Alexandre Babak Hedjazi

University of Geneva

Dr. Alexandre Hedjazi is the Director of GEPP. He has received a doctoral degree in Urban Planning from University of Grenoble in France and a Ph.D from School of Public Affairs – University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

Dr. Hedjazi's started his research career on the financing of urban infrastructures and Public-Private Governance which contributed to the final document of OECD's Conference for Partnership in the XXI Century. In 1997, Dr. Hedjazi joined UCLA to conduct research on regional development and security where among many courses and seminars he lectured on Regionalization and Energy Security at the UCLA Global Studies program.

Since joining the University of Geneva in 2007, he has taught many courses on comparative politics, and organized multiple seminar series on the Caspian Sea, Regionalization and Urban development bringing scholars and practitioner to explore and discuss the nexus of development, security and the environment. Bridging his academic research and his knowledge of Central Asia and the Caucasus, his latest work concerns the impact of emerging economic and political insecurities on regional cooperation and development.

Spiro Pollalis

Harvard University 

Since 1986, Prof. Pollalis is Professor of Design, Technology and Management at the Harvard Design School. Prof. Pollalis is an expert in sustainability and in planning large sustainable projects. At Harvard University, he is the Director of the “Zofnass Program for the Sustainability of Infrastructure” and the Principal Investigator of the project “Sustainable Urbanism on the Arab Gulf.” He is also the co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Singapore-ETH Switzerland Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability. He has taught as a visiting professor at the ETH-Zurich, TU-Delft and the University of Stuttgart.

The Zofnass Program at Harvard, under the direction of Prof. Pollalis has created the Envision® sustainability rating system for infrastructure, now administered by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, in Washington DC. 

In his private practice, Prof. Pollalis has been the chief planner of the new DHA City Karachi for 600,000 people, which is under construction, the LDA City in Lahore, and the redevelopment of the former Athens airport. 

Prof. Pollalis received his Master’s and PhD from MIT (1979, 1982) and his MBA in high technology from Northeastern University (1985). He has an honorary Master’s degree in Architecture from Harvard (1994). 

Roderick Lawrence

University of Geneva

Roderick Lawrence graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the University of Adelaide (Australia) with First Class Honours. He has a Master Degree from the University of Cambridge (England) and a Doctorate of Science from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, Lausanne, (Switzerland). In 1999 he was nominated Professor in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences at the University of Geneva. He was promoted to Honorary Professor in October 2015.

He currently is also Honorary Adjunct Professor at the University of Adelaide (2017-2020), and Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI) at the National University of Malaysia (UKM). He was Visiting Professor at the Institute for Global Health at the United Nations University (UNU-IIGH) from 2014 to 2016. He was founding Director of the Certificate for Advanced Studies in Sustainable Development at the University of Geneva from 2003 until 2016, and Director of the Global Environmental Policy Program (GEPP) from 2010 until 2016.

Agata Krause

Consultant

Dr Agata Krause is an urban planner and expert in measuring and monitoring urban sustainability, based in Geneva; a former scholar, tutor, an adviser to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat), the local and national governments in Norway, Europe and Asia, formerly the Head of the 2030 Agenda and International Relations in the Centre for Sustainable Development in Trondheim Kommune, Norway and currently collaborating with UN-ESCWA on Voluntary Local Reviews for the Middle Eastern area. 

Matteo Tarantino

University of Geneva, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano

Matteo Tarantino, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the Università Cattolica di Milano, and a lecturer at the University of Geneva. As sociologist of technology, his research focuses on the nexus between data and sustainability. Prof. Tarantino has worked extensively on sustainability data in the People's Republic of China. His latest international research project focuses on urban data management. He has collaborated with UNECE and UN Environment.

Throughout his career, prof. Tarantino has designed and taught course of the topics of urban sustainability, data management, information and communication systems and intercultural communication. 

He acts as GEPP deputy director. 

Sherif Kinawy

Infrastructure Consultant

Dr. Kinawy is an urban infrastructure expert with a focus on community engagement and sustainability in infrastructure projects; founding board member of the Ontario Chapter of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2); member of the Committee on Public Involvement, U.S. Transportation Research Board (TRB); Advisory Board to the Turkstra Chair of Urban Engineering, University of Waterloo. His previous experiences include work with over 70 municipalities globally on community development, asset management, and collaboration with the private and public sectors to drive innovation through clean-tech and infrastructure technologies.