Our Team

Pankaj Bhatia is the director of the GHG Protocol workstream within WRI’s Climate, Energy, and Pollution Program (CEP). He is a leading expert on GHG Protocol Standards and tools, particularly in the area of corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and reporting. Mr. Bhatia’s work responsibilities include: overseeing the development of GHG Protocol product life cycle and supply chain inventory accounting standards; establishing GHG Protocol partnerships and programs in collaboration with businesses and governments in key developing countries; and providing advisory services in the design of emissions registries in the U.S. and internationally. From 1998 to 2000, he was vice president of Tata Energy & Resources Institute, a not-for-profit research organization based in Arlington, Virginia and affiliated to The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, India. From 1993 to 1998 he served TERI, New Delhi on various projects related to implementation of the Montreal Protocol in India and development of environment policy for technology transfer and capacity building in Indian industry. He holds a Masters in process engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Bachelors in chemical engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banares Hindu University, Varanasi, India.

Andrea Brown joined the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in June 2008 where she leads WBCSD’s work on the GHG Protocol. For the last three years she has worked on the development of two new GHG Protocol standards for business to measure and report the GHG emissions of corporate value chains and product life cycles. Andrea also leads WBCSD’s GHG Management and Reporting working group, a group of over 30 member companies focused on supporting business implementation and reporting of GHG management practices. She also leads WBCSD’s GHG Chemical Sector project to develop guidance to address inconsistent measurement and reporting of GHG emissions in the Chemical sector. Prior to joining the WBCSD she worked on trade policy, and international climate and energy policy issues for the Alberta government, the Canadian Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. She holds a Masters of Asia Pacific Policy Studies focused on security issues, from the University of British Columbia, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of Alberta.

Benedict Buckley is a Research Analyst working on the GHG Protocol’s Product and Value Chain Initiative. Benedict was previously a Senior Research Analyst at Trucost Plc, an environmental research consultancy based in London. There he worked with private and public sector organizations to measure and understand the environmental impacts associated with supply chains and investment portfolios, for clients including Puma, Vestas, Rabobank and Hermes Asset Management. He specialized in environmental economics at Trucost and created valuation models to quantify the impacts of air pollution and waste.

Benedict holds a Masters degree in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London, where he focused on Business and the Environment and wrote his thesis on quantifying the environmental benefits of investing in clean technology. He also holds a Bachelors degree in Biology from the University of Manchester. Other experience in the environmental field includes volunteering at Forum for the Future and working on a wildlife conservancy in Naivasha, Kenya. In a past life Benedict spent two years working in the television industry, first for a TV post-production company on Madison Avenue in New York and then in London as a Researcher on the Rough Guide to Travel TV series.

Cynthia Cummis is a Senior Associate with the GHG Protocol team at WRI and currently manages the development of the GHG Protocol Scope 3 and Product Standards. She brings more than 10 years of experience in GHG accounting. Cynthia comes from Clear Carbon Consulting where she was Director of Carbon Management, managing carbon quantification and GHG management projects for multiple Fortune 500 clients. Cynthia was the founding Director of U.S. EPA’s Climate Leaders program, where for more than 5 years she led the design and implementation of the program and oversaw its’ growth to more than 90 corporate partners. In this position, she managed the development of the Climate Leaders inventory protocols and advised dozens of companies on completion of a corporate GHG inventory. While at EPA, Ms. Cummis was closely involved in the development of the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard as a representative on the Editorial Committee for the first version and a member of the Revision Working Group for the revised edition. She is currently also a faculty member of the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute instructing a course on the basics of GHG accounting.

Laura Draucker is a Life Cycle Assessment Senior Associate working on the Product and Supply Chain Initiative. Laura is also WRI’s sustainability Manager.

Prior to joining WRI, Laura performed life cycle inventory and cost assessments for the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) on electricity generation and liquid fuel production technologies. With NETL, Laura drafted a guideline document for performing consistent energy-based life cycle assessments and was involved in developing a framework document for consistent GHG accounting of alternative aviation fuels.

Laura also completed a post doc with the EPA Office of Research and Development, where she performed MARKAL energy systems scenario modeling of the impacts of carbon legislation, efficiency measures, and technological advances on regional U.S. energy use and emissions. She has experience calculating the life cycle energy use and emissions associated with utility, industrial, and bio-energy processes. Laura holds Doctoral and Bachelors degrees in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and Villanova University, respectively.

Jared Finnegan works on the GHG accounting component within WRI’s Measurement and Performance Tracking (MAPT) initiative. MAPT aims to build capacity in developing countries to create and enhance systems that track emissions and emission reductions associated with climate and energy policies.

Before joining WRI, Jared provided research support to the Post Carbon Institute in California on issues related to sustainable economic growth. His work contributed to the book The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality. He has also promoted sustainable development at United Nations Headquarters in New York through an internship with NGO Sustainability, and at the local level with the Economic Development Board of Sonoma County, California.

Jared holds a B.A. in Sociology and Latin American and Latino Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz and an MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where his dissertation focused on ethics and climate change.

Wee Kean Fong is a Senior Associate with the GHG Protocol Team at World Resources Institute China Office. He leads WRI China’s works in city-level GHG program and low carbon city planning.

Fong has a Bachelor’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Technology Malaysia, and a Master of Engineering and Doctor of Engineering from the Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan. Before joining WRI, he was affiliated with a Tokyo-based international consulting firm, where he involved in a number of Japanese ODA projects and gained international project experience in several Asian countries. Prior to that, he was based in Malaysia, where he built his strong technical background in environmental management and urban and regional planning.

Stacy Kotorac is a Project Coordinator/Research Assistant with the GHG Protocol team. Stacy focuses on the Product and Supply Chain Initiative, working on outreach and widespread adoption of the Product and Scope 3 Accounting and Reporting Standards. She also works on the international capacity building training programs, standards/tool development projects, and provides day-to-day support to the GHG Protocol team. Prior to joining the GHGP team, Stacy interned with the Vulnerability and Adaptation objective at WRI.

Stacy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Science, Technology and International Affairs and a certificate in International Development from Georgetown University. During college, Stacy interned at the Environmental Protection Agency where she worked with the strategic climate partnership division. She also worked at Partners of the Americas on Youth Programming and their Farmer-to-Farmer exchange program.

David Rich is a Senior Associate with the GHG Protocol Initiative at the World Resources Institute. He focuses on the development of greenhouse gas accounting and reporting standards and emissions registries. Previously, David worked with the Climate Registry to develop a common GHG reporting protocol for use by companies across North America. He is currently developing new GHG Protocol standards for product life cycle and supply chain (scope 3) emissions accounting through a global multi-stakeholder process. He also focuses on mandatory GHG reporting to support regulatory policies, such as cap-and-trade. David holds a Masters degree in Energy and Environmental Analysis from Boston University and a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley.

Kaleigh Robinson is the Training and Capacity Building Lead for the Greenhouse Gas Protocol at WRI, where she manages international training and capacity building initiatives focusing on preparing corporate GHG inventory trainers and on building local capacity to design and implement national and regional voluntary corporate GHG reporting programs. She also develops in-person and e-learning courses, manages the GHG Protocol certificate programs, and leads trainings. As part of the GHG Protocol Brazil Program, Kaleigh trains and provides technical assistance to many of Brazil’s best known companies to quantify, report, and reduce their emissions. She works closely with local partners to manage the Brazil Program’s day-to-day operations and to develop corporate inventory verification specifications for the Program.

Prior to joining WRI, Kaleigh worked on local, regional and federal climate policy issues at the Climate Trust and provided research and analysis for the Offset Quality Initiative. She holds a Master’s degree in International Development from Tulane University. She is fluent in Portuguese and proficient in Spanish and has previous work and research experience in microfinance and international education.

Stephen Russell is a Senior Associate in WRI’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol team. Dr. Russell manages the development of GHG accounting and measurement tools for GHG-intensive sectors, including the power, cement, and iron and steel sectors. Stephen also provides technical support to WRI’s GHG program in China, engaging companies and key partners in creating GHG standards specific to Chinese industries. Additionally, Stephen’s expertise includes statistical modeling and software programming.

Prior to joining WRI, Stephen conducted environmental research as a Post-doctoral Fellow with the Max-Planck Research Society in Germany. He holds a Ph.D. and B.S. in Environmental Biology from the Universities of St. Andrews and York (U.K.), respectively.

Xiaoyu Shi, a national of China, is an Associate on the GHG Protocol team. Currently, Xiaoyu manages and coordinates two China projects on power sector GHG accounting and industrial energy efficiency financing. Xiaoyu has more than six years of working experience on clean energy and climate change. Prior to joining WRI, Xiaoyu worked on lending and advisory & technical assistance projects at various capacities at the World Bank in Washington DC for five years. Xiaoyu earned a Master’s Degree in City Planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, the USA. She also has a Master’s degree in Human Geography from Beijing (Peking) University, Beijing, China. Xiaoyu earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economic Geography & City Planning from Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China.

In her spare time, Xiaoyu enjoys playing badminton. She also likes many other outdoor activities, such as skating, skiing, tennis, hiking, etc.

Neelam Singh is an Associate on the GHG Protocol team who supports the project’s developing countries program, focusing on China and India. Neelam designs and delivers training courses on corporate and project accounting for WRI’s programs in China and India, for companies from various sectors, including the emissions-intensive Chinese cement sector. She is also researching various design options for a sectoral crediting mechanism.

Prior to joining WRI, Neelam worked as an environmental scientist with Potomac-Hudson Engineering (PHE), a private environmental and information technology consulting firm. Neelam also spent over four years as a research associate with the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment’s (CSE) climate change campaign and has worked as a short-term consultant with the World Bank. Neelam has an undergraduate degree in Physics from Delhi University and a Master’s degree in International Development Studies with a specialization in Environment Studies from Ohio University.

Ranping Song joined the GHG Protocol team as an Associate and Program Manager of the GHG Protocol in China. Working out of the WRI office in Beijing, Ranping manages GHG Protocol’s effort in China, supporting Chinese companies for the GHG Protocol Value Chain and Product Standards road testing, developing localized GHG Protocol tools & standards, conducting trainings and advising GHG management programs.

Prior to joining WRI, Ranping worked as the China Campaign Manager for The Climate Group in Beijing. There he worked to engage companies and government agencies to promote climate friendly products in order to reduce carbon footprint. Before working for The Climate Group, RP worked for the United Nations Development Group in New York. Ranping has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from New York University Wagner School of Public Service and a Bachelor’s degree in Law from Lanzhou University.

Mary Sotos is a Research Analyst on WRI’s GHG Protocol team and leads the team’s work on developing international GHG accounting guidance for renewable energy products and purchases. She co-authored the U.S. Public Sector Protocol providing GHG accounting guidance for US government agencies, and also supports the team’s calculation tools and resources. Mary graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. She spent a year in Brussels, Belgium conducting research through a Fulbright Fellowship analyzing regional energy demand projections and the anticipated impact of energy efficiency policies in the building sector. She also pursued graduate coursework in Science and Environmental Management at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.