Dr. Tariq BANURI
Stockholm Environment Institute (USA)
Boston, United States

Dr. Tariq Banuri is Senior Fellow at the USA Centre of the Stockholm Environment Institute. His work focused on conceptual as well as practical issues in development policy-including the integration of environmental, social, and economic dimensions into the policy framework, the analysis of the growing contribution of "knowledge institutions" (higher education, research, industrial R&D) in creating wealth, the role of institutions and governance, and the challenge of poverty eradication. He has broad experience in Pakistan in policy development through a combination of research work and the organization and leading of multi-stakeholder participation. He was a leading member of a multi-stakeholder initiative to introduce pollution taxes in Pakistan.

He has served on national as well as international policy development bodies and research networks, including the board of governors of Pakistan's central bank, Pakistan's Environmental Protection Council, the Steering Committee on Higher Education established by the President of Pakistan, and the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in which he was a convening Lead Author. In recognition of his services to research and education, the President of Pakistan conferred on him the medal Sitara i Imtiaz (SI).
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Dr. Rashad CASSIM
Head and Deputy-Director General
Statistics South Africa - Ministry of Finance
South Africa

Dr. Rashad Cassim is Head and Deputy-Director General: Economic Statistics, for Statistics South Africa, where he is responsible for the collection and release of economic data for South Africa. Previously, Dr. Cassim was head of the School of Economics and Business Sciences at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. Prior to this post, he headed the Trade and Industry Policy Strategies (TIPS) in Johannesburg.

Earlier in his career Dr. Cassim was a research fellow at the Development Policy Research Unit, Department of Economics at the University of Cape Town (UCT). His research and teaching interests have been primarily in the area of international economics, and more specifically, the economics of the World Trade Organization; the link between economic research and policy; and the economics of regulation and privatisation. Professor Cassim holds an M.A. in economic history and a Ph.D in economics, both from UCT.

Dr. Thomas COTTIER
Institute for European and International Economic Law
University of Bern - Switzerland

Dr. Cottier is Professor of European and International Economics Law at the University of Bern, Director of the Institute of European and International Economic Law, and Managing Director of the World Trade Institute. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees, IPGRI (International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome).

Professor Cottier was educated at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. Upon receiving his doctorate, Dr. Cottier was a Research Fellow at the Universities of Bern and Cambridge. His research activities mainly relate to the law of WTO, external economic relations of the EU and international intellectual property.
Professor Cottier has a long-standing involvement in GATT / WTO activities. He served on the Swiss negotiating team of the Uruguay Round from 1986 to 1993, first as Chief negotiator on dispute settlement and subsidies for Switzerland, conceptual work in the fields of services and intellectual property and legal counselling, and subsequently as Chief negotiator on TRIPs. Professor Cottier held several positions in the Swiss External Economic Affairs Department and was the Deputy-Director General of the Swiss Intellectual Property Office.

He has also served as a panellist on several GATT and WTO panels, most recently as Chairman of the panels managing the US and Canadian complaints on the measures taken by the EC with regards to meat and meat Products (hormone cases). Dr. Cottier joined the Baker & McKenzie law firm as Of Counsel in May 1998, advising the Firm on WTO issues.

Ms. Leonora DE SOLA SAUREL
Private Investor and Member
of the Advisory Board of Bain Capital, Europe
Geneva, Switzerland

Former Ambassador of El Salvador to the World Trade Organization and to its predecessor, the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, Ms. De Sola Saurel responsibilities included chairing the Services Negotiating Committee, negotiating textile quotas, and representing El Salvador at the different United Nations agencies, where she dealt with economic affairs.

Ms. De Sola Saurel was Vice President of the Private Banking Department at the Bankers Trust Company, New York, NY, where she was responsible for managing affairs with Mexico and the Philippines.
Ms. De Sola Saurel has a Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College, in Bronxville, NY, USA.

Mrs. Beatrice DOVE-EDWIN
Director
Policy, Planning and Research Division
Ministry of Trade & Industry
Freetown, Sierra Leone

Mrs. Beatrice Dove-Edwin is a barrister with an LLB from University of East Anglia and an LLM from the University College, London. She has previously worked as a Senior Lawyer on the TISD Programme, providing legal advice and assistance to intergovernmental agencies, government departments, and international NGOs. Her areas of expertise include international trade, international environmental law and policy, maritime law, shipping, and natural resource management.

Earlier, Mrs. Dove-Edwin served as Legal Adviser to the Sierra Leone Ministry of Trade and Industry and represented Sierra Leone at the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment. She was a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law and has taught postgraduate courses in public international law and international environmental law at the University of London. Mrs. Dove-Edwin has also worked for the Trade and Environment Programme of the Foundation for International Environmental Law & Development (FIELD).

Ms. Eveline HERFKENS
UN Secretary General's Executive Coordinator
Millennium Development Goals Campaign
New York, USA

The Secretary-General appointed Eveline Herfkens as the Executive Coordinator for the Millennium Development Goals Campaign in October 2002. Prior to this appointment, Ms. Herfkens served as the Netherlands Minister for Development Cooperation (between 1998 to 2002). During this time, she was also a Member of the World Bank and IMF Development Committee and a Co-founder of the Utstein-Group. Presently she is a member of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization established by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in February 2002.

Ms. Herfkens served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative of the Netherlands at the United Nations and other international organizations, including the World Trade Organization in Geneva (between 1996 to 1998). Ms. Herfkens was also an Executive Director of the World Bank Group in Washington D.C. (between 1990 and 1996).

Ms. Herfkens served as a Member of Parliament in the Netherlands (between 1981 to 1990), and as Member and Counsellor-Treasurer of Parliamentarians for Global Action (between 1985 to 1990). She was also a Member of the Economic Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Co-organizer of the North-South Campaign. Prior to, Ms Herfkens worked as a Policy Officer in the field of development cooperation at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (between 1986 to 1989).

Ms. Herfkens has also served on the Council of the Labour Party. She has been Chair of the Evert Vermeer Foundation, Chair of the Dutch Fair Trade Organization and a Member of the Development Committee of the Netherlands Council of Churches.

Ms. Herfkens studied Law and Economics at Leiden University and graduated in 1975.

Dr. Sitanon JESDAPIPAT
Technical Advisor
Red Cross/ Red Crescent Climate Centre
The Netherlands

Dr. Sitanon previously served as the Director of the Centre for Ecological Economics, Faculty of Economics, Chulalongkorn University and he continues to hold several key positions associated with the Thai government and international entities.

Dr. Sitanon's areas of interests include trade and sustainable development, climate change policy, and applications of economic instruments to conservation. He has published widely on issues related to those areas. He is also an alumni of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied thanks to the support of the Royal Thai Government Scholarship.

Dr. Nagesh KUMAR
Director-General of RIS
India

Dr. Kumar was appointed the Director-General of RIS in October 2002 upon the superannuation of Dr V.R. Panchamukhi: founder Director-General of RIS. Dr Kumar joined RIS in 1985 after holding teaching and research positions at the University of Delhi, Indian Institute of Public Administration and National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies. During 1993-1998, he served on the faculty of the United Nations University - Institute for New Technologies (UNU/INTECH), Maastricht, the Netherlands, and directed its research on FDI and technology transfers in developing countries. He has also served as a consultant to the World Bank, UNDP, UNCTAD, UNIDO, UN-ESCAP, ILO, among other organizations. In recognition of his work, Dr. Kumar received the Exim Bank of India's first International Trade Research Award in 1989 and shared a GDN Medal awarded by the World Bank in 2000.

Dr. Kumar has written extensively on the developmental impact of MNEs and FDI, industrial and technology development policy, the challenge of new technologies for development, on regional economic co-operation, and WTO and development, among other themes. Dr. Kumar has a PhD in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.

Dr. LI Lailai
Deputy Director of Stockholm Environment Institute
Stockholm, Sweden

Before joining SEI as Deputy Director, Dr Lailai Li was director of the Programme of Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) and the Institute for Environment and Development in Beijing (IED): a Chinese NGO which she founded in 1994. Over the last decade, she has been studying and generating solutions to poverty and environmental degradation in the field through capacity building, information dissemination, program development, and inducing institutional and policy changes. Since 2000, she has focused her research on Corporate Social Responsibility and promoting it amongst Chinese small and medium enterprises.

Professor Lailai sits on the Board of Trustees of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the Board of Directors of China Environment Protection Foundation, and is a council member of Earth Charter International. She holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh in the United States and was a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology and Anthropology at Peking University before starting IED.

Mr. Carlos MURILLO RODRIGUEZ
Centro Internacional de Política Económica para el Desarrollo Sostenible (CINPE)
Universidad Nacional
Costa Rica

Mr. Carlos Murillo-Rodriguez is Research Director of the International Centre of Economic Policy for Sustainable Developement (CINPE) at the Universidad Nacional (UNA), Costa Rica, where he is also a professor. In addition, Professor Murillo serves as Chairman of the Inter-University Consortium for Sustainable Development, with the participation of Wageningen Agricultural University, Utrecht University, Tilburg University (The Netherlands) and UNA.
Concurrently, Mr. Murillo is pursuing his PhD in Agricultural Economics, with a particular emphasis on development at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA, from where he already has a Master of Sciences in Economics.

Previously, Professor Murillo was Vice Minister of Foreign Trade for Costa Rica and Chairman of the Preparatory Committee of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). He also served as a member of the FTAA Working Group on Investment.

Dr. Sylvia OSTRY
Munk Centre for International Studies
University of Toronto
Canada

Dr. Sylvia Ostry is a Distinguished Research Fellow, Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto. After teaching and performing research at a number of Canadian universities and at the University of Oxford Institute of Statistics, she joined the Federal Government in 1964. Among the posts she held were Chief Statistician, Deputy Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs, Chairman of the Economic Council of Canada, Deputy Minister of International Trade, Ambassador for Multilateral Trade Negotiations, and the Prime Minister's Personal Representative for the Economic Summit. From 1979 to 1983 she was Head of the Economics and Statistics Department of the OECD in Paris. In 1989 she was Volvo Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, New York. From 1990 to 1997 she served as Chairman, Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto.

Dr. Ostry has received 18 honorary degrees from universities in Canada and abroad and, in 1987, received the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Government of Canada. In December, 1990 she was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest award in the Canadian national system of honours. In June, 1991 she was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Ostry is also a director of Power Financial Corporation; Power Corporation; member of the International Advisory Council, Power Financial Corporation; member of the Inter-American Dialogue; an Expert Adviser, Commission on Transnational Corporations, United Nations, New York; member of the Board, United Nations University/World Institute for Development Economics Research, Helsinki; member of the Advisory Board, Institute of International Economics, Washington; member of the Board of Distinguished Advisors, Center for the Study of Central Banks. Ms. Ostry is a member of the Group of Thirty, Washington and a founding member of the Pacific Council on International Policy. In 1992 the Sylvia Ostry Foundation annual lecture series was launched.

Dr. Ostry has a Ph.D. in economics from McGill University and Cambridge.

Mr. Achim STEINER
Executive Director
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
United Nations Environment Programme - UNEP
Kenya

Acting on the nomination of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the UN General Assembly unanimously elected Achim Steiner as the Executive Director of UNEP on 16 March 2006 for a four-year term, effective 15 June 2006. Mr. Steiner becomes the fifth Executive Director in UNEP's history.

Before joining UNEP, Mr. Steiner served as Director General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) from 2001 to 2006. IUCN is widely regarded as one of the most influential and highly respected organizations in the field of conservation, environment and natural resources management. He held responsibility for the management and oversight of 1,000 staff located in 42 countries.

Mr. Steiner's professional track record in the fields of sustainable development policy and environmental management, his first-hand knowledge of civil society, governmental and international organizations, as well as his global experience spanning five Continents, make him an excellent choice to lead the United Nations Environment Programme.

His professional career has included assignments with governmental, non-governmental and international organizations in different parts of the world. In Washington, where he was Senior Policy Advisor of IUCN's Global Policy Unit, he led the development of new partnerships between the environment community, the World Bank and the United Nations system. In Southeast Asia he worked as Chief Technical Advisor on a programme for the sustainable management of Mekong River watersheds and community-based natural resources management. In 1998 he was appointed Secretary-General of the World Commission on Dams, based in South Africa, where he managed a global programme of work to bring together the public sector, civil society and the private sector in a global policy process on dams and development.

He worked both at grassroots level as well as at the highest levels of international policy-making to address the interface between environmental sustainability, social equity and economic development.

Mr. Steiner, a German national, was born in Brazil in 1961, where he lived for ten years. His educational background includes a BA from the University of Oxford as well as an MA from the University of London with specialization in development economics, regional planning, and international development and environment policy. He also studied at the German Development Institute in Berlin as well as the Harvard Business School.

Mr. Steiner serves on a number of international advisory boards, including the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED).