Luis Alfonso de Alba is the Special UN Envoy for the 2019 Climate Summit. Prior, he served as Undersecretary for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico. As Mexico’s Special Representative for Climate Change, he led negotiations for the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP16) in Cancún, Mexico and he also held several elected positions, including Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council (2012) and First President of the Human Rights Council in Geneva (2006-2007).

Teresa Ribera has been Minister for the Ecological Transition of Spain since June 2018. Before that, she was the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris since 2014. Between 2008 and 2011, she was Spain’s Secretary of State for climate change and has also been an Assistant Professor in Public Law at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Sharan Burrow is General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). She was the first woman to have held the position of ITUC President since its Founding Congress in Vienna (November 2006) and the position of ICFTU President since its 18th World Congress in Miyazaki (November 2004). She has also served as a member of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation and a member of the Stakeholder Council of the Global Reporting Initiative.

Laurence Tubiana is CEO of the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and is the Chair of the Board of Governors at the French Development Agency (AFD). She founded and led Solagral, an NGO working on food security and the global environment, and founded and directed the Paris-based Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI). Tubiana holds academic positions in the International Development and Environmental Studies programs at Sciences Po, and in the International Affairs program at Columbia University.

Keriako Tobiko is the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Environment. A lawyer by profession, he previously served as the former Director of Public Prosecutions of Kenya and as a commissioner on the Constitution of the Kenya Review Commission. He is an alum of the University of Nairobi and Cambridge University.

Javi López is a Spanish politician who was first elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2014. He served on the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs from 2014 until 2019 before moving to the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Subcommittee on Security and Defence. In addition to his committee assignments, he is part of the Parliament's delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly.

Céline Charveriat is the Executive Director at the Institute for European Environmental Policy and has been since 2016. She began her career in Washington D.C. as a researcher at the Peterson Institute and the Inter-American Development Bank and worked for over 10 years with Oxfam International. She is also currently the Chair of the Board of the Climate Action Network in Europe.

Mary Robinson is an Irish independent politician who served as the first woman president of Ireland. She also served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, formed ‘Realizing Rights: the Ethical Globalization Initiative, and founded The Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice. Robinson is Chair of The Elders’, where she participates in a broad range of the group’s initiatives, and since 2004 has been Professor of Practice in International Affairs at Columbia University where she teaches international human rights.

Maria João Rodrigues is the current President of FEPS. She is the former Minister of Employment of Portugal and is a European politician with a history in European institutions: EU Presidencies, Council, European Council, European Commission and European Parliament.  In academia, she was a professor of European economic policies in the European Studies Institute at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and at the Lisbon University Institute. She was also chair of the European Commission Advisory Board for socio-economic sciences.

Edel Moraes is Vice President of the National Council of Indigenous Populations in Brazil, which represents people who are engaged in extractive activities. She is an Amazonian activist working “to defend the socio-biodiversity of their territories as a place of livelihood and struggle of women”. She received her master’s at the University of Brasilia.

Ania Skrzypek is the Director of Research and Training of FEPS. She oversees the Next Left Research Programme, co-coordinates the FEPS Young Academics Network (FEPS YAN), and contributes to the FEPS projects of: Next Social Europe, European Transnational Parties and Democratic Empowerment, Ones to Watch, New Global Progressive Construct Convention and the Annual Policy Network Oxford Debates.

László Andor is Secretary General of FEPS in the Brussels office. He is a Hungarian economist and former EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (2010-2014). He has also been Head of the Department of Economic Policy at Corvinus University (Budapest), Senior Fellow at Hertie School of Governance (Berlin) and a visiting professor at ULB (Brussels).

Michael Williams is the Interim Co-Executive Director of the BlueGreen Alliance, overseeing the development of the organization’s policy and legislative agenda, as well as the organization’s revenue and fundraising efforts. Prior to joining the BlueGreen Alliance, he worked for Congressman Lloyd Doggett, where he handled energy, environmental and transportation issues. He has an M.A. in Public Policy, concentrating in Environmental Policy from George Washington University.

Luise Rürup is the Executive Director of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) office at the United Nations in New York. With FES for more than 25 years, Luise served as Head of Department at FES Headquarters in Berlin as well as at offices in Chile, India, Turkey and Thuringia, Germany. Prior to joining FES, she was involved with interdisciplinary field research on rural development in Costa Rica and Tanzania and has published on a wide range of topics related to development, social justice and democracy.

Benedicta Lasi is a Vice President of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) under NDC Ghana. She is a lawyer, Founder of the Noble Law Group, and engaged in the development of several start-up businesses as well as youth empowerment projects in Africa. Lasi holds a Master in Conflict, Peace and Security, as well as in Economic Policy Management.

Maria Damanaki is the Global Managing Director for Oceans at The Nature Conservancy where she leads a global team focused on transforming how the world manages its oceans. She recently served for four years as European Union Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and is a member of the Friends of Ocean Commission of the World Economic Forum. She served as a member of Greek Parliament for more than 25 years and has authored four books on European issues, human rights, education and women’s rights.

Miriam Dalli is a member of the European Parliament where she currently sits as a full member on the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and on the Delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union. Her degrees include Bachelor of Laws from the University of Malta, Bachelor of Communications, Masters in European Studies and Masters in Business Administration.

Rick Smith is a Canadian author, environmentalist and non-profit leader, and the Executive Director of the Broadbent Institute. He is a former Chief of Staff for the federal NDP, and from 2003-2012 he served as Executive Director of Environmental Defence. He also is currently a Director of Équiterre and of the Greenbelt Foundation and is a member of the Panel of Environment and Sustainable Development Advisors for the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development of Canada.

Maj Jensen is a political activist who was elected in March as the Secretary General for the political organization Young European Socialists (YES). After receiving her Bachelor’s, she worked as the Secretary General for the organization Danish Social Democratic Youth (Denmarks Socialdemokratiske Ungdom- DSU) for two years before returning to CBS for her master’s degree. She is finishing her first year of the MSc in Political Communication and Management (PKL) at CBS, and then moving to Brussels for two years to fulfill her role as the Secretary General.

Dan Jørgensen is a Danish politician and the Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities in the Frederiksen Cabinet. He most recently served as Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and previously he served as a Member of the European Parliament for the Social Democrats, part of the Party of European Socialists. He studied Political Science at the University of Washington and holds a Master’s in Political Science from the University of Aarhus.

Arancha Gonzalez is the Executive Director of the International Trade Center (ITC). Before joining ITC, González served as Chief of Staff to the World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy from 2005 to 2013 and held several positions at the European Commission – conducting negotiations of trade agreements and assisting developing countries in trade-development efforts. She holds a degree in law from the University of Navarra and a postgraduate degree in European Law from the University of Carlos III, Madrid.

Andrea Horwath is a Canadian politician and community development coordinator who is the Leader of the Official Opposition in Ontario and is the first woman to lead the Ontario New Democratic Party. She is a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the riding of Hamilton Centre, and was chosen as the party's leader at its 2009 leadership convention.  

Svenja Schulze is the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in Germany. Prior to that she was North Rhine-Westphalia’s State Minister for Innovation, Science and Research from 2010 to 2017. She studied German Studies and Political Science at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, which she completed in 1996 with the academic degree of Magistra Artium.

Álvaro Elizalde is the President of the Chilean Socialist Party. He has served as Minister General Secretary of Government in the second presidency of Michelle Bachelet, Superintendent of Social Security in the first government of Bachelet, and was Secretary General of the Socialist Party between 2010 and 2014. He graduated as a lawyer from the Law School of the University of Chile and has a master's degree in constitutional law from the Catholic University of Chile.

Stephen Minas is an Assistant Professor of Law at the School of Transnational Law of Peking University and is a member of the United for Climate Justice Steering Committee. His education includes Honours degrees in Law and History from the University of Melbourne, an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics, a PhD in Law from King’s College London and a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice.