Aphinya Siranart is the Head of Exploration at UNDP Accelerator Labs in Thailand. She is responsible for providing technical advice to different stakeholders (e.g. government, academia, private sector, etc.) on integrating innovation and sustainability into their organizational strategies, developing innovative solutions for inclusive business and private social investment, and supporting companies to measure and manage their impact.
Aphinya is especially interested in business model innovation for sustainability and has worked extensively on exploring innovative solutions and alternative financing models to address development challenges.
Aphinya holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Columbia University, a Master of Laws (LLM) from University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Aphinya Siranart
Aphinya Siranart
Dagmar Zwebe
Dagmar Zwebe
Dagmar Zwebe is the Country Representative for the GGGI Uganda program. Dagmar is working closely together with the team in Uganda to support all stakeholders in achieving socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable and resource efficient green growth in Uganda.
She has a strong management background, and with a lot of Renewable Energy, Climate Change and gender and social inclusion experience specifically in the fields of the Green Climate Fund, Energy, Special Economic Zones, Knowledge and Capacity Development, and Communication.
Before joining GGGI, Dagmar was a Renewable Energy Sector Leader managing the quality and development of the Renewable Energy portfolio of SNV Vietnam existing out of multiple projects in the field of small and medium scale biogas, cookstoves, gasifiers and a number of other mainly biomass related projects and consultancies. Furthermore, she has also served at the Team Leader for a multi country (Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam) ADB funded Climate Change Mitigation project focusing on gender inclusion in mitigation initiatives.
Dagmar feels very passionate about supporting young and upcoming individuals, either development professionals or entrepreneurs, giving them opportunities that others have given her in the beginning of her career (and still do). She mentors a number of both Ugandan and international individuals that she believes in, and tries to open doors for them where possible so they can advance their career, business or grow as a person.
Dagmar holds two MSc degrees; an Industrial Engineering and Management degree, from the University of Twente, the Netherlands and a Masters from SOAS School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London on Poverty Reduction; Policy and Practice with a specialization in Development Management.
Merriska Augustine
Merriska Augustine
Merriska is passionate about designing business & innovation with impact. Currently, she is running META Innovation Lab with a mission to create a safe space for leaders and organizations in exploring innovation and experimenting with new ideas through human-centered design. From 2019, she and her team has facilitated more than 100+ innovation workshops and reached 6700+ participants.
Her almost 10 years of work experience is all about social innovation & entrepreneurship, management consultant, and brand management. She led innovation & research projects for international government agencies, corporates, and NGOs. She also actively supports the entrepreneurship ecosystem by contributing to 40+ events as a mentor, speaker, facilitator, and judge around entrepreneurship and innovation programs. To date, she has provided 30+ consultations to startups and social enterprises in various sectors.
Back in 2016, she was selected as one of the fellows in Global Social Impact House by the University of Pennsylvania, when the workshop was facilitated by the IDEO Team. From that moment she believes that design thinking can create a positive change in the world. Stalk her here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/augustinemerriska/
Obakeng Segwagwe
Obakeng Segwagwe
Obakeng Segwagwe
Mr Obakeng Segwagwe has been with the Botswana Innovation Hub for the past 5 years as the Programmes Manager for the First Steps Venture Centre program popularly known as FSVC, the flagship technology entrepreneurship development program established by the Government of Botswana
Before joining the Innovation Hub, Mr Segwagwe was with the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) as a Senior Manager. Driven by his passion for developing and growing entrepreneurship sector in Botswana and his hardworking ethics, he had worked for a period of 10 years occupying different managerial roles at LEA. His major role was to contribute to initiating, planning and developing policies and strategies for the divisional functions of the business services provided by LEA within the SME policy strategy in his National Branch Network Division.
Mr. Segwagwe has been a mentor and a coach in various programmes such as SLUSH, Female in Bio Sciences & SeedStars World. He has a total of 15 years working directly with SMMEs.Mr Segwagwe attained his Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Botswana in 2007.
Prof. Dawn Lyken-Segosebe
Prof. Dawn Lyken-Segosebe
Dawn Lyken-Segosebe is a Lecturer in the Department of Business, Management and Entrepreneurship at the Botswana International University of Science and Technology. She holds a Ph.D. in Leadership and Policy Studies and M.A. in Economics, both from Vanderbilt University, USA.
Dawn has extensive teaching experiences in the Caribbean, Southern Africa, the Middle East, and the USA. She also coordinates a training course on "Starting Your Business" for aspiring and practicing entrepreneurs. She teaches Developing a Strategic Business Plan, Organizational Design and Change, Organizational Leadership and Engineering Economics to undergraduates. Her research interests include academic entrepreneurship, the scholarly and teaching role performance of college and university faculty, technology business incubation, and colleges and universities as organizations.
Andrew Kazilimani
Andrew Kazilimani
Andrew Kazilimani
Mr Andrew Kazilimani is the Chief Executive Officer for the National Advisory Board for Impact Investment in Zambia (NABII). The National Advisory Board for Impact Investment is an organisation with corporate mandate to catalyse impact investment in Zambia. Andrew joined the NABII in 2020.
He is a professional management consultant with a Master of Science in Project Management from Bolton University in the United Kingdom. He also holds a post graduate diploma in management, a diploma in project management from Cambridge and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Zambia. Andrew is also an accredited practitioner in a controlled environment PRINCEII project, practitioner in change management and a benefits management practitioner. He has extensive experiences in strategic management, project management and corporate change management.
Prior to joining the NABII, Andrew was Managing Partner for an organisation whose mandate was to help organisations to set up and optimise operations through effective strategic management, change and project management.
He has worked for the Zambia Revenue Authority as Director in charge of projects through the implementation of strategy at corporate level. Andrew has set up operations for ZRA for projects and change management in the institution. He has further worked in the financial sector where he also set up project management operations for some banks and implemented growth strategies and strategic operations for the same banks. He has over 25 years’ experience in working in the financial and quasi government institutions.
Ato Ulzen Appiah
Ato Ulzen Appiah
Ato Ulzen-Appiah is a (social) entrepreneur, consultant, social media influencer and blogger. He studied at MIT and Stanford in Civil Engineering and Management disciplines.
He is the Executive Director of the GhanaThink Foundation, a social enterprise which mobilizes & organizes talent. GhanaThink Foundation implements various programs in networking, mentoring, volunteering and training targeting youth. Ato’s main focus areas are youth, technology and agriculture. On top of his work at GhanaThink, he has consulted for various organizations, including the International Trade Centre and the World Bank. He is a Program Officer at the Kosmos Innovation Center (run by DAI Global for Kosmos Energy), mentoring and coaching incubated startups, amongst other responsibilities.
Prior to this, he worked at Rancard as product manager, building new revenue services for its platform. He worked at Google as a program manager building sustainable technology communities in Africa. Ato has given speeches at various international forums, including the World Bank Diaspora Trade Forum, African Business Conference at Harvard, and the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town. He is a member of the Global Shapers Alumni, part of the World Economic Forum community. He co-founded Museke.com - an African music website and blogs at mightyafrican.blogspot.com
Benedikta Atika
Benedikta Atika
Atika is the Impact Investment Lead at ANGIN. She is in charge of sourcing investment opportunities towards social enterprises and exploring impact investment scheme with clients. Atika has also involved in several research projects and delivering training with topics of social enterprises, angel investing, and gender lens investing.
Prior to ANGIN, she had worked in the corporate finance and capital market for 3 years, before moved to the SME development and impact space. In 2018, she worked with Solve Education!, an education technology organisation, and Wattblock, a Sydney-based clean energy startup in 2018. She earned a master’s degree in Business Strategy and Social Enterprises from the University of New South Wales, Australia, being funded by Australia Awards long-term scholarship from DFAT.
Chrispine Botha
Chrispine Botha
Chrispine Botha is a Conservation Enterprise Development Specialist at TechnoServe for the USAID funded Restoring Fisheries for Sustainable Livelihoods (REFRESH) project in Malawi. He is the subject matter expert and advisor to the Chief of Party in conservation enterprises and sustainable livelihoods; investment development and networking; business and entrepreneurship development; and business innovation and research. Chrispine leads project activities/results around the commercialization of conservation enterprises to counter unsustainable fishing. He provides leadership in the design, development and implementation of conservation enterprise development and sustainable livelihoods.
Before joining TechnoServe, Chrispine was the Country Lead at United Nations World Food Programme for the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Business Network, where he convened and facilitated a private sector engagement platform for scaling up business solutions to global nutrition challenges. In this role, Chrispine interacted with a diverse pool of inclusive business models designed to address malnutrition. Among other international NGOs, Chrispine has worked with Save the Children, the World Fish Center, Concern Worldwide and Project Concern International. His experience and interest include entrepreneurship, climate change/biodiversity conservation, women empowerment & gender equality, social protection, nutrition, sustainable livelihoods and resilience.
Chrispine holds an Advanced Master of Globalization and Development from the Institute of Development Policy and Management at the University of Antwerp, Belgium and is currently studying for an MBA. His work is driven by his passion to use sustainable and inclusive business solutions to create a shared value and address multifaceted poverty and inequality. Chrispine is excited to see that his work has contributed to increased private sector engagement in fisheries biodiversity conservation and nutrition.
Christopher Masara
Christopher Masara
Christopher Masara
Christopher, is a Private Sector Development Specialist with more than 16 years of experience in east and southern African region. Currently, he is working as a Senior Consultant in Malawi, for a GIZ and EU co-funded Private Sector Development Programme (KULIMA-MIERA), managing a portfolio of interventions in the rice, macadamia and chili/paprika value chains. Christopher has also provided consultancy services in designing and implementing of sustainable non-timber forests products and commercial agriculture enterprises programmes that were funded by a number of agencies that include, but, are not limited to GIZ, EU, USAID, DFID and DANIDA.
Christopher’s interest includes, understanding how people learn to use sustainable entrepreneurship skills, an area where, he has contributed by documenting some peer reviewed papers and also provided voluntary advisory services by sitting on boards of Zimbabwean non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as the Partner for Integrated and Development (pigad) and Schools and Environmental Permaculture (SCOPE). Christopher, have also tutored a Rhodes University, Regional certificate in Environmental and Sustainability Education which was offered to Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) member states.
Christopher, holds a full thesis Masters in Environmental Education from Rhodes University, South Africa and half thesis Masters in Agribusiness from Africa University, Zimbabwe.
Cuthbert Malind
Cuthbert Malind
Cuthbert Malind- B. Eng (Hons), FCCA (UK), ASIP/CFA is a Continental award-winning entrepreneur as well as a venture and growth capital practitioner. He has over 25 years’ work and consulting experience backed by a strong track record of success in private equity and venture capital advisory and fund management in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia.
Cuthbert is a Chairman and member of Investment Committees of various investment funds in Southern Africa. He obtained expert knowledge in agriculture and food processing value chains, retail and franchising, financial services, education, gemstone and quarry mining, transportation and logistics, medical, packaging, and telecommunications industries. In addition, he has extensive experiences operating in international settings, having worked in England, South Africa, United States, Zambia and Botswana. Proven leader equipped with advanced business acumen as well as excellent interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills, he has been an entrepreneur for over 15 years and assisted other in scaling up financially and providing business services to enterprises from retail operation to a multi—location enterprises across the country. He holds non-executive director positions in numerous companies across Southern and East Africa over the last 20 years in the meanwhile built a well-connected private and public sector network in Zambia and Southern Africa in general. Cuthbert is well respected and a leading subject matter expert in the investment arena.
David Beckstead
David Beckstead
David is originally from Ottawa, Canada, and has lived in Asia for thirteen years, the last six of which have been in Thailand. He is a Counsel at the law firm Chandler MHM, based in Bangkok, where he regularly advises clients operating on energy and infrastructure projects. Much of David’s work focuses on renewable energy, including both small- and large-scale solar and wind power deals.
David has served as a director on the Thai-Canadian Chamber of Commerce for the past four years, two of which he served as a Vice-President. In his free time, he enjoys reading, cooking, and spending time with his wife, Sara, and dog, Stevie.
Dr. Ari Margiono
Dr. Ari Margiono
Dr. Ari Margiono
Ari Margiono is the head of the Center for Innovation, Design, and Entrepreneurship Research at Binus University – International in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Center provides entrepreneurship education and pre-incubation facilities for undergraduate students. The Center also conducts entrepreneurship research, particularly research into social entrepreneurship and social innovation in Indonesia.
Ari received a PhD in Management (Entrepreneurship) from Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, researching into the business models of social enterprises; and he has been publishing a number of research on social entrepreneurship and digital transformation topics in reputable international journals.
Dr. Prasad Modak
Dr. Prasad Modak
Prasad Modak holds B Tech (Civil Engg), M Tech (Environmental Science and Engg) from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and Doctor of Engg (Environmental Engg) from Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok.
Dr Modak was a Professor at Centre for Environmental Science & Engineering and Professor (Adjunct) at the Center for Technology Alternatives in Rural Areas (CTARA) at IIT Bombay.
He is currently the Executive President of Environmental Management Centre LLP and Director of Ekonnect Knowledge Foundation.
Dr Modak has worked with almost all key UN, multi-lateral and bi-lateral developmental institutions in the world. These include the World Bank, IFC, Asian Development Bank, European Investment Bank, UNEP, UNIDO, UNDP etc and intergovernmental organizations such as the Asian Productivity Organization, Tokyo. Apart from Government of India and various State Governments, Dr Modak’s advice is sought by Governments of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Mauritius, Thailand and Vietnam.
Dr Modak is currently member of Indian Resources Panel at MoEFCC and Member of Task Force on Sustainable Public Procurement at the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. He is a member of the 3R expert committee of UNCRD as well as a member of the advisory committee of the Circular Economy Club and an Ambassador to the Circular Economy Institute.
Dr Modak has published several books on environmental management that include . “EIA for Developing Countries” for UN University and “Environmental Management Towards Sustainability” with CRC Press. Currently he is authoring a book on “Practicing Circular Economy” with CRC Press that should be available in the market by June 2021.
Dr. Rachna Arora
Dr. Rachna Arora
Dr. Rachna Arora
Dr. Rachna Arora is working as a Team Leader in the Resource Efficiency project of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH funded by the European Union on issues related to fostering resource efficiency and secondary resource utilization. She is also working as a Team Leader on the GIZ Circular Economy solutions project to prevent Marine litter, financed by the German Ministry of Environment, Nature conservation. She has been working with GIZ since last 13 years under the bilateral projects, combi-finance projects of the European Commission and the partnership projects with the private sector with relevant Ministries and government departments. She has been supporting the Government of India (GoI) on policy formulation and its implementation. She is a TEDx speaker on Circular Economy.
She holds a doctorate degree in environmental chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee. She was a member of the Inter-departmental committee set up by Niti Aayog (Policy think tank, GoI) on Resource Efficiency strategy and Research and Development (R&D) committee set up by the Ministry of Information Technology and Communication (MeiTY), GoI on electronic waste management. She is also a working group member of the FICCI Circular Economy Group constituted in 2017 to support industry research and dialogues on Circular Economy.
Dr. Sunita Purushottam
Dr. Sunita Purushottam
Dr. Purushottam has over 20 years of sustainability strategy and environmental consultancy experience in the areas of environmental impact assessment; air pollution modelling and meteorology; GHG emissions inventory and carbon offsets; carbon neutrality strategy; waste management strategy; and water risk, technology solutions for sustainability and CSR. She is a physics postgraduate with PhD in environmental science and engineering.
Sunita has worked with regulatory bodies in UK and India in various infrastructure development projects, city planning and construction projects covering environmental impacts and mitigation. She is well versed with various reporting/disclosure frameworks such as SASB, GRI, CDP and GRESB and Integrated Reporting. She has helped large companies globally to streamline their sustainability strategy through a systematic process-oriented approach and enabled the selection of right tools for systematic sustainability disclosure management. She is well versed with the use of technology in Sustainability management and has been associated with a startup for creation of a platform on Sustainability data management. She has helped companies develop an understanding of ESG risks and the importance of embedding in enterprise risk management systems.
Sunita has executed over fifty engagements in sustainable business strategy, sustainable development and corporate social responsibility across the UK, United States, Mexico, South Africa and India. She has a deep understanding of Climate Change Science and adaptation and has driven sustainability strategies for companies in the construction, real estate, banking, telecom, automotive, steel and IT sectors.
During her career spanning 20+ years, she has served in Infosys, SENES Consultants and Casella Stanger; and as founding member of a startup in the area of Sustainability Tech Solutions. She has authored many white papers on Sustainability and is a speaker in national and international forums.
In her spare time, Sunita likes to bake, read, or tend to her garden. She is a perpetual cleaner and nature lover.
Eluphy Banda Nyirenda
Eluphy Banda Nyirenda
Eluphy serves as a Private Sector Team Leader at USAID, Malawi. She is an Economist and Policy Adviser with 15 years’ experience in the fields of private sector development, development economics and policy analysis. Ms. Nyirenda has worked extensively across the Malawi Government and USAID/Malawi. Eluphy joined USAID/Malawi as a Policy and Partnerships Specialist, and later promoted to lead the Malawi missions’ efforts to strengthen its strategic focus on Private Sector Engagement, as such she is currently serving as a Mission's Private Sector Team Leader. In her current capacity, Eluphy is responsible for providing strategic leadership to help the mission integrate the Private Sector across the mission’s portfolio of investments, in fulfillment of the 2020 - 2025 Country Development Corporation Strategy. She is responsible for coordinating and guiding mission efforts, aimed at identifying market-based solutions that would enhance sustainable development solutions in Malawi.
Prior to joining USAID, Eluphy worked as a Chief Economist to Malawi's Ministries of Industry, Trade, Agriculture and Food Security. She supported the Government of Malawi in bilateral trade negotiations, designing of private sector related projects and implementation frameworks that were funded through the WTO/ITC, World Bank, EU.
Eluphy holds a Masters in Economics and Policy Management and Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics.
Hastings Nhlane
Hastings Nhlane
Hastings is an Impact Investment enthusiast. He has spent the past 8 years managing impact investment programs in the areas of SME financing, access to markets and skills development. He is the Founder of ACADES Malawi, a social enterprise that is investing in youth and smallholder farmers through financing, provision of markets and skills development. ACADES has organized over 10,000 youth in agribusiness, provided financing through input loans to over 3,000 youth farmers and provided profitable markets to over 3,000 farmers and trained over 7,000 youth in agribusiness.
Hastings has also coordinated several entrepreneurship acceleration programs in Malawi and has lead/participated in several policy conversations in the areas of employment creation, entrepreneurship, youth economic empowerment and gender lens investing. He is a recipient of Planning for Impact Award by Segal Family Foundation which is given to local change makers for implementing high community impact programs. He is also a 2020 Africa Visionary Fellow under Africa Visionary Fellowship which is a community of African leaders that are providing sustainable solutions to local challenges.
Jackie Kitiibwa
Jackie Kitiibwa
Jackie Kitiibwa is the Head of Business Environment at FSD Uganda, working with regulators, policy makers and industry associations to formulate and enhance policies, laws, regulations and processes that enable and support inclusive financial services.
Jackie is a financial sector specialist with over 15 years’ experience in payments and market infrastructure. She was the Programme Manager, Payment Systems and Financial Inclusion at the Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI), developing and implementing capacity building programmes in 14 countries. Prior to that, she was Head of the Central Securities Depository (CSD) at the Bank of Uganda (BOU).
Through her work, Jackie has supported countries in the region to formulate, develop and implement financial services policies, standards and technologies. She has also participated in regional payment systems harmonisation initiatives including the review and implementation of regional legal frameworks, oversight benchmarks and technical specifications
Jackie holds a Master’s Degree in Economics and Financial Economics from the University of Nottingham, UK and a Bachelor of Statistics from Makerere University Kampala, Uganda.
Namita Vikas
Namita Vikas
Namita Vikas
Namita Vikas is the Founder and Managing Partner, auctusESG LLP & Global Board Member of Climate Bonds Initiative, UK. She is a senior business leader with 30 years of diverse global experience in climate change strategy and sustainability across sectors including Banking, Technology & FMCG.
Namita comes with an illustrious experience Sustainable Finance, ESG Risk Management, Climate Strategy and Disclosures. Ranked one of the “Leading Women in Business Sustainability” by the prestigious WBCSD, she was also globally recognized as “Sustainability Leader of the Year” by Ethical Corporation, UK.
Namita has introduced Responsible Banking to India, raised over USD 1 billion capital and credit lines towards mainstream green finance and issued India’s 1st Green Bond in 2015. She is one of the architects of UN Principles for Responsible Banking and served as Chairperson and member of global advisory bodies like United Nations Environment Program- Finance Initiative (UNEPFI), United Nations Natural Capital Finance Alliance and International Capital Markets Association. She is a prominent speaker at UN General Assembly and G-20 on Climate risks and sustainable finance.
Sepo Sitali
Sepo Sitali
Sepo Sitali
Sepo is a technical adviser in a GIZ regional programme that promotes mainstreaming of climate change in the management of transboundary protected areas in the SADC region. She is responsible for the dissemination of knowledge on climate-smart agriculture and climate-sensitive natural resource management and supporting resource mobilisation initiatives in selected Trans-frontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs). She has extensive experience in climate smart agriculture, access to climate finance, natural resources management, and community development.
Sepo holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Environmental Engineering and a Master’s in Energy and Environment from the University of Leeds, UK.
Stephanie Arrowsmith
Stephanie Arrowsmith
Stephanie Arrowsmith is the co-founder of Impact Hub Jakarta, a coworking innovation hub for purpose-driven individuals and entrepreneurs in Indonesia’s capital city, which is part of a global network of 100+ cities around the world. She also curated the first ASEAN Conference on Social Entrepreneurship, fostering partnerships among countries and sectors towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
With a background in international development, cross-sector partnerships and systems thinking, Stephanie has been active in strengthening support for social entrepreneurship in the Asia-Pacific region and is passionate about designing collaborative networks to catalyse action towards social and environmental justice. She is a proud member of changemaking communities including Impact Collective, Techstars APAC, DSIL & an Enspiral.
Surawat (Sam) Promyotin
Surawat (Sam) Promyotin
Surawat (Sam) Promyotin
Surawat (Sam) Promyotin is Director of the Sustainability and Entrepreneurship Center at the Sasin School of Management, Executive Director of Bangkok Venture Club, and former Board Member of the Thai Venture Capital Association. Managing Director of Sprint (DeepTech Accelerator) and Lead Instructor/Mentor for UTC MedVentures (Medtech Incubator)
He has more than 20 years experience as a high-technology executive in both Silicon Valley and Thailand. Along the way, he managed a $100M global semiconductor product line, Co-Founded Groupon Thailand, and won the global Sales Director award at a 27-country MNC.
He has advised, taught, and mentored at startup accelerators such as Sprint, DVA, Spark, KMUTT Hatch, Plug N Play, Topica Founder Institue, DTAC Accelerate, True Incube, and MIST, and in corporate innovation projects at SCG, Toyota, Mitr Phol, Bank of Thailand, Kubota, PTT, TMB, Tesco Lotus, CIMB, and more.
He graduated from UC Berkeley with a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and from Sasin Chulalongkorn Graduate Institute of Business Administration with an Executive MBA.
Wittawat Lamsam
Wittawat Lamsam
Wittawat Lamsam
Mr.Wittawat Lamsam has 19 years of experience in SME promotion. He is currently the Director of the International Cooperation Department at the Office of SMEs Promotion (OSMEP), Thailand, with main responsibilities to create and maintain bilateral and multilateral cooperation between OSMEP and foreign counterparts to promote Thai SMEs. He represents the OSMEP in various international forums, strengthening corporation with foreign dialogue partners to help SMEs tap on global opportunities, including ASEAN+8 markets. In addition, he works to deepen OSMEP’s engagement with foreign chambers of commerce in Thailand to create gateways for Thai SMEs. As a policy maker, he is responsible in making recommendations to support SME policy formulation with reference to international good practices.
He previously worked in the Project Administration and Coordination Department, OSMEP for 3 years to implement various schemes for the Office of the Royal Development Projects Board as well as One Tambon One Product (OTOP). During 2008-2012, he served as a supporting team for the Minister of Industry, Minister of Finance, Minister of Interior, and Minister of Energy, respectively.
Yame Nkgowe
Yame Nkgowe
Yame Nkgowe is the Founder of Sustainable Cities Africa, a Sustainable City Strategy Service Firm promoting an African context to integrated measurable urban development frameworks.
Yame has strong business management acumen, with over 12 years leading professional service oriented entities through development, operation, and optimisation with specialist focus in place and niche contextualisation and leading multidisciplinary teams towards developing scalable sustainable practices that are growth oriented and make measurable impact in the communities that they serve.
His main focuses are on sustainability practice, ecosystem building, nurturing linkages to impact investing, and various structured mentorship engagements supporting entrepreneurially driven individuals – development or sustainability professionals and (social) entrepreneurs; acting as a sounding board to imagine new possibilities or critically looking at underlying assumptions to make compelling shared value propositions for organic growth, and sustainable operation.
He is presently part of a global consortium of interdisciplinary experts who have been successfully awarded technical assistance support through the Global SouthPole/EIT Climate KIC City Finance Lab 2021 to deliver a design pilot linking city climate ambition and evidence of climate action to appropriate climate finance.
He volunteers his time in various pan-African forums e.g. African Circular Economy Network, African Circular Economy Research Group, and providing technical advisory towards the design of a Global Compact Local Network for Botswana.
Santiago Sanchez Guiu
Santiago Sanchez Guiu
Santiago is the Deputy Country Director for the Ghana office of Innovations for Poverty Action, a research and policy non-profit that specializes in impact evaluations of social projects around the world, and is responsible for its entrepreneurship and financial inclusion project portfolio. In this role, he has led the evaluation of private and public projects aimed at increasing the human capacity of MSMEs, and their access to markets and finance. Santiago has developed deep and fruitful relationships with the implementing institutions of these projects, which include private banks, private companies, NGOs, the World Bank and the relevant government institutions in the sector, including the Ghana Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ghana Ministry of Business Development.
Previously, Santiago has worked in academia, coordinating the Dept of Economic Research and Analysis at University Carlos III in Madrid; finance, at the Research and Economic Analysis Dept of one of Spain’s largest banks; and project management and evaluation, for EuropeAid projects in Brussels and for UN agencies including UNHCR and UNFPA.
Betty Wilkinson
Betty Wilkinson
Betty Wilkinson is the Chief Executive Officer of Financial Sector Deepening Zambia, a development organization committed to expanding financial inclusion and innovation. She is an innovative leader in economic development and inclusive growth, with over thirty years of senior professional field experience worldwide building and managing high-performance multinational teams.
She engages regularly with ministers, central bank governors, and leaders globally, using a participatory, inclusive style to successfully engage reform champions and produce results. Ms. Wilkinson writes, speaks, and contributes internationally to work in financial inclusion, the digital economy, public management, pro-poor growth, client-centricity, and gender issues. She has worked as an entrepreneur, banker, donor representative, field researcher, policy advisor, CEO, and senior government official of a developing country, with significant depth in fundraising and understanding of the donor community. As CEO of Financial Sector Deepening Zambia she manages 26 staff to expand financial inclusion through learning/innovation with clients, regulators, and financial service providers.
Recent engagement areas include Making Money Work for the Poor approaches, gender and youth economic inclusion, biometric identities, multi-regulatory approaches to mobile money and fintechs, public-private partnerships for data, national digitization of G2P and P2G subsidies, weather-based crop microinsurance rollout to over 1 million smallholder farmers and use of chiefs and other traditional leaders (by their request) to create new options for financial inclusion, growth and social change.
Sifiso Ndwandwe
Sifiso Ndwandwe
Sifiso Ndwandwe is the Executive Director at Catalyst for Growth (C4G) which is a newly established NPC whose mandate is facilitating transparency within, and the development of the ED sector, to enhance its impact in the economy. Catalyst for Growth (C4G) is a JP Morgan initiative co-funded by USAID.
Sifiso has spent over 25 years in the enterprise development sector in the SADC including South Africa. He has held various senior roles in SEDA (formerly NEPA). He has served as the Group Business Development Manager at Mondi Limited, which was, at that time a fully owned Anglo American PLC subsidiary. More recently he served as CEO of the Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA) for 10 years up to May 2013. His experience outside South Africa includes working at CARE International in a USAID funded project in Swaziland.
He has served on various Boards in the corporate and development sectors including: Business Skills South Africa, Corporative Banks Development Agency (CBDA), a statutory entity under the National Treasury, as Chairperson, and UBank (formerly Teba Bank). He currently serves on the HR and Ethics Board Committee of the African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation (AEMFC).
He has extensive experience in business skills training and mentorship and has been involved with ILO’s SYIB Programme for many years in the sub-region.
He has studied at the University of Swaziland, Graduate School of Business (UCT). Wits Business School, University of Singapore and Cranefield University (UK).
Sifiso is passionate about entrepreneurship and development.
Ernest Boateng
Ernest Boateng
Ernest Boateng is the Chief Operations Officer at the South African Institute for Entrepreneurship. He has extensive experience in entrepreneurship and enterprise development and sat on various NGO Boards. He has worked in education, agribusiness, forestry and cooperative sectors. He is a seasoned facilitator and organiser of school and adult entrepreneurship competitions. Ernest has solid knowledge of programme development and management, as well as development of training materials using different simulation methodologies. He has keen interest in developing programmes and projects, from start to finish, which lead to funding and business opportunities.
He has managed various entrepreneurship and education projects on behalf of companies and organnisations such as Sappi ASSORE, ABSA, Santam, Coronation, Royal Bafokeng, Service Seta, Seda, Khumani Mines, Somkhele Mines and others.
He was born in Ghana, finished high school, and BA Honours degree in Social Sciences from the University of Ghana before settling in South Africa in 1993. He obtained his post graduate qualifications in Development Economics, Marketing Management and Advanced Business Management from the Universities of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa (Unisa) and North West (NW) respectively.
Richard Yeboah
Richard Yeboah
Richard Yeboah is the managing director of MDF West Africa limited, a management consulting and training firm operating in the West African Market. He holds a Master of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Management with specialization Financial Engineering and International Management (Managing organisations in Developing Countries) and a MBA in Impact Entrepreneurship. He is an enterprising specialist in entrepreneurship development and SME support and enterprise creation services in industrialized and developing countries. He is serial entrepreneur, and has supported many entrepreneurs, companies, social enterprises and NGOs in their early start up to becoming sustainable entities.
Richard Yeboah has more than 15 years professional experience developing and managing programmes focused on (transnational) entrepreneurship, SME support network, and private sector development. He has acquired a unique expertise in institutional and organisational development of public and private lead as well as profit and non-profit lead organisations. As project manager of diverse transnational business creation and entrepreneurship programmes towards Africa and in specific in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Liberia. He has supported several SME businesses to acquire investments from local and international financial institutions. In that capacity he was one of the lead consultants to raise 6.7 million Euro, for the set up of a waste to value business (organic compost and biogas) in Ghana, of which he recently was appointed managing director, with the task of making the company a commercial viable and sustainable business. Over the past 15 years he has been instrumental in raising more than 30 Million USD for NGOs and companies. Presently he is supporting several IT- based start ups, which include e-learning company, several FinTech companies and agritech business.
Ada Chirapaisarnkul
Ada Chirapaisarnkul
Ada Chirapaisarnkul is one of the pioneers in social entrepreneurship and social investment space in Thailand. She is currently the Managing Director of TaejaiDotcom, Head of Social Impact Advisory at ChangeVentures, and Founder and Managing Director of Thai Young Philanthropist Network (TYPN). She is also a Board Director of Khonthai Foundation, Pratthanadee Foundation, NEEDeed Foundation and Thammasat University’s School of Global Studies; and a Committee Member of Oxford Thai Foundation and National Innovation Agency’s Social Innovation Sub-Committee.
Currently, Ada is managing the transition of TaejaiDotcom from a 5-year-old social experiment initiative, formed by a consortium of four founding organizations, into a purpose-driven for-profit enterprise. Concurrently, she has been working with private individuals, families and companies to establish/reshape their philanthropic work in order to significantly improve the positive impact on their stakeholders and Thai society at large in her role as the ChangeVentures Head of Social Impact Advisory.
In her free time, she has been leading TYPN since 2008 - a community of over 2,800 professionals committed to mobilizing their expertise and resources in order to strengthen the civil society in Thailand. TYPN works with partner organizations across sectors to co-create an enabling ecosystem for change agents, pioneering innovative social-sector mechanisms such as skill-based volunteering, crowdfunding, social investment and venture philanthropy in Thailand. TYPN’s partners include the Ministry of Education, the Office of the Prime Minister, the Stock Exchange of Thailand, Khonthai Foundation, Mae Fah Luang Foundation ChangeFusion Institute, etc. In 2018, TYPN focuses on recruiting the next generation of social-conscious students and professionals and start chapters outside of Thailand in order to expand the active citizenship base beyond the founding team’s generation and national border; additionally, TYPN continues the Life Hero campaign (http://www.lifeherothailand.com), run through TaejaiDotcom platform, to transform the lives of children from the bottom 10% families in Thailand with education, and all other TYPN activities are aligned towards the same goal. TYPN is also one of the active focal points to convene the next generation philanthropists in East and Southeast Asia to collaborate and work on collective giving in the region.
Alice Vozza
Alice Vozza
Ms. Alice Vozza is Chief Technical Advisor of the Green enterPRIZE Innovation & Development Project, Zimbabwe, International Labour Organization (ILO).
Over more than 12 years of work with the ILO and other international organizations, Alice has developed extensive experience in the promotion of decent work and sustainable development, with a particular focus on green jobs, green entrepreneurship, enterprise development and the role of private sector and business associations. She is currently responsible for the management and technical supervision of theGreen enterPRIZE Innovation & Development Project, funded by the Government of Sweden and implemented in collaboration with the Government of Zimbabwe, the Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
Before moving to Harare, she has worked for the ILO’s International Training Centre to build the Green Jobs Learning Cluster in collaboration with the ILO Green Jobs Programme (2012-2018). Between 2010 and 2012 she was based in Kenya to coordinate a EU-funded project on private sector development in East Africa and Ghana. Between 2006 and 2010 she was in charge of designing and implementing capacity building activities and projects on local development, sustainable development and disaster risk reduction, with a specific focus on Central America and the Caribbean.
Alice lived and studied in France, Spain and the UK where she also had working experiences with the private enterprises and consultancy firms. She holds a master degree in Management of Development (ITC-ILO), a master in Business Management (ESCP, Paris) and a degree in Political Science (University of Turin, Italy).
Anastacia Mamabolo
Anastacia Mamabolo
Anastacia Mamabolo is a senior lecturer specialising in research at the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). She qualified as an Optometrist and after few years of practising, she registered an MBA at the University of Limpopo, followed by a PhD (business administration with focus on entrepreneurship) at GIBS. She teaches on the MPhil International Business, MPhil Corporate Strategy and Doctoral Programmes in the areas of research entrepreneurship and research design. In addition to teaching responsibilities, she is involved in GIBS Project Orbit that is about understanding business and management in Africa. As part of the project team, she conducted interviews with more than 100 C-level executives in Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Nigeria. She has presented at international conferences and published entrepreneurship articles in peer-reviewed journals. Anastacia also supervises masters and doctoral students.
Andrew Spezowka
Andrew Spezowka
Andrew Spezowka
Andrew Spezowka is Portfolio Manager for resilience and sustainable growth at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where he has been based in Lilongwe, Malawi since 2016. Active in international environment and development issues for over twenty years, Andrew works on the political and social factors that drive or constrain pro-poor change, inclusive economic development, and resilience. At UNDP Malawi, he manages programming that cuts across inclusive business development, social entrepreneurship, renewable energy, climate finance, and resilience to livelihood shocks.
Previously, he was International Technical Advisor on green growth and climate finance, based in Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment (2014-16), where he led analytics on the introduction of new green levees in the transport and aviation sectors, Senior Technical Advisor at the World Bank in Vietnam working on social accountability and aid coordination, Manager of Global Programmes and Initiatives in the Environment and Food Security Bureau at Global Affairs Canada, Deputy Country Director and Team Leader for food security and agricultural growth based at the Canadian Embassy in Ethiopia (2007-2010), and Country Representative for the Canadian International Development Agency based in Nigeria (2003-2007). He has undertaken a number of assignments related to sustainability, local economic development, and climate change, with USAID in Nigeria, the Norwegian Development Fund in Sri Lanka, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Nepal, and for the Canadian Centre for International Education. He has produced numerous reports and articles on environment and sustainability issues, including authoring the global assessment for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) examining the environmental policies and standards across bilateral development agencies and international financial institutions.
Andrew earned his M.Sc. in international environmental management at the University of Guelph and his bachelor’s degree at the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and is pursuing professional studies at the Stockholm Resilience Institute. As a life-long learner, his interests cover agro-ecology, social impact investment, systems and resilience science, clean energy pathways, green design, and social protection.
Astrid Hass
Astrid Hass
Astrid is currently a Senior Country Economist and Manager of the Cities that Work Initiative, working with the International Growth Centre (IGC), where she manages and carries out policy-based research on cities based on demand from the government, across Africa and Asia. Her current research specializes on policy related questions in urban economics, specifically in the areas of municipal finance, urban mobility and land tenure. Prior to joining the IGC, she worked for Innovations for Poverty Action as well as for Evidence Action, which included work in Uganda, Rwanda and Malawi. Astrid has also worked as an analyst on a large-scale agriculture project in South Sudan and as an Economist in the Ministry of East African Community in Kenya. She holds an MA in International Economics and International Development from Johns Hopkins University (in Italy and the USA). In 2016, she was nominated by the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town as one of Africa’s Young Leaders. She is now undertaking her PhD in the Innovative Governance of Large Urban Systems from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland).
Bruce Haase
Bruce Haase
With more than 20 years of business experience on four continents, Bruce Haase brings both a deep understanding of business sustainability issues and hands-on experience implementing sustainability and innovation strategies within international commercial organizations. His business experience included 10 years at Canon Europe, where he served as CSR Director for EMEA. Bruce’s business experience is complemented by work with NGOs, public-private partnerships, and commodity supply chains. As head of the Climate Business Engagement Unit within WWF, Bruce was responsible for the prestigious Climate Savers program. Bruce teaches on a number MBA programmes in Europe as well as several University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership programs, both online and in South Africa.
Dennis Sikaulu
Dennis Sikaulu
Dennis Sikaulu is SME Development Specialist working for the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA), which is the Zambian government body charged with the responsibility of developing local enterprises as well as foreign investments. Dennis has done this work for 9 years now at ZDA where he handles Business Development Support (BDS) services in various sectors. He is also responsible for Training, Business Linkages, Access to Markets, Access to Finance, Business Mentorship. He is also a trained Trainer in Entrepreneurship and Business Management for MSMEs, Business Plan Preparation, Rural Enterprise Development, and Youth Enterprise Development. He also has previous academic experience in the higher education sector as well as private business experience. Dennis holds a Masters Degree in Economics which graduated with in 2003, and has since also done various trainings in SME Development and SME Training.
Dini Indrawati Septiani
Dini Indrawati Septiani
Dini Indrawati Septiani
Dini currently works as an AVPN Country Representative for Indonesia. She has 17 years of work experience in both non-profit and private sectors.
Prior to joining AVPN, Dini served as Associate Director of Private Philanthropy at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Indonesia, a leading US-based environmental organization focusing on promoting conservation of lands and water with operations in 72 countries. At TNC she led the fundraising efforts targeting high net-worth individuals and by doing so, successfully increased the awareness among Indonesia's corporate leaders on the need to contribute to conservation programs.
Previously, Dini also worked in a number of leading financial institutions in Jakarta including PT Trimegah Securities, Metlife and AIG Lippo where she was in charge of sales marketing. From 2007 to 2012 she resided in Tokyo and worked as a financial consultant in Select Asset Management, a financial planning company.
Dini is also known for her strong passion in creating a positive social impact to the community as demonstrated by her numerous initiatives to develop and lead social and charity programs to help less fortunate kids in Jakarta and its surrounding cities.
James W. Muhowa
James W. Muhowa
James Muhowa is an expert in business training, material development and development planning, currently working with GIZ Malawi as a Project Coordinator, responsible for the development and implementation of Farmer Organization Business Training and Coaching Cycle (James being one of the developers of the methodology).
Previously, James had worked with United Purpose (formerly Concern Universal) as a Training Officer (2014-2015) and later on as a Business Advisor (2015-2017) responsible for the capacity building of farmer organizations in business development and management, corporate social responsibility and certification of standards (Fairtrade and Bonsucro). James has also worked with other organizations such as Emmanuel International Malawi (4years) and Bio-Energy Resources Company Limited (1year) in the areas of Agriculture production technologies and natural resources management (including conservation agriculture, watershed management, irrigation, and agribusiness) and bio-fuel production respectively. Apart from that, James is also an entrepreneur.
James studied Social Science (Development Studies) at Catholic University of Malawi, Sugarcane Agriculture at the South African Sugarcane Research Institute-Durban, as well as Agriculture and Natural Resources Management at the Natural Resources College (NRC) of Malawi now called Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR).
Kudzai Marovanidze
Kudzai Marovanidze
Kudzai is currently working as a Regional Director for Practical Action in Southern Africa, mainly overseeing delivery of rural development work in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique, and chairing the board for Practical Action Consulting in Malawi. Practical Action is a development focused INGO that promotes choice and control over the technologies and practical skills that can enable people living in poverty to meet their needs and reach their potential in a way that safeguards our fragile planet today and for future generations. My role entails being a member of the global senior leadership team (SLT), contributing to the development and implementation of the global 10-year adaptive strategy and allocation of resources, leading the development and rollout of the Southern Africa strategic business plan.
Current work includes activation of local rural economies and rural entrepreneurship among women and the youth by promoting productive and social uses of renewable energy, especially solar and mini-hydro power.
Kudzai has been involved in rural development work since past 17 years. He worked with programmes and projects supported by various donors and development partners such as SIDA, GIZ, DFID, EU, UNDP, USAID, FAO, IOM, States of Jersey (HIV/AIDS Mitigation), OXFAM, UNICEF, and some government ministries in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia. He holds a BSc Honours Degree in Agriculture (University of Zimbabwe); an MSc in Land and Water Management (Cranfield University - UK), and an MBA in Management (University of Zimbabwe).
Mapula Tshangela
Mapula Tshangela
Mapula Tshangela
Ms Mapula Tshangela is currently the Director Climate Change Mitigation Sector Plan Implementation with the South African National Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA). Her areas of responsibility include management of private sector GHG mitigation plans regulations, support to Provinces and Local Government on their mitigation plans implementation and support to broader education sector initiatives on climate change mitigation capacity building and training.
Ms Tshangela was previously the Senior Policy Advisor: National Sustainable Development and was part of the team that managed several initiatives including national strategy for sustainable development, national green economy summit and subsequent conceptualization of the national green fund, South Africa green economy modelling report, the environment sector research, development and evidence (R,D&E) framework and reports on use of evidence in a government department. Ms Tshangela was also the Director: Cabinet & Cluster Policy Coordination and Deputy Director: Pollution and Waste Information in DEA between 2011-2007 and was seconded in 2017/18 as Acting Chief Director: Environmental Management at KZN EDTEA.
Prior to joining the DEA in 2007, Ms Tshangela worked at the Eskom generation (Kendal and Lethabo), distribution Bloemfontein and MWP positions between 1997 and 2007 in areas including impact assessment, environmental sustainability performance reporting, environmental, waste, air quality and pollution management, water cycle chemistry, laboratory chemical analysis and quality control systems.
Ms Tshangela research interests include sustainability transitions, green economy, public policy management, technology and innovation.
Noppakao Sucharitakul
Noppakao Sucharitakul
Noppakao Sucharitakul is Executive Vice President at The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), Head of Social Development Group and Corporate Communications.
With more than two decades of experience in the capital market gained from working at SET and at the Office of The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Noppakao is competent in marketing and capital market education. She has successfully steered SET’s domestic investor base expansion for more than ten years. In enhancing social development, she has been instrumental in crafting strategies to make the capital market truly benefit the society in a sustainable manner, especially by strengthening social enterprises. This is another key function that underscores SET’s role not only as a fundraising hub, but also as a focal point to build a better society. She has integrated her expertise in social development combined with branding and corporate communication skills to grow the ecosystem for social enterprises through various initiatives, particularly SET’s digital platform successfully debuted last year named “SET Social Impact”, via collaboration among listed firms, social sector and social enterprises to create positive social outcome with synergy.
In addition, she is also active in leading the strategic development of the “SET Foundation” to enhance well-being among people in communities and the society as a whole, along with the endeavor to encourage and honor philanthropic actions of individuals and organizations so as to create role models for the society.
Prior to joining SET, Noppakao was well-versed in capital market education, as well as research and development gained from her work at the SEC. She has received her master’s degree in Political Science (International Relations) and bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts (English language) from Thammasat University.
Richard Tugume
Richard Tugume
Richard Tugume is currently working as East Africa Investment Director at Yunus Social Business Foundation, Uganda.
Before joining Yunus Social Business Foundation, Richard previously worked as an external auditor with PwC, a Finance Manager with TechnoServe Uganda, a Senior Financial Controller with Kilicafe (a triple certified coffee exporting Coop) in Tanzania, a Regional Portfolio Manager with Root Capital, a US-based Social Investment Fund, in charge of portfolio (at various times) in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and the DRC, and is currently the East Africa Director for Investment with Yunus Social Business Uganda. He holds a B.com(Acc) degree from Makerere University in Uganda, and an MBA from the University of Nairobi in Kenya.
He is an avid practising farmer, a champion of environmental conservation and social justice, loves travelling and learning new ideas.
Siyanda Siko
Siyanda Siko
Siyanda Siko is currently enrolled for MSc Sustainable Development at SOAS University of London. He has 13 years of professional experience working in various capacities for the South African government and spent the last 5 years working at the International Labour Organization (ILO), a specialised agency of the United Nations.
Currently, he is the Country Coordinator of the United Nation Interagency programme called Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) in South Africa. PAGE was launched in 2013 as a direct response by the United Nations (UN) system to the call at Rio+20, to support countries wishing to embark on greener and more sustainable growth trajectories. PAGE combines the mandate and experiences of five UN agencies – UN Environment, UNDP, UNIDO, UNITAR and the ILO. The expertise and networks of these five UN agencies offer integrated and holistic support to South Africa’s transition towards a low-carbon with the Ministry for Environmental Affairs (DEA) being the key national government counterpart.
His role as PAGE Country Coordinator affords him the opportunity to work closely with the South African national government and coordinate an integrated package of technical assistance along with institutional capacity development of public and private entities and not least to coordinate research into the green economy to enable evidence-based policy making.
Thierry Sanders
Thierry Sanders
Thierry Sanders is a CEO of Mekar, Indonesia. Mekar one of Indonesia’s pioneering online lending platforms that finance small, mainly women’s businesses. Thierry is responsible for overall fund strategy and international investor relations. Thierry has a long career in SME finance having started matchmaking investors and emerging market startups in 1997. He founded BiD Network Foundation, a startup-investor-coaching platform. It attracted 60,000 startups from emerging markets, over 100 SMEs and USD 35 million was matched with investors. He is a career business developer mostly in impact ventures like Fair Trade, BiD Network, BIDx, Ecosecurities Ltd (carbon trading). In Indonesia since 2015, he turned Mekar around with Putera Sampoerna.
Dr. Kulpatra Sirodom
Dr. Kulpatra Sirodom
Dr. Kulpatra is currently a Director and Treasurer at the Social Enterprise Thailand Association. Dr. Kulpatra has background in corporate finance, valuation of assets and projects, derivatives and structured products. Her experiences in management included her most recognized role as the founding Director of the BBA International Progam at Thammasat business school for over ten years and later as the Dean of Thammasat Business School. She taught finance at a number of universities including the USA, Japan, and Denmark. Her experiences in corporate directorships went back almost 25 years; mostly as audit and risk management committee member of listed and non- listed companies covering diverse businesses such as banking, asset management, hotels, real estate development, computer components, and consumer products. She published a text book on finance and many research papers with focus on derivatives pricing and market microstructure. Her personal interests include value creation, corporate social responsibilities, social enterprises, and sustainable development.
She also holds position as an Independent Director and Chairman of Audit Committee at The Mae Fah Luang Foundation Under Royal Patronage; Arbitrator at the Thailand Futures Exchange; Director at the Siam Commercial Bank Foundation; Expert on Professional Education at The Stock Exchange of Thailand and Director at Public and Private Partnership, Ministry of Finance.
Henri van der Land
Henri van der Land
Henri is co-founder and Managing Partner of Match Maker Associates (MMA), Match Maker Fund Management (MMFM) and SME Impact Fund (SIF). His main professional focus is the development and application of best practices in private sector development services, particularly Value Chain Analysis (VCA) and Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P), as well as the development and implementation of innovative financial services. He has extensive experiences in project management, training and coaching and has coordinated and executed numerous consultant assignments and trainings in mainly East and Southern Africa. Currently, he is mainly involved in SME Impact Fund, which has provided over 80 loans to 46 agribusiness SMEs in Tanzania. These investments resulted in 1,400 jobs created and/or sustained and more than 50,000 people benefited directly or indirectly.
Martin Felipe Wohlgemuth Pinzón
Martin Felipe Wohlgemuth Pinzón
Martin Felipe is a Board Member of PREMAnet and Senior Associate Lupien at Rosenberg et Associés. As a facilitator, consultant, trainer and coach with more than 13 years’ experience in planning, estimating / selling / executing of State-funded multi-stakeholder projects, project leadership and coordination of multi-cultural, multilingual, multi-stakeholder funded projects with displaced / rural population entrepreneurship he is qualified to be part of a team and add value. As a senior consultant and having been part of a large group of professionals he has been successful structuring Business Development Service Products to attend specific needs of the SME market. He knows about production processes (services, industrial, rural, urban) and can come with the participants to see blind spots and realise change enthusiastically as a natural activity towards more efficient operations.
He has successfully documented, in the field experience with on the ground impact in chemical businesses, in industries in the pharmaceutical sector, rural entrepreneurship lead by groups of women in Colombia (1477 women), urban entrepreneurship with displaced families that arrived in Bogotá (272 new businesses). Please click here to see this video as an example of the achieved impact. He is a psychologist, markets specialist and Magister in business. He has PREMA® application knowledge in its different views and attached to Good Housekeeping (GHK®), Environmental Oriented Cost Management (EoCM) and Resource Efficient Chemical Management (REMC). He has been part of the teams that successfully promote Profitable Resource Efficient Management (PREMA®), applied PREMA® as a consultant, organised and implemented Info-trainings on PREMA®, has organised training of enterprises (ToE), and trained consultants (ToC). He is registered in the GIZ’s Gutachterdatenbank.
Nuttaphong Jaruwannaphong
Nuttaphong Jaruwannaphong
Nuttaphong is a Director at the Thai Social Enterprise Office (TSEO). Trained as an architect and planner by profession. After graduation Trained as an architect and planner by profession. After graduation from Norway on Urban Ecological Planning, he has been working as the so-called ‘Social Architect’ since then on various roles both in public and private sector. Before joining the Thai Social Enterprise Office as the director in 2012, he has spent 3 years as a Project Lead of the collaboration project between Thailand and Denmark on urban environment and the remaining 4 years working as a Director of the Community Division and strategic advisor for the Thai Health Promotion Foundation—the government agency to promote health and wellbeing. During the short interval period between government works, he also worked as a General Manager for the real estate company aiming to be the first social enterprise of Thailand on housing & city development. He was also an initiator of many national initiatives and strategic institutions such as The National Progress Index, The Urban Design and Development Centre (UDDC), The Social Innovation Foundation, The Future Innovative Thailand Institute (FIT) etc.
Raghav Bhola
Raghav Bhola
Raghav is the Head of Dealmaking at BiD Network Foundation. Raghav holds 10 years of experience working in corporate finance, fundraising and in the financial analytics space for organisations like Goldman Sachs and Royal Bank of Scotland. He has spent the last 5 years of his professional career in the off-grid sector is excited to combine his corporate finance and investment experience, together with his knowledge of the SME sector by adding value to a large number of our entrepreneurs by teaching them the language of the investment world and by helping them to find the best financial solutions.
Wayne Miranda
Wayne Miranda
Wayne’s passion is to grow ventures to generate social and environmental impact. He spent a decade dedicated to poverty reduction, mobilizing US$21 million as Founder & CEO of Growth Mosaic, a “Best for the World” B Corp in West Africa. Wayne’s next decade is dedicated to global sustainability. After being Director of Growth at the Centre for Social Innovation and Managing Director of TechSoup Canada, he now leads McConnell Foundation’s social finance investment readiness program.
Abu Musuuza
Abu Musuuza
Abubaker Musuuza is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Village Energy Limited a social enterprise that is building a network of rural solar shops that deliver quality products and ensure effective access to skilled solar technicians, repairs and solar parts within 48 hours. A graduate of Makerere University Kampala. Abu has worked in the social entrepreneurship space for 12 years building and supporting social enterprises across East Africa. Prior to Village Energy Abu was the East Africa Program Manager for Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. Abu is an Ashoka Fellow and Echoing Green Fellow.
Bernard Brès
Bernard Brès
Bernard is Director of 2iE-Technopôle, based in Burkina Faso. Bernard BRÈS is an engineer and aggregated professor in electrical engineering, post-graduate in international relationships. As a specialist of training engineering and employment-education relationship, Bernard BRÈS spent more than a half of his career in sub-Saharan Africa managing projects related to higher education professionalization and promotion of innovation in entrepreneurship in Universities. He also had academic responsibilities at a regional level, on matters linked to the construction of training policies and steering training map. At 2iE, he is in charge since 2013 of Technopôle-2iE.
Technopôle-2iE aims to develop employability, leadership, entrepreneurial spirit and innovation skills among young engineers, to foster the rise of inclusive green growth in Africa.
Donna Katzin
Donna Katzin
Donna Katzin is the founding executive director of Shared Interest, a social investment fund that mobilizes the financial and human resources of South Africa’s lowest income communities of colour. Since 1994, Shared Interest has helped to create more than 180,000 new small and micro-enterprises, 1.9 million jobs, and 120,000 affordable homes – benefiting 2.3 million economically marginalized South Africans. The organization is now extending its work to other Southern African countries, including Swaziland, Mozambique and Zambia. Previously, she served as Director of South Africa and International Justice Programs for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. She has been honoured by the South-African-American Organization, received the North Star Fund’s Frederick Douglass Award, the South African Embassy’s Inaugural Friends of South Africa Siyabonga Award, the inaugural Ubuntu Award from Face2face Africa, and the SRI Service Award in 2015 by the Conference on Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing.
A board member of the Thembani International Guarantee Fund in South Africa, and the Center for Community Change in the U.S., Ms Katzin holds a master’s degree in Community Organization and Planning, and a doctorate in Human Services Education and Development. She has written extensively about South Africa, community development and impact investing, and is also the author of With These Hands, a volume of poetry inspired by the birth of South Africa’s democracy
Karan Sawhney
Karan Sawhney
Karan Sawhney is an Investment Officer with Grassroots Business Fund (GBF). Karan has been with GBF for the last 4 years working in Asia and Africa, investing in SME's. During this period he has screened over 100 companies operating in sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, education, energy and artisanal across Africa and India, conducted due diligence on 15 companies and led multiple investments in India and Africa. Karan is responsible for portfolio management, business development, investment structuring, company valuations, financial modelling, due diligence, managing strategic tie-ups, legal structuring and impact assessment across the Africa portfolio for GBF.
Sophie van den Berg
Sophie van den Berg
Sophie van den Berg
Sophie van den Berg is a International Solid Waste Expert and Plastic Recycling Business Adviser at WASTE. Sophie is a chemical engineer and holds an MSc degree in Environmental Science. She has more than 25 years of international experience in assessment of solid waste management systems, economic and environmental viability analysis of resource recovery systems, and marketing studies for recyclables. She has the following expertise in private sector development: implementation, financing, and coordination of productive micro-projects in solid waste management including training and coaching for income generating activities aimed at SMEs. Other experiences include business development of (plastic) waste recycling plants, participatory planning, environmental sustainability, and gender equality, in emerging and developing countries. Find more on her plastic waste experience here.
Her passion is to grow plastic recycling companies that generate social and environmental impact in Africa and Asia. She identifies early-stage impact businesses, supports them to be viable for scale and investment-ready and matches them with investment funds.
Jovin Hurry
Jovin Hurry
Jovin Hurry has spent the last 15 years studying, living and working in Africa (Mauritius), Asia and Europe in the field of sustainability, business and learning and development. As a strategist, he is enthusiastic at probing entrepreneurs, in life-size simulations, at how they negotiate around core sustainability issues, in their world of turbulent markets, limited resources, social disparities and structural faults.
Jovin has handled a number of projects internationally, mainly as a project manager. Jovin has worked closely with key stakeholders and professionals on best practices for SMEs in Industrial Technologies at the European Commission in Brussels. He has also worked as an analyst at the Youth Business International, then part of the International Business Leaders Forum in London. The Forum is an independent and not-for-profit organisation which is currently supported by over 100 of the world’s leading businesses. He initiated and hosted the Roundtable on Entrepreneurship - Entrepreneur Cafe, Mauritius. Jovin was one of the panellists of Experts for the Business & Research Incubation Centre of the Mauritius Research Council.
Jovin writes and speaks on sustainability, strategy and entrepreneurship in Africa, South-East Asia and the Nordics. He sits in the Board of Advisors of several start-ups and institutions.
Ajay Kumar
Ajay Kumar
As Additional Secretary in the Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India, Dr Kumar is responsible for coordinating the Digital India programme. This includes coordinating with concerned Ministries/State Governments/agencies in public and private sector for development of policies/frameworks and implementation of projects for three key pillars of Digital India: namely, Digital infrastructure, provision of Digital Services; and Digital empowerment of society. He is also looking after all matters relating to Internet Governance and skill development in areas of Electronics and ICTs.
Dr Ajay Kumar served as a Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India from 2010 to 2015. Between 2007 – 2010 he served as a Principal Secretary to the Government of Kerala, Information Technology Department, Kerala, where he achieved a growth in IT investments in the State to three times national average during the period; upscaling e-governance initiatives within Government; and several niche projects including mobile computing, cloud computing and open source computing. He also served as the Managing Director of the Kerala State Agricultural and Rural Development Bank.
Antoine Horellou
Antoine Horellou
Antoine Horellou graduated in 2006 with two masters degrees (in Entrepreneurship and Economic Development). In 2015, Antoine went on to found BOPS - Base of the Pyramid Solutions with the aim of boosting social innovations at the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) through advice, advocacy, funds, and operations in the field. BOPS focuses on market-based development strategies and inclusive business to fight poverty. BOPS has worked with several social start-ups: Ashoka France, Nubian Vault Association (affordable housing in West Africa, 2011 SEED Winner), Watever (floatable solutions in Bangladesh), 450 (carbon finance in France), LAGAZEL (off-grid electricity in Africa).
Anubhav Kapoor
Anubhav Kapoor
Anubhav Kapoor
Anubhav Kapoor is Tata Technologies’ General Counsel and Company Secretary and is based out of Pune. Anubhav is responsible for Tata Technologies’ global legal, IP, regulatory compliance and corporate governance practices and policies. He is passionate about innovation and IPR and also heads the Corporate Sustainability and CSR practices globally.
Anubhav has about 21 years of experience. Before joining Tata Technologies, Anubhav has worked with Polaris Software, Domino’s Pizza, Allied Nippon to name a few in a similar role.
Anubhav has handled multifarious areas such as structuring strategic business contracts, IPR, global compliance design and audits, legal due diligence, M&A, arbitration & litigation management. Also being a corporate secretary he has also dealt with high visibility boards and handled complex matters including those related to corporate governance, sustainability, insider trading, private & public offerings.
Katherine Lucey
Katherine Lucey
After a 20 year career as an investment banker with expertise in the energy sector, Katherine Lucey retired from banking and turned her attention to finding a sustainable solution to the energy poverty that causes suffering to a quarter of the world’s population. Katherine determined that a practical, grassroots, locally generated solution was needed. Katherine is a 2015 Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year, an Ashoka Fellow and a Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Entrepreneur. She holds an M.B.A. from Georgia State University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Georgia. She is an alumna of the Global Social Benefit Institute (GSBI) the signature social enterprise program of the Miller Center of Santa Clara University.
Namita Vikas
Namita Vikas
Namita Vikas spearheads YES BANK’s Climate Action, Green Financing and Sustainable Development agenda. As part of the top management team, she is instrumental in delivering on YES BANK’s vision of being the finest quality large Bank in India by 2020. Under her visionary guidance, the Bank has assumed a leadership position in sustainability and green banking nationally and internationally. Her overall responsibility includes Sustainability Management, Climate related risks and research, Triple Bottom-line Accounting, building strategies towards Responsible Finance/Investing and Strategic Philanthropy.
Innovative and a design thinker, Namita with her 27 years of well-rounded experience has been associated with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Finance Corporation and the United Nations to drive the climate finance agenda and towards green financing policies. In the past, she has successfully held leadership positions with Marico, Microsoft Corporation and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Naveen Jha
Naveen Jha
Naveen Jha is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Deshpande Foundation, India. He has been with the foundation since its inception in India bringing a vision of enabling local solutions through a bottom-up approach. Naveen is passionate about mentoring youth who are interested in social entrepreneurship. This has led to the launch of several highly successful fellowship programs at Deshpande Foundation that has produced hundreds of graduates now working with social enterprises all over India. Naveen has also pioneered a series of youth development programs that helps transform the attitudes of young people into solving problems locally. One of these programs, LEAD (Leaders Accelerating Development), has more than ten thousand students engaged in problem-solving in their communities and has unleashed the power of social change within their neighbourhoods.
Naveen has helped in building the Sandbox Startups initiative, which provides incubation support and a co-working space to mission-driven entrepreneurs with innovative ideas. Prior to his work with the Deshpande Foundation, Naveen worked for six years at PRADAN, a pioneering livelihoods organization where, as Team leader, he helped create usable and sustainable prototypes of livelihoods programs and water resource management.
Sameer Unhale
Sameer Unhale
Sameer Unhale is a practitioner in Urban affairs dealing with Urban Infrastructure, water and Sanitation, Poverty Alleviation & Smart Urban Governance. He is currently working as the Municipal Commissioner, Nanded Municipal Corporation, India. He previously worked as the Mission Director of the Swaach Maharashtra Mission (Clean India Campaign), State Nodal Officer for the Urban Infrastructure and Governance Submission under JNNURM, Maharashtra, He has also worked with Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority.
He has coordinated efforts with multilateral agencies on Environment projects. He has introduced major revenue enhancement/stabilization of Municipal finance and innovative projects in urban transport and a community-based leadership program in citizen feedback.
Daisy Kambalame-Kalima
Daisy Kambalame-Kalima
Daisy Kambalame-Kalima
Daisy Kambalame-Kalima is a trained economist and business counselling expert with more than 15 years’ experience in strategic program development for sustainable development. Currently working as the Country Coordinator for the IDH The Sustainable Trade Initiative in Malawi and Mozambique. Daisy joined AICC (the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship, an African based NGO facilitating development programs through multi-stakeholder partnerships) and, as the Chief Executive Officer from 2012 to 2014, provided leadership on how to incorporate business principles when addressing development challenges. AICC created a number of platforms under the Malawi Agriculture Partnership (MAP) for value chain enhancement which included work that redefined the role of smallholders within value chains. Daisy currently serves as the Chairperson for the Malawi Forum of Agriculture Adviser Services (MaFAAS). Daisy is passionate about development working to change the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
Karon Shaiva
Karon Shaiva
Karon Shaiva is a social entrepreneur, columnist, writer, lecturer, speaker and trainer. As Chief Impact Officer & Managing Director of Idobro, she has committed to take Action that enables Women, Social and Green enterprises to access markets, build capacity, create linkages and deliver solutions through the Idobro Circle of Impact.
Karon has over 20 years of experience in India and the USA in the IT, education, finance, gemology and development sectors. In addition to holding a Masters in Marketing Management, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science, she has undergone the Swedish Institute Management program in CSR & Sustainability, she is a certified management professional, Faculty Mentor by NEN – London Business School and Visiting Faculty at NMIMS, Mumbai.
Karon’s personal story has been covered by the iconic series - Chicken Soup for the Indian Women Soul and she was invited to speak at the worldwide launch of the Mentoring Women in Business programme by the Cherie Blair Foundation in New York. She has also started the "Impact Shopping" page for the Afternoon Dispatch & Courier that included her column "An Empowered World”.
Joyce Kyalema
Joyce Kyalema
Joyce Kyalema is a gender activist and female entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of JOSMAK International (U) Ltd, a 2013 SEED Winner from Uganda. Joyce further serves as Executive Director of the Rural Women and Youth Development Organization (RWYDO), an organization she founded to organize vulnerable youth and women in rural areas to find ways of increasing their household income, nutritional status and food security. The initiated projects directly empower women to fully participate in their self -coordinated development for self- reliance and to promote gender equality development programs in their communities.
In November 2014, Joyce Kyalema was recognized and awarded as a rising star woman entrepreneur by the Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association Limited (UWEAL). One month later, in December 2014, she has been chosen to be publishing on iLearn, a global mobile-learning platform for and by women entrepreneurs. This platform provided by UN Women's Knowledge Gateway for Women's Economic Empowerment has the objective to inspire, motivate and help other women to start and grow their own ventures and provide a learning tool for many women around the world.
Olivia Vent
Olivia Vent
Olivia Vent is one of the initiators of A Global Marketing Partnerships for SRI Indigenous Rice, one of the first five SEED Winners in 2005. A graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, DC, Olivia worked almost 20 years as a communications specialist with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), before becoming Director of Communications at the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD). It was there that she learned about the agroecological cultivation method called the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and became convinced that creating value chains for small-scale rice farmers producing surpluses of traditional varieties using SRI practices would increase farmers’ incomes and preserve rice biodiversity while reducing negative environmental effects of rice production. In 2004, she applied for a SEED Award with colleagues in CIIFAD, Cambodia, Madagascar and Sri Lanka, who together formed an informal Global SRI Marketing Partnership. Support from the Award facilitated the development of a relationship with the California-based rice-importing company, Lotus Foods. Since 2008, she works as SRI Liaison to Lotus Foods, which today is selling throughout North America organic and fair trade certified rice grown by SRI farmers in Cambodia, Indonesia, and Madagascar, with new value chains opening in India and Thailand this fall.
Juha Miettinen
Juha Miettinen
Juha Miettinen
Juha Miettinen, Chief Technical Advisor and Team Leader of Southern Africa Innovation Support (SAIS) Programme, has close to 20 years of experience in innovation systems development and innovation support, technology transfer, business development and methods in public-private collaboration regionally, nationally and internationally. Before joining SAIS in 2011, he has earned wide experience and practical knowledge on Finnish and European innovation systems and methods as a COO in one of the leading innovation and science park companies in Finland, Hermia Ltd, and in his own daily management work.
He has wide experience in project management and has also been a member of supervisory and steering boards of tens of innovation and development initiatives, programmes and projects throughout his carrier. Juha holds an M.Sc. in Economics from University of Tampere, Finland and the University of Oregon, US. He is currently pursuing (-2016) his PhD-work on the topic “Triple Helix Model in emerging innovation ecosystems – Case Studies on University-Industry-Government collaboration and interactions in Southern Africa” at University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Pieter van Heyningen
Pieter van Heyningen
Pieter obtained his Bachelor's degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Stellenbosch University. Thereafter, he completed an honours degree in Philosophy and began studying an MPhil at the Sustainability Institute also part of Stellenbosch University. He left for Taiwan to study Chinese, and Tai Chi and teach English, where he spent almost three years. After travelling through South East Asia, Pieter furthered his academic career in Sweden, completing his Master degree/ MBA with a focus on Ecological Economics. During his time in Sweden, he also worked for Greenpeace and started his own company through the local university ‘idea-lab’ incubation programme. From this experience, Pieter had a keen interest in innovation and commercialization.
He returned to the Sustainability Institute and started his PhD in ‘Innovation Systems and Sustainability Transitions’ at the School of Public Leadership. During this time, Pieter taught several undergraduate courses in business development, globalization and sustainable development. He had the privilege of spending a year of his time in Austria, where he was doing research and taught a master module on ‘sustainable product and service development’.His transdisciplinary research project focused on transforming technopark, which amounted to a visioning and stakeholder exercise to reconceptualise the park’s commercial focus and image. This project grew, and soon incorporated the whole town of Stellenbosch, to become the Stellenbosch Innovation District – funded by the Dept. of Science and Technology. This project, aimed at focusing the town’s considerable resources to support innovation activities from research to commercialization is on-going under new leadership.
Pieter joined the Bertha team and UCT faculty to explore the world of social and inclusive innovation that the developing world so requires. At the same time, Pieter is also project manager of the South African chapter, of the global UNEP ‘eco-innovation’ project. This project aims to transform the business model of companies towards sustainability and is a pilot project for policy development. In addition, Pieter has presented several papers on innovation and sustainability at over eight international conferences. He was also co-chair of the 19thInternational Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, as well as chair of the 1st and 2ndStellenbosch Innovation Conference. He has also published several book chapters, including, ‘innovation for sustainable business’ as part of the ‘Greening the South African Economy Handbook’ about to be published.
Saphira Patel
Saphira Patel
Saphira Patel
Saphira has a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning as well as an Honours degree in Environmental and Geographical Science both from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Saphira has worked in the development finance, environmental, and evaluation sector for over fourteen years and currently Heads the Operations Evaluation Unit at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). Saphira’s areas of expertise include monitoring and evaluation for development impact, impact investment, environmental and social due diligence, and sustainable development. Saphira’s current focus is on using monitoring and evaluation to facilitate a just transition towards an economy that is inclusive and sustainable.
Crispin Rapinet
Crispin Rapinet
Crispin Rapinet
Crispin Rapinet is a commercial litigation partner at Hogan Lovells, based in London with particular expertise in international and cross-border litigation arising out of insolvency, fraud and asset recovery situations. From 1998 to 2003 Crispin was based in the firm's Hong Kong office as one of the resident commercial litigation partners there and Managing Partner of the office. Crispin was Regional Managing Partner of the firm's offices in Asia and the Middle East from 2005 to 2013. He is co-head of the Investigations, White Collar and Fraud practice area. Crispin is also co-chair of the pro bono practice of the firm, and co-chair of the firm's Citizenship Panel which oversees the programmes regarding diversity, community investment, charitable fundraising and the environment which the firm undertakes worldwide.
Scott Overdyke
Scott Overdyke
Scott Overdyke is the Senior Programs and Planning Manager at Root Capital where he supports the organization's lending, advisory and field building research and development. Prior to Root Capital, Scott was a consultant with FSG where he helped companies design shared value strategies to drive financial, social and environmental returns. He has worked with a number of agricultural cooperatives, buyers, service providers, lenders, donors and social enterprises across Latin America and Africa in an effort to serve the needs of smallholder farmers. Scott is a graduate of Columbia Business School and Harvard Kennedy School and now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Root Capital is a nonprofit social investment fund that grows rural prosperity in poor, environmentally vulnerable places in Africa and Latin America by lending capital, delivering financial training, and strengthening market connections for small and growing agricultural businesses.
Catalina María Alvarez
Catalina María Alvarez
Catalina María Alvarez has a BA in Finance and International Relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia, in Bogotá, and an MBA in Business Administration, from United Business Institutes, in Brussels, Belgium.
She is currently the sub-director of the "Colombia Clean Energy Program”, implemented by Tetra Tech Es Inc. with funding from the Agency for International Development (USAID). The Colombian Clean Energy Program main purpose is to increase access to renewable energy sources and improve energy efficient practices in Colombia through a combination of project development support, technical assistance, and the development of a financial enabling environment to promote investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Her work experience includes being the financial and administrative coordinator of the projects “Innovative models for the coffee sector in Colombia” and "Implementation of a Denomination of Origin strategy for Colombian coffees", implemented by the Colombian National Federation of Coffee Growers with funding from the Inter American Development Bank (IADB). Catalina also worked for the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, where she began as a researcher in the Sector Policy Unit and later became the financial and administrative manager for the “Agricultural Transition Project”, financed by a World Bank credit operation.
She was the administrative director for the “Asociación Convenio del Buen Trato”, a partnership of private media organizations working for child protection and development in Colombia; and the administrative sub-director for the “Rural Colombia Network”, a project funded by the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom.
During a two-year period in Nanjing, China, where she was studying Mandarin and Chinese culture, Catalina worked as a business promoter for Asia International Business and Management, a private trade broker based in Nanjing. She also owns “Selva Nevada”, a small business that produces gourmet ice cream with tropical fruits provided by small, environmentally sustainable rural producers in the Colombian Amazon.
David Sher
David Sher
David Sher is the Investment Director at ERM’s Low Carbon Enterprise Fund, a mission-driven venture capital fund focused on for-profit companies with strong environmental impact. At the LCEF, David is responsible for originating and structuring investments in early-stage ventures and supporting our portfolio across South East Asia, Latin America and Africa. David started his career at Dresdner Kleinwort investment bank, where he managed principal investments in high yield and distressed debt. After leaving Dresdner, he advised US Congress on energy and climate change policy and worked with a number of UK waste management companies to grow their recycling and energy-from-waste businesses. David holds an MBA with Distinction from Insead and an M.Math from Cambridge University and is a CFA Charterholder.
Saul Levin
Saul Levin
Saul Levin has a Masters Degree in Industrial Sociology from the University of Witwatersrand, with his thesis on small business development. He was previously a chief director in the Economic Development Department (EDD) with oversight of the Development Finance Institutions reporting to EDD, including the Industrial Development Corporation and the Small Enterprise Finance Agency. As part of his responsibilities he oversaw the merger of the small business finance entities and ran several projects to support small business development.
He also worked as the chief of staff for Lindiwe Hendricks, heading her office while she was Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry and when she was Minister of Minerals and Energy. From 2001 to 2005 he worked as an economist in the office of the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry. Prior to that Levin spent almost five years working in the field of enterprise development, as a project manager for government agency Ntsika (now Small Enterprise Development Agency). From 2009 to 2011 Levin was as a senior manager at Standard Bank, working as a Business Operations Manager in the Corporate Affairs unit.
Valerie Geen
Valerie Geen
Valerie Geen is Head of the National Business Initiative’s Energy programme in South Africa in which she heads the NBI’s Energy Leadership Network with Big Business. She also manages strategic partnerships between Business and Government and is responsible for Stakeholder engagement, Marketing and Communications of the nationwide rollout of the NBI’s nationwide Private Sector Energy Efficiency programme. Valerie has led the broader sustainability Agenda with the Private Sector in South Africa since 2006 which has ranged from Education programmes, Corporate Social Responsibility, Climate Change, Energy and Water. She also served on a number of judging panels relating to communities and environment.
Ilyas Azzioui
Ilyas Azzioui
Pham Kieu Oanh
Pham Kieu Oanh
Prof. Sosten Chiota
Prof. Sosten Chiota
Rebecca Harrison
Rebecca Harrison
Shrashtant Patara
Shrashtant Patara
Shrashtant Patara
Shrashtant Patara, Chief Executive Officer of Technology and Action for Rural Advancement (TARA), is an architect by training. He has been with the Development Alternatives Group since 1988, providing research expertise, management capability and strategic direction to teams of up to 60 persons engaged in the promotion sustainable technology, creation of green jobs and fulfilment of basic needs amongst the rural poor. His current work focuses on the incubation of new business models, enterprise packages and capacity building measures; foremost amongst which are initiatives aimed at taking green economy solutions to scale in the areas of renewable energy based rural electrification, affordable housing, clean drinking water and waste recycling.
Douglas Kativu
Douglas Kativu
Douglas Kativu heads the Global Reporting Initiative Focal Point South Africa and is responsible for advancing GRI's mission in southern Africa and other key target markets on the continent. Before taking up the substantive position with GRI, Douglas served on the GRI Stakeholder Council for 5 years. Douglas has more than 10 years experience implementing multi-stakeholder based sustainability interventions in Africa. He has served in consulting and advisory roles on sustainability initiatives on the continent. He was a member of the international expert group that developed the ISO 26000 and a member of the Air Pollution Information Network Africa and Southern Africa Network for Training and Research on the Environment. Douglas holds tertiary qualifications in Environmental Management, and Applied Physics with research in renewable energy, and professional qualifications in ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.
Jane Kisakye
Jane Kisakye
Jane Kisakye
Jane Kisakye is a freelance consultant in environment conservation and community development. In the past, she worked with the following grant-making programs: the environment project of the Nile Basin Initiative; the Public-Private Alliance Grants Program for Land O’Lakes Inc in Uganda; the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives under the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the USAID-funded Action Program for the Environment in Uganda. During that time, she acquired skills and experience in establishing small grants programs, coordinating grants activities, project management, monitoring and evaluation, and organizational development. In addition, she worked with the Development through Conservation Project of CARE International in Uganda, as well as Kawanda Agricultural Research Station. She has an MSc in Agronomy obtained at the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA, and a BSc in Agriculture from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.
Patricio Sande
Patricio Sande
Patricio Sanders is an engineer by profession and is the president of the Scientific Research Association of Mozambique (ACIMO). He holds a master degree in Engineering specializing in Computer Complexes, Systems and Computer Networks at the Technical University of Civil Aviation of Latvia. He is involved with several research organizations both as a lecturer and supervisor of scientific multi-partner research works and graduate study programs. He has received various awards and distinctions internationally because of his scholarly works particularly from the International Biographical Centre of Cambridge in England and the American Biographical Institute. Aside from being active in academia, he acts as senior policy advisor to the government of Mozambique particularly in the field IT policies, instruments and projects. He is also a member of the implementing commission on the establishment of the Management Center of Knowledge on Climate Change in Mozambique.
François Bonnici
François Bonnici
Dr François Bonnici is the founding Director of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, the leading university and business school in Africa. It was established in partnership with the Bertha Foundation as the first academic centre in Africa dedicated to social innovations through both systemic approaches and rooted, on-the-ground work. Key initiatives focus on Education Innovation; Health Innovation; Innovative Financing; Ecosystems, Policy & Scaling in Social Innovation.
He trained as a medical doctor, read MPH (London) & MBA (Oxford) as a Rhodes Scholar. For a decade he worked in paediatric medicine and humanitarian & development programmes. As a WEF Global Leadership Fellow, he worked on PPPs in health and development, and headed the Schwab Foundation’s work in Africa & Middle East. He co-founded the African Social Entrepreneurs Network (now over 3,000 members). In 2013, he was elected an Archbishop Tutu African Leadership Fellow.
Gisele Yitamben
Gisele Yitamben
Gisele Yitamben is an economist by training, is a dynamic leader and expert on entrepreneurship development, information and communication technology and gender equality. She is the founder and President of the Association for the Support of Women Entrepreneurship, best known by its French acronym ASAFE, a social enterprise. An ardent defender of the rights of underprivileged persons, and notably women and youths, her actions have always targeted improving the welfare of those around her through searching for access to productive resources and technical services (e.g. alternative finance, training and high added value jobs).
In 2004, she initiated street football in Cameroon and her team ranked number 6 out of 48 countries represented at the 2006 Homeless World Cup in South Africa. Since then, her team has participated at The Homeless World Cup in Denmark, Australia and Brazil. Gisele Yitamben is the member of the expert group that advises the Director General of UNESCO on issues related to education for Sustainable Development.
Gisele Yitamben is a researcher and member of the research network GRACE through which her expertise has led to two books on women and ICT. She is a Schwab foundation fellow and has won several international and national prizes in recognition for her achievements. She was ranked among the 40 world's outstanding social entrepreneurs for the year 2002. Gisele Yitamben is the President of New Faces New Voices (NFNV) Cameroon, a chapter of NFNV an organization that works in changing policies, changing lives as well as investing in African women so as to multiply faces that will multiply voices.
Jeff Felten
Jeff Felten
Jeff Felten is a specialist in climate change, in designing and implementing business and industry development interventions, particularly in the “clean” energy sector (renewable energy and energy efficiency). He has been instrumental in introducing a variety of new technologies into different markets throughout Africa, including renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Mr. Felten has been active in the African energy sector for nearly 20 years, primarily working with SMEs, small-scale, isolated or distributed power systems, improved stove and briquette manufacturers, with national Ministries, rural energy agencies, project developers and other key stakeholders in developing sustainable, workable clean energy policies and systems.
Jeff is well versed in climate change issues globally and is one of Tanzania’s most experienced renewable energy consultants. He has consulted on behalf of African governments, bilateral and multilateral donors, NGOs and private companies, and is a key consultant for Tanzania’s Ministry of Energy and Rural Energy Agency. He works closely with a number of Independent Power Producers and clean energy SMEs. He is skilled in strategic planning, business planning, project management, micro-finance, market assessment and marketing. He is an experienced trainer/facilitator (in both French and English) and team leader, having managed staff as large as 40 people. He has administered multi-year donor-funded projects valued in the millions of dollars.
Lucy Aviles
Lucy Aviles
Lucy Aviles
Dennis Lucy Avilés Irahola was born in Bolivia and obtained her Doctoral degree on Development Studies in Bonn, Germany. Her academic education and more than 13 years of work experience include agricultural, environmental and political sciences and gender studies. Currently, she works as an independent consultant on rural development, gender mainstreaming and social impact assessment in development projects for Latin America. She has related experience in Asia, Africa and Europe.
During the last years, she has worked for international and national agricultural and environmental agencies and gave several presentations for governmental, non-governmental and academic organizations in Germany. She is Associate Researcher in the Research Network for Latin America of the University of Bonn – Germany, Member of the International Center for Women in Bonn (IFZ), and Member of Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and NRM (WOCAN).
Phillip Bohwasi
Phillip Bohwasi
Phillip Bohwasi is an accomplished Senior Social Worker, Business Enterprise and Community Facilitator, Trainer and a Development Consultant. He has worked with a number of international NGOs including the Redd Barna, Otto Bennecke Foundation, the EU and HIVOS Foundation as a Development and Programming Officer. He has facilitated a number of capacity building and BDS workshops including a regional Rural Finance Workshop involving 6 regional countries for the WKKF grantees. His main areas of experience and expertise include: Human Rights Facilitation, Child Protection, Capacity Building of Small and Local Civic Organisations and community groups, BDS training and programme design, implementation of community based programs and evaluation; development of training materials and tools for demand-driven training, including start-up and founding and building the capacity of new local NGOs and Social Enterprises. Further, Mr Bohwasi is well experienced in Child Protection, Advocacy on Child Rights. He is the current chairman for the Council of Social Workers in Zimbabwe and responsible for liaison with the GSCC on Zimbabwean Trained Social Workers in the UK. Mr Bohwasi is a registered social worker on the current GSCC and Zimbabwe Social Workers register.
Mr Bohwasi has over 21 years of work experience in Social Work, Community Care Work, Capacity Building, Business Development Training and Workshop Facilitation. During this time he has led the formation and establishment of the Zimbabwe Opportunities Industrialisation Center (ZOIC), an organisation involved in building the capacity of community care projects and rural growth-oriented enterprises, including agricultural associations. ZOIC is a social enterprise that facilitates and promotes capacity development to people and communities, entrepreneurs and small enterprises in the informal sector and agro-industry.
Seema Arora
Seema Arora
Seema Ms. Arora catalysed the establishment of the Environmental Management Division in CII and then transformed the activities of the Division into the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development. Ms. Arora initiated the creation of a Corporate Sustainability Management framework for building Sustainable Business Enterprises.
Ms. Seema Arora developed the vision and objectives for the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development and is the Centre’s head. As the head of the Centre, she networks with Industry, Government and Community based organisations to develop policy instruments and innovative voluntary approaches to Sustainable Development. She is involved with Planning Commission of Government of India to develop a Low Carbon Growth Strategy for India, with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India in defining the framework for measuring and rewarding Sustainability performance of Corporates. She is also providing inputs to defining Sustainable development Action plans at State level. Ms Arora provides training and counselling to Industry for evolving a Sustainability Vision and a portfolio of Sustainability Strategies for building a Sustainable Business Organisation.
Her main areas of interest are environmental policy, management systems, corporate sustainability, institutional strengthening and capacity building.
Ms. Seema Arora has a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Delhi University. She is a member of the Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. She is a member of the Stakeholder Council of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). She has twenty-six years experience in the field of Environmental Management and Sustainable Development.
Tanya Lobel
Tanya Lobel
Tanya Lobel joined Actis in 2010 to lead Actis’ philanthropic and community outreach division which focuses on social entrepreneurship, education and leadership. Actis uses its financial capital through a grant-giving programme and its human capital through a mentoring programme to work with partners throughout the emerging markets. Tanya is also responsible for working with Actis’s portfolio investments on issues related to social impact and community development.
Tanya started her career as an investment banker with Lehman Brothers. She spent 4 years in Equity Capital Markets focusing on UK and Iberian clients. Post-MBA, she joined the Portland Trust, a foundation focused on private sector development in Palestine and Israel. She worked on strengthening the Palestinian microfinance sector and SME development in the Galilee and the Negev. She was then with DFID, where she designed and launched the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund in Kenya. The fund provides grants and loans to private sector businesses implementing innovative, high impact projects in the agricultural, financial services and technology sectors. Tanya was then an Investment Manager with the Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm founded by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. She focused on making investments in the areas of microfinance, entrepreneurship and government transparency.
Tanya holds an MBA from NYU, Stern School of Business and a BSc in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
Andrew Gamble
Andrew Gamble
Andrew Gamble is the London Regional Managing Partner in the international law firm, Hogan Lovells. Throughout his career, Andrew has worked within the banking and corporate finance area. Over the past 25 years, he has been heavily involved in international finance, acting both for borrowers and bank syndicates. This work has entailed advising banks and structuring financings for the benefit of entities in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and CIS. Andrew has also led the teams acting for the Governments of Sierra Leone, Guyana, Mozambique and Ethiopia in the implementation of their World Bank / International Development Association sponsored debt reduction programmes. He has advised the Government of Nigeria on its Paris Club and London Club Debt. He was retained by the Government and Central Bank of Ghana to devise, and successfully implement, the issue of inflation index-linked government bonds. Andrew has worked with multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the African Export-Import Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Diana de la Vega
Diana de la Vega
Diana de la Vega is an environmental lawyer from Los Andes University, with a Masters in English Literature and Language from Harvard. Upon her return to Colombia in 2008, she has been involved with the energy and RE sector of Colombia, first as GVEP International Country Manager, and currently working as Strategic Communications Specialist for the Colombia Clean Energy Program (CCEP) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Diana organized the first 100% solar powered concert in Colombia this past January 20th in Bogota, to help place renewable energy on the national mindset and agenda.
Julie Clarke
Julie Clarke
Julie Clarke has 20 years of experience in human and earth rights. She has studied in environmental management, water resource management and NGO management through Wits University in SA and London University Wye and Imperial College in the UK. She has been involved in lecturing in several academic institutions across SA and worked for the Johannesburg municipality in policy and planning departments. She has served on numerous NGO boards and National Steering Committees and task teams concerned with planning, sustainable development, environmental and rural poverty issues and has represented South Africa in negotiations concerning the Convention on Desertification and helped South Africa to develop and implement its National Action Programme to Combat Desertification and Poverty. She has specialized in environmental work for the Development Bank of Southern Africa primarily in rural dryland areas. Currently, she is coordinating and managing the Drylands Fund on behalf of the Dept of Environmental Affairs and other key private sector and NGO stakeholders.
Nguy Thi Khanh
Nguy Thi Khanh
Nguy Thi Khanh is currently GreenID Executive Director and also in charge of advocacy under the Vietnam Rivers Network (VRN). She has 13 years experience in integrated community development, participatory training, networking, advocacy related to environmental governance, river protection and sustainable energy development. She has worked on income generation, community health protection, disaster mitigation, clean water, sanitation, hygiene for ethnic women and girls in Vietnam and recently advocacy for stopping destructive hydropower and for sustainable energy in the Mekong region. Her professional interests and works include good water, energy governance with meaningful participation, transparency, equal access to natural resources for communities especially for vulnerable groups, and sustainable development for a green future.
Since 2008 to 2011, Ms. Khanh took the role of VRN Coordinator. She has expanded VRN cooperation with stakeholders on water governance, water pollution, impacts of mining on water resources and communities, social and environmental impacts of hydropower dams, climate change, public participation in power sector in Vietnam. Acting as a leader, she is one among pioneers in fighting poorly planned hydropower development in Vietnam and advocacy for stopping mainstream dams proposed in the Mekong River. She is also focal point of the Mekong Ecology and Energy Network in Vietnam engaged in reviewing the power development planning process and public participation in this field. She has proven strong commitment, diverse lobbying and advocacy experiences, high reputation and good interaction with government agencies, innovative capability and strong zealousness for green development in Vietnam and in the Mekong Region. She has been also leading VRN’s advocacy projects including campaigns to stop proposed mainstream dams in the lower Mekong River, to cancel two controversial hydropower projects proposed in the Cat Tien National Park. She has been facilitating civil society monitoring on the implementation of safeguard policy in Trung Son hydropower project funded by World Bank. She is an active member of the mitigation group of Climate Change Working Group in Vietnam. Since 2012, she leads her team and partners to develop an energy alliance to promote sustainable energy development in Vietnam and the Mekong basin as a whole.
Ms. Khanh graduated from the Institute of International Relations in Ha Noi, Vietnam. She attended various short training courses, workshop on trans-boundary water management, sustainable energy development in Sweden, South Africa, the Netherlands and the United States. Khanh speaks fluent Vietnamese and English.
Rachid Amrani
Rachid Amrani
Rachid Amrani
Rachid Amrani is the Business Advisory services Programme Manager in Morocco (an EBRD programme funded by EU in Morocco). He is an industrial engineer with a higher degree in management. He worked as a banker for 13 years at the Popular bank group and specialized in financial markets, SME advisory and entrepreneurship. He founded in 2006 Original Invest, a consultancy company based in Technopark specializing in entrepreneurship, SME development and investment.
He managed several projects with a national scope. He developed the first curriculum on innovation and entrepreneurship for a Moroccan university and facilitated the Moroccan strategy to attract diaspora investments. He has been involved in several international programs as a principal expert in the context of the EU Medibtikar project, the IEB Moroccan incubation project, the USAID Resovert network for renewable energy SMEs, the UNDP SME project and many other multi-sector programmes.
Mrs Amrani is an experienced moderator of conferences and seminars. He taught also in engineering schools on topics such as business planning, financing, marketing and entrepreneurship. He was a guest speaker on several radio broadcasts on investment and entrepreneurship. He is a board member of the main association of young entrepreneurs (CJD- Centre des Jeunes Dirigeants) in Morocco.
Mrs Amrani is an IFC-certified expert in access to finance and Infodev expert in innovation and incubation.
Saliem Fakir
Saliem Fakir
Saliem Fakir is the Head of the Living Planet Unit at the World Wildlife Fund South Africa. The Unit's work is focused on identifying ways to manage a transition to a low-carbon economy.
He was previously (2007-2008) a senior lecturer at the Department of Public Administration and Planning and Associate Director for the Center for Renewable and Sustainable Energy at the University of Stellenbosch where he taught a course on renewable energy policy and financing of renewable energy projects. Saliem previously worked for Lereko Energy (Pty) Ltd (2006) an investment company focusing on project development and financial arrangements for renewable energy, biofuels, waste and water sectors. He also served as Director of the World Conservation Union South Africa (IUCN-SA) office for 8 years (1998-2005). Prior to the IUCN he was the Manager for the Natural Resources and Management Unit at the Land and Agriculture Policy Center.
Saliem served on a number of Boards. Between, 2002-2005, he served as a chair of the Board of the National Botanical Institute. He also served on the board of the Fair Trade in Tourism Initiative and was a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Global Reporting Initiative, based in Amsterdam. He currently serves on the advisory board of Inspired Evolution One – a private equity fund for clean technology.
He is also a columnist for the South African Center for Civil Society where he writes regular columns on a range of issues and Engineering News.
Saliem's qualifications are: B.Sc Honours molecular biology (WITS), Masters' in Environmental Science, Wye College London, and did a senior executive management course at Harvard University in 2000.
Srey Bairiganjan
Srey Bairiganjan
Sreyamsa Bairiganjan heads the research and enterprise engagement for the New Ventures Program in India. He is currently responsible for environmental enterprise evaluation for New Ventures India and has authored reports focused on clean energy for BoP markets such as “Power to the People: Investing in Clean Energy for the Base of the Pyramid,” “The Final 50 Mile: Using VLE Networks for Increasing Clean Energy Access,” ”The Base of Pyramid Distribution Challenge,” and “Bringing Clean Energy to Rural India.” His work highlights the investment and operational needs across clean tech products and services for the BoP markets.
Sreyamsa has been a panelist at leading world forums such as the G20 – Inclusive Business Workshop, Berlin, Rio +20- Corporate Sustainability Forum, Rio de Janerio, and the International Business Forum, Pretoria. He has also showcased his work across leading universities such as John Hopkins, NYU, Duke and University of North Carolina in USA. Previously, he worked as a senior researcher for IFMR- Rural Market Insights. He also worked for the Multi Commodity Exchange of India where he focused on developing trading models for the exchange of certified emission reductions (CERs). Sreyamsa did his MBA from the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal and has an Advanced Investment Manager Degree from the ANDE Program of Aspen Institute, Washington D.C.
Bert van Nieuwenhuizen
Bert van Nieuwenhuizen
Bert van Nieuwenhuizen
Bert van Nieuwenhuizen is Chief Technical Advisor for the African Biogas Partnership Development Programme of SNV Netherlands Development Organisation in Nairobi, Kenya. He has worked in finance and enterprise development for more than 30 years in both advisory and management positions in East and Southern Africa, the Balkans, and the Netherlands. He has been involved in a wide range of capacity development programmes working with public and private sector actors on economic development, entrepreneurship training and coaching, market linkages, strategies for innovation, value chain development and market-based solutions to poverty. Enterprise development and innovation are his passion which he is actively pursuing in his current position as Renewable Energy Advisor for East and Southern Africa, supporting the development and implementation of sustainable market based renewable energy programmes. Bert strongly believes that vibrant entrepreneurial societies are needed to reduce poverty sustainably.
Leticia Greyling
Leticia Greyling
Having graduated with two M.Sc. degrees before completing her MBA, Leticia Greyling's professional experience has been in the corporate environment. Until 2010, she was based in Johannesburg with South Africa’s ports authority head office, heading up the national department responsible for sustainability strategy development and implementation of these systems and initiatives at all commercial harbours.
She still consults part-time and has done work with UNEP, UNDP and various regional and international institutions especially on coastal/marine management, integration of sustainability in businesses, and managing environmental & sustainability risks and opportunities.
Tamzin Ractliffe
Tamzin Ractliffe
Tamzin Ractliffe is widely regarded as creating the first social investment exchange in the world and has been a visionary leader for GreaterGood South Africa – an African online social development networking platform – and its related impact investment advisory business Greater Capital over the past 12 years. Qualified in Applied Psychology and Commerce, she has worked as a financial analyst as well as in private equity and venture capital investment banking in South Africa and internationally for more than twenty years.
She established GreaterCapital in 1997 as a social and impact investment advisory consultancy serving the development sector in South Africa. In 1999, she started The Funding Site, a web-enabled resource site for the development community and in 2004 founded the internationally acclaimed award-winning social networking platform, GreaterGood South Africa Trust, a social profit organisation dedicated to utilizing 21st Century technology to facilitate indigenous philanthropy and performance-based giving in South Africa.
Through GreaterGood Tamzin conceptualized and developed the South African Social Investment Exchange (SASIX) which was launched in June 2006, SASIX Financial – an impact investment fund in partnership with Cadiz Asset Management in 2007 and the South African Network for Impact Investing (SAII) in 2008 before handing over the reins of the GreaterGood Group to pursue the development of NeXii to leverage larger-scale private sector investment in social, environmental and development finance offerings. Tamzin has focused on promoting coherence and organization for maximum efficiencies in the impact investing sector and has continually sought to use the markets for greater social good and was awarded the GIBS Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2007 and appointed an Ashoka fellow in 2008.
Ana Victoria Rogas
Ana Victoria Rogas
Ana V Rogas has more than twelve years of experience working on environment and development issues, with a strong climate change background -with emphasis on international negotiations, national policies, their impacts on small-scale projects and community-based mitigation and adaptation strategies. She graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor and Licenciatura degree in Law from the University of Costa Rica; her graduation thesis was “Legal and Institutional Framework of the Clean Development Mechanism.” While studying, she joined CEDARENA –a Costa Rican Environmental Law Center- in 1999, where she acquired an extensive experience working with community-based projects, networking, and policy analysis. During this time Ms Rojas engaged in a series of trainings on climate change policies and LULUCF opportunities in Latin America; she was also a Regional Consultant for FAO for the evaluation and analysis of the regional institutional and legal framework for forests and climate change in Central America.
In 2003 she moved to the Netherlands to pursue her M.Sc. on Environmental Management, at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University Amsterdam) and graduated with honours in 2004. Afterwards, she joined Both ENDS’ Strategic Cooperation Unit; where she participated in the analysis on synergies between international environmental policies and the inception of adaptation strategies in South East Asia.
Ms Rojas is currently a consultant at the ETC Foundation and for the past five years has provided support to ENERGIA –the International Network on Gender an Sustainable Energy- network members on the topic of climate change adaptation and mitigation activities and coordinates the network’s advocacy activities at the UNFCCC negotiation process. Furthermore, Ms Rojas provides technical support to the network’s activities on international policy advocacy, gender audits of energy policies, technical advice to energy projects, training of trainers and practitioners, research and case study development, network building and knowledge management in Asia.
Andrea Margit
Andrea Margit
Andrea Margit is the Environment Unit Head at Roberto Marinho Foundation where she leads a portfolio of educational projects, including water and forest management, natural heritage, and sustainable cities. She has worked in conservation since 2002 in the fields of learning and communication. She was the Institutional Learning Director at Conservation International (www.conservation.org) in Virginia, U.S., from 2005 to 2008. She has also led CI's communication strategy in Brazil for over 3 years. Much of her fieldwork is related to participatory planning, media relations, conservation awareness campaigns and training. Prior to joining CI, she worked in marketing and strategy at the credit card industry and consulting firms. She has a bachelor in Journalism, a specialization in Information Sciences at the University of Paris II, and a master in Business Administration at Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo. Her current field of research is in cross-sector partnerships and social network analysis.
Ellen Houston
Ellen Houston
Ellen Houston is an adjunct professor in the International Studies Department at Manhattanville College. She has previously taught in the departments of Economics and International Studies at Marymount College/Manhattan, New York University and Rutgers State University. Her research interests include gender and development including work on the impacts of the financial crisis and the effects of climate change on women’s well-being. She has published work on international trade competitiveness and social policy, international migration and technological change and labour demand. She has worked as a consultant for the United Nation in various capacities dealing with women’s issues, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), more recently on climate change and sustainable development lending her expertise as an employment expert to the SG High-level Panel on Global Sustainability and as a member of the working group on social dimensions of climate change. Prior to her experience at the United Nations, she worked as an economist in Washington DC for the International Centre for Research on Women and for the Economic Policy Institute.
Godwell Nhamo
Godwell Nhamo
Dr Godwell Nhamo is a Programme Manager for the Exxaro Chair in Business and Climate Change. The Chair is hosted by the Institute for Corporate Citizenship that falls within the College of Economic and Management Sciences (CEMS) at the University of South Africa (Unisa). Dr Nhamo holds a PhD from Rhodes University and did his postdoctoral work with the University of Witwatersrand (both in South Africa). Dr Nhamo has great interests in Low Carbon and Green Economy, Business and Climate Change; Global Change, Climate Policy Negotiation Regimes; as well as General Environmental Management and Policy. Some of Dr Nhamo’s current responsibilities are in teaching, research and training in the impact areas highlighted.
Dr Nhamo has published widely across his areas of research interests. Dr Nhamo’s 2011 work includes a co-authored book entitled “Framework and Tools for Environmental Management in Africa”; an edited book to be launched before COP17 entitled ‘Green Economy and Climate Mitigation: Topics of Relevance to Africa’; another edited book under preparation involving more than 20 authors entitled “Breakthrough: Corporate South Africa in a Low Carbon and Green Economy”; one journal article and four book chapters all of which have addressed various components in the low carbon and green economy. The book ‘Breakthrough’ profiles ‘breakthrough’ low carbon and green economy initiatives from selected companies in South Africa.
The book is due for publication in the second half of 2012. Dr Nhamo has emerged as an international speaker in his impact areas. Currently, Dr Nhamo is supervising five doctoral students working on various topics aligned to the green economy, global change, climate policy, climate change and the environment. His Chair also runs a multi-disciplinary Research Associate Programme that involves mentoring young academics within Unisa that are willing to mainstream green economy and climate change in their teaching and research.
James Wakaba
James Wakaba
James Wakaba is an engineer by profession with 20 years industry and management experience. He spent 10 years working with organizations such as Unilever and Magadi Soda as an engineering and projects manager years before joining the energy sector ten years ago. He spent the first five of those working in energy efficiency as a consultant doing energy audits, energy policy consultancy, training and project management for a GEF/UNDP funded project at the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM). He helped set up a centre of energy efficiency and conservation at the KAM and develop a curriculum for energy manager training at Masters degree level at the University of Nairobi. He was part of the team that attempted to set up an ESCO in Kenya, which still operates as an energy efficiency consultancy to date.
He then worked as a consultant on renewable energy, energy efficiency and climate change. Before his current posting, James headed a programme to introduce standards for energy efficiency in appliances in Uganda. He is currently working to increase energy access to rural and peri-urban poor in various African countries. James’ areas of interest are energy efficiency, renewable energy, climate change, and project finance. He has worked on energy projects ranging from community biomass substitution, industrial energy efficiency to power generation throughout Africa.
Laure Bitetera Kananura
Laure Bitetera Kananura
Laure Bitetera Kananura is the National Coordinator of the GEF Small Grants Programme at UNDP Rwanda since 2008. The programme supports local communities in their efforts to achieve more sustainable livelihoods and contribute to local and global environmental benefits. She previously worked as a lecturer at the National University of Rwanda where her research interests were related to natural resource management. Laure studied at the University of Burundi where she obtained a Bachelors degree in Biology. She, later on, obtained an MSc in Oceanography from the University of Quebec at Rimouski (Canada). She is an active member of several social organizations in her country, most of them aiming at women empowerment.
Luisa Emilia Reyes Zuniga
Luisa Emilia Reyes Zuniga
Master and Bachelor’s Degree in Studies on International Relations, at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico; UNAM, according to its initials in Spanish). She is also a Bachelor of Arts in Modern English Language and Literature, at the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature (FFyL), UNAM. She has studied in Lacanian Psychoanalysis, which she has practised both in teaching as well as in the clinical field. She has specialized in public policies and development issues, with the use of the tool of gender budgets and the gender mainstreaming strategy, as well as the integral disaster risk management approach.
On two occasions she has been a consultant for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and for a joint program between UNAM-World Bank. Currently she is the Coordinator of the Area of Gender Policies and Budgets in Equidad de Genero: Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia A.C. (Gender Equity: Citizenship, Work and Family A.C) a non-governmental organization, to mainstream gender perspective in public policies and budgets in different government levels (state and local), as well as in institutions. She is also the Coordinator of the Gender Budgets Training for the SUMA project in Mexico, a three-year project for the political and economic empowerment of women, sponsored by the Fund for Gender Equality, UN Women.
Neville Gabriel
Neville Gabriel
Neville Gabriel is the founding executive director of the Southern Africa Trust, an independent regional agency that supports deeper and wider policy engagement between governments and non-state actors to overcome poverty in Southern Africa. He is also a trustee of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) based in Johannesburg and the African Forum on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) based in Harare, a member of the board of the Goedgedacht Forum for Social Reflection based in Cape Town, a senior fellow of the Synergos Institute based in New York, a member of the Africa Policy Advisory Board of Bono’s ONE campaign based in London, and a member of the founding steering committee of the African Grantmakers’ Network (AGN).
Before becoming the founding executive director of the Southern Africa Trust, Neville worked at Oxfam as its southern Africa regional media and advocacy coordinator and at the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), where he was part of the founding team of its Parliamentary Liaison Office in Cape Town, its first secretary for economic justice based in Pretoria, and later coordinator of its Justice and Peace Department also based in Pretoria.
He co-founded the Jubilee 2000 South Africa coalition for debt cancellation as part of the global Jubilee movement and served variously as its national secretary, national executive committee member, and spokesperson.
Neville was born in Durban, South Africa. He matriculated with distinction before completing a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree at the University of Cape Town. After a year’s retreat and community service in an impoverished rural village in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, he returned to study philosophy and religion at both the University of Natal and St Joseph’s Theological Institute concurrently, graduating with Honours in Social Sciences (cum laude) from the University of Natal.
Sascha Gabizon
Sascha Gabizon
Sascha Gabizon, with an international business masters from ESCP/EAP France, developed the organisation WECF to become the major international network of women and environmental organisations working for sustainable development and poverty reduction, feeding results into EU and United Nations policy processes.
Sascha Gabizon is the Executive Director of WECF Women in Europe for a Common Future, an international network on sustainable development, gender and environment. The WECF network counts 100 women’s and environmental non-governmental organisations based in 40 countries. WECF operates from 3 offices in Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Sascha Gabizon is overall responsible for all WECF sustainable development programmes which reach more than 35.000 local beneficiaries in the area of safe water supply and sanitation, safe renewable energy and chemical safety and advocating for women’s economic and political empowerment.
Sascha Gabizon lived and worked in Spain, Netherlands, France, Germany, and the US and has long-term project experience in Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Poland, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
She has published a large number of studies and articles.
Helmy Abouleish
Helmy Abouleish
Helmy Abouleish - Graduate of Faculty of Commerce, Major in Business Administration of Cairo University and Marketing Diploma of American University in Cairo - is deeply involved in the development of SEKEM - an initiative started 1977 in the Egyptian desert striving for sustainable development in the fields of economy, culture and social/political life. He is the Managing Director of SEKEM Holding that consists of eight companies (SEKEM for Land Reclamation, Libra, Mizan, Lotus, Atos, Naturetex, Hator, Isis), which cover the fields of biodynamic agriculture cultivation, production of phyto-pharmaceuticals, organic textiles and foodstuff, with a capacity of 2000 people.
Since 2004 Helmy Abouleish is Founder & Chairman of the Egyptian National Competitiveness Council (ENCC) and since 2007 he is Founder & Chairman of Ecotec (Ecological Technologies). From May 2005 until July 2006, he has been appointed as the Executive Director of the Industrial Modernisation Centre (IMC). Furthermore, he was Chairman of the Egyptian Junior Business Association (EJB) from June 2004 to June 2006.
Helmy Abouleish is a member of the Egyptian Delegation to the UNFCCC negotiations on Climate Change of the World Future Council. A renowned leader of sustainable change in the Arab world, he is heading several organizations and is driving manifold initiatives for organic agriculture, corporate sustainability, national and global sustainable development.
Nancy Chege
Nancy Chege
Nancy Chege is currently the National Coordinator of the Kenya GEF Small Grants Programme (GEF-SGP) of UNDP; a position she has held since 2006. Prior to joining the team at the GEF SGP, Nancy worked for a range of environmental organizations in the US and in Kenya; these include the Worldwatch Institute - WWI (US), The African Wildlife Foundation (US) the Green Belt Movement - GBM (Kenya) and the National Council of NGOs (Kenya).
While at Worldwatch, Nancy published a few articles which were featured in the various WWI publications, and while at the GBM, she was fortunate to have been mentored by Prof. Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Laureate. Nancy studied at Moravian college in Pennsylvania where she obtained a Bachelors degree in Biology and later obtained a Masters degree in Environmental Management at Duke University in North Carolina.
Richard Lewis
Richard Lewis
Richard Lewis is a partner in the London office of the law firm Hogan Lovells and is a member of their corporate finance group. Richard has practised law for almost 20 years and has extensive experience in corporate finance, domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, demergers, joint ventures and general corporate advisory work. He has worked on a very broad range of transactions in a wide variety of jurisdictions, particularly in the financial institutions, life sciences and industrials sectors and clients have included major international banks, insurers, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, automotive and consumer goods manufacturers. Richard also regularly advises on corporate governance issues and often speaks at conferences and seminars on the topic.
Walter Baets
Walter Baets
Walter R. J. Baets is Director of the Graduate School of Business of the University of Cape Town, and Unesco Chair in Education for Social and Sustainable Entrepreneurship at Euromed Management, Marseille. Before joining Euromed Management, he held academic positions in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. He graduated in Econometrics and Operations Research at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) and did postgraduate studies in Business Administration at Warwick Business School (UK). He was awarded a PhD from the University of Warwick in Industrial and Business Studies and a Habilitation of Paul Cezanne University, Aix-Marseille III, France.
He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Aix-Marseille (IAE) and GRASCE (Complexity Research Centre) Aix-en-Provence. He held visiting teaching positions at ESC Rouen, KU Leuven, RU Gent, Moscow, St Petersburg, Tyumen University, Purdue University and Narsee Monjee (Mumbai, India). Most of his professional experience was acquired in the telecommunications and banking sector. He has substantial experience in management development activities in Russia and the Arab world.
His research interests include Innovation and knowledge; Complexity, chaos and change; The impact of (new information) technologies on organisations; Knowledge, learning and artificial intelligence; On-line learning, workplace learning and pedagogical innovation; A quantum interpretation of management.
He is a member of the International Editorial Board of the Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Information & Management, and Systèmes d’Information et Management. He has acted as a reviewer/evaluator and chair for a number of International Conferences (e.g. ECIS an ICIS) and for the EU RACE programme, and was guest editor of a special issue of Accounting, Management and Information Technology on Complexity in Management. He has published in several journals including the Journal of Strategic Information Systems, The European Journal of Operations Research, Knowledge and Process Management, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, The Journal of Systems Management, Information & Management, The Learning Organization and Accounting, Management and Information Technologies. He has organised international conferences in the area of IT and organizational change.
Walter Baets is the author of “Organizational Learning and Knowledge Technologies in a Dynamic Environment” published in 1998 by Kluwer Academic, and of “Complexity, Organisations and Learning: the quantum interpretation of business”, published in 2006 with Routledge. He co-authored with Gert Van der Linden “The Hybrid Business School: Developing knowledge management through management learning”, published by Prentice-Hall in 2000 and “Virtual Corporate Universities”, published 2003 by Kluwer Academic. Along with Bob Galliers he co-edited “Information Technology and Organizational Transformation: Innovation for the 21st Century Organization” also published in 1998 by Wiley. In 1999, he edited “Complexity and Management: A collection of essays”, published by World Scientific Publishing. Recently his latest book was published with Springer (2005): “Knowledge Management and Management Learning: Extending the Horizons of Knowledge-Based Management”. Recently he co-authored with Erna Oldenboom: Rethinking growth: social intrapreneurship for sustainable performance (Palgrave MacMillan, 2009). He is series editor for the Palgrave Macmillan Series on Diversity, Leadership and Responsibility.
Alejandro Litovsky
Alejandro Litovsky
Alejandro Litovsky is the Director of the Volans Innovation Lab, at Volans Ventures in London. He works with business, investors, governments and entrepreneurs in developing and scaling solutions to social, environmental and governance challenges. He has led the design and implementation of collaborative innovation projects for over ten years in countries like Tanzania, Ecuador, India, Philippines, Brazil, South Africa, Russia and Indonesia.
He is an advisor to the Tällberg Foundation in Sweden, and from 2004 to 2008 was Senior Advisor to AccountAbility in London, where he helped create the Collaborative Governance program and advised investors such as the World Bank, the Shell Foundation, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation on collaborative innovation strategies to increase their impact. In 2004 he was awarded the Hobhouse Memorial Prize by the London School of Economics where he obtained an MSc in Political Sociology. During this period he worked with the Shell International Future Scenarios team in London. Prior to 2003, he was an investment manager for the AVINA Foundation in Latin America based out of Buenos Aires. He holds a BA in International Relations from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Argentina, where he was awarded the gold medal in 1999 for his work on the political economy of the collapse of Argentine fisheries in the 1990’s. He has been recently awarded a Fellowship by the Royal Society of the Arts in the United Kingdom for his contribution to the advancement of social innovation.
Elisea Bebet G Gozun
Elisea Bebet G Gozun
Elisea “Bebet” G. Gozun, is the former Secretary (Minister) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Philippines. In 2007, she was recognized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as the Champion of the Earth for Asia and the Pacific (together with Al Gore who was named the Champion of the Earth for North America).
An activist who is involved with many environmental NGOs, she has served as a consultant on environmental management and urban development to the World Bank, ADB, USAID, UN Habitat, UNDP and other development partners. She now serves as Consultant for the World Bank Institute’s Carbon Finance Capacity Building for Emerging Megacities in the South, the World Bank’s Credit Rating Project in the Philippines. She is the Project Director of the Cities Alliance-supported City Development Strategy (CDS) project in the Philippines (which guides the 58 cities on their path to sustainable development to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of all stakeholders). She is also a consultant of the Environmental Governance component of the USAID-supported ECO-Asia project for Asia (which covers 12 countries in Asia).
In the region, she chairs the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities Partnership Council (CAI-Asia); is a Board Member of the Environment and Economics Programme for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA); and, is a member of the Advisory Committee of the ADB and GTZ-assisted City Development Initiatives in Asia (CDIA).
In the Philippines, she chairs the Earth Day Network Philippines, the Earth Council Asia Pacific Philippines and the Philippine Council for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development Inc. (which serves as the secretariat for the ecolabeling program in the country). She also serves as the Vice President of the Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines (SWAPP) and the Partnership for Clean Air (PCA); Director of the Philippine Business for the Environment (PBE); Board of Trustees of the Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation; and, member of the Advisory Board of the WWF-Philippines. She was also designated as a member of the Advisory Committee to the Supreme Court (SC) to oversee the implementation of the SC decision on the clean up of Manila Bay.
She is the Program Director of the Green Kalinga program of Gawad Kalinga. It aims to bring the poor out of extreme poverty by providing land for the landless, home for the homeless and food on the table while ensuring that their communities live in harmony with nature, consume responsibly and do not degrade the environment.
She is the proud mother of 2 - Karla and Jose Antonio.
Kirsten Spainhower
Kirsten Spainhower
Kirsten Spainhower has a Bachelor's of Science in Environmental Studies from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington and Masters in Forestry from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She works with the Development Marketplace, a competitive grant program that identifies and funds innovative, early-stage development projects with high potential for development impact and replication. The program is administered by the World Bank Institute and funded by various partners.
She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin where she was posted to an International Institute of Tropical Agriculture station responsible for working with farmers to incorporate trees into their agricultural systems. She has also worked with a number of USAID contractors and completed long-term assignments in Afghanistan and Iraq. Her technical interests include community-based natural resource management, eco-agriculture, agroforestry, communications and monitoring & evaluation. Kirsten enjoys thinking about patterns in nature and studying farming systems from around the world.
Paul Laird
Paul Laird
Paul Laird
Paul Laird joined Earthwatch Institute (Europe) in November 2005 and works with Earthwatch’s corporate partners in the agriculture and forestry sectors, managing programmes with British American Tobacco and Syngenta in particular. As part of Earthwatch’s increasing focus on supporting organisational change in partner companies, these programmes raise awareness of the impacts and dependence of agricultural industries on biodiversity ecosystems and build capacity to address those issues. Previously he worked with Sheffield Wildlife Trust, Living Earth Foundation, SOS Sahel International, the Kenyan Forest Department and the Forestry Commission.
Paul is a forester with an MSc in Environmental Management (London University, Distinction, 1995). He has more than twenty years’ experience of managing forestry, agricultural and rural development projects in Africa, mainly with communities in challenging arid environments. Projects and local organisations that he established in Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya continue to thrive and strengthen local capacity and resilience. The main focus of his career has been on sustainable natural resource management as a key strategy for rural livelihoods.
Brian Milder
Brian Milder
Brian Milder, Director of Strategy & Innovation at Root Capital, coordinates organizational strategy and develops new markets and financial products for expanding Root Capital’s investment fund for small and growing rural businesses in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Previously, he served as Boston Site Director for Project HEALTH, a national nonprofit organization that connects low-income families to the resources they need to be healthy. He also worked in Chile as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the Nonprofit Enterprise and Self-sustainability Team (NESsT), which operates a venture fund to incubate sustainable social enterprises.
Mr Milder holds a B.A. in social studies magna cum laude from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Recent publications include case studies on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa and horticulture supply chains linking East African producers to European supermarkets for Harvard Business School, an article on value chain finance in the journal Enterprise Development and Microfinance, and a chapter on finance for ecotourism businesses in the Galapagos Islands for the forthcoming book Conservation Capital in the Americas. He is fluent in Spanish and is on the Board of Directors of Patagonia Sur Foundation and the Advisory Board for Rooted Foods.
Leila Akahloun
Leila Akahloun
Leila Akahloun is the Integrator for Africa Programs of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, an international development organization that identifies and invests in social entrepreneurs known as Ashoka Fellows. Her work with Ashoka is at the cutting edge of a dramatic transformation in social development whereby she is helping leading social entrepreneurs who are advancing the fields of health, education, the environment, human rights, women’s empowerment and economic development establish themselves as a powerful force in improving lives on the African continent. She has nearly 10 years experience in high net worth fundraising, program management, as well as design and implementation of organizational strategy.
As Ashoka’s Integrator for Africa Programs, Leila is responsible for the management of Ashoka’s operations in Africa where she oversees a $6 million dollar budget and 4 regional offices in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa. Leila holds an undergraduate degree in International Politics from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and an MA degree in International Relations from the University of Chicago.
Juan Mayr Maldonado
Juan Mayr Maldonado
Juan Mayr has dedicated his life to the environment. Throughout his career, he has pursued a holistic and interdisciplinary vision at different levels of decision-making – local, national, regional and international - for the protection of ecosystems and biodiversity as the mainstay for cultural diversity, sustainable livelihoods and good governance. His capacity to involve all areas of civil society is a particular strength. Mayr’s interest in environmental issues started in 1976, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta on the Northeastern coast of Colombia. Based on the indigenous perception of human-nature relationships, their cultural ways of adapting to the different ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada and their social and political inter-relations, Mayr promoted the concept of shared bioregional management. His work was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1993.
Mayr is renowned for his efforts in promoting decentralization and regionalization within the World Conservation Union (IUCN), where he has served as Vice-President and also as Regional Representative for Latin America. In August 1998, Juan Mayr was appointed Minister for the Environment in Colombia. As Minister, he also worked closely with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In February 2002 he presided over the Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GMEF) in Cartagena, which proposed measures to strengthen UNEP in the light of outcomes from the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).
Nicole Häusler
Nicole Häusler
Nicole Häusler has several years of experience as Tourism Consultant focusing on Tourism Human Resources Development and Training, Tourism Planning and Marketing, Networking and Association Management but also on Tourism & Poverty Reduction. She lived for six years in Bangkok/Thailand and worked there as a tourism consultant, study tour guide and travel photographer in the region. She has been several times to Vietnam and knows very well its history, culture, environment, current tourism development etc. From 2003-2005 she worked as a Tourism Consultant at the Department of Protected Areas (SERNAP) in La Paz/Bolivia, financed by CIM/GTZ and World Bank. Currently, she is a visiting lecturer in ‘Sustainable Tourism Management’ at the University of Applied Sciences in Eberswalde near Berlin.
Since 2006 she has been Managing Director of ‘mas contour – Tourism Consulting & Regional Planning’. Nicole has worked on the micro and macro level with local communities, the public and private sector, tourism authorities, training centres and local and international NGOs. Being a social anthropologist her special skills are project management, intercultural communication, participatory methodologies, planning and monitoring. Nicole is co-author of the Manual “Tourism as a Field of Activity in German Development Cooperation. A Basic Overview, Priority Areas for Action and Strategic Recommendations” published by GTZ in 2007.
George Varughese
George Varughese
As a President of the Development Alternatives Group, an India-based NGO, Mr Varughese has co-ordinated or actively participated in nearly all the assignments undertaken by the group. He has conceptualised and spearheaded several of the organisation’s major initiatives, including the Community Led Environment Action Network (CLEAN-India), Corporate Environment and Social Responsibility, Development Alternatives Information Network (DAINET), and the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programmes. Outside Development Alternatives, he has worked in the construction industry and academia.
George Varughese is a member of several international and national governing bodies, advisory panels and working groups on environment and development issues, including the World Bank Community Development Carbon Fund (CDCF), the Global Water Partnership (GWP), UNEP Global Environment Outlook (GEO), IUCN, the Planning Commission and various ministries of the Government of India. He has spearheaded several NGO initiatives, such as the Credibility Alliance nationally, and the Regional and International Networking Group (RING).
Kofi Nketsia-Tabiri
Kofi Nketsia-Tabiri
Kofi Nketsia-Tabiri
Kofi Nketsia-Tabiri is the Founder and Chief Innovations Officer of Patient Capital Partners Limited, an SME advisory and project development company. Kofi’s primary responsibility is to develop new markets and innovative business models for modern energy fuels and products for underserved communities in Africa. He is also Managing Director of Xpress Gas, a pioneer LPGas marketing and distribution company dedicated to remote communities in Ghana.
Prior to starting Patient Capital Partners and Xpress Gas, Kofi was the Regional Director for E+Co investment operations in Africa where he led the mentoring, hand holding and financing of over 20 start-ups and early-stage modern energy companies(such as WilkinSolar, Zara Solar, Umeme Jua, Solar Energy Uganda, Rex Investments, Toyola Energy, Sodigaz etc) in 8 Africa countries.
Kofi is a member of the inaugural CATTO Fellows of the Aspen Institute, a Cordes Fellow of Opportunity International and a former juror for the Green Challenge. He has a background in Mechanical Engineering from University of Science and Technology (Ghana) and Corporate and International Finance from Durham Business School of the University of Durham (UK).
Dr. Hanumappa Sudarshan
Dr. Hanumappa Sudarshan
A medical doctor by profession, Dr. Sudarshan has focused on public health, social work and tribal rights at an early stage. He founded VGKK and Karuna Trust for the sustainable development of tribal and rural poor through rights-based approaches to health, education, livelihood security and biodiversity conservation. He has worked, amongst others, with the Ramakrishna Mission, State and National Governments.
He is a member of numerous national and international committees, including the Independent Commission on Health in India, the National Commission on Population, the NHRC core Group on Health and the Executive Committee of the governmental Janasamkhya Sthiratha Kosh chaired by the Indian Prime Minister. Dr Sudarshan is an Ashoka Fellow; his engagement in the fields of public health and tribal rights has earned him the Rajyothsava State Award in 1984, the Right Livelihood Award in 1994, the Padmashree Award in 2000 and the Vivekananda Medal in 2004.
Eugenio da Motta Singer
Eugenio da Motta Singer
Dr. Singer has more than 30 years of experience in the fields of environmental management systems, environmental auditing, sustainable development, environmental impact assessment and site investigations. He has lectured in most Brazilian States and works as a consultant to Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), and IDB. He was a member of the ERM Brazil Board of Directors and SEMCO’s Board of Directors and is the founder of the INSTITUTO PHAROS, an NGO dedicated to promoting sustainability in Brazil’s coastal areas.
Dr Singer currently is a member of the DNA Institute, a think-tank dedicated to discussing major Brazilian issues, and the president of ECOSORB, the first Brazilian emerging and innovative to receive investments from the Stratus Fund, which has BNDES, IDB, PETROS, BASF among its investors.
Jennifer Seif
Jennifer Seif
Jennifer Seif is Executive Director of Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA), a position she has held for nearly seven years. She holds academic qualifications in economics, history, social anthropology and business administration, and is currently completing her PhD at the University of Pretoria. Having worked in academia in South Africa and the USA, she still lectures occasionally on responsible tourism and is the architect of a University of South Africa (UNISA) seminar on sustainable tourism. Prior to joining FTTSA, she was Product Development Manager for the North West Parks & Tourism Board in South Africa.
Ms Seif is member of the board of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, of the Council of the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa, of the Executive Committee of Backpacking South Africa, of the Steering Committee of The Code International and a founding Trustee of Fairtrade South Africa (FTSA) In 2001 and 2003, Ms Seif was recognized by the Ashoka Citizens Base Initiative, for excellence in non-profit resource mobilization.
Nino Tevzadze
Nino Tevzadze
Nino Tevzadze is a sociologist and psychologist by training; her work experiences lie in the field of sociology and public environmental education, participatory planning, policy and strategy development, awareness raising activities, training, facilitation and human resource management.
Since 2000 she has been with the Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN), one of the strongest NGOs in the Caucasus region, which engages in multi-stakeholder networking; first as a Country Coordinator, and later a Regional Coordinator on both policy and grassroots levels. From 2005 on, she has been actively involved in the sociological research undertaken by the organization.
Yves Renard
Yves Renard
Yves Renard has been involved in natural resource management and sustainable development, mainly in the Caribbean region, over the past three decades. Between 1992 and 2001, he served as Executive Director of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI). Over the past six years, he has worked as a consultant to governments, non-governmental organisations and international bodies, carrying out research projects, policy analyses and formulation, trainings and institutional reviews and facilitating development processes in the fields of poverty and environment, poverty reduction and tourism policy. Mr Renard is part of a team of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) conducting an independent evaluation of a proposal to create a Global Forest Partnership, and currently assists IUCN in the design of a Caribbean Initiative.
Mr Renard has edited books and published a number of guidelines, articles, papers and reports on issues of natural resource management, sustainable development, culture and community development. He serves and has served on the governing bodies of a number of international, national and community-based organisations, inter alia as President of the Caribbean Conservation Association, as Caribbean representative on the Council of IUCN, as President of Panos Caribbean, and as member of the Council of the Québec-based Institut de l’Energie et de l’Environnement de la Francophonie.
Thais Corral
Thais Corral
Thais Corral is a social innovator and entrepreneur and Director of Adapta Sertao, a SEED Award Winner in 2008. She has been a leader in the global movement for sustainable development for the last 25 years. Co-founder of internationally recognized organizations such as WEDO (Women, Environment and Development Organization) and REDEH. She is also the initiator of social enterprises such as Adapta Sertão, the earlier version of Adapta Sertão, Pintadas Solar, was a SEED Winner in 2008. She is also the founder of SINAL do Vale. She holds a master at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and lives in Brazil.
Sarah Timpson
Sarah Timpson
Sarah Timpson
Sarah Timpson currently serves as Senior Adviser to UNDP on Community-based Initiatives, working with several UNDP programmes which support community action, including the Community Water Initiative and the Equator Initiative, where she chairs the Technical Advisory Committee. Prior to this, managed the UNDP/Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme (SGP). Has also served as a consultant in the evaluation of Conservation International’s Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund (CEPF) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Global Conservation Fund (GCF).
In the course of a long career with UNDP, Ms Timpson has been a leader and manager of UNDP efforts to reorient its policies and programmes to focus on people-centred development, environmental sustainability, participation and equity. She has managed UNDP offices in developing countries and served in senior policy-making positions at UNDP headquarters, including as head of the Social Development Division and Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Development Policy, and established the NGO Division, spearheading UNDP’s outreach to civil society, as well as the interregional programme for the Promotion of the Role of Women in Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation (PROWWESS). Ms Timpson is a member of the Board of the South North Development Initiative and of the Global Rainwater Harvesting Collective, and has served as Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of RARE Conservation.
Andrew Kailembo
Andrew Kailembo
Francesco Frangialli
Francesco Frangialli
Kumi Naidoo
Kumi Naidoo
Maria Emilia Correa
Maria Emilia Correa
Melinda Kimble
Melinda Kimble
Odigha Odigha
Odigha Odigha
Sheela Patel
Sheela Patel
Kaarin Taipale
Kaarin Taipale
Kaarin Taipale was on the jury for the first SEED Awards in 2005; celebrating 10 Years of SEED Awards, she joined the SEED International Jury again in 2015. She is a local politician in Helsinki, Finland. In recent years as a freelance columnist, lecturer and urban researcher, she has focused on sustainability and urban development, as well as local and global energy policies. She has discussed the cross-cutting nature of in particular energy, and broader sustainability perspectives in regional and urban policies, as well as metropolitan governance. Her research has analyzed the privatization of the urban public realm, basic services, in particular, urban culture, and the role of financing in sustainable construction.
From 2000 to 2003, she chaired the worldwide association of cities, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability. On behalf of the Ministry of the Environment of Finland, she chaired in 2006 - 2010 the global Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Buildings and Construction, which focused on energy issues and sustainability policies in the built environment. She has been an expert adviser of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. Previously she has worked also as a practising architect, as Editor of the Finnish Architectural Review, and as CEO of the Building Control Department of the City of Helsinki.
Kaarin received her PhD (Urban Studies) in Helsinki, after having studied architecture at the ETH in Zurich and historic preservation at Columbia University in New York. For more, see www.kaarintaipale.net.
Farouk Jiwa
Farouk Jiwa
Nicolas Kulibaba
Nicolas Kulibaba
Nitin Desai
Nitin Desai
R K Pachauri
R K Pachauri
Chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Director General, TERI, India.
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