Dr. Muralee Thummarukudy

Dr. Thummarukudy brings to this position over three decades of progressive senior management experience and technical expertise in land restoration issues. He has most recently served as the acting Head of the Disasters and Conflicts Programme at the United Nations Environment Programme, where he implemented a portfolio of over 100 million USD, focusing on ecosystem-based disaster reduction and partnership development.

An internationally renowned expert in disaster response, he played a key role in addressing the environmental aftermath of many major conflicts and disasters, implementing projects in over 35 countries. Prior to joining the United Nations, Dr. Thummarukudy served as Environmental Advisor to Shell Group in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

He has a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He was also a Beahr’s fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Thummarukudy is also a well-known author in his native Malayalam language.

Dr. Mohamed Abd salam EL Vilaly

Dr. Mohamed Abd Salam EL Vilaly is a Programme Officer with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Secretariat in Bonn, leading Information Management for the G20 Global Land Initiative. Mohamed Abd Salam El Vilaly received a B.Sc. in water resources management from the University of Nouakchott, Mauritania in 2001, a Specialized M.Sc. degree (diplôme d'études supérieures spécialisées ) in groundwater management from the University of Grenoble, France in 2003, a Research M.Sc. degree (Diplôme d'études approfondies ) in hydrology from the University of Avignon and the Vaucluse, France in 2004, and a Ph.D. degree in applied remote sensing for Earth Sciences from the University of Arizona, the United States, in 2013.

Dr. Abd Salam has over 18 years of combined work experience from the United Nations, the humanitarian, academic, and private sectors. His research focuses on integrating and analysing multitemporal airborne and satellite remote sensing data with GIS technologies to monitor and model human-environment interactions across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. More specifically, Abd Salam’s work intersects the concepts of big data analytics, decision-making, planning and management, and the development of online data and knowledge exploration tools and platforms.

Prior to joining the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification(UNCCD) as a Program Officer (Information Management), Dr Abd Salam worked for the International Food Policy Research Institute(IFPRI) in Washington DC, AfricaRice in Cotonou, Benin, United Nations Population Fund(UNFPA) in Johannesburg, South Africa and in New York, USA, and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia(UN-ESCWA) in Beirut, Lebanon .

Devashree Niraula

Devashree is a research associate at the G20 global initiative on land and hails from Kathmandu, Nepal.

She is a graduate of Gothenburg University, Sweden with a major in climate and ecosystem.

Devashree has a solid academic background in research, climate data and geospatial analysis.

Prior to her involvement with UNCCD, she was an intern at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as a climate and security intern. In this capacity, Devashree had been supporting the unit with research, data analysis and coordination.

Devashree’s interests lie in interdisciplinary work of anthropogenic impacts research and using that research to inform policy on all levels.

Andreea Becheru

Andreea has both a Legal and Administrative Sciences and Business Administration master’s degree.

She also has over 20 years of professional experience in business administration and project management implementation in multicultural environments such as United Nations, European Commission, Government and Private Sector.

She has been working in UN system for more than 11 years having the opportunity to provide comprehensive support to several global projects’ implementation across UNV, UNICEF, UNFCCC and now to UNCCD.

Ebenezer Attua Odoi Jnr

Ebenezer is a Geographic Information System (GIS) Developer at the G20 global initiative on land from Tallahassee, Florida.

Ebenezer's research interests include GIS automation, Databases, Web, and mobile application development.