The Jury comprises some of the world’s leading figures recognised for championing environmental and climate change issues and solutions.

 

Jury Members 

Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri was elected Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2002. The IPCC, established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is the leading body for the scientific assessment of climate change.

Dr. Pachauri has been the head of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), since it was established in New Delhi 25 years ago. TERI is an Indian institute of excellence working on scientific and technological research and strategic thinking in the fields of energy, environment, forestry, climate change, biotechnology, conservation of natural resources and sustainable development.

 

Dr. Pachauri was adviser to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the fields of energy and sustainable management of natural resources between 1994 and  1999.
 

Dr. Pachauri's wide-ranging expertise has resulted in his membership of various international and national committees and boards of academic, research, civil, professional and corporate institutions. At the international level, he has been President of the Asian Energy Institute since 1992. Among other positions, he has just joined the board of the Global Humanitarian Forum, recently founded by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Toyota Motor Company.

At the national level, he has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, and is currently a member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council on Climate Change. He holds non-functional positions on the Board of Directors of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd., India’s principal energy company and holds a position on the board of the National Thermal Power Corporation, India's largest power producer. He is member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES). He is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Heritage Foundation.

Dr. Pachauri has authored 23 books and contributed to many papers and articles.  He has also authored and published a book of English verse.
 

The fifth President of the Republic of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson was born in Ísafjörður on May 14th 1943. His parents were Grímur Kristgeirsson and Svanhildur Ólafsdóttir Hjartar.

Ólafur Ragnar matriculated from the Reykjavík Grammar School in 1962, took his BA degree in Economics and Political Science at the University of Manchester in 1965 and completed his Ph.D. in Political Science at the same university in 1970, becoming the first Icelander to earn a doctorate in this discipline.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson was appointed a lecturer in Political Science at the University of Iceland in 1970 and created the foundations for the teaching of the subject, then a new addition to the syllabus of the university. In 1973 he was appointed the first Professor of Political Science at the same university and during the period 1970-1988 he built up the Political Science department. In most of his research he focused on the Icelandic governmental system, and on the smaller European democracies, participating with local and international experts in the field.

Early in his career, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson began playing a role in public affairs in Iceland. For example, he directed radio and television programmes in the years 1966-1971 which were an innovation in mass media in Iceland and aroused a great deal of public attention. He was a member of the Young Progressives from 1966 to 1973 and was on the executive committee of the Progressive Party in the years 1971-1973. In 1974 Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson stood as a parliamentary candidate for the Liberal-Left Alliance, taking a seat in the Alþingi as a deputy member in 1974 and 1975.

From 1978 to 1983, Ólafur Ragnar served in the Alþingi as the People’s Alliance member for Reykjavík, and as the same party’s member for Reykjanes from 1991 to 1996. He was chairman of the parliamentary group of the People’s Alliance from 1980 to 1983 and chairman of its executive committee from 1983 to 1987. He was editor of the newspaper Þjóðviljinn from 1983 to 1985, and was elected Leader of the People’s Alliance from 1987-1995. In the years 1988-1991 he was Minister of Finance in a government headed by Steingrímur Hermannsson.

Ólafur Ragnar has been active in various other societies and organizations. He was a member of the Economic Council from 1966 to 1968, the Broadcasting Council from 1971 to 1975. He was Chairman of the Icelandic Social Science Association in 1975, and a member of the board of Landsvirkjun, the leading power company of Iceland, from 1983 to 1988, and a Vice-Chairman of the Icelandic Security Commission from 1979 to 1991.

He was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1981 to 1984 and again in 1995-1996, was a chairman of the preparatory committee for the Council of Europe conference “North-South: the Role of Europe” in 1982-1984 and was Chairman and later President of the international organization Parliamentarians for Global Action from 1984 to 1990, serving on its council until 1996.

Among many international awards he has received is the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize which he received on behalf of PGA. Ólafur Ragnar was a member of the committee of the Peace Initiative of Six Heads of State in the years 1984-1989, and was awarded honorary doctorates by the universities of Ås (Norway) in 1997 and Manchester in 2001.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is the author of a large number of academic articles that have appeared in both Icelandic and overseas periodicals.

On November 14th 1974, he married Guðrún Katrín Þorbergsdóttir (b. August 14th 1934, d. October 12th 1998), daughter of Þorbergur Friðriksson and Guðrún Beck. Their twin daughters (b. 1975) are Guðrún Tinna, a graduate in Business Studies, and Svanhildur Dalla, a graduate in Political Science and a student of Law.

On May 14th 2003, he married Dorrit Moussaieff (b. January 12th 1950), daughter of Shlomo and Alisa Moussaieff.

 

From April 7th 2005 and until present date, Mr. Khaled Irani had been Jordan’s Minister of Environment. Prior to this position he held the post of General Director of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) for six years.

 

He also served as the Head of the Protected Areas Department for nine years and as a research assistant at the University of Jordan between the time periods of October 1986 and January 1989.

 

He holds a Masters Degree in Arid Land Use which he had obtained from the University of Jordan in 1989, and a Bachelors degree in Soil Sciences which he had obtained from the same learning institution in 1986

 

 

Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh is the Chairman of ALDAR properties PJSC, a leading real estate developer in Abu Dhabi. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of Dolphin Energy Limited, a unique strategic energy initiative involved in the production and processing of natural gas from Qatar’s North Field, and transportation of the refined gas by subsea pipeline across joint UAE-Qatari waters to the UAE.

 

Al Sayegh is also a board member of numerous influential private & governmental associations including the UAE Offsets Group (UOG), Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA), Etihad Airways and First Gulf Bank.

 

In addition, Al Sayegh is the Chairman of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (MASDAR). He has worked throughout his career to support many environmental initiatives in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and is also the Managing Director of the Emirates Foundation, a leading philanthropy for social educational, artistic and environmental development in the UAE.

 

With a degree in Economics from the United States, Al Sayegh started his career many years ago at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the national oil company in Abu Dhabi. He has also worked in senior positions at other leading Abu Dhabi government organisations, including the Abu Dhabi Investment Company (ADIC).

  

 

Lord Browne was born in 1948, he joined BP in 1966 as a university apprentice. He holds a degree in Physics from Cambridge University and an MS in Business from Stanford University, California. He has also been awarded Honorary Doctorates from Heriot Watt University (D.Eng) and Robert Gordon University (D.Tech), Dundee University (LLD), Warwick University (D.Sc), Hull University (D.Sc), Cranfield University (D.Sc), Sheffield Hallam University (Hon. D Univ), University of Buckingham (D.Sc), University of Belfast (Hon DSc 0 Eng) and the University of Surrey (Hon D. Univ) (Leuven University, Belgium (D.Sc), Thunderbird (LLD), University of Notre Dame (LLD), Colorado School of Mines (D.Eng), D Mendeleyev University of Chemical Technology of Russia, Arizona State University (DHLitt). He is an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge and a Senior Member of St Antony’s College, Oxford. He is a Fellow and President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, a Fellow of the Institute of Petroleum, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a Companion of the Institute of Management, an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers, an Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society, an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

 

Between 1969 and 1983, he held a variety of exploration and production posts in Anchorage, New York, San Francisco, London and Canada.

 

In 1984 he became Group Treasurer and Chief Executive of BP Finance International.

 

In April 1986, he took up the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Standard Oil Company in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1987, following the BP/Standard merger, in addition to his position as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of BP America, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Standard Oil Production Company.

 

In 1989, he became Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BP Exploration based in London. In September 1991, he joined the Board of The British Petroleum Company p.l.c. as a Managing Director. He was appointed Group Chief Executive on June 10, 1995. Following the merger of BP and Amoco, he became Group Chief Executive of the combined group on December 31, 1998 until 1 May 2007.

 

He is the former Chairman of the Advisory Board of Apax Partners LLC. He was appointed a Trustee of the Tate Gallery on 1 August 2007. He was a non-executive director of Goldman Sachs from 1999 to 2007, a non-executive director of Intel Corporation from 1997 – 2006, a Trustee of The British Museum from 1995-2005, a member of the Supervisory Board of DaimlerChrysler AG from 1998 – 2001 and a non-executive director of SmithKline Beecham from 1996-1999.

 

He is Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Chairman of the Cambridge Judge Business School, President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and Emeritus Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is a Trustee of the Cambridge University Foundation, and a member of the Guild of Cambridge Benefactors. He is a member (and former Chairman) of the British American Business Inc. He is a member of the board of Catalyst; he is an honorary Trustee of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, an honorary counsellor of the Conference Board, Inc., a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, a Trustee of the Eisenhower Fellowship and a Vice President of the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum.

 

In 1999, the Royal Academy of Engineering awarded him the Prince Philip Medal for his outstanding contribution to the field of Engineering. The Stanford Business School Alumni Association presented him with the Ernest C Arbuckle Award in 2001, in recognition of excellence in the field of management leadership. Other awards include the Henry Shaw Medal of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, the Gold Medal of the Institute of Management, the Institute of Energy Melchett Medal (2001), the Society of Petroleum Engineers Public Service Award (2002), the Institution of Chemical Engineers Commemorative Medal (2003), the inaugural Channing Corporate Citizenship Award from British American Business Inc. (2004), the World Petroleum Congress Dewhurst Award (2005), the Dwight D Eisenhower Leadership Award from the Business Council for International Understanding.

 

He was voted Most Admired CEO by Management Today from 1999 – 2002. He was knighted in 1998 and made a life peer in 2001.

Norman Foster was born in Manchester in 1935. After graduating from Manchester University School of Architecture and City Planning in 1961 he won a Henry Fellowship to Yale University, where he gained a Master’s Degree in Architecture.

 

He is the founder and chairman of Foster + Partners. Established in London in 1967, it is now a worldwide practice, with project offices in more than twenty countries. Over the past four decades the company has been responsible for a strikingly wide range of work, from urban masterplans, public infrastructure, airports, civic and cultural buildings, offices and workplaces to private houses and product design. Since its inception, the practice has received 480 awards and citations for excellence and has won more than 86 international and national competitions.

 

Current and recent work include the largest single building on the planet, Beijing Airport, the redevelopment of Dresden Railway Station, Millau Viaduct in France, the Swiss Re tower and the Great Court at the British Museum in London, an entire University Campus for Petronas in Malaysia, the Hearst Headquarters tower in New York, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and research centres at Stanford University, California.

 

Lord Foster became the 21^st Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate in 1999 and was awarded the Praemium Imperiale Award for Architecture in 2002. He has been awarded the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Architecture (1994), the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture (1983), and the Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture (1991). In 1990 he was granted a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, and in 1999 was honoured with a Life Peerage, becoming Lord Foster of Thames Bank.

 

Jeremy Rifkin is president of the Foundation on Economic Trends and the author of seventeen best-selling books on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages and are used in hundreds of universities, corporations and government agencies around the world. His most recent books include The Hydrogen Economy, The European Dream, The End of Work, The Age of Access, and The Biotech Century.
 

Jeremy Rifkin serves as an advisor to the European Union on issues related to the economy, climate change, energy security, and sustainable development. He is currently advising the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Janša, during his presidency of the European Union (January to July 2008). Mr. Rifkin served as an advisor to the Federal Republic of Germany during Chancellor Angela Merkel’s presidency of the European Union (January to July 2007). Mr. Rifkin also served as an advisor to the Prime Minister of Portugal, Jose Socrates, during his presidency of the European Union (July to December 2007). Mr. Rifkin currently serves as an advisor to the European Commission, the European Parliament, and several EU heads of state, including President Jose Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain and Prime Minister Romano Prodi of Italy.
 

Mr. Rifkin’s Sustainable Development Team advises governments and global corporations on the latest in cutting-edge technologies and best practices designed to address the twin challenges of climate change and energy security. The global sustainability team recently contracted with The Conference Board, the world’s preeminent association of global companies, to conduct a series of immersion learning programs on sustainability for managers. The two-day intensive executive education seminars are designed to introduce senior executives to the vast commercial opportunities in the emerging field of sustainable development.
 

Rifkin has been influential in shaping public policy in the United States and around the world. He has testified before numerous congressional committees and has had consistent success in litigation to ensure responsible government policies on a variety of environmental, scientific and technology related issues. He has been a frequent guest on numerous television programs, including Face the Nation, The Lehrer News Hour, 20/20, Larry King Live, Today, and Good Morning America. The National Journal named Rifkin as one of 150 people in the U.S. that have the most influence in shaping federal government policy.
 

Mr. Rifkin has been a fellow at the Wharton School's Executive Education Program since 1994, where he lectures to CEOs and senior corporate management from around the world on new trends in science and technology and their impacts on the global economy, society and the environment.

 

Mr. Rifkin's monthly column on global issues appears in many of the world's leading newspapers and magazines, including The Los Angeles Times in the United States The Guardian in the U.K., Die Süddeutsche Zeitung and Handelsblatt in Germany, Le Soir and Knack in Belgium, L'Espresso in Italy, El País in Spain, Informatíon in Denmark, De Volkskrant in the Netherlands, Hospodárské Noviny in the Czech Republic, Wort in Luxembourg, Eesti Päevaleht in Estonia, Trud in Bulgaria, Clarín in Argentina, and Al-Ittihad in the U.A.E.

Mr. Rifkin holds a degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a degree in international affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Rifkin speaks frequently before government, business, labor and civic forums. He has lectured at hundreds of the world’s leading corporations as well as more than 200 universities in some 30 countries in the past 30 years.
 

Mr. Rifkin is the founder and president of The Foundation on Economic Trends (www.foet.org) in Washington, DC. The Foundation examines the economic, environmental, social and cultural impacts of new technologies introduced into the global economy.