Curiosity, applied.

Richard Gardiner

Strategic Public Policy Lead

World Benchmarking Alliance

Richard Gardiner is WBA's Strategic Public Policy Lead where he supports the WBA goal's by tracking and monitoring the relevant policy developments with regard to sustainability matters, both in the EU and globally. In particular he looks at legislation on corporate accountability and furthering corporate transparency. With more than a decade's worth of expertise in international relations, policy analysis, and political science, Richard works with WBA to promote corporate responsibility and sustainability through government policy. He has previously worked for European stock exchanges where he focused on market transparency and integrity. He also led the work at the NGO Global Witness' campaign for binding rules on supply chain due diligence for multinational enterprises.

Laurent Lhopitallier

Head of ESG Performance

Sanofi

After more than 10 years in Sustainability Consulting in global professional services firms, Laurent joined Sanofi in 2013 and has since then had various roles in the sustainability function. Today he is the head of ESG Performance. Since 2018 he also teaches Sustainability to Master students in Finance at the CNAM in Paris.

Mike Colarossi

Head of Enterprise Sustainability

Avery Dennison

Michael Colarossi is head of Enterprise Sustainability at Avery Dennison. In this role, he provides strategic vision and direction, and reinforces the company’s commitment to advancing its corporate-wide sustainability initiatives. Michael leads the corporation’s enterprise-wide environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy and Sustainability Council. He was instrumental in developing the Avery Dennison 2025 and 2030 sustainability goals and holds the responsibility for achieving them.

Michael has been engaged in sustainability for 25 years and joined Avery Dennison in 2013. Over the past eight years, he has been on the frontline for Avery Dennison in addressing emerging sustainability requirements and progressing the company towards its sustainability objectives.

Previously, Michael held the positions of vice president, Product Line Management, Innovation and Sustainability, Apparel Solutions, and vice president, Sourcing and Supply Chain, Apparel Solutions.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, College of Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Notably, he serves on the NYSE Sustainability Advisory Council.

Juan Aguiriano

Group Head of Sustainability

Kerry Group

Juan Aguiriano is a corporate sustainability pioneer with over 30 years’ experience leading businesses and working at C-suite level at some of the world’s biggest food, chemical and fibers companies to provide strategic guidance in helping develop and implement innovative strategies to transform businesses and operations towards triple-bottom line sustainability.

Currently leading the sustainability strategy at the Kerry Group, a world leader in Taste and Nutrition, Juan is focused on creating significant, positive impact on the environment and society, by driving businesses’ sustainability leadership.

Expert in corporate strategies for sustainability, risk management, business innovations and organizational change, as well as stakeholder engagement and communications, Juan has worked with executives in some of the world’s top 500 corporations, to transform the way they do business, and ensure they are incorporating societal and environmental criteria in their values, behaviors, strategies and business decision making.

Juan is also focused on disruptive and emerging sustainable technology ventures investments, partnerships and collaborations which have the potential to transform existing markets, products and value chains in profitable and sustainable ways.

Juan has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Social Sciences from the University of Geneva in Switzerland and a Master’s degree in Economics and Business from the University of Texas at Austin in the United States. He also has furthered his competences in strategy and sustainability in several executive leadership programs at IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland and IESE, Barcelona, Spain. He speaks five languages fluently.

R Mukund

Founder & CEO

Benchmark Gensuite

R Mukund is the Founder & CEO of Benchmark Gensuite and has over 30 years of experience in progressive roles as a technical professional, team leader, Six Sigma Master Black Belt, executive program manager, and chief executive officer.  Mukund received his M.S. in Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences & Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Under Mukund’s leadership since inception, Benchmark Gensuite (formerly Gensuite) was founded in 2010 on the philosophy that technology can help companies power safer, compliant, and more sustainable operations worldwide. Benchmark Gensuite has team members in 14 countries and supports nearly 500 companies globally, including approximately 20% of the Fortune 500 and over 3 million users across 35 industries with a single, unified, organically developed digital platform that covers EHS, Sustainability, and Disclosure Management, together with co-allied enterprise risk management functions – now enhanced with industry-first Gen AI capabilities. Mukund is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA where Benchmark Gensuite is headquartered.

Lori D. Coombs

CEO

WWCM

Lori D. Coombs works full-time supporting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and part-time as an Associate Professor of the MISM program at the University of Arizona Global Campus, supporting info systems, environmental science and advanced air mobility disciplines that address the cross-cutting integration of entrepreneurship, cybersecurity, and infrastructures across the airspace ecosystem. Lori’s lab seeks to understand interactions between solar energetic particles (SEPs), the heliosphere, atmosphere, ionosphere, and magnetosphere that underlay space weather, the impacts of climate change, and planetary alignment associated with space travel. The research employs physics-based modeling, optical remote sensing, and satellite observations that apply data science and artificial intelligence to distributed observations of the geospatial environment that consider cybersecurity by protecting space, aviation, and communications infrastructure.

Lori’s previous appointments included managing NASA’s cybersecurity efforts as the Sr. Principal Technical Manager, for Earthdata Infrastructure and Earthdata Login missions. Lori has experience moving data infrastructures into the Cloud through onboarding initiatives with the Next Generation Application Platform (NGAP) Operations team. Lori was awarded NASA’s Robert H. Goddard Award in Mentoring.
In addition to supporting NASA, she gained experience supporting the US Senate, Congress, Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), (DNI) - Open-Source Center, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) where human-computer interaction (HCI) and roles led to supporting the R&D of astronomy, planetary science, human systems integration (HSI) and geospatial cybersecurity. Lori ensures that all R&D work results in protected technologies for DOD and industry stakeholders. 
Lori is a Director for IEEE’s Northern Virginia Executive Committee. She serves on the Advisory Board for the Strategic AI and Women in Leadership Programs at the Univ of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS). Lori is CEO of WWCM and Director of WWCM Academy, a not-for-profit that advocates for students to pursue careers in STEAM. Lori founded CyberJobs a careers platform aimed at bridging millions of job vacancies and upskilling the talent gap in cybersecurity roles.
For over twenty years, Lori has worked on Capitol Hill. She continues to engage with the NASA centers and facilities, DOD, Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), National Institute of Standards and Tech (NIST), White House Office of Science and Tech Policy (OSTP) and be a state-of-the-art leader on and in mission-critical Command, Control, Comms, Computers, Cyber-Defense, Combative Systems, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C6ISR) programs.

Lori is pursuing a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in Cybersecurity at Marymount Univ and has been accepted into the Oxford Sustainable Business Programme at the Univ of Oxford. She earned an MS in Systems Engineering from George Washington Univ, an MBA, and a BS in Business Admin from Bowie State Univ. Lori will present at USCYBERCOM’s Cyber Research & Ed Conference (Cyber RECon) 2025 in support of evaluating current assessment methods and metrics within the Command. Lori has publications, including “Risks of AI Apps Used in Higher Ed” in the EJEL and numerous National Initiative for Cybersecurity Ed (NICE) topics with the NIST.

Stuart Wright

Operations Net Zero Delivery Director

Aviva

Stuart Wright started work as an Army officer in the Royal Engineers training first as a Military Engineer and then more formally as a Civil Engineer. A career change (after 20 years) took him briefly to PA Consulting and then to Aviva.

Time at Aviva has been spent almost exclusively in the planning, design and operational delivery of shared services. Roles have included UK Property Director and Aviva Europe Operational Services Director and then Group Property and Facilities Director, where he had a wide remit including all operational property acquisitions and disposals as well as running the worldwide real estate portfolio.

Stuart was appointed in 2021 to lead Aviva’s ambition to be carbon net zero across its operations and operations supply chain, including all markets, subsidiaries and joint ventures, building on his strong track record of delivering carbon reduction projects.

Stuart was Chair of the UK Living Wage Foundation Advisory Council from 2016 to 2021, a body that provides advice and guidance on the development of the real Living Wage in the UK; he is now a Board Trustee of Citizens UK, the founder charity of the Living Wage.

Simin Zhou

Vice President, Strategy, Sustainability and Development, Software & Advisory

UL Solutions

Simin leads strategy, mergers & acquisitions, and commercial sustainability for UL Solutions Software & Advisory Business Unit. Since inception in 2021, the Software & Advisory Team seeks to become a global leader in compliance and sustainability software, data, and advisory solutions. Simin has over 20 years of experience in sustainability, new ventures, VC/PE, 2 successful IPOs, product management and software engineering,

Simin is passionate about working with partners and stakeholders to create innovative solutions that address next generation of challenges and opportunities. Simin serves on the executive committees of two councils at The Conference Board, a leading think tank and research organization, where she contributes to the advancement of best practices and thought leadership in sustainability and supply chain.

Simin received her MBA from Harvard Business School, and graduated summa sum laude in Computer Engineering from University of Minnesota with thesis in AI (neural networks) and data modelling for closed loop biomedical system.

Sophie Mairesse

Biodiversity Net Gain Lead - ecologist

Network Rail

Sophie has worked within the ecology sector for nearly 20 years in the UK and abroad, enjoying the challenge involved with working on a wide range of projects for different industries (including for a winery which was without a doubt the tastiest project of all). She has worked on many Biodiversity Net Gain projects, including writing company's strategies and providing training to teams internally and externally. She has participated on two of the British Standard Institute standards on biodiversity. She has been working for Network Rail (Work Delivery team in the Southern Region) for the past three years and she is also a member of the IEMA Biodiversity and Natural Capita group.

Baerbel Hundt

Biodiversity Impact Lead

Bayer AG

Baerbel is Biodiversity Impact Lead at the Crop Science division of Bayer AG, bringing 15 years of experience in sustainability. Since 2019 she’s driving the integration of biodiversity into the crop science business with the objective to explore new business opportunities and to secure crop sciences license to operate. In context of regenerative agriculture, she also provides guidance on biodiversity related metrics and monitoring technologies.

Before she joined Bayer in 2015, Baerbel worked as a sustainability consultant for clients from various sectors such as agriculture, mining, transportation, or energy. Her focus was on Life Cycle Assessment and sustainability strategy development. After joining Bayer, Baerbel continued to work as a senior sustainability consultant and supported the sustainable agriculture team with the development of the sustainability commitments for GHG, water, soil health and biodiversity. She also strengthened her skills around innovation by participating in two Catalyst Programs exploring business cases related to soil health and biodiversity.

Baerbel grew up on a dairy farm in Germany and studied Geo-ecology in Karlsruhe and Curitiba. She did her PhD about the climate and energy efficiency of biogas plants at Justus-Liebig University in Gießen.

Andrew Abranches

Senior Director, Wildfire Preparedness and Operations

PG&E

Andy joined the PG&E team in 2008 and has worked in Electric Operations, Gas Operations, Finance, HR and Risk Management. ​He holds a BS Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. ​

Andy is the Sr Director leading PG&E’s Wildfire Preparedness and Operations Team. In this role, he is responsible for the teams delivering PG&E’s Wildfire Mitigation Plan, Risk Modeling and Analytics work, Ignitions Investigations and Wildfire Strategy. The work performed by his teams guide both operational decision-making during fire season and long-term resiliency planning for PG&E. ​

Andy is currently the Chair of the Advisory Board for the Cal Poly Wildland Urban Interface – Fire Institute.

Andy is also on the Advisory Board for Watch Duty, a 501c Non-Profit - Watch Duty - Wildfire Maps & Alerts

Mark S. Ghilarducci

Former Director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services; President and CEO

Emergent Global Solutions

For more than four decades, Mark Ghilarducci has been a transformational leader at the forefront of crisis management, security operations, and prevention in the State of California and around the world. From a summer job performing mountain rescues in California's wildlands, Mark established himself as an innovative, nimble leader at every level of government and the private sector. Most recently, Mark led Emergency Services and Homeland Security for the largest, most diverse state in the nation as Director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. From 2012 to 2023, Mark responded to and managed some of the most complex and challenging disasters and emergency conditions in the nation’s history, including five of the most destructive wildfires in U.S. history, historic droughts, major security and cybersecurity threats, terrorist attacks, civil unrest, earthquakes, floods, energy and power emergencies, and the once-in-a century COVID-19 pandemic. He also spearheaded nation-leading efforts that improved and modernized how California responds to disasters, including a modernized 911 system, the nation’s first Earthquake Early Warning System, and enhanced cybersecurity and wildfire monitoring.

In his service to the State of California, Mark drew on decades of experience in the federal government and private sector. From 1997 to 2000, Mark served as a Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO) with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), where he developed and implemented numerous federal-level disaster policies and regulations and responded to hundreds of Presidentially declared disasters. He has been called upon to serve as advisor in countless disasters, including the Great Hanshin Earthquake in Japan, the Oklahoma City Bombing, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina. He additionally served as a senior executive and partner at two firms specializing in crisis management, hazard mitigation and capacity building, security, and government affairs.

Today, Mark continues to lend his insight and experience to numerous boards and commissions. He was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in 2021, a global fire safety organization. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the California State University (CSU) System, the largest public university system in the country. He has also been recognized with honors from the California State Association of Counties (CSAC), National Emergency Management Association (NEMA), the National Governors Association, and more. Mark holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of California at Davis and is a graduate of the Fellowship Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Will Sarni

CEO

Water Foundry

Will Sarni is the founder and CEO of Water Foundry a water strategy consultancy. He is also the Founder and General Partner of Water Foundry Ventures, a water technology venture fund focused on addressing water scarcity, quality and equitable access to water. He has been a sustainability and water strategy advisor to multinationals, water technology companies, investors, and non-governmental organizations for his entire career. Prior to Water Foundry, he was a managing director at Deloitte Consulting where he established and led the water strategy practice. He was the founder and CEO of DOMANI, a sustainability strategy firm, prior to Deloitte. Will is an internationally recognized thought leader on water strategy and innovation. He was ranked as; Worth Magazine Worthy 100 for 2022, A Key Player Pressuring Businesses to Care About Water and one of the Top 15 Interviews In Smart Water Magazine 2019. He is the author numerous publications on water strategy and innovation including the following books. •“Corporate Water Strategies” (Earthscan 2011, and in Chinese by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press 2013)•“Water Tech – A Guide to Investment, Innovation and Business Opportunities in the Water Sector” (Sarni, W. and Pechet, T., Routledge 2013)•“Beyond the Energy – Water – Food Nexus: New Strategies for 21st Century Growth” (Dō Sustainability 2015)•“Water Stewardship and Business Value: Creating Abundance from Scarcity” (Sarni, W., and Grant, D., Routledge 2018)•“Creating 21st Century Abundance through Public Policy Innovation: Moving Beyond Business as Usual” (Sarni, W. and Koch, G., Greenleaf Publishing 2018)•“Digital Water: New Technologies for a More Resilient, Secure and Equitable Water Future” (Routledge, 2021).•“Water, I Wonder” (Sarni, W and Dunnigan, T., Outskirts Press, September 2022). Sarni is a host of the podcast Distilled by Qatium and co-host of The Stream with Will and Tom.

David Grant

Senior Director: Global Climate & Water Solutions

PepsiCo

David is the Senior Director of Climate & Water Solutions at PepsiCo, bringing over 20 years of experience in sustainability. Over his career, David has been instrumental in implementing multi-country sustainable development programs, leveraging his expertise in stakeholder engagement and change management to create solutions that benefit both businesses and external stakeholders. David has been with PepsiCo since 2020, joining as Director for Global Water Stewardship. Before joining PepsiCo, he led the sustainability team for AB InBev's Africa Zone, following various sustainability roles within SABMiller. His career is marked by his ability to drive impactful environmental initiatives across diverse geographical regions. In 2018, David co-authored the book Water Stewardship and Business Value, framing an expanded strategy for water stewardship and business value creation. He holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Management and is currently based in the UK.

Saad Malik

Sustainability Director, Business & Commercial Banking

Lloyds Banking Group

Saad is an experienced sustainability professional and thought leader. At Lloyds Banking Group, he is responsible for driving the sustainability agenda in business and commercial banking by developing products and propositions. The aim of the role is ultimately to reduce the Group’s financed emissions and enhance sustainability and resilience for clients, with a particular focus on SMEs and mid-corporates.

Before joining Lloyds in July 2023, Saad was National Grid’s Group Sustainability Reporting Lead, leading a best-in-class reporting strategy and overseeing adherence with major established frameworks, while also consulting on the Group’s sustainable financing strategy and target-setting agenda. Prior to that, he was a Senior Manager in PwC’s Sustainability Risk & Reporting Advisory team in London, where he supported clients across a wide range of industries in identifying and addressing climate-related risks and opportunities and developing good practice sustainability reporting.

He is a qualified chartered accountant (ICAEW), a GRI Certified Sustainability Professional and has a Master of Science in Economics and Policy of Energy and the Environment at UCL.

Sandy Nessing

Founding Director and Head of the MSCI Sustainability Institute

MSCI Inc.

Linda-Eling Lee is the Institute’s founding director and a leader in the field of sustainable finance.

She most recently led global ESG and climate research at MSCI, where she built one of the world’s top teams of analysts dedicated to understanding long-term drivers of sustainable value. Linda has authored multiple research papers on sustainable investing and twice been named by Barron’s to its annual list of the Top 100 Women in Finance. She serves as a director of US SIF: Sustainable Investment Forum and is a Fellow of the Finance Leaders Fellowship of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Linda joined MSCI in 2010 following the acquisition of RiskMetrics, where she led ESG ratings research and headed consumer sector analysis. She received her doctorate in organizational behavior from Harvard University, holds a master’s from the University of Oxford, and has a bachelor’s in East Asian Studies from Harvard College.

Sandy Nessing

VP & Chief Sustainability Officer

AEP

With 27 years in the utility industry and more than 30 years of communications expertise, Sandy Nessing has responsibility for leading corporate ESG/sustainability strategy and disclosure, stakeholder engagement and strategic initiatives for American Electric Power (AEP). She chairs AEP’s Enterprise Sustainability Council and Corporate ESG Committee and serves on the Company’s Risk and Resilience Subcommittee. In 2023 she was named to Sustainability Magazine’s Top 100 Women in Sustainability.

She oversees corporate initiatives on climate change, environmental and social justice, political engagement, and Just Transition. In partnership with AEP’s Finance team, Nessing helped to craft AEP’s Sustainable Finance Framework, combining green bonds with social bonds to support the company’s clean energy transition. Through the Framework the company secured $1.45 billion in green bonds to support its largest wind energy facilities, now serving customers in three states.

Nessing is active with the Electric Power Research Institute’s sustainability-related initiatives. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Edison Electric Institute’s (EEI) ESG/Sustainability Committee, and on EEI’s Customer Solutions Sustainability Subcommittee.

She currently serves as Chair of the Franklin Park Conservatory Board of Trustees, one of the nation’s premier botanical gardens located in Columbus, Ohio. She serves on the Board of Directors of Datamaran, the world’s only data-driven platform to identify and monitor material ESG risks and opportunities (AEP is an investor in Datamaran). She is Immediate Past President of the Board of Directors for NAEM, a national organization for environment, safety & health, and sustainability professionals. She is a member of Chief, a private network for executive women to strengthen their leadership and magnify their influence while paving the way for others. She has also been a long-time Executive Sponsor of the Ohio Chapter of the Women’s International Network of Utility Professionals (WiNUP).

She is a graduate of Briarwood College and DeVry University and completed Sustainable Capitalism & ESG Online, an executive certification program from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. She lives in Westerville, Ohio.

Amy Brachio

Global Vice Chair, Sustainability

EY

Amy is the EY Global Vice Chair for Sustainability. In this role Amy leads EY’s sustainability and climate change agenda globally. She works across all of EY to support the design and delivery of services to help EY clients achieve their sustainability agenda, provide EY professionals with the opportunity to upskill and engage around the topic of sustainability and oversees the organization’s environmental strategy targeting a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2025.

In 2022, Amy joined the EY Global Sustainability team as Deputy Vice Chair, focused on developing EY’s skills and capabilities to support clients to create value from their sustainability strategy for their business, their people and the planet, and to accelerate their net zero progress. Amy has over 25 years of experience in supporting large financial institutions on their consumer protection agendas and advising leaders on risk, resilience and transformation.

Amy is an active leader focused on the advancement of diversity and inclusiveness. Amy was recognized as Ernst & Young’s 2013 Working Mother of the Year, selected as one of Profiles in Diversity Journal‘s 2017 Women Worth Watching winners, spotlighted by Source Global Research as part of their Women in the Profession series and a recipient of Consulting Magazine’s Global Leaders in Consulting award for 2019.

Amy currently serves on the Board for Junior Achievement North in Minneapolis and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council focused on energy transition.

Mark Bamber

Head of Circularity & Remanufacturing

Volvo Group

Ramon Arratia

Chief Sustainability Officer

Ball Corporation

Ramon Arratia is Chief Sustainability Officer and VP Global Public Affairs at Ball Corporation and joined the company in January 2017. He believes in the competitive advantages that companies can obtain when sustainability,  innovation and a progressive public affairs agenda are combined. In his current role at Ball, he supports the acceleration of circularity and decarbonization of aluminum packaging supporting the company to achieve 85% recycled content and 55% scope 1,2,3 emissions reductions by 2030. He believes that close to 100% circularity is possible if product design, government policies and recycling infrastructure are all aligned.

Ramon has around 25 years of experience in sustainability-related positions at multinational companies such as Interface, Vodafone, Ericsson and now Ball Corporation.  He was Town Councillor at the age of 23 and has an MBA from Warwick Business School, an MSc in Quality and Environment and a college degree in organic chemistry, both from Universidad de Valladolid, Spain.

Louis Uzor

Climate Policy Manager

Climeworks

Louis Uzor has been involved in shaping Climeworks’ policy efforts since 2017. Since 2021, he is a Climate Policy Manager with a focus on the regulatory framework for DAC and CDR, mainly in Europe. Louis also holds a position at the Negative Emissions Platform as Accounting and Certification Working Group Chair. His academic background is in socio-ecological economics and policy.

Ingo Ramming

Head of Carbon Markets

BBVA

Ingo Ramming is Head of Carbon Markets at BBVA and has 20 years of experience in Environmental Markets Trading and Project Development.

Before joining BBVA, Ingo was a Managing Director and Head of Corporate Solutions at Commerzbank and worked at Dresdner Kleinwort and ENRON. Between 2006 and 2013, he was a Director of Carbon Trade & Finance.

Ingo was Deputy Head of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Börse Commodities, a Member of the Exchange Council of the European Energy Exchange (EEX), and Co-Chaired IETA’s EU ETS Working Group.

Lars Henneberg

Vice President, Head of Risk Management

A.P. Møller-Mærsk

After serving as a commissioned officer in the Danish Army Lars got a master’s degree in law at the University of Copenhagen and spent 6 years as an Attorney at Law at the Danish law firm, Plesner. In 1998 he joined Maersk Oil, where he, after 5 years of posting in Qatar, became the General Counsel and Head of the Corporate Legal Department. After being with Maersk Oil for 12 years Lars moved to the A.P. Moller-Maersk group in 2010, where he became Vice President and Head of Global Risk Management. He still holds this position today, as well as is the Managing Director of Maersk Insurance A/S. In addition to these roles Lars is also Chairman of the board at the Danish Shipowners’ Accident Insurance Association, Board member in NorthStandard Reinsurance Limited, as well as Chairman of Danish Shipping’s Assurance Committee.

Linda Freiner

Group Head of Sustainability

Zurich Insurance

Since 2016, Ms. Freiner is responsible for global strategy and integration of sustainability across the Zurich Insurance Group. She also oversees management of the Z Zurich Foundation. Ms. Freiner joined Zurich in 2013 to set-up the Zurich Flood Resilience Program. Prior, she was a Global Leadership Fellow at the World Economic Forum from 2007-2013 where she served as Head of Financial Services Strategic Partnerships and Head of Engagement Global Risks. She holds a M.Sc. in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics.

Joy Trinquet

Senior Analyst

Verdantix

Joy is an Industry Analyst in the Verdantix Smart Buildings practice. Her current research agenda focuses on building digital twins, BIM for operations, smart building systems integration as well as architecture, engineering and construction software. Joy joined Verdantix in 2019, and previously worked at BNP Paribas Asset Management. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics with a concentration in policy as well as dual minors in computer science and business studies from New York University.

Adam Barnard

Principal Analyst

Verdantix

Adam is a Principal Analyst in the Verdantix Net Zero & Climate Risk practise. Prior to joining Verdantix, Adam was a Director at an environmentally focused US investment firm. Adam has previously held roles in London in investment management at Man Group, UBS and Morgan Stanley and in strategy at SABMiller in South Africa. Adam holds a Masters from Yale with a concentration on investment and the environment, a MBA with a concentration on impact investing and sustainability and a BCom(Honors) in Economics and Finance from the University of Cape Town

Kash Burchett

Global Head of Carbon Removal Technologies

HSBC

Kash Burchett is an energy economist with over 15 years’ experience in the industry. In his current role at HSBC, Kash covers all links in the carbon management value chain including capture, removal, transportation, utilization and storage. In the past he has covered energy supply and demand fundamentals at BP and worked on corporate strategy at French utility EDF. He was the lead author for the Energy Transition Commission’s 2022 study examining the role of CCUS in the Energy Transition.

Tim Christophersen

Vice President, Climate Action

Salesforce

Tim Christophersen joined Salesforce as VP, Climate Action in May 2022. Within the global Impact Team, he is focused on the role of nature-based solutions to climate change. Tim is based in Denmark.

Before joining Salesforce, Tim was Head of the ‘Nature for Climate’ Branch at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and led a growing global movement backed by all UN Member States and over 120 partner organizations to ‘prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide’: the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.

He holds a degree in Forestry and Forest Conservation Engineering from Dresden University of Technology. He previously worked for the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), where he led the portfolio on the conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity. From 2017-2019, he was elected Chair of the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration.

From 2002-2007 he was Regional Programme Coordinator for Europe, the Caucasus and the Commonwealth of Independent States at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He also worked for the Danish Ministry of the Environment, and for the European Commission.

David Carlin

Head of Climate Risk and TCFD

United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)

David Carlin leads risk programming for UNEP- Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). He has worked with over 100 financial institutions on topics of climate scenarios, climate risk assessments, and sustainability regulation. He and his team support financial actors across the world to develop best practices for managing environmental risks and identifying environmental opportunities.

He currently advises UNEP FI’s Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). He has also been a technical advisor to the Glasgow Financial Alliances for Net Zero (GFANZ).

He is the founder of Cambium Global Solutions, which helps governments, corporations, and financial institutions address the most pressing environmental challenges and thrive in a changing world.

He is also a contributor to Forbes, where he writes about climate change and leadership and a senior associate at Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) David has worked as a Principal in Finance, Risk, and Public Policy for Oliver Wyman and in Model Risk Management for PNC Bank. His background is in quantitative modeling and decision science.

He conducted research in financial decision-making at Carnegie Mellon University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College.

Katelyn Johnson

Principal Analyst

Verdantix

Katelyn is a Principal Analyst in the Net Zero & Climate Risk practice. Prior to joining Verdantix, Katelyn was a climate scientist at GNS Science in New Zealand. Katelyn has previously held roles in the energy industry, where she helped projects manage risk arising from weather and ocean phenomena. Katelyn holds a PhD in Geology from Victoria University of Wellington and an MS in Earth Sciences from Ohio State University, both focusing on climate science, as well as a BSc in Meteorology from Texas A&M University.

Paul Pellizzari

Vice President—Global Social Responsibility

Hard Rock International and Seminole Gaming

Paul Pellizzari is Vice President—Global Social Responsibility, Hard Rock International and Seminole Gaming. For over two decades he has worked as an executive leading operational ESG programs, a strategist, a purpose-driven marketer, and a research consultant. He has collaborated with different orders of government, the United Nations, and with local, national and international not-for-profit organizations. He is the author of two books and many articles on corporate responsibility, and has taught as adjunct faculty at Queen’s University, in Kingston Ontario.  His programs have received numerous international and national awards.

Mona Naqvi

Global Head of Sustainable Capital Markets

S&P Global Sustainable1

Mona Naqvi is Global Head of Sustainable Capital Markets at S&P Global Sustainable1, responsible for investor engagement and elevating S&P’s sustainable product suite. Previously, she spearheaded the launch of the flagship S&P 500® ESG Index as Head of the North American ESG Index business for S&P Dow Jones Indices, and supported institutional investors on climate goals as Director for S&P Global Trucost. Prior to joining S&P Global, Mona held various ESG leadership roles as Research Director of the 2° Investing Initiative, as a Climate Policy Advisory to the Obama Administration, and as an Economist at the Bank of England.

Mona graduated Summa Cum Laude in Government & Economics from the London School of Economics (LSE), and has published extensively on sustainable finance topics. She regularly appears on the likes of CNBC, Bloomberg, and other mainstream financial media, as a recognized ESG expert, educator and market commentator. Her work has afforded her numerous accolades including the 2019 FiNext Excellence in Finance Leadership Award, the Women in Asset Management Awards’ 2021 Index Leader Award and 2021 Next Generation Leader Award. Mona currently also sits on the Governance Council of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), which aims to elevate health and wellbeing to the forefront of ESG frameworks and standards.

Louis Redshaw

CEO and Founder

Redshaw Advisors Ltd and Net Zero Markets Ltd

Louis Redshaw is CEO and founder of Redshaw Advisors Ltd a company dedicated to making companies successful in environmental markets. Redshaw Advisors, established in 2014, brings together like-minded customer focussed professionals to inform, advise and train industry, governments and investors.

As a Managing Director at Barclays Capital Louis founded, and ran for 10 years, Barclays’ Environmental Markets division that, under his stewardship, became the world’s largest carbon business by traded volume. Louis has been a true ‘first mover’ in the carbon markets driving forward innovative and ground-breaking wholesale market and investor products designed to boost market liquidity.

Louis has served as a Director on the boards of the Climate Markets & Investors Association (CMIA), a Director of the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and a Director of Tricorona. He holds an MSc from Imperial College in Environmental Technology and Energy Policy.

Tommy Ricketts

CEO and Co-Founder

BeZero Carbon

Tommy Ricketts is the CEO and co-founder of BeZero Carbon, a global ratings agency for the voluntary carbon market. BeZero was founded in 2020, its global team combines expertise within climate and earth science, financial research, data science, and public policy. Prior to founding BeZero Carbon, Tommy was a VP in Global Research at Bank of America and worked as a political strategist in London and Brussels.

Julie Baddeley

Chair and founder

Chapter Zero

Chair and founder of Chapter Zero, a network of more than 2,300 UK board members, Julie Baddeley has served on the boards of major organisations in the public and private sectors for more than 20 years. She is a director of FTSE 250 automotive supplier TI Fluid Systems plc, which is leading the transition to electric vehicles, Senior Independent Director of Marshall of Cambridge, and non-executive director of marketing analytics consultants Ebiquity plc. She was previously Senior Independent Director of Greggs plc and Yorkshire Building Society, and Chair of global recruitment company Harvey Nash.

Julie leads a series of initiatives to help chairs and non-executive directors recognise the challenge of climate change to their businesses, and their business’ impacts on global warming. She sees delivering a zero-carbon economy as the biggest challenge for business in her lifetime. She is on the board of the Climate Governance Initiative, which has Chapters focused on climate action in business in 56 countries, and is a By-Fellow at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge.

Charlie Langdale

Head of Climate Risk and Resilience, Climate Risk and Resilience

Howden

Charlie brings over 25 years’ experience in the insurance market. Most of his career has been focused on financial institutions, designing risk transfer products across a wide range of disciplines. He is known for building new teams and capabilities with the aim of demonstrating how insurance can be used to help deal with the problems of tomorrow.

Rachel Delacour

CEO & Co-Founder

Sweep

Sweep cofounder and CEO Rachel Delacour is an award-wining repeat entrepreneur with a background in finance. In 2009, she cofounded BIME Analytics, a pioneering business intelligence SaaS which was acquired by US customer service company Zendesk six years later. Rachel worked there as General Manager until she decided to use her talent to help clean the climate mess with Sweep.

A leading female figure in European tech, Rachel was elected co-President of France Digitale in 2018 and her thought leadership has been featured in The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. An advocate for women in tech, she has backed several female-founded US and French startups.

Rob Genieser

Managing Partner

ETF Partners

Rob is a Managing Partner at ETF Partners since early 2010. ETF is the leading fund in Europe backing technology entrepreneurs focused on delivering sustainability through innovation. Prior to joining ETF Partners, Rob was a Managing Partner at Vertex, one of the oldest and most prestigious investment firms out of Asia, where he led its European and North American investment activities for 8 years. Before that, Rob was a Managing Director of JP Morgan (and Hambrecht & Quist), focusing on advising high-tech growth companies globally. Earlier in his career, Rob was a management consultant for Bain & Co. in San Francisco, where he focused on the telecommunications industry. He holds an AB and MBA from Harvard University.

David Metcalfe

CEO

Verdantix

David is the CEO of Verdantix and co-founded the firm in 2008. Based on his 20 years of experience in technology strategy and research roles, he provides guidance on digital strategies to C-Level executives at technology providers, partners at private equity firms and function heads at large corporations. His current focus is on helping clients understand their market opportunity tied to ESG investment trends and the impact of these on corporate sustainability strategies. During his 12 years running Verdantix – including four leading the New York office – he has helped dozens of clients grow their businesses through fundraising, acquisitions and international growth. David was previously SVP Research at Forrester and Head of Analysis & Forecasting at BT. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and worked as a Research Associate at Harvard Business School.

Orlan Boston

EY

Orlan is a senior partner and executive and catalyst, connector and convener deeply committed to bringing people and organizations together for fundamental change and global impact. Currently serving as EY’s Americas Sustainability & ESG Markets Leader, he is responsible for creating and leading the EY Sustainability & ESG practice, go-to-market practices, services, solutions, and offerings. He chairs the EY Americas Sustainability & ESG Leadership Team and serves on EY’s Global Sustainability Executive Committee, EY Americas Markets Leadership team, and EY’s Global Social Equity Task Force. He has spent the past three decades serving in senior leadership and board roles in business, media, politics, public service, nonprofits, and philanthropy as a senior partner and executive at EY and Deloitte, entrepreneur, venture capital investor, awardwinning film producer, author, presidential appointee, public servant, philanthropist, and member of several boards. His consulting career spans corporate and commercial strategy, governance, growth, innovation, digital, technology, human capital, talent, change management, operations, transformation, M&A transaction, and sustainability/ESG advisory services for CEOs, C-Suite executives, and corporate board directors of Fortune 100 companies and private equity and venture capital firms in the healthcare, life sciences, consumer, and technology sectors. In addition, he serves as EY’s Senior Advisory Partner for several major client accounts.

He served as Global Client Service Partner for the Johnson & Johnson account for 7 years as EY’s senior advisor to the J&J Chairman & CEO, Board, and Executive Committee responsible for the global EY and J&J relationship and building one of the most successful and innovative accounts at EY. He served as EY’s Global Accounts Excellence & Innovation Leader in a Chief Commercial and Customer Innovation Officer capacity leading EY’s global commercial and accounts excellence and innovation initiatives for its largest and most important client account portfolio representing over $13B in annual revenues. He served as Founding Chair of the Global Accounts Innovation Advisory Board and member of EY’s Global Markets Leadership Team and Global Accounts Committee. He held various senior Healthcare leadership roles as member of EY’s Global Health Sciences Executive Board, EY Americas Strategy & Transactions Life Sciences Leader and EY Global Healthcare and Life Sciences Innovation Leader. He served as East Region G360 Markets Leader representing and leading EY’s largest accounts in the region and member of EY’s East Region Leadership Team responsible. Prior to joining EY in 2012, he held various firm, management, and account leadership roles at Deloitte Consulting including as Senior Partner, Chief Diversity Officer, and US Life Sciences M&A Leader.

He is both an entrepreneur having started technology and real estate ventures and an intrapreneur having founded a number of successful practices, alliances, and service offerings with EY and previously Deloitte. He served on the Big Think Advisory Board and currently serves as an advisor to Max Ventures, a NYC based technology and e-commerce VC firm, and is an active angel investor. He has a long history in ESG and Sustainability efforts across the public and private sectors and in public private partnerships. Partnering with J&J over the years he oversaw an EY team that supported EY’s and J&J’s participation and efforts with the Embankment Project for Inclusive Capitalism in 2018, served as the Executive Sponsor for EY’s multimillion-dollar pro bono program supporting the global development and distribution efforts of J&J’s COVID-19 Vaccine, and orchestrated several creative and successful strategic ESG, sustainability, health equity, and innovation and tech ecosystem partnerships. In 2020, Goldman Sachs appointed him to the Launch With GS Advisory Board, their $1B+ groundbreaking social impact venture fund and accelerator exclusively investing in women, black, and latinx tech founders and VC fund managers. In 2014, he received a Presidential Appointment by President Barack Obama as the fourth Obama White House Political Appointee to the Global Board of Governors of the United Service Organizations, Inc. (USO). He is a member of the Partnership for New York City, the Partnership Innovation Council, and the Partnership Fund’s Healthcare Advisory Board. He is also a David Rockefeller Fellow and member of the Executive Leadership Council and the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).

Orlan is a passionate social entrepreneur having launched various award-winning social change and impact ventures in publishing, documentary and feature filmmaking, civil rights, and philanthropy. He serves on the Board of Directors of The Trevor Project, the world’s leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ youth and was a member of the NYC LGBTQ Center’s Board of Directors. He was named to the OUTstanding and Financial Times list of the 2016 Top 100 LGBT Leaders. In 2013 he produced HBO’s critically acclaimed The Out List documentary film and book and is currently producing his latest epic feature film, Firebird. He was a co-author of I Am Ecowarrior, a book featuring editorial portraits and interviews with global luminaries in the environmental sustainability movement. In 2020, Orlan co-authored the feature article, The Strategic Side Gig, published in Harvard Business Review Magazine and in 2021 was published in HBR’s 10 Must Reads On Career Resilience book.

He holds a B.S. in Finance and International Business from New York University’s Stern School of Business and has completed a variety of executive education programs at Harvard Business School, University of Oxford, INSEAD, and London Business School.

Evan Greenfield

S&P Global

Evan was formerly Senior Managing Director, Global Head of ESG at S&P Global, where he oversaw ESG strategy, M&A and operations. Evan led ESG investments and acquisitions at S&P Global, culminating in the acquisition of SAM . He has two decades of experience in the financial services vertical, with significant time focused on ESG investing in alternative markets, and has spent over a decade as a private equity investor across the globe.

Evan is a passionate member of the ESG movement and believes that capital markets can play a critical role in advancing sustainability.