Sustainable Summits 2020 Nepal

Alton C. Byers, Ph.D. is a mountain geographer, conservationist, and mountaineer specializing in applied research, high altitude ecosystems, climate change, glacier hazards, and integrated conservation and development programs. He is currently a Senior Research Associate and Faculty at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado at Boulder; Senior Fellow at The Mountain Institute; and National Geographic Society Explorer and Expeditions Expert.

Ben Fogle is an award winning Broadcaster and adventurer. He has written 9 Sunday Times Best selling books and is the United Nations Patron of the Wilderness.

Ben has climbed Mount Everest, Rowed across the Atlantic, Raced across Antarctica to the South Pole and crossed the deserts of the Empty Quarter in the Middle East.

He has presented numerous programmes for the BBC, ITV, C5 and Discovery including the hit series New Lives in the Wild
A fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. He is ambassador to WWF, Tusk and Hearing Dogs for the Deaf and Patron of The Red Cross and United Nations.

Short Bio Here

Chris, Britain’s best-known mountaineer, writer, photographer and lecturer, started climbing at the age of 16 in 1951. It has been his passion ever since. He made the first British ascent of the North Wall of the Eiger and led the expedition that made the first ascent of The South Face of Annapurna, the biggest and most difficult climb in the Himalayas at the time. He went on to lead the successful expedition making the first ascent of the South West Face of Everest in 1975 and then reached the summit of Everest himself in 1985 with a Norwegian expedition. His greatest epic was the first ascent of The Ogre in the Karakoram with Doug Scott in 1978.
He still has that passion for the mountains as he had at the beginning.
He has written 19 books, fronted numerous television programmes and has lectured to the public and corporate audiences all over the world. He received a knighthood in 1996 for services to mountaineering, is deputy patron of Outward Bound and numerous other organisations and is currently Non-Executive Chairman of Berghaus.

Dr. Ghana Shyam Gurung is the Country Representative of WWF Nepal. Ghana holds a PhD in Natural Science from the University of Zurich in 2006 and holds over 20 plus years of experience in species and people centred natural resource management, ecotourism development, linking conservation with faith groups, policy engagement and project negotiations. As the Country Representative, Dr. Gurung’s key responsibility lies in providing strategic direction to the organization, raising funds for projects in Nepal, and ensuring conservation successes that contribute to WWF’s global mission to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and build a future in which people live in harmony with nature.

He previously served as the Senior Conservation Program Director at WWF Nepal, and has worked in nature conservation for the last two decades. Under his leadership in conservation
programs, Nepal has witnessed growth in key wildlife species including tigers, rhinos and snow leopards and has celebrated four years of zero rhino poaching while encompassing community-based institutions as local stewards of nature conservation. He is one of the founding members of community based conservation areas and landscape level conservation, playing a key role in designing and implementing these landmark achievements in Nepal. He is also the Snow Leopard Champion for the WWF Network, and has also been instrumental in formalizing transboundary cooperation with China and India for conservation and wildlife trade control. Before joining WWF, Ghana worked for National Trust for Nature Conservation in different management capacities.

Guy Cotter is a mountain climber and guide with a wealth of experience in all things climbing, especially high altitude mountaineering at a professional level.

Guy has climbed to the summit of Mt Everest five times and he has climbed seven of the fourteen mountains in the world over 8,000 metres high. He has climbed the Seven Summits (highest summit on each of the world’s seven continents) and has built up one of the world’s premier mountain guiding companies; Adventure Consultants Ltd.

He has skied to the South Pole and done numerous Antarctic expeditions including several ascents of the highest peak in Antarctica (Vinson Massif), the first ascent of Mt Slaughter and a number of first ascents on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Helen Clark is a former New Zealand Prime Minister and a Former UNDP Administrator.

She currently Chairs the Boards of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health. Helen also serves on other public good Advisory Boards.

Helen is a frequent contributor to Conferences, and events, on issues related to Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Women’s Leadership.

Mr. DeBrine joined UNESCO in 2011 to coordinate the World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Programme, providing a global framework for finding coordinated sustainable tourism solutions for heritage conservation and local community development. As a Senior Project Officer he spearheads the implementation of the overall programme activities including project management, outreach and resource mobilization.

Previously he was the Director of the World Heritage Alliance at the United Nations Foundation.

With extensive experience in sustainable development and tourism, Mr. DeBrine held the position of Deputy Director of the International Tourism Partnership for the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum where he worked with major hotel companies to create practical sustainability strategies and tools for the tourism industry.  Formerly, Mr. DeBrine worked as a Forestry Officer for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization where he helped shape an international partnership for sustainable development in mountain regions. This builds on his many years as an environmental campaigner for WWF working on climate change, endangered species and sustainable tourism issues in the US and Europe.

Mr. DeBrine holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Colorado, Boulder. 

Pic Copyright - Andreas Panzenberger
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Climber, writer, filmmaker, photographer and Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004, Reinhold Messner started climbing mountains at the age of five and has been one of the world’s most outstanding mountaineers for thirty years. In his over three thousand climbs he has achieved over a hundred first ascents, and was the first to climb all of the world's 8000-metre peaks. Messner was the first to reach Mount Everest's top without oxygen support. He has crossed by foot the Antarctic, Greenland, Tibet, the deserts Gobi and Takla Makan.