Hugo Altomonte, Ph.D.

Senior Economist and Chief of Natural Resources and Energy Unit. United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

Expert on Energy Policies for Sustainable Development for Latin America and the Carribean. Working on reforms and regulation in energy sector.  Holds a Ph.D in Energy Economic form University of Grenoble France. Former Professor and Vice-president of  Bariloche Foundation.  Has participated in several Post Graduate Courses on Economy and Energy Planning, in Canada, Africa an Latin American. Dr. Altomonte has several publications and has participated in numerous international congresses and seminars. In addition, he has been the Principal Technical Advisor of the OLADE-UNDP Cooperation Project. 

René Castro, Ph.D.

Sustainable Development professor at INCAE and former Costa Rica Ministry of Environment and Energy

Dr. Castro holds a doctorate in Design from Harvard University, with an emphasis on Natural Resource Economics and Sustainable Development, and obtained a Master’s Degree from the same university. He graduated as a civil engineer from the University of Costa Rica.

Dr. Castro has held various positions in the Costa Rican government: Minister of Environment and Energy, deputy-minister of the Ministry of Governance, National Director of the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works, President of the San José City Council. He served as chief of Costa Rican delegations to the international conventions on Biodiversity, Climatic Change and Ozone. He is often invited as professor and lecturer to INCAE University and Harvard University and since 1998 has acted as international consultant for the United NationsDevelopment Programme (UNPD). Castro has worked and presented conferences in more than 60 countries.

He is the author of short books on railroads and aviation and has coauthored the books "Evaluación de Proyectos Ambientales" and "Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental y Sostenibilidad del Desarrollo". His most recent book, “Valoración de los servicios ambientales del Bosque: El Caso de Cambio Climático” is based on his doctoral thesis and presents one of the few studies that link ecology of the tropical forests with their economic potential and the global environmental markets. He is also the author of numerous special cases and articles used for teaching at the INCAE and the Harvard University.

Craig Cox

Executive Director, Soil and Water Conservation Society

Craig has devoted his working life to natural resource conservation beginning in 1977 when he joined the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as a field biologist. Since that time he has served as Senior Staff Officer with the Board on Agriculture of the National Academy of Sciences; Professional Staff Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; Special Assistant to the Chief of USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service; and briefly as Acting Deputy Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment at USDA. He is currently Executive Director of the Soil and Water Conservation Society -- a professional Society dedicated to promoting the art and science of natural resource conservation.

Mary Ann Curran, M.S.

Director of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) program- Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

As an internationally-recognized expert in LCA, Ms. Curran has worked closely with the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), which was instrumental in advancing LCA awareness worldwide.  She continues to serve on the SETAC North America LCA Advisory Group as well as participating in the joint UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative.  In addition, Ms. Curran serves as subject editor, Cleaner Production Tools, for the Journal of Cleaner Production, and is on the editorial boards of several technical journals, including the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Environmental Progress, and Management of Environmental Quality.

Since 1990, Ms. Curran has authored and co-authored numerous papers which address the LCA concept and its applications.  She has presented EPA’s activities in LCA research at venues across the U.S. and in Europe, Australia, Japan, and South Africa.  She co-authored and edited a book, entitled “Environmental Life Cycle Assessment,” published by McGraw-Hill in July 1996. Ms. Curran has been with the EPA’s Office of Research and Development since 1980.  She holds a Master of Science degree in Environmental Management and Policy from the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University, Lund, Sweden (1996) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering, from the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio (1980).  Ms. Curran is currently a candidate in Erasmus University’s International PhD program on “Clean Products, Cleaner Production, Industrial Ecology and Sustainability.”

Miguel J. Dabdoub, Ph.D.

President of the Biofuels Chamber of the São Paulo Government, and professor at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Dr. Dabdoub obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 1989, and he is currently Associate Professor and the leader of LADETEL - Laboratory for Clean Technology Development at the University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto campus. Presently, Dr. Dabdoub is responsible for the Biodiesel Brasil Program which is developed in partnership with 28 different private companies, and 5 other Brazilian universities. He is also President of the Biofuels Chamber of the São Paulo State Government. Dr. Dabdoub is the head of the Program for Testing Biodiesel on Vehicles and Engines, coordinated by the Brazilian Federal Government, with the participation of several companies such as Ford, Volkswagen, Fiat, Mercedes Benz, Peugeot, Citroen, Valmet (tractors), Cartepillar, Bosch, Siemens, Delphi, Cummins, MWM-International Engines, Parker Filters, Mahle, Mann, Fleetguard filters and others. Dr. Dabdoub is working in collaboration with Brazilian, European and American companies building biodiesel plants. Mr. Dabdoub has previously built a biodiesel plant in Brazil and the United States.

Thomas H. DeLuca, Ph.D.

Senior Forest Ecologist, The Wilderness Society

Dr. Thomas H. DeLuca is a Senior Forest Ecologist with The Wilderness Society, a non-government organization dedicated to the preservation of wild and natural landscapes.  Prior to joining the Wilderness Society, Dr. DeLuca was a Professor of Forest Soils at the University of Montana and remains an Adjunct Professor at the University.  Dr. DeLuca also serves as a guest professor in the Department of Forest Ecology and Management at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Umeå Sweden and is an affiliate professor in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences at Montana State University.   Dr. DeLuca holds a PhD in Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry from Iowa State University, an MS in Soils from Montana State University, and a BS in Natural Science from the University of Wisconsin -Madison. 

Over the course of his scientific career, Dr. DeLuca has studied how natural and anthropogenic disturbance influence C, N, and P cycling in forest, prairie and tundra ecosystems.  Areas of emphasis include sustainability of soil resources as influenced by land management, fire ecology, forest biogeochemistry, forest restoration, and ecological benefits and limitations of biofuel development.  Dr. DeLuca is the author of over 60 publications in refereed journals and numerous non-refereed reports and articles. He is an elected officer in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is an active member of the Soil Science Society of America, the Ecological Society of America, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Roberto Dobles Mora, Ph.D.

Minister of Environment & Energy of Costa Rica
President of the Administration Council Bureau at UNEP  2007-2009
President of the Ministerial Global Environmental Forum 2007

Dr. Dobles earned his Doctorate in Management Administration from the Université of Paris, France. Also has a Master in Business Administration (MBA), University of Louvain, Belgium and a Master in Industrial and Systems Engineering (MSc), University of California (UCLA), USA. He also has a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Industrial and Systems Engineering.

Currently Dr. Dobles is the Minister of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica, also in charge of Environment, Energy, Water Resources, Mining and Telecommunications. He has vast international experience including President of the Governing Council Bureau at United Nations of Environment Program 2007-2009, President of the Ministerial Global Environmental Forum 2007 and was the Pro Tempore President of the Central American Commission of Environment and Development (CCAD) II Semester 2006.

Alex Farrell , Ph.D.

Associate Professor University of California-Berkeley, and U.S. representative to the Steering Board of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels.

Alex Farrell is an Associate Professor in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California at Berkeley and is director of the UC Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center. Alex received his Ph.D. in Energy Management and Policy from the University of Pennsylvania and then worked as a research fellow at Harvard, and as a research engineer at Carnegie Mellon University, where he remains part of the Climate Decision Making Center.  For the last decade Alex has conducted research on energy and environmental policy and has published over two dozen peer-reviewed papers on these topics. Alex was co-director of two recent studies: Managing Greenhouse Gases In California, and A Low Carbon Fuel Standard for California. Alex has served on advisory committees for the National Academy of Engineering, the National Science Foundation, and has consulted for various public and private organizations including the International Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels.

Jason Hill, Ph.D.

Research associate in the Department of Applied Economics and the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Hill is a research associate in the Department of Applied Economics and the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota.  There he is part of an interdisciplinary team conducting integrative analyses of the technological, environmental, economic, and social aspects of sustainable bioenergy production from current and next-generation feedstocks such as diverse prairie biomass.  Previously, he was an assistant professor of biology at St. Olaf College.  Hill received his A.B. in biology from Harvard College and his Ph.D. in plant biological sciences from the University of Minnesota.

Marcia Patton-Mallory, PhD

Biomass and Bioenergy Coordinator, USDA Forest Service, Office of the Chief

Dr. Patton-Mallory is responsible for coordinating the woody biomass efforts of the USDA Forest Service across National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, and Research and Development programs.  The position provides executive liaison and coordination between the USDA Forest Service and other Federal Agencies, State organizations and private interests.  She has twenty-five years of Forest Service experience as:  Station Director and Assistant Station Director of the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, CO; Staff Specialist in Forest Products and Harvesting Research, Washington, DC; and Research Engineer, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI. Additional relevant experience includes Science and Technology Fellow in the U.S. Senate working on energy and natural resources issues, and internships with Weyerhaeuser Company, Tacoma, WA.

Dr. Patton-Mallory has a Master of Sciences and a PhD in Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering and Solid Mechanics from Colorado State University. Currently she is part of the Western Governor’s Biomass Task Force for Clean and Diversified Energy for the West; Western Forestry Leadership Coalition - Hazardous Fuels and Forest Health efforts; USDA Energy Policy Council; Interagency Woody Biomass Utilization Group and leadership in developing the U.S. Forest Service Woody Biomass Utilization Strategy.

Gao Pronove

Executive Director of Earth Council Geneva and the Managing Director of the GHG Management Institute 

Gao Pronove is the Executive Director of Earth Council Geneva and the Managing Director of the GHG Management Institute, both NGOs offer training on climate change, biodiversity, global trade and sustainability. Gao worked for 10 years with UNITAR, UNFCCC and UNCTAD managing climate change capacity building programs. He is a principal of Eco Market Farms, a cassava-ethanol project in the Philippines. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Minnesota Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration Initiative.

Lois Quam

Managing Director of Alternative Investments at Piper Jaffray Companies

Lois Quam is managing director of Alternative Investments at Piper Jaffray, a newly created senior post responsible for development of new business opportunities in the alternative energy/clean technology and health care sectors.  Quam will manage investment offerings in two areas of social interest and growth potential around climate change and health. She will build on the established record that Piper Jaffray has in health care and emerging prominence in alternative energy and clean technology.

Known as one of the most successful businesswomen of her generation, Quam was one of the executives who built UnitedHealth Group. She is known for developing effective businesses characterized by collaboration between government and companies; working in arenas where science and producer and consumer incentives are prominent; and identifying and executing on high-growth businesses. Quam created and operated a $30 billon business at UnitedHealth Group focused on improving health care for older Americans and low income families. She has appeared three times on Fortune's list of the “Most Powerful Women in America.”

Quam has been active in public service including serving as chair of the Minnesota Health Care Access Commission, and as senior advisor to the President's Health Care Reform Task Force in 1993. A native of southwest Minnesota, Quam was named Norwegian American of the Year in 2005.  She is a graduate of Macalester College and received her master's degree at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Shri Ramaswamy, Ph.D.

Professor and Head of the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota

Dr. Ramaswamy is professor and head of the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota; he is also a graduate faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He has degrees in paper science and engineering and chemical engineering and over nine years of experience in forest products industry in various areas including process engineering, process research and development, and chemical applications technology development.

In addition to teaching unit operations of bio-based products manufacturing, Dr. Ramaswamy is very active in conducting research in topics related to transport through porous media, structure-property relationships, bio-based polymers properties and performance and integrated biorefining. Dr. Ramaswamy is a member of the Technical Association of Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI), Paper Industry Management Association (PIMA) and American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AICHE).

C. Ford Runge, Ph.D.

Director of the Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy, and Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Applied Economics and Law, University of Minnesota

C. Ford Runge is a Professor of Applied Economics and Law at the University of Minnesota, where he also holds appointments in the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and the Department of Forest Resources. His teaching and writing interests concentrate on trade and natural resources policy. Professor Runge received his Ph.D. in agricultural economics at the University of Wisconsin, his M.A. in economics as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and his B.A. at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He has served on the staff of the House Committee on Agriculture, and as a Science and Diplomacy Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, working U.S. AID on food aid and trade. He continues as Subdirector in charge of Commodities and Trade Policy of the Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy at the University of Minnesota.

David P. Swanson

Partner at Dorsey & Whitney LLP, and Chair of the Agribusiness, Cooperative and Rural Electric Practice Group

David P. Swanson is a partner at Dorsey & Whitney LLP.  He is Chair of the Agribusiness, Cooperative and Rural Electric Practice Group and Co-Chair of the Project Development and Finance Practice Group, specializing in business combinations, project development and corporate finance.  He has been involved in a wide variety of financing transactions including mergers and acquisitions, tax-exempt financings, single-investor and leveraged lease financing transactions for capital equipment and generating facilities, corporate private placements and public debt offerings, institutional lines of credit, and bank loans secured by real property, personal property, and other corporate assets.

He has been extensively involved with lenders, borrowers, and other participants in various energy transactions, and as a result of his broad-based experience with in a variety of transactions, he understands the needs and practices of all parties to a transaction and is particularly adept at closing structurally and legally complex transactions under real-world exigencies.

Mr. Swanson is a 1978 graduate of St. Cloud University (B.S., chemistry) and a 1981 graduate of the Vanderbilt University School of Law, in Nashville, Tennessee, in the top 15 percent of the class.  After graduation from law school, he worked for nearly two years at Chapman and Cutler, a large Chicago law firm, specializing in tax-exempt financing transactions and, in particular, industrial development and pollution control financing.

Franz Tattenbach, Ph.D.

Executive director of FUNDECOR, and elected member of the first Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, and former ambassador and lead negotiator for Costa Rica

Dr. Tattenbach, B.S.,  M.A., Ph.D. abd, (Cornell University), is Costa Rican economist.  Currently he is executive director of FUNDECOR (1993-to date), a leading environmental NGO winner of the 2000 King Baudouin International Development Prize for its pioneer work in integrating the benefits of the local communities to the national and international interests to conserve tropical forest by means of  FSC group certification and developing the forest environmental services markets for which Costa Rica is world renown.  Within the framework of the United Nations Climate Change Convention, he was elected to occupy one of  the two chairs designated by the non-Annex I parties to the first  10-member Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism of  the Kyoto Protocol, where he also served as its Vice-Chair (2001-2003).  Former ambassador and lead negotiator for Costa Rica in the climate change multilateral negotiations (1997-2003);  and head of the Costa Rican Office for Joint Implementation (1995-2001);  he  also currently  serves  on the Board of Directors of the High Technology Center Foundation, together  with the  Deans of Costa Rica’s four State Universities (2000-to date) and on INCAE’s International Center for Sustainable Markets (CIMS) (2003-to date).   Former member of the Board of Directors of  the National Regulatory Authority of Public Services (1997-1998).  Former Director of consulting services at Price Waterhouse, Costa Rica (1989-1993) and private consultant to multilateral institutions and the private sector in the design and economic analysis of large development and investment projects.

Alberto Trejos, Ph.D.

Professor at INCAE Business School and former Minister of Foreign Trade, Costa Rica.

Alberto Trejos is a Costa Rican economist who is an active researcher in macroeconomics, international trade and development economics. A National Science Foundation grantee and Fulbright scholar, Trejos has worked as a professor at INCAE, Latin America's leading business school, since 1997. He has previously held positions as dean of INCAE and general director of its American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development. Trejos is also a former professor at Northwestern University. More recently, he served as Minister of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica from 2002-2004 and was responsible for Costa Rica's ratification of its FTA with Canada.

Trejos received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and serves as president of CINDE (Costa Rican Investment Board) and as a consultant for several companies and international organizations.

Constanza Valdes

Senior Economist at the Markets and Trade Economics Division of the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Lead analyst for Brazil’s economy, policies and agricultural markets.  Project manager of the Brazil Emerging Markets Program to analyze and assess the competitiveness of Brazil in global markets.  Previously detailed for three years to the Latin American Economic Systems (SELA) Permanent Secretariat, a regional economic research organization headquartered in Venezuela.  Extensive experience conducting analysis and research on economic, agricultural and trade policy issues, especially with respect to economic analysis of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), regional integration in the Western Hemisphere, and analysis of food systems in the Asia Pacific region.  Responsible for a joint ERS/SELA/UNCTAD/World Bank project to examine and analyze the implementation of agriculture‑related commitments undertaken by Latin American countries.  Detailed for two years to the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) International Secretariat in Singapore as the U.S. Director of the Pacific Food Outlook 1997-98, the first region-wide report to provide a short-term outlook of the Pacific food system.  Before joining the PECC Secretariat, held the position of Co-leader of ERS’s Western Hemisphere Integration and Trade Analysis research program to analyze the impact of Western Hemisphere economic integration on U.S. agricultural trade.  During NAFTA negotiations, was ERS’s Mexico analyst, providing considerable policy support for the negotiations. Author and co-author of numerous research reports related to analysis on Latin American and Asia-Pacific agriculture, and of scenarios analyses, policy updates, information bulletins, technical reports, situation and outlook report articles, briefings and speeches presented to the academic community, trade associations and international and regional organizations.

Luca Zullo, Ph.D.

Technical Director of Cargill Environmental Finance

Dr. Zullo is the Technical Director of Cargill Environmental Finance, a new unit of Cargill tasked with the development of renewable energy and emission reduction projects worldwide. Environmental Finance operates principally but not exclusively in the ag and food processing sector. Prior to joining Environmental Finance, he was involved in biofuels and bioenergy activities at Cargill corporate R&D group. He holds a Chemical Engineering Degree from the University of Padova, Italy and a Ph.D. also in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London, United Kingdom. Before joining Cargill, he held positions at Shell Research in The Netherlands and Cray Research.