Our Executive Committee
The Executive Committee steers the Platform, making startegic decisions
and determining our strategy and goals.
Stefan Gsänger
World Wind Energy Association
Stefan Gsänger is the Secretary General of the World Wind Energy Association. Under his direction, WWEA has become the voice of the wind sector worldwide, with 550 members (representing indirectly 50’000 members) in 100 countries.
Tetsunari Iida
Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies
Tetsunari Iida is the Executive Director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies. He has been one of the top opinion leaders in Japan promoting a “new generation of energy policies” with a special focus on renewable energy.
David Renné
International Solar Energy Society
Dr. Renné has been President of the International Solar Energy Society since 2010. He continues to serve as an Associate Editor of the Solar Energy Journal in the field of solar resource assessment.
Maryke van Staden
ICLEI &
carbonn Center
Building on a career of more than 25 years, Maryke connects the dots between national security, renewable energy and climate action, working with all levels of government. She spearheads ICLEI’s groundbreaking work on local climate action and multi-level governance
Our Ambassadors
ThePlatform’s Global and National 100% Renewable Energy Ambassadors are a select group of skilled individuals, highly visible and valued in their areas of work, and sharing the tennets of the Platform in it’s entirety. They spread the message that 100% renewable energy is viable, urgent and extremely beneficial throughout their spheres of influence.
Arieb Azhar
Ambassador – Global
Sharp eloquence, humanist philosophies and mystic poetries are given a global voice by Arieb Azhar – acclaimed musician, writer, producer, cultural promoter and a pioneer of Contemporary Sufi music in Pakistan. With his music Arieb has performed in all major venues and festivals of Pakistan as well as toured abroad extensively. He founded the Music Mela Festival of Islamabad in 2014 which he curated for three years, and is founder and director of Art Langar Festival.
Bill McKibben
Ambassador – Global
Bill McKibben, a well known environmental author and activist, is a founder of 350.org, an international climate change campaign. He is the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with The End of Nature in 1989, which is regarded as the first book for a general audience on climate change. Time Magazine called him ‘the planet’s best green journalist’ and the Boston Globe said in 2010 that he was ‘probably the country’s most important environmentalist.
David Suzuki
Ambassador – Global
Dr. David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author, and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. He is Companion to the Order of Canada and a recipient of UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for science, the United Nations Environment Program medal, the 2012 Inamori Ethics Prize, the 2009 Right Livelihood Award, and UNEP’s Global 500. Dr. Suzuki is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and holds 28 honorary degrees from universities around the world.
Dipal C. Barua
Ambassador – Global
Dipal Chandra Barua, Founder & Chairman, Bright Green Energy Foundation (BGEF) is a bright innovator, passionate and a proactive entrepreneur. Mr. Barua is the pioneer of Solar Energy in Bangladesh. In 1996, Mr. Dipal Chandra Barua successfully started expanding the renewable energy technology in rural Bangladesh as the Founding Managing Director of Grameen Shakti. He is the main Architect of the Grameen Shakti.
Christine Milne
Ambassador – Global
Christine Milne is a dedicated environmentalist and climate change activist. She was jailed during the successful campaign to protect Tasmania’s wilderness and wild rivers from the proposed Franklin dam project in 1983 and went on to lead farmers in the Wesely Vale campaign to stop a highly polluting native forest based pulp mill project. Elected to the Australian Federal Parliament in 2004 Christine dedicated her career to the transformation of society to the rapidly accelerating impacts of global warming.
Hans – Josef Fell
Ambassador – Global
After 15 years in the German Parliament (1998 – 2013) as a member of the Green group, Hans-Josef Fell is an internationally known political advocate for 100% Renewable Energy. He is President of Energy Watch Group (EWG) and Senior Advisor at DWR eco GmbH. Together with Hermann Scheer, Fell is the father of the German Renewable Energy legislation (EEG) which has been a model policy for more than 60 countries worldwide.
Ibrahim Togola
Ambassador – Global
Ibrahim Togola is a leader in Renewable Energy in Mali. In 1999, he founded the Mali Folkcenter Nyetaa (MFC) in the country to increase awareness and use of renewable energy. Aside from being leader of MFC Ibrahim Togola is teaching at Bamako University in renewable energy from a practical background.
Jeremy Leggett
Ambassador – Global
Jeremy Leggett is a social entrepreneur and author of The Carbon War, Half Gone and The Energy of Nations. He is founder and chairman of Solarcentury, the UK’s fastest growing renewable energy company since 2000, and founder and Chairman of SolarAid, a UK solar lighting charity set up with five percent of Solarcentury’s annual profit’s, itself parent to a social venture, SunnyMoney, that is the top-selling retailer of solar lights in Africa.
Maneka Gandhi
Ambassador – Global
Maneka Gandhi is a Member of the Indian Parliament since 1989 and has served as a minister in four governments. She has been an animal rights activist and environmentalist for decades and is the Founder and Chairperson of People For Animals . As journalist and author, Maneka has published a number of books in the areas of etymology, law and animal welfare.
Michael Brune
Ambassador – Global
Michael Brune serves as Sierra Club’s Executive Director. Under his leadership the organization has grown to more than two million supporters, and its Beyond Coal campaign has been recognized as one of the most effective in environmental history. Before joining the Sierra Club, Michael worked for the Rainforest Action Network, where he served seven years as Executive Director.
Ruslana
Ambassador – Global
Ruslana is a World Music Award and Eurovision Song Contest winning recording artist, holding the title of People’s Artist of Ukraine. She is also a former MP serving as deputy in the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) for the Our Ukraine Party. Ruslana was the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in Ukraine in 2004-2005. She was included in the top 10 most influential women of 2013 by the Forbes magazine. The U.S. Secretary of State honored her with the International Women of Courage Award in March 2014.
Suani Teixeira Coelho
Ambassador – Global
Prof Coelho is a chemical engineer, with a master and doctor degree on Energy in the University of São Paulo Energy Graduation Program. Former to that, she was member of the UN Secretary General Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change – AGECC from 2008 to 2011, chaired by Kandeh K. Yumkella, from UNIDO. She was Deputy Secretary at State Secretariat for the Environment of São Paulo State (2003 – 2006), responsible for the international agreements of the State Secretariat.
Ulrich Kelber
Ambassador – Global
Ulrich Kelber has been a Member of the German Bundestag since September 2000, winning a directly-elected seat in the Bonn constituency in 2002, 2005, 2009 and 2013. He is deputy chairman of the parliamentary group of the Social Democratic Party in the Parliament from Nov. 2005 until Dec 2013, responsible for the areas of the environment, nature conservation, nuclear safety, food, agriculture, consumer protection, sustainability. Since Dec 2013, he is Parlamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection.
Tanay Sıdkı Uyar
Ambassador – Turkey
Uyar is a Professor of Renewable Energies, and the founder and head of the Energy Section of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Marmara University since 2001. He is one of the vice-presidents of the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA), a board member of World Bioenergy Association (WBA), and coopted Board Member of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES). As the national coordinator for the Turkish Environmental Civil Society Platform (TURÇEP), and Clean Energy Platform of Turkey (TEP), he works for the adoption of environment-friendly energy policies.
Tzeporah Berman
Ambassador – Canada
Tzeporah Berman has been designing and winning environmental campaigns in Canada and internationally for 20 years. She currently works as a strategic advisor for dozens of environmental organizations, First Nations and philanthropists on clean energy, oilsands and pipelines. She is the former co-director of Greenpeace International’s Global Climate and Energy Program, Executive Director and Co-founder of PowerUp Canada and Co-founder and Campaign Director of ForestEthics.