Jelena Lucic
Founder and President of non-governmental organisation Ecoist based in Belgrade, Serbia.
Ecoist is focused on improvement of urban sustainability by introduction of innovative and holistic approaches, combining governmental, academic, civil and corporate sector.
In the previous year Ecoist has organised the first International GreenBuild Conference 2011 attended by a number of experts from Austria, Australia, Greece, Holland, India, Italy, UK, Serbia and neighbouring countries.
Ecoist has also organised a student contest Urban Oasis for conceptual design of green roofs, external and internal vertical gardens.
Ecoist is an active member of UN Global Compact, SEEFED (South-East European Federation of Cities and Regions for the Environment), FENS (Federation of NGOs) and 10:10 global action.

Jelena Lucic is a consultant of eco-tourism living lab based in Cyprus, an Associate of Centar Tesla, a Competence Centre for Sustainable Development that bases its research on unconventional mentoring methods, doctrine of Nikola Tesla and research of new renewable energy technologies.
She has published scientific research policy papers on Aarhus Convention and is a regular guest writer for Serbian magazine ‘Business and Finance’.
For 8 years, Jelena Lucic has been a Business Development Manager and later General Manager of a Cyprus based company for some of the world leading cable industry firms such as Draka Comteq, Rosendahl and Teijin Aramid in the territories of South East Europe and former USSR countries. She has spent more than 10 years living in Iraq and Cyprus.

Tristram Stuart
Tristram Stuart is the winner of the international environmental award, The Sophie Prize 2011, for his fight against food waste. Following the critical success of Tristram’s first book, The Bloodless Revolution (2006), ‘a genuinely revelatory contribution to the history of human ideas’, Tristram has become a renowned campaigner, working in several countries to help improve the environmental and social impact of food production. His latest international prize-winning book, Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal (Penguin, 2009), revealed that Western countries waste up to half of their food, and that tackling this problem is one of the simplest ways of reducing pressure on the environment and on global food supplies. Tristram set up the ‘Feeding the 5000′ (www.feeding5k.org) event and campaign, where 5000 members of the public are given a free lunch using only ingredients that otherwise would have been wasted. Held twice in Trafalgar Square (2009 and 2011), replica events have since been held internationally. Tristram continues to work with a range of NGOs, governments, and private enterprises internationally to tackle the global food waste scandal..

Francois Ledoux
François Ledoux is Manager France and Benelux – Corporate Affairs for Intel Corporation, responsible for the Strategic Design and Implementation of all Corporate Affairs programs. Education and Community Programs are the key pillars for Intel’s CSR activities in France. Within this scope, he and the European team are working closely with National Governments, Ministries, NGO’s, NPO´s and the European Union.
In particular, Intel CSR is helping to transform the lives of millions through education. For over a decade, Intel has been working with countries, communities, and schools worldwide to bring the resources and solutions needed for advancing education. They collaborate with governments, policy-makers, and local vendors to turn their vision into reality in order to bring quality education to more people, while sustaining local communities and economies.
Mr Ledoux has worked for 3 years as a project manager on higher education at the French Ministry of Education and Higher Education and he has collaborated as a project manager with LeWebPedagogique, an educational social network.

Qian Tang
Mr Qian Tang of China is a specialist in secondary and technical education. He has been an educator and a diplomat as well as a technical and professional education manager at China’s Ministry for Education. He played a central role in the establishment of UNEVOC, UNESCO’s International Centre for technical and vocational Education and training in Bonn, Germany. Mr Tang has also been instrumental in mobilizing donor resources for Education for All and has promoted South/South cooperation in education.

C.H. Besseyre Des Horts
Charles-Henri Besseyre des Horts holds a Doctorate from IAE Aix en Provence and a Ph.D. from University of California, Los Angeles.
He teaches in different HEC programs : HEC Graduate School of Management, HEC MBA program, Doctoral program and HEC Management Executive programs. His research interests focus on the relationships between human resources management and business strategy, the international HR strategies in multinational companies and the development of innovation processes within organizations.
He has been and is actively involved in a number of international training and consulting activities in the following countries : USA, Canada, Nigeria, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa, Brazil, Lebanon, Rumania, Poland, Russia, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Australia.
He has published several books one of which (“Vers une gestion stratégique des ressources humaines” “towards a strategic human resources management”) received the 1988 award for the best socio-economic management books. Professor Besseyre des Horts has also published a variety of articles both in academic and professional journals.

Sanjay Bhatnagar
A global innovator and business leader, Sanjay Bhatnagar leads new generation green enterprise at WaterHealth International. Mr. Bhatnagar is also the founder of the THOT Capital Group, a private equity firm based in New York. Prior to setting up the THOT Capital Group in January 2001, Sanjay was the CEO of Enron Broadband Services for Middle East and Asia, based in Singapore. He was also Chairman and CEO, Enron South Asia. Earlier, he worked for Schlumberger as an engineer and manager in several countries worldwide.

Sanjay received an MBA with Honors, from Harvard University, a Master’s degree in Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with distinction from the Indian Institute of Technology.

He has also held other pivotal positions such as Director Emeritus, US India Business Council (USIBC), US Chamber of Commerce, Washington DC, Director, Punj Lloyd Construction Company, India, Director, AIESEC International, President, American Chamber of Commerce in India (1999-2001), Member YPO/WPO, Chairman, Infrastructure Committee, Confederation of Indian Industry (2000), Member, National Committee on E-Commerce, Confederation of Indian Industry (2000) and Member of ISOC (Internet Society International) Geneva.

Mr. Assaf Barnea
Mr. Assaf Barnea is the CEO of Kinrot Ventures, the leading seed investor in water technologies worldwide, which is privately held by AquAgro Cleantech fund, in cooperation with the Israeli OCS (Office of the Chief Scientist).

Previously, Mr. Barnea managed the Business Development activity at Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, where he oversaw the establishment of WaTech – the Entrepreneurship & Partnership Center for Water Technologies, a program which supports new innovative water technologies solutions that are relevant to Mekorot’s daily operations.

Prior to Mekorot, he served for four years as a Director of Business Development at Comverse Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: CMVT), a global telecom provider. Mr. Barnea is also a Founder and a BOD member of Cardiosense, a medical device start-up company. He is a certified lawyer, holds both law and business degrees from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzelia and a political science and psychology degree from Tel-Aviv University.

In his previous career, Mr. Barnea played college basketball at Seton Hall University and professional basketball at Israel’s top division and was a member of the Israeli national basketball team.

Alberto Piatti

Alberto Piatti born in Varese on October 11, 1957, graduated in Agricultural Science (1984).
AVSI Foundation is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization, founded in Italy in 1972 and presently active in 39 countries of the world, with more than 100 development cooperation projects.
AVSI is operating in Africa, Latin America and Caribbean countries, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia, in the areas of health and sanitation, care of children in difficult conditions, education, vocational training, upgrading of informal urban areas, agriculture, environment, promotion of small businesses, food security, ICT, and emergency relief in collaboration with international organizations, the Italian Foreign Ministry and other Italian institutions, European Commission, World Bank, IDB, USAID, Italian and multinational companies and with over 30,000 private donors.
He works in AVSI since 1996, as Managing Director.

Actively involved in many international meetings, in June 2009 participated in the G8 Development for an AVSI side event.
In 1999 he became Vice President of the Compagnia delle Opere.
Since 2001 he is member of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the organ of the Holy See which follows and promotes initiatives of solidarity and charity of the Pope in the world

Olivier Prigent

Olivier Prigent is a Water Knowledge Expert in McKinsey & Company’s Luxembourg office. Since joining McKinsey in 2009, Olivier has mostly worked on operations engagements in different industries such as water and manufacturing.
Before joining the Firm, Olivier worked seven years in the water industry in a water utility (GUP, Veolia Water), a water construction company (SADE, Veolia water) and a water infrastructure design company (SCE).
Olivier Prigent obtained a M.B.A. with “leadership distinction” from IMD in Switzerland and a Master of Engineering with “Summa Cum Laude” from INPG in France. At university, Olivier was involved in the board of “Ingénieurs Sans Frontière” and led a water supply project in Cameroon. He is fluent in English, French and Romanian and proficient in German.

Lucia Penazzi
Mrs Penazzi is the coordinator and project manager in France for the international association Slow Food. She has been working with slow food since 2008 and has been a member of the association since 2005. Mrs Penazzi was selected for a joint project between Italy and France, organized by the Institute for Political studies of Turin and Sciences Po Bordeaux. The aim of the project was to offer students an alternate curriculum Turin-Bordeaux that would lead to a double degree at the end of the cursus. Therefore Mrs Penazzi graduated in Political Sciences in 2004 in Turin and 2005 in Bordeaux. In 2007 she earned a Master’s degree in « International relations and defense of Human Rights ».
Strongly convinced that « eating is a political act », after having occupied several positions within Amnesty International in Italy and then for the Foundation of France in Paris, in 2008 Mrs Penazzi decides to dedicate her efforts to the safeguard of true food and to take part in the fight of Slow Food in France, ensuring the relations with the headquarters of Slow Food in Italy.
Active in the Slow Food movement for several years, she joined the team of Slow Food France in 2008 as the responsible for communication and started a career within Slow Food coming from being a militant with a passion for gastronomy who was looking for a challenge and was curious about Slow Food.
Convinced that there is a complex network of affinities between thought and belly that reflection often neglects, and strengthened by the several year experience of collaboration with Slow Food, since 20011 she is also in charge of the European project “4cities4dev”, part of the program EuropAid. Among her missions: work in synergy with the Slow Food teams of the city of Tours and maintaining the relations among these trams and the institutions involved: city of Turin, city of Tours, Slow Food, Euro Gusto.

Virender Singh
Mr. Singh was born and brought up in the town of Anupshahar in Bulandshahr district. His dad was a lawyer. He completed his schooling from Aligarh Muslim University and did his engineering in Punjab. After engineering he joined the textile industry. However, he aspired to study further and moved to Massachusetts, USA to gain a Masters in Textile engineering in 1965. Post that, he has been with Du Pont right up to his retirement in 1999. Post his retirement, Mr. Singh moved to his birthplace, Anupshahar, to serve his country by working towards rural welfare. He lamented that the state of a majority of the rural folk was reduced to focus on their next meal, with some leading lives no better than that of a beggar. In 2000 he set up Pardada Pardadi Educational Society with the idea to improve the state of rural India and create livelihood opportunities in and around the villages and towns. He believes that mass transit to urban areas for employment will not help alleviate poverty. Since 2000, Pardada Pardadi Educational Society has been improving the lives of girls in rural India. Its mission is to uplift and empower girls from the poorest sections of society by providing free education and vocational training — creating a new generation of self-reliant and educated girls who will break the cycle of poverty in the region.

Neil Barrett
Neil Barrett is Group Vice President , Sustainable Development at Sodexo.
In September 2009, after 7 years as CEO Sodexo Australia and New Zealand, he moved to the newly created role of Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility, Sodexo Remote Sites and Asia – Australia, based in Singapore. In December 2010 he took on his present role, based at Sodexo’s headquarters in Paris and is responsible for sustainable development throughout the business.
Sodexo’s Better Tomorrow Plan focuses the company’s sustainability efforts on the environment, supporting the development of local communities and nutrition, health and wellness. As Sodexo continues to grow its facilities management services, throughout the world, a focus on sustainable outcomes by embedding actions around energy, water and waste is crucial.
He has 37 year business experience, working in mainly managerial roles in international shipping, asset security, passenger rail transportation and heavy engineering manufacturing. His once in a lifetime, never to be repeated role, was managing a company that successfully provided the “best ever” corporate hospitality services to 26 major Olympic sponsors and their thousands of clients during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Barrett became a grandfather in 2010 to two beautiful identical twin girls. This has heightened his passion to drive Sodexo’s sustainability plan throughout the business to improve the quality of daily life and make a “Better Tomorrow” for all.

Flora Bernard

Flora Bernard is a managing partner at BeCitizen. She directs client projects on strategy and value chain thinking. She has facilitated strategic development with corporations in the industrial, clean technology, banking and luxury sectors with a focus on how to create value by transforming environmental constraints into business opportunities. She has also worked with governments on the ways to improve public-private collaboration.
Before joining BeCitizen, Flora worked as an environmental consultant in the UK (ERM and Ernst & Young), the private sector in France (SUEZ group) and the French Environment Agency in India. She has been involved in projects ranging from oil & gas to water and waste with a strong focus on the ways in which sustainable businesses can be launched and developed (both from a social and environmental point of view). Flora has a Masters Degree from the London School of Economics in Political Sociology.

Karine Le Loët

Karine Le Loët is a journalist for Terra eco, the leading French magazine specializing in sustainable development. Her main working topics include climate migration, the social economy (micro credits, alternative currency and circular economies) and access to basic rights such as health, education, food and water in developed and developing countries.

Before joining the Terra eco team, she worked for three years as the London correspondent for Libération, Ouest France, Le Soir and La Tribune de Genève. She covered many stories from across the British Isles, including the zero energy housing development BedZed in Hackbridge and the transition town of Lewes where a local currency – the Lewes pound – was introduced in 2008.

Thierry Jacquet

Thierry JACQUET, thanks to his double training of town planner and Landscape design architect INH Angers, developed the project of green city. The concept is based on the transformation of pollutions into resources in the green spaces.
The concept of the Filtering Gardens ® was born 15 years ago to create a real operational urban ecology. Set up by PHYTORESTORE, founded by Thierry JACQUET, fields of intervention are multiple and have varied scales of application: it can involve Filtering Gardens for small rural districts (from their sizing-up to their realization) as well as urban projects touching the planning of the city (Axis of “La Defense”, the naturalization of the banks of the Seine, Park of the Big Swamp of Amiens). The necessity of finding a concrete solution to reconcile the site, the landscape and the city is at the origin of numerous innovations realized on fields: zero discharge of rainwater and waste water, tertiary treatment for water-treatment plants, etc.