EDUCATIONAL MODULE - FIRST EDITION

Alessandro Baricco is one of Italy’s most versatile contemporary writers and public intellectuals. Known for his bestselling novels “Land of Glass” (Campiello and Prix Medicis Prize winner), “Ocean Sea” (1993) and “Silk” (1996, translated into 16 languages), Baricco has also had a prolific career as television host of cultural programs, as a playwright, and essayist. His fourth non-fiction book “The Barbarians” (2006) tackled the relationship between writing and the digital cultural revolution. In his latest book “The Game” (2018), Baricco has returned to this topic enlarging his perspective to the impact of the digital revolution on humanist thought and culture at large. The book represents an intellectual preface to the principles that Baricco has applied to the Academy program of the Holden School of Contemporary Humanities that he founded in 1994 in Turin (Italy). 

Lorenzo Bertelli, aged 32, has been Group Head of Marketing since 2019 and from 2020 has been appointed Group’s Head of CSR. He is responsible, on one side, for the Group’s Marketing and Communication strategy and for the development, innovation and sales analysis of the retail channel for all the Group’s brands and, on the other, for the Group’s overall approach to sustainability strategy and initiatives. He joined the Group in 2017 as Head of Digital Communication and was appointed as Head of Marketing and Communication in 2018. Mr. Bertelli has also been Director of Prada Holding S.p.A. since 2015. Lorenzo Bertelli obtained a degree in Philosophy at San Raffaele University in Milan in 2008; he is the son of Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, the Chief Executive Officers of the Prada Group.

Anne de Carbuccia is a French American artist and filmmaker who travels to the world’s most remote locations to document through her art endangered environments, species and cultures. Her images have been exhibited in museums and public institutions throughout Europe and the United States. Her debut short film, One Ocean, was presented at the 75^th Venice International Film Festival. Anne has established the Time Shrine Foundation in the USA and the One Planet One Future Association in Italy, to raise awareness on climate breakdown and human-caused threats to the planet. She is currently working on a feature a forthcoming documentary on the challenges of the “Anthropocene”.

Founder and Director of Planeta Océano, a Peruvian non-profit organization empowering coastal communities in marine conservation through research, education and sustainable development efforts. She is Board Member of the international non-profit Migramar and has served as a consultant for the private, governmental, and inter-governmental sectors, including UNESCO and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. As a public speaker, she has presented in over 16 countries, in venues including the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, the United Nations Headquarters and the Royal Geographic Society. Her efforts have included pioneering giant manta ray conservation in Peru, securing legal protection for critically endangered sawfish, setting-up Northern Peru’s Marine Educators Network, among others. Forsberg has been named as one of Fortune Magazine’s ‘50 World’s Greatest Leaders, a ‘Next Generation Leader’ by TIME and a ‘30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur’ by Forbes Magazine. She is a Rolex Award for Enterprise Laureate, Whitley Award (‘Green Oscars’) Winner, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, an Ashoka Fellow and member of Friends of Ocean Action.

Dr Vladimir Ryabinin (Engineer, 1978; Ph.D., 1982; and Doctor of Sciences, 1995) is the Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO and Assistant Director-General of UNESCO. Dr Ryabinin is an oceanographer, marine engineer, climatologist, and emeritus meteorologist of Russia. His research has led to a number of achievements in weather prediction, marine engineering, and in ocean and climate science. Some of his previous affiliations include the Hydrometcentre of Russia (as a researcher and head of laboratory), Moscow State University (as a lecturer), International Ocean Institute (as the director), and World Climate Research Programme (as a senior scientific officer). Dr Ryabinin’s research started from mathematical modelling of ocean currents. He is a key developer of the first Soviet model that started predicting weather for the country for 5-7 days ahead. Later he worked in the Russian Arctic studying sea-ice and leading a big project for shelf engineering. He also developed a mathematical model of wind waves on the surface of the ocean. With his knowledge of ocean and atmosphere, sea ice, in 1980s he started to act as an expert for the United Nations, in 1990s contributed to the core design of the ocean observing system, and in 2000s-2010s was coordinating international climate research. Since 2015 his focus has been on using the science for saving the ocean.  

Alessia Zecchini (Rome, June 30, 1992) is an Italian freediver, world champion in six freediving disciplines, European indoor champion in 2019 and outdoor world champion in the same year. At the age of 13, she obtained her first federal apnea license in the A.s.d. "Apnea Blu Mare". Since 2012, she has been part of the Italian national team of indoor and outdoor freediving, so far winning sixteen gold medals, five silver and two bronze medals at the World Championships and three golds, six silvers and one bronze at the European Championships. She is currently the "deepest woman in the world" with her -113 meter in constant weight (monofin), achieved in August 2019 during the World Championship in Roatan, Honduras. On October 18, 2019 she becomes the first woman to have touched the depth of -100 meter exclusively with the use of her arms (free immersion), during the “Nirvana Oceanquest” in Curacao.