Council

The Honourable
Steven Guilbeault

The Honourable Steven Guilbeault was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Laurier—Sainte-Marie in 2019. He has previously served as Minister of Canadian Heritage.

Minister Guilbeault is a prominent advocate in the fight against the climate crisis, and has been leading the charge from Laurier—Sainte-Marie for years.

Minister Guilbeault’s commitment to environmental issues started at the age of five, when he climbed a tree to protect it from real estate developers who were about to cut down the woods behind his home in La Tuque. Twenty-five years later, he scaled the CN Tower in Toronto to call for Canada to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

In 1993, Minister Guilbeault co-founded Équiterre, the largest environmental organization in Quebec, and served as its Senior Director from 2008 to 2018. He also worked as a Director and Campaign Manager for Greenpeace, and was a Strategic Advisor for more than 10 years at Cycle Capital Management, a Canadian fund dedicated to the development of clean technologies. Minister Guilbeault also worked for Deloitte & Touche as well as Copticom, a consulting firm specializing in the green and social economy, and transportation.

As an activist and strategic advisor for dozens of governments and businesses in Canada and abroad, Minister Guilbeault is a pragmatist who works to make a difference by building bridges and relationships. An avid cyclist and sportsman, he has been riding his bike 12 months a year for the last 30 years.

Minister Guilbeault is a father of four and stepfather of two.

Secretary
Alicia Bárcena

Minister of Environment and Natural Resources

She served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from June 2023 to September 2024. Previously, she was the Ambassador of Mexico to Chile.

From 2008 to 2022, she held the position of Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). She also served as Deputy Executive Secretary and Director of the Division of Environment and Human Settlements at ECLAC.

At the United Nations, she was the Deputy Secretary-General for Management, Chief of Staff, and Deputy Chief of Staff to the former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. Additionally, she served as Coordinator of the Sustainable Development Program for Latin America and the Caribbean at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and as Coordinator of the Environmental Citizenship Project at the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

In 1982, she became the first Vice Minister of Ecology in Mexico, at the then Ministry of Urban Development and Ecology. She also held the position of Director-General of the National Fisheries Institute in 1988.

She holds a degree in Biology and a Master’s in Ecology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University. She is the author of more than 50 publications in various international media and academic journals.

Administrator
Lee Zeldin

Lee Zeldin was sworn in as the 17th Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency on January 29, 2025.

Administrator Zeldin has dedicated his life to public service. He is currently in his 22nd year in the United States military, having deployed to Iraq in 2006 with the Army’s Elite 82nd Airborne Division and continues to serve as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve. He served in the New York State Senate from 2011-2014 and later represented New York’s 1st Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives from 2015-2023.

During his eight years in Congress, Zeldin worked across party lines to preserve the Long Island Sound and Plum Island. He supported key legislation that became historic, bipartisan success stories like the Great American Outdoors Act and Save our Seas Act to clean up plastics from our oceans. He also led the fight for Sea Grant, combated per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water, voted for the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, and supported clean energy projects on Long Island.

At just 23, Lee became the youngest attorney in New York State at the time.

Born and raised in Suffolk County, New York, Lee and his wife Diana are proud parents to their twin daughters, Mikayla and Arianna.