeguarding cultural heritage in local communities: the example of the Central Library of the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar. FAC Africa Participants Conference, November 2018 _ Bamako, MALI
Information skills and documentary practices, in the digital age, among UCAD students: from uncertainty … to autonomy. EBAD-UCAD international colloquium, 14, 15 and 16 November 2017, UCAD, Dakar SENEGAL
Protection of book and cultural heritage: Senegal deploys its Blue Shield. In “Sud quotidien”, September 06, 2009, No4910

White woman with bobed grey hair and dark rimmed glasses

Lidia Klupsz

Elected Board Member

Lidia Klupsz has been involved in CCP since 2002, when she participated in the creation of the Polish National Committee of Blue Shield, of which she is a Board Member. From 2014-2017 was a Board member of ANCBS (Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield); she was elected to the International Board of Blue Shield in August 2020.

She is a landscape architect, conservator of monuments, expert for the protection of cultural heritage at risk, and a long-time employee of state institutions for the protection of monuments, where she is a Chief specialist in the National Institute of Cultural Heritage.

She is the author of many projects, studies and surveys connected with the preservation and management plans of cultural landscape and fortifications, and of numerous articles, publications and lectures presented at national and international conferences on the legal aspects of the protection of monuments and cultural properties, preservation of cultural landscapes and fortifications, and issues of protection of cultural heritage and cultural heritage at risk. She has also initiated and organized national and international scientific conferences on the protection, preservation, conservation and development of the cultural landscape, fortifications and protection of cultural heritage in times of armed conflicts and peace.

Lidia is an Expert of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in the field of protection of cultural heritage, and serves as a Member of the Polish Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland on the coordination of activities related to the protection of monuments in the event of an armed conflict, in accordance with the Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 14 May 1954. She is also a member of national and international associations related to the protection of monuments, including founding ICOFORT (International Scientific Committee for Fortifications and Military Heritage ICOMOS), where she served as its first President.

older man with short grey hair and tin circular glasses

Klaus Weschenfelder

Elected Board Member

Klaus Weschenfelder presently serves as Treasurer on the Board of Blue Shield Germany since May 2020. He was elected to the International Board of the Blue Shield in August 2020.

He was a Board Member of the International Committee of Fine Arts (ICFA) within ICOM 2003–2009, a Board Member of ICOM Germany 2007–2009 and Chair of ICOM Germany 2009–2013. Furthermore, he served on the Board of the Prince Albert Society 2007–2017 and on the Advisory Board of the Richard Wagner Museum Bayreuth 2012–2017.

Born in 1952, he studied art history, archaeology and history of the Roman Provinces, and pedagogy at the university of Munich; he graduated (M.A.) in 1977, Dr. phil. in 1980. He has worked in several German museums, last as director of Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg (2002‒2018).

He published in the field of museums education, cultural action, museology and on art his-tory from Middle Ages to 20th century. As Head of the Museums Department of the City of Koblenz, he gained experience in Disaster Risk Management, e.g. in dealing with the flood that affected the municipal museums situated near the rivers Rhine and Moselle; as Chair of ICOM Germany he initiated the publication of a manual on Preventive Conservation.

photo Peter Keller, DG of ICOM (a middle aged man in glasses with a short trim beard)

Peter Keller

Board Member, Designated representative of ICOM

Peter Keller became the Director General of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in 2017.

Prior to that, he was Treasurer of the association, as well as a board member of the National Committee for ICOM Austria and Secretary of the International Committee of Historic House Museums.

From 2002 to 2016, he was a museum director in Salzburg, where he took part in the development of the museum cluster “DomQuartier“. Prior to that, he worked for three years at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Black and white image of a woman with short hair in dark jacket

Emilie Gagnet Leumas

Board Member, Designated representative of ICA

Emilie Gagnet Leumas, PhD, CA, CRM is the chair of the International Council on Archives’ Expert Group on Emergency Management and Disaster Preparedness. She is the director of Archives and Records at the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Leumas has received national and international recognition for her efforts in disaster recovery after Hurricane Katrina. She has participated in recovery efforts after local and regional disasters, especially those related to flooding in south Louisiana.

She has presented conference papers, facilitated workshops and guest lectured at local, state, national and international meetings on subjects including disaster recovery, risk management, salvaging sacred objects, archives management, and records management.

Gerald Leitner

Board Member, Designated representative of IFLA

Gerald Leitner is Secretary General of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. He took on the role in June 2016, and is responsible for the strategic and operational direction and financial management of IFLA. In this role, he has initiated and led IFLA’s Global Vision project – a conversation across the global library field – which has led to the development of a new strategy and vision for the Federation and its work.

Gerald Leitner has worked in senior positions at international organisations and in Austria’s cultural, scientific and educational sectors. Prior to becoming IFLA Secretary General, he was the Secretary General of the Austrian Library Association. He is a past president of the European Bureau of Library Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA) and a member of national and international advisory bodies in the cultural, education and scientific sectors. He is highly experienced in negotiating with politicians, authorities, lobby groups, publishers, artists, businesses and strategic partners. In 2017, he received the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art.

Gerald Leitner studied literature and history at the University of Vienna, and after his studies worked as journalist, chief editor of the Austrian Library magazine and head of training for public librarians in Austria.

Bijan Rouhani

Board Member, Designated representative of ICOMOS

Dr Bijan Rouhani is the representative of ICOMOS on the International Board of Blue Shield. He is Deputy Director of and Senior Researcher at the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project in School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford.

Bijan is also Vice President of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Risk Preparedness (ICORP), and Vice-Chair of the ICOMOS Working Group for Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage in Syria and Iraq.

He has been also Director of AMAL in Heritage at Global Heritage Fund (GHF) – Cultural heritage emergency management tools and training for the MENA region; Project Specialist for Cultural Heritage Condition Assessment, Planning and Preservation at American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Cultural Heritage Initiatives for Syria and Iraq; expert, author, and content developer of the distance learning course on Heritage and Risk Management, Athabasca University, Canada. He is also a member of the Executive Board of the Society for Iranian Archaeology (SIA).

He received his PhD in 2010 in Conservation of Architectural Heritage from La Sapienza, the University of Rome, Italy. His research was on International Principles for the Protection of Cultural Heritage during Armed Conflict.

He received his PhD in 2010 in Conservation of Architectural Heritage from La Sapienza, the University of Rome, Italy. His research was on International Principles for the Protection of Cultural Heritage during Armed Conflict.

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