Board
The Right Livelihood Award Foundation’s course is decided by its Board of Trustees. The Board usually convenes twice a year. Trustees also serve as Jury Members.
Trustees are:
© Bonny Håkansson
Jakob von Uexkull, UK, former Member of the European Parliament, Founder and Chairman
Born in Uppsala, Sweden, Jakob von Uexkull is the son of the author and journalist Gösta von Uexkull and grandson of the biologist Jakob von Uexkull. After schooling in Sweden and Germany he graduated with an M.A. (Honours) in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Christ Church, Oxford. He holds both Swedish and German nationality.
Monika Griefahn, Member of the German Parliament, co-founder of Greenpeace Germany, Vice-Chair
Monika Griefahn was born in 1954 in Mülheim-Ruhr, Germany. She graduated in sociology in 1979. One year later, she co-founded Greenpeace Germany, of which she was first Executive Director and later Member of the International Board of Directors.
During her time at Greenpeace Monika was first responsible for campaigns against chemical pollution and for the protection of the North Sea, later for developing training programmes and establishing new offices in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Latin America.
In 1990, Monika became Minister of Environmental Affairs in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1998, she has been serving as Member of the German Parliament, with her main focus on culture and media as well as on foreign affairs.
She has been on the Board of the Foundation since 1986.
Paul Ekins, Professor of Energy and Environment Policy, King's College, London, UK, Vice-Chair
Paul Ekins has a PhD in economics from Birkbeck College, and a BSc in electrical engineering from Imperial College (both University of London). He joined King’s College London as Professor of Energy and Environment Policy in January 2008, having been Head of the Environment Group at the Policy Studies Institute and Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Westminster since 2002.
Paul Ekins' academic work focuses on the conditions and policies for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy, with a special focus on energy policy, and the modelling of the energy system, on innovation, on the role of economic instruments such as environmental taxes, and on sustainability assessment.
His most recent book is Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: the Prospects for Green Growth (Routledge, London, 2000). He is co-editor of the book Understanding the Costs of Environmental Regulation, which will be published by Edward Elgar in 2008.
Paul Ekins' other organisational and policy experience includes being a Founder and Associate Director of the sustainable development charity Forum for the Future; Senior Consultant to Cambridge Econometrics; a Member of the UK Government’s Sustainable Energy Policy Advisory Board and a Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution; and, from 1997-2005, a specialist adviser to the Environmental Audit Committee of the House of Commons. He has also been an adviser to the UK Government's Advisory Committee on Business and the Environment and the Round Table on Sustainable Development.
Paul Ekins was Executive Director of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation from 1987-1990 and has been a member of the Board since 1995.
Marianne Andersson, former Member of the Swedish Parliament
Marianne Andersson graduated from Gothenburg School of Economics and worked in several small companies. From 1985-2002 she was Member of the Swedish Parliament (Centre Party), serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee for eight years.
Marianne Andersson has a long time commitment to issues of refugees and people’s movements. She was Chairman of the Swedish Committee for Human Rights in Turkey. She is a Member of the Board of the United Nations Association of Sweden and chairs the Kvinna to Kvinna foundation board.
One of Marianne Andersson's main foci are human rights. She is especially interested in women’s rights and has a special focus on Africa. She joined the Right Livelihood Award Foundation's Board in 2004.
