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President Tommy Esang Remengesau, Jr., the ninth President of the Republic of Palau, is the first Palauan to be elected President four times. He was first elected President in 2000 and was re-elected in 2004. Constitutionally limited to two consecutive presidential terms, Remengesau was elected in 2008 as Senator in the Palau National Congress (Olbiil Era Kelulau), where he served until his election as President again in 2012 followed by re-election to his fourth and present term in 2016.
His election as President again in 2016 is a mark of his vitality and commitment to his promise to the People of Palau to work hard to “preserve the best, improve the rest” for Palau, today and for generations to come. During his time in public office, Palau has been recognized for its financial stability and good governance. Remengesau has also amplified Palau’s international leadership and emphasized the importance of regional and global partnerships.
In 2013, President Remengesau, was the recipient of the inaugural Pacific Champion Award, an honor bestowed as part of the Pacific Islands Environmental Leadership Awards for his numerous achievements as a leader in nature conservation and environmental sustainability. In 2014, the United Nations Environmental Programme, the primary voice for the environment in the United Nations system, awarded Remengesau with its top accolade – The Champion of the Earth award for his visionary leadership in strengthening Palau’s economic resilience by spearheading national initiatives to protect its biodiversity. Also in 2014, the environmental organization Rare presented Remengesau with its first Inspiring Conservation Award for his innovative and inspiring work to preserve Palau’s marine resources. In 2007, TIME magazine named him one of the heroes of the environment for initiatives such as the Micronesia Challenge. President Remengesau is now leading the historic effort of implementing the Palau National Marine Sanctuary. This protected, no-take sanctuary, established October 28, 2015 and covering 80% of Palau’s territorial waters with the remaining 20% reserved for domestic fishing, provides even greater protection for Palau’s environment while further enhancing Palau’s tourism revenues. The world’s sixth largest, fully protected marine area, the Palau National Marine Sanctuary is Palau’s defining contribution to preserving the world’s ocean resources. This novel initiative garnered him the prestigious International Game Fish Association’s IGFA Conservation Award in 2014 and the 2016 Peter Benchley Ocean Award for Excellence in National Stewardship.
Remengesau began his political career as the youngest Senator ever elected to the Olbiil Era Kelulau at the age of 28. During his first Senate term, he served as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means and was instrumental in helping to erase Palau’s outstanding budget deficit and bringing about stability and credibility to government.
In 1992, Remengesau was elected Vice President of Palau, the youngest Palauan ever to serve as Vice President. He was re-elected as Vice President in 1996. As Vice President, he concurrently held the position of Minister of Administration (now Finance), helping the Republic gain membership in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group. He also helped lead Palau’s transition to an independent country in 1994.
President Remengesau was born in Koror, Palau. The eldest of eight children born to Mr. Thomas O. Remengesau, Sr., and Ferista Esang Remengesau, “Tommy” has followed his father’s distinguished career, which included 12 years as Palau’s first District Administrator, the Minister of Justice, Vice President and President. President Remengesau and his wife Debbie have four children and six grandchildren.
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Kate Raworth is an economist focused on making economics fit for the 21st century. Her book Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist is an international bestseller that has been translated into 18 languages, and was long-listed for the 2017 Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year award. She is co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab, working with cities, business, communities, governments and educators to turn Doughnut Economics from a radical idea into transformative action. She teaches at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute and is Professor of Practice at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
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Tom Szaky is founder and CEO of TerraCycle, a global leader in the collection and repurposing of complex waste streams. TerraCycle operates in 21 countries, working with some of the world’s largest brands, retailers and manufacturers to create national platforms to recycle products and packaging that currently go to landfill or incineration.
In January 2019, TerraCycle and 25 top consumer products companies and retailers announced a new e-commerce shopping platform called Loop that will enable consumers to shop for some of their favorite brands in durable, reusable packaging. Launching in May, Loop is a key step in helping to end the epidemic of waste that is caused by ‘single use’ consumption.
Tom and TerraCycle have received hundreds of social, environmental and business awards and recognition from a range of organizations including the United Nations, World Economic Forum, Schwab Foundation, Fortune Magazine and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Tom is the author of four books, “Revolution in a Bottle” (2009), “Outsmart Waste” (2014), “Make Garbage Great” (2015) and “The Future of Packaging” (2019). Tom created, produced and starred in TerraCycle’s reality show, “Human Resources” which aired on Pivot from 2014-2016 and syndicated in more than 20 foreign markets on Amazon and iTunes.
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Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, is an award-winning ocean activist and advocate for ocean restoration and abundance. As head of Oceans 2050, and as a senior advisor to ocean conservation organization Oceana, Cousteau collaborates with world leaders across sectors to influence, convene and mobilize action to achieve measurable outcomes that will make the oceans more biodiverse and abundant.
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Under-Secretary-General, United Nations
Executive Director, UN Environment ProgrammeInger Andersen is Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.
Between 2015 and 2019, Ms. Andersen was the Director-General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Ms. Andersen has more than 30 years of experience in international development economics, environmental sustainability, strategy and operations. She has led work on a range of issues including agriculture, environmental management, biodiversity conservation, climate change, infrastructure, energy, transport, and water resources management and hydro-diplomacy.
Between 1999 and 2014, Ms. Andersen held several leadership positions at the World Bank including Vice President of the Middle East and North Africa; Vice President for Sustainable Development and Head of the CGIAR Fund Council.
Prior to her 15 years at the World Bank, Ms. Andersen worked 12 years at the United Nations, first on drought and desertification, beginning with the UN Sudano-Sahelian Office. In 1992, she was appointed UNDP’s Water and Environment Coordinator for the Arab Region.
Ms. Andersen holds a Bachelors from the London Metropolitan University North and a Masters in Development Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
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Sir Ronald Cohen is a pioneering philanthropist, venture capitalist, private equity investor, and social innovator, who is driving forward the global Impact Revolution.
For nearly two decades, his ground-breaking initiatives have catalyzed global efforts to drive private capital to serve social and environmental good.
He serves as Chairman of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment and The Portland Trust. He is a co-founder of Social Finance UK, USA, and Israel; and co-founder Chair of Bridges
Fund Management and former co-founding Chair of Big Society Capital.
He chaired the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce (2013-2015), the UK Social Investment Task Force (2000-2010) and the UK’s Commission on Unclaimed Assets (2005-2007).
In 2012 he received the Rockefeller Foundation’s Innovation Award for Social Finance.
He was a co-founder and Executive Chairman of Apax Partners Worldwide LLP (1972-2005), a global private equity firm. He was a co-founder and Chairman of the British Venture Capital
Association and a co-founder of the European Venture Capital Association.
He is a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School; a former director of the Harvard Management Company; and formerly a member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers and the University of Oxford Investment Committee.
He graduated from Oxford University, where he was President of the Oxford Union. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School to which he was awarded a Henry Fellowship.
Sir Ronald was born in Egypt and left as a refugee at the age of 11, when his family came to the UK. He currently lives in Tel Aviv, London and New York and is the author of IMPACT: Reshaping capitalism to drive real change.
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Chivona Renee Newsome, the Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter Greater NY and Candidate for US Congress (NY15) is a civil rights leader at the forefront of the New Civil Rights Movement and former Financial Advisor at New York Life. She has dedicated her adult life to the betterment of her community & our nation as a whole. Her parents actually met at a civil rights rally in the 1960’s, so you can say that she was born into this fight. The Bronx native was raised in a devout Christian household. As a youth, Chivona’s father became very ill and she became his advocate, learning early on how to negotiate for health care with insurance companies and the local pharmacy. She attended pre-K through college in The Bronx. The one year she chose to study out of state at the prestigious Howard University in Washington, DC., her political action was noticed by then Senator Barack Obama’s campaign staff, and she was asked to be a part of the 2008 Presidential Inaugural Committee. As a financial advisor, Chivona served her community. She worked on the $50 Billion Dollar challenge which created college savings, retirement plans, and generational wealth for over 300 black and brown residents of New York. Since then she has engaged in protests and activities to combat financial injustice. Over the past few years, Chivona has worked tirelessly leading protests and seeking justice for the families of police brutality, she works with members of LGBT community, victims of human trafficking, the mental health community, women’s reproductive rights organizations, and housing justice advocates. She co-founded Black Lives Caucus, lectured students and expanded Black Lives Matter Greater NY to multiple New York City charter schools. She is also the producer of Black Lives Matter with Chivona on WBAI 99.5
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Frans Timmermans began his career with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1987. After taking part in the junior diplomat training programme, he worked at the European Integration Department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at the Embassy of the Netherlands in Moscow. He later worked for Hans van den Broek, European Commissioner for External Relations, and Max van der Stoel, High Commissioner on National Minorities for the OSCE.
In 1998, Frans Timmermans was elected as a member of the House of Representatives for the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), where he dealt principally with foreign affairs. In the fourth Balkenende government, from February 2007 to February 2010, Mr Timmermans was Minister for European Affairs. In 2010, Mr Timmermans returned to Parliament as the Labour Party’s spokesperson on foreign policy.
On 5 November 2012, Mr Timmermans became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the second Rutte government. Two years later, on 1 November 2014, he became First Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for better regulation, interinstitutional relations, sustainable development, the rule of law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Since 1 December 2019, he is the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for the Green Deal.
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Editor Emeritus, Resurgence & Ecologist
Aformer monk and long-term peace and environment activist, Satish Kumar has been quietly setting the global agenda for change for over 50 years. He was just nine when he left his family home to join the wandering Jains, and 18 when he decided he could achieve more back in the world, campaigning for land reform in India and working to turn Gandhi’s vision of a renewed India and a peaceful world into reality.
Inspired in his early 20s by the example of the British peace activist Bertrand Russell, Satish embarked on an 8,000-mile peace pilgrimage. Carrying no money and depending on the kindness and hospitality of strangers, he and a colleague walked from India to America, via Moscow, London and Paris, to deliver a humble packet of ‘peace tea’ to the leaders of the world’s then four nuclear powers.
In 1973 Satish settled in the UK becoming the editor of Resurgence magazine, a position he held until 2016, making him the UK’s longest-serving editor of the same magazine. During this time, he has been the guiding spirit behind a number of now internationally respected ecological and educational ventures. He co-founded Schumacher College in South Devon, where he is a Visiting Fellow. In his 50th year, Satish undertook another pilgrimage – again carrying no money. This time, he walked 2,000 miles to the holy places of Britain, a venture he describes as a celebration of his love of life and nature. In July 2000 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Education from the University of Plymouth.
In July 2001, he received an Honorary Doctorate in Literature from the University of Lancaster, and in the November of that same year, he was presented with the Jamnalal Bajaj International Award for promoting Gandhian values outside India. In 2009 Satish was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws (LLD) by the University of Exeter. In 2013 he was made Doctor of the University by the University of Suffolk. In 2014 Satish was appointed an Oxfam UK Ambassador. Satish is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Gross National Happiness Centre of Bhutan. His autobiography, No Destination, first published by Green Books in 1978, has sold over 50,000 copies. He is also the author of You Are, Therefore I Am: A Declaration of Dependence,The Buddha and the Terrorist, Earth Pilgrim and Soil, Soul, Society.
In 2005, Satish was Sue Lawley’s guest on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. In 2008, as part of BBC2’s Natural World series, he presented a 50-minute documentary from Dartmoor, which was watched by over 3.6 million people. He appears regularly in the printed media and a range of radio programmes including Thought for the Day and Midweek.
In recognition of his commitment to animal welfare and compassionate living, he was elected vice-president of the RSPCA. He continues to teach and run workshops on reverential ecology, holistic education and voluntary simplicity and is a much sought-after speaker both in the UK and abroad.
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“Kotchakorn Voraakhom is a landscape architect from Thailand who works on building productive green public space that tackles climate change in urban dense areas and climate-vulnerable communities. Opened in 2017, Chulalongkorn Centenary Park is the first critical piece of green infrastructure in Bangkok to reduce urban flood risk. With on-site water management, the park can collect, treat, and hold up to one million gallons of water, alleviating overwhelmed public sewage during heavy rainfall. In 2019, Thammasat Urban Rooftop Farm, Asia’s largest, was opened. Landprocess repurposed wasted rooftop space to address food and water scarcity in preparation for future climate challenges. In 2020, Chao Phraya Sky Park was realized. Once an inaccessible and incomplete sky railway, the old ruins are now whole, becoming the first realized bridge park to cross a river in any capital city in the world. Voraakhom is featured in 2019, TIME 100 Next, a list from TIME Magazine —that spotlights 100 rising stars who are shaping the future of the world. She is also on the list of 15 women fighting against climate change from TIME. This year she was named BBC100 Women, the Green 30 for 2020 by Bloomberg. Recently, she got an award from United Nations as Winners of the 2020 UN Global Climate Action Awards, Women for Results. Voraakhom is a chairwoman on the landscape without the border of the International Federation of Landscape Architects, Asia Pacific Region (IFLA APR). She is a TED Fellow, Echoing Green Climate Fellow, Atlantic Fellow. She received her master’s in landscape architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.”
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Pieter Van Midwoud is the Chief Tree Planting Officer at Ecosia, where he manages the company’s portfolio of reforestation projects. Pieter and his team work closely with local organizations and communities to plant, care for, and monitor native and endangered tree species, growing biodiverse forests and agroforestry systems in over 25 countries around the world. Prior to joining Ecosia, Pieter was the Director of Partnerships and Business Development at The Gold Standard Foundation.
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Co-Founder, Good Tech Lab
Manuella is the co-founder of Good Tech Lab. She explores how technology and system entrepreneurship can help tackle the world’s biggest challenges. She is the co-author of “”The Frontiers of Impact Tech”, a 250-page publication based on 450+ interviews with innovators from 30 countries, about how the emerging Impact Tech sector can advance the UN SDGs. In the past 5 years, she developed corporate offers for Brazilian leading school of innovation, researched the gender gap in ICT, and documented open source solutions for climate change. She curated the program of international events on tech and social innovation with 10k+ participants. She holds a Master’s degree in International Development from SciencesPo.
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Lisa Jordan is a senior philanthropic executive with a twenty year career focused on impact and systemic change. She is the founder of Aim for Social Change and a Managing Director at the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. She previously served as CEO of Bernard van Leer Foundation, CSO at Porticus Foundation and in leadership positions at the Ford Foundation.
Prior to her engagement in philanthropy Ms. Jordan was a founding director of the largest parliamentary body in the world focused on global environmental challenges the Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE). She started her career as a legislative assistant to Congressman Jim Scheuer (8th NY) and has led many non profit programs and organizations in Europe and the United States. She sits on numerous boards of social enterprises and NGOs oriented toward social justice.
Ms. Jordan is a well-known speaker on democracy and globalization. She is co-editor of ‘NGO Accountability: Politics, Principles and Innovations’ (2006, Earthscan). She is deeply committed to strengthening civil society. She consults with numerous foundations and family officers on program and portfolio development. In 2018 she was named in the Netherlands as one of the top ten influencers in civil society. She has peer reviewed articles in Dutch, English and Spanish. Ms. Jordan graduated cum laude in 1992 with a Master’s Degree in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Netherlands. A U.S. national, she is married with two children.
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Jean-Marc Jancovici is a founding partner of Carbone 4, a Paris based consultancy and data provider specializing in low carbon transition and physical risks (www.carbone4.com). He is the founder and president of The Shift Project, a Paris based think tank advocating for a low carbon economy (www.theshiftproject.org).
Jean-Marc Jancovici is also an associate professor at Mines ParisTech, member of the French High Council for the Climate, and (co-)author of 7 books and the vulgarization website jancovici.com on energy and climate change issues.
Jean-Marc Jancovici is a graduate from Ecole polytechnique and Telecom ParisTech
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Lindsay is a serial entrepreneur. In 2001 she founded Leaders’ Quest as her ‘last start-up’, to grow wise leaders, capable of building a regenerative future, now. She has since worked to connect leaders from all disciplines and sectors, to accelerate solutions to some of the big issues in the world today. In 2004, she launched the Leaders’ Quest Foundation, to build leadership capacity in grassroots communities.
Lindsay is passionate about finding the common ground between diverse perspectives and opposing voices. After the Paris Climate Agreement, she co-led the launch of Future Stewards, a coalition working to build a regenerative future, where everybody can thrive within the means of the planet.
Most recently, with her Future Stewards coalition partners, Lindsay has spearheaded Countdown, a global partnership with TED and others to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action.
For the past two decades, she has been largely ‘on the road’ across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and The Middle East. She’s regularly in Israel and Palestine working with people committed to peaceful coexistence. And she’s still hopeful.
Today, Lindsay lives in New York with her husband David; they have three sons, all now based in the US. Her book, Invisible Giants: changing the world one step at a time, published in 2013, is a celebration of the everyday heroes that have inspired her to ask tough questions and to strive to be the change she wants to see in the world.
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Chad Frischmann is a co-author, lead researcher and principal architect of the methodology and models behind the New York Times best-seller Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming (Penguin, 2017) and the Drawdown Review (February, 2020). Leading a global team of researchers, Chad designed integrated global models to assess the world’s most effective climate solutions and determine if, when, and how the world can reach “drawdown,” the point in time when the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases begins to decline on a year-to-year basis. As head of research and technology since Project Drawdown’s inception, Chad is a key spokesperson and coalition-builder dedicated to sharing the message and model of the Drawdown Framework to the world.
With an interdisciplinary background in public policy, human rights, sustainable development, and environmental conservation, Chad works as a systems strategist to build a new, regenerative future with cascading benefits to human and planetary well-being. He is the lead author of the paper “Drawdown’s ‘System of Solutions’ Helps to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”, and speaks and writes widely on topics linking climate solutions to global challenges that benefit people and the planet.
Chad provides a systems-based, action-orientated approach to research and strategic leadership. Previously, as the Senior Program Officer at The Europaeum, an association of leading European universities, Chad worked to further international collaboration through academic mobility and exchange between students, researchers, and those working in the public and private sectors. He taught at the University of Oxford and the University of California at Berkeley; and worked as a consultant and researcher for numerous organizations, from small grassroots non-profits to international agencies such as UNESCO, the International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Chad is an accomplished international speaker bridging science and action to diverse audiences. Chad’s talks have been featured at the University of Oxford, Harvard, the COP23 in Bonn, the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the University of California at Berkeley, the Carbon Leadership Forum, the University of Washington, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Dutch Sustainability Congress, the MAD Symposium, the Global Sustainable Technology & Innovation Conference, the International Conference on Sustainable Development, TED Global’s “We the Future’, the UCSF Osher Mini-Medical School, the UNFCCC COP 25, the Omega Institute, The World Congress on Agroforestry (4th), the European Commission, the US Government Accountability Office, TEDxJohannesburg, among others.
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There are a thousand ways to introduce Marie Ekeland. But any effort to label her would deny her core identity as she is bridging worlds and cultures, constantly seeking the right balance between thought and action. Marie’s approach is rooted in an extraordinary journey within the French Tech. At the age of 30, within the investment fund Elaia Partners, she first detected Criteo, which she advised and followed until 2016, 3 years after its IPO. In the same spirit, she co-founded France Digitale to give voice to a sector that was still in its early stages of development. She became the first woman in Europe to create a €150 millions fund. In 2015, daphni was born with a value proposal that was already very different from the market. Her current portfolio is divided between London, New York, Montpellier, Paris and San Francisco. It reflects her taste for diversity: education (Holberton School), health and nutrition (Lifen and Zoe), culture (Keakr), finance (Shine, sold to Société Générale in the summer 2020), green mobility (Zoov), well-being at work (Swile). During her time as head of the French Digital Council (2017), Marie realized the urgency of moving forward on fundamental issues such as biodiversity and diversity, and sketched out the first steps of a new adventure targeting the world’s major challenges.
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Tom Rivett-Carnac co-founded Global Optimism together with Christiana Figueres in 2017, when the pair departed the UN, having successfully secured the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change. During his tenure at the UN, Tom ran political strategy, prior to which he was President of CDP North America. Tom co-authored the bestselling book, The Future We Choose with Christiana Figueres and co-hosts a lively weekly podcast Outrage + Optimism. He serves as an advisor on delivering climate ambition to some of the world’s most influential corporations and philanthropic leaders.
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In 2003, Célia Blauel graduated from the Institut d’études politiques of Strasbourg.
She became in 2006 an active member of the Green Party. In 2008, she was elected councilor of the 14th district of Paris. Following the municipal elections of March 2014, she was appointed Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of ecological transition, climate, environment, water and sanitation. She also became chair-person of the state-owned company Eau de Paris, which produces and delivers drinking water to Parisians.
During her term of office, she initiated the implementation of the City of Paris’ Climate Plan, which sets carbon neutrality for the city by 2050. In 2015, she launched Paris’ Strategy on Adaptation to the Consequences of Climate Change.
Since the municipal elections of June 2020, Célia Blauel has been appointed Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of Prospective Paris 2030, Resilience and the river Seine. Critical issues in the process of reinventing the Capital city, especially since the mandate started with a health crisis, followed by a scorching summer.
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SACHA DENCH – AMBASSADOR FOR UN’s CONVENTION ON MIGRATORY SPECIES CEO AND CO-FOUNDER OF CONSERVATION WITHOUT BORDERS Sacha is a pioneering conservationist, record-breaking adventurer and inspirational speaker. With her global experiences in conservation, time spent with people in the arctic and losing her family home in the 2020 Australian bushfires Sacha can make a compelling case for immediate action on climate change, biodiversity and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Her real-world perspective on the interconnectedness of people, planet and resources provides unique insights. A scientist and passionate story-teller, her ground-breaking expedition ‘Flight of the Swans’ saw her flying by paramotor from Arctic Russia across 11 countries to the UK to help save the Bewick’s swan and inspire millions of people to help. In 2020 she was made UN Ambassador for Migratory Species. Sacha’s recent awards include the 2020 Green Swan award (along with the Eden Project’s Tim Smit),the 2018 Britannia Trophy for the most meritorious performance in aviation (previously awarded to Sir Richard Branson and the Red Arrows and not won by a woman since 1967), a Woman of the Year 2017 and the Environment Campaign of the Year 2017 among others. She has competed for UK and Australia at freediving (breaking a world record in training) and holds the record for the First Channel Crossing by Paramotor for a woman. Sacha has spoken to audiences from a president, to army troupes, to the United Nations and auditoriums of school children. She combines exploration and 2 decades of communications experience in the private, public and NGO sector to inspire, challenge and motivate. She is now planning 2 major new conservation expeditions – ‘Round Britain Global Challenge’ – a circumnaviagation by electric paramotor and ‘Flight of the Osprey’ – which will depart August 2021 and fly 10,000km from Scotland to Ghana via 15 countries as part of the 2030 Global Challenge.” Testimonial “Our 300+ audience of leaders in business, financial markets and sustainability were totally blown away by her speech. Our CEO noted that there was scarcely a dry eye in the house and it was one of the longest standing ovations I’ve seen. I would recommend Sacha to anyone wanting to inspire an audience with a sense of wonder in relation to the natural world – and an understanding that we can all overcome our fears to achieve remarkable things”. John Elkington, Founder Volans and Inventor of the term “triple bottom line”
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Pablo Santaeufemia is the co-founder and CEO of Bridge for Billions, an online ecosystem of entrepreneurship programs that connect early-stage entrepreneurs to growth opportunities worldwide. His mission is to democratize access to quality entrepreneurship training, mentoring, and business opportunities globally. Pablo’s social enterprise to date has supported more than 1,800 entrepreneurs from 80 countries and he has been recognized as a Forbes 30Under30, Ashoka and Acumen Fellow.
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Marieke van Doorninck is Deputy Mayor for Spatial Development and Sustainability in Amsterdam since 2018. From 2006 until 2014 she was in City councillor for GroenLinks in Amsterdam. The last five years as Chairperson. Prior to her current role she was General Coordinator ASKV (Support Center for Refugees) en she was Duo Chairperson for Mama Cash, an organization that supports women’s rights.
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Julio Andrés Rozo believes in green business as an instrument for the conservation of ecosystems. He has worked with sustainable entrepreneurs in Asia and Latin America since 2008. He is an advisor to government and international cooperation entities such as the UN-Environment, GIZ and the European Commission. He has a particular purpose for the conservation of the Amazon and that is why he founded Amazonía Emprende, the Forest School for Green Business. He was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Cross for Environmental Merit in 2020 by the German Government.
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It is in Bertrand Piccard’s DNA to go beyond the obvious and achieve the impossible. From a legendary lineage of explorers who conquered the stratosphere and the abysses, he made history by accomplishing two aeronautical firsts, around the world non-stop in a balloon, and more recently in a solar plane without fuel. Pioneer in his way to consider ecology through the lens of profitability, he began working in the early 2000s to promote renewable energies and clean technologies. Solar Impulse was born to carry this message around the world.
His dual identity as a psychiatrist and explorer makes him an influential voice heard by the largest institutions which today consider him as a forward-thinking leader on the themes of innovation and sustainability. Founder and Chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation, his mission today is to select 1000 efficient solutions to protect the environment in a profitable way. In a third round-the-world tour, he will bring them to decision-makers in order to help them meet their environmental targets while ensuring clean economic growth.
Aware that sustainable development is not limited to the protection of the planet’s resources, Bertrand is also actively involved in humanitarian causes, fighting for the eradication of Noma, a disease associated with extreme poverty, caused by malnutrition and lack of hygiene.
Whether it is to protect the environment or to reduce inequalities, Bertrand seeks to highlight solutions by developing synergies where others see only oppositions. To support his approach, he strives to unite the forces involved, raise public awareness and encourage political action.
A true communicator at heart, Bertrand has become a prominent speaker, invited to express his vision of the pioneering spirit at public, private and institutional events. Bertrand also enjoys sharing his experiences and ideas through writing, as well as inspiring younger generations. Bertrand is currently United Nations Ambassador for the Environment and Special Advisor to the European Commission.
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Alexandre Mars is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and author.
He began his career as an entrepreneur at 17 by creating a concert organization company at his high school. Since then, he has successfully launched and sold several start-ups in Europe and North America.
After selling his last two startups Scroon and PhoneValley, to Blackberry and Publicis, Alexandre Mars, while living in the U.S., put his expertise as an entrepreneur to work for social causes by creating Epic, a global foundation that identifies, selects, supports and monitors organizations in order to catalyze their direct action on underserved children and young people, but also on the ecosystems that affect their lives.
In 2019, the Harvard University Kennedy and Business schools published a joint case study on Epic, highlighting the singularity of its model.
Alexandre Mars is also the founder of blisce/, a growth- stage venture capital fund
that helps entrepreneurs build mission-driven global consumer brands and technology companies. Since its creation, blisce/ has invested in companies such as Spotify, Pinterest Too Good to Go, Headspace and Brut., In 2020, blisce/ was the first growth-stage venture capital fund in the E.U. to become B CorpTM certified.
Alexandre Mars is frequently invited to speak and share his expertise about entrepreneurship, technology trends, social innovation and philanthropy in the press as well at universities and international conferences.
Alexandre Mars was named a Knight of the Legion of Honor, France’s highest civilian award order, in 2019. He has also been named a “Top 50 Philanthropist of The Year” (Town & Country, 2019), one of “The 50 Most Influential French People” (Vanity Fair, 2018) and a “Top 20 Philanthropist Under 40” (The New York Observer, 2015).
Alexandre Mars is the author of La Révolution du Partage, (Editions Flammarion/Versilio, 2018), of Giving: Purpose is the New Currency (HarperOne/HarperCollins, 2019) and of Ose ! Tout le monde peut devenir entrepreneur (Editions Flammarion/Versilio, 2020). He also hosts two podcasts: Contre Toute Attente (Against All Odds), where he interviews people who have overcome major obstacles to succeed in their field; and OSE ! (Make Your Move!), which takes the listener behind-the-scenes of entrepreneurship.
Alexandre Mars is also a board member and ambassador of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic & Paralympic Games.
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Paris Correspondent, CNN
Melissa Bell is a correspondent for CNN based in the network’s Paris bureau.
Bell joined the network in October 2016, but had previously contributed to many of CNN’s reports, including the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan concert hall terrorist attacks, the Mali hotel siege and the Bastille Day attack in Nice.
Bell joined CNN from France 24, where she was a political editor before being promoted to international affairs editor and correspondent. She has extensive knowledge of Africa and the Arab world and has covered most major news story for the network’s French and English speaking channels.
Beginning her career as a journalist in 1996, Bell worked for news wires before joining Granada Television in Manchester in 1999. She then moved to the BBC as a political reporter, where she covered Westminster for seven years.
Melissa Bell has a degree in Politics from Warwick University.
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Philippe Singer is the Managing Director & Co-Founder of Leaders for Climate Action. Having graduated with an engineering degree from the Technical University of Berlin, Philippe is an entrepreneur at heart. At eighteen, Philippe started his first social business, followed by a mobile commerce company that he sold in 2018. For the past 1.5 years, he’s been busy building Leaders for Climate Action, which has become Europe’s biggest climate initiative started by the digital industry. Founded as non-profit, LFCA aims to transform the digital industry to climate neutrality and inspire other industries to do the same. More than 900 leading VCs and digital companies have since joined the movement.
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Kaveh Madani is an environmental scientist, educator, and activist with expertise in environmental security and analysing complex human-nature systems. He has previously served as the Deputy Vice President of Iran in his position as the Deputy Head of Iran’s Department of Environment, the Vice President of the UN Environment Assembly Bureau, and Chief of Iran’s Department of Environment’s International Affairs and Conventions Center. He led Iran’s delegation in COP23 climate change negotiations in Bonn in 2017. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies of Yale University and a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Environmental Policy (CEP) of Imperial College London. He has more than 250 publications and has received a number of awards for his research, teaching, as well as outreach and humanitarian activities, including the New Face of Civil Engineering, Hydrologic Sciences Early Career Scientist Award, Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists, Walter Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, and Ambassador Award.. He is Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (AGU).
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Dr Carmen Hijosa, Founder and Chief Creative and Innovation Officer of Ananas Anam Ltd, developed Piñatex® – a natural plant-based material made from pineapple leaf fibre. She is an ethical entrepreneur with a vision for a more sustainable future, connecting people, ecology and economics.
Originally from Spain, Carmen’s career has taken her around the world. The journey of Piñatex® began when she realized the toxic impact of mass leather production while consulting in the Philippines. Driven to find an alternative solution, Carmen undertook a PhD at the Royal College of Art (UK) to develop Piñatex; As a result she has spearheaded a vibrant new industry that is socially, environmentally and economically responsible.
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Trista is a strategy and sustainable business expert, who’s passionate about changing business for good. Strongly believing that sustainable business = smart business, she co-founded Read
the Air (https://www.readtheair.jp/) to shift mindsets, business strategies, and ways of working towards business models that put sustainability at the core. She’s worked across various sectors including in digital media, healthcare, consumer products, and financial services. Trista
is co-author of the recently released “Leading Sustainably: The path to sustainable business and how the SDGs changed everything”
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Professor Michel André is an Engineer in Biotechnologies who graduated from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées, INSA, in Toulouse, France. He holds a Master Degree in Biochemistry and a Master Degree in Animal Physiology from the Université Paul Sabatier of Toulouse, France. Michel’s PhD Dissertation that he defended at the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, ULPGC, Spain, was on Sperm Whale Acoustics and Noise pollution. He was a Research Assistant at the San Francisco State University, California, an Intern Scientist at The Marine Mammal Centre, California and an Associate Professor at the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, España.
He is currently a full Professor at the Technical University of Catalonia, BarcelonaTech (UPC) and the Founder and Director of the Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics (LAB).
His research includes the development of Acoustic Technologies for the control of noise pollution in the marine environment; the study of the biological and pathological impact of noise pollution on cetacean (whales and dolphins) acoustic pathways and marine organisms, particularly marine invertebrates; the mathematical, physical, morpho- and electro-physiological mechanisms of the cetacean bio-sonar as well as the extraction of the information from their acoustic signals.
He is a leading member of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) Working Group on Noise and an author of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Good Environmental Status (MSFD-GES).
Michel André is a member of the ASCOBANS and ACCOBAMS Noise Expert Group, a member of the World Ocean Council (WOC) sound expert group and a member of the ISO/TC43/SC3/WG2 Bioacoustics Expert group.
He is a past-Chair of the European Cetacean Society (2003-2007) and has been, since 2005, Chair of its Science Advisory Committee.
Professor André received the Rolex Awards for Enterprise in 2002 for the development of technical solutions to balance human marine interests and the conservation of ocean ecosystems, in particular whales and dolphins. He holds the Felix Wankel Prize (Ludwig Maximillians University of Münich, Germany, 1999) that acknowledged his applied research for the protection of sperm whales. In 1998, he received the Young Researcher Award from the Complutense University, Spain, modality Environment. In 2017, he received the National Research Award from the Spanish Geographical Society
He founded in 2010, SONSETC, Making Sense of Sounds, a spin-off of the Technical University of Catalonia, BarcelonaTech, aimed at accompanying the offshore industries in their effort to be environmentally responsible by limiting the effects of the noise associated to their activities.
He is the Founder and President of The Sense of Silence Foundation, a charity created in November 2014. The Sense of Silence Foundation’s objective is to provide passive acoustic tools for the conservation of wild fauna in remote areas where its life is threatened. While the science behind The Sense of Silence Foundation is continuously developed by the LAB, The Sense of Silence Foundation is exclusively concentrating its effort on wild life conservation. Its funding comes from donations and its board is responsible of identifying areas where to deploy The Sense of Silence acoustic stations to provide Nature with benevolent protective tools.
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Clover Hogan is a 21-year-old climate activist, researcher on eco-anxiety, and the founder of Force of Nature – a youth-led organisation empowering Gen Z to step up, rather than shut down, in the face of the climate crisis. She has worked alongside the world’s leading authorities on sustainability, consulted within the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, and mobilised mindsets within classrooms across the UK.
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Marco Bertacca joined Quorn Foods as CEO in January 2020, bringing over 25 years of global food and drink experience to the company.
Prior to moving to the UK to undertake the role, Marco was based in Philippines where he was the Managing Director of Alaska Milk Corporation, a Friesland Campina Company, for over three years. He first moved to South East Asia in 2013, taking the role of Business Development Director in Singapore for Friesland Campina. He than held a number of MD roles across Singapore and Thailand. Before joining Friesland Campina Marco was President of Europe at CSM Bakery Products. Marco began his career working for Unilever for 10 years, leading the company’s supply chain operations.
Marco joined Quorn Foods with the ultimate goal of encouraging more sustainable diets, for the health of both people and planet. Under his leadership, the business has already announced it will be the first food brand to roll out carbon labelling on its products, and has committed to achieving ‘net-positive’ status by 2030, by which time he has set the ambition to serve 8 billion servings of Quorn a year, the equivalent of one serving for every person in the planet.
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For over 25 years, Jonathan Zrihen has worked for the international development of Clarins. Portrait of a manager driven by the unique culture of this French company, dedicated to pursuing growth while respecting core values and commitments to ever more responsible beauty.
Freshly graduated from the “Institut Supérieur du Commerce de Paris”, Jonathan joined Clarins in 1993 for his final internship. He had no idea that he was actually starting out on an adventure that would last several decades. A year later he left for Australia as Sales Manager where he learnt to fully appreciate the importance of the field. In 1996, he joined the International Division then managed by Christian CourtinClarins – the elder son of the company’s founder – as Export Director. His mission was to deploy the potential of Clarins group Beauty and Fragrance brands in several regions. Three years later, Jonathan was appointed President of the AsiaPacific region. Over the following 5 years, he accelerated the growth of Clarins brands in the area leading notably to the opening of Clarins now largest market, China. Appointed President of Clarins Canada in 2004, then Clarins US & North America in 2007, Jonathan became President of the Clarins Group Americas region in 2012. He would devote almost 10 years to developing brands recognised for the quality of their products and the privileged relationship they established with customers. In the field, he constantly put into practice the words of Jacques Courtin-Clarins: “We have millions of customers, but for us, each one is unique” thereby leading his teams to success when faced with the tough challenges of an extremely competitive world.
In keeping with the Clarins spirit and founder’s motto “do better, do more and enjoy doing so”, Jonathan is a natural federator and strongly believes that the human factor is a vector for growth. Cooperation, respect and audacity are at the heart of his managerial values.
The Courtin-Clarins family entrusted Jonathan with running Clarins company by appointing him President & CEO in 2015. His mission was to pursue a sustainable growth strategy focused on customers, quality and service, strengthen innovative mindset, embrace digital transformation and intensify responsible commitment in line with Clarins core values. Together with the Courtin-Clarins family, the decision to refocus on Clarins historic expertise in skin care and make-up was enacted by selling the Fragrance and Fashion division (Azzaro and Mugler) in 2020. With this decision, Clarins company concentrates all its efforts and assets on unleashing the full potential of Clarins and developing My Blend in order to become a global skin care authority, recognized as the closest to customers and naturally, as being the most committed to responsible beauty. As a result, the 5-year strategic plan “Clarins Unlimited” emphasises growth of both Clarins and My Blend brands, direct-to-consumer relations and Clarins CSR policy.
To respond perfectly to market developments and consumer expectations, Jonathan encourages brands to reinvent themselves on a daily basis while capitalising on their major assets: an innate sense of permanent innovation, creative audacity, consumer proximity, personalisation to accompany customers on a daily basis and a taste for authenticity. In close collaboration with Virginie Courtin-Clarins, Jonathan has also given new momentum to Clarins responsible beauty approach by committing to concrete actions over the next five years to keep a promise rooted in Clarins history – “Caring for people, caring for the planet”. Determined. Passionate. Human. This is how Jonathan Zrihen intends to continue Clarins beauty success and fulfil the company mission: “Making life more beautiful, passing on a more beautiful planet.” “Our success must be guided by the vision of a founder and his family whose promise is to listen to and love women, to offer them the best products and to provide a unique experience for each and every one of them.”
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“Jimmy Nelson (UK, 1967) started working as a photographer in 1987. Having spent ten years at a Jesuit boarding school in the North of England, he set off on his own to traverse the length of Tibet on foot (1985). The journey lasted two years and upon his return his visual diary, featuring revealing images of a previously inaccessible Tibet, was published. Soon after (1987) he was commissioned to cover a variety of culturally newsworthy themes for many of the world-leading publications ranging from the Russian involvement in Afghanistan and the ongoing strife between India and Pakistan in Kashmir to the beginning of the war in former Yugoslavia. In early 1994 he and his Dutch ex-wife Ashkaine Hora Adema produced Literary Portraits of China. A coffee-table book about all indigenous cultures in China and their translated literature. From 1997 onwards, Jimmy undertook commercial advertising assignments for many of the world’s leading brands. Meanwhile, he spent his whole life accumulating images of indigenous cultures. In 2010 he began his journey to create the artistic document that became Before They Pass Away, which was published in October 2013. Its success and the responses to it have enabled and encouraged Jimmy to continue this journey. In October 2018, Nelson published the first interactive book Homage to Humanity, for which he visited another unique 34 indigenous cultures around the globe. The book is accompanied by the 2019 Webby Award-winning mobile application that makes it possible to scan every image in the book and bring them to life with exclusive films, interviews and 360 ̊ film material. This allows people to see the making of the work and to understand the process behind it. Today Jimmy is using an 8×10 analogue plate camera to bring the project to its next level. Jimmy strongly believes that if you change the way you look at people, the people you look at change. And if that change is powerful enough, it will gather momentum to affect the whole of humanity. A message that today he is promoting through talks at international conferences and museum exhibitions. With the proceedings of his art projects, the Jimmy Nelson Foundation was set up to take it a step further in supporting the communities on the ground.”
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After being diagnosed in 2015, at 28 years of age, Fabian began documenting his cancer battle on a blog, which significantly helped him cope with his ‘cancer trauma’. Sharing his story helped him to process what he was going through, emotionally and psychologically, but also gave him a sense of purpose that he had never felt before. This, together with a strong urge to help others affected by cancer, became the foundation for the War On Cancer app – digital support tool aiming to radically improve the mental health of everyone affected by cancer.
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Deputy Chair for the Orange Foundation
Elizabeth Tchoungui is a Franco-Cameroonian journalist and writer. Born in the United States, she grew up in Cameroon, Belgium and Italy. A graduate of the Lille School of Journalism, presenter for France 2 (France Televisions Group), and RMC STORY (Altice Group), she was the first African female journalist to host the daily news show on TV5 Monde, and the first woman, after Bernard Pivot, Guillaume Durand and Franz-Olivier Giesbert, to present the prime-time weekly cultural talk show on France 2. She also headed the culture department of France 24.
Elizabeth Tchoungui has written several books including: “The day you were born a second time”” (Flammarion), her account of her son’s autism, “Je vous souhaite la pluie” (Plon), translated into Italian and taught in schools and universities in Cameroon, “”Bamako Climax”” (Plon), set against the backdrop of terrorism in the Sahel region, and “Billets d’Humeur au féminin”” (Léo Scheer), from a collection of articles and short stories on the aufeminin.com website. She works regularly with the International Organisation of la Francophonie. She is also a member of the parliament of French women writers.
Elizabeth Tchoungui chairs the ethics committee for Action Against Hunger. Since its creation in 1979, it has become the leading international NGO, providing a coordinated response to the most vulnerable populations in nearly 50 countries.
She is also on the board of the Club XXIè Siècle, a think and do tank promoting diversity through excellence and exemplary courses.
Elizabeth Tchoungui is a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres.
From 1 September 2020, Elisabeth Tchoungui is the new Executive Director CSR, Diversity and Philanthropy. In particular, she is in charge of Orange’s Social Responsibility policy in line with the objectives of the Engage2025 strategic plan. She also takes on the role of Deputy Chair for the Orange Foundation.
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Shooka is a TV presenter and producer, creating environmental content for Farsi-speaking audiences worldwide, focusing on the interconnection between human health and a healthy environment. She is a Climate Reality Mentor and Leader and campaigner of the 100% Committed Campaign in Europe. She is a passionate climate activist and believes taking care of the environment is the responsibility of every individual on the globe. It is everyone’s responsibility to provide a habitable place for future generations and to act upon all climate issues.
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It’s obvious where Virginie’s work ethic, love of nature and passion for beauty come from. A rightful Clarins ‘heir’, she is Jacques Courtin-Clarins’ grand-daughter and Christian Courtin-Clarins’ daughter. This
passionate and dedicated young EDHEC graduate has been part of the success of the family business for more than 7 years.
What you notice first about Virginie, besides her work ethic and love of beauty, is her natural simplicity and her openness to others. She is the eldest of the cousins and has made listening her life philosophy. “My grandfather was an amazing man who listened to others and knew how to put himself in their position. ‘Would you like to hear what you are saying?’ he always used to tell me. This was the guiding principle in both his personal and professional life.”
Virginie passed her Baccalaureat in Economic and Social Sciences with merit, making her father very proud, and began preparatory classes before entering one of the top business schools in France, EDHEC. She talks about her exemplary academic path with great humility. “Clarins has always been the model of success for me, founded on respect.
I am proud to be linked to men like my grandfather, my father and my uncle.” At EDHEC, her taste for business naturally led her to major in Entrepreneurship. Very early on, she felt a real passion for the family brand and during her studies she carried out marketing work placements at Clarins in the USA and Asia. It’s no surprise, since Virginie has grown up and been immersed in the cosmetics universe her whole life. From their early childhood, the four Courtin-Clarins cousins would test Clarins face and body creams, sometimes just on one leg, to see the results for themselves! Very close to their grandfather, they always shared their points of view as young women with him. In fact, the whole family brainstorms new product names
together.
She is passionate about beauty, but not only beauty. Virginie is also interested in the world of fashion. She admits a fascination for Thierry Mugler who she met at one of his spectacular catwalk shows when she was just eight. In 2010, she joined the teams at Printemps, the major
Parisian department store. Working in the Fashion & Beauty department, she was in charge of marketing operations and partnerships. During this time, she launched her own brand of ethical bathing suits, Luz Collections. A range of suits made from 100% organic cotton and recycled materials developed in workshops around the world and sold at the Bon Marché department store in Paris. Three years later, she was named managing director of Mugler Mode. In 2018, she studied naturopathy to better understand the relationship between nature, plants, and the human body. In September of the same year, she joined the brand her grandfather started as Deputy Executive Director. In charge of opening new territories for the brand, she relies on co-branding, artistic partnerships, and new distribution
channels to widen the brand’s international presence. Without forgetting nature, a fundamental pillar for Clarins: to make life more beautiful, Clarins has always included responsible corporate practices and respect for biodiversity in all it does. In November 2019, Virginie took the reins of the CSR department. Under her guidance, Clarins accelerated its CSR strategy with a promise that has always been anchored in the brand’s genes: “Take care of people, take care of the planet”.
Major projects include: obtaining B Corp certification by 2023, have 80% of the plant extracts used be from organic sourcing and 100% recyclable packaging by 2025; become plastic neutral by 2025 and carbon neutral beginning this year to make life more beautiful and pass on a more beautiful world to future generations.
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Dr Maria P. Neira was appointed Director, ECH, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland in September 2005. Prior to that, she was Vice-Minister of Health and President of the Spanish Food Safety Agency. She had previously held several senior positions in WHO. Dr Neira began her career as a medical coordinator working with refugees in the Salvador and Honduras for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).
Dr Neira is a Spanish national, and a medical doctor by training. She specialized in Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases; and Public Health. Dr Neira has been awarded the Médaille de l’Ordre national du Mérite by the Government of France and is a member of the Academy of Medicine, Asturias, Spain. In 2019, Dr Neira was nominated as one of the world’s most influential people in climate policy, her work has been recognized in raising awareness on health, climate and air pollution.
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Researcher of international renown, Carlos Moreno is Scientific director of the Chair «Entrepreneurship – Territory – Innovation», Panthéon Sorbonne University – IAE Paris (France). Carlos Moreno earned recognition as a scientist with an innovative mind, pioneer works and his unique approach on urban issues. He is also a scientific advisor of national and international figures of the highest level, including the Mayor of Paris Smart City special Envoy. He works at the heart of issues of international significance as a result of his research, bringing an innovative perspective on urban issues and offering solutions to the issues faced by the cities, metropolises and territories during the 21st century. Some of his concepts traveled the world: the Human Smart City, the 15mn City, the Territory of 30mn. Author of “Urban life and proximity at the time of Covid-19” Published by: Editions de l’Observatoire, July 2020 Author of “Droit de cite, de la ville-monde à la ville du quart d’heure” Published by: Editions de l’Observatoire, November 2020
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INSEAD Professor Zoe Kinias’s primary expertise focuses on diversity and resiliency bolstering interventions. Her diversity research often falls at the intersection of gender and culture, currently investigating methods for improving gender balance in organisations. Zoe’s work has been published in leading management and psychology journals, including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Psychological Science. She shares expertise with diverse groups including academics, students, alumni, and professional organisations. Zoe’s teaching case with Felicia Henderson, entitled Mirvac: Building Balance, was recently recognized with the Case Centre’s Hot Topic award for teaching diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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Christian Courtin-Clarins joined the Clarins Group Supervisory Committee as President in May 2008. A sound decision in perfect harmony with the vision of his father, the founder of Clarins. “Sound” is far from being Christian Courtin-Clarins’ only quality…
Those close to him know: Christian Courtin-Clarins has charm, charisma and an exceptional down-to-earth quality that is surprising for the President of an international company. He inspires all the brands in
the Group with a unique vision that is theirs and theirs alone. He knows how to ensure they do more, do better and enjoy doing so.
Professional milestones:
During his studies at the Institut Supérieur de Gestion (business school), Christian Courtin-Clarins followed courses given by high-ranking professors Raymond Barre and Jean-Edern Hallier – men who became noted politicians in France. In 1974, he joined the family company as Export Director and became the spokesman for the brand around the world. He helped “open up” 128 countries to Clarins products and methods. From Managing Director of Clarins and President of Mugler Perfumes, he moved on to the role of President of the Clarins Group in 2000, a group that included (until March 2020) Clarins, My Blend, Mugler Perfumes & Fashion as well as Azzaro Fragrances (Mugler Parfums & Mode and Azzaro were recently acquired by the L’Oréal Group).
A man with a passion
Christian Courtin-Clarins wants to know what others think – particularly the many women who work with him – and this keeps him firmly on the creative path. Once convinced by a
new project or idea, however original, he immediately gets on board and braves the natural risks faced by all innovative companies. “To avoid the taste of disappointment, I will do everything to ensure that my decisions go as far as they possibly can. If a problem appears on the way, you simply understand its source and adapt. Challenges make us more creative.”
A man who listens
Christian Courtin-Clarins believes in the power of the heart and cultivates it in all senses of the term. Ardour, energy and enthusiasm are his definition of heart. But heart is also soul and the belief that in addition to intuition and empathy, women are able to go beyond mere appearances. As those who have attended the Clarins Award ceremony can confirm, however tough a negotiator he may be, he can openly show heartfelt emotion.
A man who communicates
While working with his father, Christian very quickly became involved in communicating the brand and promoting its codes. Codes chosen to represent the natural ethic, to project an image of women in tune with their generation and to reveal the natural beauty of all women. No need for stars to wear Clarins colours. On the contrary, Christian sought
to show the diversity of the women he was addressing. The Clarins “Le Rouge” campaign in 2001 saw young women from Africa, Asia and Europe side by side. The same spirit held true for the ClarinsMen launch which brought together men of various ages and origins.
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Milos Maricic is President of the Altruist League, a global coalition of governments, corporations and private investors committed to deploying sophisticated philanthropic portfolios for real, systemic change and to proactively managing their ESG risk exposure through helping grassroots movements around the world succeed and scale. Milos is a successful angel investor with 20 years of experience in sustainable finance and international development.
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Daniella Russo is the CEO and Co-founder of the Think Beyond Innovation Accelerator™, the leader of a global action to raise innovation directed at the UN Sustainable Development Goals for waste, water, agriculture, energy and climate change. Daniella Russo believes that all intractable environmental challenges can be addressed by harnessing the forces of innovation and entrepreneurship, and the power of the markets to do good. She is a serial entrepreneur. She has started and ran numerous high-tech businesses, and her experience includes executive management from start-up phase through an IPO (such as Frame Technology, Infoseek and others), as well as Fortune-500 companies (Sun Microsystems, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center). Daniella Russo is a member of the Founders Board of Advisors at StartX Stanford Student Startup Accelerator. She is an Associate Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies Graduate Program in International Policy and Management. She serves on the Board of numerous NGOs and businesses.
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Agate
FREIMANE
Agate is a General Partner at Norrsken VC, Europe’s largest impact venture capital fund focused on investing in rapidly scaling early-stage start-ups that use technology to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges while building highly profitable businesses. She started her career in finance working in investment banking and private equity at Citigroup and Morgan Stanley in London and New York. She then started her start-up journey and was one of the first employees at BrickVest, a London based fintech start-up. In her free time, she is most passionate about education and co-founded Bright Mentors, an ed-tech charity in London.
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Justine Hutteau, co-founder of Respire, became aware in 2018 of the importance of taking care of her body and using healthy cosmetic products. With this in mind, she launches a fundraising campaign to create natural, French-made, vegan and sustainable hygiene products. The first products were launched in 2019 with a natural deodorant as the flagship product. Today the range includes more than twenty products: from toothpaste, sunscreen products, to care products in solid format (face cleanser, shampoo, etc.) and even vitamins. Today, Respire is distributed online at www.respire.co but also in Monoprix and Sephora stores, as well as in many concept stores and a large network of pharmacies.
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With 12 years of experience as a consultant in organizations, especially in United Kingdom, Stéphane Hallaire created Reforest’Action in 2010. Its ambition was to address citizens and businesses with a concrete, positive and measurable solution in the service of Earth: participatory reforestation. As an environmental leader, Stéphane Hallaire carries a simple message: “forest is the best solution to meet the two major challenges of the future for Humanity: climate change and the loss of biodiversity. It is also a fantastic ally in bringing our lifestyles into harmony with the living, in particular through the circular bioeconomy and the emotional reconnection with nature to which we belong.”
In March 2019, Stéphane launched the first edition of Le Mois de la Forêt (the Forest’s month). During this national campaign of mobilization and public awareness (7M people impacted), Stéphane spoke alongside international climate experts such as Jean Jouzel (former Vice-President of the IPCC scientific group) and took part, with Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, in the largest planting of micro-forest in the capital. Since then, the Mois de la Forêt has been raising awareness among the French-speaking general public every year about forestry issues in France and around the world. In March 2021, under the impetus and leadership of Stéphane, Reforest’Action organized the Global Forest Summit with the Open Diplomacy Institute. This international high-level event brought together members of governments, leaders of international organizations, multinationals, NGOs, climate activists and indigenous communities. Objective: accelerate action for the protection and restoration of the world’s forests.
Thanks to Stéphane Hallaire’s vision and energy, Reforest’Action brings together more than 200,000 citizens (one of the largest communities of tree planters in the world), more than 700 promoters of public and private projects as well as 2,000 companies. Reforest’Action enables them to take action reducing their footprint on forests and restoring them across 30 countries on five continents.
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Vice President, Consumer Sectors and Global Membership, BSR
Elisa leads BSR’s consumer sectors practice globally and oversees the BSR global membership network. She works with companies in the luxury, beauty, fashion, hospitality, retail, and food industries to better integrate sustainability into core business strategy, products, and operations.
She helps companies understand the world’s big disruptions, create resilient and inclusive business models and practices, and evolve brand strategy to integrate changing consumer expectations. Elisa also leads BSR’s Responsible Luxury Initiative and the Southeast Asia Reptile Conservation Alliance (SARCA).
Prior to joining BSR, Elisa was an account manager at CHANEL and a consultant at Accenture and Ernst & Young.
Elisa is French-American. She holds an M.B.A. in Luxury Goods Marketing and Management from Sup de Luxe, an M.A. in International Relations from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques Paris, and a B.A. in French from the University of Pennsylvania.
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Alain Godard is Chief Executive of the European Investment Fund.
Before January 2020, Alain was Director General and Chief Risk Officer of the European Investment Bank.
In 2015, Alain Godard contributed to the design and the implementation of the European Investment Plan (EIP) and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).
In 2010, Alain was one of the architects for the establishment of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). In the context of the financial support granted by Europe from 2011 to the EU countries under the programme assistance, Alain participated in the development and the management of the EIB loan programme designated to finance economically viable projects.
Alain Godard has also been founder and co-chair since 2008 of the “Global Emerging Markets (GEMs)”, an international consortium bringing together multilateral development banks, international financial institutions and national promotional banks working to promote investments in emerging countries by sharing expertise and financial data.
Alain chairs the Steering Board of the Infrastructure Data Initiative under the G20 Infrastructure WG.
Alain Godard has held various financial positions at the EIB since he joined in 1994, after a career at PriceWaterhouse in Paris and London. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Finance and an MBA from the ICN. He is also a French Certified Accountant (DEC) and alumni of the Executive Program of IMD (International Institute for Management Development).
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Md. Abul Kalam Azad is Special Envoy of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) Presidency where he represents H. E. Sheikh Hasina, Hon. Prime Minister of Bangladesh, the CVF Chair. Special Envoy Azad is also Distinguished Fellow of the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), which serves as Managing Partner of support to the CVF and the V20 Finance Ministers Group, under joint appointment by the CVF Chair H.E. Sheikh Hasina and the GCA chair, H.E. Ban Ki-moon, 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations. Following decades of experience in the Bangladesh public service, Special Envoy Azad was previously the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and was responsible, along with others, establishment of 100 Economic Zones, development of investment and business climate and also worked as Principal SDG Coordinator for the national coordination of Bangladesh’s efforts towards the Sustainable Development Goals, based in the Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Office. Special Envoy Azad also served as secretary of the Power Division of the Government of Bangladesh, where his efforts helped to increase Bangladesh’s power generation capacity by three times, expand energy access and develop one of the world’s largest renewable energy projects which has resulted in millions of low-income households across the country benefiting from renewable power. He also leads 2 million youths of Bangladesh Scouts as its President for character building and self-reliance.
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CMO & Co-founder, Hydraloop Systems
Sabine Stuiver is the CMO and Co-founder of Hydraloop Systems, a global leader in designing and producing innovative and game-changing decentralized water recycling systems.
With its award winning and disruptive products, Hydraloop is shaking up the water sector and changing the way people handle water – fundamentally – by empowering them to use water twice. Its mission is that every new building must be built ‘recycle ready’ and that in 10 years time decentralized water recycling will become standard in every new building. Hydraloop contributes towards four of the UNSDGs, advances sustainability, and helps securing a future with enough water for all. Hydraloop is based in The Netherlands and in the US and has an active partnernetwork in more than 3 continents.
Hydraloop received global recognition from a range of organizations including the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions, Water Europe, TIME Magazine and Newsweek, and won numerous awards, including ‘Best of the Best’ at CES2020, the worlds’ largest consumer and electronics show in Las Vegas.
Sabine is an avid advocate of the UNSDGs, influencing and mobilizing stakeholders across the water sector to collaborate on sustainability. She is a serial entrepreneur with a strong international business network and features in the acclaimed NETFLIX documentary ‘Brave Blue World’ and was awarded the European Union’s EUTOP50 2020 Award for ‘Female Entrepreneur for a Sustainable Innovation’ last December.
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Felipe is a Brazilian Regenerative Agribusiness Expert and Founder of reNature. A Dutch organization with extensive knowledge & experience in Regenerative Agriculture & Agroforestry around the globe. Felipe was nominated ForbesUnder30 & Speaker at TEDxAmsterdam. Regenerative Agriculture Lead Author at UN Environment for their GEO for Business brief on “The changing role of Business in Transforming Food Systems” and Young World Champion at UNEP in 2019. Felipe’s ambition is to engage international corporations to make a transition in their agricultural practises using successful regenerative ag showcases that ensures economical viability and farmers resilience.
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Heidi Sevestre is a glaciologist, Director of Outreach at the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative and Fellow International of The Explorers Club. She teaches Glaciology at the University Centre in Svalbard (Norway). Her field of expertise is in glacier dynamics. She travels regularly to the polar regions and highest mountains of the world to better understand how glaciers react to climate change. Through her work, she aims to bridge the gap between science and policy-makers, and between science and society. She is currently leading two science outreach project: Climate Sentinels, a team of female scientists skiing across Svalbard in April 2021, and The Last Tropical Glaciers, an educational project on the most endangered glaciers on Earth.
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Alongside the founders of L’Exception, the Parisian concept store of which she was the manager from 2013 to 2019, Maeva answered a call for projects launched by the Mayor of Paris for the creation of a space dedicated to ethical fashion. A call for projects which she won in early 2019 with the following promise: ‘To unite all persons of good will in one same space and make ethical fashion sexy’. And because changing the world for the better is a real uphill battle, this new space will be (fittingly) located inside La Caserne, a former fire station in Paris’ 10th district. The approximately 4000 square meters which make up La Caserne will welcome 15 innovative and eco-committed brands, and include a fablab, a concept store and a rooftop bar. Upon its grand opening in 2021, La Caserne will constitute a space for all to gather, showcase and, especially, innovate, because according to Maeva “overhauling the fashion industry will necessarily entail innovation”.
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At 9 years old, Felix Finkbeiner, inspired by the story of Kenyan politician and environmental activist Wangari Maathai, developed the idea that children could promote climate justice by planting a million trees in every country. With the support of children from over 100 countries, Felix launched the youth initiative Plant-for-the-Planet in 2007. So far, 91,666 youth in 74 countries have been trained in Plant-for-the-Planet Academies. As Climate Justice Ambassadors, the children give speeches to adults and fight for their future. A self-developed Plant-for-the-Planet app helps the children and youth to plant trees through donations. Today, Felix is a Ph.D. candidate at ETH Zurich studying the potential of forest restoration in addressing the climate crisis. Plant-for-the-planet.org
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Ms Michèle Sabban has been Councillor of the Regional Council of Ile-de-France (France) from March 1998. Since the beginning of her term, she has worked on strengthening ties and cooperation between Ile-de-France/Paris Metropolitan area and European and International Institutions. She was elected President of the Assembly of European Regions (AER) to the General Assembly in Tampere (Finland) from November 2008 to May 2013. Since May 2013, she is President of the interregional exchange program for young people, Eurodyssey.
Founding Member of R20 Regions of Climate Action in 2010, together with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, she was appointed President in March 2012 and launched the R20 Green Fund for Women in 2016 during the COP22. She is now President of the R20 Green Fund for Women. She was also President of FMDV-Global Fund for Cities Development since 2014 and promotes actionable strategies and mechanisms for financing local and regional governments’ development programs as well as impulsing local economic development based on social cohesion, and green and climate responsible policies.
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Henrietta Moon is the CEO and co-founder of Carbo Culture, drawing down CO2 and storing it in a functional, stable form for thousands of years.
Carbo Culture’s biochars are used in urban applications and namely in circulating carbon within a city: by converting green waste into carbons with an agile patented process, and redirecting the carbons into the soil, the city can grow a CO2 bank while extending their green infra survivability and life, and getting rid of the waste in an eco-friendly way.
Originally from Finland, Henrietta speaks five languages and has lived in four countries. Henrietta is recognised as a World Economic Forum ‘Global Shaper’ and from 2016-2018 she was a board member of a publicly traded electronics company (Nasdaq omx Hel: YEINT). She was the youngest person in the country to have a non-family tied seat in a company on the stock exchange.
Her prior experience includes growing two organisations in edtech: helping to catapult Rails Girls to global scale with over 300+ cities on all continents, and founding Mehackit.org, a creative technology company.
She studied economics and international relations at the Vienna University of Business and Economics and at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. She’s an alumna of Aalto Entrepreneurship Society, Singularity University Global Solutions Program held at NASA Ames Research Center and Stanford’s StartX.
She is also a certified Sea Captain and loves to be outdoors.
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Tom Rippin is the CEO and Founder of On Purpose a social enterprise that develops leaders who will help bring about an economy that works for all. As well as running On Purpose, Tom speaks regularly on this topic. He has spent his career at the intersection of the private, public and non-profit sectors, exploring how we can bring about a better economy. After a PhD in cancer research, Tom worked for management consultants McKinsey & Company with clients from all sectors. He transitioned into the social enterprise space, working first for the CEO at Comic Relief and then running the international operations of (RED), the business founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver to help eliminate AIDS in Africa. As well as running On Purpose, Tom is a Trustee of Global Action Plan, which connects what’s good for you with what’s good for the planet; he was the first Chair of Tempo Time Credits, probably the world’s biggest time-based complementary currency; and was an Advisory Board Member of Big Society Capital, the world’s first social investment wholesaler.
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Delphine Diallo is a Brooklyn-based French and Senegalese visual artist and photographer. “Women are in need for different kinds of narrative. The woman’s body should be one of the most respectable places on earth.”
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Marc-André SELOSSE is professor at Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), and at Universities of Kunming (China) and Gdansk (Poland). His researches focus on the ecology and evolution of mycorrhizas, a major symbiosis between soil fungi and roots of most land plants. He also has a general interest for symbiosis and its evolution. He is head of the French Botanical Society, member of the French Academy of Agriculture and editor of several international scientific journals. All his papers (more than 190 scientific papers and 190 outreach papers) are downloadable at http://isyeb.mnhn.fr/en/directory/marc-andre-selosse-405. He published outreach books in French on microbiota (“Jamais seul”, 2017) and tannins (“Les goûts et les couleurs du monde”, 2019).
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Founder, Who Cares!?
Passionate about the environment, Nora Gherbi studied in Calgary Alberta -researching alongside first nations while developing several case studies on circular economy, environmental preservation, energy, and regeneration. In 2004, She joined the French Embassy in Canada as a Senior Attaché covering the environmental and the renewable energy sector. She then joined the France International Investment Agency in 2008 (based in New York City) and lead an internal campaign promoting sustainable investments strategy.
In charge of CSR, she led the development of a sustainable projects sourcing and management strategy at different levels of the French Administration in New York then in Paris (since 2015) at the Public Bank of France.
Nora was named Chief Representative for the City of London in France in 2018. In this role, she developed a multifaceted positive impact strategy redefining London’s new long-term ambitions. A post Brexit strategy focused on sustainability, inclusivity, diversity, and tech for good. She has managed to champion sustainable development strategies within businesses both large and small while addressing carbon neutrality, soil regenerations and anti-waste laws at the institutional level.
She holds numerous external advisory positions including as the French Representative for Nexus, Content provider and Partner for Change Now Summit, she is on the Advisory Board and a partner of the Circular Fashion Summit. Nora is also a member of the United Nations initiative Sustain Chain. In 2020, Nora was named Leaders for Climate Action and she writes articles for leading New York based sustainability publication Conscious Magazine. She founded Who CAREs Chronicles in 2007.
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Dimitri Carbonnelle, is the founder of Livosphere. He is expert in sustainable innovation (CSR, Circular Economy, Digital Sustainability) and technological innovation (IoT, AI, Robots, blockchain) (cf. his articles on ChangeNow innovations : http://bit.ly/livo_chg20ec). Livosphere leads projects by scouting, prototyping and deploying innovative solutions for businesses to reduce their environmental impact . His customers are very diverse : Aéroports de Paris, Chanel, Swiss Life,, Moët Hennessy (LVMH) with whom he created and lead its Innovation Lab.He, is expert at the BPI to evaluate startups. Participating regularly to the ChangeNow, CES Las Vegas and MWC, he is a regular speaker and moderator ( Talks : http://bit.ly/livo_you )
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Sarah who was named a Laureate of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise in 2016, is determined to restore the land which is suffering from desertification in her father’s homeland Tunisia. Less rainfall and more severe droughts are threatening to turn three-quarters of the country’s agricultural lands into desert. Determined to solve this problem, Sarah uses her organization to generate jobs for farmers and reduce poverty by introducing sustainable farming practices and planting trees throughout Tunisia.
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