Hussein Abaza
   Ministry of the Environment, Egypt
   Senior Advisor to the Minister

   
Susanne Åkerfeldt
Ministry of Finance, Sweden
Senior Advisor

   
Manfred Bergmann
European Commission
Director for Indirect Taxation and Tax Administration  

   
Andres G. Blanco
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
Senior Specialist in Urban Development and Housing   

   
David Bradbury
OECD
Head of the Tax Policy and Statistics

Vicente Fretes Cibils
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) 
Chief of Fiscal and Municipal Managment, Institutions for Development    

Emma Clutterbuck
Office of the Revenue Commissioners, Ireland
Senior Manager

  
Philip Daniel
Resource Governance Adviser

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Helen Dickinson
HM Treasury, United Kingdom
Deputy Director, Energy and Transport Tax Group

 
Aldo Ravazzi Douvan
Ministry of Environment, Italy
Senior Adviser 

Ottmar Edenhofer
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)
Deputy Director and Chief Economist

Goro Ekanto
Ministry of Finance, Indonesia
Director of State Revenue Policy

   
   Marianne Fay
   World Bank
Climate Change Cross Cutting Solutions Area,

   
Pablo Ferreri Silvera
Uruguay
Vice Minister of Economy and Finance

Marcelo Giugale
World Bank
Senior Director, Macroeconomics & Fiscal Management

Lawrence Goulder
Stanford University
Department of Economics

James Greene
Department of Finance, Canada
Director of Business Income Tax

Angel Gurría
OECD
Secretary General

Stéphane Hallegatte
World Bank
Senior Economist

 
Jens Holger Helbo Hansen
Ministry of Taxation, Denmark
Senior Advisor

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Kim S. Jacinto-Henares
Philippines
Commissioner of Bureau of Internal Revenue

   
Michael Keen
IMF
Deputy Director of Fiscal Affairs

   
Lawrence Kiiza
Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Uganda
Director Economic Affairs

   
Kumi Kitamori
OECD
Head of Division, Green Growth & Global Relations

   
Brigitte Knopf
Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change
Secretary General

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Ian Parry
IMF
Principal Environmental Fiscal     Policy Expert

   
Grace Perez-Navarro
OECD
Deputy Director of the Center for Tax Policy and Administration 

Christian de Perthuis
Paris-Dauphine University / Climate Economics Chair
Professor of Economics / Head

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Astera Primanto Bhakti
Indonesia 
Assistant Minister of Finance

Xiaoxiong Qiu
State Administration of Taxation (SAT) 
Deputy Commissioner 

Pascal Saint-Amans
OECD
Director of the Center for Tax Policy
and Administration 

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Mahinda Samarasinghe
Sri Lanka
Minister of Finance

Ron Steenblik
OECD
Senior Trade Policy Analyst

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Hussein Abaza is a senior Advisor to the Egyptian Minister of Environment and Director of Centre for Sustainable Development Solutions (CSDS) He completed his undergraduate studies in Economics at the American University in Cairo, Egypt and post graduate studies In Urban Housing Planning at the Bradford University in the UK. Mr. Abaza joined the United Nations Environment Programme in 1982, and worked in different capacities. These included: Chief of the Economics and Trade Branch, Chief of the Environment and Economics Unit, Coordinator of the Committee of International Development Institutions on the Environment, Assistant to the Executive Director of UNEP, Co-ordinator of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, and Fund Programme Management Officer.

Ms Åkerfeldt has a Master’s Degree in Law from Uppsala University, Sweden and is an Associate Judge of Appeal. She’s a ministerial adviser and international negotiator with more than 20 years of experience related to policy design of cost-efficient environmental taxation, its interaction with other policy measures nationally and globally on the road towards developing a sustainable, low-carbon and resource-efficient society. She has been instrumental in the development of the Swedish CO2 tax over the years and has a long and broad experience of negotiating energy taxation matters within the EU as well as in a global context.

Manfred Bergmann is the Director for Indirect Taxation and Tax Administration at the Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union of the European Commission. Taxes covered by his Directorate comprise VAT, energy taxation and other excise duties, and the Financial Transaction Tax. Between 2008 and 2011, Mr. Bergmann was Head of Unit for Industrial Competitiveness Policy at the Directorate General Enterprise and Industry. In this function, he also headed the internal task forces "carbon leakage" (2008) and "economic crisis and industry" (2008 to 2011). Mr. Bergmann first joined the European Commission in 1988 as a desk officer in the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs and later (1998) became Head of Unit for Economic Analysis of Community Policies. In this function, he was also alternate member to the European Commission's "Impact Assessment Board" (2005 to 2007). Before joining the Commission he was an assistant professor at the Chair of Public Finance at the University of Münster in Germany. He holds a PhD in economics.

Andres G Blanco is Sector Coordinator of the Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative and a Senior Specialist in Urban Development and Housing at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Previously, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Florida. His work is centered on the economic aspects of planning in areas like housing, land use, urban and land economics, and local economic development. In 2010, he received his doctoral degree in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University. Andres has worked as a researcher and consultant in different projects involving urban planning, economic development, and public policy evaluation for organizations like the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the United Nations Development Program, and local and regional governments in Latin America and the United States.

David Bradbury is the Head of the Tax Policy and Statistics Division of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). David is an Australian national and joined the OECD in April 2014, where he leads a team of economists, lawyers and statisticians who are focused on providing internationally comparable revenue statistics and delivering high quality economic analysis and tax policy advice. Prior to joining the OECD, David was a lawyer, a Member of the House of Representatives in the Australian Parliament, and a Minister in the Australian Government. As a lawyer, David worked for an international corporate law firm, specialising in taxation law. He served in the Australian Government as the Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, Minister Assisting for Financial Services and Superannuation, and Minister Assisting for Deregulation.

Carter Brandon is the World Bank‘s Global Lead (Chief) Economist for Environment and Natural Resources with responsibility for shaping the use of economic research and policy analysis in the World Bank’s development agenda. Previously he held various positions in both headquarters (Lead Economist for Sustainable Development in Latin America, and Lead Environmental Economist in South Asia) and field offices (managing the World Bank's environment, social and rural programmes in China, 2008-12 and in the Southern Cone countries, 2003-08). Prior to joining the World Bank, he ran the Development Economics Group, an economics consulting firm specialising in trade and sector policy analysis. He graduated from Harvard University (B.A.) and Oxford University (DPhil, ABD, Agricultural Economics), where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Pierre-Alain Bruchez is an economist at the Federal Finance Administration in the unit "Economic Analysis and Policy Advice" (EAPA). EAPA is responsible for advising on economic policy issues, and in particular, fiscal policy issues, for the Federal Councillor heading the Federal Department of Finance and for the Federal Finance Administration's Executive Board. He has worked on various subjects, for example the federal debt brake and is currently deputy of the head of the project "Incentive system for climate and energy policy"

Erik Bruinsma is Deputy Director in the Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands. He is responsible for tax policy and legislation in the field of excuse duties, car and environment taxation and adviser on these issues to the Minister and the Secretary of State. After four years of experience in the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the EU in Brussels, Erik Bruinsma started working in the Ministry of Finance in 2006 as senior expert on EU Tax Law. He has several years of experience on European law issues concerning consumer taxation, VAT, car taxation and excise duties. Furthermore he has been coordinator of the yearly tax plan and head of the unit procedural tax law. Erik Bruinsma has studied European Law and Modern History in Amsterdam, Leiden and Berlin and lives in Amsterdam.

A native of Argentina, Vicente Fretes Cibils completed his undergraduate work at the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, in Argentina. He subsequently pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and North Carolina State University, where he received, respectively, a master’s degree in business administration and a PhD in economics. Mr. Fretes Cibils joined the World Bank in 1987, he served as Economist in the Office of the Vice President for West Africa Operations; Chief Economist in the Department of Operations form Andean Countries; Senior Economist for República Bolivariana de Venezuela, and subsequently for Colombia and Mexico; Lead Economist in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management sector for the Andean Countries Department. He joined the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2007, and is currently a Division Chief of Fiscal and Municipal Management, Institutions for Development.

Emma Clutterbuck is a senior manager in the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, the Irish tax authority, with responsibility for Revenue policy on the administration of excise, including the administration of energy taxes. Her role involves analysing and developing policy on the administration of excise, interpreting and contributing to the development of related tax legislation and evaluating and advising on strategic issues affecting excise. She holds an MSc in Environmental Policy from University College Dublin.

Eduardo Croci is the Research Director at IEFE, the research center for economics and policy of energy and environment of Bocconi University, Milan, where he is Coordinator of the “Green Economy Observatory” and teaches “Carbon Markets and Carbon Management”. He also teaches “Environmental Policy” at the Milan State University. His main research area is related to sustainable policy at the urban level (environment, energy, mobility, climate). Served as Milan City Councilor for Mobility, Transport and Environment. Mr. Croci also served as President of the Agency for the Protection of the Environment of Lombardy Region and Vice President of FEDARENE (European Federation of Regional Energy and Environment Agency).

Philip Daniel Chairs the Advisory Board of the Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies (OxCARRE) and serves on the Advisory Council of The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI). Philip is Honorary Faculty at the Centre for Energy, Minerals and Petroleum Law and Policy, University of Dundee. Until April 2015, Philip worked for nine years at the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF, part as Deputy Head, Tax Policy Division and part as Adviser, Immediate Office. Philip’s previous career spanned universities, government and consulting, always with a focus on economic and fiscal issues in resource rich countries. His advisory work for governments includes leading roles in commercial contract and inter-governmental negotiations. Philip has also been Distinguished Lecturer in Mineral Economics at the Colorado School of Mines

Helen Dickinson is a Deputy Director in the Business and International Tax Group of HM Treasury with extensive experience in energy and climate change policy and economics. After completing a PhD in physical chemistry Helen joined the civil service as a scientist, working initially on protecting the planet from the risk of asteroid strikes and modernisation of UK arms control legislation. This was followed by three years as science and innovation attaché at the British Embassy in Paris. On her return to the UK Helen moved in to international energy policy, before retraining in economics and moving to HM Treasury in 2008. Her Treasury roles have included climate change economics and strategy, oversight and value for money analysis of UK Government spending on energy and climate change policy, and taxation of the financial services sector.

Aldo Ravazzi Douvan is a senior adviser on green growth, sustainable development and environmental fiscal reform (EFR) at the Italian Ministry of Environment since 2000. During the first part of his career, he has been Chief Economist at IRI, the largest European industrial-financial holding, and then privatised. He presently chairs the OECD Working Party for Environmental Performance Country Reviews, previously those on Taxation & Environment, and on Biodiversity, Water & Ecosystems. He is the Vice-President of Green Budget Europe, the network of experts from Governments, IGOs, NGOs, Business, University & Research promoting EFRs across Europe and beyond, and the removal of environmentally harmful subsidies. Furthermore he is the Vice-President of the Plan Bleu for environment & development in Mediterranean (Unep-Map). He teaches Sustainable Development at the University of Roma Luiss and is one of the major promoters of the 2012 and 2014 attempts of EFR in Italy.

Ottmar Edenhofer is Deputy Director and Chief Economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Professor of the Economics of Climate Change of the Technical University Berlin and Co-Chair of Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 2008. Moreover, he is director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) as well as adviser to the World Bank regarding issues of economic growth and climate protection. He is co-chairing the Energy Platform by the European Council of Academies of Applied Sciences, Technologies and Engineering (Euro-CASE), member of the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), member of the Science-Industry Cooperation and member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Workgroup Climate, Energy and Environment. Among many other important publications, he led the Fifth Assessment Report Cycle and co-edited the AR5 Climate Change 2014 - Mitigation of Climate Change as well as the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN) in his capacity as Co-Chair of IPCC’s WG III. 

Goro Ekanto is the Director of Center for State Revenue Policy of Fiscal Policy Agency, Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia. Within his current responsibilities, he deals with the formulation of policies and negotiation for taxation and excises, including the taxation on natural resources. Before joining the Fiscal Policy Agency in the early of year 2015, he has served Directorate General of Taxes since 1988. His prior assignments was as, among others, Head of Subdirectorate of Withholding and Collection of Income Tax and Personal Tax Regulation as well as Head of Foreign Investment Tax Office. Mr. Ekanto received his master’s degree in Accounting from the University of Illinois, United States.

Marianne Fay is the Chief Economist of the Climate Change Cross Cutting Solutions Area of the World Bank. She co-directed the World Development Report 2010 on Development and Climate Change and led the World Bank report on Inclusive Green growth: the Pathway to Sustainable Development. She has held positions in different regions of the World Bank (Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa) working on infrastructure, urbanization and climate change. Prior to her current position, she served as the Chief Economist of the former Sustainable Development Network of the World Bank. She is the author of a number of articles and books on these topics. Marianne Fay holds a PhD in Economics from Columbia University.

Pablo Ferreri (born in 1975) is the Vice Minister of Economy and Finance of Uruguay. From 2010 to 2014 he held the role of Director General of Revenue at the Internal Revenue Service, the youngest person to hold that office in the history of the institution. During his administration, he promoted a successful process of modernization, reaching the highest revenue level in the last decade, and obtaining the lowest levels of evasion in the history of Uruguay. Mr. Ferreri also served as president of the Inter-American Centre of Tax Administrations (CIAT) from 2010-2011. Holding a master in Tax Law from the University of Montevideo, Mr. Ferreri taught courses at the Faculty of Economics and Administration at the University of the Republic and the University of Montevideo. He is author of several articles related to international taxation.

Marcelo Giugale is the Senior Director of the World Bank Group’s Global Practice on Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management, the professional home of the Group’s 300-plus macroeconomists. An international development leader, his twenty-five years of experience span the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin-America, and Africa, where he led senior-level policy dialogue and over thirty billion dollars in lending operations across the development spectrum. A Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, he has published on macroeconomic policy, finance, subnational fiscal rules, development economics, business, agriculture and applied econometrics. Notably, he was the chief editor of collections of policy notes published for the presidential transitions in Mexico (2000), Colombia (2002), Ecuador (2003), Bolivia (2006) and Peru (2006). In 2014, he authored “Economic Development: What Everyone Needs to Know”, a featured volume by Oxford University Press. His opinion editorials are published in the leading newspapers and blog-sites of the USA, Europe, Latin-America and Africa. He received decorations from the governments of Bolivia and Peru, and taught at the American University in Cairo, The London School of Economics, and the Universidad Católica Argentina. A citizen of Argentina and Italy, he holds a PhD and a MSc in Economics from The London School of Economics, and a Summa-Cum-Laude BA in Economics from Universidad Católica Argentina. You can watch Marcelo’s TED Talk (“Ending Poverty”) and follow him on Twitter at @Marcelo_WB.

 Lawrence H. Goulder is the Shuzo Nishihara Professor in Environmental and Resource Economics at Stanford and Director of the Stanford Environmental and Energy Policy Analysis Center. He is also a University Fellow at Resources for the Future and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research examines the environmental and economic impacts of U.S. and international environmental policies, including policies to deal with climate change and pollution from power plants and automobiles.  His work also explores the “sustainability” of consumption patterns in various countries.  He has conducted analyses for several government agencies, business groups, and environmental organizations.  He currently advises the California Environmental Protection Agency in connection with its effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions reductions. At Stanford Goulder teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in environmental economics and policy, and co-organizes a weekly seminar in public and environmental economics.  He graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. in philosophy and received his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford.

James Greene is the Director of Business Income Tax at the Department of Finance Canada. From 2011 to 2013, he was head of the Tax and the Environment Unit in the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration at the OECD. Prior to this, he headed the Resource and Environmental Taxation section at Finance Canada for seven years. In previous positions with the Department, he was responsible for strategic issues relating to federal-provincial fiscal transfers, and for a variety of corporate income tax policy matters relating to corporate finance, the financial sector and cross-border investment. James earned an M.A. in economics and an LL.B. at the University of Toronto and a B.A. in economics at McGill University.

Angel Gurría is the Secretary-General of the OECD since June 2006. He was re-appointed to a third mandate in May 2015. As OECD Secretary-General, he has reinforced the OECD's role as a ‘hub' for global dialogue and debate on economic policy issues while pursuing internal modernisation and reform. Mr. Gurría is a Mexican national and came to the OECD following a distinguished career in public service in his country, including positions as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance and Public Credit in the 1990s. Mr. Gurría holds a B.A. degree in Economics from UNAM (Mexico) and a M.A. degree in Economics from Leeds University (United Kingdom). He is married and has three children.

Stéphane Hallegatte is senior economist with the World Bank. His work covers macroeconomic dynamics and green growth strategies, urban economics and environmental policies, climate change vulnerability and adaptation, and disaster risk management. He is lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change for its Fifth Assessment Report. He co-led, with Marianne Fay, the World Bank reports Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathway to Sustainable Development and Decarbonizing Development: Three Steps toward a Zero-Carbon Future. He also published dozen of articles in international journals and several books, including Natural disasters and climate change – an economic perspective. Stephane Hallegatte holds an engineering degree from the Ecole Polytechnique and a phD in economics from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris..

Jens Holger Helbo Hansen is senior adviser in the Ministry of Taxation in Denmark. He works on economic policy and tax policy in general with a special responsibility to develop methods to quantify the structural effects of taxes – distortions, labour supply, environmental effects, welfare effects and effects on structural revenue and GDP. He has participated in developing Danish tax policy and most of the green taxes on energy and pollutants. Mr. Holger Hansen has also been a part-time associate professor at Copenhagen Business School in the fields of tax policy, applied economics, microeconomics, etc. for almost 30 years.

Michelle Harding is an economist at the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration. Her recent work has focused on environmental taxation, including the taxation of energy and road fuels, as well as the taxation of company car benefits under personal income tax systems. She is the lead author of the Taxing Energy Use publications (OECD, 2013, 2015) and has also published working papers on taxation of dividends, capital gains and interest income, company car taxation, and the taxation of diesel. Prior to the OECD, Michelle worked at the New Zealand Treasury, where she contributed to the significant overhaul of the New Zealand tax system in 2010, with responsibility for fiscal and distributional analysis of company tax, VAT and savings tax policy changes.

Elham Hassanzadeh is a senior consultant at Energy Pioneers Consulting Firm where her work focuses on energy market development in the Middle East. She is a visiting research fellow at Oxford Institute for Energy Studies where she has conducted extensive research on legal and political aspects of oil and gas industry development in the Middle East. She is the author of Iran’s natural gas industry in the post-Revolutionary period, published by Oxford University Press. Elham has publications on the Middle East energy market reform with Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI), International Institute for Sustainable Development where she is a visiting fellow. She is also a qualified barrister at the Iranian Central Bar Association and a political economy adviser to the World Bank on energy subsidies reform.

Obtaining a postgraduate in Economics from University Paris X Nanterre in 1985, Mr. Régis Immongault also graduated from the School of Noisiel Treasury Services in France. He followed parallel specialized training including the IMF, on the Medium-term programming. His professional career started in 1989 at the Treasury Gabon where he was, Head of Department, Deputy Director, Director of Programming and Regulations Resources, Treasurer. In 2000, he was appointed to Inspector General of Diplomatic Missions. From 2002 to 2009 he was the Financial Advisor in charge of Relations with Financial Institutions and the Minister of Economy. In parallel he hosted various technical committees including the Committee on Statistics; the Monitoring Committee of the Structural Adjustment Programme; the Committee on oil revenues and the EITI Interest Group. Since 2009, he has served on the first government as Minister of Energy and Water Resources, and Minister of Mines, Industry and Tourism. Since October 2014, he has served as Minister of Economy, Promotion of Investment and Planning.

Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares heads the Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue since 2010. Previously, she was Senior Private Sector Development Specialist at the World Bank Group. She served the Government in various capacities: as BIR Deputy Commissioner; Governor, Philippine Board of Investments; Chair, Cagayan Economic Zone Authority; Director, Power Sector Assets & Liabilities Management Corporation and National Power Corporation; and Representative of the Secretary of Trade and Industry, Investment Coordinating Committee. Commissioner Henares’ educational background covers both the accounting and legal professions: Master of Laws degree in International and Comparative Law, Georgetown University; Further studies in Canada’s University of New Brunswick, McGill University and University of Toronto; Bachelor of Science in Commerce, Accounting major, De La Salle University; Bachelor of Laws, Ateneo de Manila University.

Siv Jensen (born 1 June 1969) has been Minister of Finance since 2013 and leader of the Progress Party since 2006. She was elected in Parliament in 1997 from the Oslo constituency, and has been re-elected for four consecutive terms. She was member of the Finance Committee her two first periods and chaired the committee from 2001 to 2005. Since 2005 until she was appointed as Minister of Finance, Jensen was member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence. Siv Jensen is born in Oslo and has a degree in economics from Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).

Michael Keen is Deputy Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund, where he was previously head of the Tax Policy and Tax Coordination divisions. Before joining the Fund, he was Professor of Economics at the University of Essex and visiting Professor at Kyoto University. He has led technical assistance missions to nearly thirty countries on a wide range of issues in tax policy, and consulted for the World Bank, European Commission, and the private sector. He has served on the Board of the National Tax Association in the U.S., and on the editorial boards of American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, International Tax and Public Finance (of which he was joint founder), Journal of Public Economics, the Review of Economic Studies and many other journals. He is co-author of books on The Modern VAT, the Taxation of Petroleum and Minerals, and Changing Customs.

Lawrence Kiiza is currently the Director Economic Affairs MFPED Uganda with responsibility of macroeconomic management, tax policy, financial sector, policy research and development and coordination of overseas development assistance (ODA). He is responsible for co-ordinating fiscal and monetary policy interaction including relationship with IMF. Prior to this role he was Commissioner of Tax Policy with responsibility for formulation, design and supervision of tax policy. Responsible for revenue forecasting and analysis, Mr. Kiiza is behind the tax policy design and legislation of the country including oil, gas and minerals, and also revenue management for Uganda. Mr. Kiiza holds a Master of International Taxation from University of Sydney Australia. He is actively involved in various conferences on design of fiscal regime and revenue management for extractives.

Kumi Kitamori is Head of Green Growth & Global Relations Division at the OECD Environment Directorate. In this role she oversees the mainstreaming of green growth in the work of various policy committees of the OECD and in member and other partner countries. This includes a dedicated programme that promotes green growth policies, finance and investment in the Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) region. Prior to this, she worked in the OECD Environment Directorate on various issues including tradable permits and taxes, water pricing, climate change, biodiversity, health & environment, among others. She led a flagship project OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050 published in 2012. Prior to joining the OECD in 2000, Kumi was at the World Bank where she worked extensively in South and Southeast Asia on urban and environmental infrastructure projects (green finance for urban infrastructure, water supply & sanitation, cleaner production, etc). Kumi holds BA and MSc in development and economics from New York University and London School of Economics. She is a Japanese national.

Dr. Brigitte Knopf is Secretary General of MCC since February 2015. Before joining MCC, she was deputy head of the research domain Sustainable Solutions at the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and head of the group Energy Strategies Europe and Germany. She holds a PhD in physics. As an expert for the German Energiewende and the European climate and energy policy, she coordinated a model comparison on the effects of technology choices on EU climate policy that is closely linked to the EU Energy Roadmap. Recently she coordinated the Euro-CASE assessment of the EU emissions trading scheme. Brigitte Knopf is also interested in scientific policy advice and the design of the science-policy interface. From 2009 to 2011 she was Senior Advisor of the Technical Support Unit of the IPCC Working Group III for preparing the IPCC Special Report on Renewables. She is also contributing author in IPCC's Fifths Assessment Report of Working Group III on the Mitigation of Climate Change.

Mr. Pierre Laporte is the former Minister for Finance, Trade and Investment of the Republic of Seychelles. Prior to that he served as Governor of the Central Bank of Seychelles. Mr. Laporte also previously served as an Economist with the International Monetary Fund and was the Fund's Resident Representative in Niger for three years. As Central Bank Governor and later Finance Minister, Mr. Laporte was a key member of the Seychelles team that spearheaded the country’s successful macro-economic reform program that was launched in 2008 with international support, including from the IMF and the World Bank. As Trade Minister he led Seychelles’ accession into the World Trade Organization in early 2015. Mr. Laporte holds a Master’s Degree in Economics (with Distinction) from the University of Sheffield (UK).

Ricardo Martner is Chief of the Unit of Fiscal Affairs of the Development Division of CEPAL, United Nations. He joined CEPAL in 1986, after completing his studies in economics from the Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. He is presently coordinating the Fiscal Panorama Report of Latin-American and the Caribbean Countries, an annual publication of CEPAL. His research focuses on the analysis of fiscal policy, inequality, tax reforms and budgeting. Mr Martner has co-authored and edited numerous institutional documents, books and articles in these fields of public finance.

Fernando de Mello Franco is Secretary of Urban Development at the City of São Paulo, Brazil. He is an architect and holds a PhD degree from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo. He was a founding partner at MMBB Arquitetos, and curator of URBEM – Instituto de Urbanismo e Estudos para a Metrópole. He has taught at the Architecture and Urbanism programmes at São Carlos’ School of Engineering of the University of São Paulo, as well as in Mackenzie and São Judas Tadeu Universities. He was also a visiting professor at Harvard University. Fernando de Mello Franco has extensive experience in architectural and urban projects, among which stand out infrastructure and public facilities, social housing and favela redevelopment projects.

Miguel Messmacher obtained a B.A. in economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. He was named Deputy Finance Minister for Revenue on December 2012. Before that, he held several posts in the Finance Ministry, including as the Chief Economist from 2007 to 2012, and in the areas of Public Credit and Development Banking. From 2002 to 2006, he worked at the International Monetary Fund. In addition, he was Economic Researcher at the Economic Research Department of the Banco de México. He has also been course Professor at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and has published several articles on macroeconomic topics.

Cecil Morden completed his undergraduate studies in Economics, Accountancy and Statistics, honours in Economics and teachers diploma at the University of the Western Cape in Bellville (1975 to 1980). He completed his Masters degree in Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana in the USA in 1988. He started his career in teaching. Currently he occupies the position of Chief Director Economic Tax Analysis at the National Treasury in South Africa, responsible for tax policy advice and tax revenue estimation. He has inter alia been involved in the design of the new mineral royalty regime, environmental fiscal reform measures – including the proposed carbon tax, value added tax and excise duties on alcoholic beverages.

Mrs. Blanca Moreno-Dodson is an experienced development economist with more than 20 years of World Bank service worldwide, and intensive experience in Africa and Latin America. She is accomplished in macroeconomics and fiscal policy for developing countries, with a focus on growth, inequality and poverty reduction. She is skilled in public expenditure analysis, fiscal sustainability, tax policy reforms, public finance, and transfer pricing. She is the editor of three World Bank books: “Reducing Poverty on a Global Scale”, 2005, “Public Finance for Poverty Reduction”, 2007, and “Is Fiscal Policy the Answer? A Developing Country Perspective”, 2012. She holds a PhD and a Masters in International Economics and Finance from the Aix-Marseille II University, France, as well as a Masters in Economics from the Madrid Autonomous University, Spain.

Dušan Mramor, Dr.Sc., Minister of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia since September 2014. Before he was a full professor of finance at the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana. He served as the Dean of the Faculty of Economics (2007-2013), as Chairman of the Board of the University of Ljubljana, and as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Economics. He was a Recurring Visiting Professor at the Central European University and a Research Associate and Visiting Scholar at the School of Business, Indiana University, USA. Dr Mramor played an active role in Slovenia’s transition process, serving as Minister of Finance from 2002 to 2004. He was also a member of the council of the National Bank of Slovenia, a member of the Admission Board of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, Chairman of the Securities Market Agency of Slovenia, a member of the Strategic Economic Council and Vice Chairman of the Development Committee of the Prime Minister of Slovenia and a member of the Advisory Board of the President of Slovenia.

Nitya Nanda is a Fellow with the Centre for Global Agreements, Legislation and Trade at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi and an adjunct faculty with Teri University, New Delhi. Nitya has about fifteen years of experience in research, consulting and teaching on international trade and finance, investment, energy, environment and climate, regulation and international development issues. Among other important assignments, he has been the lead researcher of some major projects spanning different countries in Asia and Africa. Prior to his engagement with TERI, he worked with CUTS International, Jaipur; National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi; and Council for Social Development, New Delhi. He had his education at the University of Calcutta and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. An economist by training, his current areas of interest are: international trade and finance, energy, climate change, resources and regulatory issues including the relevant legal and political economy dimensions. He has published a good number of articles/papers on these issues in professional/peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. He has authored/edited several reports and a few books/monographs. His most important work is titled, “Expanding Frontiers of Global Trade Rules: The Political Economy Dynamics of the International Trading System”, published by Routledge, London in 2008. Apart from several research projects, he also worked on consulting assignments of organisations like United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Commission (EC). He has also been providing inputs for policy making to different government ministries and agencies of India.

James Nix is the Director of Green Budget Europe, an expert platform on environmental fiscal reform. He holds Board memberships of Transport & Environment, a pan-EU organisation working to enhance the sustainability of transport, and Irish Rail / Iarnród Eireann, Ireland’s publically-owned railway company. After finishing his law degree at Trinity College Dublin, James

Ian Parry is responsible for the environment, climate, and energy tax work in the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF. Prior to joining the IMF in 2010, Parry was at Resources for the Future for 15 years, where he was first appointed to the Allen V. Kneese Chair in Environmental Economics. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago. Parry’s research focuses on analytical models to quantify for different countries the economic impacts and efficient levels of a wide range of environmental, energy, and transportation policies. His work emphasizes the critical role of fiscal instruments to address externalities and raise revenue. Parry has published over 60 papers in professional journals and has written numerous other scholarly articles.

Grace Perez-Navarro is the Deputy Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration. As such, she plays a key role in the work on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), improving international tax co-operation, promoting better tax policies and engaging developing countries in OECD tax work. Since joining the OECD in 1997, she has held several key positions, including having led the OECD’s work on bank secrecy, tax and e-commerce, harmful tax practices, money laundering and tax crimes, the tax aspects of countering bribery of foreign officials, and strengthening all forms of administrative co-operation between tax authorities. Prior to joining the OECD, Ms. Perez-Navarro was a Special Counsel at the IRS Office of the Associate Chief Counsel (International) where she was responsible for co-ordinating guidance provided to field offices on international tax issues, overseeing litigation of international tax issues, negotiating TIEAs, overseeing the drafting of regulations, rulings and other policy advice and participating in treaty negotiations.

Christian De Perthuis is Professor of Economics at Paris-Dauphine University and Head of the Climate Economics Chair. He started his career in the agricultural sector, went on to work in leading French research and forecasting institutes and headed the “Mission Climat” of Caisse des Dépots between 2004 and 2008. His research focuses on the economics of climate change and ecological transition. Author of several articles and books, he is co-author of Green Capital (Odile Jacob, 2013, Columbia University Press, 2015) and co-author of Le Climat, à quel prix? La négociation climatique (Odile Jacob, 2015) He chaired the «Green Tax Commission », which helped the French Government to set up a domestic carbon tax in 2014.

Grzegorz Peszko is a Lead Economist in the Climate Change Group of the World Bank where he leads analytical work and policy dialogue on economics of climate change mitigation, as well as climate, energy and economic policies. He previously served as a lead energy/environmental economist in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and as environmental finance programme manager at the OECD. Prior to working for international institutions he was associate professor at the Krakow University of Economics, policy adviser for several governments on economic aspects of energy, environmental and climate change issues, private consultant and investment project developer. He was a lead author of the IPPC 3rd Assessment Report (WGIII), and (co)author of several journal articles and books, including Green Budget Reform in Europe: Countries at the Forefront (ed. in 1999 by Kai Schlegelmilch). Grzegorz Peszko holds MSc in economics from University College London, MSc in political sciences from Yagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland and PhD in economics from Krakow University of Economics.

Mr. Astera Primanto Bhakti is the Assistant to Minister of Finance for State Revenue. Mr. Bhakti also assign as Competent Authority for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and Settlement for International Taxation, Vice Chairman of Tariff Team at the Ministry of Finance, Vice Chairman of Indonesian Tax Revenue Optimization Team, Member of Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Revision of General Tax Provisions and Procedures Law, and Revision of Oil and Gas Law. During his service in the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia, he had assumed several important roles and positions with respect to the formulation of regulation in the field of income taxation and international taxation. In line with his job responsibilities, Mr Astera had been involved in many international negotiations concerning tax treaty, bilateral investment treaty, as well as treaty for tarrifs; and had been the head delegations in some of the negotiations.

Xiaoxiong Qiu is the Deputy Commissioner of State Administration of Taxation (SAT), China. From 2003 to 2011 he held positions in the Premier’s office including Deputy Secretary-General and Deputy Director for the research office of the State Council. He previously served as General Secretary in the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Dr Manfred Rosenstock joined the European Commission in 1993 and is currently Deputy Head of Unit of the Resource Efficiency & Economic Analysis Unit of DG Environment. His main fields of work concern questions relating to the use of market-based instruments in Member States´ and Community environmental policy as well as to the environmental and resource-efficiency dimension of the Community Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and its review. His previous assignments were in the State aids Directorate of DG Competition and the Socio-Economic Analysis Unit of DG Regional Policy. Before joining the Commission, he studied economics at the J.W. Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Germany, and the London School of Economics, UK from 1982-1987. Thereafter, he worked as a graduate research assistant at the Institute for Public Sector Economics of the University of Frankfurt until 1993, where he obtained a Ph.D. in Economics.

Pascal Saint-Amans took on his duties as Director of the Center for Tax Policy and Administration at the OECD on 1 February 2012. Mr. Saint-Amans, a French national, joined the OECD in September 2007 as Head of the International Co-operation and Tax Competition Division in the CTPA. He played a key role in the advancement of the OECD tax transparency agenda in the context of the G20. In October 2009 he was appointed Head of the Global Forum Division, created to service the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, a programme with the participation of over 100 countries. Mr. Saint-Amans graduated from the National School of Administration (ENA) in 1996, and was an official in the French Ministry for Finance for nearly a decade. He held various positions within the Treasury, including heading the supervision of the EU work on direct taxes and overseeing legislation and policy on wealth tax and mergers and spin offs. He was also the head of tax treaty negotiations and mutual agreement procedures. In this capacity, he participated in the OECD Working Party No. 1 of the Committee on Fiscal Affairs as the delegate for France before being elected Chair of WP1 in 2005. He was also a member of the UN Group of Experts on International Co-operation in Tax Matters, becoming a “rapporteur” in 2006. Before leaving government service, he was Deputy Director in charge of litigation at the Direction Générale des Impôts. Mr. Saint-Amans also served as Financial Director of the Energy Regulation Committee between 1999 and 2002 and was responsible for the introduction of new electricity tariffs. Having earned a degree in history, Mr. Saint-Amans also received a degree from the Institut d’études politiques of Paris.

Mahinda Samarasinghe is the State Minister of Finance of Sri Lanka. From 2010 to 2015 he held the role of Minister of Plantation Industries & Special Envoy of H.E. the President on Human Rights. Prior to this Mr. Samarasinghe held the positions of Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights (2006 - 2010) and Minister of Employment and Labour (2001-2004). Holding extensive experience in disaster management, Mr. Samarasinghe chaired the Parliamentary Select Committee on Man-Made Disasters from 2005 to 2009; he was appointed in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami. Mr. Samarasinghe has a bachelor of economics degree from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

Jorge Moreira da Silva is the Portuguese Minister of Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy, and the co-chairman of the European People’s Party (EPP) Working Group on Energy and Climate Change. Mr. da Silva also served as Secretary of State of Science and Higher Education; and of Environment and Spatial Planning; Programme Manager on Climate Change Innovative Finance at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Senior Adviser on Science, Environment and Energy to the President of Portugal; Consultant to the President of the European Commission on the post-2012 climate change negotiations; Consultant to the European Investment Bank; Member of the Portuguese Parliament; Member of the European Parliament.

Ronald Steenblik is a Senior Trade Policy Analyst, in the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the OECD. He currently heads the team that is responsible for the OECD’s inventory of support to fossil-fuel production and consumption in OECD countries, and for studying issues at the nexus of trade and the environment. In 2006 and 2007 he served as the first Director of Research for the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s (IISD) Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI), a programme aimed at improving information on the extent and effects of subsidies, especially those that are harming developing countries or the environment. Over the last 30 years he has made important contributions to the policy debate on subsidies to agriculture, biofuels, fishing, and energy. He is a regular peer reviewer for several academic journals, especially those focussing on energy economics and policy. Ronald is a graduate of Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Juan Toro is Assistant Director in the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He is responsible for managing IMF revenue administration technical assistance (TA) to Europe, Asia, Middle East, and Central Asia. Previously, he was the head of the IMF Revenue Administration division. He has been managing IMF TA in revenue administration to more than 80 member countries, from all regions, and has led and participated in IMF TA missions in revenue administration to more than 30 countries. Before joining the IMF, he was the commissioner of the Chilean tax administration In 2004, he received the Wharton-Infosys Business Transformation Award for leading the online tax administration model in Chile. He graduated as Master Degree in Economics and Management and Civil Industrial Engineer at the University of Chile, School of Engineering.

Dr. Toukan is the Jordanian minister of finance. Obtaining a postgraduate degree in Economic Development from Oxford University Dr. Toukan then went on to complete his doctoral studies in Monetary Economics at Columbia University in the City of New York. Dr. Toukan’s career included two terms as the Governor of the Central Bank of Jordan, Head of the Economic Research Department at the Central Bank of Jordan and CEO of the Stock Exchange in Jordan. On the international level, Dr. Toukan represented his country at the United Nations in New York and has acted as an Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the European Union.

Simon Upton is the Environment Director at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD). The Environment Directorate is responsible for Environmental Performance Reviews of Member Countries, the economic analysis of policy instruments used to improve environmental outcomes and a wide range of work related to water, biodiversity, climate and chemicals. He has played a key role in the development of the OECD’s Green Growth Strategy. Mr Upton is a New Zealander and former Member of Parliament. He held a variety of ministerial offices between 1990 – 1999, notably the Environment and Research, Science & Technology portfolios. He chaired the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in 1999. He chaired the Round Table on Sustainable Development at the OECD between 1998 and 2014, and became Environment Director at the OECD in 2010.

Christian Valenduc holds a Master's in Economics, from the University of Namur, in Belgium. He joined the studies department of the Federal Ministry of Finance in Belgium in 1986. He is now Head of the Tax Policy Analysis and Revenue Forecasting Unit. He also leads the Secretariat of the Tax division of the High Council of Finance, an advisory group of experts for the Minister of Finance. He chaired the OECD Working Party on Tax Policy Analysis and Tax Statistics and co-chaired the Joint Sessions on Tax and Environment from 2000 to 2009. Christian Valenduc is also Professor at the Universities of Louvain-La-Neuve and Namur. Most of his publications relate to tax policy analysis issues.

Kurt is the Head of the Tax and the Environment Unit in the Tax Policy and Statistics Division of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration. Earlier, he was the Chief Economist of the International Transport Forum and an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California at Irvine. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Leuven in Belgium, where he also worked as a researcher. Kurt’s work focuses on the use of economic instruments to contain excessive environmental and other social costs of energy use and transport activities, and on the interactions between environmental and other taxes. He also is interested in the appraisal of infrastructure projects and in the design of funding mechanisms for infrastructure. Kurt has published widely in leading academic journals and he has contributed to various OECD publications.

Born in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, on December 11, 1956, Mr. Verdi is an economist and career tax auditor in the “Secretaria da Receita Federal de Brasil”. After 28 years of working in the Brazilian Government Administration, in July 2004 he was designated Director of Tax Studies in CIAT, until 2007. In 2009, he participated in an international public call and was appointed CIAT Executive Secretary, for the 2010 - 2014 term, assuming office on 1 January, 2010. He has specialized in International Economics and Advanced Quantitative Methods in the University of Brasilia (UnB). He holds a Postgraduate degree in Theory and Implementation of a Modern Economy, from the George Washington University – GWU of the “Institute of Brazilian Business and Public Management Issues”, Washington, D.C. U.S.A.

Logan Wort is the Executive Secretary of the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) His responsibilities as Chief Executive include providing strategic leadership and managing the business of the organisation. As Executive Secretary, he is the legal representative and chief accounting officer of ATAF. Under his stewardship, ATAF has inter alia produced the first study on Good Tax Governance in Africa, conducted a comprehensive Study on Reform Priorities of African Tax Administrations, launched the African Executive Master’s Degree in Taxation (EMT) Programme, and delivered technical training to over a thousand African tax officials through the ATAF Capacity Development Programme. Mr Wort is an ex officio member of the ATAF Council. Prior to taking up the position of ATAF Executive Secretary, he served as Group Executive at the South African Revenue Service, Deputy Director General at the South African National Treasury, Spokesman for the South African Finance Ministry and the Director of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Finance and Investment Sector Co-ordinating Unit (FISCU). Logan Wort was born in Cape Town, South Africa and holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and Sociology, and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of the Western Cape.

Ernesto Zedillo is the Frederick Iseman ’74 Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, Professor of International Economics and Politics, and Adjunct Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. He was President of Mexico from 1994 to 2000. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of the Natural Resource Governance Institute; the 21st Century Advisory Council of the Berggruen Institute on Governance; and Co-Chair of the Inter-American Dialogue. He serves on the Global Commission on Drug Policy, chaired by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and is a member of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders using their collective experience and influence for peace, justice and human rights worldwide He currently is a Member of the G30 and the Board of Directors of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He is a Distinguished Practitioner of the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford and in 2011 he was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society..

Heinz Zourek is Director General in the European Commission's Directorate General on Taxes and Customs Union (DG TAXUD). Before this he was in DG Enterprise and Industry, from May 2001 as Deputy Director General and as of November 2005 as Director General. He started to work in the European Commission in September 1995 as Deputy Director General in the Directorate General for the Internal Market. From 1993 to 1995 Heinz Zourek was a member of the College of the EFTA Surveillance Authority created by the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA). His portfolio contained state aids and monopolies, public procurement and free movement of persons. Between 1990 and 1993 he worked for the Confederation of Austrian Trade Unions as Director of the Economic Policy Department. Mr Zourek started his professional life in the Chamber of Labour in Vienna where he became Director of the department for "External Trade and European Integration".