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Meet the Experts at The Campus

We are honored to host an esteemed group of thought leaders who are driving climate action at the 'Last Stop Before COP'!

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Olivia Albrecht

Ms. Albrecht is Chief Sustainability Officer at Aspiration, the leading sustainable fintech and carbon offset manager based in Marina del Ray, California. In the business of sustainability, Aspiration helps companies, consumers and communities profitably deliver on their decarbonization ambitions. Ms. Albrecht is also a Sustainability Advisory Board member at Persefoni, the prominent carbon accounting software platform based in Tempe, Arizona. In addition, she is involved with several geospatial data companies focused on the role of satellite imagery in tracking, monitoring and analyzing sustainability risks. Ms. Albrecht spent 10 years at PIMCO where she was most recently Head of ESG Business Strategy leading a diverse and integrated team of over 50 investment professionals across departments and functions.

Previously, Ms. Albrecht helped lead PIMCO’s Global Fixed Income product strategy team representing $100bn assets with clients spanning Asia Pacific, EMEA and the Americas split across institutional and retail investors. Ms. Albrecht currently serves on the Leadership Council of New America, a policy think tank in Washington DC, in addition to the Milken Institute’s Public Advisory Council. Ms. Albrecht earned a BA degree in Philosophy from Princeton University, an MBA from Columbia University’s Business School and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Ms. Albrecht played Division 1 Varsity Women’s Soccer at Princeton University.

Chief Sustainability Officer, Aspiration

Jamie Alexander

Jamie Beck Alexander is a solutions-oriented corporate climate advocate, coalition builder, and founding director of Drawdown Labs. Jamie joined the Project Drawdown team from Ceres, where she led corporate engagement on the west coast, working with companies to set ambitious emission reduction targets and leveraging their influence in support of strong climate and clean energy policies. At Ceres, she launched a public-private partnership with the City of San Francisco and Bay Area companies to identify and deploy collaborative solutions to decarbonize the transportation sector.

Director, Drawdown Labs at Project Drawdown and Women+ in Climate Tech Ambassador

Karen Appell

Karen is the Climate Adaptation Lead for the Water group at AECOM Metro New York where she oversees the Extreme Weather Initiative for the region. With more than 20 years of experience, Karen manages multidisciplinary teams that develop strategic solutions for the planning, design, and construction of complex infrastructure projects, focusing on climate adaptation. Working across the engineering, ecology, and landscape architecture fields, she specializes in employing a comprehensive approach in integrating resilient and sustainable elements for both coastal and inland projects. Currently, Karen manages Rebuild By Design – Hudson River for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the municipalities of Hoboken, Jersey City, and Weehawken, New Jersey, and other public and private stakeholders to design and construct a coastal flood risk reduction project that will secure a more resilient future for one of the country’s densest and most transit-oriented areas. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from Cornell University with a concentration in Environmental Systems Engineering and a graduate certificate in Water Resources Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Climate Adaptation Lead, AECOM Metro New York

Sofi Armenakian

Bio coming soon..

Director of Operations & Sustainability, Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena

Lee Ballin

Lee Ballin is an Audit & Assurance managing director for ESG and Sustainability Services at Deloitte & Touche LLP. Lee works with clients to help address their sustainability strategy and non-financial reporting disclosures. Lee is a strategic thinker, innovator and highly sought-after public speaker on sustainability, as well as ESG risks and opportunities for the business, financial, and regulatory communities. He has over a decade of experience working at the intersection of sustainability, business, and finance.

Audit & Assurance Managing Director, ESG & Sustainability Services, Deloitte

Hina Baloch

Bio coming soon...

Executive Director of Sustainability and Environment, General Motors

Emily Broad Leib

Emily Broad Leib is a Clinical Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, the nation’s first law school clinic devoted to providing legal and policy solutions to the health, economic, and environmental challenges facing our food system. Working directly with clients and communities, Broad Leib champions community-led food system change, reduction in food waste, food security and access to healthy foods, and equity and sustainability in food production. Broad Leib received her B.A. from Columbia University and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude.

Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School's Food Law and Policy Clinic

Rachel Cernansky

Rachel Cernansky is sustainability editor for Vogue Business. She also covers environment and health for other publications, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. She's based in the US. Rachel is the voice of the Vogue Business Sustainability Edit.

Sustainability Editor, Vogue Business

Kizzy Charles-Guzman

Kizzy Charles-Guzman is the Executive Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice. Her team delivers climate leadership and programs focused on sustainability, decarbonization, brownfields remediation, resiliency and environmental justice. Kizzy has spent over 15 years of her New York City service career developing and delivering work at the intersection of environmental policy, public health, and racial equity. She led the development of Cool Neighborhoods NYC, the city’s first strategy to address the impacts of rising temperatures and heat waves, and several adaptation initiatives to ensure that NYC residents are ready to withstand and emerge stronger from the impacts of climate change. Kizzy served as a Deputy Director at the NYC Mayor’s Offices of Sustainability and Climate Resiliency, as Director of the Climate Change and Health Program at the NYC Department of Health, and as Policy Advisor on Air Quality during the Bloomberg Administration. She received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Quality Award and a Champion of Change Award from the U.S. White House in recognition of her work. She is a graduate of Carleton College and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Deputy Director at the New York City (NYC) Mayor's Office of Sustainability

Andrei Cherny

Aspiration CEO Andrei Cherny has spent more than twenty-five years working to make the financial system more sustainable and fair. He combines a background as an advisor to some of America’s top companies, the co-founder and president of a media start-up, a financial fraud prosecutor, historian, Navy reserve officer, and a nationally recognized economic policy expert. Before co-founding Aspiration, Andrei launched and grew Democracy Journal to one of the most widely read idea journals in America. There, he worked with Elizabeth Warren to help start the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A former Clinton White House aide, he was the youngest White House speechwriter in American history.

His 2000 book, The Next Deal, showed how business and government would be transformed by people’s demands for more and better choices. He is also the author of The Candy Bombers and is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of California Berkeley law school.

CEO and Co-founder, Aspiration

Sir Ian Cheshire

Sir Ian Cheshire is the Chair of We Mean Business Coalition, Chairman of Channel 4, and is the former CEO of Kingfisher, the international home improvement company. Under his leadership, Kingfisher was one of the world’s first major businesses to commit to becoming Net Positive, seeking to replenish more timber and other resources than it consumed and remove more emissions from the atmosphere than it produced. Sir Ian’s commitment to climate action has also seen him chair the UK Government’s Global Resource Initiative taskforce, to ensure the UK’s global commodity supply chain is sustainable and avoids deforestation and other environmental degradation. Thanks to the taskforce’s work, UK companies have a legal duty to declare where products in their supply chain originate. He also chairs the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission and has won a number of awards for his contributions to sustainable business, including the Fortune WEF award for leadership in the circular economy and Sustainable Business Leader of the Year. Sir Ian was knighted in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to business, sustainability and the environment.

Chair, We Mean Business Coalition

Payal Dalal

Payal currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Social Impact, International Markets at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. She joined the Center in April 2018 and oversees the Center’s philanthropic investments around the globe. Previously, she was Head of Global Community Programs for Standard Chartered Bank. In this capacity, she oversaw all programs related to education, health, emergency response, and disaster relief. Payal joined Standard Chartered in July 2008 as the Head of Public Affairs for the Americas.  With a professional background in international philanthropy and politics, Payal has worked for a wide range of public sector organizations including the World Affairs Council, the Global Philanthropy Forum and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Payal also worked on foreign policy for the Office of President William J. Clinton. In 2014, President and Secretary Clinton appointed Payal to be a program advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative; her post was renewed in 2015. A Texas native, Payal has a BA with honors from Stanford University and an MBA and an MPA from New York University.

SVP Social Impact, Mastercard

Frankie the Dino

While Frankie the Dino was napping in their cave,
the Utharaptor was miraculously saved from the
extinction event that wiped out their entire
species. They woke up many millions of years later
and found a world that is on the brink of
catastrophe. They are concerned for the planet
and for humans, who they think are kind of cool.
Knowing a thing or two about extinction, they
have come back to warn humanity.

Frankie stars as the hero of the United Nations
Development Programme’s climate change
campaign called “Don’t Choose Extinction.”
Bursting into the iconic General Assembly Hall,
Frankie tells an audience of shocked and
bewildered diplomats and dignitaries that “it’s
time humans stopped making excuses and started
making changes” to address the climate crisis.

Climate Activist at the UNDP

Erik Distler

Bio coming soon..

VP of Sustainability, AEG

Fred Dixon

Fred Dixon is President & CEO of NYC & Company, New York City’s official destination marketing organization. With more than 27 years of experience in the travel industry, Dixon has the overall responsibility for developing and implementing New York City’s tourism and convention development strategy internationally and in domestic leisure and business markets. At NYC & Company, he has built a sales and marketing team that is at the core of the organization’s strategy to increase visitation and economic impact across the City.

Dixon oversees 16 global offices comprising sales, marketing and press professionals in diverse feeder markets from Australia to the UK, China to Mexico and India to Brazil. Fred is a respected leader with positions on travel industry association boards and committees including the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, the U.S. Travel Association Board and Executive Committee, Tourism Cares Board and the U.S. Travel IPW Planning Committee.

President & CEO, NYC & Company

Matt Dwyer

Matt Dwyer is the Head of Product Impact & Innovation at Patagonia, an outdoor apparel company with a mission statement of “We’re in business to save our home planet.”  Matt works at the intersection of technology, business, and advocacy, and he leads the company’s efforts to address the root causes of the social and environmental effects of running a business – its carbon, waste, water, and chemistry footprint from its supply chain. Matt has a background in materials science and engineering and previously led technology development at W.L. Gore & Associates. 

Matt Dwyer, Head of Product Impact & Innovation at Patagonia

Andrew Eil

Andrew Eil is currently Head of Climate Risk for North America with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), where he provides advisory services for banks, insurers, and other financial institutions. From 2018 to 2021, Andrew was a Partner at Climate Finance Advisors (CFA), a boutique advisory firm operating at the intersection of climate change policy and financial markets. With CFA and as an independent consultant from 2014 to 2018 specializing in climate change and clean energy policy, international development, and sustainable investing, Andrew served clients including the World Bank, the Green Climate Fund, UN Development Program, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), U.N. Environment, Climate-KIC, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Bloomberg LLP, and Bright Power (a distributed energy analytics and services firm). With CFA, Andrew worked across the firm’s four practice areas: developing climate strategies; appraising and structuring climate-smart investments; mobilizing, catalyzing, and leveraging public and private capital; and incorporating climate risk considerations into financial products, services, and operations. 

Head of Climate Risk for North America, Tata Consultancy Services

Jane Ewing

Jane Ewing leads Walmart’s Sustainability team and efforts, which prioritize people and the planet by aiming to source responsibly, sell sustainable products, restore natural resources, and reduce waste and emissions. Jane joined Walmart in 2012 as a Senior Vice President for the International division. Prior to her current role, Jane led the People Group for Walmart International, supporting around 700,000 associates in 26 countries. Jane is passionate about advancing social and environmental sustainability, fostering inclusion, developing talent, and supporting the next generation of leaders. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for The Sustainability Consortium and served on the Partnership for a Healthier America advisory council leading up to the 2021 United Nations World Food Systems Summit. Within Walmart, Jane has served as the Chair of the President’s Global Council for Women Leaders and as the co-chair for the President’s Inclusion Council.

 

Senior Vice President, Sustainability, Walmart

Vanessa Fajans-Turner

Bio coming soon...

Executive Director, BankFWD

Kelly Fisher

Kelly W. Fisher is the Head of Corporate Sustainability for HSBC Bank USA, appointed in 2015.  In her role she has helped to expand HSBC’s leadership role in sustainable finance in the US, created a corporate philanthropy strategy tied to HSBC’s business expertise, and launched HSBC’s U.S. volunteer program “Involve” which increased volunteerism in its second year by 31%.  Now she is helping to drive the bank’s new and comprehensive net zero strategy.  

Kelly joined HSBC after seven years at Toyota Motor North America, where she spearheaded environmental and safety programs that were recognized for having a meaningful impact while greatly improving corporate reputation.  In her tenure there she also created Toyota’s first-ever social media giving campaign, called “100 Cars for Good”.   Prior to that, she worked for four years at Goldman Sachs, acting as a program manager for Community TeamWorks, the global volunteer program, and overseeing the global internal marketing campaign for that program.  

Kelly currently publishes a series on LinkedIn called “Three Questions…” that highlights HSBC’s most impactful partnerships.  In the past, she has held seats on the executive board of Corporate Volunteers of New York and was a recipient of the President’s Volunteer Service Award in 2011.  She lives in Sunnyside Gardens, Queens with her husband and four-year-old daughter.

Head of Corporate Sustainability, HSBC

Cassie Flynn

Cassie is an internationally recognized expert on the treaty negotiations on climate change. She serves as the Strategic Advisor on Climate Change to UNDP’s Administrator, while also the Head of the Climate Strategies and Policies Team and Head of the Climate Promise in 120 countries. She is the creator of Mission 1.5 and the Peoples’ Climate Vote which used gaming to become the world’s largest-ever survey on climate action. Previously, she served as a Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Fiji as COP23 President. Cassie gave a TED talk on connecting world leaders to climate activism in 2019 and has been a featured expert by CNN, BBC, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, New York Times, and other publications. Cassie earned her Master’s degree from Yale University and undergraduate degrees from Bowdoin College.

Strategic Advisor on Climate Change at UNDP and Head of Climate Strategies & Policy

Jonathan Foley

Dr. Jonathan Foley is a renowned climate & environmental scientist, writer, and speaker. He is also Executive Director of Project Drawdown — the world’s leading resource for climate solutions.

Executive Director, Project Drawdown

Ellen Friedman

Bio coming soon...

Partner, Baker Botts

Christiaan Gevers Deynoot

Christiaan has over 10 years experience working on climate issues. He currently works as Senior Manager for Carbon Removal Platforms. In this role, he delivers high-quality consultancy mandates related to engineered carbon dioxide removal methods and conventional carbon capture and storage, with a focus on managing multi-stakeholder action platforms. Christiaan has a public affairs background in EU energy and climate policy and industrial decarbonization issues in the Benelux region.

Senior Manager, Carbon Removal Platforms, South Pole

Paula Glover

Paula R. Glover has served as President of the Alliance to Save Energy since 2021. A dynamic leader with more than 25 years of experience in the energy industry, Ms. Glover is the seventh president in the Alliance’s 43-year history.

Ms. Glover previously served as President and CEO of the American Association of Blacks in Energy, a non-profit professional association whose focus is to ensure that African Americans and other minorities have input into the discussions and development of energy policy, regulations, and environmental issues. In this role, she was responsible for managing the national office, and providing strategic direction and leadership for the organization. Prior to this role, Ms. Glover served as AABE’s Vice President of Operations and as the organization’s Director of Communications.

 

President, Alliance to Save Energy

Ruth Gratzke

Ruth Gratzke is President of Siemens Smart Infrastructure in the United States.  In this role, she leads operational and commercial activities for Siemens’ smart building, grid edge and energy infrastructure portfolio.

Comprised of five business units – Building Products, Digital Grid, Distribution Systems, Electrical Products and Regional Solutions and Services Americas – Siemens Smart Infrastructure delivers building IoT, automation, fire safety, security, energy, low and medium voltage, and smart grid solutions as well as control components to the U.S. commercial, industrial and utility markets. Ruth originally joined Siemens in 1995 and relocated to the US in 1999 to lead the US-based steelmaking business.  Subsequently she held positions in Corporate Strategy and C-level sales, followed by general management roles in Building Technologies and Industrial Automation.

CEO, Siemens Smart Infrastructure

Dana Gunders

Dana Gunders serves as ReFED’s Executive Director. Dana is a national expert on food waste and one of the first to bring to light just how much food is lost throughout the food system. For almost a decade, she was a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). She then launched Next Course, LLC to strategically advise on the topic. Some of her career highlights include authoring the landmark Wasted report and Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook, launching the Save the Food campaign with the Ad Council, testifying in Congress, consulting to Google, appearing on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and being a founding Board Member of ReFED.

Executive Director, ReFED

Erik Hansen

Erik leads the company’s global sustainability efforts. He is responsible for the development and implementation of sustainability strategies across Workday’s operations and workplace. His responsibilities range from renewable energy procurement, to external sustainability reporting, to development of the company’s science-based targets. Under his leadership, Workday announced a goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2021 and a commitment to use 100 percent renewable electricity across global operations, which the company achieved one year early in 2020.

 Prior to joining Workday in 2010, Erik worked at EY for seven years advising clients in IT risk management.

Erik holds an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School and received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.

Senior Director, Environmental Sustainability, Workday

Ana Haurie

Ana has over 30 years of experience in financial services and a detailed understanding of the alternative investment space across real assets and hedge funds, honed over fifteen years of leadership at Dexion Capital. She has a track record of building business shaped by the interests of shareholders and investors, with Dexion being recognised as leaders in corporate governance in the London-listed, closed-end company structure for alternative asset classes. Ana raised over $16 billion in funds for 300 buy-side client groups over the course of Dexion’s rise to prominence. She established partnerships with key clients both in the provision of white label funds and in the creation of specialist, real-asset joint ventures, including US and European agricultural interests, social housing, and renewable energy. Ana co-founded Respira International in 2019 as an impact-driven carbon finance business. Its high-quality verified emissions reductions allow corporations and financial institutions to mitigate their environmental impact. Respira channels private capital into climate solutions, ensuring long-term relationships with trusted carbon project developers that enable its clients to use predominantly nature-based solutions to build sustainable, climate positive businesses.

Co-founder & CEO, Respira

Will Hazelip

Will Hazelip is the President of National Grid Ventures (NGV), US Northeast. NGV operates outside of National Grid’s regulated business in the US and UK, where it develops, operates, and invests in energy projects, technologies, and partnerships to accelerate the development of a clean energy future.

He is responsible for identifying new growth opportunities and strategic partnerships that will enable a clean energy future. He leads a diverse, cross-functional team who manages a portfolio of energy infrastructure businesses. Will joined National Grid in 2015 as Vice President of
Business Development to help create and grow NGV, and today it operates at $50 million profit.

Will has more than 20 years of strategy, business development, transaction, finance, and operations experience.

Prior to joining National Grid, Will spent seven years at Duke Energy in various leadership roles across the organization. During his time at Duke, he led the acquisition and subsequent management of Path 15, an electric transmission company in California and the divestiture of DukeNet, a regional telecom provider. He was also responsible for origination and development of new business opportunities for the non-franchise electric transmission unit in North America.

He serves as a member of the board of directors for Soluna Holdings, Inc. with two subsidiaries, MTI Instruments and Soluna Computing.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from Emory University and an International Master of
Business Administration from the University of South Carolina.

President, National Grid Ventures, US Northeast

Pat Johnson

Pat Johnson is Community Offshore Wind’s Vice President and Deputy Project Director. Together, Pat and the team are focused on responsibly developing their lease in the New York Bight for the benefit of all stakeholder communities to enable a clean, fair, and affordable energy future.

Pat is a CFA Charterholder and an investment analysis professional. Pat has been working at National Grid Ventures (NGV) for nearly 5 years and in the energy sector for nearly 10. During his time with NGV, Pat has been focused on developing clean energy infrastructure in the northeast US, including offshore wind, energy storage, and renewable-enabling transmission. Pat has led the development of multiple projects on behalf of NGV that have been submitted into RFPs. Pat is passionate about the natural world and excited to be a leader in the ongoing transformation of our energy systems.

Pat holds a BA in conservation biology from Middlebury College, an MS in Wildlife Management from The Ohio State University, and an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.

VP and Deputy Project Director, Community Offshore Wind

BJ Jones

B.J. has more than 20 years of public sector experience, working on a variety of initiatives to improve customer service, safety, transparency, and accountability in government. He started his career in state and local government consulting, working on engagements that included modernizing the Georgia Department of Revenue, conducting a statewide performance audit for South Carolina, modernizing motor vehicle services for the state of New Jersey, and analyzing the economic impacts of expanding Metrorail in Northern Virginia. He then joined New York City government in the first term of the Bloomberg administration, working his way up to serve in a variety of roles, including Assistant Commissioner of Strategic Planning and Implementation at the Department of Buildings and, later, Deputy Director of the Mayor’s Office of Operations. Throughout his tenure with the city, he has been involved in a number of groundbreaking initiatives, including implementation of the city’s first online permitting system, the first overhaul of the building code in 38 years, expansion of the city’s job application portal, and providing temporary shelter and housing repairs for victims of Hurricane Sandy. As President and CEO at the Battery Park City Authority, he has overseen the development of the organization's first strategic plan, creation of a new five-year capital plan, diversification of community program offerings, the closing of $673 million in financing, and the launch of ambitious new resiliency, sustainability, and affordability initiatives. B.J. received his undergraduate degree in Management from Gettysburg College, a Master of Public Administration from American University, and a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a certified Project Management Professional.

President & CEO, Battery Park City Authority

Alyah Kanso

Bio coming soon...

Sustainability Manager, Golden State Warriors

Karba

Karba joined Patagonia in 2016 as an Environmental Researcher on the Impact & Innovation team. They are responsible for researching and quantifying the various environmental impacts of Patagonia’s product line, helping set meaningful goals, and developing actionable implementation plans for the product teams. Prior to Patagonia, Karba earned a BS in Hydrology and a Master’s in Environmental Science & Management from UC Santa Barbara, where their research focused on microfiber pollution in the apparel industry.

Sr Impact R&D at Patagonia

Mia Ketterling

Bio coming soon...

Global Sustainability Lead, Pinterest

Niki King

Niki King is the Head of Sustainability for Unilever North America. In her role, she is responsible for ensuring the implementation of Unilever’s sustainable business strategy, the Compass, in North America. This includes development and implementation of sustainability roadmaps to achieve Unilever’s ambitious Net Zero goals; partnering with Unilever’s customers to develop collaborative partnerships to deliver on mutual sustainability goals; and working with Unilever brands to guide their sustainability and purpose activation. Throughout her career, Niki has held roles at companies including Brilliant Earth, Novo Nordisk and more than 10 years at Campbell Soup Company, where she developed and executed sustainability strategies to reduce sustainability risks and impacts across value chains, created sustainable business value, and increased stakeholder engagement in sustainability.
She earned a B.A. degree in Social Sciences, a M.S. degree in Business Management and a Certificate in Organizational Leadership from Thomas Edison State University.

Head of Sustainability Unilever North America

Daniel Kinsella

Daniel Kinsella is a partner in Deloitte & Touche LLP’s Advisory practice. He helps clients create and optimize their extended enterprise by combining business and technology experience. Daniel is also a Leader for the US & Americas Extended Enterprise and Third-Party Assurance practices, helping clients manage risk in the third-party ecosystem. 

For the past decade, Daniel has served as a leader and main contributor to Deloitte’s Renewable and Alternative Energy practice, integrating his colleagues’ backgrounds and disciplines to produce valuable perspective in the marketplace. Daniel specializes in creating efficient exchange of risk information synergies in the marketplace, cost, and revenue recovery transformation.

Advisory Partner | Extended Enterprise, Deloitte & Touche LLP

Cassie Lee

Bio coming soon...

CEO, Sound Future

Peter Knight

Peter Knight is the Board Chair of the Climate Museum and a Founder and Managing Partner at Cyan Capital Partners, which focuses on sustainable investing strategies in public and private markets. Previously he was a Founding Partner of Generation Investment Management. Prior to joining Generation, Mr. Knight was a Managing Director of MetWest Financial, a Los Angeles-based financial services company from 2001 to 2003. Mr. Knight started his career with the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. From 1977 to 1989, he served as Chief of Staff to former VP Al Gore when Mr. Gore was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and later the U.S. Senate. He served as the General Counsel of Medicis Pharmaceutical from 1989 to 1991, and then established his law practice representing numerous Fortune 500 companies as named partner in a Washington D.C. law firm. Mr. Knight has held senior positions on four presidential campaigns, including serving as the campaign manager for the successful 1996 re-election of President Clinton. He is a Director of the National Park Foundation. Mr. Knight holds a J.D. from Georgetown University and a B.A. from Cornell University.

Chair, The Climate Museum

Cortney Koenig Worrall

Cortney is the President and CEO of the Waterfront Alliance with expertise in climate resilience policy, campaign planning, community outreach, and public participation processes. She previously led the National Parks Conservation Association’s (NPCA) northeast office. Among her many achievements, Cortney developed and led the campaign for Stonewall National Monument, which was designated by President Obama in June 2016. She also crafted NPCA’s northeast execution of the campaign to reduce the $12B maintenance backlog affecting national parks—one of many nationally executed campaigns leading to the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act in 2020. Cortney came to NPCA by way of the Waterfront Alliance where she served as Chief Operating Officer from 2009 to 2013. During that time, she developed waterfront policy for the 2010 New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, executed the Waterfront Alliance’s strategy for five-borough ferry service for New York City, and launched the development of the award-winning WEDG® (Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines) for the New York-New Jersey Harbor. Early in her career, Cortney worked in engineering consulting, specializing in state and federal stormwater regulations. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in environmental policy from Mount Holyoke College and her Master of Public Administration in advanced management from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

President & CEO, Waterfront Alliance

Ulrika Leverenz

The Green investment team focuses on investments that further strengthen the availability and usage of renewable energy and funds the innovation and distribution of technology enabling the reduction of emissions throughout the whole value chain.

The success of these investments are not measured in financial gain, but by effective emission reductions. This allows us to shift the focus from a traditionally financial perspective towards one that takes the full climate impact into account.

Head of Green Investment, H&M Group

Keith Masback

Keith is a Strategic Advisor to Tomorow.io, which helps countries, businesses, and individuals better manage their weather-related challenges with the best information and insights. He is an expert on the intersection of geospatial intelligence, extreme weather, and climate, and a longtime advocate for applying remote sensing data and analytics to chronicle the impact of climate change over time. Previously, Keith was the Chief Executive Officer of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF). Prior to joining USGIF, he spent more than 20 years as an officer in the U.S. Army and in the government civilian service, culminating as a member of the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Keith also served as a member of the Intelligence Task Force of the Defense Science Board and a member of the Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing (ACCRES).

 

Strategic Advisor, Tomorrow.io

Anna Malhari

Anna Malhari is COO of Veris Residential and leads the company’s ESG Task Force and Investor Relations. Under her leadership, Veris Residential signed the UN Global Compact and became the first U.S. real estate company to endorse the Climate Group’s EV100 initiative. Ms. Malhari is a Full IEMA member (MIEMA) and a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv), and holds a CEMS Master in International Management from the Business University in Prague and the University of Cologne. She is a member of Fast Company’s Executive Board and one of GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum’s 2022 Influencers in Multifamily Real Estate.

COO, Veris Residential

Derek Mauk

Growth-focused President & General Manager, Strategist, and Brand Leader (Performance & Innovation focused CMO / CPO) with a proven track record of capturing market growth potential via innovation-based category disruption (including launching products generating over $1 Billion in sales), growing established Billion-Dollar Brands, and renovating business models within the world’s largest CPG company (Procter & Gamble / P&G), the world's largest alcohol company (Anheuser-Busch / AB InBev) as well as in start-up environments (Drinkworks by Keurig and Ecologi) across both eCommerce & Physical Retail Store formats and B2C / B2B sales formats.

President, North America, Ecologi

Miranda Massie

Miranda Massie directs NYC’s Climate Museum, the first climate-dedicated museum in the US. She left a career in social justice law to lay the groundwork for the Museum. Her prior honors as a civil rights impact litigator include Fletcher Foundation, W.E.B. Dubois Institute, and Harvard Law School Wasserstein Public Interest Fellowships, as well as a Mentorship-in-Residence at Yale Law School. She is a public voices fellow with the OpEd Project and Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and a regular guest speaker who emphasizes the need for a cultural shift toward civic action on the climate emergency.

 

Director at The Climate Museum

Mallory McConnell

Mallory McConnell is the Vice President, Corporate Responsibility for PVH Corp. Her responsibilities
include management of sustainability within the supply chain and global corporate responsibility
operations, including but not limited to team governance, sustainable supply chain strategy, as well as data and systems. In this role, she helps to develop and deliver key strategies that help drive progress against enterprise sustainability targets, and ensures a best in class organization focused on execution and forward thinking.

Mallory has lived and worked in Bangalore India and Hong Kong S.A.R., managing global and diverse teams. She holds a MS in Textile Technology Management from North Carolina State University, and has over ten years of experience managing human rights and environmental performance in global supply chains.

VP of Corporate Responsibility, PVH

Mark McDivitt

Bio coming soon...

Chief Operating Officer, Context Labs

Breene Murphy

Bio coming soon...

Vice President, Strategy and Marketing, Carbon Collective

Herrish Patel

Herrish Patel is General Manager - Nutrition, North America Unilever. Before this role, he was EVP East Europe and a global market executive team member. Herrish was responsible for 20 East European countries from Poland to Greece, where he successfully delivered five consecutive years of growth.
Before that, he worked in Unilever ANZ, CDVP & GM New Zealand. During his Unilever 21 years, he gained valuable experience working across all continents worldwide.
Herrish graduated from the University of Cardiff in the UK with BSc (Hons.) in Economics & Management Studies.
Herrish and his wife of 22 years, Toral, have two daughters: Nyah 20 and Sayana 13.

General Manager - Nutrition, North America, Hellmann's, Unilever

Doug Perkins

Doug Perkins is Community Offshore Wind’s President and Project Director. He leads the team and ensures that we deliver on our promises – to produce local clean energy for all. Together with the team, he is driving the strategy and implementation of the project and supports our engagement with key stakeholders in our local communities, policy makers, suppliers, and all other neighbors to our project. 

Doug has over 11 years’ experience in renewable energy development, with his last five years focused on offshore development in the US Northeast.  Doug has a BA in Environmental Science from Boston University with a concentration in Coastal Ecology.

President and Project Director of Community Offshore Wind

Lewis Perkins

As President of the Apparel Impact Institute, an organization that identifies, funds and scales proven environmental impact solutions in the apparel and footwear industry, Lewis oversees the collaboration of brands and manufacturers on the forefront of global efforts to reach the industry’s sustainability goals. 

 Lewis was previously the president of Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, where he launched the Fashion Positive Initiative for circular materials. He holds an MBA with a focus on corporate social responsibility from Goizueta Business School at Emory University and a BA from Washington & Lee University.

President, Apparel Impact Institute

John M. Pope

John M. Pope, Ph.D., currently serves as President & Chief Executive Officer of Carbon GeoCapture, a company he founded in 2016. A serial entrepreneur with a strong desire to make a difference, in 1998, he founded Blue Sky Group as an umbrella for his various ventures, including: Blue Sky Batteries, a company focused on developing nanostructured battery materials; NDC Power, a company that developed a direct ethanol fuel cell; Centennial Woods, a company focused on reclaiming and repurposing Wyoming’s snowfence wood while preserving snowfence inventory; and WellDog, a technical services company that uses innovation to drive sustainability in the carbon, oil, gas, and mining industries to improve economic quality of life without reducing environmental quality of life.

President & Chief Executive Officer, Carbon GeoCapture

Mark Rayfield

Mark Rayfield holds a BS, Industrial Distribution, Clarkson University. He started his career in 1986 at PIAB USA Inc., a company that provides smart solutions for the automated world.

He entered Saint-Gobain in 1999 and held different positions, including Vice President for North American Abrasives and CEO for Building Distribution in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In January 2017 he was appointed President and CEO of CertainTeed Corporation and has also served as CEO of Saint-Gobain North America since January 1st 2019.

In January 2020, Mark was appointed Senior Vice-President, CEO North America Region.

CEO, North America, Saint-Gobain

Matt Renner

Bio coming soon...

Vice President, Seneca Solar

Stefan Renton

Stefan Renton leads sustainability for Polygon. He believes blockchain sustainability to be about more than operating responsibly;he sees blockchain as a technology that has the potential to support and scale lasting positive impact on the world.

Sustainability Lead, Polygon

Ranjan Roy

Ranjan Roy is the VP of Strategy at Adore Me, helping drive the DTC womenswear brand's expansion into new innovation and sustainability initiatives. Before Adore Me, he spent time in a variety of media and technology roles, running a content personalization startup and working as a Director at the Financial Times. Ranjan earned his MBA at INSEAD, and is incredibly thankful to work at the intersection of retail + media + technology at a transformative time like this.

VP of Strategy VP of Strategy Adore Me

Chris Ruggeri

Chris Ruggeri is Deloitte Risk & Financial Advisory’s Sustainability, Climate & Equity leader. Chris advises clients across industries with a focus on leveraging digital tools and analytics to help them enhance investment decisions and risk management. With more than 30 years of experience, Chris works closely with leaders across a wide range of industries and disciplines to help them effectively develop and implement ESG-based approaches drawing on innovative thinking, technologies, and collaborations. She helps our clients manage strategic risk to drive sustainable shareholder value, financial flexibility, and agility, while improving stakeholder confidence in a constantly changing world.

Advisory Principal | Sustainability, Climate & Equity Leader, Deloitte

Wesley Schultz

Lead Vocalist and Co-founder of The Lumineers.

The Lumineers is partnering with REVERB to create climate-positive impacts throughout the Brightside World Tour and beyond. To learn more, click here

Lead Vocalist & Co-founder of The Lumineers

Naba Sengupta

Naba Sengupta is a senior manager in Deloitte & Touche LLP’s Advisory practice, specializing in the area of Sustainability/ESG, Strategic Risk, and Supply Chain. With nearly 15 years of professional experience, Naba has helped numerous clients navigate risks and make informed business decisions.

Naba focuses on helping clients leverage the power of data to make proactive, strategic risk-based decisions. For a given client, he might be responsible for assessing the innovation landscape, the competitive field, consumer sentiment, regulatory changes, partnership opportunities and risks, technology considerations. The result for clients can be increased operational efficiency for the present and better forecasting for what’s next.

Advisory Senior Manager | Sustainability, Climate & Equity, Deloitte & Touche LLP

Suzanne Seymour

Suzanne Seymour is the Senior Vice President of Brand Marketing and Communications at Inspire. In her role, she is responsible for driving consumer awareness of the company utilizing integrated strategies informed by creative and analytical thinking. Suzanne manages a team of excellence that leads the storytelling of Inspire's mission, values, and products through engaging campaigns, compelling content, and programs that demonstrate the company’s commitment to accelerating a net-zero carbon future. She also oversees Inspire's corporate and consumer communications efforts.

Prior to Inspire, Suzanne served as Head of Marketing and Communications for Japanese apparel retailer Uniqlo and held numerous leadership positions in the Beauty industry at Kiehl's and Estée Lauder.

SVP Brand & Communications, Inspire Clean Energy

Jason Shipstone

Jason sits on the group’s Excom and leads the Innovation Team, working across the group on both technological and commercial challenges, including Drax’s innovative bioenergy carbon capture, usage and storage projects with a long-term goal of helping secure future value-adding options in line with the Group purpose. Jason has extensive experience of Drax, having been with the business for over 30 years. He has held several roles at Drax Power Station in business development and major projects, before taking a lead role in the project to convert Drax to biomass.

Chief Innovation Officer, Drax

Mayor Errick D. Simmons

Mayor Errick D. Simmons is the first African-American male and the second African-American mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, where he received the highest percentage (74%) of the popular vote ever received by a mayoral candidate in Greenville.

In 2007, Mayor Errick D. Simmons began his career in municipal government.

Mayor of Greenville, Mississippi

Alan Steel

Alan Steel is the President & Chief Executive Officer of the New York Convention Center Operating Corporation, which operates the Javits Center on Manhattan’s West Side. Under Mr. Steel's leadership, the Javits Center has launched an historic expansion project. Upon his appointment in 2012, Mr. Steel led the completion of a comprehensive renovation and operational overhaul that included significant investments in energy efficiency, security and technology. Prior to the Javits Center, Mr. Steel spent more than 30 years as an event management executive and United Kingdom trade development official. He is the former President of George Little Management (GLM) and worked for more than 15 years with the British government in a number of trade-related positions. In 2014, Mr. Steel was awarded with the King’s Glove award by the International Association of Exhibitors and Events (IAEE) for his enriched contributions to the trade show industry in New York and beyond. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for New York City Audubon and New Yorkers for Parks.

 

President and CEO at NewYork Convention Center Operating Corporation

Julia Simpson

CEO and President of the World Travel and Tourism Council. She spent 14 years in the aviation sector on the Board of British Airways and Iberia and as Chief of Staff at International Airlines Group. Before joining British Airways, Julia was senior adviser to the UK Prime Minister. She held a number of key positions in the UK government and public sector, including Director at the Home Office and Department for Education and Employment; Assistant Chief Executive at the London Borough of Camden; and head of communications at the Communication Workers Union. Julia is on the Board of the London Chamber of Commerce.

CEO and President of the World Travel and Tourism Council

Malcolm Turnbull

After serving nearly three years as the 29th Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull possesses a unique and incredibly timely understanding of the current geopolitical moment. In that role, he forged lasting connections with leaders around the world and speaks to the influence that their politics have on the world at large. During his tenure, Turnbull was also involved in key policy decisions that have not only altered Australian society but also have international implications for other countries facing similar issues-same-sex marriage, environmental conservation and energy crises, global trade, cyber security, and the ever-worsening refugee crisis.

Prior to taking public office, he was also a successful entrepreneur and businessman who worked his way to the top of a major global investment banking firm and founded several businesses at home and abroad. Extremely intelligent, humorous, candid and charismatic, Turnbull shares his valuable insights into issues that are impacting the world.

Former Australian Prime Minister

Helen Usher

Helen is a communications and partnerships specialist who has been working for the advancement of applied animal protection and social impact for over fifteen years. Working with corporations, NGOs and academia, Helen has developed and delivered award-winning strategic global CSR initiatives in support of the delivery of the UN Sustainability Development Goals. Helen established the award-winning, specialist consultancy ANIMONDIAL with her colleague, Daniel Turner, to provide Travel & Tourism with impartial advice and practical guidance to better manage animal and nature protection. In collaboration with the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), ANIMONDIAL most recently produced the report, “Towards Nature Positive Travel & Tourism”, which considers the necessary actions by this influential sector to halt biodiversity loss and lessen climate change.

Co-Founder and Director, ANIMONDIAL

Bob Van Heuvelen

Bob Van Heuvelen is a prominent lawyer and lobbyist in Washington, DC. He is a Principal at the Vogel Group, leading the firm's climate practice and its advocacy on federal carbon management policy. Bob has been consistently recognized as a "Top Lobbyist" by The Hill, including most recently in 2021. Before his private sector career, Bob spent over 30 years in public service. He was Chief of Staff to Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) for ten years, and served as a top federal prosecutor at both the EPA, where he was Director of Civil Enforcement, and the Department of Justice, where he led the Environmental Enforcement Section.

Principal, The Vogel Group

Darrell Wade

Darrell Wade is the co-founder of Intrepid Travel and Chairman of Intrepid Group, the world’s largest adventure travel company. During the course of his career, Darrell has been recognised as a leader in entrepreneurship and as a passionate advocate for sustainable tourism. It all started 30 years ago, when Darrell and co-founder Geoff Manchester returned from an adventure through Africa with the idea of offering a style of local travel that would give back to the places and people they visited.

Darrell has since spearheaded Intrepid’s carbon management programme, with the company realising its goal of becoming carbon neutral in 2010. He was selected as one of the first group of Australians to complete Climate Project training with the Hon Mr Al Gore. Named as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year back in 2002, Darrell continues to drive a culture of innovation at Intrepid Group, resulting in the creation of new product solutions such as Peregrine Adventures’ new range of small ship cruises and day tour company Urban Adventures, which is now the company’s fastest-growing brand.

Co-founder of Intrepid Travel and Chairman of Intrepid Group

Arnie Weissman

Award-winning journalist Arnie Weissmann has worked in virtually every aspect of travel media for the past 30 years. He created the industry's first destination information service
(Weissmann Travel Reports), authored a best-selling textbook and served as publisher of critical hotel and destination guides for the travel industry in the U.S. and U.K.

He was named editor in chief of Travel Weekly–USA in 2001, and also serves as executive vice president/editorial director for Travel Weekly’s parent company, Northstar Travel Media, the
largest business-to-business travel media company in the world, serving audiences in the Americas, Asia and Europe.

Editor in Chief, Travel Weekly

Martin Whittaker

Martin Whittaker is the founding CEO of JUST Capital and is responsible for the overall leadership of the organization. He is also co-founder and Board member of the CREO Syndicate, a family office investment network; a Board member of the Carbon Disclosure Project U.S.;and a member of the Forbes Finance Council and Forbes Contributor. He was recently named to the 2020 NACD Directorship 100 – the annual list of the most influential people in the boardroom and on corporate governance – and to Business Insider’s 2020 List of 100 People Transforming Business.

Previously, Martin was a founding partner and investment committee member at Sonen Capital, an impact investing firm, where he led private equity, real asset, and direct investing activities. Martin has also served as Director of MissionPoint Capital Partners, a family office-led private equity firm;Senior Vice President at Swiss Re, where he was part of the Environmental and Commodity Markets team;and Managing Director at Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, Inc., a pioneering sustainable investment advisory and research firm. Martin received his Ph.D. from University of Edinburgh, an MBA from the University of London, an M.Sc. from McGill University and a B.Sc. from University of St. Andrews. Martin has also served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto, provided expert testimony on environmental markets to the U.S. Senate, guest lectured at multiple business schools, consulted to major corporations on sustainability- and impact-related matters, and been an invited speaker, published writer, and contributor via television, print, social media, and conferences throughout his career.

Chief Executive Officer, JUST Capital

Colin Wilson

Colin Wilson is an American former professional ice hockey forward. He played eleven seasons in the National Hockey League for the Nashville Predators and Colorado Avalanche. He was drafted seventh overall by the Predators in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.

Retired Player, Nashville Predators and Colorado Avalanche

Crispin Wong

As Senior Director of Product Sustainability and Environment at lululemon, Crispin manages lululemon’s global initiatives related to climate action, circularity, product sustainability, waste, and water.

Prior to joining lululemon, she held a variety of roles at Nike across materials sourcing, sustainable manufacturing, and supporting a variety of industry collaborations. She also previously worked as a consultant in the energy industry. Crispin holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Pacific University and a Master’s in Environmental Science and Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Senior Director of Product and Environmental Sustainability, Lululemon

Justin Worland

Justin Worland is a Washington D.C.-based senior correspondent for TIME covering climate change and the intersection of policy, politics and society. He has covered climate since 2015 and previously covered health and breaking news at TIME. In 2022, Worland was named the inaugural Climate Journalist of the Year by Covering Climate Now, a non-profit dedicated to improving climate journalism. He is a founding steering committee member at the Uproot Project, a non-profit organization that works to diversify environmental journalism. He is a graduate of Harvard College, where he studied history, and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Read recent pieces by Justin here

Senior Correspondent at TIME

Richard Yancey

Richard C. Yancey, AIA, LEED AP, is the founding Director of the Building Energy Exchange, Inc. (BEEx), an independent, nonprofit organization that connects the New York real estate and design communities to energy and lighting efficiency solutions through education, exhibitions, technology demonstrations, and research. BEEx identifies opportunities, navigates barriers to adoption, broker’s relationships, and showcases best practices at their resource center in downtown Manhattan. An early-adopter of sustainable design, Richard has led a diverse array of project types, including institutional, commercial, and both single and multi-family residential, campus planning, and transit-oriented developments, including a 1.2 million SF mixed-use development in Norwalk, CT.

Founding Director, Building Energy Exchange

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