Our Staff

Gino Van Begin
Secretary General

Education:
Lawyer (Degree in Law with a specialization in European Law), University of Brussels

Languages:
Dutch, French, English, German and Russian

Gino Van Begin is the Secretary General of ICLEI.

A lawyer by profession, Gino's career spans 25 years, including stints in Russia, the European Commission and the Government of Flanders cabinet. From 2003 to 2006, he was a member of the EU Expert Group to the European Commission on the Urban Environment. He co-drafted the Aalborg Commitments on urban sustainability to which over 500 European cities and towns have adhered since 2004. He undertakes official observer duties on behalf of ICLEI at the COP negotiations on Climate Change, expert roles at the European Commission, Council of Europe, and Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe. MORE >>

Carmen Gebauer
Senior Finance Officer

Areas of Expertise:
Finance, Salaries, Financial Statements, Company Cost Accounting and Planning, Financial Controlling

Education:
Accountancy, Bonn Chamber of Commerce (IHK, Bonn)

Languages:
German

Carmen manages the finance and accounting of ICLEI World Secretariat.

Carmen joined ICLEI in 2010 as Senior Finance Officer. She has 25 years of experience in accounting, book keeping and financial planning and has formerly worked for various associations.

Tori Okner
Head of Strategy and Partnerships

Areas of expertise:
Sustainable city, Urban governance, Urban development, Sustainability management, Healthy and happy community, Resilient city / community, Congress and event management, Food policy

Education:
M.A. Law & Diplomacy, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University
M.S. Agriculture, Food & Environment, Gerald J. & Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy

Languages:
English, Spanish

Tori supports the Capacity Center through knowledge management and transfer to enable city-to-city exchange.

 

Tori Okner is an environmental policy analyst with expertise in climate change, food systems, governance and urban planning. Her work focuses on strategic planning, multi-stakeholder planning processes, network management and social innovation. Prior to joining ICLEI, she worked as a consultant for several years, serving clients from local municipalities and national governments to private universities and international research institutions.

Anna-Katharina Kiefer
Officer, Finance

Areas of expertise:
Administration, Finance

Education:
Management Assistant for Audiovisual Media, Cologne Chamber of Commerce, IHK Köln

Languages:
German, English

Anna-Katharina assists with Finance and Administration at the ICLEI World Secretariat.

Anna-Katharina joined ICLEI in September 2014 as a Junior Finance Officer. She has been trained as a Management Assistant for Audiovisual Media and has interned at a TV-Production Company, supporting the finance and administration department.

Jamie Walker
Junior Officer, Administration

Areas of expertise:
Administration

Education:
Diploma, Stenography and Court Reporting BIFE, Wicklow, Ireland; Diploma, Legal Executive Studies, Griffith College Dublin, Ireland

Languages:
English, German 

Jamie assists with Administration at the ICLEI World Secretariat.

Jamie joined ICLEI's Administration team in July 2016. Prior to ICLEI, he has worked as a Medical Administrator with the HPRA (formerly Irish Medicines board) from 2009-2015 and as a Legal Administrator for Byrne Wallace Solicitors from 2006-2009.

Sabine Jena
Officer, Human Resources

Areas of expertise:
HR Administration, Recruitment, Learning & Development

Education:
MA in Political Science (Dipl.-Pol.), Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen/Nürnberg
Human Resources Development, WiSo-Führungskräfte-Akademie Nürnberg

Languages:
German, English, Czech 

Sabine is responsible for Human Resources at the ICLEI World Secretariat.

Sabine joined ICLEI in 2016 and supports the Human Resources agenda. She is dealing mainly with recruitment and on-boarding as well as HR Administration. Prior to that she worked for several years for a European Commission institution, covering various areas of Human Resources Management. 

Jen leads the global communications team at the ICLEI World Secretariat.

Jen has 10 years of experience in project management and strategic communications in the sustainable development field. She has worked closely with city governments, the private sector, academic institutions and international organizations to develop, implement and communicate about programs, plans and networks that aim to strengthen the resilience, environmental rights and health of communities around the world.

Jen Bogle
Head of Global Communications

Areas of expertise:
Strategic communications and planning, project management

Education:
M.A. Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University, United States, B.S. Environmental Studies, Connecticut College, United States

Languages:
English, German, Spanish

Claudio liaises with journalists to enhance the impact and reach of ICLEI activities and projects.

Claudio joined ICLEI in September 2015. Before joining ICLEI Claudio worked as a professional journalist and in the Communications teams of Fairtrade Italia, Greenpeace International, the European Climate Foundation. Passionate about stories that matter, his work always focuses on climate change, environment and sustainability.

Claudio Magliulo
Media Liaison, Communications

Areas of expertise:
Media relations, Media and social media strategies, Media and social media analysis, Climate change, Environment, Sustainability

 Education:
M.A. Journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism, Univeristy of Bologna, Italy
B.A. Development and International Cooperation, University of Bologna, Italy

Languages:
English, Italian, Spanish

 

 

 

Dana is a communications officer at the World Secretariat.

Dana develops written content and supports strategic messaging at ICLEI. Before joining ICLEI, Dana worked with various international organizations based in Guatemala and the United Kingdom to help them craft and share stories that further their work. Dana has a background in gender and development and youth rights with experience in communications and project management. She is particularly interested in promoting, networking and implementing locally-led sustainable development solutions.

Dana Vigran
Officer, Copywriting and Strategic Messaging

 

Education:
M.Sc. Gender, Development and Globalization, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom.
B.A. History and Theater, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, United States.

Languages:
English, Spanish

Flavia Murthi
Officer, Data and Knowledge Management

Areas of expertise:
Database development and maintenance, Information Systems management, Statistical analysis

Education:
M.S. Information Systems, University of Tirana, Albania
B.Sc. Computer Science, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Languages:
Albanian, English, French, Italian, Dutch

Flavia supports the Capacity Center in Data and Knowledge Management.

Flavia joined ICLEI in May 2016 as part of the Knowledge Management Team.
After studying computer science at the University of Geneva, she worked for two years as a database programmer in the private sector. She extended her professional experience through various involvements with NGOs and private organizations in Albania and Belgium, which gave her the opportunity to be part of different research projects on the subject of sustainable development and socioeconomic development.

Anne Mwaura
Officer, Data and Knowledge Management

Areas of expertise:
IT service management, information systems development, database management.

Education
MSc. International Business Informatics, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) - Germany
BSc. Information Technology, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi Kenya

Languages:
Swahili, English, German

Anne supports the Capacity Center in Data and Knowledge Management.

Anne joined the Data & Knowledge Management team at ICLEI in 2017. Originally from Kenya, Anne studied Business Informatics at European University Viadrina. and has experience as an Application Support Analyst at UNFCCC, supporting the development, deployment and the operations of the national greenhouse gas inventories applications and projects. Prior to joining ICLEI, Anne also worked in the German private sector as a TECH - Incident Manager.

Pourya Salehi
Junior Officer, Urban Research

Areas of expertise:
Disaster Risk Reduction, Community Disaster Resilience, Critical Infrastructure Resilience, Sustainable Urban Development, Green Urban Infrastructure, Land Administration, Property Rights.

Education:
MSc in Land management from Technical University of Munich (TUM), graduated in 2016

Languages:
English, Persian, Azeri

Pourya supports the research activities of ICLEI's Urban Research Team

Pourya joined ICLEI's Urban Research Team in January 2017. Having studied Urban Planning at University of Tehran, Pourya gained professional experience through working for urban and environmental consulting companies. He graduated with his MSc in Land Management from Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 2016. Prior to joining ICLEI, Pourya worked as researcher in the area of disaster resilience for IGG at University of Bonn. He is a recognized member of Urban Development Engineers Association under Tehran Construction Engineering Organization.

Victoria Guadalupe Vital Estrada
Junior Officer, Program, ICLEI World Congress

Areas of expertise:
Sustainable city, urban governance, green urban infrastructure, resilient city, resource efficient city, Congress and event management

Education
MA Governing the Large Metropolis, Sciences Po Urban School, Paris, France
BA in Sociology, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City

Languages:
Spanish, English, French

Victoria supports the organization and implementation of the World Congress 2018.

Victoria is part of the ICLEI World Congress team and previously took part in the Resilient Cities 2017 Congress. Victoria worked for the public sector in Mexico for five years, and prior to joining ICLEI, she was a legislative adviser to the Director General of the Mexican National Water Commission. She also has experience working on human rights, gender equity and institutional communication. A passionate of politics and electoral processes, Victoria has a background in sociology, integrated urban development and governance.

Marilyn Glele-Ahanhanzova
Junior Programme Officer, World Congress

Areas of expertise:
Sustainable city, Urban development, Sustainability management, Green urban economy, Congress and event management

Education
Ph.D. candidate International development and cooperation, Korea University. Seoul, South Korea (on-going)
M.Sc. International Relations (Conflict Studies and Diplomacy), Catholique University of Louvain. Belgium
B.Sc. International development and Globalization, University of Ottawa. Ottawa, Canada

Languages:
French, Czech, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean

Marilyn supports the Global Capacity Center with the organization and implementation of the ICLEI World Congress 2018.

Marilyn is a Ph.D. candidate in International Development and Cooperation at Korea University, researching on the translation of sustainable urban mega-projects to African Cities. Prior to joining ICLEI, she worked as consultant on sustainable urban policies and green economy for the UNDP Seoul Policy Centre and as a researcher on “Translating Korean Urban Planning to Developing Countries” for the Korean National Research Foundation and Korea University. 

Jiwon Lee
Officer, Global Projects

Areas of expertise:
Sustainable transport, Environmental management, Event Management, Project management

Education:
M.Sc. Environmental Governance, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, Germany; B.S. Environmental Science and Engineering / Business Administration, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea

Languages:
Korean, English, French, German

Jiwon coordinates the development and implementation of International Climate Initiative (IKI) funded projects.

 

Jiwon organized several ICLEI’s international events, such as EcoMobility World Festival (Suwon); ICLEI World Congress 2015 (Seoul); EcoMobility World Congress (Johannesburg) with a focus on coordination with project partners and program development. Since 2016, she was involved in developing project proposals for various funding schemes. Prior joining ICLEI, Jiwon held a position as environmental engineer and project coordinator in water treatment projects in South Korea.

Evgenia Mitroliou
Interim Program Manager, Resilient Cities

Areas of expertise:
Sustainable city, Sustainability management, Resilient City/community, Congress and event management

Education:
M.A. International Humanitarian Action, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany; B.A. International and European Studies, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece

Languages:
English, Greek, Russian, German, French

Evgenia supports all activities that are part of the Resilient Cities Agenda.

Evgenia has a background in disaster management with a focus on community-based disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Before ICLEI, she worked as a research assistant for a local NGO in Thailand on disaster mitigation and preparedness. She researched disaster risk reduction techniques practiced by children in rural communities. As a consultant for the same organization, she advised her team on how to conceptualize findings on climate change adaptation solutions. 

Chang focuses on greenhouse gas emissions management, standards and tools.

A certified greenhouse gas (GHG) auditor, Chang has first-hand experience in GHG emission accounting and project development in Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI). She is now dedicated in transferring experience and knowledge in Low Emission Development to the urban level. Chang is actively involved in the further development of the Global Protocol for community-scale GHG Emissions (GPC) and outlining a Measurable, Reportable, Verifiable (MRV) process for local climate action.

Chang Deng-Beck
Senior Officer, Low Carbon Cities

Areas of expertise:
Sustainability management, Green urban infrastructure, Green urban economy

Education:
Master of Science from University of Applied Science of Trier (Environmental Campus Birkenfeld, Institute for Applied Material Flow Management), Trier, Germany

Languages:
Chinese, English, German, Japanese 

Miriam supports local governments around the globe with climate change mitigation and sustainable energy roll-out.

 Miriam joined ICLEI in 2017. An environmental engineer and senior ICLEI staff member, she supports local governments around the globe with climate change mitigation and sustainable energy roll-out. Miriam builds on experiences made with the EU Covenant of Mayors, with Sustainable Energy Action Plan development, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories, and on 10 years of free-lance engineering with technical expertise on energy audits for buildings and the design of photovoltaic systems. 

Miriam Badino
Senior Project Officer, Low Carbon Cities

Areas of expertise:
Sustainable city, Urban governance, Sustainability management, Green urban infrastructure: Energy, Low carbon city, Resource-efficient city, Congress and event management

Education:
M.Eng. Environmental Engineering - Natural and Industrial Risk Management, University of Genova (Italy)
Specialisation courses: "Expert technician in energy management", "Environmental Law", "Photovoltaic systems - sizing and designing, planning and State incentives"

Languages:
Italian, English, French, German

Carla supports cities and regions to report on the carbonn Climate Registry (cCR).

Carla deals with technical content and data analysis, as well as further development of the cCR. She is the project coordinator of the One Planet City Challenge (OPCC), run in partnership with WWF, to encourage quality reporting by local governments. Further, Carla assists coordination of the Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA) where technical support is provided to cities.

Carla Christine Mariño Viteri
Project Officer, Low Carbon Cities

Areas of expertise:
Low carbon city

Education:
M.Sc. Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics. Focus: Energy Management, Technical University of Cologne, Germany

Environmental Engineer in Prevention and Remediation, Universidad de las Américas, Quito-Ecuador

Languages: Spanish, English, German

Roman manages ICLEI's Smart City Program and work on City-Business Cooperation.

Roman manages ICLEI's Programs on Smart Cities Program and City-Business Collaboration, enabling cities to navigate the smart cities space and to evaluate solutions to sustainability challenges through demand-driven interaction with the private sector. He also supports industrial legacy cities to transition towards sustainability through the Urban Transitions Alliance. Roman has a MSc in Sustainability Science, a BA in East Asian Economics and Politics focusing on China, and a university certificate in Energy Economics and Mining Law.

Roman Mendle
Smart Cities Program Manager

Areas of expertise:
Green Urban Infrastructure, Green Urban Economy, Congress and event management

Education:
M.Sc. Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science Lund Universitet, Lund, Sweden; B.A. Economics and Politics of East Asia, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germany; Certificate in Energy Economy and Mining Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germany;
Languages:
German, English, Chinese (Mandarin)

Rebecca supports the Smart Cities Team's work on urban transitions towards sustainability.

Relying on rich experience in research and event management, Rebecca contributes to the knowledge management and the communication of projects on urban transitions towards sustainability.

With her background in audiovisual education, specializing in political documentary film, Rebecca is interested in the way we perceive reality through media. In times of digitalization, she promotes critical empowerment of citizens through knowledge on and understanding of transition processes.

Rebecca Wessinghage
Officer, Transition Concepts

Areas of expertise:
Congress and event management, Urban transitions

Education:
M. A. in Film Studies, Medieval and Modern History, and Comparative Literature

Languages:
German, English, French