David Gidron is a social Psychologist and expert in community resilience and emergency management.

A Lt. Colonel in the IDF, David worked as an Organizational Psychologist in a variety of field units. He served as head of the Civil Emergency Behavior Branch in the Home Front Command.

David has worked as an expert consultant and senior researcher of emergency management and community resilience for private and public organizations in Israel and abroad. These include JDC-Elka, Israel Trauma Coalition, Mahut, NASTEC, the Gertner Institute, and more.

Later, under the Israel Trauma Coalition, he helped establish a network of community resilience centers in the north of Israel.

Until recently, David was the professional director for the Israel Trauma Coalition and the Ministry of Welfare and the Ministry of Health for the five resilience centers in western Negev. These centers are the backbone for preparing the communities for crises, providing psycho-social trauma treatment and building community resilience in the ongoing emergency situation in the region.

David continues to serve as a senior consultant for community resilience and emergency preparedness for numerous municipalities, government ministries, private and public institutions and is a member of the JDC-Europe resilience work group. 

Avital Sandler Loeff serves as the director of Israel Unlimited, a strategic partnership between JDC, the Israeli Government and the Ruderman Family Foundation. The goal of the partnership is to develop community-based support systems for adults with disabilities who are living in their communities.

Avital is a leader in the development of innovative models for people with disabilities who wish to live independently, and her work is being implemented throughout Israel.

Throughout 18 years with JDC, Avital has worked to bring together government agencies, municipalities, NGOs and academia to advance the needs of people with disabilities, and has built partnerships that have transformed concepts into realities. 

Avital also serves as the professional coordinator of the JDC Global Task Force on Disabilities.

Previously, Avital was a researcher at the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute. One of the highlights of her work was developing a master plan to implement the Special Education Law in the field of assistive technologies. At the same time, Avital taught courses at the department for Occupational Therapy at Tel Aviv University, focusing on program evaluation and inclusion of disabled individuals in wider society.

Before joining JDC, Avital worked as a vocational consultant and group facilitator with young adults who suffered from mental illness.

Avital lives with her family in Beit Zayit.

Susan Scott-Parker OBE is the founder and chief executive of Business Disability Forum, the world’s leading national employers’ organisation focussed on disability as it affects business. Business Disability Forum’s some 350 members, including over 100 global companies, employ circa 20 per cent of the UK workforce. Since its establishment in 1991, Business Disability Forum members have worked closely with disabled opinion formers and key stakeholders, making it easier to employ disabled people and serve disabled customers.

Susan established a unique senior leadership team together with Business Disability Forum’s President John Varley, former Group CEO Barclays Bank. The President’s Group signals to colleagues, customers, and government that disability is now a business and a societal priority. Sir Andrew Witty CEO global CEO, GlaxoSmithKline, has recently as Founding Chairman, begun working with Susan to establish ‘Business Disability International’.

Together with the CIO Barclays Corporate (global), Susan co-chairs Business Disability Forum’s Technology Taskforce. This unique taskforce of senior ICT directors will define best practice, require global ICT suppliers to deliver more accessible products and services, and help regulators worldwide to understand what business needs from IT related standards if it is to employ and do business with disabled people. The Accessible Technology Charter ‘campaign’  was launched by some of the world’s leading corporations, including BSkyB, GSK, E & Y, Barclays, Allianz, Cisco Systems, Fujitsu, Microsoft and Oracle, in November 2011.

In 2005 Susan led the development of the Disability Standard, the world’s only Benchmark that measures corporate performance on disability as if affects an entire business. The Australian Employers Network is now piloting this standard for Australia.

Known internationally for her ability to mobilise employers to the mutual benefit of business and disabled people, Susan helped the ILO to establish the Sri Lankan Employers’ Network on Disability. She continues to work closely with the Australian Employers’ Network on Disability, Community Business in Hong Kong and Singapore, and with other emerging business led networks such as those in Spain and Canada .She has recently addressed the UN Council on Human Rights (Geneva), the Essl Foundation Global Conference (Vienna) and the Saudi Arabian business /government disability network.

Susan pioneered the world’s first leadership programme for people with disabilities, in partnership with the Coverdale Organisation.

Susan is also a longstanding board member of the Central School of Ballet and of the British Quality Foundation, and sits on the expert advisory panel for the Australian employment agency, Workfocus. In 2012 Susan joined the International Scientific Advisory Board for the Essl Foundation in Vienna.

Susan was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2000 and received her Honorary Doctorate from Bradford University in 2003. Susan is a Canadian who has lived and worked in the UK for over 25 years.

Phil Friend himself a wheelchair user, is acknowledged as the UK's foremost consultant on disability matters. A powerful and highly popular communicator, his company – Phil & Friends - provides consultancy to many of the country's best-known companies. In addition to his professional activities, he is also a respected champion for equal opportunities and diversity in general, where his special blend of humour and direct speaking has won admirers from around the world.

He has made many board presentations and speeches and provided consultancy on a wide range of disability and diversity related topics in the UK. He has also worked on disability and diversity projects in Estonia, Romania, Poland, Germany, Canada and the USA. He was awarded an OBE in 2001 for services to equal opportunities and disabled people and made a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts in February 2007.

He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science (Hon DSc) in 2009 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to equality and diversity from University of Hertfordshire.

Phil has had numerous articles published and is a regular contributor on national/local television and radio; he has also appeared in several video productions commissioned by the BBC, Sky, the Business Disability Forum, various Tourist Boards and Angel Productions. He is the co-author of “Why are you pretending to be normal?” a self-help book designed to help disabled people manage rather than cope with their disability.

His passionate commitment is to create a more equitable life for everyone by illustrating the practical and realistic steps that can be taken by both businesses and individuals to make a real difference.

He is a Director of Dining with a Difference and is also very active within the voluntary sector.  He is the former Chair of Royal Association for Disability and Rights (RADAR) and Disability Rights (UK) and is now an Ambassador for the organisation. Vice President of the Level Playing Field Association, a Commissioner on the Extra Costs of Disability Commission and a member of the Association of Disabled Professionals and Vice Chair of BT’s Customer Inclusion Panel. He is also an Associate of the Business Disability Forum and a Trustee of RICA, and the English Federation for Disability Sport, a Churchill Fellow and a former chair of the Independent Advisory Group for Surrey Police.

Clients include:

Accenture, BAE Systems, Barclays, Bank of England, BBC, Buckingham Palace, Cabinet Office, Dept of Work & Pensions, Ernst & Young, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, General Medical Council, Goldman Sachs, Hertfordshire University, Home Office, ITV, KPMG, Lloyds Banking Group, NHSBT, PWC and Royal Mail. Various Police Forces, Trade Unions, Borough & County Councils and NHS Trusts.