Founder - CEO, Youth Initiative for Land in Africa ( Yilaa)

Jeremy is a Seychellois conservationist who holds a Bachelor of Social Science in International Relations and Environmental Geographical Sciences and a Bachelor of Social Science in International Relations (Honors) from the University of Cape Town, a Diploma in Environmental Management from the Technical University of Dresden and a Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University in the City of New York.

He is also an alumnus of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) Fellowship and served as the Seychelles Permeant Mission to the United Nations’ Climate Change and Ocean Advisor throughout 2022 participating in UNFCCC, UNGA, and Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement negotiations.

Before negotiating international environmental law on behalf of Seychelles, small island developing states, and Africa, Jeremy worked with the Seychelles Islands Foundation for over five years coordinating the foundation’s projects - such as the Aldabra Clean-Up Project - and communications while contributing to national policy-focused on climate change, biodiversity and ocean conservation, as well as environmental impact assessment.

Jeremy is an Alumni of the Victoria Hub Seychelles, whereby he held several leading local and international roles coordinated the Environmental Youth Leadership Programme and supported several other projects. He is also a Sustainable Ocean Alliance Young Ocean Leader and has severed as inaugural member of the alliance’s Youth Policy Advisory Council.

Lauren is a climatetech professional, classically-trained musician, and life-long learner. At the US Department of Energy, she designed and managed funding programs for accelerating climatetech startups, deploying $15M over two years and building the groundwork for recurring public investments into the US climate innovation ecosystem. She also launched EnergyTech UP, a new recurring program to cultivate the next generation of energy professionals. Recently, her white paper on sustainable aviation influenced policy released by the Biden White House and new efficiency requirements under consideration by the FAA. Thanks to Lauren’s work, eliminating lead exposure (a huge public health problem) from aviation fuels is now a federal priority.

In the past, Lauren served as Vice President of Engineering at Sunforge, an early pioneer in MPPT charge controllers for off-grid solar applications. Her background also includes automation engineering for the biotech industry (she helped build one of the first manufacturing lines for engineered tissues) and research in organic photovoltaics. She received her B.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Duke University.

Lauren loves meeting new friends, stumbling upon live music in the street, biking in the sunshine, eating at plant-based restaurants, exploring new places (including their cultures and languages), having deep introspective conversations, and generally experiencing as much of life as possible. She aspires to make everyone feel included, master the Cantonese language, and develop a practice of writing publicly.