Indigenous Peoples representative joins PEFC Board of Directors

12 November 2010 News

The PEFC General Assembly has approved the recommendations of the Nominations Committee and welcomes Mrs. Hermania Minnie Degawan, Mrs. Genevieve Chua, and Mr. Julian Walker-Palin to its Board of Directors. Mrs. Karen Brandt and Mr. Antii Sahi were re-elected.

Minnie Degawan is a Graduate of University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City; she has a BSc, Major in Biology.

Mrs Degawan’s experience focuses on the rights of indigenous and local communities. She has been working as a Project Coordinator for International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal People of the Tropical Forests (IAITPFT) since 2009. Previous to this, she was Project Coordinator for the Convention on Biological Diversity in Thailand with IAITPTF-UNEP/GEF and Regional Coordinator for Minority Rights Group, International (MRG) Asia.  

Amongst other key roles, she also worked with International Labour Organization (ILO) as a Regional Coordinator for Asia in Bangkok, as an Independent Researcher for the Sami Council–EU, as the Executive Director of Dinteg-Indeginous Legal Resources Center, community organizer/educator and Secretary General for Cordillera People Alliance.

Genevieve Chua has been working in the paper industry since 1990.  After working for KPMG as an Audit Supervisor, she was Chief Financial Officer for PaperlinX, Singapore, before assuming her current role of Managing Director for the same company.

Mrs Chua has a Bachelor of Accountancy from the National University of Singapore and is a Certified Public Accountant in Singapore as well as a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Accountants.

Julian Walker-Palin is a retail specialist, working as Head of Sustainability for Asda, the UK arm of Walmart, since 2007. In this role, he leads the Corporate Sustainability Team, which advises the Asda on sustainability policy and strategy.  He also regularly engages with environmental NGOs on a wide range of sustainability issues and is a Lead Manager on Walmart’s global sustainable timber project.

Before joining Asda, Mr. Walker-Palin worked for 10 years in a variety of roles for Tesco, including Head of Regional Corporate Affairs and Head of Property Communications for Tesco Express UK.

The General Assembly re-elected Antii Sahi as Vice-Chairman of the Board and Karen Brandt as a Board member.

PEFC would also like to use this opportunity to express its gratitude to Mr. William Luddy and Mr. Björn Andren, who have decided to step down from their responsibilities as a PEFC Board members.