YALE UNIVERSITY - Key Persons
Originally from China, Aaron Feng is a Master of Environmental Management Candidate at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He is conducting research on the environmental footprint of China's growing investment in East Africa and consulting an India-based nonprofit on financing rural solar pump irrigation. Prior to Yale, Aaron worked in Beijing as an investment analyst at the U.S.-China Green Fund, a thematic investing-focused private equity firm. In the future, Aaron hopes to integrate sustainable investing principles in Chinese infrastructure financing projects through stakeholder engagement.
Andrew Moffat is a graduate student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies where he studies energy economics and policy. He is also a research assistant at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. Much of his research in this role has involved energy and environmental policy in China and quantifying the outcomes of international climate commitments. Andrew spent the last five years living in Beijing, China. Before coming to Yale he worked at China Policy as a research manager where he provided energy, economic, and environmental policy analysis for private and public sector clients. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Connecticut where we was a New England Scholar. He graduated from Beijing Institute of Education's Chinese immersion program and is fluent in Mandarin.
In this conference he is organizing the case study "Canada: China's Overseas Investment in Energy Infrastructure".
Anna Finke is a Master of Forestry graduate student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies where she focuses on silviculture, forest restoration and forest ecology. Much of her professional work has been done on analyzing restoration success in China and in Germany. Currently she is also working for The Forests Dialogue where she manages communications and events. Before she came to Yale she worked for a year for the Center for International Forestry Research as a digital communications intern in Indonesia. Anna finished her undergrad studies in "International Forest Ecosystem Management" at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development in Germany in 2013.
At the conference she is responsible for general communications and the conference's website.
Job Titles:
- Climate Finance Director, Asia / Growald Family Fund
- Director of the Asia Program at the Growald Family Fund
Athena is currently director of the Asia program at the Growald Family Fund, a catalytic philanthropy investing in rapid transition to a clean energy future. She leads the development and implementation of the foundation's climate finance, energy transition and further the field initiatives.
Prior to joining the fund, Athena was Director of World Resources Institute's Center for Sustainable Finance program for over 8 years, where she led the program focused on shifting finance away from unsustainable activities towards low-carbon climate resilient development through data-driven and policy-actionable research. During her time at WRI, she led the development of the China sustainable finance program. She is one of the policy advisors to the China Council for International Development (CCICED) special policy study on China's role in global environmental governance.
Athena has many years of leadership and management experience in environment, development and natural resource governance in developing countries with a particular focus on climate change, clean energy and sustainable finance. She is a long-time policy advisor to the Philippine government's official climate change negotiating team at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). She has published widely on the issue of climate change, climate finance, clean energy, governance and human rights.
She holds a Global Master of Arts from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University and bachelor's and post-graduate degrees from the University of the Philippines and the Asian Institute of Management. Athena is from the Philippines and currently resides in Maryland, USA with her husband and 3 young adults.
Job Titles:
- Head of Monitoring, Save the Elephants
Benson holds a bachelor's (Kenya), master's (UK) and a doctorate (Netherlands) in conservation science. He has 23 years of professional experience and works to bridge conservation with community. He headed the rhino and conservation programs at Kenya Wildlife Service. Ben is well published, recently co-authoring Kenya's Wildlife migratory corridors and dispersal areas report - a Kenya Vision 2030 deliverable on environment and subsequently appointed by Government of Kenya to a Working Group championing the implementation of that report. He was in the synthesis team for Kenya's Wildlife Strategic Plan 2030. He Chaired the national Task Force on Consumptive Wildlife Utilization in 2018 that assessed and advised on the modalities of implementing the provisions of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act 2013 on consumptive wildlife utilization. He is the immediate outgoing Deputy Chair of of the IUCN-African Rhino Specialist Group. Currently, Dr Okita is the Director of Conservation Policy and Planning at Save The Elephants and the co-Chair of the IUCN SSC African Elephant Specialist Group. He was awarded by the President of Kenya the Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear (MBS) for distinguished service to the nation in 2008.
Daphne Yin is a first-year MEM student focused on climate change mitigation and sustainable land use, particularly on ways to finance them.
Daphne is organizing the case study session on the China-Brazil soybean trade, as well as helping out with some of the fundraising and publicity for the overall conference.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs
Dr. Erica Downs is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy focusing on Chinese energy markets and geopolitics.
Dr. Downs has a distinguished career in Eurasian energy policy with a focus on China. She has over 15 years of experience working in the public and non-profit sectors. She previously worked as a senior research scientist in the China Studies division of the CNA Corporation, a senior analyst in the Asia practice at Eurasia Group, a fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, an energy analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, and a lecturer at the Foreign Affairs College in Beijing, China. Dr. Downs has managed more than 50 publications in the areas of Chinese energy production and development and its geopolitical positioning. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. from Princeton University and a B.S. from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She is an honorary research fellow at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy at the University of Dundee.
Haneea is a graduate student pursuing a Master's degree in Environmental Management at the Yale school of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Hailing from Lahore, Pakistan Haneea has an undergraduate degree in Environmental Engineering from National University of Sciences and Technology. Prior to Yale, she'd been working in environmental consulting in Pakistan and also has experience of energy management in the Industrial sector. At F&ES she has been exploring the intersection between energy and the environment, and the promotion of clean energy policies for sustainability, along with building resilience in the developing world against climate change. Her current research aims at analyzing the carbon impact of the coal power plants under the China Pakistan Economic corridor in Pakistan and looking at the economic feasibility of these energy expansion plans against other alternate forms of energy.
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow of the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School
- Visiting Lecturer in Law and Senior Fellow in Law, Paul Tsai China Center
Jamie Horsley is a Visiting Lecturer in Law and Senior Fellow of the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School. Her project work and research revolve primarily around issues of administrative law, governance and regulatory reform, including promoting government transparency, public participation and government accountability. She was formerly Executive Director of the Yale China Law Center.
Prior to joining Yale, she was a partner in the international law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Commercial Attaché in the U.S. Embassies in Beijing and Manila; Vice President of Motorola International, Inc.; and a consultant to The Carter Center's China Village Elections Project. She holds a B.A. from Stanford University, an M.A. in Chinese Studies from the University of Michigan, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a Diploma in Chinese Law from the University of East Asia. She was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for 2015-16.
Jiani is a candidate for the Master of Environmental Science at Yale FES, focusing on sustainability, urban design and industrial ecology. This spring she is participating in a sustainable marketing strategic case study targeting multiple B2B companies at the Yale School of Management. As research assistant at Yale Urban Ecology and Design Lab, Jiani is involved in the HUD 1 Billion National Disaster Resilience Competition which is cooperating with stockholders including UConn CIRCA, private housing firms, consulting companies, and government officials in Connecticut.
Jiani is working on the design of panel 3 and the content of the conference brochure.
Jie Pan is a second year MEM student at FES. At F&ES, her academic interest is on industrial ecology and the nexus of business and natural resources management. Over the summer, she worked as an EDF Climate Corps Fellow at the Environment Team of TD Bank in New York City.
Jie worked for the Ministry of Environment Protection in China from 2009-2010 as a project officer overseeing the implementation of a World Bank project to phase out two persistent organic termiticides. Early 2011, Jie relocated to Washington DC to work as a Junior Professional Associate for the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank. There she reviewed project proposals from more than 50 developing countries covering almost all aspects of chemicals pollution reduction and assisted partner UN agencies in developing some of them. Before attending Yale, she worked as an international consultant for United Nations Industrial Development Organization, developing projects to inventory the production, application, and emission of 11 persistent organic pollutants under the Stockholm Convention.
She is the coordinator for organizing the Yale-China Symposium, overseeing a series of tasks including fund raising, conference program design, and communication.
Kaiyang Xu is a Master of Environmental Management candidate at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. At FES, he raised his interest in energy system and energy policies and their relationships with the environment and climate. Prior to attending to Yale, he served as a research assistant in forestry ecosystem research and obtained his BS degree in both Biological Science and Economics at The Ohio State University.
In this conference he is responsible for coordinating "Asia: Hydro Development in the Amur-Heilong River Basin" to bring attention to the business relations between Russia and China.
Kate Logan is a second-year Master of Environmental Management candidate at Yale F&ES. She was previously outreach director at the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), a Beijing-based environmental NGO, where she focused on integrating transparency and stakeholder participation into corporations' supply chain environmental management. Prior to IPE, she was a Princeton-in-Asia fellow on the China environmental law & governance program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Kate is a co-founder of the Beijing Energy Network's podcast, Environment China, and is an avid distance and trail runner.
Leo is currently an economics master student at the Yale Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. His main research area is the role of microfinance in promoting the agriculture technology adoption in less developed countries, and he is now working on a paper that studies how the access to microfinance contributes to the adoption of technologies in rural Bangladesh. Apart from that, he is a big fan of K-Pop and DC Comics, and he also likes hiking and horse riding in his free time.
Lili Pike is a freelance journalist covering climate change. She is currently the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Fellow at the NYU Journalism Institute where she is getting her MA in Science, Health, and Environmental Journalism. Previously, she was a staff writer for China Dialogue and an executive producer of the Beijing Energy Network's podcast Environment China. She graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in Social Studies, a minor in Energy & Environment, and a citation in Mandarin Chinese.
Pat Wiedorn is an MA Student at the Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he is studying international development. Pat graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2011 and served as a submarine officer for five years before joining the Peace Corps. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, he taught fish farming to rural farmers in Northern Zambia.
Paul is a candidate of Master of Environmental Management, 2020, specializing in Business & Environment, and Ecosystems Management. He focuses on mitigation of infrastructure development effects on environmental resources. He has 12 years' professional experience in conservation planning and project management. Before joining Yale, Paul coordinated the USAID/Uganda Biodiversity Trust Fund Project implemented by Wildlife Conservation Society, Uganda. Over his career, Paul managed projects funded by GEF, UNDP, UNEP and DFID. He earned a BSc. Forestry from Makerere University, Kampala and a post graduate certificate in Conflict and Development, Open University UK.
Qingyang Liu is a first year Master of Environmental Management candidate pursuing an Energy and the Environment specialization with a focus on carbon accounting and clean energy finance. Prior to Yale, she just obtained her undergraduate degree in geography with a concentration on environment and sustainability at the University of British Columbia. She hopes to pursue a career in corporate social responsibility and renewable development.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer, Leiden University
Ruben Gonzalez-Vicente is a lecturer at Leiden University. His research interests include ‘South-South' development cooperation, China's international relations (with a specific interest on China's engagement in Latin America and the Caribbean), the role of natural resources in processes of development, and the transformation of politics and international relations under late capitalism. His work has been published in journals such as Review of International Political Economy, Political Geography, Globalizations, The China Quarterly and Latin American Politics and Society. Ruben received his PhD from Cambridge in 2012, and worked as an assistant professor in City University of Hong Kong between 2012 and 2016 before moving to Leiden.
Job Titles:
- Independent Consultant on the Themes of Corporate Accountability and Biodiversity Governance
Stephanie leads negotiations with Chinese enterprises to promote higher environmental and social standards in Chinese hydropower projects around the world. Her last report on this subject, ‘Watered Down', was published by International Rivers in November 2019.
Stephanie is the former China Program Director for International Rivers. She has worked for the Green Jobs Initiative at the International Labor Organization Office in Beijing, as a trade commissioner at the Embassy of Canada to China, and as program director for local NGOs in Geneva and in Beijing. She has an M.A. in East Asian Studies from Columbia University and is professionally fluent in French, Mandarin, Spanish and English. She worked in China for 8 years and has been based in Costa Rica since 2018.
Tiffany Chan is an M.A. student at Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. She is interested in energy and infrastructure in Central Asia and their geopolitical implications. Prior to joining the Jackson Institute, she worked at an interdisciplinary center at Harvard that researches China's climate change issues and provides science-based policy advice to Chinese practitioners.
Wanyu Sung is a first year Master of Environmental Management candidate at Yale FES. Prior to Yale, she worked at Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan, where she was responsible for organizing trade missions for Taiwan green manufacturers to overseas markets, and helped local companies identifying potential strategic partners. Wanyu is responsible for logistics and panel 2.
Yaping Cheng is a second-year master's student at Yale University focusing on the intersection of business and environment. She has a background in geospatial and financial analysis. She spent her last summer with Goldman Sachs working on evaluating green initiatives and energy efficiency programs. Prior to Yale, Yaping worked as buyer management specialist at Alibaba.com. She has also interned at Nokia Siemens Networks, Coca-Cola, and has taught in rural China as a Teach For China fellow. She helps with design and outreach for both Panel I and II.
Yinong Sun is a first year Mater of Environmental Science student at Yale FES, with focus on climate change, energy and industrial sustainability. Previously, she studied atmospheric physics at Peking University, China, and conducted independent research in air pollution and climate policy. Yinong works on the coordination of the conference and in the communications team.
Yiyuan Jasmine Qin is a Master of Environmental Management Candidate at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she is a Berkley Conservation Scholar and Tropical Resource Institute Fellow, working on a wide range of issues on water management, conservation, and sustainable urbanization in an international context. Jasmine coordinates the Latin America case study and is the photographer and designer for visual communications of the conference.
Zhinan Chen is a second-year Master of Environmental Management candidate at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is interested in understanding the global energy transition from the perspectives of geopolitics, anthropology, economics, and environmental justice. Prior to Yale, she received her Bachelor of Arts in Arabic and economics from Peking University in China. Zhinan most recently interned with the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution, where she researched electric vehicle deployment and its impact on oil demand. Zhinan is a language enthusiast and nature lover.