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PACE Election: Last call for suggestions!

A note from the Professional Association for China’s Environment (PACE) Election Committee:

After careful confirmation, we are pleased to announce the nominees of this PACE Board Election (listed alphabetically by the last names):

• Jimmy Chen, Ph.D., Engineers, USEPA
• Yuyang Gong, Ph.D., Managing Director, ESD China Limited Co.
• Jie He, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Sherbrooke
• Feng Jia, Deputy Director, Center for Environmental Education and Communication, Ministry of Environmental Protection of China
• Chris Langer, U.S. Licensed, Foreign Expert, Nankai University
• Jianping Yan, Ph.D., Senior Consultant, UNDP
• Rong Zhang, Task Manager, International Finance Corporation

Since each time seven or eight board members are elected and this time there are seven qualified candidates, the election committee intends to consider all the nominees are elected by default this year.

Nevertheless, we will be open for questions and suggestions until December 26th, 2008. Please feel free to contact us at pace.election.committee [a] gmail.com

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NOMINEE BIOS:

CHEN, Jimmy

Before coming to the U.S., Mr. Chen chose designing a wastewater treatment facility as his college thesis. After the facility started running for treating the wastewater from a dyeing factory, he was delighted to see that the color stream was returning to the clean water. He left China with some self satisfaction. However, when he returned to China and found out that the water quality of the river into which the factory used to discharge its waste was much worse than the one twenty years ago, he was shocked and sad. In the end, he determined to help “improve the quality of life of people and the environment conditions in China”, more willingly than ever.

Dr. Chen received his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Maryland. He served as one of international members of the Environmental Expert Panel for the World Bank-loaned Ertan Hydraulic Power project in Sichuan province. He has devoted his past ten professional years to protecting public health by working in the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). With his experiences and expertise, Dr. Chen is confident that, as a board member, he can help facilitate information and idea exchanges in both environmental policy and practice.

GONG, Yuyang

Mr. GONG Yuyang, PhD, PE, currently serves as a Managing Director for ESD China Limited Co – A China-based international consulting firm providing full services in environmental and energy engineering areas. Dr. Gong has also served as the Vice Presdient and Director for China Operations for the Louis Berger Group based in USA; and partner and regional manager for ERM in China.

As one of the funding directors of PACE, Dr Gong has one primary goal in running for this director election: working with other directors, PACE mmanagement team, and other leaders, create a full time and paid position of the Executive Director for PACE. He views this position very critical for all of us to push PACE to next stage of development. In his view, there is no better timing than now to create this position; and there is no better timing than now for us to elevate PACE, to let her exert her international influence, and let’s her members’ voices be heard and massive expertise and know-how to be utilizied. To do that, we need a leader, an Executive Director, who can commit his/her full time to push PACE agenda and lead PACE to next level.

HE, Jie

He Jie works as assistant professor in Department of Economics of University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. During her Ph.D programme at CERDI, France, She essentially studied the environmental consequence of China’s economics activities, particularly her industrialisation and openness process. Her research papers have been published in well-ranked international academic journals as Ecological Economics, Environment and Development Economics and China Economic Review. Before taking the professor position in University of Sherbrooke, she also worked as consultant for the World Bank and participated project management with United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP). She is also an invited researcher of Katholic University of Leuven in Belgium and will work as a visiting professor in Hong Kong Polytechnic University during 2009.

In the past, Jie He, as an active member of PACE, has already implicated in several PACE events. She has been one of the principal organisers and discussants for the 2006 PACE summer camp held in Qiandao, China. If elected as the member of board of directors, Jie He plans to contribute to the networking of the PACE with the researches in Chinese and foreign universities, who work on China’s environmental problems through conference, workshop and other forms of research and policy discussion forum.

JIA, Feng

As deputy director for Center for Environmental Education & Communications of Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, Jia Feng is also the editor-in-chief of the World Environment Magazine, Vice Chairman of Environmental Science and Engineering Teaching and Supervise Council by Ministry of Education of China and member of the Environmental Education Committee under Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences. He has been invited as professor for several universities such as Peking University. He has expertise in fields of environmental public policy, environmental public participation, climate change, commercialization of environmental technologies, environmental education, and environmental awareness etc. He has organized many large campaigns such as “Clean the Mountain Everest” (1996), and “Setting Marker of the Headstream of Yangtze River” (1999) etc. He is also the director of TV series Window on American Environment, Window on Japanese Environment, Window on European Environment, and China’s Environmental Protection. He won the National Prize for Audio and Video Products and National Award of Advanced Individuals for Popular Science.

Jia was the Humphrey fellow at the college of public policy, the University of Washington in Seattle (USA). He holds a master’s degree in environmental law and bachelor’s degree in law from Peking University.

LANGER, Christ

Born March 13, 1959, in New York City, I have worked primarily in the field of drinking water purification.

I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Radford University, Virginia, in 1983 and Master of Science degree (Concentration in Pollution Studies) from Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey, in 1996. I hold two professional licenses granted by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection that are required to operate water purification treatment facilities as well as professional certifications in Hazardous Substance Emergency Response, Hazardous Waste Site Work, Confined Space Entry, and First Aid training.

I have studied Chinese history and culture for more than 15 years and have devoted the past 10 years of my life to improving environmental protection in China. Working as a Foreign Expert in environmental protection in the College of Environmental Science and Engineering at Nankai University in Tianjin for the past 10 years, I have contributed to a wide range of international, national and local initiatives to improve environmental protection and education.

Since March 2006 I have worked for PACE as a Green Watcher. I am glad to continue this work and look forward to contributing to this organization in any capacity requested of me in the future.

YAN, Jianping

Dr. Jianping Yan is an internationally-seasoned senior natural disaster risk assessment and management specialist, earning his PhD from University of Tuebingen, Germany in 1999 and MSc in Physical Geography from East China Normal University, China in 1987. Currently, he is working for UNDP/BCPR’s Global Risk Idenfication Programme (GRIP), responsible for development of methodological framework for national risk assessment and its implementation and coordination in UNDP/BCPR’s priority countries. Over the past decade, he has been delivering consultancy services to many international organizations, such as World Bank, UNDP Country Offices and Regional Office (Maldives, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Asia-Pacific etc.), and many national disaster management authorities, as well as research institution such as East China Normal University and Shanghai Normal University. His fields of expertise include natural hazard risk assessment and management, programme/project design and implementation, staff training and workshop preparation, development of methodology and tool, and international bidding and supervision of international project implementation.

ZHANG, Rong

Rong Zhang manages IFC’s environment and social Policy and Standard’s capacity building and related advisory services programs designed for financial institutions in China and East Asia. As the China Task Manager, she manages the Equator Principles China Outreach Program including high-level policy reform dialogue on the Green Credit Policy. This program resulted in an unprecedented partnership between IFC and Chinese government agencies which led to financial sector market transformation. She is instrumental to support China Industrial Bank to adopt the Equator Principles and to become the first Equator bank in China with strong demonstration effect for other Chinese banks. She has a broad knowledge and network on environment and social development for the private sector in emerging markets.

Before coming to Washington DC, Rong Zhang spent over 8 years working for an international consulting firm in China. She was the director of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Department, providing multinational and local corporations with strategic counsel and project implementation across the full spectrum of corporate responsibility issues.

By joining the PACE, Rong Zhang will bring her knowledge and experience of applying IFC’s Performance Standards and Equator Principles in emerging markets. She will share her expertise and network in the area of environment and social development for the private sector.

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