TEEBAGRIFOOD - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Leader of "the Economics of Ecosystems
- Study Leader and Managing Director, TMG Research
Alexander Müller (Germany) is the study leader of "The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Agriculture and Food".
Alexander Müller received a diploma in sociology at the Philipps-University in Marburg in 1985.
He was elected as city councillor in Marburg (1985 -1992) with the responsibility for social and environmental affairs and was chair of the board of the municipal utilities (electricity, natural gas, water and public transport).
From 1992 to 1995 he was appointed as state secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Family Affairs and Health in the state of Hesse.
From 1995 to 2000 he was member of the parliament of Hessen and served inter alia as chair of the caucus and member of the budget committee.
From 2001 to 2005 he was State Secretary in the Ministry for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture in the Federal Republic of Germany.
From 2006 until June 2013 he served as Assistant-Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and was responsible for the Department for Natural Resources and Environment.
Anita Beck, Nicolas Bertrand, Tomas Declercq, Mouhamed Diallo, Chloe Hill, Jasmin Hundorf, Evans Koech, Georgina Langdale, David Diaz Martin, Lena Mkwara, Edwin Onyach, Sharon Oseku-Frainier, Maria Paula, Helena Pinto, Anita Sandana, Mark Schauer, Marcio Verde Selva, Kavita Sharma, Ben Simmons, Dustin (Miller) Wenzel, Selome Tadesse-Worku, Simi Thambi, Camille Thoumyre, Naomi Young
Job Titles:
- Communications Specialist
Anna Hellge is joining TEEB as a Communications Specialist. She has previous experience as a Freelance Reporter for various German and international publications. Her focus as a Journalist has been on human resilience and solutions, instead of problems. She has also worked as a Communications Consultant with GIZ and in Public Information for UNHCR Ethiopia. Anna has lived, studied and worked in 9 countries. She has a BA degree in English Speaking Cultures and Religious Science from the University of Bremen, Germany and undertook a German Turkish Double Degree MA Programme in Transcultural Communication at Kadir Has University, Istanbul. Anna is passionate about storytelling - whether in written or visual form - and is eager to integrate a storytelling approach into her work with TEEB.
Danielle Nierenberg (USA) is President of Food Tank and an expert on sustainable agriculture and food issues. She has written extensively on gender and population, the spread of factory farming in the developing world and innovations in sustainable agriculture.
Danielle co-founded Food Tank, non-profit organization, in 2013 as an organization focused on building a global community for safe, healthy, nourished eaters. Already, the organization boasts more than twenty major institutional partners and has recruited more than 40 of the world's top leaders in food and agriculture policies and advocacy work as part of Food Tank's Advisory Board. The organization hosted the 1st Annual Food Tank Summit in January 2015 in partnership with The George Washington University.
Prior to starting Food Tank, Danielle spent two years traveling to more than 35 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America, meeting with farmers and farmers' groups, scientists and researchers, policymakers and government leaders, students and academics, along with journalists, documenting what's working to help alleviate hunger and poverty, while protecting the environment.
Her knowledge of global agriculture issues has been cited widely in more than 8,000 major print and broadcast outlets worldwide; she has authored or contributed to dozens of influential reports and books; she has spoken at hundreds of major conferences and events all over the world; and she has built a worldwide social media and web following
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of CORAF, the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development
Dr. Abdou Tenkouano is the Executive Director of CORAF, the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development, based in Dakar, Senegal
His academic background is in plant breeding and genetics, with a Ph.D. (1993) obtained at Texas A&M University. His research interests encompass the use of conventional plant breeding and biotechnology to develop new and improved varieties; the structure and expansion of associated seed systems; and the use of participatory community immersion approaches linking research and practice to facilitate uptake of innovations at scale. He has carried out his professional activities across sub-Saharan Africa and has worked on several crop species including sorghum, millet, maize, cassava, yam, banana and plantain, and a range of vegetables.
At the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Mali Dr. Tenkouano worked as a sorghum breeder and as coordinator of the West and Central Africa Sorghum Research Network from 1994 to 1996. During this period he studied the phenological plasticity of sorghum as a mechanism for coping with uncertainty of rains at the onset of the growing seasons. He also examined options for going beyond field-level production of sorghum with a view to improving grain storage and processing.
He then joined the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA, www.iita.org) and worked there until 2008, successively in Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana, as a plant breeder for cassava, banana and plantain, and yam. At IITA, he led the banana and plantain program and served as member of the Research for Development Council. He and his team initiated one of the first banana transformation programs to look at transcriptional silencing as a method for preventing the expression of banana streak badnavirus (an integrated ds DNA that is present in all existing bananas and becomes active and pathogenic under certain conditions). This work has been in many ways the precursor to the banana transformation program later carried out in Uganda by a joint team of IITA and the National Research Organization (NARO) under the stewardship of the Kenya-based African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF). Through this program, banana transformed with genes from sweet pepper that confer resistance to bacterial wilt are now in confined field testing. His work on cassava led to the release of three varieties in Cameroon.
He joined AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) where he served as Deputy Chair of the Institutional Research and Development Committee and member of the Institutional Management Committee. He has been responsible for leading the center's operations initially across sub-Saharan Africa (based in Tanzania) and subsequently in West and Central Africa (based in Mali). He has been an advocate of dietary diversification with vegetables to improve the nutritional status of vulnerable populations across sub-Saharan Africa while tackling issues related to insufficiently productive crop varieties, health hazards associated with the use of polluted water for vegetable production, and perishability of harvested produce. This entailed the design of best practices hubs that combine testing and demonstration of research products with education of youth and women within local value chains.
Dr. Tenkouano has been keenly interested in harnessing the potential of the private sector in supporting agricultural transformation in Africa. In this regard, he has been an advisor of the Special Interest Group on Vegetables of the African Seed Trade Association (AFSTA). He departed AVRDC in April 2016.
Job Titles:
- Director of Ecosystems Division of UN Environment Programme
- Director, Ecosystems Division - UNEP
Dr. Susan Gardner is Director of Ecosystems Division of UN Environment Programme. She has over two decades of experience in science and environmental policy working for both the Mexican and United States governments. She was a senior official in the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) focused on fisheries science and ocean conservation. Prior to this position, she was a senior official at the U.S. Department of State in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. Dr. Gardner's work on multilateral agreements included the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, the Global Mercury Partnership and the Stockholm Convention. Based on her contributions to the Minamata Convention on Mercury she was awarded the Gold Medal for Exceptional Services from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Gardner created the first Ecotoxicology Program at the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste where she earned the distinction of membership in the Mexican Sistema Nacional de Investigadores and board certification as a fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences. Her research has generated over 30 publications including a book and book chapters on topics related to ecology, toxicology, fisheries management and species conservation.
Job Titles:
- Agricultural Engineer Specialized in Improvement of Plant Genetics at the University of Buenos Aires
Dr. Walter Pengue is an Agricultural Engineer specialized in Improvement of Plant Genetics (Plant Breeding), at the University of Buenos Aires.
He holds a Masters degree from the same University in Environmental and Territorial Policies and is Doctor in Agro-Ecology, Rural Sociology and Sustainable Development by the University of Córdoba, European Union (Spain).
He is a founding member and former President of the Argentine/Uruguayan Association of Ecological Economics (ASAUEE), as well as of the Ibero- American Network of Ecological Economics (REDIBEE). He is Member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE). Pengue was a founding member of SOCLA (Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology).
He is Director of the Postgraduate Specialization on Ecological Economics at the University of Buenos Aires as well as Professor of the Group on Landscape Ecology and the Environment, GEPAMA, Faculty of Architecture, University of Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA and an active promoter of ecological economics education through new tools developed under virtual plataforms, obtaining a relevant results in the socialization of the discipline in Latin America and Europe.
Dr. Pengue is full professor of Ecology, at the Ecology Department, Periurban Institute (ICO), Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento (Buenos Aires, Argentina).
His main area of expertise are related with Ecological Economics, Agriculture, Agroecology, Urban Ecology, Social Metabolism, Rural Development and Physical Indicators studies and with the evaluation of ecological, economics and social transformation as results of modern rural changes in different levels and regions.
Dr. Pengue is a former member of the Scientific Committee of the International Resource Panel (2008-2015) and is integrated with the activities of IPBES since 2013.
Author of numerous books and book chapters dealing with ecological economics, green economy and the impact of new technologies in agriculture, sustainable models of agricultural development and production alternatives. He is a consultant for different public and private entities as well as International Organizations on matters such as Agricultural Production, Green Markets, Sustainable Development, New Technologies and Environmental Impacts.
Dustin Miller holds a Master of Science in Environment and Development from the Institute of Development Policy & Management at the University of Manchester as well as a Bachelor of Arts (cum laude) in International Development Studies at McGill University. His principal focus has been on identifying and mainstreaming the synergies between biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic development toward sustainable and equitable ecosystem management.
Dustin joined the TEEB team in Geneva in February 2012 and, among various other programme and operational support duties, has been primarily responsible for the project management of activities related to ‘TEEB for Agriculture & Food.
Job Titles:
- Programme Management Assistant
Edwina joins the unit as a Programme Management Assistant. She has over eight years of experience in the fields of programme management, finance, budget and administration and prior to joining the team, she worked in various UN offices, that is the UNEP Africa Office as a Finance and Budget Assistant, the Ecosystems Division under the Nairobi Convention Secretariat as a Programme Management Assistant and in UNON as a Treasury assistant. Before joining the UN, Edwina worked in the private sector providing support in the fields of finance, budget and administration.
Edwina holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree, Finance major and is currently pursuing her MBA at the University of Nairobi. While not working, Edwina enjoys being creative and planning for the next adventure with her family.
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow at the Gordon
- Senior Fellow, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Guillermo Castilleja is a senior fellow at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. As an advisor to the president, Guillermo focuses on both internal analytics and external relations-providing foresight and judgement to aid in identifying future directions, as well as opportunities to elevate the foundation's and grantees' achievements.
Previously, Guillermo served for more than five years at the helm of the foundation's Environmental Conservation Program, leading its efforts to protect critical ecosystems and balance long-term conservation with sustainable use.
Before joining the foundation in 2010, Guillermo worked for World Wildlife Fund-International (WWF), most recently as executive director for conservation. In that capacity, he directed and coordinated its global conservation efforts, leading the development of global priorities for the network, overseeing implementation of its activities and monitoring progress. He has also worked for the World Bank and the National Wildlife Federation.
Guillermo currently chairs the steering committee for the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a coalition of foundations dedicated to improving the sustainability, security and equity food systems. Guillermo also serves on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Advisory Board and the boards of the Climate and Land Use Alliance and the Fondo Mexicano Para La Conservación De La Naturaleza, A.C./Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature, A.C. (FMCN). Previously, Guillermo was a member of Mexico's National Commission on Protected Areas and the National Forestry Commission, as well as the Board of Directors for WWF Russia. Through speaking engagements around the world, research published in peer-reviewed journals and the media, Guillermo has addressed topics including the relationship between protected areas and food security, strategies for long-term financing of large-scale land conservation, and the social opportunities and challenges of biodiversity conservation.
Guillermo graduated from the National University of Mexico and received a Master's degree in Forestry, a Master's degree in Philosophy and a doctorate in Forest Ecology from Yale University.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of the European Environment Agency
- Executive Director, European Environment Agency
Hans Bruyninckx took office as the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency on 1 June 2013.
Over the last 20 years, he has conducted and managed policy-oriented research in the areas of environmental politics, climate change, and sustainable development, as well as being involved in numerous policy processes as an advisory board member and policy advisor to government agencies and other key actors.
His expertise lies primarily in the field of European and international environmental policy, studying the effects of globalization on the global governance of environmental issues and sustainable development. His experience pertains to the level of the regions (Flanders in a comparative European perspective), the EU Member States, the EU level, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and processes of global environmental governance (climate change in particular).
Before his appointment to the EEA, he was head of the HIVA Research Institute in Leuven, Belgium, a policy-oriented research institute associated with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, where he was head of the Political Science department from 2007 to 2010. Dr Bruyninckx was also a senior member of the interdisciplinary Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and promoter-coordinator of the Flemish Policy Research Centre on Transitions for Sustainable Development (TRADO).
In addition, he has worked extensively with civil society and business actors, in support of public-private initiatives or private regulatory approaches to environmental, climate change and sustainability issues. He was president of the board of Bond Beter Leefmilieu (The Association for a Better Environment), a Flemish umbrella organization bringing together many different environmental groups.
Job Titles:
- Director - General and Head of Group Risk Management, ABN AMRO Bank, Amsterdam
In the period 1995-1998, he worked at ABM AMRO as Head of Global Structured Finance.
During his tenure as Director-General it became the premier international bank in sustainable development. Since retiring from ABN AMRO he has been able to dedicate himself as an independent advisor and board member to all dimensions of sustainable development: voluntary business codes of conduct, climate, value chain, microfinance, social entrepreneurship, development finance and fair trade.
He advises i.a. Global Compact, WBSCD, Club de Madrid, Taellberg Foundation, OXFAM NOVIB, Earth Charter International, Youth Employment & Sustainability (YES); he is a member of the judging panel of the FT/IFC Sustainable Bank Awards. Herman Mulder is also a member of a number of boards including: Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Utz Certified/Good Inside, Dutch National Council for Development Co-operation and Sustainable Development (NCDO), Dutch National Contact point for OECD Guidelines (NCP), Business in Development (BID), ABN AMRO Foundation India, Business Steering Committee for the UN Finance for Development conference in Doha in 2008 and the CBI (Consensus Building Institute) in Boston.
He is also a frequent public speaker and a member of the Steering Committee of the Worldconnector. He was made a Knight in the Royal Order of Oranje Nassau for his work in Sustainable Developement.
Jacob Salcone joined TEEB in April 2018. As a technical consultant, he helps governments and researchers use microeconomic tools to quantify and value the human benefits of ecosystems and biodiversity.
Jacob previously worked for IUCN, calculating the economic value of marine and coastal ecosystems to inform resource management decisions in Pacific Island countries. He holds an M.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from Colorado State University and a B.A. in International Sustainable Development from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is currently modelling the land-use change impacts of payment for ecosystem service programs in Mexico in pursuit of a PhD in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources from Colorado State University. He has conducted community development research in California and South America and helped rural communities in the Western US resolve water and sanitation problems.
Job Titles:
- Chief Scientist and Director of the Division of Early Warning
- Gresham Professor in Environment, University College London, Institute for Global Prosperity
Professor Jacqueline McGlade is currently UNEP Chief Scientist and Director of the Division of Early Warning and Assessment. She is on leave from University College London, where she is Professor in Environmental Informatics in Earth Sciences. Prior to this she was Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, Director of the Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences of the UK Natural Environment Research Council, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick, Director of Theoretical Ecology at the FZ Jülich and Senior Scientist at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in the Federal Government of Canada. She has held a number of key participatory and advisory roles including as Board Member of the Environment Agency for England and Wales and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Trustee of the Natural History Museum, and is a member of a number of environmental prize juries.
Her activities and research continue to be focused on the dynamics of ecosystems and planetary systems, sustainable development and the governance of natural resources, environmental informatics with particular reference to the development of smart systems for environmental monitoring and observation, socio-economic transitions and policy analysis. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, articles, books, plus government reports and legal submissions to the International Court of Justice and produced and presented award winning feature films (Planet RE;think, One Degree Matters, Our Arctic Challenge), TV (Blue Revolution, Power of Nature, The Next Big Thing, Chaos) and radio series (Ocean Planet, Learning from Nature, King John's Treasure). As founder of her own software company, she has developed many software systems, games and applications particularly in the area of fuzzy logic and decision-making under high uncertainty (including SimCoast, Flood Ranger).
Professor McGlade is a fellow of two learned societies (FLS and FRSA), has received international prizes, honours and honorary degrees in the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Monaco, Romania, Sweden, UK, the USA and various global and regional institutions and professional associations. She was the GSDI Global Citizen 2013.
Her educational degrees include BSc (Hons) Marine Biology, Biochemistry and Soil Science, University College of North Wales; PhD Aquatic Sciences and Zoology, University of Guelph, Canada; MA University of Cambridge.
Jay is an agronomist engineer with ten years of experience working with projects of sustainable agriculture for social inclusion in Brazil, France, Uganda, Thailand and India. Since 2020, he joined the TEEBAgriFood team, to collaborate in two work streams in Brazil, Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture, and Low Carbon Agriculture, helping to coordinate research with Ministries, research partners and national institutions.
He holds a Master of Social Science in Agriculture, Development and Society, carrying out different research on agricultural innovations upon participatory projects in urban vulnerable conditions. Currently, in his PhD research, he is mapping the policy-science interface around agriculture and environmental conservation in Brazil.
Job Titles:
- John S Bugas Professor of Economics, Department of Economics and Finance, Colorado State University
- Professor of Economics, Department of Economics and Finance, Colorado State University
Dr. Edward B. Barbier was formerly at the Environment Department, University of York, UK and previously served as Director of the London Environmental Economics Centre of the International Institute for Environment and Development and University College London.
Professor Barbier has over 25 years experience as an environmental and resource economist, working on natural resource and development issues as well as the interface between economics and ecology. He has served as a consultant and policy analyst for a variety of national, international and non-governmental agencies, including many UN organizations and the World Bank. Professor Barbier serves on the editorial boards of several leading economics and natural science journals, and he appears in the 4th edition of Who's Who in Economics.
He has authored over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, written or edited seventeen books and published in popular journals. Some of his well-known works include Blueprint for a Green Economy (with David Pearce and Anil Markandya, 1989), Natural Resources and Economic Development (2005), and the UN Environment Programme report A Global Green New Deal (2009).
Job Titles:
- Deputy Vice - Chancellor
- Fellow of the Society of Biology
- Professor of Environment and Science University of Essex
Professor Jules Pretty, OBE (UK) is an author and academic whose work focuses on sustainable agriculture and the relations between people and the land. He is based on the Essex and Suffolk border in England, living in the Suffolk wool village of Nayland and working at the University of Essex in Colchester. Jules was awarded an Order of the British Empire 2006 for services to sustainable agriculture.
Jules writes on the importance and relevance of nature for people. His most recent book, This Luminous Coast, won the New Angle Prize for Literature and the East Anglian Book of the Year award.
At the University of Essex, Jules is Deputy Vice-Chancellor. He is a member of the Green Exercise research team and his research focus is on green exercise, nature and health. His 2010 papers Dose of Nature (jointly written with Dr Jo Barton) and Top 100 Questions for Agriculture and Food (Pretty et al) received considerable coverage worldwide.
Jules is a Fellow of the Society of Biology and the Royal Society of Arts. He is a former Deputy-Chair of the government's Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment and served on advisory committees for a number of government departments and research councils. He was also a member of two Royal Society working groups that published Reaping the Benefits (2009) and People and the Planet (2012), and was a member of the UK government Foresight project on Global Food and Farming Futures (2011).
Julia Marton-Lefèvre stepped down as Director General of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) in January 2015, having served as the head of this unique global membership organization bringing together governments and non-governmental organisations, scientists and experts to seek a ‘'just world that values and conserves nature. As Director General she was also CEO of IUCN's Secretariat of over 1000 persons with offices in some 50 countries.
Prior to her eight years at IUCN, she was Rector of the UN-mandated University for Peace (UPEACE) with its main campus in Costa Rica. UPEACE is a graduate-level international university providing education, training and research on issues related to peace, conflict, and environmental security.
Earlier offices held by Ms. Marton-Lefèvre include the Executive Director of LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development) International, a programme established by The Rockefeller Foundation to bring together and train mid-career leaders from all parts of the world and from several sectors to improve their leadership skills around the issues of sustainable development.
Ms. Marton-Lefevre also served for many years as the Executive Director of the International Council for Science (ICSU) with its headquarters in Paris. ICSU is non-governmental membership organization of national academies of science and international unions of scientific disciplines.
Ms. Marton-Lefèvre has given hundreds of speeches throughout her career, written articles, op ed pieces, and contributed to several books. She has served on dozens of boards, councils and committees which include today, the Chair of the Executive Committee for the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Oxford University's James Martin School, The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Bioversity, the Turkana Basin Institute, and the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI).
In her efforts to bridge the gap between business and civil society, J. Marton-Lefèvre has served on the environmental advisory boards of the Dow Chemical Company the Coca Cola Company, Nespresso and on the board of the UN Global Compact. In 2015 she has been selected to chair an Advisory Board to the Sustainable Biomass Partnership, and is on committees advising Veolia and BNP Parisbas.
In recognition of her work at ICSU, Ms. Marton-Lefevre received the prestigious AAAS Award for International Cooperation in Science. She has also been honoured as a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur by the government of France, as a Chevalier dans l'Ordre de Saint-Charles by HSH Prince Albert of Monaco, the ProNatura award by the government of Hungary and the Presidential citation from the Republic of Korea. She was elected as a member of the World Academy of Art and Science and the World Future Council and as a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. As a policy fellow, selected by The Rockefeller Foundation she plans to begin a writing project during 2015 at the Foundation's Bellagio Center, and in 2016 she will be the Edward Bass Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Environment at Yale University.
Ms. Marton-Lefèvre was born in Hungary, educated in the United States and in France, and having lived in several continent s, considers herself a global citizen.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of the Sustainability Institute George Washington University
Kathleen Merrigan (USA), named one of Time Magazine's "Most Influential People in the World" in 2010, Dr. Merrigan brings to the university a diverse range of experience spanning nearly 30 years.
In 2009, she was nominated to serve as US Department of Agriculture deputy secretary by President Obama and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. During her four-year tenure at the USDA, she oversaw the daily operations of agency, leading the USDA's budget process, establishing the agency's priorities and monitoring progress, and driving its rulemaking process. Her accomplishments include creating and leading the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative to support local food systems; serving as a key architect of First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" campaign; and representing the United States before the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development.
Before joining the USDA, Dr. Merrigan served for nearly a decade as a faculty member and director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program at Tufts University. She has also held positions as a senior analyst for the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture and a staff member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry, where she wrote the law establishing national standards for organic food.
Dr. Merrigan earned a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin, and a B.A. from Williams College.
Khushboo has joined the unit as a Finance and Program assistant. Prior to joining the ESE Unit, Khush worked as a Finance assistant for the Finance Management unit in Ecosystem Division.
She started her UN career as an Intern at the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) in 2016 and later joined as a UNV in September 2017. Before she joined the UN, she worked at the private sector as a Finance and Administrative Assistant.
She received her BA in International business with a concentration in Finance and she is currently pursuing her master's in business administration at the United States International University- Africa. Outside of work, Khush enjoys travelling and meeting people from different cultures.
Job Titles:
- Head, European Commission Representation to Slovakia
Ladislav Miko was Director for Nature (2005 to 2010) in the Directorate-General for Environment of the European Commission. In this position, he held responsibility for the Directorate-General's work on nature and biodiversity, agriculture, soils and forests.
In the period May-December 2009 he held office of the Minister of the Environment of the Czech Republic in the country's caretaker government.
Before he started his career in the European Commission, in 2002 - 2005, he was Deputy Minister and Director General for Nature and Landscape Protection in the Ministry for Environment of the Czech Republic. In 2001-2002 he worked as a private consultant on the evaluation of EU-funded programmes in the Czech Republic. Prior to this, he worked for 8 years at the Czech Environmental Inspectorate, establishing the inspection system and standards in nature protection and CITES implementation.
His early career was as at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, where he became Deputy Director of the Institute of Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes.
He holds a doctorate in zoology and ecology. His research interests focused on zoology, soil zoology and ecology, and he has published widely in the scientific and popular press. He has also worked as a trainer, lecturer and court advisor. He is teaching ecology, soil biology and environmental sciences at Charles University and at the University of Life Sciences in Prague. Since 2010 he is also guest Professor of Antwerp University, teaching environment and society relations and ecological restoration courses.
Job Titles:
- Director, Economy Division - UNEP
- Economist
Ligia Noronha is an economist with over 25 years of international professional experience in promoting environmental sustainability.
She was appointed in April 2014 as Director of the UN Environment Programme (UN Environment), Division of Technology, Industry and Economics - now known as the Economy Division. The Division works to shift economies from brown to green with a strategic focus on decarbonizing, decoupling, and detoxifying. Ms. Noronha acts as Lead Director of three of the seven UN Environment's sub-programmes, namely climate change, chemicals and waste, and resource efficiency, and leads the emerging agenda on Environment/Pollution and Health.
Ms. Noronha's prior experience spans a wider-range of bodies in both the private and public sectors. Prior to joining UN Environment, she served in The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) as Executive Director (Research Coordination) and as Director of the Resources, Regulation and Global Security Division. Her work focused on conducting policy research on sustainable development in India and the Global South.
From 2005 to 2011 she served as Secretary of the Asian Energy Institute focusing on policy research on energy, resources, climate change and sustainable development issues. From 2005 to 2009, Ms. Noronha served as Coordinator of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnerships (REEEP), South Asia. In 2004, she was appointed Team Leader of Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. Ms. Noronha has served on the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India focusing on the linkages between the environment, climate and security and on several expert committees of the Government of India and Goa, including the Expert Committee on Climate Change, the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, and the Task Force on Natural Resources of the Commission on Centre State Relations.
In addition, she has been a member of the Planning Board of the Government of Goa and member of the Goa Jubilee Development Council, a member of Shell International's External Review Committee on Sustainability Reporting. Ms. Noronha served as a member of the Global Assurance Group of the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development project, which examined how the mining and minerals sector could contribute to the global transition to sustainable development. From 2009 to 2011, she was a Visiting Senior Fellow at the University of Sydney-based Centre for International Security Studies (CISS).
Ms. Noronha has published nationally and internationally on emerging issues relevant to energy and resource security, climate change, India's environmental and coastal policy, responsible mining, and resource federalism. She has also co-edited a number of books.
Ms. Noronha is an Indian national with a Masters in Economics from the University of Bombay, a Masters in Sea Use Law, Economics, and Policy, and a PhD from the London School of Economics.
Lucy Cockerell joined ESE-TEEB as an intern in September 2019. At TEEB, her role is to support the implementation of TEEB project activities by conducting research, assisting with the organisation of meetings and outreach events as well as supporting communication activities. She holds an MSc in Environment, Politics and Society from University College London (UCL) and a BSc in Economics, Business Administration and CSR from Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki. Lucy has international experience in conservation, CSR, working for an environmental NGO and volunteering in developing countries with wildlife conservation and environmental management. She also has experience in conducting and maintaining high-quality research projects, writing scientific reports and is presently publishing her MSc thesis in Marine Policy.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Aldersgate Group
- Executive Director of the Natural Capital Coalition
- Executive Director, Capitals Coalition
Mark Gough is the Executive Director of the Natural Capital Coalition, and led the collaboration that delivered the Natural Capital Protocol, a standardized global framework for including natural capital in decision making.
Mark previously worked for The Crown Estate, helping to develop its integrated vision and approach to value measurement.
Prior to this he was the Global Environmental Manager for the information company, Reed Elsevier. Mark is a Director of the Aldersgate Group, which brings together business, politics and civil society to drive action for a sustainable economy, and has sat on a number of national and international committees, including the Steering Committee of the United Nations CEO Water Mandate and the Board of the Alliance for Water Stewardship.
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Expert on Agroecology and Biodiversity
Maryam Rahmanian (Iran) is currently a consultant on agroecology and biodiversity at the FAO. She is committed to the participation of smallholder farmers and other members of civil society in both research and policy processes that affect their lives, as well as the interface between the two. Her field experience began in her native Iran. She has been a Research Associate at the Centre for Sustainable Development and Environment, an Iranian NGO, where she initiated and led a national programme on Participatory Plant Breeding. Working with small farmers and pastoralists as well as formally trained scientists and policy makers has given her a unique perspective on the need to find ways to bridge the knowledge systems of different social actors.
She was Vice Chair of the Steering Committee of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) for two terms, from its establishment in 2010 until 2015. The HLPE aims to improve the robustness of policy making by providing independent, evidence-based analysis and advice at the request of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). She is also a panel member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems where she contributes to the co-creation of knowledge on biodiversity and agroecology. She has been a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) and is a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Soil Forum.
Job Titles:
- Director of Directorate D ( Natural Capital ), DG Environment, European Commission
Humberto Delgado Rosa is the Director of Directorate D (Natural Capital), DG Environment, European Commission, since 16 November 2015. Previously and since January 2012 he served as Director for Mainstreaming Adaptation and Low Carbon Technology in DG Climate Action, EC. His current Directorate's mission is to protect, conserve and enhance the EU's natural capital in the areas of biodiversity, land and soil, forests and nutrient cycles.
Mr. Delgado Rosa has relevant experience in European and international environmental policy, particularly in biodiversity and climate change issues. Having served as Secretary of State for the Environment of the Portuguese Government from March 2005 to June 2011, he held responsibility in environmental issues in general, and particularly in biodiversity and nature conservation, climate change, environmental impact assessment, pollution prevention and control, air quality, noise, waste management, sustainable development. During the Portuguese Presidency of the EU in 2007, he was involved in the launch in Lisbon of the European Initiative on Business and Biodiversity and of the International Carbon Action Partnership, and he acted as EU lead negotiator for the UN Climate Change Conference, when the Bali Roadmap was approved. In 2005 H.D. Rosa was elected Member of the Portuguese Parliament for the Socialist Party, having interrupted his mandate to integrate the Government. Between 1995 and 2002 he was an advisor for environmental matters to the Prime-Minister of Portugal
Mr. Delgado Rosa was a member of several professional and scientific organizations, having served on the following boards: President, European Communities Biologists Association (1989-1991); General Secretary, Portuguese Biologists Association (1987-1995); President, Portuguese Society of Natural Sciences (2002-2005); founder and Vice-President, Portuguese Society of Herpetology (1993-2005); Member of the Board, European Society for Agriculture and Food Ethics (2003-2005); founder and General Assembly Chair, Portuguese Society of Environmental Ethics (2000-2005).
Mónica López has been working at UN Environment in Nairobi, Kenya for the past two years, managing projects on mainstreaming, natural capital accounting and ecosystem service valuation. Previously at UN Environment, she worked at the joint UN Development Programme- UN Environment Poverty Environment Initiative as Regional Advisor in the Africa Region. where she liaised directly with the country teams to develop and mainstream tools for sustainability and poverty reduction into national development planning.
Prior to the UN, she worked on Environmental and Food Security Framework Contracts for the European Commission and before that she worked mainly on community based natural resource management in Mozambique and various Latin American countries and pursued her postgraduate research on community participatory tools and education for sustainability. She holds a master's degree in foreign cooperation.
Job Titles:
- Founding Director of the Sustainable Food Trust
Patrick Holden is the founding director of the Sustainable Food Trust, a new organisation based in Bristol, UK, working internationally to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable food systems.
After studying biodynamic agriculture at Emerson College, he established a mixed community farm in Wales in 1973, producing at various times: wheat for flour production sold locally, carrots, and milk from an 85 cow Ayrshire dairy herd, now made into a single farm cheddar style cheese by his son Sam.
He was the founding chairman of British Organic Farmers in 1982, before joining the Soil Association, where he worked for nearly 20 years and during which time the organisation led the development of organic standards and the market for organic foods.
His advocacy for a major global transition to more sustainable food systems now entails international travel and regular broadcasts and talks at public events.
He is Patron of the UK Biodynamic Association and was awarded the CBE for services to organic farming in 2005.
Job Titles:
- Scientist
- Founder & CEO, GIST Impact
Pavan Sukhdev is a scientist by education, an international banker by training, and an environmental economist by passion. Years of work in sustainability and the invisible economics of nature led to his appointment to head the United Nations' "Green Economy Initiative " and to lead the G8+5 study TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity).
Pavan was awarded the McCluskey Fellowship (2011) by Yale University. At Yale, he taught a graduate course on TEEB and wrote his book "Corporation 2020-Transforming Business for Tomorrow's World". In this book, he advocates four changes in micro-policy and regulation that can rapidly transform today's corporation to deliver tomorrow's green and equitable "economy of permanence".
As Founder and CEO of GIST Impact, which delivers high-quality impact data and intelligence, Pavan works with corporations and investors, harnessing the power of impact economics and technology to discover the full value contribution a business makes to the world.
Pavan has served on the boards of Conservation International (CI), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), and the TEEB Advisory Board. His work has been recognised through several awards, including the Blue Planet Prize (2016) and the Tyler Prize (2020).
Job Titles:
- Professor, Department of Development, Agriculture and Society of the Federal Rural University of Rio De Janeiro
Peter H. May received his PhD in Resource Economics from Cornell University in 1986. Professor and former chairman of the Department of Development, Agriculture and Society-DDAS of the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro-UFRRJ, May has been Visiting Scholar at the Energy and Resources Group of the University of California-Berkeley, and at the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
He acted as Program Officer (Rural Poverty and Resources) at the Ford Foundation's Rio Office and as Forestry Officer (Non-Wood Forest Products) at the FAO in Rome. He also served as Executive Secretary of the Brazilian Agroforestry Network-REBRAF and is currently an Associate Director of Friends of the Earth-Brazilian Amazon.
Author and editor of 11 books in ecological economics and environmental policy, May founded and served as the first President of the Brazilian Society for Ecological Economics-ECOECO.
He has been engaged during 25 years of resident research, teaching and consultancy in Brazil in research, consultancy, project administration and training in the economics and management of natural resources for sustainable rural development. His specific areas of expertise include: environmental valuation, cost-benefit analysis, economic instruments, payment and compensation for ecosystem services, conservation finance, utilization and marketing of forest products, forest product certification, agroforestry systems and watershed management. Besides his experience in Brazil, he has also undertaken short-term assignments in Central America and the Caribbean, Peru and Thailand.
Rebeca Leonard joined the TEEB team in September 2019 and is based at the UNEP Regional Office for the Asia Pacific to support the TEEB programme implementation in Thailand and Malaysia. Rebeca is a law graduate with a postgraduate degree in Environment and Development with twenty years professional experience in development policy research and analysis. Her research work has centred on analysis of approaches for promoting sustainable livelihoods of low income communities in developing countries, focusing on agrarian reform and community and smallholder tenure of land and natural resources, and more recently on agri-food policy and initiatives to support men and women small-scale farmers and food producers, and measures to monitor and improve food safety. She has worked with various local and international NGOs in support of community based organisations, as well as bilateral and multilateral agencies in the South East Asia region, including Myanmar, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director Global Alliance for the Future of Food
- Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food
Ruth Richardson (Canada) is the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a unique coalition of foundations committed to leveraging their resources to help shift food and agriculture systems towards greater sustainability, security, and equity. At the core of the Global Alliance is a shared belief in the urgency of advancing sustainable global agriculture and food systems, and in the power of working together and with others to effect positive change. In this capacity Ruth serves on the Steering Committee of the TEEB for Food and Agriculture study led by the UNEP, and on the Advisory Committee of the Global Urban Food Policy Pact.
Alongside her role with the Global Alliance, Ruth runs Open Blue - a consulting company that works with a small number of clients who are deeply committed to developing powerful strategies to tackle some of the most pressing global, national, and local problems of our time. Prior to these endeavours, Ruth was the first Environment Program Director at the Metcalf Foundation that has been the cornerstone of innovative environmental policy funding in Ontario. Her tenure at the Metcalf Foundation included acting on the Advisory Committee of the City of Toronto, Board of Health, Toronto Food Strategy to develop an action plan to improve the food system of the Toronto city region.
As well, Ruth was the first Director of the Unilever Canada Foundation, as well as the Manger, Environmental and Corporate Affairs, working within a corporate environment to lead the company in philanthropy and community engagement. She was the founding Chair of the Canadian Environmental Grantmakers' Network spear-heading the first affinity group of its kind in the country turning an early conversation between a handful of funders into an international network of now over 50 members. And, she sat on the founding advisory committee of the Laidlaw Foundation's Children and Environmental Health program helping to initiate a key program on toxics reduction in Canada. She is also the Founder and past-Chair of Small Change Fund, a web-based vehicle for micro-philanthropy in Canada.
Job Titles:
- Coordinator
- TEEB Coordinator
Salman Hussain is the TEEB Coordinator and the Head a.i. of the for Ecosystem Services Economics Unit (ESEU) in UNEP. The Unit currently has 18 staff and consultants working on the core TEEB-ESEU mandate, i.e. shifting economic decision-making through recognizing, demonstrating and capturing the values of nature. The three main programmatic areas of work are on TEEB for Agriculture and Food (TEEBAgriFood), natural capital accounting through the application of SEEA Ecosystem Accounting, and a new work area on the interface between terrestrial and coastal ecosystems - TEEB4Coasts. Salman is the UNEP focal point for Action Track 3 in the Food Systems Summit on ‘Nature-positive food production' and also co-leads the UNEP Task Team on food systems. Salman was awarded his PhD in Ecological Economics from the University of Edinburgh; his PhD focused on the economics of the ‘greening' of industry, with a specific emphasis on eco-innovations and eco-labelling. Prior to joining UNEP in 2014 Salman was a researcher and the Programme Director of the Masters in Ecological Economics in the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh.
Job Titles:
- Programme Management Assistant
Sarah Cheroben has over 10 years of work experience in environmental field having been engaged in different aspects of programme design, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation. She has experience conducting Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and Environmental Audits (EAs) having worked with the private sector and interned with Kenya's national government Ministry of Environment and Mineral resources and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA-Kenya).
She joined UN family as a National United Nations Volunteer in 2010 where she worked for the UN Environment Congo Basin Project "The Mayombe Transboundary project" within the Terrestrial Unit, Ecosystem Division. Her work was later expanded to cover Great Apes Survival Partnership and EU funded Mau Forest Projects. Her work also included support in the implementation of programmes such as Climate Change Adaptation, GEF Climate Change Enabling Activities and the UN REDD.
Sarah holds a master's degree in Environmental Science (Agroforestry and Rural Development) and a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies from Kenyatta University, Kenya.
Job Titles:
- Director General, World Agroforestry Centre ( ICRAF )
has worked for over thirty years on issues at the agriculture/forestry interface. This experience has been gained in over 50 countries in the private sector (Shell), academia (University of Oxford), official development assistance (ODA/DFID) and research (CGIAR). He has a PhD in tree genetics from Cambridge University (UK) as well as an Honorary Professorship in Tropical Forestry at the University of Copenhagen. He has published over 100 research papers and has mentored dozens of young scientists in developing countries.
Tony is passionate about the transformative and profitable change that the private sector can bring to development having established partnerships with MARS Inc., DANONE, Syngenta, Boehringer and Unilever.
He also sits on various Boards and Investment committees including Global Restoration Council, ACTS, Livelihoods Fund and Tropical Landscape Finance Facility.
Will joined the TEEB Office in November 2018 to work on the natural capital accounting and valuation of ecosystem services and the implementation of the TEEB for Agriculture and Food projects. Will is a development and agricultural economist with a decade of experience in public policy, advising governments on national development and agricultural strategies, and environmental policy frameworks. Prior to joining UN Environment, he worked at the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the World Bank Group, the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Bank of England. Will holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Melbourne, a Master of Science in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics, and a Master of Science in Environmental Management from University of London.