Jury 2009

Leila Akahloun is the Integrator for Africa Programs of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, an international development organization that identifies and invests in social entrepreneurs known as Ashoka Fellows. Her work with Ashoka is at the cutting edge of a dramatic transformation in social development whereby she is helping leading social entrepreneurs who are advancing the fields of health, education, the environment, human rights, women’s empowerment and economic development establish themselves as a powerful force in improving lives on the African continent. She has nearly 10 years experience in high net worth fundraising, program management, as well as design and implementation of organizational strategy.

As Ashoka’s Integrator for Africa Programs, Leila is responsible for the management of Ashoka’s operations in Africa where she oversees a $6 million dollar budget and 4 regional offices in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa. Leila holds an undergraduate degree in International Politics from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and an MA degree in International Relations from the University of Chicago.

Nicole Häusler has several years of experience as Tourism Consultant focusing on Tourism Human Resources Development and Training, Tourism Planning and Marketing, Networking and Association Management but also on Tourism & Poverty Reduction.  She lived for six years in Bangkok/Thailand and worked there as tourism consultant, study tour guide and travel photographer in the region. She has been several times to Vietnam and knows very well its history, culture, environment, current tourism development etc. From 2003-2005 she worked as a Tourism Consultant at the Department of Protected Areas (SERNAP) in La Paz/Bolivia, financed by CIM/GTZ and World Bank. Currently she is a visiting lecturer in ‘Sustainable Tourism Management’ at the University of Applied Sciences in Eberswalde near Berlin.

Since 2006 she has been Managing Director of ‘mas contour – Tourism Consulting & Regional Planning’. Nicole has worked on the micro and macro level with local communities, the public and private sector, tourism authorities, training centres and local and international NGOs. Being a social anthropologist her special skills are project management, intercultural communication, participatory methodologies, planning and monitoring. Nicole is co-author of the Manual “Tourism as a Field of Activity in German Development Cooperation. A Basic Overview, Priority Areas for Action and Strategic Recommendations” published by GTZ in 2007.

Paul Laird joined Earthwatch Institute (Europe) in November 2005 and works with Earthwatch’s corporate partners in the agriculture and forestry sectors, managing programmes with British American Tobacco and Syngenta in particular. As part of Earthwatch’s increasing focus on supporting organisational change in partner companies, these programmes raise awareness of the impacts and dependence of agricultural industries on biodiversity ecosystems, and build capacity to address those issues. Previously he worked with Sheffield Wildlife Trust, Living Earth Foundation, SOS Sahel International, the Kenyan Forest Department and the Forestry Commission.

Paul is a forester with an MSc in Environmental Management (London University, Distinction, 1995).  He has more than twenty years’ experience of managing forestry, agricultural and rural development projects in Africa, mainly with communities in challenging arid environments.  Projects and local organisations that he established in Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya continue to thrive and strengthen local capacity and resilience. The main focus of his career has been on sustainable natural resource management as a key strategy for rural livelihoods.

Juan Mayr has dedicated his life to the environment. Throughout his career, he has pursued an holistic and interdisciplinary vision at different levels of decision-making – local, national, regional and international - for the protection of ecosystems and biodiversity as the mainstay for cultural diversity, sustainable livelihoods and good governance. His capacity to involve all areas of civil society is a particular strength. Mayr’s interest in environmental issues started in 1976, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta on the Northeastern coast of Colombia. Based on the indigenous perception of human-nature relationships, their cultural ways of adapting to the different ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada and their social and political inter-relations, Mayr promoted the concept of shared bioregional management. His work were awarded with the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1993.

Mayr is renowned for his efforts in promoting decentralization and regionalization within the World Conservation Union (IUCN), where he has served as Vice-President and also as Regional Representative for Latin America. In August 1998, Juan Mayr was appointed Minister for the Environment in Colombia. As Minister, he also worked closely with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In February 2002 he presided over the Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GMEF) in Cartagena, which proposed measures to strengthen UNEP in the light of outcomes from the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).

Brian Milder, Director of Strategy & Innovation at Root Capital, coordinates organizational strategy and develops new markets and financial products for expanding Root Capital’s investment fund for small and growing rural businesses in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Previously, he served as Boston Site Director for Project HEALTH, a national nonprofit organization that connects low-income families to the resources they need to be healthy. He also worked in Chile as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the Nonprofit Enterprise and Self-sustainability Team (NESsT), which operates a venture fund to incubate sustainable social enterprises. Mr. Milder holds a B.A. in social studies magna cum laude from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Recent publications include case studies on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa and horticulture supply chains linking East African producers to European supermarkets for Harvard Business School, an article on value chain finance in the journal Enterprise Development and Microfinance, and a chapter on finance for ecotourism businesses in the Galapagos Islands for the forthcoming book Conservation Capital in the Americas. He is fluent in Spanish and is on the Board of Directors of Patagonia Sur Foundation and the Advisory Board for Rooted Foods.

Jennifer Morris is currently Vice President and Managing Director of two funds at Conservation International (CI): the Global Conservation Fund and Verde Ventures. The Global Conservation Fund is a $100 million fund dedicated to the creation and long term financing of protected areas in CI’s priority countries. Jennifer has been leading the Global Conservation Fund since the summer of 2006. Verde Ventures is currently a $12 million fund investing in conservation-oriented small and medium sized enterprises in 13 countries. Jennifer has been managing Verde Ventures since 2000.

Prior to Verde Ventures, Jennifer played a key role in assisting local CI partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America to analyze, structure and develop community-based businesses and credit instruments for the development of rural micro and small enterprises which support conservation. Jennifer worked as the Wild Products Manager at CI where she managed market and product development for 11 products produced by CI local partners in 7 countries, across multiple industries.

Prior to joining CI, Jennifer was a business development consultant with a micro-finance institution and has lived and worked in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Jennifer has a BA in Political Science from Emory University and a Masters in International Affairs with a business development and micro-finance focus from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Mr Nketsia-Tabiri is the Regional Manager of E+Co Africa, an organisation which aims to stimulate longterm, institutionalized channels of investment in environmentally superior forms of energy production and use in developing countries. As the Chief Investment Officer, he oversees the investment and portfolio management of E+Co Africa’s operations in nine countries across Africa. His responsibilities involve developing overall strategic design, planning, as well as strategic partnerships for the sustainable extension of clean energy access in Africa.

He is an inaugural member of the Catto Fellowship Program of the Aspen Institute. Mr Nketsia-Tabiri holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Mechanical Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and a Master of Science in Corporate and International Finance from the University of Durham Business School. He previously worked as the senior project manager for KITE, a Ghanaian organization engaged in energy access policy and programs, where he was founding project officer of the African Rural Energy Enterprise Development (AREED) initiative.

Sarah Timpson currently serves as Senior Adviser to UNDP on Community-based Initiatives, working with several UNDP programmes, which support community action, including the Community Water Initiative and the Equator Initiative, where she chairs the Technical Advisory Committee. Prior to this, she managed the UNDP/Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme (SGP). She has also served as a consultant in the evaluation of Conservation International’s Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund (CEPF) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Global Conservation Fund (GCF).

In the course of a long career with UNDP, Ms Timpson has been a leader and manager of UNDP efforts to reorient its policies and programmes to focus on people-centred development, environmental sustainability, participation and equity. She has managed UNDP offices in developing countries and served in senior policy-making positions at UNDP headquarters, including as head of the Social Development Division and Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Development Policy, and established the NGO Division, spearheading UNDP’s outreach to civil society, as well as the interregional programme for the Promotion of the Role of Women in Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation (PROWWESS). Ms Timpson is a member of the Board of the South North Development Initiative and of the Global Rainwater Harvesting Collective, and has served as Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of RARE Conservation.

As a President of the Development Alternatives Group, an India-based NGO, Mr Varughese has co-ordinated or actively participated in nearly all the assignments undertaken by the group. He has conceptualised and spearheaded several of the organisation’s major initiatives, including the Community Led Environment Action Network (CLEAN-India), Corporate Environment and Social Responsibility, Development Alternatives Information Network (DAINET), and the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programmes. Outside Development Alternatives, he has worked in the construction industry and academia.

George Varughese is a member of several international and national governing bodies, advisory panels and working groups on environment and development issues, including the World Bank Community Development Carbon Fund (CDCF), the Global Water Partnership (GWP), UNEP Global Environment Outlook (GEO), IUCN, the Planning Commission and various ministries of the Government of India. He has spearheaded several NGO initiatives, such as the Credibility Alliance nationally, and the Regional and International Networking Group (RING).