2022 Speakers

Robin Millington, CEO of Planet Tracker, brings extensive experience of working on global issues requiring transformative change. She has worked in the climate, land use and food sectors, helping found Planet Tracker in 2018 and has many years of senior management experience in philanthropy and industry, most recently with the European Climate Foundation and having previously headed organisations including the Centre for European Policy Studies and Wetlands International. Robin currently sits on the Capitals Coalition Board as well as numerous advisory groups within the Natural Capital and ESG space.

Ross is an economist by training, with a mission to bring social and environmental capital into the scope of the capital markets.

Ross has 8+ years experience from leading investment institutions such Baillie Gifford, Leapfrog Investments and Katapult, and has executed over 40 investments into ocean impact technology companies over the past 4 years.

Sarah Kemmitt is a consultant to UNEP FI, working with the Secretariat of the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance and leading the Net Zero Banking Alliance. She brings a passionate interest and wide-ranging expertise to this role, having a career that spans ecological conservation, scientific research, and financial regulation.

With degrees in environment science and environmental forestry, and a PhD in soil microbial ecology & biogeochemistry, Sarah’s early career focussed on ecological conservation and research into carbon and nitrogen cycling in agroecosystems. She then moved to the British Library, supporting the digital scientific information transition at a crucial period for the institution. Following the financial crisis, the UK Financial Service Authority sought out staff from beyond the financial services sector and Sarah took this opportunity to move into financial services regulation, from there moving to the Bank of England and internal audit. In recent years she has brought her environmental expertise to bear on her work at the Bank of England, contributing to the UK regulation and supervision of the risks from climate change on the banking and insurance sectors.

Sean Gilbert serves as Chief Investor Network Officer, overseeing the GIIN Membership.

Prior to this role, Sean was the Head of Partnerships and Outreach with the NDC Partnership at World Resources Institute (WRI), where he led governance and outreach to launch the global initiative to support countries in achieving ambitious climate and development commitments.

Sean has worked for over twenty years in both the private sector and non-profits on integrating sustainability into business and finance. Prior to his leadership at WRI, he led Sustainability Advisory Services for KPMG in China where he worked with Chinese and Hong Kong companies and banks. Separately, he also co-drafted the Task Force Report for the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) on Green Finance Reform. He has also played an active role in driving the field of disclosure and sustainability performance standards through his work at the Global Reporting Initiative. As a Director at the Global Reporting Initiative, he led the development of a set of disclosure standards, which have become the most widely used sustainability reporting framework in the world. Sean started his career as a market research consultant for the chemical and environmental technology sectors based in Asia.

Sean Kidney is CEO of the Climate Bonds Initiative, an international NGO working to mobilize global capital for climate action. Projects include a green bond definitions and certification scheme with $34 trillion of assets represented on its Board and some 200 organizations involved in its development and governance; working with the Chinese central bank on how to grow green bonds in China; and market development programs in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria and East Africa.

He is a member of the European Commission’s Platform on Sustainable Finance, and was a member of its predecessors, the 2017 EU High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance and the EU Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance. He is also a member of green finance advisory groups in China, India, Mexico and Kazakhstan and an Advisory Board member of the International Sustainable Financial Centre in Prague.

He has previously been a consultant on green bonds to the United Nations Secretary General, a member of the Peoples Bank of China Green Finance Task Force and a member of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Expert Committee on Climate Finance.

Sean is also a Professor in Practice at SOAS University of London.

For the past three years he has been voted GlobalCapital magazine’s “Most Influential Champion” of the sustainable finance market.

Business experience

2020-to date Sebastiaan is Investment Science Lead in the Investment Technology team within the Innovation & Responsible Investing Platform of NN Investment Partners.

2019-2020 Global Head of the High Yield team within the Specialised Fixed Income team of NN Investment Partners. Additionally, he was Co-Lead portfolio Manager for the Global High Yield Strategy and Lead Portfolio Manager for the US High Yield Strategy

2016-2018 Lead Portfolio Manager US High Yield and Senior Portfolio Manager Global High Yield in the High Yield Team within the Specialised Fixed Income team of NN Investment Partners.

2011-2016 Senior Portfolio Manager / Analyst in the European High Yield team within the Global Credit Boutique of NN Investment Partners. He was responsible for analysis of European sector and issuer credit fundamentals as well as managing the Global / European High Yield portfolios.

2009-2011 Portfolio Manager High Yield at APG Asset Management, Front Office Trainee

Qualifications

• MSc in Investment Management from Vrije Universiteit van Amsterdam in 2012
• MSc in Finance from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in 2009
• BA in Philosophy from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in 2009
• BSc in Economics from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in 2007

Simon joined the Bank in January 2013, leading the development of a new framework for the Environmental and Social Risk Management (ESRM) team. Simon moved from ESRM into Group Sustainability in late 2016 and leads on stakeholder engagement, sustainability governance and aspects of ESG reporting.  Prior to joining Standard Chartered, Simon led Lloyds Bank’s environmental and reputational risk team.  He has over a decade’s experience in helping banks understand and manage environmental and social risks and opportunities presented by their client portfolios. Simon has a BSc in Politics with Economics and is a qualified Corporate Treasurer and Management Accountant. He is also Chair of the University of Cambridge’s Banking Environment Initiative, and is a member of the European Banking Federation’s ESG Risks Taskforce and B20 Energy, Sustainability and Climate Taskforce.

Sonja’s research work covers global debt and sovereign debt policy issues, financial stability risks, sustainable finance, and capital markets development in emerging and frontier markets. She oversees the IIF’s Weekly Insight, which offers a concise perspective on global financial markets in the context of topical economic and political developments, and the quarterly Global Debt Monitor, which looks across mature and emerging economies for debt-related vulnerabilities such as the rapid buildup in EM corporate debt levels. Sonja leads IIF policy work on sustainable finance and infrastructure investment, including advocacy and liaison efforts vis-à-vis the G20, the multilaterals and the international regulatory community.

Sonja has spent over 20 years in banking and financial markets, most recently with Nomura International in London, where she was Chief Equity Strategist. Previously she was Head of East European Economics and Senior European Bond Analyst, also for Nomura. Earlier positions included stints as a U.S. economist and bank credit analyst in New York and Los Angeles. She has taught undergraduate microeconomics at U.C. Berkeley, and spent several years with the Berkeley-Stanford Program on Soviet International Behavior. Sonja’s work is widely cited in the financial press, including Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times; she is a regular speaker at industry conferences and a frequent commentator for financial television and radio.

Steve Kukoda is Executive Director of the International Copper Association. Steve builds partnerships to accelerate climate action and the clean energy transition. ICA’s members represent a majority of global copper production and their investments in ICA are making a positive impact on nearly all 17 of the UN SDGs.

Tim Mohin is a globally recognized sustainability/ESG executive. He is currently the chief sustainability officer for Persefoni AI – an enterprise level carbon management plarform. He is the former Chief Executive of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the world’s largest sustainability reporting standard. With more than 20 years’ experience leading sustainability at three Fortune 500 companies – Intel, Apple and AMD – Mr. Mohin has deep experience developing strategies to embed sustainability into business. Mr. Mohin also led the development of environmental policy in the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Senate, including the Clean Air Act. Mr. Mohin serves as an ESG advisor to large company Boards and was a founder and Chairman of the Board for the Responsible Business Alliance. He is the author of Changing Business from the Inside Out and a frequent speaker and writer on sustainability and corporate responsibility. Mr. Mohin is consistently recognized in the top 20 of Corporate Social Responsibility Influence Leaders.

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

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

Vishal Hindocha, CFA, is senior managing director and global head of sustainability strategy for MFS Investment Management® (MFS®). In this role, he works with clients and regulators globally to develop solutions and provide insights on sustainable investment trends and best practices. He is focused on ensuring that sustainability is integrated across investment, client and corporate pillars.

Vishal joined MFS in 2016 as a director on the Client Relations and Consultant Relations teams and assumed his current role in 2021. He previously served as a senior investment consultant and team leader at Willis Towers Watson for more than nine years.

Vishal earned a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from University College London. He is a CFA charterholder and also holds CFA Society UK’s Certificate in ESG Investing and is a member of the Enterprise Advisor Network. He also holds the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s Certificate in Sustainable Business.