About us
Our team
The Forum is led by women working across sustainability, science, policy and practice in every region of our network.
Leadership
Isabel B. Franco, Ph.D, MBA
Founder and Global Chairperson
Isabel is an ESG, climate finance and social safeguards specialist with over 20 years of international experience across Asia and the Pacific, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. She has advised ADB, GGGI, the UN system, governments, financial institutions and private sector clients, helping them test whether projects meet financing requirements, close risks and gaps, and strengthen how they monitor and report on results.
Her experience spans country level ESG advice, assessing lending portfolios against national green taxonomies, designing parametric climate insurance, developing climate finance roadmaps for Pacific communities, supporting a national stock exchange and overseeing due diligence for mining acquisitions. She also led social impact management for a cross border renewable energy project spanning Australia, Indonesia and Singapore.
Isabel is the founder of IBF International Institute for Better Futures, where the Women Sustainability Forum was born. The Forum began as IBF’s Exceptional Women in Sustainability network (eWisely network), grew into the global forum it is today and remains part of IBF. Isabel continues to lead it as Global Chairperson, and her TEDxUQ talk tells the story that inspired her to start it. She holds a PhD in Governance, Sustainability and Social Performance from The University of Queensland, Australia, and a postdoctorate from the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, Japan. She has authored and edited three Springer volumes and works in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
TEDxUQ talk · The inspiration behind the Forum
Regional chairs
Our regional chairs lead sessions, partnerships and outreach in each region.
Natalia Cano, Ph.D
Regional Chair, The Americas
Natalia is a sustainability assessment specialist with a PhD in sustainability assessment. Her research and practice focus on circular economy and life cycle analysis across the mining, energy and livestock sectors, translating the environmental footprint of products and supply chains into evidence that decision makers can act on.
She verifies Environmental Product Declarations and serves as President of the Colombian Life Cycle Assessment Network, where she advances life cycle thinking across industry, academia and government. She works in English and Spanish.
Vihanga Amarakoon
Regional Chair, Asia and the Pacific
Vihanga is a researcher specialising in the intersection of climate disasters and mental health. At Griffith University she investigates how floods and disaster response affect communities in Sri Lanka and the officials who serve them, and she has presented her findings at international public health forums.
She holds first class honours from the University of Colombo and received the Exceptional Women in Sustainability Award in 2024. She brings evidence on climate resilience and community wellbeing to the Forum’s work and advocates for resilient, nature positive futures across Asia and the Pacific.
Eva Devillers
Regional Chair, Europe
Eva is a development and sustainability practitioner with a background in International Cooperation and Development Studies and a degree in Globalisation and Development Studies from Maastricht University. Her work focuses on sustainability, environmental justice and gender equality.
She conducted field research on community action against plastic pollution with a grassroots NGO in Surabaya, Indonesia, and has worked with non governmental organisations and undertaken volunteer assignments across Southeast Asia and South Africa, grounding her approach in local realities. Fluent in French and English and proficient in Dutch, she leads the Forum’s engagement with women working on environmental governance across Europe and contributes to WSF initiatives on sustainability and women’s empowerment, including the book campaign 100 Exceptional Women in Sustainability: 100 Voices, One Sustainable World.
“I believe we can learn a lot from one another, and that understanding different perspectives is an important part of creating change.”
Catherine Asiimwe
Regional Chair, the Middle East and Africa
Catherine is a finance and project management professional based in Uganda, with more than 16 years of experience across government, Big Four firms and non profit organisations. She is a Certified Public Accountant and a Project Management Professional, and holds an MBA.
Her work centres on financial literacy as a pathway to sustainable livelihoods, and she mentors youth, women and small business owners. She is a Mandela Washington Fellow and received the Exceptional Women in Sustainability Award in 2021.
Join the team
We welcome expressions of interest from women who would like to chair a session, lead a regional chapter or volunteer with the Forum.
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