Ms. Christiana Figueres is an internationally recognized climate change expert. A native of Costa Rica, she has been a negotiator of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol since 1995, and is a prime promoter of Latin America’s active participation in the Climate Convention. She spearheaded the creation and development of programmatic CDM as the most innovative option within the international carbon market. In 2007 she represented Latin America and the Caribbean on the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism, and is now Vice President of the Bureau of the UN Framework on Climate Change. She is Principal Climate Change Advisor for Endesa Internacional, the largest private electric utility in Latin America. Ms. Figueres has a Bachelors Degree from Swarthmore College and a Masters Degree from the London School of Economics.