All Speakers

Speaker Adeline PILON
Adeline PILON

General Delegate

ELYX Foundation

Adeline Pilon bridges culture, sustainability, and fintech to drive systemic change. With a background in finance and innovation, she pioneers high-integrity blue certified carbon credits in the…
Speaker Shirleen CHIN
Shirleen CHIN

Executive Director

EcoJustice

As an international legal expert for the past 15 years, Shirleen Chin has worked on matters related to environmental crime/ecocide, international criminal law, illicit trade, anti-corruption,…
Speaker Leander RAES
Leander RAES

Senior Economist

IUCN Secretariat

Leander specializes in the socio-economic and environmental evaluation of nature-based solutions (NbS), supporting the development of policies, action plans, and business cases to implement and…
Speaker Katalin CZIPPAN
Katalin CZIPPAN

nature education expert

Blue Planet Foundation

Strategic Advisor & Nature Education for Sustainability Co-Chair Katalin Czippan is an educator with experience in the field of environmental and sustainability education and communication…
Speaker Nirmala SÉON-MASSIN
Nirmala SÉON-MASSIN

Director of Expertise

Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle

Speaker Patricia LEON
Patricia LEON

Associate Director of Nature Conservation

Bezos Earth Fund

Patricia León Woolfson is Associate Director for Conservation at the Bezos Earth Fund, where she leads global strategies and partnerships to help protect 30% of the planet by 2030. She’s…
Speaker Tinne VAN DER STRAETEN
Tinne VAN DER STRAETEN

Member of Parliament

Belgian Federal Parliament

Tinne Van der Straeten is a member of the Belgian Federal Parliament. She served as Federal Energy Minister between October 2020 and January 2025.  During her term, she accelerated the energy…
Speaker Carlos SÁNCHEZ  MARTÍNEZ
Carlos SÁNCHEZ MARTÍNEZ

Director

Fundacion Naturaleza y Hombre

Carlos Sánchez Martínez (born in Santander, Cantabria, 1969) is a Spanish naturalist, conservationist, and environmental manager widely recognized for his lifelong dedication to preserving the…
Speaker Margaret HUNTER
Margaret HUNTER

Research Geneticist

IUCN Species Survival Commission 2021-2025

Dr. Maggie Hunter is a Research Geneticist with the U.S. Geological Survey, a research branch of Department of Interior. She is the director of the Wetland and Aquatic Research Center Conservation…
Speaker John CHEECHOO
John CHEECHOO

Policy Advisor

Inuit Circumpolar Council

Speaker YUSUKE SAITO
YUSUKE SAITO

Deputy Director

Ministry of the Environment, Japan

Deputy Director, Biodiversity Strategy Office, Ministry of the Environment, Japan
Speaker Lewis Cocks COCKS
Lewis Cocks COCKS

Aquarium Curator

The National Aquarium

Working with aquatics since the age of 15, i have steadily been involved with aquariums, conservation and fieldwork for 20 years and have spent the last 13 years in the GCC. Currently the Curator of…
Speaker Nishant JAIN
Nishant JAIN

Senior Program Officer

IUCN

Nishant Jain is conservation professional with over 12 years of work experience. He currently serves as a Senior Programme Officer at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in New…
Speaker Caroline KATSANDE
Caroline KATSANDE

Regional Manager

Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority

Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Caroline Katsande is a dedicated conservation professional with more than twenty years of experience in wildlife management, habitat restoration, community and…
Pianporn DEETES
Pianporn DEETES
Pianporn (Pai) Deetes is the Executive Director of the Rivers and Rights Foundation, a Thailand-based organization advancing environmental justice, community empowerment, and river protection across…
Speaker Kushagra MESHRAM
Kushagra MESHRAM

Doctoral Fellow

North Carolina State University

Kushagra hails from a remote region of Chhattisgarh in India. With his bachelor’s in Forestry and training as a wildlife biologist at the Wildlife Institute of India, he studied satellite…
Speaker Frank HAWKINS
Frank HAWKINS

Science and Policy Advisor

IUCN

Frank Hawkins is a conservation biologist and policy advisor with many years of experience working with governments, civil society and local communities in Africa and around the world. His main focus…
Speaker Diogo VERÍSSIMO
Diogo VERÍSSIMO

Research Fellow

University of Oxford

Diogo Veríssimo is a conservation marketer, using marketing principles and theory to influence human behavior and mitigate the threats faced by biodiversity. Diogo’s current portfolio of projects…
Speaker Joanna WOLSTENHOLME
Joanna WOLSTENHOLME

Senior Programme Manager, Nature Finance

UNEP-WCMC

Joanna is a Senior Programme Officer in the Nature Economy team at the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). Her work focuses on finance for nature, looking at…
Lucas JOPPA
Lucas JOPPA
Speaker Maria Teresa ASENSIO ELVIRA
Maria Teresa ASENSIO ELVIRA
Speaker Aibat MUZBAY
Aibat MUZBAY

Wildlife biologist

IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy 2021-2025

I am Aibat Muzbay, a biodiversity and sustainable use expert with more than six years of experience in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Currently, I lead the environmental NGO Tabigi Orta and coordinate…
Speaker Anne-Sophie LAPOINTE
Anne-Sophie LAPOINTE

International Affairs Advisor

Gouvernement du Québec

Speaker Egor ZADEREEV
Egor ZADEREEV

Leading research scientist

IUCN Commission on Education and Communication 2021-2025

The President of the International Society for Salt Lake Research (http://isslr.org/)The Head of Science Communication group at the Krasnoyarsk Research Center (https://ksc.krasn.ru/)
Speaker Ron VAVE
Ron VAVE

Assistant Professor

IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy 2021-2025

I'm an indigenous Fijian, interdisciplinary marine social scientist who has worked in my home country (Fiji), the Indo-Pacific as part of the Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) network, and in Hawai'…
Speaker Alejandro IZA
Alejandro IZA

Director, Environmental Law Centre

IUCN Secretariat

Ex Officio. Dr. Alejandro Iza, Director of the Environmental Law Centre. From a combined academic and practical background, he brings to IUCN a combination of expertise including a broad knowledge…
Speaker Ella GORDON-LATTY
Ella GORDON-LATTY
Ella works at the intersection of markets, data and nature at Toha Network where she is build digital public infrastructure for equitable nature markets. With a background in human centred design and…
Speaker Emmanuelle COHEN-SHACHAM
Emmanuelle COHEN-SHACHAM

IUCN CEM Nature-based Solutions Thematic Group Lead

IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management

Emmanuelle is an independent consultant, researcher, project and group lead, working in fields related to Nature-based Solutions (NbS), environmental sciences and policy. She has 23 years of…