2022 Speakers

Jakob Thomä is one of the leading global experts on sustainable finance and long-term risks. He co-founded the 2° Investing Initiative network in New York and Berlin and serves as Executive Director of 2° Investing Initiative Deutschland.

Jakob led the development of the first methodology in the world to measure the alignment of financial portfolios with climate goals (PACTA). PACTA remains the most widely used alignment methodology in the world, endorsed by a number of governments and financial supervisors to track financial sector alignment. Over 1,000 organizations have used PACTA to conduct portfolio tests to date.

In 2020, Jakob launched the 1in1000 research programme designed to integrate complex and long-term risks into financial supervision and decision-making. As part of the programme, Jakob authored the first COVID-19 stress-test scenarios, informing the regulatory response of supervisors in Europe and the United States to the crisis. His work has also informed the climate stress-test scenario design of major central banks and financial supervisors.

Jakob is Special Research Fellow to the Japanese Financial Services Agency, and previously served as Academic Advisor to the Bank of England and EIOPA. He holds a PhD in Finance from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers. Jakob is also Senior Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he teaches a Green Finance course.

James McMahon founded The Climate Service with the vision that every economic decision on Earth should incorporate climate change. The company’s risk analytics software as a service gives investors and corporate managers the financial information they need to incorporate climate-related risk into their decisions.

McMahon began his career in global change by studying physics at Harvard University, and atmospheric chemistry at MIT under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Mario Molina.

McMahon went on to accumulate 10 years experience inside a multinational corporation, including managing Coca-Cola’s consumer marketing technology group. He then led three small technology firms as COO and CEO. He served for 6 years as Senior Advisor to the Director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. He was CEO of The Collider – a groundbreaking nonprofit innovation center for climate solutions.

James is a strategist and systems thinker with a background in sustainable finance. He runs the strategy consultancy Re:Pattern and is the Executive Director of the Climate Safe Lending Network. With over 20 years senior management experience, James designs and facilitates learning, development, strategic and innovation programmes to accelerate progress in sustainability sectors worldwide.

James serves as a member of several advisory groups on sustainable finance at a UK, European and international level such as Triodos Bank, Finance Impact Hub, Club of Rome, Regen, Finance Watch, UNEP FI and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking and was one of the founding developers of the UN Principles for Responsible Banking launched in 2019.  He’s the author of several reports and papers and speaks regularly on the subject of sustainable business and positive impact finance. James is a tutor with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership for their Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Business.

Jamie Broderick is a deputy chair of the Impact Investing Institute, an independent, non-profit UK organisation that aims to accelerate the growth and improve the effectiveness of the impact investing market.  The Institute is supported by the UK’s Government Inclusive Economy Unit, the City of London Corporation, and a number of financial services organisations in the UK. 

Jamie was head of UBS Wealth Management in the UK from 2013-2017. Jamie joined UBS after nineteen years at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, latterly as Chief Executive of its European operations. He joined J.P. Morgan in New York in 1993 and moved to London in 1996. He started his financial services career at Wellington Management Company, an independent asset management partnership in Boston. He studied Arabic Linguistics and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard College and continued those studies in a Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago.

As Global Director, Finance in the Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation (FCI) Global Practice, Jean leads the World Bank’s work to promote the development of sound, stable, sustainable, and inclusive financial systems. His global team of experts works with governments and partners to make financial systems more resilient, to open access to finance for poor and vulnerable people, to support economic activity and to develop financial markets. Their strategy and its implementation emphasize development of digital financial services, addressing climate change and sustainable finance and creating opportunities for women by bolstering their financial inclusion.

Previously, Jean led the World Bank’s Financial Stability and Integrity global team, which assists countries in building and restoring robust and resilient financial systems operating with integrity, transparency and in compliance with international standards and recommendations. He has extensive experience working on financial sector issues, notably in the Middle East and North Africa.

Jes Andrews is Investment Lead at the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative, where she leads the Investment Leadership Programme, including the UN-Convened Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, where she also focuses on portfolio target-setting with investors, and the Legal Framework for Impact. She is also a member of several GFANZ workstreams, and the Expert Advisory Groups for Science Based Targets Initiative and UNFCCC’s Race to Zero Campaign. Prior to working with UNEP FI, she worked on climate change projects across with multiple UN agencies, governments and private firms across some 35 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. She’s the author of the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group Paper: High Level Recommendations for Credible Net Zero Commitments and has several times been served as an invite reviewer of the UNEP Emission Gap Reports. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics and holds a Master of Finance from the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School.

Jessica Smith (BES, MA, MCom finance in progress) joined UNEP FI in August 2020 to lead the ecosystems workstream. For the past 7 years she has directed a consultancy firm undertaking environmental finance project development and evaluation, and leading secretariats for the Equator Principles Association (environmental and social risk in Project Finance for 100+ financial institutions) and the Cross-Sector Biodiversity Initiative (applying IFC performance standard 6 on biodiversity in oil & gas, mining, and finance). Her key areas of interest are mobilising private and blended finance for ecosystems (SDGs 14 and 15) and managing biodiversity-related risks in banking and investment.

Judson Berkey is a Managing Director in the Chief Sustainability Office at UBS based in Zurich where he has worked since 2003 on global risk, regulatory and compliance topics. He currently focuses on sustainable finance policy and regulation including engagement with policymakers and standard setters. He graduated from Harvard Law School and the University of Virginia and is on the board of ECOFACT. He currently chairs the Institute of International Finance Sustainable Finance Working Group and is a member of the Task Force for Nature-related Financial Disclosures.