Who are we?

A warm welcome from the LED Knowledge team!

LED Knowledge is the result of a joint effort of the team based in Geneva, and the ILO training arm, the International Training Centre, based in Turin, Italy. The OECD/LEED Programme partners with ILO on LED knowledge in the framework of the Initiative on "Employment and Skills Strategies in Southeast Asia (ESSSA)".

Come in and get to know more about the people who are involved in it by checking the profiles below. 

The ILO Team:

Martin Gasser

Martin has 7 years professional experience working in the field of Local Economic Development. Based in the ILO training Centre in Turin (Enterprise Development), Martin has been working in countries such as Bangladesh, Brasil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, El Salvador, India, Indonesia, Iran, Madagascar, Mexico, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and Zambia. Contact Martin at  

Monica Lisa

Monica is passionate of local food and anything related to enjoying life without negatively affecting the environment we live in. She has been working at the ILO Training Centre in Turin for the past 6 years as a methodologist and learning expert. This means that she is involved in ToT, development of learning materials and media and any kind of events that aim at boosting learning. She works in English, French and Spanish in in-Campus activities as well as in the field. Contact Monica at

Kees van der Ree

What I like about LED is that it starts with what people want and then connects them with others and the resources around them. Just like the idea behind this ledknowledge.org portal. LED also allows the best combinations between the many dimensions of employment promotion, skills development and enterprise promotion etc. So I can actually practice a lot of what I have been working on over the 20 past years, all together. Contact Kees at

Annie van Klaveren

Annie joined the ILO LED team in 2007. Her work included the development of LED tools and resources, and technical support to LED projects in several regions. Annie also contributed to the outreach activities of the programme, in addition to the delivery of training workshops and knowledge sharing events. Annie is now pursuing a PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK, on democracy, local governance, and development in Latin America, and continues to contribute to this platform.

The OECD Team:

Sylvain Giguère

Sylvain is Head of the LEED Division. He manages a team of economists, analysts and support staff based in both Paris and Trento, and leads the development of the LEED programme of work. A Canadian national, Sylvain joined the OECD in 1995, first to work in DELSA. In 2002 he was appointed Deputy Head of the LEED Programme, where he developed a policy research agenda to provide guidance on how public policies can be better co-ordinated and adapted to local conditions to improve economic and social outcomes. He was appointed Head of Division in November 2008.

Cristina Martinez-Fernandez

Cristina is of Spanish and Australian nationalities. She joined the LEED Programme as a Policy Analyst in 2009. Her responsibilities are in projects on Training and Skills Development; SMEs, Entrepreneurship & Innovation; Climate Change, Employment & Local Development; and she manages the OECD/LEED Initiative on Employment and Skills Strategies in Southeast Asia (ESSSA). Before joining LEED she was a Professor at the Urban Research Centre, University of Western Sydney in Australia. Cristina led the Urban and Regional Dynamics research programme. She has published more than 100 works.

Elisa Campestrin

Elisa is Italian and joined the OECD LEED Trento Centre for Local Development in Trento in 2005 as a research assistant. She assists in the design and implementation of activities on partnerships and local governance within the framework of the Forum on Partnerships and Local Governance. She holds a degree in law and a post-master’s course in advanced studies in EU and transnational law from the University of Trento, Italy.

Please join us in our effort to make this portal useful and to improve knowledge sharing among LED practitioners!