Edwin has 20 years of experience as an assessor in Environmental Auditing and accreditation. In 2004 he became the Director of the International Emission Trading Association (IETA), which he held until 2009. He also was the Acting CEO for the Verified Carbon Standard Association (VCSA) and is now Business Development Manager of Climate Change Services at DNV. Edwin has lived and worked in Latin America, Africa and Australia, and has been involved in developing new environmental markets and programs, such as SGS’ Carbon Offset Verification Services, Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Organic, GLOBALGAP and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Program. During his work with IETA, Edwin was responsible for UNFCCC process including the CDM, the voluntary market and the ultimate set up of the VCS.

As Verra’s Director of Sustainable Development Innovation, Sinclair oversees the strategy, direction, and evolution of Verra’s suite of programs focused on sustainable development, including the Sustainable Development Verified Impact Standard (SD VISta); the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards (CCB Standards); and the Plastic Waste Reduction Standard. Sinclair also oversees the operationalization of Verra’s sustainable development programs.

Tanushree has more than 10 years of professional experience in developing climate change mitigation projects in various sectors, and has provided GHG footprinting and co-benefits mapping and reporting services. She has been involved in development of GHG mitigation projects in sectors such as renewable energy, biogas, cookstove, sugar and poultry litter. She has hands on experience in managing Multicountry/Multi technology Programmes of Activities (PoA’s. She received training in ISO 14064 and manages the Gold Standard (GS) Portfolio of South Pole, where she is responsible for Sustainable Development (SD) indicator mapping and its monitoring, reporting and verification. She was a member of the W+ pilot team in Nepal, where she helped quantify time units saved for women in the context of a biogas project.

Margaret has spent 25 years supporting business, environmental, sustainability and related policy programs including; developing and implementing business and program management systems, environmental regulatory compliance and investor reporting systems, governance methods, and both internal and external communications. Margaret has held leadership roles in consulting, government, high tech manufacturing, and regulatory board appointed and elected service and non-profit organizations. She has extensive state and regional-level policy development experience in climate, energy, hazardous materials, water and land use issues. Margaret was the first W+ Coordinator, and oversaw the formulation of the detailed aspects of the Standard.

Wangu has a Masters degree in Project Planning and Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics. She is currently working as a Deputy Programme Director for Swedish Cooperative Centre and Vi Agroforestry in Nairobi. She has previously been working as a project manager coordinating field activities, planning, execution, monitoring and reporting.

Cathy Lee is the Managing Director of Lee International, a consulting firm that provides legal, regulatory and advisory services to developers, sellers and buyers of carbon credits in the compliance and voluntary markets around the world. Cathy is an attorney with 39 years of legal experience and 35 of them in the energy and environment sectors. Cathy has acted as legal advisor to landfill gas CDM projects in South Africa in the cities of Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Mogale City and the country’s first private landfill gas CDM project, the Chloorkop Project developed by Enviroserv, among others. She has worked on the development of carbon programs in the US including the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the country’s only compliance Cap and Trade Program. She served as carbon advisor for several states, including Maine, in various stages of developing programs to measure and monetize carbon credits from retrofitting low income housing in the US. In 2013, she founded and for 8 years since served as Chair for The Maine Climate Table, an organization with over 300 organizations and individuals to educate the public about climate change and to develop policies and projects that will protect and promote our environment and economy. While she stepped down as Chair in 2020, she remains member of the Maine Climate Table’s Steering Committee.

Eija joined the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank in 2000 as an Advisor on Science, Technology and Innovation. She led the Department’s program on sustainable agriculture with special focus on agricultural research and innovation including biotechnology and biosafety. She was also the leader of the Gender in Agriculture Program of the World Bank. Prior to joining the World Bank, Dr. Pehu was a Professor of Agronomy and Head of the Department of Plant Production at the University of Helsinki and the founder and science director of two start up companies in the Helsinki Science Park.

Ingo Puhl is a carbon market pioneer who combines policy-level work around emerging carbon market instruments with the application of these concepts in practice. Based in Bangkok, he manages the South Pole Group’s presence in Thailand and acts as Director Strategy for the group. Before he became one of the Co-Founders of the South Pole Group in 2006, he held positions at the World Bank, the International Energy Agency and worked as a consultant for various entities involved in the design of the EU-ETS in Germany. Ingo holds a master-level degree in industrial engineering and management with an extensive background in international climate policy, carbon markets, financing of low carbon technologies and the provision of related advisory services to public and private sector clients in over 20 countries. He was engaged with the team that developed the first W+ pilot project in Nepal, and the method for the measurement of the Time Domain.

Raju Laudari holds a PhD in Energy Economics and two MAs in Economics, and in Energy and Environment Management. He is an Environmental and Natural Resource Economist, with 17 years of experience in management, economic analysis, research and data analysis, climate change, monitoring, and policy and planning in renewable energy, climate change and forestry sector. He effectively headed “The Timber Corporation of Nepal Ltd.” for 2.5 years, worked as an Advisor of the Forest and Soil Conservation Minister, and as Sr. Socio-economist and Asst. Director for 14 years at the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) in Nepal. He led the formulation of LEDS for Nepal, development of SREP/CIF Investment Plan for Nepal, development and monitoring of 8 CDM project/PoAs, formulation of GESI strategy for renewable energy sector, funding proposals for the GCF, management of 8 donor-funded projects, support to local government in decentralization of renewable energy and energy planning, and support to the government of Nepal in climate change negotiations. He worked as Nepal Country Coordinator of ICF International for 2 years, and as consultant of Climate Focus and the Research Fellow in UNFCCC Secretariat. He teaches Climate Change Economics and Policy Analysis at the Tribhuvan University, and was involved in the initial development of the W+ Standard and its pilot project with the AEPC.

Lee West began his career in money management in 1984 with Wall Street firms acting in various investment advisory capacities and financial services businesses. Through his various companies, he held and holds interests in CleanTech, Environmental Market Technologies, Equity Market Trading Technologies and advisory positions within the financial services sectors. Lee consulted over a 13 year period to over 200 hedge funds and money managers with over $34bn in assets across the US. During this period, he assisted in the formation of over 400 investment entities, offering back office, infrastructure, outsourced trading, administration, facilities management, compliance and accounting services.

Lee is a current and former member of the board of numerous private companies, as well as several non-profit organizations. He co-founded and served as the Chairman of the San Francisco Carbon Collaborative (SFCC).. Lee was a Director for The Carbon Trade Exchange (CTX), an environmental commodities exchange operating in over 26 countries that supports the trading of carbon credits that are originated under both the UN Clean Development Mechanism, independent voluntary standards, water rights trading and other environmental commodities worldwide. Lee is currently the Chair of WOCAN’s Board of Directors.
leewest@wocan.org

Kevin is the Head of the African Treasuries Carbon and Financial Products Unit of Nedbank Capital, South Africa, and is responsible for the creation and management of new business in the African Treasury space, as well as all carbon related and green initiatives. Kevin’s duties also include the creation of tailored financial products to manage and reduce risk, allowing infrastructure, agriculture, and forestry projects to be financed throughout the African Continent. These transactions have required detailed due diligence, collaboration and “local solutions” across all stakeholders, including; government, private sector, local and international NGOs and donor agencies and local communities.

Sue Phillips is a passionate advocate of gender and social justice with an interest in always seeking out opportunities for strategic influence and impact. Her career has been largely focused on working with international development donors, specifically the UK DFID (now FCDO), the UN, regional development banks and a range of INGOs. Sue chose this particular space in recognition that donors have profound influence and impact on the drive for gender and social justice globally. To this end she founded and led Social Development Direct for 21 years (1999-2020), a UK based leading provider of gender and inclusion expertise in the research and consultancy sector. There she and the team grew the organisation into a significant influencer of donor and government policy and programming, particularly in the areas of gender-based violence, women’s economic empowerment and inclusive public services. Sue is currently focusing her energies on the climate emergency, seeing growing global action as an opportunity for achieving social justice alongside climate justice. She is particularly focused on voluntary carbon markets and is advising the Task Force of Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM) and others on creating opportunities to harness the growing flows of carbon finance to maximise benefits for women and local communities in the Global South. Sue is British and lives in London, UK.

Caroline is Projects and Social Impacts officer at the Plan Vivo Foundation, a charitable organization and carbon standard that focuses on holistic impacts for nature, climate and communities. Caroline works closely with projects and focuses on increasing the positive impacts for people. They hold an MSc in International Development from the University of Edinburgh, where they focused on a people-centred approach to development with a particular interest in the inclusion of marginalized groups. Caroline also holds a BSc in Physics, where they modelled the physics of the climate. ​

Abidah is a human geographer with a PhD from Rutgers University, USA. She has professional and research experience in climate and natural resources governance, biodiversity conservation, Payment for Environmental Services, REDD+, community- based natural resource management, sustainable development, social inclusion and gender mainstreaming. She has 15 years of professional experience working with international agencies (USAID, UNDP, UKAID, UNEP, among others), NGOs and academic institutions in Asia, USA, Europe and Australia. She has designed and managed programs and conducted policy analysis, needs assessment, program monitoring and evaluation as well as been a trainer for capacity building activities. Abidah has carried out gender assessments and analyses, developed and overseen the implementation of gender mainstreaming strategies and gender and social safeguards (on REDD+ and climate mitigation projects) as well as designed and facilitated gender analysis training.

Natalie is the senior gender advisor at World Resources Institute, working to ensure that WRI’s research, analyses and tools advance gender equality. Natalie joined WRI from USAID where she served as the Senior Advisor for Gender and Environment, working to build capacity within the Agency to advance and leverage women’s empowerment and gender equality to enhance the outcomes of environment and climate change programming. Prior to joining USAID at the end of 2009, Natalie was the Associate Vice President for Gender Equity at World Neighbors where she served as a technical advisor to field teams in 18 countries throughout Africa, Asia and LAC, designing their gender approach and building local capacity to integrate gender into long-term rural community development programs. Natalie served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Moldova from 1994 to 1996, where she taught English and environmental education. Her work on gender issues began in Moldova where she initiated and facilitated a “women in development” group. Natalie is a founder and former board member of Groundswell International, a partnership of local NGOs and resource people in Africa, Asia and LAC working to strengthen rural communities to build healthy farming and food systems from the bottom up.

Barun has a PhD in ecological anthropology and over 25 years of global experience in international development as a researcher and program coordinator for Participatory Research and Gender Analysis Program of the CGIAR, Team Leader for an ADB-supported project on gender mainstreaming in the agriculture and forestry sector of Lao PDR and Gender Expert and Institutional Development Expert for an ADB project on gender and climate mitigation. He is a WOCAN Core Associate and Lead Trainer for gender analysis and planning, gender mainstreaming and organizational change, and women’s leadership. Barun has been engaged in the development and application of the W+ methods and Program Guide for monitoring and baseline assessment within pilot projects, and has led teams to provide technical assistance for the W+ application in Asia and Africa. He has extensive experience on action research and has published on gender mainstreaming , social inclusion, rural innovations in agriculture and environment institutions; and mainstreaming gender in value chain assessments/development. Countries/regions of work experience include: Lao PDR, China, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal, India, Bhutan, East and Central African Region, West Africa and Colombia.

Annina is a social scientist with an MSc from the University La Sapienza, Rome. After an early career in applied social research, Annina worked for over thirty years in international development aid, with multilateral and bilateral origination, NGOs, and the UN – latterly with IFAD as the Senior Gender Adviser. Throughout her career she has done extensive work in the area results-based programming and the development on indicators and monitoring systems. IFAD’s work on gender was evaluated in 2010 has having this strongest results orientation among comparator organizations and the most systematic inclusion of gender markers and indicators throughout the project and programme cycle. After retirement from IFAD, Annina was involved in the development of system-wide guidelines for the Ministry of Agriculture of Laos for the collection of sex disaggregated data for agricultural planning. She was also involved in the initial development of the W+ standard, specifically its indicators and monitoring methodology. In this context she also developed and field- tested the W+ methodology for quantifying time-saving for women from the use of biogas in Nepal.

A development specialist with more than 20 years, Leisa specializes in the social dimensions of natural resource management and the nexus between social and environmental policies. She has worked on a range of development issues from climate change to green growth, bringing a strong gender perspective to these areas as they have expanded or been consolidated into fields of development practice. Her work on ecosystems include forests, coastal and marine resources as well as agriculture and rural development and she has worked on issues across the globe including in small island developing states and the Caribbean, Southern Africa, the Pacific, the Middle East, Asia and the Baltic States region. She is well-published and is a lead author for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report as well as the first ever Global Gender & Environment Outlook. She is currently an equity dimensions expert to Global Environment Outlook – 6 Report and a member of the Gender in Fisheries Team (GIFT), which focuses on the Caribbean. She is also a member of the Expert Working Group for the development of Gold Standard’s gender framework. She is a longstanding advocate for environmental policy, which actively contributes to gender equality and for a gender policy that addresses the critical role of equal access to quality and quantity resources.

Marietta is an anthropologist and international advisor on social inclusion and gender equality in sustainable businesses, certification schemes and social governance. Marietta has broad experience advising public private partnerships (PPPs), international financial institutes and project developers making businesses compliant with international standards and certification. She is a certified auditor on human rights at the work floor (SA8000) and developed social and CSR strategies for agribusinesses, mining and hydropower projects in Latin America. She also co-developed guidelines for community development and mining with the World Bank and published a CSR toolkit in Spanish with the Dutch Embassy in Lima Peru. She developed funding selection criteria and monitored social and gender indicators for an innovative Finnish Program (AEA) on climate change and renewable energy for the Andean region and coached four country teams on making clean technology work for improvement of rural livelihoods and value chains, such as cocoa, sugar cane and dairy products. She participated in the development of a gender and climate change action plan with UNFCCC and reviewed gender strategies and gender action plans of the World Bank, Global Environmental Facility, Climate Investment Fund and Green Climate Fund. Moreover she engaged in consultations on measuring co-benefits of energy efficient technology in ESMAP. She was member of a CSR IMVO panel selecting best practices on land rights with women’s rights.