Christiana Figueres

Ms. Christiana Figueres is an internationally recognized global climate change expert. A native of Costa Rica, she has been a negotiator of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol since 1995, and is a prime promoter of Latin America's active participation in the Climate Convention. She spearheaded the creation and development of programmatic CDM as the most innovative option within the international carbon market. In 2007 she represented Latin America and the Caribbean on the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism, and is now Vice President of the Bureau of the UN Framework on Climate Change. She has recently been named Principal Climate Change Advisor for Endesa Internacional, one of the largest generating companies in South America. She won the Hero for the Planet award from the National Geographic and the Ford Motor Company. Ms. Figueres has a Bachelors Degree from Swarthmore College and a Masters Degree from the London School of Economics.

Gregory Manuel

Gregory Manuel currently serves as Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for Alternative Energy charged with providing strategic oversight, developing new policy approaches and initiatives, and fully integrating energy issues into the decision making process at senior levels of the State Department. Mr. Manuel was last in government at the National Security Council working on energy and international economic issues from 2001-2003. Greg has worked as a venture capitalist for Atlas Venture; founded E-DOX, a technology startup in New York City; was a member of the board of Jadoo Power, a startup fuel cell company; and an investment banker working in the technology and energy sectors at J.P. Morgan. Mr. Manuel received an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BA in International Relations with Honors in the Humanities from Stanford University.

Eduardo Leão de Sousa

Eduardo Leão de Sousa is the Executive-Director of UNICA (Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association) since September 2007. Former senior economist at the World Bank, and Cluster Leader for agriculture, rural development and environment.  He worked at the Bank from 2003 to 2007, and prior to that worked in the Brazilian government as the head of agricultural and agroindustrial policies at the Ministry of Economics. In this role, he managed a wide range of activities including support of national agricultural policies, rural credit, international negotiations, and antitrust policy for agroindustrial companies. He is an agronomist and holds a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from University of Sao Paulo, where he has also worked as a senior researcher and as a professor for the agribusiness MBA course.

Dr. Kenrick R. Leslie,

Kenrick Leslie, PhD, is the Executive Director of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), Belmopan. Dr. Leslie has considerable experience in the fields of physics and meteorology. In December 2003 he was charged with the responsibility of transforming the Centre from a concept into a viable operational Institution. The Centre became fully operational in January 2005 with recognition as a regional Executing Agency on climate Change-related projects by the World Bank, various UN agencies and the UK-DIFD. Prior to becoming associated with the Climate Change Centre he was a Senior Principal Scientist in the Applied Physics Laboratories of AlliedSignal Corporation now Honeywell Corporation in Morristown, New Jersey in the United States. During his twenty two years tenure at AlliedSignal Corporation he was awarded ten United States Patents in fields of laser and infrared technologies.He has also contributed much to the development of meteorology and climatology in the Caribbean. He has worked as a meteorologist in the meteorological services of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and the Bahamas. Dr. Leslie established the National Meteorological Service of Belize and served as its first Director from 1972 to 1981. In addition he served on the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology from 1972 until 1981. During this same period he also served as Rappoteur to the World Meteorological Organization, Regional Association IV comprising North America, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

Charlotte Opal

Charlotte Opal coordinates the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels at the Energy Center at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.  She is the co-author of the world's first textbook on Fair Trade, published by Sage in 2005.  For the past five years Ms. Opal has worked in Business Development and New Product Development at TransFair USA, the Fair Trade certification and marketing agency in the  US.  She currently serves as Chair of the Standards Committee at Fairtrade Labelling Organisations (FLO) Int'l, the international multi-stakeholder organization governing Fair Trade certification.  Ms. Opal earned an MBA and an M.Phil in Development Studies while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and a BA in Economics at  Wake Forest University. 

Mario Molina

Mario Molina is the President of the Center Mario Molina in Mexico. Previously, he joined MIT in 1989 with a joint appointment in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and the Department of Chemistry and was named MIT Institute Professor in 1997. Prior to joining MIT, he held teaching and research positions at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; the University of California, Irvine and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. Professor Molina has served on the President's Committee of Advisors in Science and Technology (1994-2000), and on many other advisory boards and panels. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He holds a Chemical Engineer degree (1965) from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, a postgraduate degree (1967) from the University of Freiburg, West Germany, and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry (1972) from the University of California, Berkeley.

Luís César Stano

Mr. Stano is an Electronic Engineer with a degree from Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica in 1976, and has been working at Petrobras since 1977; former instrumentation and maintenance manager at Petrobras’ R&D Center. He currently manages the Health, Safe and Environment – HSE Performance area of Petrobras’ corporate HSE department, which aims at monitoring, evaluating, improving and reporting the Company’s performance regarding HSE issues. Mr. Stano coordinates the Life Cycle Assessment Subcommittee of Brazilian Technical Standards Association – ABNT and is the president of the Energy and Climate Change Technical Chamber of the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development, the WBCSD’s Brazilian branch.

Nicola Borregaard

Nicola Borregaard is the Director of the National Energy Efficiency Program in Chile. Before that she was advisor to the Chilean Minister of Economy and Energy, Director of Research and Resources for Sustainable Development (RIDES), and Director of the Center for Environmental Research and Planning (CIPMA). She is author of a variety of publications, national and international, principally on trade and environment and the economy and environment. She earned a PHD degree in Land Economy of Cambridge University and a Masters degree in Economics of the State University of New York at Albany.

Tom Lamb

Tom joined Scottish Enterprise in 1991 and has held a variety of senior management positions in the organisation – he has been Head of Energy in SDI Trade and Investment Division since 2000. During his time with SE/SDI he has led trade development work in all major regions of the world. Prior to joining SE Tom worked with a major UK heavy electrical and mechanical engineering company Northern Engineering Industries plc (NEI) in their group international business development company NEI International Ltd. Tom managed NEI International operations in S America based out of Caracas, Venezuela and subsequently spent 5 years in NEI International’s Indonesia Office as a project development specialist.

Graciela Toro

Graciela Toro is currently the Minister of Planning for Development, which is responsible for the planning with/for the many different levels of government including national, departmental, municipal and community levels. Minister Toro is also the representative of the Government of Bolivia before the international community, in matters pertaining to foreign investment in society and industry. Graciela has vast experience in socioeconomic research, having worked in internationally speciallized and recognized Centers such as the CIDE of Mexico D.F. and the CEDLA of Bolivia. Graciela Toro has several publications related to external debt and adjustment policies structure. Mrs. Toro has taken post-graduate courses in the FLACSO and has obtained a Masters in the CIDES of the UNAM in Mexico.

Terry A. Cullum

Terry A. Cullum is currently Director, Corporate Responsibility and Environment & Energy, General Motors Public Policy Center. He is responsible for corporate responsibility issues on a global basis, as well as supporting the staff on global environmental initiatives. Cullum is GM’s Liaison Delegate to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. He is also GM’s key contact to the United States Council for International Business and is the current Chair of their Environment Committee. Cullum began his career at General Motors’ Cadillac Motor Car Division as a project engineer in Materials Engineering in 1981. He held various positions dealing with selection of materials, validation testing, and specification development before joining the corporate environmental staff in 1994. Cullum received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and serves on the following Boards:

• Center for Sustainable Systems External Advisory Committee at University of Michigan (Chair)
• ERB Institute External Advisory Board at University of Michigan
• Center for Resilience at Ohio State University