Yuri’s Night, the World Space Party, today announced the 2014 Global Executive Team. Charged with the planning and execution of Yuri’s Night activities on a global scale and supporting local events, the Global Executive Team is a diverse group of professionals, students, and enthusiasts from around the world.

“On April 12, 2014 the world will unite and celebrate the 14th Yuri’s Night, and I’m confident that our Global Executive Team team will be the best to date,” said Dr. Ryan Kobrick, Executive Director of Yuri’s Night. “Our internal goal each year is to increase our number of events worldwide. With our all-volunteer team of talented human spaceflight advocates I know that we will crush our previous numbers and continue to rock the planet!”

Dr. Ryan Kobrick will return as Executive Director for Yuri’s Night 2014, with Tim Bailey and Brice Russ serving again as Assistant Directors. Rick Hanton has been named the new Media Team Chair, while Jeffrey Alles and Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto will reprise their roles as Directors of Operations and Outreach, respectively. Returning to the Board of Directors Kobrick, Bailey, and Russ are joined by Yuri’s Night co-founder Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides, and Chris Lewicki, GET alumnus and President of Planetary Resources.
Yuri’s Night today also officially launched event registration for 2014. “Building on our runaway success with 357 events on two planets and across 7 continents in 2013, we hope launching registration early will encourage people around the world to start planning events earlier,” said Director of Operations Jeffrey Alles. Anyone and everyone around the world is encouraged to think about organizing or attending a Yuri’s Night event. Register today at http://register.yurisnight.net!

The members of the 2014 Executive Team are listed below. This team supports the many hundreds of volunteers who register and run Yuri’s Night events around the world.

Operations Team

  • Jeffrey Alles, Director of Operations.
  • Stephanie Finnvik, Director of Awesome.
  • Nicholas De Leon, Director of Special Projects
  • Carolyn Belle, Director of Partnerships
  • Rakshatha Kabbaligere, Partnerships Developer
  • Siddharth Raval, Special Projects
  • Danielle Hannah, Special Projects
  • John Ferriera, Special Projects

Media Team

  • Rick Hanton, Media Team Chair
  • Zoe Strassfield, Blog Editor & Social Team Member
  • Dave Parmet, Yuri’s Night Press Release Manager
  • Matt Travis, Social Media Chair
  • Alyssa Henning, English-language Social Media Manager
  • Ekaterina Khvostova, Russian-language Social Media Manager
  • Maria Pflug-Hofmayr, German-language Social Media Manager
  • Reuben Metcalfe, Social Media Special Projects Manager
  • Deepak Sharma, Newsletter Editor
  • Erin Fowler, Video Editor

Outreach Team

  • Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto, Director of Outreach
  • Jacob Noel-Storr, Regional Outreach – US
  • Simon Kregar, Regional Outreach Assistant – US
  • John Ferreira, Regional Outreach Assistant – US
  • Sudeep Neupane, Regional Outreach – South America
  • Dennis Cedric Groves, Regional Outreach – Europe
  • Maria Pflug-Hofmayr, Regional Outreach – Europe
  • Juergen Hill, Regional Outreach – Europe
  • Yadav Prasad Kandel, Regional Outreach – Asia
  • Binod Baral, Regional Outreach Assistant – Asia
  • Harsh Sanghavi, Regional Outreach – India
  • Deepak Sharma, Regional Outreach Assistant – India
  • Fatemeh Hashemi Niari, Regional Outreach – Middle East
  • Glen Lehmitz, Regional Outreach – Virtual Worlds
  • Dee Robb, Preschool/Primary School Outreach
  • Cat Aboudara, Science Center Outreach
  • Kevin Zagorski, Spaceport Outreach
  • Laura Bishop, Media and Operations Liaison

Digital Operations Team

  • Jeffrey Alles, Master of Electrons
  • Jason CranfordTeague, Internet Strategist
  • Tony Rice, Data Integration Lead
  • Vanessa Gomez Gonzales, Software Development Lead
  • Ozzie Osborne, Mobile Site Technologist
  • Laura Bishop, Electron Engineer

About Yuri’s Night

Yuri’s Night is a global non-profit organization dedicated to hosting celebrations of humanity’s past, present and future in space each April 12 in commemoration of Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight and the inaugural launch of the Space Shuttle. In 2013, Yuri’s Night celebrated 52 years of human spaceflight with 354 events in 57 countries on all seven continents, including Los Angeles, Tokyo, Moscow, and the Second Life virtual world. For more information, visit www.yurisnight.net.
Rick HantonYuri’s Night Media Chaircell: (651) 747-5864Twitter: rack88about.me/rickhanton