Executive Committee
President of the Board, Dagoberto Valdés (Cuba)
Dagoberto Valdés Hernández (Pinar del Río, 1955). Valdés graduated as an Agricultural Engineer. In 2007 Valdés received the international awards “Jan Kraski to Courage and Compassion” and “Tolerance Plus”. He has published various books such as “We are workers”, “Reconstructing civil society: A Cuban project”, “Cuba: freedom and Responsibility”, and the “Freedom of the Light”. He has worked collecting palm branches for ten years to make a living (1996-2006). Dagoberto Valdés services to Cuban civil society include founding and directing the Civic Center and Revista Vitral. More recently he is also founder of the Editorial Council of the electronic magazine Convivencia. He lives in Cuba (Pinar del Rio province).
dvaldes@iecuba.org
First Deputy President, Juan Antonio Blanco (Canada)
Juan Antonio Blanco (PhD) was born in Cuba. He holds a doctorate in History of International Relations. An expert in negotiations, he also has post graduate training in conflict resolution and conflict transformation techniques. He has organized various processes of training and facilitated dialogue and consensus building among civil society organizations and between them and their governments. Blancoʼs articles and essays have been published in the Americas, Europe and Australia. He was Executive Director of Human Rights Internet, an international NGO based in Canada. At the present time Blanco is Director for International Cooperation of Citizen Digital Facilitation, a Canadian non profit NGO dedicated to the empowerment of civil society through the use of new information and communications technologies.
jablanco@iecuba.org
Second Deputy President, Gerardo González, (Puerto Rico)
Gerardo González was born in Cuba. He is economist and specialist on economic and international relations affairs of Cuba and the Caribbean. His articles have been published in specialized journals of Latin America, United States and Europe. He is author of the book El Caribe en la política exterior de Cuba(Dominican Republic, 1991) and co-author of Participación Popular y Desarrollo en los Municipios Cubanos (Venezuela, 1994) and ¿Intelectuales vs Revolución? (Canadá, 2001). He has lectured in several universities of United States, Latin America and Europe. He is currently Professor of Economics in Universidad Interamericana in Puerto Rico
gegonza@iecuba.org
General Secretary of the Executive Committee, Oscar Visiedo (USA)
Oscar Visiedo was born in Cuba and graduated in information sciences. He is also as an expert in building data bases, and organizing information and communications systems. In Cuba Visiedo pioneered the emergence of the first e-mail services, constructed the first scientific databases and facilitated the access of the island to international databases as well. Visiedo has lead and participated in high level international negotiations in the field of his expertise. He represents the IEC at Consenso Cubano, an umbrella of two dozen prominent Cuban organizations, where he has the responsibility of acting as its General Coordinator.
ovisiedo@iecuba.org
Treasurer and Board Member, Carlos Sotuyo, (USA)
Mr.
Sotuyo graduated with BS in education in Chemistry, currently works as
a social worker for Tenet Health Care Corp. Carlos Sotuyo is also a
publisher of Homagno editions, and has published Palabras en la Noche,
poetry, Miami, 2005.
sotuyoz@iecuba.org
Ad hoc members of the Executive Committee
IEC Founder, María Cristina Herrera (USA)
Herrera was a member of Catholic Action from 1947 to 1961 and President of the University Catholic Youth organization (JUC) at the University of Oriente from 1951 to 1955 where she became a professor of Ethics and Axiology. Once in the United States she taught the Social Doctrine of the Church at the Institute for Social Action of the Miami Archdiocese (1962-1963). She holds an M.S. on Education (Barry College) and a Ph.D. in International Comparative Studies (The Catholic University of America). She was also a professor of Social Sciences at Miami Dade College from 1970 to 2003. Herrera founded the IEC together with a distinguished group of Cuban scholars in 1969.
mcherrera@iecuba.org
Executive Director, Arnoldo Muller (USA)
Arnoldo Muller was born in Cuba (1938). Ex Political Prisoner (9 years). Has a B.A. in Economics (1978, FIU) and a Certificate in Caribbean Studies (FIU). Mr. Muller has been a Senior Business Manager for the last 20 years.
amuller@iecuba.org