Our Board

Board Member Juliane Kronen visiting 2010 Laureate SAPPROS, credit: Right Livelihood.

Meet our Board

Members of our Board of Trustees contribute their expertise to improve our governance and strategic development.

Our course is decided by our Board of Trustees, which convenes several times each year. Trustees also make up part of the Jury deciding over the recipients of the Award.

CHAIR OF THE BOARD

Gunilla Hallonsten

about Gunilla

Gunilla Hallonsten holds a Ph D in Theology and a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from University of Lund in Sweden.

Gunilla has previously been Acting Executive Director, Acting International Director, Policy Director, Policy Advisor on HIV, Gender and Theology within Church of Sweden. She has also been a Senior Advisor on Gender Justice at ACT Alliance, based in South Africa, and earlier on Coordinator on HIV and Gender Equality in Southern Africa for Church of Sweden, based in Eswatini.

Gunilla has a longstanding commitment to Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) especially working on global policy and advocacy related to SRHR, HIV and gender equality, and she has also been a board member of the Swedish RFSU.

Her knowledge on the areas gender, SRHR and theology was deepened through working for many years in Southern Africa with FBOs and CSOs on HIV and gender equality. She gained experience within humanitarian work through the humanitarian specialization on Community-based psycho-social support, as well as from being Senior Advisor on Gender at ACT Alliance in relation to their advocacy and policy work.

Gunilla is currently the Dean of Malmö where she among other things works with interreligious work for social cohesion and peace. She is also a member of the World Council of Churches Commission of Churches for International Affairs.

VICE CHAIR OF THE BOARD

Juliane Kronen

about juliane

Juliane Kronen is a consultant and entrepreneur. She built a career in strategy consulting, working with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on worldwide assignments from 1994 to 2010, and from 2002 onwards as a partner and managing director. She was the global sector head for information technology in the telecommunications industry, and served as the European head of BCG’s global women initiative from 2004 to 2007, which aimed to sustainably increase the share of female consultants by improving recruiting and retention measures.

Juliane served as an advisor on strategic and organizational issues to the Board of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation from 2007 until 2010, when she was appointed as a Trustee.

BOARD MEMBER AND 2013 LAUREATE

Paul Walker

about Paul

Paul is the Director of Green Cross International’s Environmental Security and Sustainability programme. He has worked as a professional staff member for the Committee on Armed Services in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he organised the first US on-site inspection of a Russian chemical weapons stockpile in 1994, published several books, such as The Price of Defense and The Nuclear Almanac, and collaborated with a multitude of international organisations working on arms control and justice. He is known for his skills in bringing together and engaging various stakeholders from around the world. Since the mid-1990s, Paul is leading the Environmental Security and Sustainability Program at Green Cross International.

He received the Right Livelihood Award in 2013.

BOARD member

Joshua Castellino

about joshua

Joshua Castellino serves as the Co-Executive Director of Minority Rights Group, bringing a wealth of legal knowledge about minority rights, access to justice and the interplay between security, development and human rights. Previously, he was the Dean of the School of Law at Middlesex University, which he founded in 2012.

BOARD MEMBER

Reinhard Loske

about Reinhard

Reinhard Loske brings decades of experience as a scholar, researcher and author on climate policy and social transformation. Previously, he has served as a member of the German Bundestag, including as environmental policy spokesman for the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen party. Between 2007 and 2011, he was Senator for the Environment, Construction, Transport and Europe in the city of Bremen.

Among other positions, Reinhard is a Senior Associate Fellow of the German Foreign Policy Council (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik) and a member of ECOROPA, the European Network for Ecological Reflection and Action.

Board Member

Kajsa Övergaard

about Kajsa

Kajsa was a Right Livelihood staff member from 2008-2024 and has deep knowledge about its Laureates and the history of the Award. She has previously worked at the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Life-Link Friendship Schools, the Swedish Development Forum, Save the Children Sweden and the Nordic Africa Institute. Through her university studies and working life, Kajsa has always aimed for a systemic and interdisciplinary approach on what has been her main focus – peace, justice and sustainability.

CO-OPTED TO THE BOARD

Ole von Uexkull

about Ole

Ole von Uexkull holds Master’s degrees in Environmental Science (Lund University) and European Studies (Freie Universität, Humboldt Universität, and Technische Universität Berlin). After his studies, he won a fellowship for the Postgraduate Programme in International Affairs of the Robert Bosch Foundation, the German National Academic Foundation, and the German Foreign Office.

Ole has worked at the German Parliament in Berlin, the United Nations Environment Programme in Paris, and the European Parliament in Brussels. He is the nephew of the Right Livelihood founder Jakob von Uexkull.