Andrew has over 30 years of experience as a global risk and finance specialist and was recently appointed to lead a new cross sector global team to develop and expand Fitch’s analysis of ESG and sustainable finance. Andrew is responsible for developing Fitch’s sustainable finance strategy, both within the ratings business and across the broader Fitch group, by determining investor and banker needs, and driving the development of new teams to provide products and services for this rapidly growing area. Initially the sustainable finance team is based in London, New York and Beijing, but will expand in size, scope and location dependent on identified constituent needs.

Andrew has held several senior management roles within Fitch over the last 14 years. In Europe from 2004 to 2010 he ran the energy, utilities, project finance and regulated transportation analytical groups. From 2010 to 2017 he was based in Singapore and led the development of Fitch’s Asia Pacific Corporate Ratings Group. Then on his return to Europe in 2017 he was regional head of Fitch’s EMEA Corporate Ratings Group, and also successfully ran a global executive project to transform and improve Fitch’s overseas office network.
From 2000 to 2004, Andrew was head of ABN Amro’s structured industry finance, power and utilities group for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He also previously worked for Edison Capital Europe as a private equity investment director in infrastructure, for the energy company PowerGen plc (now EON) as a senior project finance manager, and in the banking sector as a mezzanine, leveraged buy-out and cross-border M&A lender and advisor.

From 2006-2010 Andrew actively assisted the United Nation’s Economic Council for Europe advising on energy and risk issues, and was a member of the UNECE Ad Hoc Group of Experts on Sustainable Energy Developments. Andrew speaks regularly at conferences and forums on a wide range of risk based issues. He is currently a trustee of the Great Ormand Street Hospital based children’s charity CLEFT.
Andrew graduated with a BSc Hons in Psychology from Bristol University in 1989, and has a postgraduate diploma from INSEAD business school (CGEM 2016).

Dr Ben Caldecott is the founding Director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Programme. He is an Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, a Supernumerary Fellow at Oriel College, Oxford, and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University. Ben is also the COP26 Strategy Advisor for Finance based out of the UK Cabinet Office.

Ben specialises in environment, energy, and sustainability issues and works at the intersection between finance, public policy, and academe, having held senior roles in each domain. Ben has authored and edited a substantial number of publications related to sustainability and is an experienced media commentator and public speaker. He is also a regular peer reviewer and has a number of board and advisory panel appointments, including with the University of Oxford Socially Responsible Investment Review Committee, The Prince of Wales’s Accounting for Sustainability Project, ATLAS Infrastructure Partners Ltd, Impact Lens Ltd, the British Standards Institution (BSI), and the Green Alliance.

Ben currently serves on the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee and the UK Department for International Trade’s Export Guarantees Advisory Council. In his capacity as a Member of the UK Green Finance Taskforce, he chaired its Workstream on Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures (TCFD) Implementation. He also chaired the International Green Finance Coordination Group on behalf of the UK Green Finance Institute and the UK Government.

Ms. Gorham heads global fundraising and impacting investing activities supporting EIP’s European, North American, and Infrastructure platforms. Additionally, she oversees impact measurement and reporting, and GP-LP collaboration on shared ESG priorities. Prior, as Sr. Product Manager at S&P Global Market Intelligence, she oversaw renewable energy and ESG content businesses and served on S&P Global cross divisional ESG Task Force. Earlier, Bethany worked in technical roles at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Laboratory (NREL) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Bethany has a Masters in Environmental Management and Climate Sustainability from Harvard University and a BBA in Finance from Texas Christian University.

Chris Hulatt is one of the founders of Octopus. He oversees the growth and running of Octopus’ institutional investment offer, which currently totals more than £2.4bn in funds under management.

Chris founded Octopus to challenge the traditional asset management model, where good performance is based on outperforming a benchmark regardless of whether a loss has been made.

Chris is on the investment committee of several Octopus funds, which aim to champion UK growth companies and offer investors access to real assets that are long-term in nature, cash-yielding and resilient to economic headwinds.

Before starting Octopus, Chris led one of the Global Equity sector research teams at Mercury Asset Management. Chris has a first-class MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. Chris was also named EY’s UK Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017, alongside co-founder Simon Rogerson.

Craig leads the Strategic Asset Allocation team at Aberdeen Standard Investments. The team is responsible for the firm’s long-term investment views and strategy. Craig has had a long career in the investment industry: he established successful governance and sustainability functions at Friends, Ivory & Sime and at Insight Investment; he created BMOs innovative reo® corporate governance service; and helped establish and shape the Principles for Responsible Investment and the FTSE Russell ESG index family. Subsequently he has worked in asset allocation focusing on the economic drivers and long-term asset class returns. Craig has a PhD in behavioural finance, and is a senior lecturer at Edinburgh University Business School, where he set up the Centre for Business and Climate Change. He has published widely on long-term and sustainable investment topics.

Eric Usher currently heads the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative, UNEP FI, a global partnership bringing together the UN with 230 banks, insurers and asset managers working to develop the sustainable finance and responsible investment agendas. Eric oversees governance, strategy and day-to-day management of UNEP FI’s work programme and global network development. Over the years UNEP FI has established some of the most important sustainability oriented frameworks within the finance industry, including the Principles for Responsible Investment (2006), the Principles for Sustainable Insurance (2012) and work now underway on the establishment of Principles for Responsible Banking. Since joining in 2015, Mr. Usher has focused on accelerating the deep integration of sustainability risks into financial practice, including addressing climate change, natural capital loss and human rights abuses, as well as building out the frameworks for positive impact finance needed to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Eric sits on several industry bodies including as UN representative on the Board of the Principles for Responsible Investment, as a member of the Evaluation Council of the French sovereign green bond, as Director for the impact fund REPP Africa and founder of the Seed Capital Assistance Facility.

Prior to leading UNEP FI, Mr. Usher has over twenty years of experience in the low carbon sectors, spanning technology commercialisation in Canada, solar rural electrification in Morocco and financial sector development across emerging markets. During 2011, Mr. Usher worked on the establishment of the Green Climate Fund and led efforts to create its Private Sector Facility. Eric has been an editor of the Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment report published annually with Bloomberg and was lead author for finance of the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources. Before joining the UN, Eric was General Manager of a solar rural electrification company based in Morocco.

Hannah joined the Lab in 2017 and has managed the projects on performance metrics, climate-related reporting and workforce disclosures. Hannah moved from the FRC’s Corporate Governance Team, where she worked on reviews of the Stewardship Code and UK Corporate Governance Code and ran the 2016 Stewardship Code tiering exercise.

Hannah is a qualified lawyer and prior to joining the FRC, worked in the Australian Department of the Treasury on corporations and corporate law policy.

Jacob Michaelsen is Head of Sustainable Finance Advisory at Nordea, the largest Nordic bank and leading Debt Capital Market house in the region. Through this role, Jacob is in constant dialogue with investors, issuers and the broader market on all matters related to the Green bond market and sustainable finance more broadly. Prior to working with Green bonds Jacob was a part of the Bond Syndicate team at Nordea where he led the execution of a broad range of new issues.

Jeroen Bos, CFA, CAIA is Head of Specialised Equity & Responsible Investing at NN Investment Partners (NN IP) and part of its Management Team Investments. His portfolio of responsibilities includes a variety of Global and Regional Sustainable & Impact Equity Funds. Jeroen is also a member of NN IP’s ESG Board and has been instrumental in the development of ESG integration at NNIP in the last decade. His previous roles at NN IP included Head of Global Equity Research as well as Senior Portfolio Manager on several Global Equity & Thematic Funds. Before joining NN IP, Jeroen was a Director at UBS in New York in the Technology Equity Research Team. Prior to UBS, he was a Vice President at JP Morgan in London and a Senior Equity Analyst at MeesPierson/Fortis in Amsterdam. Jeroen is also a Board Member of CFA Society VBA Netherlands as well as a Board Member of the Work with Nature Foundation, a non-profit organization protecting Costa Rica’s rainforest.

Martin Spolc is the Head of the Sustainable Finance unit in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Financial Services. Prior to his current role, he was the Head of the Capital Markets Union unit, the Economic analysis unit, Deputy Head of the Banking unit and Assistant to the Director General, directly involved in developing the Banking Union and other key projects in the area of financial services aiming at restoring financial stability since the crisis. Before joining the Commission, he had worked at risk management consultancy and the banking sector. He is the holder of the CFA and FRM designations and member of the CFA Institute and Global Association of Risk Professionals.

Martina Macpherson is Senior Vice President, Strategic ESG Engagement & Partnerships, at Moody’s, and President of the Network for Sustainable Financial Markets. Martina has held a number of ESG leadership roles including Head of ESG Index Products at S&P DJI, Managing Director of Sustainable Investments Partners Ltd. and Vice President of ESG at MSCI.

She has been working in the ESG, index and asset management industry for almost 20 years and has been a member of multiple sustainable finance associations and policy working groups at UK, EU and at an international level.

Currently, Martina is part of the UNGC SDG CFO Taskforce, the European Law Institute’s Sustainable Finance Working Group, CBI’s Transition Bond Technical Expert Group, and Enterprise Data Management’s Working Group on ESG Data and Metrics.

Martina is a visiting fellow in sustainable finance at University of Zurich and Henley Business School. She has an MBA certificate in finance and business from LSBF / UK, and a MA in Law and Human Sciences from University of Frankfurt in Germany. She is a doctoral fellow of the Institute of Certified Risk Management Professionals UK, a fellow member of the ICRS, and an alumni of the German National Academic Foundation.

Dr. Fox-Penner is one of the foremost experts in the utility industry. He served as Principal and Chairman of The Brattle Group, a renowned economic and regulatory consulting firm, where he joined in 1996 and rose to become the longest-serving Chairman in the firm’s history. Prior, Dr. Fox-Penner served as a senior official in the White House Office of Science and Technology.  He is also a professor at Boston University where he serves as Founder and Chairman of BU’s Institute for Sustainable Energy. Dr. Fox-Penner received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago. At EIP, he supports investment teams and partners, and oversees EIP’s portfolio ESG Impact quantification efforts. He is also author of the highly acclaimed book, Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities.

Valentijn is Chief Investment Officer of NN Investment Partners and chairman of the Management Team Investments (MTI)

Valentijn has over 18 years of experience working in financial markets. Valentijn is also chair of NNIP’s Tactical Asset Allocation committee and the firm’s key spokesperson on the macro and market outlook. Therefore, he appears frequently at client events, seminars and in financial news media like CNN, CNBC, RTLZ, NOS, BNR, Bloomberg and Reuters or journals like the FT, FD, IPE, and other newswires and social media channels.