Keynotes, WRF 2011

 

Among the list of keynote speakers currently are:

  • Dr. Janez Potočnik 
    European Commissioner for the Environment

    Dr. Janez Potočnik graduated with honours from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Ljubljana. In 1998, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia appointed Dr Potočnik Head of Negotiating Team for Accession of the Republic of Slovenia to the European Union. From June 2000 to December 2000, he was also the acting director of Government Office for European Affairs. In June 2001, he was appointed a Minister Councillor at the Office of the Prime Minister. On January 24, 2002, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia appointed him for the Minister without portfolio responsible for European Affairs.
    Dr Potočnik became a Member of the European Commission on the May 1 2004. In his first mandate (2004 – 2009) he was responsible for the Science and Research. In February 2010 he started a second mandate as a Commissioner for Environment. In May 2008 he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science by London Imperial College. In March 2009 he received the honorary degree from Ghent University (Belgium).  

  • Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
    Co-Chair, UNEP Resource Panel & Takeda Prize Laureate

    Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker has been founder and president (1991-2000) of the Wuppertal Institute and member of the Club of Rome since 2001. Since 1966 he is member of the SPD. Between 1998 and 2005 he was member of the German Parliament. He received the Takeda Award in 2001. In 2005 he was appointed dean of the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he served until end of 2008. In 2008 he was awarded the German Environmental Award.
    Von Weizsäcker has authored several influential books on the environment, including "Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use" and "Limits to Privatization". Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker holds the Co-Chair of the UNEP Resource Panel.

  • Dr. Juan Gonzalez-Valero 
    Head of Public Policy and Partnerships Syngenta International AG

    As the head of Public Policy and Partnerships at Syngenta, Juan develops and implements the company’s corporate public policy agenda. In this role, he envisions Syngenta going beyond corporate responsibility to the next level of building meaningful private-public partnerships and helping shape key global policy debates. Previously, as head of corporate responsibility, he initiated programs to strengthen Syngenta’s contribution to addressing global challenges through its products and people. Central to these efforts, Juan and his colleagues are focusing on how to empower farmers with the innovation and knowledge to grow more food from less of the valuable natural resources such as land, soil, water, and biodiversity. His keen belief that Syngenta can offer solutions to the world’s most pressing needs stems from his years working in Sustainable Use, Stewardship and Ecology. This involved integrating sustainable agriculture and product stewardship programs into regional and country business strategies. Juan joined the company in 1990 and previously held several leadership positions in Environmental Sciences and Risk Assessment across Europe and the USA. He holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Hamburg where his research focused on marine ecology and environmental toxicology.  

  • Prof. Dr. Marina Fischer-Kowalski
    Institute of Social Ecology Vienna; Vice Chair of the European Society for Ecological Economics; Scientific Member UNEP International Resource Panel

    Marina Fischer-Kowalski is professor of social ecology at Klagenfurt University and director of the Vienna based Institute of Social Ecology at the Faculty for Interdisciplinary Studies (IFF). She is, inter alia, president of the International Society for Industrial Ecology (ISIE), Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK) and member of the UNEP panel on the sustainable use of resources. She published several books on social and environmental issues, and 250 scientific articles in books and journals.

  • Dr. Ashok Khosla
    Co-President, Club of Rome; President IUCN; Co-Chair UNEP Resource Panel

    Ashok Khosla is one of world's leading experts on the environment and sustainable development. A former director of the United Nations Environment Program, he was awarded the 2002 Sasakawa Environment Prize - "the Nobel Prize of the environment world" - and has been named in the UNEP's Global 500 Roll of Honour. Recently he has been elected by the International Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to be its president for 2008-2012. He has served as a former director of the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Conservation Union and the International Institute for Sustainable Development; and advisor to the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and the Indian government. Ashok Khosla is Co-President of the Club of Rome.

  • Prof. Dr. Jacqueline McGlade
    Executive Director, European Environment Agency

    Jacqueline McGlade was appointed Executive Director to the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen in 2003 for a five-year term. The appointment was renewed in May 2008 for a second term. She is on leave from her post as Professor in Environmental Informatics in the Department of Mathematics at University College London. At the EEA, McGlade has introduced a fundamental shift in the thinking behind environmental reporting and indicator development towards a shared European spatial environmental information system. Under her leadership, the Agency is reinforcing its capability to produce integrated environmental assessments, analysing the state of Europe’s environment as a whole, and provide reliable projections.
    McGlade has worked to strengthen the link between science and policy. She has not only pointed at the magnitude of climate change but also urged policymakers to start developing and applying adaptation measures. She is also a firm advocate of informing and involving the public in all aspects of the environment. In conjunction with her role at the EEA, she is playing an active role in promoting environmental issues in European and international fora, including various UN committees, European Agencies and Environment Protection Agencies networks, and as well as a number of research, institutional and non-governmental advisory committees. 

  • Dr. Alice Kaudia
    Environment Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources Kenya

    Alice Kaudia is Environment Secretary at the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources Kenya. She graduated from the University of Nairobi, followed by a PhD in Forestry Extension and Development by the University of East Anglia, UK, 1996.
    Subsequently, she has served in senior leadership and management positions in government, Civil Society Organizations, International Environment Conservation Organizations, Forestry Research Institution and the private sector.
    Positions held include being the first Environment Secretary in Kenya since 2008, the first woman regional director for the International Union for Conservation of Nature - eastern Africa regional Office-, Technical Advisor to the government of Zambia on Forestry Curriculum revision on a assignment by SAVCOR-INDUFOR OY, of Finland; Assistant Director at Kenya Forestry Research Institute,  Associate Research Officer at the World Agroforestry Center and Program Officer at the Africa Academy of Sciences. Dr. Kaudia has served as a consultant for various organizations including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, CARE International (Kenya and Somalia) and the European Union through Development Researchers Network of Italy. She has published in the areas of agro forestry, gender and forestry, forestry extension and technology transfer.

  • Prof. Dr. Mohan Munasinghe
    Chairman of the Munasinghe Institute of Development (MIND); Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Manchester, UK; shared the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace

    Mohan Munasinghe is a Sri Lankan physicist and economist. With a focus on energy, sustainable development and climate change, he is the Chairman of the Munasinghe Institute for Development, the Director-General of the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester, UK, and the Vice Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-AR4), that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President of the United States Al Gore. He has been involved in IPCC from its inception. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Green Cross International and is a member of the Club of Rome. Furthermore, he has been an honorary senior advisor to the Sri Lankan government since 1980 and served as Chancellor of the International Water Academy in Oslo (IPCC secretariat). He has authored or co-authored over 90 academic books and several hundred journal articles. He is widely recognized for having first proposed the Sustainomics framework for making development more sustainable at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and more recently for proposing the Millennium Consumption Goals.

  • Prof. Dr. Marc Swilling
    Academic Director, The Sustainability Institute & Head Division: Sustainable Development Planning and Management, School of Public Management and Planning, University of Stellenbosch

    Professor Mark Swilling is Programme Coordinator: Sustainable Development in the School of Public Leadership, University of Stellenbosch and Academic Director of the Sustainability Institute. He is responsible for the design and implementation of a Master’s Programme in Sustainable Development that gets delivered at the Sustainability Institute which is located in the Lynedoch EcoVillage, Stellenbosch. Prior to this Professor Swilling was an Executive Director of Spier Holdings (Pty) Ltd. 1999-2001; co-founder and Director of the Graduate School of Public and Development Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, 1995-1998; and co-founder of PLANACT in 1985, an urban development NGO that provided policy and strategy support for community organisations, trade unions and eventually the liberation movements in the 1980s and early 1990s.
    Professor Swilling has published over 50 academic articles, four books and written extensively for the popular media on a wide range of public policy issues. He was elected as a Fellow into the international Ashoka network of social entrepreneurs in 1992, and serves on several Boards of for- and Non-Profit Organisations.
    In 2007 he was invited to be a member of the International Panel on Sustainable Resource Management, established by the United Nations Environment Programme to assess ways of making the global economy more sustainable. In 2010 he was awarded the Aspen Institute’s Faculty Pioneer Award for innovations in academic teaching.

  • Marilyn Mehlmann
    General Secretary; Global Action Plan International

    Marilyn Mehlmann is General Secretary of the Global Action Plan International (Sweden), advancing community-based approaches to sustainable development in nineteen countries. She is partner and senior consultant with the Fenix Group (Sweden), focusing on sustainability, leadership and social change processes. She is also a founder member and board member of the Swedish Community of Learners. Mehlmann is a Member of the Advisory Boards of People-Centered Development Forum, Seattle, and of Gaia University, Germany and Mexico. She has created new fora for personal and professional development, including a coaching 'master class' currently offered in four countries. She was previously involved with product development at IBM, and with action research at the Swedish Centre for Working Life. In 2011 she was awarded the Rachel Carson Prize for her longterm efforts to involve individuals, companies and NGOs in acting sustainably.

  • Reinhard Bütikofer
    Member of European Parliament

    Reinhard Bütikofer is a member of the European Parliament for the German Green Party since 2009. In 1984 his career started when he was elected to the city council of Heidelberg. After that Bütikofer was a member of the Baden-Württemberg state parliament until 1996. From 1998 until 2002 he was secretary general of the federal party. After that he was the national party chairman of the German Green Party until 2008. Currently Bütikofer is the European Parliament’s Rapporteur on Raw Materials. In this capacity he commissioned a research study on recycling of rare earth elements, available here. In the EU Parliament he is a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, the Subcommittee on Security and Defense, and the Delegeation for relations with the United States. In the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Delegation for relations with the People’s Republic of China, and the Delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly he is a substitute member. 

  • Klaus Hieronymi
    Chairman of the Environmental Board, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Hewlett-Packard

    Klaus Hieronymi leads environmental business management for HP in EMEA. He ensures compliance with environmental legislation, manages customers¿ environmental inquiries, and supports the sales organization with environmental issues. Klaus manages mandatory and voluntary Take-Back programs, with a particular focus on organizational structures to enable competitive markets and processes. His main focus is to ensure that environmental legislation is aligned with internal processes and reward structures to encourage better environmental practices and product design. Klaus joined HP in 1983 after completing his natural science and business management studies in Germany, Austria, and South Africa.

  • Philip A. Hodges
    Senior Vice President Supply Chain, Kraft Foods Europe

    Based in Zurich, Switzerland, Phil was appointed Senior Vice President Supply Chain Kraft Foods Europe in March 2011, with responsibility for Procurement, Manufacturing, and Customer Service & Logistics for the organization’s European business. Prior to this he held the role of Vice President Supply Chain Coffee from 2010, which brought him back to Zurich after 12 years working overseas. Phil joined Kraft Foods in 1991 in Zurich as an analyst in Operations Controlling. He held various positions in FP&A in Zurich until he moved to Italy in 1997 as Business unit Controller. In 1999 he was appointed Customer Service and Logistics Director for the Italian business, and was promoted to Vice President Finance & Strategy Kraft International Operations from 2000-2003, a London-based position. Following this role he was appointed Vice President Finance & Strategy Kraft Latin America, based in Miami, US, a role he held until 2005 when he relocated to Chicago to become Senior Vice President Finance Kraft Foods International. For three years Phil ran Finance for all four regions of Kraft International: EU, CEEMA, LA and AP. During this period he was also on the Advisory Board of project Catalyst, Kraft Foods’ global SAP platform, and was a member of the LU acquisition team heading Finance on the Steering Committee. In this role Phil established the strategic framework of the European Operating Company structure. Prior to 2010, Phil was Area Director and General Manager of Kraft Goods’ business in India, ASEAN, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In this role, which was based in Singapore, he brought together the Kraft and LU businesses and grew our Tang, Oreo and Biskuat brands. Phil graduated from Keele University, UK, with a joint honours degree in Geology and Management.