The Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs is bringing together a community of faculty, fellows, staff, students, alumni, and SIRI supporters who are passionate about sustainable investing and driving systemic change.
Vincent Shen Vincent Shen (沈司琦) is a founding partner of the New Wangdao Impact Fund, a US$500 million Singapore-domiciled fund managed by New Wangdao Capital, which he leads alongside Acer founder Stan Shih and former TSMC CFO Lora Ho.
The fund carries the New Wangdao philosophy — the Leader's Way for the 21st Century — into capital: leadership measured not by profit alone but by creating value, balancing interests, and sustaining both across generations. Its five strategies form a Five Phases (五行) generating cycle rather than a list — Education (Wood) forms people, who create Deep Tech (Fire), which opens new ground for Reliable Energy (Earth), carrying the breakthroughs of Biotech (Metal), which flow into Healthcare (Water), returning to nurture the next generation. Every investment is governed by Stan Shih's SWD Stewardship — sustainability as the direction, win-win as the method, value creation as the purpose.
Vincent brings three decades across global finance, healthcare entrepreneurship, and university technology transfer: Managing Director at Merrill Lynch (Asia), builder of Taiwan's largest oncology enterprise, Oxford Saïd alumnus, and Columbia SIPA Senior Research Scholar working on blended finance. Through SIMFO, a partner in the NVIDIA Inception VC Alliance, he connects the fund's deep-tech portfolio to the frontier of global AI infrastructure.
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. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Columbia SIRI, the Chairman of Forest Landscapes (a forestation company in Southern Africa), and an investor in several climate- and sustainability-related initiatives. He is formerly a Senior Partner at McKinsey and Company and an Operating Partner at The Stephens Group private equity. He began his career as a petroleum engineer at Exxon.
Tatiana Parisi de Andrade is an economist and sustainable finance professional working at the intersection of capital, strategy, and sustainable development in the Brazilian Amazon. At Instituto Amazônia+21 in São Paulo, she helps originate and structure economically viable projects and investment solutions that connect public, private, and philanthropic capital with regional priorities.
Before joining Instituto Amazônia+21, Tatiana built experience in finance, corporate strategy, and project execution, including equity research at Goldman Sachs, management manager at Vale and the leadership of complex organizational initiatives in the private sector.
Tatiana holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and serves on SIPA’s Advisory Board. She also completed executive education in strategy execution at INSEAD. She is committed to advancing partnerships and financial models that combine economic opportunity, environmental conservation, and lasting impact across the Amazon.
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 currently a SIRI Senior Fellow at the Sustainable Investing Research Initiative of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Over the past 50 years, he has worked with Domini Impacts Investments (Partner, Strategic Vision), The Investment Integration Project (Founder), KLD Research & Analytics (Director, Research), Trillium Asset Management, and the Council on Economic Priorities.
He has authored and co-authored five books on socially responsible investment, including “21st Century Investment: Redirecting Financial Strategies to Drive Systems Change” (with William Burckart) and “Corporations and the Public Interest: Guiding the Invisible Hand”. Among his articles and white papers are “Reason, Rationality, and Fiduciary Duty” (Journal of Business Ethics) and “From Transparency to Performance: Industry-Based Sustainability Reporting on Key Issues” (with Jean Rogers and David Wood).
He has a BA in English from Columbia College, an MFA in Theater Arts from Cornell University, and is a Chartered Finance Analyst holder.
Shuhei Morofuji is the Founder and CEO of Reapra Group, a Singapore-based venture builder and investment group established in 2014, focused on developing sustainable businesses through research and practice. Its mission is to contribute to the betterment of society by creating industries.
In 2003, Shuhei founded SMS Co., Ltd., one of Asia's leading healthcare information platforms, which has since expanded to more than 13 countries and developed over 30 revenue streams. He served as CEO for 11 years, leading the company's growth, international expansion, and listing on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Following his retirement from SMS, he established Reapra Group and expanded its investment activities across Southeast Asia and Japan.
Shuhei is also active in education and philanthropy. In 2015, he founded Katsuiku Kyoiku Zaidan, an education foundation focused on developing the skills and mindsets needed to navigate and thrive in a rapidly changing world. In 2021, he founded Unson Zaidan, an organization that aims, through research and practice, to realize not only the wealth of the present but also the wealth that will continue to the next nine generations. Shuhei graduated from the Faculty of Economics at Kyushu University.
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.
Osvald Bjelland is a Norwegian entrepreneur, investor, global business executive, and cultural leader with a deep interest in people- and planet-positive models of growth. He is the founder and Chairman of Origination AS and the Origination Foundation, where he works to build a community of leaders from business, policy, the arts, and civil society committed to investing in service of people and the planet with long-term strategic foresight, with a particular focus on frontier markets.
He is also the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Xynteo, a strategic advisory business focused on energy transition and systems change. Bjelland founded The Performance Theatre, a global platform bringing together business leaders, Nobel Laureates, scientists, policymakers, and artists to explore solutions to major societal challenges.
Bjelland is a Senior Fellow for the Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) at Columbia University. He has also been a visiting business fellow at Oxford University and a visiting scholar at Stanford University. He holds a PhD from the University of Leeds, an MBA from Henley Business School, and a BA from BI Norwegian Business School.
Nnamdi Igbokwe is the Director of SIRI Blended Finance and a Senior Research Scholar. 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.
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.
Mamoru Taniya has nearly 40 years of experience in finance and over three decades of experience as an angel investor, supporting the founding and growth of numerous startups while actively engaging with NGOs and NPOs. His work spans finance, entrepreneurship, education, and social impact. He has also been actively involved in initiatives that seek to foster innovation and create positive social change.
At Solomon Brothers, he became one of the youngest Managing Directors in Asia, leading investment operations across Japan and the broader region. He later founded Asuka Asset Management, one of Japan’s pioneering independent alternative asset management firms, and co-founded Mercuria Investment with the Development Bank of Japan, focusing on private equity investments.
With a “co-creation” approach to building ventures from the concept stage, he has helped launch several innovative businesses, including Lifenet Insurance, Japan’s first online life insurer; Money Design, Japan’s first robo-advisory platform; Recika, a blockchain business; and SDG Impact Japan. He currently serves as Chairperson of MNES, R Project, and Discover Japan.
He was the founding representative of UWC ISAK Japan, Japan’s first international boarding school, and serves as Vice Chair of the Tokyo Committee of Human Rights Watch and as a Trustee of the International House of Japan. He holds an LL.B. from the University of Tokyo.
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
Leonard M. Levie is Chairman and Founder of American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC), a global industrial investment and operating company. Over the course of his career, he has built and led a diversified portfolio of industrial businesses across sectors including advanced manufacturing, aerospace, specialty materials, pharmaceuticals, and industrial products, with operations spanning North America, Europe, and Asia. His experience combines long-term investment with hands-on engagement in the development and transformation of industrial businesses.
Beyond his business career, Leonard is deeply engaged in institutions dedicated to exploration, international dialogue, economic development, and philanthropy. He serves as a Trustee and Poet Laureate of The Explorers Club, reflecting his longstanding commitment to discovery, scientific inquiry, and the advancement of human knowledge. He is also affiliated with leading organizations focused on international cooperation and the global economic system, including the Trilateral Commission, the Bretton Woods Committee, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Leonard's professional and civic interests extend across business, exploration, culture, and philanthropy. In addition to his work in industrial investment and operations, he has been involved with a range of institutions focused on exploration, international affairs, economic development, and the arts. He serves as a Trustee and Poet Laureate of The Explorers Club and is affiliated with organizations including the Trilateral Commission, the Bretton Woods Committee, and the Council on Foreign Relations. His interests include scientific exploration, international cooperation, economic development, and the relationship between business and broader societal and institutional developments.
Ketan Patel is the founder and chairman of ‘Force for Good’, established in support of the UN Secretary General’s roadmap for sustainable development, examining and engaging 125 leading global financial institutions and 100 leading technology companies.
Ketan co-founded and leads the investment firm, Greater Pacific Capital (GPC), which invests in high growth enterprises making an impact locally and internationally, profitably and sustainably.
Ketan was formerly a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, heading the Strategic Group, providing strategic counsel to governments and businesses worldwide, including the US, EU, China, India and Japan. Previously, he was a partner and board member at KPMG, leading the Strategy and Business Transformation business.
Ketan is a fellow and member of the board of trustees of the World Academy of Art and Science; senior team member of the Human Security for All campaign of WAAS and UN Trust Fund for Human Security; and member of the board of Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation. His research work focuses on great power systems and transitions, the changing world order, sustainability, mass inclusion and the eradication of slums.
Ketan is the author of “The Master Strategist” (Random House, 2005), foreword by Nelson Mandela. He studied Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science and holds an MBA, ACMA, and a post-graduate degree in neuroscience from King’s College, London.
Ken Shibusawa founded Shibusawa and Company, Inc. in 2001, a strategic advisory firm focused on alternative investments, ESG/SDGs alignment, and human resource development. In 2008, he also founded Commons Asset Management, a mutual fund dedicated to delivering long-term investment opportunities to Japanese households and promoting a long-term perspective in investment.
Ken has extensive market experience at JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, as well as Moore Capital, a global macro hedge fund, where he served as Representative Managing Director of the Tokyo Office. Through his investment and advisory work, he has been actively engaged in advancing responsible investment and the alignment of capital with long-term economic and societal goals. He is a Director of Keizai Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives) and a Steering Committee member of UNDP SDG Impact.
A published author, Ken writes frequently in magazines, journals, and internet media on investment, economic, and societal issues. He was educated in the United States from second grade through college, earning a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas in 1983, and later an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1987.
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 and educators.
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.
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.
John Kluge Jr. is a social entrepreneur, impact investor, and author working at the intersection of refugee economic inclusion and regenerative enterprise. He is the founder of the Refugee Investment Network (RIN), which mobilizes private capital to support refugee entrepreneurs and host communities worldwide, and Co-Founder & CEO of Thistlerock Mead Company, America's first net-zero meadery, built on a regenerative flower farm in Virginia's Monticello AVA. He serves on the boards of the Montpelier Foundation, Norwegian Refugee Council USA, and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum. He has spoken at the United Nations, World Economic Forum, Vatican Impact Investing Summit, and Milken Institute Global Conference. He is co-author, with Christine Mahoney, of Banking on Belonging: Why Investing in Refugee Entrepreneurs Benefits Everyone (Columbia University Press, 2026), co-author of Charity and Philanthropy for Dummies (Wylie, 2014), and author of John Kluge: Stories (Columbia University Press, 2008).
John Fennebresque is Managing Principal of Fennebresque & Co., LLC, a Charlotte-based FINRA-registered investment banking advisory firm, and a principal at SusCap Advisors, a carbon markets and blended finance advisory firm. He has three decades of investment banking experience across infrastructure finance, project finance, and M&A, having advised on more than 60 transactions totaling $6.6 billion. John began his career in Structured and Project Finance at Bank of America and Credit Suisse before founding Fennebresque & Co. more than two decades ago. He also holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.
John has been a long-standing advisor to GreenTrees, the world's largest afforestation and reforestation carbon project, with work spanning capital markets strategy, commercial relationship structuring, and carbon credit verification. His practice focuses on the intersection of environmental finance, voluntary carbon markets, and blended finance. His experience also includes a senior operating and investment role at GreenTrees, giving him both financial and operational perspectives on carbon markets and nature-based investment.
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.
Fiona Reynolds is an independent director and advisory board member working across the business and investor sectors on ESG and sustainability issues. Fiona served as the CEO of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) for just under a decade, stepping down at the beginning of 2022.
Fiona is the Chair of the UN Global Compact Network Australia; she also serves on the Board of Frontier Advisors and the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute. She is on the Advisory Boards of Affirmative Investment Management, and ROC Partners. She chairs the ESG Advisory Board for Qualitas and is on the think tanks Climate Catalyst, and the UBS Sustainability and Impact Forum, as well as the Advisory Committee for the NSW Commissioner for Anti-Slavery and the Australian Human Rights Institute.
Fiona has 28 years’ experience in the financial services, superannuation and pension sectors. She joined the PRI from the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST), where she spent seven years as CEO.
Fiona was named one of the 20 most influential people in sustainability globally by Barron’s magazine and has twice been named one of Australia’s one hundred women of influence by the Australian Financial Review.
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.
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 the Netherlands, the UK, India, Brazil, and the US. She is currently working on The 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. Her next book, Flourishing Business: A New Future, will be published by Routledge in 2027. She is also the author of several books of poetry, including Tell Me and Story & Bone from Lily Poetry Review Books.
David Wood serves as the Director of the SIRI Legacy Archive flagship program. David studies the field of responsible investment, broadly construed. He holds a PhD in History from Johns Hopkins University. For 20 years he worked at the Initiative for Responsible Investment, where he ran projects on asset owner strategies, investment tactics across asset classes, public policy, place-based investing, economic inequality, and just transition. He is currently working on a history of social investment since the 1970s. He is Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs and the Brandmeyer Fellow for Impact and Sustainable Investing at Columbia SIPA, and adjunct professor at Harvard Kennedy School.
Christian Déséglise is a Member of the Board and Executive Committee of Mundi Ventures. He previously spent more than two decades at HSBC, where he held senior global roles across sustainable finance, infrastructure, emerging markets, asset management, and sovereign wealth funds, most recently serving as Group Head of Sustainable Infrastructure and Innovation.
Christian is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), where he has taught Emerging Markets and Sustainable Finance since 2009. He is also co-founder and co-director of Columbia’s BRIC Lab, which studies the rise and transformation of emerging economies. His work sits at the intersection of finance, emerging markets, sustainable development, and the mobilization of private capital.
Christian has held numerous international leadership and advisory roles, including leading the FAST Infra initiative to mobilize private investment in sustainable infrastructure, serving on the One Planet Lab, and co-chairing the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on SDG Investments.
He is also co-founder, with his wife Geneviève Maquinay, of Foundation Caring for Colombia, which supports underserved communities in Colombia. Christian holds degrees from Sciences Po and La Sorbonne Nouvelle and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia SIPA.
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).
Cherie Nursalim is Vice Chairman of GITI Group, a diversified group with interests in real estate development, manufacturing, and consumer lifestyle across the Asia Pacific region. She is also Special Advisor to the Government of Indonesia and serves on the Advisory Board of Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore), as well as advisory boards of Columbia University and the MIT Sloan School of Management. She is a board member of the Global Blended Finance Taskforce and Partnering for Green Growth (P4G), and chairs the Southeast Asia Chapter of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Ms. Nursalim has been a longstanding advocate for sustainable development, with particular engagement in blended finance, ocean and blue-economy finance, and emerging technologies including artificial intelligence. She has helped advance initiatives that bring together governments, business, philanthropy, and investors to mobilize capital for sustainable development, including through the Tri Hita Karana Forum and her work on blended finance. She is co-founder of the United in Diversity Foundation and the Tri Hita Karana Forum, and serves on the boards and advisory councils of a number of international organizations focused on sustainability, climate, technology, and development.
Ms. Nursalim holds a BA in Engineering Science and Economics from Oxford University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She is a Harvard Kennedy School World Economic Forum Young Global Leader alumna.
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.
AlexiAndrea Borden is Director of a private charitable foundation supporting organizations and initiatives across the environmental, social, cultural, arts, educational, and health sectors. An environmental artist and photographer, landscape and interior designer, documentary producer, and consultant to non-profits in the developing world, she brings together interests in conservation, exploration, culture, and social impact.
Borden’s work has taken her to sacred sites, remote places, and wildlife habitats around the world, with a particular interest in environmental preservation and indigenous traditions. Through her artistic and documentary work, she explores the relationship between people, place, and the natural environment. She has also worked in television and as a TV agent and has supported projects that bring greater visibility to environmental and cultural issues.
Borden is a member of The Explorers Club and serves on its Council of Impact Advisors, contributing to efforts at the intersection of exploration, conservation, science, and global impact. She is currently advocating for the creation of an International Firefighting Force to strengthen international capacity to respond to increasingly severe wildfire and environmental emergencies. Her philanthropic and professional interests reflect a longstanding commitment to advancing environmental stewardship, cultural understanding, and innovative approaches to global challenges.