[UNUSED] Our Team

Profile of the Founders

Distinguished Professor

Mark Swilling

Is a Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Development in the School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University and the Academic Director of the Sustainability Institute, Co-Director of the Stellenbosch Centre for Complex Systems in Transition. He is also member of International Resource Panel facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme, Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, member of the We-Africa Action Research Network and a member of the Board of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. He has published widely on topics related to sustainability and sustainable development of which the most recent and prominent one is the Handbook entitled ‘Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World’ published by United Nations Press (Tokyo) in 2012. As member of the International Resource Panel, he co-led the production of the report on City-Level Decoupling which showed the importance of looking at the dynamic link between infrastructure and resource flows in in understanding urban metabolism and promoting resource efficiency in cities.

Extraordinary Professor

Desta Mebratu

Desta Mebratu has more than 31 years of experience working for industries, government agencies, universities and international organizations. A chemical engineer by background, he has a PhD of engineering in Industrial Environmental Economics from Lund University, Sweden and an MBA in International Business from the American University of London. He worked for different United Nations Agencies including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) where he served, among others, as Head of the global Business and Industry programme (2008-11) and Deputy Regional Director for Africa (2011-2016). He has published more than 45 articles in peer-reviewed journals and Handbooks. He is currently an Extraordinary Professor at Centre for Complex Systems in Transition, School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University and teaches at Addis Abeba University, Institute of Technology. Professor Mebratu is Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) since 2016.

Adjunct Professor

Gulelat Kebede

Economist by training, Dr Gulelat Kebede has over 25 years of professional experience at local, national and global levels. His most recent experience includes coordinating UN-Habitat’s global activities in urban economy and municipal finance, and prior to that in training and capacity building. During his long career with the UN, he authored or contributed to many publications and capacity development tools in the areas of urban economy, governance, finance, leadership, sustainable cities, climate change and green economy. Since 2016 he has been contributing to United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s (UNECA’s) work on integrating urbanization into national development planning. He was the lead consultant for the Economic Report on Africa 2017, a flagship report on urbanization and industrialization. He was visiting scholar to Darmstadt Technical University (Germany), University of Rome, University of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh min, and University of Auckland and he is currently an Adjunct Professor at The New School, New York, and guest lecturer at School of University of British Columbia.

Environmental engineering

Toolseeram Ramjeawon

Toolseeram Ramjeawon holds a Diplome D’Ingenieur from the Ecole Polytechnique de Montpellier (France) and a PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Mauritius. Professor Ramjeawon has more than 28 years of experience working for academic institutions, government agencies, industries and international organizations and is currently a Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius. He held a number of senior management positions such as Head of Department of Civil Engineering, Dean of Faculty of Engineering and Acting Vice Chancellor of the University of Mauritius. He also acted as Technical Adviser on Environmental Management to the Ministry of Environment of the Government of Mauritius and served as International and Regional consultant to a number of international organizations including United Nations Agencies and African Development Bank. He has more than 25 publications in refereed international journals and more than 35 publications in refereed International Conference Proceedings.

Associate Professor

Getachew Assefa

He is an Associate Professor of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary with a focus on sustainable development and design. He is the former Athena Chair in Life Cycle Assessment at the Faculty of Environmental Design. He has a B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, MSc in Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure and a Ph.D. in Industrial Ecology from Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. His research particularly focuses on the design and development of technical systems including energy systems, biofuels and bioenergy, waste management system, and buildings. He teaches courses in life cycle assessment, industrial ecology and sustainable development. His research has been published in internationally recognized peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Cleaner Production, International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Journal of Building and Environment, and Journal of Sustainable Cities and Society. He has active teaching and research collaboration with three universities in Ethiopia.

Professor

Yacob Mulugeta

Yacob Mulugetta is a Geoscientist by training, specialising in energy systems. He has about 30 years of research, teaching and policy advice experience in the area of energy, development and environment. He is Professor of Energy and Development Policy at the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering & Public Policy (STEaPP) at University College London (UCL), and held an academic post at the Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, UK. He is a founding member of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) based in Ethiopia where he worked as Senior Climate & Energy Specialist (2010-2013) where he led the Centre’s work around low carbon development and climate resilience. Yacob served as a Coordinating Lead Author of the Energy Systems chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report (Working Group III on Mitigation), lead author in the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5oC, and currently lead author in the IPCC 6th Assessment Report. He recently led the chapter on Energy Transitions in UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report (2019). Yacob Mulugetta is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS).

our team