Staff

Patrick Brown

Executive Director

  • Patrick is a former Member of the Legislative Assembly in Northern Ireland, with 10 years of experience as an elected representative in local and national government. He has a background in international development and a PhD in politics from Queen’s University, with his thesis looking at the role of cash transfers in post-conflict peacebuilding. He has extensive experience in grassroots organising, environmental advocacy and political campaigning, including as the founder of a political travel company and as the Campaigns and Development Officer for the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. He is currently based in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland.

patrick@equalright.org

Zainab Bie

Director, Asia Pacific

  • Zainab is an expert in Climate Justice and Public Policy with a strong background in Economics. She has spearheaded initiatives across diverse regions, representing India and the Global South at key international forums such as COP27, COP28, G20, and SBs. Zainab has authored research papers for UN-HABITAT and GIZ, and has collaborated with global organizations including Greenpeace International and USAID. Trained by UNITAR, she has amplified social impact and the youth climate movement. Based in Delhi, India, Zainab is a dynamic advocate for change

zainab@equalright.org

Sarah Hathiari

PhD Researcher

  • Sarah is a PhD Researcher with the Social Policy & Sciences team at the University of Bath, co-funded by Equal Right. Her research examines the intersection of climate justice and gender equality, focusing on how unconditional cash allocations can drive equitable and sustainable outcomes. Sarah has co-authored research reports with Equal Right and Project Deep, contributing to interdisciplinary work on social and environmental policy. Prior to her doctoral studies, she was a Researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, where she co-authored publications on systems analysis for digital competition policy and international carbon trading mechanisms. At IIASA, Sarah led the first publication of the IIASA Women in Science magazine which highlights women’s experiences and achievements in the field of research. She has spent her formative years between India and the UK and earned her MSc Economics in Austria from the Vienna University of Economics & Business (WU).

George Matu Mureithi

Project Coordinator, Kenya

  • Matu is a financial consultant as well as an advocate for Universal Basic Income (UBI). With extensive experience in the financial sector, including roles at leading banks and microfinance institutions, he has a deep understanding of the challenges marginalized communities face, particularly in accessing financial services. He is committed to exploring solutions to poverty, inequality, and climate change through sustainable economic systems, focusing on empowering communities and building inclusive financial frameworks.

Carlos Adrian Perez

Director, Latin America

  • Carlos has over a decade of experience in environmental sustainability, social justice, and peacebuilding. His career encompasses international organisations & NGOs, where he has fostered dialogue with communities affected by conflict, women, & ethnic groups to develop social projects and advocate for environmental sustainability. His expertise also extends to political and consultancy work, where he has built bridges and facilitated collaborative efforts between the private and public sectors for the benefit of the most vulnerable. Additionally, his work in academia involves researching alternative perspectives on socio-environmental issues & global justice.

carlos@equalright.org

Management Board

Paul Harnett

  • Paul is an economist. He works on macroeconomics, public finance management and poverty reduction, with specialisms in healthcare, agricultural economics, anti-corruption schemes, community participation, and safety nets including cash transfers. He has worked with the World Bank, European Commission, UNDP, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, World Health Organisation, the UK’s Department for International Development, the African Development Bank, SECO, USAID and various NGOs, and he sits on the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department expert panel. He has worked throughout Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe and the USA. He is currently Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Louis Strappazzon

  • Louis is a PhD student at the University of Bath, researching the role of hope in the Basic Income Movement and is an active campaigner working towards a Basic Income pilot in Greater Manchester, UK. He co-chairs UBI Lab Manchester, which is an autonomous group part of the global and decentralised UBI Lab Network, that consists of individuals across the world campaigning for a Universal Basic Income. He has volunteered for World Basic Income (now Equal Right) since 2020, which has involved producing the podcast Act Global and providing research support. Louis has a BA in History and Politics and an MA in Political Economy from the University of Manchester

Mike Dowden

  • Mike is an economist. He works on microeconomics, regional economic development focussing on labour market issues and dynamics (un/employment, routes into work, gender, training et al), SME and entrepreneur matters (especially survival entrepreneurship), programme development and financing. Mike’s experience has been with DfID, the European Commission, the World Bank and various NGOs. This work has taken place throughout Europe, Africa, the MENA and Gulf States, Asia and North America.

Elena Klaudis

  • Elena started her career in marketing agencies working on database management and account planning. After briefly managing a small theatre marketing department, she re-trained in video production and facilitated youth video projects on conflict resolution and social enterprise education. As part of UBI Lab Network & UBI Lab Lambeth she researches UBI in the context of climate change, new economy and transition. She has also founded a small literary project linking readers, writers and publishers expanding creative opportunity through an alternative model of copyright licensing.

Laura Bannister

  • Laura is a political economist, justice activist and researcher. In various roles she has worked on global justice, trade justice, universal basic income, child rights and environmental issues, and she has helped to draft basic income manifesto proposals during general elections. She studied political economy with research focused on worldwide inequality and the potential for a global minimum wage. She has worked with the Eastern Africa Greens Federation in Uganda and Kenya and with NGOs in Zambia. In 2016 she set up Equal Right (formerly World Basic Income) to campaign for North-South redistribution and a secure income as a human right. 

Sarah Methven

  • Sarah is a governance and social development consultant. She works on empowering citizens and civil society organisations to engage with governments and decision makers on rights, livelihoods, justice, community resource management and monitoring. After completing a Masters degree in Social Policy and Social Development she joined www.intrac.org and is now an associate. She has worked with the Department for International Development, the EU and other donors, and for organisations including Oxfam GB and Concern Worldwide. She lived in Southern Africa for ten years and now volunteers with Bristol Signing Support group that supports asylum seekers. After nearly thirty years working in development, she is excited by the potential of a world basic income to empower people and reduce global inequality.

Zagabe Appolinaire

  • Zagabe is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and is currently a high level actor on Climate Justice issues , Entrepreneurship and Social work. He holds a Master's Degree in Public International Law from Kampala International University, and is Founder and Director of the DRC Climate Change Network, a platform bringing together several local, national, international and indigenous organisations in the DRC to campaign for the protection of the environment and fight against climate change. He is also the author of several publications in scientific research in the context of International Law and Conflict Resolution around the World.

Harsh Patel

  • Harsh is a sustainability professional with five years of experience in consulting and data management. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with the Public and private sector leaders to solve complex problems and push for better practices. In his most recent role at Schneider Electric, he works to bridge the gap between complex data and actionable climate action. He is a second-generation Indian American with agricultural roots in Gujarat, Harsh is driven by the human dimension of sustainability. He is specifically dedicated to rectifying the impacts of mineral extraction in unregulated markets, advocating for fair labor practices and worker rights to ensure a high quality of life for global communities. Harsh holds a Master’s in Environmental and Sustainability Management from Georgetown University and a Bachelor’s from the University of South Carolina

Daniel Mermelstein

  • Daniel is a universal basic income campaigner. He volunteers with the UBI Lab Network and is a trustee of the Basic Income Research Group (formerly the Citizens Basic Income Trust). He is involved in the proposal for the first ever UBI trial in England and, as someone who grew up in Colombia, is working hard to make sure that Equal Right's project for a UBI trial in his country of birth becomes a reality. Daniel has a professional background in journalism and technology product management.

Saskia Daggett

  • Saskia has worked as Campaigns/Programme Director for a range of international organisations including Oxfam, Save the Children International and as a consultant for UNICEF. She has led campaigning on climate change, women's rights, mental health and anti-corruption. She lived and worked in Uganda for seven years working in and alongside grassroots organisations. She is a specialist in campaigning for systems change and is in awe of what groups of passionate people can achieve together.

Emma Gilbert

  • Emma is a human rights lawyer. She started as a legal aid solicitor in London helping families and vulnerable persons seek justice in inquest proceedings, judicial reviews and civil litigation against the police and the state. More recently, Emma is focusing on her international practice as a Legal Advisor to the Blockchain Climate Institute and pursuing an Advanced LL.M. in International Children’s Rights at Leiden University. She became aware of Equal Right in her role as a Director of Amazing Communities Together and is animated about the potential for UBI to transform the economics of climate activism.   

International Advisory Board

Eduardo Suplicy

Politician & Author, Brazil

  • Eduardo Matarazzo Suplicy is a Brazilian economist, professor, businessman, and politician from the Workers’ Party (PT). He was the first PT senator, serving for 24 years (1991–2015), and was re-elected in 1998 and 2006.

    Suplicy has a long public career: state deputy (1979), federal deputy (1983), city councilor (1989, 2017, 2021), and state deputy again in 2022, when he won with a record 807,015 votes. He also served as São Paulo’s Human Rights Secretary (2014).

    Throughout his career, he has championed income distribution policies to fight inequality. In 1991, he introduced Brazil’s first Minimum Income proposal, and since 1994 has promoted the idea of a Universal Basic Income. His work led to the approval of Law 10.835 (2004), making Brazil the first country in the world to adopt a Basic Income law.

Tomás Paes de Carvalho

Basic Income Expert, Brazil

  • Tomás is an economist with extensive research experience on inequalities and the precariousness of labour in Brazil and Latin America. With a strong background in basic income and sovereign wealth funds, he has worked with the development and evaluation of cash transfer policies in the region. Since 2021, he coordinates a network of young economists focused on economic and climate justice. He graduated from the Universidade Federal Fluminense, with a year abroad at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Rahul Basu

Research Director, India

  • Rahul is Research Director at Goa Foundation, an environmental non-profit in India.

    He is technical advisor to Mines, Minerals & People and on the India advisory board of the India Network for Basic Income. Rahul is a member of INSEE (Indian Society for Ecological Economics), EAERE (European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists), the Goenchi Mati Movement and The Future We Need. He has published papers in Economics & Political Weekly on mining and intergenerational equity. His experience includes finance & accounting, behavioural economics and public policy.

Caroline Whyte

Ecological Economist, Ireland

  • Caroline is an ecological economist who undertakes research and advocacy for the Irish think-tank Feasta (The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability).

    ​Caroline is the main author of a series of Feasta submissions and publications which include analyses of Universal Basic Income and commons-based taxation. She is a member of the Steering Groups of the Irish Environmental Pillar and Stop Climate Chaos Ireland and the Economic Transition Working Group of the European Environmental Bureau, and she represents Feasta in the global Wellbeing Economy Alliance.

Bernard 'Kato' Ewekia

Founder & National Director, Tuvalu

  • Bernard is the founder and National Director of Saving Tuvalu

    Kato is a Tuvaluan citizen who has found love for his country in the details that make it unique. He is a passionate climate campaigner, and through his organisation Saving Tuvalu he has led one of his country’s most influential environmental organisations at both local and national levels. He was the first Tuvaluan youth to represent his country at COP, and has done so 3 times. He is currently based in Perth, Australia with his family, and spends his time playing rugby and visualising a better future for his home country.

Natalie Bennett

Green Party Peer, House of Lords, UK

  • Natalie is a Green Party member of the UK House of Lords, which she entered in 2019, having been leader of the England and Wales Party from 2012-2016. Australian-born, she lived for five years in Thailand, where she volunteered at the National Commission on Women's Affairs, before moving to London where she became editor of the Guardian Weekly. Her first chapter of her first book, Change Everything: How We Can Rethink, Repair and Rebuild Society, is about universal basic income, of which she is a long-term champion.

Kianna Juda-Angelo

Special Envoy, Kwajalein Atoll Local Government, Marshall Islands / USA

  • Kianna is Special Envoy to the Kwajalein Atoll Local Government, advising on renewable energy, green technology, circular economy, and sustainable infrastructure across the atoll. She is founder and Executive Director of The Non-Profit Living Islands, where she oversees just under $1 million in annual program funding across climate adaptation, food security, sustainability education, and cultural preservation for Micronesian communities in the Pacific and the United States. She serves as an executive member of Oregon's Disaster Resilience Learning Network, which brings organizations of color together to build natural disaster messaging for and with indigenous communities, and sits on the board of the Oregon Pacific Islander Coalition. Small island states feel the climate crisis first and hardest, and her work focuses on shifting to clean energy, managing waste, and food and health justice. Her professional development holds certificates focused on Blue & Green Economy and sustainability for SIDS and Big Ocean Sovereign States, including Women Leaders in Climatic Development. Indigenous to the Pacific People, Kianna was born in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and raised as a transracial adoptee in the US. She splits her time between Oregon, the Marshall Islands, and Denmark, inspired and supported by her Danish husband and their four children.

Frank Kamanga

Lecturer in Economics, Malawi

  • Frank is a Lecturer in Economics at the Catholic University of Malawi.

    Frank leads the Basic Income Malawi group and is a global ambassador for the universal basic income movement. He is a former Economist of the Reserve Bank of Malawi and has co-founded two non-governmental organizations: Global Hope Mobilization and Centre for Child Development and Research. As a dynamic Economist, his domains of change-making include universal basic income, business economics, agriculture, digital economy and youth development.

John Barry

Professor, Northern Ireland

  • John is a father, a recovering politician and Professor of Green Political Economy at Queens University Belfast. He is also co-chair of the Belfast Climate Commission.

    What keeps him awake at night is the life opportunities and future wellbeing of his and other children in this age of the planetary crisis, and why it is easier for most people to believe in the end of the world than the end of capitalism and economic growth. His areas of academic research include post-growth and heterodox political economy; the politics, policy and political economy of climate breakdown and climate resilience; and the overlap between conflict transformation and these sustainability and energy transitions.

Brent Ranalli

Practitioner & Researcher, USA

  • Brent is an environmental policy practitioner and researcher.

    His book Common Wealth Dividends: History and Theory recounts the principle of common wealth dividends (the idea that those who make private use of common resources should compensate those who are excluded) in three different domains: as applied to land by Thomas Paine and others; as applied to oil and other natural resources starting with the Alaska Permanent Fund; and as applied to the atmosphere as a carbon sink. The book also situates the exploitation of natural resources for dividends within a larger framework of ecological sustainability, and investigates the extension of the idea of common wealth dividends beyond nature to man-made common resources like our financial and monetary systems.

Robert Fletcher

Professor, The Netherlands

  • Robert is Professor of Political Ecology in the Sociology of Development and Change group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. An environmental anthropologist, Fletcher uses a political ecology approach to explore how culturally-specific understandings of human-nonhuman relations and political economic structures intersect to inform patterns of natural resource use and conflict. He is the author of several books, including Failing Forward: The Rise and Fall of Neoliberal Conservation (U of California, 2023), Romancing the Wild: Cultural Dimensions of Ecotourism (Duke University, 2014), and (co-authored) The Conservation Revolution: Radical Ideas for Saving Nature beyond the Anthropocene (Verso, 2020).

Guy Standing

Author, UK

  • Guy is a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London and a founding member and honorary co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), a non-governmental organisation that promotes a basic income for all.

    An author of several books on Basic Income, including 'Plunder of the Commons: A Manifesto for Sharing Public Wealth', and 'Basic Income and how to make it happen', Standing has also endorsed carbon levies as a means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He is a prominent advocate, speaker and thought-leader on economics, labour and basic income, known in particular for his work on 'The Precariat' and the Madhya Pradesh basic income trial in India.

Asma Jima

Urban Climate Finance and Inclusive Action Expert

  • Asma has over 20 years' experience in sustainable and inclusive urban development. For the last five years, she has served as Senior Advisor to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM), advocating for the acceleration of, and increase in, urban climate finance flows to cities and the most vulnerable. She is Co-chair of the UNFCCC Informality Working Group, the Funding and Financing Action Track of the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI) and on the Leadership Council of the Institute for Sustainable Cities & Responsible Enterprises (ISCRE). 

Azul Schvartzman

Climate Specialist, Argentina

  • Azul is a climate specialist from Argentina. With over 8 years of experience in the field and very strong ties in the Latin American & Caribbean region, she has worked with governments, Civil Society Organisations and international organizations to advance climate action nationally, regionally and worldwide. In 2022 she co-founded LAYCS, an initiative aimed to empower young people from the Latin America region in international climate negotiations.