Olga Chepelianskaia

Founder, UNICITI

Olga Chepelianskaia is an international sustainability expert and Founder of UNICITI. She specializes on sustainable and climate resilient urban development in Asian cities, natural ecosystems and heritage revival, climate finance and clean energy. Over 15 years of her professional engagement, she managed 5 major international programs, covered over 20 cities and 40 countries, and worked with 7 leading international institutions: ADB, CDIA, Rockefeller Foundation, UNDP, UNECE, UNEP and UNESCAP.

Her technical expertise covers climate resilience and DRR, integrated urban planning and urban design, heritage revival and valorisation of cultural and natural assets, sustainable tourism and placemaking, urban infrastructure services, and climate finance. Her cross-cutting expertise covers program management, policy and governance, public participation and stakeholder engagement, capacity building, PR and communication. Her brand approach is to help Asian cities become vibrant, sustainable, climate resilient, economically dynamic, inclusive and culturally unique by placing their natural and cultural assets at the core of their development.

She is a speaker and moderator of a number of international events, including the World Bank’s Smart Republic 2019 (Delhi, India), 361 Degrees Designing for the Future Conference (Mumbai, India), 2018 Placemaking Week (Wuhan, China), 54th ISOCARP Congress (Bodo, Norway), TEDxFMS (New Delhi, India), 4th Global Climate Policy Conference (Sao Paulo, Brazil), the World Urban Forum 9 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), ICLEI Resilient Cities Asia-Pacific (Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam), Climate Forum’17 (Moscow, Russia), Future Energy Forum 2017 (Astana, Kazakhstan) or UNDP Asia Forum on the Role of Local and Urban Governments in Building Sustainable and Resilient Cities and Rural Areas (Haiyang, China).