The President of the Universal Esperanto Association (Esperanto : Universala Esperanto-Asocio, UEA) is the elected leader of the Universal Esperanto Association and the chief executive of the UEA steering committee (Estraro).
Prior to 1920 the President of the UEA governed the UEA Central Committee (Komitato), because no separation yet existed between the Estraro and the Komitato. Over the decades the functioning of the presidency remained unchanged, and the president's relationship with the other Estraro members and the UEA general secretary depended on the times and on his or her nature, with correspondence between the president and the general secretary providing practical guidance for the UEA. According to the plan of Ivo Lapenna (1955), the president was to have mostly an executive role, whereas the general secretary would perform everyday duties, but this system was followed only during the time when Lapenna himself was general secretary (1955–1964).
From 1936 to 1947 the majority of the organized Esperanto movement left the UEA, headquartered in Switzerland, to establish the rival International Esperanto League with offices in Britain. In 1947 the two groups reunited. Because Louis Bastien, the sole IEL president, had previously been UEA president, his name appears here integrated into the main list.
Ido is a constructed language derived from a reformed version of Esperanto, and similarly designed with the goal of being a universal second language for people of diverse backgrounds. To function as an effective international auxiliary language, Ido was specifically designed to be grammatically, orthographically, and lexicographically regular. It is the most successful of the many Esperantidoj.
The Universal Esperanto Association, also known as the World Esperanto Association, is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with 5,501 individual members in 121 countries and 9,215 through national associations in 214 countries. In addition to individual members, 70 national Esperanto organizations are affiliated with UEA. Its current president is Prof. Duncan Charters. The magazine Esperanto is the main publication to inform UEA members about everything happening in the Esperanto community.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is a trade union for journalists in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was founded in 1907 and has 24,528 members. It is a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
Marjorie Boulton was a British author and poet writing in both English and Esperanto.
Esperanto-USA (E-USA) is the largest organization for speakers and supporters of Esperanto in the United States. It was founded in 1952 as the Esperanto League for North America (ELNA) in Sacramento, California. Headquartered in Portland, Maine, Esperanto-USA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the U.S. affiliate of the Universal Esperanto Association. Brandon Sowers is President of E-USA, and Quintyn Bobb is Vice-President.
John Reginald Owen was a British actor, known for his many roles in British and American films and television programs.
Edmond Privat was a Francophone Swiss Esperantist. A historian, university professor, author, journalist and peace activist, he was a graduate of the University of Geneva and a lecturer for the World Peace Foundation. His collective works consist of original dramas, poems, stories, textbooks and books about the Esperanto movement.
Hector Hodler was a Swiss Esperantist who had a strong influence on the early Esperanto movement.
Louis Marie Jules Charles Bastien was a French Esperantist and a quartermaster in the French army. In 1899 he married Marguerite Pfulb (1879–1941); the couple had three daughters and two sons. In school he learned mathematics, classical French literature, Latin and Greek and learned to compose Latin verse. After a year of preparatory studies at l'Ecole Sainte-Geneviève in Versailles he entered l'Ecole Polytechnique in 1887 at the age of 17. Not having the maturity of his older classmates, he did not excel in his studies and, on graduation in 1889, had to content himself with a military career.
Harry William Holmes OBE, was a board member and honorary president of the World Esperanto Association. He served as a staff officer of the British Ministry of Defence with the military rank of Brigadier and was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1955 in acknowledgment of services to Great Britain. Holmes was also a Freemason.
The International Esperanto League was for 11 years the largest and most important neutral Esperanto federation, reuniting in 1947 with the Universal Esperanto Association from which it had broken away in 1936.
Johannes Waldemar Karsch was a German Esperantist and a state auditor.
Harold Bolingbroke Mudie was a British Esperantist. He served as the first President of the World Esperanto Association.
Petro Evstaf'evic Stojan was a Russian esperantist, bibliographer and lexicographer and a member of the Esperanto Language Committee from 1914.
Ivo Lapenna was a Dalmatian Italian law professor and Esperantist, born in Split in 1909.
Ralph Lindsay Harry was one of Australia's pioneer diplomats and intelligence specialists. He was recognised as a skilled diplomatic professional with a mastery of the traditional conventions and methods of diplomacy and politics. Having acted early in his career for three years as Director of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, he was also known as an insightful intelligence analyst and cryptographer.
Mark Fettes is an Esperantist and university professor of education, and former President of the World Esperanto Association, known by its Esperanto initials as UEA.
Ernfrid Cart Malmgren was a Swedish Esperantist, teacher, and president of the Universal Esperanto Association (UEA).
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Esperanto: