Aleksandra Kazmierczak

Urban Climate Change Adaptation Expert, European Environment Agency

Aleksandra is a climate adaptation expert at the European Environment Agency, specialising in urban and social aspects of adaptation. Aleksandra coordinates assessment reports and map viewers in the fields of urban climate change adaptation and environmental health inequalities. She has worked in the field of climate change adaptation for over a decade and has background in geography and spatial planning.

Hear her speak in the Opening Statement.

Alessandra Aires, Architect and Lanscape Architect

Alessandra Aires works for the Municipality of Torino as a designer for public spaces and gardens. Her work involves Urban Renewal Programs to Rehabilitation of public spaces to NBS, designing parks, gardens, playground areas, squares, green roofs and wood sustainable building, some of which won the “Premio Città Verde” (Green City Award) in Padua and the Dedalo Minosse International Prize. Alessandra is a AIAPP IFLA member and OpenHouseTorino Founder.

 Hear her speak in Session 2C.

Alis Daniela Torres, expert in the Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation Task Force, EU Covenant of Mayors Office

Alis Daniela Torres' work is focused on helping cities advance on sustainable energy and climate action planning processes, smart city services development and business models creation for urban sustainability projects. Daniela’s work draws on more than 15 years of diverse experience in energy and environmental management, climate change studies, public policy and sustainable innovation practices. Daniela is an Environmental Engineer and holds Master’s Degrees in Sustainable Energy Development and City Sciences.  Daniela supports ICLEI as a technical expert in the Sustainable Resources, Climate and Resilience team since 2018.

Daniela will be a facilitator in the Session 1A.

Andrew Bower, Programme Manager at the UNDRR Regional Office for Europe

Andrew is in charge of Sendai Framework monitoring by national authorities across the region as well as local level engagement and urban resilience. Prior to joining UNDRR, Andrew worked for the European Commission’s Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO), in charge of DRR and urban resilience. He builds also on experience both in academia working on EU international relations and diplomacy for the College of Europe and the non-profit sector influencing EU external policies and instruments. Andrew holds a Master degree in middle eastern studies from King's College London, where he has been affiliated as a Visiting Research Fellow, and graduated with Bachelor degree in Political Sciences from the University of Birmingham.

Hear him speak in the Closing Plenary.

Anne-Marie Hitipeuw, Chief Resilience Officer, City of The Hague

Anne-Marie Hitipeuw is responsible for the development and implementation of the Resilience Strategy of the City of The Hague (2019). As part of the 100 Resilient Cities network (now Global Resilient Cities Network), The Hague received support to develop this strategy, set up a multistakeholder process, investigate the shocks and stresses for The Hague and translate these into resilience opportunities and initiatives for the city. These initiatives focus on social resilience, climate adaptation and heat, resilience of vital infrastructure and cyber resilience. Prior to becoming The Hague’s first Chief Resilience Officer, Anne-Marie worked for City of The Hague’s International Programme as Senior Strategic Advisor.

Hear her speak in Session 2A.

Birte Detjen, Competency Center for Socially Responsible Procurement, City of Bremen

Hear her speak in Session 2C.

Bernd Decker

Senior Project Advisor, EASME/LIFE Programme

Bernd coordinates the sub-programme climate action of LIFE and specialises particularly on climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in urban areas. Before joining EASME, Bernd managed urban mobility projects at Rupprecht Consult and worked on urban environmental management programmes at UNHABITAT.

Hear him speak in Session 2B.

Christian Nussmueller, Head of the Unit for EU-Programmes and International Cooperation, City of Graz

Christian holds a master´s degree in Geography. Since 2005, he is engaged for the City of Graz in the utilization of EU and national funding programmes for fostering integrated urban development and sustainable urban mobility on the local and regional levels. He sees his unit as a driver for innovative and integrated urban development and as an initiator of an internal and external know-how transfer.

Hear him speak in Session 2B.

Prof. Dr. Christan Wit,  Department of Outpatient Pneumology, Charite

Prof. Dr. Christan Witt has been the Director of the Department of Outpatient Pneumology (formerly known as Department of Pneumological Oncology and Transplantation Medicine) since 2005. Prof. Witt has an interest in the impact on Climate Change of chronic diseases, in particular Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) where his team have been understanding the impacts of changes in the climate, pollution levels and management of the disease.

Hear him speak in Session 1B.

Christopher Genillard, Managing Director, Genillard & Co

After gaining his Master´s degree in Economics from the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Christopher Genillard started his career at Munich Reinsurance Company, spending the majority of his working life in the insurance and reinsurance centres Munich and London. Following many years of experience in the risk, insurance and reinsurance businesses he founded Genillard & Co. GmbH, a consulting company in Munich in 2003.

Hear him speak in Session 1B.

Dickie Whitaker, CEO Oasis Loss Modelling Framework

Dickie Whitaker has 30 years’ experience in the (Re)Insurance business and for the last 20 years has specialised in risk and innovation, linking academia, government and finance. He co-founded the Lighthill Risk Network, Oasis Palm Tree Ltd, the Oasis Hub and is Chief Executive of Oasis Loss Modelling Framework Ltd. He provides advisory roles to: UK’s Satellite Applications Advisory Board, Expert Group for the Global Risk Assessment Framework (GRAF), UNISDR and Cabot Institute Advisory Board.

Hear him as a facilitator in Session 1B.

Elena Visnar-Malinovska

Head of Adaptation Unit - DG Clima, European Commission

Elena Višnar Malinovská is currently a Head of the climate adaptation unit in DG Climate Action of the European Commission. She has worked for 13 years in the European Commission in different positions. As a policy officer in the Secretariat General, she dealt with environment, energy, mobility and climate policies (2005-2010, 2014-2016). In the Cabinet of Commissioner responsible for environment (2010-2014), she spearheaded the review of the air quality legislation as well as oversaw the infringements policy in the environment field. During the Slovak Presidency (2016), she acted as a spokesperson. She holds a law degree from the Comenius and Thyrnaviens universities ("JUDr.")  in Slovakia and diplomas from European studies (SciencePo in Paris, College of Europe in Poland). An enthusiast cyclist (female winner of VéloMai competition in the Commission in 2019), runner, mother of three hockey players and a scout leader.

Hear her speak in the Opening Plenary.

Elissavet Bargianni, Sustainability and Resilience Officer, City of Athens

Elissavet Bargianni is a Landscape Architect, trained both in Greece and in the UK (MLA). She has been working for a London-based landscape practice before moving on to the public sector in Athens in 2003, working for the National Garden. Scientific associate and editor of the Greek Academy awarded book about the National Garden (2016) and the Garden’s Management Plan. Elissavet initiated feasibility and landscape studies of various public spaces of Athens, introduced methodology for new tree avenues, initiated GIS mapping and tree inventory for the National Garden and the city while at the Design Department of the Municipality’s Urban Nature Directorate. Since 2018, she works for the Resilience and Sustainability Department. She is the Coordinator of the Athens Climate Adaptation Working Group  and a representative of the C40 CoolCities Network while actively collaborating with several climate networks and institutions. She participates in EU and other technical and financing programmes on climate adaptation and urban resilience. She is currently involved in the update of the Athens Climate Action Plan and the EIB Natural Capital Financing Facility (NCFF) programme for 4 high-impact green & blue infrastructure city projects.

Hear her speak in the Closing Plenary.

Emilio Servera-Martinez, Agricultural Engineer, Las Naves, Valencia

Emilio Servera-Martinezand holds a master’s degree in Natural Resource Management. He began his career in environmental consulting and engineering in 2005 and has specialized in the fields of climate change adaptation, nature-based solutions and resilience. Emilio has participated in several national and international projects prior to joining Las Naves, the social and urban innovation centre for the city of Valencia. As part of the Horizon 2020 project ARCH – Advancing Resilience of historic areas against Climate-related and other Hazards, he is co-creating tools in collaboration with diverse stakeholders to help cities protect cultural heritage from the effects of climate change.

Hear him speak in the Opening Plenary.

Fred Hatterman, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Hear him speak in Session 1B.

Gerry Muscat, Head of Division, Urban Development, European Investment Bank

Gerry heads EIB’s Urban Development Division, and is responsible for the appraisal of the Bank’s urban development projects, advisory support for cities, and the Bank’s urban policy. He worked previously at the EBRD, at JASPERS and in consultancy, with projects spanning urban transport, water, solid waste, district heating, social infrastructure, and urban renewal. Gerry has degrees in Geography from Oxford and London universities, and besides native English, speaks French and Polish.

 Hear him speak in Session 2B.

Holger Robrecht

Deputy Regional Director - Sustainable Resources, Climate & Resilience, ICLEI European Secretariat

Together with Birgit Georgi (then European Environment Agency), Holger founded the European Urban Resilience Forum as an annual exchange platform for practitioners on urban adaptation and resilience in 2013. He joined ICLEI in 1997, holds a Diploma in spatial planning. At ICLEI Europe, he is member of ICLEI’s Board of Directors and leads ICLEI´s Sustainable Resources, Climate & Resilience team. Holger holds 30 years of experience in local environmental and sustainability management and planning. He has developed, supervised and coordinated international and European projects on urban resilience, climate adaptation, nature-based solutions and green infrastructures, and participated in projects such as EU Cities Adapt, RAMSES (on Adaptation management), RESIN (on resilient infrastructures), Smart Mature Resilience (on Resilience management tools) or CLEVER Cities (on green infrastructures in urban regeneration), and co-authored studies such as the European Environment Agency’s report on ‘Urban adaptation to climate change in Europe 2016’ and the ‘EKLIPSE Impact Evaluation Framework’. Holger has been member of several international and EU Expert Groups, incl. the EU Adaptation Steering Group advising the EU Commission on it's first EU Adaptation Strategy launched in 2013. Since 2012, he has been member to international and European standardisation bodies (ISO TC 268 ‘Sustainable Development of Communities’ (since 2012), CEN/CENELEC/ETSI Sector Forum Smart & Sustainable Cities and Communities (since 2015) and chairs CEN/TC 465 'Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Holger will be a facilitator throughout the event.

Josefine Hintz, Officer Sustainable Economy and Procurement, ICLEI Europe

Josefine Hintz joined ICLEI’s Sustainable Economy and Procurement team in October 2018. There, she supports global and European projects and networks such as Make ICT Fair, AI4Cities, Global Lead Cities Network or the One Planet Network Sustainable Public Procurement Programme. Prior to that, Josefine studied the MSc in Sustainable Urbanism from The Bartlett, UCL and worked as a research associate at the Circular Cities Hub at UCL, London, UK.

Josefine will facilitate Session 2C.

Kathryn Oldham, Chief Resilience Officer, Greater Manchester

Dr. Kathryn Oldham has been Greater Manchester’s Chief Resilience Officer since 2017, providing strategic leadership for the city region’s approach to resilience. She heads up Greater Manchester’s participation in both the international 100 Resilient Cities programme and the United Nation’s Making Cities Resilient campaign, including as a member of the campaign’s global steering committee. She was the co-ordinator for a European Commission funded initiative to create and implement a city-to-city peer review methodology to help cities deliver the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, as well as leading Greater Manchester’s input into a number of other European resilience projects. Kathryn holds a medical degree and has previously held a wide range of positions in local government.

Kenza Khachani, Policy Analyst, OECD

Kenza Khachani works within the Infrastructure and Public Procurement Division of the Public Governance Directorate. She is focusing on advancing the work on Public Procurement and the implementation of the 2015 OECD Recommendation on public procurement. She has been working in reforming and enhancing public procurement systems in several countries and regions including EU countries, Latin America and the MENA Region. Since February 2020, she is working at the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division within the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities to advance the work on public procurement at the local level. Before joining the OECD, she was the Economic Performance Manager of the French national central procurement body – Union des Groupements d’achats publics (UGAP).

 Hear her speak in Session 2C.

Leszek Drogosz, Deputy Director of Infrastructure Department, City of Warsaw

Leszek Drogosz is responsible for energy and water management. He has spent all time of his career working for the City of Warsaw, participating in management of many important sectors of local administration and  supervising of city-owned enterprises. Member of the supervisory board of Municipal Water and Sewerage Company in the City of Warsaw. Involved in implementation of several large and medium-sized European Union projects. Warsaw representative in cooperation with the C40 and EUROCITIES, Deputy Chairman of Warsaw Climate Protection Team and President of Management Board of Association of Municipalities Polish Network „Energie Cités”. Leszek Drogosz is responsible for implementation of the Warsaw Sustainable Energy Action Plan, the Low-Carbon Economy Plan and Adaptation Strategy to climate change for Warsaw.

Hear him speak in Session 1A. 

Lina Liakou, Managing Director for Europe and the Middle East, Resilient Cities Network pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation

Linda Romanovska, International Expert - Adaptation to Climate Change

Working in the field of climate change adaptation since 2011, Linda has been focusing on topics of adaptation planning and strategy development, urban resilience, the resilience of critical infrastructure and social aspects of climate change on the European, national and local governance levels. As an expert and consultant, Linda works on background studies, policy analyses and recommendations, strategy development, project evaluations, stakeholder consultations, communication as well as knowledge management and development of guidance and capacity building activities on adaptation to climate change. Her current research focuses on better understanding of urban green infrastructure addressing various urban issues, including climate change.

Hear her speak in the Closing Plenary.

Magnus Qvant, co-founder of Nordic Urban Resilience Institute

Magnus Qvant has ten years of working experience at executive level in the field of urban resilience and is co-founder of Nordic Urban Resilience Institute. He has also more than 20 years of experience in training and practice in civil security and emergency management, both nationally and internationally. Magnus Qvant is also the Secretary- General of Resilient Regions Association, a neutral and independent arena for collaboration on Urban Resilience, addressing societal challenges involving politicians, the industry, the private and public sector as well as the academia.

Marc Chiappero, Aria Technologies, Brazil

Marc Chiappero is an economist with a Master Degree in International Management by the University of Rennes, France and also holder of a MBA in Management of the industrial processes and quality by the FGV Foundation based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is the General Manager of ARIA do Brasil and member of the board of directors of ARIA Technologies. ARIA do Brasil has been created ten years ago to attend their clients in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia mainly. Marc had previously worked during 12 years for RENAULT S.A.S in different positions both in France and in Brazil.

Hear him speak in Session 1B.

Matthieu Collette, Vice President-Senior Analyst in Moody’s Investors Service Sovereign-Subsovereign group

Matthieu Collette covers Sub-sovereign credit ratings (regional and local governments, public hospitals and other government-related issuers) in Western Europe. Matthieu is also a member of various ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) working groups and as such focus on Moody’s approach to ESG in the credit analysis of regional and local governments.

Hear him speak in Session 2B.

Paula Mota Rodrigues, Livestock Engineer

Paula has a master's degree in Environmental Engineering and a specialty in Organic Farming. She’s a Senior Technician on the Municipality of Torres Vedras, and integrates the Food and Canteens Area of the Education Department. She’s connected to several projects related to Agriculture and Food Development, and is responsible for the managing of the school gardens integrated into the Sustainable Food School Program set up by the municipality in 2014.

Hear her speak in Session 2C.

Piero Pelizzaro

Chief of Resilience Office, Milan Municipality

Piero Pelizzaro is Acclimatise Associate Italy and responsible for the International Cooperation Unit and member of the Working Group Local Authorities for Kyoto at Kyoto Club No Profit, since April 2010. Senior Expert on Adaptation Policy to Climate Change and further specialization in Energy Scenario and Climate Change Impact Models through his past working experience at Stockholm Environment Institute – Tallinn Office.  In past years he collaborated with EU MP, Umberto Guidoni and at the moment his writing for different magazines and web-portals on climate change issues. He is leading projects supported by the European Commission. At the moment is leading the LIFE+ project BlueAP Bologna Local Urban Environment Adaptation Plan for a Resilient City (Senior Expert), LIFE+ RECOIL Recovered waste cooking oil for combined heat and power production (Technical Director), MED ZeroCO2 Small communities for big changing (Junior Expert).

Her him speak in Session 2B.

Radoica Stefanović, Head of development at Waterworks and Sewerage, Public Utility Company Waterworks and Sewerage, Novi Sad

Radoica Stefanović  is currently the Head of Development Unit. Previous positions: Head of Technical Department in Water Sector, Senior Engineer in Sewerage Sector, of the Public Utility Company – Waterworks and Sewage. He has a range of experience in this sector including planning and managing construction and water treatment projects, GIS management and remote controlling and treatment of water distribution in the City of Novi Sad, Serbia. Radioca is a graduate in Civil Engineering – Hydraulics.

Hear him speak in Session 1B.

Sanne van Kamp, Strategic Procurement Officer, City of Haarlem, NL

A Strategic Procurement Officer focusses on the use of public procurement as a means to achieve general policy goals. Governments will always buy works, services and goods, the question is whether they will also take other policy priorities into account. Through Strategic Public Procurement, local and central governments can provide taxpayers with the best possible quality services while saving costs and encourage more efficient, sustainable and innovative public services. It helps to create jobs and boost the competitiveness of European industry and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A Strategic Procurement Officer helps to achieve economic, social, ecological and other (local) political objectives via the use of procurement.

Hear her speak in Session 2C.

Sébastien Maire, Chief Officer for Ecological Transition and Resilience of the City of Paris

Sébastien Maire coordinates the implementation of the climate, air quality, circular economy and resilience policies. As an expert in local authorities’ management, he used to be an elected official, an administrative director or a Mayor’s Chief of Staff in other French municipalities. He graduated with a Master degree in Innovation management in public organizations and policies and is a specialist in sustainable development and urbanism, and territorial governance.

Hear him in the Opening Plenary.

Simon Chrisander (Liberal party) is deputy mayor in the city of Malmö, Sweden. He is also chairman of the Environmental Committee and have the overall political responsibility for city planning and environmental issues in Malmö.

Hear him speak in the Welcome Statement and the Opening Plenary.

Environmental coordinator, City of Växjö

Sofia Asplund works on the sustainability department at Växjö Municipality with Agenda 2030 and mainly focusing on developing green and blue infrastructure in the spatial planning and building process.

Hear her speak in Session 1A.

Sophie Tremolet, Europe Water Security Director for The Nature Conservancy

Sophie is an economist specialised in sustainable water resource management and service delivery. She leads The Nature Conservancy’s efforts to mobilise greater investment in nature-based solutions for water security in Europe and beyond. Prior to TNC, she ran a consultancy advising water sector actors on regulatory and institutional reforms and financing mobilisation and worked at the World Bank on lending operations in Africa and knowledge management.

Hear her speak in Session 2B.

Stefania Manca

Climate Adaption Partnership Coordinator - Urban Agenda for the EU, Genoa Municipality

Tadashi Matsumoto, Head of Unit, Sustainable Development and Global Relations, OECD

Tadashi Matsumoto leads OECD’s work on sustainable development and manages the global relations at the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division. He provides strategic leadership and oversees the research and analysis on topics related to the zero- carbon transition in cities, a territorial approach to SDGs, urban green growth, energy efficiency in buildings, urban resilience and national urban policies. Tadashi also leads and coordinates the National Urban Policy Programme in partnership with UN-Habitat and Cities Alliance. Under the Programme, he has led the Global State of National Urban Policy (2018), monitoring national urban policies in 150 countries. Before joining the OECD in 2009, Tadashi worked for the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism for more than 10 years. Tadashi holds a MUP (Urban Planning) from New York University and a Ph.D. from Tokyo University (Engineering). He lectures at Tsukuba University, Japan, and SciencesPo, France.

Hear him speak in the Closing Plenary.

Tracy Irvine, Managing Director/ Cofounder, Oasis Hub Ltd

Tracy has over 30 years experience in environment and science innovation, communications and business development. She is a Cofounder of Oasis Hub that acts as a window and conduit for the world’s catastrophe and climate-change data tools and services. The Oasis Hub acts as the centre of a collaboration network between climate change and catastrophe data suppliers and end-user communities. Prior to this, Tracy has been Executive Director of the Ecological Continuity Trust and SciDev.Net, a global news and analysis for development ,news agency. She also worked as business development manager at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, working on innovating plant sciences into global companies and governments and spent a number of years in Southern Africa, working as a environment and communications advisor to Civil Society.

Hear her speak in Session 1B.

Zsófia Hamza, Project Manager for the Hegyvidék Municipality of Budapest

Zsófia Hamza specialises in management of a range of green urban development projects in the municipality. Prior to her time in Hegyvidék, Zsófia worked in public administration in health, education and rural development.

Hear her speak in Session 1B.