Lindita Xhaferi Salihu leads work on sectors engagement in climate action as part of UN Climate Change wider Global Climate Action work. She led development of both Sports for Climate Action and Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action and works closely with a variety of stakeholders to mobilize key actors and catalyze ambitious action towards decarbonization. Before joining UN Climate Change, Lindita worked in public relations and coordinated projects promoting multi-stakeholder engagement in policy and sustainability. Lindita has an educational background in engineering, international relations and global energy & climate policy.
2022
Sander van Stiphout
Sander van Stiphout is leading the innovation and advisory departments of the Johan Cruijff ArenA and is part of the stadium’s Management Team for many years.
What drives Sander is to contribute to a sustainable stadium with great fan engagement. Sustainability does entail ESG as well as financial sustainability to be able to continuously adapt to changing demands of any kind.
To achieve tangible goals for the stadium and its main stakeholders Ajax, KNVB and the City of Amsterdam he drives innovation among ecosystem partners such as large corporates, government, knowledge institutes, SME’s and start-ups, using the stadium as a field lab.
Sander has worked on stadium projects worldwide and was involved in projects related to all recent major tournaments, such as the Russia and Brazil World Cups. Sander was special stadium operations consultant to the Qatar Supreme Committee in relation to the FIFA World Cup 2022 preparations. Currently he serves as an advisor to the French Ministry of Finance supporting the operations tender of the Stade de France.
Andrew Lamb
Andrew Lamb is a sports marketing professional who has held a number of partnership development roles in sport over the last 17 years. These roles have included stints with Sale Sharks (rugby), and Manchester United and Everton (football), before stepping into the world of offshore sailing with The Ocean Race.
In Andrew’s current position with The Ocean Race, purpose is at the heart of the partnership programme he leads and is the central focus when securing new partnerships. This is primarily driven by the Race’s objectives around ocean health (and the role of a healthy ocean towards a sustainable planet), and gender equity, with all teams of The Ocean Race comprising of a mix of genders. Partners are backing these areas of focus and finding ways to leverage it to support their own business objectives in the spaces of equality & diversity, sustainability and nature protection.
Alexandra Rickham PLY
Having joined World Sailing last year as Head of Sustainability, double Paralympic medallist Alexandra Rickham has been working in sustainability in the sport sector as a consultant since retiring from full time competition in 2017. She combines her academic knowledge and insight with her practical experience in competitive sport and environmental operations to focus both on changing the sports industry and its practices, and on utilising sport’s platform to inspire change. Alexandra is very passionate about diversity and inclusion and ensuring the athlete’s voice is heard on sustainability and regularly participates on panels, podcasts and other speaking opportunities on these subjects.
Dr. Madeleine Orr
Madeleine is a researcher, educator and advocate working at the intersection of sport and climate change. After earning her PhD in Kinesiology from the University of Minnesota in 2020 and a postdoc in strategy at University of British Columbia, Maddy joined the Institute for Sport Business at Loughborough University London where she developed the world’s first MSc in Sustainable Sport Business. She joined the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor in fall 2023.
Maddy is the founder and co-director of The Sport Ecology Group, an international consortium of academics who drive climate action in the sport sector through research and public education initiatives. Her research in sport ecology examines the impacts of climate change on the sport sector, with a focus on resilience and adaptation. She has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and several industry-facing reports that have gained global attention. Her work has been covered by the BBC, Time Magazine, ESPN, Sky Sports, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, and more. Her first book Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sports (for Bloomsbury) was published in 2024.
Dr. Sheila Nguyen
For over 20 years, Dr. Sheila Nguyen has championed the protection of our planet through the power of sport. Her impact has been recognized globally — named the inaugural Regional Leader (Oceania) by Sport Positive, awarded Honorary Lifetime Membership by BASIS (2022), and listed among the Australian Financial Review’s Top 100 Women of Influence (2019).
As Head of Sustainability for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, she led groundbreaking initiatives to embed sustainability into one of the world’s biggest tournaments. She also co-founded the Sports Environment Alliance, uniting sport and planet leaders to protect the places where we play.
Seán McCabe
Seán is the Climate Justice Officer with Bohemians – a first in the world of football. In this role, he is working with the club to design climate responses that can be both led by and empower the club’s fans and their communities. He also works as the secretariat member with responsibility for strategy with the Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative – a global coalition of organisations working to secure children’s right to a safe and healthy environment.
Over the past year, he has supported the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in the development of authoritative guidance to States on the protection of children’s rights with respect to the environment and climate change. Previously he worked with the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, in seeking to advance climate justice within the UN system and subsequently authored The People’s Transition: Community-led Development for Climate Justice with the European Foundation for Progressive Studies and the Think Tank for Action on Social Change.
The People’s Transition is a participative decision-making model that views climate action as an enabler of local development and gives people and communities ownership of the transition to zero-carbon societies to tackle inequality and raise standards of living through the delivery of climate solutions. He has worked with the Environmental Protection Agency in Freetown, Sierra Leone and with communities facing extreme poverty in Kolkata, India.
Melissa Wilson
After retiring as a professional athlete in 2021, Melissa founded non-profit Athletes of the World with Double Olympic Champion Hannah Mills. Athletes of the World builds athlete-led campaigns for climate action, and works with elite sports teams and federations to deliver climate education and climate-focussed media training for athletes.
Qasa Alom
Qasa Alom is a presenter, investigative journalist & director with credits on documentaries, current affairs and radio. He has been with the BBC since 2010. In November 2020 Qasa was awarded with Best Radio Presenter at the Asian Media Awards.
Qasa freelance presents for BBC Radio 5, BBC Radio London and presents a weekend show for BBC WM. Qasa further presents shows for Radio 4 that include Costing The Earth and From Our Own Correspondent.
Qasa hosted an event for the UN at COP26 and is passionate about preventing climate change because of how he has seen it affect his family and ancestral home in Bangladesh.
This year Qasa has reported for BBC Sport at Wimbledon and The Commonwealth Games on sustainability in sport. Qasa has reported on the whole of the Commonwealth Games 2022 that included the athletes parade on the opening day.
Qasa loves sport, particularly cricket and tennis. 2021 Qasa launched @realtennispod with @dominglot. 2021 also saw Qasa host @thehundred @Edgbaston . He also presented the 2019 ATP World Tour Finals for BBC 5 Live Sports Xtra, the season ending tennis tournament between the top 8 men’s players in the world, from London’s 02 Arena.
Julia Pallé
Julia Pallé is a leading expert on sustainability in motorsport and the international elite sport industry. As Sustainability Director at the world’s first all-electric motor racing series, Formula E, Julia certified the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship net zero carbon since inception, the first sport in the world to achieve the standard.
Julia is also Sustainability Advisor for Extreme E, the all-electric SUVs series, bringing electric racing to some of the most remote corners of the planet to highlight the climate change challenges faced by different ecosystems. Widely recognised as a leader in sustainability in global sport, Julia is a regular speaker at major events and conferences including COP26, Bloomberg, Sport Positive Summit, and FIA Smart Cities. Her industry roles include President of Sports and Sustainability international (SandSI), an international association of sustainable experts working to broadening and harmonising the international sport and sustainability movement. Before joining Formula E and defining the sustainability strategy, Julia was sustainability executive at Michelin Motorsport. Her primary area of research has focused on Business & Sustainability, Change Management and Project Management especially in Motorsport.
