Our Trustees

The Awareness Foundation Boards

The International Trustees

James Appleyard (Chairman)

Revd Alan Scotland (Vice-Chairman)

Keith Brockbank

Carina Dingemans

Thomas Griffith Vaughan Roberts

Revd Haroution Georges Selimian

Lora Maria De Felice

United States

Abe Kasbo (Chairman)

Rev. Donald Fishburne

Amin Al-Laty

Stephen Taber

Canada

Robert Davies

Canon Peter Walker

INTERNATIONAL TRUSTEES

Chairman of the International Board James Appleyard

James has served as the Chairman of the Awareness Foundation since 2018 and has been on the board of trustees since 2016.

He first met The Revd Nadim Nassar through Grace Church-on-the-Hill in Toronto, where he and his family are parishioners and James serves as a Warden. James is a venture capital investor who supports Canadian technology entrepreneurs as president and chief investment officer of Freycinet Ventures. He sits on various company boards including start-ups Canopy Labs, Mosaic Manufacturing, and Canada’s newest federally-regulated bank, Haventree.

He is also an active volunteer, serving as chair of the board of trustees of The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, and vice-chair of the national board of the Canadian International Council. He is also a member of the honorary council of The Loran Scholars Foundation, Canada’s leading undergraduate scholarship program having chaired its board, and serving its selections and mentoring programs for the past 25 years. James was previously the CEO of Artez Interactive, a technology firm supporting hundreds of fundraising charities in North America, Europe and Australia, which was acquired in 2013, and also assistant professor of management at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

James holds graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of Toronto, and is a senior fellow at Massey College.

Revd Alan Scotland (Vice Chairman)

Alan was trained at the Bible college of Wales and received his master’s in International conflict Resolution at Bradford University. Alan has been in Christian ministry for 46 years. He is currently based at The New Life Church Rugby and is in the leadership team.

He is chairman of United Christian Broadcasters. Alan leads a team of ministries in the UK/USA and works into the major continents training pastors/community leaders and equipping poorer people in micro-industry initiatives, enabling them to become self-supportive.

He has dedicated his life to equipping churches and ministries throughout the world.He has been a trustee of the awareness foundation for a number of years.

>>Keith Brockbank
Keith has a portfolio career which includes management consultancy; teaching and training; non-executive directorships; digital transformation; and peripatetic ministry especially in Mongolia.

Keith received his Master’s degree in business administration management from Open University Business school and received his Bachelor’s of Science in Biochemistry from University of Bath.

Carina Dingemans

Carina’s background is in journalism and magazine publishing working for a number of publications in London, the US and the Caribbean. Most recently, she gave that up to start a small antiques and interiors business with her husband Michael in London. Together they have two adult children, two feral French cats and an ancient dog. Carina has a long association with the Foundation – her father was the Foundation’s first Chair – and has been pleased to serve first as. volunteer and latterly as a trustee.

Keith Brockbank

Keith has a portfolio career which includes management consultancy; teaching and training; non-executive directorships; digital transformation; and peripatetic ministry especially in Mongolia.

Keith received his Master’s degree in business administration management from Open University Business school and received his Bachelor’s of Science in Biochemistry from University of Bath.

Thomas Roberts

Tom was born in Oxford, brought up in Newcastle upon Tyne, educated at Uppingham School and spent a long and varied career in the insurance and consultancy sector of the City. His career started with a year in the Yukon Territory, Canada, looking after deprived and delinquent Indian children in an Indian Residential School. Thereafter he worked as a salesman for a chemical company before spending 23 years as a Lloyd’s Insurance broker including Director and CEO roles in both large corporates and start-ups. He set-up an offshore oil & gas consultancy which he ran for 18 years. He is commercially astute with strategic vision and experience of planning and executing successful business initiatives. He has exceptional leadership, interpersonal and communication skills, especially at Board level. An analytical individual, with a keen eye for detail, accustomed to working in a regulated, compliance-driven environment. He combines ambition with integrity and is an excellent communicator with an open fluent style who motivates and carries the team with him. For 21 years he led a weekly bible study group in HMP Wandsworth. He set-up a successful charity mentoring ex-offenders and worked intensively on restorative justice programmes. He has a wife, three daughters and five grandchildren and plays an active role in his local church.

Revd Haroution Georges Selimian

Reverend Dr. Haroutune Selimian, born in 1963 of Syrian/Armenian nationality, is a pastor and theologian. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from the Near East School of Theology and a Master’s Degree in Divinity from McCormick Theological Seminary. His academic pursuits also include a Certificate in Ecumenical Studies and a Master of Sacred Theology (STM) in Ministry. In 2021, he earned a PhD in Historical Sciences from the State University of Yerevan, Armenia.

His professional journey began in 1988 as a Pastor at the Holy Trinity Armenian Evangelical Church in Kessab, Syria. He later served as an assistant pastor in Chicago and has been the Pastor of the Armenian Evangelical Bethel Church in Aleppo since 1992. Reverend Selimian has taken on various leadership roles, contributing to the Armenian Evangelical Community in Syria and the Union of Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East.

Internationally, he served as the President of the Armenian Evangelical World Council in 2009-2010 and currently holds the position of secretary. His commitment has earned him recognition, including the “Mkhitar Kosh Medal” in 2011 for diplomatic contributions between Armenia and Syria, and the “Swords into Plowshares” Peace Plaque in 2017 for his efforts in the peace process in Syria. Reverend Dr. Haroutune Selimian’s lifelong dedication to pastoral ministry, education, and diplomatic endeavors establishes him as a respected figure with a global impact.

UNITED STATES DIRECTORS

Abe Kasbo, Chairman

Abe is Founder and CEO of Verasoni Worldwide, a marketing communications advisory, consultancy and agency located in Fairfield, NJ. The firm delivers integrated marketing communications strategies across channels to Fortune 500, middle-market and startup clients in the US and around the world. Abe serves as an advisor to C-Suite executives on communications, branding, and public relations strategies. He is Chair of The Center for Entrepreneurial Studies Advisory Board at Seton Hall University.

Abe is Founder of Zeitoun FilmWorks, and the producer and director of the groundbreaking PBS distributed documentary, “The Arab Americans,” which tells a uniquely American story spanning 150 years of those who immigrated from the Levant, North Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula, and their experience and impact on the American Fabric.

He was inducted into the Seton Hall University Entrepreneur Hall of Fame in September 2018. Abe is founder of OnlyOneToothBrush.com – a philanthropic effort aimed to bring 200,000 toothbrushes to support the oral health of Syrian refugees in Germany, Canada, and the United States.

Born in Aleppo, Syria. He immigrated to the United States with his family in 1980. He holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration with a concentration in Healthcare Policy and Management, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Relations from Seton Hall University.

Rev. Donald Fishburne, D.Min

The Rev. Donald Fishburne, D.Min. is President of Awareness America in support of peacebuilding and reconciliation ministries in the US, UK, and Syria. He is a ministry partner of The Rev. Dr. Nadim Nassar, Founding Director of Awareness Foundation based in London and Syria, and of The Rev. Dr. Gary Mason, founder of http://www.rethinkingconflict.com working in Belfast, the Middle East and the US in reconciliation and peacebuilding.

Donald is a past president of CEEP, a mentor in the Lilly Endowment initiative “Thriving in Ministry,” a coach and consultant to clergy, lay leaders, Vestries, and dioceses. He is skilled in Gallup Consulting Faith Practice methodologies, Interim Ministries, and in the Clergy Leadership Institute’s Appreciative Way, as well as Living Compass ministries.

He is skilled in helping congregational leadership and endowment boards move through change and stress into new and more healthy and fruitful ministries.

Donald is a former Regent of Sewanee: The University of the South. Through EO Tours Donald and Sarah design custom pilgrimage, mission and tour experiences worldwide, hosted by clergy and lay leaders. He has served parishes in the Southeast and the coast of Maine.

Amin Al-Laty

Amin was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business.

He moved to the USA in 1990 fleeing the Lebanese civil war. Amin met Revd Nadim Nassar in Lebanon in the mid-eighties when Revd Nadim was a student and the Leader of ‘Church Youth Program’.

Amin spent over 25 years in the sales & marketing industry, He is a Sales Director at a food distribution company in Pennsylvania. He has been a board member of awareness foundation America for a number of years and also the acting treasurer of over a year

Stephen Taber

Steve is an attorney and he was instrumental in registering the Awareness Foundation in the United States. He joined the Foundation on numerous activities and has been a faithful Director and friend since the establishment of the Foundation in North America.

Canada

Robert Davies OAA, AIBC, AAA, SAA, NVAA, FRAIC

Bob is a director and principal at Montgomery Sisam Architects working largely with not-for-profit public and private agencies. Bob has built an award-winning portfolio of work that spans many different sectors.

A former President of the Board of Environmental Defence, Bob works with the ENGO in their mission to inspire change by connecting people with the environmental issues that affect their homes, workplaces and neighbourhoods.

Bob is also a Chair of the Awareness Foundation Canada, promoting peacebuilding though the education of children and young adults in the Middle East. Bob was named a fellow of the Royal Architectural institute of Canada in 2014.

Bob received a Bachelor of Architecture from University of Toronto.

Canon Peter Walker

Canon Peter Walker is a priest of the Diocese of Toronto and currently the rector of Grace Church on-the-hill in midtown Toronto. A son of the rectory, he was educated at Trinity College, Toronto, and Oxford University. Initially trained as a musician, he is an organist and choral conductor. In 1977 he founded the Tallis Choir of Toronto which continues to specialize in performing masterpieces of Renaissance polyphony. Canon Walker has served in the diocese of Toronto for the past forty years in small-town, suburban, and urban parish settings, and has been committed to theological education, mentoring postulants, congregational development, and fostering lay ministry. He and his wife Virginia, a French-immersion Kindergarten teacher, are parents to three sons.

PREVIOUS CHAIRS OF AWARENESS FOUNDATION

Nigel Macdonald

Chair of Awareness Foundation 2014-2018

Mrs. Bendu Cooper

Chair of Awareness Foundation 2012-2014

Charles Longbottom OBE

Chair of Awareness Foundation 2003-2012

Our Trustees

The Awareness Foundation Boards

The International Trustees

United States

Canada

INTERNATIONAL TRUSTEES

UNITED STATES DIRECTORS

Canada

PREVIOUS CHAIRS OF AWARENESS FOUNDATION

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