Biography

Born on October 9, 1958, in Port-of-Spain (Trinidad & Tobago), my childhood was quite exotic. I have however little in common with John Lennon and Brigitte Bardot, although we are astrologically close.

The product of a blended cultural heritage, I am completely bilingual English and French, and also speak Italian almost fluently.

My professional development is relatively complex as I have obtained advanced training both in Switzerland (Geneva and Fribourg) and in the USA (New York and Boston).

For about thirty years, I lectured at the Faculty of psychology and education sciences of the University of Geneva. In 2008, I became the director of the Institut universitaire Kurt Bösch (IUKB) in Sion (Valais) and responsible for its new Children’s rights teaching and research unit. Over several years, we were successful at steering the IUKB into the University of Geneva which, in 2015, created a new Center for Children’s Rights Studies (CIDE). The Center remains based in Sion and I stepped down as Director at the end of 2019.

I maintain in Geneva a small private practice in clinical and in forensic psychology which I consider essential fuel for my teaching activities. Indeed, I still teach legal psychology at the University of Geneva.

On several occasions, I have been privileged to be called on to perform humanitarian missions for major international governmental institutions in several troubled regions of the world, such as the Caucasus, Iraq, or Aceh province in Indonesia.

Friends and family consider me to be a stakhanovist (a true workaholic), my only defense is to assert that I love my profession and its challenges.