Jordi Vaquer Fanes

Secretary General of Metropolis

Jordi Vaquer is the Secretary General of Metropolis, the international association of major metropolises. Previous to that, he worked at the Open Society Foundations - OSF, a global philanthropical organization working on human rights, civil liberties and democratic practice, as Regional Director for Europe and Director for Foresight and Analysis. Before his work at OSF he was the director of CIDOB, the Barcelona Center for International Affairs, one of Southern Europe's leading international relations think tanks. Dr. Vaquer often offers commentary on international affairs in media and public events.

Benedek Javor

Head of Representation of Budapest in Brussels / Pact of Free Cities

Benedek Jávor is a Hungarian biologist, environmentalist and politician, a former leading member of EGP member party LMP, and current leading member of the Dialogue for Hungary (PM) party. He graduated in biology at the Eötvös Loránd University in 1997 (MSc), and in 2006 he received his Ph.D. at the same university. He has been assistant professor at the Department of Environmental Law at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University. In 2000 he was a founding member of the environmental NGO Védegylet (Protect the Future!). In 2009 he was a founding member and one of the spokespeople of LMP. In the parliamentary election in 2010 he won a seat in the National Assembly. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Sustainable Development between 2010 and 2013. He was appointed leader of the LMP parliamentary group on 29 January 2012. In January 2013 he left LMP and together with others established their new party Dialogue for Hungary (PM). Jávor was elected Co-President of the party, alongside Tímea Szabó. Jávor was elected Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 2014 European Parliament election and joined The Greens–European Free Alliance.

Ana-Maria Trăsnea

Permanent Secretary for Active Citizenship, Democracy Support & Int. Relations in the Berlin Senate Chancellery

The Permanent Secretary for International Relations, Ana-Maria Trăsnea, has a very international background. She moved to Berlin from Romania at the age of 13. She was only 27 years old when she was appointed as the State of Berlin Delegate to the Federation and Permanent Secretary for Active Citizenship, Democracy Support and International Relations in 2021. She was a member of the borough assembly of Berlin-Treptow-Köpenick (2016 – 2021), where she also held the position of deputy chair (2019 – 2021) and chair of the SPD parliamentary group (2021). During the 2021 federal elections, she ran as a candidate (for direct election) for the constituency of Berlin-Treptow-Köpenick. In 2020, she was awarded the Helene Weber Prize. Ana-Maria Trăsnea studied Cultural and European Studies at the Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), and spent one semester at the University of Salamanca (Spain). Alongside her studies, she was involved in various civic engagement programs and projects, such as heading workshops on political education for young people at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Berlin (2016 – 2019), working as a mentor in the Helene Weber Kolleg’s program “Diversity in politics: What’s my background? I want to be in the foreground!” at the European Academy for Women (2021), and participating in the “United Games of Nations” (2010 – 2013). During her time at school, she joined the SPD and worked on various projects, for instance, “schools without racism” and “schools with courage,” engaged with different networks, and organized participation projects.

Sabelo B Nkosi

eThekwini

Sabelo B Nkosi is a Senior Environmentalist at eThekwini Municipality in the Biodiversity Management Department. He has been involved in a number of biodiversity offsets within the Municipality. Sabelo’s professional experience in the Integrated Environmental Management (IEM) and conservation sectors over the last 15 years ranges fromprivate consulting, construction, research, and local government. Sabelo has a Masters in Environmental Management from the North-West University, and he holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) Honours degree in Entomology.

Sara Hoeflich

UCLG Learning

Sara Hoeflich, Dipl. Ing, is an architect and urban planner. She is Director of the Lear- ning Department of UCLG and oversees and develops learning activities and materials for LRG around the globe, with peer learning at the center. She is also spokesperson for strategic and urban planning in international agreements and has developed and piloted key concepts like intermediary cities and triangular cooperation.

Irene Vivas Lalinde

Project officer of the CitiMeasure project at Eurocities

Irene Vivas Lalinde is the project officer of the CitiMeasure project at Eurocities. She has experience on environmental and urban governance. Previously, she has worked in other European and international organi- sations. She holds a MSc on Public Policy and Human Development (UNU Merit – Maastricht School of Governance) and a bachelor’s in law.

Chrysoula Mitta

The Lisbon Council

The Lisbon Council for Economic Competitiveness and Social Renewal asbl is a Brussels-based think tank and policy network. Established in 2003 in Belgium as a non-profit, non-partisan association, the group is dedicated to making a positive contribution through cutting-edge research and by engaging political leaders and the public at large in a constructive exchange about the economic and social challenges of the 21st century.

Paul James

Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University

Paul James is Professor of Globalization and Cultural Diversity in the Institute for Culture and Society at the Western Sydney University. He is author or editor of over 30 books, including Globalization Matters (with Manfred Steger, Cambridge University Press, 2019) and Urban Sustainability in Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2015). He is Scientific Advisor to the Mayor of Berlin, and has been an advisor to a number of agencies and governments including the Canadian Prime Minister’s G20 Forum and the Papua New Guinea Minister for Community Development. From 2007 till 2014 he was Director of the United Nations agency, the Global Compact Cities Programme.

Laura Valdés

Head of Policy

Laura Valdés is Head of Policy at Metropolis. Laura is an urbanist specialised in sustainability and social equity in cities with a focus on gender equality. Before joining Metropolis, Laura held positions at the OECD and the City of Paris.

Yiorgos Papamanousakis

Programme Lead, Community Led Housing

I work with an international network of partners and initiatives to support community led housing practice.

Siobhan Foley

Head of Sustainable Consumption

Siobhan coordinates with C40 cities, teams, and partners to propel enterprising and expansive climate action on urban consumption. Previously at C40 she provided technical assistance to cities. Siobhan has a wide range of experience working on systems change to address the climate crisis, and has developed and led a variety of initiatives focused on energy efficiency and renewables, mobility, circular economy, urban nature, and low carbon living over the last fifteen years.

Tarcyla Fidalgo Ribeiro

Doutora em Planejamento Urbano e Regional - IPPUR/UFRJ

Tarcyla Fidalgo has a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, a Master’s degree in Urban Law from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, and a Bachelor of Law from the State University of Rio de Janeiro. She also holds a post-graduate certificate in Urban Sociology from IFCH-UERJ and in Urban Planning and Policy from IPPUR-UFRJ. Her research is focused on land tenure and community development, especially on Community Land Trusts and their potential in the Global South. Currently she coordinates our project for the implementation of a CLT in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas.

Maša Hawlina

Sociologist

Maša Hawlina is a sociologist of culture whose research mainly focuses on housing provision and neoliberalization of the city. She is a cofounder of the Institute for Studies of Housing and Space, active in research and advocacy for better housing conditions, as well as development implementation of improved models of housing provision, especially housing cooperatives. Maša is also one of the founders of the pioneering housing cooperative in Slovenia Zadrugator and a member of the European Cooperative Society MOBA Housing SCE supervisory board.

Nicholas You

Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation

Nicholas You is a veteran urban specialist. He served as the senior policy and planning advisor to UN-Habitat and as the manager of the Habitat II Conference held in Istanbul in 1996. He is currently the Executive Director of the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation and co-Chair of the Open Green City Lab in Shenzhen. He regularly advises central and local governments, technology companies and civil society organisations on urban sustainability, urban governance and urban innovation and has written and co-authored key policy papers for the U20.

Ninike Celi Atala

Head of the STHV Habitat Unit on Secretariat of Territory, Habitat and Housing of Quito

Architect (UDLA) and Master in Governance and Public Policy on Urban Planning (PUCE), has been part of the Secretariat of Territory, Habitat and Housing of Quito (STHV) since 2017. Here, she has developed public policy related in sustainability buildings, urban development and land management instruments. Since 2020, she is Head of the STHV Habitat Unit, as part of the team that developed the firs

Rosa Maria

Executive Director of CIDEU

Rosa Arlene María is an architect and urban planner, specialized in urban strategic planning. She is Executive Director of CIDEU, the Ibero-American network of local governments and entities that promote the transformation of the cities through strategic urban planning.

Marta Llobet

Committee on Culture of UCLG

Marta Llobet is a Learning and Advocacy Officer at the Committee on Culture of UCLG. She promotes the advocacy task of the Committee at local and global level to foster and make visible the relationship between local cultural policies and sustainable development. She works closely with cities that are committed to culture as a pillar of sustainable development through learning programmes.