Stakeholder Forum Associates are individual experts at stakeholder engagement in sustainability policy processes on the global, regional, or local level. They share the vision of Stakeholder Forum to advance sustainable development at all levels. Together, they bring decades of experience from within all levels of government, academia, business and industry, the NGO community, and the United Nations inter-governmental environment and development processes.
Associates are structurally affiliated to Stakeholder Forum in a variety of capacities. Some are engaged to deliver project work for Stakeholder Forum, others are Project Leaders for work that they have brought in-house to be under the Stakeholder Forum umbrella, and some are renowned women and men who bring topic-specific knowledge to the organisation. And others are the next generation of sustainability practitioners who share a common vision with Stakeholder Forum.
Leida Rijnhout, Senior Advisor
Leida Rijnhout
Leida Rijnhout has been a key advisor to Stakeholder Forum for many years, and before joining the SF family worked as a freelancer (www.leapfrog2SD.org) and was the programme coordinator of Resource Justice and Sustainability at Friends of the Earth Europe. In her position as Executive Director of ANPED and director of Global Policies at the European Environmental Bureau, Leida facilitated and coordinated the global NGO community to realize their active engagement in United Nations processes on Sustainable Development and the Environment.
She was heavily involved at and in the preparations of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 (the Johannesburg Summit), at Rio+20 in 2012 (Rio de Janeiro), the development of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development including the SDGs, and the UN Environment Assemblies (UNEA). She is the initiator of SDG Watch Europe.
Prof. Daniella Tilbury
Professor Daniella Tilbury, Senior Advisor
Professor Tilbury is a change-maker and academic leader in Sustainable Development, credited with having developed the initial frameworks for this area of learning. She was a member of the Board of WWF Australia that brought Earth Hour to the World in 2007 and has been actively involved in international initiatives that inspire transitions towards sustainability. Her 2020 'Today4Tomorrow' initiative is focused on embedding intergenerational rights in public policy and governance frameworks.
Before becoming HM Government of Gibraltar's Commissioner for Sustainable Development in 2018, Daniella was the inaugural Vice-Chancellor and CEO of the University of Gibraltar, an institution that embeds sustainability at its core. She previously held academic leadership and research positions in Australia, the UK, and Hong Kong, and her work has been recognised with over 27 competitive grants and 18 awards. Daniella has been commissioned by over 35 government agencies as well as travelled extensively in Africa, Central, and South America to evaluate the investment and impact of sustainability programmes.
Currently the UK government's representative on the UN Economic Commission for Europe on matters relating to Education for Sustainable Development, during 1995-2019 Daniella Chaired several UN Committees and was commissioned by UNESCO to develop think pieces, expert reviews, policy advice, frameworks, and sector evaluations in sustainable development.
Professor Tilbury has been involved in international meetings on climate change (UNFCCC) and World Summits on Sustainable Development since 1992, informing texts and dialogues during these meetings. Last year, she was recognised with an Hon. Fellowship by the University of Cambridge, St Catharine's College, and a Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
Elira Karaja, Ph.D., Advisor
Elira Karaja, PhD
Elira is an Economist with extensive experience in research, policy, and project implementation in political economy analysis and sustainable development. Working among others with the World Bank, UN, UNDP, and UNIDO she has experience in development work and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Specifically, in the areas of the renewable energy transition, the role of small and medium enterprises, gender inequality, and the blue-green economy. An Affiliate at Columbia University, she collaborates as Advisor on Blue-Green Political Economy for the Alliance for Global Resilience and Regeneration Network. Previously, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking in New York and the Columbia University Business School.
Currently, she is co-developing AGORA': a new resilience-building method, that combines context-focused interventions with research, resilience framework, and the use of innovative technological tools. In the past year, Elira served as the Lead Economist and Strategy and Partnership facilitator for the Global Partnership for Ocean Wave Energy Technology (GPOWET) initiative. In this role, she helped to establish the Private Public Partnership, while advocating for inclusive sustainable and renewable energy solutions in the context of 2030 Agenda. Dr. Karaja facilitated dialogues around GPOWET's unique wave energy conversion technology, SurfWEC, was an expert panelist at the 2019 UN Science Technology and Innovation Forum (the STI Forum) and collaborated with UN Member States, UNDESA, and the SIDS Unit of UNDESA.
Tanner Glenn, Associate
Tanner Glenn
Tanner Glenn is the founder and principal consultant of TPG Advisory Group, a strategy and social impact consulting firm that specializes in strategic planning, content development, event planning and facilitation, partnerships and community engagement, and digital marketing for private-sector, non-profit, education, and philanthropic organizations around the world. He primarily supports Stakeholder Forum by planning and facilitating virtual workshops, developing budgets and itineraries for major conferences, and coordinating stakeholder partnerships. Since 2016, Tanner has worked with Felix Dodds, former SF Executive Director, to support the Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development by editing and publishing the Governance for Sustainable Development book series. In this capacity, he regularly collaborates with key partners such as the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) and Article 19. Tanner is also the host of Sustainable Society Cafe, a podcast that focuses on emerging technologies and how they fit into realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Tanner holds a bachelor's degree in political science and urban planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at UNC, he established the nonpartisan University of North Carolina Institute of Politics (IOP) and served for two years as the Institute's executive director. His work has been featured in major publications including the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Based in Los Angeles and New York City, Tanner is Vice President of the Board of Directors of the American Association for Gifted Children (AAGC).
David Horan, Ph.D., Advisor, SDG Partnerships & Governance for the SDGs
David Horan, Ph.D.
Dr. Horan is a Research Fellow at University College Dublin's School of Politics & International Relations. Since 2018, David has been conducting research on data and governance frameworks for the SDGs with a focus on multi-stakeholder partnerships and their role in supporting effective and equitable implementation. He is the author of "A New Approach to Partnerships for SDG Transformations" and "Towards a Portfolio Approach: Partnerships for Sustainable Transformations." In 2018-2020, David was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University's Center for Sustainable Development and UNSDSN in New York.
Under the guidance of senior SF colleagues, Dr. Horan is leading the organization of an annual multistakeholder conference on SDG Partnerships to commence in 2022. David has considerable experience in UN engagements on sustainable development, having served for two years as a UCD Additional Representative to the UN. He was invited to speak on partnerships at the UN Expert Group Meeting on SDG17 in 2019 and UN Sustainable Development Transformations Forums 2020-21. To further understanding advanced partnership frameworks for well-integrated and inclusive SDG implementation, David is currently studying transnational partnerships in the UN SIDS database for climate action (SDG13), sustainable oceans (SDG14), and biodiversity protection (SDG15). His articles have appeared in Global Policy (forthcoming), Sustainability, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, among other journals.