People Money

Prof. Dr. Margrit Kennedy is an architect with a Masters Degree in Urban and Regional Planning and a Ph.D. in Public and International Affairs, who worked for UNESCO and OECD and was a professor for Ecological Building Technologies in the Department of Architecture at the University of Hanover. Projects in ecological architecture for the International Building Exhibition Berlin in 1987 led her to the discovery that it is virtually impossible to carry out sound ecological concepts on the scale required today without fundamentally altering the present money system or creating new complementary currencies. In her two books Interest and Inflation Free Money (1987 - translated into 23 languages since) and Occupy Money (2012) she explores the systemic problems of the present system and the advantages of using new complementary monetary designs. Her work in this field has been instrumental for the start of more than 60 regional currency initiatives in the German speaking parts of Europe. Bernard LIETAER has been active in money systems for 35 years in an unusual variety of functions. While at the Central Bank in Belgium he co-designed and implemented the convergence mechanism (ECU) to the single European currency system and served as President of Belgium's Electronic Payment System. He was General Manager and Currency Trader for the Gaia Hedge Funds, when Business Week identified him in 1990 as the world's top trader. He is currently Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and Visiting Professor at the Finance University in Moscow. He is the author of fifteen books relating to monetary and financial issues. John Rogers cut his teeth with local currencies by running a local exchange system in Wales for 10 years. He co-founded the Wales Institute for Community Currencies at the University of Newport, which he directed with Geoff Thomas from 2003-2007. They coordinated research into the effects of time banking in ex-mining communities, which was published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 'Hidden Work'. He now offers training and consulting for local currencies through Value for People and has spoken and led workshops at many international conferences.