Counsellor for Economic Commercial and Environmental Affairs, Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany Malaysia

Tertiary Education

1986 – 1993

Study of computer science with specialisation in economics, Technical University Braunschweig.

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Work Experience

1994 – 1997

System Analyst, START Informatik GmbH, Frankfurt am Main.

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1997 – 2005

Officer, Business cycle monitoring and analysis, and macroeconomic development, analysis and projections, German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and German Federal Ministry of Finance, Bonn and Berlin.

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2005 – 2009

First Secretary/Economic Officer, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Jakarta, Indonesia.

2009 – 2016

Officer, Division „Development of Digital Technologies“, German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Berlin since   2016 Counsellor for Economic, Commercial and Environmental Affairs, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kuala Lumpur / Malaysia.

Chan Oga is a Teach for Malaysia alumni and was working with ThinkCity, currently with Axiata Foundation nurturing CEOs of tomorrow. Her experience in setting up Kelip-Kelip, a social impact talk platform, The Village School and Artisan Market, platforms that inspire the local maker movement were among her culture-based city transformation projects.

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She is passionate about how to transform traditional artisanal abilities towards modern day relevancy, financial and environmental sustainability. However, knowing her dream is not a journey she can make alone and that the youths of today will be our leaders of tomorrow, she is now refocusing her attention to grooming young talented individuals who may one day be equipped to start and lead bigger and stronger movements towards a more resilient future. 

Thiaga is one of the long serving WWF-Malaysia staff. He is currently the Head of Market and Education, looking after programmes that deal with formal education, community education and engagement, smart city, corporate transformation towards soft commodities production and consumption and sustainable finance. He is the National Operator for Eco-Schools Programme Malaysia and the senior judge for the ACCA MASRA award for 2 consecutive years.

Nor Shidawati  started her career with WWF-Malaysia  as an Education Officer 12 years ago. Currently, she is the Acting Senior Manager for Formal Education component of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Programme.  At the initial stage of her career with WWF-Malaysia, she was instrumental in leading a five-year environmental education (EE) policy project which saw the development and advocacy process on the proposal to include EE policy statement in the National Education Policy to Ministry of Education, Malaysia. Additionally, she managed and led the Eco-Institutes Project before moving to her current position.  She graduated from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia with a degree in Education majoring in Teaching English as A Second Language (TESL). Before her career in conservation, she had a six year teaching stint in Malaysia public and private education institutes. She is trained in Environmental Education, project and programme development and management,  youth and urban development and strategic planning.

Natasha leads the Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Consumption and Production (YESCP) educational programme at WWF-Malaysia. Use the word ‘sustainable’ and chances are you’ll have her hooked. Her lifelong obsession with promoting all things relating to sustainable development has been the result of a sense of patriotic duty, an interest in seeing justice be upheld and an urge to put her faith into action. She tries in every way possible to make sustainable consumption and production just a normal part of her everyday life. Natasha trained as a marine biologist and officer for safety and health.

Lavanya joined WWF-MY in 2013.  She is a professionally qualified lawyer, a Chevening Scholar and has a MSc in Sustainability (Climate Change) from the University of Leeds, UK. Her work experiences include working with the Malaysian Government on a UNDP funded project to prepare Malaysia’s climate change report called the Second National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); working at the UN in Geneva; and practicing law in Malaysia.

She is currently WWF-MY’s representative in several working groups of the Third National Communication process. She has been involved in several policy formulation efforts on environment and sustainability, including the 11th Malaysia Plan and the National Biodiversity Policy 2016-2025, been a Malaysian delegate at the UNFCCC negotiations and was an expert reviewer of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report and Malaysia’s First Biennial Update Report.

Denise Westerhout currently leads the Market Transformation Initiative (MTI) Programme in WWF Malaysia which addresses the adoption of sustainable commitments by corporations. She spearheads the shaping of the direction of the sustainable business-focused programme and the strategies that drive sustainable consumption among plantations, manufacturers and consumers.  This programme includes stakeholder engagement within the palm oil, timber, paper, pulp and sustainable seafood sectors in Malaysia.
 
Prior to her engagement with WWF Malaysia, she attached with the Australian Trade Commission and the Government of Canada. In both roles, she managed the development and market studies of bilateral trade relationships with Malaysia across various sectors such as defence, aerospace, marine, machinery, banking and finance and consumer products.
 
She holds a and Electrical Engineering Degree, majoring in Power Generation, from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor and a Masters degree in International Business from Monash University and graduated summa cum laude.

Benjamin Loh is currently the Manager for Sustainable Palm Oil in WWF-Malaysia under the commodities of the Market Transformation Initiative (MTI) Programme. Benjamin is responsible for driving the strategy of sustainable production, supply and consumption of Palm Oil in Malaysia, and within the WWF global network. Benjamin is currently the focal point for Sustainable Palm Oil in WWF-Malaysia and represents WWF-Malaysia various multi-stakeholder engagement processes and committees including the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)  

Benjamin was previously engaged with the palm oil industry, serving in sustainability roles with Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) Berhad and the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC)         

Benjamin is a graduate from James Cook University Australia with a bachelor's degree in Environmental Science and a Master's in Protected Area Management.

Adrian Choo is the Sustainable Wood Products Manager at WWF-Malaysia. He completed his Ph.D. and undergraduate studies at Universiti Putra Malaysia.

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Adrian began his career as a researcher at Universiti Putra Malaysia and his research were in the areas of biocomposite technology, wood-water relationship, and wood technology. He has authored and co-authored numerous scientific papers as well as chapters in books. He is the inventor of several patents and a copyright.

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Adrian is currently interested in forestry issues as well as sustainable wood products. He believes that the Earth needs us to save it from us.

Adrian enjoys playing basketball (with risks of permanently disabling himself), rocking the guitar, reading fiction and eating lots of junk food when nobody is watching.

Victor Andin is currently the Senior Seafood Improvement Officer and has been with WWF for 4 years.  He is overseeing WWF-Malaysia's aquaculture and fisheries improvements project whereby WWF is helping the aquaculture and fisheries industry in Malaysia to be more environmentally sustainable. Victor is a graduate of Universiti Sains Malaysia in Aquatic Biology.

Thomas is a master graduate in Geospatial Science for Development Management at The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus.

He first got to know the importance of protecting the environment when he was 6 years old. One of his favourite movies during that time was FernGully, an animation that convey the message of dire consequences of rainforest destruction for the sake of unsustainable development. This movie has some tense moments that even till now, it send chills down his spine.

In 2014, Thomas has joined the big family of  #PowerShiftMsia with aims to promote climate change education where he was given the opportunity to participate Malaysian Youth Delegation (a new programme under the same family) and proudly represented Malaysian youth in attending United Nations Annual Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris last year.