International Advisory Council

Mohammed Adow

Mohamed is a journalist based in Nairobi, who has reported extensively on the conflicts in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Kenya. He was an active voice in covering the climate talks in Durban, South Africa at last year’s conference of the parties.

Former President Mohammed Nasheed

Ousted in a political coup in February, Mohammed Nasheed was the first democratically elected president of the Maldives in 2009. He became a leader in the UN Climate Negotiations, calling for a return to 350ppm C02, and asking that a binding treaty be enacted which limits global temperature rise to 2 degrees celsius. Efforts that do not cap the global increase by 2 degrees will result in the Maldives being an underwater country.

Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva is an Indian Physicist and internationally renowned activist, who has spread a powerful vision of peace and non-violence around the globe. She works to aim and defend nature and the rights of people to safe and clean food and drinking water, as well as dignified jobs. She’s worked to promote local and ecological models of food production, and has often highlighted the climate chaos that threatens global systems of food and infrastructure.

Casper ter Kuile

Casper is the Co-Director of the UK Youth Climate Coalition, and is currently a campaign strategist for Common Cause. His passion is in communications strategy and how we can change opinions and behaviors through telling the right story to the right people.

Marita Manley

Marita Manley managed the Pacific Agriculture and Forestry Policy Network (PAFPNet) at SPC until July 2010 and supervised the research and the development of the Pacific Youth in Agriculture Strategy. She now works as a Technical Adviser for GIZ, the German Agency for International Cooperation, on a climate change adaptation program.

Sean Weaver

Dr Sean Weaver is Principal, Carbon Partnership Ltd. – a climate policy, carbon market project design, and education consultancy. He has over 20 years experience as a practitioner/educator in environmental policy and management. He’s the UNFCCC negotiator for Vanuatu, and is now focusing on climate change and carbon markets education for policy and business leaders.

Ricken Patel

Ricken Patel is co-founder and executive director of Avaaz.org. Ricken was voted “Ultimate Gamechanger in Politics” in 2009 by the Huffington Post and was named a Young Global Leader by the Davos World Economic Forum. Prior to Avaaz he lived in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and other countries in conflict, and worked for the International Crisis Group, the Rockefeller Foundation, the International Center for Transitional Justice, and Res Publica.

Wael Hmaidan

Wael Hmaidan is a social entrepreneur and founder of IndyACT, the League of Independent Activists. He has established the ‘Arab Climate Campaign’ in the organization, which aims at achieving a strong post-2012 climate policy in the region. Wael also initiated the establishment of the Arab Climate Alliance to push for strong climate policy through the Arab League. After two years, the campaign was able to drastically change the Arab climate change position, push climate change up the political agenda, and make climate change a major concern among Arab public. Wael has more than 13 years experience in climate change and environmental campaigning in the Arab World. Currently, he is co-chair in the mitigation working group of the Climate Action Network and member of its political coordination unit. He is also an Ashoka Fellow, and a steering committee member for GAIA.

Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada

He is a founder of the New York Culture Jamming movement and an innovator in the international urban art scene. Since the late 90´s he has been replacing the faces of cultural icons chosen by advertisers with the faces of anonymous people to question the controls imposed on public space, the role models designated and the type of events that are guarded by the collective memory. Rodríguez-Gerada´s unique direction was mentioned in Naomi Klein´s book No Logo and was a precursor of the use of anonymous portraits now common in street art. His spectacular interventions are created for the sake of bringing awareness to relevant social issues. His large scale time base works avoid negative impact on the environment, challenge the conformity in contemporary art and allow for a reflection that goes beyond the completion of the piece to focus in its concept, process, and the metaphor that comes forth because of the material chosen.

Ronny Jumeau

Ronny Jumeau is a Seychellies political figure and diplomat, and is now permanent representative of the Seychelles to the UN and the US, a position he’s held since 2007. From 1998 to 2007 he served in the Seychelles government, as minister for agriculture and marine resources, minister for culture and information, minister for the environment, and minister for the environment and natural resources.

Sze Ping

Sze Ping is currently the Secretary General of the Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology. He worked for the UN Environmental Program, and has led the establishment of Greenpeace in China since 1999. He serves in the boards of All China Environmental Federation, as well as Friends of Nature, which is the oldest green NGO in China.

Kumi Naidoo

Kumi Naidoo is the Executive Director of Greenpeace International, and has worked closely with Greenpeace for a number of years. He was involved in South Africa’s liberation struggle, and worked for a legalization of the African National Congress. He was involved in the development of Greenpeace’s work in AFrica, and became a board member of Greenpeace Africa when it opened offices in 2008.

Rod Oram

Rod Oram is a NZ journalist who writes on corporate, economic, and political issues. He’s a trustee of the Hikurangi Foundation, an initiative to develop grassroots responses to climate change, and of the council for socially responsible investment. He’s also a member of the climate change action group in the Anglican diocese of Aukland.

Rubens Harry Born

Dr. Rubens Harry Born is the Executive director of Vitae Civillis Institute for Development, Environment and Peace, Brazil. He’s a dedicated climate activist, calling for conservation and sustainable development.

Liz Thompson

Henrietta Elizabeth Thompson is one of the two newly appointed Assistant Secretaries General, with responsibility as Executive Coordinators of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio 2012). Liz Thompson of Barbados brings to her post extensive experience and leadership at the national, regional and international levels and a breadth of exposure to sustainable development and environmental issues.

U.S. Advisory Council

Van Jones

Van Jones is a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean-energy economy. He is a co-founder of three successful non-profit organizations: The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change and Green For All. Jones is the best-selling author of the definitive book on green jobs, The Green-Collar Economy. He served as the green jobs advisor in the Obama White House in 2009. Jones is currently the President of Rebuild the Dream.

Gus Speth

Gus Speth is an award-winning environmental leader and author of books such as The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability and Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment. He has held such prestigious titles as Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, chair of the UN Development Group, and Dean of Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Speth was also the founder and president of the World Resources Institute, professor of law at Georgetown University, chairman of the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality and senior attorney and co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Speth currently serves on the boards of the Natural Resources Defense Council, World Resources Institute, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, New Economics Institute, New Economy Network, and the Institute for Sustainable Communities.

Betsy Taylor

Betsy Taylor is President of Breakthrough Strategies & Solutions, a consulting firm offering strategic services to philanthropic, business and non-profit clients. She was the co-founder and Board President of 1Sky, which merged with 350.org in April 2011. Taylor founded and served as president of the Center for a New American Dream, launched the Responsible Purchasing Network, and earned numerous awards including winner of the Washingtonian Magazine’s top fifty places to work in the D.C. metropolitan area. She previously served as executive director of the Merck Family Fund, the Stern Family Fund and the Ottinger Foundation and was a founding member and officer of the Environmental Grantmakers Association. She is author of Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the 21st Century, What Kids Really Want that Money Can’t Buy, and More Fun, Less Stuff.

Vicky Rateau

Vicky Rateau is the campaign manager for Oxfam America’s national and international organizing and advocacy efforts around food security and climate change. She has played a leadership role on many global poverty campaigns for the past 11 years, including Oxfam International’s Make Trade Fair campaign. Rateau was the field director at the ONE campaign and an SEIU union organizer. Rateau previously served on the board of 1Sky.

Billy Parish

Billy Parish is co-founder and President of Solar Mosaic. Prior to that, Billy co-founded and grew the Energy Action Coalition into the largest youth organization in the world focused on clean energy and climate solutions. Elected in 2007 as the youngest U.S. Ashoka Fellow, Billy has launched dozens of youth, climate and green jobs initiatives. He is also a co-founder of Green Owl Records, a green music label under Warner Music Group, and is a Board Member of several companies and non-profits.

Rev. Richard Cizik

The Reverend Richard Cizik is the author of The High Cost of Indifference and For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility. Since 2002, when Rev. Cizik was first “converted” to the cause of climate change, he has been an advocate for action on climate change within the US evangelical community and beyond. He was a participant in Climate Forum 2002, at Oxford, England, which produced the “Oxford Declaration” on global warming, and was instrumental in creation of the Evangelical Climate Initiative, introduced in 2006.

Colin Beavan

author, speaker, and environmental activist Colin Beavan, commonly referred to as No Impact Man, is well known for his year-long experiment with a no-impact lifestyle and his book on the experience, No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet. Beavan founded the No Impact Project, an international environmental non-profit dedicated to empowering citizens to make choices which better their lives and lower their environmental impact through lifestyle change, community action, and participation in environmental politics. His work has been the subject of stories in the New York Time, the Christian Science Monitor, and many other national and international news outlets. His website can be found at colinbeavan.com

Liz Butler

Liz Butler is a leading activist with more than 17 years of experience organizing and campaigning on environmental issues, with a focus on both market and legislative campaigns. Most recently, she worked as the Campaign Director of 1Sky. Prior to joining the 1Sky team, Butler was a co-founder of ForestEthics where she spent 10 years as the Organizing Director. Butler also served as the National Organizing Director for American Lands Alliance, the Director of Missouri Public Interest Research Group, and graduated from Green Corps’ Environmental Leadership Training Program, where she received the third Alumni Achievement Award ever given by Green Corps. Liz is a recent recipient of the New Leaders Council “40 Under 40” Award in recognition of her advocacy work.

Rev. Lennox Yearwood

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., is a minister, community activist, and one of the most influential people in Hip Hop political life. Firmly grounded in his Caribbean and Louisiana roots, Rev. Yearwood is a fierce advocate for human and civil rights in the 21st century. He currently serves as President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus and works diligently and tirelessly to encourage the Hip Hop generation to utilize its political and social voice. Rev. Yearwood was a co-creator of the 2004 campaign “Vote or Die”. He was also the Political and Grassroots Director for Russell Simmons’ Hip Hop Summit Action Network and a Senior Consultant to Jay Z’s Voice Your Choice. Rev. Yearwood has become an important figure in the peace movement as an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq. He was an Officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and led the “Make Hip Hop Not War” national bus tour to engage more young people in the movement for peace.

Tom Kruse

Tom Kruse is program officer for the global governance portion of the Democratic Practice program of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.  He joined the Fund in June 2008 to manage the development and direction of the global governance grantmaking, including the formation of the program objectives, strategies, and initiatives. Prior to joining the Fund, Mr. Kruse served as an advisor to the Bolivian government on trade and investment policy, the continuation of trade preference programs, and debt relief.  In that capacity, Mr. Kruse worked closely with the Bolivian government and its diplomatic missions, members of the Bolivian business community, international financial institutions, and several RBF grantees that provide technical assistance to developing country governments.

Bracken Hendricks

Bracken Hendricks is a Senior Fellow at The Center For American Progress and works at the interface of global warming solutions and economic development. He is a longtime leader in promoting policies that create green jobs, sustainable infrastructure, and investment in cities. Hendricks served as an advisor to the campaign and transition team of President Barack Obama, and was an architect of clean-energy portions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  He also served in the Clinton administration as special assistant to the Office of Vice President Al Gore, with the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and with the President’s Council on Sustainable Development. He was founding executive director of the Apollo Alliance for good jobs and energy independence and has served as an energy and economic advisor to the AFL-CIO, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s Energy Advisory Task Force, and numerous other federal, state, and local policymakers and elected officials. Hendricks’ publications include the book Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy, which he co-authored with U.S. Congressman Jay Inslee (D-WA).