Akira Uchimura

is a Japanese-Chilean living in Yokohama, Japan. Master in Public Administration, graduated from the International Christian University. Now he works as a coordinator for the Nippon Foundation Nikkei Scholarship. He is also a television commentator for a television show on Tokyo MX Television, and has been a Spanish-Japanese-English interpreter and coordinator for the NGO called Peace Boat, a cruise ship that travels around the world 3 times a year, stopping in more than 30 ports doing social action and tourism with 1000 Japanese passengers. His other passion is Internet Technology. He blogs in Japanese (http://blog.canpan.info/akira) and in English (http://www.nikkeiportal.com/akira), and also administers more than 20 nikkei related sites in the Nikkeiportal.com domain. Thanks to BABA05, he has become an apt twitter (twitter.com/akirau) as well. He also loves photography, video recording, and editing of both so he will be filming you a lot and making the visual part of the BABA retreat something special.

Rina Shahriyani Shahrullah

is from Indonesia and finished her Bachelor of Laws in 1992 from Faculty of Law, Universitas Hasanuddin, Makassar, Indonesia. She completed her Masters in Comparative Law in 1997 at the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Australia. Her comparative law study dealt with the legal system of Australia and Indonesia, including the Islamic legal system in Indonesia. Her comparative legal seminars and essays focused on the aspects of commercial laws under the Civil Law, Common Law and Islamic Law. From 2000 – 2004, she conducted a research on international commercial arbitration including the area of Islamic arbitration at the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Australia. In 2005, she was awarded a Ph.D of Law from the University of Queensland, Australia. In 2008, she taught Islam in the Master Degree Program at Ateneo de Manila University, the Philippines. Currently, she is the Head of Postgraduate Study, Faculty of Law, Universitas Internasional Batam, Indonesia. She also holds a position as the Head of Quality Assurance Center in the university. She was a fellow of the Asian Public Intellectuals (API) and the Ateneo Center for Asian Studies (ACAS) in the Philippines from July 2007-July 2008. She was a participant of the 5th BABA Retreat in Puri, India in 2009. She has done research and presented papers on various legal issues, particularly Islamic contract, insurance, arbitration and Islamic gender approaches in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan. Malaysia and India. In addition to her academic career, she currently manages an NGO which focuses on gender, reproductive health/HIV-AIDS and human trafficking issues.