Charles Nouhan

Charles Nouhan, Chairman of Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future, is a sustainability leader advancing governance for sustainable development, stakeholder engagement, renewable energy technologies, and sustainable waste management. From 2002 until 2018, he worked in the UK local government waste and resource sector developing and managing recycling, composting, and waste minimization services for communities and businesses, and he continues to advance similar local efforts in The Americas.

From 2000 to 2002, Charles was Stakeholder Forum’s Deputy Director and UK Co-ordinator, where he worked alongside then Executive Director Felix Dodds and Co-Chairs Margaret Brusasco-MacKenzie and Derek Osborn in the run-up to the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. From 1999 to 2000, he worked on sustainability and stakeholder engagement at the then Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum.

Now US-based in the New York Metropolitan area, Charles is SF’s Representative to the United Nations where he supports SF’s work with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and Member states to realize the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

His newest SF projects include the Global Forum for National SDG Advisory Bodies, with partners the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE), the Finnish National Commission on Sustainable Development, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and members from more than forty National Councils for Sustainable Development and similar bodies. Charles is also leading on the Global Partnership for Ocean Wave Energy Technology, a sustainable development multistakeholder partnership to transform the energy supply of Small Island Developing States and other coastal communities with zero-emissions electrical power generation from ocean waves.

Meesha Brown

Meesha Brown is a good fairy, career educator and advocate of quality education for all students. Meesha has served in schools and communities as a teacher, instructional leader, and community partner. As a Senior Instructional Coach for the NYC Department of Education, Meesha led early piloting of the Common Core State Standards in NYC public schools focused on the implications for secondary literacy instruction. Meesha served as Director of Literacy for the NYC Department of Education, working with colleagues across teams to refine policy and improve support for schools and networks during the district’s shift to the Common-Core.

John Charles

John Charles is a professional comic book artist, graphic designer, writer and colourist, and has produced cover art and strips for many publishers. Born John Charles Mould, he mainly signs his artwork John Charles, and changed his name to this several years ago. John trained as a graphic designer and later taught the subject for three years at Leicester College. His first love was always comic book art though and John went freelance in 2003 and has been working as a comic-book colourist and artist ever since.

Sean Southey

Sean is deeply committed to community empowerment and using creative media to facilitate powerful social change. A resourceful manager with over 20 years of experience in the development and communications field, Sean comes to Media Impact from a multi-sector background including 12 years with the United Nations Development Programme, 5 years with the Canadian government and 4 years working with international non-government organizations such as Secretary General of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and Rare (Vice-President).

Olimar Maisonet-Guzman

Olimar Maisonet-Guzman is a 2009 Harry S. Truman Scholar and a 2011 David L. Boren Fellow. She is originally from Puerto Rico. She graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a Bachelor’s Degree on Political Science and Economic. She has a Master’s degree from American University on Global Environmental Policy with a focus on global water policy and public private partnerships.

During her Master's program, she spent a year in Brazil conducting energy and water policy research at the University of Sao Paulo. During this time, she worked on the development of a sustainable infrastructure and sanitation plan for the favelas in Porto Alegre.

Don Edwards

Don Edwards is CEO and Principal of Justice and Sustainability Associates (JSA), a Washington, DC-based firm he co-founded in 1999. He is considered one of the most deft facilitator/mediators and civic engagement designers working today in the field of development. JSA designs and manages inclusive, transparent and participatory decision-making processes taking place, primarily against the backdrop of urbanization and the conflicts it breeds.

His introduction to sustainable development came in 1988 when he participated in a panel sponsored by the London-based Panos Institute about the role of under-development in the emergence of what became the global AIDS pandemic.

Alejo Etchart

Alejo Etchart is a Spanish Economist, MBA and MSc with distinction in Climate Change and Sustainable Development (SD). He has participated in UNFCC negotiations and written a number of papers on different dimensions of SD –economic valuation of shipping emissions, transportation, white and green certificates across Europe, electric vehicles, green regeneration of depressed areas, resilience, communities and politics. His career reflects a concern to influence on development from there where the drive to a deep change is most powerful, moving from climate change-related institutions to bottom-up, resilience-generating local community processes, field to which he has been decvoted for the last three years. He is currently transcending to the field of personal and collective values

Farooq Ullah

Farooq took over formally as Executive Director on September 1, 2012. He joined Stakeholder Forum as Head of Policy and Advocacy in September 2011. Before this, Farooq was at the UK Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) for nearly five years. Farooq worked on strategic assessment at the SDC; analysing public policy, sustainable operations and procurement, strategy, governance and decision-making in order to hold the UK Government to account and improve its sustainability performance. Key elements of this work included policy advice, stakeholder engagement and capability building. In all, Farooq has nine years of public sector experience at international, national and local government levels, with a further three years of private sector consultancy experience.

Liz Thompson

Liz is a senior advisor to SE4All and to the President of the UN General Assembly. Her initiatives in sustainable development include developing a national green economy policy and national development sustainable policy.

Jan-Gustav Strandenaes

Jan-Gustav Strandenaes, born in Norway, has worked on sustainable development, environment and governance all his life. After a first assignment in Latin America for the UN, he has lived and worked in Botswana, Uganda, the US and Sweden.

Marcie Shaoul

Marcie is the founder of international consultancy communicationsfordevelopment.com

A senior facilitator in multi-stakeholder processes, Marcie has worked as an international civil servant specialising in areas of international concern.

Lyn A. Ametewee

Sustainable Development Expert for UK, Africa and the Caribbean

Research interests: Health, Education, Employment, MDGs, SDGs

Lyn Ametewee holds a BA Law with French, MA Criminology, LLM Corporate Finance and an MBA in Strategic Management.

Lyn has over 15 years experience of working as a Lecturer, Researcher and Consultant to promote sustainable development by improving health, human rights, gender equality, local governance, climate change strategies and the quality of life for vulnerable populations. In particular, Lyn has worked with women, children, older people, the disabled, people with ill mental health and migrants in the United Kingdom, Africa and the Caribbean. Her achievements include working as a Consultant for the UK National Health Services, UK Cabinet Office, UK Local Government, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, Ghana Skills Development Fund (funded by the World Bank/DANIDA) and the Centre for Gender and Social Development at the Institute of Local Government Studies (Ghana)

Jamie Bartram

Dr Jamie Bartram is the Don and Jennifer Holzworth Distinguished Professor of Environmental Sciences and Engineering in the Gillings School of Global Public Health of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is Director of the Water Institute at UNC.

Felix Dodds

Felix is an Adjunct Professor at the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina and an Associate Fellow at the Tellus Institute. He was a candidate for the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP. In 2019 he stood for the Liberal Democrats for parliament for the constituency of Mid-Derbyshire.

He was the co-director of the 2014 and 2018 Nexus Conference on Water, Food, Energy and Climate.