Opening Plenary

Mr. Maher Nasser has over 30 years of work experience in the United Nations System during which he has worked in various capacities in Gaza, Jerusalem, Amman, Cairo, Vienna and New York. In the last six years, Mr. Nasser was appointed three times as Acting Under-Secretary-General in charge of the Department of Global Communications. Mr. Nasser took up his current position as Director of DGC’s Outreach Division in February 2011. He first joined DGC in January 2006 as Director of the UN Information Centre in Cairo. Before joining DGC, Mr. Nasser worked in various positions with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Gaza, Jerusalem, Vienna, Amman and New York. From 1992 to 1994, he worked with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna. Prior to joining the United Nations, Mr. Nasser worked with two Jerusalem-based NGOs focusing on development and human rights. Mr. Nasser also attended the Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid in October 1991 and the subsequent bilateral negotiations in Washington DC as the personal assistant to Dr. Haidar Abdul Shafi, the Head of the Palestinian Negotiating Team.  Maher Nasser holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Bir Zeit University in Palestine and a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration from the University of Warwick in the UK.

Alison Smale is the Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, United Nations Department of Global Communications. Chief of Bureau of The New York Times in Berlin since 2013, Ms. Smale brought to the position almost 40-years of journalism experience gained in an international career. She has a proven track record as reporter, editor and senior leader. Appointed Executive Editor of the International Herald Tribune (IHT) Paris, in 2008, she is the first and only woman to have held that post. Ms. Smale went to the IHT in 2004 as Managing Editor from The New York Times, where she had been Deputy Foreign Editor since 2002, having joined The Times in 1998 as Weekend Foreign Editor. Earlier in her career Ms. Smale reported for United Press International and The Associated Press as Bureau Chief for Central and Eastern Europe, Vienna (1986-1998) and Correspondent, Moscow and Bonn (1983-1986, 1978-1983).

Mr. António Guterres, the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations, took office on 1st January 2017. Having witnessed the suffering of the most vulnerable people on earth, in refugee camps and in war zones, the Secretary-General is determined to make human dignity the core of his work, and to serve as a peace broker, a bridge-builder and a promoter of reform and innovation. Prior to his appointment as Secretary-General, Mr. Guterres served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from June 2005 to December 2015, heading one of the world’s foremost humanitarian organizations during some of the most serious displacement crises in decades. Before joining UNHCR, Mr. Guterres spent more than 20 years in government and public service. He served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, during which time he was heavily involved in the international effort to resolve the crisis in East Timor. [Video message]

Mike Mower serves as Deputy Chief of Staff to Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert. His focus is on community outreach and the optimization of state government. Mower also oversees constituent services, boards and commissions, and local government issues. Mower served as the Deputy Chief of Staff and Communications Director for Governor Jon Huntsman. Mower is a graduate of Brigham Young University and the University Of Utah College of Law. He also attended Utah Valley University, where he later served as a member of the Board of Trustees. He is a former aide to Provo Mayor Lewis Billings, Utah Governor Mike Leavitt and Congressmen Howard Nielson and Chris Cannon. Mower was raised in Ferron, Utah where he worked for several years milking cows for Lemon’s Dairy. He and his wife, Liz, are the parents of a combined seven children and reside in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Fannie M. Munlin is the Chair of the NGO Executive Committee, which serves as the liaison for the 1,600 Non-governmental Organizations affiliated with the United Nations Department of Global Communications. She is also the Main United Nations Representative for the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW); an organization comprised of 250 community-based Sections and 39 national affiliate organizations. The NCNW has an outreach of nearly four million women in the United States and globally. Its programs are human and civil rights, economic development, education, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), advocacy, and public policy and research. In 2003 Ms. Munlin chaired the 56th Annual United Nations Department of Public Information and the Non-governmental Organization’s Annual Conference

Rev. Liberato C. Bautista is the President of CoNGO—The Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. CoNGO is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1948. It relates to the United Nations through its General Consultative status granted by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). In the seventy years of CoNGO, Bautista is one of only two among nineteen CoNGO Presidents who have served two terms in non-consecutive fashion. He was CoNGO President between December 2007 and January 2011. Rosalind Harris, who represented the International Social Service at the UN, was president between 1972 to 1976 and between 1991 and 1994. Bautista concurrently serves as the main representative of the United Methodist Church—General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), which is the international public policy and social justice agency of The United Methodist Church. 2018 is the twenty-first year Bautista has represented GBCS at the United Nations. GBCS is a longstanding full member of CoNGO. As a nongovernmental representative at the United Nations of a faith-based organization, Bautista served as president of the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations (CRNGO@UN, 2015-2017). Bautista chaired the Council of Organizations in New York of the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA, 2006-2007) and elected in 2018 to serve in its Executive Committee. His NGO-related activities date back to 1974, working entirely from that year that to this day in non-governmental and faith-based organizations. Bautista teaches, writes and lectures extensively in a variety of fields, including international affairs; NGO and civil society dynamics; social and political ethics; theology and religion; ecumenism and religious liberty; human rights and human dignity; indigeneity and indigenous peoples; and peace, justice, and social transformation. He has taught politics and civil society at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, Korea and dynamics of society and community organizing at Saint Andrews {Episcopal} Theological Seminary in the Philippines. He is currently teaching an online course on Christian social ethics at John Wesley College in Tuguegarao City.

Mario Organista was born in Mexico City, he migrated to the United States at an early age. He is a youth advocate and community activist. Mario is the co-founder of Casa Quetzalcoatl, a non-profit assisting Latinx high school students enter higher education institutions. He's currently employed by Salt Lake Community College, working in the PACE Scholarship Program. He received his Bachelors Degree from the University of Utah in Political Science and two minors in International Relations and Campaign Management.

Ali Mustafa is International Development Consultant and Youth Development Professional, serving as a Co-chair of the Youth Sub-committee for the planning of the 68th United Nations Civil Society Conference as well as Consultant for Friendship Ambassadors Foundation (FAF). Previously worked as Programme Officer at UNFPA Pakistan and Project Officer at Ministry of Youth Affairs Pakistan. He is the founder of the organization Generation Next Voice of Youth.

Passionate about social, political, economic and environmental justice for human development, Maruxa specialises in integrated urban and territorial development. Over her 17-year career, Maruxa has worked with multilateral institutions, national, regional and local governments, NGOs and philanthropy in 33 countries across continents to develop public policies, capacity and implementation projects, and multi-stakeholder partnerships. Maruxa currently serves as Secretary General of the Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport SLoCaT. Previously she founded Communitas, the multi-stakeholder coalition which pioneered knowledge-based advocacy for the Sustainable Development Goal on Cities & Human Settlements. Maruxa also served as the Secretary General of the Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development (nrg4SD), and during her tenure co-facilitated the engagement of local and regional governments in the UN Rio +20 Conference. She has also held posts as Senior Policy Specialist in Cities Alliance-UNOPS, as well as in local and regional government in the UK and Spain. In 2004-2010, she was Deputy Director of the Representation of the South West of England to the EU, where she led on the sustainability portfolio for a partnership of regional authorities, academia and the private sector. Prolific public speaker and analyst, Maruxa is member of the Future Earth community. In recent years, she has served in the UCL- Nature Sustainability Expert Panel on the Urban Science-Policy Interface and as Adviser on Global Agendas to the Conference of European Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe CPMR. Her formal training was as a lawyer, as well as in EU law and in development economics.

More than 25-years ago Jackie visited Utah on a ski trip and never left. Like so many people, Jackie fell in love with Salt Lake City’s natural beauty, proximity to the outdoors, the warmth of the people, and the overall quality of life. After that first trip, Jackie knew that Salt Lake City was where she wanted to build her life, raise a family and contribute to her community. Jackie and her wife Betty Iverson currently live with their two sons, Archie and Jack, in the Sugar House neighborhood of Salt Lake City. With a degree in criminal justice from Arizona State University, and a family history of entrepreneurialism, Jackie moved to Utah and began her career by forming her own private investigation firm. After four years in small business, she joined State Farm Insurance to manage their first and third party injury claims. Jackie learned, both as a small business owner and in corporate America, the value that strong and active businesses of all sizes can bring to a community. Business not only builds an economy, it brings diversity to a community and provides opportunity to residents. Salt Lake City needs to be an accommodating place for large businesses to locate and where entrepreneurs can incubate and thrive. After making her home in Salt Lake City for more than ten years, Jackie was elected to a seat in the Utah House of Representatives in 1998, representing the Liberty Wells, Sugar House and Central City neighborhoods of Salt Lake City, and becoming the first openly gay elected official in Utah. Jackie represented the people of her district on Capitol Hill for 13-years. Being the first, openly gay elected official in Utah—and fighting hard to get a seat at the table—instilled in Jackie a commitment to be a voice for change and diversity whenever she had the opportunity. For 13-years on Capitol Hill, Jackie fulfilled that promise by standing up for LGBT families on issues like adoption, the fight for anti-gay bullying legislation to protect students in Utah schools, the battle over Amendment 3, and by being a strong voice for minorities in every committee meeting she was in. Whether the discussion was on sound stewardship of tax dollars, incentive programs to stimulate employment, improved efficiency by state agencies, or legislation governing low-income housing and services for the homeless, elderly, and people with special needs, Jackie was there advocating on our behalf. By earning the respect of her colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, Jackie demonstrated early and often, that though our elected representatives may come from very different backgrounds, they must find common ground and work together to make Utah a better place to live and work. In 2007, Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder asked Jackie to join his leadership team. Recognizing her ability to effectively work with diverse interests, Sheriff Winder made Jackie a senior policy advisor and manager of special projects for his office. Over the course of her 15-year career, Jackie played an integral role in transforming the Sheriff’s office and Salt Lake County law enforcement. Jackie helped manage projects ranging from creating the Unified Police Department, streamlining 911 and other services, building programs to mentor youth cadets, and establishing community outreach projects like the revitalization of the Kearns Pony League Ball Park, and programs to assist and educate refugees. Jackie was elected as Salt Lake City’s 35th mayor in 2015 and was sworn in on January 4th, 2016. @slcmayor

John Price served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Mauritius, Republic of Seychelles, and Union of the Comoros from 2002-2005. Ambassador Price is a proven business leader and committed member of his community. He was on the forefront of business development in Utah and Western United States, and also served in local and national public leadership roles. He was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JP Realty, Inc., a publicly traded New York Stock Exchange Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a former Director and member of the Executive Committee of Alta Industries Ltd. Ambassador Price was a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Utah from 1992-1999 and also served on the Advisory Board of the David Eccles School of Business (University of Utah). He was a member of the Small Business Administration Advisory Board and the Industry Sector Advisory Council on Small and Minority Business for Trade/Policy Matters. Mr. Price’s service in civic, education and economic development has been far reaching. He supports a variety of causes within his community, including the Marcia and John Price Museum of Fine Arts Building on the University of Utah campus and the Price Museum of Speed, showcasing rare vintage race cars. He served on the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and was a member of the Print Committee of the Whitney Museum in New York. He was a member of the Management Committee and Board of Trustees of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Ambassador Price’s memoir of his life, business career, and service to his country, entitled “When the White House Calls”, was published by the University of Utah Press. He currently serves as Resident Scholar at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah. Ambassador Price graduated from the University of Utah in 1956. He and his wife Marcia, have three children, ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Following nomination by the Secretary-General, the General Assembly, on 22 December 2017, elected Maimunah Mohd Sharif of Malaysia as Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). She succeeds Joan Clos of Spain to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his dedicated service to the Organization. Dr. Clos led UN-Habitat during the pivotal years when the world’s population became majority urban.  During this time, he championed the development of a New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG11), the first development goal focused on sustainable urbanization. His emphasis on urban planning and national urban policies has been widely appreciated and applied to plan and steer the world’s cities toward sustainability, economic and social progress and inclusion. Ms. Sharif is currently Mayor of the City Council of Penang Island, Malaysia. Prior to her appointment as Mayor, she was the first woman to be appointed as President of the Municipal Council of Seberang Perai in 2011. As mayor of a local authority, she leads Municipal Council of Seberang Perai to achieve its vision of a “cleaner, greener, safer and healthier place to work, live, invest and play”. She is a champion of Gender Responsive Participatory Budgeting to integrate gender perspectives into the governance process as a tool to mainstream gender into budgetary and development policy and planning. During her tenure, the Municipal Council of Seberang Perai was the first Local Authority to implement and achieve six quality-based management ISO certifications. Ms. Sharif began her career as a Town Planner at the Municipal Council of Penang Island in 1985. In 2003, she was promoted to Director of Planning and Development, a position she held until November 2009. As Director, she was responsible for the preparation of structure and local plans, and was directly involved in development control of Penang City projects and landscape development. She also led a team for the planning and implementation of the Urban Renewal Projects in George Town. In November 2009, she was entrusted as the first General Manager to establish George Town World Heritage Incorporated and manage the George Town World Heritage Site which was inscribed by UNESCO in July 2008. She holds a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Town Planning Studies from the University of Wales Institutes of Science and Technology, United Kingdom and a Master of Science in Planning studies from the Malaysia Science University.

Mullen was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California to parents Ted, a biologist, and Stefani and attends Oak Park High School. He has a younger brother, Aidan. Mullen has been acting since he was 4, starting in local productions and theater groups, but only professionally since he got his role on Andi Mack. He wrote, produced, directed, and starred in short film, Me, My Phone, and I, which was featured in the 2017 All-American High School Film Festival and the 2018 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. In 2019, he guest starred in an episode of American Housewife. He has an upcoming film that he has directed and starred in, Unforgettable. Mullen is passionate about environmentalism. He is the vice president of Tomorrows Green, a non-profit environmental organization based in Santa Barbara. He teamed up with activist group Fridays for Future in May 2019 in the students' strike for the climate.

Following a rich and storied career in business, philanthropy, and academia, Dr. Astrid S. Tuminez became the seventh president of Utah Valley University in 2018. She is the first woman to serve full-time as UVU president. Raised in the slums of the Philippines, Tuminez rose to become a world leader in the fields of technology and political science, most recently serving as an executive at Microsoft. She is also the former vice dean of Research and assistant dean of Executive Education at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. @uvu_president

Since June 2019, Rachel has served as Executive Director of UNA-USA, a grassroots movement of 20,000 Americans in 200 chapters across the country dedicated to supporting the work of the United Nations. Rachel is responsible for identifying the strategic vision for the organization, overseeing the expansion of UNA’s membership, and managing partnerships. Before she was appointed as Executive Director, Rachel served as UNA-USA’s Senior Director of Membership and Programs, and managed its national programs, including the Global Engagement Summit at the UN, the Global Leadership Summit and UN Day events. She also managed the Adopt-A-Future refugee education fundraising campaign. Rachel works closely with the National Council and Affinity Group leadership to implement the strategic direction of UNA-USA. Prior to joining UNA-USA, Rachel served on multiple leadership teams for several professional associations that represented lawyers, surgeons, regulators and engineers. In her many accomplishments, Rachel strengthened membership programs, directed rebranding initiatives and secured agreements with national associations representing China, Korea, Argentina, India, Peru, Egypt and Mexico. Rachel holds a B.S.B.A in International Business from American University and an MBA in Marketing from Johns Hopkins University.

Hanko Kiessner is Chief Executive Officer of Packsize International LLC, a privately held On Demand Packaging® manufacturing and technology company he founded in the United States in 2002. Mr. Kiessner and his global leadership team have grown Packsize into an award-winning supply chain and sustainable packaging industry leader with operations in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. With longstanding ties to the corrugated industry, Mr. Kiessner identified the importance of achieving sustainable operations early on and established a goal of creating Smarter Packaging for a Healthy Planet®. Also a co-founder of LeadersforCleanAir.org, Mr. Kiessner is a strong advocate for the reduction, re-use, and recycling of packaging materials and places great importance on building sustainability into every aspect of his company’s operations.