Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment

Victor Z. Chen is the Emerging Market Global Player (EMGP) Global Coordinator & Editor at the VCC. He specializes in corporate strategy and internationalization of emerging-market firms. He has been a Doctoral Scholar of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, a Pacific Century Scholar of the Province of British Columbia, a Doctoral Scholar of Jack Austin Centre for Asia Pacific Business Studies, and a Research Fellow of Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada amongst others. Most recently, he finished an assignment as a Policy Analyst at the coordination office of the Asia Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative (APGCI), Government of Canada. He finished his Ph.D. in Strategy and International Business from Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University. Before Ph.D. study, he was a founding partner of Denfar Transnational Development LLC, an Ottawa-based foreign investment policy consulting company, where he also served as COO of the founding group of the journal Transnational Corporations Review. He is also a CFA level-3 Candidate.

Jennifer Reimer completed her J.D. at University of California, Davis in 2011. She graduated from California State University, Fresno with an M.B.A. in 2008 and she received a B.S. in Business Administration with an Option in Finance from California State University, Fresno in 2006. She is the Managing Editor of the Columbia FDI Perspectives. Previously, she served as a Trustee for the California State University system, which is the largest system of higher education in the United States. She has also worked in various roles as a research assistant, law clerk and editor. Her interest areas include FDI and international investment arbitration.

Barbara Bijelic is a J.D. 2012 candidate at Columbia Law School where she focuses on governance and fiscal policy in primary product industries. Prior to beginning at Columbia, Barbara worked as a Business Development Officer for the Canadian International Development Agency in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and held research positions with an international USAID health project and a UNDP collaborative with the Croatian Chamber of Commerce in Zagreb.  She holds a B.A. in International Development from McGill University.

Sébastien Carreau is currently a Master of Public Administration in Development Practice candidate at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He has a Master in Engineering from Ecole des Ponts ParisTech (France), and specialized in economics and urban development. He has worked for one year on social housing and urban renewal projects in Guadeloupe (FWI) and participated in research projects on social housing policy and finance in Cameroon, and on the financing of African cities at the World Bank. From 2009 to 2011, he worked with an engineering consulting firm carrying out socio-economic studies for major transportation projects. He will work next summer in Mozambique with the VCC and the government on strategic planning and infrastructure development in the Lower Zambezi Basin.

Ksenia Gal is a Master of Laws in International Legal Studies candidate at New York University School of Law, focusing on international economic law.  She received her first law degree at the Russian Academy of Justice in Moscow, Russia. After graduation she joined the Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, where she worked on human rights, responsibility of states and international organizations and other issues of international law.  

Ryan Head is a Research Assistant for the Timor-Leste Advisory Project.  He previously worked for the Boston-based Pan African Acupuncture Project (P.A.A.P.), creating budgets and organizing fundraising events for their trainings in Uganda.  Prior to P.A.A.P., Ryan spent four months in Kampala, Uganda, conducting an assessment of the nation’s public transportation system. He graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in Economics and a focus in International Economic Development.  He volunteers with the Against Malaria Foundation and also works at the Jewish Community Center afterschool program. 

Frazer is in his second year at the School of International Public Affairs (SIPA) where he will earn a Master’s degree in International Affairs with a concentration in Environmental Policy and Conflict Resolution. He received a BA in International Affairs and Latin American Studies from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Before studying at SIPA, he worked as a community development advisor in Central America. At SIPA, he has worked to create the SIPA Environmental Coalition, and has been working with various research groups on social and environmental impacts of foreign direct investment in Western and Eastern Africa.

Nkechi O. Mbanu is currently a Master in International Affairs candidate at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, studying International Finance and Economic Policy. Previously, she served as a Legislative Assistant and Deputy Press Secretary for Congressman Donald M. Payne, former Chairman of the US House Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health. Since January 2011, she has conducted research as an Extractive Industry Research Associate at the Vale Columbia Center. She received a Bachelor in Economics and French at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor and a Master of Arts in Dispute Resolution from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.

Gisela Paris' research at the VCC focuses on discriminatory measures in international investment. She received a law degree (J.D. equivalent, with honors) in International Law from the University of Buenos Aires School of Law.  She also received an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from New York University School of Law, where she was a Grotius Scholar and a research assistant to Professor Benedict Kingsbury.  She has practiced law in the public sector working for the Ministry of Economy of Argentina, as well as in international law firms both in Argentina and in New York, focusing on international law, investment and arbitration.  She is part of the Reporting Committee for the International Arbitration Case Law project with the School of International Arbitration, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London.  

Sumedh Ramachandra recently graduated with a Masters in Operations Research from Columbia. He majored in economics and electronics & instrumentation engineering during his undergraduate at BITS-Pilani in India. In 2011, he worked at the Economic Research and Statistics Division of the World Trade Organization in Switzerland, where he identified trends in trade barriers and helped launch a trade intelligence portal. During his time at Navigant Consulting Inc. in New York, he worked on the economics of a public policy issue. He previously worked at a green energy startup in Bangalore, where his work focused on ecological footprint and sustainability. 

Erika Rodrigues is a candidate for a Master in Social Anthropology at Columbia University, focusing on sustainable development and resource management in Africa. Erika comes from Mozambique and holds a Bachelor degree in Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences and in Social Anthropology, from the University of Cape Town in South Africa.  She has worked extensively in the Northeast coast of Mozambique, first with a local NGO in the Quirimbas Archipelago, coordinating development initiatives with residents and WWF’s Quirimbas National Park, and then consulting for a socio-economic and environmental impact analysis of a resource extractive project in the region. She also contributed to several studies on the 2010 FIFA World Cup and its impacts on the wider South African society. Her research at VCC focuses on local employment generation by extractive industries in developing countries.

Sri Swaminathan is a candidate for the Master of Public Administration at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs where he is specialising in international financial and economic policy, with a particular focus on private sector development. He graduated from the University of Melbourne in Australia with a Bachelor of Laws (with honours) and Bachelor of Science. He was previously a consultant with McKinsey & Company in Australia and the UK, working with large multinational companies on a range of major strategic issues, including market entry in the extractive resources industry. He has also worked in Vietnam advising the government on commercial law reform measures connected to that country's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2007. 

Glenn Denning is the Director of the Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development and a professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He helped establish The MDG Centre, East and Southern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, served as its first Director (2004 to 2009) and provided leadership to the Centre’s agenda in agriculture and rural development and its support to the African Green Revolution. He previously held senior management positions at the International Rice Research Institute and the World Agroforestry Centre, and has lived and worked in Asia and Africa for more than 30 years. He served on the UN Millennium Project Hunger Task Force (2004 to 2006) and is currently a member of the Senior Steering Group of the UN High Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis.