The Team

The Project Team of the Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) in support of free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations between the European Union and Malaysia has sound experience across the economic, social, environmental and human rights dimensions. As such, the Project Team produces analysis that builds upon a broad understanding of the potential impacts of the FTA under discussion in respect to each of the thematic areas, developing a holistic view of its potential impacts on the trading partners and on ohter relevant countries. Additionally, the Project Team has considerable knowledge of and experience in trade, trade law and policy and preferential market access, as well as in stakeholder consultation.

As Team Leader on a considerable number of (EU-funded) projects, including for Sustainability Impact Assessment study of the Europe-China Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) and for Trade-Related Capacity Strengthening in the EU-ESA Economic Partnership Agreement, Mr. Van der Geest has gained extensive experience managing international expert teams. He has excellent communication and reporting skills, is deeply familiar with European Commission external assistance programmes and has thorough knowledge of Commission rules and procedures. Mr. Van der Geest was the lead author of the International Trade Centre (ITC) flagship report on market access and transparency in global trade, presenting unique survey analyses of non-tariff measures and voluntary standards as well as implementation of duty-free and quota-free market access for LDCs, including the EU’s GSP and EBA. Mr. Van der Geest has also served as the Team Leader of the EU’s mid-term evaluation of the GSP.

Mr. Paul has extensive knowledge of customs integration, trade facilitation and investment and its monitoring and evaluation, primarily acquired while serving as Head of Unit at HMRC and Team Leader in EU Cooperation Projects (especially ASEAN) and Project Manager at EUROSTAT. Whilst working at COMESA, ECOWAS, UEMOA, CARICOM, Former Soviet Union countries and Western Balkan countries, Mr. Paul gained exposure to the intricacies of regional integration processes and integration monitoring. Additionally, Mr. Paul has sound knowledge of the European Commission project management procedures and financial regulations gained while leading and implementing EU funded technical assistance projects. In his capacity of Team Leader and Key Trade Statistics expert, Mr. Paul led numerous technical assistance missions in ASEAN Members States including in Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore. Mr. Paul has also implemented working procedures to harmonise economic data (trade in goods, services and foreign direct investment) for use in the monitoring of ASEAN economic integration.

Mr. Tri Sasonko Adi’s expertise covers a wide variety of topics as a result of his active engagement with a wide range of projects. This includes as Project Director for Habitat Mapping and Environmental Specialist in Sipitang, Malaysia, Project Director and Team Leader for Baseline Data Collection and Cadstral Mapping for REDD+ under the United Nations Development Program, as well as Team Leader for an Integrated Citarum Watershed Management Project for the Asian Development Bank, among others. In these roles, Mr. Tri Sasonko Adi has acquired a wealth of experience in spatial analysis, community and stakeholder engagement, biodiversity assessment, material development, event management, the development of communication tools as well as technical documents. Mr. Tri Sasonko Adi has been the Environmental Specialist for Regional Capacity Building for Health Risk Management of Persistence Organic Pollutants (POP) for Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines in 2008. Between 2014 and 2017, Mr. Tri Sasonko Adi was the Project Director and a Senior Environmental Specialist for the United Nations Industrial Development Organizations, which focused on PCB wastes and PCB contaminated equipment in terms of sustainable waste management and disposal systems. Mr. Tri Sasonko Adi has also served in the position of Senior Environmental and Social Safeguards Specials and Project Director for Infrastructure for PT Penjaminan Instrastruktur Indonesia. This project focuses on the review of ESMS and the development of guidance notes, due diligence and environmental gap analysis for toll roads, power plants and water supply projects. Additionally, he has been the Environmental and Social Safeguard Specialist for Green Prosperity of MCA Indonesia since 2015.

With more than 14 years of experience, Ms. Holliday has been actively engaged with human rights and CSR throughout her career. She has carried out extensive work, including on labour rights for Myanmar domestic workers migrating to Thailand and Singapore for the UN Women Myanmar. Additionally, Ms. Holliday has worked on women and migration issues in Dhaka for the UN Women Bangladesh, as well as on global labour migration policies for the International Labour Organization. From 2015-2017, she was an international consultant on Women Migrant Workers͛ Labour and Human Rights for the UN Women New York. Additionally, she worked as a technical consultant for an EU funded global migration project with pilots in the Philippines, Mexico and Moldova. She has also developed numerous policy briefs and reports on women migrant worker͛s rights violations, and has contributed to the Global Forum on Migration and Development Interventions. Ms. Holliday has also worked as a Women͛s Economic Empowerment and Strategic Planning Specialist for the UN Women Cambodia, focusing on regional migration, governmental relations on the right of domestic workers in Malaysia, international labour rights, and the provision of training. This was complimented by her time as Legal Consultant with the International Labour Organization office for Cambodia & Laos where she provided legislative and policy frameworks in relation to child labour.

As a junior economic researcher at DEVELOPMENT Solutions, Mr. Bleser participated in various DG TRADE funded projects. These projects included conducting research and analysis on China’s raw materials to support WTO investigations and providing research for the Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) for the Canada-EU Trade Agreement Negotiations. In this role, he provided legal, economic and social analysis and project oversight, directed research, provided quality control and backstopping and ensured adherence to reporting deadlines and requirements while working closely with DG TRADE officials on the SIA implementation. Currently, Mr. Bleser is a researcher at the Center for the Study of Economy and Society, Ithica New York, where he utilises social network analysis and other techniques to research the emergence of public-private partnerships in trade and investment.