Our Team

Based in Bengaluru, India, Sanjana is the Regional Officer for the South and West Asian region. She joins after working with McKinsey & Co. as a Research Analyst for the Asia-Australia region where she worked with clients in technology, sustainability and public policy.

Prior to this, she completed a Masters in Development Studies from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in Chennai, India, where her thesis was on the governance of urban wetlands. She has also volunteered at her local FridaysforFuture chapter for over three years, as part of the youth climate movement.

In her free time, she enjoys watercolour painting, listening to audiobooks, and is slowly getting into cooking.

As C40’s Head of Implementation in Latin America, Sarah is responsible for the rollout of the UKAID CAI Programme in 5 C40 cities in Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Sarah has worked in the past 13 years in environmental sustainability and climate change both in the private and public sectors.

As the climate change advisor for the Secretary of Environment of the city of Bogotá, Sarah led and coordinated the formulation of the city’s CAP. Prior to this, she was the leader of the Building Energy Efficiency Accelerator program of the World Resources Institute in Bogotá and Colombia, while working at the Colombian Green Building Council.  She also supported the Climate Change strategy for the Housing and Urban sector at the Ministry of Housing, Cities and Territory of Colombia and her first experience in the public sector was at the National Natural Parks office as a sustainable architect and project manager.

In the private sector she has worked as a bioclimatic and environmental sustainability advisor for architectural projects and founded an office for sustainable drainage and water recycling in Bogotá.

Sarah is an architect and holds a specialization in environmental engineering from Los Andes University in Bogotá and a MSc in sustainable design from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.  

Sarah is C40’s Head of Grants. She leads a team supporting the organisation to set up and maintain grant management processes that aim to enable C40 to successfully deliver on contracts with our partners and suppliers and to contribute to our vision of equity-rooted climate action.

Sarah has 12+ years of experience in non-profit management and leadership working in a variety of roles supporting teams that design, fundraise for, manage, implement, and monitor sustainable development programmes on gender justice/women’s rights, climate justice, accountable governance, and conflict and fragility.

Having been on both the granting-in and granting-out ends of the funding spectrum, she has experience in setting up contract management systems that work to support the delivery of impact and at the same time uphold accountability to donors, regulators, as well as civil society partners and communities.

She has also authored and co-authored papers on social justice with a focus on gender equality and is passionate about racial justice and decolonisation.

Sarah is French and Lebanese. In her spare time, she loves reading, writing, learning new things, travelling, and eating her way through every city she finds herself in.

Sarah serves as Research Manager, supporting the Executive Director with research projects, speeches, articles and blogs. Sarah joined C40 after completing an MSc in Sustainable Resource Economics, Transitions and Policy at University College London. Her dissertation focussed on city-level energy projects. She also holds a BA in Middle Eastern Languages from the University of Manchester and has lived and worked in a number of global cities, including Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Alexandria. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys hiking and reading.

Selina serves as the Director of Climate Action Implementation at C40. Before this she was City Finance Programme Director & Head of the C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF), responsible for C40’s work on supporting cities to access finance to deliver their climate plans, leading the CFF C40 team, and overseeing this UNFCCC award-winning project preparation facility, which is delivered with our partners GIZ.

Prior to joining C40, Selina held a number of international climate and development roles in the UK civil service. Most recently, she led the team that developed the UK’s successful bid to secure COP26 Presidency. Other roles included the Head of the Programme Management Office which delivered the £3.3bn BEIS International Climate Fund and serving as the International Climate Fund’s forests monitoring lead. Prior to her work in international climate, Selina worked in Zimbabwe for the Department for International Development (DFID), leading on the WASH, Education and Humanitarian Programmes. Selina is based in London and studied Human Sciences at Oxford University.

Seneca serves as C40’s Programme Manager, Air Quality and Climate Action Planning. In this role, she works to integrate air quality and air pollution-related health considerations into the C40 Cities climate action planning process. As part of C40’s Air Quality and Climate Action Planning Integration Project, she will be responsible for coordinating the technical air quality impact analyses for seven pilot city projects. Prior to joining C40 Cities, Seneca worked at South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as a researcher in the Climate and Air Quality Modelling group, where she worked on projects in both the research and consulting arenas, with a focus on the air quality-climate change linkages that exist within cities and air quality management planning. Previously, Seneca worked as an air quality scientist at the South African Weather Service, where she was responsible for managing data from monitoring networks in South Africa’ nationally declared air quality priority areas and reporting this information to South Africa’s National Department of Environment, Forestries and Fisheries. She was involved in the development and operation of South Africa’s Industrial National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory System. Seneca holds an MSc in Atmospheric Science and a BSc Honours in Geography from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Shruti Narayan is the C40 Regional Director for South and West Asia. She is based out of New Delhi, India and works closely with city leadership to sustain and scale up C40’s efforts in the region.

Prior to this she was an Upstream Officer with International Finance Corporation’s (IFC, World Bank Group) Asia Pacific Cities Platform and has also led IFC’s Green Building program in South Asia. Shruti has almost 20 years of global work experience specializing in energy efficiency and sustainability. Her work experience also includes Will Alsop Architects in London, Arup in San Francisco and USAID ECOIII in New Delhi, where she has worked with diverse clients such as corporates, developers, institutions, policymakers and donor agencies to identify, design, incorporate and implement sustainable solutions with the goal of reducing resource consumption and maximizing efficiency. In addition, she has also been a faculty member in sustainable design with educational institutions globally such as Stanford University, USA, California College of Arts, USA, and the School of Planning and Architecture in India.

Shuang serves as the Senior Manager of Communications and Strategic Engagement in C40’s China office, to develop the communications function and strengthen the engagement with member cities. In this role, she advocates C40’s impact on external partners and stakeholders, identifies communication opportunities and approaches, leverage two-way communications of cities’ best practices between China and the global audience. Before joining C40, Shuang worked as Program Manager of Giti Group United in Diversity Foundation for 8 years.

She engaged cross-sector leaders to jointly step forward and take on sustainable development challenges through “Innovative Dynamics Education and Action for Sustainability (IDEAS)” leadership programmes with Chinese government, MIT Sloan and Tsinghua University. She also led communication and partnership engagement work from China side for major events hosted by the foundation, identify pathways for the foundation for pre-development of programmes, advocate programme outcomes to relevant government partners. Previously, Shuang worked in the WWF China office for policy research and advocacy, focusing on promoting the Ecological Footprint concept and Green Economy to policymakers as well as wide stakeholders. Shuang holds an MA in International Development from University of East Anglia and a BA from China Agricultural University.

As Head of the Chair’s Office, Silvia works with the Chair of C40, Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, her team in Paris, and the C40 Executive Director team to set the Chair’s strategic vision, implement the Chair’s priorities and coordinate Steering Committee engagement. Silvia manages Chair-level external communications and leads the Women4Climate initiative, designed to advance and support the emergence of the next generation of female climate leaders in C40 Cities.

The former director of green Think Tank Fondation de l’Ecologie Politique-FEP (France), Silvia has worked for several years at the French WWF office as the Institutional Relations Manager, responsible for the National Energy Transition Bill. Silvia graduated in International Relations from the University of Trieste (Italy), and holds a Masters degree in Urban Sociology from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences/EHESS-Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris, France).

Simon serves as Technical Lead for Transport at C40. In this role he provides technical expertise on transport and helps embed transport and urban planning programmes in cities’ climate action plans.

Prior to joining C40 Simon worked within the Transport Strategy team at Transport for London (TfL) on the development of air quality and environmental policy for the Mayors Transport Strategy and London Environment Strategy. He led the policy development for the T-Charge, the early introduction and expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone, the Mayor of London’s scrappage scheme for microbusinesses and charities, and TfL’s Zero Emission Zone guidance.

Simon holds an MSc in Transport Planning and Management from the University of Westminster and a BA in History from the University of Warwick.

Simon Sambou serves as C40’s City Adviser for Dakar. In this role, he is responsible for providing technical assistance in updating the city’s climate action plan to deliver mitigation and adaptation outcomes and inclusive low-carbon development in line to the Paris Agreement.

Simon has previously worked as a lecturer at the Institute of Environmental Sciences (ISE) and Climate Action Facilitator at the Group of Action and Initiative for an Alternative Development (GAIA). He was responsible for carbon assessment and monitoring at the Project for Sustainable and participatory management of traditional alternative energies (PROGEDE 2). Simon has also worked with the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) as a Program Officer coordinating the USAID’s Learning Agenda Project “Climate Information Services Research Initiative (CISRI)” in Senegal where he worked closely with local municipalities and as Climate Change Technical Advisor for the development of Green Climate Fund program. He holds a Masters degree in Geography, a MSc degree and PhD in Environmental Sciences from the Institute of Environmental Sciences of Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD).

Sisekelo is the Business Planning & Reporting Team Assistant in the Business Planning, Measurement & Innovation Department. In this role, she is responsible for producing robust and compelling data and visualisations for C40 decision-makers as well as C40 member cities.

Before joining C40, Sisekelo worked as an analyst for a developmental management consultancy. She has been involved in several transport industry development and green energy projects in various regions of South Africa.

Sisekelo completed her studies in Social Sciences at the University of Cape Town, with majors in Environmental Science and Anthropology. She further went on to study Business Management, also at the University of Cape Town.

Siya Sauka has more than 10 years of experience in the fields of climate change, natural (and water) resource management and environmental sustainability. She has focused on research, analysis and advisory in both the public and private sector, and has also worked closely with national governments, research institutions, multinational corporations, and international development finance institutions.
Prior to C40, Siya worked as an Engagement Manager at Pegasys (a development focused management consultancy), and as a Climate Researcher at the South African Institute of International affairs (an international affairs think tank). She has worked extensively on climate research and climate resilience. Her expertise also includes disaster risk assessment and reduction, carbon and water accounting, renewable energy, and promoting a green, inclusive and circular economy. Recently, she developed an interest and focus on the integration and use of data and information for effective decision-making in climate adaptation, particularly in developing countries.
Siya holds an MSc in Geography from the University of the Witwatersrand (dissertation focused on a Flood risk assessment for the Crocodile River, Mpumalanga), and is in the process of finalising her PhD application (focused on Analytical Approaches for Climate Adaptation and Decision-Making in the Face of Uncertainty).

Snigdha Garg serves as the Senior Manager, Adaptation Research and Integration. In this position, she is responsible for managing adaptation research projects of C40 and mainstreaming adaptation across C40’s projects and programmes. Before joining C40, Snigdha graduated from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies with a Masters in Environmental Management. She previously worked with ICLEI South Asia for three years on building climate resilience strategies, disaster risk reduction, developing climate change mitigation and adaptation plans for cities, and bench-marking basic services against national standards for South Asian cities. She has experience in sustainability consulting, project management and urban resilience. In addition, she also holds a Masters of Environmental Studies from TERI University, India and a Bachelors of Science from Delhi University, India.

Stefania oversees the Food Systems Network as part of C40’s Urban Planning and Development Initiative. Before joining C40, Stefania worked as policy advisor and project manager at the Mayor’s Office of Milan (2011-2015), where she focused on the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact and overall Food Policy for the city. In particular, Stefania helped design both measures and served as a liaison for local and international stakeholders. Stefania also worked as a World Health Organization (WHO) consultant for policy alignment and aid coordination in the health sector in Moldova (2011-2014) and Tajikistan (2006-2009). She has a PhD in Institutions and Policies from UCSC, Milan, and a MSc in Political Economy of Late Development from the London School of Economics.