Board of Trustees

International Institute for Environment and Development

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IIED Board of Trustees

Mary Robinson, Chair, Ireland

Mary Robinson is the Executive Director of the Ethical Globalization Initiative. She served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002 and as President of Ireland from 1990-1997. She is a founder member and Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders. Before her election as President, Mrs. Robinson served as Senator, holding that office for 20 years. In 1969 she became Reid Professor of Constitutional Law at Trinity College, Dublin and now serves as Chancellor of Dublin University. She was called to the bar in 1967, becoming a Senior Counsel in 1980, and a member of the English Bar (Middle Temple) in 1973. Educated at Trinity College, Mrs. Robinson also holds law degrees from the King's Inns in Dublin and from Harvard University. Mary Robinson is Chair of IIED Board of trustees (Jan 2005 – present) and the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (April 2005 – present).

Alan Jenkins, Vice Chair, UK

Alan Jenkins is Chairman of Eversheds LLP and Eversheds International a major international law firm, headquartered in London and trustee and former Chairman of the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development.

He is responsible for Eversheds International strategic development. He was formerly managing partner of Frere Cholmeley Bischoff, before its merger with Eversheds. As a lawyer, he has practised in the fields of commercial litigation, international arbitration and professional negligence and has worked on many high profile cases. He has dealt with various governments, agencies and state owned bodies around the world.

He was Head of the Environmental Law Group at Frere Cholmely Bischoff. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce and the Society of Advanced Legal Studies and he has spoken and written on a variety of topics. He has part written International & Commerce Fraud (published by Sweet & Maxwell - 2001) and “Dossiers - Arbitration, Money Laundering, Corruption and Fraud” published by the ICC Institute of World Business Law (2003). He was educated at New College Oxford.

Julio Berdeguè, Mexico

Julio Berdegué is Principal Researcher at Rimisp-Latin American Center for Rural Development (Santiago, Chile).He holds a Ph.D. in Social Science, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Julio currently serves in the Board of Trustees of CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) and as member of the Program Advisory Committee of the ISNAR Program at IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute). He chaired the Board of Directors of the Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN). Some of his recent assignments include participation in the preparation of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2008: “Agriculture for Development”, and in the Independent External Evaluation of FAO. His recent work includes research, policy advice and capacity development on territorial rural development; on market restructuring and inclusion and exclusion of small farmers and rural entrepreneurs, with an emphasis on the supermarket sector; and on rural non-farm agricultural employment. He also has extensive research and development experience on learning and innovation systems in rural areas, and on small farmers’ economic organizations.

Margaret Catley-Carlson, Canada

Margaret Catley-Carlson is actively involved in organisations that apply science and knowledge to national and international problems in freshwater governance, health, agriculture, environmental protection, international development and development finance. She is Chair of The Global Water Partnership, the Board of ICARDA (Agricultural research in dry areas) in Syria, and The Water Resources Advisory Committee for Suez/Lyonnaise of Paris. She is Vice Chair of the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa on the boards of IWMI (Water Management – Sri Lanka, the Secretary General’s Panels, the Library of Alexandria (Egypt) and Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD). Mrs. Catley-Carlson was president of CIDA, the Canadian International Development Agency (1983-89), and of the Population Council (91-99). Her professional career began as a career diplomat Canada; she has been Deputy Minister of Health in Canada, and Deputy Director (Operations) of UNICEF, with the rank of Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations. She has received eight honorary degrees and she became an Officer of Order of Canada in 2002.

Teresa Fogelberg, The Netherlands

As GRI's Deputy Chief Executive Teresa engages in strategic external relationships with business, governments, civil society and other stakeholders. Teresa started her career as an anthropologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She has spent many years in development organizations, such as ILO, USAID, and Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in several countries in West Africa, where she specialized in gender issues and famine-early warning systems. She has thirteen years’ experience across various managerial positions at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Head of the Department for Women and Development, and the Research and Higher Education Department. In those positions Teresa contributed to the development of socio-economic impact assessment tools, and chaired the OECD Working Party on Women and Development and sat on the Oversight Committee of the (multi stakeholder) Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Immediately prior to joining GRI, she worked for the Netherlands Ministry of Environment, where she was Head of the Climate Change and Industry department, and Special Advisor on International Environmental Affairs. She was also Head of the Netherlands Delegation to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) , in the period that the Netherlands had the Presidency of the UNFCCC and managed to successfully close the deal on the Kyoto Protocol. In that position she worked closely with the corporate sector. In 2002, Teresa acted as Executive Assistant to the Special Envoy of the U.N. Secretary General for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, and was in charge of private sector involvement in the Summit. Teresa sits on the board of several sustainable development organizations. She is a Dutch National of Scandinavian origin, and is fluent in English, Swedish and French.

Timothy Hornsby, UK

Timothy Hornsby is Chair of the National Lottery Commission, responsible for regulating Camelot and managing the competition for the new licence: Chairman of the Horniman Museum, which has a major collection of natural history specimens, ethnography and musical instruments: Chair of the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association: and Chair of the Harkness Fellows Association, devoted to Anglo-American relations. He was Chief Executive of the National Lottery Charities Board, Chief Executive of the Royal Borough of Kingston, Director General of the Nature Conservancy Council and before that held a series of posts in the civil service, including Director of Rural Affairs and Conservation. He is a Director of the Charles Darwin Trust, a member of the Parliamentary Champions Awards Steering Committee, and a Trustee of FIELD. He read history at Oxford University, and at Harvard and Columbia, and subsequently held academic posts in the United States and at Oxford.

Laila Iskandar, Egypt

Lailai Iskandar Kamel is a community development consultant and trainer who has extensive experience in working with government agencies, the private sector and NG projects and programs in the Middle East. These have encompassed the fields of gender, education and development, environmental projects, child labor programs and governance issues. She was a consultant to the Minister of Environment on solid waste management issues in Egypt. She is also a researcher and social development consultant to a variety of international agencies and works on both grass roots issues and policy matters. Community and Institutional Development was awarded the Schwab Social Entrepreneurship prize for the Arab Region at the World Economic Forum in May of 2006O’s. Her 25 years’ experience is reflected in her research work and publications. She has designed and implemented numerous projects which have involved a large network of stakeholders on the national and international levels. Her experience in institutional building, network creation, institution of public-private partnerships, and technology transfer encompasses the field of non-formal education, primary health care, community environmental issues, crafts, literacy, gender, etc . She is an international speaker and consultant to international development agencies and has served as a jury to UNESCO’s International Literacy Prize and is Unesco’s UNLD Resource Person for the Arab region (2005-2007).

Nii Ashie Kotey, Ghana

Nii Ashie Kotey is the Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana. Professor Kotey has been deeply involved in development, higher education and civic issues for over twenty years. He has practised law, consulted, advocated democratic governance and human rights, and organized civic groups. As a specialist in natural resources, environmental and human rights law, he has undertaken research work, participated in national and international conferences, and prepared advisory papers for many national and foreign clients. He has published widely both nationally and internationally. A graduate of the University of Ghana, Professor Kotey holds the LL.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of London. He has been visiting lecturer in Nigeria and Visiting Scholar in the United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. He is a member of the Africa Regional Advisory Panel of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London. He is also a director of the Ghana Legal Literacy and Resource Foundation and a member of the General Legal Council. He has been a member of many national committees including the Technical Working Group of the National Committee on Forest Management Certification and Committee on the Legal Framework for Collaborative Forest Management in Ghana. He chaired the ministerial advisory committee on forest policy, is a member of the Land Policy Steering Committee of the Ghana Land Administration Project and of the governing board of the National Petroleum Authority.

Lailai Li, China

Lailai Li is Director of the Institute for Environment & Development, Beijing and host institute for LEAD-China. Li Lailai received her bachelor’s degree in English, and a master’s and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh in the United States. Prior to her appointment as the National Program Director of LEAD-China, Li Lailai worked as a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology and Anthropology at Peking University, where her research was focused on the interactions between the Chinese traditional values, agricultural activities and environmental impacts. She also served as Director of Information Resources at LEAD International (part time) from 1997 to 2001. She participates in the development of LEAD’s information strategy, thereby fulfilling her interest in exploring the role of information and information technology in the human endeavor toward the greater sustainability of society. Her research experiences and areas lie in NGO development to meet the functional requirement / challenge of the society and exploration of alternative development paths toward global sustainability.

Carol Madison Graham FRSA, USA/UK

Carol Madison Graham was Executive Director of the US UK Fulbright Commission from 2002-2006. She holds advanced degrees from Georgetown University in Washington DC in Middle East History. Immediately following graduate study, Carol became a US diplomat in cultural, educational affairs and press affairs with assignments in Tunisia, Lebanon, France, and the United Arab Emirates. Later, she worked as a consultant to the Middle East Office of the Ford Foundation in New York and as Marketing Director for a French law journal in Paris. She moved to London in 1995 where she taught Middle East History and Politics at Richmond University before becoming Head of International Links for the Local Government Association for England and Wales. Prior to taking up her duties at the Fulbright Commission she managed international policy for the Bar of England and Wales where she worked with issues such as the International Criminal Court. She joined the Fulbright Commission in 2002.

In addition to the IIED her currents appointments include the Advisory Council for the Institute of the Study of the Americas (ISA) at the University of London, the Carnegie UK Trust, the Marshall Commission and 3E Foundation, a London based charity that works to improve math education in Africa.

She has been widely involved in exchange initiatives for members of religious, ethnic minorities and young people without the means to study overseas. She has also been very active in inter faith relations, serving as the only non Muslim judge for the Muslim News Awards for Excellence in 2004 and supporting events at the City Circle, a group of London based Muslim professionals. She is an active member of the Anglican Church, serving as an elected lay member of the Deanery Synod for the Diocese of Southwark. She divides her time between London and Edinburgh.

Anna Maembe, Tanzania

Anna Maembe is a Leadership for Environment and Development (Lead) Cohort 4 Fellow from Southern Africa Programme. Anna has long outstanding experience of more than 25 years in environmental management and sustainable development issues, specializing in environmental and natural resources data processing using remotely sensed data, information and communication and environmental education and communication.

Anna is currently the Director for Environmental Information, Communication at the National Environment Management Council (NEMC) the corporate body responsible for environmental enforcement in Tanzania.

Anna holds a B.Sc. degree in Botany and Zoology from the University of Dar es salaam and M.Sc. in Ecology from ITC Netherlands. She also has certificates in Natural Resources Management and Environmental Education from UNEP Nairobi and Strathclyde University of Scotland. Anna is a member of the Communication Commission of IUCN, LEAD network, SADC Regional Environmental Education Programme, a trustee of the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development, a Commonwealth Fellow and a member of several other professional bodies in Tanzania.

Pancho Ndebele, South Africa

Pancho Ndebele has recently tendered his resignation from SAB Miller South Africa to move into carbon trading in South Africa. He was Head of Sustainable Development at SAB Miller, South Africa one of the world's largest brewing companies with assets around the globe and particularly in developing countries. Pancho hold MBA, Master of Laws (LLM) in Environmental Law, MSc in Water and Wastewater Engineering. In 2002 he served on the Business-coordinating Forum, for the WSSD and developed the water neutral concept for the WSSD. He has worked on water and effluent treatment projects, energy and emission reduction projects. He has experience in developing technical environmental solutions with a corporate social responsibility spin, project management and implementation of strategies for sustainable development. He was instrumental in driving the first carbon credit emission reduction project by a major corporate in south Africa to be registered by the United Nations CDM Executive Board, He serves on the National Environmental Advisory Forum that advises the South African National Business Initiative Sustainability Advisory Forum. He has worked for 3M and Hosiend in the UK.

Sheela Patel, India

Sheela Patel is founder and director of SPARC. ( Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres) a Mumbai based NGO founded in 1984 to work with and support the organizations and federations of the urban poor. SPARC is currently engaged in many initiatives, working with the National Slum Dwellers’ Federation and Mahila Milan (‘women together’ - savings groups formed by women slum and pavement dwellers) in many cities throughout India. She is also on the board of Slum/Shack Dwellers International, the umbrella group on which all the 'slum' and 'shack' dweller federations are represented. She has advised many international agencies, including being on the Millennium Project Taskforce on Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers and the Advisory Board of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights and of the Cities Alliance. She has published widely, both on the work of federations and on the tools and methods that are appropriate for working with grassroots organizations. In 2001, she was awarded UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour.

Peter Ratzer, UK

Peter Ratzer is a retired corporate treasurer who is a trustee of The London Library where he chairs the Building Project Steering Committee overseeing the Library’s major development project, and the former chairman of the Channel Tunnel Group Pension Fund. Peter Ratzer worked for Esso in the UK, Germany and the US from 1961 to 1986, becoming Treasurer of Esso Petroleum and Controller of Esso Exploration and Production UK, before joining Eurotunnel as Treasurer and subsequently becoming Director of Corporate Finance. He played a major part in raising the finance required to build the Channel Tunnel. After completion of the Channel Tunnel he worked from 1995 to 1999 for consulting engineers Mott MacDonald as Director of Project Finance. Peter Ratzer has an economics degree from Glasgow University and obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has also been an elected local councillor in the London Borough of Camden.

Henrik Secher Marcussen, Denmark

Henrik Secher Marcussen has his Masters in Sociology from University of Copenhagen and his Ph.D. in International Economics from Copenhagen Business School. He has been employed with Roskilde University since 1973, but served as Senior Research Fellow with the then Centre for Development Research in Copenhagen for 3 1/2 years and as Principal Technical Advisor for UNSO/UNDP (UNSO: United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office) in New York during 1988 to 1991. He was Professor in Human Geography at Department of Geography, University of Bergen, Norway during the period 1998 to 2001, and has since 2001 been Professor and Head of Department of Geography and International Development Studies at Roskilde University. He is member of the Board for the Danish Institute of International Studies, and is member of committees under the Norwegian Research Council as well as the International Foundation of Science. Since January 2004, he has been member of Danida Board.

Youba Sokona, Mali

Dr Youba SOKONA is the Executive Secretary of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS). Before joining OSS he was Co-ordinator of Energy Programme and Executive Secretary for international relations of the organisation Environnement et Développement du Tiers Monde (ENDA-TM) based in Dakar in Sénégal. And before joining ENDA in 1982 he was professor at Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieur de Bamako in Mali. He has a wide experience on energy, environment and development issues in Africa. Dr Sokona participated at many international negotiations and follow-ups of the Rio process and related Conventions including Climate Change, Desertification, and Biodiversity. He is often solicited by various governments in Africa and organizations such as the World Bank, UNDP, UNEP, UNCCD, UNFCCC, etc, to serve as a Steering Committee Member of their programs, to conduct program evaluation missions, to chair sessions in high level conferences, and to contribute scientific papers in the area of energy, environment and poverty. Throughout his career, he also had the privilege to serve in various advisory capacities to many African governments and organizations. He has published many articles on energy, environment and development issues of interest of Africa. Youba Sokona is also a board member of Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development.

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