Alessandra Weyandt is the Acting Director and Coordinator for Regulation and Conformity Assessment at the Directorate of Conformity Assessment of Inmetro – Brazil’s leading federal authority for regulating the safety and performance of consumer products.
With a Ph.D. in Science and a solid background in public policy, she plays a key role in shaping national strategies to protect consumers through effective regulation, risk-based conformity assessment, and market surveillance. Her expertise spans regulatory systems, risk analysis, food and product safety, and project management.
Alessandra was also an alumna of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Program on Strategic Management of Regulatory Agencies, reinforcing her commitment to modern, high-impact regulatory practices.
Victoria Weyulu is the Senior Manager for the Department: Trade Facilitation and Customs Procedures in the Department of Customs and Excise of the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA).
Before her appointment, Ms. Weyulu served as the Chief Legal Officer in the Office of the Minister of Justice and previously as a Young Professional for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) where she worked in the Trade and Environment Division that is responsible for administering the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade TBT).
In terms of qualifications, Ms. Weyulu is an admitted Legal Practitioner of the High Court of Namibia and holds B.Juris and LL.B degree from the University of Namibia, a Master of Laws degree in international trade, business and investment law (cum laude) from the University of the Western Cape and a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance.
Olivia White is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and a Director of the McKinsey Global Institute. She advises leading financial institutions and other global firms on a wide range of issues across strategy, growth, and risk and resilience. She also supports major philanthropies and others in their work on economic development and inclusion globally.
At MGI, Olivia leads research on global economic and business trends, including on geopolitics and global trade; productivity, including the role of SMEs in large corporate ecosystems, and generative AI and the future of work. Her work is regularly profiled in leading news outlets, and she speaks regularly at global conferences and industry events.
Previously, Olivia was a Pappalardo fellow in physics at MIT. She holds her PhD in physics from Harvard University; an MSc in mathematics from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar; and Bachelors' degrees in physics and mathematics from Stanford University.
Prior to becoming Minister, he served as the Director of the Gabonese National Parks Agency for 10 years having previously spent almost 20 years with the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Since 2002 he has been an advisor to the President’s Office in Gabon, in matters concerning National Parks and Ecotourism development. He left WCS in 2008 to focus more on these responsibilities and on the UNFCCC negotiations, as part of Gabon’s Negotiating Team.
Professor White is an Honorary Professor at the University of Stirling. He has always tried to incorporate science into conservation and sustainable development work and published about 70 papers and book chapters, 7 books and is the editor of a book series on Gabon’s National Parks. His research interests include forest history through the Pleistocene and Holocene, forestry and forest ecology.
In 2010, he was awarded a CBE for his services to conservation in Central Africa. His career in the West and Central African forest belt spans 35 years.
Sheldon Whitehouse represents Rhode Island in the United States Senate, where he is fighting to position America as a leader in the clean energy economy and protect the Ocean State from the consequences of climate change. As Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, Whitehouse takes on the fossil fuel industry and spearheads policies combatting the climate crisis and strengthening environmental protections.
Senator Whitehouse He co-founded the Senate Climate Action Task Force to build support for action to address carbon pollution. Whitehouse shaped major climate components of Senate Democrats’ historic Inflation Reduction Act, which is expected to push the U.S. from 25 percent to 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Whitehouse has led the introduction of legislation establishing a price on carbon and instituting a carbon border adjustment, which would give American companies a step up in the global marketplace while steering the planet toward climate safety. He has also crafted policies to curb profiteering by oil companies and combat the influence of fossil-fuel money in our politics.
As a co-founder of the Senate Oceans Caucus, Senator Whitehouse plays a key role in crafting bipartisan policies to protect our oceans. To confront the major challenges of ocean plastic pollution, he passed the bipartisan Save Our Seas and Save Our Seas 2.0 Acts into law. The Senator also created the National Coastal Resilience Fund to restore and strengthen the natural infrastructure that protects coastal communities while safeguarding wildlife habitats.
A graduate of Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law, Whitehouse served as Rhode Island’s U.S. Attorney and state Attorney General before being elected to the United States Senate in 2006.
Dr. Steve Whittaker is a STEM Instructor at Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College. Kittitian; Analyst; Consultant; Environmental Health and Climate Change Researcher; Epidemiologist; Statistician; Educator; Occasionally published writer; Sometimes graphic design artist; Chronically likes to combine STEM academic principles with artistic pursuits, e.g., prose, poetry, photos, essays, and think-piece;. 3x Ivy League Survivor; Eternal consumer and curator of Caribbean culture; Literature.
lover and people-watcher.
Helene Davis Whyte is at present President of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) and General Secretary of the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers. She is a trade unionist with close on 40 years involvement in the trade union movement.
Mrs Davis Whyte is a proponent of the social dialogue approach to governance and is therefore integrally involved in many social partnership institutions in Jamaica, including the National Partnership Council and the Labour Advisory Council. She is also Co Chair of the Local and Regional Government Steering Group of the Caribbean Sub region of Public Services International (PSI) and has represented PSI and the JCTU at several international and Regional fora and conferences.
Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake was appointed as the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth in June 2017 at the age of 26. She is the youngest senior official in the UN and the first woman to hold this position. In this role, Jayathma works to expand the UN’s youth engagement and advocacy efforts across all four pillars of the organization’s work — sustainable development, human rights, peace and security, and humanitarian action — and serves as a representative of and advisor to the Secretary-General.
In 2019 Jayathma was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the “Time 100 Next: Rising stars shaping the future” and in 2020 she was recognized by Forbes magazine as part of its “30 under 30” list.
Originally from Sri Lanka, Ms. Wickramanayake has worked extensively on youth development and participation, including playing a key role in transforming the youth development sector in her home country.
Prior to taking up her post, Ms. Wickramanayake was instrumental in creating the movement for civic and political engagement of young people, especially young women, in Sri Lanka through the “Hashtag Generation” movement. Previously, she advocated for global youth development on an international level including as the first ever Sri Lankan Youth Delegate to the United Nations and as the youth lead negotiator and member of the International Youth Task Force of the World Conference on Youth 2014 where she played a critical role in mainstreaming youth in the Post-2015 Process and in the establishment of World Youth Skills Day.
Daniel leads the Commonwealth’s work to implement the Apia Commonwealth Ocean Declaration, which sounds a clarion call for the protection, restoration and sustainable use of the ocean. He also manages the advisory team responsible for delivering the Commonwealth Blue Charter, the Blue Charter Incubator, and ocean governance reform.
Previously, he managed the Commonwealth’s Financial Policies to Achieve the Paris Agreement Programme. In that position, he advised on the establishment of a $3 billion natural resource fund, worked with funds with $1 trillion in assets under management to limit climate change and led work on environmental taxation.
Before joining the Commonwealth, Daniel was a senior adviser on DFAT, EU, FCDO and World Bank projects in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Pacific. His publications are focused on financial policies to limit climate change and environmental taxation.”