Nicolas G. HAYEK - Swatch Group

Nicolas G. Hayek, born in 1928, is the co-founder and Chairman and Delegate of the Board of Directors of the Swatch Group, with Headquarters in Biel-Bienne (Switzerland). After having engineered and implemented the reorganization of the Asuag and SSIH watch companies for more than four years, finally bringing about their merger, N.G. Hayek took over, with a group of Swiss investors, a majority shareholding in the new group in 1985. He became Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer in 1986.

N.G. Hayek played a decisive role in the recovery of the Swatch Group with its watch brands Swatch, Breguet, Blancpain, Jaquet Droz, Glashütte Original, Léon Hatot, Omega, Union, Longines, Rado, Tissot, Calvin Klein, Certina, Mido, Hamilton, Pierre Balmain, Flik Flak, and Endura. The strategies he developed in the early 1980s led to the success of the entire Swiss watch industry and regained its leading position worldwide since 1984.

A few of his achievements at the Swatch Group are:

In Fall 2007, Mr. Hayek initiated and founded a new company: The Swatch Group Ltd. and Hayek Engineering, are joining forces with Groupe E, with the international bank Deutsche Bank, with the Swiss institutes of technology, and other interested parties to establish a holding company – Belenos Clean Power Ltd. - for the development and production of clean, renewable energy systems. The Biel-based company is presently working on the project.

The aim of this special agreement between The Swatch Group Ltd. and Groupe E is to develop, produce and market energy production systems based on hydrogen and fuel cells. The goal is to provide the population with electricity for both residential and transport purposes. This will allow considerable progress to be made in producing entirely clean energy, with the aim of saving the environment and providing a substitute for CO2 emissions. The two companies have extensive expertise in this area.

 

Dr Eduard SARUKHANIAN - World Meteorological Organization
Dr E. Sarukhanian has graduated from Marine Academy as oceanographer. He has spent many years in marine research working as scientific officer at ice-drifting station “North Pole-19” (1969-70), then as chief of Antarctic marine expeditions (1975, 1979) and Soviet-American expedition “Weddell Polynia” (1981). In 1981-84 Dr Sarukhanian was head of Polar Experiment Department in Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg. Doctor of Sciences on Geography (1981), he published over 100 papers related to oceanography of the Arctic and Southern Oceans and climatology of Polar Regions. Since 1984 he works in WMO Secretariat in Geneva as chief of Observing System and Ocean Affairs divisions, then as director of World Weather Watch – Applications Department. At present Dr E. Sarukhanian is Special Adviser to WMO Secretary-General on International Polar Year (IPY) and member of the Joint Committee for IPY 2007-2008.

 

 

Suren ERKMAN - Independent Scientific Lecturer, Researcher and Writer 

Education:
PhD in Environmental Sciences (Industrial Ecology), University of Technology of Troyes (UTT), Troyes (France).
Master Degree in Philosophy and History of Science, Faculty of Arts (Philosophy) and Faculty of Science (Biology), University of Geneva.

Lecturing and Consulting activities:
January 1994 to Present:
- Independent Scientific Lecturer, Writer and Researcher;
- International consultant for UNEP, UNDP, GEF (Global Environmental Facility), Swiss and foreign government agencies, media, foundations, NGOs and various private companies.
Founder, in 1995, of «Industrial Ecology Praxis» (EIP), the first international network devoted to the promotion, dissemination and implementation of industrial ecology.

Past Employment:
1982 to 1993, registered science/technology and business journalist and editor for various media in Switzerland (e.g. l’Hebdo, Journal de Genève, Télévision suisse romande) and abroad (e.g. Down To Earth, New Delhi)

Academic activities:
From March 2005: Associate Professor, Head of the Industrial Ecology Group, Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland.
From October 1996: Lecturer (Industrial Ecology), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL).
September 2004 – September 2007: Co-founder and first Executive Director of the newly created Chair in Industrial Ecology, University of Technology of Troyes, France, funded by companies (Areva, EDF, Lafarge, Calcia, Dagris, etc.).
Lecturer in various universities, in Switzerland and abroad, including in China and India.
Co-founder in 1997 and Member of the Managing Board of the Journal of Industrial Ecology (Yale University).
Founding member of the International Society for Industrial Ecology (ISIE). Elected member of the ISIE Council 2004-2006, Chair of the Topical Groups Committee of the ISIE.

Entrepreneurial activities:
Founder and Director, Institute for Communication and Analysis of Science and Technology (ICAST), Geneva.
ICAST’s mission is to provide information in a readily accessible form on scientific and technological issues, including environment and sustainable development issues, with a focus on the emerging field of industrial ecology. This information aims at being impartial, reliable, relevant and tailored to the needs of the person or organization (www.icast.org)
From 2001: Co-founder of «Ecologie industrielle Conseil sàrl» (i.e. public limited company), a consulting company based in Paris (France) advising companies and government agencies on eco-industrial development.
February 2004: Founder and President of Association FIDEST (Formation and Information on Development, Environment, Science and Technology), a non-profit organization dedicated to education and capacity building, registered in Geneva (Switzerland).
October 2004: Co-founder (with Ramesh Ramaswamy) and International Director of the Resource Optimization Initiative, in Bangalore, India (http://www.roi-online.org). ROI is registered in Bangalore as a non-profit charitable trust.
January 2008: Co-founder and President of SOFIES Sàrl (Solutions for Industrial Ecosystems),a consulting company based in Geneva, Switzerland.

 

Cecilia UGAZ - Human Development Report Office

Cecilia Ugaz is Acting Director of the Human Development Report Office based in New York. Over the past three years she has been the Head of the Writing Team and in charge of coordinating the research for the preparation of the Human Development Reports.  Born in Lima, Cecilia Ugaz was educated in Peru and in France. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. She also holds a Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies in Analyse et Politiques Economiques from the EHESS and the Ecole Nationale de Statistique et de l’Administration Economique (ENSAE). Before joining HDRO in January 2005, she was a Research Coordinator at United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) in Geneva. Prior to that, she was a Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS, University of Sussex) in the U.K., and a Research Fellow at the World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU/WIDER) in Helsinki. Over the past few years, the main focus of her research has been privatization and regulation of social and infrastructure services. She is the editor of “Social provision in low income countries: new patterns and emerging trends” (with G. Mwabu and G. White), Oxford University Press (2001). “Utility privatization and regulation: a fair deal for consumers? (with C. Waddams Price), Edward Elgar (2003) and “Commercialization, privatization and universal access to water” UNRISD manuscript (under preparation). Cecilia is fluent in Spanish, English and French.

Dan O'BRIEN - The Economist Intelligence Unit

Dan O'Brien is a senior economist and editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit, the business information arm of The Economist Group. He specialises in European political and economic affairs and global trade and investment issues. He regularly addresses conferences and meetings, comments for broadcast media, such as CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera, and contributes to publications including The Financial Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal Europe, and The Economist. He was previously employed in the foreign service of the Europe Commission and as an economics lecturer.   

 

 

 

 

Chaim NISSIM - Noe21

Chaim Nissim, secretary of Noe21. Noe21 is an NGO specializing in climate solutions. We are studying both technical solutions and market instruments, trying to help decision makers to invest in the most promising solutions, the cheapest and the soundest. The CDM could become such a solution, with some improvements, which we will describe at the workshop.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Per SANDBERG - World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

Dr Per Sandberg is Managing Director for The Business Role Focus Area of WBCSD and Project Director for Vision 2050. He joined WBCSD in September 2007.

Before that he was eight years with Norsk Hydro. The last three years as innovation manager, first within Aluminum then Oil & Energy. He was responsible for designing, implementing and executing a system for enhancing innovation. Focus during his first five years in Hydro was on sustainability. He was then also heavily involved with the WBCSD Sustainable Mobility Project, ending up as Project Director during the concluding phase of the project. His first degree is a MSc.Eng in chemical engineering, while his PhD is in applied ethics.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Mannava SIVAKUMAR - WMO

Dr Sivakumar obtained his B.Sc (Agriculture), then his MA in Agronomy in 1972 from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and his Ph:D in Agricultural Climatology in 1977 at the Iowa State University.

 

From 1977 to 1983, Dr Sivakumar worked at the the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad, India and from 1984-96, he was at the ICRISAT Sahelian Center in Niamey, Niger. He occupied successively the positions of Agroclimatologist, Principal Agroclimatologist, Team Leader of the Resource Management Program and Director of the Soils and Agroclimatology Division at ICRISAT.

In 1996, Dr Sivakumar joined the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) where he is the Chief of the Agricultural Meteorology Division in the World Climate Programme Department. Dr Sivakumar has over 200 publications to his credit, including 41 books and 73 articles in various international journals.

Dr. Sivakumar received the "Young Scientist Award' and the Science Academy Medal from the Indian National Science Academy of India in 1983 and the Fertilizer Association of India Award in 1985 for the best paper published in 1984-85.  He is elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences of India (1992), Fellow of the Indian Meteorological Society (2000)
Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy (2001), Member of the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences of Belgium (2003)
Corresponding Academician of the Academy of Georgofili of Italy (2006).

He received the 2007 International Service in Agronomy Award from the American Society of Agronomy.

José ACHACHE - GEO 

José Achache became the first Director of the GEO Secretariat in 2005.
Of French nationality, Prof. Achache graduated from the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. He obtained a doctorate in  geophysics at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in 1979 and a doctorate in physical sciences at the Université René Descartes in 1984. He was a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University from 1979 to 1980.

Prof. Achache began his career at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris as a Research Assistant and then as “Chargé de Recherche”. In 1989, he became a Professor, created the Department of Space Studies and was appointed Director of the Graduate School of Earth Sciences.

In 1996, he joined the French Geological Survey (BRGM) as deputy director of the Research Division and the following year became its director. In 1999, he joined the French Space Agency (CNES) as advisor to the President and, in 2000, he was appointed Deputy Director General of CNES.

In 2002, Prof. Achache joined the European Space Agency (ESA) as Director of Earth Observation. While at ESA, he developed the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme in partnership with the European Commission.
José Achache is the author of a scientific and geopolitical essay entitled Les Sentinelles de la Terre, which discusses the benefits of Earth observation for a better management of the planet, adaptation to environmental changes and the mitigation of disasters and epidemics. He has published more than 70 scientific papers in international journals on subjects in Earth sciences, geophysical imaging, planetary sciences, Earth observation from space, natural hazards, and space and science policy.
 

Vice Admiral Conrad C. LAUTENBACHER, Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.) - NOAA Leadership

A native of Philadelphia, retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, is serving as the undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere. He was appointed Dec. 19, 2001. Along with this title comes the added distinction of serving as the eighth administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He holds an M.S. and Ph.D. from Harvard University in applied mathematics.
Lautenbacher oversees the day-to-day functions of NOAA, as well as laying out its strategic and operational future. The agency includes, and is comprised of, the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Services; National Marine Fisheries Service; National Ocean Service; National Weather Service; Oceanic and Atmospheric Research; Marine and Aviation Operations; and the NOAA Corps, the nation’s seventh uniformed service. He directed an extensive review and reorganization of the NOAA corporate structure to meet the environmental challenges of the 21st century.

As the NOAA administrator, Lautenbacher spearheaded the first-ever Earth Observation Summit, which hosted ministerial-level representation from several dozen of the world's nations in Washington July 2003. Through subsequent international summits and working groups, he worked to encourage world scientific and policy leaders to work toward a common goal of building a sustained Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) that would collect and disseminate data, information and models to stakeholders and decision makers for the benefit of all nations individually and the world community collectively. The effort culminated in an agreement for a 10-year implementation plan for GEOSS reached by the 55 member countries of the Group on Earth Observations at the Third Observation Summit held in Brussels February 2005. Lautenbacher was selected to serve as co-chair to the Group on Earth Observations at GEO-I in Geneva, Switzerland in May 2005.

He also has headed numerous delegations at international governmental summits and conferences around the world, including the U.S. delegation to the first and second Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Ocean Ministerial Meetings in Korea 2002 and Indonesia 2005, and the annual meetings of the World Meteorological Organization, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as leading the Commerce delegation to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa.

Before joining NOAA, Lautenbacher formed his own management consultant business, and worked principally for Technology, Strategies & Alliances Inc. He was president and CEO of the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE). This not-for-profit organization has a membership of 76 institutions of higher learning and a mission to increase basic knowledge and public support across the spectrum of ocean sciences.

Lautenbacher is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (Class of 1964), and has won accolades for his performance in a broad range of operational, command and staff positions both ashore and afloat. He retired after 40 years of service in the Navy. His military career was marked by skilled fiscal management and significant improvements in operations through performance-based evaluations of processes.

A leader in the introduction of cutting-edge information technology, he pioneered the use of information technology to mount large-scale operations using sea-based command and control. As Assistant for Strategy with the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel, and Program Planning Branch Head in the Navy Program Planning Directorate, he continued to hone his analytic skills resulting in designation as a specialist both in Operations Analysis and Financial Management. During his final tour of duty, he served as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Resources, Warfare Requirements and Assessments) in charge of Navy programs and budget.

Jacqueline E. SCHAFER - Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade

Jacqueline E. Schafer was sworn in on November 1, 2005, as Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade (EGAT), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Schafer was appointed by President George W. Bush to this Senate-confirmed position.

Previously, Schafer served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for EGAT, where she supervised the offices of Agriculture, Environment and Science Policy, Natural Resources Management and Infrastructure and Engineering, since September 2002.
Prior to joining USAID, she served as Director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality in the cabinet of Governor Jane Dee Hull from 1999-2002.

Schafer previously served as Director of the California Department of Fish and Game, Chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board and in the Office of Governor Pete Wilson from 1993-1999.

Prior to that she was Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Installations and Environment), appointed by President George H. W. Bush, and a Member of President Ronald Reagan's Council on Environmental Quality.

She also served in the Reagan Administration as Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Region 2. From 1971-1982, she worked in the U.S. Senate as a Professional Staff Member with the Committee on Environment and Public Works for Senator Robert T. Stafford and earlier for Senator James L. Buckley.

She graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.

José ROMERO - Swiss Federal Office for the Environment

Born in Spain in 1956. PhD in physics from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. From 1989 to 1996 senior scientist at the World Radiation Center/Physical–Meteorological Observatory Davos, Switzerland. In charge of the World Radiometric Reference, and co-investigator of space missions dedicated to the study of the solar radiation. Since 1996 at the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment as Swiss Focal Point for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Head of Section (Rio Conventions Section), Swiss key negotiator for the international climate change process, in particular for the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and the current negotiations for the second commitment period. Married with Estela and father of three children, José, Estela and Imelda.