Graciela Chichilnisky holds the UNESCO Chair of Mathematics and Economics at Columbia University, and is a professor of statistics. She is the Director of Columbia’s Program on Information and Resources, whose mission is to develop new economic strategies that increase productivity in industrial and developing countries and simultaneously promote wise stewardship of the world’s ecological resources. Professor Chichilnisky was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FITEL, a financial telecommunications corporation, from 1985-90. She has served as advisor to many international organizations, including the United Nations Economics Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in the areas of international economics and environmental policy. She is a former member of the Presidential Cabinet of the Central Bank of Argentina, and an active consultant to the United Nations on international trade issues and the global financial industry on derivatives and reinsurance.