Sustainability Council

Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer is professor for Climate Economics and Public Policy at the Technical University Berlin, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC).

Professor Ottmar Edenhofer (born 1961 in Bavaria) studied economics and philosophy at the University of Munich and holds a diploma in economics from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich and a B.A. in philosophy (“summa cum laude”) from the Munich School of Philosophy (Hochschule für Philosophie). In 1999, he wrote his Ph.D. thesis in economics (“summa cum laude”).

Among others, he is member of the German National Academy of Science Leopoldina, the German National Academy of Science and Engineering acatech, co-chair of the steering committee of the Climate Protection Science Platform, the International Association of Energy Economics (IAEE), as well as Council Member for the Climate Change Advisory Council in Dublin (Ireland) and member of the Advisory Committee to Princeton’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative CMI (USA).

Being one of three co-chairs of WG III, Ottmar Edenhofer led the assessment cycle of the IPCC Working Group III from 2008 to 2015 which produced the Fifth Assessment Report "Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change" in April 2014.

Ottmar Edenhofer belongs, according to the Web of Science citation index, to the 1% of the most cited scientists worldwide in the category "interdisciplinary science" the forth year in a row and authored a considerable number of articles published by Science, PNAS, Nature Climate Change as well as in several high-ranking environment, energy and resource economics publications and various books.

Magdalena Gerger is the Chair of Nefab Group and the Business Council of The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and she holds a number of non-executive board positions with Investor AB, Peab AB and Nordic Seafarm. Magdalena is the former President & CEO of Systembolaget, a Swedish retailer of wines, beers and spirits. She previously held board positions with Ingka Holding BV (IKEA), Husqvarna AB, Humana and Ahlsell AB among others. She is also on the non-executive board of a couple of pro-bono organisations and academia. Prior to joining Systembolaget, Magdalena held positions as Senior Vice President of Arla Foods with responsibilities for Global Fresh Dairy and Nordic Marketing & Innovation. Magdalena held positions as Category Head for Retail Coffee at Nestle UK. At Tambrands (now Proctor & Gamble) she held the position as UK Marketing Director and at ICI Paints UK Ireland as Marketing Director. She was responsible for launching Häagen-Dazs in the Nordics and in parts of Europe as European marketing Manager at Grand Metropolitan Ltd/Diageo. She graduated with an MBA from Stockholm School of Economics in 1989.

Rebecca Harms was a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2019. In this period, she served as President of the European Green fraction in the European Parliament for eight years. Before that, Rebecca Harms was a longtime member of the Parliament of Lower Saxony for Germany‘s Green Party and the Leader of the Green fraction from 1998 to 2004. Until 2017, she also was a member of the Green Party Council.

Prior to joining the Green faction, Rebecca was co-founder of the citizens’ initiative Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow-Dannenberg, which became an influential grassroots organization in the German Anti-Nuclear-Movement. She was involved in projects in her home region for sustainable development and ecological farming and held different leading positions in the German anti-nuclear-movement.

In 2020, Rebecca Harms will become a member of the Assembly of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.  

Connie Hedegaard is chairwoman of the board at Aarhus University and chairwoman of the KR Foundation, an international climate foundation. From 2010 to 2014, Ms. Hedegaard was European Commissioner for Climate Action and from 2004 to 2009 she was Danish Minister for Environment and Nordic Cooperation as well as Minister for Climate and Energy.

Connie Hedegaard was born in Holbæk (Denmark) in 1960 and graduated in 1991 with a master‘s degree in literature and history. She started her political career as a member of the Danish Parliament for the Conservative People’s Party in 1984. From 1990 to 2004 she worked as a journalist for various media outlets before she continued her political career.

Among others positions, Connie Hedegaard is Chairwoman of the OECD Round Table for Sustainable Development and Member of the Board of Directors of the companies Danfoss, Nordex, and Cadeler.

Connie Hedegaard was awarded the Ebbe Munck Award, the Christian Listeners and Viewers Association Award, the People’s Education Association Culture Award and the National Press Club of Denmark Award.

Georg Kell is Chairman of Arabesque, a technology company that uses AI and big data to assess sustainability performance relevant for investment analysis and decision making. He is also Co-chair of the DWS ESG Advisory Board.

Georg Kell is the founding Director of the United Nations Global Compact, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative. During his career of almost three decades at the United Nations, working directly with former Secretary Generals Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon, Mr. Kell built the UN Global Compact and oversaw the launch of its sister initiatives, including the Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI), the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), and the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE).

Mr. Kell started his career as a research fellow in engineering at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and Innovation in Berlin. He then worked as a financial analyst in various African and Asian countries before joining the United Nations in 1987. A native of Germany, Mr. Kell holds advanced degrees in economics and engineering from the Technical University of Berlin

Margo T. Oge is the former Director of the Office of Transportation Air Quality of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) where she served for 32 years. She was the key architect of some of the most important achievements in reducing air pollution from cars, trucks, locomotives and marine vessels and off road equipment. She led the implementation of the EPA’s first-ever national greenhouse gas emission standards for cars and heavy-duty trucks to double fuel efficiency by 2025 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent. Also led the implementation of the US Renewable Fuels Standard and was instrumental in establishing the United Nations process on global harmonization of transportation emission standards worldwide.

She is the author of the book “Driving the Future: Combating Climate Change with Cleaner, Smarter Cars” and serves as a Distinguished Fellow with the ClimateWorks Foundation. She is also the Chairwoman of the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) Board, member of the board of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), member of the National Academies of Science Advisory Committee for the U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program.

Ms. Oge was born in Athens, Greece and holds a master‘s degree in engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

She received Presidential Awards from Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as well as numerous environmental and industry awards.

Ye Qi is Professor of Public Policy and Director of Institute of Public Policy at Hong Kong University Science and Technology. Prior to joining HKUST in January 2019, he was the Cheung Kong Professor of Environmental Policy and Management at Tsinghua University’s School of Public Policy and Management, and the Volkswagen Professor of Sustainability at Schwarzman College. From April 2014 to January 2019, he was Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Director of Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy. He was appointed as Cheung Kong Professor of Environmental Science at Beijing Normal University from 2002-2005. Before returning to China in 2003, he taught ecosystem management and climate change science at the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at University of California, Berkeley from 1996 through 2003. Ye Qi received his Ph. D. in Environmental Science in 1994 jointly awarded by the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Syracuse University.

His research areas include the governance and policy of the environment, energy, climate change and urbanization. His current research focuses on the energy transition and low-carbon development in a rapidly urbanizing world. Ye Qi led China’s first low-carbon development plan for the city of Baoding. He has been leading the research and writing of the Annual Review of Low-Carbon Development in China since 2010. He has over 200 publications on peer-reviewed journals, books, newspapers, think tank outlets and other magazines.
 

Michael Sommer is Deputy Chairman of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and former Chairman of the Confideration of German Trade Unions (DGB).

Michael Sommer was born in Büderich (Germany) in 1952. He studied german and political sciences at Free University Berlin and holds a degree in political science. From 1980 to 1993, he was Trade Union Secretary in various positions at Deutsche Postgewerkschaft (German posts and telecommunications trade union) in Bremen and Frankfurt/Main. Afterwards, he was a member of the executive committee and deputy chairman of Deutsche Postgewerkschaft as well as deputy chairman of trade union Ver.di. From 2002 to 2014, Mr. Sommer was chairman of the German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB) and – between 2010 and 2014 – president of the International Trade Union Confederation.

From 2002 to 2014, he was Chairman of the trade-union linked Hans Böckler Foundation, which is close to the trade unions. Since 2003, he controls the affairs of Germany's largest television broadcaster - until 2015 as a member of the Television Council and since 2016 as a member of the Board of Directors of Second German Television (ZDF). There he chairs the Finance and Investment Committee.

Michael Sommer was a long-standing member of Supervisory Boards of private and public companies. For twelve years, he was a member of the Board of Directors of Germany's largest public bank, the KfW Development Bank, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Postbank AG from 1997 to 2013, a member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom AG from 2000 to 2019 and of Salzgitter AG from 2006 to 2011.

He was also a long-standing member of the Board of Trustees of the Volkswagen Foundation, the Administrative Board of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the Innovation Advisory Council of the German Federal Government.

He was awarded the first-class Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Grand Gold Medal of the Republic of Austria and the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin.

Elhadj As Sy is the Chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation Board, and Co-chair of the WHO/World Bank Global Pandemic Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB). In addition to these functions, Mr. Sy is also a Commissioner for the Global Commission on Climate Adaptation, Governor at the Wellcome Trust, and a member of numerous other boards and organizations.

Mr. Sy has extensive experience in leadership roles in the humanitarian, health, environment, development sectors, and has previously served as the Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) IFRC ‐ the world’s largest humanitarian network. Prior to this appointment, he served at a senior level with UNICEF, UNAIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and other agencies for more than 25 years.

Mr. Sy was UNICEF’s Director of Partnerships and Resource Development in New York. He has also served as UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa and Global Emergency Coordinator for the Horn of Africa.

From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Sy was Director, HIV/AIDS Practice with the United Nations Development Programme in New York. Before that, he worked with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as its Africa Regional Director and later as Director of Operational Partnerships and Country Support in Geneva. Mr. Sy has also held the position of UNAIDS Representative in New York and Director of the New York Liaison Office.

From 1988 to 1997, he served as Director of Health and Development Programmes with Environment and Development Action in the Third World in Dakar, Senegal.

Mr. Sy holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts and Human Sciences from the University of Dakar. He then pursued Master’s studies in Arts and Germanistik at the University of Graz, and graduated from the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna. He was also awarded a post graduate diploma in Education from the École normale supérieure in Dakar. He speaks English, French and German and is a national of Senegal.