Staff Directory

William Burckart is the CEO of The Investment Integration Project (TIIP) and an Adjunct Professor and the Brandmeyer Fellow for Impact and Sustainable Investing at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). A leading voice in system-level investing, he is a Fellow of the High Meadows Institute, associate editor of the forthcoming Handbook on System-level Investing (Miniver Press, 2026), and co-author of 21st Century Investing: Redirecting Financial Strategies to Drive Systems Change (Berrett-Koehler, 2021). He also co-edited New Frontiers of Philanthropy (Oxford University Press, 2014), a landmark volume on emerging tools reshaping global philanthropy and social investment.

Previously, he co-founded Colorful Capital, a venture capital firm dedicated to expanding access to capital for enterprises founded and led by members of the broader LGBTQ+ community.

Prof. Wayne Visser is one of the world’s top “pracademics” (practical academics) in sustainable and regenerative business, innovation and leadership. He is Professor of Practice at Católica Porto Business School, where he holds the GALP Chair in Regenerative Business, Innovation and Technology, and a Fellow, Head Program Instructor and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Previously, he served as VP for Sustainability at Omnex, Director of Sustainability Services at KPMG and Strategy Analyst at Capgemini. He has authored over 40 books, including the international bestseller Thriving. He has travelled and worked in over 80 countries and has been listed as a top 10 speaker on ESG.
 

Vonda Brunsting's current projects focus on financial strategies to advance worker and human rights, including her role as project director, Global Workers Capital at CLJE. Prior to joining CLJE, she led the Just Transition project and co-founded the Trustee Leadership Forum for Retirement Security (TLF) at the Initiative for Responsible Investment at the Harvard Kennedy School. Before her work at Harvard, Vonda was the Director of the Capital Stewardship Program at Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which was created to engage the capital markets and financial institutions on behalf of the 2 million members of SEIU. She worked as a community organizer in in Chicago, New York, and Boston with the Industrial Areas Foundation.

Vonda co-chairs the board of the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE). She previously served on the investment committees of the UU Common Endowment Fund and the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation and on the Board of the Council of Institutional Investors.

She received her B.A from Calvin College and a Master’s degree from the University of Chicago.

In the 1990s, amidst the tumult of the Asian financial crisis, Vincent Shen discerned a beacon of opportunity. Abandoning a modestly salaried role at Citi Bank, he embarked on an audacious journey with Merrill Lynch's experimental "Young Bankers for Local Affluent Markets" program, which offered only commissions, not salaries. Driven by a vision and the necessity to support his young family, Vincent embraced this high-stakes challenge.

Starting with the management of a mere USD 250,000 account in Taiwan, Vincent's assets under management soared to an astounding USD 4 billion within a few short years. His remarkable success led to his promotion to the regional headquarters in Singapore and subsequently to Hong Kong. This achievement was no accident; it was the product of a meticulously crafted strategy centered on total integration—melding systems thinking theory with altruism to create win-win solutions. This innovative approach facilitated deals amounting to trillions of dollars in mergers and acquisitions, private equity, IPOs, and asset management from the greater China market to global marketplaces. Vincent's extraordinary accomplishments earned him the distinction of being the youngest and highest-paid Managing Director in the region, etching his name into Wall Street's "Circle of Champions," the highest accolade for top bankers worldwide.

After a decade of trailblazing success at Merrill Lynch, he ascended to the ranks of the world's top three bankers. Renowned as a strategic venture capitalist and a pioneer in banking innovation, Vincent initiated the Private Investment Banking Group—a revolutionary platform fostering collaboration across banking units, creating positive feedback loops that benefited all parties involved. His achievements attracted the attention of Rockefeller and Co. CEO James McDonald, who personally travelled to Taipei to propose a joint venture. Concurrently, Vincent received a personal invitation from Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman, ultimately deciding to follow his former boss from Merrill Lynch to Morgan Stanley.

In his late 30s, with a fervent desire to transform Taiwan's healthcare system, Vincent planned an early retirement and returned to his hometown. Leveraging his prowess in capital markets, global influence, and extensive industrial network, he established Taiwan's largest oncology enterprise through a series of strategic mergers and acquisitions. This visionary move resulted in a company valued in the billions in two years, providing millions with improved early diagnosis and treatment options, and sparking widespread healthcare system reforms across Taiwan. This impact investment achieved a 20x return on investment and record-breaking IPO oversubscription.

Vincent's quest for systemic impact did not end there. He returned to Oxford University's Saïd Business School to further his education and spent the next 12 years traveling the world, connecting the dots among academia, NGOs, banks, and impact investors. Through angel investing and blended financing projects, he achieved a remarkable 24.6% IRR in impact
investments, even during the turbulence of the pandemic.

Amidst the post-COVID recession, Vincent, as chair of Harvard University's Cognitive Art Multimedia Lab (CAMLab) advisory board, introduced cutting-edge immersive theatre technology integrated with 5G to a local social enterprise to revitalize Taipei's oldest town. Transforming it into a vibrant cultural economy zone, this project received backing from Taiwan's central government and sovereign wealth fund, invigorated local businesses, created thousands of jobs, and attracted investment from globally influential families.

Today, Vincent leads the Systems Impact Multi-Family Office, SIMFO, and chairs the SZU CHI Angel Private Equity Fund, continuing his legacy as a systems thinker and market maker, tackling the root causes of environmental challenges in collaboration with Oxford, MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, and Columbia University, along with global impact families such as Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, and Bill Gates partnering with the Environmental Defense Fund, EDF.

Vincent’s family has long been devoted to the Tzu Chi Foundation, the largest philanthropic organization in the Chinese-speaking world, active in over 136 countries. As Tzu Chi’s honorable board director, Vincent has been a generous donor to various charitable and academic institutions, driving forward innovation and compassion. Vincent Shen's story is not merely one of remarkable financial success, but of visionary leadership, relentless innovation, and profound social impact—a testament to the transformative power of integrating strategy with altruism.

Tom Hedrick is the Managing Director and founder of Dillon Joyce Ltd, where he has spent the past 23 years investing in private companies across the full corporate lifecycle—from seed-stage ventures to late-stage leveraged buyouts. Prior to founding Dillon Joyce, Tom was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he served as Managing Partner of the Dallas office and co-led both the High Tech and Private Equity practices. He began his career as a petroleum engineer at Exxon.

Over the past eight years, Tom has devoted his time and energy to advocacy and philanthropy focused on expanding investment in early childhood development for low-income children. He is now shifting his focus to climate-related initiatives, with recent investments in carbon dioxide reduction through software innovation and forestation projects.

Tom holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he was a classmate of Bob Massie. He and his wife, Madeleine, reside in Austin, Texas. They have three grown children and three grandchildren. 

Tim Smith is one of ICCR’s founding staff members and has been a leader in our field for over five decades.

Tim currently serves as ICCR’s Senior Policy Advisor, where he supports ICCR’s work around responsible political engagement, deepening engagements with asset managers, and responding to the pushback on ESG, as well as serving as a mentor for ICCR members and staff.

Tim served as ICCR staff for 30 years including 24 years as its Executive Director. In 2000, Tim joined Boston Trust Walden where he led the organization’s shareholder engagement efforts for 22 years.

Tim has served on multiple boards and chaired advisory councils for several different institutions. He currently serves as chair for Shared Interest, which mobilizes economic resources for communities in Southern Africa.

Tim earned a BA from the University of Toronto and Masters of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary.

Tanvir Ghani is the President and co-founder of Tybourne Capital Management, a multi billion dollar investment management (hedge and private equity) firm based out of Hong Kong. Prior to that Tanvir was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs specializing in alternative assets. He graduated from SIPA in 2001 concentrating in Finance and Business. He lives between London and Hong Kong. Tanvir spends a quality amount of time private equity investing in his home country of Bangladesh.

Steve Lydenberg is a Senior Fellow at SIRI. He was previously Partner, Strategic Vision for Domini Impact Investments LLC, Founder and Chairman of The Investment Integration Project (TIIP), and Founding Director of the Initiative for Responsible Investment. For over four decades he has been active in responsible investment with the Council on Economic Priorities, Trillium Asset Management and KLD Research & Analytics. He is author of numerous articles on responsible investment including, “Reason, Rationality and Fiduciary Duty” and “On Materiality and Sustainability: The Value of Disclosure in the Capital Markets”. He is also author of several books on responsible investment including 21 st Century Investing: Redirecting Financial Strategies to Drive Systems Change (Berrett-Koehler, co-author William Burckart); Corporations and the Public Interest (Berrett-Koehler) and Dilemmas in Responsible Investment (Greenleaf, co-author Céline Louche). He holds a BA from Columbia College and an MFA in Theater from Cornell University and CFA Charter designation.

Steve Lydenberg is a Senior Fellow at SIRI. He was previously Partner, Strategic Vision for Domini Impact Investments LLC, Founder and Chairman of The Investment Integration Project (TIIP), and Founding Director of the Initiative for Responsible Investment. For over four decades he has been active in responsible investment with the Council on Economic Priorities, Trillium Asset Management and KLD Research & Analytics. He is author of numerous articles on responsible investment including, “Reason, Rationality and Fiduciary Duty” and “On Materiality and Sustainability: The Value of Disclosure in the Capital Markets”. He is also author of several books on responsible investment including 21 st Century Investing: Redirecting Financial Strategies to Drive Systems Change (Berrett-Koehler, co-author William Burckart); Corporations and the Public Interest (Berrett-Koehler) and Dilemmas in Responsible Investment (Greenleaf, co-author Céline Louche). He holds a BA from Columbia College and an MFA in Theater from Cornell University and CFA Charter designation.
 

Simon is the Founder and Managing Partner of Morphosis. He is a member of the Club of Rome, a Distinguished Fellow at the Hoffmann Centre for Global Sustainability at the Graduate Institute in Switzerland, and a Senior Fellow at the Paulson Institute. He is also a founding member of the Steering Board of the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits and a Senior Advisor to the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures.

Until recently, he was the founding CEO of NatureFinance. Over four decades, Simon has focused on shaping markets and policy frameworks to advance sustainable development, working with leading businesses, governments, financial regulators, and civil society organisations worldwide.

He previously served as Senior Advisor on Sustainable Finance in the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General and to the World Economic Forum, co-chaired China’s first Green Finance Taskforce, and led the G20’s work on green finance under the Chinese, Argentinian, and German presidencies.

Simon holds a PhD and is widely published, including the award-winning The Civil Corporation and Time to Plan for a World Beyond 1.5°C.

Sherwat Elwan Ibrahim is Associate Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at the Onsi Sawiris School of Business, American University in Cairo (AUC) and network lead on Business Schools for Climate Leadership (BS4CL) Africa. She is founding member of the UN Global Compact Principals of Responsible Management (PRME) Chapter Africa and former Chair. Her previous roles included Director of the MBA & EMBA programs at AUC School of Business and Visiting Associate Professor at the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) at Princeton University. 

Sherwat is Editor-in-Chief for the Cambridge Forum on Corporate Climate Governance, Regional Editor for the Journal of Supply Chain Management (Africa), and Associate Editor for Engineering Management Review (EMR). She also serves on the boards of the Africa Academy of Management (AFAM), the Center for Applied Research and Innovation in Supply Chain–Africa (CARISCA), and the African Interdisciplinary Studies (AIR). 

Sandra Waddock is Galligan Chair of Strategy, Carroll School Scholar of Corporate Responsibility, and Professor of Management at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, where she has worked for 40 years. She has published 16 books and more than 200 papers and chapters. Her latest book is Catalyzing Transformation, as she loves working on big picture issues. Toward that end, she has worked with a global team to develop a set of principles for transforming economics, and with another global team under the auspices of the UN on the recently published IPBES Transformative Change Assessment. On the side she is a singer-songwriter and guitarist, who finds inspiration in playing music with other people and lately in writing protest songs. She sings and plays folk, blues, country, and bluegrass songs—and anything else that is fun to play with others (or, sometimes, sing by herself). 
 

Bob Massie has been a leading figure in sustainability and finance for more than forty years. Beginning as a student anti-apartheid activist at Princeton in the 1970s, he went on to earn a master’s degree in social and theological ethics from Yale Divinity School (1982) and a doctorate in corporate strategy from Harvard Business School (1989). Massie served as a Senior Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cape Town in 1993. His book Loosing the Bonds, a history of the South African divestment movement, won the 1998 Lionel Gelber Prize. He became the first president of Ceres in 1996 and in 1998 co-founded the Global Reporting Initiative to advance standardized sustainability reporting.

In 2002, he organized the first Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk at the United Nations. He also served on the original International Integrated Reporting Commission (2012-13). Active in Massachusetts politics, he was a Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 1994) and a candidate for governor in 2018. Recently, as Senior Research Scholar and director of the Pathways to Consensus Program at SIRI, he has focused on advancing structural reforms to capitalism.  

 

Bob Massie has been one of the most respected leaders in the field of sustainability and finance for nearly forty years. A student anti-apartheid activist at Princeton in the 1970s, Massie obtained a master’s degree in social and theological ethics from Yale Divinity School in 1982 and a doctorate in corporate strategy from Harvard Business School in 1989. His dissertation focused on how institutional investors integrated moral and political concerns into their investment policies. In 1993 he served as a Senior Fulbright Scholar on the faculty of the University of Cape Town. In 1998 he published Loosing the Bonds: The United States and South Africa in the Apartheid Years, which won the 1998 Lionel Gelber prize for the best book in the world on international relations. In 1996 Massie became the first president of Ceres and helped to build it into the powerful coalition of investors, corporations, and sustainability organizations it is today. In 1998, believing that key capital market actors needed high quality, comparable sustainability data, he co-founded and chaired the Global Reporting Initiative. In 2002, he created and led the first Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk at United Nations headquarters in New York. That same year he was picked by CFO magazine as one of the 100 most influential leaders in finance. He also served for three years on the original International Integrated Reporting Commission (IIRC) chaired by Justice Mervyn King of South Africa. Massie has also had a prominent role in the politics of his home state of Massachusetts, having served as the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 1994 and as a candidate for governor in 2018. In recent years he has continued to work on mandatory sustainability reporting, the evolution of corporate governance, and the need for fundamental reform in the fields of accounting, finance, and economics. In the summer of 2023, he convened the Materiality Working Group, a monthly discussion group and clearinghouse of US and UK thought leaders who are focusing on charting the evolution of the intersection of sustainability and finance.

Raymond C Offenheiser is Director of the McKenna Center for Human Development and Global Business, part of the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, where he also serves as Senior Advisor to the Dean and Distinguished Professor of the Practice, providing strategic leadership to the McKenna Center’s research, and public policy activities. Offenheiser served as President of Oxfam America for 20 years. Prior to joining Oxfam, Offenheiser represented the Ford Foundation in Bangladesh and the Andean and Southern Cone regions of South America, and directed programs for the Inter-American Foundation in Brazil and Colombia. He is currently the Chair of the Board of BRAC USA and a member of the Board of BRAC Global. He is also a board member of the Oxfam America Action Fund, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), and the Consensus Building Initiative. He also serves on the Forum for Corporate Responsibility for BHP Mining Corporation and the Development Partners Initiative. Offenheiser was a co-founder of the ONE Campaign and the Washington, DC-based Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, and the Food Policy Action Network. 

Paul Rissman is a former archaeologist, investment executive, and co-founder of Rights CoLab, a global network of human rights advocates and experts. He is a Founding Partner of the Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures and member of the International Sustainability Standards Board’s Sustainability Reference Group. For two decades, Rissman worked at AllianceBernstein, where he served in various roles including analyst, portfolio manager, director of global growth research, and CIO of Alliance Growth Equities. He has served on nonprofit and for-profit boards and is currently Director Emiritus of the Sierra Club Foundation. He was named an Open Society Foundations Fellow in 2019, researching shareholder advocacy regarding economic inequality, grounded in financially material disclosure standards. He received his doctorate in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, where his research concerned pastoralists in Bronze Age South Asia. He received his MBA from Columbia Business School.

Paul Hilton serves as Equity Research Director. He brings over 25 years of experience in portfolio management and equity research. Prior to joining Nixon Peabody Trust Company, Paul worked as Portfolio Manager at Trillium Asset Management where he served as Lead Portfolio Manager on the Sustainable Opportunities strategy, a thematic ESG portfolio. He also spent time with Calvert Investments in marketing, business strategy, and equities roles, most recently as Vice President, Sustainable Investment Business Strategy. Paul was Portfolio Manager for Socially Responsible Investing at The Dreyfus Corporation. He also served as a research analyst in the Social Awareness Investment program at Smith Barney Asset Management, then a division of Citigroup. Paul started his career in the field of SRI as an analyst with the Council on Economic Priorities, Paul is a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society of Boston. He is also a former board chair of USSIF, the member association for sustainable and impact investors.

Osvald Bjelland is a Norwegian entrepreneur and investor, whose long record of founding organizations that espouse ecologically and civically responsible mandates. Bjelland currently serves as chairman of Origination LTD, a London -based company he founded that mobilizes originators and other exceptional leaders worldwide to invest in service of people and the planet with long-term strategic foresight.

In 2000, after selling The Performance Group in the wake of the dot-com bubble, he traded commerce for academia, earning a PhD from the University of Leeds (UK) in 2008. Later, he would return to academia as a visiting business fellow at the University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and as a visiting scholar at Stanford University. Several purpose-driven ventures followed, notably the 2001 launch of his advisory firm Xynteo, dedicated to among others guiding energy transition in frontier markets such as India. He served as CEO, president and chairman. In 2023, Bjelland sold a majority share of Xynteo to Leon Capital and retained a 20 percent stake along with an employee ownership arrangement. Bjelland's legacy is also stamped on partnerships and business consortiums such as the Tata Xynteo Exchange, a joint venture helmed by Bjelland and the chairman of Tata Sons. Other partneships include Vikaasa and Europe Delivers. Under Bjelland’s stewardship, Xynteo also built The Leadership Vanguard, working with global CEOs, heads of state, Nobel laureates and scientists to promote “good growth” in service of people and the planet. Together, the companies and collaborative entities have delivered over five hundred projects in the U.S., China, India, Europe, and Brazil.

Bjelland is married to Thorhild Widvey, Norway’s former Minister of Petroleum and Energy as well as Minister of Culture. The couple has two sons. He remains an enthusiastic farmer, adhering to a zero-pesticide environment.

His motto brings together the essence of his work – stronger together!

Nnamdi Igbokwe is a Senior Research Scholar and Co-Director of SIRI Blended Finance. As a political economist, his expertise bridges sustainable investing and development finance to drive strategic decision making, guide investment outcomes, and mobilize capital for impact. At SIRI, he will design and lead blended finance programming to mobilize capital for sustainable development, particularly in lower-income markets, through rigorous research, high-level convenings, and practitioner-focused education.

Previously, Dr. Igbokwe served as Director of Knowledge and Thought Leadership at Convergence Blended Finance, the global network for blended finance, where he oversaw data, research, and content portfolios and led intelligence efforts aimed at scaling blended finance and crowding in greater private sector investment for climate and the SDGs into emerging markets. Earlier roles include Senior Vice President leading strategic initiatives for the Data, Analytics, Reporting, and Technology Market Risk team at Citigroup; Director of Research and Investor Relations for a New York global macro hedge und where he managed the research and content ecosystem for institutional investors; Sustainable development advisor on multilateral initiatives with the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank; and management consultant in the Financial Institutions practice at Boston Consulting Group.

His research in International Political Economy examines how institutions, governance, and global policy shape development outcomes. He has held doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and the American Council of Learned Societies and holds a B.A. in Political Science from Northwestern University, an M.A. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University SAIS, and both a master’s degree and Ph.D. in International Political Economy from Johns Hopkins University. 

Dr. Nnamdi Igbokwe is a political economist with over 20 years of experience spanning the public and private sectors, he bridges sustainable investing and development finance to drive strategic decision-making and mobilize capital for impact in emerging markets. At SIRI, he leads blended finance programming through research, convenings, and practitioner-focused education. Previously, he served as Director of Knowledge and Thought Leadership at Convergence Blended Finance. His professional background includes roles at Citigroup, the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank, and BCG. He completed a Doctoral Research Fellowship at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and was selected for the inaugural cohort of American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Emerging Voices Postdoctoral Fellows. He holds a Ph.D. in International Political Economy from Johns Hopkins University.

Natalia Renta is the Associate Director for Corporate Governance and Power at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, where she works to change the structures of corporate decision-making to build a more equitable and sustainable economy. Prior to joining AFREF, Natalia was a Senior Policy Strategist at the Center for Popular Democracy, where she provided policy and legal counsel to several campaigns, including those related to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. Prior to that, Natalia was an attorney at Make the Road New York, an organization that builds the power of immigrant and working class communities to achieve dignity and justice. She earned her J.D. from Stanford Law School and her B.A. from Harvard University.

Mirtha Kastrapeli is Managing Director and Global Head of ISS STOXX’s Research Institute. She’s an accomplished sustainable investment leader with a track record in developing cutting-edge research and insights for institutional investors.  Ms. Kastrapeli has led various research initiatives dedicated to advancing the understanding of how sustainability issues affect investment portfolios across various themes including deforestation, regenerative agriculture and circular economy.  Previously, Ms. Kastrapeli founded Beyond Alpha LLC, a research consulting firm, where her study on SDG-aligned investing was named a top 10 ESG paper by Pension and Investment Europe Magazine in 2021. At State Street Bank, she led the Center for Applied Research and co-authored notable papers including ‘The Big Shift; Finding a New Center of Gravity for the Investment Industry’ in 2019 and ‘The Investing Enlightenment: How Principle and Pragmatism Can Create Sustainable Value through ESG’ in 2017. With over 20 years of experience across private and public sectors, she has served as a strategist, advisor, and analyst at State Street Global Markets and the Ministry of Economics in Nicaragua

Michael Lent was a founding principal and former CIO of Veris Wealth Partners (Veris). He has retired from Veris but continues as a Partner and Consultant. For 32 years, he delivered financial planning and impact investment management services to high-net-worth families, family offices, and foundations. Prior to Veris, he co-founded the New York office of Progressive Asset Management, the first full-service broker/dealer to focus on socially responsible investing.

Michael served as Chair of the Board of Directors of US SIF, The US Sustainable Investment Forum, an association for professionals, firms, institutions and organizations engaged in sustainable and impact investing. In addition, He received his Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®) designation in 2002. Michael has a B.A. in Biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He lives with his wife in Brooklyn, NY.

Mike is global co-head and co-chief investment officer of the External Investing Group (XIG) within Asset and Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs. XIG invests in leading private equity, hedge fund, real estate, credit, public market and ESG managers as a limited partner, secondary-market investor, co-investor or management company partner. Mike also serves on the group's investment committees across private equity, real estate, hedge fund and impact investment strategies. Mike earned a BA in International Affairs from the University of California, Davis, an MBA from Columbia Business School and an MIA from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He is a CFA charter holder.

Maurizio Zollo is Professor of Strategy & Sustainability at Imperial College Business School. He is also Scientific Director of the Leonardo Centre on Business for Society which studies and contributes to the evolution of business toward a regenerative, inclusive economic system.

Maurizio is author of over 60 publications (25,000+ citations) in leading journals in management, strategy, organization, innovation, neuroscience, and cross-disciplinary science. He has been President of the European Academy of Management, Editor-in-Chief of Organization & Environment and of the European Management Review. Fellow of the Strategic Management Society (SMS), he co-founded the Stakeholder Strategy group and chaired the interest groups Innovation & Knowledge and Behavioural Strategy.

Before joining Imperial College in 2019, Maurizio served on the faculty of INSEAD and Bocconi University and has been Visiting Professor at MIT Sloan School of Management since 2012. He holds a PhD in Management from The Wharton School and a degree in monetary economics from Bocconi University. Previously, he was a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Co. and an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, New York.

Maria is the Chief Executive Officer of the US Sustainable Investment Forum, the pioneering network focused on sustainable investing. Maria joined in May of 2023 and brought with her notable capital markets experience. She is an innovative leader within the field of sustainability and finance and is recognized for building meaningful partnerships across the value chain of global institutional investors, corporates, policymakers, multi-national organizations, and other related stakeholders to address some of the world’s most critical, and financially material, environmental and social challenges. Previously, Maria led the FAIRR Initiative. During her seven years at FAIRR, she and her team ambitiously drove the narrative around the risks and opportunities in the global protein supply chain with the aim of directing capital towards a more sustainable and equitable food system. Prior to joining FAIRR, Maria worked for the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) where she cultivated and expanded the global investor network, managing the PRI’s Signatory Relations strategy and raising awareness of responsible investment with institutional investors. 

Maria started her career in global finance and capital markets, working at both J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank. Maria is based in Washington DC but has lived and worked in San Francisco, New York, Madrid and London.
 

Dr. Lorie Srivastava is an environmental economist whose work focuses on advancing sustainability and climate resilience through rigorous economic analysis and innovative risk modelling. She holds a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from Michigan State University, specialising in water economics, and combines this with a multidisciplinary background in computer science, policy, and consulting.

Her work addresses some of the most pressing challenges in climate and nature risk, including economic valuation of natural assets and ecosystem services, scenario modelling under uncertainty, and material factors for informed financial decision-making. As a Research Fellow at the University of California, Davis, Dr. Srivastava led projects funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency and California Natural Resources Agency to quantify how the economic value of ecosystem services will change over time due to the effects of climate change. She also contributed as a technical reviewer for the Fourth California Climate Change Assessment, shaping policy-relevant insights on water scarcity and resource management.

Dr. Srivastava’s applied work bridges academia and practice. She has spearheaded global initiatives to embed climate and sustainability considerations into financial systems, including the design of econometric models and integrated assessment frameworks for risk evaluation. Her leadership roles at SAGINT, Inc. and KPMG have involved developing ESG-linked financial strategies, advancing carbon pricing mechanisms, and quantifying economic and financial consequences of blockchain-based solutions for transparent asset management. These efforts support the mobilisation of capital towards nature-positive outcomes and the creation of resilient economic and financial markets.

In addition to her research and advisory work, Dr. Srivastava has been leading the economic and strategic analysis and modelling underpinning projects that integrate AI and blockchain technologies to enhance transparency, automate regulatory compliance, and deliver scalable ESG, climate, and nature-based solutions through digital platforms. Her work focuses on applying tokenisation and digital assets to improve the efficiency and integrity of nature credit markets, whilst also promoting human rights and labour standards, creating mechanisms for fractional ownership and trade. These innovations enable investors to participate in sustainability-linked markets while ensuring robust governance and verifiable benefits. Her expertise in financial performance analytics, combined with her knowledge of econometric modelling and sustainable

Linda-Eling Lee is the MSCI Institute’s founding director and a leader in the field of sustainable finance. Linda, a member of MSCI’s Executive Committee, previously led global sustainability and climate research at the firm, where she built one of the world’s top teams of analysts dedicated to understanding long-term drivers of sustainable value. Linda has authored multiple research papers on sustainable investing and twice been named by Barron’s to its annual list of the Top 100 Women in Finance.

Linda joined MSCI in 2010 following the acquisition of RiskMetrics, where she led ESG ratings research and headed consumer sector analysis. She received her doctorate in organizational behavior from Harvard University, holds a master’s from the University of Oxford, and has a bachelor’s in East Asian Studies from Harvard College.

Layalee Ramahi is the Regional Lead for North America at UNEP Finance Initiative. She works closely with financial institutions across the banking, insurance, and investment sectors to strengthen the region’s approach to sustainable finance. In this role, Layalee leads engagement with UNEP FI members in North America, fostering collaboration, supporting knowledge exchange, and helping embed sustainability into financial decision-making and strategy. Her work helps institutions address regional priorities and access the tools and insights needed to contribute to a low-carbon, resilient, and inclusive economy.

Kirk Hanson is Senior Lecturer Emeritus at the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he taught in the executive and MBA programs for 23 years, and retired University Professor at Santa Clara University where he headed the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics for 17 years. He is the author of a twice-monthly free newsletter "Ethics Megatrends" and has worked in the field of corporate responsibility and business ethics since 1967. He has written on the corporate management of social, environmental, and ethical initiatives and most recently on the history of business responsibility. He has advised more than 100 businesses, non-profits, and government organizations on responsible management and ethics initiatives and spent 17 years on the board of the Skoll Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. He has received two honorary degrees and has been honored by the Aspen Institute's Business & Society Program. He lives in Silicon Valley in California.

Katherine Ng is the Managing Director of the Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) and specializes in bridging the gap between research, practice and policy. Over the past 20 years, Katherine has focused on systemic, global challenges such as climate change, transformational technologies, and inequality. She was the Head of Research at the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) for 10 years, where she built the innovative research programme that supported applied research, and drove further value, impact and dialogue by bringing independent evidence and insights to investment professionals. She grew and scaled up the Academic Network, the community of practice for investment practitioners and academics, to over 13,000 around the world, and spearheaded PhD and Research Fellowships at the PRI. As a programme director, she created and led funding initiatives for pioneering research that addresses current and future investment concerns.

Katherine is passionate about developing rich environments for interdisciplinary field-building in academia and navigating impact channels for communicating research insights. She has worked with leading academics, industry experts, with educators such as the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) at the UN Global Compact, as well as the OECD and the World Bank.

As a consultant at ECGI (the European Corporate Governance Network), she supported the development of the Patrons Council, an initiative of leading investors, companies and academics that aims to guide European corporations through rapidly evolving global challenges, such as the transition to Net Zero, artificial intelligence, geopolitical shifts and regulatory developments. Katherine was previously the Research Manager at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), managing projects and sponsorships on sustainability, corporate governance, financial reporting, taxation, auditing, and SMEs. She supported the key relationship with the Economic and Social Research Council.

Katherine began her career at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in the UK working on inequality and was a Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster. She was part of a consortium of technology assessment bodies, science museums, academic institutions and public foundations from nine European Countries that investigated the social, economic, legal and ethical implications of brain science and made recommendations to national and European policymakers.

Katherine Ng is the Managing Director of the Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) and specializes in bridging the gap between research, practice and policy. Over the past 20 years, Katherine has focused on systemic, global challenges such as climate change, transformational technologies, and inequality. She was the Head of Research at the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) for 10 years, where she built the innovative research programme that supported applied research, and drove further value, impact and dialogue by bringing independent evidence and insights to investment professionals. She grew and scaled up the Academic Network, the community of practice for investment practitioners and academics, to over 13,000 around the world, and spearheaded PhD and Research Fellowships at the PRI. As a programme director, she created and led funding initiatives for pioneering research that addresses current and future investment concerns.

Katherine began her career at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in the UK working on inequality and was a Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster. She was part of a consortium of technology assessment bodies, science museums, academic institutions and public foundations from nine European Countries that investigated the social, economic, legal and ethical implications of brain science and made recommendations to national and European policymakers.
 

Judy Samuelson is the founder and executive director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program and author of Six New Rules of Business: Creating Real Value in a Changing World (Berrett-Koehler, 2021). Under her leadership, the program has led influential initiatives including a ten-year campaign to disrupt Milton Friedman’s narrative on corporate purpose, the Aspen Principles of Long-Term Value Creation, and a partnership with Korn Ferry to rethink executive compensation. Judy previously held positions in legislative affairs in California, banking in New York’s garment district, and served as director of the Ford Foundation’s office of program-related investments. She is a Bellagio Fellow, a Director of the Financial Health Network and Chair Emeritus of Net Impact. Judy holds a B.A. from UCLA and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Management. 

 

As ICCR’s Chief Executive Officer since January 2016, Josh Zinner oversees programs and operations for the organization. Josh has more than 30 years’ experience as a non-profit leader, public interest lawyer, coalition-builder and policy advocate. For the eight years prior to coming to ICCR, Josh co-directed the New Economy Project, an organization that works with community groups on economic justice issues and is at the forefront both locally and nationally in the fight against discriminatory financial practices.

Among earlier roles, Josh founded and ran the Foreclosure Prevention Project at South Brooklyn Legal Services for more than a decade. He helped to build and lead an influential statewide coalition of over 160 organizational members, New Yorkers for Responsible Lending, which fielded successful campaigns to achieve groundbreaking legislation and regulation to curb financial abuses. Previously, he worked with Oxfam America on private sector campaigns including access to medicines work; as a housing lawyer with low-income seniors; and as a social worker for five years working with adjudicated youth, street children, and homeless adults.

Forbes calls long-time institutional investor Jon Lukomnik one of the pioneers of modern corporate governance. His newest book, The Handbook of System-Level Investing, which he edited with William Burckart, features chapters from institutional investors with a total of more than $5.5 trillion in total assets under management. His previous book, “Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: Investing That Matters” (co-authored with James Hawley) is widely praised as the “seminal” work on the finance theory underpinning system-level investing. Their work focuses on MPT’s inability to deal with systematic risk and provides a coherent finance theory to explain why investors mitigate risks such as climate change from a risk/return perspective. Jon is also the co-author of three other academic books about capital markets, and more than 200 academic and practitioner papers. 

Jon has been the investment advisor or a trustee for more than $100 billion (including New York City’s pension funds) and has consulted to institutional investors with aggregate assets of more than $2 trillion dollars. He currently serves as Brandmeyer Fellow for Sustainable Investing and Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He is a Senior Fellow at the High Meadows Institute, and an associate editor for the Journal of Impact & ESG investing. Jon serves on the Board of The Shareholder Commons and the Advisory Board of The Investment Integration Project. He was previously a trustee for the Van Eck mutual funds where he chaired the Audit and the Governance committees during his tenure.He was also a long-time a member of the Deloitte Audit Quality Advisory Committee and the Standards and Emerging Issues Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

Jon co-founded the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) and GovernanceMetrics International (now part of MSCI).  He served for more than a decade as the executive director of the IRRC Institute and is a former Pembroke Visiting Professor of International Finance at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University (UK). He is the recipient of many honors, including a lifetime achievement award from the ICGN. 

Forbes calls long-time institutional investor Jon Lukomnik one of the pioneers of modern corporate governance. His book, “Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: Investing That Matters”, (with Professor Jim Hawley) is widely praised as the “seminal” work on the finance theory underpinning system-level investing. Jon is the co-author of three other academic books, and more than 200 academic and practitioner papers. He is the editor of “The Handbook of System-level Investing” (publication date April 2026).

Jon currently serves as Brandmeyer Fellow for Sustainable Investing and Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He is a Senior Fellow at High Meadows Institute, associate editor of the Journal of Impact & ESG investing, Governance Committee Chair for Van Eck mutual funds, and on the Boards of The Shareholder Commons and the Externality Investment Research Network.  

Jon has been the investment advisor or a trustee for more than $100 billion (including NYC’s pension funds) and has consulted to investors with aggregate assets of more than $2 trillion dollars. He is the recipient of many honors, including a lifetime achievement award from the ICGN. 
 

Joanne leads Rights CoLab’s strategy of investor and civil society engagement and research. A recognized thought leader in the field of business and human rights, Joanne brings over three decades of experience in project management, multi-stakeholder convening, research, and publication on both human rights and environmental issues. She is an Adjunct Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University (since 2008) where she teaches on business and human rights, launched the SIPA business and human rights clinic, co-founded the Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, and led the business and human rights program at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights. She is Interim Chair of the Board of Directors of Inclusive Development International, a member of the Advisory Board of Accountability Counsel, and advises numerous other human rights organizations. Previously, she was Director of Studies at Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs (1991-2005), and Senior Researcher during the start-up phase of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (2005-2011).

Jane Nelson is the founding director of the Corporate Responsibility Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School and a senior research fellow at the school’s Center for Business and Government. She is a nonresident senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development at Brookings, co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Energy Nexus, and an editor-in-chief of the Cambridge Forum on Corporate Climate Governance. She serves on the boards of Newmont, South32 and the Niger Delta Partnership Initiative and on sustainability-related advisory councils for Bank of America, Abbott and Griffith Foods. She started her career with Citibank and worked with The Prince of Wales International Business Forum and on a secondment in the office of the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, preparing a 2001 report for the General Assembly on partnerships with the private sector. Since 1992, Jane has served on advisory councils for over 45 corporations, non-governmental organizations, and government bodies. She has co-authored seven books and more than 100 publications on the role of the private sector and multi-stakeholder partnerships in supporting sustainable development, including the Academy of Management’s 2015 Best Book Award in the Social Issues in Management Division (with David Grayson). In 2024, she was recognized in the UK Honours List as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for her services to business and sustainability.

Jane S. Hoffman is a public policy expert, author, and civic leader whose career spans government, media, and environmental advocacy. She currently serves as a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School in the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, and has held senior roles in New York government, including Commissioner of Consumer Affairs.

Hoffman holds a B.S. in Communication from Northwestern University and studied labor relations at the London School of Economics. She founded the Presidential Forum on Renewable Energy and co-authored Green: Your Place in the New Energy Revolution, excerpted in Scientific American.

Her most recent book, Your Data, Their Billions: Unraveling and Simplifying Big Tech (2022), examines how technology companies monetize personal data.

Jake joined Wespath in January 2020. As the managing director of Sustainable Investment Strategies for Wespath and its subsidiaries’ investment programs, Jake leads a team that focuses on investment stewardship and ESG integration. In addition, he interacts with key partners in The United Methodist Church (Church), works to foster collaboration with the Church and collaborates with colleagues across Wespath to prepare for General Conference. Before Wespath, Jake worked at Morgan Stanley’s Graystone Consulting. Jake currently co-leads the Engagement Track of the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance and is a Board member for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. Jake received his bachelor’s degree in Economics, International Studies and Political Science from Ohio Wesleyan University.

Ira has spent his career at the intersection of business, government, academia and civil society. Dean of a business school and a school of public policy; MA Commissioner of Revenue; Chief of Staff to two big city mayors; EVP of a global bank; Director of the Center for Business and Government at Harvard; now a Research Fellow at HKS leading "The Frontier State" project and heading the CAP Collaborative, a unique cross-training program for senior executives in the public and private sectors.

Ingrid S. Dyott is a retired investment professional with more than 25 years of experience in sustainable and ESG‑integrated equity management. From 1997 to 2022, she was employed by Neuberger Berman, LLC, where she served as a Managing Director, Senior Portfolio Manager, and Co‑Head of the Sustainable Equity Group. In these roles, she managed the firm’s leading Sustainable Equity strategy. Her entire career has been dedicated to advancing the integrity and growth of sustainable investing. 

Ms. Dyott currently serves on the boards of Impax Asset Management Funds, Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and Arbor Rising. She is an adjunct professor and faculty advisor at Columbia University’s School of International Public Affairs. Ms. Dyott holds a B.A. from Bowdoin College and an MBA. from Columbia Business School.

Ganita Dahiya is an impact and knowledge management specialist with about a decade of experience in problem-solving, data analysis, production, and development communications across journalism, philanthropy, digital education, climate resilience, entrepreneurship, and financial inclusion.

She has worked on large-scale initiatives advancing education and digital inclusion with Grameen Foundation, American India Foundation, and Piramal Foundation. In these roles, she developed the theory of change models, institutionalized organizational knowledge, edited/authored research and evaluation materials, matured thought leadership, and co-produced nationwide Social and Behaviour Change Communications (SBCC) campaigns in education, health, and financial inclusion. Alongside, she co-managed the web and digital presence.

In addition to her development work, Ganita collaborates with Kahaniwaale Infotech as an independent production manager and editor, overseeing storytelling projects across web, print, film, and animation. As an executive producer, she has had editorial oversight on a range of audio-visual projects including use cases for new tech, educational content for all ages, and impact case films for non-profits. Her portfolio comprises use cases and tutorials for the National Data Analytics Platform (NITI Aayog, Government of India), financial inclusion training content and games for Women’s World Banking, field manager film series for IDInsight, and others. 

Awarded the highest level certification and an excellence accord for youth leadership and teamwork, she trained with NCC Delhi Directorate under the authority of Ministry of Defence, Government of India. Ganita is an alumna of Gandhi Fellowship (District Transformation Program, rural Rajasthan, India) and JENESYS 2.0 Japan International Centre of Cooperation (Mass Media, Japan). She holds a Master of Public Administration in Development Practice (MPA-DP) from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a Bachelors in Journalism from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. 

A long-term member of the Experiential Living Project traveller community based in the Himalayas, she loves slow-travel, design for fun, garden/farm, and writing. She thrives in collaborative community spaces, and is currently a member of High Impact Professionals. 

Ganis Bustami is a sustainability and development specialist working at the intersection of policy-making, research, and data analysis. With over a decade of experience in sustainable infrastructure development, energy transition, and blended finance, he focuses on producing applied research and analytical insights that inform financial mechanisms and policy strategies to accelerate low-carbon investments in emerging markets and developing economies. At Indonesia’s national development finance institution, PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (Persero), he provided research and policy analysis that informed over US$1 billion in municipal infrastructure finance mechanisms, supporting the transition of Indonesia’s sub-national lending framework from a centralized fiscal instrument to a corporatized development finance model that enhanced fiscal sustainability and expanded local governments’ access to capital. He also contributed analytical inputs and policy recommendations for the government guarantee framework for geothermal exploration, which mobilized multilateral and climate finance participation and became Indonesia’s first de-risking mechanism for renewable energy projects. Building on this policy work, he supported evidence-based strategic communications under the Road to G20 program and helped communicate PT SMI’s role as Indonesia’s country platform for energy transition finance through policy research and financial analysis. The initiative earned the company regional merit recognition for financial inclusion.

At Columbia University, Ganis deepened his research engagement through cross-regional projects. He worked as a Research Assistant at the Center on Global Energy Policy, where he co-authored a policy report on the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) across South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Senegal. His roles as an investment intern at Fundación Chile’s ChileGlobal Ventures and a commercial intern at Cordelio Power further strengthened his analytical lens on market data, financial modeling, and project dynamics in the Americas’ renewable energy space. Ganis holds a Master of Science in Sustainability Management from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Indonesia. Co-developed an award-winning policy proposal on an innovative blended finance platform to support energy transition, led him to co-found Sustainability Network of Nusantara (SANARA), a learning hub connecting sustainability-driven investors with Indonesia’s emerging market opportunities.

Erich has been an advocate and champion of blended finance for over ten years, including by leading efforts to introduce the concept to the United Nations and the broader international community in 2014 and 2015.

Until recently, Erich was responsible for global thought leadership and US regulatory affairs at CDPQ, a Montreal-based pension fund and one of the world’s largest institutional investors in infrastructure. At CDPQ, he helped co-found the Scaling Capital for Sustainable Development (SCALED) initiative and authored or co-authored dozens of thought pieces, technical documents, policy recommendations and other publications on blended finance, including the 2024 Blended Finance Best Practice: Case Studies and Lessons Learned.

Prior to joining CDPQ, Erich served as a diplomat for the Government of Canada from 2010 to 2022. During this time, he served two postings at Canada’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York where he was responsible for climate change and economic and environmental affairs and extensively involved in negotiating such major international agreements as Rio+20, the Paris Agreement, the 2030 Agenda (the Sustainable Development Goals). and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. His final posting was in Juba, South Sudan where he initially served as the Head of the Political Section and later as the interim Ambassador (Chargé d’affaires). Erich holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Concordia University in Montreal. He speaks English, French and German.

Dr Herrington is Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge University Press Cambridge Forum on Corporate Climate Governance, a Lancet Commissioner, and has served on a number of UK government policy task forces. She has been an academic for over 30 years in the US, UK and Ireland, a US National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, a Government of Ireland Fellow, and has published in the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences.
 

Wellesley College, B.A., Economics; Columbia University Graduate Faculties, M.A., Public Finance, Urban Economics [Cost-Benefit Analysis of Air Pollution Control]; Columbia Business School, MBA, Finance. 
Council on Economic Priorities, research on corporate pollution and pollution control. 
NYC Dept of Environmental Protection, Director of Strategic Planning; New York City Water Board, Financial Analyst. 
Social Accountability International, COO, CEO: SA8000 and other verifiable social standards; Global Living Wage Coalition.

Eduardo Ayala Fuentes is the Major Gift Officer at Columbia SIPA, managing a portfolio of individual and institutional donor relationships supporting SIPA faculty and affiliates. He was most recently the Director of Development at the Queens Museum. Throughout his more than 15 years of experience in administration and fundraising, he has fundraised for and advised arts, culture, civic, and educational organizations both locally and internationally, navigating periods of mission evolution and leadership transition while creatively engaging diverse teams and stakeholders. He graduated with an Executive MPA from Columbia SIPA, concentrating in Management, Innovation, and International Economic Policy, and a BA in International Affairs and Spanish Language and Literature from the Elliott School at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. He is based in Harlem, New York City.

Douglas K. Chia is President of Soundboard Governance LLC, Senior Fellow at the Rutgers Center for Corporate Law & Governance, and host of The Public Company Series Podcast. He previously served as Executive Director of The Conference Board Governance & Sustainability Center and as Assistant General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Johnson & Johnson, with earlier roles at Tyco International, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Clifford Chance in New York and Hong Kong.

He is a Fellow at The Aspen Institute Business & Society Program and Advisor to Foresight BoardOps and PracticalESG.com. Mr. Chia has held leadership roles including Chair of the Society for Corporate Governance and member of the NYSE Corporate Governance Commission and ABA Corporate Laws Committee.

He has been widely recognized in corporate governance and regularly appears in major media, including The Wall Street Journal and FT, and was inducted into the Governance Intelligence Hall of Fame in 2023.

Mr. Chia holds an AB from Dartmouth College and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center and is based in Princeton, NJ.

Deborah Leipziger is the author of several leading books in the fields of sustainability and corporate responsibility, including The Corporate Responsibility Code Book and co-author of Creating Social Value: A Guide for Leaders and Change Makers. She advises companies and organizations around the world on social and environmental issues. A force for change in fields as diverse as food, fashion, and energy, Deborah has advised corporations and nonprofits in many countries, including India, Nigeria, Brazil, Peru, the Netherlands, and the US. She is currently working on a Lexicon of Change, a guide to the language that we need for social and environmental transformation. Her pioneering work on social standards such as Social Accountability 8000 and the Ethical Trading Initiative changed how companies address human rights in the workplace. She has advised organizations as diverse as Oxfam, the Global Reporting Initiative, and the UN Environment Program. Born in Brazil, Deborah has a Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and a BA from Manhattanville College in Economics and International Studies.

Independent commentator, adviser, podcaster and speaker on Responsible Business, Corporate Sustainability, and collaboration between businesses and other parts of society. Non-executive director. Published author.

David is Emeritus Professor of Corporate Responsibility at Cranfield University School of Management. He is a Companion of the Chartered Institute of Management and a founding Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability.

David has chaired several public bodies and charities in the UK including the National Disability Council and The Institute of Business Ethics. He is an independent board member for the Baiduri Bank in Brunei, for which he chairs the Group Risk Management Committee and leads on sustainability. He is part of the Circle of Advisers for Business Fights Poverty and a member of the faculty for The Forward Institute.  

David is the author of eleven books. The latest - “The Sustainable Business Handbook,” - is co-authored with Chris Coulter and Mark Lee (Kogan Page 2022) and was the winner of the Business Book Award 2023 for sustainability and change-management. He co-hosts “All In: The Sustainable Business Podcast.”

David Wood is an Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs and The Brandmeyer Fellow for Impact and Sustainable Investing. He was the co-founder of the Initiative for Responsible Investment (IRI) at the Harvard Kennedy School. He studies the theory and practice of responsible/sustainable/impact investment broadly construed. Previous research projects have included work on the theory and practice of responsible investment across asset classes; public policy and responsible/impact investment; corporate reporting on ESG issues; and economic inequality and the just transition as topics in the field. He is currently working a history of responsible investment from the 1970s to the present day.

Chris Pinney is the founding president of High Meadows Institute, a Boston-based think tank exploring the changing role of corporate and financial sector leadership and responsibility in the 21st century. Chris brings to the Institute over twenty-five years of experience working with C-suite executives nationally and internationally on corporate leadership in society. As president of HMI, Chris has led the development of the Institute’s Future of Corporate Governance and Future of Capital Markets projects, which bring together corporate and financial sector leaders in designing frameworks for corporate governance and sustainable capital markets equal to the challenges and expectations of the 21st century.

Prior to the Institute, Chris was President at the Alliance for Business Leadership, a non-partisan alliance of CEOs, business leaders, entrepreneurs and investors, and a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, where he led the development of the Aspen Leaders Forum.

Previously, Chris was Director of Research and Policy and Executive Education at Boston College Carroll School of Management’s Center for Corporate Citizenship, where he worked with Global 500 companies on corporate strategy and sustainability.

Prior to joining Boston College, Chris was Director of Imagine Canada, an initiative that brought together Canada’s leading CEOs and over 600 companies to define an expanded role for business leadership based around a set of sustainable business principles and commitments.

Chris has an extensive background in international and community development, serving as Vice President of the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (now Cooperation Canada) and Chair of the Brussels-based International Council for Development Action (now CIVICUS).

Chris has a BA (Hons) from McGill University and is an RSA Fellow and a member of the Awards Committee for the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN).

Chris Pinney is the founding president of High Meadows Institute, a Boston-based think tank exploring the changing role of corporate and financial sector leadership and responsibility in the 21st century. Chris brings to the Institute over twenty-five years of experience working with C-suite executives nationally and internationally on corporate leadership in society. As president of HMI, Chris has led the development of the Institute’s Future of Corporate Governance and Future of Capital Markets projects, which bring together corporate and financial sector leaders in designing frameworks for corporate governance and sustainable capital markets equal to the challenges and expectations of the 21st century. Prior to the Institute, Chris was President at the Alliance for Business Leadership, a non-partisan alliance of CEOs, business leaders, entrepreneurs and investors, and a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, where he led the development of the Aspen Leaders Forum. Previously, Chris was Director of Research and Policy and Executive Education at Boston College Carroll School of Management’s Center for Corporate Citizenship, where he worked with Global 500 companies on corporate strategy and sustainability.

 

Cheryl Kiser has spent more than 30 years helping organisations create economic and social value in tandem. As the founding Executive Director of the Lewis Institute for Social Innovation at Babson College, she led the Institute for 16 years, building it into a globally recognised centre for entrepreneurial leadership and social impact. Under her leadership, the Institute seeded value-driven ventures, supported leaders across business, social, and academic sectors, and helped redefine how organisations pursue and measure impact.

Cheryl is widely recognised for her ability to connect people, ideas, and resources to catalyse meaningful change. At Babson and with external partners, she designed and launched influential programmes, including the MBA elective Creating Social Value, the Social Innovation Inventureship, the online course From Corporate Social Responsibility to Social Innovation, and the executive certificate Entrepreneurial Leadership in the Social Sector. She also co‑founded Food Sol, a collaborative network uniting diverse food entrepreneurs to encourage regenerative dialogue and practical collaboration.

Prior to Babson, Cheryl served for 13 years as Managing Director of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, focusing on business’s evolving role in society. During her tenure, the Center hosted largest convening of corporate responsibility practitioners and emerged as a leading voice.

Catherine Howarth OBE is the Chief Executive of ShareAction, a UK registered charity that seeks to define the highest global standards of responsible investment and to promote those standards internationally. Working closely with investors in many countries, ShareAction drives accelerated action by companies to raise living standards, strengthen public health, drive low carbon transition and address the risks and impacts of climate change and loss of biodiversity.

Catherine was recognised by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2014. In 2022 she was awarded an OBE by King Charles III for ‘services to sustainability’. She was appointed in late 2023 to the Financial Conduct Authority’s advisory committee on Sustainable Finance. She is a member of the HM Treasury’s asset management taskforce. Since 2024 she has been a board member of Nest Pensions, the UK’s largest pension scheme by membership. 

Catherine has a First Class Honours degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford and a Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics in Industrial Relations.

Caroline Rees is President and Co-Founder of Shift, a non-profit organization working globally with companies, investors, lenders and standard-setters to embed respect for human rights into business and build a fairer economic system. Among other roles, her work has focused on how to advance corporate reporting as a catalyst for better human rights risk management, and on improving the data and methods used to evaluate companies’ social performance. Caroline was a British diplomat from 1992 to 2006. While heading the UK's human rights team at the United Nations, she chaired the negotiations that established the mandate of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on business and human rights. She became lead advisor to John Ruggie after he was appointed to that role, and was centrally involved in the drafting of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. From 2009 to 2011 she was also Director of the Governance and Accountability Program at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Corporate Responsibility Initiative. Caroline is a member of the Unilever Sustainability Advisory Council, the Imperatives Board of the WBCSD, and the Board of the Capitals Coalition.

The Founding Director of the research initiative is Caroline Flammer, Professor of International and Public Affairs and of Climate. She is an expert in sustainable investing and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards. Among other roles, she is the President of the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability, a global multi-disciplinary network of scholars fostering rigorous academic research on corporate sustainability. Professor Flammer also serves as the Chair of the Academic Advisory Committee of the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the largest network of responsible investors to date.

Read more »

Caroline Flammer is the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Economics at Columbia University with appointments at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), the Climate School, and Columbia Business School. Caroline is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), a Senior Fellow at the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER), and a Research Member at the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI). She is an expert in sustainable investing and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards. The Web of Science ranked her among the top 100 Highly Cited Researchers in the economics and business profession in terms of impact over the past 10 years. At Columbia, she serves as the Director of SIPA’s Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) which aims to foster scholarship, education, and dialogue on system-level investing. She also serves as the President of the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS), as Trustee at Domini Impact Investments, and as Department Editor at Management Science. 

Bruce Usher is a Professor of Professional Practice and Faculty Director of the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change at Columbia Business School. He teaches courses on climate change, finance and business, and is a recipient of multiple teaching awards. Professor Usher is on the Columbia Climate School faculty, chairs the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures, and previously chaired Columbia University’s Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing.

Professor Usher published Investing in the Era of Climate Change in 2022, and Renewable Energy: A Primer for the Twenty-First Century, the first in the Earth Institute’s sustainability series of books, in 2019.

Prior to joining Columbia University, Professor Usher was CEO of EcoSecurities Group plc, which developed greenhouse gas emission reduction projects in developing countries. EcoSecurities completed an IPO in 2005 and was acquired by JPMorgan in 2009. He was previously the co-founder and CEO of TreasuryConnect, which provided electronic trading solutions to banks and was acquired in 2001. Prior to that, he worked in financial services in New York and Tokyo. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
 

Brinda Dash is a Research Assistant with the Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) at Columbia SIPA, where her work explores how AI and emerging digital technologies (AI+) can transform the future of sustainable finance. Her current research, under the guidance of senior research scholars Dr. Robert Massie and Tom Hedrick, analyses how technology can help bridge the boundaries between financial and impact materiality - advancing system-level investing approaches that align capital flows with the planetary boundaries and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With seven years of cross-sector experience across education, social impact, and sustainability across the public and private sectors, Brinda brings a systems-thinking perspective to her work, combining data-driven analysis with a deep commitment to social innovation. She holds a Master of Public Administration in Development Practice from Columbia University and a B.Tech in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Shiv Nadar University.

Bradley is a Visiting Professor of Strategy at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan, where he started collaborating in 2011 at the E4Impact initiative. He became Senior Fellow of the E4Impact Foundation in 2015 and currently serves as a strategy professor in several E4Impact MBAs in Africa. He’s also Senior Fellow at the Lewis Institute on Social Innovation Babson College. His primary focus is on Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He was a Professor in Organizational Studies (Ret) at the Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. From 1997-2009 he was also the Executive Director of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. He holds a Ph.D. in Social Policy from The Heller Graduate School at Brandeis University, an M.S.W., and a B.A. in philosophy and sociology from Boston College.

Beth Jenkins is a strategist and relationship builder working to expand economic opportunity, upward mobility, and shared prosperity through business. Over the course of her career, she has worked with large companies, entrepreneurial ventures, impact-oriented investors and NGOs to shape business models and systems that create value and share it fairly. At SocialSide, she leads strategy and thought leadership engagements for companies like Unilever and Mars and for agenda-setting organizations such as WBCSD. She played an instrumental role in WBCSD’s Business Commission to Tackle Inequality, a coalition of 80+ CEOs and other leaders aiming to put inequality on par with climate in terms of business attention and action. Before SocialSide, she founded the Economic Opportunity Program at the Corporate Responsibility Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School and served as a non-resident senior fellow there for more than 10 years. She also served on John Ruggie’s business and human rights mandate team. Earlier in her career, she helped to build the concept and practice of inclusive business at IFC, UNDP, the World Resources Institute, and Ashoka. She has authored more than 30 reports.

Asha Mehta, CFA, is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Global Delta Capital and the author of the book. Her thematic focus includes Emerging & Frontier Markets and Sustainable Investing.

 

Dean Karolyi is a scholar in investment management specializing in international financial markets. He has published extensively in journals and has published several books. His research is featured in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, Time, New York Times, among others. He leads executive education programs across the globe and is actively consulting with corporations, banks, investment firms, stock exchanges, and law firms. Karolyi serves as a Global Advisory Councilor for Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) and serves on the Board of Directors for the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).  Karolyi received his BA (Honors) in economics from McGill University and earned his MBA and PhD degrees in finance at the Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago.

Allison joined High Meadows Institute after a career in academic publishing. As Communications & Operations Manager, she directs communication strategy and manages program operations. Prior to joining High Meadows Institute, she worked as an Editor at John Wiley & Sons, overseeing the development of books and educational materials for academic and professional markets. Allison’s diverse background also includes roles at a non-profit, a cryptocurrency exchange, and a print and design firm. Allison has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Syracuse University.

Professor Cynthia A. Williams is the Roscoe C. O’Byrne Chair in Law, Indiana University, Maurer School of Law. Professor Williams publishes on securities law, corporate law, corporate responsibility, and regulatory theory, often in interdisciplinary collaborations. Her current work is on the obligations of directors and officers under U.S. law to incorporate climate change and nature into their strategies, oversight, and disclosure. Professor Williams engages in policy work through her membership on the Global Future Council on Climate and Nature Governance of the World Economic Forum; on the board of the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI), part of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Programme; and was a co-founder and member of the board of the Climate Bonds Initiative. She is currently a co-editor with Profs. Roland Mees (ethics) and Dirk Bezemer (economics), University of Groningen, of a special issue for the Cambridge Forum on the ethics, economics, and law of climate finance.