Speaker Biographies
Professor Kerry Kirwan
Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research), University of Warwick
Kerry Kirwan is a Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Warwick and Professor at the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG). He is a Trustee of The Alan Turing Institute . He was also Head of the Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Research Group at WMG, Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing and Strategic Director of the Industrial Doctorate Centre
Rt Hon Lord Robin Teverson
Member House of Lords (Industry and Regulators Select Committee) and Honorary Fellow, Institute for Global Sustainable Development (IGSD), University of Warwick
Robin Teverson is a Member of the House of Lords and speaks on energy and climate change issues. He is also an Honorary Fellow at the IGSD based at the University of Warwick He is a member of the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Select Committee. A former member of the European Parliament he keeps a strong interest in European affairs and is a member of the UK/EU Parliamentary Assembly. Lord Teverson is Chair of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Nature Partnershi
Dr. Fariz Ismailzade
Vice Rector of ADA University, Executive Secretary of the COP29 Scientific Council and Director of the Institute for Development and Diplomacy (IDD)
Dr. Fariz Ismailzade serves as the Director of the Institute for Development and Diplomacy (IDD) and Vice Rector for Government and External Affairs at ADA University. In the 2024 Azerbaijani Parliamentary election, Dr. Ismailzade was elected as a member of the Milli Majlis.Currently, he serves as the Deputy Chairman of the Science and Education Committee and is also a member of the Committee on Foreign and Interparliamentary Relations
Vicente Paolo Yu works as an independent expert and consultant for various United Nations agencies and NGOs. He is also a Senior Legal Advisor with the Third World Network (TWN), Visiting Research Fellow at the UNRISD, and Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. Previously, he served as the Deputy Executive Director of the South Centre and coordinated the Centre’s work on global governance, climate change, investment, South-South cooperation, and sustainable development issues.
Katie Swan-Nelson is Economics Officer at the Climate and Development Strategies Unit, Division on Globalization and Development Strategies at UNCTAD. Prior to joining UNCTAD, She held various positions in academia and civil society, including at Oxfam, ActionAid and Boston University’s Global Development Policy Centre. Ms Swan-Nelson holds degrees from Harvard University and SOAS University of London
Dr Jon Sward
Environment Project Manager at the Bretton Woods Project
Jon Sward is the Environment Project Manager at the Bretton Woods Project, where he leads the organisation’s environmental advocacy work, focusing on the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. His research and advocacy explore the intersections of climate change, migration, and development, particularly in relation to the environmental and social impacts of international financial institutions. Since joining the Bretton Woods Project in 2017, Dr. Sward has overseen the project’s environmental work, providing expert insight into climate migration, environmental risks, and the role of international financial institutions in shaping global climate governance.
Celine Tan is Professor of International Economic Law at the University of Warwick. She is also the Co-Director of the Centre for Law, Regulation and Governance of the Global Economy (GLOBE) based at Warwick Law School. Celine is a founding member of The IEL Collective, a community for scholars and practitioners interested in critical reflection of the interactions between law and the global economy. She is currently leading a project on Climate Finance for Equitable Transitions (CLiFT), a multi-institutional and multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at exploring the climate finance supply chain within the context of the multilateral climate change regime, international financial architecture and the multi-layered landscape of international economic law. She has published on issues relating to international economic law and development, sovereign debt and the global financial architecture, and sustainable development and climate finance.
H E Wael Aboulmagd
Assistant Minister, Foreign Affairs for Climate, Environment and Sustainable Development Department, Egypt
Wael Aboulmagd is currently Egypt’s ambassador to Brazil, he has held this position since November 2019. He was also the Special Representative of COP27 President for COP 27 in Egypt. He has formerly served as Director of Environmental Affairs and Sustainable Development and Deputy Assistant Minister for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ambassador Aboulmagd is also a former board member of the Green Climate Fund.
Dr Diego Pacheco
David Bailey
Head, Global Climate Finance Department, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, United Kingdom
David Bailey is head of the Global Climate Finance Department at the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Prior to this he spent 12 years working at the Department for International Development. As part of his role, Mr Bailey liaises with international partners to help the UK achieve its goal of ending poverty on a livable planet.
Meena Raman is President of Friends of the Earth Malaysia and Head of Programmes of Third World Network (TWN). She is also Legal Advisor to the Consumers’ Association of Penang in Malaysia. Ms Raman has practised public interest law for over 25 years, representing grassroots communities taking on big corporations in Malaysia. She was a co-founder of Environmental Lawyers Alliance Worldwide (ELAW) and Chair of Friends of the Earth International, which has 72 member groups around the world. Meena served as an 'Active Observer' of the Green Climate Fund from 2012 to 2015, and has actively participated in the UNFCCC negotiations since 2007.
Dr Amiera Sawas
Amiera Sawas is Head of Research and Policy at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty (FFNPT) Initiative. After gaining her PhD in water, climate and human rights in Pakistan, she went on to work for Climate Outreach, ActionAid and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College. She is also a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment report on gender and climate security.
Dr Farwa Sial
Research Associate, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London
Farwa Sial is a Research Associate with the Department of Economics at SOAS University of London. Her research expertise includes political economy of development, development finance in the context of the global financial architecture and the imperial nature of private sector accumulation in the Global South. Her research interests lie in integrating academic research into activism and policy making on a national and multilateral level. She is a management committee member of Association of Heterodox Economics and Diversifying and Decolonising Economics.
Dr Matti Kohonen
Matti Kohonen is a director of the Financial Transparency Coalition. He previously worked at Christian Aid as the Principal Advisor on the Private Sector. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the London School of Economics. He is a founding member of the Tax Justice Network and author of 'Tax Justice: Putting Global inequality on the agenda'. He is actively involved in the Financing for Development (FfD) process at the United Nations.
Senior Lecturer, Essex Law School, Co-Director, Essex Business and Human Rights Project and Honorary Associate Professor at Warwick Law School based at the GLOBE Centre
Anil Yilmaz Vastardis is a Senior Lecturer at Essex Law School and co-director of the Essex Business and Human Rights Project. Her research focuses on the intersection of international investment law, business and human rights, and tort law, exploring how these areas can operationalize human rights standards in global business practices. Dr. Vastardis is particularly interested in the role of investment law in fostering just transitions, particularly in energy and climate finance.
She is a member of New Frontiers in International Development Finance and a Co-Investigator on the BA-funded project Equity and the Global Climate Finance Architecture: An Evaluation of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) Framework. Her current research examines the role of investment law in promoting a just and equitable green transition, with a focus on energy transition, climate finance, and ensuring equity in global climate governance.
Professor Giuliana Battisti
Giuliana Battisti is a Professor of the economics of innovation at Warwick Business School as well as a member of the National Statistical Advisory Group and a former Trustee of the Royal Statistical Society and one of the Fellows, member of the Economic Experts Advisory Group of the Office for National Statistics, contributing to the statistics for the public good and the economic statistics agenda, addressing issues in the definition, production, and collection of economic statistics and economic aggregates. She co-leads the British Network of Industrial Economist (NIE) and has been advising various national and international governmental organisationson innovation and technological change, industrial and innovation policy.
Her research on the diffusion of alternative (green) energy and new technologies, supported by an ESRC/EPSRC fellowship and over 15 grants, has been published in top journals like Research Policy, Energy Economics, and Harvard Business Review.
Dr Frederik Dahlmann
Associate Professor of Strategy and Sustainability, University of Warwick
Dr Lory Barile
Associate Professor of Behavioural Economics, University of Warwick
Lory Barile is an applied behavioral and experimental economist with a research focus on understanding how monetary and non-monetary incentives influence individual behavior and promote pro-environmental habits. Her research examines nudge theory and the impact of incentives on behavioral outcomes. She also has a strong interest in applied economics education, specifically investigating the drivers behind students' attainment gaps and engagement, with a particular focus on those from social mobility backgrounds.
Professor Elena Korosteleva
Professor of Politics and Global Sustainable Development and Director, Institute of Global Sustainable Development, University of Warwick
Elena Korosteleva is a Professor of Politics and Global Sustainable Development, and Director of the Institute of Global Sustainable Development (IGSD) at the University of Warwick. She is also Chair of the Sustainability Spotlight Initiative (SSI) at Warwick and was a member of the Scientific Council for COP29. She is also a Visiting Professor at Oxford University. Professor Korosteleva is a Co-Investigator on the Horizon Europe SHAPEDEM-EU project and the DFF AGMOW project. She is the Principal Investigator for the WUB-hub project and co-founded the Oxford Belarus Observatory.