Jabulile Msiza is a member of the IGS Council. She holds a Master of Business Administration and two honours degrees in geotechnical and environmental engineering. In 2017 she was awarded the prestigious Consulting Engineers South Africa Young Engineer of the Year Award. Jabulile has gained around 15 years’ experience of geosynthetics at Jones & Wagener Engineering and Environmental Consultants in South Africa, where she leads the Waste Department.

Amir Shahkolahi has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering. He is a fellow member of Engineers Australia. As a designer, project manager, and researcher, he has been involved in the Civil and Geosynthetic industry over the last 20 years and has more than 70 publications and technical presentations in journals and conferences. He is the Technical Manager at Global Synthetics.

Amir was in the executive committee of the IGS Australasian Chapter (ACIGS) from 2013 to 2017, Engineers Australia QLD representative at the sustainability and resiliency working group for developing the Australian Infrastructure Plan 2021, and the chair of the Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS) Queensland chapter in 2022 and 2023. He is now elected national vice-chair of the Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS), elected Council member of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) for 2023-2027, member of the leadership team of the International Geosynthetics Society Technical Committees for Barriers (TC-B), member of the International Geosynthetics Society Technical Committees for reinforcement (TC-R) and Stabilisation (TC-S), Vice-chair of the IGS Educational Committee, Board member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)-Australian Section, member of the ASTM Technical Committee D35 on Geosynthetics and Committee E60 on Sustainability, Industry Board member of the Australian Pavement Research Hub, representative of Engineers Australia (nationally) in the Standard Australia (SA) Technical Committee for Geosynthetics (SA CE-020) and ISO Technical Committee for Geosynthetics (ISO/TC 221), and member of the Standards Australia Technical Committee CE/032-Reinforced fill structures working group.

Amir is also a board member of the QLD Landfill Working Group, Board member of the Waste Management and Resource Recovery of Australia in QLD, guest lecturer at 4 universities in Australia, and the industry supervisor and advisor for several Geosynthetic research projects in Australia and overseas. He is also a part-time PHD candidate working on a geotechnical geosynthetics research project, finishing in 2024.

Patricia Guerra-Escobar has worked in the field of geotechnics for over 20 years and is passionate about the role that geosynthetics play in civil engineering to deliver innovative, sustainable, and cost-effective solutions. Patricia has worked in several countries, starting in Colombia, before moving to France, and then Costa Rica, where she worked for eight years travelling extensively across Central American countries developing and expanding the use of geosynthetics in the region.

In 2010, Patricia moved to the UK and started to work with Geosynthetics Ltd. where she is currently the manager of the Engineering department. In addition, she served as Chair of the IGS UK Chapter from 2021-2023 and is a member of the TC221 of ISSMGE. A focus of hers throughout her career has been supporting designers and contractors to use geosynthetics solutions in addition to educating the next generation of engineers, through mentoring and presenting at universities.

Francisco Pizarro is a Civil Engineer from Universidad de los Andes (Chile) with a master’s degree (MSc) in finance from ESE Business School (Chile). Most of Mr. Pizarro´s career has involved leading roles for world class geosynthetic manufacturers where he was been responsible for introduction, prescription, and commercialization of erosion control, reinforcement, and drainage products.

Mr. Pizarro served as President of the IGS Chilean Chapter from 2019-2023. During his tenure, Mr. Pizarro and the Board encouraged the understanding and appropriate use of geosynthetics in Chile and the rest of Latin America with a series of short courses, workshops, and events, such as, Educate the Educators. Mr. Pizarro is also supporting creation of new IGS chapters in Bolivia and Guatemala with bylaws and company recruitment. In addition, Mr. Pizarro is leading a series of conferences in several Civil Engineer Schools in Latin America to promote the use of geosynthetics in infrastructure projects.