Hilary Maxson has served as the Chief Financial Officer of Schneider Electric and a member of its Executive Committee since April 2020. She joined the company in 2017 as CFO of Building and IT before being appointed CFO of Energy Management, the largest business unit, in 2019.

Prior to Schneider Electric, Hilary spent 12 years with AES Corporation in progressive finance, M&A and business development roles, based across US, Cameroon and the Philippines, ultimately as CFO for Asia. Hilary began her career in banking.

Hilary is a Non-Executive Director and Audit Committee Chair at Anglo American (FTSE 50), a technology-forward and ESG-focused global mining company.

Hilary is Non-Executive Director at AVEVA (FTSE 50), a leading industrial software company and a key player in driving digital transformation globally. AVEVA is 60% owned by Schneider Electric.

Hilary has an MBA, and a bachelor’s degree in Applied Economics, both from Cornell University, USA.

Martina leads the CFO Leadership Network for Europe and oversees several A4S projects and programmes that require extensive collaboration across different teams, organizations and geographies – she currently leads the A4S Sustainability Reporting Project and is heavily involved in the Banking work. Her role includes delivery of A4S strategy, project management, relationship management, and knowledge development and sharing.

Before joining A4S, Martina spent 11 years in consulting in Finance and Financial Services, having worked for Ernst & Young (EY) where she was a Senior Manager in the CFO Advisory team. She has extensive experience in leading technical projects in the reporting, regulatory and risk space, working with C-suite executives and senior finance professionals by managing cross border compliance and change programmes. 

She is a chartered accountant (ACCA) and qualified project manager (Prince2).  She holds a Master’s degree in Banking and Finance and a Bachelor in Business and Economics from the University of Padua, Italy.

Magnus Billing is the CEO of Alecta, which provides collectively agreed occupational pensions, and is owned by approximately 2.4 million private customers and 34,000 corporate clients. Alecta’s assets under management amount to approximately US$90 billion. In 2016 Mr Billing was appointed to be a member of the European Commissions’ “high-level expert group” on sustainable finance. In January 2018, the group delivered their final recommendations for “a comprehensive EU strategy on sustainable finance as part of the Capital Markets Union”, which informed the Commissions’ Action Plan on Sustainable Finance launched in 2018. Prior to joining Alecta, Mr Billing was the CEO of Nasdaq Nordics, and Head of Fixed Income Nordic and Baltic Markets. At Nasdaq he previously held the position as Chief Legal Counsel and Senior Vice President of Nasdaq Group, Inc. Mr Billing has served as Director at the Federation of European Securities Exchanges, Swedish House of Finance and as an Alternate Director of the Swedish Corporate Governance Code Board of Directors. He holds a Law degree from Stockholm University.

Dr Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien joined the International Sustainability Standards Board of the IFRS Foundation in July 2022. She has been an advocate for sustainable development since 1999, when she founded the non-profit Growing Businesses Foundation, which serves corporates - including Unilever, Coca Cola, Diageo, MTN, Mobil and Citi- in implementing scalable sustainability initiatives at the Base of the Pyramid. From 2017 till 2020, she served as the Group Chief Sustainability and Governance Officer of Dangote Industries Limited, where her mandate was to integrate Sustainability Thinking, Doing and Reporting across the Group. She achieved this by building a Sustainability Culture anchored in people (800 Sustainability Champions) and values (her SevenPillars Methodology, built on the FHG ethical ecological ratings and subject matter of her PhD). She has lectured at the Lagos Business School/Pan-Atlantic University, with responsibility for Sustainability, Public-Private partnerships, Ethics and Social Entrepreneurship. She served as a nominee Director for the World Bank/IFC and founding co-chair for the Private Sector Advisory Group on SDGs. She co-founded Rising Tide Africa, to harness women angel networks, investment and mentoring to transform early stage investing as an asset class in Africa. Her international roles include membership of the Club of Rome and founding President of the ToroNet Association. She is an alumni of Wharton and the London School of Economics, a Reinhard Mohn Fellow of Bertelsmann AG, and obtained her doctorate degree from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt in 2006. She has been a published author and speaker since 2001. She started her career at First Securities Discount House (FSDH), and subsequently served as Vice-President, SecTrust (Afrinvest) Asset Management Division. She has served the Public Sector as Director, Strategy & Monitoring, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Member of the Presidential Committee on Job Creation and as CEO of a public-private sector consulting firm (2007 till 2017).

Jane Diplock AO is an international professional director. She has extensive governance experience as Chair and on Boards of listed, unlisted, not for profit and private companies. She has significant regulatory, standard setting, digitisation and sustainability experience. She previously Chaired the International Organisation of Securities Commission (IOSCO)for 7 years. Her current international portfolio focusses on sustainability, digitisation, carbon management, biodiversity, regulation, corporate governance and reporting.

Jessica Fries is Executive Chair of Accounting for Sustainability (A4S), established by HM King Charles III in 2004, when he was The Prince of Wales. She has led A4S since 2008, working with Chairs, CEOs, CFOs and other leaders from across the finance community to make sustainable business, business as usual. While at A4S, Jessica has been responsible for catalysing change in corporate reporting through the establishment of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, as well as transforming decision making through A4S’s CFO, education and capital markets programmes. Previously, Jessica held a number of roles at PwC advising a wide range of companies, governments, investors and not-for-profit organizations. Jessica has written extensively on ways to integrate sustainability into business and finance and has been a member of a number of International, European and UK Government Committees, including the UK Treasury’s Sustainability Reporting Steering Committee, the European Commission’s Expert Group on Non-Financial Disclosure and the UN Sustainable Stock Exchange Advisory Group.  She is currently Vice Chair of GRI, a member of the IIRC Council – an advisory body to the IASB and ISSB Boards, and a member of the Smith School Global Sustainable Finance Advisory Council. Jessica is a chartered accountant, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, has an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and a BA in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

Judy joined Sancroft in 2016 and became Chief Executive in 2017. She leads Sancroft’s team of sustainability experts. Judy’s career in sustainable business and ESG began over twenty-five years ago.

Judy is an experienced facilitator, and an expert in corporate reporting, strategy and ESG integration. Her expertise includes the investment, energy, food, extractives and technology sectors.

Judy is Chair of the Global Sustainability Standards Board, an independent body created by GRI with responsibility for setting the standards used by over 10,000 organisations every year as the basis for their sustainability reporting. Judy is a member of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment’s (PRI) Reporting and Assessment Advisory Committee, a body that seeks to improve reporting and disclosure around responsible investment with investors, asset owners, and service providers.

Judy is a United States citizen and studied English at Boston College.

Marta has 15 years of experience promoting environmental economics and natural capital valuation, both in the public and the private sectors. Prior to her appointment at the Coalition, Marta worked as Scientific Project Officer for the European Commission’s Institute for Energy and Transport.

In the past, she has worked for PwC, the Spanish National Research Centre of Energy, Environment and Technology, Red Electrica de España and the Universidad de Alcalá. In 2012, Marta was awarded a PhD in Global Change and Sustainable Development from Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid, Spain.

Ben oversees the strategic direction Social Value International and leads technical facilitation across a broad range of partnerships aiming to change the way society accounts for value. Prior to working for SVI, Ben worked for Social Value UK overseeing growth of membership and assurance services. Ben is dedicated to reducing inequality and improving the well-being of people and the planet. 

Jeremy Nicholls is the Assurance Framework lead for the UNDP SDG Impact Standards and is an ambassador for the Capitals Coalition (a global collaboration to integrate sustainability into business decision making) working on the interface between financial and sustainability accounting. He represents SVI on ISO technical committees including chairing the project team for ISO 37005, selecting, creating and using indicators for governing bodies. He is also a non executive director of the FRC Group, a social enterprise in Liverpool. He contributes regularly to Pioneers Post on why financial accounting needs to change.

He originally qualified as a chartered accountant, including time as the Finance Director for Tanzania Railways. After spending four years as a house parent he became involved in social enterprise, sustainability and regeneration, and was one of the founders and then CEO of Social Value International.  

Ece Özdemiroğlu FRSA, is the founder and CEO of eftec. As an environmental economist she specialises in economic valuation of natural capital assets and using this evidence in accounting and appraisal. Her work has contributed to making nature more visible in decision making and she continues to work with forward-thinking central and local governments, businesses and NGOs. She champions multi-disciplinary working and improving how we communicate evidence by engaging with different audiences and bringing academic and applied research together. She has made many presentations and co-edited / co-authored 11 books.

Ece is also a member of the Scottish First Minister's Environment Council, the Chair of the British Standards Institution’s Assessing and Valuing Natural Capital Committee (SES/1/8) which launched BSI:8632 on Natural Capital Accounting for Organizations, a Commissioner in the newly forming Value Commission and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy. Until July 2022, she had been a member of the UK - Climate Change Committee working on Adaptation for 6 years.

Ece holds an MSc in Environmental and Resource Economics from University College London and a BA in Economics from Istanbul University; she works in both English and Turkish.  

Brad Sparks is Executive Director of Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) in the United States. He leads the US Chapter of the A4S CFO Leadership Network, supporting Fortune 500 CFOs and their finance teams in embedding sustainability into strategy and business decision-making.  He also leads A4S activities across the US, including working with asset managers, asset owners and the wider finance community.  Brad previously served as an Executive Director with KPMG focused on ESG issues.  Brad is a lecturer at UCLA Anderson and serves as an Executive-in-Residence at Cornell University’s Center for Global Sustainable Enterprise. He lives in Los Angeles. 

Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Moody's Corporation

Mark is the Chief Financial Officer of Moody’s Corporation with responsibility and oversight for all global financial activities. He leads a team whose mission is to provide near real-time data driven financial insight to support the execution of superior operational and strategic decisions. He is an actively involved diversity and inclusion leader and business partner, with a passion for creating a high performance and transparent culture, developing talent and fostering employee growth.

Mark joined Moody’s in 2018 after more than 15 years of diverse experience in business finance, financial planning and analysis, strategy and large-scale project management. Mark came to Moody’s from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), where he served as Chief Financial Officer of MassMutual U.S. Prior to his work at MassMutual, Mark held a range of senior finance leadership roles at Voya Financial (formerly ING U.S.). He began his career in the investment banking division of Credit Suisse First Boston.

Mark has an M.B.A. in Finance and a B.S.E. in Statistics and Actuarial Science, both from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. He enjoys spending time with his family and is a licensed pilot.

Former SEC Acting Chair and Commissioner Allison Herren Lee served as Commissioner from June 2019 through July 2022.  She served as Acting Chair of the Commission from Jan. 21, 2021 to Apr. 17, 2021. During her tenure, Commissioner Lee focused on bringing transparency and accountability to markets on issues related to climate change and other ESG-related information. 

Commissioner Lee has been a securities law practitioner for 25 years.  She has written, lectured, and taught courses internationally in Spain and Italy on financial regulation and corporate law. Commissioner Lee served for over a decade in various roles at the SEC, including as counsel to Commissioner Kara Stein and as Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit. In addition, she has served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, was a member of the American Bar Association’s former Committee on Public Company Disclosure, and participated on a USAID project in Armenia assisting in the drafting of periodic reporting and disclosure provisions for a comprehensive law of the Republic of Armenia on Securities Market Regulation.

Prior to government service, Commissioner Lee was a partner at Sherman & Howard LLC, focusing on securities, antitrust, and commercial litigation. A member of the Colorado bar, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Business from the University of Colorado and a JD from the University of Denver College of Law, where she was salutatorian, a Chancellor’s Scholar, and served on the Law Review.

David joined IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) in 2019, where he is Director - Sustainability, Policy & Regulatory Affairs.  He is responsible for developing and coordinating IFAC’s sustainability policy and advocacy activities in addition to conducting research, policy development, and engagement with respect to a range of topics and stakeholders, including industry organizations, regulators, public authorities, and institutional investors.  David's areas of expertise include sustainability/ESG, corporate reporting, financial audit quality/reform, sustainability assurance, ethics, investor protection, financial market regulation, and credit markets.  Most recently, he has focused on the development of a global reporting system (including assurance) for sustainability/ESG information.  Prior to IFAC, David represented the IFRS Foundation in the U.S. for nearly a decade, during which he focused on building institutional investor relationships, funding-raising, and the adoption of IFRS Standards by U.S. publicly traded companies. Prior to his public policy work, David spent twenty-five years in financial services, most recently as a Managing Director at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. He holds a Masters in Public Administration-MC from the Harvard Kennedy School, an MBA in Finance from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a BS in Management-Accounting from Purdue University Northwest.

Stathis Gould is responsible for IFAC member engagement and leads IFAC’s advocacy for professional accountants working in business (PAIB) and the public sector. A key element of his work is developing thought leadership and guidance in support of enhancing the recognition of and confidence in professional accountants as CFOs, business leaders, and value partners in the context of sustainability/ESG, data and digital transformation, and other emerging business trends and issues.

Before joining IFAC, Stathis worked at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), where he was responsible for planning and overseeing a program of policy and research that promoted and developed management accountancy. Prior to serving the accountancy profession, he worked in various roles in the private and public sectors in the UK. There, Stathis delivered financial and performance management in the National Health Service and worked for a technology company responsible for delivering the localization of software and content across the globe.

Stathis holds a BA in European Business Studies, an MBA (with distinction), and a postgraduate certificate in Environmental Management, Economics, and Policy. He is a member of the Institute of Management Accountants.

Joshua Powell CF is a conservation scientist, National Geographic Explorer 2018 and one of the faces of WWF's #WWFVoices campaign on global biodiversity. He is currently completing a PhD with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and UCL on transboundary conservation of large carnivores, such as the Amur (or Siberian) tiger, in north-east Asia. Outside of his work in biodiversity conservation, Josh is interested in the role that businesses and civil society can play in environmental leadership and he serves as an advisor on the environment for The Queen's Commonwealth Trust. 

Susan has over twenty years’ experience as a project and programme manager.
Prior to A4S she worked in the financial sector managing IT implementation, restructure and regulatory projects. She moved to the not for profit sector and worked in CAFOD, an international overseas development agency, as a programme change manager managing the delivery of a divisional restructure. Susan has a B.Comm and H.Dip in System Analysis from NUI Galway.

Javier serves as Chief Financial Officer of Heathrow Airport Holdings since May 2016. Javier is member of Heathrow Airport Holdings Board of Directors, Chairman of Heathrow’s Fire Safety Board, Chairman of Heathrow’s Investment Committee and Company’s Shareholder Representative at NATS Holding Limited Board of Directors.

Javier joined Heathrow in January 2008 and he has advised the Board and Chief Executive on establishing Heathrow’s current capital structure and positioning Heathrow as a strong credit in the financial markets, setting a robust financial investment appraisal capability and leading Business Finance to become a genuine strategic business partner.

Prior to joining Heathrow, Javier worked as senior manager with Ferrovial, a Spanish based world’s leading infrastructure operator and municipal services group.

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE was sworn in as mayor in May 2018, with a commitment to transform Freetown using an inclusive, data-driven approach to address challenges in the city. The three-year Transform Freetown plan details 19 concrete targets across 11 sectors, with community-owned climate action initiatives to facilitate job creation and improve living standards at its heart. A finance professional with over 25 years of private-sector experience, her public-sector engagement began with her work during the Ebola epidemic in 2014. She is a chartered accountant with an M.Sc. in politics of the world economy and a B.Sc. in economics.

Dr. Jeannette Vinke currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the American University of Sharjah. In this position, Dr. Vinke has responsibility for Finance, Human Resources, Auxiliary Operations, Information Technology and Sustainability. She also serves as a founding member from the Middle Eastern Advisory Board of the Institute of Chartered Accountant England and Wales (ICAEW).

Prior to joining academia, Dr. Vinke held senior positions in the corporate sector, including as CFO MENA for Deutsche Bank; Vice President for Deutsche Bank, Germany and senior positions in Europe and the Middle East.

Of special interest to her is the role of accounting and finance in transition to a sustainable world and specifically the COP process. Dr. Vinke holds a DBA from Heriot-Watt and is a Fellow Chartered Accountant from the ICAEW..

Richard Spencer joined ICAEW in 2005 to set up the sustainability practice within Reputation and Influence department. During this time Richard has led on the ICAEW’s thought leadership and engagement programme in sustainability.

Robert Costanza is Professor of Ecological Economics at the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) at University College London (UCL). He is a Fellow in the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in the UK, and is an Overseas Expert in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He is also currently a Senior Fellow at the Stockholm Resilience Centre in Stockholm, Sweden, an Affiliate Fellow at the Gund Institute at the University of Vermont, and a deTao Master of Ecological Economics at the deTao Masters Academy in Shanghai, China and an Honorary Professor at Australian National University.

Professor Costanza is a global pioneer of transdisciplinary research at the complex intersection of dynamic human economic and social systems and stressed ecosystems that is informing new models of, and pathways to, sustainable prosperity. By harnessing and integrating diverse disciplines, Costanza has made a substantial contribution to building the robust new evidence base urgently needed to secure long term economic returns while supporting human wellbeing and conserving and restoring the natural environment and the ecosystem services it provides in the face of escalating climate change and other human-induced impacts. Costanza’s transformative ‘whole systems’ approach integrates systems ecology, ecological economics, ecosystem services, landscape ecology, ecological modeling, ecological design, energy analysis, environmental policy, social traps and addictions, incentive structures and institutions. His exceptional portfolio of original research has propelled the integration of the market and non-market values of ecosystem services into research and policy 

He is co-founder and past-president of the International Society for Ecological Economics and was founding chief editor of the society’s journal Ecological Economics. He currently serves on the editorial board of ten other international academic journals. He is also founding editor in chief of Solutions, a unique hybrid academic/popular journal and editor in chief of the Anthropocene Review.

Professor Costanza is the author or co-author of over 600 scientific papers and 28 books. His work has been cited more than 130,000 times in Google Scholar with an h-index of 136. More than 350 interviews and reports on his work have appeared in various popular media and he has written over 75 articles for the popular press.

Maria Ferraro was appointed Member of the Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer of Siemens Energy AG and Member of the Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer of Siemens Energy Management GmbH effective May 1, 2020. Prior to her appointment, she held several senior management positions in Corporate Finance within Siemens in the United Kingdom, as well as in Canada, Germany and the United States.

Before being appointed Chief Financial Officer of Siemens Energy, Maria Ferraro held the position of Chief Financial Officer for the Operating Company Digital Industries as well as Chief Diversity Officer at Siemens AG.

Maria Ferraro was born and educated in Canada. She is a designated Chartered Accountant and spent her early career with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Nortel Networks, holding a variety of roles in Canada and on a global level whilst gaining in-depth experience in European and Asian markets.

Marcelo Bacci serves as Executive Director – Finance, Investor Relations and Legal at Suzano, overseeing Treasury, M&A, Legal, Investor Relations, Controllership, Shared Services Center, Tax, Planning, Risk Management and Compliance. Bacci also serves on the board
of Veracel Celulose. In 2021 and 2022, he was elected the most admired financial executive in
Brazil by Análise Editorial.

Bacci began his career at Unibanco in 1991 and later served as Executive Director at Promon, as Chief Financial Officer at Louis Dreyfus Commodities and as Executive Vice President at Suzano Holding. He also served as Chairman of Ibema Papelcartão.

Bacci holds a degree in Public Administration from the Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo (FGVSP) and an MBA from Stanford University. He has also completed a non-degree program in Finance and Capital Markets at IBMEC São Paulo.

Nigel Topping is the UN’s High-Level Climate Action Champion for COP26, appointed by the UK Prime Minister in January 2020 and will serve until COP27. The role of the High Level Champion is to strengthen collaboration and drive action from businesses, investors, organisations, cities, and regions on climate change, and coordinate this work with governments and Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Since his appointment, Nigel, alongside the COP25 High Level Champion Gonzalo Muńoz, established the Race to Zero – a global campaign to commit all actors to net zero by 2050, the Race to Resilience – a global campaign for secure the resilience of 4 billion people by 2030, and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) – a coalition of existing and new net zero finance initiatives.

Prior to his appointment, Nigel Topping was CEO of We Mean Business, a coalition of businesses working to accelerate the transition to a zero carbon economy. Prior to that he was Executive Director of the Carbon Disclosure Project, following an 18 year career in the private sector, having worked across the world in emerging markets and manufacturing.

Paul Smith, FCA, CFA, MA

Is an independent corporate director with significant experience in the Financial Services and Investment Funds industries.

He served as President and CEO of CFA Institute from January 2015 to September 2019. Previously he owned and ran Asia Alternative Asset Partners, a Hong Kong Hedge Fund Group.

He first came to Hong Kong (where he currently resides) in 1996 to run the Bank of Bermuda’s securities servicing business and on sale to HSBC acted as Global Head of HSBC’s alternative funds servicing business.

From 1984 to 1995 he worked for Ermitage International, a European fund manager, spending the last seven years as CEO.

He currently serves as a member of the Policy, Registration and Oversight Committee of the Accounting and Financial Reporting Council of Hong Kong and as a member of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission’s Products Advisory Committee.

He is a founding partner of the sustainability think tank, SustainFinance Limited and a Trustee of China Insight Foundation.

He started his career as an auditor at PriceWaterhouse in London.

Paul is a Fellow of the Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds a Master of Arts degree from Oxford University.

He has lived and worked for extended periods of time in the UK, USA, France and Hong Kong.

Andrea Webster – Finance System Lead, World Benchmarking Alliance

 Andrea leads the Financial System Benchmark, assessing the top 400  banks, asset owners, asset managers and life insurers globally on governance and strategy, planetary boundaries, human rights and social issues. Her focus is championing leading practices across the sector, peer to peer learning as well as supporting various industry and global initiatives.

Before joining World Benchmarking Alliance, Andrea had spent 20 years in the asset management industry working in Asia and Europe across a broad range of public and private market strategies and investor groups, including banks, life assurance companies, institutional investors, wealth advisors and family offices. Prior to that she worked in the life assurance industry in product development.

Luanne Sieh 

Senior Managing Director, Head of Group Sustainability, CIMB Group 

Luanne is the head of Group Sustainability at CIMB, one of ASEAN’s leading banking groups, where she is responsible for transforming CIMB into a shaper of sustainable finance and responsible banking practices in Asia. She is also the Working Group Chair of the CEO Action Network Malaysia. 

Luanne has extensive experience in sustainability, strategy and transformation, as well as change management. She has been involved in a number of fields, including financial services and consulting. She was also a founding member of a startup company.  

Luanne holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master’s Degree in Manufacturing Engineering, as well as a Master of Arts from the University of Cambridge, and she has recently completed a Master of Liberal Arts in Sustainability at the University of Harvard Extension School. 

Chaye has joined Metro Pacific Investments Corporation as an Executive Director, Chief Finance, Sustainability, and Risk Officer in 2020. She is a seasoned finance executive who brings with her over 20 years of extensive experience in telecommunications, manufacturing, retailing, and nonstock non-profit organizations.

Prior to joining MPIC, she held various executive leadership positions at the PLDT Group, the Philippines’ largest fully integrated telco company. She was Senior Vice President & Controller of PLDT, CFO of Smart Communications, CFO and Treasurer of PLDT-Smart Foundation, and PLDT Group’s Chief Sustainability Officer.
Chaye is a Certified Public Accountant and an Appointed Member of the Financial Reporting Standards Council of the Philippines.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the De La Salle University and a Master’s in Business Management Major in Finance from the Asian Institute of Management. She also attended the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business in California, USA.

George started his career at KPMG 1988 in London where he held several positions working with the insurance and reinsurance industry. He joined Swiss Re in 1999 as Chief Accounting Officer based in Zurich and later served as CFO for Swiss Re Group’s Financial Services. George became the Regional CFO for Swiss Re Americas based in New York in 2003. Since March 2007 he served as Swiss Re Group’s Chief Financial Officer. George joined Zurich in May 2014 as Chief Financial Officer.

Russell Picot is Chair of the Trustee board of the HSBC Bank (UK) Pension Fund and a former Director of LifeSight, Willis Towers Watson’s UK DC Master Trust Board where he chaired the Audit and Risk Committee. 

Russell retired as Group Chief Accounting Officer at HSBC in 2016, having joined HSBC in 1993.  He was appointed a Group General Manager in 2003.  

Russell was a co-chair of the FSB’s Enhanced Disclosure Task Force and is a Special Advisor to the Financial Stability Board’s Climate-related Financial Disclosures Task Force, chaired by Michael Bloomberg. He has supported A4S since its inception in 2004 and is an ambassador for the International Integrated Reporting Council. He has been recently appointed to the Independent Climate Change Commission for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

He is a Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership and an Honorary Professor in Durham University Business School. He chairs the IIGCC Investor Practices Programme.

Helle Bank Jorgensen is an internationally recognized expert on sustainable business practices, with a
30-year record of turning environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks into innovative and
profitable business opportunities. She works with many global Fortune 500 board members and
executives, as well as smaller companies and investors.

Helle is the founder and chief executive of Competent Boards, which offers online climate and ESG
programs that draw on the experience of over 180 renowned board members, executives, and
investors. Hundreds of directors and senior executives have enrolled in these programs to mitigate the
risks and seize the opportunities presented by ESG and climate change.

Mervyn King is a Senior Counsel, former Judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa, and
designated Chartered Director (South Africa). He is Professor Extraordinaire at the University of
South Africa, Honorary Professor at the Universities of Pretoria and C ape Town, and a Visiting
Professor at Rhodes University. He has honorary Doctorates from Wits University and
Stellenbosch University in South Africa, Leeds University in the UK, and Deakin University in
Australia.

Mervyn is honorary fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales; the
Institute of Internal Auditors of the UK; the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants; the
Certified Public Accountants of Australia; the Chartered Institute of Public Relations of the UK,
and the Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.

Mervyn is Chair Emeritus of the King Committee on Corporate Governance in South Africa, as
well as of the Value Reporting Foundation (incorporating the International Integrated Reporting
Council and SASB) and th e Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). He has received Lifetime
Achievement Awards for promoting quality corporate governance globally, from several
institutions.

Carolynn is Chief Executive Officer of Professor Mervyn King’s Good Governance Academy. She has spent the last 20 years assisting leaders and leadership teams to understand and apply governance principles and generate value for their organizations. She uses of her expertise and experience in corporate governance, organizational strategy, Digital Transformation, and systems thinking to do so.

Carolynn has extensive management and governance experience and has held various Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Board, Board Committee and Executive roles for international, listed, private and public organizations. This spans many industries, including financial services, health, energy, construction, education, tourism, media, non-profit and the public sector.

Sarah Keohane Williamson is the Chief Executive Officer of FCLTGlobal. In this role, she leads our efforts at conducting innovative, practical research, engaging with our global membership, sharing our perspectives and research with constituents globally, and building our team.

Williamson assumed her current role in July 2016, after spending over 21 years at Wellington Management in Boston and San Francisco, most recently as a Partner and Director of Alternative Investments. Prior to joining Wellington Management, Williamson spent over five years with McKinsey & Company Inc. in London, Dallas and Boston. She was also a special assistant at the US Department of State and was a mergers & acquisitions investment banker in New York and London for Goldman, Sachs & Co.

In her FCLTGlobal capacity, Williamson is a co-chair of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Long-term Investing, a member of the Advisory Board for the Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia, and a member of the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary and Financial Research Council of Advisers.