The Ethical Finance Summit 2021
08-10 June 2021 | Online Summit
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Our Agenda
All times in BST (GMT+1)
Beyond Climate
The third day of the virtual summit will explore ethical finance beyond sustainability, looking at the broader SDGs, social issues (the often overlooked ‘S’ in ESG), leadership and governance.
09.20 BST
Session 1
How the World Will Finance the SDGs
» Welcome
Graham Burnside, Director, GEFI
George Littlejohn, Senior Adviser, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment
» Keynote Interview, Presentation and Address: Financing the SDGs
Keynote Interview
Achim Steiner, Administrator, UNDP
Kat Feldinger, Deputy Director Investment Finance, Scottish Government
Presentation
Dora Benedek, Deputy Division Chief, Fiscal Affairs Department, International Monetary Fund
Alexander Ferenc Tieman, Deputy Division Chief, Fiscal Affairs Department, International Monetary Fund
» Panel Discussion: Global Perspectives on SDG Finance
Moderator: George Littlejohn, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment
Dr Hayat Sindi, Chief Scientific Adviser to the President, Islamic Development Bank
Sarah Norris, Investment Director, Aberdeen Standard Investments
Arshad Mohamed Ismail, Group Chief Executive Officer, Bank Penbangunan Malaysia
Abubakar Suleiman, CEO, Sterling Bank
» Initiative Spotlight: Global Islamic Finance & the SDGs Taskforce
John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister
Sultan Choudhury, Advisory Board Member, UKIFC
Stella Cox CBE, Managing Director, DDCAP Group

Graham Burnside

George Littlejohn

Achim Steiner

Kat Feldinger

Dora Benedek

Alexander F. Tieman

Arshad Mohamed Ismail

Sarah Norris

Dr Hayat Sindi

Abubakar Suleiman

The Rt. Hon. John Glen MP

Stella Cox CBE

Sultan Choudhury OBE

Senior Advisor, Global Ethical Finance Initiative
Graham Burnside
Graham is a recognised expert in banking and finance law, specialising in particular in structured finance and capital markets, along with debt trading and financial product documentation. He pioneered the legal development of Islamic finance within Scotland on which he is now considered the country’s leading expert, having structured and documented the first (and so far only) Islamic mortgage products operating under Scots law and the first fully Sharia-compliant commercial real estate financing in Scotland. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Islamic Finance Council UK. The latest edition of Chambers & Partners Guide to the legal profession conferred on Graham the accolade of “Senior Statesman” in banking and finance law in Scotland, the only lawyer so recognised.

Senior Advisor, The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment
George Littlejohn
George Littlejohn qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC in London before becoming a journalist with The Economist, specialising in financial and economic matters. He is now Senior Adviser at the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), having conducted advisory work in financial centres across Europe, the Middle East and Asia over the past two decades. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, and the author of a number of works on risk management in finance.

Administrator, UNDP
Achim Steiner
Achim Steiner became UNDP Administrator on 19 June 2017 and will serve for a term of four years. The United Nations General Assembly confirmed his nomination on 19 April 2017, following his nomination by Secretary-General António Guterres.
Mr. Steiner is also the Vice-Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Group, which unites 40 entities of the UN system that work to support sustainable development.
Over nearly three decades, Achim Steiner has been a global leader on sustainable development, climate resilience and international cooperation. He has worked tirelessly to champion sustainability, economic growth and equality for the vulnerable, and has been a vocal advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals.
Prior to joining UNDP, he was Director of the Oxford Martin School and Professorial Fellow of Balliol College, University of Oxford. Mr Steiner has served across the United Nations system, looking at global challenges from both a humanitarian and a development perspective. He led the United Nations Environment Programme (2006-2016), helping governments invest in clean technologies and renewable energy. He was also Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi. Achim Steiner previously held other notable positions including Director General of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and Secretary General of the World Commission on Dams.
Achim Steiner has lived and worked in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and the United States. He graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (MA) from Worcester College, Oxford University and holds an MA from the University of London/School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Deputy Director for Investment Finance, Scottish Government
Kat Feldinger
Kat has worked in economic development for the best part of a decade, including European policy, long-range policy forecasting, and powers and planning for regional development. She is now heading up the Investment Finance division for the Scottish Government, responsible for creating the conditions for large-scale private investment in Scotland, and promoting investment opportunities in Scotland to global markets, and including the Government’s shareholding on the Scottish National Investment Bank. Educated at Edinburgh University, Kat is originally Danish and hasn’t so much integrated as infiltrated, with only a lingering love of cosy knitwear and liquorice giving the game away.

Deputy Division Chief, Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF
Dora Benedek
Dora Benedek is a Deputy Division Chief at the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF. She joined the Fund in 2011 where she has been engaged in Technical assistance and tax policy related analytical work, as well as country work on Bosnia and Herzegovina and Belarus. Prior to her Fund career she worked in the public administration in Hungary, first at the Ministry of Finance, followed by the Office of the Fiscal Council where she was leading the work of the tax policy analysis team. Her analytical work focuses on tax policy, labor market issues, inequality and microsimulation. She has a PhD in public finance from the Central European University.

Deputy Division Chief of Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF
Alexander F. Tieman
Alexander F. Tieman is deputy division chief in the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department. In this capacity he co-manages a division consisting of about 20 economists and support staff. In addition, Alexander works on various cross country and analytical projects. Alexander’s 18 year experience at the IMF include work on program and surveillance countries; financial sector surveillance and stress testing; and a field assignment as IMF Resident Representative in Skopje, North Macedonia. Prior to joining the Fund, he lectured in microeconomics at the Vrije University and Tinbergen Institute in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and worked at the research department of the Dutch Central Bank. He has a PhD in microeconomics from the Vrije University/Tinbergen Institute in the Netherlands.

President/Group Chief Executive Officer, Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Berhad
Arshad Mohamed Ismail
Arshad Mohamed Ismail was appointed as Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Berhad’s (“BPMB”) President/Group Chief Executive Officer effective 8 April 2019.
Prior to his appointment, Arshad was Head of Global Banking Business at Maybank Islamic Berhad, in which capacity he oversaw the bank’s corporate banking, trade finance and investment banking business lines. Arshad has had a varied career path since commencing his career in 1995 as a lawyer in Kuala Lumpur with Messrs Mohamed Ismail & Co; he specialised in corporate law, banking and finance law, and also Islamic banking and finance law.
In early 2003, he joined CIMB Islamic as one of its pioneer members where he focused on Sukuk origination and execution before relocating to the United Arab Emirates in late 2004 to join HSBC Amanah as the Head of Islamic Capital Markets. At HSBC Amanah, Arshad and his team originated and worked on many innovative and ground breaking Sukuk transactions in the Gulf Cooperation Council region and South East Asia.
The other roles he has held include Head of Asset Management at Aayan Capital, a boutique investment bank based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Head of Corporate Finance and Advisory at Al Hilal Bank, an Islamic bank based in Abu Dhabi. Arshad returned to Malaysia in 2011 to join the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (“IILM”) as Executive Director, Origination and Structuring.
Arshad holds an LL.B. (Hons.) degree from the International Islamic University Malaysia and an M.B.A. from the London Business School, United Kingdom. He was elected to the SC-OCIS Visiting Fellowship in Islamic Finance for the academic year 2015 – 2016 at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Oxford. Arshad is a Chartered Banker.

Investment Director, Aberdeen Standard Investments
Sarah Norris
Sarah is the co-portfolio manager of the Global Equity Impact strategy and lead manager on the European Ethical strategy. She previously worked with a non-profit and continues to work with an NGO supporting education and community development projects in South Sudan.

Chief Scientific Advisor to the President, IsDB
Dr Hayat Sindi
Dr. Hayat Sindi is one of the world’s leading biotechnologists and a global champion of science and technology. She is a pioneering, inspirational female leader, working to improve the lives of people around the world, through her resolute belief in the power of science, technology and innovation to solve the greatest development challenges.
The Chief Advisor to the President of the Islamic Development Bank, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Sindi was voted one of the BBC’s top 100 Women 2018, a list of inspiring and influential women from around the world. Her remarkable career includes co-founding and co-inventing ‘Diagnostics For All’ – a programme to create to affordable diagnostic devices for millions of people in impoverished regions. alongside a team from Harvard University. These innovative, inexpensive, point-of-care diagnostic devices require no power, water or trained doctors and have the ability to provide potentially life-saving medical results in minutes. In 2008 Dr Sindi led the ‘Diagnostics For All’ business team to first place in Harvard Business School’s Business Plan Contest, in the social enterprise track, and also to first place in MIT’s $100K Entrepreneurship Competition in the same year. (The first time in history that the same team won first place in both competitions in the same year).
Dr. Sindi Graduated with honors from King’s college London in Pharmacology in 1995 and the first woman from the Gulf to obtain a Ph.D in biotechnology from the University of Cambridge, Dr. Sindi is driven by a passion to develop entrepreneurial ecosystems that can transcend existing gaps between education and opportunity. Additionally, Dr. Sindi was a visiting scholar at Harvard University; as such, she travelled often between Jeddah, Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Sindi ‘s laboratory work at Harvard earned her a spot with four other scientists in a documentary film supported by the Executive Office of the President of the United States in order to promote science education among young people.
This led to her to launching i2, the Institute for imagination and ingenuity, in 2011. Through fellowships, trainings and mentorships, i2 seeks to empower and inspire the next generation of innovators so that they may realize their dreams and ultimately contribute to the world. She has also invented a low cost diagnostic tool for early detection of breast cancer by converting light into sound, and holds nine patents. Her work encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship among young people was recognised in 2014, when she was awarded the Clinton Global Citizen Award for “Leadership in Civil Society.”
In 2017, Dr Sindi was appointed Chief Scientific Advisor to the President of the IsDB. In this role, she has put Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) at the heart of Islamic Development Bank’s work, where it is a powerful driver of economic growth and sustainable development. In 2018, she contributed to the launch of the IsDB’s $500m Transform Fund and Engage platform to support innovators find solutions to development challenges through the power of innovation, the first digital hub of its kind for the developing world.
In 2019, Dr. Sindi was exceptionally awarded by TWAS with one of the 2020 Medal Lectures in recognition of her achievements in biotechnology as well as the leading and inspirational role as a woman scientist by putting innovation to the service of the developing world and of the promotion of science education among the new generations of scientists. (it is unusual that TWAS awards a Medal Lecture to a non-TWAS member)
Dr. Sindi is frequently sought out as a commentator by international media outlets due to her passion and knowledge for entrepreneurialism and innovation in developing countries. Her inspired vision for an empowered youth through science, technology and innovation has contributed to her being chosen as a recipient of several prestigious awards, including:
- Named a 2009 and 2010 PopTech Social Innovation Fellow. This is the first time in the history of the organization that Poptech awarded a Poptech Science Fellowship to the same person in two consecutive years (2009, 2010)
- Winner of the Mekkah Al Mukaramah prize for scientific innovation, presented by HRH Prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud (2010)
- One of the emerging explorers selected by of the National Geographic’s Emerging Explorers Program (2011)
- Selected as one of Newsweek’s “150 Women Who Shake the World” (2012)
- Ranked by Forbes as Number 2 in’ list of the most powerful Arab women in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2012)
- Selected by Newsweek and The Daily Beast as one of ‘150 Fearless Women’ (2012)
- Named as a Global Ambassador for Vital Voices global partnership (2012)
- Named by CEO Magazine as the 9th most powerful Arab woman and the 3rd most powerful Saudi Arabian women (2012)
- Named one of “50 Academics and Think Tanks” by the prestigious Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin. (2015)
- Selected as one of 24/7 Wall St.’s 32 Amazing Women Inventors (2018)
- Indispensably contributed to the launch of IsDB $500mTransform Fund & Engage Platform (2018)
Dr. Sindi’s high profile and internationally recognized contributions has seen her invited and selected on a number of esteemed panels and boards as below:
- Appointed in 2012 by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for her efforts in promoting science education in the Middle East, especially for girls.
- Invited in 2013 by the Prime Minister of Malaysia to join his Science and Innovation Advisory Council to support the country’s Vision 2020.
- Selected in 2013 among the first 30 women to be appointed to the Saudi Arabia’s highest consultative body, the Shura Council.
- Selected in 2013 as one of 25 global experts selected by United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to be a member of the newly constituted UN Scientific Advisory Board, which provides advice to the UN’s leadership on science, technology and innovation for sustainable development.
- Appointed in 2015 as an honorary Advisor to the UN Environment Programme for the Eye on Earth Summit
- Appointed in 2016 by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as one of a 10-member group to support the technological facilitation mechanism (TFM) for the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Appointed in 2017 as Senior Advisor to the IsDB President for Science, Technology and Innovation.
- Selected on BBC 100 Women list of inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2018.
- Appointed in 2019 by the Director-General of UNESCO as one of the five International Jury members for the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education, which is Funded by the Government of the People’s Republic of China.
- Awarded in 2019 by TWAS with one of the 2020 Medal Lectures in recognition of her as a high caliber Saudi Arabian scientist.
- Appointed in 2020 by Alan Donnelly, Convener of the G20 Health and Development Partnership and Executive Chairman of Sovereign Sustainability and Development as a Global Ambassador for the G20 Health and Development Partnership.
- Appointed in 2020 as a member of the Islamic Finance News Advisory Board.
- Appointed in 2020 as a member of the World Economic Forum’s network of Global Future Councils.

CEO, Sterling Bank Plc
Abubakar Suleiman
Abubakar Suleiman, fondly called Abu, is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience working in the banking industry. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank Plc. Currently, his top priority is to optimize the impact of financial intermediation in critical sectors that can catalyze growth and create a future of shared prosperity for all Nigerians. These priority sectors are Health, Agriculture, Education, Renewable Energy and Transportation, and are at the H.E.A.R.T of Sterling.
Before his current role, he served as an Executive Director and Chief Finance Officer of the bank and was the executive sponsor of the Bank’s non-interest banking business (Sterling Alternative Finance).
Abu holds a bachelor’s degree (B.Sc) in Economics from the University of Abuja and a Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Major Programme Management from the University of Oxford.
His previous work experience includes tax advisory at Arthur Andersen, management training at MBC International Bank (now First Bank) and financial markets with Citibank Nigeria.
He is a firm believer in the role of efficient markets, emerging technologies and small businesses in unlocking productivity, improving national competitiveness and driving inclusive economic growth.
He currently serves on the Governing Council of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), and the Advisory Boards of Lagos Business School (LBS) and Enterprise Development Center (EDC).
When he is not on the job, which is rare, he enjoys poetry, driving and music.

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, City Minister & MP for Salisbury
The Rt. Hon. John Glen MP
John Glen was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister on 9 January 2018.
He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport from 14 June 2017 to 8 January 2018.
He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Philip Hammond from July 2016 until June 2017.
John Glen MP was first elected to Parliament as the MP for Salisbury in 2010.
He previously worked for Eric Pickles and Sajid Javid as a Parliamentary Private Secretary.

Managing Director, DDCAP Group
Stella Cox CBE
Stella Cox CBE has worked within the Islamic financial marketplace for more than thirty years. Since 1998 she has
been Managing Director of DDCAP Group™. Under Stella’s leadership, DDCAP has pioneered Sharia’a compliant
intermediation services, bringing automation to the industry sector through the Group’s ETHOS AFP™, serving
clients and counterparties across the globe. DDCAP has also invested, for its own account, in a number of Islamic
financial sector firms and initiatives.
On 26th November 2016, DDCAP was one of the first Islamic financial sector firms to be awarded Principles for
Responsible Investment (PRI) Signatory Status. DDCAP is also a Stakeholder Endorser of the UNEP FI Principles for
Responsible Banking (PRB). Stella represents DDCAP within the Islamic Finance and the UN Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) Taskforce, the inaugural meeting of which took place in July 2020, convened by the Islamic
Finance Council UK (UKIFC) in partnership with the UK Government. With a US$2.5 trillion per year financing gap,
the UKIFC has committed to a 24-month action-oriented program of activities to address barriers blocking Islamic
financial institutions from embracing the targets of the SDGs.
Previously Stella was a Director of merchant bank Kleinwort Benson Limited, where her team managed assets
aggregating over US$2bn. Whilst at Kleinwort, Stella was involved in structuring The Islamic Fund, the first Sharia’a
compliant global equity fund which launched in 1986. She was also a Director of the Al Meezan Commodity Fund plc,
a joint venture initiative with a GCC Islamic bank that invested in non-ferrous metals traded on the London Metal
Exchange.
From 2007-2009 Stella served as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Gatehouse Bank, a UK Islamic investment
bank.
Outside of DDCAP, Stella has had the privilege to be appointed to numerous industry think tanks, working groups
and committees. These include membership of the Working Group established by the Central Bank of Bahrain
(formerly the Bahrain Monetary Authority) with the purpose of developing procedures and documentation for Islamic
commodity trading and assisting the Dubai International Financial Centre Islamic Advisory Committee with its work
on selected strategic development initiatives. Stella served as a member of the Islamic Financial Services Board Money
Market Task Force on Markets and Instruments for Sharia’a Compliant Liquidity Management and currently
represents DDCAP on project specific Working Groups of the International Islamic Financial Market.
In 2013, the UK Government launched its first Islamic Finance Task Force. The ministerial led Task Force was
established to refocus on Islamic finance and the UK proposition. Stella was one of a small group of non-ministerial
industry experts within the Task Force and acted as practitioner lead for the regulatory work stream. With support
from the Task Force, the UK Government announced plans to launch an inaugural sovereign Sukuk at the World
Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) in October 2013 in London, with the successful issuance following in June 2014.
In 2014, Stella was appointed Chair of the Islamic Finance Market Advisory Group formed by TheCityUK, the financial
services professional body that champions UK-based financial and related professional services. It is a membership
body, lobbying on the industry’s behalf, producing evidence of its importance to the wider national economy.
In June 2016, Stella was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Stella was honoured for
her services to the Economy and, specifically, as a Champion for the Development of Islamic Finance in the UK. In
2017, she was ranked number 1 in the ‘Top 10 Women in Islamic Banking & Finance’ listing published by ISFIRE, and
in the ISFIRE ‘WOMANi 2018′ Report she was ranked number 1 amongst the ‘100 Most Influential Women in Islamic
Finance’. She was appointed Patron-in-Chief of WOMANi in April 2019.
In January 2019, Stella became a member of the Astana International Financial Centre’s Advisory Council on Islamic
Finance (“ACIF”) and in July 2019 Stella became a Freeman of the City of London.
Stella is a personal advocate of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals objectives and the relevant
responsible practices championed by DDCAP. She supports educational initiatives that are relevant to the market and
the development of its human capital. She has served as a member of the University of East London’s Islamic Finance
and Banking Advisory Board and has been a visiting lecturer at Durham University’s Islamic Finance Summer School Programme, as well as the Cambridge Islamic Finance Programme at Clare College, Cambridge and the Saïd Business
School, University of Oxford.
Since 2015 Stella has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the RFI Foundation, where she also sits on the
Governance and Risk Committee and previously served as an Advisory Board member for the Ethical Finance
Innovation Challenge Awards (“EFICA”), co-sponsored by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Thomson Reuters. She is
serving her second rotation as a member of the Nomination Committee for Malaysia’s Royal Award for Islamic Finance
(The Royal Award).
Outside of her work as a financial markets practitioner, Stella speaks regularly at international conferences on a broad
range of topics and has contributed to many publications. Specifically, she was co-author of Structuring Islamic
Finance Transactions published by Euromoney Books and co-authored the Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ) jointly
offered by the UK Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) and the École Supérieure des Affaires in
Lebanon, contributing the Islamic Asset and Fund Management module.

Advisory Board Member, UKIFC
Sultan Choudhury OBE
Sultan Choudhury is the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Director at Al Rayan Bank PLC, formerly known as Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB). The Bank’s longest-serving employee, Mr Choudhury joined the Bank when it was formed in 2004 and was part of the founding management team of Western Europe’s first authorised Islamic Bank.
Sultan now sits as Executive Chairman at Waqfinity, a new impact focused Islamic financial eco-system. He is a member of various community and advisory groups and has contributed significantly to the development of Islamic Financial Services in the UK.
Mr. Choudhury previously held roles at Charles Schwab Europe, Barclays Private Bank and Deloitte. A Chartered Accountant (ACA), he holds a BA (Hons) in Economics & Econometrics from University of Nottingham and an MBA with distinction (University of Aston). Mr Choudhury is also a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment for whom he sits on the Employer Panel for the Islamic Finance Qualification.
12.10 BST
Session 2
The ‘S’ in ESG: Why It Matters
» Welcome
MC, George Littlejohn, Senior Adviser, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment
» Keynote Address
HE Dr Reza Baqir, Governor, StateBank of Pakistan
» Panel Discussion: Rethinking the ‘S’ in ESG
Moderator: Thom Kenrick, Head of Social Banking, NatWest Group
Andrew Cave, Head of Governance and Sustainability, Baillie Gifford
Elena Espinoza, Acting Head of Social Issues, Principles for Responsible Investment
Leslie Swynghedauw, Vice President, ESG Research, MSCI
Lesley-Ann Vaughan, Product Strategy, Moojaloop Foundation (Co-Creator of M-PESA for Vodafone)
» Initiative Spotlight: Tobacco Free Portfolios
Dr Bronwyn King, CEO, Tobacco Free Portfolios
Ruben Zandvliet, Environmental, Social and Ethical Risk Advisor, ABN AMRO
Gail Hurley, Senior Adviser, GEFI

George Littlejohn

Dr Reza Baqir

Thom Kenrick

Andrew Cave

Elena Espinoza

Leslie Swynghedauw

Lesley-Ann Vaughan

Dr Bronwyn King AO

Ruben Zandvliet

Gail Hurley

Senior Advisor, The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment
George Littlejohn
George Littlejohn qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC in London before becoming a journalist with The Economist, specialising in financial and economic matters. He is now Senior Adviser at the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), having conducted advisory work in financial centres across Europe, the Middle East and Asia over the past two decades. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, and the author of a number of works on risk management in finance.

Governor, State Bank of Pakistan
Dr Reza Baqir
Dr. Reza Baqir was appointed as the Governor of Pakistan’s central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan, by the President of Pakistan on May 04, 2019. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Baqir had eighteen years of experience with the IMF and two years of experience with the World Bank. He was the Head of the IMF’s Office in Egypt and Senior Resident Representative since August 2017. He has also held positions as IMF’s Mission Chief for Romania and Bulgaria, Division Chief of the IMF’s Debt Policy Division overseeing IMF’s work on debt relief and sovereign debt restructuring, Head of the IMF delegation to the Paris Club, Deputy Division Chief of the IMF’s Emerging Markets Division overseeing IMF’s loans and policies in emerging markets, IMF Resident Representative to the Philippines, and numerous other positions.
Dr. Baqir’s academic research has been published in top journals of the economics profession, including the Journal of Political Economy and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Dr. Baqir holds a Ph.D in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and an A.B. (Magna cum Laude) in Economics from Harvard University.

Head of Social Strategy and Impact, NatWest Group
Thom Kenrick
Thom Kenrick is Head of Social Strategy and Impact at NatWest Group. Part of the Sustainable Banking function, Thom’s team lead and coordinate the bank’s approach to social issues and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Focus areas include financial capability, human rights & modern slavery, vulnerable customers, and ‘controversial’ sectors. The team also lead and deliver the bank’s flagship MoneySense financial education programme.
Thom is the Chair of NatWest Social & Community Capital, a bank-supported social finance charity which lends money to community businesses and social enterprises. He is also a Trustee of the Coutts Foundation and a Fellow of the RSA. He holds a First Class Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering & European Studies from the University of Edinburgh.

Head of Governance and Sustainability, Baillie Gifford
Andrew Cave
Andrew joined Baillie Gifford as Head of Governance and Sustainability in May 2015. He is also a member of the Global Stewardship Portfolio Construction Group. In his previous role as Chief Sustainability Officer for RBS, Andrew was responsible for helping to rebuild RBS’s approach to corporate responsibility after the financial crisis. He is a member of the Financial Reporting Council’s Investor Advisory Group and is a former Chairman of the UK Global Compact Network. Andrew graduated MA in History from the University of Edinburgh in 1999 and MSc in International Development from London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 2001. He has subsequently obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainable Business from the University of Cambridge.

Manager, Social Issues, PRI
Elena Espinoza
Elena is the Head of Social Issues for the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) where she oversees the development and implementation of PRI’s strategy to support investors in understanding social issues and their incorporation into investment decision making and active ownership. Elena has been with the PRI since 2018.
Prior to the PRI, Elena worked as Head of Advisory Services at Business in the Community (BITC), the oldest and largest business-led membership organisation dedicated to responsible business in the UK. There, she managed BITC’s work in corporate strategy development, impact measurement, and sustainability reporting and benchmarking.
Elena holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, an MSc on Environment and Sustainable Development from University College London, and a BEng in Production Engineering from Simon Bolivar University (Caracas, Venezuela).

Vice President, MSCI ESG Research
Leslie Swynghedauw
Leslie Swynghedauw is Vice President at MSCI ESG Research specialising in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk and performance analysis of listed equities within the consumer goods sector.
Prior to joining MSCI, Leslie worked for several years within the ESG research provider, EIRIS, as well as at Amundi Asset Management in the Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) team. Leslie holds a Master degree in Development and Risk Management from Sciences Po Bordeaux.

Co-creator, M-PESA
Lesley-Ann Vaughan
Lesley-Ann has been working in emerging market digital financial services since 2005. She’s one of the creators of M-PESA for Vodafone, and she managed its operationalization as it grew from zero to 20 million active users. In the last 5 years, she’s been working as an independent consultant with organizations such as CGAP and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as commercial enterprises such as Tigo/Millicom, Co-op Bank Kenya, BTPN Bank, Microsoft and fintechs on multiple continents. She’s passionate about the potential of APIs to unlock the next generation of partnerships and “coopetition.” Lesley-Ann’s expertise also lies in retail banking, alternative payments, credit scoring based on alternative data sets, practical agent network management, and digital banking proposition design for MSMEs, business processes, risk management, and operating model thinking for “digital all the way down.”

Founder, Director & CEO, Tobacco Free Portfolios
Dr Bronwyn King AO
Dr. Bronwyn King AO began her medical career working as a doctor on the lung cancer ward at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia. While doing her best to treat her patients (many of whom had started smoking in childhood) Dr King observed first-hand the truly devastating impact of tobacco – many deaths and much suffering. She was unaware that at the very same time she was investing in Big Tobacco via her compulsory superannuation (pension) fund. Tobacco Free Portfolios was set up in response to that uncomfortable discovery. Since then, Dr King has assembled an accomplished team that has been instrumental in advancing the switch to tobacco-free finance across the globe. Her 2017 TEDxSydney talk on tobacco-free finance has been viewed more than three million times.
A former elite swimmer who represented Australia and for ten years worked as Team Doctor for the Australian Swimming Team, Dr King is also an Australia Day Ambassador and an Ambassador for Big Brothers Big Sisters Australia. Dr King has received numerous awards in recognition of her unique contribution to local and global health, including being appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to community health and was named the Melburnian of the Year, an award bestowed by the City of Melbourne.

Social Sustainability Advisor, ABN AMRO
Ruben Zandvliet
Ruben Zandvliet is a Social Sustainability Advisor at ABN AMRO, where he works on the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles and the bank’s human rights reporting efforts. He is involved in relevant discussions about upcoming legislation on responsible business conduct and represents the bank in external fora, including the European Banking Federation. Ruben has a PhD in international trade and investment law. His dissertation focused on the way economic law constrains and enables labour regulation. He also worked in the Dutch Parliament as a policy officer on responsible business conduct and corporate governance.

Senior Consultant, Global Ethical Finance Initiative
Gail Hurley
Gail is an international development and sustainable finance professional with over 16 years’ experience in research, data analysis and market trends, advocacy and direct country support. Her areas of expertise include innovative finance mechanisms, sustainable finance, aid, debt and tax. She was a Project Manager for Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) from 2015-2019 and is also a specialist in impact bonds, blue economy financing, small island states and impact measurement. She is currently a Fellow with Development Initiatives and Senior Consultant with Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) and was previously with UNDP and EURODAD.
14.25 BST
Session 3
Strategic Business and Sustainability Leadership
» Welcome
MC, George Littlejohn, Senior Adviser, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment
» Presentation
Louai Al Roumani, Author of ‘Lessons from a Warzone: How to be a Resilient Leader in Times of Crisis’
» In Conversation with Sir Howard Davies
Sir Howard Davies, Chairman, NatWest Group
Farmida Bi, CBE, EMEA Chair, Norton Rose Fulbright
» Fireside Chat – Steering a Pathway to Net Zero
Vivienne Yeda Apopo, Director-General, East African Development Bank & Chair, Kenya Power
Keith Anderson, CEO, Scottish Power
Allan Watt, Senior Adviser, GEFI
» In Conversation with the Lord Mayor of London
William Russell, The Lord Mayor of the City of London
Dr. Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE, CEO, Green Finance Institute
» Keynote Interview with Hiro Mizuno
Hiromichi Mizuno, UN Special Envoy on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments
George Hay, Associate Editor, Reuters BreakingViews

George Littlejohn

Louai Al Roumani

Sir Howard Davies

Farmida Bi

Allan Watt

Vivienne Yeda Apopo

Keith Anderson

William Russell

Dr. Rhian-Mari Thomas

George Hay

Hiro Mizuno

Senior Advisor, The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment
George Littlejohn
George Littlejohn qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC in London before becoming a journalist with The Economist, specialising in financial and economic matters. He is now Senior Adviser at the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), having conducted advisory work in financial centres across Europe, the Middle East and Asia over the past two decades. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, and the author of a number of works on risk management in finance.

Bestselling Author & Former CFO at Banque Bemo Saudi Fransi
Louai Al Roumani
Louai Al Roumani is the bestselling author of the part-memoir/part-business book Lessons from a Warzone: How To Be A Resilient Leader in Times of Crisis, recently selected by the Financial Times as one of their 2020 summer book readings.
Louai was the CFO of the largest private bank in Syria when the war broke out in 2011. Over the next few years, he would find himself navigating an almost impossible crisis in one of the most horrendous wars in modern times. Many of the bank’s branches were destroyed by jihadists, mortar bombs rained down on
Louai and his colleagues regularly and he was under constant threat of kidnapping. The currency lost 5 times its value and the default rate on loans skyrocketed by twenty times. In spite of all that, the bank thrived.
With innovative thinking and a positive mindset the bank countered setback after setback. For example, when customers rushed to withdraw their savings amidst fears that the money would run out, the bank stacked banknotes near the tills so everyone could see there was no problem with supply.
In his talks Louai shares his story with powerful visuals and images from the war battered streets of Syria and talks about the principles he learned on how to navigate a crisis, and demonstrates with examples how lessons learned in one of the worst warzones can help inspire people and organizations in challenging
contexts today.
Based now in London, Louai has spoken at various organisations such as
Salesforce, Macquarie Bank & Unicef UK.

Chairman, NatWest Group
Sir Howard Davies
Howard Davies has been Chairman of the NatWest Group (formerly Royal Bank of Scotland)
since 1 September 2015. Previously, Howard was Chairman of the Phoenix Group between
October 2012 and August 2015. He chaired the UK Airports Commission from 2012-15 and
was the Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science from 2003 until
May 2011. Prior to that appointment Howard chaired the UK Financial Services Authority,
then the single regulator for the UK financial services sector, from 1997 to 2003.
Howard was the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England from 1995-97, after three years as
the Director General of the Confederation of British Industry. Earlier in his career he worked
in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including two years as Private Secretary to the
British Ambassador in Paris, the Treasury, McKinsey and Co, and as Controller of the Audit
Commission.
Howard has been a Professor in Practice at the French School of Political Science in Paris
(Sciences Po) since 2011. He teaches courses in financial regulation, and central banking to
masters students.
He is a member of the Regulatory and Compliance Advisory Board of Millennium
Management LLC, a New York-based hedge fund. He has been a member of the International
Advisory Council of the China Banking Regulatory Commission since 2003 and in 2012, was
appointed Chairman of the International Advisory Council of the China Securities Regulatory
Commission.
Howard became Chairman of Inigo Limited on 1 December 2020.
Previously Howard chaired the Risk Committee at Prudential plc from 2010 to 2020. He was
an independent Director of Morgan Stanley Inc. for 11 years, from 2004 to 2015 and earlier
in his career was a Non-Executive Director of GKN plc from 1989-95, and Paternoster Ltd
from 2005 to 2010.
He was a Trustee of the Tate Gallery from 2002-2010 and Chair from 2009-10. He was a
director of the Royal National Theatre from 2011 to 2015, when he left to chair the London
Library. He is also the patron of Working Families, a charity which promotes family-friendly
working practices.
Howard has published five books focused on the financial markets and regularly writes for
The Financial Times, Times Higher Education, Prospect, The Literary Review, Project
Syndicate and Management Today.
He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, Merton College, Oxford and Stanford
Graduate School of Business.

Chair (Europe, Middle East and Asia), Norton Rose Fulbright
Farmida Bi
Farmida Bi CBE has been EMEA Chair of Norton Rose Fulbright since May 2018 and is based in London. She has more than 25 years of experience in capital markets and Islamic finance, and is also European Head of Islamic Finance. She joined the firm as a partner in 2008, and was previously a partner at another large international firm. She has also worked in the London offices of other leading US and UK-based firms.
Farmida continues to advise clients and her practice is diverse, including sovereign bonds and programmes, Islamic finance, project bonds, restructurings and regulatory issues. Her clients include sovereigns and other government-related entities, international financial institutions and corporate service providers.
In addition to her constitutional role as Chair of the firm’s Partnership Committee, her focus has been to enhance the firm’s Corporate Social Responsibility programme, which includes sustainability, diversity and inclusion and pro bono.
Farmida is named as a ‘leading individual’ for Islamic finance and debt capital markets in The Legal 500 UK 2020; was listed in The Lawyer’s Hot 100 for 2019; has been awarded ‘Best in Banking and Finance’ twice at the European Women in Business Law Awards; and was named one of the five most powerful Muslim women in the UK in The Times’ inaugural Muslim Women Power List.
She is a graduate of Downing College, Cambridge and qualified as a solicitor in 1992, and as a New York attorney in 1999.
Farmida was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2020 for services to the law and to charity.

Director, Global Ethical Finance Initiative
Allan Watt
Allan Watt is a senior advisor to Global Ethical Finance with wide experience in public, private and voluntary sectors in the UK and overseas. He has been UK Chief Executive and also Scotland Director for the Prince’s Trust which helps young people into work or education and provides microfinance and start-up mentoring. Allan spent thirteen years at RBS with responsibility for communication, sponsorship, marketing and CSR activities in Edinburgh-based global roles and for three years in Hong Kong, as a member of the RBS Asia Pacific executive management team. This included work on affordable finance, lending in disadvantaged areas and impact investing.
Earlier in his career, he worked for the Scottish Development Agency and as Development Director for the Wise Group, a UK wide social enterprise. Most recently he has been carrying out interim work and consulting roles, including a year as Communications Director for Abellio, a Dutch-owned UK transport operator. Allan has been an advisor to the UK Government on employment and financial inclusion and has been a board member for a number of community, charitable and trade bodies.

Director General, East African Development Bank
Vivienne Yeda Apopo
Ms Vivienne Yeda Apopo is the current Director General of the East African Development Bank (EADB). She assumed the position in January 2009.
Ms Apopo is an experienced professional banker and international business lawyer with over 20 years practical and comprehensive development banking, finance and business experience in Africa. She has worked in the financial sector developing projects in banking and finance in several African countries and has experience in strategic management, business operations and project management.
She has a long track record and practical experience in devising financial solutions to support programmes and projects in the public and private sectors subject to tight deadlines and budget constraints.
Ms Apopo has negotiated and structured facilities for sovereign borrowers including governments, Central Banks and Regional Economic Communities, and undertaken a number of projects with private sector borrowers.
Prior to her employment at EADB, Ms Apopo worked for the African Development Bank, as the Resident Representative and Country Manager for Zambia. Prior to that, she served as Director of Legal Affairs at the EADB.
In May 2014, Vivienne Yeda Apopo was recognized for her work at EADB, when she was awarded the “African Banker of the Year Award”, by the annual African Banker Awards ceremony. In October 2014, she was named “Business Leader of the Year”, by the Africa-America Institute, in recognition of her contribution to development banking, finance and business in Africa for over 20 years.
Ms Apopo holds Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Laws (LLM) degrees. She has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Kenya since March 2011.

CEO, ScottishPower
Keith Anderson
Keith is Chief Executive Officer for ScottishPower and he also sits on
the ScottishPower Board, where he was appointed in February 2012.
Keith has full responsibility for the Company’s activities in the UK
including the £5.3bn investment plan to 2022 designed to strengthen
the position of the Company as the Utility of the Future.
Keith is a member of the UK Government’s Investment Trade
Advisory Group and is also a COP26 Business Leader. In January
2021 he became Chair of CBI Scotland.
Prior to joining ScottishPower, Keith worked with some major
financial institutions including The Royal Bank of Scotland and
Standard Life, as well as working as a management consultant with
Ernst & Young.

Lord Mayor of the City of London
William Russell
William Russell took office as Lord Mayor of the City of London in November 2019. To ensure continuity of leadership during the current COVID-19 pandemic, he will serve a second term and remain in office until November 2021.
With over thirty years’ experience in the City, including holding senior positions in the national and international Banking sectors, William started his career with First Boston before joining Merrill Lynch as an Investment Banker. He is currently Chair of CDAM, a London based Asset Management business and Senior Advisor to STJ Advisors.
William is on the Board of Innovate Finance, the industry body for the UK Fintech community. An educational entrepreneur, he is Co-Founder of Knightsbridge School and a Director of Knightsbridge School International. William is also a Director of Congham Hall Hotel and Red Savannah Travel. He is a member of the Campaign Board for the philanthropic campaign, Durham Inspired.
William has many current charitable interests including the Guildhall School of Music and Drama; the Royal Theatrical Support Trust; Place2Be, a children’s mental health charity; Charterhouse and Morden College.
William was elected Alderman for the Ward of Bread Street in 2013, has served on many of the City of London Corporation Committees and is currently a Governor of the City of London School for Girls.
William is a Court Assistant to the Haberdashers’ and Feltmakers’ Livery Companies and an Honorary Liveryman of the Paviors’ Company.
William is the 692nd Lord Mayor and the fifth member of his family to be Lord Mayor in the past 110 years. His grandfather, Sir Ian Bowater, was Lord Mayor from 1969 – 1970 and his great grandfather, Sir Frank Bowater, from 1938 – 1939.

Chief Executive, Green Finance Institute
Dr. Rhian-Mari Thomas
Dr. Rhian-Mari Thomas is CEO of the Green Finance Institute, backed by the UK Government and City of London Corporation.
Rhian spent 20 years in investment and corporate banking and was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to green banking. She is an Emeritus Member of the TCFD, currently co-chair of the Informal Working Group for the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures and Advisory Board member for UCL Bartlett School for Environment, Energy and Resources and UK Government’s Climate Finance Accelerator. She is also a member of the UK Government’s Financial Services Trade Advisory Group, Net Zero Technology and Innovation Advisory Group.
Rhian was a commissioner on the Zero Carbon Commission and previously sat on the UK Government Green Finance Taskforce, the Banking Environment Initiative’s Fintech Taskforce and the steering group for the UN Environment Programme Principles for Responsible Banking.
Rhian holds a PhD in Physics from Trinity College Dublin.

Associate Editor, Breakingviews
George Hay
George Hay is an associate editor in Breakingviews’ London office, covering commodities, the Middle East and general financial policy issues. Prior to that he was Breakingviews’ European Financial Editor, and also worked as a correspondent for AFX News and United Business Media. He has an undergraduate degree from Edinburgh University, a Graduate Diploma in Economics from Birkbeck, University of London, and his work has been recognised at the UK’s Business Journalist of the Year Awards.

Special Envoy on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments, United Nations
Hiro Mizuno
United Nations Special Envoy on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments
Member of the board of PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment) Association
Mr. Mizuno is a Japanese financial executive and former Executive Management Director and CIO of GPIF (Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan with AUM $1.5 trillion) between Jan 2015 and March 2020.
Prior to joining GPIF, he was a partner of Coller Capital, a London-based private equity firm (Jan 2003 – Jan 2005).
He previously worked for Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co., Ltd. in Japan, Silicon Valley and New York (April 1988 – Jan 2003).
Mizuno works in the following capacities to promote long term and ESG investment
World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Council member
Special Adviser of Milken Institute’s
CFA Institute Future of Finance Advisory Council member
The B Team Leader,
Member of Global Business Coalition for Education Advisory board
External Board Member Tesla, Inc.
Danone S.A. Mission Committee Member
Mizuno’s involvements with academics included:
Advisor of Office of the President of the University of Tokyo,
Guest professor of Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine
Executive in Residence and Global Leadership Council member of Said Business School, Oxford University,
Executive Fellow of Harvard Business School, Harvard University.
Visiting Fellow of Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge
Senior fellow Kellogg School of Management
Global Regional Showcases
The first day of the virtual summit will focus on views from around the globe. Leaders from Australasia, South East Asia, South Asia and West Africa will discuss the key issues facing them in ethical and sustainable finance, with an agenda driven by our partners in dedicated regional sessions.
07.00 BST
(16.00 AEST/
14.00 AWST)
Session 1
Australasia, with FINSIA
» Regional Overview
Giles Gunesekera, CEO, Global Impact Initiative
» Panel
Chris Whitehead, CEO, FINSIA
Katharine Tapley, Head of Sustainable Finance, ANZ
Lucy Thomas, Head of Investment Stewardship, NSW Treasury Corporation
Talieh Williams, Head of Investment Stewardship, VFMC
Dr Stuart Palmer, Head of Ethics Research, Australian Ethical Investment

Giles Gunesekera

Chris Whitehead

Katharine Tapley

Lucy Thomas

Talieh Williams

Dr Stuart Palmer

CEO, Global Impact Initiative
Giles Gunesekera
Giles is the Founder and CEO of Global Impact Initiative (GII). The business creates Impact Investments with the dual purpose of generating positive financial returns and creating social impact. GII is globally recognised as one of only thirty-six (36) Global Compact LEAD companies, recognised for their high levels of engagement in the United Nations Global Compact. Giles has over 25 years’ experience of building and developing teams and businesses for global enterprises.
Giles has received an Outstanding Alumnus award from Oxford for creating an innovative, sustainable business that generates positive social impact. He is a Senior Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia, Fellow of the School of Social Entrepreneurs, Fellow of the Institute of Managers and Leaders, and Member of the Australian Institute of Training and Development.
Giles has a unique blend of leadership and business skills gained in the corporate environment married with financial and governance skills gained in the Not for Profit sector. He holds numerous Volunteer Not-for-Profit Directorships ranging from International Aid, Human Rights, Disabilities, Education, Arts and Sports. Giles is on Advisory Boards for the United Nations for Climate & Health and Sustainable Finance. He is an Advisory Board Member of the Securities and Investments Institute of Asia Pacific and an Industry Fellow at the Business School of the University of Technology, Sydney.
Giles has formal academic qualifications from Melbourne University, Monash University, Financial Services Institute of Australia and Oxford University.

CEO and MD, FINSIA
Chris Whitehead
Chris was appointed FINSIA CEO in September 2016. He has been associated with the Australasian financial services industry for nearly 30 years. Previously, he was CEO of CUA, Australia’s largest customer-owned financial institution, Regional Director, Bank of Scotland and CEO, BankWest Retail Bank.
He has extensive experience as a non-executive director including in the payments, wealth management and insurance sectors.
Commencing his career in IT, Chris maintains a keen interest in the ongoing impact of technology on financial services.

Head of Sustainable Finance, ANZ
Katharine Tapley
Katharine Tapley is Head of Sustainable Finance at ANZ. She leads a 14-person team across Australia, New Zealand and Asia responsible for supporting ANZ’s clients to finance their sustainability strategies and ESG commitments.
Her team works alongside ANZ’s Capital Markets, Lending and Transaction Banking teams to deliver market insights and product solutions across the green, social, and sustainability-linked loan, bond and supply chain markets. Her team is also responsible for the operation of ANZ’s own Sustainability Bond issuance program with the bank’s Treasury team, and oversees ANZ’s 2025 $50b sustainable finance target.
She is a SteerCo member of the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative and is a Board Member of Australia’s Carbon Market Institute. Katharine is also a 2019 Kanga News Person of the Year and the 2020 winner of the inaugural Women in Banking in Finance award for Excellence in Institutional Banking.

Head of Investment Stewardship, TCorp
Lucy Thomas
Lucy Thomas is Head of Investment Stewardship with TCorp. Lucy is responsible for embedding stewardship principles across TCorp’s portfolios through ESG integration, active ownership and collaboration.
Prior to joining TCorp Lucy held the role of Global Head of Sustainable Investment at Willis Towers Watson where she supported asset owners in building organisational models and portfolios that deliver long term sustainable returns.
Lucy’s career experience includes roles in equity research at Morgan Stanley and funds management across listed equities and unlisted property in London, Europe and Australia. Lucy is passionate about the investment industry embracing an awareness of social and environmental returns alongside financial returns.
Lucy holds a BA (Hons) from Dublin University (Trinity College) and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Head of Investment Stewardship, VFMC
Talieh Williams
Talieh Williams was appointed as VFMC’s Head of Investment Stewardship in February 2020 where she is responsible for leading VFMC’s approach to investment stewardship, active ownership and ESG integration across VFMC’s investment portfolio.
Prior to joining VFMC, Talieh lead the ESG function at UniSuper for over a decade where she developed UniSuper’s approach to responsible investment (encompassing active ownership and ESG integration across all asset classes). This also included developing (and overseeing) UniSuper’s three dedicated sustainable investment options. In her role at UniSuper, Talieh also sat on the boards of the Australian Council of Super Investors, the Investor Group on Climate Change and the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia.
With 20 years professional experience, Talieh has also worked in management consulting, the oil industry and commercial legal practice. Talieh holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours), a Bachelor of Planning and Design and a Master of Social Science (International Development). Talieh is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors Course.

Head of Ethics Research, Australian Ethical Investment
Dr Stuart Palmer
Dr Stuart Palmer is Head of Ethics Research at Australian Ethical Investment, a leading ethical investment manager attracting a growing number of Australians expecting their investments to provide both competitive returns and positive change for society and the environment. Established in 1986,
Australian Ethical manages over $5 billion in superannuation and managed funds for over 60,000 Australians. Stuart evaluates the impacts which companies’ products, services and operations have on people, animals and the environment. He also contributes to Australian Ethical’s engagement and advocacy for more sustainable business and investment models and practices.
Stuart has 30 years’ experience in the investment, banking and legal sectors, and has a PhD in philosophy of mind.
09.00 BST
(16.00 MYT)
Session 2
South East Asia, with the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers
» Regional Overview
Cecile Thioro Niang, Lead Economist, World Bank Group
» Panel
Prasad Padmanaban, Chief Executive, AICB
Dr Hamim Syahrum, Deputy Director, Islamic Banking & Takaful, Bank Negara Malaysia
Lavanya Rama Iyer, Head of Policy & Climate Change, WWF Malaysia
Cedric Rimaud, Fund Manager, Earthwake Green Impact Fund
David Smith, Head of Corporate Governance, Asia Pacific, Aberdeen Standard Investments
Rafe Haneef, Chief Executive Officer of Group Transaction Banking & Group Chief Sustainability Officer, CIMB

Cecile Thioro Niang

Prasad Padmanaban

Dr. Hamim Syahrum Ahmad Mokhtar

Lakshmi Lavanya Rama Iyer

Cedric Rimaud

David Smith

Rafe Haneef

Practice Manager, East Asia and Pacific, World Bank Group
Cecile Thioro Niang
Ms. Niang, a dual Senegalese and French national, is the Practice Manager for East Asia and Pacific, covering Pacific Islands, Indonesia/Timor and Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia for the Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation Global Practice at the World Bank Group. Since joining the Bank in 2004, she has held various positions working on long term infrastructure finance, climate finance, financial inclusion; firm capabilities and innovation; markets and technology; investment and competition, telecoms and digital development, with her most recent assignment being Lead Economist in the LAC Finance Competitiveness and Innovation team.
Niang’s prior positions at the World Bank Group before assuming her current position spent 6 years in the Latin America & the Caribbean region, as Lead Economist in Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation Global Practice and as Program Leader for the Caribbean countries. She held Country Sector Coordinator and Senior Economist positions in the World Bank’s Finance and Private Sector Development department, in South Asia and Africa.
Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Cecile was an Associate Manager, Business Development at France Telecom North America and a Director, Corporate Development at Juno Online, a US Internet Service Provider. Cecile holds graduate degrees in economics, business administration and information Systems from Columbia University, Paris Dauphine and Telecom Ecole de Management.

Chief Executive, Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers
Prasad Padmanaban
As an accomplished professional in the banking arena, Prasad brings to the Institute his experience and leadership, operational excellence, technical breadth and a passion for learning and development.
Prasad previously worked in MUFG in Hong Kong and J.P. Morgan in both London and Hong Kong as Executive Director in various Markets capacities over a period of 16 years, covering all manner of Asia-ex and Japan securities, from fixed income to equity derivatives.
Prasad holds an Master’s in Finance and Investment and an Master’s in European Studies from the University of Exeter, UK, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Nottingham, UK.

Deputy Director of Islamic Banking Takaful Department, Bank Negara Malaysia
Dr. Hamim Syahrum Ahmad Mokhtar
Dr. Hamim Syahrum Ahmad Mokhtar is currently Deputy Director in the Islamic Banking and Takaful Department, Bank Negara Malaysia. His role includes leading and guiding strategic development policies of Islamic financial sector. He is also involved in climate change initiatives for the financial sector.
Previously, he was Deputy Director in the Financial Surveillance Department. His role includes, among others, lead and guide macro surveillance of corporate and households to detect emerging risks and vulnerabilities that could have adverse implications to the financial stability. Besides that, Dr Hamim had years of experiences as an examiner of both foreign and domestic banks when he started off his career with the bank in Banking Supervision Department.
Dr Hamim holds a degree in Accounting (Honors), Master’s degree in Business Administration, Ph.D. in Islamic Banking & Finance. He has published and presented number of papers at both domestic and international conferences. This includes the paper on Efficiency & competition of Islamic banking in Malaysia which was accorded “Highly Commended Award by the award winning international journal, Emerald Literati Network. He is also a Chartered Accountant of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) and Chartered Banker (CB).

Head of Policy and Climate Change, WWF Malaysia
Lakshmi Lavanya Rama Iyer
Lavanya joined WWF-Malaysia in 2013. She represents WWF-MY on various national and international level engagements on climate change, biodiversity and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She was part of the WWF Network Leadership team on Climate and Energy. She has also attended UN SDG meetings in New York and Bangkok, and more recently the UN Biological Diversity Convention in Rome as part of the WWF delegation. Lavanya also represents WWF-MY in many engagements with the Malaysian Government on environmental policies, recently on the preparation of the 12th Malaysia Plan.
As part of the core group of the CSO-SDG Alliance, Lavanya is also part of the secretariat that supports the recently established All Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia (APPGM) on SDGs, a bipartisan group of Parliamentarians working to localize SDGs in their constituencies. She has also participated in many forums to highlight the integrated nature of the environmental pillar in achieving all the SDGs. She represented the Alliance in the inaugural National Forum in Parliament Malaysia on Sustainability, CSR and SDG 2019.
Previously, she coordinated the preparation of Malaysia’s Second National Communication to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC), worked at the UN in Geneva on post conflict issues; and practiced law in Malaysia. She was a Malaysian delegate to the UNFCCC and an expert reviewer of Malaysia’s First Biennial Update Report.
Lavanya is a Chevening Scholar with a MSc in Sustainability (Climate Change) from the University of Leeds and a law degree from the University of Kent.

Fund Manager, Earthwake Green Impact Fund
Cedric Rimaud

Senior Investment Director, Aberdeen Standard Investments
David Smith
David Smith is a Senior Investment Director based in Singapore at Aberdeen Standard Investments,
where he leads ESG research and integration across Asia. David heads the Asia Responsible Investing
pod, which oversees the day-to-day running of the Asian Sustainable Development Equity Fund and
is a member of the GEM Responsible Investing pod. He is also responsible for leading engagement
with board members and management of Aberdeen Standard Investments’ investee companies in
Asia. David spearheads our public advocacy on ESG issues, representing the company at leading
international organisations dedicated to improving corporate best practice. He has appeared
frequently at regional conferences and industry round tables, and has written for various
newspapers and professional publications globally.
Before joining Aberdeen in 2011, he worked for ISS as head of Asia (ex-Japan) research. David has a
PhD in Corporate Governance and an MA in Corporate Strategy and Governance from the University
of Nottingham and a BSc in Business Economics from the University of Wales. He is a CFA
Charterholder.

Chief Executive Officer, Group Transaction Banking at CIMB
Rafe Haneef
Rafe Haneef is the CEO of Group Transaction Banking at CIMB, overseeing transaction banking business which consist of four main product pillars namely Trade Finance, Cash Management, Securities Services and Financial Institution serving the Group’s Non Retail customers across CIMB franchise in ASEAN. Prior to that, he served as CEO of CIMB Islamic Bank Berhad in charge of the Group’s Islamic banking and finance franchise. CIMB Islamic operates as a parallel franchise to the Group’s conventional operations and covers Islamic wholesale banking, Islamic consumer banking, Islamic commercial banking and Islamic asset management and investment
He was instrumental in the inclusion of CIMB Islamic in the Value-based Intermediation (VBI) Community of Practitioners, working to develop VBI together with the central bank to contextualise and drive sustainability with Islamic finance institutions in Malaysia, as well as CIMB Group being a member of RFI as well as a founding member to the UNEP FI Principles for Responsible Banking.
20 years of experience covering a range of businesses and functional roles gained from three global banks, an international asset management company and a legal firm, at various financial centres including London, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur, including as CEO, Malaysia, and Managing Director of Global Markets, ASP, HSBC Amanah in 2010, Regional Head for Islamic banking, Asia Pacific, Citigroup Asia in 2006, Global Head of Islamic Finance business at ABN AMRO Dubai in 2004 covering both consumer and corporate businesses. He joined HSBC Investment Bank plc, London in 1999 and thereafter HSBC Financial Services Middle East, Dubai where he set up the global sukuk business in 2001.
11.00 BST
(15.00 PKT)
Session 3
South Asia, with the Institute of Bankers Pakistan
» Regional Overview
Sima Kamil, Deputy Governor, State Bank of Pakistan
» Panel
GM Abbasi, Director, Islamic Banking Division, State Bank of Pakistan
Azhar Aslam, Head of Islamic Banking & Governance Head Central & North Region at Standard Chartered Bank
Mujahid Zuberi, Head Corporate & Investment Banking, Pakistan, Dubai Islamic Bank
Dr. Shah Md. Ahsan Habib, Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM)
Muhammad Shoaib, CEO, Al Meezan Investment Management
Khawlah Usman, Director, Marketing & Sales, The Institute of Bankers Pakistan

Sima Kamil

Ghulam Muhammad Abbasi

Dr. Shah Md. Ahsan Habib

Khawlah Usman

Mohammad Shoaib

Azhar Aslam

Mujahid Zuberi

Deputy Governor, State Bank of Pakistan
Sima Kamil
Ms Sima Kamil was appointed as the Deputy Governor of SBP by the Federal Government on August 25, 2020 for a period of 3 years with immediate effect. She assumed her responsibilities on August 26, 2020.
Ms. Kamil is the first woman appointed as Deputy Governor of SBP. She has over 35 years of experience in diverse fields of commercial banking, including Branch Banking; SMEs, Rural, Consumer and Corporate financing; and, investment banking. She has worked in various international banks including American Express Bank, ANZ Grindlays Bank and Standard Chartered Bank in areas of Corporate Banking and Risk Management.
Before joining SBP, Ms. Kamil was the first-ever woman appointed President of a private sector commercial bank – United Bank Limited. Earlier she served Habib Bank Limited for 16 years at various senior management levels, including Head of Corporate & Investment Banking and then Head of Branch Banking. Ms. Kamil was also associated with Microfinance as Director of the First Microfinance Bank for a number of years.
Ms. Kamil has a degree in business from Kingston University, UK and an MBA from City University, London. In 2019, the Kingston University, UK awarded her an Honorary Doctorate degree in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the banking sector and support of inclusivity in business leadership.
She is also a certified director from Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi.

Director, Islamic Banking Division, State Bank of Pakistan
Ghulam Muhammad Abbasi
Ghulam Muhammad Abbasi is a career central banker having more than two decades’ experience of working in key policy and supervisory departments of State Bank of Pakistan. Currently, he is leading Islamic Banking Department where he has led initiatives for strengthening legal, regulatory and Shariah governance framework for Islamic banking industry. He has played instrumental role in providing strategic direction through development and implementation of the Strategic roadmaps rolled out at the national level for Islamic banking industry. He has also worked for promotion of Islamic banking in the country through transformation of the conventional banking institutions into Shariah compliant businesses. He has also played an important role in taking initiatives to create awareness among different segments of the society about Islamic finance and for developing capacity to cater to the human resource requirements of the Islamic banking industry. Establishment of dedicated Centers of Excellence in Islamic Finance Education at three renowned academic institutions of the country is just one reflection of the initiatives in this regard.
Mr. Abbasi is part of the Technical Committee of IFSB where, as a Deputy Chairman, he is effectively contributing towards development of prudential standards on important and emerging topics of Islamic finance. He is currently also serving as ex-officio Secretary of the Shariah Advisory Committee of State Bank of Pakistan. During his tenure SBP has been voted as the best central bank in promoting Islamic finance four times (2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020) by a poll conducted by Islamic Finance News (IFN), REDmoney Group Malaysia. Moreover, Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA) also awarded SBP as “Best Central Bank of the Year 2020”.
He has represented SBP at various high profile local and international forums. Mr. Abbasi has more recently been appointed as Chairman of the Pakistan chapter of the UK- IFC led Global Islamic Finance & UN SDGs Taskforce that has senior level representation of all leading banks. The working group provides a platform to share experiences for developing a uniform approach towards the sustainable finance agenda in the country.
Mr. Abbasi has also previously served as Director – Infrastructure, Housing & SME Finance Department, where he played a pivotal role in policy formulation ensuring adequate supply of credit to the priority sectors including Housing and SMEs. He also facilitated the establishment of Exim Bank of Pakistan and Pakistan Mortgage Refinance Company. He also played a pivotal role in formulating ‘Policy for Promotion of SME Finance’ which was launched by the honorable Prime Minister of Pakistan in December 2017.

Professor Selection Grade of Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management
Dr. Shah Md. Ahsan Habib
Dr. Shah Md. Ahsan Habib is a Professor Selection Grade of Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management [BIBM]. He obtained his PhD from Banaras Hindu University, India under BHU Research Scholarship; and accomplished Post-Doctoral Fellowship on Green Banking from Syracuse University, USA under Senior Fulbright Scholarship. Having around 25 years of professional experiences in the banking industry, his key research areas include inclusive finance, green banking, trade financing and financial crime and malpractices in the financial sector. He is having teaching experiences with Institute of Business Administration [IBA] and Department of International Business of the University of Dhaka; East West University; Brac University and University of Professionals.
Dr. Ahsan has more than 180 research papers/studies/publications/chapters in different national and international journals/books. He is the author/lead author of the books ‘Financial Globalization’, ‘Environmentally Responsible Banking in USA’, ‘Towards Knowledge Society’, ‘Green Banking in Bangladesh’, ‘Trade Services by Banks in Bangladesh’, published by the national and international publishers. He is a columnist of the national dailies and published over 200 newspaper features in the national daily newspapers [The Financial Express, Banik Barta etc.] on the sustainability and banking issues. He is the Chief Editor of the yearly journal of the Valor of Bangladesh, and Executive Editor of the journal of Green Tech Foundation ‘Green Biz’. Dr. Ahsan is the Chairmen of the Executive Committee of D.Net, a research organization to promote ICT for D in Bangladesh; a Member of the ICC Bangladesh Banking Commission; and a Member of the Global Editorial Board of the Asia-Pacific Risk Professional Association (ARPA). He is an Advisor of the Green Tech Foundation, Bangladesh and a trustee of the Valor of Bangladesh.

Director, Marketing & Sales, Institute of Bankers Pakistan
Khawlah Usman
Ms. Khawlah Usman is a passionate marketeer and zealous brand strategist with over 19 years of profound experience in Integrated Marketing & Sales. A Marketing and Communication strategist with demonstrated history of transforming and building brands, she has an enriched experience spanning all communication disciplines – corporate narrative, brand advocacy to marketing strategy, research and activation. She is recognized for utilizing innovative strategic approaches to drive brand and business results.
Ms. Khawlah has turned around businesses and brands in stagnant markets and challenging environments. Her proven leadership skills have helped consistently build brands, businesses and people. She brings with her 4 years of advertising experience having worked at Publicis Pakistan & Manhattan Leo Burnett. She also had the privilege to work in leading Pakistan’s local and international banks for over 11 years including MCB Bank, ABN Amro, The Royal Bank of Scotland Limited, and Silkbank Limited.

Chief Executive Officer, Al Meezan Investment Management Ltd
Mohammad Shoaib
Mr. Mohammad Shoaib, CFA is the Chief Executive Officer of Al Meezan Investment Management Limited, the largest Shariah compliant asset management company in Pakistan. He has over 28 years of experience in managing investment portfolios. Currently with Al Meezan Investments he is managing investments of about over 156 Billion ( as on September 30, 2020) million under 17 mutual/pension funds and discretionary clients’ portfolios, and leading a team of 595 employees of the organization.
He is an MBA from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi of 1988 and has also taught in his alma mater, several courses ranging Security Analysis to Finance & Accounting.
He got his CFA charter in 1999 and later founded the CFA Association of Pakistan in May 2002 with 40 members. He was the first President of the CFA Association of Pakistan (CFAAP) and during his leadership CFAAP achieved several milestones including the “Innovation Award” in 2006 and the “Strategic Planning Award” in 2008 from the CFA Institute.

Head of Islamic Banking & Governance, Head Central & North Region, Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan
Azhar Aslam
Azhar is the Head of Islamic Banking & Governance Head Central & North Region at Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan Limited – (SCBPL)
As a seasoned banker Azhar has 25 years of experience in foreign banks, of which the last 15 years have been dedicated to Islamic banking. He has worked across nationally and internationally across geographies with financial organisations including American Express, Citi, Dubai Islamic and Standard Chartered. During his career Azhar has led diversified businesses and held senior positions in Product Development, Franchise & Business.
Currently Azhar is the Country Head, Islamic banking (Saadiq) and is additionally the Governance Head for Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan. Under his leadership Islamic banking business for SCBPL has become a key contributor to the client revenue of the bank with landmark and innovative transactions executed under his leadership.
Azhar is a member of the advisory Council of Lahore School of Management Sciences for Islamic Finance, IBA CEIF and a member of Pakistan Banking Association committee on Islamic Banking.
He actively participates in community services through employee volunteering for social causes like education and support to the less privileged in the society.
He is also a Member of the Diversity & Inclusion Council at SCBPL
Azhar holds an MBA degree from Institute of Business Administration, Karachi.

Head Corporate & Investment Banking, Pakistan, Dubai Islamic Bank
Mujahid Zuberi
Mujahid is the Group Head Corporate & Investment Banking for Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan Ltd. since Jan 2021. Prior to his current role, he was heading Commercial Banking business in Pakistan for Standard Chartered Bank (Pak) Ltd.
Mujahid has worked in various areas including, Corporate Banking, Financial Institution, Credit Risk and Cash Management Mujahid has also worked with American Express Bank in Pakistan and his last assignment with them was as Country Representative for Pakistan. Mujahid holds an MBA degree and has interest in travelling, hunting and poetry.
13.00 BST
(13.00 WAT/
12.00 GMT)
Session 4
West Africa, with Making Finance Work for Africa & Lotus Capital
» Regional Overview
Boason Omofaye, Anchor, ARISE News
Al Hamdou Dorsouma, Division Manager, Climate and Green Growth, African Development Bank
» Panel
Abdelkader Benbrahim, Partnership Coordinator, Making Finance Work for Africa
Karima Ola, Partner, LeapFrog Investments
Jules Ngankam, Group CEO, African Guarantee Fund
Hajara Adeola, CEO & Managing Director, Lotus Capital
Elsie Addo Awadzi, Deputy Governor, Bank of Ghana
Garba Mohammed, Group Head Sales, Non-Interest Banking, Sterling Bank

Boason Omofaye

Al Hamndou Dorsouma

Abdelkader Benbrahim

Karima Ola

Jules Ngankam

Hajara Adeola

Elsie Addo Awadzi

Garba Mohammed

CEO & Executive Editor, Frontier Africa Report and Anchor at Arise News
Boason Omofaye
Boason is currently CEO & Executive Editor, Frontier Africa Report and Anchor at Arise News. He is one of Nigeria’s foremost business and markets broadcast journalists, producers and show anchors with 30 years’ experience, spanning newspapers, magazines and a dozen radio and television channels, Boason most recently led Bloomberg TV Africa and the primetime business show on Channels Television, Nigeria’s biggest business TV platform. He has driven coverage of major global and African news events since 1998, when he created his first Africa-focused business show on Minaj Broadcast International. Over the decades, he has interviewed world leaders from Davos to Dakar.
Boason speaks and moderates at local and international gatherings such as the UN Sustainable Energy Summit of SE4ALL in New York, the annual meetings of Africa Export-Import Bank, the Africa Energy Forum, Nigeria Economic Summit Group, Deloitte Economic Outlook and the Presidential Economic Dialogue of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
Boason’s pioneering reporting has twice won him the Pearl Award Capital Market Journalist of the Year. He is an adviser on economic management and governance, and has led investment roadshows in the UK, New York Stock Exchange and Chicago Board Options Exchange.

Division Manager, Climate and Green Growth at African Development Bank Group
Al Hamndou Dorsouma
Mr. Al-Hamndou Dorsouma works as Officer in Charge for the Climate Change and Green Growth Department and Manager for Climate and Green Growth Division within the African Development Bank. He is responsible for managing a team of Climate Change and Growth Officers and leading Bank’s efforts on climate change in Africa, including building climate resilience and low carbon opportunities into Bank’s investments, and supporting Bank’s engagement on climate resilience and green growth. His academic background is Geography and Environmental Management. Recently, Mr. Dorsouma worked as the Officer-In-Charge of the Bank’s Climate Finance Division, leading Bank’s climate finance initiatives, including the Green Climate Fund, the Global Environment Facility and the Climate Investment Funds, among others.

Partnership Coordinator, Making Finance Work for Africa
Abdelkader Benbrahim
Abdelkader Benbrahim is the Partnership Coordinator of Making Finance Work for Africa. Until June 2020, Mr. Benbrahim was a Financial Sector Advisor leading MFW4A’s Financial Inclusion work stream. His work focused on positively influencing policy makers to address policy and regulatory constraints for digital financial services and inclusive finance. He also lead MFW4A’s efforts in remittances and housing finance.
Prior to joining MFW4A, he worked for Global Affairs Canada supporting its Information and Communication Technology development function, serving in both the President’s and Minister’s offices. He holds a master’s degree in Information Systems and Digital Innovation from London School of Economics and Political Science Management Studies and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Ottawa. He is multilingual communicator in Arabic, English and French.

Partner, LeapFrog Investments
Karima Ola
Karima leads LeapFrog’s African Financial Services investment team, where she has driven landmark investments including into ARM Pensions, one of the largest pensions providers in Nigeria, and AIICO, one of the largest insurers in Nigeria. A deeply experienced operator and investor, she has significant experience working across the continent.
Karima is widely recognised for her work shaping the investment landscape in Africa and was recently named one of “Africa’s women to watch” by Bloomberg.
Previously, Karima was chief investment officer and a member of the board at ADC African Development Corporation, where she initiated the company’s entry into Nigeria and ran a number of multimillion-dollar transactions. Prior to this, she was a Managing Partner at Chayton Capital LLP, where she led the creation of the company’s first Africa Agriculture fund. Earlier, Karima was Executive Director, Global Equities, at HSBC in a role that spanned the UK, Hong Kong and South Africa.
Karima is a Member of UK Institute of Directors and holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a postgraduate diploma in Economics from the University of London. She sits on the Sustainability Committee of Africa Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (AVCA). Karima speaks French and Yoruba and is learning Swahili.

Group CEO, African Guarantee Fund
Jules Ngankam
Jules has over 15 years of experience in banking and financial services with leading financial institutions. He joined African Guarantee Fund in 2013 as the Chief Financial Officer after which he served as Deputy CEO from April 2017 and was thereafter appointed Group Chief Executive Officer in September 2020.
Prior to joining AGF, Jules worked with Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays PLC, in various roles including rates strategist, rates trader and treasury vice-president. In his last position at Barclays Capital, he focused on the management of the Group’s liquidity, interest rates risk and foreign exchange risk in their balance sheet and the implementation of their internal funding curves and transfer pricing.
He is a Cameroonian national and a graduate of ENSAE Paris in statistics and economics and of ESSEC Business School in Paris. He also holds a Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Paris Dauphine in France.
Jules is passionate about leveraging financial innovation to support sustainable development and financial inclusion.

Managing Director, Lotus Capital Limited
Hajara Adeola
Mrs Hajara Adeola is the Managing Director of Lotus Capital Limited, a Nigerian pioneer in Shari’ah compliant Asset Management, Private Wealth Management Advisory Services and Financial Advisory Services. She comes to Lotus Capital from UBS Warburg where she was a Director heading their London Islamic Finance Desk. Prior to joining UBS, she was a Convertible Bond Research Analyst at BNP Paribas, London.
Hajara Adeola began her career as a consultant at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). From there she joined ARM Investment Managers as a pioneer staff and rose to Vice-President and Head of the Research and Financial Advisory Units. In all, she has over 20 years of international experience in research and analysis, investment management and corporate finance.
She holds an M.Sc in Finance from Durham University where she specialized in Islamic Finance. She also holds an MBA in International Management from Exeter University and a B.Sc in Pharmacology from King’s College, London. Mrs. Adeola is the first President of the Fund Manager’s Association of Nigeria and a West African Fellow of the Aspen Leadership Initiative. She is also the Chairperson of the Securities & Exchange Commission’s non-interest capital market 10 year master plan committee and a Director of the Aliko Dangote Foundation.

Deputy Governor, Bank of Ghana
Elsie Addo Awadzi
Mrs. Elsie Addo Awadzi was appointed 2nd Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana in February 2018, with responsibility for financial regulation, financial stability, and financial inclusion, among other things. She is the second woman to be appointed Deputy Governor in the Bank’s 62-year history.
Before her appointment as Deputy Governor, she was Senior Counsel of the Financial and Fiscal Law Unit of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Legal Department, based in Washington, D.C. In that role, she helped to design reforms to strengthen financial systems and manage financial crises in a variety of IMF member countries, as well as advised on legal and institutional aspects of public financial management.
Prior to joining the IMF in 2012, Mrs. Addo Awadzi was a two-term Commissioner of Ghana’s Securities & Exchange Commission, worked on key financial sector legal reforms in Ghana and other countries in Africa, worked briefly as a senior treasury dealer in Barclays Bank Ghana Limited, and worked in private law practice, among others.
She holds an LL.M. degree (International Business and Economic Law) with distinction from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C, and a Qualifying Certificate in Law from the Ghana School of Law. She also holds an M.B.A. (Finance) from the University of Ghana, and an LL.B. Degree from the same university.

Group Head Sales, Non-Interest Banking, Sterling Bank Plc.
Garba Mohammed
Sustainability
The second day of the virtual summit will focus on nature and climate ahead of the crucial COP26 UN climate summit. With sessions exploring global trends, net zero and nature and biodiversity, the day will be an opportunity to understand both the macroeconomic issues facing the world, and some of the key tools available to address them.
09.20 BST
Session 1
Global Trends in Sustainable Finance
» Welcome
Omar Shaikh, Director & Co-founder GEFI
Kirsty Britz, Director of Sustainable Banking, NatWest Group
Simon Thompson, CEO, Chartered Banker Institute
» Keynote Addresses: Financing a Sustainable Future
Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UNEP
Dr Werner Hoyer, President, European Investment Bank
Bill Winters, CEO, Standard Chartered
» Panel Discussion: Global Trends in Sustainability
Moderator: Dame Susan Rice, Chair, Financial Services Culture Board & GEFI
Tan Sri Dato’ Zeti Aziz, former Governor, Bank Negara Malaysia
Saker Nusseibeh, CEO, Federated Hermes – International
Katie Murray, Group Chief Financial Officer, NatWest Group
» Initiative Spotlight: International Platform for Climate Finance (IPCF)
Steve Waygood, Chief Responsible Investment Officer, Aviva Investors
Dr Sarah Ivory, Lecturer in Climate Change and Business Strategy, University of Edinburgh

Omar Shaikh

Kirsty Britz

Simon Thompson

Inger Anderson

Dr Werner Hoyer

Bill Winters, CBE

Dame Susan Rice

Saker Nusseibeh CBE

Dr. Zeti Aziz

Katie Murray

Dr Sarah Ivory

Steve Waygood

Director & Co-founder, Global Ethical Finance Initiative
Omar Shaikh
Omar is the Managing Director of the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI). A Chartered Accountant by profession, he specialises in ethical finance, Islamic finance and private equity. He has extensive experience in financial services, has advised multiple governments on their capital markets, banking, pension and insurance regulation and is a regular speaker at ethical finance conference and events. Omar’s background includes working with EY where he was a Subject Matter Expert for Islamic finance.
Through his work at developmental body UKIFC, Omar launched the award winning Edinburgh Ethical Finance Round Table series, a platform that led to the inception of the Ethical Finance Hub and GEFI. Since 2018, GEFI has convened and connected stakeholders from across finance, government, business and the third sector to promote finance for positive change. As well as further building the Ethical Finance Round Table series, GEFI has established a number of events and campaigns, including the Ethical Finance Summit (a major conference), the Finance for Nature Series with UNEP and UNDP, the interfaith Edinburgh Finance Declaration, the unique Radical Old Idea platform and the Path to COP26 campaign, bringing together stakeholders to advance climate finance ahead of the crucial 2021 Glasgow summit.

Director of Sustainable Banking, NatWest Group
Kirsty Britz
Kirsty joined RBS as Director of Sustainable Banking in 2016.
She leads the group’s sustainability strategy, delivery and performance at a time of significant public and government scrutiny in this area post the financial crisis and the bank’s rescue.
Kirsty interfaces with the banks leaders across service lines, franchises and the Board as an effective group conscience on ethics, societal impact and related policy.
Kirsty is a member of the Boards Colleague Advisory Panel and Emerging Risk Committee. She sits on the ESG committee of the RBS Pension Fund and has chaired the Boards Regional Shareholder Events. She additionally sits on the Sustainability Advisory Group for UK Research & Innovation; the primary government funding agency for research, as well as being an independent advisor to the HMRC as a member of the Professional Standards Committee.
Prior to this she was the global Director of Citizenship for Barclays, leading the Citizenship strategy and plans for the group.
This followed global roles with two of the largest tech companies; Nokia & Telefonica.

Chief Executive, Chartered Banker Institute
Simon Thompson
Simon Thompson was appointed as Chief Executive of the Chartered Banker Institute, the oldest institute of bankers in the world, in 2007. Simon was recently appointed as the first Chair of the Global Banking Education Standards Committee, and is a former Vice-President of the European Bank Training Network. He is the editor of Green Finance: Principles and Practice – the world’s first practitioner guide to green finance.

Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme
Inger Anderson
Serving as Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature since 2015, Ms. Andersen brings a passion for conservation and sustainable development with more than 30 years of experience in international development economics, environmental sustainability and policy-making, as well as in designing and implementing projects and generating on-the-ground impact from working with a small Non-Governmental Organization in Sudan to multilateral and international settings with a constant focus on poverty eradication.
Ms. Andersen has held various leadership positions at the World Bank and United Nations, most recently as Vice President of the Middle East and North Africa Region at the World Bank (2011-2015) and Vice President for Sustainable Development and Head of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research Fund Council (2010-2011).
Throughout her 15-year career at the World Bank, her managerial roles focused on water, environment, and sustainable development with special emphasis on Africa and the Middle East. She further worked at the United Nations for 15 years, starting in the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office (UNSO) working on drought and desertification issues, and was then appointed United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Environment Facility Coordinator for the Arab Region.
Ms. Andersen’s educational background includes a BA from London Metropolitan University North and a MA degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London with specialisation in development economics.

President, European Investment Bank
Dr Werner Hoyer
Werner Hoyer has a PhD (economics) from Cologne University where he also started his career in various positions. Dr Hoyer served for 24 years as a Member of the German Bundestag. During this period, he held the position of Minister of State at the Foreign Office on two separate occasions. In addition, he held several other positions, including that of Whip and FDP Security Policy Spokesman, Deputy Chairman of the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group, FDP Secretary General and President of the European Liberal Democratic Reform Party (ELDR).
Upon appointment by the EU Member States, Dr Hoyer commenced his first term as EIB President in January 2012. His mandate was renewed for a second term commencing on 01 January 2018.
Dr Hoyer and wife Katja have two children.

Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered Bank
Bill Winters, CBE
Bill began his career with JP Morgan, where he went on to become one of its top five most senior executives and later co-chief executive officer at the investment bank from 2004 until he stepped down in 2009. Bill was invited to be a committee member of the Independent Commission on Banking, established in 2010, to recommend ways to improve competition and financial stability in banking. Subsequently, he served as an advisor to the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards and was asked by the Court of the Bank of England to complete an independent review of the bank’s liquidity operations. In 2011, Bill founded Renshaw Bay, an alternative asset management firm, where he was chairman and CEO. He stepped down on appointment to the Standard Chartered PLC Board. Bill was previously a non-executive director of Pension Insurance Corporation plc and RIT Capital Partners plc. He received a CBE in 2013.

Chair, Financial Services Culture Board and GEFI Global Steering Group
Dame Susan Rice
Dame Susan Rice, a Chartered Banker, chairs the Financial Services Culture Board and was founding chair of the Chartered Banker: Professional Standards Board. She also chairs Scottish Water, Business Stream and the Scottish Fiscal Commission, Scotland’s independent economic and fiscal forecaster. In addition, she is Senior Independent Director of J Sainsbury, and of the North American Income Trust. The first woman to head a UK clearing bank, she was Chief Executive and Chairman of Lloyds TSB Scotland plc, then Managing Director of Lloyds Banking Group. She was previously a Non-Executive Director of the Bank of England and energy company SSE. She has helped develop approaches to social finance in the US and UK, led work on cultural and ethical standards for bankers, chaired Scotland’s 2020 Climate Group and now works with P-CAN. Previously, she was Senior Vice President at NatWest Bancorp in New York and, earlier in her career, a Dean at Yale and Colgate Universities in America and a published medical researcher.

CEO, International, Federated Hermes
Saker Nusseibeh CBE
Saker is CEO of the international business of Federated Hermes, appointed November 2011, having joined in June 2009 as CIO. He is also a member of the Federated Hermes Executive team. Prior to this, Saker was Global Head of Equities at Fortis Investments, having previously been CIO Global Equities since 2005. Before this, he was CIO of Global Equities and Head of Marketing for SGAM UK. This followed SGAM’s acquisition of Trust Company of the West, where Saker was a Managing Director running global and international strategies, as well the London office. He started his career at Mercury Asset Management in 1987.
Saker is founder of the 300 Club and was an inaugural member of the CFA Institute’s Future of Finance Advisory Council from 2013 until 2019. He is a member of the IIRC Council, the FCA-PRA Climate Financial Risk Forum, the United Nations Environmental Programme Financial Initiative Steering Committee, the Banking Standards Board, the UK National Advisory Board on Impact Investing, and the advisory Board of the National Youth Orchestra.
In 2018, Saker was named CEO of the Year at the Financial News Asset Management Europe Awards. He has a BA and PhD in Medieval History from King’s College, University of London.
Saker was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s 2019 New Year’s Honours list for services to Responsible Business and Finance.

Former Governor, Bank Negara Malaysia
Dr. Zeti Aziz
Tan Sri Dr. Zeti served as Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia from May 2000 to April 2016. She had an important role in managing the resolution of the financial system in 1998 during the Asian financial crisis and the consequent strong recovery of the Malaysian economy. She was also instrumental in transforming
Dr. Zeti Aziz served as Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia from 2000 to 2016. She joined the Economics Department in the Bank in 1985. In her career at the Bank that spanned 35 years, she held a number of senior positions, including Chief Economist of the Bank and Head of the Bank Negara Office in London from 1989 to 1994. As an Assistant Governor, she was responsible for economics, reserve management, foreign exchange and money market operations and foreign exchange administration.
She is known for her role in successfully managing the 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis and the strong recovery that followed. She was instrumental in transforming the Malaysian financial system and building its robust resilience. This was supported by the enactment of ten major pieces of legislation for the financial sector to preserve its stability.
In the region she was active in strengthening regional cooperation and was unrelenting in working for ASEAN and East Asian regional financial integration. She was also a voice for the emerging world on the many issues concerning the international financial system and financial and economic management. Dr. Zeti holds a doctorate in economics from University of Pennsylvania and is currently the Co-Chair of the Asia School of Business in collaboration with MIT Sloan.

Group Chief Financial Officer, NatWest Group
Katie Murray
Katie Murray joined the Group as Director of Finance in November 2015 and was appointed as Deputy Chief Financial Officer in March 2017. She was then appointed as Group Chief Financial Officer in January 2019.
Katie has worked in Finance and Accounting for nearly 30 years with experience in capital management, investor relations, financial planning and all areas of financial services. Katie was previously the Group Finance Director for Old Mutual Emerging Markets, based in Johannesburg from 2011-2015, having held various roles across Old Mutual from 2002. Prior to this Katie worked at KPMG for 13 years.
Katie is a Chartered Accountant having trained in Scotland and is a member of ICAS.

Director, University of Edinburgh Business School’s Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability
Dr Sarah Ivory
Dr Sarah Ivory is the Director of the University of Edinburgh Business School’s Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability (B-CCaS). She is a Lecturer in Climate Change and Business Strategy and serves on the University of Edinburgh COP26 working group. She is a regular contributor to BBC Scotland on climate change issues. Dr Ivory has taught on topics of climate change, sustainability, leadership, and strategy to undergraduates, postgraduates, and MBAs, and leads climate change executive education programmes. In 2019 Dr Ivory was awarded a prestigious Aspen Institute ‘Ideas Worth Teaching’ education award.
Dr Ivory has an established research career in sustainability and climate change, social enterprise, and critical thinking pedagogy including in leading publications such as the Journal of Business Ethics and Business Strategy and the Environment. Her book ‘Becoming a Critical Thinker: for your university studies and beyond’ was recently published with Oxford University Press.
Prior to joining academia, Dr Ivory spend a decade in senior strategy and operational roles in the private sector in Singapore and Australia. She has a PhD and MSc (by research) from the University of Edinburgh, an MBA from Melbourne Business School, and a B.Com(hons) from the University of Melbourne.

Chief Responsible Investment Officer, Aviva Investors
Steve Waygood
Steve leads Aviva Investors’ Global Responsible Investment team, which is responsible for integrating environmental social and corporate governance (ESG) issues across all asset classes and regions of c£350bn of assets under management. The team has achieved an A+ ranking in governance and strategy from the UN Principles for Responsible Investment; a Tier 1 assessment for Stewardship from the UK Financial Reporting Council; and won the Responsible Investment Thought Leader and Innovator of the Year global award in 2017.
Steve has recently been appointed to the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on sustainable finance, and the UK Green Finance Taskforce , and is also a member of the Financial Stability Board Taskforce on Climate Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD). Steve co-founded and now Chairs the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark and the World Benchmarking Alliance. He also co-founded the Sustainable Stock Exchange initiative as well as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Coalition, which is aiming to catalyse a UN Convention promoting enhanced corporate transparency and integrated reporting. He is also an Ambassador for the International Integrated Reporting Council. Steve was a member of the UK Government delegation to the UN Rio+20 meeting in 2012, and a member of the European Commission’s expert groups on corporate governance and corporate responsibility. His work became a case study in the Harvard Business School MBA in 2012. Steve has received the Leadership in Sustainability award from the Corporation of London and the British Chamber of Commerce. In 2011 he received the Yale Rising Star in Corporate Governance Award, and he was among the Financial News Top 100 Rising Stars in 2009. Steve was on the board of the UK Sustainable Investment & Finance association (UKSIF) from 2003 to 2010, serving as its Chairman from 2006. He was also part of the expert group that wrote the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. Steve is a member of the Chartered Financial Analyst institute, with a degree in Economics and a PhD in sustainable finance. He is a faculty member at the International Corporate Governance Network and the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. He is also a Visiting Professor of Sustainable Finance at Cass Business School.
11.50 BST
Session 2
The Role of Finance in Delivering Net Zero
» Welcome
MC, Simon Thompson, CEO, Chartered Banker Institute
» In Conversation with Manuel Pulgar-Vidal: COP26 and the Path to Net Zero
Interviewer: Kaisie Rayner, Climate Change Lead, Royal London
Interviewee: Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Global Energy and Climate Practice Lead, WWF International
» Panel Discussion: Approaches to Net Zero in Banking and Investment
Moderator: David Pitt-Watson, Visiting Fellow, Cambridge Judge Business School
Deirdre Michie OBE, CEO, Oil & Gas UK
Masja Zandbergen, Head of Sustainability Integration, Robeco
Kaitlin Crouch, Sustainability Manager, ING
Joanne Manda, Regional Advisor, Climate Change and Innovative Finance, UNDP Indonesia
» Initiative Spotlight: The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) Net Zero Investment Framework
Daisy Streatfeild, Investor Practices Programme Director, IIGCC
Dewi Dylander, Deputy Executive Director, PKA
Clare Foster, Head of Clean Energy and Green Recovery Lead, Shepherd + Wedderburn

Simon Thompson

Kaisie Rayner

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal

David Pitt-Watson

Kaitlin Crouch

Joanne Manda

Deirdre Michie OBE

Masja Zandbergen

Clare Foster

Daisy Streatfeild

Dewi Dylander

Chief Executive, Chartered Banker Institute
Simon Thompson
Simon Thompson was appointed as Chief Executive of the Chartered Banker Institute, the oldest institute of bankers in the world, in 2007. Simon was recently appointed as the first Chair of the Global Banking Education Standards Committee, and is a former Vice-President of the European Bank Training Network. He is the editor of Green Finance: Principles and Practice – the world’s first practitioner guide to green finance.

Climate Change Lead, Royal London
Kaisie Rayner
Kaisie’s mission in life is to help financial institutions understand sustainability and their role in enabling the transition to a low carbon economy.
She is currently the Climate Change Lead at Royal London, a commissioner at the Edinburgh Climate Commission, a fellow at the RSA and occasional lecturer at Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leaders. Prior to working with Royal London Kaisie was the Sustainable Investment Lead at Scottish Widows and has worked with Aegon, Lloyds Banking Group, RBS and Standard Life Investments.

Climate & Energy Global Practice Leader, WWF
Manuel Pulgar-Vidal
Manuel Pulgar-Vidal is Climate & Energy Global Practice Leader at World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF International.
He has 35 years of experience in environmental law and policy. He served as Minister of the Environment of Peru (2011 to 2016) and President of the Twentieth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – COP20 in 2014. He was the Executive Director of the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law, an influential institution in Latin America. He has a law degree from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, where he is a professor, and has completed studies for a master’s degree in Business Law at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas.
He is a Board member of Forest Trends, Amazon Conservation Association and Peruvian Society of Environmental Law and a member of the Assembly of the World Wide Fund for Nature – Colombia. He has recently been added to the Aspen Institute Management and Leadership Advisory Group. He is the chairman of the evaluation council of the French sovereign Green Bonds. He is an active member of different groups aimed to get strong outcomes as a part of the formal climate talks and the non-party stakeholders’ agenda. He has been recognized by the governments of France, Germany and Spain and by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his contribution to the Paris Agreement.

Investor & Visiting Fellow, Cambridge University
David Pitt-Watson
David is a leading thinker & practitioner in responsible investment. Born & brought up in Scotland, he was co-founder, and CEO of Hermes Focus Funds & Equity Ownership Service. These became the largest responsible investment group of any fund manager in the world. Throughout his career he has been deeply involved in policy, particularly in the field of corporate governance and financial market regulation. He has led numerous initiatives to improve the performance of the financial system. For example he chaired the UN Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative in the run up to the Paris Climate Conference, (CoP 21).

Sustainability Manager, ING Bank
Kaitlin Crouch
Kaitlin is the Sustainability Manager at ING Bank. She is an experienced Managing Consultant and Climate Specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the banking industry.
Her skills include environmental management, climate impact measurement, strategy consulting, DJSI & CDP reporting, GHG accounting, project and program management, stakeholder engagement, change management and agile/scrum process management. She has experience with successful board- level engagement on strategic, group- wide project proposals and cross-border program implementation.
She holds a Professional Certificate in Corporate Sustainability and Innovation and a Master’s degree focused in Environmental Studies both from Harvard University.

Regional Advisor, Climate Change and Innovative Finance, UNDP Indonesia
Joanne Manda
Joanne is the Regional Advisor in UNDP Indonesia’s Innovative Finance Lab (IF Lab) and shares her time between the Indonesia country office and the Bangkok Regional Hub (BRH) where she provides technical advice on financing SDGs.
Joanne is passionate about fighting climate change and generating development results by leveraging innovative financing mechanisms. Over the past six years she has been supporting countries in Asia Pacific to strengthen planning and budgeting systems and implement public financial reforms that incentivize climate action. She has supported countries on innovative financing solutions such as green bonds, blended finance mechanisms for energy and other infrastructure projects and also working with private sector partners in the impact investment space.
Joanne holds an MSc. Environment and Development from the University of London. Joanne worked for 12 years with UK DFID as Livelihoods and Climate Change Advisor developing social protection, disaster management, urban poverty reduction and climate change adaptation programmes in Africa and South Asia before joining UNDP BRH in 2013.
She is the mother to three inquisitive children, wife to one incredible husband and enjoys music and reading in her rare spare time!

CEO, OGUK
Deirdre Michie OBE
Deirdre was appointed CEO of OGUK in May 2015. She has an LLB Hons in Scots Law and extensive experience as a senior business leader in the oil and gas industry; covering upstream, downstream and globally. As well as being a Non-Executive Board member of Scottish Water, she is also a board member of Opportunity North East and Chair of Common Data Access Limited. Deirdre is a member of MER, the UK Government and oil and gas industry forum; HMT’s Oil and gas industry Fiscal Forum; the Scottish Government’s Energy Advisory Group, and of the Women’s Business Council, a UK Government body focused on increasing women’s contribution to economic growth.
Deirdre was awarded a Fellowship from the North East of Scotland College and an OBE for her services to the Oil and Gas industry in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2018. Deirdre is also a Burgess of Aberdeen.

Head of Sustainability Integration, Robeco
Masja Zandbergen
Masja Zandbergen is head of sustainability integration at Robeco. She holds a Master’s in Econometrics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and is a CEFA charterholder. Her background is in equity portfolio management, in which capacity she has been responsible for a global financials fund and European portfolios. Masja started her career at Robeco in 1997, where in 2003 she joined the Sustainable Investing team and helped set up the Active Ownership (voting and engagement) approach, with specific responsibility for social issues. She then moved on to start her own company, focusing on advertising sustainable investment products, and later became head of equity at Syntrus Achmea. Masja rejoined Robeco in 2015 and in her current role as head of sustainability integration, she is responsible for coordinating ESG integration across asset classes. Masja is the company’s spokesperson on the topic of sustainability and works with clients to share knowledge and expertise on this field.

Head of Clean Energy, Shepherd and Wedderburn
Clare Foster
Clare is Head of Clean Energy Sector (a team comprising over 90 lawyers) at Shepherd and Wedderburn and leads the firm’s project finance team. A project finance specialist by trade and dual qualified, Clare has been involved in the energy sector since the early renewable energy projects of the mid-1990s and she has continued to focus on this sector as it has matured. Clare is a highly regarded practitioner in the project finance market and advises clients on projects spanning the energy sector (including offshore wind, onshore wind, floating wind, biomass, energy efficiency, tidal, hydro, small-scale renewables, energy from waste and heat). Clare regularly acts as lead counsel representing lenders and consortia/sponsors/developers across the UK and leads the Shepherd and Wedderburn team on most clean energy transactions. In 2020, Clare was appointed a commissioner to the Edinburgh Climate Commission, which aims to catalyse action, challenge decision-makers in the city and convene stakeholders critical to the accelerated response required for Edinburgh to achieve its ambitious target of becoming a carbon neutral city by 2030 and in July 2019, Clare was appointed to the Board of industry body RenewableUK, recognising her market-leading renewable energy finance expertise across multiple clean energy technologies.

Director, Investor Practices programme, IIGCC
Daisy Streatfeild
Daisy Streatfeild is the director of IIGCC’s Investor Practices programme which supports members to better integrate climate risks and opportunities into their investment processes and decision-making, including taking forward the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures. She also leads IIGCC’s Paris Aligned Investment Initiative, which is exploring how investors can align portfolios to the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Daisy joined IIGCC in 2019 from the Inter-American Development Bank where she was an advisor on sustainable infrastructure investment. She previously worked for the UK government in various programme management and policy roles, including leading on finance strategy and investor relations at Infrastructure UK, and heading international climate finance negotiations at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Daisy holds an MA in Politics from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Environment and Development from the LSE.

Deputy Executive Director, PKA
Dewi Dylander
As PKA’s Deputy Executive Director, Mrs Dylander is a Head of Sustainable Investments (ESG) and the Investment Secretariat where she works with integrating ESG in investments, exercising active ownership and optimizing the business through sustainable investments. Mrs Dylander is responsible for climate related issues and implementing the UN SDG’s. In addition, Mrs Dylander ensures long-term value creation through an increased focus on implementing ESG factors as core elements in the investment strategy, policies and guidelines.
14.55 BST
Session 3
Finance for Nature
» Welcome
MC, Simon Thompson, CEO, Chartered Banker Institute
» In Conversation with Prof. Sir Partha Dasgupta: Biodiversity in Finance
Interviewer: Greg Ritchie, Reporter, Bloomberg
Interviewee: Prof. Sir Partha Dasgupta, Emeritus Professor of Economics, Cambridge University
» Panel Discussion: Practical Action on Biodiversity
Moderator: Andrew Mitchell, Founder & Senior Advisor, Global Canopy
Charlotte Kaiser, Managing Director, NatureVest, The Nature Conservancy
Antoine Sire, Head of Company Engagement, BNP Paribas
Madeleine Ronquest, Head of Environmental and Social Risk, Climate Change, FirstRand
Reza Marvasti, ESG Product Manager, ISS ESG
» Initiative Spotlight: Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)
Elizabeth Mrema, Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity
Mikkel Larsen, Chief Sustainability Officer, DBS Bank
Natalie Jackson, Executive Manager, GEFI

Greg Ritchie

Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta FBA

Andrew Mitchell

Charlotte Kaiser

Antoine Sire

Madeleine Ronquest

Reza Marvasti

Natalie Jackson

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema

Mikkel Larsen

Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Cambridge
Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta FBA
Partha Dasgupta, was born in Dhaka (at that time in India) and educated in Varanasi (Matriculation 1958 from Rajghat Besant School), Delhi (B.Sc. Hons, in Physics, 1962, University of Delhi), and Cambridge (B.A. Hons. in Mathematics, 1965, and Ph.D. in Economics, 1968) at the University of Cambridge). He is the son of the noted economist Amiya Dasgupta (1903-1992). He is married to Carol Dasgupta, who is a psychotherapist. They have three children: Zubeida Dasgupta-Clark (an educational psychologist), Shamik (a philosophy professor), and Aisha (who works on reproductive health in Africa).
Dasgupta is Frank Ramsey Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, and Professorial Research Fellow at the Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester. He taught at the London School of Economics during 1971-1984 and moved to the University of Cambridge in 1985 as Professor of Economics, where he served as Chairman of the Faculty of Economics in 1997-2001. During 1989-92 he was also Professor of Economics, Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Program in Ethics in Society at Stanford University; and during 1991-97 he was Chairman of the (Scientific Advisory) Board of the Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, Stockholm. Since 1999 he has been a Founder Member of the Management and Advisory Committee of the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE), Kathmandu. In 1996 he helped to establish the journal Environment and Development Economics, published by Cambridge University Press, whose purpose has been not only to publish original research at the interface of poverty and the environmental-resource base, but also to provide an opportunity to scholars in developing countries to publish their findings in an international journal.
Professor Dasgupta’s research interests have covered welfare and development economics, the economics of technological change, population, environmental and resource economics, the theory of games, the economics of undernutrition, and the economics of social capital. His publications include Guidelines for Project Evaluation (with S.A. Marglin and A.K. Sen; United Nations, 1972), Economic Theory and Exhaustible Resources (with G.M. Heal; Cambridge University Press, 1979 (recipient of the United States Association of Environmental and Resource Economists “Publication of Enduring Quality Award 2003”)); The Control of Resources (Harvard University Press, 1982); An Inquiry into Well-Being and Destitution (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993); Human Well-Being and the Natural Environment (Oxford University Press, 2001; revised edition, 2004); and Economics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007).

Founder and Senior Advisor, Global Canopy
Andrew Mitchell
Andrew W. Mitchell is an international thought leader on natural capital finance and tropical forests. Founder of Equilibrium Futures, he provides strategic advice on natural capital to the finance sector; he is also Senior Adviser to Oxford think tank, Global Canopy, which he founded in 2001. As Founder and Senior Adviser to the Natural Capital Finance Alliance, he helps to design natural capital tools for banks, investors and insurers and is Senior Adviser to Mirova Natural Capital, a global impact investment fund. With UNDP, UNEP FI and WWF, Andrew is currently spearheading the creation of a Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD), which is due to launch in 2021. The Taskforce is supported by an Informal Working Group comprising 74 representatives from the financial sector, governments and regulators and 103 members of the Observer Group.

Managing Director, NatureVest, The Nature Conservancy
Charlotte Kaiser
Charlotte oversees NatureVest, The Nature Conservancy’s conservation investing division, whose mission it is to create and transact investable deals that deliver conservation results and financial returns for investors. To achieve this mission, NatureVest sources and structures investment products that support TNC’s global conservation strategies, raises capital for these investments, and shares its knowledge and experience with the investment and conservation communities to amplify its efforts in this emerging area.
Charlotte started her career at The Nature Conservancy developing the Conservation Notes, which have raised more than $50M of debt capital for TNC from impact investors. A former community development banker, Charlotte holds a BA from Harvard University in Environmental Science & Public Policy, a Masters in Environmental Science from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

Head of Company Engagement, BNP Paribas Group
Antoine Sire
Antoine Sire graduated from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris and holds a doctorate (DEA) in public law.
After working at the French bankers’ Association and at Crédit Mutuel, he became Communications Director of BNP in 1997 and BNP Paribas in 2000. He is credited with designing the bank’s starred logo and creating the communication codes for the new group after its merger in 2000. He developed the brand worldwide, especially through tennis sponsorship. He strengthened the social commitments of the bank, particularly in the Parisian suburbs where BNP Paribas is an important employer.
In 2003, he broadcast a programme on France’s main business radio, BFM, dedicated to new technologies in digital technologies and by extension to green technologies.
In July 2013 he announced his departure from BNP Paribas to focus on his passion for cinema and its history. He completed the writing of Hollywood, la cité des femmes, a 1200 page book that revisits the history of the golden age of Hollywood through the role of women. While contributing to the development and content of the start-up parisfaitsoncinéma.com, of which he is one of the partners, he joined the agency Havas Worldwide Paris in 2015.
In September 2017 he was appointed as a Member of the Executive Committee and Head of Company Engagement at BNP Paribas, with the mission to make the bank’s commitment to society one of its strategic assets.

Head of Environmental, Social & Climate Risk Management
Madeleine Ronquest
Madeleine Ronquest is the Head of Environmental, Social & Climate Risk Management Change in the FirstRand financial services group (South Africa) and her portfolio includes environmental and social risk management, climate-related risk and opportunity management, climate/green finance and positive impact banking and investment. She has been with the Group for 19 years.
Her professional background includes environmental science, risk management, climate risk management and environmental law. Her role is to ensure that FirstRand is positioned as one of the global thought leaders in climate change, natural capital management, positive impact finance, responsible investment and sustainable development finance.
She is an eternal student and an international speaker and has taken leadership roles in the Global Steering Committee and other board committees of UNEPFI (United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative), the South African Advisory Committee on Environment and Society (National Business Initiative), the NBI Advisory Committee on Green Finance, the Programme for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) and the Sustainable Finance Forum & Climate Risk Committee of the South African Banking Association (BASA)
Madeleine was recently appointed as a Senior Associate by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership

ESG Product Manager, ISS ESG
Reza Marvasti
ESG Product Manager, ISS ESG
Reza an Associate Biodiversity Product Manager, based in Paris at ISS ESG

Executive Manager, Global Ethical Finance Initiative
Natalie Jackson
Natalie has over 10 years of experience working in finance and is passionate about how finance can be used to deliver social and environmental impact. Her career started at EY in 2010, in the corporate finance department, where she qualified as at Chartered Accountant. She has spent extended periods of time working with social enterprises in Africa and has assisted entrepreneurs in the Global South through the Grow Movement and Kiva. Natalie was one of the finalists in the One Young CA competition and nominated as one of ICAS’s top Accountants under 35 in the field of Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility. She has spent the last 6 years working in project finance with a focus on education, infrastructure and renewable energy projects. Natalie currently sits on the Social Growth Fund Board at Social Investment Scotland, advising on the disbursement of £17m of funding to Scottish Social Enterprises.

Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
Elizabeth Maruma Mrema
Elizabeth Maruma Mrema was the Director of the Law Division and has worked with UNEP for over two decades. Prior to joining the Law Division in June 2014, she was the Deputy Director of the Ecosystems Division, in charge of coordination, operations and programme delivery from 2012 and for one year, also serviced as Acting Director to the same Division. In 2018, in addition to her role as the Law Division Director, she was also the Acting Director of the Corporate Services Division where she led the management of the human resources, financial operations and management and other administrative functions for the entire Organization.
In 2009 she had been appointed as the Executive Secretary of the UNEP/Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), Acting Executive Secretary of the UNEP/ASCOBANS and Interim Executive Secretary of the UNEP/Gorilla Agreement, all based in Bonn, Germany and held that position until 2012 and thereafter she joined the Ecosystems Division in Nairobi, Kenya. In these portfolios, she over saw and ensure effective conservation of migratory animals globally as well as implementation of a number of specific species agreements covering geographical areas where animals or birds or marine species migrate during their lifetime.
Elizabeth’s work at UNEP has focused on the development, implementation and enforcement environmental laws both at national, regional and international level. She has played different roles in UNEP over the years that have included being a coordinator of capacity building and compliance and enforcement projects related to environmental law and the multilateral environmental conventions. She was a Senior Legal Officer and Chief of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) Support and Cooperation Branch in the then Division of Environmental Conventions (DEC), and later a Principal Legal Officer and Chief of the Biodiversity/Land Law and Governance Branch in the then Division of Environmental Law and Conventions.
Before joining UNEP, Elizabeth worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Republic of Tanzania and left as a Counsellor/Senior Legal Counsel. During her time with the ministry, she was also a lecturer in Public International Law and Conference Diplomacy at Tanzania’s Centre for Foreign Relations and Diplomacy. She had also served as a pro bono visiting lecturer at the University of Nairobi Law School and in the past at the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), Rome, Italy.
A lawyer and career diplomat with LLB (Hons) from the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, LLM from Dalhousie University, Canada and Postgraduate Diploma in International Relations and Diplomacy (Summa Cum Laude) from the Centre of Foreign Relations and Diplomacy in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. She has published several articles related to international environmental law, compliance and enforcement of conventions and developed, among others, a number of multilateral environmental agreements negotiation tools, handbooks and guidelines currently used by UNEP in its capacity-building programmes.

Group Chief Sustainability Officer, DBS
Mikkel Larsen
Mikkel Larsen is the Group Chief Sustainability Officer of DBS and chairs the DBS Sustainability Council, which comprises senior leaders across business and support units and is responsible for developing DBS’ overarching sustainability framework, setting key performance indicators and targets in consultation with the relevant stakeholders, and driving sustainability initiatives across the bank.
He is presently a member of or represents DBS in numerous international and local councils or committees. These include: the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets, GRI Stakeholder Council, United for Wildlife Financial Taskforce, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Green Finance Industry Taskforce [Workstream Chair] under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s Financial Centre Advisory Panel (FCAP), Singapore’s Environment and Resources Standards Committee (ERSC) and the Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS).
Prior to joining DBS, Mikkel was the Chief Financial Officer for Asia Pacific in UBS from 2009 to 2012 covering Investment Bank, Wealth Management and Asset Management. He was previously the Asia Pacific Head of Accounting Policy and location controller for Hong Kong at UBS. Mikkel has also worked in Citigroup in London and KPMG in London and Denmark.
Mikkel is an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS), and has an MBA from London Business School, graduate education from Harvard University, a master’s in Sustainability Leadership from Cambridge University, as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Economics from CBS in his native country Denmark where he also holds his CPA.