ITAA Leadership & Structure
The ITAA’s Board of Directors (BOD) is an elected board which has responsibility for the strategic leadership and overall governance of the organization.
The board consists of a Past-President, President, President-Elect, Secretary, Treasurer, four Directors, and six Regional Representatives from across the world.
The board is accountable to our members at the annual general meeting held each year.
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ITAA ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
ITAA has numerous Committees, Collaborative Partners and individual roles dedicated to providing the core functions of the organisation.
There are 10 committees in ITAA, all of which are linked back from a governance perspective to at least one member of the BOD. ITAA committee members are made up of BOD members and ITAA members.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Responsible for governance of the ITAA, along with the entire Board.
President:
Thorsten Geck, Germany
Members:
Treasurer: John Oates, UK
Secretary: Rema K Giridhar, India
Director of Development: Michelle Thomé, Brazil
Director of Operations: Sylvie Monin, Switzerland
Director of Professional Standards: Suriyaprakash C, India
Director of Research & Innovation: Steff Oates, UK
Past President: Chitra Ravi, India
SECRETARY
NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE
Seeks and receives nominations for election to the BOD.
Chair: Rema K Giridhar, India
Members:
Thorsten Geck, Germany
Alessandra Pierini, Italy
Anne Tucker, New Zealand
TREASURER
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Responsible for overseeing the finances of the ITAA.
Chair: John Oates, UK
Members:
Chitra Ravi, India
Michael Harsh, USA
DIRECTOR OF PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS
PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS COMMITTEE
Responsible for setting training and supervision standards for all levels of professional membership in association with IBOC.
Co-Chairs: Giles Barrow, UK and Karen Pratt, South Africa
Members:
Suriyaprakash, C (VP of Professional Standards)
Thorsten Geck, Germany
IBOC COMMITTEE
Works with the Professional Standards Commitee to set standards for International Board of Certification.
Co-Chairs: Jacqueline van Gent and Sue Eusden
Regional Exam Cordinators:
Europe: Miek Hehenkamp
India: Haseena Abdulla
Japan: Takayuki Muroki
New Zealand & Australia: JR-Earn Karen Lam
North America & Latin America: Gloria Noriega
TEW Coordinator: Karen Pratt
Administrator: Sarah Lowes
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Responsible for accepting bids and supporting the organizing of ITAA conferences.
Chair: Vladimir Goussakovski, Russia
Members:
Alessandra Pierini, Italy
Lucy Freedman, USA
Rema K Giridhar, India
Sylvie Monin, Switzerland
ETHICS COMMITTEE
Responsible for providing a structure for confrontation, a fair hearing, and, if necessary, fair and sound judgment to ensure that members of the ITAA represent and conduct themselves professionally and in line with the ITAA Code of Conduct.
Chair:
Jan Grant, Australia
Members:
Anne Tucker, New Zealand
Emma Haynes, UK
John Evans, New Zealand
Keiko Hoshino, Japan
Marina Rajan, India
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
Responsible for coordinating membership-related aspects.
Chair: Rema K Giridhar, India and Marguerite Sacco, South Africa
Members:
Anne Tucker, New Zealand
Cristina Caizzi, Italy
Keiko Hoshino, Japan
Lucy Freedman, USA
Paula Rodrigues, Brazil
Sylvie Monin, Switzerland
BYLAWS COMMITTEE
Responsible for overseeing the bylaws of the ITAA.
Chair:
Anne Tucker, New Zealand
Members:
Alessandra Pierini, Italy
Prathitha Gangadharan, India
Rema K Giridhar, India
Sylvie Monin, Switzerland
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
Responsible for ITAA marketing, branding, and website development.
Chair: Michelle Thomé, Brazil
Members:
John Fleming, Ireland
Paula Rodrigues, Brazil
Rema K Giridhar, India
Alina Comendant, Netherlands
SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE
Responsible for highlighting and responding to the important social and environmental issues of our time in a way that is true to our TA philosophy and values and for providing ways for ITAA members to engage in dialogue on these global issues.
Chair: Günter Josef Mohr, Germany
Members:
Chitra Ravi, India
Luca Fornari, Italy
Michelle Thomé, Brazil
Piotr Jusik, Guatemala
Sashi Chandran, India
DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
THE SCRIPT EDITORS
Responsible for the production of The Script, ITAA’s monthly newsletter.
Editor: Laurie Hawkes
Managing Editor: Robin Fryer
OUR LEADERSHIP HISTORY
ITAA PAST PRESIDENTS
Eric Berne, MD
1964-1966
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David Kupfer, PhD
1966-1970
Ken Everts, MD
1971-1973
John Dusay, MD
William Holloway, MD
1976-1977
Ruth McClendon, MSW
Muriel James, EdD
1980-1981
Norman James, PhD
1982-1983
Ellyn Bader, PhD
1984-1985
Lucy Freedman, MAT
1986-1987
Vince Gilpin, PhD
1988-1990
Julie Hay, DMS
1990-1991
Robin Maslen, MAASW
1992-1993
Servaas Van Beekum, drs.
1994-1995
Gloria Noriega, PhD
1996-1997
George Kohlrieser, PhD
1998-2000
Gordon Hewitt, PhD
2001-2003
James Allen, MD
2004-2006
Gianpiero Petriglieri, MD
2007-2009
Rosemary Napper, MA
2009-2010
John Heath, BSc
2010-2015
C. Suriyaprakash
2016-2017
Diane Salters
2017-2019
Elana Leigh
2020 – 2021
Chitra Ravi
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Thorsten appreciates the richness of the intercultural encounter and exchange in the TA community. He also has the strong conviction that TA with its sometimes long and vigorous training process is an advantage to develop personally and professionally. He finds this strength vital for the quality of counselors, coaches, and consultants and their goal to serve the clients. Therefore, he invested his resources in the development of exams as a stepstone to quality and excellence. He was co-chair of IBOC from 2012 and served on the board of trustees as VP of Professional Standards from 2015 on for 2 and a half terms. In EATA he served as coordinator for written exams.
Thorsten thinks that the TA community needs to find answers to the challenges of this time: climate change, diversity, and split in societies and how this change impacts psychologically the experience of the human being. He believes that listening and understanding are essential to dialogue. Also, he believes in the importance of learning and education to make informed choices in complex situations.
TA became one theory and pragmatic approach among others. TA can measure up to academic standards. It is the task and the challenge of transactional analysts to make a point about the resources and strength of the theory which has interlinked concepts and offers maps for understanding self, others, and the relationship between them. On such an account, Thorsten is eager to improve the structures of ITAA for powerful and authentic dynamics between the association, its members, and the professional world. In the role of the president, he will do so by learning, listening, and making decisions with the team of trustees.
John has been a member of the Technical Committee of the ICAEW’s IT Faculty since 1989, chairing it for 7 years, and then chairing the faculty itself for the maximum 4-year period. He retired as a partner in RSM in 2011, remaining as a consultant for 2 years. He continues to conduct software reviews for the ICAEW’s IT Accreditation Scheme, helping him keep up to date with the fast changes in the software industry.
John has a number of voluntary roles. He is treasurer of a local group supporting the Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales, where he has volunteered since 1969. John is Director, Business Systems at Ffestiniog Travel, being influential in upgrading their systems, putting most of them in The Cloud. He is also chairman of the Mid Cheshire Rail Users Association (400+ members) and chair of the Mid Cheshire Community Rail Partnership. His wish is to see ITAA’s systems run slickly and for the executive and board of trustees to have the appropriate information to inform their decisions as the ITAA develops.
Her previous work as an executive assistant led to work in the United States and Switzerland, where she gained extensive experience in the field of business, international organizations, multinationals, and Swiss private firms. She draws from this experience in her work as a counselor and in her involvement in the TA associations. Sylvie was a member of EATA Council from 2010 until 2018, 6 years of which she served as vice president. She has been intent on gaining recognition for counseling as a professional field and on facilitating closer cooperation and building bridges between the ITAA and EATA. Sylvie received the 2019 ITAA Service Award and is passionate about TA and values its internationality.
Professionally, I’m a professor of organizational behavior; trainer, coach, counselor and consultant; and an organizational teaching and supervising transactional analyst living in Coimbatore, India and co-founder trustee and secretary of the South Asian Association of Transactional Analysts (SAATA). Personally, I’m fond of people, passionate about long-distance running, fortunate to be doing what I love, and grateful for all that life offers to me. Philosophically, I am inclined towards the Vedantic view of life, believe all our actions have their own consequences, have faith in the goodness of people, and trust everything happens for a reason.
Besides working with my clients in psychotherapy and with my students in the two Training Institutes where I teach (SSPC-IFREP in Rome and SSPT-SAPA in Latina), I’ve always worked with TA associations, national and international, with the aim of doing my part in making TA more widespread and accredited.
In SIAT, an Italian National Association, I’ve served as part of the Council for 10 years, and for 6 years I’ve been Chair of its Scientific Committee, contributing to the organization of many national conferences and workshops in Italy. Since 2006, I have cooperated with EATA as an Italian translator of the EATA Newsletter and also in serving as an examiner in the CTA and TSTA exams. Since November 2021, I have been the EATA Representative at EAP (European Association of Psychotherapy).
I also cooperate with ITAA. Since 2013, I have been a member of the Transactional Analysis Journal Editorial Board. In the past two years, I’ve served as Chair of the Scientific Committee that organized the ITAA Online Workshop that was run in May 2021. And I co-chaired with Steff Oates the Scientific Committee for the ITAA Online Conference that was held in June 2022.
I’ve worked to spread TA in my country and also abroad by taking part in and organizing TA conferences, workshops, and exams.
It has been more than 12 years since I connected with ITAA, and it was 30 years ago that I first met TA in Japan. I became CTA in 2019 and PTSTA in 2021. I am currently working in the educational field, including TA training. For people from countries where English is not the primary language, it tends to be a challenge to get information about international TA.
To be honest, English can still be a challenge for me. That is why I thought that I, as a member with the challenge of the English language, can make a contribution. For example, I think that in examinations, not only the examiners but also the candidates need to take more account of language and cultural differences.
The experience of focusing on what is created between people and connecting them is a great learning and joy. TA is the joy of connecting people with each other. I would be happy to contribute by working as a bridge so that people in the region can interact with TA people around the world and learn more about each other.
I look forward to serving on the ITAA Board of Trustees as the representative of my region because of my lifelong commitment to TA and its potential for helping humanity live in peace and cooperation. The well-being and natural state of each person, known as OKness, must be nurtured to create a society to which we want to belong. The ITAA links people with similar beliefs across the world, adding to a powerful wave of change. I am eager to combine my personal contribution with those of others involved in the positive application of TA. Since my first steps into TA in 1972—serving on committees, on the board, on the World Integration Committee, then the Long-Range Planning Task Force, and as ITAA President—I have upheld the importance of an inclusive TA community. As chair of the 2014 San Francisco World Conference and cochair of the 2019 Raleigh Conference, I am impressed with the caliber of people leading the ITAA and look forward to working with them again. Having served continuously on the USATAA Council for the past 17 years, I have a good idea of what is happening in the North American region. When I was asked to consider running for this position, vacated due to term limits, I felt excited about ITAA’s future on the planet and in the virtual world. As your North America representative, I will nurture both organizational health and fresh and creative initiatives.