Board Members
Brian BRAZEAU
Brian Brazeau has worked in international education for over 20 years, principally in France. He has held teaching and administrative positions at The American University of Paris, the Sections Internationales de Sèvres, the American School of Paris, and is currently the Director of the American Section of the Lycée International de Saint Germain-en-Laye. Brian holds a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is the author of a book on French colonial history, Writing a New France (Routledge, 2009).
Jérôme Giovendo
Treasurer
Jérôme is originally a mathematics teacher. After teaching for many years in the Paris region, he joined Ecole Jeannine Manuel Paris in 2006, where there has been an American section since 1985. In 2014, he was appointed Head of Ecole Jeannine Manuel Lille, and a few years later he took on the role of Schools Coordinator for all American sections, except those in North, Central and South America. In this capacity, he organizes the examinations of the American section of the French International Baccalaureate in collaboration with the French Ministry of Education and acts as a liaison between sections, College Board inspectors, subject coordinators, and representatives of the French educational system. Together with Laure de la Giraudière, Jérôme collects all possible information and statistics about the existing and future sections and coordinates the organization of our main event, the AAMIS World conference, which usually takes place early October each year.
Jérôme has also worked at the French Ministry of Education, DGESCO, as Program Coordinator for Mathematics and Primary Education and at the French National Center for Distance Learning (CNED).
Bernard Manuel
President
Born to a Franco-American mother and a French father, Bernard Manuel was first educated in France where he earned degrees in Mathematics, Computer Science and Economics as well as the Sciences Po diploma. Moving to the US, he obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School, graduating as Baker Scholar.
His activities lead him to work in finance and industry until he became chairman of Ecole Jeannine Manuel in 1999 and gradually phased out his professional activities to dedicate his time to education and to the Fondation Jeannine Manuel.
A frequent speaker in the field of international bilingual education, Bernard Manuel is chairman of AAMIS and trustee of the Lycée Français de New York and of the French American Cultural Exchange foundation (FACE) which operates in partnership with the French embassy’s Cultural Services in New York.
Bernard Manuel lives in New York and Paris; he is Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur.
Catherine McCarthy
Administrator
Catherine McCarthy has spent over 25 years working in international schools around the world, either as a teacher or a school administrator. She is currently Head of the American Section at the French International School of Hong Kong, which welcomes over 420 students in Secondary alone. She played a key role in setting up the Section in Hong Kong in 2014, and continues to teach HG in Terminale. She is actively involved in the implementation of the BFI within her school. In her capacity as University Guidance Counselor, she has also been promoting the OIB/BFI to representatives of higher education in North America, the UK as well as France, while attending conferences such as CIS and EARCOS.
Gilbert Pietryck
Administrator
Gilbert Pietryk attended secondary school at the Lycée Viette in Montbéliard. His “mathematics and techniques” baccalaureate undoubtedly explains his interest in very concrete activities (woodworking in particular). After three years of classes préparatoires at the Lycée Roosevelt in Reims, he entered the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris in the physics section and obtained the agrégation in physics and a doctorate in nuclear physics.
Gilbert Pietryk was a teacher in classes préparatoires for 11 years. Then, in 1987, he was given the responsibility of organizing and preparing the agrégations in physics and mathematics in Morocco.
From 1992 to 2016, Gilbert PIETRYK carried out the mission of Inspecteur General, within the physics-chemistry department to which he belonged, but also through numerous transverse missions : he was the academic correspondent for several recteurs, and assistant to the dean of the Inspection Générale. He also chaired the commission that drafted the specifications for teacher training in 2005.
In 2005, he was in charge of the follow-up of the plan for the remodeling of science and technology in primary schools, initiated by Georges CHARPAK.
Internationally, he has followed the physics and chemistry classes préparatoires in Morocco and Tunisia for about fifteen years, and then for five years the Franco-Chinese institutes created in China. Those experiences helped him have a closer look at different educational systems.
Gilbert Pietryk is member of AFLEC (Association Franco-Libanaise pour l’Education et la Culture) since 2008 and is its vice president in charge of pedagogy since 2017.
