IV Public Discussion Forum Impact of Expanded Natural Gas Resources on the Energy Future of the Organization of American States 1889 F Street, NW • Washington, DC 20006 Padilha Vidal Room (Terrace Level) Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Speakers’ Biographies (In order of appearance)

Mr. Juan-Cruz Monticelli has worked with the Department of Sustainable Development of the Organization of American States since 1999. His experience includes work with OAS Member States geared to expand the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Previously, he worked on integrated water resources management and regional planning in Latin America and the Caribbean. He contributed to the development of civil society participation policies for the Inter-American Strategy for Public Participation. Juan- Cruz wrote several project proposals and papers relating to water management, biodiversity and the environmental aspects of economic integration and trade liberalization.

Juan-Cruz has a Law degree from the Universidad Católica and a Master of Laws degree from George Washington University, where he specialized in Intellectual Property. While attending Law School in Argentina, Juan- Cruz worked as a Registry Officer in a Court of Justice. Before he moved to the , Juan-Cruz lived in Buenos Aires, where he practiced law and represented clients in commercial and civil matters.

In 2001, Juan-Cruz worked with the World Bank’s Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development and International Law Group in the preparation of a compendium of participatory environmental legislations and institutions in Latin America, the Caribbean Region, and Africa. He also worked with the Inter-American Development Bank in the comparative analysis of the regulations of the Administrative Tribunals of international organizations. Juan-Cruz is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Mr. Cletus Springer has been Director of the Department of Sustainable Development of the Organization of American States based in Washington D.C since February 2008.

A national of , Mr. Springer is a graduate of the University of the West Indies (Public Administration and Mass Communications respectively); Oxford Brooks University (Urban Planning Studies); and the Centre for Environmental Management and Planning (CEMP) of Aberdeen University (Environmental Impact Assessment).

In 2001, Mr. Springer completed a 20 year tour of national and regional public service which included stints in Saint Lucia’s Public Service as: Permanent Secretary (Deputy Minister) in the Ministry of Tourism, Public Utilities, Civil Aviation and National Mobilization (1992-94); Permanent Secretary (Deputy Minister) in the Ministry of Planning, Development, Environment and Housing (1994-97); and as Adviser in Policy and Strategy Development with the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Secretariat, based in Saint Lucia (1998-2001).

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Mr. Springer served as his country’s Alternate Governor of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He also headed Saint Lucia’s delegation at the Preparatory Meetings for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) and the United Nations General Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States in .

Prior to joining the OAS, Mr. Springer ran a consulting practice that served a broad clientele including Governments in the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific regions as well as inter-governmental entities such as CARICOM, UNDP, UNECLAC, the Commonwealth Secretariat World Bank, PAHO, and the OAS, among others

He currently serves as: Chairman of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) based in ; member of the CARICOM Task Force on Climate Change and Development; member of the Board of PANOS Caribbean; member of UNEP’s Scientific Advisory Group on Water; member of the Board of the Cropper Foundation and member of the UNDP Experts Group on Vulnerability and Resilience in Small Island Developing States.

Ambassador Nestor Mendez is the Ambassador of to the United States of America, having presented credentials at the White House on July 28, 2008. A career diplomat in the Foreign Service of Belize, Ambassador Mendez was appointed to the level of Ambassador by the Senate of Belize on January 1, 2008. Prior to that, Ambassador Mendez served as Minister Counsellor / Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Belize in Washington, DC from September 1999 to June 2007, and in June 2007, he took charge of the Embassy as Chargé d’ Affaires a.i.

Although he had been the acting Non-Resident High Commissioner for Belize to for several years, High Commissioner Mendez formally presented his Letter of Introduction as High Commissioner to the Right Honorable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, on January 16, 2013, thereby formally completing his accreditation to Canada.

Ambassador Mendez is also accredited as Ambassador / Permanent Representative of Belize to the Organization of American States (OAS), where he served as Chairman of the OAS Permanent Council from 1st July to 30th September 2008. He has also served a term as Chairman of the Special Committee on Migration Issues of the OAS, a post to which he was elected in July 2008.

Between March 2009 and May 2011, the Ambassador served as a member of the Management Board of the Inter- American Agency for Cooperation and Development, a body that oversees the development Agenda of the OAS. In June 2010, Ambassador Mendez was elected as Chairman of the General Commission for the Fortieth Regular Session of the OAS General Assembly held in Lima, . On December 7, 2010, he was also elected to Chair the General Commission for the Special Meeting of Consultation of Foreign Ministers held at the OAS Headquarters to consider the dispute between and , which had created much tension between the two countries. On July 13, 2011, Ambassador Mendez was elected by the OAS Permanent Council to Chair the Committee on Hemispheric Security for one year. He has also served as Vice-Chairman of the Permanent Council of the OAS, a post which ran from October 1, to December 31, 2012.

In addition, from January to June 2009, Ambassador Mendez led the Caucus of CARICOM Ambassadors in Washington, DC as Coordinator of the Caucus and in this capacity, he spearheaded the negotiations on behalf of CARICOM at the OAS that resulted in the lifting of the suspension of Cuba from that organization. Between July and December 2010, he served as Coordinator of the Central American representations at the OAS, and also as Coordinator of the Central American Embassies accredited to the White House.

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Ambassador Mendez is also a member of the Belize Negotiating Team that is charged with seeking a resolution to the Belize / differendum.

During his career in the Belize Foreign Service, Ambassador Mendez has served at the High Commission for Belize to the United Kingdom, where he was posted as Counsellor, and at the Embassy of Belize in Guatemala City, Guatemala, where he served as First Secretary. Prior to his postings abroad, he worked as a Foreign Service Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belize, where he was responsible for bilateral relations with the countries of the Caribbean and Asia.

Ambassador Mendez holds a Master’s Degree in International Policy and Practice from the George Washington University in Washington, DC, a Graduate Level Certificate in Diplomatic Studies from Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University College of Belize. He has successfully completed several other training programs and courses including a program for Diplomats at the German Foundation for International Development in Berlin, Germany; a program on Management of International Cooperation at the Chilean Agency for International Cooperation in , and a course on the Resolution of Boundary Disputes through Arbitration and other Third Party Processes, offered in Washington, DC by the International Boundaries Research Unit of Durham University, Durham, UK.

Ambassador Mendez is fluent in English and Spanish. He is married and has two children.

Mr. William Becker is Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project and Senior Policy Advisor for the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University. Both projects produce recommendations on energy and climate policies the President of the United States can implement without new action by Congress.

Mr. Becker and his advisory committees of energy and climate experts have provided recommendations to the White House in a series of reports that began in 2007. The most recent report, produced in consultation with more than 100 U.S. thought leaders, was presented to the President’s Cabinet in January 2014. It describes the 200 actions the President can take to increase America’s energy productivity, finance renewable energy technologies, design 21st century business models for electric utilities, develop alternative fuels and vehicles, and ensure that natural gas is produced responsibly.

Mr. Becker is a former senior official at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), where he spent 15 years leading programs to accelerate the commercialization of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. He is a member of Mikhail Gorbachev’s International Climate Change Task Force and a senior advisor to several additional policy organizations that focus on clean energy and climate change, including London-based Third Generation Environmentalism, Colorado-based Natural Capitalism Solutions, and the Washington D.C.-based Environment and Energy Study Institute. He also is a member of the expert team at the international Clean Energy Solutions Center managed by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Mr. Becker serves on the editorial board of the Solutions Journal and is a frequent contributor to Huffington Post. His most recent book is The 100 Day Action Plan to Save the Planet, published by St. Martin’s Press.

Dr. Ramón Espinasa is the Lead Oil and Gas specialist at the Energy Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). From 1979 to 1999, he worked at Petróleos de (PDVSA) where he was Chief Economist between 1992 and 1999.

Dr. Espinasa is an Industrial Engineer from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas (1974) and holds Ph.D. and M. Phil degrees in Energy Economics and Economic Development from the University of Cambridge and a Master in Economic Development

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from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. At present Dr. Espinasa is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University where he teaches two postgraduate seminars on World and Hemispheric Energy Security.

Dr. Francisco González is the Riordan Roett Senior Associate Professor of Latin American Studies at The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Before joining SAIS in Washington, D.C., Prof. González taught at the SAIS Bologna Center in Italy (2003-2005) and was a junior faculty member at the University of Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations in Great Britain (2000-2005).

Prof. González was the recipient of a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2002-2005), which he served at Nuffield College, Oxford, and prior to that he was a Lecturer in Politics at St. John’s College, Oxford (2000-2002). Prof. González has received the ‘Excellence in Teaching’ award at SAIS in 2006 and again in 2012. He is one of the few SAIS faculty members to have received this honor twice.

Dr. González earned his master’s (MPhil, 1997) and doctoral (DPhil, 2002) degrees in Politics from the University of Oxford, and his BA in Politics and Public Administration from El Colegio de México (1995).

His research interests include the political impacts of financial and economic crises in Latin America and, more recently, Europe; the politics of dominant and hegemonic parties in comparative perspective; the political economy of ’s democratization since the 1990s; the growing influence of the Hispanic community in the politics of the United States; and the economic and geopolitical impact of the shale revolution in the energy and climate change policies of countries in the Americas.

Prof. Gonzalez is the author of two books, both published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. First, Dual Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Institutionalized Regimes in Chile and Mexico, 1970-2000, was named “Outstanding Academic Title of 2008” by Choice, the magazine for academic libraries. Second, in the spring of 2012 he published Creative Destruction? Economic Crises and Democracy in Latin America.

He is a regular participant in commentary shows on CNN en Español, Voice of America, the Diane Rehm Show, and Al Jazeera International.

Ms. Lisa Viscidi is director of the Inter-American Dialogue program on Energy, Climate Change and Extractive Industries. She has a bachelor’s degree in History from the George Washington University and a master’s degree in Latin American studies with a focus on economic development and public policy from New York University.

Viscidi has written numerous reports and articles on energy policy, climate change, social and environmental impacts of natural resources development, and the geopolitics of energy, among other topics. She was Latin America Team Leader and Editor for Energy Intelligence Group, an independent provider of news, analysis and data for the global energy industry. She has also led research projects for public and private sector clients as a Manager for Deloitte’s energy practice.

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