Alex Flint is an expert on the convergence of politics and business, particularly related to energy and climate change. He is executive director of the Alliance for Market Solutions (AMS), a conservative nonprofit that engages directly with policymakers, the business community, and the media on policies that reduce carbon pollution and grow the economy. Previously, Alex led the Nuclear Energy Institute’s advocacy program as the senior vice president of governmental affairs for a decade. He began his career on Capitol Hill as a clerk on the Senate Committee on Appropriations and staff director of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Alex has been recognized as one of Washington’s top lobbyists, named one of the National Journal’s top 50 people changing Washington, and included on Washingtonian magazine’s list of most influential people in Washington.

Alex Kruzel is an author, entrepreneur, business advisor, and leader of Telesto Strategy, a management consulting firm based in Chicago focused on integrating environmental security and sustainability into corporate strategy. Prior to founding Telesto, Alex has spent the past two decades advising the Fortune 500 and public sector clients globally. As a reflection of her commitment to service and her country, Alex served in the Peace Corps as an education volunteer in Southern Africa. Alex contributes to Chicago’s strong civic community through her efforts at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs as a member of its Board of Directors. As a mother, Alex is inspired by the inherent curiosity of children and is reminded of the need for generational thinking.

Professor Amelia Miazad is an expert on the nexus between corporate law and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

Professor Miazad’s work has been published in several law reviews including Vanderbilt Law Review (Corporate Law and Social Risk), Minnesota Law Review (The Hidden Power of Compliance), UC Davis Law Review (Sex, Power, and Corporate Governance), UC Hastings Law Review (Prosocial Antitrust), and the Journal of Corporation Law (A Test of Stakeholder Governance). Professor Miazad’s work has been quoted by the business and legal media including The Financial Times, Politico, The World Economic Forum, Law360, and The Recorder.

Before coming to UC Davis, Professor Miazad was a Senior Research Fellow at UC Berkeley School of Law. At Berkeley Law, Professor Miazad founded and led the Business in Society Institute. The Institute’s mission is to define and advance a legal and policy agenda that encourages companies to account for stakeholders and the environment.

Professor Miazad is a leading voice on ESG and stakeholder governance and regularly presents to audiences in the U.S. and internationally. Professor Miazad has created and teaches a number of courses for corporate executives and board members, including Sustainable Capitalism and ESG. Professor Miazad is also the creator and host of The ESG Beat Podcast, where she interviews both practitioners and academics on topics ranging from shareholder proposals on racial equity audits to board oversight of climate change.

Professor Miazad received her J.D. from Berkeley Law.

Andrea brings private finance investment experience, non-profit leadership and insight from across the multilateral system to help scale capital to address the world’s most urgent priorities.

Andrea was head of financial system change at the World Benchmarking Alliance from 2022-2025 assessing and engaging with the world’s largest financial institutions on their sustainability practices. Prior to this, she spent over 20 years in the wealth, asset management and life assurance industry with first hand experience of the arrival of sustainability, working in Asia and Europe across a broad range of public and private market strategies with institutional investors.

She is a consultant to UN PRI and advisor to Global Philanthropic, published in the FT, Forbes, Bloomberg, Responsible Investor and ESG Investor and
presented internationally at COP, Climate Week, WEF, Foreign Direct Investment and OECD events amongst others.

Ann M. Lipton is a Professor of Law and Laurence W. DeMuth Chair of Business Law at the University of Colorado Law School. She studies corporate governance, the relationships between corporations and investors, and the role of corporations in society. Her articles have appeared in the Georgetown Law Journal, the Yale Journal on Regulation, and the Journal of Corporation Law, among other publications. She is also a co-author of the Securities Regulation: Cases and Materials casebook published by Aspen Publishers. Prior to entering academia, she practiced law in New York City for over ten years, specializing in corporate and securities litigation.

Arun Agrawal is the Pulte Family Professor of Development Policy at the Keough School of Global Affairs and the inaugural director of the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative at the University of Notre Dame. His research and teaching focus on environmental politics and sustainable development.

Agrawal’s work examines the political economy of institutional change, sustainability and conservation and development. He has written on Indigenous knowledge, community-based conservation, common property and commoning, agrarian change and the governance of environment and sustainability. His fieldwork has taken him to more than 20 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. His research has found support from both public and private foundations around the world, including the National Science Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Moore Foundation, the United Kingdom’s development cooperation agency and the U.S. Department of Defense. Agrawal’s current projects include grants from the U.S. Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative to examine the effects of demographic and climate change on sociopolitical stability in Africa and a grant from the National Science Foundation to support international undergraduate training.

Agrawal’s work has appeared in Science, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), American Political Science Review, Current Anthropology and various Nature Portfolio journals among others. He serves as a member of the editorial board of the PNAS. and several other interdisciplinary development and sustainability journals. He earned his doctorate in political science from Duke University and he holds an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. He has held teaching and research positions at the University of Michigan; Yale University; University of Florida; McGill University; University of California, Berkeley; Indiana University and Harvard University.

Bastian Distler is Chief Product Owner for the Green Ledger in SAP S/4HANA Finance & Risk Product Management. His career at SAP started in 2003 as a developer before becoming a product manager later. He has mostly been engaged in topics where different applications and processes involved along value chains of companies integrate with Finance. Now he is keen on building a carbon accounting solution that applies principles of Financial Accounting and helps customers achieve their climate and finance goals.

Brandon Gipper is an Associate Professor at the Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame. His research examines issues related to the trustworthiness of firm reporting, including how various corporate governance tools enhance or interact with reporting quality, such as auditing or compensation plans for executives or rank-and-file employees. In recent work, he has examined the use of assurance in sustainability reporting and its impact on emissions reporting quality.

Carol is an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at Durham University Business School. Her work is focussed at the nexus of corporate reporting and sustainable development, pursued through research, policy work, senior leadership roles, voluntary roles & board positions. Carol is in the top 20 accounting academics in the Stanford Top-Cited Scientists list. She is chair of the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) responsible for setting the GRI Standards. Recent policy work has included advising the UNDP on its SDG Impact Standards and CIPFA on public sector sustainability reporting. She is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and Chairs their Sustainability Committee. Carol has held senior executive roles in the education sector, including Pro Vice-Chancellor (Sustainability), leading sustainability strategy, improving performance, developing partnerships & developing award winning sustainability management & governance approaches & sustainability reports. She founded the Sustainability Accounting, Management & Policy Journal in 2010. Carol is a British and Australian citizen.

As the President and Co-Founder of Shift, Caroline leads our organizational strategy and development and drives our thought leadership work on key challenges and opportunities in advancing corporate respect for business and human rights. Caroline speaks extensively at events around the world and frequently facilitates dialogue and debate amongst companies, governments, investors and civil society. In recent years, Caroline has focused on improving corporate human rights reporting as a catalyst for better human rights risk management, and on improving the data and methods used in evaluating companies’ social performance as part of ESG (environmental, social and governance) analysis. She has written and spoken extensively on the relevance of business respect for human rights, and the UNGPs specifically, to movements that seek to advance sustainability, equality, ESG investing, stakeholder capitalism, and human and social capital.

Caroline previously spent 14 years with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. From 2003 to 2006 she led the UK’s human rights negotiating team at the UN and she ran the negotiations to establish the mandate of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on business and human rights. The success of this initiative led to Professor John Ruggie’s appointment and from 2007-2011 Caroline was a lead advisor on his team and deeply involved in the drafting of the Guiding Principles.

From 2009 to 2011 Caroline was also the Director of the Governance and Accountability Program at the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School and she remains a Senior Program Fellow there. Caroline is a Commissioner on the BUSINESS COMMISSION TO TACKLE INEQUALITY, a member of the ADVISORY COMMITTEE OF THE INVESTOR ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, and on the Board of the Capitals Coalition.

Caroline’s prior British foreign service career covered Iran, Slovakia, the UN Security Council in New York and the European Union in Brussels. Caroline has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from Oxford University and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Caroline is a British national and speaks English, French and German.

“Charles Crain is the Managing Vice President of Policy at the National Association of Manufacturers. In this role, he leads the association’s best-in-class team of policy experts and advocates, working to achieve legislative and regulatory outcomes that support the growth and success of manufacturers in America. The NAM policy team is committed to ensuring that manufacturers’ voices are heard as Congress, the Administration, and federal agencies consider policy choices across the broad spectrum of issues that impact the 13 million people who make things in America.

Prior to taking on the MVP role, Charles was Vice President of Domestic Policy at the NAM, leading a team driving the association’s work on tax, corporate governance, health care, and technology policies. He joined the NAM to establish and lead a policy portfolio focused on corporate governance, financial services, capital markets, and corporate finance issues, focused primarily on engagement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Charles previously worked for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization on financial services, tax, and health care issues; he began his career on Capitol Hill working for members of the House Financial Services and Senate Finance Committees.

A native of Birmingham, AL, Charles received a B.A. in Political Science from Mercer University in Macon, GA.”

Christina Baworowsky is the Senior Vice President at Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES). In this role, she leads the organization’s efforts to implement federal policies that promote cleaner, more cost-effective energy solutions designed to decrease emissions, boost job creation, support domestic manufacturing and safeguard the environment. With more than a decade of policy and advocacy experience, Christina focuses on accelerating clean technology and innovation. Some of her policy areas of expertise include energy, environment, vehicles, infrastructure, tax, trade, manufacturing, supply chains, telecom, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, critical minerals and permitting.

Prior to joining CRES, Christina served as the Senior Federal Policy Advisor at Tesla, where she represented the company before Congress and the Administration. In that role, she drove Tesla’s federal advocacy, engagement and policy development to accelerate emissions reduction, promote American innovation and bolster domestic manufacturing. Before joining Tesla, Christina was the principal federal lobbyist for ChargePoint, the world’s largest electric vehicle charging network. She also represented Alliant Energy Corporation, an investor-owned utility serving Wisconsin and Iowa. Earlier in her career, Christina worked at the Nuclear Energy Institute in governmental affairs, which advocates on behalf of the commercial nuclear energy industry.

Dan works in the Norwegian Climate Change and Sustainability Services department. He has extensive experience from working with climate risk, sustainability reporting and strategy, where he helps companies adapt their strategy to account for future developments in markets, risks and opportunities due to climate change and other ESG topics.

Dan is convinced that businesses plays a key role in the green transition, and that focus on material sustainability topics may provide companies with a competitive edge.

He has a background as a Master of Technology within Energy and Environmental Engineering with a specialization within industrial ecology.

Prior to joining EY he worked as a project manager for an oil service company producing pipeline components.

At EY, Dan has specialized in strategy, management systems, climate and ESG risk, and sustainability reporting. Accounting of GHG emissions is a commonality of these topics.

How Dan Jakob is building a better working world
“I am building a better working world by assisting companies minimizing their impact on environment and society while ensuring that the opportunities in the green transition is utilized to ensure long term value creation for our environment and society but also businesses.

The last few years I have worked across a large number of sectors, which includes oil and gas, process industry, bioindustry, waste and water treatment, finance, retail and culture. This has given me a good overview over best practice within strategy, implementation, reporting and management”.

Daniel Bochnitschek is Co-Founder and Managing Director of AllocNow. Together with his team he supports chemical companies in driving the transformation towards sustainable and circular business models. Prior to co-founding AllocNow, he spent eight years in management consulting, focusing on strategic and operational issues in the chemical industry and related sectors.

Daniel is an Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Groningen with research interests in empirical banking, international finance, monetary policy, and climate finance. In most of his research, he studies the effects of cross-border capital flows and (non-conventional) monetary policy on macro-financial outcomes, focusing on the transmission through banks, firms, and households. He is also interested in the international spillovers of climate and biodiversity risks via global investment funds.

Eelco brings over 35 years of experience in business and civil society organisations. He previously headed PwC’s Global ESG Platform for Tax, Legal, People & Organization Services and has held several senior positions in publicly listed companies, including roles as Head of Treasury, Risk Management, and Tax. Most recently, Eelco served as chief executive officer of the Global Reporting Initiative, where he led the organisation through groundbreaking changes in sustainability reporting.

“Gabor Goertz is the CEO and Co-Founder of greehill, a deep-tech company transforming urban forestry through AI, high-resolution data, and cloud-based analytics. With a degree in Electrical Engineering and a career in the private sector, Gabor combines technical depth with entrepreneurial drive to tackle urban sustainability challenges.

Under his leadership, greehill has grown into a global company, having digitized over 100 cities across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North America. By enabling data-driven, proactive tree care, greehill helps cities reduce maintenance costs by up to 30%, extend tree lifespans, and build climate resilience.

Known for his high standards in execution, ethics, and innovation, Gabor leads greehill’s mission to turn urban nature into a strategic asset—helping create greener, healthier, and more livable cities around the world.”

Galina Hale is a Professor of Economics at UC Santa Cruz. She served as a Research Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and as an assistant professor of economics at Yale University. Galina’s current research interests focus on attracting mainstream finance to climate solutions, the sustainability of the global food system, and international financial stability, especially with respect to climate risks. Galina has published over 30 articles in leading economics and finance peer-reviewed journals. She serves on multiple editorial boards and presents her work regularly at scholarly and policy meetings worldwide.

Gary Entwistle, PhD, CPA, CA is Professor of Accounting at the University of Saskatchewan. Prior to academia Gary practiced public accounting with KPMG in both Canada and New Zealand. Gary’s research has been published in leading academic journals including CAR, JAAF, JIAR, JBE, AH, JIAAT, JACF, AIA, and IAE. Gary’s primary research is in the area of disclosure, most recently sustainability disclosure. Gary was a AAA Conference Plenary Speaker in 2002 and served as CAAA President in 2010.

George Ruch is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at the University of Denver. His research examines the usefulness of financial accounting information to capital market participants and the implications for financial reporting standards. He received his PhD from the University of Alabama. Prior to academia, Professor Ruch worked in the audit practice at Deloitte.

Gurpal S. Sran joined New York University Stern School of Business as an Assistant Professor of Accounting in July 2022. Sran’s research primarily examines (i) the transparency and risk-taking incentives that shape the nature of firms’ disclosure and investment decisions and (ii) the impacts of those decisions on various stakeholders. Prior to pursuing his graduate studies, Sran was a Research Fellow at Stanford Graduate School of Business and an investment banking summer analyst in public finance at Barclays. Sran received his MBA and PhD from University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his BA in Economics and Biomathematics from Rutgers University.

Mr. Abdallah S. Jum’ah is former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco), which manages the world’s largest proven oil reserves and is one of the world’s top producers of crude oil and a leading player in the gas, oil refining and petrochemical businesses. While president and CEO, Mr. Jum’ah served on Saudi Aramco’s Board of Directors and on the Saudi Arabian Supreme Council of Petroleum and Mineral Affairs. Mr. Jum’ah was born in al-Khobar in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. He studied political science at the American University in Cairo and at the American University of Beirut, and later completed the Program for Management Development at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His career with Saudi Aramco began in 1968. He was elected Aramco vice president of Power Systems in 1981, and was named senior vice president and later executive vice president of International Operations. In 1995, he was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer. During his tenure at Saudi Aramco Mr. Jum’ah was director of Aramco Services Company ( USA), Saudi Refining, Inc. (USA), Saudi Petroleum International, Inc. (USA), Motiva Enterprises (USA), S-Oil Corporation (Korea), Petron Corporation (Philippines), Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries S.A. (Greece) and Chairman of the Board of Vela International Marine Ltd. and Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Co. Ltd. (SAMREF). After taking the helm of Saudi Aramco, Mr. Jum’ah let the far-reaching expansion of its oil and gas businesses transforming the company into a fully integrated international energy enterprise as well as steering the company into the petrochemical business. Under his leadership, the company also refocused its strategic direction to maintain its prominent position as a world’s premier energy supplier. Mr. Jum’ah served as a trustee of the American University in Cairo from 1998 to February 2013. In 2003, Mr. Jum’ah was identified by Fortune magazine as one of the most influential business people in the world, and in January 2005, he was appointed energy community leader by the World Economic Forum. Mr. Jum’ah was selected as winner of the prestigious Petroleum Executive of the Year Award for 2005. From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Jum’ah served a vice chairman of the International Advisory Board at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. In April 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Hankuk University in Seoul, Korea, and in November 2007 Mr. Jum’ah’s profile led The Financial Times’ “Who’s Who: Ten Top Powers To Be Reckoned with” to rank Mr. Jum’ah as the top man in the oil industry. During Petrotech 2010 Mr. Jum’ah was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Indian oil and gas industry. Mr. Jum’ah is known for his innovative approach to business and his strong interest in developing leaders. His worldwide business affiliations include his former and current memberships: *Halliburton Company Board *JPMorgan Chase International Advisory Council *Schlumberger Business Consulting Advisory Board *Reliance International Advisory Board *MIT Corporation Visiting Committee for the Department of Mechanical Engineering *AccountAbility Advisory Council *Former member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum *Former Patron of the IFP School, Paris

Hunt Allcott is a Professor in the Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University. He is the co-director of the Stanford Environmental and Energy Policy Analysis Center, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, an affiliate of ideas42 and Poverty Action Lab, and a member of the board of editors of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.

Ilmi Granoff is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow, at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law working on Climate Finance and Regulation topics. He is an attorney and climate and sustainable finance expert with over two decades of experience—spanning public, private, and third-sector institutions—working on the policy and financing of the transition to a net-zero greenhouse gas, sustainable economy. He serves as a trusted advisor, manager, and fiduciary for philanthropies, governments, financial institutions, and companies on sustainable finance and policy matters in the US, Europe, Latin America, and Africa, and an accomplished speaker, researcher, and author.

Ilmi is also a member of the Climate-related Financial Risk Advisory Committee (CFRAC) of the Financial Stability Oversight Council at the US Department of the Treasury, and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics. llmi is a principal at the strategic advisory firm Climate Technology Group and at the private investment firm Adventure Capital and a Senior Advisor to the ClimateWorks Foundation, where he recently served as a Senior Director and established and led their Finance Program. Previously, Ilmi headed the Green Growth Business Unit at the Overseas Development Institute, served as the Special Counsel for Climate and Environment at the African Development Bank, practiced law in the global energy and infrastructure group at Freshfields, and worked at the United Nations Development Program. He holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law, master’s degrees in international relations and environmental science from Yale University, and a B.A. (High Honors) from Swarthmore College.

Imre joined the South African audit regulator after being appointed as Director Inspections in February 2013, and his responsibilities comprised overseeing the regulatory quality monitoring and remediation of audit firms and individual registered auditors in South Africa. He is currently appointed as the IRBA Chief Executive Officer since 2021. In his earlier professional career, he has held positions at several small and large auditing firms. His last position before joining the regulator was that of director and regional (provincial) head of the fifth largest audit network firm in South Africa at the time.

On the international front, Imre currently serves as a Board member and Audit and Finance Committee Chairperson of the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR), an organization made up of independent audit regulators from 56 jurisdictions.

As the Head of Audit, Financial Reporting and Climate Related Disclosures, Jacco is responsible for overseeing the oversight of auditors and audit firms, Climate Related Disclosures, and financial reporting matters at the FMA. The work includes setting up the Climate Related Disclosure function, overseeing the quality reviews of registered audit firms, licensing overseas auditors, the review of financial statements of our public interest entities and maintaining international relations relating to audit, financial reporting, and climate disclosure matters. Jacco is also the current Chair of the Emerging Regulators Group at International Federation of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR).

In his research Jan Bouwens focuses on the question of how accounting affects collaboration among business units. He is examining whether and, if so, under what conditions the use of profit numbers at the business unit level prevents managers from taking account of the interests of fellow managers who are in charge of other business units. Another aspect of his research is focused on whether accounting standards, such as profit and customer satisfaction, induces managers to pursue short-term results. With this study Bouwens tries to provide some preliminary answers to the question of whether performance-related remuneration induces managers to put the existence of the company at risk by over-emphasising the short term. In the next few years Bouwens plans to focus on two main themes: accounting and the structure of relations that reside inside a company, and the role of cost information in making decisions. With regard to the structure of relations, he plans to examine whether the use of accounting over time influences mutual trust. A study he conducted at a major transportation company revealed that managers cooperate better with each other if they regularly meet in the flesh. In his cost study Bouwens aims to focus on whether the use of sophisticated cost information minimises the risk of enterprises being besieged with innovations which jeopardise their continued existence.

Until 1 September 2015 Bouwens was professor of Accounting at Tilburg University. From July 2013 to July 2014 he held the post of visiting professor of Accounting in the MBA programme at Harvard Business School. He also is a research fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

Bouwens has published articles in numerous leading scientific journals in the field of accounting, including the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Accounting Research and The Accounting Review. He is associate editor of the Journal of Management Accounting Research and the Journal of Contemporary Accounting & Economics. He also is a member of the editorial staff of Contemporary Accounting Research and of the Dutch accounting journal MCA, which he headed from 2004 until 2010. Bouwens was also in charge of the PhD programme in Accounting at the interuniversity Limperg Institute and is a founder of the Accountancylab, a new research institution funded by the Dutch audit offices.

Bouwens has written policy reports for the Ministry of Finance and the Dutch parliament relating to the work of an accountant and the organisation of supervision. Dutch newspapers regular publish his opinions. He writes editorials for De Accountant.

He lectures in management accounting and control mainly in graduate and executive programmes. Bouwens is also regularly invited to provide PhD training programmes by internationally renowned universities. He has held seminars at universities including Cambridge, Chicago, and Harvard, as well as at the London School of Economics and Political Science. At the UvA Amsterdam Business School, he will be in charge of the Registered Accountant (PMA) and Registered Controller post-Master’s programmes (EMFC).

Prof. Janja Brendel is an Assistant Professor at CUHK Business School’s School of Accountancy. She holds a PhD in Accounting from Humboldt University of Berlin (part of Germany’s Excellence Initiative) and a BSc/MSc in Accounting & Finance from the London School of Economics. With a strong industry background, she worked as an investment banking analyst (M&A/restructuring) at firms like Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, and Greenhill, including a stint in Beijing. This experience bridges her research and teaching to real-world issues. Her research focuses on financial reporting, transparency, disclosure regulation, and capital markets, particularly short-sellers and other activists. Her work has appeared in top journals like The Journal of Accounting Research and been featured in the Financial Times.

Jessica Carradine is a Senior Analyst with Investors for Paris Compliance (I4PC) where she leads the Climate Accounting & Auditing and Sustainable Finance Taxonomy projects. Jessica is dedicated to driving systemic change in how financial systems address climate challenges, with a strong background in convening and collaborating with civil society, government, labour, industry, and Indigenous leaders to advance policy and practice.

Jonathan is an Assurance Partner and leads the Sustainability Reporting and Assurance practice for PwC New Zealand. In his 18 years as a Partner with PwC, Jonathan has specialised in auditing and advising a diverse range of public and private companies across a wide range of sectors. His knowledge of various reporting requirements and regulatory environments enables him to offer insights on reporting requirements and expectations. He has significant experience in streamlining external reporting across a variety of frameworks to focus on the presentation of what is material and of value to stakeholders. Jonathan also assists organisations in the evaluation of the reliability and robustness of underlying systems and processes used to generate the relevant metrics and targets, and ultimately provide the requisite external assurance where required.

Judy Samuelson is founder and executive director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program and author of Six New Rules of Business: Creating Real Value in a Changing World (Berrett-Koehler, 2021). Signature programs under Judy’s leadership include a ten-year campaign to disrupt Milton Friedman’s narrative about corporate purpose, the Aspen Principles of Long-Term Value Creation, and a partnership with Korn Ferry to rethink executive pay. She previously worked in legislative affairs in California and banking in New York’s garment center and ran the Ford Foundation’s office of program-related investments. Samuelson blogs for Quartz at Work and is a Bellagio Fellow and a director of the Financial Health Network.

Jyoti is a partner at Deloitte Africa, specialising in sustainability assurance and reporting. She is a qualified chartered accountant with 23.5 years of experience in the accounting and auditing profession. Her past 14.5 years has been focussed providing sustainability assurance and advisory services to a cross sector of clients and industries. She has dedicated experience in providing external assurance in terms of ISAE 3000 engagements on non financial information, including green bonds assurance. From an advisory point, she has assisted clients in measuring the quality of their stakeholder relationships as well as helped them navigate the various reporting frameworks through gap analysis, benchmarking and sustainability reporting as well as impact measurement. Jyoti is also a member of the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors (IRBA) Sustainability Standing Committee in South Africa and currently its acting chair. The responsibilities of the committee include developing guidance for auditors performing sustainability assurance engagements.

Katherine Huang is a recent graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, where she earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in May 2025. At Notre Dame, Katherine worked as a research and teaching assistant in the sustainability accounting field and interned with Campus Dining’s sustainability team, Deloitte, and KPMG. She completed an honors thesis examining how financial institutions account for the carbon emissions of their loans and investments, which she presented at the 2025 ACC Meeting of the Minds conference. This fall, Katherine will begin a full-time role in the accounting/finance department at Glenair.

Khrystyna Bochkay is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Miami (UM) and serves as an Academic Advisor to the technical staff at the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), part of the IFRS Foundation. Her research interests include financial and sustainability reporting, capital markets, forecasting, investor behavior, textual analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Recently, Bochkay has focused on examining companies’ voluntary adoption of sustainability standards and assessing the current state of sustainability reporting practices. Bochkay’s research has been published in leading academic journals, including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting, Auditing, and Finance, and Foundations and Trends in Accounting. Her work has been presented at prominent accounting conferences and workshops both in the U.S. and internationally, and has been featured in various media articles, industry reports, and podcasts.

​Mr. Koktvedgaard is head of VAT, auditing, accounting and reporting with the Confederation of Danish Industries and is nominated by Danish Funding Mechanism.

Kristian Koktvedgaard is member of the BusinessEurope Accounting Sounding Board, the Danish Accounting Council as well as the organising Committee behind the Danish Annual Financial Statements Awards, an award that aims to showcase and improve best-practices in corporate reporting. Non-financial reporting has been an integrated part of financial statements in Denmark since the inclusion in the Danish Financial Statements Act in 2009. A key focus with the Awards is to ensure and improve the value and relevance of the non-financial reporting alongside the financial reporting.

Kristian Koktvedgaard brings more than 15 years of experience with corporate reporting and international standard setting. He is recent chair of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) Consultative Advisory Group (CAG) between July 2013 and June 2019 and a current member of the IFRS Advisory Council. In 2020, Kristian Koktvedgaard joined the Board of XBRL Denmark, an organisation focussing on facilitating and improving digital reporting.

Kyra Bell-Pasht is the Director of Research and Policy at Investors for Paris Compliance, a Canadian climate shareholder advocacy group. This is her fourth year with the organization leading the analysis and assessment of corporate climate disclosures, primarily in the financial sector. Before this, Kyra has over 10 years of experience in environmental law and policy, with a particular focus on net-zero strategies. She has worked as a climate mitigation consultant and policy advisor to provincial and municipal governments in Canada and the US. In addition, she has worked as a public interest environmental lawyer. Kyra holds a Master of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall, and was called to the Ontario Bar.

Lisa Sachs is a globally recognized expert on natural resource governance, sustainable finance, and the energy transition. She is Director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI), a joint center of Columbia Climate School and Columbia Law School, Associate Professor of Professional Practice at the Columbia Climate School, and Director of Columbia’s M.S. in Climate Finance. A lawyer by training, her work focuses on how legal, policy, and business frameworks shape investment flows and influence sustainable development and climate outcomes. Through her leadership at CCSI since 2012, Lisa has built the Center into a trusted hub for interdisciplinary research, policy engagement, and advisory work. She works closely with governments, multilateral institutions, companies, financial actors, and civil society to align investment practices with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. She has been a leading voice in global efforts to reform climate-aligned finance, investment governance, and the management of extractive industries—particularly in the context of the energy transition and rising demand for critical minerals. She is widely recognized for challenging siloed thinking and building cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary approaches to global challenges. Her thinking is grounded in deep engagement with real-world conditions and systems, and a belief in ambitious, actionable solutions. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard University, a Master’s in International Affairs from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School, where she was a James Kent Scholar and received the Parker School Certificate in International and Comparative Law.

Luisa Palacios is the Interim Director of Research and Managing Director of Energy Transition Finance at the Center on Global Energy Policy. She comes to the center after a multidisciplinary career in the intersection of energy, finance and policy.

She was the Chairwoman of Houston-based Citgo Petroleum Corporation during a critical period in its history, as it faced significant geopolitical, financial, operational, and legal challenges. As Citgo’s first-ever chairwoman, Palacios also shaped efforts to strengthen corporate governance, ethics, and social responsibility.

Before her time at Citgo, Palacios was a Senior Managing Director and member of the management committee of Medley Global Advisors, a NY-based energy and macro policy research firm. She headed Medley’s Latin America’s economic and energy practice and later the firm’s emerging market research team. She previously worked at Barclays Capital as a Director in the emerging markets research department in New York and as an economist in the risk department at Société Générale in Paris. She also worked as Senior Economist at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and as a Consultant in the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

She graduated from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, Venezuela; received a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs; and obtained a Ph.D. in international affairs from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Dr. Palacios co-leads the ESG/Energy Transition Finance working group and the Financing of the Energy Transition Initiative at CGEP. She is an adjunct faculty member at the School of International and Public Affairs, an affiliated faculty member at the Institute for Latin American Studies at Columbia University, and a member of the faculty advisory committee of Columbia University’s Santiago Global Center in Chile. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Americas Quarterly and a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She chairs the Financial Working Group of the Methane Abatement Financing Taskforce (MAFT) and was the Deputy Chair of the 2024 B20 Finance and Infrastructure Task Force during Brazil’s G20 Presidency. She Is also a member of the Board of Trustees of The Hudson School.

Margaret B. Shackell is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Business Programs at Ithaca College, where she integrates sustainability into accounting education and research. A recognized leader in performance measurement and decision-making, her work emphasizes the triple bottom line—people, planet, and profit. She has published widely in top academic and professional journals and serves as Senior Editor of the IMA Educational Case Journal. A six-time Lybrand Award winner and recipient of Ithaca College’s Green Apple Award, she is a Chartered Professional Accountant and Certified Management Accountant with degrees from the University of Waterloo and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Maria Correia is a Professor of Accounting at the London School of Economics. Her primary research interests include credit markets, disclosure regulation, and corporate governance. Her research has been published in leading academic journals, such as Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies, and Management Science, and has been covered, among others, by Politico, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. She holds a PhD in Business Administration (Accounting) from Stanford University.

Professor DeFond is the A. N. Mosich Chair of Accounting, Leventhal School, University of Southern California. His research investigates issues in auditing, international accounting, and earnings management. He has served as Senior Editor of The Accounting Review and on the editorial boards of several leading journals. He is a recipient of the AAA’s Notable Contribution to the Auditing Literature Award. He received his PhD from the University of Washington. Prior to receiving his PhD he worked as an auditor for several years at a Big Eight accounting firm and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) in the state of California.

Martha Amram is the CEO of GLYNT.AI, which produces finance-grade sustainability data for businesses around the globe. Using advanced machine learning, GLYNT produces automated, accurate, actual and audit-ready sustainability data, ready to use for corporate reporting, energy management and regulatory filings. A leading expert in sustainability and finance, Martha is the author of five books on corporate strategy, finance and valuation and holds four patents. Martha is a frequent speaker and panelist on the intersection of finance, data, sustainability and AI.

Maxwell Sacher is a Ph.D. candidate in Finance at The University of Texas at Austin, where his research lies at the intersection of ESG, asset pricing, and public finance. His work explores how biodiversity loss and environmental regulation shape financial markets, with a particular focus on housing and municipal bond markets. Maxwell’s current research examines how biodiversity-related policy risk affects residential property values, offering new insights into how environmental protection influences the valuation of real assets.

Mika Morse recently served as the lead policy advisor on climate risk and finance for Chair Gensler at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Immediately before joining the SEC, Ms. Morse served as senior counsel and deputy legislative director for U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI). In this role, she was responsible for developing and implementing the Senator’s legislative priorities on the Banking Committee, Commerce Committee, and Appropriations Committee. Previously, Ms. Morse was an international trade associate at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Stephen Robinson in the Southern District of New York. Ms. Morse received her J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from Harvard College. Mika currently provides strategic consulting on climate finance and financial regulatory policy as the CEO and founder of Goldfinch Strategies, LLC.

Nick Loris is the Executive Vice President of Policy at C3 Solutions. Loris studies and writes about a wide range of energy and climate policies, including natural resource extraction, energy subsidies, nuclear energy, renewable power and energy efficiency. He also studies ways in which markets will improve the environment, reduce emissions and better adapt to a changing climate.

Before joining C3 Solutions, Loris served as the Deputy Director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies and Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy at The Heritage Foundation.

Loris has testified before House and Senate committees on a variety of energy and environment issues. He has been published and quoted in major newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and New York Times. His radio and television appearances include CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and National Public Radio. He received his master’s degree in economics from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics, finance, and political science from Albright College in Reading, PA. He serves as a senior advisor on energy and environment at Madrus, LLC and serves on policy advisory boards at ConservAmerica and the American Conservation Coalition.

Ningzhong Li is a Professor of Accounting at the Naveen Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas. He is a highly accomplished and prolific scholar, with numerous publications in top-tier accounting journals. His research interests are wide-ranging, covering financial contracting, supply chains, corporate disclosure, ESG, political economy, and, more recently, the emerging field of Generative AI. Professor Li earned his Ph.D. in Accounting and MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2009. He also holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Finance from Peking University, completed in 1999 and 2002, respectively.

Paul Munter served as the SEC’s Chief Accountant from 2021 – 2025. Prior to that he served the SEC as Deputy Chief Accountant from 2019 – 2021, leading the Office of the Chief Accountant’s international work. Before re-joining the SEC, Mr. Munter was a senior instructor of accounting at the University of Colorado Boulder. He had previously retired from KPMG, where he served as the lead technical partner for the U.S. firm’s international accounting and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) activities and served on the firm’s panel responsible for establishing firm positions on the application of IFRS. He also has served on the faculties of the University of Miami and Texas Tech University. Mr. Munter earned his Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Colorado. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in accounting from Fresno State University. He is a Certified Public Accountant in Colorado, New York, and Florida. He currently is a member of the Independent Standards Board of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

Priyaam Roy is an Assistant Vice President in the Thought Leadership team at State Street. Her experience in the financial services industry brings deep expertise in sustainability research and ESG integration. At State Street, Priyaam plays a key role in producing high-impact content that informs executive-level decision-making across the investment ecosystem. Her work spans a range of thematic areas including sustainable finance, climate transition strategies, and ESG-aligned investment frameworks. Priyaam has authored industry-facing publications such as “Financing the Transition: Driving Investment in Regenerative Agriculture” which explores innovative approaches to aligning capital flows with net-zero and nature-positive outcomes. Her work has contributed to shaping institutional perspectives on regenerative agriculture and climate-resilient investment strategies. Her career reflects a strong commitment to advancing sustainability within the financial sector through both thought leadership and applied research.

Richard Barker was appointed as a full-time member of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in June 2022, effective 8 July 2022.

Before joining the ISSB, he served as deputy dean and professor of accounting at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK. In this capacity, he led Oxford Saïd’s sustainable business initiatives.

He has published a wide range of academic research papers on accounting and sustainability disclosures. He has chaired the expert panel of Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) and served as a member of several committees and bodies focused on corporate reporting in the UK and Europe, including the UK Corporate Reporting Council (UK accounting standard-setter), the Financial Reporting Advisory Board and the European Accounting Association’s Accounting Standards Committee.

Professor Barker served as a research fellow at the International Accounting Standards Board from 2001 to 2007.

He has a Bachelor’s degree in history and economics from University of Oxford and a PhD from University of Cambridge, UK.

Sabine Hoefnagel is the Global Leader of Sustainability & Risk at ERM and a member of its global Executive Committee as well as its Board of Directors. In her role she heads up ERM’s Sustainability, Brand and Communications functions, including the SustainAbility Institute – ERM’s think tank – and leads on Enterprise Risk Management as well as ERM’s partnerships. She is also responsible for ERM’s strategic relationships with other organisations including the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) for whom she acts as ERM’s Liaison Delegate. She joined ERM in 2000. Sabine has 25 years’ professional experience in sustainability consulting across a broad range of sectors including finance, mining, energy, FMCG, chemicals and agribusiness. Her specific technical experience is in sustainability strategy, due diligence, social performance management and human rights and has worked worldwide providing advice to both private and public sector clients at corporate and site level. She is also currently a member of the Supervisory Board of the NGO Rewilding Europe. Before ERM, she worked for the United Nations Environment Programme as a legal specialist. Her academic background is in Law with a Master of Comparative Jurisprudence Degree from New York University, School of Law (with a specialisation in human rights) and a ‘Doctoraal’ Degree (Masters equivalent) from the University of Amsterdam Law Faculty (specialisation in Environmental and European Law).

Sandra (Gabriele) Schafhäutle’s research primarily focuses on the use of information in capital markets, corporate disclosure, and transparency and disclosure incentives. She has a strong and growing interest in topics that lie at the intersection of accounting and environmental economics. Professor Schafhäutle teaches Accounting and Financial Reporting. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Business School. During her Ph.D., she held a one-year non-degree visiting Ph.D. position at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. Prior to her career in academia, she received a MSc in International Business from Maastricht University and a BSc in Economics from the University of Konstanz, and she was a Financial Services Consultant at KPMG.

Shawn Kim is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Kim’s research focuses on strategic ESG (environmental, social, governance) disclosure, governance and incentives, and the role of information in the capital markets. He holds a PhD in Accounting and a BSc in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to pursuing his PhD, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Republic of Korea Army.

Shiva Rajgopal is the Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing at Columbia Business School. He has also been a faculty member at the Duke University, Emory University and the University of Washington. Professor Rajgopal’s research interests span financial reporting, earnings quality, fraud, executive compensation and corporate culture. His research is frequently cited in the popular press, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Fortune, Forbes, Financial Times, Business Week, and the Economist. He teaches fundamental analysis of financial statements for investors, managers and entrepreneurs and a PhD seminar on accounting regulation. Key awards include 2006 and 2016 American Accounting Association (AAA) Notable Contribution to the Literature award, 2006 and 2016 Graham and Dodd Scroll Prize given by the Financial Analysts Journal, and the 2008, 2012 and 2015 Glen McLaughlin Award for Research in Accounting Ethics. He is the Departmental Editor of the Accounting track of Management Science. He is also an Associate Editor at the Journal of Accounting and Economics and an ex-editor at Contemporary Accounting Research. He was on the editorial board of The Accounting Review from 2003-2011.

As Chief Sustainability and Commercial Officer for SAP Sustainability, Sophia and her teams oversee SAP’s corporate sustainability and bring sustainability to market for our customers. Sophia’s long-standing area of focus is in guiding organizations on how to balance immediate financial goals with sustainability and ESG governance for long-term business viability. She has deep expertise in sustainability and specializes in executive stakeholder engagement. She designed and taught the first ESG at Harvard Extension School, is a recognised public voice on ESG, and was chosen as one of the top 10 sustainability leaders of the year by the industry’s leading publication, Sustainability Magazine. Sophia has a Master of Science in sustainable management from Columbia University.

Stefan is known internationally for his research at the intersection of economics and management accounting. At the University of Mannheim, his research team has examined the economics of decarbonization in the context of multiple emerging climate technologies. His most recent research has focused on corporate net zero pledges and corporate carbon reporting. Stefan’s findings have been published consistently in leading management and science journals.

Stefano Cascino is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the London School of Economics. His primary research interests include disclosure regulation, corporate governance, and credit markets. His research has been published in leading academic journals, such as Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies, and Management Science, and has generated the interest of practitioners and standard setters including the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB), International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). He holds a PhD in Business Economics (Accounting) from the University of Naples Federico II.

Vlad-Andrei Porumb is a Reader (Associate Professor) in the Accounting and Finance division at the Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), University of Manchester, where he has been a faculty member since September 2021. Prior to this, he held a position as Assistant Professor of Accounting at the University of Groningen. He earned an Advanced Master in Business Administration Research from ESSEC Business School and completed his Ph.D. in 2016 at the THEMA Research Center, Cergy-Paris University. Dr. Porumb’s research primarily examines the impact of accounting, auditing, and banking regulations on firms’ earnings quality and debt contracting. His work also explores the emerging field of the space economy, as well as the influence of individual audit partner characteristics on audit quality. He has contributed to several research projects that have been published or accepted for publication in leading academic journals, including Contemporary Accounting Research, Strategic Management Journal, Harvard Business Review, European Accounting Review, Corporate Governance: An International Review, Abacus, and the Journal of Banking & Finance.

W. Robert Knechel, PhD is Distinguished Professor and the Frederick E. Fisher Eminent Scholar in Accounting at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. He is currently the Director of the International Accounting and Auditing Center (IAAC). Robert holds an appointment at the University of Auckland as a Professor of Accounting Research. He is on the Board of the Foundation for Audit Research in the Netherlands and is a member of the Standards and Emerging Issues Advisory Group (SEIAG) of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). He has recently complete a term as the Senior Editor for The Accounting Review. He was honored with the 2015 Outstanding Educator in Auditing Award given by the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association and has received Honorary Doctorates from BI Oslo (Norway) and Nyenrode University (Netherlands).

Wei Wang is an Associate Professor of Accounting and Director of the Master of Accountancy program at the Fox School of Business at Temple University. His research explores topics in financial institutions, debt contracting, and sustainability accounting. He is particularly interested in how institutional arrangements—such as standard setting, regulation, private contracting, and the market for corporate control—shape financial and non-financial reporting practices. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including The Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Management Science. Wei earned his PhD in Accounting from the University of Missouri-Columbia, his M.S.A. from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and his B.A. from Lake Forest College.

Wei Zhu is an Associate Professor of Accountancy, a KPMG Faculty Fellow, and a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society at the Gies College of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Accounting from the Yale School of Management. His research focuses on financial accounting, asset pricing, and ESG, with a particular emphasis on the environmental and social externalities of corporate behavior and biodiversity conservation. He currently serves on the editorial boards of The Accounting Review and Contemporary Accounting Research.

William E Rees is a population and systems ecologist, ecological economist, Professor Emeritus and former Director of the University of British Columbia’s School of Planning in Vancouver, Canada. His research focuses on the ecological threats to human survival and the bio-socio-cultural barriers to effective policy responses. Prof Rees has authored hundreds of peer-reviewed and popular articles on these topics. An internationally recognized Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, his awards include both the Herman Daly Award and Boulding Memorial Prize in Ecological Economics and a Blue Planet Prize (jointly with his former student, Dr Mathis Wackernagel).