COP29 side event: Trade and investment policies to advance climate ambition, implementation and sustainable development

Rebeca Grynspan, of Costa Rica, became UNCTAD's eighth Secretary-General on 13 September 2021 and is the first woman to lead the organization.

Prior to her UNCTAD appointment, she was the Ibero-American secretary-general from 2014 to 2021, also the first woman to head the organization. During her mandate, she has coordinated the 22-member Iberoamerican Conference and led four key summits of Heads of State and Government. 

In 2010 she was appointed Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and prior to that was UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.  

Prior to joining the United Nations, Ms. Grynspan served as Vice-President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998. She was also Minister of Housing, Minister Coordinator of Economic and Social Affairs, and Deputy Minister of Finance. In 2021 she was named Special International Advisor to the newly created Economic and Social Council of Argentina and invited to join as member of the G20 High-Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

In addition to her experience as a lecturer and advisor to several international organizations, she has been actively involved in key United Nations initiatives, such as the Millennium Project's Task Force on Poverty and Economic Development and the High-level Panel on Financing for Development.  

In 2014 and 2015, she was recognized as one of the 50 leading intellectuals of Latin America.  And she was recognized as one of the 100 most powerful women in Central America by Forbes magazine.

Ms Grynspan holds a degree in Economics by the University of Costa Rica and a MSc in Economics by the University of Sussex. She has been awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by the University of Salamanca, the University of Extremadura and the European University of Madrid in recognition of her outstanding professional achievements. 

Luz Maria de la Mora is the Director of UNCTAD's Division on International Trade and Commodities. As a former Vice-Minister for International Trade and decades of government and private sector positions, Ms. de la Mora developed a career in international trade policy, negotiation, operations, and trade promotion. 

During her tenure as Vice-Minister for International Trade of Mexico from 2018 to 2022, Ms. de la Mora led Mexico's trade and investment policy, overseeing fourteen free trade agreements with 51 countries. To bolster Mexico's development, she steered discussions in the World Trade Organization, the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and Pacific Alliance, among others. She also coordinated policy dialogues and handled private sector consultations.

Ms. de la Mora holds a PhD in Political Science from Yale University, USA, a Master's degree in International Affairs from Carleton University, Canada, and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from El Colegio de México, Mexico.

She is fluent in English and Spanish, and proficient in French.

Pamela Coke-Hamilton has served as Executive Director of the International Trade Centre since 1 October 2020. She joined ITC from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), where she was Director of the Division on International Trade and Commodities.

Ms. Coke-Hamilton has a breadth of experience and expertise in trade-related capacity-building and sustainable development. She served with the Jamaican Government, the Caribbean Forum in trade negotiations, and multilateral institutions, including the Organization of American States and InterAmerican Development Bank. She previously served as Executive Director of the Caribbean Export Development Agency, strengthening the private sector and micro, small and medium enterprises through investment promotion.  

She has a deep understanding of the challenges faced by vulnerable economies such as the small island developing States and least developed countries. Ms. Coke-Hamilton has worked extensively with the private sector across African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and academia to build trade-related institutional strength within member States. She also established the Women Empowered through Export (WeXport) platform to address the disadvantages that women-owned firms experience in accessing markets. 

Ms. Coke-Hamilton holds a Juris Doctor in Law from the Georgetown University School of Law in Washington, DC, and a BSc in International Relations and Economics from the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica.

Ambassador Jean-Marie Paugam (France) has held senior management positions in the French Government on trade, most recently as Permanent Representative of France to the WTO.

He has also held a number of senior positions in the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, including as a member of the Executive Committee of the French Treasury. He has also served as Deputy Executive Director of the International Trade Centre in Geneva.

He has accumulated a deep and practical knowledge of government practices on trade as well as being familiar with high-level dialogues on trade and international economic operations. He has published a number of articles on trade-related issues, in particular when serving as Senior Research Fellow on International Trade at the French Institute for International Relations (IFPRI).

Ambassador Paugam graduated from ENA in Paris and obtained degrees in Political Science from the Institute of Political Science in Aix-en-Provence and in Law from the Faculty of Law Aix-Marseille III.

Dr. Hyginus ‘Gene’ Leon is the sixth President of Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the regional development finance institution based in Barbados. He was elected at a Special Meeting of the CDB Board of Governors held on January 19, 2021 for a five-year term, and assumed office on May 4, 2021.

Dr. Leon has over 30 years of experience in economic development and has directed macroeconomic and financial policy support to government authorities in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, and the Caribbean. He worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for more than 24 years, serving as Mission Chief for Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, The Bahamas, and the Gulf States of Oman, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates, as well as IMF’s Senior Resident Representative in Jamaica and Nigeria.

Prior to his engagement with the IMF, Dr. Leon was an Associate Professor at State University of New York at Old Westbury in the United States. He has also served as Director of Research at the Central Bank of Barbados and Country Economist at CDB.

Dr. Leon holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Economics from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom (UK) and a Bachelor of Science Degree (B.Sc.) in Economics from the University of London also in the U.K.

Dr. Mari Sundli Tveit is the Chief Executive of the Research Council of Norway and is President of Science Europe.  She has previously been rector of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and Deputy Director-General of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise.

Sundli Tveit is a professor of landscape architecture. She serves on the board of the Global Research Council and has also been a board member of the European University Association and of Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg.

She holds a PhD in Landscape Ecology and a master’s degree in Nature Management from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

Sung Hwan Cho has been elected ISO President for a two-year term starting from 1 January 2024 and served as President-elect in 2023. Dr. Cho brings 30 years of experience from the automotive industry as top executive and research engineer. As the Advisor of Hyundai Mobis, he previously held the position of President and CEO for the company, which is the 6th largest auto parts supplier of the world.

Prior to taking up his role as President and CEO of Hyundai Mobis, he served as Executive Vice President of R&D Planning and Coordination and President of Hyundai America Technical Center with Hyundai Motor Company. He also was the CEO of Hyundai Autron, an automotive semiconductor and software affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group.

Dr. Cho has accumulated extensive expertise in technology and related standards through his previous roles as engineering manager. He also serves as Chairman of the Korea Automated Vehicle Standardization Forum and is a Council Board member in the Korean Standards Committee. He has been an elected member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering of Korea.

Dr. Cho holds a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, CA, USA and has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Dalila Hamou bio

Ms. Madeje is the Director General of the Cereals and Other Produce Regulatory Authority (COPRA), leading Tanzania’s agricultural transformation under Agenda 10/30. She has over 23 years of experience in driving transformational change across the financial, telecommunications, and development sectors, including key roles at Barclays (now ABSA), Vodacom, Airtel, and FSDT.

Recognized by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as a leading woman in Tanzania’s financial sector and a recipient of the 2020 Women in Management Africa Award, Irene also serves as Vice Chair of the Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission and as a board member for Exim Bank Tanzania and Lyra Africa.

She is a graduate of the Strathmore School of Business and CEO Roundtable Tanzania Apprenticeship Program, Harvard School of Business Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance, and Maastricht School of Management and ESAMI Executive MBA Program as well as Dalhousie University Bachelor of Commerce.

Manfred Schepers is the founder and CEO of ILX Management, an Amsterdam-based development finance asset manager and has 30+ years of experience in both development finance and international capital markets. He has served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and led the Bank’s Institutional Investment Partnership program.

He has also been a member of the Investment Committee of the EU’s European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) and currently serves on the Supervisory Boards of Van Lanschot Kempen and the Nederlandse Waterschapsbank.

Manfred holds an MSc and a BSc in Development Economics from the London School of Economics.

Nan has over 25 years’ experience in strategic management roles both with the United Nations and the private sector across Asia, Africa, North America and Europe. She currently leads a global team in investment and sustainable finance research, policy, investment promotion and facilitation, enterprise development, and technical assistance to governments in over 160 countries. She chairs the Governing Board of the UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, leads the World Investment Forum and the inter-governmental Working Group on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting.

Before joining UNCTAD, she served as the Global Director of Sustainable Investments and Innovation at UNOPS, where she led a team to promote infrastructure investments in many developing countries and co-invest with DFIs and private investors. She served as UNOPS focal point in the UN Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development.

Previously, she served as the Head of UNDP SDG Innovative Finance and as Head of South-South Cooperation and Investment at UNDP's Asia Pacific Center in Bangkok. She led a team to engage public and private investors and developed national policy dialogues and networks on SDG investment, piloted SDG-aligned funds, bonds and projects in multiple countries. She helped to position UNDP as a pioneer in the UN on sustainable investment and innovative finance. She also held positions as Policy Specialist in Capacity Development and Public-Private Partnerships in New York and Johannesburg since 2009, overseeing a regional portfolio in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Before joining UNDP, she spent about 10 years in the private sector in China and the USA, covering market entry and investment strategy, merger and acquisition, business development and sustainability. She holds a master’s degree in business administration from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and participated in the Executive Leadership program at IESE, and Finance Executive program at Tsinghua University.