Vito is an anthropologist, development scholar and political analyst focusing on the complex linkages and intersections between key societal challenges such as climate change & sustainable transitions, political polarisation, race, class & gender inequalities, and higher education’s role in socio-economic development. Vito has published in leading academic journals and presses, including the Journal of Development Studies, The Extractive Industries and Society and Cambridge University Press. His media commentary has appeared in Al Jazeera English, Foreign Affairs and Boston Review.

Phoebe Koundouri, is a world-renowned environmental economics professor and global leader in sustainable development. She is widely recognized as a pioneer in innovative, human-centric, interdisciplinary systems for the sustainable interaction between nature, society, and the economy. She is listed in the most-cited women economists in the world, with 15 published books and more than 450 published peer reviewed scientific papers, book chapters and reports. She is elected member of the World Academy of Art & Science, President-elect of the European Association of Environmental and Natural Resource Economists and she has received numerous international awards for academic excellence, including the prestigious European Research Council Synergy Grant (2020). With 100 European/Global research projects/initiatives and a team of 150 researchers, her work defines policies and supports human wellbeing across the globe. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and has been affiliated as researcher and lecturer with Cambridge, UCL, LSE, University of Reading. Since 2006 she is professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), founding director of ReSEES Research Laboratory (AUEB), the Sustainable Development Unit (ATHENA Informatics Research and Innovation Center) and the EIT Climate-KIC HUB Greece of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, the latter focusing on innovation acceleration and research commercialization. She chairs the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network – Europe, the International Center for Research ICRE8 and the Scientific Advisory Board of European Forest Institute. She is Commissioner and the “Green Recovery” Task Force Leader of the global COVID-19 Lancet Commission, member of the Pissarides Committee (10 year Greek Development Plan) chaired by Nobelist Prof. C. Pissarides, member of the National Climate Change Committee of Greece, and an advisor to the EU, the World Bank, the UN, NATO, the WHO and other international organizations and governments worldwideEurope & SDSN Greece.

Hadeel Faidi is a strategic planner engineer and water projects planner at the Palestinian Water Authority responsible for the planning process for the water sector strategy and policy, involved in of the construction of water reservoirs, water supply networks, roads and utilities. In her work she is interfacing with a wide range of government, representatives, agencies and private sectors. She is member for the NEXUS and WASH groups for the UFM water Agenda, member of the Arab IHP National Committee for UNESCO. Noticeable is her experience in the field of NGO’s coordination, proposal writing, fundraising.

Richard Berman is a member of core group of WEFEMED-NEXUS-Gateway project and a core member of the Social Engagement Platform group of the WWQA. He is the former interim Dean of the Patel College of Global Sustainability and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a Senior advisor to the African Climate Mobility Initiative (AU, Un, world Bank), a committee member of the National Academies of Science study of the Progress toward Human Health and community Resilience in the Gulf of Mexico and a board member of the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy, and Development (Nigeria). In 1995, Mr. Berman was selected by Manhattanville College to serve as its tenth President. Mr. Berman received his BBA, MBA, and MPH from the University of Michigan and holds honorary doctorates from Manhattanville College and New York Medical College.

Durk Krol is Director of the Water Europe (former WssTP). He joined the Water Europe in 2008, first as a Board Member and Treasurer. He has worked in the water sector at the European level for the last 12 years, initially as a Senior Legal Policy Officer for the water department of provincial government of Friesland (NL). As Deputy Secretary General of the European federation of national water associations of water suppliers and wastewater services (EUREAU), he was actively promoting the common interests of the European water service sector to the EU institutions and stakeholders which enabled its members to adequately deal with opportunities arising from EU policy and its national implementation. He has also closely been involved in the creation of the EP Water Group in the European Parliament. Durk is a graduate of law, with an additional Master’s degree in Latin American studies, and an MBA.

Serena Caucci is an Associate Programme Officer at UNU-FLORES. Prior to joining UNU-FLORES, Serena served as a researcher and scientific project manager at the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany and at the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ in Leipzig, Germany where she elaborated and coordinated efforts on water sanitation and the impact of contaminants of emerging concern in anthropogenic-driven environments. Serena’s current research is geared towards sustainable development with a interest in the impact that anthropogenic activities have on natural resources. Focusing on the sustainable management of wastewater and organic waste, Serena is working towards the development of a transdisciplinary framework that could make use of socioeconomic and environmental interlinkages to enhance sustainable natural resource management.