Marina Niforos, Founder and President, Climate Governance Initiative Greece

Marina Niforos is an experienced Board member, advisor and academic, working at the intersection of technology and sustainability. She is an Affiliate Professor at HEC Paris business school and the founder and President of the Climate Governance Initiative Greece, part of the global network of Board Director associations leading awareness programs for climate action in the boardroom, under the auspices of the World Economic Forum. A world recognized expert on Blockchain and sustainable development and a member of the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum, she is the lead author of the IFC-World Bank report on Blockchain: Opportunities for Private Enterprises in Emerging Markets and a frequent contributor in media (Bloomberg, FT, CoinDesk and others). She serves as Expert jury member of the climate and environmental sciences evaluation panels of the European Innovation Council Accelerator, the mechanism providing blended finance for the scale up of European startups in deep tech. EU Startups named Marina “one of five female leaders driving change in the European blockchain ecosystem”. Marina has served Board mandates in both public and private companies, as well as NGOs: the GrowthFund-The National Fund of Greece, the sovereign fund of the Hellenic Republic, Séché Environnement, a French publicly listed company in waste management, the European Network of Women in Leadership and the US National Commission for UNESCO (appointed in 2012 by Secretary of State H. Clinton). She is currently on the Advisory Board of Urban Impact Fund, a Dutch impact VC firm focusing on urban technology. In the past, Marina served as CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce of France, Director for the Diversity Center of Excellence at INSEAD and held senior posts in the Pechiney Group, in corporate venturing and corporate strategy. From 1993 to 1998, she was with the World Bank Group, managing the country strategy and investment portfolio for Latin American countries. She received the World Bank Award for Excellence by President Wolfensohn for her service in Colombia, assisting the borrower with sovereign debt conversion. Ms. Niforos earned an IDP-C and an MBA from INSEAD, a Masters in Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania and a Diploma in International Relations from SAIS-The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (Johns Hopkins University). She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University, with a B.A. in Government and International Relations. She is fluent in Spanish, French, Greek and proficient in Italian.

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