Learn more about the speakers who will be at our Climate Careers Fair, and the sectors they represent!
KEYNOTES
Scarlett Westbrook
Scarlett is a British climate justice activist and journalist. She is a spokesperson and coordinator with the UK Student Climate Network. At 18-years-old, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of London for her work in climate justice, making her the current youngest holder of the award globally.
Julie James
Climate minister for Wales. Committed green campaigner, environmentalist and formerly a leading environmental and constitutional lawyer.
THE FUTURE OF POLITICS
Othman Masoud Othman Sharif
Othman is the First Vice President of Zanzibar. He is also lawyer and party member of the Alliance for Change and Transparency party.
THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION
Manish Jain
Manish Jain is one of the leading planetary voices for deschooling our lives. He founded various innovative pedagogical centres and co-launched the global Ecoversities Alliance with 300+ members in 40 countries.
Ben Rawlence
Ben is co-founder and director of the Black Mountains College. He is also an award-winning writer, activist, former speech writer to Sir Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy. His latest book The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth, describes some of the large earth systems changes underway and what this might mean in human time-scales. It has some significant lessons for how we imagine and prepare for the future
FUTURE OF LAW AND JUSTICE
Elspeth Jones
Elspeth is deputy chief exec at ClientEarth, an international organisation that uses the power of law to bring about systemic change that protects the Earth. She has practiced at the commercial bar in London, regularly appearing in court and worked as the Executive Director of the climate change and tropical forests charity Size of Wales.
FUTURE OF HOUSING AND CONSTRUCTION
Phil Ireland
Phil founded Irebuild, a construction company specialising in environmentally-conscious structures. Besides being award-winning and having featured on Channel 4’’s Grand Designs, the company also runs a successful upskilling scheme and offers environmental construction apprenticeships supporting hundreds of youngsters.
Vacacela Albuja Arquitectura
Nina Vacacela Albuja and Camilo Vacacela Albuja from Ecuador set up the architect company in 2020. It focusses on the construction of traditional houses of their hometown and it incorporates new concepts of prefabrication, to design and build houses adapted to the cultural needs of their community and needs of their users.
FUTURE OF WATER
Nigel Elgar
Brecon Beacons Mega catchment Project manager at Dwr Cymru Welsh Water.
Hellen Bitieka
Hellen is the country coordinator for Nazava water filters in Kenya. Nazava empowers households to access safe and affordable drinking water. She is responsible for providing Strategic Leadership in line with Nazava business strategy. Hellen has also experience in the renewable energy sector, having worked with Burn manufacturing, which is the leading cooking stove manufacturing company.
FUTURE OF JOURNALISM AND WRITING
Owen Sheers
Owen is an award-winning poet, author and playwright. He is the author of two poetry collections, two novels, three verse dramas and multiple works for TV, film and theatre. Forthcoming writing projects include a BBC drama about the 2010 Climategate affair.
Sweta Daga
Sweta Daga is a Bangalore-based writer and photographer. She is working on several multi-media projects, including fellowships with the People’s Archive of Rural India, and the Centre for Science and Environment. She has written for various nonprofit organizations, such as Amnesty International.
FUTURE OF ART
Katherine Patiño Miranda
Katherine is a Brooklyn based artist from Colombia working at the intersection of performance, installation, painting, pedagogy and video. She highlights the invisible state of interdependence among diverse organisms on our planet. Her works have been exhibited in New York, Zürich, MANIFESTA11 European Biennial of Contemporary Art, among other places.
FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE
Kawita Schur
Kawita is a GP in Cornwall with interests in sustainability in healthcare and adolescent health and champions social prescribing. She is an advocate of building the resilience of younger generations, to improve their quality of life into adulthood, which in turn will enrich communities and society as a whole.
Tshepo Phakisa
Tshepo Phakisi is a Climate Engagement Coordinator at Medicine Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in Johannesburg. In this role, he is responsible for building up institutional knowledge and understanding of the impact of climate change on health in Southern Africa (and beyond). In addition, he works with MSF projects in terms of climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts which will further build on project resilience. His work also involves collaborating with health departments, civil societies, and other partners to advocate for health in the context of climate change and working towards more resilient health systems in the region.
THE FUTURE OR FOOD AND FARMING
Angela Mead
Angela is founder & CEO of BiomeAlgae, an offshore seaweed farming project for food and extracts. She has a background in marine biology, aquaculture & invasive species. She has worked on coastal & offshore projects around the world, has extensive experience in environmental monitoring & is a published researcher.
Miguel Torske Lombeida
Mihguel works with regenerative agriculture in tropical Northwestern Ecuador on a farm and community project called Yakunina. the farm is part of a private biocorridor that is connecting farms and wildlife in an area that was heavily deforested 20 years ago. Now all the farms in the biocorridor are planting food forests and native trees. He also works around wastewater treatment with constructed wetland and other nature-based solutions.