Hanne Petersen is chairman of the board and professor emerita at the Faculty of Law at the University of Copenhagen, where she received her Dr. jur. degree (1991) and went on to a Jean Monnet Scholarship (1993-94) at EUI in Florence. She was professor in jurisprudence and sociology of law at University of Greenland (1995- 1999), and held an externally financed professorship (in Greenlandic sociology of law) at University of Copenhagen (2001-2006). From 2009 until her retirement in 2021 she was professor in legal cultures at UCPH. She has researched and published on issues concerning labour law, women’s law, legal pluralism, sociology of law, and legal theory, indigenous (and Greenlandic) law, comparative legal culture (Greenland, China, Germany – Europe/Nordic countries). She has been a member of both Danish and European Research Panels (2001-2005 and ERC 2009-2013).
Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen holds a PhD in astrophysics from the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI) at the University of Copenhagen (1990). For more than 20 years, he led climate science at the Danish Meteorological Institute, but returned to the NBI in 2017 as a professor in climate physics. He has contributed to each of the main IPCC reports, except for the very first one from 1990.
He also had a leading role in several other national and international climate assessment reports. Since 2015, he has been a member of the World Climate Research Program’s joint scientific committee, contributing significantly to its restructuring and new strategy with a stronger focus on societal interaction.
Tim Whyte is the secretary general at ActionAid Denmark (Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke). He is particularly preoccupied with how marginalised groups of people, civil society organisations and social movements organise and make use of rights and the 2030 Agenda. Among other jobs, he has previously worked as the vice president of Save the Children Bangladesh, as a chief counsellor in the International Labour Organization in Nepal and as the head of communications in Forests of the World (Verdens Skove).
He holds a Bachelor Degree in colonial history from Wesleyan University in the USA og a Diploma of Specialised Journalism from Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX).
Lene Westergaard (she/her) holds a Master of Law and currently serves as a Senior Consultant at The Ocean Institute (Tænketanken Hav), a Copenhagen-based think tank. Her primary focus areas include ocean governance, due diligence processes related to business impacts on the marine environment, cumulative impacts, and the intersection of business practices with the rights of nature. Lene also focuses on frameworks for corporate and state accountability in achieving sustainable oceans and ensuring a just transition.
She is a strong believer in diversity and inclusion as a pathway to ensure business practices that work for people and the environment.