Ilona Szabó is an entrepreneur, strategist, and board member with over 25 years of experience. She is co-founder and president of the Igarapé Institute and the Green Bridge Facility. She serves on several boards, including the WEF Global Future Council on Natural Capital, the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits and re.green. She has an MA in International Studies from the University of Uppsala in Sweden, and is an affiliate scholar at the Princeton University Brazil Lab.
Carolina Graça
chief operating officer
Dr. Carolina Graça has over 20 years of expertise in sustainability, agribusiness, responsible supply chains, land governance, and conservation. She has previously held key roles at Bayer Crop Science, Earthworm Foundation, and Stora Enso, focusing on sustainable production, ecosystem conservation, and human rights. Dr. Graça has a BA in agronomy and PhD in business administration.
Leriana Figueiredo
security and institutional articulation senior expert
Sociologist with a PhD from the Graduate Program in Sociology and Law at Fluminense Federal University (UFF), and author of the book A percepção das juventudes de espaços urbanos populares sobre as Intervenções das Políticas de Segurança Pública no Rio de Janeiro. She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from UFF and has over 20 years of experience in violence prevention, leading projects and third-sector organizations in the field. She previously served as Superintendent of Prevention at the Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat of Public Security.
Mario Gioto
project management officer
Mario Gioto is a multicultural leader with 14+ years of experience in strategy, operations, and large-scale transformation initiatives. He specializes in systems thinking, strategy execution, human-centered design, and storytelling. His career includes roles at SPIROL, weme&bud, and OUTRO.Company, as well as serving as a TEDx Ambassador for Brazil. Currently, he works at Instituto Igarapé and Green Bridge Facility in organizational change and project management. He holds an Engineering degree from Unicamp, an MBA from FGV, and a specialization in Innovation from Stanford.
Menandro Barreto
senior risk expert
Menandro Barreto brings experience in sustainability and climate research, risk analysis, and business strategy. He has led global research teams at key sustainability intelligence providers (RepRisk and ISS STOXX) and supported strategic planning and risk oversight for Honda’s operations in South America. Menandro holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from the IHEID in Switzerland, where he researched environmental risks in the Brazilian oil sector, and a BA in International Relations from the University of Tokyo, Japan.
Katherine Aguirre
analyst
Katherine Aguirre is a Colombian economist specializing in research on violence and development. She is a researcher at the Igarapé Institute and coordinates the Network of Women in Security and Defense in Latin America and the Caribbean (Amassuru). She holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the IHEID in Switzerland. Katherine has worked with leading think tanks in Colombia, such as CERAC and FIP, and in Switzerland with the Small Arms Survey. Her work focuses on the prevention and reduction of violence while integrating environmental and gender perspectives.
Maria Mogrovejo Muller
research assistant
Maria Mogrovejo Muller holds a degree in Math and Earth Science from UFRJ, with expertise in remote sensing and geoprocessing, and experience manipulating geospatial data using platforms such as GEE, Google Colab, and ArcGIS Pro. She has worked on wildfire monitoring in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes at the Laboratory for Environmental Satellite Applications (LASA-UFRJ).
Sofia Euthymiou
risk management consultant
Sofia Euthymiou brings global experience leading advanced risk and business opportunity management. Her career includes Shell and the World Energy Council, working at the nexus of strategy, project development, finance, and technology to build a more resilient and regenerative future. With a multidisciplinary background, she combines technical rigor in Engineering (UFRJ and RWTH Aachen) with strategic insight in Risk (Cranfield), Intelligent Systems (TU Delft), and Business (USP).
Robert Muggah
senior advisor
Dr. Robert Muggah has over 30 years experience in project management, monitoring and evaluation, product development, and strategic leadership. He has founded multiple think tanks and start-ups, including the Igarape Institute, SecDev, Bioverse and SuperNature. He has led large-scale diagnostics and evaluations across the Amazon region and has field-based experience in over 50 countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia. He is also a frequent TED and WEF speaker and advises multiple governments, companies, and international organizations. He has an MPhil from Sussex (IDS) and a DPhil from the University of Oxford.
