Anett Thomson is a dynamic self-starter driven by an entrepreneurial spirit. Known for taking ownership and thriving in fast-moving environments, Anett brings valuable experience from both the public and private sectors, excelling in strategy, operations, and project management. Passionate about sustainability and entrepreneurship, she is committed to making a genuine impact and addressing global challenges.

Originally from Estonia, Anett’s international journey has seen her studying and working in diverse settings, including Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Switzerland.

Loukia Psaraki is a communications professional with experience in the civil society and media ecosystems. She has effectively communicated social impact for programs relating to health, sustainability, and education, while working with a philanthropic foundation in Athens, Greece. She has also worked with Amnesty International and a political and news content startup.

Loukia holds an MSc in Strategic Communications from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a BSc in International Politics from the University of Surrey. Loukia has lived and worked in Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Greece.

Margherita Pinardi has project management experience in environmental protection, both at the national and international levels. At the United Nations Environment Programme, she contributed to projects relating to the prevention and sound management of plastics and microplastics in the oceans.

Margherita graduated from the University of Milan with a master’s degree in international relations with a specialisation in international environmental law. She is really passionate about whales and the ocean environment and has studied and worked in Norway, Switzerland, and Italy.

Charlotte is a Media and PR Manager at The Earth Foundation. Formerly the Editor-in-Chief of EU-Startups, Europe’s largest startup publication, she now secures media coverage for the foundation’s exciting work in outlets like Earth.org, Positive.News, One Earth, and Maddyness. Before taking on diverse media roles, including within EU-funded innovation projects and a creative agency, Charlotte obtained a First Class (Hons) Bachelor’s in Linguistics from The University of Southampton and a Master’s (with Merit) in Contemporary European Politics from The University of Bath.Charlotte splits her time between the UK and Spain, where she lived for over 11 years, and her love for natural environments and the ocean has also led her to become a qualified paddleboard instructor.

Peter is an Irishman based in Switzerland, a father of four, entrepreneur, macro portfolio manager and extreme runner.

His interest in sustainability was sparked by his children’s enthusiasm for the environment and his first-hand experiences running marathons on all 7 continents and the North Pole. He decided that he could leverage the passion he saw in his own children and his experience in global financial markets to create a force for positive change through a foundation.

Frits is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome, Italy. Previously, he served as the Legal Counsel for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and spent over 20 years as a legal advisor to various international organizations. As a dedicated parent and committed internationalist, Frits brings his extensive legal expertise to The Earth Foundation, where he helps young people from around the world seek and develop solutions for addressing global environmental challenges.

Jean-Christophe is a partner at the Geneva office of Swiss leading law firm Kellerhals Carrard. Previously, he was a partner at another well-known Geneva law firm and visiting lawyer at the US law firm Golenbock Eiseman Assor and Bell in New York. While assisting The Earth Foundation in its organization, Jean-Christophe will bring his expertise to the Foundation and to the winners of The Earth Prize to properly structure their startup ventures. Jean-Christophe is a Swiss Citizen, living in Geneva with his wife and two children.

Bjørn is the CEO of Skift Business Climate Leaders, a Norwegian business-led climate initiative with a mission to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. He is the former Executive Vice President of DNV Group, where he oversaw the group’s sustainability performance and drove company-wide sustainability initiatives. Bjørn is also a board member at WWF (Norway), The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and a member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences.

Maggie Rarieya is the Global Partnership Director at Amref Health Africa, where she focuses on advancing the organization’s thought leadership and advocacy on critical environmental and social issues such as climate change and its impact on health. Previously, Maggie served as a Director of Inclusive Impact & Sustainability at Visa Inc. She holds an MBA in International Business from the University of Nairobi and an ALM in Sustainability from Harvard University.

Aarna Wadhawan is a 15-year-old Indian student. She is a young environmentalist and is working passionately for the causes of afforestation, air, water and soil Pollution along with girl child education. Planting over 8000 trees in India and across the world, Aarna is a 2x TEDx speaker, Josh Talks speaker and has been associated with major organisations such as WWF India, TERI, Global Resilience Partnership, U- REPORT, Girl Up Bani among others. She is the youth ambassador of Project 100 and an awardee of the Bharat Youth Awards 2022 (India). Having worked with various NGO’s such as Princess Diya Kumari Foundation, World Environment Council, Project 100, Mobius Foundation and more, she was also an Earth Prize Scholar 2022 for her creation Ecosteria, the Solar Powered UV Lamp which aims to provide sterilization to rural areas where there is a lack of supply of electricity. She was appreciated by the Environment Minister of India for her efforts and has been interviewed by the UNICEF Office of Innovation to gather view points upon how to improve FunDoo, UNICEF’s skill development life coach initiative. Moving ahead, she wants to motivate and inspire young adults like herself to adopt sustainable and environmentally friendly practices to create change in mindsets around the world.

Dashel Myers, a junior at Fieldston School in the Bronx, has co-authored a computational mathematics textbook using Mathematica. He’s the Ambassador for Wolfram Research and a leading member of the National STEM Honor Society’s advisory council, focusing on SEO. As an entrepreneur, he established an AI firm merging SIEM system functionalities with natural language processing. Actively involved in New York political campaigns, Dashel supports climate-centric candidates and co-created the Organizing Resource Library (ORL) with NYU to aid disenfranchised communities. He aims to study the metamathematics of macromolecule evolution in the future.

Zlata Shama is a 14-year-old student at the International School of Geneva. She has always loved being involved in global issues in particular sustainability, equity and social interaction, she has shown that throughout multiple school initiatives such as student council and 9innovate project. Since June 2022, she is a Villars Institute Fellow an solution-oriented nonprofit foundation to accelerate the transition to net zero economy. Zlata is following the Villars Institute & Minerva Project: Systems Leadership Program. During the summer 2023, she was nominated to be a Youth Jury at the FIFAD film festival 2023. Outside, she is also a dancer at national level.

Sagarika Sriram is the Founder/CEO of Kids4abetterworld, established in Dubai in 2017. She used her knowledge of Coding and Web development to create an innovative ”Kids for Kids” technology platform that helps young children to drive sustainability projects in their communities. K4Bworld conducts awareness workshops on sustainability, recycling and waste management, beach and desert clean-ups, and projects related to marine conservation. It aims to educate, motivate and activate children to conserve natural resources and biodiversity. With close to 100,000 visitors to its platform and growing media presence, Kids4aBetterWorld is also a member of UNESCO and CRI #LearningPlanet.

An A Level student in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sagarika is also a UN Child Rights Committee (UNCRC) Children’s Advisory Team member and Climate Adviser with CRIN (Child Rights international Network – UK based NGO working with UNICEF). She is also a Youth Ambassador with BEEAH Education. Her work has been widely recognized in the UAE and globally by UNEP. 

Erina, a dynamic 18-year-old from Malaysia, has just graduated from SMK Seksyen 9 Shah Alam Selangor. She is deeply committed to promoting economic growth and development through innovation in order to reduce negative externalities in STEM. She has been involved in F1 in Schools since three years, leading two F1 in Schools teams, Keris Racing and ECOLEST9, to victory in the Malaysia F1 in Schools National Finals in 2020 and 2021 as project manager and manufacturing engineer for both teams, and qualifying as a World Finalist in 2021 and 2022. Her team, ECOLEST9, made quite an impression at the World Finals 2022 in Silverstone, UK, securing the best pit display and best team identity awards.

Kareena Shah is a 18-year-old innovator based in the U.S who is a student at The Knowledge Society. She started a World Water Crisis Awareness Campaign highlighting the water accessibility and safety crises. Her travels to Haryana, India enabled her to work hands-on in marginalized communities by testing for microbial contamination in drinking water. To globalize her vision, she created One Drop at A Time, a podcast which unravels the contributing factors to this acute crisis. She hopes to empower individuals to advocate for changes within their own communities to preserve our Earth’s most important natural resource.

Selin Ozgursoy is a Turkish-American social entrepreneur and AI ethicist. She is UNICEF Turkey’s Inaugural Youth Ambassador and UN’s Youngest Advisor on Business in Europe and Central Asia. Ozgursoy is the Founder & Executive Director of Equity Estrel, the biggest international youth-led initiative based in Europe democratizing access to technology. She actively serves as a Youth Advisor to industry giant corporations including Fast Company (GenZ Advisory Board), Microsoft, IBM, and Unilever. She’s the youngest UNICEF Youth Foresight Fellow, Chairwoman of UN Women’s AI Youth Council, a TEDx speaker, and Forbes’ 2023 “Teen Trailblazer.”

Dedie Mwenda, “The Environmentalist,” is a 16-year-old Kenyan student dedicated to environmental conservation. Born on December 5, 2007, in Nairobi, he now lives in Kalro-kabete. His passion for tree planting started in primary school, inspired by Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai’s stories from his father. In 2022, he graduated with top marks and joined The Maseno School in Kisumu, where he launched the “A tree per term” initiative to combat deforestation.

At Maseno, Dedie serves as deputy environmental captain and chairman of the Environment and Sustainability Club, focusing on recycling plastics and supporting underfunded schools and orphanages. His work has been featured in the Sunday Nation Newspaper and recognized by notable supporters like Dr. Philip Osano and Dr. Manu Chandaria.

Dedie aspires to become a renowned environmentalist, mentor other youths, and join the UNEP decision-making body to address global climate challenges.

Karen Wilson is the Founder of GV Partners and an expert on innovation, entrepreneurship, finance, sustainability and impact measurement, working with private sector firms, international organizations, foundations and academia. She is an Associate Fellow at Said Business School at Oxford University and a Senior Advisor on Sustainability and ESG at the Institute for Strategy at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, where she is also a Visiting Lecturer. She has a Bachelors of Science from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Steve Monfort is the Executive Director of the University of California’s Natural Reserve System. He is also the former director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and currently serves as a senior advisor to the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for Science and Research. As a pioneer in the field of Conservation Biology, Dr. Monfort is a subject matter expert in Zoo Biology, Animal Health, Reproductive Biology, and Behavioral Ecology. Over the course of his 33-year career at the Smithsonian, he has led scientists on the cutting-edge of saving species, from developing non-invasive endocrine monitoring techniques to reintroducing the previously-extinct Scimitar-horned Oryx back into the wild. More recently, he has led the Smithsonian in adopting a “solutions-based mindset,” focusing on what is working in conservation and how we can do more of it.

Federico Bellone is an environmental scientist with a background in international development, strategic philanthropy, corporate responsibility, and partnership-building for sustainable development and systems change in Latin America, USA, and Europe. Specializing in systemic nature-based solutions to climate change, particularly in Latin America, Federico is currently dedicated to large-scale systems change for regeneration.

He currently holds the role of Manager Regenerative Agriculture at The Rockefeller Foundation. Prior to that, Federico served in a partnerships and development role for Conexsus, an award-winning Brazilian social enterprise providing direct training, financing and access to markets to 400+ community-based bioeconomy enterprises in Latin America, in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank and the Green Climate Fund. Formerly the Global Lead for Food and Agriculture systems at the UNFCCC High-Level Climate Champions, Federico brings a wealth of experience from roles at Porticus, Avina Foundation and the Spanish International Development Agency (AECID).

Okezue Bell is a Nigerian-American Stanford student studying mathematics and an AI activist. Bell has conducted applied AI research at Microsoft, Harvard Medical School, the MIT Media Lab, and Boston Children’s Hospital. He invented a low-cost prosthetic arm that was successfully tested on amputees and is being reproduced in countries spanning Iran, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.

Okezue is also the founder and president of Fidutam, one of the largest responsible technology civil society groups. They have nearly 1,600 members with chapters spanning 50+ countries, college campuses, and global regions. Fidutam has developed a digital ID platform for the bottom billion and coordinated closely with stakeholders at the White House, Google, the Future of Life Institute, Chatham House, Brookings, OpenAI, and more.

A noted environmental leader, business pioneer, mom of five and grandma, Suzy Amis Cameron is committed to caring for our wild, living Earth, with an emphasis on plant-based food to address climate change. She is the author of The OMD Plan: Swap One Meal a Day to Save your Health and Save the Planet (Simon & Schuster/Atria) and the founder of the OMD Movement, dedicated to transforming eating habits and expanding access to healthy, climate-friendly food for all. In 2006, she founded MUSE Global School, which is the first school in the country to be 100% solar powered, zero waste, and with a 100% organic, plant-based lunch program. Additionally, she is a founder of the plant-based ventures, Verdient Foods, Cameron Family Farms, Food Forest Organics and Plant Power Task Force, with her husband, James Cameron. In 2009, she launched Red Carpet Green Dress, showcasing socially and environmentally responsible fashions. Suzy sits on the board of three impactful organizations – LIVEKINDLY, IMAGINE, and Carnegie Learning. She is also an Executive Producer of The Game Changers, MILKED, and JUNK. As an actor she was featured in more than 25 films, including The Usual Suspects and Titanic.

Beatrice Fihn is the Director of Lex International, a philanthropic fund focused on developing and achieving solutions to global problems through supporting international law and multilateral cooperation. Previously, Beatrice was the Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and accepted the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the campaign. Ms. Fihn has led the campaign since 2014 and has worked to mobilize civil society throughout the development of the United Nation’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

She frequently lectures, delivers high-level speeches, and provides media comments about issues like weapons law, humanitarian law, civil society engagement in diplomacy and multilateral institutions, as well as the gender perspective on disarmament work. Ms. Fihn holds a master’s degree in law from the University College London and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Stockholm University.

Navya Naveli Nanda is an entrepreneur and women’s rights advocate. Navya is the co-founder of Aara Health, a women’s healthcare platform in India, and Nimaya Foundation, a non-profit organization addressing gender and privilege inequities in the workplace. She is also the founder of Project Naveli, a non-profit initiative promoting gender equality in India, with a focus on education, healthcare, and financial independence. She works closely with the United Nations and UN Women entities, as one of the youngest UN Women Allies. Navya graduated from Fordham University in New York with a major in digital technology and UX design.

Gitanjali Rao was recognized as America’s Top Young Scientist and received an EPA Presidential award for inventing her device “Tethys”—an early lead detection tool. Gitanjali is also the inventor of “Epione”—a device for early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction using genetic engineering, and “Kindly”—an anti-cyberbullying service using AI and Natural Language processing.

She was honored as Forbes “30 Under 30 in Science” in 2019 and TIME’s “Top Young Innovator” and “TIME Kid of the Year” for her innovations and STEM workshops she conducts globally, which has inspired over 60,000 students across six continents and 40 countries. In her sessions, she shares her own process of innovation that can be used by students all over the world. She often presents in global and corporate forums on innovation and the importance of STEM.

Gitanjali is the author of the book “Young Innovator’s Guide to STEM”, available in 5 languages, which guides students, educators, or teachers with a prescribed 5 step innovation process. She was honored as one of America’s Top Youth Volunteers by Prudential in 2021 and was appointed as a UNICEF Youth Advocate for using science for solving social problems such as cyber-bullying and developing solutions for environmental protection. She recently received a grant as a National Geographic young Explorer to expand her workshops and self-sustain them beyond her.

Natalie Schmitt is an empathetic ecologist, conservation geneticist, and documentary presenter, deeply passionate about protecting biodiversity using hard science, public education, and community empowerment. Studying elusive, endangered species, like snow leopard and Antarctic whales, she has empowered grass-roots conservation, and enabled policy education and management improvement at various scales, including that of the International Whaling Commission. Natalie is developing a portable leading-edge technology to detect DNA from biological samples in real time, at low cost and easy-to-use. She leads an extremely skilled, synergic team of geneticists, conservationists, communicators, business partners, and institutions to develop this technology. WildTechDNA will categorically revolutionize the way how customs, law-enforcement, field monitoring practices, citizen science, and locally based conservation are conducted around the world.

Kasha Sequoia Slavner is the founder of The Global Sunrise Project and Director of the multi-award-winning documentary, The Sunrise Storyteller. She has been a filmmaker, photographer, entrepreneur, and social justice advocate for over a decade, as well as a writer, public speaker and contributor to several publications, including National Geographic Learning. Kasha is an 13x UN Youth Delegate, one the UN’s Office for Disarmament Affairs 25 #leaders4tommorow and was selected as the first winner of the Kim Phuc Youth Peace Prize. In 2019, she was the recipient of the Diana Award and recently was selected as one of the Wonder Grantees for Sustainability by the Shawn Mendes Foundation. Her current feature documentary in production is called 1.5 Degrees of Peace. The trailer for the film has already won several prestigious awards.

Usama Ado Shehu is an emerging leader in peace and climate sustainability, known for developing initiatives with the Peace Building Network. He is a networker, community organizer, and host of My Weekly Entrepreneur. With a Physics degree and certifications in Positive Peace and Leadership, Usama is involved with the Nigeria Youth SDGs Network, Yali Network, and United Nations entities. He leads efforts in plastic waste management, campaigns against pollution, and serves as the Lead for the African Continent Working Group at The Earth Foundation.

Isa Kwambo Dagona, born on December 31, 1987, in Dagona, Yobe State, Nigeria, is a dedicated public servant and human rights advocate. He holds a degree in Economic Education from Nasarawa State University Keffi and has served as a Planning Officer at the Yobe State Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning since 2009.

Isa actively participates in national and international conferences and holds key roles in several organizations. He is the African Continent Working Group Deputy Lead for The Earth Prize Foundation, an International Voting Member of Civicus, and a member of Amnesty International. He also volunteers with the United Nations and participates in the International Youth’s Conference and Yali Africa.

Eric Awuonda is a dedicated teacher at Maseno School in Kenya and an enthusiastic member of The Earth Prize Volunteer Community. Leading the environmental club at his school, Eric works closely with students to foster environmental stewardship. Under his guidance, they have established two nurseries, each with 250 trees, and have assisted other schools in Siaya county to set up similar tree nurseries. In addition to his work with tree nurseries, Eric leads students in plastic recycling activities. They collect plastic bottles from the school and its surroundings, transforming them into various items like animal feeders used in the school farm. Eric’s passion for environmental education and sustainability is evident in his proactive efforts to empower students and promote a greener future.

Akash is a student at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela where he is pursuing a degree in B.Tech Mechanical Engineering . Akash is from India, having lived his whole life in the UAE. His journey with The Earth Prize began during the 2022 F1 in Schools World Finals. Akash’s passion for sustainability shines through his active involvement with both the F1 in Schools team and his school’s eco club