Steering Committee
The Steering Committee sets the vision and strategic direction for the Alliance.

Gavin Slater
Head of Sustainability, Glasgow City Council, Scotland
Gavin Slater worked in a variety of environmental consultancies until 2009, when he joined Glasgow City Council. In March 2020 Gavin was appointed as the Head of Sustainability at the Glasgow City Council. In his previous role, Gavin served as the City Energy & Carbon Manager for seven years, where he was responsible for delivering the councils carbon management strategy and developing a business case for an Energy Services Company for Glasgow whilst ensuring Glasgow City Council met its Sustainable Glasgow carbon reduction targets. In his role as Project Lead for the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) Future Cities project, Gavin was responsible for ensuring the delivery of the Energy Efficiency demonstrator projects that form part of the TSB Future Cities initiative: a public-private partnership that combined expertise and technology to enhance daily life in the City of Glasgow. In addition, Gavin is the Chief Responsible Officer for the Glasgow component of the EU Horizon 2020 RUGGEDISED project, a Smart Cities and Communities project design to showcase innovation in sustainable living in cities. Gavin holds a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science & Environmental Management from Strathclyde University in Glasgow.

Jaimes Valdez
Portland Clean Energy Works, City of Portland, Oregon, USA
Jaimes Valdez works for the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, leading the launch of the groundbreaking Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund. Before this position, Jaimes worked for Spark Northwest, where he covered regulatory, market and legislative policy issues and worked to create communities powered by affordable, locally-controlled clean energy.
He has more than 15 years of experience in energy issues, including in project development, energy planning, utility marketing and public advocacy towards an equitable, clean energy economy. In 2012, he spent a year as a Robert Bosh Fellow in Germany researching cooperatively-funded renewable development, community energy planning, and distributed energy integration. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and environmental studies from Whitman College.

Pedro Rolim
Manager of Sustainability and Resilience, City Hall Executive Office of the City of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
An Architect and Urbanist, Pedro has developed numerous urbanization works in Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Paraíba (Brazil).
At the Municipal Secretariat of Urbanism (2008-2018), he worked on the review of the City Master Plan, the Rio 2016 Urban and Environmental Legacy Plan and was Head of Social Interest Programs, working with social and urbanistic orientations in favelas and informal communities. He also acted as Coordinator of Qualiverde Qualification, a city hall program to encourage sustainable construction in the municipality, and managed the elaboration of the Sustainable Building Code.

Anna Mitchell
Executive Manager of Sustainability & Resilience, City of Sydney, Australia
Anna leads the City of Sydney’s Sustainability & Resilience team, which sets the vision, targets and action plans for environmental sustainability and urban resilience; and works with internal and external
stakeholders to deliver against these goals. Anna is driven to help organisations become more effective at delivering environmental and resilience outcomes. She enjoys working in a collaborative style to address complex sustainability challenges, using her strengths in project management, change management, facilitation, and communications. Before joining City of Sydney, Anna worked in the finance sector, state government and consultancy in sustainability and community engagement roles.

Doug Smith
Director of Sustainability, City of Vancouver, Canada
Doug Smith is the Director of Sustainability for the City of Vancouver and his portfolio includes the Greenest City Action Plan, the Renewable City Strategy, the Green Operations Plan and the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy. Doug represents the City of Vancouver internationally through many networks including the USDN, CNCA, C40, ICLEI and other partners. He has managed many areas in his 26 years at the City of Vancouver including Emergency Management, Structures, Greenways and Equipment Services. This broad municipal experience allows Doug to support Vancouver’s sustainability goals across many of Vancouver priority sectors such as Healthy Cities, Emergency Planning and Resiliency.
Game Changer Fund Committees
In 2021, CNCA launched the Game Changer Fund, which aims to fund the development, adoption and implementation of game-changing climate policies in cities and Indigenous People’s governments around the world.
There are five Game Changer categories, each with their own committee composed of CNCA members. Committee members identify funding priorities and make funding decisions.

Carbon Neutral Districts
- Helsinki
- London
- Rio de Janeiro
- Helsinki (Laura Walin)
- London (Simon Wyke, James Hardy, Jazmin Burgess)
- Rio de Janeiro (Aline Xavier and Pedro Rolim)
More details on the Game Changer Fund are available here.

Decarbonizing Buildings & Renewable Energy
- Amsterdam
- Boulder
- Hamburg
- Helsinki
- Melbourne
- New York City
- Sydney
- Amsterdam (Juliane Kürshner)
- Boulder (Jonathan Koehn)
- Hamburg (Anselm Sprandel and Ramazan Kokmaz)
- Helsinki (Petteri Huuska)
- Melbourne (John Griffiths)
- New York City (Ross MacWhinney)
- Sydney (Nik Midlam)
More details on the Game Changer Fund are available here.

Transformative Governance
- Glasgow
- Minneapolis
- Oslo
- Sydney
- Washington, DC
- Glasgow (Gavin Slater and Duncan Booker)
- Minneapolis (Kim Havey and Luke Hollenkamp)
- Oslo (Astrid Ståledotter Landstad)
- Sydney (Chris Derksema)
- Washington, DC (Maribeth DeLorenzo)
More details on the Game Changer Fund are available here.

Decarbonizing Transport
- Adelaide
- Copenhagen
- London
- Oslo
- Portland
- Seattle
- Stockholm
- Adelaide (Lara Daddow)
- Copenhagen (Jørgen Abildgaard)
- London (David Butler)
- New York City (Jen Roberton)
- Oslo (Petter Nergård Cristiansen)
- Portland (Art Pearce)
- Seattle (Edie Gilliss)
- Stockholm (Björn Hugosson)
More details on the Game Changer Fund are available here.

Regenerative Systems & Economies
- Boulder
- Copenhagen
- Glasgow
- Melbourne
- Portland
- San Francisco
- Stockholm
- Vancouver
- Boulder (Bret KenCairn)
- Copenhagen (Bo Gottlieb & Kathrine Warberg)
- Glasgow (Gavin Slater)
- Melbourne (Jorja Pindor)
- Portland (Kyle Diesner)
- San Francisco (Eden Bruckman)
- Stockholm (Björn Hugosson)
- Vancouver (Doug Smith)
More details on the Game Changer Fund are available here.
Staff

Michael Battista
Member Services Program Manager
Michael Battista is the Member Services Program Manager for the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance where he provides support for communications, media, events, operations, and research. In his previous role as Project Coordinator in the School of Graduate Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology, he supported the programs of Global Fashion Management and Sustainable Interior Environments, producing media, and managing student and alumni relations, special events, and international seminars. Prior to joining FIT, he was the Executive Assistant and Engagement Manager for All Out, a digital campaign advocacy organization for LGBT equality operating in rapid response to the news cycle, and served in roles for the Offices of Protocol and Climate Protection Initiatives of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. He holds an AA in Communications and Media Arts from the State University of New York at Rockland, and a BA in Liberal Studies from San Francisco State University.

Irene García
Built Environment Lead
Irene García is the Built Environment Lead for CNCA, where she manages the “Dramatically Reducing Embodied Carbon in Europe” project. Prior to joining CNCA, Irene led the Sustainable and Livable Cities program at German Marshall Fund (GMF) Cities. While at GMF she also served on the Advisory Board of REN21 for their Renewables in Cities Global Status Report. Prior to joining GMF, Irene worked as policy officer at the World Future Council in Hamburg, where she advised policymakers on the transition to 100% renewable energy. Before that Irene was at ESADEgeo Barcelona and served as research analyst and speechwriter to Former EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, and as a research analyst working on research projects for The Brookings Institute and the Barcelona Metropolitan Region. Irene holds a MS in Urban Affairs from the Paris Institute of Political Studies and a MA in International Relations from the Barcelona Institute of International Studies. She speaks Spanish, English and French. Irene is based in Berlin.

Simone Mangili
Executive Director
Having worked widely in the US, Europe and the Middle East on a broad range of initiatives aimed at securing just and sustainable futures, Simone brings over 20 years of international experience in the local government and non-profit sectors working with cities, stakeholders and communities on climate change and other urban sustainability issues with a strong commitment to embedding social equity in policy development and implementation. In addition to his professional experience Simone has served as traveling faculty in World Learning’s Cities in the 21st Century study abroad program, developed World Learning’s Rethinking Food Security program and is an external lecturer at the Polytechnic University of Turin in territorial and environmental planning. Simone holds a Bachelor degree in Community, Regional and Environmental Studies from Bard College and a Master in Regional Planning from Cornell University.

Tracy Morgenstern
Director of Climate Justice
Tracy Morgenstern is the Director of Climate Justice for the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance where she leads efforts to advance the vision and goals established in the CNCA Climate Justice Statement through the Alliance’s programming. Tracy also serves as the Equitable Mobility Program Director for the Urban Sustainability Directors Network. Prior to joining CNCA, she worked for the City of Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment for twenty years, most recently as the Climate Protection Program Manager where she worked increasingly at the nexus of climate mitigation, adaptation, and equity. She has a Bachelor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies.

Michael Shank
Director of Engagement
Michael Shank is the Director of Engagement for the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance. In this role, Michael supports alliance members’ efforts to communicate ambitious climate action to the public, the press and other policymakers. As a climate communicator, Michael’s past clients include the United Nations and its member states, the U.S. Congress and Administration, and the Vatican, as well as leaders in the subnational space, such as the B Team, We Mean Business, Under 2 MOU and The Climate Group. Michael’s Ph.D. is in climate conflict; he teaches sustainable development and climate security graduate classes at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs.