Georgios Kostakos, GRC Project Co-Director, FOGGS (Brussels)
Georgios is a co-founder and the Executive Director of FOGGS, and he serves as Co-Director of the GRC Project. In close collaboration with the other Co-Director, Dr. Harris Gleckman, Georgios provides substantive and managerial leadership to the GRC Project Team in the execution of the project, and carries out high-level contacts with key stakeholders from governments, international organizations, civil society, the private sector and other relevant groups.
For about half of his thirty-year work experience Georgios has served with the United Nations, including with the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General, the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability and UNFCCC. He feels privileged to have witnessed the first post-Apartheid elections in South Africa as a UN electoral observer, to have contributed to the transition to a more peaceful Bosnia and Herzegovina as a UN civil affairs officer, to have supported the negotiations for the 2005 World Summit, to have helped organize the first high-level event on climate change in New York, to have been part of the process that led to the establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to have supported the negotiations for the Paris Agreement on climate change, among other things. He has also held various positions at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), organized courses at the University of Athens, taught at the Brussels School of International Studies / University of Kent, and served as LIFE Climate Action Sector Coordinator at NEEMO EEIG.
Georgios helped give name and shape to the need for a “UN Security Council for non-military threats” that emerged from discussions among in-house and guest practitioners and thinkers that FOGGS held in 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and in view of the apparent inability of the multilateral system to generate anadequate response. He looks forward to – and keeps pushing for – the actual establishment and operation of such a body in the UN system framework in the next couple of years.
Georgios is a Mechanical Engineer by training and has a PhD in International Relations, specialising in global governance, climate action and sustainability.
Harris Gleckman, GRC Project Co-Director, FOGGS (Cumberland, ME)
Harris is a senior fellow at the Center for Governance and Sustainability at the University of Massachusetts Boston, a board member of FOGGS and the Director of Benchmark Environmental Consulting. He was a staff member of the UN Centre on Transnational Corporations and head of the NY office of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
Gleckman has a PhD in Sociology from Brandeis University (Political Economy of Food Production: A Case Study of the Sugar Industry); a M.A. in Sociology from Brandeis University, 1974; and a B.A. cum laude in Philosophy and Sociology from Brandeis University, 1968. His recent publication is entitled “Multistakeholder Governance and Democracy: A Global Challenge” (Routledge, 2018). He has also served as a UN staff member for the 2002 Monterey Conference on Financing for Development.
Yvonne Rademacher, Senior Global Governance Advisor, FOGGS (Nairobi)
Yvonne is a Senior Global Governance Advisor at FOGGS, where she guides initiatives on multilateralism, notably those related to crisis management. She conducts research, provides policy and strategic partnership advice, and assists with the preparation of publications and outreach tools.
Yvonne has worked in international disaster management for 20 years, mainly with the United Nations. Her professional forte is strategic planning and troubleshooting operational bottlenecks. Having moved into the private sector to support climate-smart initiatives along the disaster management – climate crisis axis, she now focuses on linking public policies and cutting-edge science in partnerships between civil society, the private sector and government. As a published researcher, her research interest revolves around the identification and activation of community disaster management assets.
She is advocating for a Global Resilience Council because, in her view, it is time to reform the current institutional systems that have not kept up with the challenges of our times and are not adequate to respond to them. She believes solutions lie in more accountable and action-oriented decision-making processes at the global level, as opposed to the current trend of national withdrawal from international dialogue and cooperation.
Yvonne holds a Joint Honours Degree in Law and Politics from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, a Master of Laws from the College of William and Mary, USA, as well as a Ph.D. in Disaster Science and Management from the University of Delaware, USA.
Thomas Slätis, GRC Advocacy and Communication Advisor, FOGGS (Helsinki)
Thomas works with all aspects of the GRC Project related to advocacy and communication. He supports the execution of the project by preparing strategies for political advocacy work and advises the team on online and offline communication as well as media relations.
Thomas joins the project with unique and diverse experiences in international relations and communications. Over the last 20 years, he has worked with several intergovernmental organizations at both the headquarter and field level, moving across the spectrum from development and humanitarian aid to conflict management. His professional interests reside in the intersection between international emergencies and mediated communication, specifically the role of media in causing, maintaining, but also resolving such crises. Back in his native Finland, Thomas has participated in research aimed at strengthening government communication and citizen participation, and recently spearheaded a public advocacy campaign for transparency and accountability in the capital’s governance.
The GRC Project is as relevant as it is ambitious, and at this early stage, Thomas considers it primarily a project of political advocacy aiming at gathering momentum and with it engagement and support. He would like to see the GRC project captivate the imagination of key actors in global governance and serve as a critical step in shaping the institutional structures necessary for a Council for large-scale non-military threats. He looks forward to the deliberations and development that will bring the project forward.
Thomas holds a Masters in Media and Communication Studies, including studies at both University of Amsterdam and University of California, Berkeley, and presently pursues doctoral research at his alma mater, University of Helsinki.
Neena Joshi, Junior Global Governance Advisor, FOGGS (Chicago)
Neena is a Junior Global Governance Advisor at FOGGS. She provides research, writing, and editorial support primarily on aspects related to global health and pandemics and helps identify key stakeholders and manages relationships with them.
Neena has conducted field research in India on adolescent health education and their access to quality health care services, and she has conducted research on The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria policy to help guide donors and national HIV programs as countries move away from donor aid and towards domestic financing and sustainability. Along with supporting the proposal for a UN Global Resilience Council, she serves as a consultant on the Lancet COVID-19 Commission and at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Center for Vulnerable Populations.
Neena is calling for a UN Resilience Council because the current multilateral system is not fit for the 21st century and believes that a multilateral system based on preparedness and prevention rather than one that is reactionary is the only way we can address the urgent and multifaceted crises we face today.
Neena holds a Masters of Science in Global Health Sciences from UCSF and a Bachelors of Science in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Stuart Best, Junior Policy and Project Management Advisor, FOGGS (Bonn)
Stuart joined FOGGS in January 2021 as a Junior Associate to conduct policy research on climate governance and global sustainability, while contributing to the daily activities of the FOGGS Secretariat. In May 2021, Stuart joined the UNFCCC Secretariat, where he supports climate negotiations under the Subsidiary Bodies through the COP process.
Originally from Northern Ireland, Stuart completed his Bachelors of Science in Environmental Management from Queen’s University Belfast, and his Master of Arts in International Political Economy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Stuart has experience in renewable energy policy implementation and worked as a fundraising consultant in the philanthropy sector prior to entering the world of global climate policy.
Stuart will bring his understanding of the UN climate change process to the GRC team. He has observed the many positive aspects of the current multilateral process, but also its limitations in developing fast-paced responses to crises, both within and beyond the climate sphere. He believes the GRC can complement the existing institutional frameworks to provide greater responses on the ground for citizens around the globe.
Manan Shah, Junior Research and IT Associate, FOGGS (Ahmedabad)
Manan is a Junior IT and Research Associate at FOGGS. He provides technical support, including website development, video editing, graphic creation and webinar organisation for a variety of FOGGS projects, including the GRC Project. He has also conducted research on topics such as the use of military resources to address non-military threats (The M4CE Project) and has written opinion pieces published on Katoikos.world
During his undergraduate studies, Manan supported various on campus projects focused on social issues. As member of AIESEC – a youth run international organization, he organised The World’s Largest Lesson in 2019. In partnership with UNICEF, this event aimed to encourage youth awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He also co-organised TEDxMAHE in 2020, under the TED COUNTDOWN initiative, focusing on climate change.
Manan is advocating for a Global Resilience Council because the current multilateral system is not addressing modern global issues well. As humanity tries to address the COVID-19 pandemic and the biggest challenge of our times - climate change, it is clear that there is a critical need for more fit-for-purpose global response systems.
Manan holds a Bachelor’s of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering with a minor in Big Data from Manipal Institute of Technology, India.
Jason Kyriakos, Trainee, FOGGS (Brussels)
Jason studied political science and public administration at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. His main academic focus has been environmental politics, European governance, and lobbying. Besides his formal education, he’s participated in volunteering programmes on the refugee crisis, working alongside NGOs and advocacy/activist organisations in France, Germany and Greece.
Jason’s passionate about environmental advocacy, sustainable development, transparency issues, climate activism and environmentalist literature and discourse.
Jason is also an active musician and audio engineer, with a background in classical and contemporary music, as well as podcast editing and management.
Jason supports the creation of a Global Resilience Council because he strongly believes in sound and up-to-date global governance structures that can tackle interconnected global issues in a holistic and coordinated way. In a world with an array of intertwined global problems, the optimal solution is an international communication and cooperation mechanism able to handle a multitude of issues effectively and efficiently, eliminating the shortcomings of the current multi-institutional UN ecosystem.