Larry Dohrs
Larry Dohrs’s first visit to Burma was in 1982. In 1985 he completed an MA in Southeast Asian Studies from University of Michigan, with a particular focus on the agricultural economies of Thailand and Burma. Throughout the 1980s he wrote economic updates on mainland Southeast Asia for the journal Southeast Asia Business. He travels to Southeast Asia every year, and has had the privilege of meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the democracy movement. He leads the Seattle Burma Roundtable in his hometown of Seattle, Washington State on a monthly basis for more than 10 years. He is currently an adjunct Professor for Economics at Antioch University in Seattle and Vice President of Newground Social Investment, also in Seattle.

Simon Billenness
Simon founded and led the New England Burma Roundtable from 1994 to 2005. He organized the successful grassroots lobbying for the passage of the Massachusetts Burma Law and spurred groups throughout the country to enact 20 similar municipal Burma selective purchasing laws. He has also led efforts to push shareholders to put pressure on corporations in Burma through shareholder resolutions and action at corporate annual shareholder meetings. Over 100 companies from North America, Europe and Asia have withdrawn from Burma under the pressure from these campaigns. Simon worked as a Senior Analyst at Trillium Asset Management, a socially responsible investment firm, Senior Policy Advisor for Corporate Engagement at Oxfam America, and as Senior Advisor for Special Projects and Shareholder Advocacy at the AFL-CIO Office of Investment. He is currently the Senior Campaign Representative for Corporate Accountability and International in the Beyond Coal Campaign at the Sierra Club.

Sam Gregory
Sam Gregory is a video producer, trainer, and human rights advocate, and is currently the Program Director of WITNESS, the non-governmental organization that uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. He has been an activist on Burma for the past decade, and over the past five years has worked extensively with the grassroots organization, Burma Issues to support their work documenting and advocating around the situation in eastern Burma, including supporting the production and distribution of the videos “Shoot on Sight’, ‘Season of Fear’ and ‘Always on the Run’ to audiences worldwide. In 2005 he was the lead editor on Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism (Pluto Press), and he has conducted trainings on how to use video in campaigns for groups worldwide.

U Tin Maung Thaw
Tin Maung Thaw is a founding member and General Secretary of the Committee for Restoration of Democracy in Burma. Born in Rangoon, Burma, he graduated from Methodist High School in Rangoon and obtained his degree from the University of Rangoon, Institute of Economics after narrowly avoiding expulsion for participating in student protests against the military regime. He is a former staff member of the U.S. Congress.

Nickie Sekera

Drew Sein
Drew graduated from Brown University, and is currently a student at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. He was a student leader in the Brown Chapter of the US Campaign for Burma, working closely with Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, former UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights. At the height of the Saffron Revolution, he hosted one of the largest rallies of recent Brown history, with keynote speakers Pinheiro and Fernando Cardoso, former president of Brazil. He is currently conducting research regarding the intersection of health disparities and human rights violations among refugee and internally displaced populations.

Jayson Morris
Jayson is a Development Director for Corporate and Foundation relationships for Room to Read, an international educational organization operating across Asia and Southern Africa. He has been with Room to Read for five years, and before that was working in investment banking. He left banking in 2001 and spent three years backpacking around the world, including a powerful month in Burma. Throughout his trip he learned first-hand about the challenges of the developing world and has since dedicated himself to assisting countries and communities in need. Jayson holds a BS in Business
Administration from Georgetown University.

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