FPMT Board of Directors
Members of the Board
Venerable Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the reincarnation of the great Tibetan Buddhist yogi Kunsang Yeshe, the Lawudo Lama. Rinpoche was born in 1946 in the Mount Everest region of Nepal, where his predecessor meditated for the last twenty years of his life.
At the age of ten, Rinpoche went to Tibet to study and meditate. The Chinese occupation in 1959 forced him to seek safety in a Tibetan refugee camp in North India.
Rinpoche is now the Spiritual Director of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. Rinpoche teaches Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and practice all over the world and is the author of several popular books.
Abbot Geshe Lama Lhundrup
Geshe Lhundrup Rigsel received his Doctor of Divinity in Buddhist studies from Sera Monastic University, South India.
Geshe Lhundrup Rigsel fled Tibet in 1959 with many other monks and stayed at the refugee camp in Buxa. He was sent by the-then abbot of Sera Monastery to South India, to help reestablish Sera Monastery on the land that was donated to the monasteries by the Indian Government. In 1972 Lama Yeshe asked Geshe Rigsel to come to Kopan monastery to teach philosophy: he has been at Kopan ever since, taking care of the monks, bringing in teachers to educate the ever growing monastic community, expanding the teaching program and establishing a new nunnery.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama appointed him Abbot of Kopan Monastery in February 2000, in recognition of his untiring services to the Monastery.
Venerable Roger Kunsang
Venerable Roger Kunsang works full-time as attendant and secretary to Lama Zopa Rinpoche's (FPMT Spiritual Director). Venerable Roger is an ordained Tibetan Buddhist monk and has worked tirelessly as Lama Zopa Rinpoche's personal assistant since his early twenties. Venerable Roger is familiar with all aspects of FPMT activity and acts as the connection between the Spiritual Director and the various elements of the whole FPMT organization.
Venerable Pemba Sherpa
Venerable Pemba Sherpa, was born in 1961 in Khumbu, Eastern Nepal. Venerable Pemba studied and worked for many years at Kopan Monastery in Nepal where he served as Administration Secretary of the Monastery.
Venerable Pemba has worked as an interpreter for several prominent Tibetan Lamas and now works as the Director of Mahayana Buddhist Association in Hong Kong, China. Venerable Pemba teaches classes in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and meditation to a large student base in Hong Kong.
Karuna Cayton
Karuna Cayton has studied Buddhist psychology and philosophy for over 25 years. He worked for Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery from 1975-1988. During that time he created and taught the secular studies program for the resident Tibetan and Nepali monks. He also assisted in running the Buddhist programs for foreign visitors and was the co-founder and director of the Himalayan Yogic Institute, a city center in Kathmandu. He has been on the FPMT Board of Directors since 1988. He has been a licensed therapist since 1992.
Karuna is trained as an Executive Coach and has worked with numerous non-profit organizations, businesses, and schools, assisting them in developing collaborative and preeminent entities and having a positive impact both within and outside their organizations. He is presently the director of Karuna Consulting Group, a project of the FPMT designed to transform business leaders and their organizations into preeminent enterprises based upon the Buddhist principles of wisdom, compassion, and ethics.
Andrew Haynes
Andrew Haynes graduated in Systems and Management from City University in London, England. In 1983, Andrew moved to Italy where he studied Buddhist philosophy at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa. From 1986 to 1989 he was Director of the Institute.
In 1990, he returned to London where he pursued careers in local government and software development. Andrew was Chair of the Board of Trustees of Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London for ten years. He currently works as a software developer for a major media and telecoms company. Andrew has extensive experience with the third sector including setting up an educational charity.
Peter Kedge
Peter Kedge graduated and began a career as a design engineer with Rolls Royce Aero Engines in England. From 1980 he was involved in major engineering projects in Asia while owning and managing his business. He now works full time for the Maitreya Project, which he has headed since May 1997.
Tara Melwani
Tara Melwani is the Managing Director of Jay Gee Enterprises Pte Ltd, established in 1883, a family-owned business that is renowned for successfully representing, marketing and retailing an exclusive portfolio of international lifestyle and apparel brands such as Levi, Dockers, and OshKosh B'gosh.
Tara is also a Director of M. B. Melwani Pte Ltd, a Jay Gee Group company that represents luxury brands like Etienne Aigner, Escada, Liz Claiborne and Watches of Switzerland.
Professional associations of which Tara is a member include the Young Presidents' Organization, which is dedicated towards idea exchange and education of heads of companies and entrepreneurs respectively.
As a socially conscious member of society, Tara devotes much of her time to charitable causes and organizations. At present, one of her main contributions is as Executive Director of the Maitreya Project International (Singapore). In 2001, Tara also took on the role of Organizing Chairwoman of the Enlightened Business Institute workshop from New York – a seminar that combines ancient Tibetan Buddhism with modern enterprise to achieve prosperity.
Timothy J. McNeill
Since 1988 Timothy J. McNeill has been president, CEO, and publisher of Wisdom Publications, an FPMT Center and leading not-for-profit publisher of books focusing on Buddhism. Prior to coming to Wisdom he had been Associate Issues Director for the Dukakis Presidential Campaign and Vice President of International Data Group a leading publisher focused on information technology.
Tim earned a Masters in Public Policy degree from Harvard University in 1979. He first met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the Fourth Kopan Course in 1973.
In addition to the FPMT, Tim has served on several corporate and nonprofit boards of directors. He is currently on the board of the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC.org), a major effort to preserve and make available in electronic form the vast library of original Tibetan texts.
Paula de Wijs-Koolkin
Paula de Wijs-Koolkin was born in New York City but has lived with her husband in Amsterdam, Netherlands for more than 30 years. She met Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Nepal in 1972 and organized the first Lam Rim course for Ven. Marcel Bertels in the Netherlands in 1975. This was the beginning of the Maitreya Institute, which was founded in 1979. She also helped to found the Tibetan Affairs Coordination Office, the Dutch Foundation for Tibetan Medicine (NSTG), and the Tibet Support Group. She was the first FPMT European Regional Coordinator, has served on the Boards of the Buddhist Union of the Netherlands, the organizing committees for visits of H.H. the Dalai Lama, and in various other functions. She now serves as the director of Maitreya Institute, Amsterdam (Buddhist meditation center) and on the National Board of Maitreya Institute.
Alison Murdoch
Alison Murdoch has been a student of HH The Dalai Lama and Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche since 1987. On graduating from Oxford University she initially worked for Sotheby’s the art auctioneers, and then spent 8 years working with and for street homeless people in the UK. In 1994 she was appointed director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, and led the centre through nearly 10 years of development which included purchasing The Old Courthouse, setting up community projects, and raising over a million dollars to renovate the building.
Since 2004 she has been director of Essential Education, an FPMT-affiliated initiative to help people of all cultures and traditions develop their innate capacity for compassion and wisdom. Alison is the author of 16 Guidelines for Life and a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio. In addition to her Buddhist teachers, her heroes include Gandhi, Muhammad Yunus, Jean Vanier, Ram Dass and Peace Pilgrim.