Davide Agretto is a Youth Education Specialist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with previous experience at the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), where he contributed to the work of Governing Bodies in Conference Management. His career is rooted in a strong commitment to global education, youth empowerment, and sustainable development. He has developed initiatives that create meaningful spaces for youth engagement and connect educators across regions to drive learning and action on global challenges. Alongside his professional work, he volunteers with Save the Children Italy and the SDG 4 Youth & Student Network, a global community hosted by UNESCO, and he is pursuing a PhD in Education Governance for Sustainable Development at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain. 

Mette Annelie is a specialist in stakeholder engagement, outreach, and communication with more than 20 years of experience driving political and social change internationally and domestically. She has worked extensively in international development, humanitarian assistance, and advocacy, including health, gender, and counter-trafficking efforts during her time in Zambia and Georgia. 

Mette served for eight years as an elected policymaker at the City Council of Copenhagen, focusing on environmental, climate, and technical affairs. Passionate about green policy and urban development, she has worked with the Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development (GNESD) to support and advance sustainable energy solutions and energy access. 

Currently, as Chief Advisor for Outreach & Communication at UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre, she leads strategic communication, stakeholder management, and advocacy efforts. With a Master’s in Social Science from Roskilde University and post-graduate studies in journalism from the University of Massachusetts, she combines policy expertise with a strong communication background. 

Bernard Combes is an Education for Sustainable Development specialist with over 20 years of experience at UNESCO in communication, education and public awareness related to biodiversity, water, oceans, climate, cities and sustainable lifestyles, as well as on issues related to human rights and the environment.  He was involved in accelerating sustainable solutions at local level, fostering local networks and platforms for learning and multi-stakeholder collaboration, and enhancing the educational outreach of UNESCO sites as learning hubs for sustainability.  He also brings over 10 years of experience in early childhood education, working on UNESCO’s Early Childhood programmes, focusing on training, partnership, networking and advocacy at global level, and developing multimedia resources for early childhood and child rights advocacy.  Additionally, he has over 10 years’ expertise in Information & Database Management, focusing on research, publications, and databases on development and humanitarian NGOs at UNESCO and the OECD Development Center.

Sasha Karajovic has been a member of the non-governmental organisation "ECOM – Environmental Consultancy of Montenegro" since 2001, and at the end of 2002 he became the coordinator of international projects in this NGO. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Foundation of Environmental Education.

Sasha started Blue Flag in 2003 and YRE in 2008. The last two years he has been engaged in launching the Green Key programme. In addition, Sasha is executive director of ECOM.

Parallel to activities in the NGO, he is also a journalist - an associate of the local public radio service Kotor.

Sasha is working for ECOM on a fully volunteer base and in his professional life, as an expert, he has more than 25 years of experience in spatial and urban planning; environmental, nature and cultural heritage protection and coastal area management.

Sasha is also a multi-year consultant to ministries and several municipalities in Montenegro for the field of planning and environmental protection, as well as international organisations UNDP, GIZ and ERM.

Martina is by profession a dental technologist and a maxillofacial prosthetist; both fuelling her love of science and art. However, it was YRE that instilled this passion in her back in 2013, where together with a group of friends, she placed first nationally in the video category and had the privilege of attending the Sweden workshop with a group of international youth leaders. Since then, Martina has found a home in YRE; attending workshops and conferences organised by UNESCO (2018), COP24 (2018), YouthMundus (2019) and CollisionConf (2020). For a number of years she was the programme’s ambassador to her homecountry; Malta, heavily supported by the national coordinator Audrey Gauci. 

In recent years, YRE has catalysed Martina’s journey into science communication, driving her to pursue endeavours such as working as a teacher and as an explainer – utilising skills attributable to YRE. This past three years, she has been volunteering with Olio, an organisation she discovered during COP24 and which was set up to help limit food (and other household items) waste. 

For Martina, YRE is the gift that keeps on giving, and she is grateful for all the opportunities provided along the way! 

 Nick Nuttall is the International Strategic Communications Director of EARTHDAY.ORG and a Director at the climate social platform We Don’t Have Time. He has nearly 40 years of experience in environmental communications. He was the Environment Correspondent of The Times newspaper from 1989. In 2001 he joined the UN Environment Programme, becoming Director of Communications and Public Information/ Spokesperson/ Speechwriter to its Executive Director. Nick was also responsible for the organisation’s youth engagement. In 2014, he joined the UNFCCC as Communications Director and was the Spokesperson for the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015. Nick left the UN in 2018 to pursue a freelance communications career. Nick is among other things, also the chair of the jury of TVE’s Global Sustainability Film Awards; a backing singer for the Berlin-based Bernadette La Hengst band; passionate tennis player and a Burnley FC fan. 

Christopher Slaney is a former freelance journalist and television news producer with thirty-five years experience, much of it in the Middle East and Africa. He started out as a television news cameraman when stations shot film which needed processing in a lab, editing was a skill involving scissors and glue, and getting stories on air when satellites were still a novelty often meant finding airline crew who would carry a spool of film to London or Paris. In 1990, he covered the release of Nelson Mandela from prison as a live transmission and thus began a new career producing live coverage of major news events. Notable credits include the handover of Hong Kong to Chinese rule, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat returning to Gaza, US presidential elections and the funeral of Pope John Paul II. Since 1998 he has worked mainly for the Associated Press, the world's global news agency. 

Mark Terry is the Executive Director of the Youth Climate Report, a partner program of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and this year’s winner of a Sustainable Development Action Award.  

Mark teaches in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University in Toronto, Canada, and is a Research Fellow at the Dahdeleh Institute for Global Health Research at York where he leads an environmental filmmaking workshop called the Planetary Health Film Lab. As an Associate to the UNESCO Chair in Reorienting Education towards Sustainability, Mark continues to develop new experiential education programs aimed at incorporating the Sustainable Development Goals into curricula and extra-curricular activities such as the Plastic Pick-up Challenge.  

Mark is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the country’s highest academy. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and The Explorers Club. He has spent much of his career documenting scientific research in the field as a filmmaker and is perhaps best known for his trilogy of polar documentaries The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning (2009), The Polar Explorer (2010), and The Changing Face of Iceland (2021).  

His work with the United Nations has been recognized with decorations from Queen Elizabeth II (Diamond Jubilee Medal for international humanitarian service), The Explorers’ Club (Stefansson Medal, the Canadian chapter’s highest honor), and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (Gemini Humanitarian Award).

Melisa Yorgancioglu is an Education Specialist with 11+ years' experience in Programme Management, Partnerships and Resource Mobilisation for child rights organisations across the Humanitarian-Development nexus. Based in East Africa for 7 years followed by global roles (with Save the Children, BRAC and other INGOs), she worked primarily at the intersection of Education and Child Protection. She is currently at UNESCO as a Programme Specialist in Education for Sustainable Development, providing technical assistance to Ministries of Education on mainstreaming Climate and Sustainability into teaching and learning. With a background in Education Policy from the LSE and a passion for play-based learning, she is now specialising in Early Childhood Education and child-centred pedagogy.