Advisory Board

An Advisory Board made up of respected authorities from outside the project will meet during the 30-month project, in conjunction with SC meetings, to offer perspectives on a broad range of matters of concern to the RASOR project and provide oversight with regard to project objectives and milestones.
AB members are invited to comment on strategic directions of RASOR project, and on practical opportunities to ensure the international dimension of the project. The AB makes recommendations to the SC or directly to the PC.
The members of the Advisory Board will be limited to a half dozen people chosen from organisations which are active in disaster management or satellite related activities, particularly in the field of GMES service development or implementation, including industry/business people, and RASOR service target clients (Munich Re, RMS, GFDRR, etc).

Advisory Board Members

  • Francis Ghesquiere
    Manager of the Disaster Risk Management Practice of the World Bank and Head of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction & Recovery

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    Francis is Manager for the World Bank’s Disaster Risk Management Practice Group and Head of GFDRR Secretariat. Prior, he was Program Manager for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in the South Asia Region (SAR) where he supported the SAR DRM team on a fast growing portfolio.  There he helped the team prepare several new initiatives, including a Strategic Seismic Risk Mitigation Program for Bangladesh, a Flood Recovery Program in the State of Bihar, and Strengthening of Emergency Response Capacity in the Province of Balochistan, Pakistan.
     
    Before his assignment in South Asia, Francis was a Regional Coordinator in the Latin America and Caribbean Region, where he led a number of flagship initiatives, including the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) and the Central America Catastrophe Probabilistic Risk Assessment initiative (CAPRA).  He was also the Lead Manager for the Understanding Risk Forum (UR), which brings together experts and practitioners to explore innovation in disaster risk assessment.  Francis was a key actor in the design of new policy instruments to help accelerate the World Bank’s response to disasters, including the new policy on emergency operations and innovative contingent financing instruments (CAT-DDO and IRM).  He is a key member of the DRM Global Expert Team where he covers Disaster Risk Reduction, Risk Modeling, and Risk Financing.  
     
    Francis holds a Master’s degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and an Engineering Degree from the University of Louvain.  He also studied Finance and Economics at New York University, ESADE Barcelona, and HEC Paris.

  • Ronald Jackson
    Head of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency

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    Ronald Jackson was appointed Executive Director of CDEMA in March 2013. Since August 2006 he was the Director General of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) in Jamaica. He previously served ODPEM as Deputy Director General, Senior Director of the Preparedness and Operations Division and as Regional Coordinator for the Southern parishes.
    He has been extensively involved in disaster management at the national, regional and international level in various capacities. At the national level, he lent his expertise to the coordination of the national response to the impact of Hurricanes Charlie, Ivan (2004); Dennis and Emily (2005); Tropical Depression 16 and subsequently Tropical Storm Nicole (2010) and most recently Hurricane Sandy (2012). He has been instrumental in the development of the Guidelines for Child-Friendly Disaster Management and Response, Reinstatement of the ODPEM Dedicated Communication Network and Revision of the Emergency Welfare Plan. In 2010 Mr. Jackson received a Certificate of Commendation from the Caribbean Community for his contribution to the rescue and recovery efforts in the aftermath of the January 2010 Haiti Earthquake.
    Prior to his appointment as Executive Director, he was a member of CDEMA’s Technical Advisory Committee, President of the IDB Caribbean Policy Dialogue Forum, the co-chair for the Inter American Network for Disaster Management and represented the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) Member States on the Hyogo Framework for Action Mid-Term Review Committee and Post-2015 Hyogo Framework for Action Committee.
    Mr. Jackson holds a Master of Science Degree (M.Sc.) in Natural Resource Management and Environmental Resource Management from the University of the West Indies and a Bachelor of Science Degree (B.Sc.) in Physical Planning and Environmental Resource Development from the University of Technology.

  • Walter Ammann
    CEO of the Davos Global Disaster Forum

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    Walter J. Ammann is the Founder and CEO of the Global Risk Forum GRF Davos, a foundation for research, education and implementation focused on integrative risk reduction and disaster management, on climate change adaptation, sustainable development, and on One Health. He is the organizer of the international biennial IDRC Davos Conferences and of the annual GRF One Health Summits, both held in Davos, Switzerland.
    He has been working in R&D for over 30 years, very often in close cooperation with the private sector. His current interests in R&D are in particular methods on how to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience from a holistic, integrative risk reduction and disaster management perspective. “How safe is safe enough?” is a key question he is working on, promoting the marginal cost-concept for the definition of protection targets for people and their assets. He has been lead author of the Strategy on “Dealing with Risks and Disasters” for the Swiss Government and is a member of the UNISDR Science and Technology Advisory Group.
    Walter Ammann got his MSc in civil engineering and his PhD in structural dynamics and earthquake engineering at ETH Zurich. He is author and co-author of over 250 papers, books and scientific reports and is a member of various national and international expert groups. He is a Permanent Visiting Professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, China, and the Michigan State University in East Lansing, USA.

  • Sinta Kaniawati
    General Manager – Unilever Indonesia Foundation and The GreenHeart Foundation, Indonesian DRR NP

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    Sinta is General Manager of Unilever Indonesia Foundation. She has led the foundation since 2007 and has been continuously building momentum in many community development programs in Environment, Sustainable Agriculture and Health Promotion Program. She has also been involving new stakeholders to strengthen The Foundation program. The team has successfully achieved much recognition between 2007 and 2009. 

    Sinta has also served various organizations in a CSR capacity including, IBL (Indonesian Business Link) Board of Management, Coordinator for resource development of Indonesian National Platform on DRR, Growing Inclusive Market member of Indonesian Global Compact Network. Apart from all activities in her professional career, she is also involved in many social organizations such as Bina Antar Budaya (AFS and intercultural exchange program as board member, volunteer and trainer); Toastmaster International as Club President, Area Governor and Mentor); in House Trainer (Leadership & Management Modules, Sales Modules, Communication and Public Speaking Modules).

  • Arno Hilberts
    Senior Director at Risk Management Solutions

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    Arno joined RMS in 2006, initially working on our UK flood model development. He now leads a team of flood and tsunami model developers and heads up the ongoing European and U.S. flood model development projects. Before joining RMS, he conducted research in the field of catchment hydrology at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Arno holds an MSc in Environmental Sciences and a PhD in Hydrological Sciences, both from Wageningen University.

  • Stefano Bruzzi
    Delegate to the ESA Earth Observation Programme Board

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    After a degree in Particle Physics and a few years in industry, conducting research in character recognition, artificial intelligence and design of automated mailsorting systems, he joined ESA working for more than 35 years in Earth Observation. He worked on the first Meteosat satellite; he contributed to the creation of the Earthnet programme and in the course of the 1980s he actively took part in the preparation of ERS-1 and 2. He later became the Envisat Mission Manager, up until the successful launch and entry into operations of the mission, in 2002.
    Between 2002 and 2009 he dedicated himself, as head of the Earth Observation Programme Planning and Coordination Office in ESA, to the definition, approval and funding of new EO programmes, contributing to the successful outcome for EO of the two ministerial Councils in 2005 and 2008 and to the establishment of the cooperation with the European Commission for the creation of the GMES programme. In 2009 he retired from ESA and started a career as a freelance consultant.
    In this role Stefano Bruzzi is currently cooperating with the National and International Relations Unit of the Italian Space Agency (ASI). He represents ASI and Italy in several international instances, including the Committee for Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and the Group for Earth Observation (GEO).
    He is Italy’s Delegate to the ESA Earth Observation Programme Board and is actively involved in the definition of future programmes.
    Stefano will serve as Secretary to the Advisory Board of RASOR.