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ORGANIZERS
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PRES. ATTY. ANTHONY ABAD
Anthony "Tony" Amunátegui Abad is an international trade lawyer and technical advisor on international trade policy and regulation, competition law and policy, and economic integration. He provides technical advice and assistance to multinational corporations and business enterprises, as well as international organizations, government and academic institutions. He is currently serving as a legal consultant for the International Finance Corporation and for the EU-PH Free Trade Agreement Negotiations. He is the Chairman for the Philippines of the International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) Commission on Competition and sits at the Dispute Settlement Panel of the World Trade Organization. He formerly served in government as Chairman of the Department of Agriculture Secretary’s Technical Advisory Group, President of the Philippine International Trading Corporation, Administrator of the National Food Authority and Commissioner of the Tariff Commission. Tony continues to be at the forefront of the country’s economic development by advocating and ensuring the practice of competition. He is the CEO of T/A Trade Advisory Group, Inc. and Founding Partner at Abad Alcantara and Associates Law. He also hosts the show “Political Capital” aired on Bloomberg TV Philippines. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from Ateneo de Manila University Law School and a Masters degree in Public Administration from Harvard University. He is currently the President of the Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Association of the Philippines (HKSAAP).
DIR. AND SCI. DPL. GLENN BANAGUAS
Glenn Banaguas is a multi-awarded prolific scientist and diplomat, and one of the leading experts on environment, climate change, and disaster risks in the Philippines. He is the recipient of Outstanding Young Scientist (OYS) conferred by the National Academy of Science and Technology. He is the awardee of Philippines’s Men and Women of Science, Outstanding Agro-Fishery Scientific Paper-Gold Awardee, and AIESEC’s Outstanding Leadership Award. His work has been nominated and recognized in ASEAN Champions for Biodiversity, Environmental Hero Award; ASEAN Risk Awards in Indonesia; Asian Professional Award and Real Impact Awards in London, UK; Elliason Global Leadership Awards in New York and Harvard’s Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership in Boston, Massachusetts. He has done consultancy services to United Nations in designing Philippines's land degradation neutrality (LDN); has provided technical assistance for Global Environment Facility (GEF) projects; and has done project development and scientific capacity building programs as a Senior Project Development Specialist/Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction Expert of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI). He is a Member of the Technical Panel of the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research (PCIEERD) and a former Member of the Technical Working Group on Climate Change and Disaster Risk, Commission on Higher Education. He is the Asian Representative to the European Union (EU)-Asia Expert Panel for climate diplomacy sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung; Chair of the ASEAN Science Diplomats; and U.S.-ASEAN Fellow for Science and Technology of the US Department of State, USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia (RDMA), and ASEAN Secretariat; and a recognized stakeholder of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). He is the Founder/Executive Director of Environmental and Climate Change Research Institute (ECCRI) that brings “science and policy” to the poorest communities and marginalized sectors in the country. He also founded the “Climate Smart”, and now “Climate Smart and Disaster Resilient Philippines”, ECCRI’s flagship program that assesses food-energy-water (F-E-W) Nexus system and provides People’s Survival Fund (PSF) trainings, project development, scientific capacity development to various stakeholders in the Philippines. He also started the ASEAN Science Diplomacy programs. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the Mapua University and his graduate studies from the Ateneo De Manila University. He studied Climate Change and Energy at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University and took Sustainability Leadership Program from Yale University.
PRES. PRIN. GIDEON JAVIER
Gideon Javier is the President of the Harvard Club of the Philippines. A few years ago, he led the club's successful effort to rebuild a five-hundred pupil school that had been wiped out by Typhoon Yolanda. Gideon is the owner of of Javier Project Managers, an interior fitout company that designs and builds the offices of many multinational and local companies in the Philippines. Gideon also owns Servoelectric, Inc, a company that maintains most of the large scale solar power plants in the country and Bauwerk, a company that trains solar power engineers. He graduated from Harvard College in 1992 with a magna cum laude in East Asian Studies. Having spent his Junior to Senior year summer break living and working in the slums of Yokohama, Japan, Gideon wrote a thesis on the lives of Filipino illegal aliens working as construction workers. A champion of environmental causes, he led successful campaigns to prevent the Metro Manila Development Authority from establishing a garbage dump in his home province, Antique. Gideon also led a successful effort to stop an incinerator from being built in Metro Manila. In his private capacity, he propagates and distributes saplings of indigenous narra trees to replace the exotic mahogany species and to contribute to the reforestation of the country.
ED JOSE “JOHN” BUENAFLOR JIMENEZ III
Jose “John” Buenaflor Jimenez III has vast experiences on development, management, construction, and real estate. He owns multi-storey buildings in some parts of the country. He graduated from the University of the Philippines with a degree in Psychology. He studied Strategic Management for Leaders of Non Government Organizations (SMLNO) and Leadership for the 21st century from Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and took Religion, Conflict, & Peace from the Harvard Divinity School. He has two certifications from the Department of Foreign Affairs - International Protocol & Etiquette and International Relations & Diplomacy. He is the former National President of Junior Chamber International (JCI). He is currently the Executive Director of the Harvard Club of the Philippines (HCP) and Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Association of the Philippines (HKSAAP).
VP MERLIZA MAKINANO
Merliza Makinano is a former Fellow at the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP). She was previously Vice President of DAP’s Office of Institutional Partnerships and Managing Director of its Institutional Marketing Center. She has served in various capacities in the Philippine Government and international organizations, including the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), where she was Senior Researcher and Analyst, Office of Strategic and Special Studies, and was Speechwriter to the Chief of Staff, AFP. She was formerly Director, International Labor Affairs Service and Deputy Director, Institute for Labor Studies at the Department of Labor and Employment. In addition, she served as Senior Officer at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat, where she headed the ASEAN Regional Forum unit and provided executive support to the ASEAN Secretary-General. She has held consultancies at the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime, Department of National Defense, Asian Institute of Management, International Organization for Migration, and the Governments of Canada and Mauritius. She earned a Master in Public Administration at Harvard Kennedy School, where she was an Edward S. Mason Fellow. She also completed a Master in International Relations, With Merit (Victoria University of Wellington), Diploma in Oceans Law and Policy (Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy), and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (University of the Philippines. She has held various fellowships from the State Department of the United States of America, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand, and German Marshall Fund of the United States.
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