Our Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors
Susan Aitken
Susan Aitken was elected as Leader of Glasgow City Council in 2017, forming a Scottish National Party (SNP) led City Government in the first change of political administration in Glasgow in 40 years. She was first elected as a councillor for the Langside ward (where she lives with her husband) in 2012, following a career in public policy and communications in the third sector and the Scottish Parliament, and as a freelance writer and editor specialising in social care issues. Susan was reappointed to a second term as Council Leader following the 2022 Scottish Local Government elections.
Under her leadership, Glasgow has hosted the UN Climate Summit COP26, which led to the formation of the Glasgow Climate Pact. As leader of the host city, Susan was ideally placed to help give voice to the critical role of local and subnational leadership and urban peer networks on the climate agenda. Across COP27 and COP28, Susan has continued to connect Glasgow with key global partners and as a board member of the 3Ci network, has helped make the shared case to national government and the private markets for support in the decarbonisation of UK cities. In addition, Susan’s leadership has seen Glasgow awarded Global Green City status by the Global Forum on Human Settlements; named host of the inaugural UCI World Cycling Championships during its year as 2023 European Capital of Sport; and secured host status for the World Indoor Athletics Championships in 2024.
Susan was awarded Scottish Local Politician of the Year for her work to end historic gender pay discrimination and deliver compensation for thousands of women Council workers. She was also awarded Scottish Council Leader of the Year for her leadership on climate issues, including plans to limit private car use in the core of Glasgow city centre. Susan was selected as one of 40 global city leaders for the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative Class of 2023.
Daniel Stander
Daniel is a special advisor to the United Nations on matters of risk analytics and finance. Over the last 20 years, Daniel has worked on every continent, advising public and private entities on a variety of complex risks, including natural hazards, pandemics and cyber attacks. He is a pioneer of #ResilienceFinance, helping capital find responsible investments in the face of climate and other extremes. He also supported the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Wildlife Fund in a pioneering initiative to protect UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
From 2006-2020, Daniel held a variety of leadership positions at Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the world’s leading catastrophe risk modelling company. Most recently, he was Global Managing Director at RMS, leading among other things the firm’s relationships with all levels of government. In 2018, Mayor Francis Suarez presented Daniel with a City of Miami Proclamation recognizing his commitment to raise awareness, foster cooperation, and deliver resilience to urban economies and communities in the face of sea level rise and the threat of extreme events.
Prior to RMS, Daniel was part of the group strategy and development function at an 80,000-employee, £10-billion, global healthcare group, serving 30 million customers in over 190 countries. He also has considerable start-up experience, having been part of the founding team of an award-winning fintech. He continues to advise tech companies, including Agritask, whose precision agronomics platform is improving economic resilience, protecting livelihoods and increasing food security.
Daniel holds a Master’s from the University of Oxford. He also studied for a master’s degree at the Humboldt University in Berlin, and is a graduate of the Center of Creative Leadership. A frequent keynote speaker, Daniel is often quoted in the Financial Times, the BBC and other tier one media.
Eduardo Paes
Eduardo Paes holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from PUC-Rio University. He has dedicated his career to public service, beginning in 1993 when, at the age of 23, he was appointed Supervisor of the Jacarepaguá and Barra districts. He was twice elected to the City Council and twice to the Federal Congress.
In October 2008, he was elected Mayor of Rio de Janeiro. In 2012, he was reelected in the first round for a second term.
As mayor, Mr. Paes oversaw a cycle of great events in Rio de Janeiro, from the Rio+20 Conference in 2012, through the 2014 FIFA World Cup to the 2016 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, which accelerated major transportation, infrastructure and urban renewal projects in the city.
Between 2017 and 2020, he worked as a consultant in the Urban Planning Department of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and as Vice President for Latin America of BYD Company Ltd., focusing on the management of metropolitan regions.
In 2020, he was elected mayor of the city for a third term, taking office on January 1st, 2021 with a commitment to leading the city’s recovery from a fiscal crisis and the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
From 2013 to 2016 Mayor Paes served as Chair of the C40 cities Climate Leadership Group, succeeding Mayor Bloomberg of New York City. In 2023 he joined the Board of the Resilient Cities Network and co-chairs the Urban SDG Finance Commission.
Eduardo Paes is married and has two children. He is fluent in Portuguese, English and Spanish.
Sheng Thao
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is honored to serve the residents of Oakland as the 51st Mayor. She is the first Hmong person elected to lead a major US city and the youngest Mayor elected in Oakland history. As a daughter of refugees who grew up in California’s Central Valley, she has long seen the impact climate change brings to our frontline and disadvantaged communities. In her years of leadership, she has prioritized building climate resilience in Oakland’s neighborhoods that historically experienced environmental injustice.
To address the climate crisis in Oakland, Mayor Sheng Thao is working with regional partners including the Port of Oakland to electrify transportation and reduce air pollution, while supporting economic development. Understanding the importance of green spaces, she champions the creation of parks and urban tree canopy in formerly neglected neighborhoods, with a focus on transforming them into vibrant, flourishing spaces for the community.
Mayor Sheng Thao is working to make Oakland a leader in green innovation by establishing it as a hub for climate tech business. Building on Oakland’s history of climate leadership, Mayor Thao has helped secure hundreds of millions of dollars in investments to build more climate resilience hubs, support the development of innovative jobs through the hydrogen hub funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, expand urban forestry, develop job training in this sector, and grow Oakland’s climate corps.
A graduate of Merritt College and UC Berkeley, Mayor Thao has a lifelong commitment to public service, starting with co-founding the Bear Pantry as an undergraduate, to provide emergency food to students and families in need, which continues to support members of the community to this day.
Niels Holm-Nielsen
Niels Holm-Nielsen is the Practice Manager for the Global Unit for Disaster and Climate Risk Management at the World Bank, and Head of the Secretariat for the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).
He oversees a team that works to influence investment at scale for disaster and climate risk management globally. Prior to taking up his current position, Niels was the World Bank’s Global Technical Lead for Resilience and Disaster Risk Management (DRM), supporting team leads and managers to deliver the highest possible technical quality of DRM services to our clients.
He has worked in more than 50 countries and led the creation and implementation of a series of global technical assistance and knowledge service partnerships, including risk reduction for education facilities as well as the City Resilience Program.
He joined the World Bank in 2006 as Junior Professional Officer in Middle East and North Africa region after working for the Inter-American Development Bank for five years. He holds a degree in Political Science from the University of Aarhus, Denmark.
Our Global Steering Committee
The Global Steering Committee (GSC) has a clear mandate to set principles and policy that are directly driven by and responsive to the needs of the network’s member cities.
The GSC comprises of up to ten Chief Resilience Officers from across the five regions of our network:
- Africa (AFR)
- Asia-Pacific (APAC)
- Europe and the Middle East (EME)
- Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)
- North America (NAM)
Each region holds up to two seats in the GSC.
The GSC is co-chaired by two CROs representing different regions.
Dr. Folayinka Dania (GSC Co-Chair)
Dr Folayinka Dania is the Chief Resilience Officer for Lagos State and the Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Resilience Office (LASRO). She coordinates the implementation of the Lagos Resilience Strategy in collaboration with other State Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies with the goal of ensuring that the State continues to thrive, adapt and grow sustainably.
Beck Dawson
Beck Dawson is the Chief Resilience Officer for metropolitan Sydney, hosted by the City of Sydney Council as part of R-Cities. Known as “the person paid to worry for Sydney,” Beck champions urban resilience and systems thinking for cities. Since 2015, Beck has led the development and implementation of the Resilient Sydney Strategy, working with governments, business, and the community to build collaboration and investment for a stronger, more connected, and more resilient city.
Kamlesh Yagnik
Kamlesh Yagnik has over three decades’ experience in business and consulting. His areas of interest include citywide surveillance, e-Governance, and energy management. As President of the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he represented micro-, small, medium, and large enterprises working in flood-prone areas of South Gujarat, India. An Energy Engineer by training, with a degree from India’s leading technological institute IIT, Mumbai, Kamlesh is Director of two companies working in the areas of energy, climate change, and information technology.
Moges Tedasse
Moges Tadesse, PhD, is an academician, researcher and development practitioner. He served as a manager, coordinator, planner, integrator and resource mobilizer in NGOs. As an academician and researcher in higher institutions has trained graduate and post graduate students and undertaken a number of problem solving researches, and published significant articles. He also served as development practitioner at different tires in government institutions and currently working as Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) in the City of Addis Ababa.
Ahmed K. AbuLaban
Ahmed holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from BirZeit University in Palestine. He was a fellow in the Humphrey International Fellowship Program through the US State Department at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota in 2004-2005. This prestigious program is built to accommodate mid-career professionals obtain further training and academic work in Public Administration.
Ahmed has extensive experience in local government policy, city management, project management, crisis management, sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities programs,. He has a serious commitment to continued personal and professional development by attending and participating in local, regional and international workshops and conferences. He also has a long history with volunteer work and social activism.
Guzmán Robaina
Guzmán Robaina (Montevideo): Member of the Executive Resilience Unit at the Secretary of Planning of the Government of Montevideo. He oversees the design, development, and implementation of the City Resilience Strategy and the Integral Risk Management Strategy of Montevideo (2020-2024). He holds a degree in International Relations
Norlang Marcel García Arróliga
Norlang Marcel García Arróliga graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) with a degree in economics science. He holds a master’s degree in Public Administration and Public Policy, as well as a Higher Education course in Disaster Risk Management from Colombia National University. Additionally, the Kobe Institute of Urban Research conducted studies on Reconstruction Plans after Disasters in the Japanese city of Kobe. He has 21 years’ experience in project coordination in public policy about Disasters Risk Reduction. At the National Center for Disaster Prevention, he served as the deputy director of economic and social studies. He was Director General of Mexico City’s Resilience Agency. He presently serves as the Resilience General Director at Secretariat of Integral Risk Management and Civil Protection in Mexico City.
Kathy Oldham
Kathy has been Greater Manchester’s Chief Resilience Officer since 2017, providing strategic leadership for the city region’s approach to resilience. Kathy heads up a specialist unit within the Greater Manchester Combined Authority delivering disaster risk reduction and emergency response services for Greater Manchester’s ten local authorities. She has led the development of Greater Manchester’s Resilience Strategy and provides a strategic advice function to the multi-agency Greater Manchester Resilience Forum partnership.
Kathy recently led a successful bid for Greater Manchester to become a pilot in the national Stronger LRFs Programme designed to test ways of implementing the UK Government Resilience Framework. She also leads Greater Manchester’s participation in the international Resilient Cities Network, UNDRR’s Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) initiative, within which Greater Manchester has been recognised as a Resilience Hub, and the Counter Terrorism Preparedness Network (CTPN). She has been appointed as a Commissioner for the National Preparedness Commission.
With over 15 years’ experience in resilience, Kathryn has been engaged in drafting national, British, European and International Standards on resilience. Kathy holds a medical degree and has previously held a wide range of positions in local government.
Patricia Gomez
Patricia Gómez, Ph.D., PE, CEM, GBE, LEED AP, serves as interim Chief Resilience Officer for Miami-Dade County. Dr. Gómez has over 20 years of experience working on engineering, management, resilience, and sustainability-related programs in both the public sector and private industries. She began her career with Miami-Dade County as an Engineer with the Department of Environmental Resources Management and worked at the Water and Sewer Department before her role with the Office of Sustainability and now the Office of Resilience.
She led the development of the County’s Climate Action Strategy, Building Efficiency 305 voluntary Program, and installation of solar systems in County facilities. Dr. Gomez holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Miami, an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Florida International University, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Universidad America. Dr. Gómez is a Professional Engineer in the State of Florida and holds numerous accreditations in engineering, energy, and sustainability fields.
Katia Tynan
Katia is the Manager of Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction and acting Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Vancouver.
In this role she co-authored and oversees the implementation of the Resilient Vancouver. She manages complex cross-departmental projects and holds a resilience advisory role on various processes and plans. Since 2017, Katia has led the City’s Resilient Neighbourhoods Program, partnering with community-based organizations to identify and build on the services and networks that enable communities to thrive day-to-day, and build capacity to respond to and recover from emergencies like extreme heat or earthquakes.
Before joining the City of Vancouver, Katia worked in the non-profit sector as a program manager and community developer. She holds a master’s degree in Disaster and Emergency Management from Royal Roads University, a bachelor’s degree in Geography and Political Science from the University of British Columbia, and is a certified Strategic Foresight Practitioner through Institute for the Future.
Our Network
Learn More about our member cities