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Dr R Seetharaman, Former Chief Executive Officer of Doha Bank (2007 – 2022), is a prominent personality in the banking industry throughout the Middle East, an economic expert who has achieved remarkable success for his contributions to Banking, Trade, Investment, Economics, Environment, Social responsibility, Philanthropy and Charity. Post his successful Finance/Banking career of over 40 years in he has adopted six sustainable development goals from United Nations and has registered a non-profit organization “Seetharaman School of Sustainable Development” with the vision of contributing to global sustainable development. He is the founder of “The Green TV”, driven by a vision to make sustainability a way of life. He believes it must move beyond policies and boardrooms into everyday thinking and living. He currently serves as the Independent Board Member at L&T Finance Limited.
He is a Chartered Accountant and holds certificate in IT systems and Corporate Management, whilst being a gold medalist in his graduation Bachelor of Commerce. He is recipient of multiple doctorates from leading universities of the world, including 3 PhD’s.
In 2017, he was recognized and conferred by the Government of India with the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, the highest honor conferred on overseas Indians by the Government of India.
He is a prominent personality in the banking industry throughout the Middle East and being a high-profile economist, he was invited on a regular basis by international media such as BBC, CNN, FOX, CNBC, Sky News, ABC and Bloomberg to share his views.
Kindly visit www.seetharaman.com, www.thegreentv.com & www.thesss.org for more details.
Dr Rajendra Shende is known for his trend-setting global contribution to protecting the stratospheric ozone layer under the international Montreal Protocol, which has been hailed as “the single most successful international agreement to date.” He was the global head of capacity building for the OzonAction hub offices in developing countries and served as Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) OzonAction Program in Paris.
He was a Coordinating Lead Author of the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His contribution to the IPCC report was acknowledged in the Nobel Peace Prize citation. The report brought into focus the interlinkages between ozone layer protection and climate change.
As Director of UNEP OzonAction, Dr Shende orchestrated the implementation of the Montreal Protocol across 146 developing countries, contributing to the recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer—the Earth’s life-saving shield. He built strong partnerships between developing and developed countries. Certificates of appreciation from 53 African countries and 12 Middle Eastern nations stand as testimony to his impactful contribution to the Global South’s compliance with the Montreal Protocol, which has resulted in the protection and recovery of the ozone layer.
His work through the IPCC helped set a tone for cross-boundary environmental diplomacy, contributing to the security of humankind and life on Earth. His coordinated efforts to develop the “SolarChill” project provided a fitting example of such cross-linkages and were publicly acknowledged by the Hon. Former President of India, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. The project also helped democratise solar-powered vaccine cooling through open-source technology endorsed by global bodies such as WHO and UNICEF.
Currently, as Founder Director of the Green TERRE Foundation, Dr Shende has launched the Smart Campus Cloud Network (SCCN), comprising more than 640 universities and institutes across 22 countries and coordinated through four regional hubs. The initiative aims to localise the SDGs and Net Zero on campuses and promote experiential learning to equip young people with skills in SDGs and Net Zero, supporting the development of carbon-neutral university campuses.
Professor Michele John is Professor of Sustainability and Director of the Sustainable Engineering Group (SEG) at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia.
Micheles scholarship advances the proposition that sustainability is not an environmental add-on, but the defining organising principle of 21st century engineering. She advocates for education that is focused on the development of a sustainability mindset and positions sustainability as a governance and ethical imperative. She is committed to reshaping tertiary education so that future professionals are focused on planetary boundaries and intergenerational equity.
She is the co-author of Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (2022) and Editor of The Routledge Handbook on Global Sustainability Knowledge and Thinking in the 21st Century (Open Access, 2025), a landmark volume advancing global sustainability scholarship and systems thinking for a complex century. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003171577/routledge-handbook-global-sustainability-education-thinking-21st-century-michele-john
Since 2014, Professor John has served as the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Recycling Journal, shaping international discourse on resource recovery, circular economy transitions and responsible materials engineering and stewardship.
Michele works at the interface of technical performance and governance capability, exposing the disconnect between sustainability rhetoric and measurable impact. Her scholarship challenges reductionist sustainability metrics and advances governance focused accountability frameworks.
Her work seeks to inform engineering design, corporate stewardship and global sustainability governance in order to advance, industry standards, the global corporate governance discourse and the evolution of sustainability education curriculum reform internationally.
Her research has led the development of new sustainability indicators and assessment frameworks, interrogates the superficiality of current ESG and sustainability reporting mechanisms, advances circular economy and industrial symbiosis application and has highlighted the importance of including biodiversity impacts and social justice in engineering design.
Professor Michele John is Professor of Sustainability and Director of the Sustainable Engineering Group (SEG) at Curtin University. She is the co-author of Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (2022) and Editor of The Routledge Handbook on Global Sustainability Knowledge and Thinking in the 21st Century (Open Access, 2025), a landmark volume advancing global sustainability scholarship. Michele has served as the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Recycling Journal since 2014. Michele works at the interface of technical performance and governance capability, exposing the disconnect between sustainability rhetoric and measurable impact. Her research shapes international discourse on resource recovery, circular economy transitions and stewardship.