About Our Leadership
Brian S. Brown, President of the World Congress of Families
Brian S. Brown, President of the International Organization for the Family
Brian S. Brown has been president of the International Organization for the Family (IOF) since 2016. IOF hosts the annual World Congress of Families, which bring together thousands of activists from around the world to be trained and equipped to advocate for the natural family. Major world leaders have attended and participated in the World Congress of Families. In 2018, WCF XII, Moldova was hosted by Moldovan President, Igor Dodon. In 2017, the Hungarian government co-hosted WCF XI, Budapest with the participation and leadership of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Various world religious leaders have spoken and participated in the World Congress of Families including Secretary of the State for the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch, Ilya II, and Elder Russell Nelson of the LDS Church.
Brian also serves as President of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) after having co-founded the organization in 2007.
Mr. Brown has been quoted regularly in the The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Associated Press, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and almost every other major newspaper in the country. The Washington Post ran a profile of Brown titled, “Opposing Gay Unions with Sanity and a Smile” in which the author stated, “The reason Brian Brown is so effective is that he is pleasantly, ruthlessly sane.” He has also regularly appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, C-SPAN and MSNBC.
Brown led NOM’s work in California helping to qualify Proposition 8 to the ballot, and campaigned throughout the state in 2008 to successfully urge its adoption. He has represented NOM in successful ballot fights on marriage in Maine (2009) and North Carolina (2012), and was a key leader in the successful 2010 effort to unseat three Iowa Supreme Court justices who had redefined marriage.
Mr. Brown, an Oxford University-educated and articulate advocate for marriage, is a sought-after speaker who has addressed hundreds of gatherings throughout the country, and internationally.
Mr. Brown is a C. Phil. at UCLA in American History, earned his B.A./M.A. in Modern History at Oxford University, and received his B.A. in History from Whittier College. He and his wife Susan have nine young children.
Massimo Gandolfini, Senior Member,WCFXIII Verona Supervisory Board
Massimo Gandolfini, 67 years old, spokesman of the Committee “let us defend our children” and president of the “Family Day”. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the State University of Milan with full marks and honors. In 1981 he specialized in Neurosurgery and in 1991 in Psychiatry, at the State University of Brescia. In 1990 he won the National Competition for Qualification in Neurosurgery. Since 1997 he has directed the Neurosurgery-Neurological Department of the Poliambulanza Foundation in Brescia.
Massimo is married and has seven adopted children, four of which are married. The last daughter, now 22 y/o, required intensive care for a serious polymalformative syndrome and she had to undergo 34 major surgeries, which she was able to face and sustain thanks to the love of brothers, sisters and her parents. This has caused great suffering to Massimo that has produced deep loving sentiments and has strengthened his determination to fight for children rights. Often invited abroad to give lectures Massimo has been recently invited by the Polish Government to speak both at the Polish Chamber of deputies and at the Senate.
Regarding the so called “gender theory”, Massimo is one of the leading experts on the biological and neurobiological aspects of the structuring of the female / male sexual identity and the construction of the child’s self-identity during the evolutionary age, underlining the importance of an harmonious relationship with mum and dad.
Massimo is spokesperson and president of the last two Family Days that have brought over one million people to the streets in Rome each time: in Piazza San Giovanni in June 2015 and at the Circo Massimo in January 2016.
Massimo Gandolfini, Senior Member,WCFXIII Verona Supervisory Board
Antonio Brandi, Chairman, WCF XIII, Verona
Antonio Brandi, Chairman, WCF XIII, Verona
Antonio Brandi was born and raised in Rome and is an entrepreneur who has always operated in the field of tourism. He started his career in Belgium and subsequently in England where, as Managing Director, he led Transalpino Travel in the UK and was promoted to the position of Director General of the Transalpino-Tourtraco group based in Switzerland in 1982. He then was appointed CEO of the USIT International Travel Group operating from Dublin. In the early nineties Toni founded an NGO in Lithuania, the “Algirdas Society”, with a group of Christians from Lithuania, Italy and the UK. The Algirdas Society developed several projects, including the purchase of incubators and organized conferences and marches on topics related to the economy, the family and life in cooperation with the Sajudis, the movement that led to Lithuanian independence from the USSR.
Since 1991 Brandi has been the CEO of the GTS Group, and has been its Chairman since 2003. In 2005, together with some Christian friends, Brandi founded the Laogai Research Foundation Italy which is engaged in a campaign of information on the Laogai, the concentration camps, where several million people are compelled to forced labor in China. Since the summer of 2012, together with Francesca Romana Poleggi, Francesco Agnoli, Renzo Puccetti and Andrea Giovanazzi, Antonio Brandi founded Pro Vita. Pro Vita publishes a monthly magazine “Notizie Pro Vita” and a website www.notizieprovita.it. The Association organizes conferences, debates, online and offline campaigns in defense of the Family. Pro Vita has been one of the prime organizers of the two Family Days that took one million people in the streets of Rome in defense of the natural family and our children.
Jacopo Coghe, Deputy Chairman, WCF XIII, Verona
Jacopo Coghe (34), was born in Rome. Jacopo obtained a classic studies degree and studied medieval philology. He has been married since 2008 and is father of five children.
Since 2008 he has owned a company that works in the sector of creative design and communications, having as clients national and international companies. Jacopo’s objective in life is to increasingly contribute to the pro-family cause, in an attempt to rebuild a healthier and more human society, based on stable anthropological and moral values.
Jacopo is President and founding partner, together with Filippo Savarese and Maria Rachele Ruiu, of “La Manif Pour Tous Italia”, today known as “Generazione Famiglia”.
Generazione Famiglia is a non-partisan and non-confessional association of men and women of all ages, social status and profession who engage in daily life to promote and protect the family. In recent years the association, together with its 50 territorial circles, has organized more than 500 conferences throughout Italy, involving over 50,000 people. It is among the organizing associations of the last two Family Days (June 2015 and January 2016) that have brought to the streets over two million people in defense of the family.