CULTURAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
RIGHTS
INITIATIVE®
CIPRI ADVISORY BOARD
The Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative® is supported by an ever growing international network of innovative thinkers, change-makers, global sustainable leaders, investing their time, resources and energy in creating a better tomorrow.
BANDANA TEWARI
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Fashion Journalist, Speaker and Panelist on sustainability and mindfulness in fashion
Bandana believes that fashion is not a linear phenomenon. And to understand the significance and impact of fashion, she believes we need to approach it as a social anthropologist.
Bandana was a panelist at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2017and the Condenast International Luxury Conference 2017 on Mindful Luxury held in Oman where her topic was Gandhian Principles and fashion.
Bandana sits on the advisory boards of NEST and Eco Chic Design Award. She was in the expert panel of H&M Foundation’s Global Change Award 2018.
A columnist for the Business of Fashion, she was also a member of the BoF500 and has written extensively on a variety of topics from indigenous ‘made-by-hand’ economies of India and Indonesia, to transgender and LGBTQ representation in fashion.
As Vogue India’s Editor-at-Large for 13 years, Bandana’s pieces have also appeared in well-regarded publications such as The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, US Vogue, UK Vogue in addition to several leading Indian journals. She has scripted and hosted 50 episodes of ‘Simply Style’, India’s first prime-time TV show on fashion. In 2006, she was named fashion journalist of the year at the Fashion Awards in Mumbai and has been featured in Industrie magazine’s guide to the most powerful figures in fashion for 2012.
In December 2017, she, along with award-winning documentary director Andrew Morgan (The True Cost, 2015) and New York Times Fashion Director Vanessa Friedmen, spoke at the United Nations, New York.
Area of expertise: In-depth knowledge of the fashion industry and advocacy for luxury craftsmanship
Nagaraja (Naga) Prakasam
Angel Investor
Nagaraja (Naga) Prakasam is a versatile and passionate leader and angel investor with 27 years of global experience. His personal mantra is “Start-ups should focus on India’s strength – people, problems, Tech (PPT)”. He spearheaded impact thinking in Indian Angel Network and co-founded IAN Impact.
Believing in a hands-on approach, he does Bharath Dharshan traveling extensively in rural areas in India to understand community needs first hand.
He is a thought leader in the social impact space in India and has inspired many students as a motivational speaker in number of colleges. Forbes India calls him the the social investor who is engineering social change.
He is a Partner at Acumen and served as an independent director in one of its portfolio company, Guardian – a micro finance venture working in Water and Sanitation.
As Founder Chairman of Nativelead Foundation (NLF) he enables entrepreneurship in non-metropolitan cities of Tamilnadu, India. The Nativelead network currently engages 242 angels in Madurai, Trichy, Coimbatore, Erode, Tuticorin, Karur, Tirunelveli with 7 investments, touching 120 start-ups and 37 colleges.
Naga acts as Advisor, Mentor and Expert Jury Panel in various projects, businesses and Awards such as the IIT Madras Incubator, the Madurai Agri-Business Incubator, the Govt. of India National Entrepreneurship Award, Forbes 30 under 30, CARE School of Business, Change Alliance, Startup Oasis and The Craft Catapult.
More about Naga here.
Area of expertise: social impact investment and craft entrepreneurship
Francis Gurry
Law practitioner, author, honorary professor
Francis Gurry served as Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) from 2008 to September 2020.
During his tenure, the revenue of the Organization increased by 50%, the global IP Systems administered by the Organization expanded significantly in membership and use, three new treaties were concluded, a new administrative building and a new conference hall were constructed, a number of successful public-private partnerships were developed, including the Accessible Books Consortium, which makes available to visually impaired persons throughout the world a repertoire of more than 700,000 works in accessible formats in over 70 languages, new global databases and IT platforms were developed and deployed, and over 400 accessions were made by countries to the treaties administered by the Organization.
He is now Honorary Dean of the Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property of Tongji University and holds several other corporate and government advisory positions.
Francis holds law degrees (LL.B., LL.M.) from the University of Melbourne and a Ph.D, from the University of Cambridge. He is the author of a leading textbook on trade secrets and confidential information, now published as Gurry on Breach of Confidence by Oxford University Press, and co-author of a casebook on international intellectual property published by Wolters Kluwer in New York. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from universities in 13 countries and honorary professorships from universities in seven countries. He is also the recipient of honours awarded by Australia, China, France, Japan, Mongolia, Morocco and the Philippines.
Area of expertise: intellectual property law, confidential information and trade secrets
CIPRI ECOSYSTEM CONNECTORS
LAURA PETRACHE
Founder at "B1-AKT Leading Sustainable Strategies & Paragon Communication"
Involved in the world of politics Laura is very active in supporting and advising political figures as senior political adviser. Her life and background are international, her experiences intercultural, her sharp and agile thinking is able to adapt both “in” and” out of the box” thinking.
She believes that a cultural “hybrid identity” is a sustainable key of social development. Laura is cultivation a thriving ecosystem for social innovation and more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive communities.
“Trans-nationally, trans-lingually and trans-culturally” are the key words she uses for a “sustainable future”.
Laura has more than 15 years’ experience as leading intercultural expert.
More about Laura here.
Area of expertise: communication strategy & global partnerships
CAROLINE POINER
Founder at Artisans of Fashion
After 18 years as creative director for a Sydney based branding agency, Caroline founded Artisans of Fashion (AOF) - a social enterprise with the aim to promote authenticity and social change for village artisans in India; with a specific focus on empowering women and marginalised communities who have little access to alternative sources of income.
Caroline helps communities create high quality, hand-crafted textiles that are technically suitable for garment construction and provide access to the international market. The aim of these partnerships is to help preserve traditional craft skills and cultural integrity, support capacity development and bring consistent work to communities, mainly where women are effected by extreme poverty — allowing them to become financially independent, increase their families’ income and live their lives with dignity.
Since its inception AOF has facilitated numerous collaborations between Australian designers and artisan communities and collections have been showcased at international runway shows at Delhi Fashion Week and an Exhibition showcase at Virgin Australia Fashion Festival in Melbourne.
In 2013 in partnership with the Australian High Commission New Delhi, AOF hosted Australian fashion design duo Romance Was Born (RWB) at Fashion Week in New Delhi where they were showcasing a collection developed in collaboration with weavers from Varnasi using traditional Gyasar Brocades. AOF facilitated the collaboration of RWB with the weavers from Varnasi.
Caroline has developed a number of programs that support cultural and public diplomacy in partnership with the Australian High Commission New Delhi, most recently visiting weaving clusters in the North East of India as a guest of the Ministry of Textiles India (MoTI).
Area of expertise: capacity building for traditional creative communities
ANJANA DAS
Founder at White Champa
Anjana’s expertise lies in bridge-building between India and Europe in the field of textiles and fashion. She has gained her experience in many years of working with artisans in the field of embroidery and stitching. At first, she worked with the French embroiderer Jean-Francois Lesage in his atelier in South India and represented him with several projects in Germany, France and Thailand.
Anjana was born in Germany to Bengali parents and grew up in an environment of cultural diversity. A childhood rooted in one place but with close connections to many places in the world. This from the start fueled the passion to build cross cultural connections and connect them without tensions and contradiction. The art of Indian embroidery and drape applied to minimalist cuts and patterns.
“The beauty of draping meets the bravery of the cut”.
With a focus on intangible cultural heritage and creating awareness of methods of traditional sustainability, Anjana also aims to integrate the traditional forms of textile production with new ideas from the sustainability sector.
After having lived in a few South Asian countries for some years and moving to New Delhi, Anjana, in 2006, started White Champa, a small, yet global fashion label. Even there, embroidery is a key element. Looking at the long and exquisite tradition of embroidery in India and the skill of the master karigars, the wish arose to keep this art alive in a contemporary form which is truthful to the art form and also appeals to a European clientele. Equally important is the use of hand-woven fabrics.
Area of expertise: India-Europe textile market bridge-building
DR.Kevin Murray
Knowledge worker and Founder of Garland Magazine
Focused on the global conversation around craft, Dr. Murray has 30 years of experience as a knowledge worker for the crafts.
In 2015, he founded Garland Magazine, which involves a journey over five years to 21 different creative centres in the Indo-Pacific. The quest is to understand the diverse values of craftsmanship. Along the way, this project builds a unique network of culture-makers who can work together in the future.
For 12 years, Dr. Murray has been on the board of the World Crafts Council - Asia Pacific, in the capacity of coordinating editor of the Online Encyclopedia of Crafts in the Asia Pacific Region.
In 2014 he founded World Crafts Council - Australia, an entity that has pioneered methods in craft mapping.
In 2009, he founded Sangam: A Platform for Craft-Design Partnerships, which developed a Code of Practice for Craft-Design Partnerships. This was a three year program between Australia and India. It has since extended to Indonesia and South America. In 2019, he was made South Pacific Ambassador for the International One Village One Product network, based in Vietnam.
Dr. Murray is the author of many articles and curator of various exhibitions. His books include Craft Unbound: Make the Common Precious (Thames & Hudson, 2005) and with Damian Skinner, Place and Adornment: A History of Contemporary Jewellery in Australia and New Zealand (Bateman, 2014).
Kevin Murray is passionate about a southern perspective on the world, which is enriched by many migrant and first nation cultures in Australia, where he is based. This involves questioning the vertical hierarchies such as mind-body that underpin the colonial project. This extends to advocacy for the rights of makers in the context of intellectual property.
More about Kevin here.
Area of expertise: craft research, narrative design, project management and knowledge work