Title of the speech: Resilience by design though water and nature: levers for change in the current policy landscape.

Elena Lopez-Gunn - Founder and CEO of ICATALIST, a research company specializing in climate change adaptation and sustainability.

She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal Elcano Institute, a member of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change, and Lead Author of IPCC Working Group II on Adaptation, vulnerability and impacts. She will also act as Lead Author of Chapter 6: Policies, Governance, Economic Instruments and Financing Transitions for the Second Mediterranean Assessment Report (MAR2).

She is an EU Climate Pact ambassador, and part of the UNESCO Task Force on a Science-Based Water Assessment. She collaborated as an Expert in the Spanish Citizens'  Climate Change Assembly and associations like EcoAdapta or Brigaid Connect. She holds a Master's degree from Cambridge University and completed her PhD at King's College London and a Master in Investigative Journalism data and Visualization from Juan Carlos I University.

Her expertise includes water governance, water security, and climate adaptation. She has held positions at IE Business School, the Water Observatory of the Botin Foundation, Leeds University Cheney fellow, and the London School of Economics as an Alcoa Research Fellow.