Peter Woodward

Peter Woodward is in high demand across Europe for his skills as an independent facilitator. His engaging personality and thirty years of experience combine to lift the normal conference or workshop experience to new levels of energy and value. He helps both clients and participants achieve outcomes beyond their expectations in a relaxed yet purposeful manner. Based near Bath in the UK, Peter has a particular passion and expertise in designing and running participative processes on issues related to the sustainable development agenda. His clients include the European Commission and national governments, public agencies, businesses, universities and civil society organisations. His interventions range in scale from small group internal strategy sessions to major conferences of up to 1,000 participants. Peter also runs training courses on process design and facilitation skills. Peter trained in urban planning, He has worked in the social sector and for a multinational company and so has wide experience of helping to bridge differing perspectives on issues.

Carlos Moedas

Carlos Manuel Félix Moedas (born 10 August 1970) is a Portuguese civil engineer, economist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), who is the current Mayor of Lisbon.

Carlos Moedas has been the European Commissioner in charge of Research, Science and Innovation from 2014 to 2019. He was previously elected to the National Parliament and became Secretary of State to the Prime Minister of Portugal, responsible for the Portuguese Adjustment Programme, from 2011 to 2014. Moedas founded and ran his own investment company Crimson Investment management from 2008 to 2011, following his experience as Managing Director and member of the Executive Board of the Aguirre Newman real estate firm from 2004 to 2008. Before that, he worked for 4 years on mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs investment bank in London. He worked in engineering for the Suez-Lyonnaise des Eaux group in France until 1998. He completed his final year of studies at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School in the United States and a degree in civil engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa. In March 2021, Carlos Moedas announced his candidacy as Mayor of Lisbon in the 2021 local elections, and was elected on 26 September of the same year, taking office on 18 October 2023.  Currently, he  is President of União das Cidades Capitais de Língua Portuguesa (Union of Portuguese Speaking Capital Cities - UCCLA), President of Casa da América Latina (Latin America House) and Chairman of Associação de Turismo de Lisboa (Lisbon Tourism Association).

Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh

Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh has been the Mayor of the City of Malmö since 2013, and is the first woman to hold the mayor's office in Sweden's third largest city. Katrin currently serves as First Vice President of ICLEI and as Chairman of Procura+. Under Katrin’s leadership Malmö has garnered an international reputation as an open, vibrant and progressive city that aspires to be sustainable – socially, economically and environmentally

Isabel Advirta

Passionate about empowering individuals and shaping a better world, Isabel has dedicated her career to making a difference in Lisboa. As a member of the Lisboa City Council staff, she leverages her expertise in strategic communication, project management, and public policies to drive positive change in the city she loves.

Paula Alves

Paula Alves has been working in the field of participation, climate action, organizational change, and at the last two years in sustainable procurement at the Lisbon Municipality. She is currently the coordinator of the Mission Team for Sustainable Procurement in Lisbon Municipality leading on implementing Sustainable Procurement Policy.

Trine Amundsen

Trine Amundsen is team leader for Responsible worklife in the City of Oslo`s Agency for improvement and development. She is a former legal advisor with experience form several public administrations in the field of public procurement and contract law. She has worked in the City of Oslo since 2012.

Cristhian Aznaran Carmelino

Cristhian Aznaran is a researcher with a degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Alcalá, with a track record in the field of public procurement with sustainable criteria. He is part of the Research Group "Green Public Procurement", University of Alcalá (evaluated three times as High Performance IG) and distinguished by its multidisciplinary approach. Specifically, his speciality is green public procurement in the food sector with a practical approach through the study of procurement processes.

Matthew Baqueriza-Jackson

Matthew Baqueriza-Jackson has spent the last 19 years undertaking research, advisory, and evaluation work across the UK, Europe, and Globally. This work has included activities around: local economic development, regeneration, public procurement, social value, community wealth building, and the social economy. He is a validated expert for the URBACT IV Programme and am currently the Lead Expert for the GenProcure Action Planning Network. Working with the Lead Partner, Vila Nova De Famalicao and 8 other cities, they are seeking to embed considerations of Gender Equality at each of the stages of the Procurement Cycle and to support our partners to change the culture of Public Procurement in their Cities. Historically, he has led on URBACT’s work on strategic procurement and co-designed two online training courses, one on Strategic Public Procurement and the other on Gender Responsive Public Procurement. Aside from URBACT, he is since 2018, the Owner and Director of Matthew Baqueriza-Jackson Ltd, and prior to that he spent 13 years working for the think-tank, the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES).

Izaro Basurko Pérez de Arenaza

Izaro Basurko Pérez de Arenaza has a degree in Environmental Sciences and several master's degrees in education, international cooperation and renewable energies. In recent years, he has been managing research and cooperation projects, and lately in the European mPower project on energy transition at municipal level. Now he works at IHOBE in the area of environmental sustainability and is in charge of the work related to the network of municipalities for sustainability "Udalsarea 2030" and the Green Public Procurement".

Cindy Berman

Cindy Berman is the Director of Impact and Innovation at Electronics Watch, a human rights organisation focused on socially responsible public procurement and worker-driven monitoring in global supply chains. She has championed social justice and worked on human rights issues internationally for over 35 years. She has held senior positions at the UN, in the UK government, multilateral agencies, civil society organisations, multi-stakeholder initiatives, philanthropies, academic institutions and worked as an independent consultant. She is a Senior Associate at the University of Cambridge on the Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Business. She holds master's degrees from University College London and Witwatersrand University in South Africa.

Marisol Bernal

Marisol Bernal has specialised knowledge in sustainability and public procurement, including environment, human rights, social value and procurement regulations and procedures. She previously worked as Responsible Procurement Lead at the London Universities Purchasing Consortium, where she developed and implemented the responsible procurement strategic plan, which included supply chain due diligence, the assessment and assistance for supplier and members commitment to combat modern slavery, and the investigation of opportunities for collaborative work with external bodies. She has assisted higher education, and other not-for-profit organisations in the arts, science, charity, and wider public sector by embedding responsible procurement within their sourcing processes.

Sara Barroso

Sara Barroso graduated in Law in 2011. She began joining the portuguese bar association, completing internships and exams successfully. She has been a lawyer since 2014 with her own office. She holds a master's degree and also has various training and postgraduate degrees in contract and business law, health management, administrative law and public procurement. In 2021, she joined the municipal council of Vila Nova de Famalicão where holds the position of jurist in the area of ​​public procurement, monitoring all public procurement processes and drafting contracts. She is also participating in the GenProcure program together with a team from the municipality and the lead expert Matthew Baqueriza-Jackson.

Fernando Batista

Fernando Batista is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Public Markets, Real Estate and Construction, I.P. (IMPIC, I.P.). He graduated in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. Representative of the Portuguese State in expert groups on public procurement at the European Commission Portuguese State representative on the European Council competitiveness group Agent for the Portuguese government in cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union relating to public procurement Trainer at various organisations, including the Court of Auditors and the General Inspectorate of Finance Assistant professor at the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences on the Public Administration degree programme. Guest lecturer at the Instituto Superior Militar. Speaker at various congresses, conferences and workshops. Expert for the Public Prosecutor. Office in the area of public procurement from 2008 until 2021. Author of scientific articles on public procurement.

Mahmood Bhutta

Mahmood Bhutta is co-founder of the International Working Group on Ethical Public Procurement and in particular has a longstanding interest in environmental and labour rights harms caused by medical supply chains.

Erika Bozzay

Erika Bozzay works as a senior policy adviser at the Infrastructure and Public Procurement Division at the OECD. She joined the OECD in 2014 and currently she is leading different works streams on strategic public procurement, such as gender-responsive procurement, green public procurement or professionalisation of the procurement workforce. In 2020-2022, she was co-leading the OECD Programme on RBC and Public Procurement. Before joining her current division, she worked for the SIGMA programme, a joint initiative of the OECD and the EU and led SIGMA’s procurement professional team. Prior to joining OECD, she worked in her country’s civil service for more than 12 years, in the final years as State Secretary in the Ministry of National Development and Economy.
 

Carolien Brinks

Carolien Brinks works as a Senior Policy Officer Sustainable Public Procurement at the Sustainable Environment & Circular Economy department within the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. In her role she oversees amongst others, various partnerships such as the international Circular and Fair ICT Pact (CFIT), the national Circular Procurement Platform as well as Dutch Buyer Groups focused on circular economy and climate neutrality in various sectors. She also participates in the European Commission’s GPP Advisory Group. Previously, Carolien held various roles connected to sustainability, in both the private and public sector.

Valentina Caimi

Valentina Caimi has been working on socially responsible public procurement (SRPP) for more than 15 years. In 2018 she founded her consultancy, LinkinEurope. Currently Project Manager of an EC service contract aimed at organising training on SRPP in 12 Member States and carrying out an EU-wide communications campaign; senior expert in the Green Public Procurement Helpdesk. Previously, Scientific coordinator and main author of the European Parliament’s study on SRPP; Project Manager of the EC Buying for Social Impact project and of the European Institute for Gender Equality’s project on gender-responsive public procurement; one of the main authors of ‘Making socially responsible public procurement work. 71 good practice cases’; member of the EC Expert Group on Social Entrepreneurship and the one on public procurement. At Social Platform, she led the policy and advocacy work to influence the negotiations on the public procurement directive and main author of the guide ‘Public procurement for social progress’.

Liesbeth Casier

Liesbeth leads the work on sustainable public procurement with the Infrastructure & Finance Program at IISD. She holds more than 8 years of expertise on public procurement and sustainable development. She leads IISD's research and advisory services to governments to use public procurement strategically to deliver the SDGs. Liesbeth furthermore provides training on green and sustainable public procurement and represents IISD at the OECD Working Group on Leading Practitioners on Public Procurement. Liesbeth is also Coordinator of IISD's Nature Based Infrastructure Centre, where she works with the Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) methodology to make the case for investing in nature. In this capacity, she has been building new partnerships with national governments, cities, CSOs, IFIs and project developers to plan, procure, value, finance and implement NBI projects.

Laurence Cesbron

At RESECO since 2006, Laurence Cesbron is involved in implementing actions in order to help public entities to integrate sustainable, social and economic requirements in public purchsases. Laurence Cesbron knows well the topic and could give some advices about tools, strategies, politics to help public entities to take action.

Angéline Chartier

Angéline Chartier is a Doctor in human Geography from the University of Bordeaux. Angeline worked for the French international cooperation in Haiti to support municipalities in the implementation of the decentralisation at the local level. Then, she became researcher by conducting a PhD about the (mal)functioning of development assistance by the transfers and appropriations of standardized political models of development. She continued her research and worked for different universities in France about the (international to local) governance of the ecological and energy transition issues in Africa, but also in Europe (France and in the Netherlands). Since 2022, she’s working for the Public Administration and Policy group at Wageningen University for the European CREATE project, focusing on co-creating circular economy governance arrangements on 4 cities: Göteborg (Sw), Rennes Métropole (Fr), Vienna (Aus) and in Nijmegen (NL).

Tudor Cherhat

Tudor Cherhat is the Programme Manager at Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS), overseeing campaign and advocacy efforts focused on Green Public Procurement for construction products. He has an academic background in civil engineering and holds a PhD in international relations and European studies. He has several years of experience in the construction and waste management industry, primarily within the private and civil-society sectors.

Bernard Cino

Educated at Wageningen Agricultural University, Bernard Cino worked for many years with and for NGO's in Africa. He joined the Dutch Ministry for the Environment in 2005, and since 2017 is involved in SPP policy.

Ana Coelho

Delfina Curi

Delfina Curi joined ICLEI in July 2022 as a Public Procurement expert within the Sustainable and Innovation Procurement team. She has worked for both the private and public sector. In her work at ICLEI as an expert she works on different projects on green public procurement (GPP) and socially responsible public procurement (SRPP). In her previous job, where she worked as a public procurement lawyer, Delfina was involved in all stages of public procurement procedures for complex and high profile goods, services and public works.

Francesca D'Addario

After her Master Degree in "Food System Management" at the AmlaMater Studiorum, University of Bologna Francesca D'Addario joint ICLEI Europe in the Sustainable Food System Team. She is working on research and innovation projects related to the sustainable transition of urban food systems.

José Fernando da Silva Ferreira

José Fernando da Silva Ferreira is a Portuguese electrotechnical engineer, having graduated in 1974. He worked in several countries (Angola, Germany, Macau) before joining Lisbon City Council in 2000. From 2000 to 2011 he held several management positions at CML: Head of the Lighting Public Division, Municipal Director of Local Intervention, Municipal Director of the Urban Environment and Municipal Director of Projects and Works. In 2011 he was chosen to be part of UCCLA, Union of Capital Cities of Portuguese Language, having developed and coordinated several projects in S. Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde and Angola, in the area of Urban Solid Waste and Sanitation, with European funds. José is currently working (since 2014) as Coordinator of the Team EPPGDL at Lisbon Municipality, launching and managing a public tender and works for the Lisbon Drainage Master Plan (the biggest in Lisbon, 133M€, in progress).

Michiel Edens

With a rich tapestry of over 20 years' experience in procurement, European tendering, organizational development, and process optimization, Michiel Edens seamlessly traverses roles as a strategy consultant and project manager. Thriving in complex and dynamic environments, he specializes in projects fostering sustainable impacts on organizations. His approach blends data-driven strategies with creativity, effecting structural enhancements across strategic, tactical, and operational levels. Having worked at organizations such as Ministry of Internal Affairs, Custodial Institutions Agency, Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets and Accenture.

Sharmila Erizaputri

Sharmila Erizaputri is currently engaged as a researcher focusing on Green Public Procurement at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). Previously, she worked as a policy planner at the Indonesian Ministry of National Development Planning, concentrating on trade, investment, and international economic cooperation. Currently based in Sweden, she holds a master's degree in Economic Development from Lund University.

Chiara Falvo

Chiara Falvo is a SAPIENS Network Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow and a PhD Student in Law at the University of Turin, where she is researching the topic of Sustainable Public Food Procurement for Schools in the EU. As part of her research, she worked as a Food Procurement Assistant at the Education Division of the Department of Dordogne, in France, and was a visiting researcher at the Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO) in Copenhagen and the School of Agriculture (ISA) of the University of Lisbon. She previously obtained a Master’s Degree in Law from the University of Milan, during which she completed an Erasmus+ exchange in Paris and a research exchange in Rio de Janeiro.

Filipe Ferreira

Filipe Ferreira is currently Metropolitan Secretary at Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML), Invited Auxiliary Professor at ISCSP-Lisbon University and collaborative researcher at Centre for Public Administration and Public Policies, a research unit of the Institute of Social and Political Sciences of Lisbon University. Filipe Ferreira has a PhD in Public Administration – Administration and Public Policies from ISCSP. He was co-coordinator of the AML 2030 Regional Strategy and AML Metropolitan Plan to Support Deprived Communities and LMA focal point regarding ESPON METRO consortium. Currently is working in the implementation of 2030 EU funding period, on Financing Opportunities for the socio-economic development of the region and in the Recovery and Recuperation Program projects. He is also coordinating AML Food Transition Strategy and is focal point regarding FoodLink - AML Food Transition Network. It is AML focal point regard EU Mission Adaptation. It is also co-coordinator of the Funding Working Group” within EU Urban Agenda Greening Cities Partnership.

Barton Finn

Barton Finn coordinates the EU purchaser support and engagement activities of TCO Development, the organization behind TCO Certified - the world-leading sustainability certification for IT products. He specifically focuses on helping EU institutions and purchasing organizations in the Benelux and French-speaking Europe to drive environmental and social responsibility through their IT tenders. His areas of expertise span technology, (public) procurement and sustainability. Before joining TCO Development, he previously worked for the European Parliament and, more recently, as part of the government affairs department of a major IT company. Barton holds a Master's degree in PR, communication and European affairs.

Mónica Giménez

Mónica Giménez graduated in Business Administration and Management at University of Alcalá (hence UAH) in 2002, specializing in Business Strategy. She also earned an Expert in University Teaching (University Specific Degree) in 2007, Doctorate in Economic and Business Sciences in 2008, and Master's in University Teaching in 2010, all in UAH. Received an award in 2018 for her quality teaching. She is member of the Green Public Procurement Research Group, currently involved in a National Research Project Green Public Procurement: A Strategic Tool Against Climate Change. Sectoral Analysis: Food, Construction, Mobility, and Depopulation and PI of a UAH Research Project also related to GPP. She also has published numerous academic contributions in different platforms related to different research lines. She coordinates the SUPREMA Teaching Innovation Group since its creation in 2007. She has participated in numerous educational innovation projects.

Shela Gobertina von Trapp

Shela Gobertina von Trapp is GEC’s Director of Global Relation. She also represents GEC as a founding partner to the Circular Electronics Partnership (CEP). Shela brings 20 years of sustainability experience, spanning the nonprofit, government, and corporate sectors. Prior to GEC, she spent a decade at a retail Fortune 500 company where she was recognized for her contributions toward the development of the office supply industry’s first comprehensive product green rating system and first green reporting analysis tool for customers. She was also significant in the company being awarded the #1 Greenest Large Retailer in America by Newsweek’s Green Rankings three years in a row, as well as assisting on the first Gold-certified LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance in a retail setting. Shela holds a Masters in Energy & Environmental Analysis from Boston University. During her collegiate years, she interned at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in Washington, DC.

Beatriz Gomez Farinas

Beatriz Gómez Fariñas is a senior legal procurement consultant at CORVERS. Previously she was a lecturer at the University of Vigo, Spain, and was involved as a researcher in different European institutions (including Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, German Research Institute for Public Administration, University of Nottingham, and Nottingham Trent University). She has wide experience in the field of public procurement law, where she has published several articles and contributed to edited volumes, as well as participating in international conferences. Since August 2021, Beatriz has been involved in several EU-funded innovation procurement projects that CORVERS supports, including the EAFIP initiative, PREVENT PCP, Procure4Health, PROTECT and IMPRESS PCP.
 

Pauline Göthberg

Pauline Göthberg has over 10 years of experience in public administration and is the national coordina¬tor for the Swedish Regions work on sustainable public procurement. She holds a PhD in Business Administration from the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.

Silke Guggenbichler-Fellner

Since 2018 Silke Guggenbichler- Fellner works for the Austrian Competence Center for Innovation Procurement (IÖB-Servicestelle) at the Austrian Federal Procurement Agency (BBG). She is senior project manager and responsible for international relations and projects. One of her projects was the EU-project “Procure2Innovate” where existing Competence Centers for innovation procurement shared their knowledge, exchanged best practice examples and supported new ones to establish. Out of this project the P2I Network of Competence Centers emerged.  Furthermore, she advises public buyers to procure innovative products or services. She previously worked for the Economic Chamber of Carinthia in the Foreign Trade Department and EU-Affairs, as a project manager for different EU and national projects. She holds a master degree in the Studies of International Business at the University of Economics.

Ingebjørg Harto

Ingebjørg Harto is Director and Program Manager for The National Supplier Development Program, LUP, the leading actor on Innovative Public Procurement in Norway. She is a trained lawyer and has worked as a business lawyer for many years. As Legal Director in the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) – the leading business organisation in Norway, she was responsible for NHOs work on public procurement in general. She has participated in numerous governmental legislation committees and is an experienced board member and chair. Before she joined LUP she headed the NHO Brussels office.

Mark Hidson

Mark joined ICLEI – Local Government for Sustainability in 2003. He is a member of ICLEI Europe’s Board of Directors and responsible for ICLEI’s Sustainable Economy and Procurement work. For 28 years he has worked for, and on behalf of, local, regional and national governments in project, policy and strategy development on sustainability issues such as procurement, smart cities, innovation, business and city interaction, climate change and transport. Mark has a BSc (Hons) degree in Environmental Science and a Masters in Environmental Management.

Johannes Hiemstra

Johannes Hiemstra is a career professional in public procurement with fifteen years of experience in the field. He has worked as a buyer in construction, IT, facility management and professional services in the Netherlands as well as the Czech Republic, Belgium and Norway. Besides being a practitioner, he advises on procurement policy and teaches various procurement-related topics. Mr Hiemstra specializes in sustainable public procurement and collaborative / relational contracting. What fascinates him is how to leverage public procurement in making the world a better place.

Arthur Hinsch

Arthur Hinsch works at ICLEI- Local Governments for Sustainability, European Secretariat as Senior Expert in the Sustainable Energy Systems team. He focuses on promoting collective energy action and the socially-inclusive uptake of renewable energy infrastructure with a particular emphasis on the role of local governments. This includes policies addressing energy communities, energy poverty, just transition processes as well as assessing the application of hydrogen technologies in urban context. Arthur is part of the Covenant of Mayors Office bringing together signatory cities to engage in peer-learning and capacity building around climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. He support projects within the ICLEI Action Fund and regularly acts as trainer, speaker and moderator.

Paul Louis Iske

Paul is founder and CFO (Chief Failure Officer) of the ‘Institute of Brilliant Failures’, with the mission to highlight the importance of experimentation to achieve paradigm shifts and breakthrough innovation. He is Visiting Professor Knowledge-driven Innovation at the Department of Information Science, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Paul is Chairman of the Dutch Personalised Healthcare Catalyst Foundation, with the mission to accelerate the transition towards personalided, data-driven healthcare. He is an international author, consultant, and speaker on innovation, entrepreneurship, knowledge management and creativity. He spent 18 years as Chief Dialogues Officer, Head of Innovation and Knowledge Management at ABN AMRO Bank. Before that, he finished his PhD in Theoretical Physics and fulfilled a number of jobs in Strategy and R&D at Shell.

Mervyn Jones

Mervyn is a circular economy and circular procurement specialist at the Rijkswaterstaat in the Netherlands. He has a background over 25 years in sustainability, circular economy and resource efficiency. He has provided circular procurement technical support, mentoring and training to the UN One Planet Network Sustainable Public Procurement and Sustainable Buildings & Construction programmes and on the EU Urban Agenda programme and the EU Interreg CircPP project and on a number of EU projects (CircPP, Interreg ProCirc and Horizon2020 CityLoops). Technical areas include infrastructure and construction, plastics, food and circular procurement.

Kęstutis Kazulis

For more than 10 years was working as a head of Public procurement department in Kaunas Clinical hospital, which was one of the first public entities’ to start green public procurements back in 2018. In 2021 joined Public Procurements office as Principal advisor, where the main tasks are overseeing Sustainable procurements department (which also acts Sustainable public procurements competence centre in Lithuania) and Electronic procurements department (which is responsible for national e-procurement system, specialists testing system, consultation platform). Furthermore, a lecturer at Mykolas Riomeris university where gives lectures on SPP to Public procurements master’s program students.

Espen Kringlen

Espen Kringlen works in the Bodø municipality in Northern Norway. His main field is green competitiveness; developing more sustainable business practices and circular value chains. Previous experience includes working with oil and gas infrastructure, construction works, sales and procurement.

Jorge Laguna-Celis

Jorge Laguna-Celis is the Head of the One Planet Network, hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Based in Paris, The One Planet Network is a global community of practitioners, policymakers and experts working to accelerate the implementation of SDG 12: ensuring sustainable patterns of consumption and production. Jorge has previously worked for the United Nations in multiple capacities and possesses 20 years of experience in intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder processes, global sustainable development policies and sustainable development governance. Jorge holds an MA degree in International Trade from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (SciencesPo) Paris, alongside being an author of several publications and books on issues related to international affairs and sustainable development. His latest book entitled "From Rio+20 to a New Development Agenda: Building a Bridge to a Sustainable Future", was published in 2014 by Routledge.

Ida Laustsen

Ida Laustsen has worked six years with innovative procurement in LUP (Programme for Supplier Development in Norway). Since 2010, LUP has assisted municipals and government agencies in 274 procurements and developed the method for innovative public procurement. Ida has worked with municipalities in the Oslo region and with scaling and spreading innovations. Ida is team lead on scaling solutions through Find solutions and is project manager for greener maritime supplier development and export. Her background is from European studies, and her professional background is from the media industry.

Juni Lexau

Juni Lexau has oworked as a specialist of social responsibility in procurement in the City of Bergen for many years. She has a Master in sociology and has wide experience within topics like working conditions, apprentices, social inclusion, human rights and environmental topics. She's happy to share and happy to learn from others.

Eleni Lianou

Eleni Lianou is a Supreme Court Lawyer and Research Associate at the Center for Security Studies of the Hellenic Ministry of Citizen Protection (KEMEA). She has 20 years working experience on procurement law as senior legal consultant of Greek and European public authorities, providing legal services and technical assistance related to the implementation of EU funded projects and public procurement at European and national levels, including public procurement of R&D and innovation and green public procurement. As Research Associate at KEMEA, she has been involved in several PCPs and PPIs projects. She is appointed by the European Commission, as innovation procurement expert to assist with assignments that include, inter alia, the evaluation of proposals and monitoring of projects. She is acting as guest speaker at Seminars "Strategic Public Procurement (SPP) in EU Funded Programmes 2021-2027" organised by EIPA.

Ivo Locatelli

Since joining the European Commission in 1991, Ivo Locatelli has worked in several departments. He is a Senior expert and the Team leader of the Strategic Procurement Team in the unit of DG GROW in charge of Public Procurement Policy. In DG Entreprise, he worked in the team of the economic advisor to the Director-General and for the unit in charge of relations with Japan. In DG CNECT, he took part in the negotiation of regulatory framework on electronic communications of 2009 and on the liberalisation of the telecom sector. In 2012 he moved to DG GROW to join the unit in charge of innovative and digital procurement, and then to deal with strategic procurement. Ivo has published several articles on public procurement policy and telecoms regulation. He has been regularly teaching public procurement policy inter alia at BBG’s Academy and in the Public Procurement of Excellence Programme.

Jean-Marc Louvin

Jean-Marc Louvin is a Sustainable Food Systems expert at ICLEI ES. He works on the Buy Better Food Campaign, an EU-wide advocacy campaign on sustainable public food procurement, the EU project CULTIVATE on food sharing initiatives and represents ICLEI ES within the EU Food Policy Coalition. Following a Master's in Philosophy and an LLM in Comparative Law, Economics and Finance, he worked as a project manager for Eating City before becoming a PhD researcher at the University of Antwerp working on the topic of food as a commons and property.

Hanna-Mari Juvonen

Coming from the water sector, Hanna-Mari Juvonen, M.Sc. (Tech.), first got to know the world of public procurement through an EU-funded project focusing on zero-emission construction sites. Currently she works for the City of Helsinki, promoting sustainable and low-carbon procurements and coordinating the Canemure-project. Helsinki is committed to environmental, social, and economic responsibility in its procurement and according to the City of Helsinki Procurement Strategy, the procurements must be effective, responsible and climate smart.

Ximena Lazo Vitoria

Ximena Lazo Vitoria is a Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Alcalá, she has an extensive and recognised career in the field of public procurement, with green procurement being one of her most important areas of specialisation. In 2017 she created and since then coordinates the Research Group "Green Public Procurement", University of Alcalá (evaluated three times as High Performance IG) and distinguished by its multidisciplinary approach. She is the Director of the collective book "Green Public Procurement and Climate Change", Atelier 2022.

Andrea MacLean

Andrea Mac works within the Social Value Unit at the Strategic Investment Board (SIB) leading on the sustainable procurement approach for public sector IT contracts in Northern Ireland. She works alongside procurement teams and commissioners to design and draft sustainability requirements, deliver training, evaluate tender responses and provide advice and guidance post award to contract managers, suppliers and third sector organisations. Most recently, Andrea was involved in operationalising Public Procurement Note (01/21) which mandates that over threshold tenders must include a minimum of 10% of the total award criteria to score social value. Andrea also undertook the role of Fellow of Practice for Social Value at the University of Oxford in 2021. Prior to joining SIB, Andrea advised private sector organisations on their tender strategies and developed winning tender responses, with a particular focus on sustainability. Andrea is also a barrister and Board member a social enterprise.
 

Elisabeth Muller

Elisabeth is Senior International Account Manager for the CO2 Performance Ladder (CO2PL), coordinating implementation in European countries and, with the International Team, on a mission to help countries and regions meet their climate goals through the power of green procurement. Elisabeth has broad international experience as a sustainability advisor, leadership coach and policymaker.

Gonçalo Negrão

Gonçalo Negrão is a professor and dean at the Instituto Piaget's Technology and Management School. Gonçalo has a procurement background that started in 1999 in the energy sector and from 2003 in the public sector, where he led the digital transition into e-procurement at the Portuguese Government. Since 2006, as a consultant, he has led international procurement strategy and open innovation projects for both public and private sectors. Since 2020, Gonçalo has been a procurement adviser at Lisbon Municipality, working closely with the procurement team in innovation and digital transformation projects. Gonçalo is a Public Procurement Excellence Programme alumnus and a Public Buyers Community Platform member, supported by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. Gonçalo is an adviser in innovation and digital procurement for the OECD.

Lucy Neville

Lucy Neville is currently working in the field of responsible procurement and social value at the Greater London Authority (GLA). Her role involves supporting the GLA Group in the implementation of the Mayor’s Responsible Procurement Policy specifically focusing on delivery of programmes to deliver environmental and sustainability outcomes within the supply chain.

Helena O'Rourke-Potocki

Helena O'Rourke-Potocki is a procurement expert at ICLEI Europe. She contributes circular public procurement expertise to various EU-funded projects. She works with local authorities and public procurers from across Europe to better understand how to public procurement can be used as a strategic tool to support circular economy objectives. She previously worked as a Policy Research Officer for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, where she analysed circular economy-related policies and developed a circular public procurement framework for city governments. She has also worked for the EPC, a Brussels-based think-tank, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional and Urban policy, Politico Europe and the former Polish Ministry of Infrastructure and Development, covering climate, energy, environmental, regional policy and the circular economy. She holds an MSc in Environment and Development from LSE and a BA in Political Science and Geography from Trinity College Dublin.

Fabienne Pierre

Fabienne Pierre is the Lead Coordinator of the One Planet Network Programmes and Initiatives in the United Nations Environment Programme, Secretariat of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production. She aims at facilitating cooperation amongst key players (governments, UN agencies, private sector, NGOs) for the design and uptake of science-based and innovative policies, standards and practices in high-impact sectors, leveraging demand-based approaches and solutions, including sustainable public procurement. Fabienne Pierre holds a master’s in political studies and a Ph.D. in Social Sciences and has nearly 20 years of experience in international relations, sustainable development, partnerships building and programme management.

Evelin Piirsalu

Evelin Piirsalu works as a researcher at Stockholm Environment Institute Tallinn Centre. Her main area of interest is sustainable consumption and production. Evelin works on environmental management-related issues, such as environmental management systems, including various environmental management tools, such as European Environmental and Auditing System (EMAS), Green Office, Green Key, and ecolabels. Her recent focus has been on green and circular public procurement, food waste and sustainable school food, including food and catering service procurement. She has been part of several international green public procurement-related projects. Learn more about her recent work here. Evelin holds a doctoral degree in Social and Economic Geography.

Maria João Pinto

Maria João Pinto has been working in very different areas, contributing with her skills and innate passion for challenges that activate creativity, collaboration and well-being in teams. Among other things, she is currently responsible for the Public Procurement Intranet and part of the Mission Team for Sustainable Procurement in Lisbon Municipality.

Janez Potočnik

Dr Janez Potočnik is an economist, graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He served as Director of the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development in Ljubljana. He was appointed Head of Negotiating Team for Accession of Slovenia to the EU and served as Minister responsible for European Affairs. In 2004 he joined the European Commission as Commissioner responsible for Science and Research. In 2010 he became Commissioner for Environment. After the mandate he was appointed as a Co-Chair of UNEP Environment International Resource Panel. Among others, he is also Partner at SYSTEMIQ.

Joan Prummel

As a strategic circular economy advisor, Joan has over 10 years of experience in stimulating and accelerating the international circular economy. As a programme manager he was involved in implementing circular economy in the daily operations of the Dutch national government since 2010 and later he became the first category manager for waste management contracts for the government. Joan was one of the original founders of the European learning networks on circular economy that stimulate local implementation and accelerate international development at the same time, using (public) procurement as a powerful lever. Joan's mission is to accelerate the international uptake of circular economy, in and outside of Europe. His focus is on international collaboration, creating awareness of circular opportunities; accelerating their implementation; developing partnerships, programmes and projects that support implementation of circular principles; and stimulating value chain collaboration (designer-producer-(re)user-recycler) and international exchange of knowledge and experiences.

Jai Krishna Ranganathan

Jai Krishna works with the European Environmental Bureau as Zero Pollution Industry expert and is focussing on scaling the demand for green steel and low carbon cement demand in public procurement. He has over 10 years of experience managing campaigns in India and Central Eastern Europe on a wide range of issues like organic agriculture, the water- energy nexus and decarbonising the power sector. Jai's work involves connecting a wide range of stakeholders and bridging diverging views to find workable solutions. Over the last five years, Jai worked closely on EU policies on industrial emissions, environmental liability and now on industrial decarbonisation of carbon intensive sectors via public procurement. He is based in Brussels and has a background in physics. He is passionate about free and open-source software and is determined to improve the reporting of Green Public Procurement at an EU level.

Johan Rodenhuis

Johan Rodenhuis works for the Dutch central government within the procurement category ICT Workspace. He strives to create meaningful impact by focusing on all sustainability related aspects (e.g. environment, circular economy, human rights and ethics) in combination with his knowledge on (green sustainable and circular) procurement and category management. He is one of the early birds interested in the topic of sustainable procurement of ICT (since 2008), loves to share his experiences and learn from people, governments and organisations worldwide. Sustainability should be the starting point, no longer just an option.

Paula Rodrigues

Paula Mota Rodrigues is a Livestock Engineer, with a master's degree in Environmental Engineering and a specialty in Organic Farming. She’s a Senior Technician on the Municipality of Torres Vedras, and integrates the Food Area of the Education Department. She’s connected to several projects related to Agriculture and Food Development, and is responsible for the managing of the school gardens integrated into the Sustainable Food School Program set up by the municipality in 2014.

Tim Rudin

Tim Rudin has been working in the field of responsible procurement and social value at the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Transport for London (TfL) for more than fifteen years. He is currently head of the GLA Group Central Responsible Procurement Team, leading on implementing the Mayor’s Responsible Procurement Policy to create social value in the Group’s £9bn+ annual spend.

Antonis Saoulidis

Antonis is a Supreme Court lawyer - member of the Thessaloniki Bar Association. He
has 20 years working experience on Procurement law as senior legal consultant of public authorities and private entities, including the Greek Intermediary Body of the operational program “Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship”. He is Research Associate at the Center for Security Studies (KEMEA) involved in innovation procurement projects (PCPs, PPIs). He is appointed as an independent expert by the Council of Europe on participatory democracy, and the European Commission on the evaluation of proposals and review of projects on innovation procurement.

Dominique Sandy

Dominique Sandy is a senior expert and the lead of the Sustainable and Innovation Procurement team at ICLEI Europe. He is the head of a team of experts dedicated to advancing the use of public procurement as a strategic tool to enable cities to meet environmental targets and their other organisational objectives. He has worked across the topics of green, circular, sustainable and socially responsible public procurement and is motivated by cities using public funds to meet their needs while tackling the climate crisis. Dominique has a background in waste management and is a member of the chartered institute of wastes management. Previously in his career he has supported cities in the delivery and procurement of their environmental services.

Martin Scherpenisse

Martin Scherpenisse is an experienced public procurement manager with focus on developing sustainable procurement policy. Worked on projects for circular buildings and realised a database for bio-based materials. Martin Scherpenisse has won the Procura+ Award in 2021.

Valentina Schippers-Opejko

Valentina Schippers-Opejko is Coordinator of the Urban Agenda Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement, Chair of the Eurocities Working Group on Public Procurement and expert on public procurement. In 2021 she has been Coordinator of the Circular Procurement working group of Metropolis Region of Amsterdam. She has 23 years of experience and still working for a public authority. She is motivated to share her experience and to push forward public procurement as a strategic tool to accelerate innovation, circular economy, sustainability, economic recovery, energy transition and other challenges public authorities are dealing with.

Lucas Schmitz

Lucas Schmitz works on hazardous substances in consumer products and construction materials. With a background in climate science and oceanography, Lucas Schmitz sees the reduction of hazardous substances in products and buildings as a prerequisite for achieving a circular economy and thus advancing climate change mitigation. At the Baltic Environmental Forum, he works on projects aimed at including climate, circularity and chemical criteria in procurement documents.

Ekaterina Smid-Gankin

Ekaterina Smid-Gankin actively promotes SPP and implements strategic circular procurement practices at both national and international levels. She collaborates with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management through Rijkswaterstaat, contributing to the establishment of a robust (inter)national network for advancing circular procurement initiatives. With a background as an experienced sustainability consultant, Ekaterina brings practical insights and market expertise developed through collaborative efforts with a diverse range of stakeholders. Her academic pursuits have focused on environmental economics, circular design, and business models during her studies in the Netherlands and Germany.

Abby Semple

Abby Semple has over 16 years of experience in advising public bodies on strategic and legal aspects of procurement. Her main focus is on the environmental and social impact of public contracts and how these can be meaningfully addressed through the contracting process. Abby has managed complex tenders on behalf of public sector clients in Ireland and the UK, and worked on the development of policy, guidance and criteria across Europe. Read more about Public Procurement Analysis.

Valentina Shabaj

Valentina Shabaj works as a Policy Officer, Seconded National Expert in Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) in the unit responsible for Proximity, Social Economy and Creative Industries. She is responsible for overseeing the different initiatives within socially responsible public procurement in her unit. She formerly worked in Denmark for the Ministry of Employment, where she contributed to the creation of national policies and guidelines for oversight in the employment sector, especially in relation to labor laws and social responsibility provisions in public contracts.

Sandra Simões

Sandra Simões has a degree in Economics (1994) from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra and an MBA in Accounting, Finance and Public Management from ISCAD (2018). Since 10 May 2021, she has been member of the Board of the Institute of Public Markets, Real Estate and Construction, I.P. (IMPIC). Since October 2021, she has also been Director of the portuguese Competence Centre for Public Procurement Innovation (PROCURE+i). In the last 10 years, she has held positions as a Public Manager in the area of Culture, as a member of the Boards of Directors of the D. Maria II National Theatre and OPART (São Carlos National Theatre and National Ballet Company) and as a middle manager at the Inspectorate-General for Education and Science.

Franziska Singer

Franziska Singer is an independent consultant, trainer and facilitator in the field of sustainable public procurement. She speaks at conferences, designs events and does research in Germany and internationally, including in Latin America, Africa Southeast Asia and the Western Balkans. In all her work, she focuses on impact, improving working conditions along the supply chain or reducing actual waste She works both on strategy and implementation and it is important to her to get all relevant stakeholders involved, be it politicians, administrative staff or civil society. When drafting guidance or other input, she ensures it is practical and can be applied in day-to-day work. German and English are both her mother tongues, as she grew up bilingual. She also has a conversational command of French, Spanish and Bosnian / Serbian / Croatian, and basic knowledge of Indonesian.
 

Sarah Sinnathamby

Sarah Sinnathamby develops sustainable public procurement guidelines and criteria for Norwegian contracting authorities and guide contracting authorities regarding circular public procurement. She has also been head of project for developing guidelines on the new Norwegian legal requirement of a 30% mandatory environmental weighting, starting on January 1, 2024.

Andrea Skjold Frøshaug

Andrea Skjold Frøshaug has been working with circular public procurement and as a strategic motivator for circular change in the City of Oslo for the past year. She works specifically with driving the work for a more sustainable furniture consumption and is responsible for the City’s central framework agreements for repair, refurbishment, and redesign of furniture. Andrea holds a master’s degree in international business and politics with special focus on the circular economy. Before joining the City of Oslo, she worked as a coordinator on the Horizon 2020 project Reflow, a project aiming to co-create circular and regenerative resource flows in cities.

Ingvild Skøien

Ingvild Skøien has been working with circular public procurement for 2,5 years in the City of Oslo. She is experienced in working with public procurement as a strategic tool for circularity in general, but especially within the categories textiles, furniture, and plastics and packaging. Ingvild holds a master’s degree in global development studies, with a focus on sustainable business. Before entering her position in the City of Oslo, she was a project manager in an environmental organisation.

Grace Sly

Grace Sly joined ICLEI in October 2022 as an Expert, focusing on City-to-Business Collaboration. As part of the Sustainable and Innovation Procurement team, she supports ICLEI’s work on strategic market engagement, green and innovation procurement and smart cities. Grace has previous experience promoting international investments, supporting global infrastructure development, and analysing public procurement policies.

Cristina Sossan

Cristina Sossan is a Food Policy Officer and project manager of the Horizon 2020 project "School Food 4 Change" within the Education Department, City of Milan. She graduated in Sociology at the University of Milano Bicocca and she worked as project manager and communication officer in several Italian NGOs in the field of development cooperation, environment, human rights and fair trade. Since 2019, she collaborates with the Municipality of Milan in the Food Policy Unit, as project manager and communication officer in support of the activities promoted by the Municipality. The main areas of interest are: school meals, procurement and food education and all the relevant topics of the Milan Food Policy such as food waste prevention, sustainability of the food system.

Kristin Stechemesser

Kristin Stechemesser studied business administration; her dissertation at the Technical University of Dresden dealt with the topic "Interdependence between the natural environment and organizations - the case of climate change". Already at university she taught students in Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC). Kristin has been working at the German Environment Agency for more than 8 years. She is responsible for green public procurement, the EU Ecolabel and some Blue Angel product groups. She is currently working on extending the existing LCC tools of the German Environment Agency to include greenhouse gas emissions and their monetization.

Kate Sullivan

Kate Sullivan supports public buyers to implement socially responsible public procurement by making use of the tools, services and network afforded by Electronics Watch affiliation. Kate has 10 years’ experience in stakeholder management, policy development and strategic planning within the fields of peacebuilding and global governance. Prior to joining Electronics Watch, Kate held positions at the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, the Global Challenges Foundation, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), and the Global Partnership Alliance. She holds a Masters in Public Administration from the George Washington University and a Bachelors degree from the University of Michigan.

Andrea Sundstrand

Andrea Sundstrand has been working with public procurement legislation since 1994, with more than 25 years in government service. Since the autumn of 2006, Andrea is employed at the Law Faculty, Stockholm University. She successfully defended her legal thesis "Public Procurement outside the EU Directives" in May 2012. Since then she is the course director for 3 courses on public procurement at the Law Faculty. In 2015 she was appointed Teacher of the Year at Stockholm university. In January 2018, Andrea started the first ever online course at the Law Faculty. It is a course in public procurement law for practicing lawyers. Andrea also teaches public procurement law at Uppsala university (Sweden), at King's Collages (London, United Kingdom) and at George Washington university (Washington, United States). In 2014 Andrea founded the Swedish Public Procurement Law Journal, www.urt.cc, hand has been the publisher of the journal ever since.

Luana Swensson

Luana Swensson is a policy specialist for sustainable public procurement at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). With more than 10 year of experience in this area, she coordinates FAO work on sustainable public food procurement at the One Planet Network and other international platforms and is the author of a series of publications and guidelines on the topic. Her experience includes also the design and implementation of projects at country level and capacity building. As academic background, Luana Swensson holds a law degree from the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil; a Master degree in International Business Law and a Ph.D in Economics and Business Law (Comparative Law) from the University of Rome “La Sapienza"; and a multidisciplinary post-doctoral degree from the European University Institute (Max Weber Programme for postdoctoral studies).

Christian Tangene

Christian Tangene is a senior advisor at DFØ, the Norwegian knowledge hub for Green Public Procurement, which identifies and implements the most efficient strategies to reach the UN SDGs through green and innovative public procurement. He specializes in the ICT and furniture sector.

Philipp Tepper

For more than 17 years Philipp Tepper has worked as Senior Coordinator and Principal Expert for ICLEI contributing to Global, European, and National projects on Sustainable Economy and Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP). His focus is on supervising and managing of projects, programmes, and initiatives for a diversity of clients (MDBs, EC DG GROW, RTD, ENV, EuropeAid, cities, and many more). He leads on research and guidance on socially responsible public procurement (SRPP) and innovative approaches in public procurement (e.g. pre-procurement, early market engagement, LCC-CO2 tools, supply chain mapping). Since 2008 he has been the Procura+ Network Manager. His professional background includes experiences of more than 20 years in capacity building and research in international consultancy work using participative methodologies and approaches. Philipp has formerly worked for European research organisations and NGOs, publishers and development organisations in Europe, Latin America, and the Higher Caucasus region.

Harriët Tiemens

Currently at the head of the Dutch Green Metropolitan Region Arnhem - Nijmegen and ICLEI member, Harriët Tiemens puts her extensive experience in the fields of climate adaptation, spatial development, circularity and also sustainable procurement to develop the region as a prime national and international example in sustainable and green urban development. In the past years Harriët Tiemens has built an excellent European track record. For example, by heading the campaign for the City of Nijmegen to become European Green Capital 2018 but also by being a recognized contributor to European and international conferences like, EURESFO, POLIS, Velo-city, the Austrian World Summit, Ecoprocura and meetings with the EP and EC, both through her current position with the ICLEI RexCom and other networks. Tiemens studied Environmental Science at Saxion University of Applied Sciences and Public Administration at Leiden University. She was Deputy Mayor for the City of Nijmegen from 2014 to 2021.

Paula Trindade

Paula Trindade holds a PhD in Environment and Sustainability (Procurement of Innovation, using a systemic perspective) from NOVA University, a master's degree in Sanitary Engineering from the same institution and a degree in Technological Chemistry from the University of Lisbon. She is a senior researcher at the LNEG - National Laboratory for Energy and Geology, IP, where she is responsible for research and consultancy activities in organizations (companies, public and third sector organizations) in the area of Sustainability since 1991, in particular in the area of public and institutional procurement – Green Procurement, Social Responsibility Procurement, Low-Carbon Procurement, Innovation Procurement and Circular Procurement. She develops and implements European and National projects since 2001 and has trained more than 250 technicians. She also works in Climate Mitigation and its relation with Circular Economy. In her professional activities she combines training, practical implementation and the development of knowledge, which she disseminates nationally and internationally.

Wolter van der Vlist

Wolter van der Vlist works 10 years in the Dutch prison system and is with his team responsible for procurement policy called procurement with impact. To engage suppliers with the special purpose of the organisation is their main focus. He worked on a new contract for food in prison over the last three years.

Alexandra Vandevyvere

With a background in criminological sciences and government management, Alexandra Vandevyvere brings a strong foundation for tackling complex societal issues and navigating governmental frameworks. In her professional journey, Alexandra has specialized in circular procurement and organizational change. Leveraging her education and experience, she is equipped to contribute to meaningful projects and is dedicated to fostering positive change, particularly in the transition towards a circular economy across various sectors.

Maud Vastbinder

Maud Vastbinder leads the work of the international implementation of the CO2 Performance Ladder at SKAO (the Foundation for Climate Friendly Procurement and Business). The CO2 Performance Ladder is an effective GPP tool that uses the ‘power of procurement’ to stimulate decarbonization and the circular economy. SKAO is an independent, not for profit foundation and is the owner and manager of the CO2 Performance Ladder. Maud is one of the founders of SKAO (13 years) and leads all international activities together with her team. Since two years, SKAO has been working with her partners IKEA Foundation, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), ICLEI and the Utrecht University on the international implementation of the CO2 Performance Ladder. The Ladder is now being structurally implemented in the Netherlands and Belgium and tested in several other European countries, including Ireland, France, Denmark, the UK, and Germany.

K.S. Venkatagiri

Mr. Venkatagiri is Chair of the Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN). The Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN) is the leading network of the world’s most credible and robust ecolabels. We are a non-profit organisation and together we set the global benchmark for ecolabel excellence. Purchasing a product certified by a GEN ecolabel member is a vote for the right kind of future- a future where care for people and planet is embedded into everything we make, do and consume. Mr Venkatagiri is also the Executive Director of CII-Godrej GBC – the Confederation of Indian Industry’s centre of excellence on green businesses. He is an expert in green concepts and is leading a team of over 90 green professionals. Under his leadership, the centre is offering services to Indian industry in the areas of green buildings, green companies, green products, energy management, renewable energy, and other related sectors. He played a lead role in conceptualizing and launching the ecolabel GreenPro in India.

Els Verwimp

Els is working on the topic of green / sustainable public procurement for over 15 years. She supports the procurers within the Government of Flanders to take environmental aspects into account when procuring, facilitates the availability of tools and assures knowlege exchage between procurers in Flanders.

Gonçalo Vieira

Gonçalo Vieira is a Portuguese civil engineer specialized in tunnelling and complex geotechnical projects with more than 20 years of experience as consultant, designer and manager of public works. He holds a Master of Sciences in Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (2008), post-graduated in public procurement (2013) and also concluded the MBA in 2015. He is founder and animateur of the new workgroup GT2 “Engineering & Law: Contractual Practices” of the Portuguese Tunnel Committee, and a member of the Portuguese Engineering Association, the Portuguese Geotechnical Society and board of the Portuguese Tunnel Committee. He represents Portugal in the International Tunnelling Association, as co-animateur of WG3 since September 2022. Mr. Vieira is currently working as a Deputy Coordinator & Tunnel specialist at Lisbon Municipality, launching and managing a public tender and works for the Lisbon Drainage Master Plan (133M€ DB public contract, in progress).

Saritha Visvalingam

Saritha is a sustainability and responsible procurement professional with over 15 years experience across the public sector. As part of the Mayor of London’s Central Responsible Procurement Team, she supports delivery of the Mayors Responsible Procurement Policy to ensure that the procurement of goods and services results across the £9bn annual spend of the Greater London Authority group results in added social, environmental and economic benefits for all. Her more recent focus has been on increasing spend with smaller and more diverse-owned businesses, for which she also provides strategic support to the London Anchor Institutions’ Network procurement working group.

Georg Vogt

Georg Vogt has been developing and managing studies and international projects in the field of circularity, smart energy and procurement since 2011. He currently leads the innovation procurement projects CircularPSP (circular economy solutions for cities) and procuRE (100% renewable renovation). He supports energy agencies in applying the Better Regulation Guideline methodology to create better policies for EPC and SRI. He conducts studies for the European Commission, including impact assessments (asbestos screening for DG GROW), evaluations (SET Plan for DG RTD) and EU-wide guidelines for sub-metering (DG ENER). His numerous demonstration projects on intelligent and energy efficient buildings have received awards. For the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate, he coordinated the exchange of expertise and networking efforts in the large-scale project SINTEG. He holds degrees in economics and European studies.

Angus Warren

Angus Warren is the CEO of APUC, the centre of procurement and supply chain expertise for, and jointly owned by,. all of Scotland's universities and colleges. Previously to this, he worked as the Commercial Director at City University London and before that for Unilever in various agri-business, project management and supply chain jobs across the UK and overseas. He is a lifelong environmentalist and defender of human rights.

John Watt

John Watt is a researcher, trainer and consultant specialising in sustainable procurement. He is a Circular Procurement Consultant with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), researching and authoring the Circular ICT Procurement Guide. John has also coordinated and delivered green, social, and circular procurement projects for the European Commission, UN Environment, OECD, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, ICLEI, The Embedding Project and national, regional and city authorities. He holds a PhD on sustainable procurement from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland and carried out postdoctoral research at the Technical University of Vienna on the effects of socially responsible public procurement on labour standards in ICT supply chains. He believes that every procurer has the power to be a hero. The way we purchase can save lives and create a better world!

Marieke Weerdesteijn

Marieke Weerdesteijn is the Program Manager for the Circular and Fair ICT Pact (CFIT). In this role she leads the CFIT secretariat, which is currently hosted by The Netherlands’ Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. CFIT is an international procurement-led partnership to accelerate circularity, fairness and sustainability in the ICT sector. More information can be found at circularandfairictpact.com. Previously Marieke worked for over 20 years in various roles promoting sustainability in international supply chains, working for a consultancy, an international NGO and a multistakeholder initiative.

Thijs Wentink

Thijs Wentink is project officer Europe for the CO2 Performance Ladder (CO2PL), coordinating implementation in Germany and working to boost low-carbon procurement through the use of the CO2PL across Europe. Educated in International Public Administration and working in the field of climate change and sustainability issues Thijs has broad (international) experience.

Bertrand Wert

Bertrand Wert is working for the European Commission since 2009, and for its European Innovation Council and SME Executive Agency EISMEA since February 2015. He is currently working for the "European Innovation Council", and the “Business Acceleration Services”, where he is in charge of supporting innovative SMEs members of the Accelerator to get access to public and private procurers of innovation. The EIC programme is supporting the most innovative European SMEs, via grants and equity, to commercialize their innovative solutions and to look for investors. Previously, he worked from 2009 to 2015 for Directorate General GROW of the European Commission, as Policy Officer for innovation policies. He has been involved in the development of the "Innovation Union" strategy. He has a PhD in Political Science (University Paris-Dauphine, France). He has local political responsibilities, elected at the Conseil Communal of Ixelles commune (Belgium) since 2012 and elected Advisor of French citizens living in Belgium.

Erika Yates

Erika Yates is an environmental and sustainability specialist in Høje-Taastrup Municipality in Denmark. She has led several EU circular economy projects in the municipality including CityLoops and Cleantech TIPP, which both aimed to advance circularity in the building industry through public procurement. Erika led the project to use a recycled concrete foundation in Høje-Taastrup’s city hall, which is now Denmark’s first large public building with a recycled foundation. Erika is also one of the founders of the municipal sustainability working group aiming to anchor sustainable practices throughout municipal operations. She has a degree in Environmental Science from McGill University in Montreal, Canada as well as a Master's in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science from Lund University in Sweden.

Aziza Yussupova

Aziza Yussupova is graduated in international relations, diplomacy and conflicts resolution from the Belgian UCL university. She has broad experience in managing teams and projects with different target groups through the management of the EaSI programme of the European Commission and other EU projects. She gained more than five years of experience working in the human rights domain. She helps in developing constructive working relationships with key influential bodies in the European Commission and national Member States to gain their support for programs and policies linked to the social inclusion and the fight against poverty. She is also the representative of ENSIE in the advisory board of the European Solidarity Corps Research Center. In addition, she has the responsibility to monitor and evaluate the European Semester process, the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights principles and the Sustainable Development Goals. Finally, she is the person in charge of the measurement of the Social Impact of WISEs/social enterprises.

Jon Mikel Zabala- Iturriagagoitia

Jon Mikel Zabala-Iturriagagoitia is Associate Professor at the Deusto Business School, University of Deusto in San Sebastian (Spain). He is also affiliated to CIRCLE, Lund University (Sweden), and the University of South-Eastern Norway (Norway). He got his PhD from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain). During the PhD he was a visiting researcher at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). After the PhD he moved to CIRCLE, Lund University (Sweden), as a post-doc. In 2013 he got a Marie Curie that allowed him to join Deusto Business School. In 2018 he was a visiting researcher at HEC Montreal (Canada). His research interests include innovation policy and the use of indicators for policymaking. He is member of the Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council of the Spanish Government, the Basque Academy of Sciences, the Spanish Foundation for innovation, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Task Force on Innovation Policy Principles.