António Guterres, the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations, took office on 1st January 2017.

Having witnessed the suffering of the most vulnerable people on earth, in refugee camps and in war zones, the Secretary-General is determined to make human dignity the core of his work, and to serve as a peace broker, a bridge-builder and a promoter of reform and innovation.
Prior to his appointment as Secretary-General, Mr. Guterres served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015, heading one of the world’s foremost humanitarian organizations during some of the most serious displacement crises in decades. The conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and the crises in South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Yemen, led to a huge rise in UNHCR’s activities as the number of people displaced by conflict and persecution rose from 38 million in 2005 to over 60 million in 2015.

Yvan Baker is the Member of Parliament for Etobicoke Centre and a devoted leader with a proven record of community service. Formerly Yvan was the MPP for Etobicoke Centre. As MPP, Yvan successfully advocated for the tunneling of the Eglinton West LRT, saved Silver Creek School for children with special needs, helped to stop the GTAA from permanently diverting flights over the Etobicoke community and secured expansions of local hospitals and schools. Prior to being elected, Yvan taught Master of Business Administration students at the Schulich School of Business at York University. During that time Yvan also operated his own management consulting practice. Prior to starting his own practice, Yvan was a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group in Toronto and New York. He has consulted to clients in the public sector as well as Fortune 500 companies in a range of sectors including financial services, retail, energy, and telecommunications. Yvan has volunteered for a variety of charitable and humanitarian organizations, including Leave Out Violence as Board Director; the Emerging Leaders Network where he worked with civic leaders on projects promoting Toronto’s economic and social prosperity; and Global Grassroots where he supported emerging women leaders in Rwanda on projects that address issues such as lack of access to water, domestic violence and health education. In recognition of his service to the community Yvan was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. Yvan holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University. Yvan is trilingual and is fluent in English, French and Ukrainian.

On September 1, 2018 Michelle Bachelet assumed her functions as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was established in 1993 and Ms. Bachelet is the seventh Commissioner. Ms. Bachelet was elected President of Chile on two occasions (2006 – 2010 and 2014 – 2018). She was the first female president of Chile. She served as Health Minister (2000-2002) as well as Chile’s and Latin America’s first female Defense Minister (2002 – 2004). During her presidential tenures, she promoted the rights of all but particularly those of the most vulnerable. Among her many achievements, education and tax reforms, as well as the creation of the National Institute for Human Rights and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights stand out, as do the establishment of the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, the adoption of quotas to increase women’s political participation, and the approval of Civil Union Act legislation, granting rights to same sex couples and thus, advancing LGBT rights. Since the early 1990s, Ms. Bachelet has worked closely with many international organizations. In 2010 she chaired the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group, a joint International Labor Organization (ILO) and World Health Organization (WHO) initiative, which sought to promote social policies to stimulate economic growth and social cohesion.

Anantha Krishnan
Secretary General & Steering Committee Co-Chair of UEF

Mr. Krishnan has over 36 years of experience in international development work, including over 15 years of work with the UN in in Nairobi Kenya ( UNEP and UN Habitat) engaged in Youth empowerment initiatives, policy and research, CSR, advocacy, program management including development and implementation of projects. Recent work includes a consultancy assignment for the Norwegian Government , a strategy document for UNIDO on youth employment and entrepreneurship. Very recently a position paper was developed by him for UN-Habitat on Urban Basic Services. he has also conducted housing market studies in Myanmar, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Currently associated with organizations in China and the UN on setting up a Youth entrepreneurship Award. Currently he is also associated with the International Centre for energy, environment and Development (ICEED Nigeria) engaged in clean and safe fuel and energy to internally displaced persons.

He has worked at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Environment. Other organizations that I has been with in Norway include the International Peace Research Institute, Forum for Environment and development and the Anti-racist Centre and NORAD, the Norwegian agency for international development. He has lived and worked in Tanzania, India, Kenya and the UK. He is a Rotarian in Nigeria. He is a Norwegian national of Indian origin with strong African connections. 

Reza Pourvaziry

Chair of Urban Economy Forum & Co-Chair of UEF 2020

Reza Pourvaziry is an architect holding a master’s degree in Architecture from Iran as well as an urban researcher working in this field for over 25 years. His research focuses on the concept of architecture and process of design and sustainability which were presented in articles at international conferences and featured in newspaper. He established International Art & Architecture Research Association (IAARA) in 2002 to work and research about urban architecture about habitat and settlement with focus on sustainability. He has done architecture projects that he received international architecture awards, including world architecture community for Nashr Yadavaran Administrative Building and housing project for Atlas of unbuilt world by British Council. He was part of jury and steering committee and scientific committee of programs in the field of art & architecture and urbanism. He created different development projects and programs and started working as member of Steering Committee of UN-Habitat’s best practices since 2004. He continues to work closely with UN-Habitat and was designated by under-secretary-general of UN and former Executive Director of UN-Habitat as First Global Advocate of UN-Habitat in 2016 and was introduced at 40th anniversary of UN-Habitat which was celebrated at Habitat III conference in Quito in 2016. He established Middle East Regional Center for Best Practise and Local Leadership in 2012 –2014. In 2014, Ministry of Housing and Urbanism of Iran recognized him as one of the contemporary architects in the book ‘contemporary architecture’ and since then he worked as president and co-founder of International City Leaders and he was designated for City Prosperity Initiative –Metropolitan Cities initiative by UN-Habitat. ICL and UN-Habitat work together on various research, workshops and conferences and one of the main publications is World Cities Report launched in 2016. At present he is chair of Urban Economy Forum working on urban architecture projects globally.

Frédérique Hanotier is a senior expert in human rights and governance, researching on human rights cities development. She is the founder of the Human Rights Cities Network aiming at expending knowledge and essential elements for success in implementing human rights cities in Europe. Frédérique has 20 years of work experience in EU external relations, diplomacy and political analysis. She has been working for the EU in Development Cooperation and International Aid in Brussels and was posted in several EU Delegations (Africa and Asia). She is also a professional mediator and has a hands-on experience in peace-building and reconciliation processes. She is experienced in programme management at international level including in conflict resolution, peace-building and urban development in EU external cooperation policy. She is participating to the Team of associated members of O.M.A. International Mediation Center. Frédérique is a political scientist specializing in international relations. She has a Master’s degree in Political Sciences in European Politics (Institut d’Etudes Europeennes) and a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management & Dynamic of Organizations (Université Libre de Bruxelles).

Camilla Ween is a Harvard Loeb Fellow and a Built Environment Expert at the Design Council. She is an architect and urbanist. Camilla worked for Transport for London for 11 years advising on the integration of transport with land use development and policy. She is currently a director of Goldstein Ween Architects, working on urban planning and transportation projects world-wide for public and private sector clients. She is author of ‘Future Cities’, 2014 and co-author of ‘Real Estate and Development in South America’, 2018, and is currently working on a companion volume on real estate in Central America and the Caribbean, as well as numerous articles on urbanism and transportation. She lectures regularly at universities and international conferences.

Ms. Diallo began her United Nations career in 1986 with the Department of Public Information in New York, where she worked in various public information capacities. From 1992 to 1994, she served in two United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in Cambodia and Somalia, respectively. Upon her return to New York, Ms. Diallo joined the Office of the Deputy Secretary-General until moving the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in Nairobi, as an Associate Human Settlements Officer. She later served as a Partners and Youth Programme Officer until moving to UN-Habitat’s New York Liaison Office in 2010. Currently Ms. Diallo serves as Head of Unit and Public Information Officer in the NGO Relations and Advocacy Section of the Department of Public Information, where she coordinates United Nations and NGO partnership activities. She has extensive experience in designing and implementing United Nations public information outreach programmes and fostering civil society partnerships, with a particular emphasis on youth and women’s organizations.  Ms. Diallo holds a Bachelor’s degree from Rosemont College in Pennsylvania and a Master of Arts from Long Island University in New York.

Kostas Koutsioumpas is a PhD student from the School of Global Inclusion and Social Development (SGISD). Koutsioumpas is currently researching the intersection between sports, human rights, and social justice.

Julie Ward
Co-Chair of Urban Economy Forum & Former British Member of European Parliament

Julie was a Labour and Co-operative Party Member of the European Parliament for the North West of England, covering Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire and Greater Manchester. As such she was a member of the European Parliamentary Labour Party and, in turn, part of the second largest group in the European Parliament, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. Julie served on the Parliament's Culture & Education Committee, the Regional Development Committee and the Committee on Gender Equality and Women's Rights. She is also a member of the Labour Party's Policy Commission on Education and Children. Julie is an active campaigner for equal rights and social justice, and was previously an organizer for One Billion Rising, the global movement to raise awareness of violence against women and girls. First elected in May 2014, Julie previously had a long career in the cultural sector, working with marginalized communities using arts as a tool for wellbeing, empowerment and social change. Prior to being elected as an MEP, Julie had been working with partners in the EU and beyond for more than a decade. For instance, she was involved in an international delegation to Belfast to participate in an all-party discussion about the role of the arts in peace-building processes.

Eduardo Rencurrell Díaz
PhD, Arts

Eduardo holds a Ph.D of Arts (Awarded as the Best Ph. D thesis of 2019) from the University of the Arts (ISA) of Cuba / Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). From the same schools he received his Bachelor’s on Audiovisual Communication with Summa Cum Laude and a Master’s degree on Film Production with Distinction. He has extensive professional experience in Mass Media as filmmaker/ film director and also works as a university professor, specialized in film direction, theory and practice on documentary film, screenplay writing, thesis advisement and academical curriculum coordination. Eduardo has collaborated in filmmaking projects for prestigious institutions, organizations and film producers such as: UN, British Council, Tiger Nest Films Productions, Firesoul Media, Páramo Films, BBC, ITN Channel 4 News, Unreported World, Cuban Institute for Radio and TV (ICRT), Enterprise for Audiovisual and Informatic products for Education (CINESOFT), among others. He has also partake in teaching, working as a professor for the Faculty of Mass Media Arts of the Cuban University of the Arts (ISA), the Department of International Workshops of the School for Cinema and TV of San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV), the Cuban Centre of Radio and TV Studies (CERT), The Cuban Association for Social Communicators (ACCS), among others. He has published several term papers on Documentary film theory, Gender studies, Film criticism, Education, Heritage and cultural studies… for academical books, magazines and digital spaces in Cuba, Mexico, India, and Colombia. He has also participated in international events in Cuba, México, Colombia and China and won several scholarships awards such us IBERMEDIA Scholarship for Film Afro International Documentary Workshop, CARIBBEAN TALES INCUBATOR, International Joung Forum III and World Largest Lesson and SDGs Festival. He has served on the jury for international and national contests such as: Caribbean Tales Incubator Habana, Low Budget International Film Festival, IMAGO Film Festival and the National Event for Cultural Research (ALBUR).

Carmen Mariscal
Visual Artist represented at the Ana Mas Projects – Art Gallery

Carmen Mariscal is a Mexican visual artist. Born in the US, in California, she lives and works in London. She holds a master’s degree in Visual Arts from the Winchester School of Art in England, a graduate degree in Painting from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and a BA in Art History from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. Mariscal works in different disciplines such as installation, sculpture, video, photography and theatre set design. The recurrent themes in her work are fragility, confinement and memory. She is the author of the installation El pueblo creador for the Mexican Pavilion at the Universal Exposition in Hannover 2000. Carmen was awarded first place in the 4th National Installation Competition in Mexico and has been selected for the Monterrey Biennial and other competitions. She has had individual and collective exhibitions in both public and private venues in Mexico, the US, Spain, France, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Malaysia and Russia.

Damaris Njambi Njoroge
Program Administrator, Grassroots Economics

Njambi D. Njoroge oversees community currency systems with Grassroots Economics Foundation in Kenya. Njambi is dedicated to connecting communities to their own abundance by being an advocate for community currencies for poverty eradication and sustainable development. She values integrity, collaboration, communication and fairness as tenets for personal and organizational growth.