Minister of Environment and Forestry
Republic of Indonesia

H.E. Siti Nurbaya Bakar obtained her Doctor of Philosophy degree in environmental science in 1998 from a joint programme between IPB University and Siegen University, Germany. Her Master of Science degree in rural and land ecology was obtained in April 1988 from the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Science, Enschede, which later became part of the University of Twente, in the Netherlands. She also earned a Bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from IPB University.

She began her career as a government officer with the Lampung Provincial Government in 1981, and a few years later was appointed as the Deputy Head of the Provincial Development Planning Agency. In 1998, she was transfered to Jakarta, assigned as the Director of the Planning Bureau at the Ministry of Home Affairs, and in 2001 was promoted as the Secretary General of the Ministry. Her career then continued as Secretary General of the Regional Representative Council of the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian Senate) from 2006 to 2013. She was also the first Secretary General of the Council. In October 2014, H.E. President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) appointed her as a member of the Cabinet, serving as the Minister of Environment and Forestry, a consolidated portfolio from the merger of theMinistry of Forestry and the Ministry of Environment, housing more than 16,000 national civil servants. For the second term of the Jokowi presidency, she was again entrusted to serve as the Minister of Environment and Forestry in October 2019. The ministry also serves as the focal point for climate change, biodiversity and other environmental issues.

H.E. Siti Nurbaya has been active in domestic and international fora that make her frequently invited to address a wide spectrum of subjects such as: environmental and natural resource management, decentralisation, bureaucracy, politics, democracy, parliament, political economy, women empowerment, geoscience, and geographic information systems.

Minister for National Development
Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration
Republic of Singapore

Mr Desmond Lee was elected a Member of Parliament (MP) for the West Coast Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in July 2020. Prior to that he served as an MP for Jurong GRC. During his time as a back-bencher, he also served as a member of the Government Parliamentary Committees for Culture, Community and Youth, Home Affairs and Law and Social and Family Development.

Mr Lee is currently the Minister for National Development, and the Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration. He co-chairs the Singapore Together Movement, the Emerging Stronger Taskforce and the Future Economy Council Sub-Committee for the Built Environment. He also co-chairs the Singapore-Tianjin Economic and Trade Council, as well as the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city Joint Working Committee.

Mr Lee was first appointed as Minister of State for National Development in September 2013. After his re-election as MP for Jurong GRC in September 2015, Mr Lee was appointed as Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development. In 2017, he was appointed Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Home Affairs and National Development. Later in the same year, Mr Lee was appointed the Minister for Social and Family Development and Second Minister in the Ministry of National Development (MND).

Mr Lee began his career in the civil service as a Justices’ Law Clerk of the Supreme Court, providing legal research support. He then served as a Deputy Public Prosecutor and State Counsel in the Criminal Justice Division of the Attorney General’s Chambers. In 2005, Mr Lee was posted to the Ministry of Health to head its legal department.

Before entering politics, Mr Lee also spent two years at the Legal Policy Division of the Ministry of Law. Subsequently, he joined Temasek as in-house counsel until his appointment to office at the MND.

Mr Lee graduated in 2001 from the National University of Singapore with first class honours in law. He also holds a Masters degree in law from the University of Oxford.

Mr Lee is married with three children.

Senior Minister of State
Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment
Ministry of Transport
Republic of Singapore

Dr Amy Khor has been the Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment since October 2015, when the Ministry was known as the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. She was appointed as the Senior Minister of State for Transport in July 2020.

Prior to her current appointments, Dr Khor was Senior Minister of State for Health from September 2013 to July 2020. She was also the Senior Minister of State for Manpower from September 2013 to September 2015.

Her previous appointments in the Singapore Government include Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources from May 2006 to October 2010, Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources from November 2010 to May 2011, Minister of State for Health from May 2011 to August 2013, and Minister of State for Manpower from August 2012 to August 2013.

Dr Khor was also the Mayor of South West District in Singapore from August 2004 to May 2014.

Dr Khor was first elected as a Member of Parliament in November 2001. She was re-elected for a fifth term in July 2020 and is the Member of Parliament for Hong Kah North.

She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in land management from the University of Reading, United Kingdom.

Former Prime Minister
Kingdom of the Netherlands

Prof Jan Peter Balkenende (born in 1956) was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 2002 to 2010. He studied economic and social history (Master of Arts degree) as well as Dutch law (Master of Laws degree) at VU Amsterdam. He obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in Law with a thesis titled ‘Government Regulation and Civil Society Organisations’. He subsequently worked at the Netherlands’ Universities Council, the Research Institute of the Christian Democratic Appeal political party and as Professor at VU University. He was a member of the Amstelveen municipal council (1982-1998) and the Lower House of the Dutch Parliament (1998-2002). From 2002 to 2010, Prof Balkenende was Prime Minister of the Netherlands. In that capacity, he was also Chair of the European Council in the second part of 2004.

Prof Balkenende is Professor of Governance, Institutions and Internationalisation at Erasmus University Rotterdam, since 2010. Between 2011 and 2016, he was Partner at EY, focusing on corporate responsibility and international affairs and since 2016, he is External Senior Advisor to EY. In October 2019, he became Member of the World Leadership Alliance- Club de Madrid. Between 2017 and 2021, he was a member of the Supervisory Board of ING. In his current capacity, Prof Balkenende is also the Chairman of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition, the Major Alliance and the Noaber Foundation.

Before becoming Prime Minister, he published a number of books and articles on a range of subjects, including innovation, development cooperation, European integration, social security, government finance, poverty, economic growth, and responsibilities of the business sector. Prof Balkenende received ten Grand Crosses and five honorary doctorates from universities in Hungary, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

Freelance Journalist

Currently based in Kuala Lumpur, Ms Amy Chew is a freelance journalist who has covered regime change in Asia – Indonesia, Malaysia and parts of the Middle East – Libya, Egypt during the Arab Spring in 2011, giving her unique insights into the political, social and economic factors which reshape society.

Previously based in Indonesia where she worked as Jakarta correspondent for Reuters, she covered the 1998 mass protests and riots which toppled President Suharto and the country’s subsequent chaotic transition from an autocracy to a democracy marked by armed insurgencies and sectarian violence.

It was in Indonesia where she honed her skills in covering violent extremism as the country reeled from a series of terror attacks, the 2002 Bali bombings, 2003 Jakarta Marriott Hotel car bombing, amongst others. She has interviewed detained militant leaders in prison and witnessed the transformation of the police into a formidable force in disrupting terror networks.

She has also been based in Hong Kong where she was a financial journalist for the South China Morning Post.

She has travelled widely in Asia and parts of the Middle East for work, reporting on political turmoil, mass unrest, general elections, natural disasters, forest fires, terror attacks and others.

She has also dabbled in investment banking, working as an analyst for Daiwa Capital Markets Singapore.

Executive Director
Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara

Dr Herlina Hartanto is the Executive Director of the Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN). YKAN is the main partner of The Nature Conservancy in Indonesia. She leads a team of over 100 people to conserve and support the sustainable management of tropical rainforests and marine ecosystems in Indonesia, including working with local communities, companies and local and national governments. Her wealth of experience includes community-centered approaches to forest conservation, sustainable forest management, and climate change mitigation.

Prior to YKAN, Dr Herlina spent eight years as a scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research, where she undertook research in several countries on sustainable forest management and collaborative management and monitoring of community forests. She has published several journal articles and book chapters. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Monash University, Australia, where she studied the political ecology of customary forest institutions in Central Sumatra, Indonesia.

Chairman of the Advisory Board for Climate Change Policies
Ministry of Environment and Forestry
Republic of Indonesia

Mr Sarwono Kusumaatmadja was born in 1943 and completed his studies at the School of Civil Engineering at the Institute of Technology at Bandung (ITB) in 1974. He has had a long record of social activism as well as political engagement, and held ministerial positions under the presidencies of Suharto and Abdurrahman Wahid. In 1968 he was elected as President of the ITB Student Union and from 1971 to 1988, he was a member of the National Parliament and a representative of Golkar, the majority political force at that time. From 1983 to 1988, Mr Sarwono was the Secretary General of Golkar. From 1988 to 1993, he held a cabinet posting as the Minister of Administrative Reform and from 1993 to 1998, he was Minister for Environment, and from 1999 to 2001, he was Minister for Marine Affairs and Fisheries. From 2004 to 2009, he was a member of the House of Regional Representatives representing Jakarta. He has since been holding advisory roles at various ministries, such as Chairman of the Advisory Board on Climate Change Policies at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, while being actively engaged in various civil society organisations in the fields of environment, microfinancing, and education.

Head
Philanthropy Advocates
Temasek Foundation

Ms Jennifer Lewis joined Temasek Foundation in April 2020, and heads the Philanthropy Advocates Practice. She is responsible for the strategic management of the foundation’s internal and external communication and engagement activities. Prior to this, she had been with GIC since 2007, also managing strategic communications for the sovereign wealth fund.

She began her corporate communications journey after more than twenty years as a journalist with television, print and online experience. She also advises several artificial intelligence and digital asset start-ups.

Ms Lewis serves on the boards of the Singapore Institute of Management University, Straits Times School Pocket Fund and OnePeople.sg.

Dr Ma Jun
Chairman
Green Finance Committee, China Society for Finance and Banking

Director
Center for Finance and Development, Tsinghua University

Dr Ma Jun is currently the Director of the Center for Finance and Development at Tsinghua University, Chairman of the Green Finance Committee of the China Society of Finance and Banking, and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the People’s Bank of China. As a recognised global leader in green and sustainable finance, he is also the Special Advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on Sustainable Finance, a member of the Global Steering Committee of the UNEP Finance Initiative, Co-chair of the Group of Twenty Sustainable Finance Study Group, Chair of Supervision Workstream for the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System, and Chairman and President of the Hong Kong Green Finance Association.

Between 2014 and 2017, Dr Ma served as Chief Economist at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)’s Research Bureau and played a ground-breaking role in developing the national green finance policy framework. Before joining the PBOC, he worked for 13 years at Deutsche Bank, where he was Managing Director and Chief Economist for Greater China. From 1992 to 2000, he worked as a senior economist and public policy specialist at the World Bank, and an economist with the International Monetary Fund. From 1988 to1990, he was a research fellow at the Development Research Center of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.

During his 28 years in the financial sector and public services, Dr. Ma established himself as a well-known economist and a leading policy advocate and practitioner. He has published 18 books and a few hundred papers and articles on macroeconomics, finance and development, environmental economics, and green/sustainable finance.

Dr Ma received his Doctor of Philosophy in Economics from Georgetown University in 1994, and a master's degree in management science from Fudan University in 1988.

John McBeth

Correspondent
Asia Times

A New Zealand-born journalist whose career began on his hometown newspaper at the age of 17, Mr John McBeth has lived and worked in Asia for more than 50 years, making him probably the region’s longest serving correspondent. He spent his early years on the Bangkok Post and later Asiaweek before joining the Far Eastern Economic Review in 1978. He was the Review’s bureau chief in Thailand, South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia until the magazine folded in 2004. Mr McBeth worked for a decade as a columnist for The Straits Times and now writes news analysis for the Asia Times.  

Managing Director
Climate Change Strategy
Temasek International

Ms Neo Gim Huay is the Managing Director for Climate Change Strategy of Temasek International. Ms Neo spearheads Temasek’s climate strategy and initiatives in the areas of policy, investing and financing as well as capability building and solutions.

Prior to joining Temasek, Ms Neo was a Management Consultant with McKinsey & Company in the United States and Africa. Before McKinsey, Ms Neo was in the Administrative Service of the Singapore Government, and had worked in the Scenario Planning Office of the Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore Embassy in Washington DC, the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Finance.

Ms Neo is on the boards of Surbana Jurong; Mandai Park Holdings; Intellectual Property Office of Singapore; Singapore Science Centre Global; and Carbon Solutions Holdings. She was selected as an Eisenhower Fellow in 2015. She is a member of the Creating Shared Value Council, Nestlé; Co-Chair of SG Eco Fund and Deputy Chair of the Environment and Resources Standards Committee of the Singapore Standards Council. She is also on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Nature-Based Solutions.

Ms Neo holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford University, graduating as an Arjay Miller Scholar. She has a Masters in Engineering (Distinction) and Bachelor of Arts (First Class) from Cambridge University.

Chief Executive Officer
Temasek Foundation

Mr Ng Boon Heong is the Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Foundation. He is responsible for the overall Temasek Foundation group, and leads Temasek’s six foundations (International, Cares, Connects, Nurtures, Innovates, Ecosperity) towards achieving the vision of One Temasek Foundation. Mr Ng holds a concurrent role as Managing Director, Institutional Relations with the Sustainability & Stewardship Group (SSG) of Temasek International. Prior to assuming his current appointment on 1 April 2020, Mr Ng was Head, Community Stewardship in SSG. He oversaw numerous community development, sustainability and climate change initiatives; working closely with Temasek Trust and Stewardship Asia Centre to deliver its mandates and strategic thrusts of connecting people, uplifting communities, protecting planet, advancing capabilities and rebuilding lives in Singapore and beyond.

Before joining Temasek, Mr Ng served in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and was intimately involved in technology development and management, focusing on advanced sensors, autonomous vehicles and sense-making. He has also worked with different stakeholders to deliver integrated and multi-source information fusion and analysis products, scenario development and contingency planning; including providing support to various SAF Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief operations. He was also the top Army graduate of the SAF Command and Staff College, graduated from the Indonesian Military's Joint Command and Staff College and was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) (Military).

Mr Ng graduated with a Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Honours) from the Nanyang Technological University Singapore, holds a Masters in Business Administration from Singapore Management University and Masters in Systems Integration (Information Systems) from the Naval Postgraduate School in the United States.

President and Chief Executive Officer
World Resources Institute

Dr Andrew Steer is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the World Resources Institute (WRI), a global research-into-action organisation dedicated to promoting economic development while protecting the natural environment.

WRI’s 1100 experts work in more than 50 countries, from offices in Brazil, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Turkey, the United States, and the United Kingdom (UK). WRI focuses on seven urgent global challenges: food, forests, water, energy, urbanisation, climate change and the ocean.

Dr Steer joined WRI from the World Bank, where he served as Special Envoy for Climate Change from 2010 - 2012. From 2007 to 2010, he served as Director General at the UK Department of International Development in London. This followed 10 years in East Asia, where he was Head of the World Bank in Vietnam and Indonesia.

In earlier years, Dr Steer was Director of Environment and Social Policy at the World Bank, Chief of the Bank’s Country Risk Division, Chief Author of the 1992 World Development Report on Environment and Development, and taught economics at Cambridge University. He has written widely on the links between the economy and the natural environment.

Dr Steer is a Global Agenda Trustee for the World Economic Forum, a Commissioner of the Global Commission on Adaptation and of the Energy Transitions Commission, a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, co-chair of the Climate Change Committee for The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and member of the advisory committees of the Asian Development Bank and Bank of America.

Dr Steer was educated at St Andrews University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cambridge University. He has a Doctor of Philosophy degree in international economics and finance.

He is married to Dr Liesbet Steer and is the father of Charlotte and Benjamin.

Asia Director
Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

Mr Michael Vatikiotis is a writer, journalist and private diplomat working in Southeast Asia since 1987. He was formerly editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review and a correspondent for the Hong Kong-based news magazine for 16 years. He currently lives in Singapore and is the Asia Regional Director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Geneva-based private foundation that facilitates dialogue to resolve armed conflicts. He has written two novels set in Indonesia and his new book “Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Modern Southeast Asia” was published in June 2017. Mr Vatikiotis writes opinion pieces for international and regional newspapers and is a regular contributor to Al Jazeera and the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Corporate Advisor
Temasek International

Ms Ireena Vittal is among India’s most respected consultants and advisors. She was a partner with McKinsey & Company for 16 years. She is now an independent director on several boards, including Wipro, HDFC Bank, Godrej Consumer Products, Diageo and Compass. She is also on the boards of several non-profits including Vidhi, Path, Educate Girls, Janagraha and WaterAid and works with the Indian government on issues related to agriculture and urban development. Prior to McKinsey & Company, Ms Vittal worked at MaxTouch and Nestle. She is an alumna of the Indian Institute of Management, India.

Founder
YOUTHTOPIA

Melati Wijsen is a 20-year-old Indonesian/Dutch full time change-maker. At 12 years old, she founded Bye Bye Plastic Bags (BBPB) in 2013 with her younger sister Isabel, then 10, and has been leading the movement driven by youth since. After six long years on the frontline, the official ban on plastic bags, straws and Styrofoam was enforced by the Balinese government on June 23, 2019. Thanks to the thousands of supporters and loyal, determined partners on the island, Bali is the first Indonesian province to make the ban on plastic bags happen.

Ms Wijsen graduated from Green School Bali in 2018, one year early and has been a full-time change-maker ever since.

Ms Wijsen also founded the people's movement One Island One Voice in 2015, where over 500 Bali-based businesses came together to say ‘NO’ to single use plastics. In 2017, she established Mountain Mamas, a social enterprise empowering women in the mountains of Bali - every woman gets paid per bag that she produces and 50% of the proceeds go back to the community for education, waste management and health insurance, and the other 50% helps fund BBPB.

Ms Wijsen has spoken on world stages such as TED, the European Union parliament in Brussels and the United Nations in New York. She has also been selected as one of Forbes top ten most inspiring women in the country in 2017 and recently co-chaired the final session of the World Economic Forum’s Development Impact Summit in New York.

In 2019, Melati completed the filming of her first feature film-length documentary, Bigger Than Us, traveling the world to visit young changemakers.

Her most recent project YOUTHTOPIA is focused on empowering more young people to accelerate change by providing them with relevant skills and tools to create impact through peer-to-peer programmes.