In February, we held another face-to-face board meeting at the iCS headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. We said our farewells to Carlos Parcias, who has been a member since 2016, and welcomed Jess Ayres (CIFF) and Luke Assunção (UNCTAD). Learn more about the professional careers of the new members.
Jess Ayres is a Director in the Climate Change team at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), where she leads on the Climate Finance and Land Use portfolios. She has 15 years experience across the international development, climate change, and energy sectors. Before CIFF, Jess worked for the UK Government where she held roles as the Head of EU Carbon Trading at the Department for Business and Energy; Head of Energy at the UK Treasury; and Chief of Staff to the Energy and Climate Change Minister. Prior to that she spent seven years working overseas advising multilateral banks, agencies and developing country governments in South Asia on climate change resilience planning. She holds a PhD in International Development and Climate Change.
Lucas Assunção holds a M.Sc. in Economics from the Pontificia Universidade Catolica of Rio de Janeiro and attended courses in Economics and Mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley, as well as the Environmental Economics and Policy Analysis programme at the Harvard Institute for International Development. He has more than twenty years of work experience on issues related to environment first as a Programme Officer of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where he worked in Brasilia and New York. In 2001, he joined the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to coordinate the BioTrade Initiative, which promotes the trade and sustainable use of biodiversity-based products and services in developing countries. He takes pride in pioneering the development of the UNCTAD Climate Change Programme, which focuses on the trade, sustainable development and investment opportunities of the Kyoto Protocol, in particular the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Currently, he is an independent economist.
TRANSITION
We would also like to take this opportunity to offer a huge thank you for the participation and dedication of Carlos Parcias during these last four years. Parcias has a master’s degree in Economics from PUC-Rio and graduated in Economics from UFRJ. He is a senior business advisor for investors and companies. He was previously an administration director of CPFL Renováveis and vice-president of Business Development of CPFL Energia. In 2011, he was director of equity interests in Energy at CCII. He founded an Independent Financial Advisory company (2004-2010), and occupied positions of leadership in the sector: he was president of Icatu Gestão de Participações, executive director of the Banco de Investimentos Fleming Graphus; CEO of BBA-Capital Asset Management; director of Capital Markets of Banco BBA-Creditanstalt; and advisor to the presidency of BNDES.
iCS greatly appreciates Parcias for all his contribution in the building and development of strategies for our organization, towards a carbon neutral Brazil, with economic growth and social justice. This is our mission!
