Thomson established the RE Zambia network and Mulungushi Liaise Economics Society. He is the current lead organizer and former president for MuLEs. Thomson empowered and inspired the leadership at Rethinking Economics Cavendish Society to be established and since 2022 has been a steering member from the global south action circle on the inflation crisis. Thomson demonstrates the amazing work Rethinkers are doing to encourage change in Economics.
Ofentse is a passionate and dedicated individual with a deep commitment to the Rethinking Economics ideology. As a lifelong economics scholar, he has witnessed first-hand the narrow and uncritical approach to economics education in universities. This has fueled his desire to challenge the status quo and bring about meaningful change. Ofentse has experience working on international campaigns, and understands the importance of engaging with local communities, building partnerships, and mobilizing people across the globe.
Vinayakan is a rethinker who focuses on public policy, LGBTQIA+ economics, and Indian political economy. He is the founder of KN Raj Economics Club in Kerala, India. He is currently pursuing a Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Statistics at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata. In his work, he has addressed issues such as discrimination, equality of opportunity, tribal policy, government failure, pluralism, and so on. He also received the Don Lavoie Fellowship at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center and the Youth Leadership Fellowship from the Centre for Public Policy Research, India. He admires Hayek and enjoys swimming!
Eylül is from Türkiye. In 2022, while she was pursuing her master’s degree in economics at Galatasaray University, Alongside some friends who were interested in pluralism, she founded RE Anatolia. During her undergraduate education at Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, her interest in different aspects of economics started with a Research Ethics course and she is still interested in that field. Also, she is researching Household Poverty and Labor Economics with the perspective of Economic Philosophy, in these days. She describes herself as a lifelong student and enjoys new experiences, learning, theater and alternative rock music.
Karen is a Bachelor’s student in Economics at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, founder of RE UNAM and member of De América Soy, Karen’s research interests are in inequality, labor, development and leisure.
Karen is trying to accomplish the Keynes aspiration of an economist: a humble and competent professional. She considers economics a discipline that needs to change in order to make substantial differences to people’s lives.
Malobi is an economics researcher and consultant. She recently completed her Masters in Economics at Memorial University. Malobi’s current research interests lie in the intersections of community economic development and economic empowerment of minority groups.
When she is not working, she can be found cooking, travelling or making music with her band.
Juan Pablo Centeno from Argentina, was born and lives in Buenos Aires. He is one of the founding members of Bajando Economía and participates in De América Soy. He has a BSc degree in economics from the University of Buenos Aires and is currently doing a master’s degree in economic development. He is a professor of macroeconomics and researcher at IIEP-BAIRES. He works as an economic adviser in the Buenos Aires Legislature. He actively participated in the organization of the first edition of the “Escuela Latinoamericana de Economía Heterodoxa” in 2022.
Sarika is currently pursuing her PhD in Economics from CSRD, JNU. She completed her MPhil in Economics in the same centre – her dissertation concerned wage discrimination in the urban labour market in India. She was also involved in documenting the history of the trade union movement in the banking sector which has been published as a monograph, Struggling for Nation Building: A Brief History of All India Bank Officers’ Confederation published by Aakar Books. Her research interests concern the question of wages and social inequality in the context of contemporary India.
Marten is currently a student of economics in second year in the small eastern-german town of Halle. Together with friends, he founded the local Rethinking Economics Group in 2021 out of frustration with the neoclassical curriculum. Marten is especially interested in climate economics and climate politics and searching for economic solutions for this complex problem.
When he’s not talking about nerdy economics, Marten mostly reads about it or manages the local group. He also loves riding his bike and playing volleyball with friends.
Thelma M Tembo is studying for a Bachelor of science in mathematics with education at Mulungushi University, Zambia. In her third year of study. She serves as the finance officer for a local group (Mulungushi Liaise Economics Society) from 2020-2023. Thelma is all about the promotion of good communication which is RARE – Responsible, Accessible, Relevant and Ethical – to promote accountability and a transparency in the communication lines between council members and the people at large.
Ross began as Head of Local Communications and Events in May 2018. His previous work focused on city-region devolution and he continues to work in housing activism. Ross believes addressing the issues of structural inequality and environmental degradation needs to start with a better understanding of economics in the classroom and society at large. Ross leads on events hosted by Rethinking Economics International and provides support to local RE groups’ events and campaigns.
Laurence Jones-Williams is the Director of Rethinking Economics International, leading on Organisational Development and has been working at the organisation for the past four years. He is also co-founder of the Greater Manchester Tenants Union, a housing rights union to support tenants to organise around their housing issues. Laurence is also an organisational strategy consultant and has spent much of the last 10 years involved in movement politics and supporting organisations through periods of rapid growth. He is very passionate about democratic organisations and Liverpool Football Club.
Janet Gunter studied Development Studies as an undergraduate, and had some critiques of the mainstream economics modules. She learned more about the global financial system by working in a small country transitioning to independence, East Timor, than she did in her degree. In 2012, she co-founded and subsequently co-directed The Restart Project, an organisation promoting a post-consumerist economy. She brings years of experience in fundraising, and advising social movements and campaigning NGOs on strategy. With a budding interest in luddism (past and present), she loves small media and her small dog.
Based in Germany, Taïs joined Rethinking Economics International in March 2021 as Membership Coordinator. Thrust into economics by a desire to understand the austerity measures of the Euro crisis, she found much support and motivation in the RE local groups of Glasgow and Göttingen, in which she participated during her Erasmus Masters in Global Markets and Local Creativities. Now she gets to give back to the pluralist community by connecting the global network and supporting new and existing local groups in achieving sustainable growth. She brings experience of horizontal organising in food waste activism and open-source software development. Can be contacted in: English / French / German / Spanish / Portuguese.
Paddy joined Rethinking Economics International in summer 2022. He got involved with the RE movement while studying economics at the University of Manchester. Out of frustration at the lack critical thinking within his degree, he joined the Post-Crash Economics Society where he developed his passion for pluralist economics. Over his time in the society he organised events and led on their campaigning strategy. He also helped organise the virtual RE International Festival 2020.
Sonal is currently based in India and, among other things, leads Research & Strategy at Economists for Future International. Her frustration with economists missing granularity for the sake of computational simplicity (like damage functions), uncritical use of data, bad assumptions, spurious linkages, flawed analysis, and wrong conclusions from the mainstream canon is what brought her to this space. Her own research is broadly centred around the role of finance in development, macroeconomic policy in developing economies, structural explanations for global inequalities, and the political economy of climate change.
Based in Germany, and originally from the UK, Hannah has a background in communications. As a climate campaigner Hannah is particularly passionate about challenging the dominant, uncritical narrative around economic growth. She believes networks, such as Rethinking Economics International, are key for building the momentum, education, and infrastructure needed to bring about meaningful change. She is also a communications campaigner for Stay Grounded, a network campaigning for the degrowth of aviation. In her spare time, she writes and sometimes plays football.
Pete is Head of Finance and Operation at Economic Change Unit (ECU). He was formerly Director of Finance & Operations at Earthwatch Europe, an environmental NGO, and previously held a similar role at Plunkett Foundation, a community ownership organisation. He has worked in and with finance teams around the world including a clean transport social enterprise, SMV Wheels, in India and as an advisor with Restless Development in Sierra Leone. He trained as an accountant in the private sector and has been a qualified management accountant since 2008. Pete works on a freelance basis with a number of organisations in the new economy movement and is also Treasurer of Sumatran Orangutan Society.
Toke is the Head of Secretariat at the National Union of Students in Denmark. He has extensive experience in the student movement both in Denmark, the UK and internationally, having been a sabbatical officer at the University of Leeds and having co-founded Students Organising for Sustainability, an international climate crisis campaign group. Toke also has a keen academic interest in political organisation, holding an MA in Political Communication from University of Leeds and an MA in Global Studies and Communication from University of Roskilde.
Dr. Mehroosh Tak is a lecturer at Royal Veterinary College. She is an applied economist researching how to make food systems sustainable and nutritious. Mehroosh has a background in international development as a monitoring and evaluation expert. She is passionate about making economics language accessible to the public and diversifying the discipline.
Bethan lives and grew up in Manchester, UK. She studied Politics at the University of Sussex in Brighton, focusing her dissertations on corruption within the UK prison systems and ideas of progress and decline within the ‘North’ and the ‘South’ in the UK. Bethan was elected twice as the Education Officer of Sussex Students’ Union, where she focused on supporting international students, reforming university regulations on mitigating circumstances and campaigning against rising tuition fees. She then worked for Stockport Council, focusing on Health and Social care integration. For the past four years Bethan has been leading the Empowering Places programme, which works with 6 community anchor organisations to kick-start community businesses to build stronger local economies.
Bethan has recently completed a Masters in Political Economy at Manchester University, where she researched the exponential rise of in-work poverty to help understand the impact that has on individuals. Research into poverty often focuses on the quantitative statistics, omitting the personal stories and experiences of individuals being plunged into poverty.
Bandile Ngidi is the Rethinking Economics Project Lead at the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ). The IEJ is a progressive economics think tank, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Bandile has previously worked at Oxfam South Africa, and at South Africa’s National Minimum Wage Research Initiative. He holds a Masters in Development Theory and Policy (Development Economics) from the University of the Witwatersrand. He joined the IEJ in August 2018. Bandile is currently working on incubating the Rethinking Economics for Africa movement (working with students, academics and broader civil society). The movement promotes economic pluralism, and alternative economic discourse and economic policy.
Recently retired as the Chief Executive of Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation (www.gmcvo.org.uk), having developed it into a highly successful and sustainable social enterprise. Alex witnessed twenty years’ application of a neo-classical economic model across the Greater Manchester city region, and its negative impact on people and communities. At GMCVO Alex took direct action to create incremental change in specific places, working with multi-sectoral partnerships: to provide grants, investments and mentoring to grow social enterprise, community businesses, community-owned housing and assets, and social good. This has successfully created economic inclusion and agency at human scale, especially with marginalised people. It has also strengthened leadership, collaboration, activism and influence amongst people in the GMBAME network, GM Social Enterprise Network and a new GMBAME Social Enterprise Network. As a leader of the Press for Change campaign (trans civl rights) Alex is also proud of practical experience supporting people to mobilise collectively, in this case to achieve radical legal and social changes nationally and internationally. . Alex is an experienced manager and trustee with particular expertise in inclusion, diversity and anti-oppression.