Dr Celine Herweijer is the Group Chief Sustainability Officer at HSBC, and a member of HSBC’s Group Executive Committee. She leads the bank’s net zero by 2050 ambition and played the instrumental role in delivering HSBC’s Net Zero Transition Plan in January 2024, one of the first such plans among global financial institutions. Under Celine’s leadership the bank is progressing strongly in its strategy for supporting our clients’ transition and directing $750bn to a $1 trillion towards sustainable financing and investing by 2030.

Celine is a PhD climate scientist and NASA fellow by training. Prior to HSBC, she was a partner at PwC for over a decade, acting in various global leadership roles, including PwC’s Global Innovation and Sustainability Leader and PwC’s Global Climate Leader.

Rhian oversees all National Grid’s sustainability activities. This includes setting strategic objectives around reducing emissions and investing in the communities National Grid serves as well as creating internal alignment and external understanding of what National Grid is doing, including disclosures.

Prior to this, Rhian was responsible for corporate affairs activities on behalf of National Grid Ventures (NGV), National Grid’s commercial arm which invests in green technologies such as renewable energy. Before this, Rhian oversaw all corporate affairs activities on behalf of National Grid’s UK regulated businesses and led the Corporate Affairs support for the RIIO 2 price control.

Rhian joined National Grid in 2017, to lead on UK & EU Public Affairs and Policy team; managing senior relationships across Whitehall and Westminster on strategic issues like Brexit, nationalisation and transport and heat decarbonisation.

Before joining National Grid, Rhian was the Director of Infrastructure at the CBI, spearheading their campaigns to boost investment in infrastructure, the low-carbon economy and construction. She joined the CBI in 2006, helping to deliver the CBI’s ground-breaking report on climate change in 2007, which transformed the role businesses can play in the low-carbon economy.

Rhian spent five years in Beijing, where she worked for the European Union Chamber of Commerce providing a bridge between European Business and the Chinese government, and a year working in Taiwan.

Majid Al Suwaidi, an experienced ambassador, climate change negotiator, and executive in the international energy sector, is double tenured as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the nascent ALTÉRRA climate investment fund and Director General/Special Representative (DGSR) of the COP28 Presidency. Mr. Al Suwaidi played an integral role at COP28 in helping to deliver the landmark UAE Consensus, that provides a roadmap for the transition to a clean energy and climate resilient pathway.

As the CEO of ALTÉRRA, a new catalytic climate fund launched to mobilize investment at scale to finance the new climate economy, Mr. Al Suwaidi is responsible for leading the effort to mobilize US $250 billion globally by 2030 towards climate positive solutions at scale. ALTÉRRA is the world’s largest private investment vehicle for climate change action, currently managing a US $30 billion commitment, with focus on transforming emerging markets and developing economies.

As DGSR of COP28, Mr. Al Suwaidi is responsible for championing implementation of the COP28’s Presidency Action plan to deliver long-lasting transformational impact to advance key initiatives well beyond COP28 and help keep the goal of keeping global average temperature rise to 1.5°C within reach.
Prior to ALTÉRRA and COP28, Mr. Al Suwaidi held leading roles as UAE Ambassador to Spain, Andorra, and Vatican City; UAE Consul General in New York; and as the UAE’s Lead Negotiator on Climate Change, Energy and Sustainability in multilateral negotiations processes that led to the adoption of the Paris Agreement and of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in 2015.

Mr. Al Suwaidi earned a Master of Science in Geosciences from Simon Fraser University in Canada and a Bachelor of Science in Earth Science from Brunel University in the United Kingdom. Additionally, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic by the Government of Spain for extraordinary services as Ambassador in the promotion of international relations.

As Chief Sustainability Officer, Richard is responsible for CPP Investments’ approach to sustainability at the enterprise level. He works with our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Investment Officer, and Chief Financial Officer to ensure a global, cross-enterprise approach to sustainability-related risks and opportunities that contribute to superior long-term returns.

Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2019, Richard spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs, where he served most recently as the Global Head of Thematic Equity and ESG Research, and Co-Head of EMEA Equity Research. Previously, he held senior positions at Merrill Lynch, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and Paribas Capital Markets.

Richard is Chair of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Investor Advisory Group, a member of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT). He is also a frequent contributor of novel thought leadership to CPP Investments Insights Institute.

Richard holds a Graduado Superior/BA (Hons) in European Business Administration from ICADE in Madrid.

James has over 25 years’ experience in the Energy Industry, most recently as EVP for Growth and Industry in ADNOC in Abu Dhabi, where he led capital project development and business development including the development of the new $25 billion Chemical Park in Ruwais. He also led ADNOC’s New Energies Division, developing the region’s first world scale Blue Ammonia plant and CCS pilot and delivered the acquisition of a stake in Masdar (an International Renewable Generation Company with 20GW portfolio) and the formation of Masdar Green Hydrogen. He has served on the Boards of Infineum and Masdar Green Hydrogen.

Previously, James held senior roles at Shell, with his last as SVP Downstream M&A. He was also previously in charge of Shell’s Global Capital Projects Contracting (including the $14 billion Canada LNG EPC LS contract) and Chemicals Capital Projects.

Dr. David Cooper is the Acting Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Prior to his appointment, David was the Deputy Executive Secretary at the CBD Secretariat where he assisted the Executive Secretary by leading the strategic and planning activities of the Secretariat, as well as the intergovernmental processes and activities under the Convention and its two protocols — the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing. David has more than 30 years of experience in environmental and agricultural science and policy, and international negotiations, including more than 20 years with the CBD. He has built strong and productive working relationships with Parties in all regions and with partners in civil society, international organisations, and the scientific community. As Secretary of the fifteenth meeting of the CBD Conference of the Parties (COP 15), held in Kunming, China (in October 2021) and in Montreal, Canada (in December 2022), David was instrumental in facilitating the complex pathway that led to the successful finalisation and adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and other key decisions, including those on digital sequence information
on genetic resources, and on resource mobilisation.

Andrea joined JLR in 2024 as the company’s Director of Sustainability. She will shape and lead JLR’s sustainability vision and will be instrumental in its cultural transformation and modern leadership development journey, playing a critical role in helping to honour JLR’s commitment to the planet and the communities we operate in.

Andrea has a wealth of experience in sustainability, governance and communications. She held the position of Senior Vice President, Sustainability at Kuehne+Nagel where she developed and drove the adoption of Science Based Targets, supporting customers to decarbonise their logistics with economically competitive solutions.

Prior to this, she spent 17 years in aerospace and aviation. As Head of Sustainability at Airbus, she worked with customers, suppliers and governments on the decarbonization of the aviation sector. She also established and served as Executive Director of the Airbus Foundation, supporting the humanitarian community with emergency response services as well as working with NGOs, start-ups and social entrepreneurs to support the development and education of young people worldwide.

Eva leads Business for Nature a global coalition that drives credible business action and policy ambition to achieve a nature-positive economy for all by 2030. With a background in natural capital and environmental management, Eva is an experienced leader, facilitator, speaker, writer and media spokesperson. Prior to joining Business for Nature in 2019, Eva spent 15 years leading multiple projects at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) such as on natural, social and human capital measurement and valuation. In 2023, she was named by Reuters as one of twenty-five trailblazing women leading the fight against climate change.

As President of GARP Risk Institute, Jo Paisley helps lead research and thought leadership for GARP and the broader risk community.

Jo Paisley’s career began at the Bank of England where she worked in various economist roles, ran the Statistics Division and spent the last part of her career in Supervision. Her last role was as a Director of the Supervisory Risk Specialist Division within the Prudential Regulation Authority. This area provided deep technical risk expertise to front line supervisors across all risk disciplines, covering banking and insurance. She was also heavily involved in the design and execution of the UK’s first concurrent stress test in 2014.

She left the Bank in 2015 and joined HSBC as their Global Head of Stress Testing, where she was responsible for ensuring that they met all their regulatory stress testing requirements around the world. She has also worked as an independent stress testing consultant, advising firms on how to get the most value out of stress testing. Jo studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford, before completing her MPhil in Economics at Nuffield College, Oxford.

Jono is a Director at Anthesis with 20+ years’ experience driving change to manage environmental and sustainability impact within a commercial and policy landscape. Jono worked in Private Equity for many years and previously led KPMG Environmental Due Diligence team for Private Equity. Since then, he has engaged extensively with the sector on all matters of Climate Change, including supporting GPs with carbon reduction target setting and action plans. Jono has a strong international background having worked extensively in Europe, Australia, South America and the Middle East. His career includes leading roles both within consultancies and in-house. Jono is a member of IEMA and holds a degree in Environmental Science from Nottingham University.

Kate Levick leads E3G’s activities on Sustainable Finance, working with a wide range of public and private finance sector stakeholders to support ambitious finance and climate policy outcomes.

Prior to joining E3G Kate spent a decade as Global Director for Policy Engagement at CDP. Before this, she worked for the UK government’s Office of Climate Change and spent several years working for BP Plc in a variety of commercial and environmental roles.

Kate is a member of the Climate Champions’ Financial Sector Expert Group and chairs the Policy workstream of the UK’s Green Technical Advisory Group. She co-leads E3G’s provision, with UK CGFI, of the Secretariat to the UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce.

Outside work Kate enjoys open water swimming, cinema and cocktails.

Kate Warren brings over two decades of global development and digital media experience, covering and shaping the important conversations driving the Sustainable Development Goals. In her role as EVP and Executive Editor, Kate leads Devex’s special coverage including news events, Devex Pro, and other editorial initiatives tied to key moments on the global development calendar. Kate is an experienced moderator and frequent speaker and author on social impact and global development issues with a particular interest in climate, food security, global health, and how they intersect.

Kieran Borrett is Director at Plug and Play UK. Plug and Play is a global innovation platform and early stage investor, headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices in over 60 cities around the world. Kieran has established numerous innovation programmes alongside global corporations, governments and academia, spanning various industries including mobility and sustainability.

On behalf of Plug and Play Ventures, Kieran has led and supported over 35 investments. He is on a mission to support the brightest UK startups to scale through the Plug and Play ecosystem.

Lori Kerr joined FinDev Canada as Chief Executive Officer in June 2021. A Canadian national, she is a widely experienced international development finance professional with more than two decades of leadership in private investment in emerging markets with a focus on sustainable infrastructure, climate finance, and blended finance.

Ms. Kerr joined FinDev Canada by way of the Global Infrastructure Facility at the World Bank in Washington, DC, where she was responsible for corporate strategy, thought leadership, partnerships, and international engagement for the largest global fund advising developing country governments on the preparation and structuring of commercially viable infrastructure projects.
Previously, Ms. Kerr served as Senior Director at Climate Finance Advisors developing low-carbon, climate-resilient investment strategies and blended finance solutions to mobilize private capital in developing countries. She also spent 18 years at the Inter-American Development Bank Group serving in management and senior investment roles where she spearheaded strategic initiatives to support the expansion and development impact of private sector activities as well as private sector transaction origination, structuring, and asset management. Ms. Kerr also spent 14 years as an Adjunct Professor of International Project Finance and Investment at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Kerr holds an Honours Bachelor degree from the University of Western Ontario and an International MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University.

Mardi McBrien is Chief of Strategic Affairs and Capacity Building at the IFRS Foundation.

Prior to the IFRS Foundation, Mardi spent over a decade leading the global ESG standard setter, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB). Under Mardi’s leadership CDSB published the first global capital market framework for reporting investor focussed information on climate, environmental and social matters to capital markets.  CDSB’s work notably underpins both the TCFD and the TNFD frameworks and became an influential foundational building block in the establishment the International Sustainability Standards Board, where Mardi also played an important leadership role in its establishment.

Mardi has enjoyed a vibrant career which involved her leading high profile flagship environmental campaigns, working in public sector policy advisory roles and public private partnership management. Originally qualifying as a forester and environmental scientist in Australia (Melbourne University) and agricultural economist (UK, SOAS), Mardi is a Board Member of XBRL International, a member of the UK Government Transition Pathway Taskforce Steering Group,  trustee of one of the oldest environmental NGOs in the world, the International Tree Foundation, a founding Board member of WOCAN – Women Organising for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management / W+ Standard,  a school governor and a member of the ICAEW Sustainability Advisory Committee. Mardi was awarded UK environmental campaigner of the year by the Sheila McKechnie Foundation in 2013 and in 2021 and was selected as one of the ESG Foundation’s ones to watch.

Mark serves as Executive Director of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), an independent organisation whose mission is to enable high integrity carbon markets.

With a background in development and environmental economics, Mark has worked across various areas of environment and climate policy for over two decades, with a particular focus on the use of economic instruments in the pursuit of sustainable development.

His previous roles include: Managing Director at Climate Advisers, a Washington DC-based environmental consultancy; Chief Executive of Mongoose Energy Ltd, then the UK’s largest developer and manager of community energy projects; and Chief Executive at The Climate Group. He was co-founder of both the Verified Carbon Standard and the Gold Standard.

He serves as a member of the Governing Board of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market and is also currently a board member of Verra, Chair of Brighton and Hove Energy Services Coop and a member of the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Markets and the Time CO2 Advisory Council.

He has advised on environmental, climate and broader sustainability matters including in the context of corporate and real estate transactions, projects and finance-related matters.

Matt’s expertise includes advising on issues arising from climate change/carbon trading, circular economy programmes, supply chain risk management, renewable power projects, the transfrontier shipment of hazardous products and reporting and disclosure both in a capital market context and more broadly.

He has practised in environmental and climate law for almost 30 years and has been recognised as a leading practitioner in his field for many years. He is a thought leader in this space and is a regular commentator on new and emerging developments.

Matt works with major international clients across jurisdictions and in multiple sectors to develop compliance programmes across a broad range of regulatory and risk areas.

He is widely recognised as one of Europe’s leading regulatory compliance lawyers and in September 2023, won the Environment and Climate Lawyer of the Year at the Who’s Who Legal Awards.

Nick Henry is Founder and CEO of Climate Action, a mission-led business dedicated to facilitating collaboration between policymakers, investors and business leaders to accelerate global climate action. Its year-round programme of large-scale, high-impact events includes the Innovation Zone at COP, today’s Climate Innovation Forum and the Sustainable Investment Forums in Climate Week NYC and Paris. Nick is passionate about the role of business as a force-for-good in addressing climate change, having founded Climate Action 18 years ago.

Nick O’Donohoe CMG joined British International Investment plc (formally CDC Group) as its Chief Executive in June 2017 and is also a member of the British International Investment Board. He was previously a Senior Adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he specialised in the use of blended finance models to support the work of the Foundation. Prior to taking this role, Nick co-founded, with Sir Ronald Cohen, Big Society Capital (BSC). He served as its Chief Executive Officer from 2011 to December 2015. BSC is an independent financial institution established by the UK Government as “the world’s first social investment bank” and is capitalised with unclaimed UK bank accounts and investment by the largest UK banks.

Previously Nick worked at JP Morgan, latterly as Global Head of Research. He was a member of the Management Committee of the Investment Bank and the Executive Committee of JP Morgan Chase, as well as the senior sponsor for JP Morgan’s Social Finance Unit. Nick co-authored “Impact Investments: An Emerging Asset Class”, published by JP Morgan and the Rockefeller Foundation in November 2010. Prior to JP Morgan, he spent fifteen years at Goldman Sachs. Nick served as Chairman of the UK Dormant Assets Commission which reported in March 2017. He was also a board member of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) between 2012 and 2019. Between 2017 – 2023 he was Deputy Chairman of the Global Steering Group (GSG) on Impact Investment and joined the board of European Development Finance Institution (EDFI) in 2020.

Nick has an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA in Mathematical Economics and Statistics from Trinity College, Dublin. Nick was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) by Her Majesty the Queen in the 2022 Jubilee Birthday honours list.

Nicolette Bartlett is the Chief Impact Officer at CDP, managing the thought leadership, disclosure content, policy, strategy and fundraising teams.

She is a board member of the Science-Based Targets Initiative, currently represents CDP on the We Mean Business board, is a member of the Technical Advisory Boards of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Initiative and the Net Zero Data Public Utility (NZDPU), is Co-Chair of Working Group 3 of the UK’s Transition Plan Task Force and a Senior Associate of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Nicolette is a recognized thought leader on global sustainability issues, previously leading CDP’s climate change and carbon pricing work, as well as programs at the University of Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership and for the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group.

Nik Gowing is Founder and Co-Director of Thinking the Unthinkable – an independent project helping leaders understand the threats and opportunities in the new era of radical uncertainty and disruption. The COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed all the project’s alerts to leaders since 2014.

In 2016 Nik co-authored (with TtU Co-Director Chris Langdon) the book “Thinking the Unthinkable”. Their work is based on hundreds of top level confidential interviews and conversations with corporate and public service leaders, plus hundreds more conversations with a new generation of aspiring leaders.

Thinking the Unthinkable reveals candidly why so many leaders face new difficulties identifying what looms in the disruptions of the “new normal” which started emerging in 2014 then exploded in 2020 with COVID-19 and the deepening climate emergency.

Nik Gowing was a main presenter for the BBC’s international 24-hour news channel BBC World News 1996-2014. He presented ‘The Hub with Nik Gowing’, BBC World Debates, Dateline London, plus location coverage of major global stories.

Bailey Morrow is a Managing Director on the Venture and Growth team at HSBC Innovation Banking. Based in London, she leads the Climate Tech, Frontier Tech and Consumer Internet teams, supporting growth-stage companies with banking and lending solutions.

Before transitioning to HSBC Innovation Banking, Bailey spent fourteen years with Silicon Valley Bank in San Francisco and London. She began her SVB career on the Private Equity and Venture Capital relationship management team, in addition to working with growth stage companies across several different teams within the bank.

Bailey holds a bachelor’s degree in combined sciences from Santa Clara University.

Charlie has a background in finance and technology and runs Howden’s carbon insurance business. ​He began his career at JPMorgan where in 2006 he helped start the Environmental Markets desk. There he focused on the origination, structuring and sales of carbon credits and built a successful global team with a profitable carbon portfolio generating hundreds of millions in revenue. ​

He then launched Trillion Fund, the first peer-to-peer renewable energy funding platform before founding Stowga, a warehouse marketplace that as CEO he led through to exit. At the time of the sale Stowga had thousands of warehouses across the globe operating on every continent. Most recently he led the commercial team at Toucan Protocol, a high growth blockchain startup that pioneered the tokenisation of carbon credits.

David Borlace holds a BSc Hons. degree in Technology and spent more than 30 years in retail project management. That experience highlighted the importance of winning hearts and minds and the value of a pragmatic and outcome-oriented mindset. Through his YouTube channel, ‘Just Have a Think’ David addresses the climate emergency facing our civilization and investigates technologies that may accelerate the move away from fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions as we transition to a more sustainable future.

Rasha Hasaneen joined AspenTech in 2023 as Chief Product and Sustainability Officer with responsibility for the strategy and execution of all product-related activities including product marketing. She leads enterprise-wide sustainability efforts and collaborates across all business units to develop and execute on key initiatives.

Rasha most recently served as Vice President of Innovation and Product Management Excellence at Trane Technologies and the Executive Director of the Center for Healthy and Efficient Spaces. Through various leadership roles, Rasha has transformed the customer experience for companies including Ingersoll Rand, General Electric, SAP, Hitachi, Lucent Technologies and General Motors. Rasha is a seasoned executive with a broad background in product management, product marketing, sustainability, engineering, strategy, planning and lean thinking.

Rasha has an interdisciplinary PhD in Sustainability spanning the chemical engineering, business and public policy disciplines from Texas A&M University, a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Stanford University, and a Bachelor of Engineering and Management in Mechanical Engineering from McMaster University. She is also a registered Professional Engineer.

Seb Henbest is Group Head of Climate Transition at HSBC, supporting the development, evolution and integration of the bank’s climate strategy and working with its most emissions-intensive clients to accelerate their transition to a net-zero future. Prior to this he spent 14 years at BloombergNEF, most recently as Chief Economist. In that role he oversaw the firm’s energy economics group and energy transition scenario analysis and was lead author of BNEF’s flagship publication, the New Energy Outlook. Before that he was Director of BNEF’s Europe, Middle East and Africa division and Head of Research for BNEF in Australia, establishing the firm’s Sydney offices in 2009. Seb is a senior spokesperson on the energy transition, speaks regularly at industry conferences and events, and is quoted widely in print media. He has appeared as an expert commentator on ABC TV, Sky News, BBC, Bloomberg TV and ABC Radio. In 2012 he gave evidence to House of Representatives Economics Committee in Australia on the pricing dynamics of linking Australia’s Carbon Price Mechanism with the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. He is a 2015 Rex J Lipman Fellow and was previously an advisor to the GCC region Clean Energy Business Council. Seb studied physics and theoretical astrophysics at Adelaide University and atmospheric science at Monash University in Australia, before moving to the UK where he read International Relations at Clare Hall, Cambridge, specializing in emissions trading and environmental markets.

Tom Mitchell is the Executive Director of IIED, steering the overall direction and leadership of IIED’s staff, work programmes and partnerships. He leads on public communications, strategy development and implementation.  He engages in public debate in key international events. He has a passion for finding innovative ways to unlock climate justice and is the author of the climate action strategy – Transformation, in Time. Until September 2022 he was the Chief Strategy Officer of Climate-KIC and Director of Climate-KIC International Foundation. He is a former co-ordinating lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and UN Special Representative senior advisor for Disaster Risk Reduction.