Four volunteers receive 2023 Silver World Award for international service to Scouting

Silver World Award

The Silver World Award recognizes Scouters who are not registered members of the BSA for their noteworthy and extraordinary service to youth on an international basis.

Established in 1971, it’s one of the ways the Boy Scouts of America recognizes that the Scouting movement reaches far beyond the BSA itself. The BSA honored the 2023 Silver World Award winners this week at the National Annual Meeting, right alongside the Silver Buffalo winners.

This year’s four Silver World Award recipients are a unique and impactful group of Scouters from around the world. Please join me in congratulating them for a job well done.

Daniel CorsenDaniel Corsen Jr.

Willemstad, Curacao

Corsen has served in numerous international Scouting positions, starting out as the youth network coordinator for the World Organization of the Scout Movement’s Interamerican Scout Committee. He has also held the positions of chair of delivery of the Regional Scout Plan, chair of the region, vice chair of WOSM Operational Framework, and member of the Growth & Strategy Coordination Group.

Corsen currently serves as a Global Support Assessment Tool external facilitator and auditor to help national Scout organizations assess their strengths and weaknesses and improve their accountability to stakeholders.

As a member of the Global Consultants Support Group, Corsen helped ensure that WOSM’s strategy was executed properly by providing regular reports and recommendations to the World Scout Committee. His work has also involved supporting the development of WOSM’s growth service for national Scout organizations.

Corsen served as the director of the 15th Caribbean Jamboree, an international event that hosted more than 900 participants from different regions, including the Caribbean, North America and Europe. Corsen also served on the jamboree planning team for the 22nd World Scout Jamboree.

Corsen is the founder and CEO of Reshapers, a company that aims to enable people, organizations and communities to thrive through change.

Mark Knippenberg Silver World AwardMark Knippenberg

Bern, Switzerland

Knippenberg became chief executive officer of the World Scout Foundation in 2021. He continues to volunteer for Scouting, supporting young leaders and giving back to the movement.

“Scouting plays an important role in my life,” he says. “It helped build my character and gave me the foundations for my current life.”

Knippenberg became a Cub Scout at age 10 before joining the Sea Scouts, which later led to a career as an officer in the Royal Dutch Navy. Upon his honorable discharge, he moved to work at the Dutch ING Bank & Insurances.

After several years of banking, and motivated by his experience in Scouting, Knippenberg decided to change careers, first becoming deputy director and, later, director of Kandersteg International Scout Centre. During his tenure, he successfully led the expansion of the centre’s global reach, constantly driving overnights and developing and inaugurating the Kanderlodge facility.

In 2010, Knippenberg took on a new challenge, joining the World Scout Foundation in Geneva as deputy director. In this role, he took on a lead role in the coordination of donor engagement, including Foundation Investor Conferences and Honours Programme field visits. He worked to strengthen systems to effectively manage donors, grants and fundraising, specifically the joint WSF-World Scout Bureau deployment of the grantmaking system and Scout Donation Platform. and, in 2021, the WSF Digital Transformation Project.

Knippenberg drove the successful 2020–21 fundraising campaign during the global pandemic, as championed by board members Margot Bogert and the late Kent Clayburn, and has continuously worked to strengthen coordination with all World Scouting bodies.

Joseph LAU Silver World AwardJoseph LAU

Hong Kong, China

LAU, the Chief Commissioner of Scout Association of Hong Kong, has been a member of Hong Kong Scouting for 50 years and has spent the majority of his service in the development of Venture Scouting and youth policies.

LAU has held positions at the district and headquarters levels in Hong Kong and at the Asia-Pacific Region (APR) as well as the world level. He is currently involved in the World Scout Conference, APR Scout Conference and other regional activities, especially in the field of leader training in Hong Kong and overseas.

LAU has served in various positions, including chair of the APR Financial Resources Sub-Committee, chair of the WOSM Finance Committee, treasurer of the APR Scout Foundation Management Committee and treasurer of the WOSM.

He currently holds positions as leader trainer of the Scout Association of Hong Kong and chair of the APR Awards Committee.

LAU works professionally as a consultant.

Srinath Tirumale

Kyiv, Ukraine

Tirumale, the current regional director of the World Scout Bureau Eurasia Support Center, began his professional Scouting career in 2005 as project officer for Education For All at the World Scout Bureau Central Office located in Geneva, Switzerland. Since that time, he has served in various positions, including unit manager of Education For All & Spiritual Development (Geneva), development support manager (Nairobi), senior unit manager of External Relations & Media (Geneva), director of communications & external relationships (Geneva), administrative director (Kuala Lumpur), executive director of Office of the Secretary General (Kuala Lumpur) and interim coordinator (Kiev).

Tirumale has served on the WOSM Jamboree Team in United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan and most recently the World Jamboree that took place at the Summit Bechtel Reserve. He has also served on numerous World Scout Conferences in Korea, Brazil, Slovenia and virtually during the world pandemic.

Tirumale was awarded The Silver Star Award for contributions to the development of youth and children in India. He currently serves as a member (ex officio) of the Eurasia Scout Regional Committee.


About Aaron Derr 507 Articles
Aaron Derr is the senior editor of Scout Life and Scouting magazines, and also a former Cubmaster and Scouts BSA volunteer.