NEW STAFF

Ulrich Apel, a German National, who has joined the Natural Resources Team as a Senior Environmental Specialist with a focus on combating land degradation and sustainable forest management.

 Prior to joining the GEF, he has worked for 15 years as a consultant for forestry and natural resource management in various bi- and multilateral development projects and programs.  Ulrich was chief technical advisor of several large-scale reforestation and sustainable forest management projects in Vietnam and China.  He also engaged in field research in community forestry and in analytical and advisory work related to land use planning, agriculture policy, land tenure, community livelihoods and legal framework analysis.

 Ulrich holds a Masters in Forestry Sciences and a PhD in Tropical and Subtropical Forest Management from the University of Goettingen, Germany.
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Caroline Sadacca, a French National who joined the Operations and Business Strategy Team as a Senior Financial Officer today, February 16, 2010.

Prior to joining the GEF, Caroline worked in the Concessional Finance and Partnerships (CFP) division of the World Bank, specializing on IDA finances.  In CFP, Caroline was responsible for the management of IDA's business processes and daily transactions as well as maintaining donor relationships in the context of IDA's replenishment process.  Her responsibilities also included identifying business needs for new systems projects and designing and implementing them.

Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Caroline worked as a Credit Analyst in a Washington DC commercial bank.

Caroline holds an MBA in International Finance from American University.
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Glynis Barber, a Sierra Leonean and British national who joined the GEF Secretariat as a Program Assistant to the Adaptation cluster under the Climate Change and Chemicals team on January 11, 2010 .

Prior to joining the GEF, Glynis worked as Secretary to the Head of Press and Public Diplomacy at the Delegation of the  European Commission to the US in Washington, DC.
Before moving to the US, she lived in London and worked at the  Sainsburys Head Office, in several positions including Secretary to the Division Manager of Business Accounting Services and as a Forecast Analyst -  monitoring sales and growth of trade portfolios, as well as managing their budgets to meet year-end financial targets.
   
She also worked as Sales Admin Manager  and as a  Bi-lingual  Executive Assistant  at Doux Poultry Ltd , a  division of the french international exporting company - Doux S.A.  based in London.

Glynis holds a B.A. in Languages and a  Masters in International Business.
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Andrew Velthaus, a national of the United States, who joined the GEF Secretariat as a Senior Policy Officer, on January 11, 2010. 

Until recently, Andrew had served as the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s GEF Desk Officer between 2006 and 2009, where he was responsible for coordinating all aspects of U.S. Government policy towards the GEF.  He also served as the U.S. Treasury’s desk officer for the International Fund for Agricultural Development, including formulation of U.S. Government positions on IFAD’s Eighth Replenishment in 2008.  During a prior seven year assignment at the U.S. Treasury (1995-2002), Andrew served as a macroeconomist covering Asian economies, as a financial services trade negotiator, and finally worked on environmental and safeguard policy issues concerning the multilateral development banks.

Between 2002 and 2006, Andrew worked first for Conservation International (CI) and later for the African Wildlife Foundation, both in Washington, DC.  While at CI, he assisted in managing and coordinating relations with several multilateral organizations, including the Global Environment Facility and its agencies.

Andrew holds a Master of Pacific International Affairs from the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) from the University of California, San Diego.  He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and East Asian Studies from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.  
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Saliha Dobardzic who joined the Climate and Chemicals team on January 11, 2010 as a Climate Change Specialist.  She will be working in the adaptation cluster team, assisting the coordinator in managing the Least Developed Countries Fund, among other tasks.
Saliha's involvement with environmental issues began with founding the first student environmental awareness group at Kuwait University, where she obtained her Bachelors of Science in Zoology.  She has since worked for the World Bank in post-conflict Bosnia, her country of birth, and later on environmental and urban issues with the Mediterranean Environmental Technical Assistance Program.  She has also worked extensively for the World Bank's Middle East and North Africa climate change group devising and implementing the regional climate change strategy and, most recently, served as Project Coordinator of the regional climate change and migration study. 

She has experience with the UN-Habitat in Nairobi, The Smithsonian Conservation and Research Center, and a number of prominent NGOs, as well as in the private sector in the United States as a climate change expert, and internationally. 

Saliha has a Masters of Science in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology from the University of Maryland, College Park where she went on to doctoral studies on human-environment dynamics applying spatial science tools.  She is a co-author of several published studies and reports on climate change.
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Ivana Horvathova, a Slovak national, who joined the GEF Secretariat on February 8, 2010.
Prior to joining the Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat as a Program Assistant, Ivana worked as a report writer during the Adaptation Fund Board meetings in Bonn, Germany. That experience has allowed her to get to know the AFB and its procedures well and from its very beginning.

Before that, Ivana was a consultant in the Adaptation team of the Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC) in Bonn, Germany, where she was working on a database of adaptation projects in developing countries. She had also done several internships and traineeships in various institutions, namely the Council of the EU's Liaison Office to the UN and the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland; the Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn, Germany; the Permanent Representation of the Slovak Republic to the EU in Brussels, Belgium; the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Ivana holds a Master's degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations of the Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. Currently, she also is a doctorate candidate in International Politics at the University of Cologne, Germany.