Adilson Pires

Deputy Mayor of Rio de Janeiro and Municipal Secretary of Social Development

Adilson Pires is Deputy Mayor of the city of Rio de Janeiro and Municipal Secretary of Social Development. He served six terms as a councilor in the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro, in his last term he was the leader of the government. While in this role, Mr. Pires managed to approve all projects sent by the Executive to the City Council. Among them, the Porto Maravilha project which will revitalize an area of 5 million square meters in Rio´s port region and the new Master Plan of the city. In all, 129 of his projects were approved while he was councilor.

In 2002, he became the State Secretary for Social Action and Citizenship, and also took part, as a representative of the Federal Government, in the organization of the 2007 Pan American Games held in Rio de Janeiro. He was responsible for making proposals to ensure social legacy of the event - improvements in transportation systems, security, among others.

Aysen Nikolaev

Yakutsk City Mayor / Président de CGLU-Eurasie

Aysen Nikolaev was born on January 22, 1972 in Leningrad. He grew in Verkhnevilyuysk, in a family of teachers. At the age of 16 he graduated with a gold medal from Verkhnevilyuysk physical and mathematical school and went to Moscow to enter Faculty of Physics at Moscow State University named M. Lomonosov.

Before completing his studies at Moscow State University he applied to Academy of national economy, and in 1994 gained two diplomas at once: Moscow State University and Academy of national economy. The young specialist with two diplomas found a job at the Moscow representative agency of the “Sakhaalmazprovinvest” finance corporation. In a year he became the vice-president of the corporation in Yakutsk.

At the age of 25 he was the youngest deputy in the history of the Republican parliament (Il Tumen). He worked as the Secretary of the Committee on North affairs, then as the Chairman of the Budget Committee of Il Tumen.

In 2002 Nikolaev was again elected as the deputy of Il Tumen.

In 2004 he became the Minister of Finance of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). Here Nikolaev managed to achieve the adoption of the complex decision on compensation of the dropping-out income of Yakutia from rent payments of JSC ALROSA which formed the main revenues of the republican budget.

In 2007 he was appointed as the head of the Administration of the President and Government. He began work on creation of the electronic government.

In May, 2011 he was appointed as the First deputy chairman of the government. He supervised issues concerning development of agriculture, tourism and business, nature preservation, science and innovations. 

On March 4, 2012 Aysen Nikolaev was elected as the Head of the Yakutsk Urban Okrug.

Catherine Cullen

President of the UCLG Committee on culture and Vice Mayor of Lille

Born March 5th 1950 in Paris
Deputy Mayor in charge of Culture since 2001, City of Lille, France

For the last 30 years, Catherine Cullen, who is of French and British nationality, has created, managed or supervised cultural projects and events, based on her experience of different cultures and artistic activities. After several years in publishing (Cambridge University Press, le Seuil, Albin Michel), in the late 80s she became editor in chief of LIBER, the first European cultural supplement issued by  Le Monde, El Pais, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The Times Literary Supplement and l’Indice, under the direction of Pierre Bourdieu. She was also advisor to the French Presidency for the implementation of the Académie Universelle des Cultures.

A free lance writer and translator, she has also contributed to many national and international meetings on various aspects of culture.

She is Deputy Mayor in charge of culture for the city of Lille since 2001, and since 2008 councillor delegate Culture for Lille Metropole Communauté Urbaine. She is presently President of the Culture Committee of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the first world organization of local governments. The Committee is dedicated to working on the Agenda 21 for Culture.

Fatimetou Mint Abdel Malick

Mayor of Tevrah-Zeina and President of Network of Local Elected Women of Africa (NLEWA)

Fatimetou Mint Abdel Malick is Mayor of Tevrah-Zeina in the sprawling capital, Nouakchott, Mauritania and President of Network of Local Elected Women of Africa (NLEWA). She is the first woman to take office as a Mayor in her country. Her election as President of the Women’s Network of Mayors in Africa has confirmed her stature of a champion and a leader.  Since she was elected, she has prioritized access to basic services, improved education, created public spaces such as playgrounds and municipal parks where free Wi-Fi is provided thus attracting many young people to gather there.

Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo

Deputy Director-General for Field Operations and Partnerships International Labour Organization (ILO)

Ibone Bengoetxea

Deputy Mayor of Bilbao, City Councilor for Culture and Education and President of EUDEL – Basque Association of Municipalities

Ms. Ibone Bengoetxea has a Degree on Psychology. She has developed her professional life in the field of transport (Basque Rail train and Metro Bilbao) as well as in Social Services, especially in the field of family and childhood mistreatments.

Ms. Bengoetxea began her political career in local politics in 2003. She currently holds the following positions:

- Second Deputy Mayor of the City Bilbao
- City Councilor of Culture and Education
- Coordinator of Cultural Policies, Education and Leisure
- President of EUDEL (Basque Association of Municipalities)

Previous positions:
- Deputy Mayor, City Councilor of Culture and Education and Main Speaks person titular (2007-2011)
- City Councilor of Traffic and Transport. President of District 5 (2003-2007)

Jürgen Roters

Mayor of Cologne

Jürgen Roters was directly elected as Mayor of Cologne in August 2009.

Roters served as Superintendent of theColognepolice from 1995 to 1999 and President of the regional government inColognefrom 1999 until 2005.

He started his professional career as commissioner with the regional government in Muenster (1978-1981) and head of the division with the ministry for culture in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia (1981/82). In 1982 he took over the chair of theCologneAdministrativeCollege. In 1988 he changed to the home ministry of the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia as head of the minister’s office 

Mr. Roters is member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He was born in 1949 and studied law.

Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman

Mayor of Singapore (Southeast District)

Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman was born in Singapore in 1965. Dr Maliki graduated with his Bachelor and Masters degrees from the National University of Singapore (NUS). He obtained his doctorate in Social Work from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998 and became an Assistant Professor at the NUS Department of Social Work and Psychology that year. Dr Maliki was elected as one of the Members of Parliament for the East Coast Group Representation Constituency in the 2011 Singapore General Elections. He was re-appointed as the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for National Development, and was concurrently appointed as the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Defence. Dr Maliki was also appointed the Mayor for the Southeast District of Singapore by the People’s Association.

Pat Horn

International Co-ordinator of StreetNet International

Feminist trade unionist, International Co-ordinator of StreetNet International, an international federation formed to protect and promote the rights of street vendors, to promote the voice and bargaining power of street vendors throughout the world.  Since international launch of StreetNet in November 2002, there are 49 affiliated organisations from 41 countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe, representing over 500 000 paid-up members.

Ratna Omidvar

President of Maytree, a private foundation that promotes equity and prosperity through its policy insights, grants and programs. 

Under her leadership, the foundation has gained international recognition for its expertise in developing, testing, and implementing programs and policy solutions related to immigration, integration and diversity in the workplace, in the boardroom and in public office.

Ratna is the chair of the Board of Directors of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) and the co-chair of DiverseCity: The Greater Toronto Leadership Project, a joint project of Maytree of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance. She also serves as a director of the Canadian Club of Toronto, the Environics Institute and Connect Legal.

In 2006, Ratna was appointed to the Order of Ontario. In 2010, Canada's national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, profiled her as its Nation Builder of the Decade for Citizenship. In 2011, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada for her advocacy on behalf of immigrants and for her devotion to reducing inequality.