Speakers

Abigail Gampher is a Legal Analyst for Bloomberg Law. Abigail provides practical guidance and data-driven analysis for in-house counsel and law firm attorneys grappling with ESG and activist investor matters. As Bloomberg Law’s subject-matter expert on these topics, she has authored over 35 articles analyzing ESG and investor activism developments for a legal audience. A select few include: ANALYSIS: Green Product Claims Face Growing Consumer Scrutiny; ANALYSIS: Potential Activist Targets Score Low in ESG; and ANALYSIS: Q4 Activism Boosts 2022 Activity to Five-Year High. Abigail is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia. She holds a J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law and a B.A. in International Relations from Hendrix College.

Allison Binns joined Angelo Gordon in 2021 as the Head of ESG & Sustainable Investing for the firm. She focuses on ESG integration and sustainable investing approaches across investment verticals, and is responsible for sustainability reporting. Prior to joining the firm, Allison was an Executive Director for Global Sustainability Research at Morgan Stanley, where she headed ESG research across fixed income asset classes and led corporate governance research for equities. Previously, Allison worked for Chevron where she held a number of senior advisory roles in ESG and geopolitical risk.  Prior to Chevron, Allison worked for the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball and the Boston Red Sox, where she focused on salary arbitration and international baseball concerns.  She serves on the boards of the Poetry Society of America, the FDR Four Freedoms Park Conservancy, and the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship.  Allison received her A.B. in Sociology and Latin American Studies from Princeton University, and holds an A.M. and PhD. from Harvard University.

Brad Sparks is Executive Director of A4S (Accounting for Sustainability), part of The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation. 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 an Executive-in-Residence at Cornell University’s Center for Global Sustainable Enterprise.

Carletta Ooton is the Head of ESG for Private Equity and an Operating Partner at Apollo Global Management, Inc., responsible for advancing the Firm’s ESG integration and operational performance across its private equity portfolio in the areas of energy usage, carbon emissions, water consumption, DEI, and safety. Carletta joined Apollo from Amazon where she served as the Vice President of Product Assurance, Risk and Security since 2014. She was instrumental in Amazon’s foundational sustainability efforts, calculating its initial carbon footprint and launching Amazon’s Climate Pledge. Carletta has held key leadership roles at The Coca-Cola Company, Cott Beverages, Bath & Body Works, Unilever and Tate & Lyle. Carletta holds a BA in Biological Sciences and Chemistry and a MA in Microbiology.

Chad Reed leads Strategic Initiatives and ESG for HASI, a leading investor in climate solutions with nearly $10 billion in climate positive managed assets. His current focus includes the integration of emissionality considerations into the next generation of carbon accounting. He also leads the HASI Foundation and co-hosts the Climate Positive Podcast. Previously, he served in various roles, including structured finance, risk management, ESG, and investor relations with an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management. He holds degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and the Johns Hopkins University.

At Independence Point Advisors, Chris helps clients drive value in the capital markets through ESG while helping steer the capital markets to drive impact and systemic change in the world. Chris brings more than 20 years of business expertise when working with clients to advance sustainability, impact and Environmental Social Governance (ESG). Chris’ expertise was developed through her years as a leader at EY’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services practice as well as her hands-on experience as an entrepreneur and across multiple functions within the corporate world. Chris is a spouse and mother of two, an avid runner and gardener, a wanna-be skier and chef.

David Bennell has over 25 years of innovative experience with corporations and investors, as well as many of the world’s top NGOs and philanthropic foundations. He’s worked in the corporate sector for Microsoft, REI and LL Bean managing R&D, leadership development and sustainability programs. His innovative work in the new product development process along was profiled in a video series by Harvard Business School and resulted in a 5-year appointment at MIT as adjunct faculty in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.David serves on the board of Wolfe’s Neck Center, home of OpenTEAM, a global open source technology platform for enabling transparent and accessible agricultural data. He created one of the world’s most watched sustainability programs named the #1 global ESG course for impact investors. He is a limited partner in a digital assets fund focused on climate tech and helped launch a Swiss FinTech company utilizing Web 3 technology to improve the accuracy and accessibility of global climate emissions data.

Ellen has worked at the intersection of sustainability and human resources as a recruiter and consultant for 25+ years. A super connector, Ellen’s passion for sustainability and ESG was sparked while obtaining her MBA from Yale and interning at L.L.Bean. Ellen is a regular speaker at industry events, and pens a column with GreenBiz entitled “Talent Show.” She frequently shares her perspective with global media outlets, including Marketplace, the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s.

Emilio Tenuta’s 38-year tenure at Ecolab includes 25 years of technical, marketing and business management experience in various industries including Food and Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Lodging, Healthcare, Primary Metals and Automotive. In the past 11 years, Tenuta has led Ecolab’s strategic sustainability journey focused on corporate responsibility, internal environmental stewardship and helping customers operate more sustainably. He is actively involved in advancing global sustainability practices, with a significant focus on water stewardship and climate action. In partnership with Global S&P Trucost – and a multi-stakeholder advisory group – Tenuta led development of the Water Risk Monetizer, industry’s first financial modeling tool to assess water-related risk, and the Smart Water Navigator, a free online tool to help businesses improve water management and achieve their water reduction targets. In recent years, he’s become a leader in environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices and reporting and has collaborated with a number of large impact investors. Partnering with investor relations and Ecolab’s Chief Executive Officer, Tenuta has advanced Ecolab’s reputation as an ESG leading company. Tenuta is actively involved in advancing industry sustainability and corporate responsibility practices. He sits on the board of directors of the World Environment Center, a global non-profit, non-advocacy organization and the leadership council of the Corporate Eco Forum.

Prior to joining Persefoni, she was Assistant Director in the Office of International Affairs at the SEC where she was responsible, among other things, for the SEC's engagement with international regulators, standard setters, and regulatory bodies on climate-related disclosure issues. Prior to joining the SEC, she was with the law firm Debevoise and Plimpton.

Ethan Rouen is an assistant professor of business administration in the Accounting and Management Unit, where he teaches the elective course Reimagining Capitalism, and the faculty co-chair of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Project at Harvard Business School.His current research interest focuses on understanding economic inequality and the measurement of human capital. He has been awarded from the American Accounting Association the Competitive Manuscript Award, the Deloitte Foundation Wildman Medal, and the Best Dissertation Award in the Financial Accounting and Reporting Section. His research has been published in The Journal of Financial Economics, The Accounting Review, Management Science, and The Review of Accounting Studies, and his journalism and opinion articles have appeared in the Boston Globe, Le Monde, HuffPo, The Hill, CEOWORLD Magazine, and Fortune.com, among others. He appears frequently in national and international media outlets.Professor Rouen earned a BA in history and English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MS in journalism at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. From Columbia Business School, he received an MBA in finance and accounting, an M.Phil. in accounting, and a PhD in accounting.

Georges Dyer is a principal of the Intentional Endowments Network, a broad-based collaborative network that engages key stakeholders in the higher education, business and non-profit sectors and provides education, peer networking, convening, thought leadership and information exchange to advance intentionally designed endowments that contribute to a healthy, just and sustainable society.

Georges founded Greenland Enterprises, a consulting firm specializing in strategic sustainable development and is a Trustee of Stratleade Sustainability Education. He is a graduate of The Mountain School, Dartmouth College, and the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden, where he earned a Master of Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability.

As Green Finance & ESG Analyst, Grant leads on program development for GreenFin – the premier ESG event aligning the sustainability, investment and finance communities. Grant works to direct the vigor of capital markets toward the realization of a clean and just economy, and to make GreenFin the launchpad of the ideas, insights and connections that will shift capital allocation to support sustainability.

Grant previously served as Senior Account Executive with GreenBiz, working with clients across financial services, transportation, tech and consulting. Prior to joining GreenBiz, Grant worked under the auspices of the USDA implementing reforestation projects in fire-affected regions of Northern California. Grant holds a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from UC Berkeley and a master’s degree in Environmental Governance from Oxford University. He is animated by a healthy diet of existential anxiety and an enduring faith in humans’ ability to solve problems together. Grant loves, more than most things, to surf.

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.Helle serves at:-Nasdaq Center for Board Excellence’s Sustainability & ESG Insights Council;-World Economic Forum (WEF) Expert Network for Corporate Governance, Leadership, and Emerging Multinationals;-His Royal Highness Prince of Wales A4S (Accounting for Sustainability) Global Expert Panel;-The Non-financial Digitisation Working Group of the Impact Management Project (IMP);-The Reuters Panel of Expert Judges for the Responsible Business Awards;-Canadian Climate Governance Experts –- a Commonwealth Climate & Law Initiative;-Chair of the Advisory Committee of the ESG Exchange.In 2020 she was awarded the Global Impact Award and named one of "5 people in ESG to look out for." She was also selected as one of LinkedIn's Top Voices in the Green Economy in the US and Canada for 2022. Ms. Bank Jorgensen is the author of the newly published book Stewards of The Future: A Guide for Competent Boards, an Amazon bestseller.

Joyce Cacho is a combination leading-edge Operating Executive, and ‘nose-in-fingers-out’ Board member. Building on a C-suite career focused on P&L restructuring in banking and manufacturing, Joyce brings enterprise risk management (ERM), M&A, and ESG/Sustainability skills to the boardroom to grow companies. As the board chair, Sistema.Bio, Joyce is engaged in the energy-bio, technology innovation, and carbon offset industries. In addition to board director experience with Sunrise Banks, N.A., and World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA), Joyce served on the board of Land O’Lakes, Inc. — a Fortune 250 company.Joyce contributes to systems change as a Governance expert and Leadership Committee member of 2022 #GetOnBoard week, How Women Lead and Advisor, Black Corporate Board Readiness (BCBR), Silicon Valley Executive Center, Santa Clara University. As a board trustee, College of the Atlantic (COA), Joyce works to support innovation in education. Serving as an Advisor, Competent Board and Chief Judge, US Businesses in Africa Awards keep Joyce focused on impact via Corporate Governance in mature and emerging markets.Joyce holds a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) designation and is a member of the Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) Society – New York (professional) which supports her QFE and Audit Committee board expertise. She is a National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Board Leadership Fellow and was named to the 2021 list of Most Influential Black Executives by Savoy Magazine.

Katherine Collins is Head of Sustainable Investing at Putnam Investments and portfolio manager for Putnam's Sustainable Equity strategies, with approximately $6.5 billion in assets under management. SHORT VERSION: * favored for most settings *Katherine Collins is Head of Sustainable Investing at Putnam Investments and portfolio manager for Putnam's Sustainable Equity strategies, with approximately $6.5 billion in assets under management. In addition to her investment roles, Ms. Collins is an author and beekeeper, and holds degrees from Harvard Divinity School and Wellesley College. She serves on several nonprofit boards, including the Santa Fe Institute, Omega Institute, Harvard Divinity School Dean's Council, and Wellesley Centers for Women. In 2021, she was named to the inaugural Forbes “50 Over 50” list of leaders who are shaping the future of finance.MEDIUM VERSION:Katherine Collins is Head of Sustainable Investing at Putnam Investments and portfolio manager for Putnam's Sustainable Equity strategies, with approximately $6.5 billion in assets under management. Ms. Collins has over thirty years’ experience as an active fundamental investor, and was named to the inaugural Forbes “50 Over 50” list of leaders who are shaping the future of finance in 2021. She is a beekeeper, the author of Month of Sundays and The Nature of Investing, and founder of Honeybee Capital, an independent investment research firm focused on sustainable investment themes. Earlier in her career, she served as Head of Equity Research, Portfolio Manager, and Equity Research Analyst at Fidelity Investments. Katherine serves on several nonprofit boards, including the Santa Fe Institute, Omega Institute, Harvard Divinity School Dean's Council, and Wellesley Centers for Women. She earned a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and a B.A. from Wellesley College, and is a CFA charter holder.

Laura directs the Ambition 2030 initiative at Ceres, working to increase the ambition of corporate uptake of robust GHG emission reduction targets aligned with science, development of strategic plans to meet those targets, and disclosure of progress. Laura provides investors and companies with the business case for setting Science Based Targets (SBTs) and going Net Zero along with technical expertise to address challenges along the way. Before joining Ceres, Laura served as the first Sustainability Director at Amherst College where she successfully developed a plan that commits the college to carbon neutrality by 2030. Prior to Amherst, Laura worked at the World Resources Institute on the GHG Protocol team, where she helped develop the Corporate Value Chain Scope 3 and Product Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Reporting Standards. Laura has been recognized as an expert in life cycle assessment and has had roles supporting life cycle energy systems assessment with the U.S Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy.

Margot Brandenburg is a senior program officer on the foundation’s Mission Investments team, focused on building and strengthening the infrastructure of the impact investment market—with an eye to shaping the broader capital markets. She has spent two decades working at the intersection of philanthropy, capital markets, and social and environmental justice. Prior to joining Ford, Margot served as founder and CEO of MyStrongHome, a benefit corporation delivering resilience finance services to homeowners across the Southeast and Gulf Coast of the US. Before that, she helped design and lead the impact investing initiative at the Rockefeller Foundation. She co-authored the book The Power of Impact Investing with former RF president Judith Rodin. While at Rockefeller, she also focused on job creation and issues of economic security for low-wage workers. Margot began her career in international microfinance and has worked with several community development finance institutions in the US. She serves on the boards of the Workers Lab, Brooklyn Cooperative Credit Union, and the Woodcock Foundation, and as an adviser to the National Domestic Workers Alliance as well as the National Energy Improvement Fund. She received a master’s in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and holds an undergraduate degree from Stanford University.

Marina Severinovsky is the Head of Sustainability, North America, and leads the sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration for Schroders investments in North America. She collaborates with senior managers on market strategy, client communications, product development, sales, and investor management. Marina was previously the Investment Director for North America for the Quantitative Equity Products (QEP) team from 2020 and was responsible for communicating QEP’s investment policy and strategy with clients, as well as business management in the Americas. Prior to joining the QEP team, Marina was an Investment Strategist from 2016 to 2019, working in partnership with Hartford Funds to represent Schroders strategies to financial advisors and intermediaries across all client channels, primarily in the Central US region. Marina was an Alternatives Specialist at Schroders from 2010 to 2016, which involved supporting the development of Schroders’ Alternatives business in the Americas. Her product management activities covered multiple strategies, including Commodities, Absolute Return Emerging Market Debt and Insurance Linked Securities. Marina joined Schroders in 2010 and is based in New York. Prior to joining Schroders, she was an Associate in Investment Banking at Citi Capital Markets and Banking from 2008 to 2010, a Consultant and Client Relationship Manager at Digital Mandate, LLC from 2005 to 2007, and an Analyst at Chicago Partners, LLC from 2004 to 2005. Marina brings 18 years of professional experience to her role at Schroders, including economic analysis, research, and financial modeling, as well as product development, strategy, and client relationship management. She is conversationally fluent in Russian. Education: MBA in Finance/Management, Columbia Business SchoolBA in Economics (magna cum laude), Columbia University

As Director, Land Use Finance with WBCSD, Ryan recently led work developing a set of climate scenarios enabling food, agriculture, and forest products companies to better understand their climate transition risks and opportunities. He has more than 20 years of experience designing and leading complex initiatives in international conservation and corporate sustainable development focused on nature, climate, and energy. He is a former corporate Director of Sustainability for a Fortune 500 technology company and International Development Officer with experience working in East Asia for more than 5 years on oceans, forests, and finance. Prior to his work with WBCSD, Ryan was Managing Director of the Midwest Row Crop Collaborative, a coalition of leading food & agriculture companies and NGOs working together on scalable solutions for regenerative agriculture.

Sara brings 25 years’ experience in sustainable investment, systems-level investment, corporate responsibility and governance, environmental and social advocacy, and related research and strategy across three continents. Sara joined The Shareholder Commons (TSC) in 2020 as the Chief Strategy Officer. TSC is a non-profit organization that addresses social and environmental issues from the perspective of shareholders who diversify their investments to optimize risk and return. TSC addresses the divergence that often emerges between a company’s interest in maximizing its cash flows over the long term and its shareholders’ interests in optimizing overall market returns. TSC believes that in a free-market system, investors must establish universally applicable minimum standards for portfolio companies, so as to preserve essential social and environmental systems that undergird diversified investment portfolios. TSC promotes system stewardship through four interrelated initiatives: public advocacy, engaging investors, policies, and litigation. Sara began her career working for NGOs in the international development and disaster response fields. In 2001, she transitioned into Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) research for the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC), where she specialized in bioengineering and defense contracting research. After leaving IRRC, Sara spent several years at The Cadmus Group, an environmental consultancy. In 2005, Sara moved to Frankfurt, Germany to work as a Senior Sustainability Analyst for Fortis Investments’ SRI fund management team. Fortis Investments was acquired by BNP Paribas Asset Management during Sara’s tenure. Sara transitioned back to Washington, DC in 2011, where she launched her independent consultancy on sustainable investing and corporate responsibility.

ShareAction is UK-based charity that has been working for 16 years to build the movement for responsible investment. Simon leads ShareAction's work to build ambitious collaborative investor engagement initiatives to drive responsible business practices across issues including climate change, biodiversity, population health, and decent work. Prior to joining ShareAction, Simon built and led the social responsibility function at McKinsey & Company, a global management consultancy. While at McKinsey, he also worked with social sector organisations, advising global foundations and non-profits on strategy, governance and external relations. Simon previously served as a diplomat for the British government, including an overseas posting to Pakistan and as a private secretary to the Minister for Europe.

Veena Ramani is a Research Director at FCLT Global.

Before this, Veena Ramani was a senior director at Ceres, and led Ceres’ work on governance for sustainability. Veena managed the relationships with a wide portfolio of Ceres network companies as a part of the Ceres Corporate Program, including the financial services sector and the electric power sector. As a part of this, Veena worked with senior company management and boards on opportunities to integrate sustainability into their business structures and decision making, including policy and program development, disclosures and stakeholder engagement processes.

Prior to Ceres, Veena worked as a Management Consultant with CDM, an environmental consulting firm and focused on providing a variety of sustainability services to clients in the public and private sectors. Prior to that, she spent three years with Integrative Strategies Forum, a Washington DC based NGO, working on developing national and international policy solutions on sustainable development, building consensus and coalitions among civil society groups on these issues and lobbying government representatives. Veena has also practiced law in India.

Veena has an LL.M (Masters in Law) degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a B.A. LL. B (Hons) degree from National Law School from India University, Bangalore.