Class of 2011 Bios

Negusu Aklilu is an environmental advocate and Coordinator for Destiny Ethiopia Initiative at the Forum of Federations. As one of Ethiopia’s most influential environmental advocates, he provided strategic leadership for environmental advocacy and awareness-raising campaigns as Director of the Forum for Environment.

Negusu previously served as Climate Change Advisor to the Department for Democratic Development. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Akirma: A Magazine on Environment and Development, and as Co-Editor of the Ethiopian Environment Review, which he launched in 2010.

Negusu has successfully spearheaded and played key roles in national and international initiatives for conservation and sustainable use of environmental resources. He co-founded and currently co-chairs the Ethiopian Civil Society Network on Climate Change, which comprises 60 organizations. Negusu also co-chairs the United Nations Environment Program’s Advisory Group on International Environmental Governance.

Siobhan Cleary is Director of Capital Markets Engagement for the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the pre-eminent international sustainability standards setter. In this role she is responsible for driving adoption of the GRI Standards by capital market actors and reinforcing the significance of ESG disclosure in capital markets. She is also an independent non-executive director of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

Previously she worked as Head of Research and Public Policy at the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) and as Director of Strategy and Public Policy at the JSE. Her areas of expertise include capital market development and sustainability. She has written on this topic for—amongst others—the UNEP FI Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System and the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative.

Siobhan is completing an MSc in Climate Change at King's College, London.

Adrien Couton’s work focuses on bringing innovations to the global efforts and institutions supporting economic development. He is Vice President for the EMEA Region and for International development at Premise Data, a technology company leveraging big data analytics, a network of contributors in over 30 countries, and smartphone capabilities to measure economic and human development trends in real-time and guide major development players.

Previously, he was a Partner and the Director of the Water Practice at Dalberg, a consulting firm specialized on global development. Earlier, he helped implement entrepreneurial solutions to water issues in both operational roles (as CEO of Naandi Water, the largest operator of community water systems in India, making safe water available to 2.1 million people), and as an investor in a social venture fund (as the global manager for the water portfolio and the agriculture portfolio at Acumen Fund). His prior experience includes working at McKinsey & Company and the World Bank. 

Miriam Estrin is Policy Manager at Google, focused on access to information and content regulation around the world. She previously worked at the U.S. Department of State as Policy Director in the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, as a policy advisor in the Office of the Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, and as special assistant to the President's Special Envoy to Sudan; and at the Brookings Institution in Foreign Policy Studies.

Miriam has degrees from The University of Texas at Austin and Yale Law School.

Marcelo Furtado has over 30 years of experience working in the sustainability field, committed to advancing environmental and social justice through advocacy and philanthropy. Most recently, he became a Principal at Finance for Biodiversity leading the food transition initiative and co-leading the secretariat of the Task Force on Nature Markets. He was a founding partner at the start-up ZCO2/BlockC, a traceability platform for environmental assets using blockchain technology. He was the CEO of Alana Foundation and Arapyaú Institute, family foundations that promote sustainability, social justice and education. Marcelo is a co-founder and was the facilitator of the Brazilian Coalition on Climate Forest and Agriculture, a multi-stakeholder forum with representatives from academia, business and civil society to implement a just and sustainable low carbon economy focused on land use issues. He is also a co-founder of the Climate & Sovereignty Centre, a think tank on Defense and Climate issues. 

Marcelo also spent twenty-four years at Greenpeace where he served as Executive Director of Greenpeace Brazil, and was previously Head of the Forest, Climate & Energy, and Toxics and Oceans campaigns in Brazil. At Greenpeace International, he coordinated the global Toxic Trade Campaign on the promotion of clean technology and the worldwide ban on hazardous waste trade and industrial pollution and later worked as a policy adviser on Climate & Energy. 

Marcelo is a chemical engineer by training with a master’s degree in renewable energy. He is a Yale World Fellow and currently serves as the Board Chair at World Resources Institute (WRI) Brazil. He is also a Board member of Conectas Human Rights. He is also a member of the sustainability committees of Dexco SA and Marfrig SA.

Monika Halan is Consulting Editor with Mint, India's second largest business daily and a well-known media personality. Monika is author of the best-selling book Let's Talk Money published by Harper Collins in 2018. She has worked across several media organizations in India and has run many successful TV series around personal finance advice in NDTV, Zee, and Bloomberg. 

She is a regular speaker on financial literacy, regulation, inclusion and consumer issues in retail finance. Monika has public policy experience working with the Government of India as an advisor to the Swarup Committee in 2009. She has served as a member of the Ministry of Finance Committee on Incentives (Bose Committee) and is a member on the Sebi Mutual Fund Committee. She was a member of the Task Force set up by the Government of India to put in place the Financial Redressal Agency and was an expert invitee to a Ministry of Commerce Committee on the Service Price Index. Monika was a director on the board of FPSB India. 

She has a Masters in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and a Masters in Journalism Studies from College of Cardiff, University of Wales, UK.

Dr. Sonali Kochhar, M.D. is a physician and clinical researcher leading global Phase I-IV Clinical Research, Safety and Epidemiology Studies, and Implementation Research for Vaccines and Drugs. She works on Infectious Diseases (including Coronavirus, Influenza, GBS, RSV, HIV/AIDS, Diarrheal Diseases and Tropical Diseases); Vaccines for Pregnant Women; Safety, Regulatory and Ethical strategies for clinical research for vaccines (including for epidemics, and pregnant women); Pandemic Preparedness; Introduction of New Vaccines; Increasing immunization coverage and acceptance; Vaccine Policy recommendations; Translating research into programs by Policy, Strategy and Communications Development and Healthcare Systems Strengthening for Immunization and Maternal and Child Health programs and Clinical Trial Data Sharing. Her work has informed global and country-specific policy recommendations.

She is the lead for the development of vaccine templates for the benefit-risk assessment of the COVID-19 vaccines, and has led the development of 26 Maternal and Neonatal Case Definitions for Maternal Immunization. She has co-authored internationally accepted guidance, research standards, template protocols, case definitions for adverse events, and standardized templates for vaccines risk-benefit assessment for Vaccine Clinical Research, Safety and Ethics.

Sonali has helped set up International Strategic Partnerships, and led Regulatory, Safety and Ethics strategy, Policy Development, Institutional Strengthening, Advocacy with Government Partners and Ministries of Health, Regulatory Bodies (including the FDA, EMEA, African and Asian National Regulatory Authorities), International Aid Agencies, Public Health Authorities and Key Opinion Leaders.

She has received multiple awards including the Vaccinology Fellowship Award for significant achievements in Vaccinology from Fondation Mérieux and University of Geneva. Sonali is a member of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) Working Group on COVID-19 vaccines, COVID-19 Outbreak Expert groups for the UK Parliament, and the UK Government; various International Steering and Executive Committees, Scientific Advisory Boards, and serves as Guest Faculty for International Public Health and Vaccinology Programs.

Martina Larkin is CEO of Project Liberty, a ground breaking new initiative to transform how the internet works. Martina is a recognised international executive well versed in innovation and the world of international economics and politics. Before joining Project Liberty she was Vice President for Global Issues at System, an AI and data science company. Prior to that she spent 16 years at the World Economic Forum where she was a member of the Executive Committee. Martina is a member of `several non-profit boards, including the European Institute of Innovation and Technology of the European Commission; the international advisory panel for the Future of Science and Technology of the European Parliament; and SITRA, Finland’s innovation think tank. She is also a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Orit Marom-Albeck heads the Environmental, Clean Tech, and Climate Change Practice Group for Shibolet, one of Israel's leading environmental law firms. She is also an environmental entrepreneur, having founded Pure Drop Ltd., which has developed a commercialized technology for water quality testing.

Orit helped found an active local green party, was part of the initial team that launched a non-governmental organization, IUED, to protect the environment, and is one of a small number of people credited with creating the environmental field in Israel.
 

Carl Mossfeldt works independently to support companies and public bodies in their efforts to drive systemic change. In the last few years, much of his work has focused on developing new strategies and partnership for social and physical rejuvenation of low-income urban areas. He has also worked extensively to develop models that harness in a positive way the power of private capital to drive development and climate mitigation.

A basic insight guiding his work is that neither current market-based models, nor government at different levels, have the necessary capacity to meet the multifaceted challenges ahead: new management models, new legal and financial tools and, by extension, a new understanding of democratic accountability are required.

Carl was formerly the CEO of the Tällberg Foundation, a strategic think tank and international forum searching for new governance models to meet the sustainability challenge. In this capacity, Carl helped build the Tällberg organization and turn the annual Tällberg Forum into an internationally recognized meeting place. While at the Tällberg Foundation, Carl also developed an ambitious leadership program aimed at institutional entrepreneurs working in an international context.

He started his career in strategy consulting for the financial services and was educated at Oxford University and Cambridge University in the UK.

Habib Rahman is an influential policy maker and a senior researcher and analyst for Hambastagi Consultancy Group (HCG) in Afghanistan. HCG plays an active role in building a secure, democratic and prosperous Afghanistan, by strengthening institutions and programs in both the public and private sectors. To achieve this goal, HCG draws on two types of organizational assets.

He previously served as a senior policy advisor to Minister Mohammed Haneef Atmar in several government ministries, including Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, Ministry of Interior, and Ministry of Education, where he played a pivotal role in developing the first National Educational Strategy for the post-Taliban education of 6.2 million boys and girls across Afghanistan.

Habib has a Master's degree in postwar reconstruction and development studies from the University of York, UK.

Sati Rasuanto is the Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of VIDA, a digital identity company based in Jakarta that promotes digital trust and inclusion. She was previously the founding Managing Director of Endeavor in Indonesia, an organization that supports a global network of high-impact entrepreneurs by helping them scale up their leadership and companies by connecting them to networks, knowledge, talent, and investors, and by providing them with a platform to give back to the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Previously, as Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board, Sati helped shape Indonesia's development agenda and formulated strategies to increase investment flows into the country. She played a critical role in the Board's responsibility for public-private partnerships on large infrastructure projects totaling more than $5 billion in investments. Earlier in her career, she was an Operations Officer for the Infrastructure team and Special Assistant to the Country Director of the World Bank in Jakarta.

Sati is an Atlantic Fellow and is part of Equity Initiative, a program dedicated to leadership in health equity. She is also a Kauffman Fellow, a silicon-valley based network dedicated to building high growth and innovative companies.

Jacob Ritvo is Head of Consumer Product Marketing at Facebook. He was previously Education and Policy Industry Marketing Lead at Twitter, serving as Twitter's primary expert on the education and politics verticals and working to align its value proposition with customers in those industries. Before that he lead marketing and operations at 2ndLine.tv, a performing arts technology startup that was acquired.

Earlier in his career, Jacob served as Congressman Pete Visclosky's Director of Communications, as Congresswoman Grace Napolitano's Press Secretary and Legislative Assistant, and in Senator Chuck Schumer's press office, as well as a variety of political campaigns.

Jacob has a BA in sociology from Cornell and an MBA in marketing from Yale's School of Management.

Fabio Scano is a medical doctor and public health specialist with 20 years of experience in public health programs. He currently supervises all communicable and non-communicable disease programs at the World Health Organization (WHO). His role is also to strengthen the National Regulatory Authority for medicine, vaccines, and other health products.

Fabio began his career with the WHO in 2001 in the Stop TB Department, where he helped develop policies to provide diagnosis and care to those co-infected with both TB and HIV in low and middle-income countries. Fabio also collaborates with the Aspen Institute on initiatives aimed at placing health at the center of a broader development agenda.

He holds an M.D. from the University of Padua and a post-graduate degree in Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine.

Reed Schuler is the Managing Director for Implementation and Ambition and Senior Advisor to U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, directing efforts to accelerate decarbonization by major economies and managing bilateral engagement. Previously, Reed served as Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s Senior Policy Advisor for Climate and Sustainability, and the Governor's Special Advisor for Pandemic Health Response. Reed also served at the U.S. Department of State as a U.S. negotiator for the Paris Agreement on climate change and as the lead on climate, energy, environment, health, and science issues on Secretary of State John Kerry's Policy Planning Staff. Reed has conducted research as a Fulbright Fellow in Shanghai, China, and led initiatives at the city level and in the social sector. He is a recipient of the Switzer Fellowship for environmental leadership and three Superior Honor Awards from the State Department, a member of the National Committee for U.S.-China Relations and the Advisory Board for Evergreen Action, and a graduate of Pomona College and Yale Law School.

Gavin Sheppard is an innovative cultural entrepreneur who uses art and music as tools for youth inclusion and economic growth. The Remix Project, which he co-founded in 2006, was created in order to help level the playing field for young people from disadvantaged, marginalized, and under-served communities. The Remix Project provides top-notch alternative, creative, educational programs, facilitators and facilities to at-risk youth wanting to enter the creative industries. This program model has been replicated internationally, and Gavin has been an architect of and has helped to create a hemispheric network of youth arts organizations to promote best practices.

Gavin is also Founder of Public Records, Inc., a Toronto-based record label, and he is Co-Founder of Quiet As Kept, a project management company that works across the entertainment industry. He is also a creator, producer, and writer of a web series called "Welcome to Rawluck." He is a Ted Fellow and a Fellow at the Laboratorio Para La Ciudad in Mexico City.

Ibrahim "Ben" Suffian is an entrepreneur and innovator in the public polling sector where he has contributed significantly to better governance, policy development, citizen outreach, and democratic processes within Malaysia’s political system. He co-founded the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research in 2004. The Center has become a central player in Malaysian national politics by improving the quality of public debate, widening public participation in the political process, and contributing to the formation of a more coherent civil society.

Chrishan Thuraisingham is a public health financing specialist with a background in international capital markets. He currently serves as Interim Deputy Director of the Infectious Diseases Advocacy Team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Previously he was CEO of Thuraisingham Associates, a strategic advisory firm providing services and advice to international and domestic health organizations in Africa and Asia. Before that he served as Senior Program Director for Results for Development Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding solutions (through the sectors of Global Education, Global Health, Governance and Market Dynamics) to development challenges that prevent people in low and middle-income countries from realizing their full potential. Previously, Chrishan managed a $500 million portfolio of grants across Southeast Asia and the Pacific for the Global Fund whose aim is to ensure that life-saving drugs, bed nets, and prevention programs reach as many people as possible across the full socio-economic and geographic spectrum. Chrishan has a BA in European History from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Xolani Zitha is National Advisor at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Zimbabwe where he focuses on managing projects focused on building the institutional capacity of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) and Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission (ZACC).

Previously, Xolani was Director of the Office of the Speaker for the Parliament of Zimbabwe and an independent governance consultant. He also previously served as Chief of Staff to Lovemore Moyo, the Speaker of the House of Assembly in Zimbabwe from January 2009 to June 2013. He advised the Speaker on efforts to modernize Zimbabwe’s Parliament and strengthen its policy functions.

Xolani previously directed the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, an umbrella organization of more than 250 civil society organizations focused on democratization and governance, and he was deputy director for the Bulawayo Agenda Trust.