Climate Change Committee

Waseem Rahamy is a travel management professional, social geographer, and member of the World Green Growth Organization’s (WGGO) board of directors and vice chair of the climate change committee. He has over thirty years of successful managerial and executive experience in the travel and tourism industry and has travelled the world to countries throughout Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia for his work. Mr. Rahmany is particularly passionate about learning how institutions function in various settings, the lifestyles of people from different cultures, and how both individuals and institutions adapt to environmental change.

 Mr. Rahmany’s strengths lie in business administration and development, sales and marketing, and travel management services. These skills have allowed Mr. Rahmany to successfully develop relationships and collaborate with governments, nongovernmental organizations, and people of all backgrounds, as well as develop strategic and tactical plans.

 Mr. Rahmany’’s research has focused on the intersection of climate change, urbanization, and sustainable development and adaptation to environmental change. His research has broad applications to the fields of climate change impacts, communication, environmental equity, individual behaviour, and policy planning focused on international and intercultural comparisons. 

In addition to his work with WGGO, Mr. Rahmany is a member of the Aaghaz Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that supports primary education for underprivileged children.

Dr. Bassem Nassouhy is the General Manager of Scientific Business Solutions Group of Environmental Consulting and Sustainability Consultancies in the GCC and the Arab Republic of Egypt based in the United Arab Emirates, he is also a Chief Advisor Alternative Fuel & Alternative Raw Material as well as his advisory roles including Environmental Consultant for FNRC (Fujairah Government – UAE), SREE Advisory board member at Sharjah University and others.

SBS offer high quality tailored waste and sustainability solutions and waste to resources services with sister companies all over the GCC. SBS has the ability to create out of the box solutions and new initiatives in various fields including sustainability, waste management, alternative fuel, alternative raw material, H&S, and environment with proven track records including tens of recognized projects particularly for multinational companies located in GCC and Egypt.

For 10 years before March 2016, Dr. Bassem used to lead various positions within LH, e.g Geocycle, a member of the international LafargeHolcim Group, including the senior manager of Business Development, Quality, HSE, and Operations. He worked as an expert within the company responsible for reuse waste generates of various industries as an alternative fuel and raw material for Lafarge Emirates Cement factory, he used to be the head of quality, environmental, occupational safety and health departments at the company’s various locations in the United Arab Emirates.

Prior to that, he served as manager of the Occupational Safety, Health, Environment and Fire Protection Department of Lafarge Emirates Cement (Lafarge-Holcim group) in the United Arab Emirates for 4 years.

Prior to joining the Lafarge Group, Dr. Bassem served as manager of Environment, Operation, Quality, Occupational Safety and Health departments at several major international companies including Orascom Construction, EDF électricité du France, Korea Smile Company, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency.

Dr. Bassem received various scientific degrees, including a PhD in the management of environmental, occupational safety and health systems, as well as an MBA and a diploma in in industrial pollution control and environmental management from Japan.

He has also received several credits as a consultant and international trainer accredited in several areas of management, environment, health, and safety from major institutes and universities in Japan, France, Egypt and the United States of America as well as international credits from the US Department of Labor and the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

Dr. Bassem has provided consulting services for many well-known private companies and government authorities, and has published several publications and presentations at international conferences.

Mr. Rosales served as President and CEO of the Caribbean Central American Action. A Washington-based NGO that focuses on the Caribbean Basin.

Mr. Rosales served as the Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of International Trade, where he acted as the Administrator’s principal advisor on international trade, educational and technical assistance, risk management and finance programs designed to assist U.S. small businesses in the international marketplace.

Before moving to Washington, Mr. Rosales successfully operated his own financial services company, Inter-American Financial Services, in California.  With a career in banking, Mr. Rosales’ acted as Vice President of the Bank of California.  He was recruited to serve as the Vice President of the Capital Preservation Fund (now known as the Benham Capital Management Group), the nation’s first money-market fund.

Mr. Rosales was elected chairman of the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, where he served five years.  Mr. Rosales was also twice elected to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, where he was instrumental in providing national forums for small business issues and expanding opportunities for Hispanic-owned businesses internationally.

Mr. Rosales actively served his community in San Francisco as Commissioner of the San Francisco Department of Traffic and Parking, Vice President of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, California Commissioner to the Small Business Development Board and Trustee of the Mexican Museum.

Senior Environmental Advisor of the World Green Growth Organization WGGO in Latin America and USA. Environmental expert in road infrastructure projects, mining and civil works.

Mining Engineer, Specialist in Environmental Management (UPM – Spain),Specialist in Management of the Environment and Natural Resources (EAN – Colombia), Specialist in Management for Business Development (USTA – Colombia). With extensive experience in environmental management in the preparation, monitoring, supervision and execution of Environmental Management Plans (PMA) for roads, urbanizations, bridges, viaducts, underground mines, open pit mines and the implementation of environmentally sustainable standards and practices and safe.

He has been an official, consultant and socio-environmental specialist for more than 25 years, in projects of road and mining infrastructure works in American companies and environmental and public entities in Colombia. Engineer Cabrera has great oral and written communication skills, with orientation to work by activities and good response under pressure. Has good motivation to take on jobs in which new challenges are faced and assume responsibilities. Excellent management of personal relationships, government and good attitude for teamwork.

He currently supports WGGO in environmental consulting and auditing in the sustainability projects, climate change, renewable energies, hydrocarbons and mining of the Organization in Latin America and the US, contributing to the evaluation, construction, monitoring and control of new ecological businesses and WGGO business alliances.

Sophia Felix is the founder and CEO of HBM Talent & Management, a boutique talent agency that represents an international client roster in various divisions.

Felix advocates for the use of medical cannabis to help people with PTSD and mental health issues. She is a co-founder and the president of the International Cannabis Consulting Business Women’s Association (ICBWA), a L.A. based nonprofit dedicated to the education of female entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry. She is also the public relations spokesperson for the hemp-based CBD company Y+M.

A devout philanthropist, Felix serves as the president of the Southern California Chapter for America’s Children of Fallen Heroes and has been involved with Passion 4 K.I.D.S. for ten years.

Felix is a scholarship recipient of the 2018 HERA Labs business accelerator for women and the Emerging Latina Entrepreneur Fellowship Program by the National Latina Business Women’s Association – San Diego.

Olumide IDOWU is a Nigerian climate change champion. He advocates for environmental consciousness and champions a balanced approach to development and environmental conservation. He is equally passionate about development as he is about climate change and environmental conservation efforts. His conservation work spans across various platforms. He has been actively involved in climate change advocacy for the last 12 years and is strategically positioned to engage younger and older generations through his articles, active participation in climate change groups and the use of social media where he is popularly known as ‘Mr Climate’

Through the years, he has worked with corporates, the media and managed culturally and nationally diverse teams. He has volunteered in social change initiatives, mentored and worked as a strategist for various private and public institutions.

Olumide IDOWU is the co-founder of the International Climate Change Development Initiative, a non-governmental institution that seeks to grow climate-smart generations across Africa while addressing gaps in development. He is also the Youth Focal Point in Nigeria for UNDP Small Grant Program, Youth Lead Author Global Environmental Outlook (GEO6) & Communication Director for African Youth Initiative on Climate Change. He is an alumnus of the International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) to the United State of America and the Atlas Corps Fellow.

ECOMASTERS: A Planet in Peril, author, Donna L. Goodman is a globally respected and widely published expert on issues related to Mother Earth and her children.

Donna has been a champion of the rights and participation of child and young people in the environment sector is over 60 countries for more than 25 years. Her international development work has been widely recognized and published by UN partners including UNICEF, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Health Organization (WHO) and others. She is the Founder of Earth Child Institute (ECI), an international not-for-profit organization working in more than a dozen countries, including Brazil, China, India, Ghana and the United States. ECI serves with Special Consultative Status to the United Nations Economic and Social Committee and as a civil society observer to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In the private sector, she served as Global Program Director for Swarovski Waterschool as well as Turner Broadcasting for Cartoon Network, MTV through production of a documentary special program about water featuring JayZ and the Netflix documentary entitled ‘Waterschool’.

Donna moderates the K-12 eePRO group of the North American Association of Environmental Educators (NAAEE) and first introduced ECOMASTERS to the world, as Keynote speaker to the 2019 International Conference for Education for Sustainability

in Delhi, India. In a global webinar, organized by the Mobius Foundation on World Environment Day, 5 June 2020, she unveiled her plan for re-imagining global education in a post COVID-19 world. In 2021, her work on values-based education for empowerment of every child is being published as an ECI white paper and has been presented with the Sri Sathya Sai Centre for Human Values, WeNaturalists.com and the International Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI)

 Mr. Rahmany’s strengths lie in business administration and development, sales and marketing, and travel management services. These skills have allowed Mr. Rahmany to successfully develop relationships and collaborate with governments, nongovernmental organizations, and people of all backgrounds, as well as develop strategic and tactical plans.

 Mr. Rahmany’’s research has focused on the intersection of climate change, urbanization, and sustainable development and adaptation to environmental change. His research has broad applications to the fields of climate change impacts, communication, environmental equity, individual behaviour, and policy planning focused on international and intercultural comparisons. 

In addition to his work with WGGO, Mr. Rahmany is a member of the Aaghaz Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that supports primary education for underprivileged children.

Dennise Mejia She is a current member of Kiwanis International and Past Vice President of the National Latina Business Women Association – Los Angeles. Co- Founder and Vice President of ICBWA International Cannabis Business Women Association and Board Member with the multiple Chambers of commerce Such the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Panorama City and Granada Hills chambers of Commerce. Nominated in 2019 By LA Style Magazine Entrepreneur of the year also Nominated in 2020 By the Los Angeles Business Journal as Entrepreneur of the year. Recognitions: by Mayor Eric Garcetti, Senator Jimmy Gomez, Senator Susan Rubio, Assemblywomen Blanca Rubio, Congresswoman Nannette Barragan. Currently active in the Advisory Boards of NLBWA-CA, Advisory Board of Nosotros.org, Advisory Board Latino Coalition of Los Angeles and Advisory Board AME Alliance of Multicultural Entrepreneur and Task Force Alquimia Global. She is an Influencer, Mentor, business consultant and prides herself on developing meaningful working relationships to help build her communities. She has passion to Mentor and Empower Leadership in her communities in any opportunity with Millennials and future generations to help provide creative spaces in diverse business platforms such as ICBWA.