A Human Rights-Respecting, Climate-Resilient Future
The climate crisis is playing an increasingly large role in shaping our future, with a growing impact on human rights. Water scarcity, wildfires, extreme weather, and rising sea levels are already disproportionately affecting vulnerable and disenfranchised populations globally, resulting in loss of livelihoods, forcing migration, and increasing the likelihood of conflict. However, responses to human rights and climate change risks continue to be siloed. Join us to explore this nexus through the lens of future scenarios to bring climate and human rights efforts closer together and inform a rights-respecting, climate-resilient future.
Scheduled Speakers
Speakers to be announced.
Global Lead, Climate and People
BSR (Moderator)
Samantha (Sam) drives the climate resilience pillar of BSR’s climate change practice, which includes how businesses can act at the intersection of people and climate change. She leads BSR’s foundational research and strategy on the intersection of climate and women’s empowerment, as well as this cluster in the Business Action for Women collaboration. Sam also leads the international policy work at the UN climate negotiations for the We Mean Business coalition.
Before joining BSR, Sam worked on the Climate Action Network international policy team, where she drove the development of common positions for hundreds of NGOs during the climate negotiations, focusing in particular on climate justice, short-term mitigation action, a long-term global goal, climate finance, and low-carbon technology. Sam was previously at the NGO Islands First, advising Pacific small island nations on climate change and oceans policy.
Sam holds an M.A. in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University and a B.A. in International Relations from Boston University.
Follow Samantha @Samantha_Lacey.
Associate Director
BSR (Moderator)
Hannah works with multinational companies to align business and human rights strategies and facilitate incorporation of sustainable practices into business operations across sectors.
She focuses on the intersection of human rights and new, disruptive technology and leads the Tech Against Trafficking collaborative initiative.
Prior to joining BSR, Hannah worked with the Skoll Foundation, where she co-led the portfolio and investments team’s efforts to identify social entrepreneurs with the potential to drive large-scale social change. Her work led to over US$20 million in grants and investments between 2015 and 2018. Before Skoll, Hannah spent six years working in anti-human trafficking in West Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Bay Area. She is fluent in French.
Hannah holds a Master’s in NGOs and Development from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in Political Science and French from the University of Michigan. She currently serves on the advisory boards of Oxfam’s Women in Small Enterprise initiative and Convening17.
Follow Hannah @hdarnton.
Are You a Surveillance Capitalist?
Increasingly, all industries are involved in what is known as “surveillance capitalism,” a new iteration of our economic system in which business value is derived from the predictive insights gleaned from applying artificial intelligence (AI) to customer data and novel data sources. While this opens up potential new business models, it also has serious implications for the privacy and human rights of consumers. In this session, we will introduce the concept of surveillance capitalism and hear from companies in different industries about how they work to avoid causing harm when collecting and transferring customer data, carrying out targeted advertising, and building in insights powered by AI and IoT devices.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Senior Policy Analyst
Ranking Digital Rights
Nathalie Maréchal leads RDR’s policy engagement with stakeholders in government, civil society, and academia; coordinates the development of RDR’s policy positions; and publicly represents RDR with the media and at conferences around the world. She is the lead author of RDR’s “It’s the Business Model” report series (2020), which argues that tech companies’ failures to staunch the flow of problematic content and disinformation online are rooted in their surveillance-based business models, and that policy solutions should focus on privacy and corporate governance rather than content itself. In 2019, Maréchal led the expansion of the RDR Corporate Accountability Index’s methodology to address human rights risks associated with tech companies’ business models, specifically the role that targeted advertising and algorithmic systems play in shaping internet users’ online experiences.
Counsel, Business and Human Rights Program
Verizon
Sarah Altschuller is counsel in Verizon’s Business & Human Rights Program. In this role, she supports Verizon’s commitment to integrating attention to human rights impacts into its legal and business operations. She also seeks to identify and respond to technological trends that may create human rights risks. Prior to joining Verizon in 2018, Altschuller was counsel in Foley Hoag LLP’s Corporate Social Responsibility Practice, where she advised corporate clients on how best to assess and address the human rights impacts of their operations. In 2017 and 2018, she was recognized by Chambers Global as among the top lawyers in the field of business and human rights.
Follow Sarah @saltschuller.
Principal, Responsible Technology
Omidyar Network
Sushant Kumar’s work is focused on building an equitable data economy. He leads Omidyar Network’s investments in the “new data economy.” Activities include investing in research, advocacy, and communication campaigns across for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Kumar is a member of the WEF global future council on data and he writes about the data economy in his column Tech for Good in Mint.
Director, Susan Morgan Consulting
BSR Special Advisor (Moderator)
For over 15 years, Susan Morgan has worked at the intersection of technology and society. She is now an independent consultant focused on human rights, democracy and disinformation, and the use of data and artificial intelligence. Morgan has worked in the private sector, the not for profit sector, and in philanthropy. She was the first executive director of the Global Network Initiative.
Building Resilience: From Theory to Action
Our globally interconnected system is experiencing a growing number of stresses and shocks—from climate disruption, to geopolitical volatility, to COVID-19. What can companies do to develop a more holistic understanding of the risks they face and develop strategies and collaborations to build the resilience of their businesses and the communities in which they operate? Join us for a discussion, led by company leaders and experts focused on turning resilience theory into robust strategy and action, on how to build climate resilience across your global value chain, how to stress-test strategies against different possible futures, and opportunities for collaboration with partners.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Real Estate Strategy and Urban Planning Manager
Genentech
Sophie Martin is Genentech’s real estate strategy and urban planning manager, responsible for long-range planning for the company’s 200-acre corporate campus in South San Francisco. Among her areas of focus are campus landscape, sustainability and climate resilience, transportation and parking strategy, project entitlements, real estate asset planning, and coordination with local government on city planning efforts. Prior to joining Genentech, Martin was a principal at Dyett & Bhatia Urban and Regional Planners, a Bay Area consulting firm specializing in comprehensive plans, urban design, zoning, and environmental review throughout California.
Director, Planning and Research; Senior Advisor, Climate
Office of Governor Gavin Newsom
Kate Gordon serves as the director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research and as senior advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom. Prior to her appointment, Gordon was the founding director of the Risky Business Project, which focused on quantifying the economic impacts of climate change on U.S. production and infrastructure, as well as on human health and mortality. As part of this work, Gordon consulted numerous investors and corporations on strategies to reduce climate risks across investments and assets and served as a co-author on the Fourth National Climate Assessment’s chapter on “Reducing Risks Through Adaptation Actions.” Prior to this work, Gordon served in senior leadership positions at several nonpartisan think tanks including the Henry M. Paulson Institute, the Center for the Next Generation, the Center for American Progress, and as a nonresident Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.
Manager, Climate Strategy and Sustainability Initiatives
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Shannon Siart is responsible for setting and overseeing the company’s environmental strategy and goals, enhancing reputation through industry-leading programs, reporting, and rankings. She is the force behind HPE’s ambitious commitment to reduce GHG emissions by 55 percent by 2025 and pledge to carbon neutrality by 2050; she has maintained HPE’s leadership status among global companies in CDP’s Climate Change disclosure; and she led HPE’s first scenario analyses for climate risks and opportunities following TCFD recommendations. At the heart of her work is the belief that a sustainable future will transform our economy, nurture innovation, and create new markets ready to be seized by leading technology companies. Before HPE, Siart was on Northrop Grumman’s corporate sustainability team, with seven years of experience working on sustainability issues as they relate to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Director of Corporate Sustainability
Sempra Energy
Ian Stewart directs and manages the corporate sustainability reporting function at Sempra Energy, including the company’s strategy around sustainability, production of the company’s annual corporate sustainability report, and management of responses to a wide range of investor surveys, such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and CDP. Additionally, he works closely with investor relations to ensure proper representation to the investor and analyst communities related to the company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance.
In his more than 15 years with the company, Stewart has held various positions. After first joining the company in 2005, Stewart served as a national government affairs manager, where he managed the company’s political and legislative strategy for project permitting, expansion, and management in more than 10 states. Stewart also managed the regional public affairs department at San Diego Gas & Electric, a Sempra utility, where he was responsible for leading the company’s public affairs activities.
Prior to joining Sempra Energy in 2005, Stewart’s career included positions in public affairs and public relations as a consultant to companies such as SBC Communications, former presidential candidate Ross Perot, and Perot Systems.
Senior Vice President
BSR (Moderator)
With more than 20 years in the consulting field, Eric leads BSR’s global consulting practice to design and implement sustainability strategies that create business value by addressing some of the world’s greatest challenges.
In addition to advising the CEOs and senior teams of several global companies, Eric plays a lead role on a number of BSR’s collaborative initiatives, including the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, the Net Positive Project, and Future of Fuels, as well as our work with the We Mean Business coalition.
Prior to joining BSR, Eric worked with the Natural Step in San Francisco, accelerating sustainability through strategic counsel on a broad range of corporate responsibility matters that included supply chain management and sustainable development. He also has served as vice president at the Boston Consulting Group and was a partner and founding member of the global consultancy Mitchell Madison Group.
Eric was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he earned an M.S. in Russian and East European Studies. He also holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Macalester College.
Follow Eric @gospodinolson.
The Role of Portable Benefits in Modernizing the Social Contract
Our social safety net has failed to keep up with 21st-century realities. In the U.S., where many key aspects of the social safety net are tied to traditional, full-time employment, an estimated 1 in 10 workers get their primary source of income from non-traditional work which offers limited or no access to benefits—like paid leave, health insurance, retirement savings, and unemployment insurance—that are central to economic security and mobility. With the changing nature of work, the number of individuals and families that depend on non-traditional work for all or supplemental portions of their income is growing, meaning those lacking access to social safety nets is also growing. The current system fosters inequality and precarity, but emerging models for portable benefits systems—where benefits are attached to the individual and enable all workers to accrue, contribute to, and manage key benefits—show a path forward. Join us to learn more about these examples and the business role in advancing economic security and mobility through portable benefits, one element of BSR’s work to advance 21st-century social contracts.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Executive Director
Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth
Parag Mehta is the executive director of the Center for Inclusive Growth, the philanthropic hub of Mastercard. He leads a global team to ensure that the benefits of economic growth are broadly shared and leverage the core competencies and assets of Mastercard to achieve the same. In this role, Mehta oversees the Center’s programs, data philanthropy, research, engagements, and partnerships.
Prior to joining Mastercard, Mehta served as chief of staff and senior advisor to the 19th Surgeon General of the United States. In that capacity, he organized a series of campaigns to address some of the most pressing public health issues of our time. Mehta also spent more than four years directing communications for a civil rights agency in the U.S. Department of Labor and served on Barack Obama’s presidential transition team as a liaison to the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and to LGBT Americans.
Vice President, Global Public Policy and Strategic Communications
Postmates
Vikrum Aiyer is the Vice President of Global Public Policy and Strategic Communications for Postmates. He leads the legislative, regulatory, and policy discussions at the federal, state, and local levels which are impacting the Future of Work and the gig-economy. Previously, Aiyer was a senior official in the Obama Administration serving as Senior Advisor in The White House, and the Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property.
Policy Director
Economic Opportunity Institute
Marilyn Watkins is Policy Director at the Economic Opportunity Institute, a Washington State-based nonprofit policy center dedicated to building an economy that works for everyone. Her research and advocacy focus on workplace policies and public investments that promote gender, racial, and income equality. She spearheaded legislative victories for paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, and gender equity. On the national stage, she advises policy development and is a frequent speaker on equitable access to benefits and family economic security. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor in Health Services at the University of Washington and serves on Washington’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Advisory Committee and Seattle’s Labor Standards Advisory Commission.
Manager, Inclusive Economy
BSR (Moderator)
Jessica Custer brings expertise in ethical supply chains and community-driven development to BSR’s inclusive economy practice. She manages the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition, promoting inclusive employment practices in global supply chains. Previously, Custer worked at Fair Trade USA, where she designed, implemented, and managed certification programs in agricultural supply chains and also helped consumer packaged goods companies execute their responsible sourcing strategies. She has also researched and advised on social enterprise development, first as a Fulbright Scholar exploring improved access to sanitation in Peru and subsequently as an MBA Without Borders Advisor to social entrepreneurs working towards sustainable livelihoods for hand weavers in South India.
Can Business Protect Our Democracy?
With the U.S. presidential election around the corner, business has a massive stake in what comes next—not only in terms of the economy and market volatility, but also to ensure protection of the essential structures of democracy. Business has a civic responsibility and an important role to play in ensuring that democracy can flourish. Many businesses have demonstrated the case for action and what they can do by encouraging voter participation, ensuring election integrity, and calling for campaign finance reform. At a time when many are concerned about full access to the right to vote, and when employees want to know where their companies and their leaders stand on these questions, the voice of business is critically important. Join us to learn how the private sector is working to protect democracy.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Founder and CEO
NationSwell
NationSwell is a social impact company that provides purpose-driven leaders and organizations the expert insights, connections, and creativity they need to accelerate their impact and purpose. The company partners with companies like Starbucks, Verizon, Microsoft, Nike, and Blackrock, as well as leading foundations like The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ballmer Group, Schmidt Futures, and public figures to accelerate their impact. Behrman also founded and directed The Connecticut Veterans Project, which made strides in reducing veteran homelessness in Connecticut. A veteran of the United States Navy, Behrman served for one year in Afghanistan, where he worked for Generals David Petraeus and John Allen as strategic adviser. Formerly, Behrman worked at the United States Department of State. He has written on purpose-driven business for Fortune and other publications. He is the author of two books, which have been reviewed positively in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Economist.
Follow Greg @GregBehrman1.
Chief Operating Officer
BSR (Moderator)
Laura is a global expert on corporate sustainability, with two decades of experience in strategy consulting and has advised senior executives at global companies across a range of industry sectors and sustainability issues.
Laura has also been a leader in BSR’s organizational growth and impact. She launched BSR’s financial services practice and New York office, and she is currently the Chief Operating Officer, leveraging her strengths in strategy, organizational change, and people management.
Laura works with leading global companies to develop and enhance their sustainability strategies to maximize value for business and society. She is sought after to facilitate senior-level strategy workshops and multistakeholder collaborations. She has published reports on environmental, social, and governance trends among investors as well as sustainability integration and leadership. From 2006 to 2010, she facilitated the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, growing the initiative from 15 to more than 50 companies.
Laura previously worked for Deloitte Consulting, where she acquired extensive strategy experience advising multinational financial services companies. She also worked on several community and economic development projects in Latin America.
Laura holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University and a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. She is an adjunct professor in the Bard M.B.A. in Sustainability program, a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and a member of the UN Global Compact Expert Network.
Follow Laura @LauraGitman.
The Convergence of Equity and Sustainability
Our vision of sustainable business should encompass diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), yet inside companies, sustainability and DEI are often led by two separate teams with two distinct agendas. The many expressions of support for racial justice from companies following the murder of George Floyd made clear the need for more sustained action over time, but also revealed the disconnect that exists inside companies among multiple social, economic, and human rights topics. How can companies take more strategic and integrated approaches that bring together disparate elements of sustainable business? How can DEI, sustainability, human rights, and other teams work more closely together on a shared, urgent, and ambitious agenda?
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability
The Estée Lauder Companies
Nancy Mahon is the senior vice president of global corporate citizenship and sustainability at The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., where she leads the company’s corporate citizenship, sustainability, and global philanthropy efforts. She is also global executive director of the M·A·C AIDS Fund, which offers support to individuals in marginalized communities living with HIV/AIDS worldwide through prevention, treatment, and basic needs services. Currently, the fund gives away US$44 million annually throughout the world.
Prior to her current roles, she was appointed by President Obama in 2011 as chair of the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, a position she served in for five years. She also served as executive director of God’s Love We Deliver; senior program executive with Open Society Foundations; private delegate to the UN Commission on Women; and was a founding member of the National Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Global Private Public Partnerships.
Advisor, Initiative for Equity & Social Justice
Presidio Graduate School
Cecily Joseph is a non-profit and advisory board member, lawyer, and sustainability executive recognized as a thought leader and influencer in social and environmental responsibility, ethics, and diversity.
Joseph is the former vice president of corporate responsibility at Symantec Corporation, where she oversaw all environment, social, and governance (ESG) programs and led the Symantec Foundation. Joseph is an ongoing champion for diversity and inclusion, having also served as chief diversity officer and pioneered numerous initiatives to increase diversity and equity within the technology industry and broader society. Prior to Symantec, Joseph was executive director of the Veritas Foundation.
With more than 20 years of experience, Joseph has built and managed programs and teams in ethics and compliance, strategic philanthropy, community relations, environmental sustainability, and diversity and inclusion.
Senior Director
Natural Resources Defense Council
Yerina Mugica leads multidisciplinary teams to advance strategies that support strong, just and resilient communities that bring together economic, social and environmental solutions to help maintain health and prosperity in the face of climate disruption. Mugica’s work through Resilient Communities is centered on local and national partnerships. Mugica recently completed a year as NRDC’s first interim chief equity officer. In this role, she spearheaded institution-wide initiatives to support NRDC’s goals of centering equity and inclusion and to help transform our culture to one of active anti-racism.
Managing Director
BSR (Moderator)
Aditi works with BSR members across sectors to help them improve and advance their sustainability strategies. She leads BSR’s global portfolio of work on women’s empowerment across consulting, collaboration, and research.
Aditi joined BSR after several years at Calvert Investment Management, a leading sustainable and responsible investment firm. There, she led strategic planning for Calvert’s executive committee, and held various roles within the sustainability research team. Her portfolio included companies in the information and communications technology sector, and she led corporate engagements on the subjects of gender corporate governance and gender equality, including the advancement of the Calvert Women’s Principles.
Aditi holds an M.B.A. in Finance from George Washington University, and a B.S. in International Economics from the University of Florida.
Follow Aditi @AditiMohapatra.
Creating a Zero-Emissions Freight Transport System by 2030
The global freight transport system must have zero-emissions solutions in place by 2030 to reach global climate goals by 2050. And to get there, we need innovative solutions and radical collaboration, enabling financial mechanisms and strong political will, to unlock decarbonization pathways throughout the freight transport value chain. Join us for key learnings and opportunities to drive significant progress collectively, as more and more brands are realizing the significance of their transport footprint and becoming willing partners supporting the industry shift.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Director, Regulatory Affairs
A.P. Møller – Maersk
Simon C. Bergulf joined A.P. Møller – Maersk as director regulatory affairs in 2017. He is in charge of Maersk’s positioning and outreach on key regulatory topics including climate change and environmental issues.
Before joining Maersk, he headed the Danish Shipowners’ Association’s (DSA) Brussels representation from 2009 to 2017. As director EU affairs for DSA, he represented the interests of Danish shipowners in Brussels on all relevant topics from piracy and international trade to environment and climate.
From 2001 to 2008, Bergulf worked as a public affairs consultant with Hill & Knowlton Brussels. Here, he headed the Food and Consumer Protection Practice Group as well as the Digital Communications Practice Group.
Director, Transport
European Climate Foundation
Dietmar Oeliger is the Director for the ECF Transport initiative. He joined the ECF from the German NGO NABU where he led the transport team, that was mainly focused on cars, trucks and shipping. He managed to make NABU a leading voice on sustainable transport in Germany and beyond. As the deputy head of the environment and natural conservation department he was also responsible for NABU’s energy and climate policy. He is the chair of the ‘Grüner Strom Label’, the Certification of green energy products in Germany. Before joining NABU, Oeliger worked for Eurosolar, the European Association for Renewable Energy in Bonn. These were the years when the ‘Energiewende’ was born and the first feed-in-law for renewables was established.
Executive Vice President, Global Commercial
Royal Dutch Shell
Carlos Maurer is responsible for Shell’s business-to-business organization of over 8,000 people serving more than 1 million direct and indirect customers in 150 markets through its global lubricants, aviation and bitumen, and sulphur businesses.
Maurer started his career in the energy industry working in operations and sales development roles throughout the United States and Latin America. He joined Shell in 1997 and was most recently vice president, Shell Lubricants Americas from 2017 to 2019. Maurer gained strategy, marketing, and general management experience in Shell commercial businesses, downstream and upstream operations, and joint ventures. He has led regional and global businesses and been based in the United States, Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, and currently Singapore.
Sustainability Manager, Global Logistics
H&M Group
Linda Johansson works as sustainability manager at the H&M Group, focusing on supply chain and logistics. Based at the H&M Group’s head office in Stockholm, Sweden, she is responsible for driving the sustainability strategy when it comes to transportation and warehousing, using approaches grounded in business and sustainability. Johansson is part of the Steering committee of Clean Cargo and The Pathway’s Coalition, and sits on the board of Network for Transport Measures. During her 13 years at the H&M Group, she has worked in Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka in roles covering the full supply chain, from manufacturing to sales, always with a sustainability focus. Johansson started her professional career working for a Swedish NGO in Dhaka, Bangladesh, focusing on sustainable agriculture practice and women’s empowerment.
Associate Director, Climate
BSR (Moderator)
Giulio works within BSR’s climate change practice team, focusing on climate strategy and resilience with companies, collaborative initiatives, and research.
Prior to joining BSR, Giulio worked as a sectorial manager at climate change consulting firm EcoAct. There, he was in charge of project management and business development for clients in several sectors, such as consumer goods and finance. Giulio also lead EcoAct’s low-carbon project development in Kenya for two years and was member of the board for EcoAct Kenya. He speaks English, French, Italian, and Spanish.
Giulio holds an M.S. in Sustainable Development from HEC Paris School of Management. He also holds a double degree M.S. in Management and Industrial Engineering and a double degree B.S. in Technology and International Business from Politecnico di Torino and UIC Barcelona.
ESG: From Global Funds to Local Implementation in Asia
ESG integration into global funds and investment strategies differ due to unique market and regional characteristics. This session will explore global ESG themes through the lens of an Asia regional perspective and examine how both asset managers and companies can take action. How are capital flows changing? What expectations are being set? How do companies respond? Join the conversation to learn more.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Global Head, ESG Investment Strategy
State Street Global Advisors
Nathalie Wallace works closely with clients to develop ESG and climate strategies that are aligned with their specific mandates and adapted to clients’ investment considerations. She coordinates with the ESG research and development, investment research, and management teams to design ESG investment solutions tailored to clients’ needs.
While at Ceres, Wallace worked with institutional asset owners to design and implement ESG principle statements and integration strategies, as well as engagement platforms such as Climate Actions 100+. She leverages her considerable experience in leading research and investment teams to allocate capital to public and private equity investment in emerging markets for global institutional clients, including sovereign wealth and institutional pension funds. She is a trade advisor to the French Government, taught an Impact Investing class at Northeastern University in Boston, wrote several papers on sustainable economic development in emerging markets, and presented research at investment conferences.
Partner
Daobridge Capital
Melissa Brown is a partner at Daobridge Capital, a private investment advisory firm, where she focuses on the transition to cleaner energy and opportunities linked to sustainable investments in Asian markets. She works with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis on Asian energy and power market research. Living in Asia since 1988, she analyzed Asian investments for 15 years as a sell-side equity analyst at Barclays and JPMorgan, and as a managing director of research at Citigroup. Brown is a member of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission Takeovers Panel and the HKEX Listing Review Committee, and was previously a member of the UN PRI Advisory Council. She was a Director of Sustainalytics, a global ESG research provider, until its sale to Morningstar in 2020, and has worked with the Asia Corporate Governance Association (ACGA).
Head of APAC Responsible Investment and Governance
APG Asset Management
Yoo-Kyung Park is Asia-Pacific head of the global responsible investment and governance team at APG Asset Management, based in Hong Kong. Her main role is to oversee portfolios and implement responsible investment policies on behalf of APG clients. Asset classes under her responsibility include: listed equities, listed real estate, infrastructure, and private/strategic real estate investments. She covers the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, and actively engages with portfolio companies, market regulators/exchanges, and other institutional investors on corporate governance, environmental, and social issues. Prior to APG, she was a securities analyst at international investment banks such as Barings Securities and Salomon Smith Barney.
Director, Group Sustainability
CLP Group
Hendrik Rosenthal supports the senior management in sustainability and climate change-related risk management and advises on sustainability matters of the CLP Group’s power business in the Asia-Pacific region. He is responsible for the Group’s sustainability-related strategy, reporting, and communications.
With 20 years of experience in environmental management across the public, private, and NGO sectors, Rosenthal previously led research and consulting projects in Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
He began his career in natural resource management and environmental policy, through various positions at Canadian government agencies in environment and development. After moving to Hong Kong in 2008, Rosenthal promoted sustainability practices via private sector projects and through policy engagement for industry associations. Prior to joining CLP, he was a senior manager of applied sustainability in Singapore working for a multinational company.
Vice President, Asia-Pacific
BSR (Moderator)
Jeremy is in charge of serving and expanding BSR’s member base in Asia and integrating the work there into our global approach.
BSR’s global thought leadership, informed through field work and local implementations, enables us to work with member companies to create innovative sustainable solutions and globalize the sustainability dialogue.
Jeremy has extensive experience in supply chain management, business integration, external communications, government relations and compliance operations. Prior to joining BSR in 2006, he spent more than 10 years on equipment sourcing, footwear production and corporate responsibility for Nike, Inc. He also worked in China for five years as the North Asia Regional Compliance Director, covering sustainability issues in Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
Jeremy holds an M.S. in Economic Development from the Patterson School of Diplomacy, and an M.S. in International Commerce from the University of Kentucky.
Follow Jeremy @Prepscius.
Ethical Technology Use in the COVID Era
The topic of human rights and technology use has been growing in importance over the years, but new use cases for contact tracing and workplace monitoring during COVID-19 present significant new questions about how to balance health and safety with privacy and human rights standards. How do we use technology ethically, and what are the reasonable lines to draw between public health benefits and human rights violations? Join us to learn lessons from companies that are developing and deploying these technologies and now non-tech companies should be engaged in the conversation.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Head, Business and Human Rights
Cisco
Katie Shay is the head of business & human rights at Cisco, where she works to identify innovative solutions to human rights challenges and integrate a human rights perspective into legal and business operations. She works closely with product, policy, and legal teams across the company to develop and implement human rights policies and to design processes for ensuring respect for human rights in all aspects of business.
Prior to joining Cisco, Shay served as business and human rights counsel at Yahoo/Verizon Media, where she managed human rights programs related to privacy and freedom of expression across the global business.
Global Head, Human Rights
Google
Alexandria Walden is the global policy lead for human rights and free expression at Google. She is responsible for coordinating and driving the company-wide human rights strategy, using approaches grounded in business and human rights. Based in Washington, DC, Walden coordinates policy and strategy on a broad portfolio of issues including human rights, freedom of expression, and controversial content, including hate and harassment. She also represents Google at the Global Network Initiative (GNI) and Freedom Online Coalition Advisory Network. Prior to joining Google, she was a Director at The Raben Group, where her work focused on civil rights, women’s rights, criminal justice reform, transparency, and judicial issues. She also worked on various human rights issues in her time with Center for American Progress; U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, and U.S. House of Representatives in the Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights & Liberties; U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; U.S. Department of Labor; and Bay Area Legal Aid.
Follow Alexandria @@alexrosebud.
Vice President and Deputy General Counsel
Microsoft Corporation
Steve Crown and his team focus on the development of internal policies and business practices, as well as advocacy and external engagements, that serve to advance realization of human rights across the globe. He holds leadership positions in a number of local, national, and international business, trade, legal profession, and human rights organizations.
Associate Director
BSR (Moderator)
Hannah works with multinational companies to align business and human rights strategies and facilitate incorporation of sustainable practices into business operations across sectors.
She focuses on the intersection of human rights and new, disruptive technology and leads the Tech Against Trafficking collaborative initiative.
Prior to joining BSR, Hannah worked with the Skoll Foundation, where she co-led the portfolio and investments team’s efforts to identify social entrepreneurs with the potential to drive large-scale social change. Her work led to over US$20 million in grants and investments between 2015 and 2018. Before Skoll, Hannah spent six years working in anti-human trafficking in West Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Bay Area. She is fluent in French.
Hannah holds a Master’s in NGOs and Development from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in Political Science and French from the University of Michigan. She currently serves on the advisory boards of Oxfam’s Women in Small Enterprise initiative and Convening17.
Follow Hannah @hdarnton.
Focusing on Long-Term Goals Amidst Unprecedented Uncertainty
2020 has presented sustainability teams with a seemingly unending series of urgent challenges and daily turmoil. Nevertheless, the coming decade necessitates bold corporate action across a range of pressing global challenges—the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement both have major milestones to hit by 2030. This session will provide lessons learned and practical advice from practitioners on how they stay focused on long-term goals and build creative new paths to achieve them amidst unprecedented uncertainty.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
General Manager, Sustainability
Swire Coca Cola
William Davies has been with the Swire Group for 24 years, and worked in a number of their operating companies: shipping, trucking, agriculture, and aircraft maintenance, in a number of countries: Singapore, Papua New Guinea, the US etc. He is currently heading Sustainability for Swire Coca-Cola, the fifth largest bottler for The Coca-Cola Company, with the franchise rights for the Southern Chinese mainland, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan, and a part of the Western U.S. He helped found #DrinkWithoutWaste https://drinkwithoutwaste.org/in Hong Kong, a non-for-profit consortium of drinks producers, retailers, NGOs, universities, think tanks, resource managers (recyclers), and a number of other high footfall well renowned companies in Hong Kong, to help address the need to keep soft drink containers from landfill and general leakage.
Senior Manager, Corporate Sustainability and Risk Management
Medco Energi
Firman Dharmawan is senior manager, corporate sustainability and risk management, of MedcoEnergi, an Indonesian-based international energy and natural resources company. In his role, he carries the mandate of setting up the infrastructure and coordination of the sustainability and risk management corporate agenda across the organization. He and his team are focusing on strengthening the sustainability and risk management culture and progressing the various company’s initiatives in environment, social, governance and sustainability reporting. Prior to his current position, he worked as a procurement and project management professional in development and engineering projects with international development organizations such as the Millennium Challenge Account Indonesia, the World Bank Group in Washington, D.C. headquarters and Jakarta office, the British Council, and international energy companies such as PremierOil Indonesia and Atlantic Richfield Company Indonesia.
Associate Director
BSR (Moderator)
With a background in engineering and finance, Rosa brings a unique perspective on social performance issues to BSR’s work with extractives companies.
She also supports companies across all sectors in developing labor, health, reporting, and sustainability strategies. In addition, Rosa oversees HERproject Factory programs in Indonesia and Myanmar, and supports HERproject global program coordination and expansion.
Prior to joining BSR, Rosa worked as a consultant for Cardno Emerging Markets, where she helped mining, oil, and gas companies develop social impact management plans, stakeholder engagement strategies, and health, safety, and environmental policies in countries such as Burkina Faso and Timor-Leste. She also has provided program coordination for an AusAID program in Indonesia with more than 200 national and international advisers.
Rosa holds a B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from the Bandung Institute of Technology, and an M.S. in Finance from Drexel University.
From the Future: A Look Back at Supply Chain Risk and Resilience
It’s October 21, 2030. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic that hit over 10 years ago was one of the first significant crises we faced at the beginning of the decade, majorly impacting global supply chains. Other crises followed, highlighting existing risks and bringing new ones to light: risks related to procurement, finance, suppliers, logistics, and workforces. Throughout the decade, business demonstrated its ability to become better prepared, to anticipate the unexpected, and to radically shift to mitigate risk and become more resilient. Throughout this unique, futures-thinking exercise, we will illustrate how it’s possible for business to achieve significant progress across supply chains and other business practices in the 2020s, despite crises that may lie ahead.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Director
BSR
Thibault Gravier leads BSR’s Supply Chain Sustainability practice, focusing on the development and implementation of sustainable sourcing strategies with companies, collaborative initiatives, and research for innovative approaches.
Thibault has more than 12 years of experience working with global organizations to dramatically improve the sourcing practices and sustainable impact of critical raw materials.
Prior to BSR, Thibault founded two entrepreneurial ventures: Actions & CO2, an engineering consulting firm specializing in carbon footprints, and then Transitions, a leading French consultancy agency specialized in sustainable sourcing, which he ran for more than eight years.
Through leading efforts in responsible fruit production to deforestation-free sourcing (including soy, palm oil/palm kernel oil, rubber, pulp and paper, coconut oil, and more) for the retail, cosmetic, and oleochemical sectors, Thibault has in-depth expertise in the complexity of supply chains and has pioneered innovative practices such as insetting, reverse sourcing strategies, and new business models for supply chains.
Beyond sustainable sourcing, Thibault has been involved in various projects to reduce the carbon footprint of some of the major fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) along their supply chains.
Thibault holds a M.S in Business and Administration and Environmental Management from ESC Amiens Business School and Melbourne Swinburne University of Technology and a Management Degree from Shanghai Dong Hua University.
Follow Thibault @ThibaultGravier.
Director
BSR
Lin Wang leads BSR’s work in China, with a focus on women workers’ empowerment and supply chain sustainability issues. She has extensive external and government relations connections and experience and is one of the leading thinkers on supply chain, economic development, and labor issues in China.
Wang started her sustainable business career at the ILO in Geneva, where she designed a project on human resources management and labor relations in China’s special economic zones. She returned to China in 2001 to serve as the project’s chief technical advisor. In 2005, IKEA recruited Lin as a sustainability manager, where she was responsible for the overall IKEA China supply chain sustainability scope, including social and environmental compliance and external relations, as well as for contributing to global sustainability strategy and action plans.
Vice President, Asia-Pacific
BSR
Jeremy is in charge of serving and expanding BSR’s member base in Asia and integrating the work there into our global approach.
BSR’s global thought leadership, informed through field work and local implementations, enables us to work with member companies to create innovative sustainable solutions and globalize the sustainability dialogue.
Jeremy has extensive experience in supply chain management, business integration, external communications, government relations and compliance operations. Prior to joining BSR in 2006, he spent more than 10 years on equipment sourcing, footwear production and corporate responsibility for Nike, Inc. He also worked in China for five years as the North Asia Regional Compliance Director, covering sustainability issues in Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
Jeremy holds an M.S. in Economic Development from the Patterson School of Diplomacy, and an M.S. in International Commerce from the University of Kentucky.
Follow Jeremy @Prepscius.
How Can Investors Better Address Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?
For years, companies have been asked to disclose data on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the board or management levels. But while some companies have reported on diversity and even adopted goals, what progress have companies actually made on advancing DEI at all cohort levels, from the board down throughout the whole workforce? In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, learn how investors and corporates can raise the bar on advancing DEI to push for more disclosure and action to create change across the board.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Executive Director, Corporate Governance
Office of the New York City Comptroller
Yumi Narita joined the Office of the Comptroller’s Bureau of Asset Management (BAM) as the executive director of corporate governance in the Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment Unit in December 2019. The Comptroller serves as investment advisor, custodian, and a trustee to the New York City Pension Funds, which hold approximately $215 billion in assets (as of November 2019). In her role as executive director, Narita is responsible for developing and implementing active ownership programs for public equities, including voting proxies, engaging portfolio companies on their ESG policies and practices, and advocating for regulatory reforms to protect investors and strengthen investor rights. Narita has 16 years of experience in the ESG industry. Prior to BAM, Narita was the global head of corporate governance at Alliance Bernstein, and vice president on the BlackRock Stewardship team.
Director, Shareholder Advocacy
Trillium Asset Management
Brianna Murphy is Director of Shareholder Advocacy and joined Trillium in 2010. Her responsibilities include engaging companies on environmental, social, and governance issues and public policy advocacy. Prior to Trillium she was a Portfolio Administrator at US Bank in Trust Services.
Managing Director and Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer
Carlyle
Kara Helander is managing director and chief inclusion and diversity officer at The Carlyle Group. Prior to joining Carlyle, she was a managing director at BlackRock, where she led the firm’s global inclusion and diversity and philanthropy initiatives. She also consulted with organizations to develop corporate social responsibility and diversity strategies.
Helander founded the Science of Diversity and Inclusion (SODI), a coalition of top companies and behavioral scientists working to design and test new approaches to accelerate diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. She also led CSR at Barclay’s Global Investors (BGI). Prior to BGI, she launched and led the Western Region for Catalyst in Silicon Valley.
Associate Director
BSR (Moderator)
Nandini supports companies in the Financial Services industry in integrating ESG considerations and sustainability more broadly into their business strategies, asset classes, and products and services. Most recently, Nandini was seconded to KKR to support their Responsible Investment Program implementation.
Previously, Nandini worked with the global professional services firm EY LLP on its climate change and sustainability services practice, leading its social and human rights engagements in the Americas. She speaks French, Italian, Kannada, and Hindi fluently.
Nandini has a M.A. in International Affairs from the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).
How Critical Is Collaboration During a Crisis?
The last several years have seen the formation of many industry, cross-industry, and multi-stakeholder collaborations dedicated to solving big global challenges, such as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Empower@Work, and BSR’s own Future of Fuels. In a world disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, how are collaborations helping participants to drive progress on near-term and long-term goals? What happens when partners in the vison for long-term system change are side-tracked by immediate disruption and downturn? This panel will share insights on challenges that multi-stakeholder initiatives and companies are currently facing, and discuss solutions that can make collaborations a source of resilience and busines continuity even during a time of disruption.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Executive Director
Sustainable Apparel Coalition
Amina Razvi is the executive director of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC). Under her leadership, the SAC’s 250+ members develop the Higg Index, a suite of tools that measure environmental and social impacts in the apparel, footwear, and textile industry. Previously, Razvi was the vice president of membership at the SAC. Prior to joining the SAC, she led environmental initiatives on Gap Inc.’s global sustainability team.
Anbinh Phan
Director, Global Government Affairs
Walmart
Lead Corporate Relations Practice
USAID
Adam Tomasek leads USAID’s corporate relations practice, guiding a global portfolio of private sector relationships. He led coordination of private sector engagement for USAID’s COVID-19 Task Force. He was appointed into the U.S. Global Development Lab in 2014, and has represented the U.S Government in partnerships with Fortune 500 companies and multistakeholder initiatives such as the Tropical Forest Alliance.
Previously, Tomasek spent 13 years with the World Wildlife Fund, was an author for the United Nations Environment Programme, an adjunct professor at American University, founded two social enterprises, and began his career as a Peace Corps volunteer. He has been a contributor to three U.N. conventions, served on more than a dozen international scientific and policy committees, and advised multilateral organizations and regional development finance institutions.
Director
BSR (Moderator)
Sara applies her management consulting and international development experience to BSR’s collaboration and inclusive economy work. She also directs the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition.
Previously, Sara worked at Business Call to Action—a multistakeholder platform of the United Nations Development Programme focused on inclusive business innovations in support of the Millennium Development Goals—recruiting and advising companies and social enterprises developing products and services to address the needs of low-income populations. She also worked at McKinsey and Company, consulting global companies and development organizations on projects related to strategy, corporate social responsibility, economic development, and philanthropy. Sara has also contributed to social and environmental justice programs in Latin America through the Inter-American Dialogue, the Sierra Club, and the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. She speaks English and Spanish.
Sara has an M.B.A. from IE Business School in Spain, and a B.A. in Plan II and Latin American Studies from The University of Texas at Austin.
Follow Sara @@sgenright.
How Has 2020 Changed the Way We Think about Sustainability?
As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, rumors started that sustainability efforts would recede due to constrained budgets, reduced government and investor pressure, potential layoffs and existential threats to entire sectors, and a lack of capacity to focus on the long term with such immediate and urgent competing priorities. Yet the opposite seems to be unfolding: Companies are meeting the moment and maintaining their commitments to sustainability, and the pandemic has further highlighted the need for business to lead in creating lasting systemic change. Learn more about how companies and sectors are advancing sustainability efforts despite resource constraints and share expectations for how that will proceed as we move toward 2021.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Chief Sustainability Officer
L’Oréal
A lawyer by training, Alexandra Palt specialized in human rights. She began her career at a law firm and then worked for Amnesty International in Germany and at organizations specializing in diversity, change management, and sustainability.
In 2012, she joined L’Oréal as chief sustainability officer and launched L’Oréal’s first sustainability program, with a set of objectives to be achieved by the end of 2020.
In 2017, Palt was appointed chief corporate responsibility officer, becoming the executive vice president of the Fondation L’Oréal in addition to her role as head of the sustainability department. She became a member of L’Oréal’s Executive Committee two years later. In June 2020, L’Oréal launched its new sustainability program for 2030, L’Oréal for the Future.
Global Head of Impact
The Carlyle Group
In her role, Megan Starr works to design and execute Carlyle’s cohesive, long-term impact strategy. She also oversees the dedicated ESG team, which leads the firm’s investment diligence and portfolio company engagement work on material ESG issues.
Prior to joining Carlyle, Starr was within Goldman Sachs’ Investment Management Division, where she helped build the ESG and impact investing business. Previously, Starr served in roles at The JPB Foundation, a US$3.8B private family foundation based in New York City.
Vice President, Corporate Responsibility
Hilton
Kate Mikesell serves as vice president, corporate responsibility for Hilton and is president of the Hilton Effect Foundation, the company’s international philanthropic arm. In these roles, she leads Hilton’s Travel with Purpose corporate responsibility strategy, designed to drive responsible travel and tourism globally. During her 10-plus years with Hilton, Mikesell has led external affairs initiatives, including its successful 2013 Initial Public Offering, nine new hotel brand launches, and its 100th anniversary celebration. Mikesell also played an integral role in the creation of the Hilton Effect, which quantitatively illustrated the positive impact Hilton has on billions of lives and thousands of communities around the globe. This piece of work ultimately inspired the creation of the Hilton Effect Foundation, which Hilton established in 2019. Prior to joining Hilton, Mikesell worked for Edelman Public Relations, directing public affairs efforts for health care related companies and initiatives.
Chief Operating Officer
BSR (Moderator)
Laura is a global expert on corporate sustainability, with two decades of experience in strategy consulting and has advised senior executives at global companies across a range of industry sectors and sustainability issues.
Laura has also been a leader in BSR’s organizational growth and impact. She launched BSR’s financial services practice and New York office, and she is currently the Chief Operating Officer, leveraging her strengths in strategy, organizational change, and people management.
Laura works with leading global companies to develop and enhance their sustainability strategies to maximize value for business and society. She is sought after to facilitate senior-level strategy workshops and multistakeholder collaborations. She has published reports on environmental, social, and governance trends among investors as well as sustainability integration and leadership. From 2006 to 2010, she facilitated the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, growing the initiative from 15 to more than 50 companies.
Laura previously worked for Deloitte Consulting, where she acquired extensive strategy experience advising multinational financial services companies. She also worked on several community and economic development projects in Latin America.
Laura holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University and a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. She is an adjunct professor in the Bard M.B.A. in Sustainability program, a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and a member of the UN Global Compact Expert Network.
Follow Laura @LauraGitman.
Implementing and Financing Sustainable Supply Chains
Today’s global supply chains are increasingly complex and mostly driven by price volatility; operate with less and less transparency; and struggle to become more sustainable and resilient. This traditional opaque model limits companies’ knowledge of the players involved in their value chain, and the risks to which they are exposed. In this session, we will explore innovative business models, incentives, and solutions to increased transparency and progress towards sustainability throughout the value chain. We will take a deep dive into strategies and solutions to build sustainable (and profitable) supply chains.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Vice President Customer Alliances, Corporate Sustainability
Croda
Chris Sayner has worked with Croda for 39 years in several sales and marketing roles. As vice president global accounts, Sayner has seen the evolution of corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting, particularly in consumer products industries, and helped design the architecture around Croda’s sustainability reporting in 2007, and now Croda’s 2030 ambition to be « Climate, Land and People Positive. » Croda has twice been included in the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, in 2013 and 2014, and on the CDP “Climate Disclosure Leadership Index” in 2013 for leading on climate change transparency together with recognition by Trucost, sustainability analysts, as a Natural Capital Decoupling Leader since 2014.
Sayner writes and presents extensively on supply chain integrity, covering wide ranging issues such as carbon footprint, biobased raw materials, traceability, and supporting Certified Sustainable Palm Oil supply chains in home and personal Care.
Director, Consumer Citizen and Brands Dialogue
Consommateur & Citoyen
Helene Jessua is Director for consumer-citizen and brands dialogue at Consommateur & Citoyen, which is aimed at accelerating the transition of the largest food companies to sustainability. At this role, she leads dialogue between volunteer consumers-citizens and companies, to define products specifications enabling a better remuneration of producers, as well as sustainability achievements. Jessua has worked on sustainable business strategy, communications, and stakeholder engagement for the past 20 years. Prior to joining Consommateur & Citoyen, she served as Global Sustainability Director at Redcats group, and as Head of Corporate Sustainability Communications at Carrefour group.
Viktor Ivanov
Head of Sustainability
BNP Paribas
Director
BSR (Moderator)
Thibault Gravier leads BSR’s Supply Chain Sustainability practice, focusing on the development and implementation of sustainable sourcing strategies with companies, collaborative initiatives, and research for innovative approaches.
Thibault has more than 12 years of experience working with global organizations to dramatically improve the sourcing practices and sustainable impact of critical raw materials.
Prior to BSR, Thibault founded two entrepreneurial ventures: Actions & CO2, an engineering consulting firm specializing in carbon footprints, and then Transitions, a leading French consultancy agency specialized in sustainable sourcing, which he ran for more than eight years.
Through leading efforts in responsible fruit production to deforestation-free sourcing (including soy, palm oil/palm kernel oil, rubber, pulp and paper, coconut oil, and more) for the retail, cosmetic, and oleochemical sectors, Thibault has in-depth expertise in the complexity of supply chains and has pioneered innovative practices such as insetting, reverse sourcing strategies, and new business models for supply chains.
Beyond sustainable sourcing, Thibault has been involved in various projects to reduce the carbon footprint of some of the major fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) along their supply chains.
Thibault holds a M.S in Business and Administration and Environmental Management from ESC Amiens Business School and Melbourne Swinburne University of Technology and a Management Degree from Shanghai Dong Hua University.
Follow Thibault @ThibaultGravier.
How Companies Can Prepare for the Next Public Health Crisis
Many companies were aware before the COVID-19 pandemic hit that a global pandemic arising from animal-human contact could happen—and that it was likely. Yet few companies were prepared with action plans when the real crisis unfolded. What lessons are we learning from this pandemic that can help us better prepare for the next public health crisis? What opportunities did businesses find to be resilient, and where did they face the greatest challenges? How might businesses, together with policymakers and civil society, learn from the current crisis to take preventive steps and avert or mitigate future disasters?
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Global Vice President, Health and Wellbeing
Sodexo
Nebeyou Abebe serves as global vice president of health & wellbeing for Sodexo Group. He is responsible for enterprise-wide health and wellbeing strategy, advising clients on their workforce and community health and wellbeing goals, developing comprehensive employee health and wellbeing solutions, and establishing mutually beneficial partnerships with private, public, and non-profit entities. Prior to Sodexo, Abebe served as associate director of health systems at the Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI). At LPHI, Abebe helped transform the healthcare delivery system within Greater New Orleans. He also directed one of the largest population-based mobile health (mHealth) programs in the U.S. focused on diabetes risk awareness and prevention. Prior to LPHI, Abebe served as senior project director at the American Institutes for Research, where he directed national public health and education campaigns targeting vulnerable and high-risk populations.
Vice President, Global Health and Patient Access, Pfizer
President, The Pfizer Foundation
Caroline Roan oversees Pfizer’s Global Health and Patient Access (GH&PA) function, including the design of social investment strategies that drive access to quality healthcare, medicines, and vaccines for the most vulnerable populations; stakeholder engagement; and public reporting on environmental, social, and governance issues (ESG). During her tenure, Pfizer has refined its GH&PA strategy to better support the company’s evolving business priorities. The resulting GH&PA portfolio is a coordinated approach to strategic philanthropy and responsible investment which uses the full scope of the company’s resources to broaden access to medicines and strengthen health care delivery for underserved people. Prior to joining Pfizer, Roan worked on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Community Health Team, which focused on promoting individual and community health by increasing social support and connection. She was also associate director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) at Yale University’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.
Senior scientist and director of the Institute for Health and Productivity Studies (IHPS)
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr. Ron Z. Goetzel is senior scientist and director of the Institute for Health and Productivity Studies (IHPS) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Vice President of Consulting and Applied Research at IBM Watson Health. IHPS’ mission is to bridge the gap between academia, the business community, and the health care policy world.
At IBM Watson Health, Dr. Goetzel conducts research on the relationship between health and well-being, medical costs, and productivity. He has directed multiple evaluations of health promotion and disease prevention programs. Dr. Goetzel is president and CEO of The Health Project, which annually awards the C. Everett Koop Prize to employers demonstrating cost-effective health and well-being programs.
Director
BSR (Moderator)
Cecile Oger works with BSR members to advance sustainability strategies and better partner with stakeholders to create more resilient and inclusive business practices. She also leads BSR’s global staffing process and people management in EMEA, which includes recruitment and professional development.
Oger leads projects on stakeholder engagement, materiality, and strategy, mostly in the healthcare; consumer products; and food, beverage, and agriculture sectors. She also leads the Healthcare Working Group.
Prior to joining BSR, Oger served as deputy director for SGS Sustainability Services. Her work involved developing service offerings for sustainable supply chains. Before that, she was executive director of SFSTP, one of the largest associations of industrial pharmacists in Europe. She started her career in the chemicals industry, working for Clariant in the U.K. and Canada.
Follow Cecile @CecileOger.
Navigating and Harmonizing Sustainability Reporting Frameworks
There is often reference made to the “acronym soup” of reporting initiatives: GRI, SASB, IIRC, CDP, TCFD, CRD, and more. While each has its purpose or intended audience, there remains limited understanding on how to integrate multiple frameworks in a single report or set of complementary disclosures. This session will feature perspectives on this issue from reporting initiatives and explore what bottom-up harmonization of the frameworks looks like in practice from the report preparer’s point of view.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Head of ESG Reporting and Communications
Adobe
Stephanie Dolmat is a sustainability leader who works as the head of ESG Reporting and Communications at Adobe. She led the drive to report against Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) metrics as an industry first mover and holds the SASB FSA credential. As a clean energy enthusiast, she led a community solar program in Utah responsible for installing over half the entire state’s residential solar in one year. She is passionate about our planet, politics, and plant-based food, and she spends her free time volunteering on political campaigns, mountain biking in hometown Park City, Utah, and devouring books of all kinds.
Director, Corporate Outreach
Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)
Neil Stewart joined SASB in 2020 as its New York-based director of corporate outreach, bringing more than 25 years of experience in and around investor relations and corporate governance. Previously, he was at Citigroup as vice president IR advisory on the ADR team, helping non-U.S. issuers develop IR and ESG strategies. Stewart was formerly editorial and research director of both IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary magazine and is currently president of NIRI NY, the New York chapter of the National Investor Relations Institute.
Chief of Standards
GRI
Bastian Buck is chief of standards within Global Reporting Initiative and responsible for the all standard setting activities at GRI. He has extensive experience with the development of the GRI reporting guidance and the ins and outs of global multi-stakeholder processes, having been with GRI for more than a decade.
Manager
BSR (Moderator)
Adam works with BSR member companies across industries on sustainability management, including stakeholder engagement, materiality assessments, and reporting, among other topics.
Prior to BSR, Adam was a thematic expert on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, focusing on the linkages between climate, development, business, and sustainable consumption and production. He also previously worked on the SDGs team at World Resources Institute. During his graduate studies, Adam was a Coca-Cola World Fund fellow with Conservation International, researching the strategic connections between the SDGs, natural capital, data, and corporate sustainability in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Adam holds a Master’s in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, specializing in Business and the Environment. He has a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Government, with a concentration in International Politics, from Wesleyan University.
The Nexus of Climate and Health: Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste
For the first time in our lifetime, the entire global community is impacted by the same grave threat of COVID-19. The solidarity of this moment has led many to rise to the occasion in unprecedented fashion—governments have committed trillions to support industries and jobs affected by the global shutdown, and companies and philanthropists have directed billions toward finding therapeutics and supporting vulnerable frontline workers. This response must also be applied to the climate crisis. There is evidence that the growing threat of climate change will increase the frequency and severity of pandemics, and that the impact of these crises will disproportionately fall on poor and minority communities—further deepening economic inequality that is at the root of social unrest. In this session, we will explore the lessons learned from COVID-19 and how rebuilding efforts can and must consider a just transition to a green economy.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Medical Director, External Affairs, Government Relations and Community Health
Kaiser Permanente
Colin Cave, MD, is the Medical Director of External Affairs, Government Relations and Community Health for Northwest Permanente (NWP), the medical group for Kaiser Permanente Northwest. He previously served as chairman of the board for NWP. Cave completed his residency in head and neck surgery at Stanford and has served as president of the Oregon Medical Association, Medical Society of Metropolitan Portland, and the Oregon Academy of Otolaryngology. He has been a practicing surgeon since 1994, having won the Distinguished Physician Award and selected nine times as a Top Physician by Portland Monthly Magazine. Cave is responsible for NWP’s Corporate Social Responsibility program, including community engagement and B Corp activities. He also heads NWP’s regional and national leadership efforts in addressing climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, mitigation, and resilience strategies and enacting NWP’s Climate Action Plan.
Head of International Programs, Climate & Environment
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Ailun Yang manages all international initiatives for the Climate & Environment portfolio at Bloomberg Philanthropies, with a focus on energy transition, air pollution, and sustainable finance. Leveraging a background rooted in finance and advocacy, she uses her unique skillset to mobilize environmental activism, deploy data-driven strategies, and build high-profile partnerships to help move the world to a low-carbon economy.
Director, Partnership Development
BSR (Moderator)
Chhavi oversees BSR’s relationships with governments and foundations in North America, where he seeks to create cross-sector partnerships between the private sector and donors to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Prior to joining BSR, Chhavi worked for a socially responsible investment firm, where he combined financial and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) analysis to make sustainable investment recommendations. He also spent several years as an operations manager for Oracle’s Asia-Pacific and Americas regions, opening a new operation in India. He also developed a CSR strategy for a spirits company in Mexico, developed sustainability reports for companies in India and Saudi Arabia, and worked as a freelance CSR consultant for the Institute of Public Health. He speaks English, Spanish, and Hindi.
Chhavi holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business and an M.A. in International Studies from the Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a B.A. in English and Computer Science from Rutgers University.
On the Horizon: Emerging Issues for Business
Every day during the COVID-19 crisis, new issues are emerging in areas such as gender, privacy, intergenerational conflict, social contract experiments, renewable energy, automation, and economic growth. In this session, we will take a deep dive into a set of 4-5 of these emerging issues. After learning more about these issues that are unfolding in front of us, we will examine what they might mean for business and how sustainability teams can help their companies navigate them.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Founder and CEO
Shimmy
Sarah Krasley is a social impact entrepreneur focused on an equitable future of work for fashion supply chain workers. As CEO of Shimmy, Krasley leads the company in its efforts to upskill and reskill the 75 million workers in the supply chain who are in danger of losing their jobs to automation.
Prior to Shimmy, Krasley lead sustainable manufacturing at Autodesk where she and her team created software for hundreds of thousands of designers, engineers, and factory owners worldwide. She serves on advisory boards for WEF, the NYC Department of Education, and the Urban Manufacturing Alliance.
Global Vice President, Sustainability
Mars
Lisa Manley is global vice president of sustainability at Mars. She oversees the Thriving People portfolio of initiatives, which includes respecting human rights, increasing incomes for smallholder farmers, and unlocking opportunities for women.
Manley joined Mars in 2017 to refine and help launch the Sustainable in a Generation Plan. Since its launch, she has focused on building momentum through distinct sustainability strategies, dynamic communications, strategic NGO partnerships, diverse stakeholder engagements, and visible leadership.
Manley has worked on sustainable business strategy, communications, and stakeholder engagement for the past 20 years. She is recognized externally as a leader in sustainability, speaking regularly in stakeholder forums and publishing viewpoints on relevant issues. She has worked in-house at The Coca-Cola Company in the United States and Europe and served as a consultant to numerous Fortune 100 companies—always focused on integrating social and environmental sustainability into business strategy.
Vice President
BSR
Dunstan oversees BSR’s human rights, women’s empowerment, and inclusive economy practices.
Previously, Dunstan led BSR’s information and communications technology and heavy manufacturing practices.
He brings significant experience working in North America, EMEA, and Asia on a diverse range of issues such as technology and human rights, privacy and freedom of expression, sustainability reporting, sustainability strategy, and stakeholder engagement.
Dunstan facilitated the multistakeholder process of developing global principles on freedom of expression and privacy, which led to the launch of the Global Network Initiative in October 2008. He also helped create the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, a collaborative initiative of more than 100 ICT companies improving conditions in their supply chains. Dunstan participated in the process of creating the Global Reporting Initiative G3 guidelines, and is a regular commentator on issues of corporate accountability, reporting, and human rights. He also co-authored the 2010 book, Big Business, Big Responsibilities.
Prior to joining BSR in 2004, Dunstan was part of British Telecommunications’ corporate responsibility team.
Dunstan has an M.Prof. in Sustainable Development from Forum for the Future.
Follow Dunstan @dunstanhope.
Director, Sustainable Futures Lab
BSR (Moderator)
Jacob Park leads BSR’s Sustainable Futures Lab, a new practice using strategic foresight techniques to help businesses engage with emerging issues that are reshaping the global landscape.
Before joining BSR, Park was the lead futurist in the New York office of Forum for the Future, where he used scenario planning and other futures techniques to develop sustainability strategy and drive innovation for leading businesses, foundations, and multistakeholder groups. Prior to that he worked at Adaptive Edge, a boutique strategic foresight consultancy, on collaborative scenario planning. Park began his career doing human rights research and advocacy at Human Rights First and the Center for Economic and Social Rights.
Follow Jacob @jacobpark.
Overcoming the Diversity Challenge in the Sustainability Field
As we look around, it is clear the sustainability field is not as diverse as we would hope. Whether within BSR, corporate sustainability departments, or our peer organizations, the lack of racial diversity, especially among leadership, has limited our ability to bring issues of racial justice to the forefront of our work. Given the fact that people of color will be disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, healthcare access, and our other areas of work, addressing racial inequality should be a priority for everyone working in sustainability. As the Black Lives Matter movement gains momentum around the world, we look internally at the sustainability community with questions. How can we create a workplace where all employees feel like they belong and can use their unique backgrounds and perspectives to their fullest potential? And how can we understand and dismantle pervasive white privilege that might be hindering the recruitment of diverse employees? Join us for this candid conversation to hear how leaders from various sustainability functions are working to integrate racial justice into their programmatic priorities externally and within their workforces internally.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Chief Executive Officer
Net Impact
Net Impact is a 135,000+ member, 450 chapter organization with a mission to inspire and equip emerging leaders to build a more just and sustainable world.
Lupoff previously founded Tiburon Capital Management, running Tiburon as CIO until acquired by consultant, Gray & Company. He later founded Lupoff Friends and Family Interests, which has committed to operating a 100% Impact Investment portfolio, and is a fellow and advisory council member of World Policy Institute, with a focus on private capital and market solutions to the challenges confronting people and planet. Lupoff is active with Clean Power for Humanity, bringing green electrification projects to rural Asian villages and schools, and Defy Ventures, training the previously incarcerated. Since 2016, he has taught Impact Investing and Investment Research classes as special lecturer at Yale School of Management and Fordham University (where he was Entrepreneur-in-Residence 2018-19, and remains a fellow with their Center for Research in Contemporary Finance). He founded Lupoff Impact Scholars Institute to provide stipends to students that accept low/no-pay internships that benefit people and planet.
Group Director, Sustainability Engagement
Grundfos
Janda Campos has more than 20 years of experience working with sustainability from different sectors, from going back to launching AA1000, driving the Nordic Partnership for Sustainable Development with Mandag Morgen think tank, leading the Danish Government’s CSR efforts, and developing sustainability strategies at the Danish Industry Confederation to building Carlsberg Group’s sustainability and public affairs area as VP and developing corporate partnerships for SOS Children Villages in Denmark. Today, Campos leads Grundfos’ sustainability and ESG efforts, moving the company toward its ambition of being water and climate leaders and fulfilling its purpose on solving the water and climate challenges of the world while improving peoples’ quality of life.
Originally from Brazil, she lived in the U.S. as a child and for the past 27 years, she has been located in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Global Partner for Client Sustainability, Corporate and M&A
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Tim Wilkins is the global partner for client sustainability at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP. In this role, he leads a global team, drawing on the firm’s regulatory, litigation, and transactional expertise to boost support for clients related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities. Prior to taking this role, Wilkins served as a corporate partner, maintaining a cross-border mergers and acquisitions practice in New York and Tokyo. He was recently selected as a Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executive by EMpower for 2020 and the highest ranked lawyer at #16. Wilkins is also an adjunct professor of international law at Hunter College.
Managing Director
BSR (Moderator)
Aditi works with BSR members across sectors to help them improve and advance their sustainability strategies. She leads BSR’s global portfolio of work on women’s empowerment across consulting, collaboration, and research.
Aditi joined BSR after several years at Calvert Investment Management, a leading sustainable and responsible investment firm. There, she led strategic planning for Calvert’s executive committee, and held various roles within the sustainability research team. Her portfolio included companies in the information and communications technology sector, and she led corporate engagements on the subjects of gender corporate governance and gender equality, including the advancement of the Calvert Women’s Principles.
Aditi holds an M.B.A. in Finance from George Washington University, and a B.S. in International Economics from the University of Florida.
Follow Aditi @AditiMohapatra.
The Power of Data to Create and Break Gender Stereotypes
The gender data gap is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women, and it has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women’s lives. In fact, most workplace and supply chain management systems do not include a gender lens to account for women’s unique needs and rights, which prevents women from thriving in or even entering the supply chain workforce. Mainstreaming gender-sensitive dimensions across the different policies and processes is essential to promote gender equality and advance women across supply chains. In this session, we will explore how the lack of gender data leads to gaps in knowledge and solutions across product development, workplaces, global supply chains, and customer engagement.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Global Lead for Diversity and Inclusion
Telia Company
Clara Bodin is global lead for diversity and inclusion at Telia Company, the biggest telecommunications company in the Nordics and Baltics with 21 000 employees strong. Her mission and passion is to make Telia Company a true equal opportunity employer. Bodin has a background working in Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia in various HR and business roles for Swedish companies. Prior to working with diversity and inclusion, she was the HR director for Telia Eurasia, and before that the regional HR director for Oriflame Cosmetics in Former Soviet Union, based in Moscow. Bodin was awarded “Top Swede Abroad” in 2011 by Swedish Business Journal “Veckans Affärer” when she ran her own HR consultancy company in Kiev, Ukraine.
Gender Benchmark Lead
World Benchmarking Alliance
Shamistha Selvaratnam engages with various stakeholders to build a movement to incentivise the private sector to drive gender equality and women’s empowerment across their entire value chain. Before she joined the WBA, she worked as a corporate lawyer in Australia where she advised businesses on how to align with international and domestic business and human rights standards. She also co-authored a chapter of The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development: A Commentary, which focuses on the critical role that women play in achieving sustainable development.
Head, Global Women’s Safety Policy
Uber
Brittany Anthony drives company policy and strategy related to gender-based violence and women’s empowerment through mobility. She leads the authoring of Uber’s U.S. Safety Report, the first publication of its kind to be voluntarily issued by any company, transparently sharing its safety processes and data related to the reports of serious safety incidents on its platform. Prior to Uber, Anthony has more than 12 years in the gender-based violence field with particular expertise in preparing research and data analysis publications on key issues affecting survivors, including how businesses and practitioners can best address sexual violence and human trafficking within their spheres of influence. She has developed data collection and quality standards for national victim service hotlines, and has provided targeted consulting on local, national, and international levels. Throughout her career she has directly served survivors in shelter, hospital advocacy, crisis counseling, and hotline settings.
Manager, Women's Empowerment
BSR (Moderator)
Annelise works with BSR members across sectors to promote women’s empowerment through consulting, collaboration, and research. She supports the work of the Business Action for Women collaborative initiative.
Prior to joining BSR, Annelise worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where she led the OECD Policy Dialogue on Women’s Economic Empowerment, a global multi-stakeholder community committed to promoting women’s economic empowerment. Her research focused on identifying barriers to women’s economic empowerment, women’s unpaid care work, and time use. During her time at the OECD, she worked on the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), conducted research, and led trainings on social norms and gender equality. She also worked closely with bilateral donors to ensure that their development programming supported gender equality and women’s empowerment and worked on issues such as combatting sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment.
Annelise holds a M.A. in International Relations from the American University of Paris and a B.A. in International Affairs and French from the University of Georgia.
Follow Annelise @Annelise_Thim.
Reducing Poverty through Business Collaboration in Developing Countries
Come learn firsthand about a new partnership between BSR and Sida—the Swedish International Development Agency—and how your business can participate. BSR and Sida seek to increase and deepen the effective contribution of the private sector to reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The focus of the five-year partnership is to reduce poverty globally through business collaboration outside of North America and Western Europe.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Assistant Director-General and Head of Department, Partnership and Innovation
Sida
Alan AtKisson serves as assistant director-general of Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and leads the Department of Partnership and Innovation. The department manages grant portfolios and coordinates programs related to Sida’s work with civil society, research cooperation, capacity development, catalytic development finance, financial guarantees, business and the private sector, institutional investors, and Swedish government agencies, as well as key international partners such as bilateral donors and foundations. He also leads Sida’s work with development-related innovation.
Head of Networks, Partnerships and Gender Division
OECD Development Centre
Bathylle Missika is head of the networks, partnerships and gender division at the OECD Development Centre. Missika oversees the Development Centre’s work on the development narrative and the contribution of its various stakeholders, ranging from the contribution of non-state actors (foundations, MNEs) to engaging citizens in support of Sustainable Development Goals. She also oversees regional dialogue and major development fora, together with the OECD Development Centre’s work on gender equality. Missika re-joined the OECD in 2012 after working in UNDP’s Conflict Bureau and the UNDP’s Democratic Governance Trust Fund.
Senior Vice President
BSR (Moderator)
With more than 20 years in the consulting field, Eric leads BSR’s global consulting practice to design and implement sustainability strategies that create business value by addressing some of the world’s greatest challenges.
In addition to advising the CEOs and senior teams of several global companies, Eric plays a lead role on a number of BSR’s collaborative initiatives, including the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, the Net Positive Project, and Future of Fuels, as well as our work with the We Mean Business coalition.
Prior to joining BSR, Eric worked with the Natural Step in San Francisco, accelerating sustainability through strategic counsel on a broad range of corporate responsibility matters that included supply chain management and sustainable development. He also has served as vice president at the Boston Consulting Group and was a partner and founding member of the global consultancy Mitchell Madison Group.
Eric was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he earned an M.S. in Russian and East European Studies. He also holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Macalester College.
Follow Eric @gospodinolson.
Rethinking Growth and Prosperity during Global Crises
The pursuit of ever-greater economic growth has failed to deliver on the promise of prosperity for all, while also pushing our planet beyond capacity. The dual crises of COVID-19 and racial injustice, especially in the U.S., have laid bare deep inequalities and highlighted the extreme vulnerability of large portions of the working class, despite years of increased productivity and economic growth. Meanwhile, a near complete pause of business for months resulted in the greatest environmental gains since World War II, while also exposing how far we still are from meeting critical targets. Panelists from government, academia, and the private sector will discuss the paths forward, how we can rethink the traditional link between growth and prosperity, and implications in the face of climate change, persistent inequality, and now, massive unemployment.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Founder and Director
Center for Sustainable Business
Dr. CB Bhattacharya, founder and director of the Center for Sustainable Business, is the H.J. Zoffer Chair in Sustainability and Ethics at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh. He is a world-renowned expert in business strategy innovation aimed at increasing both business and social value. Bhattacharya has published over 100 articles and has over 32,000 citations per Google Scholar. His latest book, entitled Small Actions Big Difference: Leveraging Corporate Sustainability to Drive Business and Societal Value, was published by Routledge in 2019. He is co-author of the book Leveraging Corporate Responsibility: The Stakeholder Route to Maximizing Business and Social Value and co-editor of the book Global Challenges in Responsible Business, both published by Cambridge University Press.
Vice President, Global Sustainability
VF Corporation
Jeannie Renne-Malone leads the global sustainability function at VF Corporation,driving the company’s environmental sustainability strategy, goals, and actions, covering all aspects of VF’s footprint, including direct corporate impacts, supply chain environmental impacts, and impacts of materials and products. She sets goals and objectives, establishes strategies, engages stakeholders, tracks progress, and reports sustainability/ESG results. She leads various strategic initiatives including development of VF’s Science Based Targets roadmap, and development of VF’s Green Bond Framework, which led to the issuance of the apparel and footwear industry’s first green bond.
Associate Director
BSR (Moderator)
Working with companies in the food and agriculture and oil industries, Roger McElrath advises on sustainability policies and programs in the areas of supply chain management, community development, stakeholder relations, reporting, and strategy. He has worked with Tate & Lyle on code of conducts, Archer Daniels Midland on CSR strategy and supply chain management, and Threemile Canyon Farms on developing a sustainability vision and metrics.
Rise Up: Activism in the Decisive Decade
Amid increasing calls from employees and other stakeholders for companies to take a more active stance on the most concerning issues of today—from the climate crisis to social and racial justice—companies face both complex challenges and new opportunities to achieve meaningful and durable impact aligned with their business and sustainability goals. In this session, a select group of corporate leaders and key stakeholders will discuss lessons learned and share insights on how best to navigate this difficult, exciting, and increasingly indispensable space.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Director, ESG Sharehowner Engagement
Boston Trust Walden
Timothy Smith leads the firm’s shareholder engagement program to promote greater corporate leadership on ESG issues. This includes company dialogues, shareholder proposals, proxy voting, and public policy advocacy. He is actively involved in representing the firm at public events and in fostering long-term client relationships.
Director, U.S. Government Relations
McDonald's
As a member of McDonald’s U.S. Government Relations Department, John Monsif manages a legislative portfolio which includes energy, environment, and agriculture. In this role, he works to advance public policy that coordinates, incentivizes, and accelerates efforts to decrease the U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and advances environmental sustainability efforts that are good for the planet and for the businesses.
Monsif began his career in sales at a flavor company that sold to Fortune 100 food and beverage companies, like McDonald’s. After six years, he started a new career on Capitol Hill as a junior staffer. After having served as a legislative director and a two-time chief of staff, he left the Hill to advocate for children’s issues for four years before joining McDonald’s.
Head of Civil Rights and Senior Strategic Outreach Counsel
Google
Chanelle Hardy is an attorney, social justice advocate and tech policy expert dedicated to advancing policies and leaders that promote opportunity and justice. At Google, she serves as Head of Civil Rights and Senior Strategic Outreach Counsel. In 2016, she launched her passion project: the Google Next Generation Policy Leaders learning community, to identify, equip and engage the multicultural emerging leaders in tech and social justice policy. Prior to joining Google, Hardy served as a Chief of Staff on Capitol Hill, Senior Vice President of Policy for the National Urban League, and Chief of Staff to the first woman Chair of the Federal Communications Commission.
Senior Vice President
BSR (Moderator)
With more than 20 years in the consulting field, Eric leads BSR’s global consulting practice to design and implement sustainability strategies that create business value by addressing some of the world’s greatest challenges.
In addition to advising the CEOs and senior teams of several global companies, Eric plays a lead role on a number of BSR’s collaborative initiatives, including the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, the Net Positive Project, and Future of Fuels, as well as our work with the We Mean Business coalition.
Prior to joining BSR, Eric worked with the Natural Step in San Francisco, accelerating sustainability through strategic counsel on a broad range of corporate responsibility matters that included supply chain management and sustainable development. He also has served as vice president at the Boston Consulting Group and was a partner and founding member of the global consultancy Mitchell Madison Group.
Eric was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he earned an M.S. in Russian and East European Studies. He also holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Macalester College.
Follow Eric @gospodinolson.
The Role of Government to Promote Sustainable Finance
Over the past decade corporations have embraced the need for a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) and that is not limited to private sector. Financial Services Agency, Japanese government body which is overseeing financial sector to ensure the stability of financial system, has appointed Chief Sustainable Finance Officer (CSFO) in March 2019, with the aim to promote sustainable finance. What is the role of newly established CSFO? What does it aim to achieve through establishing the position? What is the mid-term plan? What is the strategy to achieve those goals? What is the structure and what does the team look like? What is the expectation to corporations? How do you collaborate and communicate among different stakeholders to achieve those goals? This session is part of a series that will feature CSOs from various sectors and regions in one-on-one intimate conversations with BSR leadership. With this session, we will discuss the ever-changing role of the CSO for the government agencies, the challenges and how to address them.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Chief Sustainable Finance Officer
Financial Services Agency, the Government of Japan
In March 2019, the Financial Services Agency of Japan (JFSA) decided to create the position of chief sustainable finance officer (CSFO) to plan and coordinate on promotion of sustainable finance internally and globally. Upon its creation, Satoshi Ikeda was appointed, and has been serving, as the first CSFO.
In this capacity, he covers a wide range of issues concerning sustainable finance which include, among other things, aligning private finance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), promoting TCFD disclosures by business corporations and financial institutions alike, and representing JFSA for the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) as plenary member.
Managing Director
BSR (Moderator)
With more than 20 years of sustainability experience, Asako advises global technology companies as well as BSR members and partners in Japan to better integrate sustainability into core business strategies.
Prior to joining BSR, Asako was Head of the CSR Management Section at Sony Corporation, and she has more than 10 years of experience leading global sustainability strategies. She has experience in sustainability reporting, stakeholder engagement, supply chain management, and responsible mineral sourcing and human rights. She also played a key role in shaping the industry framework for the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition.
Asako holds dual master’s degrees in Business Administration and Science from the Ross School of Business and School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan.
Scenario-Planning the Future of Climate Action and Policy
Climate action and policy do not take place in a vacuum, but rather are profoundly influenced by external factors like geopolitics, the global economy, societal trends, and technological disruption. Join us to explore different scenarios for how global trends and emerging issues are likely to reshape climate action and policy and learn how to navigate uncertainty in our profoundly disruptive times.
Scheduled Speakers
Speakers to be announced.
Managing Director
BSR (Moderator)
David leads BSR’s climate practice to maximize the impact of our applied research, collaborative initiatives, and work with individual companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build climate resilience. He is also the international policy lead for the We Mean Business coalition.
Before joining BSR, David was a climate diplomat for the Marshall Islands with the advisory group Independent Diplomat and led on transparency issues in the UN climate negotiations for the Alliance of Small Island States. As an international lawyer with the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development, David built up the environmental treaty expertise of countries across the globe. He began his career as a securities litigator with Fried Frank in New York before focusing on climate change and energy.
David holds a LL.M. in International Law from New York University, a J.D. and M.A. in International Relations from the University of Toronto, and a B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University.
Follow David @ClimateWei.
Sustainability in the Boardroom: Perception vs. Reality
ESG is quickly rising on board agendas. Many major corporations now have dedicated ESG committees on their boards, are adding to their ESG skillsets, and are holding executive leadership accountable for ESG performance. But does this perception of increased ESG integration match up to reality? In this session, we will hear from current board members of major corporations as well as external groups pushing for more ESG board integration. They will provide their own perspectives on what really happens on ESG inside the boardroom and how it currently matches up with stakeholder expectations.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Senior Vice President, Corporate Secretary and Assistant General Counsel
Merck & Co.
Geralyn S. Ritter is senior vice president at Merck & Co., Inc. and has been appointed executive vice president external affairs and corporate governance at Organon & Co., the new company that is planned to spin-off from Merck in 2021. Ritter served as corporate secretary of Merck from 2012-2020, and led corporate governance at the company, advising both senior management and the board of directors. Ritter also led engagement with the company’s major shareholders on a wide array of governance matters.
Earlier in her career at Merck, Ritter served as senior vice president of global public policy and president of the Merck Foundation. Prior to Merck, she was senior vice president for international affairs at PhRMA and also worked at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and Covington & Burling.
Non-Executive Director
Eni, BSR, Viridor, CFA Institute
Karina Litvack serves on the boards of Eni S.p.A., Viridor Waste Management Limited, the CFA Institute and BSR, following a 25-year career in sustainable investment. Litvack also co-founded Chapter Zero, a project launched under the auspices of the World Economic Forum that works with non-executive directors to put climate change at the heart of board strategy and processes.
Vice President
BSR (Moderator)
With more than 20 years of sustainable development experience, John leads BSR’s global infrastructure and financial services practices, advising companies on corporate sustainability strategy, responsible investing and project development, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk management.
Before BSR, John was the founder and president of SunOne Solutions, a leading carbon project developer in North and South America. John worked as a staff member in the World Bank’s sustainable development group, where he managed global energy and transport infrastructure projects and the vice president for sustainable development’s front office, and served as the infrastructure advisor in the Thailand and Kosovo country offices. He has also held positions in the airline transport industry, with a private infrastructure project developer in Chile, and with an impact investing fund in the Balkans.
John holds an M.P.A. from Harvard University, an International M.B.A. from the University of South Carolina, and a B.S. in International Trade and Finance from Louisiana State University.
The Changing Role of China in the Global Economy
As an important manufacturing base and global economic power, China demonstrates consistent economic growth, even despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing geopolitical tension with the West. While the overall world economy is facing great uncertainty, China has resumed its production and market performance quickly. Domestically, China’s consumer market is largely back to normal—supported by e-commence—and production lines are up and running. Moreover, China is continuing to pursue its global economic integration, including its sustainability agenda, by aiming higher to meet international reporting and sustainability governance requirements and pushing clean energy and environmental protections. In this session, key business leaders and stakeholders will facilitate a dialogue to better understand how Chinese government regulations and laws will impact the global economy and steer the sustainability agenda.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Director of Sustainability Stewardship
China National Textile and Apparel Council
Mr. Kehua HU, deputy director of the Office for Social Responsibility at China Textile and Apparel Industry Council (CNTAC), also works as sustainability stewardship director in charge of sustainability stewardship programs to accelerate sustainability transition in the Chinese industry. HU is managing director of Fashion Climate Fund, and has been assigned as co-chair of the Policy Engagement Working Group of the UNFCCC Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, member of the Sustainability Advisory Committee of Kering Group China, off-campus Master Tutor of Donghua University since 2018, and Chair of the Equity Committee of Bureau VERITAS China Accreditation since 2015.
Prior to joining CNTAC in 2008, Mr. HU has worked separately in General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) and in Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) in China.
Vice President, Communications and Sustainability
Sateri Group
Sun Jian joined Sateri in November of 2019 as vice president, communications and sustainability. Sateri is the world’s largest producer of viscose fiber with over 1.4 million metric tons annual capacity. Sateri’s products, as a sustainable raw material, can be found in everyday items like textiles, baby wipes, and personal hygiene products.
Immediately prior to Sateri, he worked for RGE, Sateri’s parent company, as head of communications. In his earlier career, Jian served several international businesses in the FMCG industry at various positions related to public affairs, including McDonalds, Diageo, Midea, etc.
Director
BSR (Moderator)
Lin Wang leads BSR’s work in China, with a focus on women workers’ empowerment and supply chain sustainability issues. She has extensive external and government relations connections and experience and is one of the leading thinkers on supply chain, economic development, and labor issues in China.
Wang started her sustainable business career at the ILO in Geneva, where she designed a project on human resources management and labor relations in China’s special economic zones. She returned to China in 2001 to serve as the project’s chief technical advisor. In 2005, IKEA recruited Lin as a sustainability manager, where she was responsible for the overall IKEA China supply chain sustainability scope, including social and environmental compliance and external relations, as well as for contributing to global sustainability strategy and action plans.
The Future of the Sustainability Function: The Evolving Role of the CSO (EMEA)
Over the past decade corporations have embraced the need for a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) and have recognized the strategic value of integrating the CSO and the sustainability team further into corporate strategy, risk management, and business lines. As business-critical stakeholders – investors, board members, major customers, etc. – increasingly engage the sustainability team directly, they expect the CSO to take part in key corporate decision-making processes and hold a higher level of accountability for business success. However, corporations are taking disparate approaches when it comes to the roles, authority and accountability of the sustainability officer and function. This session is part of a series that will feature CSOs from various industries and regions in one-on-one intimate conversations with BSR leadership. We will discuss the ever-changing role of the CSO and sustainability team, what being “integrated” into the business teams means in practice, and expectations for the corporate sustainability profession over the next decade.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Chief Sustainability Officer
Unilever
Rebecca Marmot is responsible for driving, through advocacy and partnerships, transformational change on priority areas of Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan: climate change and eliminating deforestation; sustainable agriculture and smallholder farmers; water, sanitation and hygiene; and opportunities for women.
Marmot is a Non-Executive Director at WSUP – Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor.
Follow Rebecca @RebeccaMarmot.
Vice President, Consumer Sectors and Global Membership
BSR (Moderator)
Elisa leads BSR’s consumer sectors practice globally and oversees the BSR global membership network. She works with companies in the luxury, beauty, fashion, hospitality, retail, and food industries to better integrate sustainability into core business strategy, products, and operations.
She helps companies understand the world’s big disruptions, create resilient and inclusive business models and practices, and evolve brand strategy to integrate changing consumer expectations. Elisa also leads BSR’s Responsible Luxury Initiative and the Southeast Asia Reptile Conservation Alliance (SARCA).
Prior to joining BSR, Elisa was an account manager at CHANEL and a consultant at Accenture and Ernst & Young.
Elisa is French-American. She holds an M.B.A. in Luxury Goods Marketing and Management from Sup de Luxe, an M.A. in International Relations from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques Paris, and a B.A. in French from the University of Pennsylvania.
Follow Elisa @ElisaN.
The Future of the Sustainability Function: The Evolving Role of the CSO (US)
Over the past decade corporations have embraced the need for a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) and have recognized the strategic value of integrating the CSO and the sustainability team further into corporate strategy, risk management, and business lines. As business-critical stakeholders – investors, board members, major customers, etc. – increasingly engage the sustainability team directly, they expect the CSO to take part in key corporate decision-making processes and hold a higher level of accountability for business success. However, corporations are taking disparate approaches when it comes to the roles, authority and accountability of the sustainability officer and function. This session is part of a series that will feature CSOs from various industries and regions in one-on-one intimate conversations with BSR leadership. We will discuss the ever-changing role of the CSO and sustainability team, what being “integrated” into the business teams means in practice, and expectations for the corporate sustainability profession over the next decade.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Chief Sustainability Officer
Mastercard
Kristina Kloberdanz is Mastercard’s first chief sustainability officer. As CSO, she collaborates with leadership across the business to integrate sustainability initiatives shared among business units and position them to be enterprise wide drivers of growth—in advancing inclusive growth ; ensuring a workforce that is inspired by a sense of purpose ; limiting its impact of climate change ; and putting ethics, data privacy, and security first. Kloberdanz’s role at Mastercard rests on two decades of experience from her work at IBM leading its global corporate responsibility, as an inaugural member and facilitator of IBM’s Corporate Service Corps, and managing IBM’s Global Sports and Entertainment sponsorships, among other responsibilities. Most recently, she was listed on GreenBiz’s « 25 Badass Women Shaking Up the Climate Movement » in 2020 and Forbes’ « 46 Sustainability Leaders (Who Are Also Women) » 2018.
Vice President
BSR (Moderator)
With more than 20 years of sustainable development experience, John leads BSR’s global infrastructure and financial services practices, advising companies on corporate sustainability strategy, responsible investing and project development, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk management.
Before BSR, John was the founder and president of SunOne Solutions, a leading carbon project developer in North and South America. John worked as a staff member in the World Bank’s sustainable development group, where he managed global energy and transport infrastructure projects and the vice president for sustainable development’s front office, and served as the infrastructure advisor in the Thailand and Kosovo country offices. He has also held positions in the airline transport industry, with a private infrastructure project developer in Chile, and with an impact investing fund in the Balkans.
John holds an M.P.A. from Harvard University, an International M.B.A. from the University of South Carolina, and a B.S. in International Trade and Finance from Louisiana State University.
The New Era of ESG Investing
ESG investing has gone from niche to norm, stirring up powerful implications for the convergence of corporate sustainability and investor relations. Join us as we examine the current ESG landscape and what sustainability and investor relations teams should focus on to navigate evolutions in areas like data-gathering, frameworks, and more. We will also take a deeper dive into where sustainability teams still need to look beyond investors toward emerging issues.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Global Head, ESG Investment Strategy
State Street Global Advisors
Nathalie Wallace works closely with clients to develop ESG and climate strategies that are aligned with their specific mandates and adapted to clients’ investment considerations. She coordinates with the ESG research and development, investment research, and management teams to design ESG investment solutions tailored to clients’ needs.
While at Ceres, Wallace worked with institutional asset owners to design and implement ESG principle statements and integration strategies, as well as engagement platforms such as Climate Actions 100+. She leverages her considerable experience in leading research and investment teams to allocate capital to public and private equity investment in emerging markets for global institutional clients, including sovereign wealth and institutional pension funds. She is a trade advisor to the French Government, taught an Impact Investing class at Northeastern University in Boston, wrote several papers on sustainable economic development in emerging markets, and presented research at investment conferences.
Product Manager, Sustainable Finance Solutions
Bloomberg
Amisha Parekh leads ESG data acquisition and curation within Bloomberg’s Sustainable Finance Solutions team. She is also an associate professor of Business Strategy for Sustainability at Glasgow Caledonian New York College.
Prior to Bloomberg, she was a senior manager in Deloitte’s U.S. Strategy group, where she helped startups and large companies develop sustainability strategies and improve operational performance.
She has previously also worked in brand management at Procter & Gamble and in sustainability at Walmart and is the co-author of High Performance Hospitality: Sustainable Hotel Case Studies.
Global Vice President, Investor Relations
Anheuser-Busch InBev
Lauren Abbott joined AB InBev in 2014, holding positions in the global marketing team before transitioning to the investor relations team in 2016. Prior to joining AB InBev, she worked at UBS Investment Bank in the Emerging Markets Trading group as well as in private equity.
Director
BSR (Moderator)
David leads BSR’s financial services practice and works closely with BSR’s sustainability management team to partner with companies across sectors. He advises companies on integrating sustainability into corporate strategy, investment management, and products and services.
David has led engagements in all of BSR’s areas of expertise and major industry groups. As part of his collaboration with BSR members, he has developed sustainable investment strategies for private equity funds and their portfolio companies, designed and operationalized a leading impact investing fund, conducted materiality assessments and facilitated strategy development, undertaken human rights impact assessments on emerging technologies, co-authored research on the business benefits of inclusive business strategies, and built global stakeholder engagement tools, among other activities. David also co-leads the Net Positive Project.
Before joining BSR, David worked in strategy and management consulting at Bain & Company. Additionally, he has worked as an independent consultant in sustainability and nonprofit governance.
David holds a B.A. in History from Amherst College.
Unbiasing Human Rights Due Diligence: The Case for Inclusive Approaches
As we enter the decisive decade of the 2020s, the global inequality crisis is coming to light, where fair opportunities and justice are not guaranteed on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. It is time to make human rights due diligence reflective of the way vulnerable groups are disproportionately affected—and intersectionality is key. How can businesses take an inclusive approach in human rights due diligence and use methodologies that help identify impacts specific and intersectional to different groups of rightsholders? This session will showcase how inclusive due diligence can and should be integrated into existing human rights methodologies—from context setting, to rightsholder identification, to data collection and rightsholder engagement strategies—to build inclusive strategies and transformative remedy.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Human Rights Senior Advisor
Total
Cynthia Trigo began working for the Bolivian government in 1996 as a specialist on Indigenous people’s rights. With almost 25 years of her career, she has worked with multinational corporations including Shell, BP, and Total in the oil and gas sector in Bolivia. She acquired a deep understanding of the business perspective, and a robust field experience implementing international standards which allowed her to manage successfully complex issues in high-risk settings. In 2016, she joined Total HQ in Paris as head of the social performance for the Exploration and Production branch. In 2018, she joined the Human Rights department at the Group level, where she was in charge of human rights risk analysis and advised on due diligence processes, particularly in important projects and commodities sourcing with a focus on gender rights.
Miranda Sissons
Director of Human Rights
Facebook
Human Rights Manager
Novartis
Peter Nestor joined Novartis after 8 years in the human rights practice at BSR, a non-profit organization advising companies on corporate responsibility and human rights. He is also the co-chair of the Human Rights and Labor Subcommittee of the PSCI (Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative), where he has spearheaded projects to investigate pharmaceutical supply chains, develop human rights training, and deliver webinars to the PSCI membership on human rights issues in the sector.
During his time at BSR, Nestor led the Human Rights Working Group, a collaboration of 40+ global companies working to integrate the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. He also co-founded three other collaborations between companies and civil society to fight modern slavery and human trafficking.
Human Rights Director
BSR (Moderator)
Jenny leads BSR’s human rights practice across consulting and collaboration.
Prior to joining BSR, Jenny worked at Mercy Corps for over a decade in both field management and advisory roles to better understand, prevent, and mitigate conflict. As the organization’s first Peace & Governance Director in Myanmar and later as the Director of the Peace & Conflict technical advisory team, she launched, built, and implemented programs that aimed to reduce violence, build the preconditions for peace and development, and address critical and emerging threats – from climate change and disruptive technology to poor governance and gender inequality. She has experience in context analysis, stakeholder engagement, mediation and negotiation, project design and implementation, and strategic planning. Jenny has lived and worked in countries including Myanmar, Indonesia, Nepal, Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Central African Republic, and Cameroon.
Jenny holds an M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
What Should the Unicorns of the 21st Century Look Like?
In 2019, the World Economic Forum reported 326 privately held startups with a valuation of over US$1B. These “unicorns” are becoming both more prevalent than their mythical namesake suggests and taking on a bigger role in reshaping business models and industry norms: The gig economy is redefining our concept of work, the sharing economy is shifting possibilities for asset owners, and artificial intelligence is changing how we experience the world around us. So what should the unicorns of the 21st century look like? What responsibilities should they have in society at large and in the communities where they operate? What opportunities do they have to be leaders in rolling out a modernized 21st-century social contract?
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Executive Director
Morgan Stanley
Jamie Martin is an executive director in Morgan Stanley’s Global Sustainable Finance group, responsible for delivering sustainable investing products and solutions to the firm’s institutional and wealth management clients. In this role, he collaborates across the firm’s Institutional Securities, Investment Management and Wealth Management divisions to drive adoption of sustainable investing strategies seeking to achieve competitive financial returns alongside measurable positive environmental and/or social impact.
Martin is a former representative on the executive committee of The Green Bond Principles and B Lab’s Multinational and Public Markets Advisory Council. He started his career at Citigroup, working in the firm’s Global Investment Research division.
Head of Social Impact
Dropbox
Tina Lee spent over a decade working in the intersection of social good and technology by building impactful partnerships with global NGOs, foundations, and the private sector. She currently leads Dropbox’s social impact efforts, where she is supporting nonprofits that defend human rights around the world through the Dropbox Foundation, and strengthening employee engagement programs through volunteerism and product donation. Under Lee’s leadership, Dropbox most recently announced its first sustainability goals. Prior to Dropbox, she worked at a number of nonprofits, including NetHope as senior director of strategic partnerships, where she developed public-private partnerships with large tech companies, such as Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Box and Okta, that wanted to help support the world’s largest nonprofits by solving the toughest humanitarian challenges.
Centre Coordinator
Cambridge Centre, Ethics, Economy and Social Change
Dr. Johannes Lenhard is the Centre Coordinator of the Max Planck Cambridge Centre for Ethics, Economy and Social Change at the University of Cambridge. In his research, he works toward a better understanding of homeless people through ethnographic methods and, more recently, on the ethics of venture capital (VC) investors. He spent the last three years interviewing VC investors between San Francisco, New York, London, and Berlin to understand the decision-making behind the digital economy. Lenhard regularly contributes to journalistic outlets, from Aeon, Prospect, Techcrunch, and Vestoj, to The Conversation, Crunchbase, and Tribune.
Associate Director
BSR (Moderator)
With a focus on climate change and women’s empowerment, Kelly helps information and communications technology companies achieve their sustainability goals, working to address their growing energy demands while also fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace.
Kelly supported programming and encouraged business climate commitments for the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit and is closely involved in renewable energy initiatives, such as the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance. She also helped launch and manage Business Action for Women, a working group that supports women’s empowerment efforts in the workplace and supply chain.
Prior to BSR, Kelly spent more than six years consulting on energy efficiency, sustainability, and renewable energy for California’s utilities and public-sector clients. She is also a member of the U.S. National Committee for UN Women, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter.
Kelly holds an M.A. in International Relations from San Francisco State University and a B.A. in Global Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Follow Kelly @kellyagallo.
The European Union’s Ambitions on Sustainable Finance: What Does it Mean for You?
Since the European Commission unveiled its Action Plan on Sustainable Finance in May 2018, significant progress has been made to set standards and benchmarks that will clarify what is meant by green activities and improvements to reporting. Whether your company is based in Europe or has global operations, this session will provide you with an update on EU legislation and its implications for business.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Head of Sustainability, Planning and Performance Management
Enel
Giulia Genuardi’s career began at the Enel Group in 2003, where she specialised in internal audit activities, covering a wide range of roles and managing the adoption of the Organizational Model ex Italian Legislative Decree 231/01. From February 2011 to July 2013 she was compliance officer pursuant to Italian Legislative Decree 231/01 in some companies of the Enel Group. Since 2014 she has been dead of sustainability planning and performance management of the Enel Group, responsible for embedding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into business management through the definition and monitoring of the sustainability strategy at Group level; while also coordinating the sustainability planning and reporting processes in all the countries where Enel is present. She is also responsible for promoting accountability and transparency through leading the elaboration of annual sustainability reports both at Group and country level and for managing human rights policy and relevant due diligence.
CEO
EFRAG
Saskia Slomp was appointed CEO of EFRAG in 2019 and is responsible for operations, finance, governance, and administration ; relations with stakeholders and European institutions ; and activities oriented at users. She is also directly involved in the European Lab, established by EFRAG in 2018.
Slomp was governance and admin director at EFRAG from 2010-2019. In this role, she supported the various governance bodies of EFRAG and was responsible for user activities and outreach events, in addition to her responsibilities for human resources.
Until the end of 2009, she was technical director at FEE (now Accountancy Europe), one of the founding member organisations of EFRAG. Within Accountancy Europe, she was responsible for financial reporting, company law, corporate governance, capital markets, SMEs, sustainability issues, and the public sector. In the beginning of her career, she worked with KPMG in The Netherlands.
Executive Director
Eurosif
Victor van Hoorn is the executive director of Eurosif, the European Sustainable Investment Forum, the leading pan-European sustainable and responsible investment association advocating for a more sustainable financial system. It works as a partnership of European national Sustainable Investment Forums (SIFs). SIF members include institutional investors, asset managers, index providers, and ESG research and analysis firms totalling over €8 trillion of assets under management, as well as other stakeholders such as NGOs, trade unions, think-tanks, and philanthropic foundations. Eurosif is also a founding member of the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, the alliance of the largest SIFs around the world.
Prior to Eurosif, van Hoorn was head of financial services at Hume Brophy, a leading EU public affairs consultancy, advising asset managers and asset owners on their engagement with EU policymakers. In that role he closely followed the EU sustainable finance since its inception.
Associate Director
BSR (Moderator)
With strong project management skills and a background in CSR analysis, Charlotte supports companies in the financial services, consumer products, transport and logistics, and information and communication technology industries with advice on sustainability strategy, supply chain, and human rights.
Charlotte leads BSR’s financial services practice in Europe. Before joining BSR, Charlotte was an analyst for nearly five years at Innovest and Vigeo, two socially responsible investment rating agencies. Through her work as an analyst, Charlotte covered the energy, automobile, retail, and software sectors. Charlotte is bilingual in French and English.
She holds an M.A. in CSR Management from the University of Paris XII and a B.A. in International Affairs from the University of Colorado.
Who Are My Stakeholders in a World Transformed?
2020’s events have transformed the business agenda, with heightened urgency to address a global pandemic, widespread economic dislocation, and systemic inequities. Issues such as the climate crisis remain essential and are starting to be seen more through the prism of economic, racial, and gender justice. Businesses can only understand and meet the needs of this new agenda if they simultaneously rethink their stakeholders. This session will provide companies with a new way to identify and engage with the right set of stakeholders to meet this moment, including a focus on people and communities that have all too often been marginalized, not least communities of color.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Sustainability and Communications Manager
Sempra
Erin Koch has more than two decades of experience in strategic communications, politics, and public policy. He has served as communications director to a U.S. congressman, director of a PR agency, and spokesperson for an energy utility. Today, as corporate sustainability manager at Sempra Energy, he describes the company’s corporate sustainability strategy and performance to investors, employees, elected officials, and regulators.
Melynnie Rizvi
Director of Employment, Inclusion and Impact
SurveyMonkey
Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility
Verizon
Dylan Siegler develops new strategies that support social impact and uncovers opportunities to use technology to bring about positive, systemic societal change. Previously, at power company NRG, she developed climate change strategy and consulted to the public and private sectors on climate and clean energy. At the City of Austin Office of Sustainability, she led high-profile projects at the intersection of strategic planning and urban development, and at the think tank CMPBS, she was sustainable design advisor for projects from power plants to homeless shelters to libraries.
Deputy Manager, Community Relations
Kinross
Cristina Fernández is a sociologist with 15 years of experience in socio-environmental conflicts, working in different sectors; from civil society, academia, supporting specific communities in sustainability matters, and from environmental and social consulting for large extractive projects. She currently works at Compañía Minera Kinross in charge of the community relations department for mining sites and projects in Chile. She leads a community relations team that focuses its engagement on the relationship with indigenous communities and with vulnerable groups in the urban sector of Copiapó. Through participatory and innovative methodologies, the community relations team has generated voluntary agreements and actions that have a common governance with stakeholders. All this through genuine and quality relationships with all stakeholders, generating trust, mutual understanding, active communication, and compatibility of goals.
Director
BSR (Moderator)
With a background in consulting, private equity, and international development, Karlyn provides rigorous thought leadership and a focus on financial value when helping businesses define sustainability strategies.
She supports companies across sectors to design and implement strategies linking corporate sustainability policies to on-the-ground realities in the areas of shared value, sustainable supply chains, and inclusive economy.
Prior to BSR, Karlyn was vice president of strategy and transformation for TAU Investment Management, a private equity firm founded on principles of ESG integration. She was also a management consultant, first with IBM Global Services and later with the Boston Consulting Group, where she advised Fortune 500 clients in the financial services, technology, and healthcare industries. She has also worked in international development in Chile, Namibia, and the Republic of Guinea.
Karlyn holds a B.A. in Economics from Stanford, an M.B.A. from Wharton, and an M.A. in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins SAIS. She speaks fluent French and Spanish.
Working from Home, or Sleeping at the Office?
In 2020, more employees than ever are working unexpectedly in new remote environments. Their productivity outside a traditional office is supported by innovations in videoconferencing. Unfortunately, research finds that people are more stressed out over videoconferencing than over other types of remote work—in part due to technological challenges and the awkwardness of still-developing social norms. This transition has also ushered in new levels of potential data collection and data security concerns that elevate the need to protect workers’ data privacy. At the same time, videoconferencing can help improve mental health by alleviating lockdown isolation, enabling better collaboration among teams, and increasing social connectivity with colleagues. In fact, employees who reported satisfaction with social connectivity with their colleagues were two to three times more likely to have improved their productivity during this time. As the pandemic continues to reshape office work, join us to discuss the opportunities and challenges of videoconferencing and how our work lives may have been changed for good.
Scheduled Speakers
Additional speakers to be announced.
Global Chief Information Officer
Zoom
Harry D. Moseley brings to Zoom a blend of transformational leadership, disruptive innovation, and corporate growth strategies. As the former CIO and managing director for KPMG, Moseley was responsible for technology and innovation to support the firm’s competitive growth. Over five years, he identified and replaced legacy technology to dramatically improve productivity, security, and reliability. Before joining KPMG, Moseley served as CIO and senior managing director - partner for Blackstone, where he led the company’s transformation to the world’s best digital alternative asset manager. Prior to Blackstone, Moseley was a managing director for Credit Suisse, where he served as the CIO of global investment banking and global co-head of application development/Co-CIO of the firm. Before Credit Suisse, Moseley served as CTO and managing director for UBS Americas.
Vice President of Product, Microsoft Teams
Microsoft
Graham Sheldon is the vice president of product for Microsoft Teams, the hub for teamwork in Microsoft 365. His team drives innovation for core collaboration across multiple form factors used by millions of people at work, home, and school. Over the last 18 years, Sheldon has managed other products across Microsoft including Dynamics, Bing, Bing Ads, and MSN.
Associate Director
BSR (Moderator)
With a focus on climate change and women’s empowerment, Kelly helps information and communications technology companies achieve their sustainability goals, working to address their growing energy demands while also fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace.
Kelly supported programming and encouraged business climate commitments for the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit and is closely involved in renewable energy initiatives, such as the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance. She also helped launch and manage Business Action for Women, a working group that supports women’s empowerment efforts in the workplace and supply chain.
Prior to BSR, Kelly spent more than six years consulting on energy efficiency, sustainability, and renewable energy for California’s utilities and public-sector clients. She is also a member of the U.S. National Committee for UN Women, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter.
Kelly holds an M.A. in International Relations from San Francisco State University and a B.A. in Global Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Follow Kelly @kellyagallo.