Lorena is an Economic Affairs officer of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) dealing with trade and biodiversity issues. She has been involved with the sustainable trade of biodiversity-based products and services, including BioTrade, since 2001 at the international level with UNCTAD and also in her home country Ecuador as the Director of the national BioTrade Programme. She has worked on developing and implementing sustainable development projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America regarding biodiversity, sustainable trade and business development. During her career of over 20 years, Lorena has written many papers related to sustainable development, trade and biodiversity, value chain development, sustainable sourcing, among others. She is an Economist, specialized in Sustainable Development, of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador and holds an MBA from the HEC, Geneva University, Switzerland.