Andrés Alcántara

Corporate Development Department Director, UICN Mediterranean

Andrés Alcántara  has worked at the Center for Mediterranean Cooperation of the UICN since its creation in 2000. He coordinates processes and projects  of NbS with national and international organizations. He has just co-directed the courses on Nature  based Solutions  (NbS), climate change and Mediterranean cities of the International University of Andalusia  where the creation of a cluster and  virtual Lab on Nature-based Solutions has been approved.  He won the Andalusian Prize of Economy and Finance for the work on local Agendas XXI. He is the editor of  local agenda XXI- Málaga. He coordinates the project and publication  on Nature based Solutions  and Mediterranean cities.  International expert in environment and sustainable development: 25 years of international experience in environment, cooperation and sustainable development. Specialized in governance, socioeconomic and environmental issues of the Mediterranean.

David Álvarez

Executive Director of Ecoacsa

David is CEO of Ecoacsa Reserva de Biodiversidad. Ecoacsa is a company created with the aim of developing environmental markets, biodiversity integration in management and Natural Capital Accounting. As CEO of Ecoacsa he is involved in many international panels, including his role as an expert in UN-STATS (SEEA framework), UNEP-WCMC and FAO. He is also member of the EU Platform Business @ Biodiversity Advisory Committee and business leader of the platform. David promotes innovative projects to boost natural capital mainstreaming within Spanish business sector such us the Natural Capital Factory -Spanish Regional Platform  of the Natural Capital Coalition- and the Natural  Capital Summit. The 2019 edition of the Natural Capital Summit has merged this year with the Annual Conference of the EU Business @ Biodiversity platform resulting in the European Business and Nature Summit. Ecoacsa is the European office of the European Bureau of Instituto LIFE. David is also H2020 ecosystem services and forestry added-value projects evaluator. 

Raquel Canales

Project Manager, Circular Economy Cluster, Forética

Raquel Canales holds an MBA from the European School of Management and Business (EUDE) and Graduate in Environmental Sciences from the University of Alcalá. She began her professional career in leading companies in the retail sector. First as part of Sustainability team, performing functions on issues related to corporate social responsibility and developing projects focused on different areas such as circular economy, climate change, sustainable mobility, energy and resources, and then in the Purchasing Department, specializing in processes that ensure the proper management of products. In performing her rol as a Project Manager of Forética, she is an active member of Forética´s Circular Economy team, and participates in the various technical and research projects for companies and organizations.

Leender de Olde

Director Ecodesign & Sustainability

 Leendert Jan de Olde is Director Ecodesign & Sustainability for Philips. In his role as business partner for Philips Personal Health businesses he drives sustainability improvement in the consumer product portfolio

Steven Dickinson

Senior Environment Adviser Biodiversity
HSE Department, Environmental Division,Total

Steven is the Biodiversity lead for TOTAL and Oil & Gas and Renewables Energy Group. He is in charge of leading the group’s biodiversity programme, including company policy, rules, tools & partnerships. In 2018 he spearheaded the adhesion of TOTAL to the “Act4Nature” initiative resulting in a new set of CEO lead public biodiversity commitments. He is actively involved with UN CBD and is the O&G sector industry associations IOGP-IPIECA representative for the CBD consultative group for Biodiversity Mainstreaming, of as part of the CBD COP 15 preparation process.

Alice Durand-Reville

Director of Corporate and Public Affairs

Alice Durand-Reville was appointed Corporate Public Affairs Director for Danone in 2015. She is responsible for the animation and development of Danone’s relations with international public authorities, especially strong global organizations and UN-bodies. Aligned with Danone’s mission to «bring health through food to as many as possible» and Danone’s new signature «one planet, one health» Alice has developed a strong knowledge in the areas of sustainability, nutrition, sustainable agricultural practices and supply chains and gender equality.

She has recently been entrusted with the set-up of the first global business coalition, One Planet Business Coalition, to preserve and restore biodiversity in the framework of the One Planet Lab in 2019.

Efrén Feliu

Climate Change Manager, Tecnalia

Efrén Feliu is currently Climate Change Manager at the Energy and Environment Division of Tecnalia, coordinating applied research projects in the fields of sustainable spatial development, nature-based solutions, regional and urban resilience and sectoral climate change adaptation.  Has a long trajectory in capacity development for public administrations and utilities, being partner of the Grow Green and Clever-Cities, two of the H2020 NBS projects in pilot cities.

Willem Ferwerda

CEO, Commonland

Ferwerda is ceo of Commonland. He studied tropical ecology and agriculture and has a track record in business and ecosystem management. From 2000-2012 he was director of IUCN Netherlands. He designed the 4 returns business framework for ecosystem restoration and founded Commonland in 2013 to build proof of concept. Other positions are: executive fellow business & ecosystems at the Rotterdam School of Management – Erasmus University and theme-lead Business and Ecosystem Management at IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management. Ferwerda headed the Top 100 Sustainability List of the Netherlands in 2016.

Sylvie Gillet

Director of Responsible Banking at CaixaBank

Global and operational knowledge of bespoke environmental and societal solutions for organisations with more than 20 years of experience. In October 2017, I joined the association EpE (Business for the Environment), after consulting in Sustainable Development, publishing, fundraising during a gap year and after being responsible for Sustainable Development of the Michelin Group for 6 years.

Sandra González

Director of Responsible Banking at CaixaBank

Sandra González is the Responsible Banking Director at CaixaBank. She leads the development of new responsible policies at the bank and contributes to the definition and implementation of its CSR strategy. She has been working in the sustainability field for over ten years and has recently completed an MSt in Sustainable Leadership at the University of Cambridge.

Mark Gough

Executive Director, Capitals Coalition

Mark Gough is the Executive Director of the Natural Capital Coalition, and more recently of the Social & Human Capital Coalition as well. Mark leads the international collaboration that identifies, measures and values our relationships with what is important to us all.  Mark previously worked for The Crown Estate, helping to develop its integrated vision and approach to value measurement. Prior to this he was the Global Environmental Manager for the information company, Reed Elsevier. Mark is on the TEEB Advisory board and has sat on a number of national and international committees, including the Steering Committee of the United Nations CEO Water Mandate, the Board of the Alliance for Water Stewardship, and the Aldersgate Group, which brings together business, politics and civil society to drive action for a sustainable economy.

 

Christian Heller

Vice President BASF & CEO Value Balancing Alliance

Christian Heller is Vice President at BASF and CEO of the value balancing alliance e.V. The alliance focuses on the development and standardization of an accounting model to protect and create long-term value. It is designed to empower decision makers to optimize the total value contribution of business. Before, Christian was leading BASF’s Value-to-Society program and had various roles in communications, sustainability and human resources. Christian holds a degree in philosophy and is member of the Natural Capital Coalitions Advisory Panel, the advisory committee of the Impacted Weighted Accounts Initiative and of the International Advisory Group of the Shift’s Valuing Respect Project.

Jackeline Jackson

Account Director, Trucost/S&P

Jacqueline is a Senior Account Director in EMEA & ROW for Trucost, part of S&P Global. Jacqueline supports the development of products which assess and price risks relating to climate change, natural resource constraints and broader ESG factors, enabling companies and financial institutions to understand exposure to ESG issues, inform resilience and identify the transformative solutions of tomorrow.  Jacqueline is experienced in both communications and sustainability. Over the last eleven years has advised pioneering brands, governments, NGOs and member associations on both strategies to generate revenue from green growth and ways to integrate climate change and natural capital analysis into decision making. She specialises in SDG integration, total value contribution and ESG risk mitigation. Prior to joining Trucost, Jacqueline founded an ecommerce website for designers who upcycled. She is Co-Founder of the social enterprise Everything But The Ham and a public artist working with disadvantaged members of the community.

Anne Larigauderie

IPBES Executive Secretary

Dr. Anne Larigauderie (France) is the first Executive Secretary of IPBES, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. She was appointed by the Executive Director of UNEP in February 2014. Anne Larigauderie received her Master’s Degree in plant molecular biology from the University of Toulouse, France, and her PhD in plant ecology, from the Université des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc and CNRS in Montpellier, France. As a plant ecologist, she spent ten years performing experimental and field work at different institutions looking, in particular, at how climate change will affect plant physiology and ecology in various contexts: study of gas exchange in first pilot project performing CO2 enrichment of natural ecosystems in the arctic tundra (San Diego State University, USA), of root competition for nutrients in California grasslands (University of California – Davis, USA), of responses of grass species to various scenarios of elevated CO2 and temperature (Duke University, USA), and of the adaptation of dark respiration of alpine plant species to future elevated temperatures (University of Basel, Switzerland). She is the former Executive Director of DIVERSITAS, the international programme dedicated to biodiversity science, under the auspices of ICSU and UNESCO, which became in January 2015, a component of the new Future Earth programme for global sustainability. In 2010 she was made «Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honnoeur» by the French Government (Ministre de l’Education et de la Recherche).

Terhi Lehtonen

State Secretary, Ministry of the Environment, Finland

Terhi Lehtonen joined the Ministry of the Environment as State Secretary 4 July 2019 from European Commission Directorate General for Climate Action. Before DG CLIMA she advised the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament on environmental and climate policy for 14 years. From 2001-2003 she worked as the head of office for MEP Heidi Hautala in Brussels and Strasbourg. Ms Lehtonen set up the European Office of City of Turku – Southwest Finland in Brussels in 1998 and represented the region towards the EU institutions until 2001. She also worked for the Finnish Embassy in Brussels as a trainee in 1997 and as an attachée during the 1999 EU Presidency.

Sharon Machado

Portfolio Head of Business Reporting

Sharon Machado has recently joined ACCA’s Professional Insights as the portfolio head of the business reporting team. In this role, she and her team provide a holistic representation of the business reporting function, delivering thought leadership and policy work in financial and integrated reporting, audit, tax and business law.    Sharon has a broad technical and education knowledge developed from her 11 years at ACCA shaping the qualification, inputting to ACCA strategy, and prior to ACCA training professional accountants. She trained and qualified as an accountant with Deloitte.

Hugo Morán

Spanish Secretary of State for Environment, Ministry for Ecological Transition

Born in Lena, Asturias, in 1963, he belongs to the Socialist Party and has some studies in Law. Since June 2018, Secretary of State for The Environment at the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, whose responsibilities are:

  • Conduct and coordinate the execution of climate change policies,
  • Environmental quality and pollution prevention, environmental   assessment and pollution prevention;
  • Promotion of the use of clean technologies and consumption habits that are less polluting and more sustainable.

Prior to his appointment as Secretary of State for Environment he had a long experience in the field of public administration. Among different responsibilities, more recently he was Director of the Office of Government Relations with the General Board of the Regional Government of Asturias 2007-2008. MP at the Spanish Parliament representing Asturias in the IX Legislature and spokesperson for Environment on behalf of the Socialist Parliamentary Group. Federal Secretary for the Environment and Rural Development in the Federal Executive Board of the Socialist Party in the 37th in the Socialist Party Congress. Federal Secretary of Territorial Planning and Sustainability in the Federal Executive Board of the Socialist Party in the 38th Socialist Party Congress.  Federal Secretary for the Ecological Transition of the Economy Executive Board of the Socialist Party in the 39th Socialist Party Congress. 

Isaac Nájera

Global Lead, Environment – Exploration & Production, Repsol

Isaac has +20 years of international experience working for the Energy & Natural Resources sectors. He specializes in environmental engineering, liability portfolio management, capital project delivery and corporate sustainability.

Óscar Rico

Junior Natural Capital Officer, NbS team, IUCN European Regional Office

Óscar is Junior Natural Capital Officer in the Nature-based Solutions team at the IUCN European Regional Office in Brussels and he is involved in the We Value Nature campaign (WVN). His current work for WVN is about the development of a pilot project in order to strengthen coherence between the public and private sectors for natural capital assessment. Óscar studied at the University of A Coruña (Spain) for his BA (Hons) in Economics and he holds the Extraordinary Award for the best academic record in his Master’s degree in Economy with specialisation in Quantitative Methods from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain).

 

Michael Schwarze-Rodrian

EU Representative of the Regional Association Ruhr in Germany

Michael Schwarze-Rodrian is a German urban landscape planner who planned and implemented the “Emscher Landscape Park” since the end of 1980s. He moderates local and regional networks for “Sustainable Metropolitan Ruhr”. His current works are focussed on the integration of spatial, environmental and economic strategies under the label “Green Infrastructure Ruhr”.

Marta Santamaría

Policy Director of the Natural Capital Coalition

Marta is the Coalition’s Policy Director. She has 15 years of experience promoting environmental economics and natural capital valuation, both in the public and the private sectors. Prior to her appointment at the Coalition, Marta worked as Scientific Project Officer for the European Commission’s Institute for Energy and Transport. In the past, she has worked for PwC, the Spanish National Research Centre of Energy, Environment and Technology, Red Electrica de España and the Universidad de Alcalá. In 2012, Marta was awarded a PhD in Global Change and Sustainable Development from Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid, Spain.

Fernando Santos

Professor, Chemical and Environmental Technology Department, Rey Juan Carlos University

Fernando is a forest engineering by training. He works as Associate Professor Chemical and Environmental department at Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid (Spain). He is overall interested in understanding the complexity of people-nature relations, with the ultimate goal of securing a sustainable future for all life on earth. He has a wide range of research interests, centered on ecosystem services and their application for landscape planning. He is also interested in the analysis of natural capital accounting an it impacts on socio-economic systems. He have been involved in several national and international cross-disciplinary research projects
and teaching activities. For instance he has serves as Lead Author of the IPBES Regional Assessment for Europe and Central Asia. 

Emilio Tejedor

Head of Environment, Iberdrola

Emilio Tejedor, since I joined Iberdrola in 2008 I’ve held several positions within the Innovation and Sustainability directorate of Iberdrola. First as an innovation manager for our networks and IT business, and head of the European projects office. Later, from 2014 to 2017 I worked as Head of Innovation, Sustainability and Quality in ScottishPower, and since my return in 2017 I am Head of environment and knowledge management in Iberdrola.

I studied Telecommunications Engineering in the Polytechnic University in Madrid and MBA in the University of Comillas.

 

Andrea Weigel

Group Sustainability Manager, Clariant

After international studies in business and economics, Andrea Weigel started her professional career in European public affairs. As Economist and Energy & Climate Manager at Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Association, she has been working on high impact dossiers on industrial competitiveness, energy and climate protection. Later on, she  led advocacy and regulatory compliance efforts at a biofuels company. Since 2013, Andrea Weigel works as a Corporate Sustainability Manager at Clariant in Switzerland, contributing to sustainability progress of the company in many areas.