RSB Governance

The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels is governed by a Steering Board made up of representatives from the eleven stakeholder chambers.  To ensure equal representation, most chambers are required to elect one of their representatives on the Steering Board from a country in the global North (developed) and one from a country in the global South (developing).  The Steering Board is intended to represent the range of different stakeholders involved in sustainable biofuels producion and processing.  Steering Board members serve in a personal capacity, and do not represent their company or sector as a whole.

Steering Board

The terms of reference of the current Steering Board can be downloaded here.
The minutes from previous Steering Board meetings can be downloaded here.

Current Steering Board members are:

Ms. Barbara Bramble, National Wildlife Federation (Chair)	Mr. Jürgen Maier, German NGO Forum Environment & Development
Mr. Richard Sykes, International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (Vice-chair)	Mr. Salvador Feranil, Philippine Network of Rural Development Institutes
Mr. Khoo Hock Aun, Cosmo Biofuels Group (Vice-chair)	Mr. Roberto Smeraldi, Amigos da Terra – Amazônia Brasileira
Mr. Josiah McClellan, United Soybean Board	Ms. Melinda Kimble, United Nations Foundation
Ms. Martina Otto, United Nations Environment Programme	Mr. Hafeez Rehman, The Energy and Resources Institute
Mr. Raffaello Garofalo, European Biodiesel Board	Mr. Arturo Barrit, Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines
Ms. Paloma Berenguer, Royal Dutch Shell	Mr. Kevin Fingerman, University of California, Berkeley
Mr. Homero Fuentes Aragón, Commission for the Verification of Codes of Conduct	Mr. Teddy Püttgen, Energy Center, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)
Ms. Gloria Visconti, Inter-American Development Bank	Mr. Evan Smith, Verno Systems Inc.
Ms. Damiana Serafini, Argentine Renewable Energy Chamber	Mr. Leonardo Rosario, Trowel Development Foundation
Mr. Alwin Kopse, Executive Secretary of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels

Barbara Bramble, National Wildlife Federation

Barbara J. Bramble is Senior Program Advisor for International Affairs at NWF, and a strong advocate to improve U.S. policy regarding climate change and unsustainable agriculture production and trade. Over two decades at NWF, she has developed international NGO networks to: a) reform the World Bank and other multi-lateral development banks; and b) advocate that international trade agreements promote, rather than frustrate, sustainable development.

Ms. Bramble was a key organizer of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and the Rio + 5 Conference in 1997. She serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations in Mexico, Brazil and the U.S., and is the chair of the board of the Forest Stewardship Council of the U.S.  She is an environmental lawyer and has worked in the Executive Office of the U.S. President, as well as in private law practice.

Richard Sykes, International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA)

Richard Sykes joined Shell International Exploration and Production in 1975 as a geologist. After assignments in The Netherlands, Malaysia and Norway, he became Chief Geologist in Petroleum Development Oman in 1987. From 1990-1994, Richard was the Regional Business Manager covering Shell's interests in Nigeria including deepwater exploration, development of the Bonny Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) project and oil product/chemicals marketing. He returned to the upstream business in 1994 as global Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Manager. Richard's final assignment in Shell was as Group Environmental Advisor, where he was active in climate change, developing the corporate biodiversity policy, public sustainability reporting, and data assurance.

In 2007, Richard joined the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) as Executive Secretary. In this role, he supports leading oil and gas companies in their efforts to improve industry performance on environmental and social issues. Richard holds a D.Phil in geology from Oxford University.

Khoo Hock Aun, Cosmo Biofuels

Mr Khoo Hock Aun leads the Cosmo Biofuels Group which is actively engaged in establishing jatropha curcas plantations, biodiesel downstream processing and trading activities in the Asia Pacific region. He is presently developing markets and partnerships for an oilseed-to-biodiesel supply chain based on the Group’s proprietary processing technology. He was Senior Advisor (Regional Strategy and Business Development) 2004-2006 for the South East Asia operations of D1 Oils plc and has developed a strategic interface with related Government agencies in South East Asia overseeing the policy for biofuels and renewable energy.

The Cosmo Biofuels Group supplies both the upstream and downstream technologies for its project partners on the ground and monitor the quality aspects so that they adhere to international standards. The Group approaches its plantation projects holistically with firm commitments to the sensitivity and welfare of local farmers and workers, the protection of local environment and the sustainability of the business in the country concerned. Cosmopolitan Synergies Sdn Bhd is the trading arm of the Group in transactions involving oilseeds, crude oil feedstock and refined methyl ester undertaking offtake agreements with farms and plantations.

Mr Khoo Hock Aun graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Agribusiness) from Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang in 1978 and was a Nuffield Foundation Study Fellow in 1988 with the Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, United Kingdom where he examined developments in biotechnology: the institutional basis for innovation, the role of government policy and the various approaches to commercialise and finance innovation in the field of life sciences. He has managed, in a period spanning over two decades, a number of trade associations both in Malaysia and South East Asia

Roberto Smeraldi

Roberto Smeraldi is the Director of Amigos da Terra - Brazilian Amazonia, a leading Brazilian NGO. A journalist and author, Mr. Smeraldi has published a number of essays and books on environment, development, sustainable business, the Amazon, forestry, travel and culinary arts. He often writes opinion editorials on mainstream newspapers, and founded the pamazonia.org.br website.

Mr. Smeraldi is a member of the National Commission on Social Determinants of Health (since 2006) and of the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change (since 2000), both appointed by the President of the Republic, and served as Chairman of the International NGO Steering Committee for the UN Conference on Environment and Development (1989-92). From 1996-2004, he served as member and Chairman of the International Advisory Group to the G-7 Pilot Program for Brazilian Rainforests.

Mr. Smeraldi has acted as senior advisor to various UN agencies, to the World Bank and to the President of the Republic of Brazil, and currently serves on various boards and steering committees in Brazil and abroad, including Yale's University "The Forest Dialogue" (since 2005).

Ibrahim Rehman, The Energy Resources Institute (TERI), India

Teddy Püttgen, Energy Center, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)

Dr. Püttgen holds the Chaire de Gestion des Systèmes Energétiques (Energy Systems Management) at the EPFL, where in April 2006 he became the inaugural Director of the Energy Center , a university-wide and cross-disciplinary organization with the responsibility of coordinating all R&D activities on campus related to energy.

Professor Püttgen was previously Georgia Power Professor and Vice Chair for External Affairs in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  At Georgia Tech, he launched the National Electric Energy Test, Research and Application Center (NEETRAC), and served as its Director and Management Board Chair; he was also President and CEO of Georgia Tech Lorraine , the European campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology.  He served as President of the Power Engineering Society of IEEE in 2004 and 2005 and is a member of the Governing Board and the Executive Committee.  He is a recipient of the IEEE third millennium medal.  He holds an Ingénieur Diplômé degree in Electrical Engineering from EPFL, and graduate degrees in Business Administration and Management from the University of Lausanne .  His PhD, in Electrical Engineering with an emphasis in electric power, is from the University of Florida.

Raffaello Garofalo, European Biodiesel Board

Mr Garofalo was appointed Secretary General of the European Biodiesel Board (EBB)  in May 2002. Previously he worked for four years within FEDIOL, the European Federation of Vegetable Oils Producers, dealing among others, with non-food uses of vegetable oils, which include bio-lubricants, bio-solvents and of course, biodiesel. In 1998 he worked temporarily in the European Commission (DG Agriculture) as well as within the Research Directorate of the European Parliament.

After graduating with distinction in Politics in the International Politics Department of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences-Po), in Paris, in 1997, he was admitted as a foreign student at the French Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA). He obtained a Master’s Degree on European Administrative Studies at the College of Europe in Bruges in 1998.

Paloma Berenguer, Royal Dutch Shell

Paloma Berenguer works for Shell International based in the London office.  She became Sustainable Development Manager for the Downstream business in 2005.    She is a founding Board Member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels. For the past seven years she has worked in the energy sector. She speaks Spanish and English and holds a masters degree on International Development from the London School of Economics.

Homero Fuentes, Commission for the Verification of Codes of Conduct

Jorge Homero Fuentes Aragón is the founder and director of the Commission for the Verification of Code of Conduct (COVERCO) in Guatemala.  Coverco was founded in 1997 as a Guatemalan NGO dedicated to providing objective and credible information about work conditions.  Homero was general coordinator of the regional project Continuous improvement in the Central America workplace, a global alliance of USAID, and a number of private and public sector organizations.

Homero has worked with the LO/FTF Council, a Danish trade union council for international development co-operation, as coordinator of various projects, including a pilot project with the Regional Maquila Program and the establishment of the Regional Institute of the Labour Market.  He also coordinated the socio-political programme for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Guatemala from 1993 to 2000.

Homero has lectured on Global Labour and Coorporate Social Responsibility in training centres, institutions and universities, has conducted research on labour relations in Guatemala and Central America and with COVERCO has conducted social audits in Mexico, Central America and Colombia for multinational companies.

Homero is a member of the NGOs of the Fair Labor Association and also a member of the Workers Rights Consortium in the USA. He is a natinonal and international advisor on social policy related to the labor market and a mediator for labor conflicts in the public and private sectors of Guatemala.

Melinda Kimble, UN Foundation

Melinda Kimble became Senior Vice President of the UN Foundation in January 2006, after six years as Vice President for Programs, working to develop Foundation partnership programs in the areas of Children's Health; Energy & Climate Change; Biodiversity; Peace, Security, and Human Rights; and Women's Health.  A career Department of State Foreign Service Officer from 1971-2000, she held a number of policy level positions, including Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Finance and Development in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.

While at the Near East Bureau's Office of Economic Affairs, she worked on policy analyses targeted on the Persian Gulf energy sector as well as with the new International Energy Agency at OECD and the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna .  When she returned to the U.S. in 1987 as Deputy, and then, Office Director for Monetary Affairs, she assumed responsibility for energy sector analysis and its relevance in balance of payments crises.  From 1991 through 1997, Ms. Kimble applied her economic expertise to the UN sustainable development agenda and shaped US policy vis-à-vis key UN agencies.  She worked closely with UNDP and FAO concentrating on the UN environmental agenda where she led negotiations on a series of post-Rio conferences related to Sustainable Development.  In 1997, she became Acting Assistant Secretary for Oceans, Environment and Science and organized the Kyoto negotiations.

Ms. Kimble has lived and worked in Cote d'Ivoire , Egypt , and Tunisia .  She speaks French and Arabic and holds two masters degrees:  Economics ( University of Denver ) and MPA (Harvard's Kennedy School of Government).

Martina Otto, United Nations Environment Programme

Martina Otto is the Head of the Energy and Transport Policy Unit and oversees the development and implementation of UNEP's energy and transport policy related activities. She is responsible for the interagency aspects of this work and for creating synergies between different projects carried out in this unit. She manages UNEP's activities related to modern forms of bioenergy, especially biofuels, and is a member of the Technical Committee of the Global Bioenergy Partnership.

From 2004 - September 2006 Martina worked as the Executive Assistant to the Executive Director in UNEP's Headquarters in Nairobi. Prior to this, she was a Programme Officer in UNEP's Energy Branch, coordinating UNEP's work in the area of Sustainable Mobility as well as two of UNEP's voluntary initiatives with the private sector, the Mobility Forum and the Global e Sustainabilty Initiative.

Before joining UNEP, Martina worked on 'Trade and Environment' and 'Economic Instruments in the Area of Environmental Protection' with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the European Commission and the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development. She also worked with the US Law firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton on environmental due diligence in the context of mergers and acquisitions.

Martina is a fully qualified lawyer (Erstes and Zweites Staatsexamen, Frankfurt/Main, Germany) and holds an LLM from London University in International Environmental Law.

Kevin Fingerman, University of California, Berkeley

Kevin Fingerman is a researcher at UC Berkeley. He has been actively engaged in the development of bioenergy policy for the State of California - advising the state government on the design of the newly adopted Low Carbon Fuel Standard, as well as assisting in the development of sustainability standards for this and other California fuel policies. Kevin has served in a consulting capacity on bioenergy sustainability, local production potential, and water conservation concerns for organizations and agencies including the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the California Energy Commission (CEC), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Packard Foundation, numerous environmental NGOs, and a consortium of California venture capital firms investigating clean energy financing.

Arturo Barrit, Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP)

Mr. Arturo R. Barrit, is chief of the Environmental Protection and Safety Office of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP). As such he is in charge of the trade union's environmental and sustainable development programs. He conceptualized the trade union's environmental program before the holding of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. He introduced the trade union's involvement on reforestation program called, the Tree Farm Lease Agreement (TFLA). This is one of the tenurial rights of the government and the first of its kind wherein a union was awarded a 25-year lease reforestation program by the government. It has started in 1996 yet.
 
Likewise, Mr. Barrit has participated to a numerous UN sponsored conferences and meetings. He is also the SAICM Focal Person representing NGO - Trade Union in the country. He has already submitted a project proposal under the SAICM Quick Start Program on chemicals for the agricultural workers belonging to the ALU-TUCP. He is also a Board of Trustee of an NGO for farmers called "Mag-uugmad Foundation based in Cebu City, Philippines.

Jürgen Maier, German NGO Forum Environment

Director of the German NGO Forum Environment in Berlin and Bonn since 1996. This network coordinates all major German environmental and development NGOs in international negotiations and policy processes related to sustainable development, such as climate, biodiversity, trade, agriculture etc. Member of: Steering Committee of the German Climate Alliance, Advisory Council of the German Asia Foundation; Board of the Climate Action Network Europe, Sustainability Forum of the German Social Democratic Party. 1993-96 director of the German Asia Foundation, 1987-91 international secretary of the German Green Party. Born 1963.

Salvador H. Feranil, Philippine Network of Rural Development Institutes, Inc. (PhilNet-RDI)

Salvador is a long-time social development activist who started to get involved in organizing activities among the youth in urban poor communities back in the early 1980s.  He became active in the anti-dictatorship campaign in the Philippines in the mid-1980s and got involved in popular teacher training and education among different schools around the country.  By early 1990s, he started to concentrate on working among the marginalized rural sectors and communities in various parts of the country and led the Linangan Training Institute (in 1994) in implementing a national trainer’s’ training and education program among leaders of landless peasants, farm workers, indigenous peoples, Muslim communities and rural women.  In 1996, he joined several other social and development activists in the country in founding the Philippine Network of Rural Development Institutes (PhilNet-RDI), a movement of individuals and non-government organizations working towards rural democratization and development.

With PhilNet-RDI, he worked along mainstreaming initiatives on rural democratization and development in Southern Philippines (Mindanao).  He became involved in rural grassroots community development and led initiatives to organize and mobilize small farmers and farm workers in the struggle for land and livelihoods.  In the late 1990s, he formed part of a team that trained leaders in oil palm plantations in engaging a worker-led and managed plantation management and development program. In the year 2000, he got a scholarship from the Royal Government of Netherlands and took his Masters in Development Studies at the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague.  After completing his studies in 2001, he worked as an in-house Consultant for PhilNet-RDI while engaging in independent consulting services with various international funding agencies, and government agencies and non-government organizations in the Philippines.   Today, he is the Vice Chairperson and works as a Managing Director for Mindanao under PhilNet-RDI and has been involved in policy research and advocacy on agrarian reform and rural development, institutional development initiatives, and projects development for partner rural poor organizations.  At present, he is also assisting PhilNet-RDI in exploring initiatives that benefit rural poor communities in coconut, sugarcane and oil palm plantations in the promotion of sustainable biofuels production.

Evan Smith, Verno Systems, USA

Josiah McClellan, United Soybean Board

Mr. Josiah McClellan is the Director of Food Market Issues and Sustainability at the United Soybean Board. His responsibilities include developing, implementing and evaluating programs for the USB Sustainability Initiative. He also assists the Sustainability Initiative Directors in Board functions and serves as a resource for issues and trends in sustainability-related topics.

Gloria Visconti, Inter-american Development Bank

Gloria Visconti is expert on climate change and renewable energy policy at the Inter-American Development Bank. She spent ten years as senior policy adviser at the Ministry of Environment of Italy working in international negotiations relating to the Johannesburg Summit, Preparation of G8 Summits, and the UN CSD, as well as in bilateral cooperation agreements, including those of Italy-US on climate change research and new technologies, and Italy-Iraq on the restoration of the Marshlands.
Prior to working for the Ministry she worked at the European Commission in Brussels on project evaluation and at the Italian National Agency for the Environment and Energy (ENEA) focusing on air quality legislation in the European Member States.
She was Practitioner Fellow at Harvard’s Center for International Development and Associate in the Energy Technology Innovation Project at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She has a degree in Political Science from the University of Rome La Sapienza, a Masters in Environmental Management and Control from the Sant' Anna School of Pisa, and a MPA at Harvard Kennedy School of Government where she was awarded Giorgio Ruffolo Fellow. Visconti is Phd student at the University of Bologna with a research program on the design of a biofuels sustainability certification scheme.

Damiana Serafini, Argentine Renewable Energies Chamber

As President of the Biomass Committee at the Argentine Renewable Energies Chamber (CADER), Damiana Serafini has been involved in managing concerns from large biofuel producers such as Bunge and Cargill to small-scale farmers and farm cooperative extensions who play an important role in the growth of the biofuels' industry in Argentina. Damiana has been actively working with local agricultural institutions and biodiesel producers in Argentina on research and data collection that will serve the EPA with more accurate figures in an effort to help them eliminate some of the controversial findings published on the RFS 2. Damiana also collaborates with the BioTop Project and has published several documents to help identify technical opportunities and research needs for Latin America in order to maximize synergies in the biofuels sectors of Latin America and Europe.
Prior to CADER, Daminana worked for Green Leaf Biofuels as a biofuels advisor and assistant to the President, Gus Kellogg. She received a Bachelor's Degree in Occupational Safety and Health at UConn and is finishing graduate studies at the UConn School of Agriculture and Resource Economics. She graduates this December with a thesis titled "The Impact of German Sustainability Concerns of the Argentine Biodiesel Industry".

Leonardo Rosario, Trowel Development Foundation

Leonardo Rosario is the Executive Director of the Trowel Development Foundation, which provides community development and management services to small-scale fishers, rural women, and rural youth and also works with small agricultural producers, particularly initiating and advocating for community-based sustainable biofuels production through intercropping of Moringa in coconut lands and monitoring of Jathropa demonstration project.

After his start as an agricultural extension worker for upland farmers in 1984, Leonardo joined the Peasant Movement as a full-time staff for socio-economic projects and became one of the first advocates of sustainable agriculture practice in the Philippines. As an agrarian reform and rural development practitioner for more than 20 years, he became consultant to the Secretary of the Philippine Department of Agrarian Reform where he provided technical assistance and advice on project development and management including mobilization of agrarian reform communities. He is also a productive technical writer with his original project proposals being winners and or finalists in project competitions sponsored by New Zealand Aid, the World Bank, and Europe Aid in the Philippines.

Leonardo owes a degree in agricultural engineering from the University of the Philippines and a graduate Diploma in Community Development with extensive experience on community organizing, project development and management, and local governance.He is also Chairperson of the Northern Samar Seaweed Industry Development Council, Point Person of Community of Practice for Mudcrab of the Philippine Social Enterprise Network, and Executive Consultant of Diego Turla Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Aquaculture Institute.

Alwin Kopse, Executive Secretary (RSB)

Alwin Kopse is the Head of the Secretariat of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels. He joined the RSB from Harvard University where he worked as a research fellow at the Kennedy School of Government. His research focused mainly on the governance issues of biodiversity. Previously, Alwin worked both in the private and public sectors on issues related to agriculture, biodiversity, intellectual property, biotechnology, trade and human rights. He is a specialist in international negotiations, especially around the Convention on Biological Diversity, and has extensive experience in negotiating agricultural agreements among industry, government, and NGO actors.

Alwin holds an MLaw of the University of Bern, Switzerland, and an MSc in Public Policy and Management of the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, UK. He speaks German, English and French.