Commission de coopération environnementale

Gustavo Alanís Ortega received his law degree from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, where since 1994 he has taught the environmental law course as a full professor at the law school. Alanís Ortega also holds a master’s degree in international law from the Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, DC. Since August 1993, he has been president of the Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (Mexican Environmental Law Center—CEMDA), a public interest environmental law firm based in Mexico City. He is also active as a columnist for El Universal, one of Mexico’s most widely read and influential newspapers; and columnist for the bimonthly journal Derecho ambiental y ecología published by the Centro de Estudios Jurídicos y Ambientales (CEJA). He is a member of the seventh cohort of the Leadership on Environment and Development Program (LEAD) of El Colegio de México.

Alanís Ortega serves on the boards of directors of the Inter-American Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA) and the World Commission on Environmental Law (CEL) of the IUCN Environmental Law Programme. He is also a member of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW), the Climate Change Advisory Committee in Mexico, and the Environmental Law Advisory Group at the Department of Sustainable Development of the Organization of American States (OAS). Between April 2008 and January 2015, appointed by the Mexico City Legislative Assembly, he served on the Citizen Board of the Office of the Environmental and Zoning Prosecutor (Procuraduría Ambiental y del Ordenamiento Territorial—PAOT) and, from 2009 to 2016, he was part of the Public Participation Group of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), which contributed to make the company more socially responsible.

In December 2012, Alanís-Ortega was named to the CEC’s Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) for the third time, having previously served from 2001 to 2004 and 2008 to 2011.

Salvador Alva is the president of Tecnológico de Monterrey and former president of Pepsico Latin America. He has been recognized for promoting a culture of organizational transformation focused on the development of talent, and on empowerment, innovation and entrepreneurship.
In 2005, Fortune magazine recognized him as one of the most influential leaders of among United States’ minorities.

He is a member of the board of ICA, Proeza, ENDEVOR, and the Latin American Business Board. Author of the books, Tu vida, tu major negocio (Your Life, Your Best Business) and Empresa Admirada: La Receta (Admired Business, The Recipe), he is one of the 20 leaders included in the book: 20/20: 20 Great Lists by 20Outstanding Business Thinkers.

Irasema Coronado was appointed Executive Director of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), effective 1 December 2012.

Irasema Coronado, PhD, was a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Texas at El Paso, and was also an affiliated faculty member in the Environmental Science and Engineering PhD program. At the university, she served as an associate provost (2008-2012), associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts (2006-2008), chair of the Political Science Department (2005-2006), and assistant professor of the Center for Inter-American and Border Studies (1999-2003). Dr. Coronado was also a Fulbright Scholar at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez in Mexico (2004-2005), and a faculty member at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas (1995-1999).

Dr. Coronado has held other academic and visiting scholar positions at the University of Texas at San Antonio (1998-1999), the University of Arizona (1997 and 2001), El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Sonora, Mexico (1992-1995), and Cochise College (1991). Dr. Coronado is currently a member of the boards of Frontera Women’s Foundation, the Coalition Against Violence Toward Women and Children on the Border, FEMAP (Mexican Federation of Private Associations), and the Paso Del Norte Health Foundation. Dr. Coronado holds a BA from the University of South Florida and an MA and PhD from the University of Arizona. Hispanic Business Magazine named her one of top 100 influential hispanics in the United States in October of 2010.

Currently constitutional governor of the State of Nuevo León, Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz (Monterrey, 1972) started working at 16 years of age at a criminal court, where he soon found his calling: at an early age, he decided to devote himself to public service, and focused all his efforts to achieving that end. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in legal sciences at Universidad Regiomontana and earned a master’s degree in international corporate law at the University of Miami.

In the federal government, Medina de la Cruz worked as an oficial of the Secretariat of the Interior and was the delegate of the National Immigration Institute (Instituto Nacional de Migración). Later, he was elected federal deputy in the 60th Congress, where he chaired the Public Safety Commission. In Nuevo León, he was deputy secretary for Citizen and Religious Affairs, technical secretary of the Intelligence and Security Committee, and general secretary of the state government.

Elected governor on 5 July 2009, and having assumed office three months later, Medina is committed to a new vision for the State of Nuevo León, where he leads a government that aims for transparency, meeting the needs of the people, and fostering dialog and inclusiveness.

In July 2014, Nancy Sutley was named Chief Sustainability and Economic Development Officer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), where she oversees energy efficiency, water conservation, economic development, and electrification of the transportation network. Prior to her appointment at LADWP, Nancy Sutley served as Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, from January 2009 to February 2014. Under Sutley, the Council on Environmental Quality played a central role in shepherding the Obama Administration’s signature environmental accomplishments. She was one of the chief architects of President Obama’s June 2013 Climate Action Plan to reduce carbon pollution, prepare the US for the impacts of climate change, and lead international efforts to address climate change.

Prior to her appointment as Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, Sutley was the Deputy Mayor for Energy and Environment for the City of Los Angeles, California, under Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. She represented Los Angeles on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. She served on the California State Water Resources Control Board from 2003 to 2005. Sutley also was Energy Advisor for California Governor Gray Davis, and Deputy Secretary for policy and intergovernmental relations at the California EPA from 1999-2003. During the administration of President Clinton, Sutley worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Regional Administrator in San Francisco and Special Assistant to the Administrator in Washington, DC.

Sutley received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and her master’s in public policy from Harvard University. She resides in Los Angeles.

Founder and managing partner at Orientare S.C. Management, Alfredo Beneitez works as a consultant and coach for strategy and organizational effectiveness. He has more than 20 years’ experience guiding clients in such diverse domains as education, government, investment banking, management consulting, IT/telecom, consumer protection/retail, manufacturing, health care/pharmaceutical and entertainment.

Among his clients, Beneitez is recognized as a strategic, entrepreneurial thinker for building multi-disciplinary, performance-oriented, stakeholder-based teams in constantly changing market environments. He offers hands-on, interactive workshops to stimulate profitable growth and conducts highly interactive executive seminars centered on developing organizational effectiveness and performance management capabilities.

He has served on graduate business school faculties at ITAM, ITESM, Anáhuac University and UIA, the Hult Business School, and in executive development programs at Kellogg, the UCLA Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, and W.J. Reddin Hispania. He also volunteers in social development, stimulating environmental awareness and community building at the Merici School in Mexico City, and mentors at Anáhuac University’s New Venture Incubator.

Adriana Nelly Correa Sandoval has had wide-ranging professional experience in consensus building, education and research. Correa Sandoval has been awarded the Rómulo Garza Award for Research twice (in 1997 and 2003), the Nuevo León Pro-Wildlife Merit Award (Education, 2008) and the “Women and Sustainability” Award (2011). The Planetario Alfa chose her as an environmental leader for the Green Revolution exhibition (2013).

She was Founding Director of the Andrés Marcelo Sada Chair at the Monterrey Institute of Technology (Tecnológico de Monterrey) (2001–2013) and  Director of Strategic Alliances at the Mario Molina Center for Strategic Studies (Centro Mario Molina de Estudios Estratégicos) (2013-2014).

Ms. Correa Sandoval has conducted research, managed projects and been a thesis director on basic ecology, valuation of ecosystem services, planning for sustainable development and land-use management. Moreover, she has made contributions as co-author and co-editor of the books: Tecnológico de Monterrey: un refugio para las aves (2010), Vida, ambiente y desarrollo en el siglo XXI and Ciencia ambiental y desarrollo sostenible (1997).

She participated in developing the Latin American input to the elaboration of the first international standard on sustainable water management (2010–2012). She coordinated, amongst other endeavors, the chapter on adaptative management of ecosystems and biodiversity in the Climate Change Action Program for Nuevo León (2008–2009), the Plan for Comprehensive Coastal Management of the Laguna Madre System of Tamaulipas (2004–2007) and Semarnat’s CCNDS Technical Commission for Environmental and Social Economic Policy for Sustainable Development (Comisión Técnica de Política Económica Ambiental y Social para el Desarrollo Sustentable) (2002–2007).

David Morrison retired as president & CEO of Yukon Energy Corporation at the end of 2014. Yukon Energy provides generation, transmission and distribution services to customers across the Territory. At the time of his retirement, Morrison was also vice-chair of the Canadian Electricity Association and executive chair of the Association’s Sustainable Electricity Program. He has more than 30 years’ experience in the electricity business, managing utilities and advising governments on energy policy, regulatory issues, and energy infrastructure developments.

Morrison has served on a number of both private and public sector boards over his career and currently serves as a member of the Yukon Cold Climate Innovation Centre Advisory Board and as chair of the advisory board for CAP Engineering.

A graduate in physicis from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), Luis Farías completed his doctorate at Imperial College, University of London, and was a research fellow at McMaster University, Canada.

His work experience began in the steel sector, first as a research engineer at Altos Hornos de México, S.A.B. de C.V. from 1976 to 1978, and then, after completing his postgraduate studies, as manager of technology administration at Hylsa S.A. de C.V. from 1986 to 1991, when he was invited to found the Energy Department at Cemex, where today he is vice president of energy, with global responsibilities. He was recently appointed director of Cemex Energía, a new division devoted to developing electricity projects in Mexico. Throughout his career at Cemex, Farías has managed electrical power generation and alternative fuel projects valued at approximately 2.5 billion dollars, contributing to the change to residual (waste) fuels in cement kilns. He is also responsible for global fuel procurement and cost control.

Farías is actively involved in various Mexican industry chambers and associations. He has been the president of the Environmental Protection Institute of the Nuevo León Manufacturing Industry Chamber (Caintra) and the Mexican Association for Energy Economy. He currently acts as vice president of the Energy Commission of the Business Coordinating Council (Consejo Coordinador Empresarial—CEE), and since 2011 has chaired the Commission for Studies on Sustainable Development of the Private Sector (Comisión de Estudios del Sector Privado para el Desarrollo Sustentable—Cespedes).

Karen Douglas was originally appointed to the California Energy Commission by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in February 2008 and was re-appointed by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. in December 2012. She served as chair from February 2009 to February 2011. She fills the attorney position on the five-member Commission, where four of the five members are required by law to have professional training in specific areas: engineering or physical science, environmental protection, economics, and law.

Commissioner Douglas is the lead commissioner on power plant siting (including the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan) and federal stimulus programs.

From 2005 to 2008, Douglas served as director of the California Climate Initiative at the Environmental Defense Fund. Prior to going to the Environmental Defense Fund, Douglas spent four years at the Planning and Conservation League as the natural resources director, general counsel, and most recently, acting executive director.

Commissioner Douglas is a 2001 graduate of the Stanford Law School and holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

A chemical engineer out of Instituto Politécnico Nacional and Manhattan College, where he completed his master’s degree, Nelson Arizmendi Cruz has worked in different areas of research, process and project development, and business planning and management projects, in the academic, public and business sectors (including state-owned and private companies).

He is currently deputy director for energy development and new technologies at Alfa Corporativo and president of TEGRA, a company engaged in the discovery and production of water blocks in nonconventional, renewable underground deposits. Previously, he was founder and president of Enertek, a major cogeneration pioneer project in Mexico, with an emphasis on renewable energies, and listed in 2000 as a global model of green infrastructure; founder and vice president of Newpek, a private Mexican company with US operations that explores and sustainably produces oil and gas; and a key actor in energy initiatives, new technologies and sustainable development at Grupo Alfa.

With 35 years of experience in the industrial and energy sector, Arizmendi Cruz has also sat on the boards of Pioneer-Reliance-Newpek, Petrolíferos Tierra Blanca and Oleorey; chairman of the energy commissions for the Nuevo León Manufacturing Industry Chamber (Caintra), the Confederation of Industry Chambers (Concamin), the Mexican Employer Confederation (Coparmex), and the Business Coordinating Council (Consejo Coordinador Empresarial—CCE); board member of various industry chambers and companies, and Mexico’s representative to the Energy Working Group Business Network of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

Bob Sandford is the EPCOR Chair for Water and Climate Security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. He also remains the Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of United Nations “Water for Life” Decade, a national partnership initiative that aims to inform the public on water issues and translate scientific research outcomes into language that decision-makers can use to craft timely and meaningful public policy. Sandford is also a Fellow of the Centre for Hydrology at the University of Saskatchewan and a Fellow of the Biogeoscience Institute at the University of Calgary. He sits on the Advisory Board of Living Lakes Canada and is also a member of the Forum for Leadership on Water (FLOW), a national water policy research group centred in Toronto. He is also senior advisor on water issues for the Interaction Council, a global public policy forum composed of more than thirty former Heads of State, including Jean Chretien (Canada), Bill Clinton (US) and Gro Brundtland (Norway). In 2013, Alberta Ventures magazine recognized Bob as one of the year’s 50 most influential Albertans.

In addition to many other books, Sandford is also the author of a number of high-profile works on water, including Cold Matters: The State & Fate of Canada’s Snow and Ice and Saving Lake Winnipeg. He is also the co-author with Kerry Freek of Flood Forecast: Climate Risk & Resilience in Canada, all published by Rocky Mountain Books. His latest book, The Columbia River Treaty: a Primer was published in association with Simon Fraser University’s Adaptation to Climate Change Team in the fall of 2014.

Considered one of the nation’s most experienced and respected environmental leaders, Robert Varney is a former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) New England Regional Administrator, who currently is President of Normandeau Associates, a science-based environmental firm with eighteen offices in 12 states. He was the longest-serving regional administrator and top environmental official in New England and is credited with instituting many innovative approaches and policy initiatives that have served as national models. Prior to EPA, Mr. Varney was one of the nation’s longest-serving state environmental commissioners, appointed by three Governors of both political parties.

Bob is nationally recognized for his efforts on global climate change; energy efficiency and renewables; homeland security and preparedness; clean air, clean water and safe drinking water; superfund and brownfields cleanup and redevelopment; environmental justice and healthy communities; restoration of rivers, lakes and coastal areas; strong and consistent enforcement and compliance assistance; strengthening partnerships; and improved agency management and performance.

Mr. Varney has chaired the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), State/EPA Superfund Policy Forum, Federal Ozone Transport Commission (OTC), Governmental Advisory Committee to the US Representative to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission and New England Governors Conference Environment Committee. He also was a member of EPA’s Environmental Justice Advisory Council and currently serves on the NH Board of Trustees for The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the CEC Joint Public Advisory Committee (US, Mexico, Canada). Bob is the recipient of numerous environmental awards such as the EPA Lifetime Achievement Award, NE Water Works Association’s John H. Chafee Award, Environmental Business Council of NE’s Paul Keough Award and the ECOS Founder’s Award.

With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), Eugenio Clariond Reyes is chairman of the boards of directors for the Mexican companies Grupo Cuprum, Grupo Cleber, and Grupo FMC Capital, as well as a member of the boards of Johnson Controls, Inc., Grupo Industrial Saltillo, and the Mexichem chemical and petrochemical group. He also chairs the boards of the Monterrey Metropolitan Water Fund and the US-Mexico Committee of the Mexican Foreign Trade, Investment and Technology Council (Consejo Empresarial Mexicano de Comercio Exterior, Inversión y Tecnología—Comce), and is a board member of ITESM, TEC Salud, the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad—Imco), and the Mexican Businessmen’s Council (Consejo Mexicano de Hombres de Negocios). He sits on the advisory boards of the College of Business Administration at the University of Texas at Austin and the College of Engineering at the University of California at San Diego, and is honorary consul to Brazil.

As director of the Water Program for the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Dimple Roy provides leadership on research, policy development and other functions related to a variety of issues within Canada and globally. She oversees IISD’s work on watershed bioeconomy development in Canada, water-energy-food security implementation in the context of mining and agriculture, and the use of economic policies and instruments for water management.

Roy has been the lead researcher on projects concerning integrated water resources management, watershed governance, adaptive policy-making, and sustainable agriculture and community-based adaptation. IISD has focused on management of the Lake Winnipeg Basin in Canada, including topics such as transboundary management, economic growth, and institutional change for ecosystem services management for multiple benefits.

She works in partnership with provincial and federal agencies to develop programs and delivery mechanisms in water and agricultural management. Globally, she has been part of projects in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, in addition to her work in Canada.

Before joining IISD, she worked within government as an independent consultant on policy, legislation, education and other environmental management issues.

Bernadette Conant is executive director of the Canadian Water Network (CWN), where she has been working since 2003. Established in 2001 by Networks of Centres of Excellence of Canada, CWN is Canada’s expert advisor and trusted manager of knowledge and innovation on water management.

Conant has a master of science in hydrogeology from the University of Waterloo and received the Alumni of Honour Award from the university’s Faculty of Science. She currently serves as a director on the boards of the Global Water Research Coalition, Hydrogeologists Without Borders, and the Water Economics, Policy and Governance Network, and as well is a member of the Water Partner Advisory Committee to the of the Canadian Council of the Federation Water Stewardship Council.

Founder and managing partner at Orientare S.C. Management, Alfredo Beneitez works as a consultant and coach for strategy and organizational effectiveness. He has more than 20 years’ experience guiding clients in such diverse domains as education, government, investment banking, management consulting, IT/telecom, consumer protection/retail, manufacturing, health care/pharmaceutical and entertainment.

Among his clients, Beneitez is recognized as a strategic, entrepreneurial thinker for building multi-disciplinary, performance-oriented, stakeholder-based teams in constantly changing market environments. He offers hands-on, interactive workshops to stimulate profitable growth and conducts highly interactive executive seminars centered on developing organizational effectiveness and performance management capabilities.

He has served on graduate business school faculties at ITAM, ITESM, Anáhuac University and UIA, the Hult Business School, and in executive development programs at Kellogg, the UCLA Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, and W.J. Reddin Hispania. He also volunteers in social development, stimulating environmental awareness and community building at the Merici School in Mexico City, and mentors at Anáhuac University’s New Venture Incubator.

With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) and Rice University, and a doctorate in interdisciplinary engineering, with an emphasis on polymers, from Texas A&M, Jaime Bonilla Ríos is a professor of chemical and mechanical engineering, dean of the School of Engineering and Information Technologies, and a researcher at the Center for Design Innovation and Technology (CIDyT) at ITESM.

Bonilla has also acted as director of alumni relations and of the Center for Professional Development, as well as director of research and academic extension for the university administration, and director of the chemical sciences program at the Monterrey campus. He has also been a visiting scholar at Rice University and consultant to such domestic and international businesses as Nemak, Hylsa and Total Petrochemicals, among others.

Currently, he chairs the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions and is former president of the Global Engineering Deans Council, Latin America chapter. He is a member of the Software Council of Nuevo León, the Mexican Institute of Chemical Engineers, the National Association of Engineering Schools, the Society of Rheology, the Society of Plastics Engineers and the American Society for Engineering Education.

As a researcher, he has one patent granted and another pending. He has published articles in numerous conference proceedings and international scientific journals.