Dr. Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo
Director and Regional Representative for Africa
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Ms. Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo, UN Environment Director and Regional Representative for Africa is a national of Benin. Ms. Koudenoukpo has a wealth of experience in international development assistance and 27 years of experience in environmental projects and programmes management. She has worked with a wide range of international organizations, including UNDP and IUCN, Stockholm Environment Institute, World Resource Institute, Nature Conservancy, and leading international institutions working in the area of environment, addressing sustainable development and poverty reduction. She has been involved in multi-country project design, development, management and resource mobilization in numerous countries within Western, Southern, Eastern, and Central Africa. From 2007 to 2008 she held the position of Minister of Environment and Nature Protection for the Benin government. She also used to be Acting Minister of Family and the Child. Before joining UN Environment in September 2015, Ms. Koudenoukpo, was with Canadian Crossroads International (CCI) where she was the Director of Programmes, and with Canadian Center for International Studies and Cooperation where she was the Regional Director for Africa. Ms. Koudenoukpo holds a MSc. degree in Forestry Economics, a PhD. degree in Public Policy and Administration, and an expert diploma in Renewable Energy.
Dr. Peter Sheard
Founder, Trend 2000 Ltd
Cambridgeshire, England
Dr Peter Sheard is the co-owner and founder of Trend 2000 Ltd. He has a first degree in Economics and Materials Technology and a PhD in Corrosion of Polymer Composites. Peter has published over 40 articles in journals, conferences, seminars and books. Since 1988 Peter has initiated and managed over 50 multi-national development consortia within various national and international initiatives concerning the selection, design and processing of polymeric composite materials and construction industry applications. Peter has been regularly assisting universities and SMEs across Europe with innovation planning and training/mentoring for the development of proposals under the European Commission Framework Programmes and Structural Funds across a wide range of technical and scientific disciplines. During the last 15 years Peter has developed and delivered in excess of 150 training events to universities, RTO’s and enterprises across the EU and Associated Countries. Peter has been instrumental in providing focused training on preparing for and writing applications for H2020 funding across all subject areas including Engineering, Life Sciences and Social Sciences. He has developed and delivered specialist training programmes for preparation of project budgets, effective administration and management, development of leadership skills, motivation and communication techniques. He works with a wide range of international universities to assist with training and mentoring proposal writers as well as undertaking pre-evaluations of proposals to improve their quality prior to submission. He has also spun out and operated several manufacturing SMEs set up to exploit the results of international research. Peter is regularly contracted by funding agencies to work as an evaluator in the H2020, Eurostars, Czech and Danish National programmes. He also acts as a Reviewer of funded projects. He has completed assignments within the SME programme and is also retained as the Project Technical Advisor on 10 projects within the Nano Materials, Factories of the Future and Energy Efficient Buildings programmes.
Adedoyin Adeleke
Founder/Executive Director, International Support Network for African Development (ISNAD-Africa)
Oluwadamilola Pikuda
Manager, Programmes, International Support Network for African Development (ISNAD-Africa)