Julian Behrstock was a UNESCO staff member for 28 years until his retirement in 1976. He entered the Department of mass information in 1948 as responsible for the World Programme for Book development. He served as director of the Division of Free Flow of Information and the promotion of books and readership from 1967 to 1976.
Before arriving at UNESCO, Behrstock graduated from Northwestern University and worked as a newspaperman in Paris and later in U.S. Government service in London and Paris. In 1977, upon retirement from UNESCO, he won the International Book Award "for outstanding services to the cause of books".

Chikh Bekri was born on 28 April 1927 in Geryville, Algeria. He obtained a License ès Lettres from the Université d’Alger and an Agrégation de lettres from the Université de Paris.

Bekri worked in Algiers from 1953 to 1958 as a Professeur at Lycée de Boufarik and Lycée Bugeaud. In 1960, he was named both Proviseur at the Lycée de Constantine and Director of the Collège universitaire de Constantine. In 1962, he was named Rector for the Region of Constantine. After independence, he was appointed Secrétaire général of the Ministry of Education of Algeria.

Bekri joined UNESCO in 1964 as Programme Specialist in the Education Sector, Operational Divisions, Arab States Division. He then moved to the Division of Educational Financing in 1968. During this time, he directed numerous missions for the development of education in Member States in the framework of the programme of cooperation with the World Bank. In 1973, he was appointed the first Director of the Regional Office for Education in the Arab States in Beirut. He served in this capacity until 1975 when he was appointed Acting Deputy Assistant Director-General of the Education Sector. In 1976, he was confirmed in his post as Deputy Assistant Director-General of the Education Sector, responsible for operations, but was also named Acting Director of the Executive Office of the Director-General. Indeed, later in 1976 he was named Director of the Executive Office of the Director-General. Bekri was promoted to the rank of Assistant Director-General in 1981 and, in 1982, in addition to his responsibilities as Director of the Executive Office, he was assigned responsibility for the coordination of services not-integrated into the sector structure, such as, for example, the Office of the Mediator and the Secretariats of the Governing Bodies. He was also responsible for liaising with regional coordinators and for the implementation of the decentralization policy. In the context of a broader reorganization, Bekri became responsible for overseeing the work of the new Bureau of Studies, Action and Coordination for Development as well in 1985. The following year, he was appointed Assistant Director-General responsible for the International Bureau of Education. He held this position until his retirement in 1987.

Some of his publications include: L’UNESCO : une entreprise erronée?, 1991; L'Algérie aux IIe/IIIe siécles (VIIIe/IXe), 2004; and, Le royaume rostemide : le premier état algérien, 2005.

"The new Assistant Director-General for UNESCO’s Africa Department will be Lalla Aïcha Ben Barka of Mali, who is currently the Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa. Ms Ben Barka was Director of UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Education in Africa, from 2004-2007. In the course of her career, she has contributed to the development of the education systems of twelve West African countries, including her own, Mali. Ms Ben Barka has also collaborated with a number of foundations that work for African development, including the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada)" (UNESCO, Press Release 2010-043).

Born in 1941 in Paris, Henri Bergson grew up in London and Paris, and studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Though initially interested in mathematics, his interest shifted to philosophy and classical studies. He received his doctorate in 1889 for a work on time and free will. In 1898 he became a tenured university professor at his Alma Mater, before being offered the chair of Greek philosophy at the Collège de France in 1900, a post that he held until 1921. In 1914 he was elected to the Académie Française, and in 1927 Bergson won the Nobel Prize in Literature (awarded in 1928). He died in 1941 after a long illness.

At the suggestion of Léon Bourgeois, Bergson became the inaugural President of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC) in 1922 (Renoliet 1999, p. 23). He remained in this role until 1925 when he fell ill and resigned. He was succeeded by Hendrik Antoon Lorentz.

Born in 1888, Henri Bonnet was a French diplomat. A graduate of the École normale supérieure, he became a history teacher, and fought during the First World War. In 1919 he was in charge of the foreign policy section of the French radical daily L’Ère nouvelle. From 1921, he was Joseph Avenol’s chief of staff at the Office of the Assistant Secretary General, Joseph Avenol.

After Julien Luchaire’s resignation in 1930, Bonnet was appointed Director of the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC) on 1 January 1931 for a period of seven years. His mandate was renewed for a second term. During his time as director, the IIIC launched the Entretiens series, one of the IIIC’s most visible projects, which gathered public intellectuals for interviews on a variety of topics and published the proceedings. Other projects included international collaboration on the teaching of history, popular arts, radio broadcasting, and libraries. In June 1940, at the instruction of the Quai d’Orsay, Bonnet transferred the IIIC staff to Guérande, then to Bordeaux. He then put Français Ristorcelli in charge of the administration and finances of the IIIC and appointed an interim committee for intellectual affairs, before leaving France to go to London and then to the US.

During the war, he served as vice-president of the ‘France forever’ committee between 1941 and 1943, became Information Commissioner on the Comité Français de Libération Nationale (CFLN), and later, between June 1943 and September 1944, he was Information Minister of the provisional French government (GPRF). In 1942, reflecting on his experiences as Director of the IIIC, he drew up plans for the future United Nations (Harley 1943). In 1944, Bonnet was appointed French Ambassador in Washington. Replaced as director of the IIIC by Jean-Jacques Mayoux in February 1945, he still participated at the London conference in November 1945 which put an end to the activities of the IIIC and saw the rise of the UNESCO system. Bonnet remained Ambassador in Washington until 1954. He died in 1978 in Paris.

Kristine Bonnevie was born in Trondheim, Norway, in 1872. A Zoologist, she was the first woman to be elected to the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (1911), and the first woman to hold a professorship at the University of Oslo (beginning in 1912).

Bonnevie was a Norwegian delegate to the League of Nations (LN) in 1921. In this capacity, she assured that women would be included in the future International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC). When the ICIC was founded in 1922, she was one of the twelve original members. She defended an ICIC as international and as apolitical as possible. She supported reforms of the Organisation of Intellectual Cooperation in 1929, and she helped to draw up the program of the ICIC in 1930. That same year, she left the ICIC in order to devote her time to scientific research, but she remained a member of the Norwegian Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (founded in 1924). Bonnevie died in 1948 in Oslo.

Jagadish Chanra Bose was born in Mymensigh, Bengal (today Bangladesh), in 1858. At the age of nine he was sent to school in Calcutta. After graduating from the University of Calcutta he went to Great Britain in 1880. He took up medical studies and then studied physics at Cambridge. Once awarded his degree, he obtained a post as professor of physics at Presidency College of Calcutta. Between 1894 and 1900 he led pioneering work on electromagnetic waves. He then shifted his research focus to the study of plant physiology. In 1903 he was awarded a CBE. In 1912 he became a Companion of the Star of India (CSI). He retired in 1915, but remained an emeritus professor for the following five years. In 1916 he was knighted by the British government and the following year opened the Bose Institute, the first scientific research institute in India.

Bose was a member of the ICIC between 1924 and 1930. He worked on the establishment of an Indian Committee of Intellectual Cooperation beginning in 1925. It was, however, during the tenure of his successor, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan that this Committee was installed (1935–36). He died in 1937 in Giridih, Bihar.

Tunisian national.

Léon Bourgeois was born in 1851 in Paris. After having fought in the Franco-Prussian war, he studied law at the Faculté de droit de Paris. He entered the civil service in 1876 and became a departmental prefect in 1887. The following year, he was elected to the Assemblée nationale. From 1890 until 1892 and again in 1892 he served as Minister of Education, where he introduced major reforms. He then assumed the office of Minister of Justice for two years. Having served in a number ministerial positions, Bourgeois was elected Prime Minister, and held office from November 1895 until April 1896. He served as Minister of Public Works in 1912 and 1917, as well as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1914. Bourgeois died in 1925.

A member of the Radical-Socialist Party and a committed internationalist, Bourgeois participated at the 1899 The Hague Conference and in 1903 was appointed to the International Court of Justice. In 1907 he represented France at the Second Hague Conference. He was involved in the preparatory work for the drawing up of the League of Nations (LN) Covenant, and headed the French Association for the League of Nations. He represented France in 1919 at the LN.

At the suggestion of Bourgeois, Henri Bergson became the inaugural President of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC) in 1922.