Speakers
24th IB Asia Pacific Annual Regional Conference
25 – 28 March 2010, Singapore
George Walker was director general of the IB from 1999 until his retirement in 2006. He studied chemistry at Exeter College, Oxford, UK and gained both MA and MSc degrees. He then studied music at the University of Cape Town. After teaching science at Watford Boys’ Grammar School he won a Salters Institute scholarship to carry out further research at the University of York, UK and was then appointed lecturer in the university’s department of education.
Walker then decided to return to school, first as deputy head of a state comprehensive school, followed by two headships of state comprehensives in the UK. During this period he helped to create the Centre for the Study of Comprehensive Schools. He was made an honorary fellow of the University of York and in 1987 was appointed to the UK national curriculum science working party. He was also invited to join the Headmasters’ Conference as an additional member. In 1992 he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to UK education.
In 1991 Walker was appointed director general of the International School of Geneva, Switzerland (Ecolint), the world’s oldest and largest international school which educates more than 4,000 students of 130 different nationalities on three large campuses. He remained in this post until he joined the IB eight years later.
Walker has been visiting professor of education at the University of Bath, UK since 1997 and was awarded an honorary degree of doctor of education (EdD) by the university in 2003. He was a member of the governing Council of the University of York from 2001 until 2005. He is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute (CCMI) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
Walker’s publications include a collection of essays and lectures on the nature of international education published under the title ‘To Educate the Nations 2’ by Peridot press in 2004. In the same year ‘International Education and the International Baccalaureate’ was added to the Fastback series published by Phi Delta Kappa in the USA. Educating the Global Citizen (John Catt) appeared in 2006 and in 2007 the IB published An A to Z of School Leadership. He has just completed a study of Marie-Therese Maurette, a former director of Ecolint and an early pioneer of international education.
