Patrons

Yvo de Boer: Executive Secretary
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Bonn

Yvo de Boer was appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as the new Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC on 10 August 2006. The appointment had been endorsed by the Bureau of the Convention.

Before joining the UNFCCC, Mr. de Boer was Director for International Affairs of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment of the Netherlands, responsible for international policy, both in the context of the European Union, as well as broader international cooperation. He has also served as Deputy Director-General for Environmental Protection in the same Ministry, as Head of the Climate Change Department and has worked in the fields of housing and public information. Early in his career, Mr. de Boer worked for the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UN-HABITAT).

Mr. de Boer has been involved in climate change policies since 1994. He has helped to prepare the position of the European Union in the lead-up to the negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol, assisted in the design of the internal burden sharing of the European Union and has since led delegations to the UNFCCC negotiations. He has actively sought broad stakeholder involvement on the issue of climate change. To that end, he launched an international dialogue on the clean development mechanism and has partnered international discussions with the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, aimed at increasing private sector involvement.

Mr. de Boer has served as Vice-President of the Conference of Parties to UNFCCC and as Vice-Chair of the Commission on Sustainable Development. At the time of appointment, he was a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, the Bureau of the Environment Policy Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Advisory Group of the Community Development Carbon Fund of the World Bank and the Board of Directors of the Centre for Clean Air Policy.
Armin Laschet: Member of the Board of Trustees of the Development and Peace Foundation (SEF)

Minister for Intergenerational Affairs, Family, Women and Integration North-Rhine Westphalia, Düsseldorf

Minister for Intergenerational Affairs, Family, Women and Integration of the Federal German State of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2005, commenced his training as a journalist after studying law and political sciences in Munich and Bonn. As a journalist he worked for various Bavarian broadcasting stations and Bayerisches Fernsehen (Bavarian Television). He supported the President of the Bundestag Professor Dr. Rita Süßmuth as a scientific advisor. Armin Laschet was alderman of the Aachen city council from 1989 until 2004, he has been deputy chairman of the CDU Aachen district association since 1991. He was a member of the German Bundestag (Lower House of German parliament) until 1998 and subsequently a member of the European Parliament until 2005. Since 1999 he has been an associate lecturer of European Studies at RWTH Aachen (Aachen University of Technology) and also Chairman of the Federal Committee for International Cooperation and Human Rights of the CDU Germany. Armin Laschet is an executive member of the European People's Party (EPP), member of the board of the Christian Democrat International (CDI), and President of the CDU District Association Aachen and a member of the national executive of the CDU in Germany.

Moderator

Conny Czymoch: Journalist, TV Anchor, Conference Moderator & Media Coach

"The Face of Phoenix TV in Germany"

Conny Czymoch has been with the German political events and documentary TV channel Phoenix for the last 10 years, anchoring their flag-ship programme 'Der Tag' (the day´s wrap-up) since its inception. For the last decade, Conny also engaged in conference moderation - for EU, federal and non-profit organisations, as well as corporate customers, covering a host of global topics. She is also an executive coach for media communication.

Speakers

Dr Tariq Banuri: Director, Division for Sustainable Development

UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), New York

Tariq Banuri heads the United Nations Division for Sustainable Development. He was Coordinating Lead Author on Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) while heading the Future Sustainability Program, Stockholm Environment Institute. In Pakistan Mr. Banuri served as founding Executive Director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, member of the Central Bank’s Board of Govenors, member of the Environmental Protection Council and member/secretary of the Presidential Steering Committee on Higher Education. He was also a Research Fellow at the World Institute for Development Economics Research, Chairperson of the Board of Governors at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development and founding member of the Great Transition Initiative. Mr. Banuri received a PhD in Economics from Harvard University.
Preety Bhandari: Coordinator, Financial and Technical Support Programme

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Bonn

Ms Preety Bhandari joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat in April 2007 and was closely involved in guiding and reviewing the UNFCCC project on Investment & Financial Flows to address climate change.

She is also the coordinator of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation of the
UNFCCC, and is responsible for coordinating the negotiations on financing, and
mitigation in developing countries, under the Ad hoc Working Group on Long term Cooperative Action on Climate Change, which is working towards an agreed outcome on Climate Change in Copenhagen.

Ms Bhandari has over 22 years of experience working on issues related to energy, environment, climate change and sustainable development.
Prior to joining the Secretariat, she worked for a research organization in India
(The Energy & Resources Institute, TERI), and has experience in normative and
quantitative research on climate change, energy economics and planning and also in environmental economics. She has also worked with UNEPs Environment Assessment Programme for the Asia Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand and at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, in Laxenburg, Austria.
Roberto Bissio: Executive Director, The Third World Institute, Montevideo

Coordinator of the International Secretariat of Social Watch

As a journalist Roberto Bissio has written on development issues since 1975. He is executive director of the Instituto del Tercer Mundo (Third World Institute), a non-profit research and advocacy organization based in Uruguay. He is in charge of the International Secretariat of the Social Watch network and edits the yearly Social Watch report, which reflects the input of citizen coalitions in 70 countries monitoring the implementation of international commitments on poverty eradication and gender equity.
Mr. Bissio is also a member of the Third World Network's International Committee and of the Civil Society Advisory Group to the UNDP administrator. He serves on the board of WEDO (Women’s Environment and Development Organization).
Professor Charles Hopkins: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair

York University, Toronto

Charles Hopkins is currently the UNESCO Chair at York University in Toronto, Canada lecturing in the graduate program. He has developed and coordinates an international network of teacher education institutions from over 50 countries working upon the reorientation of elementary and secondary teacher education to address sustainable development. Mr. Hopkins is also a United Nations University (UNU) Chair on Education for Sustainable Development, assisting UNU to develop Regional Centers of Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) around the globe.
Adolf Kloke-Lesch: Head of the Directorate-General 3 "Global and sectoral policies" of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Bonn

Member of the Advisory Board of the Development and Peace Foundation (SEF)

Adolf Kloke-Lesch absolvierte ein Studium der Stadt- und Regionalplanung an der Technischen Universität Berlin und war danach Teilnehmer am 13. Ausbildungskurs des Deutschen Instituts für Entwicklungspolitik in Berlin.

Er trat im Mai 1978 in das Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung ein und war u.a. für den „Haushalt“ verantwortlich und in der Zeit von 2003 bis 2007 Leiter der Unterabteilung „Frieden und Demokratie; Menschenrechte; Vereinte Nationen“.

Seit November 2007 ist er Abteilungsleiter der Abteilung 3 „Globale und sektorale Aufgaben; Europäische und multilaterale Entwicklungspolitik; Afrika und Naher Osten“.
Dr Monika Lüke: General Secretary

Amnesty International Germany, Berlin

Monika Lüke is Secretary General of the fourth largest Amnesty section since July 2009. One of her main emphases is to proceed against the vicious circle of poverty and violations of human rights. From 2005 to 2009, she was working for the GTZ in Cambodia, Kenya, and in the headquarters in Eschborn. Prior she has worked for four years as a political consultant in Brussels and Berlin for the representation of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany.

From 1999 to 2001, she was a DAAD lecturer and Research Fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London. Monika Lüke received a PhD at Humboldt University of Berlin in July 1999 with a thesis on “Immunity of State Officials in Situations of Grave Human Rights Violations”. From 1991 to 1996, she has studied law in Cardiff, Bonn and Passau.
Michael Mertes: Deputy Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Development and Peace Foundation (SEF)

State Secretary for Federal Affairs, Europe and the Media of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf

Michael Mertes (born 1953) is State Secretary for Federal, European and Media Affairs at the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia (Düsseldorf) as well as North Rhine-Westphalia’s Plenipotentiary to the Federation (Berlin). Prior to that he worked as a foreign editor. From 1987 to 1998 he held senior posts at the Federal Chancellery.
Cécile Molinier: Director
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Office, Geneva

Cécile Molinier joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from the UN Secretariat where she had held several positions in Conference Services, the Staff Union, the Department of Management, and the Office of the Director General, Development and International Economic Cooperation. Her first assignment in UNDP was as Deputy Resident Representative in Tunisia followed by Resident Coordinator/Resident Representative assignments in Sao Tome and Principe, Togo, and Mauritania respectively.

She was reassigned to the UNDP Office in Geneva on 27 August 2007.
Cecile Molinier holds both a Bachelor and Masters of Arts degrees in English from the Sorbonne in Paris, a Masters degree in English Literature from Queen Mary College, London University and an MBA (Organisational Behaviour) from Pace University in New York.
Dirk Niebel: Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development

Member of the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament)

Dirk Niebel was born on 29 March 1963 in Hamburg, Germany. After serving in the airborne infantry for eight years and subsequently completing a degree in public administration at the Federal University of Applied Sciences (Departmental Branch for labour administration), in 1993 he started working as a placement officer at the job centre in Heidelberg.

He has been a member of parliament since September 1998, representing Constituency No. 274, Heidelberg-Weinheim. From 1998 to 2009, he was the spokesperson on labour market policy for the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag and from May 2005 to October 2009, he was General Secretary of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). On 28 October 2009, he took up the post of Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development.

From 2003 to 2009, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. He has been a member of the German-Israeli Parliamentary Friendship Group since 1998, and was its Deputy Chairman from 1998 to 2009. He has also been the Vice President of the German-Israeli Association since 2000.
Jürgen Nimptsch: Mayor of the City of Bonn

Jürgen Nimptsch was elected Mayor of Bonn in August 2009. The specialist in German studies, graduate in sports science and active unionist has almost thirty years of teaching experience. In his last position, he was Head of the Integrated Comprehensive School in Bonn-Beuel, a model school for ecological consciousness, international exchange and social interaction. In 2009, the school was awarded the German School Prize as best secondary school.

As Mayor of the German United Nations City, Nimptsch intends to enhance Bonn’s profile as an international location. In keeping with the “Spirit of Bonn”, he would like to foster a culture of interaction and cooperation, of exchange and active participation.
Cornelia Richter: Director General, Planning and Development Department, Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), Eschborn

Member of the Advisory Board of the Development and Peace Foundation (SEF)

Cornelia Richter is the Director General Planning and Development Department and Member of the Supervisory Board of GTZ. The Department of Planning and Development is the central thematic unit in GTZ headquarters.

From 1996 –2001 Cornelia Richter was the Director General of the Asia and Pacific Department of GTZ, from 1994 – 1996 the Regional Director of the South East Asia Division. Before joining the Headquarter she was assigned as government adviser in the Ministry of Economics and Planning in Lesotho.

From 1980 – 1984 Ms Richter was desk officer at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation, preparing position papers on questions on world economic policy, international conferences, representing the BMZ in the group of ministries, at EU level, at UNCTAD, GATT and UNIDO conferences.
Dr Imme Scholz: Deputy Director of the German Development Institute (DIE - Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik)

Between 2002-2009, Dr Imme Scholz was head of the environmental department at DIE where she set up the climate change team of the institute. The team works on issues at the interface between adaptation to climate change and poverty reduction, in the areas of natural resource management, governance, technology and finance.

She has published extensively on climate change and development; capacity development in environment; institutional development and environmental policy in developing countries; natural resource management, particularly sustainable forest use.

In the 1980s, she studied sociology at the Free University of Berlin where she also obtained the degree of Dr. phil. for a thesis on the determinants for entrepreneurial innovation capacity in the Amazon tropical timber industry. She started her professional career as assistant to the economic attaché of the Chilean Embassy in Bonn (1990 – 1992) and became a research fellow at DIE in 1992. Between 1999 and 2002, she was on leave and worked as an environmental policy advisor in the Brazilian Amazon for German development cooperation.
Ruud Schuthof: Executive and Policy Assistant to the Secretary General

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability

Ruud Schuthof coordinates the Local Governments‘ input to the UNEP Governing Council and the Global Ministerial Environmental Forum. Mr. Schuthof also coordinates the Local Governments‘ input to the UN CSD (Commission for Social Development) as Major Group Organizing Partner. He coordinates ICLEI’s strategic partnerships and is policy advisor to the Secretary General.

He has previously worked for the Ministry of Justice of The Netherlands and for several (international) NGOs.

Mr. Schuthof has a Masters in Public Policy and Administration (with distinction) from the University of Twente, Netherlands. At the University of Uppsala, Sweden and the State University of Groningen, Netherlands he obtained a Masters in International Humanitarian Assistance, a programme supported by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO).
Dr Rainer Wend: Managing Director of the Corporate Department Public Policy and Sustainability

Deutsche Post World Net, Bonn

Dr Rainer Wend (born 1954) is Head of Corporate Public Policy and Sustainability at Deutsche Post World Net in Bonn. Prior to this position, Dr. Rainer Wend has been a member of the German Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, since 1998. He was mayor of the city of Bielefeld from 1994 to 2003, and before that a practicing lawyer since 1984.