The North American Tibetan Professionals Conference, which concluded successfully on Wednesday, October 7, was graced by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. 

In his keynote address delivered on Monday, October 5, His Holiness applauded the initiative of gathering all the Tibetan professionals together and urged the Tibetan professionals to come out with the concrete suggestions to improve education and career development initiatives within the Tibetan community in exile.  His Holiness also urged the professionals to shoulder more responsibilities within the community. 

Richard Gere, an ardent supporter and friend of Tibet, also addressed the conference during the inaugural session.  In his address, Richard Gere urged the Tibetan professionals to bring a new paradigm to the Tibet movement with their active participation.  He said that the Tibetan professionals are in a position to make difference in terms of capacity building as well as in social and economic development within the community both in and outside of Tibet.  

During the 3-day conference, the participants discussed four broad issues, which included networking of the Tibetan professionals, establishing a resource base to nurture future Tibetan professionals, the role of Tibetan professionals to strengthen Tibetan community and connecting the Tibetan professionals to contemporary Tibet.

Speakers at the conference included Dr. Tsewang Ngodup, a faculty physician at the Department of Family and Community Medicine of Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis; Tsewang Namgyal, an investment banker who graduated from the prestigious Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale (Arizona); Kaydor Aukatsang, the United States representative of the Brazilian environmental organization Instituto Terra and advisory member of the Mountain Institute; Yodon Thonden, a graduate of New York University School of Law and Director of the New York based Isdell Foundation; Nima Dorjee, a professional engineer based in Canada; Losang Rabgey, a post-doctoral scholar and co-founder and Executive Director Machik non-profit organization; and Dicki Chhoyang, a Montreal based urban planner and a former representative of Trace Foundation in Amdo (Tibet). 

Other speakers and plenary moderators were Professor Nawang Phuntsog of California State University at Fullerton; Lobsang Sangay, a senior fellow at Harvard Law School; Sonam Topgyal, a senior financial analyst at Stanford University; and Tashi Rabgey, Lecturer and Founding Director of Tibet Sustainable Governance Program as well as Co-Director of the Tibet Center of the University of Virginia. 

Commenting on the conference, Tenzin Kelsang Choephel said, "The event really marks a historical moment in the diaspora community and I'm excited by the energy that resulted from the convening itself".

Another conference participants, Thondup Tsering, commented, "Personally it was a very encouraging and uplifting experience to interact with so many young Tibetans in different fields with very strong leadership skills and who are passionate about taking our struggle and the community to the next level".

The conference recommended, among others, strengthening of the existing network of the professionals in North America; establishing communication network within the individual professional fields; instituting volunteer corps of the professionals to work in the Tibetan community in India and Nepal,

The conference also formed an Ad hoc Committee to draft a proposal to be submitted to the Central Tibetan Administration and Delhi based a non-profit organization "Empowering the Vision" to work out a clear structure and mechanism to coordinate the functioning of various Tibetan professional networks and how they interplay with the existing Tibetan community organizations.  

The conference was attended by 150 Tibetan professionals belonging to 18 different broad-base professional backgrounds, such as Academic & Research; Business & Finance; Medicine & Health; Information Technology; Law & Governance; Philanthropy & International Development; Architecture & Engineering; Social Policy and Community Service; Education, Library Science and Museum etc.  They came from 21 states in the United States and 3 provinces in Canada. 

The conference was organized by the Office of Tibet, New York.