Ronit Avni

Filmmaker and Human Rights Advocate, Founder of Justin Vision

Ronit directed and produced the award-winning feature documentary film, Encounter Point, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006 and won five major international awards.

She is also the founder and Executive Director of Just Vision, a non-profit organization that creates media about Palestinian and Israeli civilians who are working to resolve the conflict nonviolently. She has co-produced short videos and online video advocacy features in collaboration with filmmakers in Senegal, Burkina Faso, the U.S. and Brazil while working at Peter Gabriel’s organization, WITNESS.

She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005 and her work was featured on Oprah.com. Ronit was named a Young Global Leader in 2009 and joined the YGL Network.

Anab Jain

Founder and Director of Superflux Lab

An Anglo-Indian design practice: based in London, but with roots and contacts in the Gujarati city of Ahmedabad. Born and educated in India (NID), with an MA in Interaction Design from the Royal College of Art, Anab founded Superflux in 2009. She has a proven track record in design, strategy and foresight for businesses, think-tanks and research organisations.

Honoured as a TED Fellow, she is the receipient of several awards, including the Award of Excellence ICSID, Innovation Award, Chicago International Documentary Film Festival and the UNESCO Digital Arts Award. Her experience and knowledge of design, futurescaping, emerging markets, new technologies and innovation has led her to be invited as a keynote speaker for conferences worldwide. Some of the conferences she has spoken at include PICNIC, WCIT2010, LIFT, SIGGRAPH, EPIC, Design Engaged and FuturEverything.

Peggy Liu

Chairperson and Co-founder of JUCCCE

Peggy is an internationally recognized expert on China’s energy landscape. JUCCCE is a non-profit organization dedicated to changing the way China creates and uses energy, because a green China is the key to a healthy world. JUCCCE is well-known for its effectiveness in carrying out system changing programs and for fostering international collaboration with China.

She is also an executive advisor to Marks & Spencer on sustainable retailing, a member of the World Economic Forum‘s Global Agenda Council on Sustainable Consumption 2012, an advisor to the Katerva Challenge for innovative climate change solutions.

She served as a member of the World Economic Forum‘s Global Agenda Council on New Energy Architecture 2011, and an energy adviser to the Clinton Global Initiative in 2008.

Peggy was honoured as the Hillary Step for Climate Change Solutions in 2012, a Time Magazine Hero of the Environment in 2008, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2009, the Hillary Laureate of 2010 for climate change leadership, a Forbes “Women to Watch in Asia” in 2010, a Huffington Post “Greatest Person of the Day” in 2011, a top 25 innovative business leaders of China Business News Weekly 2012.

In Chinese press, she has been recognized as a green leader on covers and in features such as Global Times (―Green Goddess‖), Beijing Tatler (―Green Miracle‖), Vogue China (“4 Women Who Will Change the World”), Psychologies (―10 Green Handkerchiefs award‖), L‘Officiel, Elle, Good Housekeeping, Rui Li, Southern People Weekly, Shanghai Daily, The Bund, 21st Century Herald, China Daily, QQ, Sohu.com.

Joan Baker

Co-Founder of Push Creative, Voice actor, Voice coach, author of Secrets of Voiceover Success, spokesperson for Neumann Microphones.

Joan Baker, and her husband Rudy Gaskins, took an ambitious mission to transform entertainment industry with Voice Over technology and started Push Creative Advertising, an innovative marketing and promotion company that includes training the voice in 2001. We’re both grateful to be in business together.

Prof.Javier Garcia Martinez

University of Alicante, Spain,
Co-Founder, Rive Technology, Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA

Dr. Garcia is Advisor to the Program.

Javier is faculty member and director of the Nanotechnology Molecular Laboratory at the University of Alicante, Spain. He has published extensively in the areas of nanomaterials, catalysis and energy and is inventor of fifteen patents.

Javier is also co-founder of Rive Technology Inc (Boston, MA), a clean energy company, commercializing advanced catalyst technology that has raised $47 million in venture capital funding from leading investors.

Javier is vice-chair of the World Economic Forum General Assembly Council on Emerging Technologies and Titular Member of the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

Javier has been recognized as a leader in nanotechnology and materials science. In 2005, Javier was awarded the Europa Medal, awarded annually to the outstanding European chemist under the age of 35. In 2007, Javier received the TR 35 Award from MIT’s Technology Review magazine, and in 2009 Javier was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Alex Simalabwi

Senior Network Officer & Climate Change Focal Point, Coordinator-Water Climate Development Programme for Africa at Global Water Partnership (GWP)

Alex is a water resources expert with extensive experience in IWRM planning, WRM, Climate Change and multistakeholder processes. He coordinates GWP’s global work on climate change and leads GWP’s contributions in global climate policy discourse.

Alex is the coordinator of GWP’s Joint programme with the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW)-the Water Climate Development Program for Africa (WACDEP). He supports GWP regional partnerships in Eastern Africa, Southern Africa and the Caribbean. He has worked with several African governments providing strategic advice on the integration of water in national development plans.

Engr. Christopher Oluwakunmi Akinbile Ph.D (Ibadan)

Department of Agricultural Engineering & Associate Director, Entrepreneurship Centre for Entrepreneurship and Gender Issues in Science and Technology (CEGIST), Federal University of Technology, Nigeria

Dr. Christopher Oluwakunmi Akinbile is senior lecturer in the department of Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria (FUTA) and also the Associate Director, Entrepreneurship Programme, Centre for Entrepreneurship and Gender Issues in Science and Technology (CEGIST), FUTA. The Centre is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring skill acquisition and entrepreneurial advancement of staff, students and interested youth in the University community for development of small and medium scale enterprises. This is with a view to reducing unemployment, promoting the emergence of small enterprises and encouraging entrepreneurship development. He obtained his bachelor‟s degree in Agricultural
Engineering from FUTA, while his Master‟s and doctoral degrees were obtained from Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, University of Ibadan, all in Nigeria.

He is a member of many professional associations such as the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), registered member of Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Nigerian Institution of Agricultural Engineers (NIAE), American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and Fellow of African Technology Policy Strategy Network (ATPS) based in Nairobi, Kenya. He has published over forty articles in international peer-reviewed journals and attended over 27 international conferences. He has won several awards and fellowships at various times. He won the award of outstanding presentation at the first African Regional Conference on Drainage (ARCOD) in Egypt in 2004, Our Common Future (OCF) fellow 2010 by Volkswagen Foundation, Germany for partaking in the global discourse in the „facing climate change‟ and Third World Academy of Science (TWAS) post doctoral fellowship at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Penang, Malaysia from August, 2010 through September, 2011.

Dr. Akinbile also won the BiovisonNxt fellowship award for being among the 100 best young researchers globally which took place in Lyon, France in March, 2011 and was organized by the World Life Science Forum. He teaches several Agricultural Engineering courses such as Soil and Water Conservation Engineering, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation, Engineer in Society, Basic Hydrology, Irrigation and Drainage and Fluid Mechanics all at Undergraduate levels. At postgraduate levels, courses such as Advanced Hydraulics, Ground water supply, Advanced drainage and operational research. He has supervised several undergraduate and postgraduate project students and also member of supervisory team of some doctoral students at the department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in Malaysia. Dr. Akinbile is married with children.

Dr. Kimani Munji

Plant Breeder and Geneticist for Cereals and Legumes at Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Mwea-Tebere

Currently at the International Cooperation Center for Agricultural Education (ICCAE), Nagoya University-Japan, as a Visiting Research Fellow for Cold Tolerance MAS Rice Breeding for its Adaptation Alignment to Current and Future Climate Change & Variability Scenarios, in order to Meet Future Food and Nutritional Security in Kenya and the Region.

He specializes in adaptation of crops to local production conditions and resilient to climate change and variability in order to meet sustainable food and nutritional security, while conserving the natural resource base.