Valuing Climate & Biodiversity

Leo's experience spans 30 years of developing health and community safety services in government, private and voluntary sectors. He has worked strategically in modelling harm impact costs and improving national and international outcomes for health improvement, murder reduction and counter-terrorism.

From General Practitioner Coordinator with the Maudsley NHS Trust, to Head of Drug and Crime Reduction in the Government Office for London; developing Social and Harm Impact financial models with the UK Treasury; to Business Manager for counter-terrorism in the UK Home Office HQ Strategy and International Directorate; Private Secretary (Chief of Staff) within the Home Office HQ and House of Lords; to Group Director of Business Development and Communications for the Social Interest Group,
Leo’s innovative cost of harm modelling and strategic approach, has founded new health approaches, enhanced national security and transformed sustainability paradigms. He has a history of leading government teams and directing substantial budgets towards national and international delivery.

Gabriel is an Artificial Intelligence young professional. He studied Computing and Robotics at Bristol and went on to study AI at St Andrews University, Scotland. He began his career as a partner in an AI startup and is now working at one of the leading AI firms in the UK to develop the resilience and capability of Large Language Models and Machine Learning.

Gabriel has been instrumental in the development of Total Life Cycle analytic software and the integration of AI into its sustainability modules and agents.

Dr. Mahendra Shah has over four decades of international appointments in the UN, World Bank, Public and Private sector including, sustainable development, systems science and systemic policy, climate change, food security, famine emergency, and international negotiations.

He prepared the Agenda 21 Rio1992 Earth Summit summary report. He was co-authored 2002 Joburg WSSD “Climate Change and Agricultural Vulnerability”, 2000 co-authored World Bank Book “Food in the 21st Century- from Science to Sustainable Agriculture. Realizing that there can be no sustainable development without sustainable human beings since 2005 he has focussed on holistic wellness, lifestyle transformation, and sustainable tourism at Zen Resort Bali – www.zenresortbali.com.

Special Advisor to the CEO of PATA; Professor & Foreign Expert, LSNU School of Tourism, Sichuan Province, China.

John Koldowski is regarded as one of the travel and tourism sector’s leading analysts. John specialises in the capture, analysis and interpretation of information concerning shifts, movements and trends in the travel and tourism industry, particularly those affecting the Asia Pacific region. This includes monitoring statistics on travel movements, tracking policy and legal developments, identifying changes in consumer preferences and destination developments with respect to branding and positioning.

He is a Professor and Foreign Expert within the School of Tourism at Leshan Normal University, Sichuan Province, China, where he continues in his role as a researcher and educator.

Dr. Rusty Brainard is an oceanographer/marine scientist that has spent the past 4 decades leading applied research on various aspects of marine ecosystems, oceanography, biodiversity, fisheries and climate change. He spent 38 years as a commissioned officer (retired as Commander in 2002) and then supervisory oceanographer with the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). From 2001-2019, Dr. Brainard served as founding Chief of NOAA’s Coral Reef Ecosystem Division leading an interdisciplinary team of ~65 scientists in conducting habitat mapping, coral reef ecosystem assessment and monitoring, and applied research to support management and conservation of coral reef ecosystems across the Pacific Islands.

Internationally, Dr. Brainard served as: NOAA’s lead for an ecosystem approach to fisheries management for the 6-country Coral Triangle Initiative and 8-country Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem Project; co-PI for the Int’l Census of Marine Life; and advisor for the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON), the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the UN Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). From 2019 to 2022, Dr. Brainard served as Chief Environmental Sustainability Officer (CESO) for The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC), where he was responsible for ensuring the environmental sustainability of all aspects of The Red Sea and AMAALA regenerative luxury tourism development projects along the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. As CESO, he built and led the Department of Environment and Sustainability’s efforts to develop a science-informed adaptive ecosystem-based management regulatory framework to support TRSDC’s ambitious vision to: 1) enhance environmental conservation value, as measured by biodiversity, by 30%, 2) achieve carbon neutrality, 3) align with all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, 4) achieve zero waste-to-landfill, and many others. Dr. Brainard presently serves: as Courtesy Professor of Marine Science in the Red Sea Research Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST); on the Ocean Visions Marine Circular Bioeconomy Task Force; and as an Expert Consultant on coral reefs with the World Bank.

Dr. Nigel Noriega is the founder and director of Sustainable Innovation Initiatives, a non-profit organization enabling ecologically regenerative and sustainable economies in tropical forest regions.

Dr. Noriega is a former research biologist who has worked at the Society for Conservation Biology, Dept. of Neurobiology Physiology and Behavior at the University of California at Davis, Division of Neuroscience at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, Endocrine Branch of the National Health & Environmental Effects Research Laboratory at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and Laboratory for Integrative Studies in Amphibian Biology at the University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. Pranab J Patar is an award winning environment & sustainability professional with over 20 years of experience on water resources, biodiversity, climate action, alternative livelihood & sustainable tourism issues.

Currently, he is Chief Executive of Delhi based Indo-American environmental charity – Global Foundation for Advancement of Environment & Human Wellness. Also part of the Climate Reality Leadership Corp and has been a member of multiple bodies including IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, ONet Facilitation Team of IPBES (Intergovernmental Science -Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), Responsible Tourism Society of India, International Council for Circular Economy, to name a few.
As a capacity development specialist, he has trained and addressed over 10,000 teachers, students, NGO professionals and corporate executives on key environmental issues. He regularly speaks on sustainability, water resources and changing climate and has been featured across global events/Institutions.
Recent awards include: a recipient of SABERA- Social And Business Enterprise Responsible Award 2021 | Green Future Leadership Award 2021| Water Leadership Award 2021 | Swachhta Satark Nagarik 2021 (Noida Authority) | ICT for Mountain Development Award 2015 | The Change Makers of Assam Award 2020 | Corona Warrior, etc.