Speakers
Keynote Speakers
R. Gordon R. McInally
President 2023-24
Rotary Club of South Queensferry, West Lothian, Scotland
Gordon R. McInally is president of Rotary International. He joined Rotary in 1984 at age 26 and is a member of the Rotary Club of South Queensferry in Scotland. He has served as president and vice president of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland. He has also served RI as a director.
Gordon is a Dentist by profession. He operated his own dental practice in Edinburgh until 2016, was chair of the East of Scotland branch of the British Paedodontic Society and has held various academic positions. He has also served as a presbytery elder, chair of the Queensferry parish congregational board, and commissioner to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland.
In his free time, McInally enjoys rugby, good food and wine, and stick dressing, the traditional Scottish craft of making walking sticks.
Stephanie A. Urchick
President-elect 2023-24
Rotary Club of McMurray, Pennsylvania, USA
Stephanie Urchick is a member of the Rotary Club of McMurray, Pennsylvania, USA. She will serve RI as president in 2024-25. She has been an RI director and Rotary Foundation trustee and has served RI in numerous capacities, including as training leader, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, and RI president's representative. In addition, Stephanie was a representative and member-at-large to three sessions of the Council on Legislation.
A Rotary member since 1991, Stephanie has lived her passion for service. She has participated in a variety of international service projects, including National Immunization Days in India and Nigeria. In Vietnam, she worked with clubs to help build a primary school and travelled to the Dominican Republic to install water filters. A student of several Slavic languages, she has mentored new Rotary members in Ukraine and coordinated a Rotary Foundation grant for a mammography equipment and a biopsy unit for a hospital in Poland. In its commemorative book, the Rotary Club of Krakow, Poland, noted Stephanie as a key figure for helping the re-birth of Rotary in post-Communist Poland.
Currently, Stephanie is helping to partner clubs and districts in the U.S. with Rotary clubs in Albania, Kosovo, and Ukraine for humanitarian and educational services.
Stephanie's professional background is in the higher education, consulting, and entertainment industries. She received her doctorate degree in Leadership Studies from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and has been recognized and awarded by The Rotary Foundation and numerous community and international organizations.
Jennifer E. Jones
Trustee 2023-27
Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland, Ontario, Canada
Jennifer Jones believes in the power of storytelling to move the world forward.
In her vocational life, she is the founder of a media company in Ontario that has helped countless corporations and not-for-profit organizations lead with conviction and credibility.
Jones served as Rotary International's president in 2022-23, making her the first woman in Rotary's history to serve in this role. Her focus on inclusion and equity has helped break down barriers and has opened doors for others to see themselves authentically recognized within the organization. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland.
Jones has strengthened Rotary's reach and impact as an ambassador of leadership. She believes in connecting those who are most vulnerable with people of purpose, people of influence, and people of action.
Working alongside world leaders, celebrities, and international thought leaders, Jones has raised awareness and hundreds of millions of dollars to eradicate disease, elevate education, support peace, and provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene.
She is the recipient of Rotary's Service Above Self Award and The Rotary Foundation Citation for Meritorious Service. She holds a Doctor of Laws and has been recognized with the YMCA Peace Medallion and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal. She is also the first Canadian to receive Wayne State University's Peacemaker Award.
Jones is married to Nick Krayacich, a family physician. They share a love for Rotary, travel, cycling, golf, and relaxing at their family cottage, in addition to adventures such as climbing to the summit of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
They support The Rotary Foundation as members of the Arch Klumph Society, Paul Harris Society, and Bequest Society.
Ghim Bok Chew
Director 2023-25
Rotary Club of Bugis Junction, Singapore
Born in Singapore, Ghim Bok “G.B.” Chew graduated in 1981 with an Honors degree in computer science from the University of Liverpool, England, before returning to his home country to launch a career as a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and private equities fund manager. After opening his first business, an IT systems integrator, he took a bankrupt food processing company to an initial public offering after turning it around. Now semiretired, Chew maintains real estate and real estate management companies in Singapore, in addition to his fund management holding company.
Chew joined Rotary in 1996. Immediately after serving as district governor in 2013, he took on several zone and international roles. He is presently the Host Organization Committee chair for the Rotary International Convention in Singapore in 2024.
Outside Rotary, Chew is active as a local volunteer, having served for nearly three decades with Singapore’s People's Association, a government organization that uses a grassroots approach to promote racial and social harmony among Singapore’s diverse population. For his contributions to Singapore’s communities, Chew was awarded the Public Service Award Medal in 2005 and Public Service Star Medal in 2012 by Singapore’s president. He also serves as a justice of the peace who volunteers in local prisons, chair of two religious organizations, trustee of three national trust organizations, and honorary consul for the Republic of Slovakia in Singapore.
Chew is a recipient of the Service Above Self Award. With his wife, Phyllis, he is a member of the Arch Klumph Society Chair’s Circle.
Hsiu-Ming Lin
Trustee 2020-24
Rotary Club of Taipei Tungteh Taiwan
Hsui-Ming “Frederick” Lin is managing director of Continental Worldwide Enterprises Co. Ltd., a company that designs and integrates satellite communications systems. Lin is active on the boards of organizations outside of Rotary, including as director of the Taipei Lifeline Association.
A Rotarian since 1988, Lin has served Rotary as a regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, Rotary coordinator, RI president’s representative, committee member and chair, and director and treasurer on the RI Board.
He and his wife, Chen-Yi, are members of the Arch Klumph Society. Lin is also a Benefactor of The Rotary Foundation and a Paul Harris Fellow.
Michele Berg
Deputy General Secretary
Rotary Club of Evanston, Illinois, USA
Michele Berg is the Deputy General Secretary of Rotary International, leading the day-to-day operations of the Secretariat. She is also chiefly responsible for RI strategy, including implementation of Rotary’s Action Plan.
Michele is also a Rotarian – a past president of the Rotary Club of Evanston, Paul Harris Fellow, Paul Harris Society member, and a Benefactor. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a major in Italian and earned her MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a dual specialization in marketing and international business.
Valarie Wafer
Chair, Rotary International Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
Rotary Club of Collingwood South Georgian Bay
Valarie Wafer is a champion of Rotary’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) strategy. She has chaired the Rotary International DEI taskforce since its inception, and she advises clubs and districts around the world on the ways that DEI can enhance Rotary’s impact.
Valarie is a past Director and Vice-President of Rotary International and has held numerous international roles. She has also participated in various service-based activities, including as a Group Study Exchange leader to Australia in 2010 and Rotary Foundation Cadre leader, travelling to Kenya and Tanzania to audit long-term Rotary Foundation grant activity.
In her non-Rotary life, Valarie had a 27-year career as a restaurant owner in Toronto. The brand, Tim Hortons, is the most recognized and iconic franchise in Canada. The Wafer’s restaurants were best known for its inclusive hiring practices and accessibility, especially in the area of employment.
Cat Levine - D9910 Mental Health programme
TE TAI TOKERAU TAMARIKI MENTAL WELLBEING PROJECT 2023 - 2024
The Te Tai Tokerau Tamariki Mental Wellbeing Project will tackle the rise in children's mental illness by providing an Emotional Regulation program, called Think and Be Me, to 60 schools across Te Tai Tokerau (Northland, NZ) during 2023-2024.
The Think and Be Me program, was founded by children's mental wellbeing educator, Cat Levine, alongside a team of experts, and is designed to support the long term emotional wellbeing of tamariki (children).
Informed by research, the program is underpinned by Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy principles to bring proven mental wellbeing coping skills out of the counselling rooms, and into the classroom.
Using a strengths-based approach, students are equipped with the knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes to manage their emotions in healthy ways, and develop resilience and coping skills.
The project is funded by Rotary International through a Global Grant.
Michael McGovern
Rotary Club of South Portland-Cape Elizabeth Maine, USA
Michael McGovern is Chair of the Rotary International Polio Plus Committee. In this role, he is the volunteer leader of Rotary’s largest humanitarian project, the global eradication of polio. Rotary is the spearheading partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and has donated over $2.1 billion to ending polio and has worked with other partners to reduce the number of polio endemic countries from 125 in 1988 to today. Mike also represents Rotary on the Polio Oversight Board.
THOMAS A. GUMP
General Chair
Rotary International Zones 25B & 29 Institute
Rotary Club of Edina / Morningside Edina, Minnesota, USA
Tom is passionate about growing Rotary Membership through forming new and innovative, cause-based Rotary, Rotaract and satellite clubs. He founded the first ever Rotary Club to serve veterans and co-founded the world’s first Rotary club to end human trafficking. He helped found the Rotary Club of Network for Empowering Women and The Kaleidoscope Rotaract Club, to serve those with Autism and their families. He also helped form the Rotaract eClub for the Environment - the first ever cause-based, international, Rotaract eClub focusing on the environment, which was the innovative club example used by Rotary International General Secretary and CEO John Hewko in his closing remarks at the 2021 Rotary Virtual Convention.
He is married to his wife Catherine Gump, who is a member of the Rotary Club of Edina, Minnesota, USA. Their son Andrew is involved in the Edina Interact Club. The Gump family is very involved in Rotary Youth Exchange having hosted six long-term exchange students.
Michael Lapiña
District Governor Elect District 9800
Rotary Club of Wyndham, Victoria, Australia
Michael Lapiña began his Rotary career in 2005 joining the Rotary Club of Central Melbourne Sunrise, a breakfast Club that suited Michael’s 9 to 5 job as an Executive Coach & Project Director at the National Australia Bank that was situated across the road from where Rotary met.
Since then, he has held several District Leadership roles, including Team Leader of the Group Vocational Exchange to the Philippines (D3820) in 2017, Artistic Director of the District Conferences in 2017, 2019 and 2022, and Artistic Consultant for the New Generation Service Exchange sending aspiring young Opera professionals to Bayreuth, Germany annually.
He transferred his membership to the Rotary Club of Wyndham back in 2018, and since then, has gone on to be Club President in 2020, Assistant Governor for the Westside Cluster, and is now preparing to take on the office of Rotary Governor for the Rotary District of 9800 in 2024.
Today, he juggles his time between his family (consisting of wife Nina, and three children, Mikey, Alex and Brianna – All Rotarians) and his busy Rotary life, his professional opera career, video production and teaching young singing students.