Project Partners:
Lyuba Zarsky is Co-Founder of the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development. Ms. Zarsky directs the Institute’s research and advocacy program on Globalization and Governance, focused on promoting environmental and human rights norms in the governance of international trade and investment. She has written extensively on regional environment, development and governance issues in the Asia-Pacific region and was twice on the U.S. delegation to meetings of APEC Environment Ministers. In her twenty years as an economic analyst and activist, she has directed a number of multi-contributor, multi-national research projects which aimed to both produce the intellectual foundations and nurture the partnerships which catalyze paradigm or policy shifts.
Most recently, she co-directed an Earth Council project examining conflicts over human rights and environmental values involving international actors, including multinational corporations. In the early 1990s, as the Staff Economist for the Australian government’s Commission for the Future, she produced a policy blueprint for a national sustainable development strategy and organized multisectoral dialogues involving business, trade union and environmental groups. She is a frequent consultant to the OECD, US-Asia Environmental Partnerships and others.
Konrad von Moltke works on international environmental relations. Recently his work has focused on environmental policy and international economic relations: debt, trade and development. He has contributed to developing the agenda on trade and environment at global and regional levels. He is a Senior Fellow at World Wildlife Fund in Washington, D.C., Adjunct Professor of Environmental Studies and Senior Fellow of the Institute on International Environmental Governance at Dartmouth College and Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies at the Free University, Amsterdam. From 1989 to 1998, he edited International Environmental Affairs, a journal for research and policy.
Dr. von Moltke studied mathematics at Dartmouth College (B.A. 1964) and medieval history at the University of Munich and the University of Göttingen (Ph.D. 1970). He taught at the State University of New York/Buffalo where he was also a member of the administration, concerned with the development of interdisciplinary undergraduate programs. Six new programs were established during his term as Director of the Collegiate System, including an environmental studies college.
Simon S.C. Tay, LLB Hons (National University of Singapore), LLM (Harvard), teaches international and constitutional law at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. He is a publicly nominated Member of the Singapore Parliament and also Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. His work focuses on the environment, human rights and civil society in Asia. A Fulbright scholar, he won the Laylin Prize at the Harvard Law School for the best thesis in international law.
María Leichner Reynal is the Founder and Executive Director of the Fundación Ecos, a non-profit educational and research center created to promote sustainable development and transform environmental principles into concrete action. She holds a Doctorate in Law, 1987, School of Law and Social Sciences, National University of Litoral, Argentina. Before joining Fundación Ecos, Dr. Leichner Reynal had served as Professor at Buenos Aires University, School of Social Sciences and Economics. She became a Commission Member of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law at the Faculty of Law of McGill University in 2001.
Since 1999, she has consulted for World Wildlife Fund, USA; and worked as a project associate with the Institute for International and Sustainable Development, Canada. She has been invited to participate as expert in the Environmental Sustainability Index (2000-2001) organized by the World Economic Forum. Author of several publications and articles on Mercosur trade, environment and investment policy priorities for WWF Sustainable Commerce Program: Environmental Dimensions on the Mercosur Process (October, 2000), Institutional Organisation of the Mercosur and also she is Co-author of Ecological Rules and Sustainability in the Americas (2001) with IISD.
Miguel Reynal, originally from La Barra de Maldonado, Uruguay, is the founder and Executive President of Fundacion Ecos, a nonprofit educational foundation focused on sustanaible development and environmental management for decision makers in South America. Mr. Reynal was founding president of Fundacion Vida Silvestre Argentina, the foremost Argentine NGO and a WWF Associate Organization, where he serves on the Executive Council and Board of Directors. From 1987 to 1991 he was general representative of the Bank of Indo-Suez for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia, and a Board Member of Save the Rainforests. From 1980 to 1987 Mr. Reynal was Executive Vice President of Lechiguanas, S.A., a land reclamation company. From 1975 to 1980 he was CEO of Austral Airlines, South America’s second-largest private airline, and was CEO of Sol Jet Brazil from 1973 to 1975 and of Sol Jet Argentina from 1970 to 1973.
Mr. Reynal is a recepient of the United Nations Global 500 Environment Award. In 1996 he became a member of the National Council of the WWF US. Mr. Reynal received a B.A. in economics from Harvard University.
Sandy Buffett is the Senior Program Officer in the Nautilus Institute’s Globalization and Governance Program. Prior to joining Nautilus, she coordinated Quantum Leap, a joint project of the National Wildlife Federation and Friends of the Earth, which educates NGOs about the role of private financial flows in global infrastructure and development projects. She also participated in NGO/shareholder dialogue with Wall Street investment banks towards the development of environmental guidelines. As a consultant with the World Resources Institute, she co-authored “Leverage for the Environment: A Guide to the Private Financial Services Industry”. Sandy holds an MA in international development from American University and a BA in political science and environmental studies from Colorado College. She recently completed an Executive Certificate Program in International Finance and Multinational Business at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.