Roger Barsby MBA has worked for Weleda (UK) Ltd for almost 30 years. Initially trained as a Chemist, he began work in the Weleda Quality Control laboratory. Since that time he has been involved in all areas of the business, from production to marketing and sales and now acts as General Manager with specific roles in Quality Management and Logistics. Over the years he has been involved in many initiatives to safeguard the future of anthroposophic medicine in the UK, working with doctors and regulatory authorities and is part of the Weleda Global Brand Team for pharmaceuticals. Since the beginning of 2010 he taken on the role of Chairman of the Mercury Provident Pension Scheme, a multi-employer scheme of anthroposophic initiatives, of which Emerson is a member employer.
Fumiko Chikami is a biography work trainer active in Japan and other parts of the world. Her background is education, organic farming and individual and social development. Her connection with Emerson College began with the international storytelling symposium in 1995 followed by a training in biographical counselling at the Centre for Social Development. As an educational advisor she has introduced Emerson College to many people in Japan in the past. Over the last five years she has, along with John Lees, been co-ordinating Manichean seminars at the Healing Water Institute. Also, last summer, both Fumiko and John, together with an international team, successfully organized a worldwide biography conference which was hosted by Emerson College. In the new chapter of Emerson College she wishes to help to create a space for dialogue with an awareness of each other and the environment.
John Lees has been involved in anthroposophy since the mid-1970s. He joined the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain in 1976, worked in Anthroposophical circles in London in the 1970s and 1980s and worked closely with Rev Evelyn Capel between 1987 and 1990 at Temple Lodge in London. He then trained as a counsellor and subsequently an academic and anthroposophic psychotherapist. He is Chair of Counsellors and Psychotherapists Working out of Anthroposophy and a researcher in mental health at the University of Leeds. Since 2002 he has been living just over a mile from Emerson and has helped to organize several projects which have taken place in the College. He believes that the Emerson site still has great potential for healing and self-discovery in our much damaged, and rapidly declining, world. So his vision for the project is to help this healing space to become a centre of individual, social and environmental healing and renewal.
Robert Lord (BSc Pure Maths) was an Emerson student from 1973 to 1975. He studied sculpture with John Wilkes and went on to work as a lazure artist & colour consultant (www.colouradvice.com). He was a trustee of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain for nine years and has been the convenor of the ASinGB Outreach Group for about ten years organizing exhibitions brochures website and much else. He lectures on a variety of anthroposphical themes especially concerning the afterlife in connection with Near Death experiences and similar phenomena. His vision is that Emerson Village would be a microcosm of all that is successful in the UK anthroposophical movement.