John Hardy

Treasurer

John Hardy has many years experience in Economics, Finance, Consulting and Treasury, in both developed and developing regions of the world. Since 2001, John has worked has a Development Finance Advisor on projects offered by international development agencies (World Bank, EU, and USAID etc.). These assignments typically involve advising corporates, SMEs, banks, governments and other institutions on financial and business development issues.

 

John has held several management positions, including Managing Director at Intercap Investments Inc., Department Head in the International Treasury Division of Chemical Bank (now JP Morgan Chase) and member of the bank’s Treasury Executive Committee, Managing Consultant in the Economics Group at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), and Managing Director of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). John’s experience spans most regions of the world, including Africa, Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East.

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Hans Herren

Chair

Hans Herren is an internationally recognized scientist who lived and worked for 27 years across Africa in agriculture, health, and environmental research and capacity development. As Director of the Africa Biological Control Center of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria, he conceived and implemented the highly successful biological control program against the cassava mealy bug and the green mite that saved the cassava crop, the staple of 200 million Africans and averted Africa’s worst-ever food crisis. For this achievement, he was awarded the World Food Prize in 1995. ​ Hans advocates for holistic and multi-stakeholder approaches to development planning that take cognizance of the three dimensions of sustainability, and result from a shared vision of sustainability by all the key actors. Hans holds numerous awards that recognize his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research and advocacy. These include the Right Livelihood Award, Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, Brandenberger Preis, and the Kilby Award. He is a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Science (NAS), a Member of the Academy of Sciences for Developing World (TWAS) and a Full Member of the Club of Rome. ​ Hans earned his PhD at the Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, and completed post-doctoral research at University of California, Berkeley. He is also the founder of Biovision Foundation, Switzerland.

 

Maria Ivanova

Maria Ivanova is an international relations and environmental policy scholar specializing in governance and sustainability. Her research and policy work focus on global environmental governance and the performance of international environmental institutions. She has worked on issues such as financing for the environment, US foreign environmental policy, and sustainability on campuses and in organizations. Her career, marked by teaching excellence and policy leadership, has bridged academia and policy. Her academic work has been recognized for bringing analytical rigor and innovative input to the international negotiations on reforming the UN system for environment. Maria served as a coordinating lead author in the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-5), the flagship UN environmental assessment in 2012.

 

Maria a is Associate Professor of Global Governance at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston where she also co-directs the Center for Governance and Sustainability. She is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the U.N. Secretary-General, a Board member of the U.N. University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) and the Global Young Academy, and an Andrew Carnegie Fellow. She also serves as Ambassador for the New Shape Prize of the Global Challenges Foundation.

 

Alice Kaufman

Alice Kaufman is an urban and regional planner and natural resource manager with a 30-year career working in the public sector. She has extensive experience in policy development, program management, and public sector finance. Alice is an experienced change manager and has provided leadership through organizational redesign. During her long career in the federal government, she helped to develop national strategies to protect children's heath through understanding the impacts of exposure to toxic chemicals, was the head of public affairs and media relations, led community stakeholder involvement programs for the cleanup of hazardous sites, and spearheaded a cost benefit analysis approach of government spending employing a social return on investment model. Alice is also an elected member of the Town of Concord, Massachusetts Select Board.

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