Focus: Environment/Sustainability
Tamim Saad
Tamim is a multifaceted executive with a strong focus on corporate and public finance expertise, capital market regulation, Business Strategy, and financial optimization. During his extensive and diverse positions, Tamim helped his organizations in driving transformative change in challenging environments and high uncertainty. Starting his journey in the Israeli public sphere, he joined the Special Forces as a Naval Commander while graduating from the Israeli Naval Academy as one of the first Druze pioneers. Tamim served with distinction, culminating in an honorable discharge. In 2009, after completing the prestigious Cadets for Public Service program, he entered his second phase in civil service at the Ministry of Finance and rapidly rose…
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James Irungu Mwangi
James Mwangi is Founder of Climate Action Platform – Africa (CAP-A), a not-for-profit organisation that aims to help Africa achieve broad-based economic growth through climate action leadership. Prior to founding CAP-A, James served as Executive Director of the Dalberg Group, a global collection of impact-driven businesses that work to build a more inclusive and sustainable world where all people, everywhere, can reach their fullest potential. James joined Dalberg as a founding member in 2002, started Dalberg’s first Africa office (Johannesburg) in 2007, and subsequently served as Global Managing Partner of Dalberg’s consulting business, guiding the formalization of its structure and governance as a global firm. From 2014, James has served…
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Alexander Verbeek
Alexander Verbeek is a Dutch environmentalist, public speaker, diplomat, and former strategic policy advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Over the past 30 years, he has worked on international security, humanitarian and geopolitical risk issues, and the linkage to the earth's accelerating environmental crisis, currently serving Policy Director at the Environment & Development Resource Centre. Alexander also works internationally as an expert speaker and advisor on planetary change to academia, global NGO's, private firms, and international organizations. He is an associate or fellow at a number of international think tanks, a Visiting Fellow in the Peace and Conflict Department of Uppsala University in Sweden, and is on the…
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Ambroise Brenier
Ambroise Brenier is currently Senior Natural Resources Management Specialist at the World Bank. He previously served as the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Country Director for Papua New Guinea. In PNG, he led the largest field conservation program in a country home to the third largest tropical rainforest in the world and surrounded by the world’s most diverse coral reefs. Ambroise and his team worked with the government and hundreds of indigenous communities around the country to triple Papua New Guinea’s marine protected areas coverage, preserve intact forests, promote the sustainable use of natural resources, and improve people's livelihoods. Prior to this role, he led the Wildlife Conservation Society’s marine conservation efforts…
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Robert Klee
Robert Klee is a lecturer at the Yale School of the Environment and previously served as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Prior to joining state service, Robert was an appellate litigator at Wiggin and Dana LLP, in New Haven where he also was a member of their Energy and Climate Change and Sustainable Development practice groups. Earlier in his career he clerked for Judge Mark R. Kravitz of the US District Court for the District of Connecticut and Judge Barrington D. Parker of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Robert has published a number of articles on environmental law and policy, sustainability,…
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John Haffner
John Haffner is a sustainability executive based in Hong Kong, with an extensive background in Asia, including especially Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. He currently serves as General Manager, Sustainability for a leading commercial real estate company, Hang Lung Properties. He has two decades of experience in cleantech, energy, and sustainability, including senior roles in the electricity sector in both Canada and Asia. John’s education includes two law degrees from McGill University, and he is called to the bar in the Province of Ontario, Canada. In 2011 John was nominated as an Asia 21 Young Leader by Asia Society. John has more than 20 publications on various topics related to…
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José Luis Chicoma
JosĂ© Luis Chicoma is the Minister of Production of Peru. He previously served as executive director of Ethos Public Policy Lab, a Mexican think tank that promotes development and sustainable food systems. He was the editor and coordinator of the publication “Transforming our food systems: Inspirational stories and proposals” and has served as a core member of the Tortilla Alliance, the Mexican AgTech network, as well as other coalitions that advocate for sustainable and healthy food systems. He also frequently writes and speaks internationally about the intersection of food and politics. He previously held several high-level positions in the Peruvian government, including serving as Vice Minister of Small and Medium…
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Philip Gain
Philip Gain works on human rights and environmental issues in Bangladesh, combining investigative journalism with a systematic pursuit of policy change. The outputs of his research and investigations–books, monographs, special reports, documentary films, and photographic works are widely used as readings in general and in classrooms. He is also an adjunct faculty member at a private university in Dhaka where he teaches environmental communication, development communication, and advanced reporting. With a number of reporting guides and resource books he has authored and edited he also teaches working journalists skills of in-depth reporting. For the past decade his work with tea plantation workers, indigenous peoples, and other excluded communities of Bangladesh…
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Lumumba Di-Aping
Lumumba Di-Aping is a Sudanese diplomat and has served in the Sudan Mission to the United Nations since 2008. Lumumba has dedicated his career in both the public and private sectors to addressing the inequality that hinders the development of the Global South. Starting as a strategy consultant and investment banker at Greenwich Capital, from 2006 to 2012, he served as Ambassador and Deputy Head of the Sudan mission to the United Nations. During that tenure, he was Lead Negotiator for Developing Countries on Energy, Environment, Trade and Global Governance and Chairman of the G77+China group of 132 developing nations and led the block's negotiation on reform of the International…
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Chantal-Line Carpentier
Dr. Chantal-Line Carpentier is Chief of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Prior to that, she was actively involved in the successful negotiations of the Sustainable Development Goals for the Division for Sustainable Development of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). During her time with DESA, she acted as Major Groups Coordinator to enhance non-state actors engagement with the UN system on sustainable development. She facilitated the participation of more than 10,000 non-state actor participation in the UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development. She was also focal point for sustainable consumption and production, food security and sustainable agriculture. Prior to her UN career, Chantal-Line…
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