Welcome to the UPG Action Window

Bio forthcoming.

Marcelo Maia Rosa is an architect and partner at Andrade Morettin Arquitetos Associados, winner of the competition for the new IMPA-RJ headquarters (2015). He was responsible for coordinating work on the new museum of the Instituto Moreira Salles (2017), in São Paulo. Maia Rosa holds degrees in architecture and urbanism from Universidade Mackenzie in São Paulo and TU/e in Eindhoven (2005), with complementary courses from Université Paris Sorbonne (2012) and graduate studies at the Escola da Cidade (2017), where he currently teaches. He was the co-curator exbition Walls of Air in the Brazilian pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – Biennale di Venezia.

Professor Emeritus. Richmond, The American International University in London

Bio forthcoming.

Cherrie Atilano is a farmer who works to empower other farmers. She is the Founder and CEO of AGREA Agricultural Systems International, Inc., an agro-social enterprise that aims to help eradicate poverty for farming and fishing families in order to alleviate the effects of climate change and establish food security in the Philippines. AGREA has been mobilizing communities, businesses, academia, local and national governments, and international partners to bring an “Ecology of Dignity” to farming and fishing communities on the island of Marinduque.

Amadou Mahtar Ba is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of AllAfrica Global Media, Inc. AllAfrica owns and operates allafrica.com, an international multi-media content service provider, systems technology developer and the largest distributor of African news and information worldwide. He is also the Founder of the African Media Initiative (AMI), a pan-African effort he established and led until 2014  to provide the continent’s media owners and practitioners with the tools they need to play a stronger leadership role in their communities, countries and the region.

Daisy Guo is the Co-founder and CMO of Tezign.com, a platform based creative marketplace & workflow solution.With a mission to revolutionize the relationship between clients and creative professionals, Tezign has brought together over 2,000 projects, from major clients such as land developer SOHO China, Greenland Group, and the film production company H.Brothers. Guo is an artist at heart and a graduate of China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, she holds a Bachelors in Landscape Architecture. She has curated art exhibits worldwide, including as part of the curating team for the Chinese pavilion at Venice Biennale 2012.

Martin Chungong serves as the Secretary General of the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU). He has more than three decades of experience and knowledge of parliaments at national and international level, Chungong has dedicated his professional life to promoting and building democracy worldwide. He contributed to establishing governance benchmarks to strengthen democracy, as chair of the Management Committee on Accountability of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Governance Network. Since 2012, Mr Chungong has made a push to strengthen parliamentary engagement on sustainable development and accountability through his role as Parliamentary Representative on the Steering Committee of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation. An awardee of the Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Pléiade, Ordre de la Francophonie, and a linguist by training.

Arancha González is an expert in international trade issues with over 20 years of experience and currently serves as Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (ITC). Before joining ITC, Ms. González served as Chief of Staff to World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy from 2005 to 2013. During her tenure at the WTO, she played an active role in launching the WTO’s Aid for Trade initiative and served as Mr. Lamy’s representative at the G-20. Prior to working at the WTO, Ms. González held several positions at the European Commission, conducting negotiations of trade agreements and assisting developing countries in trade-development efforts. Between 2002 and 2004, she was the European Union spokeswoman for trade and adviser to the European Union Trade Commissioner.

Graça Machel is a leading social and political activist as well as a renowned international advocate for women’s and children’s rights, having fought for decades for increased literacy and access to education and greater assistance for community development. She served as the first Education Minister of Mozambique until 1989 and during this period Machel lowered the illiteracy rate by 20 percent and oversaw a dramatic increase in primary school enrolment.

In 1997 she chaired a United Nations Report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children that helped establish a comprehensive agenda for the protection of children in conflict zones. Mrs. Machel founded the Foundation for Community Development, a grassroots NGO that works to bring together the forces of all sectors of society to promote development, democracy and social justice.

Graça Machel is a founding member of The Elders alongside her late husband, Nelson Mandela. The Elders is an independent group of global leaders working together for peace, justice and human rights. Her humanitarian contributions have been recognised by a number of awards, including the Laureate of Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger from the Hunger Project, the Nansen Medal for her service to the cause of child refugees, the Africare Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award and the Council of Europe’s North-South Prize.