Ambassadors | Advocates | Advisors
Our Ambassadors
We would like to thank these individuals for representing Katerva publicly and donating time to the organization in our various outreach and partnership efforts as we grow.
Dr. Ashok Khosla, International Union for Conservation of Nature
Ashok is chairman of Development Alternatives, the world’s first social enterprise dedicated to sustainable development. DA innovates technologies, resource management methods and institutions to create livelihoods for the poor and to regenerate the environment. Dr. Khosla was Director, Infoterra in the UN environment program, and is President of the Club of Rome and President of IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Dr. Michael Birt, Director of the Center for Sustainable Health
Michael Birt, PhD, is the founding Director of the Center for Sustainable Health and founding Executive Director of the Pacific Health Summit. His career includes experience in the private sector and the academic world. Prior to joining the Biodesign Institute, he launched the Center for Health and Aging at The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) and co-founded a leading U.S.-Asia biomedical business development company and consulted for many of the world’s foremost healthcare, medical technology, and consumer product companies. He currently focuses on the use of affordable and scalable technologies to sustain health, especially for older adults and their caregivers.
Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends
Jeremy is the author of seventeen best-selling books on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. He serves as an advisor to the European Union on issues related to the economy, climate change, energy security, and sustainable development. Jeremy also currently serves as an advisor to the European Commission, the European Parliament, and several EU heads of state. He has been influential in shaping public policy in the United States and around the world and has testified before numerous congressional committees.
Martin Wright, Editor in Chief of Green Futures
Martin has over 20 years’ experience as a writer, editor, broadcaster and communications and strategy adviser. He has contributed to a wide range of newspapers, magazines and websites, including The Guardian, The Financial Times, Newsweek, New Scientist, The Times of India and many others. He has won a number of awards as both a writer and photographer, including Science and Environment Journalist of the Year. Martin is also Visiting Judge for the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy (www.ashdenawards.org)
Mathis Wackernagel, President of Global Footprint Network
Mathis is co-creator of the Ecological Footprint and President of Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability think-tank dedicated to bringing about a sustainable human economy in which all can live well, within the means of one planet. By promoting the use of the Ecological Footprint, Global Footprint Network is working to make ecological limits central to decision-making everywhere. Mathis has worked on sustainability on six continents and lectured at more than a hundred universities.
Peggy Liu, JUCCCE Chairperson
Peggy is an internationally recognized expert on China’s energy landscape and was a Time Magazine Hero of the Environment in 2008, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, an energy adviser to the Clinton Global Initiative in 2008, and the Hillary Institute Laureate of 2010. Prior to JUCCCE she has been a venture capitalist, an Internet pioneer, a management consultant at McKinsey, a software product manager, computer programmer, and organic gardener. She has extensive non-profit management experience in a wide range of sectors.
Sean Cleary, Chairman of Strategic Concepts
Sean served in the South African Navy on the staff of the Commander Maritime Defense before commencing a diplomatic career in the Middle East, USA and Namibia. As Chief Director in Namibia in the mid-1980s, he initiated negotiations between all political parties, the release of political prisoners and the adoption of a Bill of Rights, paving the way for independence. He is a recipient of academic and public service awards and has been published in South African, British, German and U.S. journals.
Sylvia Earle, President of Sylvia Earle Alliance
Sylvia, called a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, and the first “Hero for the Planet,” by TIME MAGAZINE is an oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer with experience as a field research scientist. Former chief scientist of NOAA, Earle is president of Deep Search International and chair of the Advisory Council for the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies. She has a B.S. from Florida State University, an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Duke University, and 15 honorary degrees. She has authored more than 150 scientific, technical, and popular publications, lectured in more than 60 countries, and appeared in hundreds of television productions.
William H. Saito, Entrepreneur and Innovator
An advisor to governments worldwide, venture capitalist, educator and 2011 Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, William has spent two decades shaping information security policy, establishing and selling companies, and managing public corporations. In 1991, he founded I/O Software, Inc., in California, and built it into a global leader in security software development, earning recognition in 1998 as Entrepreneur of the Year from Ernst & Young, NASDAQ and USA Today. After Microsoft bought the company in 2004, Saito founded InTecur K.K., a Tokyo-based consultancy that helps companies identify and develop applications and markets for innovative technologies.
