Winston Chow is a Professor of Urban Climate and Lee Kong Chian Research Fellow based at Singapore Management University’s (SMU) College of Integrative Studies (CIS), and also is the research pillar lead for urban infrastructure at SMU's Urban Institute. He has been a Principal Investigator for the multi-institute Cooling Singapore initiative since 2017, and currently leads inter-disciplinary research on how Singapore’s urban climate risks will change as its climate warms, as well as examining measures to reduce these risks. He teaches Undergraduate and Executive Development courses on climate change and urban sustainability at CIS, and is also mentoring CIS students interested in sustainability issues and also developing courses for SMU's Master of Sustainability programme. In 2023, he was elected as Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Working Group II on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, and he will help lead the Seventh Assessment Cycle for the IPCC during a critical decade of global climate action.
A Malawian national, Ken Chamuva Shawa is a Senior Economist and Head of the Regional Economic and Social Analysis Unit (RESA) at the ILO's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, and a member of the ILO’s Research Department. He coordinates ILO’s research work and leads the analytical work of the region. His research interests include the economics of labour markets, health and labour, the growth-finance-environment nexus, trade, and agricultural policy. Prior to joining the ILO, he worked in the academia. He was a Policy Economist at the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and a Trade Economist at the African Union (AU-IBAR). He holds a PhD in Health Economics and Policy from the University of Lancaster, UK. He also holds a PhD in Economics (econometrics and financial economics) from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, an MSc in International Environmental Management from the University of Northampton, UK, and a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Malawi.
Dr Gwendolyn T. Pang, the current Secretary General of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), has spent more than 25 years serving the vulnerable and exercising leadership in the Humanitarian Field.
Her dedication to the service of her fellow men started at the Philippine Red Cross where she worked as a volunteer and held various positions culminating in her appointment as Secretary General in April 2009.
After seven years as the Chief Operating Officer of PRC, in June 2016, she was asked to join the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) as Head of the East Asia Cluster responsible for China, Japan, South Korea and Mongolia. In the middle of this assignment, from October 2017 to March 2018, Dr. Pang was appointed concurrent Head of Country in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Her IFRC role was further expanded in October 2020 when she took on the position as Deputy Regional Director of the Asia Pacific of IFRC. In this position Dr. Pang was responsible for 38 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. From 2019 onward, Dr. Pang was also an Adviser and Guest Professor at the International Academy of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies based in Suzhou, China.
After six years of coordinating humanitarian interventions in the region, Dr. Pang came home to the Philippines and PRC where she served as a member of the Board of Governors from January 2022 to September 2022 and as Secretary General from October 2022 to the present.
Dr. Pang’s outstanding accomplishments have not gone unnoticed. She was conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humanities by the Lyceum of Northwestern University of the Philippines on April 24, 2023. She was also the recipient of the Florence Nightingale Award, the highest international distinction for a professional nurse for the display of exceptional courage and dedication to victims of armed conflict or natural disasters, which was granted her on May 12, 2015. Closer to home, PRC honored her contributions to the organization and her dedicated and exemplary services to humanity, particularly during the COVID19 pandemic, with the Doña Aurora Aragon Medal Award on December 15, 2021.