2021 speakers
Elizabeth Bomberg
University of Edinburgh
Elizabeth Bomberg is Professor of Environmental Politics and deputy Head of Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. She was educated in California before moving to Britain. She has taught at several Universities in the UK and the US, and has held research posts in Brussels and at the University of California. Her areas of expertise include comparative environmental politics and policy, climate change activism and negotiations, and US and EU politics.
Elizabeth serves as the University lead on UNA Europa Sustainability Self-Steering Committee, and is Programme Co-Director for the MSc Global Environment, Politics, and Society. She is an enthusiastic teacher and continually inspired by the hope, energy, and ideas of the next generation of climate scholars and activists.
Sarah Shanley Hope
The Solutions Project
Sarah Shanley Hope is the VP of Brand and Partnerships at The Solutions Project following seven years as the organisation’s first Executive Director. Under Sarah’s leadership, the organisation transformed its mission and culture to centre racial and gender equity, launched the field’s first and only award-winning intermediary climate and equity fund, and grew a celebratory, collaborative, and inclusive movement for 100% clean energy.
Sarah has held executive or leadership roles at the Alliance for Climate Education, Green For All, Cargill, and Best Buy over her 15 plus years of experience in brand strategy and social change. She has raised and helped deploy more than $50 million in support of a racial equity and climate solutions agenda over her tenure in the field.
Shanley Hope graduated with an MBA from the University of Minnesota and a BA in political science from Vassar College. She grew up in Buffalo, New York and lives with her husband, daughters, and dog in Oakland, California, where she also sits on the Board of Native Renewables.
Sarah’s work has been featured in a range of outlets including The New York Times, People Magazine, and The Daily Show. She has spoken about the vision, strategies, and stories of change at the intersection of climate solutions and equity as part of TEDxMidAtlantic, Climate One, the Social Venture Network, and Bioneers.
Julie Cerqueira
US Climate Alliance
Julie Cerqueira is the Executive Director of the US Climate Alliance, where she helps to advance the climate and clean energy policy priorities of the Alliance’s Governors and their offices. Ms Cerqueira most recently served as a Senior Advisor to the Special Envoy for Climate Change, later joining the Office of Global Change, both with the US Department of State.
In this role, she led US engagement in strategic partnerships, such as the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, helped launch high profile climate deliverables for North America and the US Chairmanship of the Arctic Council, and led the Department’s engagement with sub-national governments on climate change, amongst other priorities.
Prior to her work in the federal government, Ms Cerqueira worked with developing countries on designing and implementing sectoral climate policies at a climate think tank, and spent four years in Southeast Asia working with local communities, governments, and the private sector on environmental projects and promoting policy reforms.
Pete Ogden
United Nations Foundation
Pete Ogden is Vice President for Energy, Climate, and the Environment at the United Nations Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, he was Senior Fellow for International Energy and Climate Policy at the Center for American Progress, Senior Advisor and Fellow at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, and Senior Advisor at the Rhodium Group.
During the Obama administration, he served in the White House as Senior Director for Energy and Climate Change on the Domestic Policy Council, and Director for International Climate Change and Environmental Policy on the National Security Council, as well as at the State Department as Chief of Staff to the Special Envoy for Climate Change.
Before his government roles, he was the Chief of Staff at the Center for American Progress. His writing on energy and climate issues has appeared in Foreign Affairs, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, and a variety of other outlets.
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Matthew Brander
University of Edinburgh Business School
Matthew has worked since 2006 in greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and climate change policy appraisal, in consultancy and academia.
He has participated in the development of numerous international standards for GHG accounting, including the revision of ISO 14064 parts 1 and 2, ISO 14067, and as chapter lead author for the GHG Protocol’s Policy and Actions Standard. He is a member of the Woodland Carbon Code's Advisory Board, and is on the peer-review panel for the UK Government's conversion factors for company reporting.
He has a PhD in Carbon Accounting from the University of Edinburgh, a MSc in Environmental Sustainability, a MSc by research in Philosophy of Language, and a MA in Mental Philosophy.
Matthew’s research interests are in greenhouse gas (carbon) accounting, focusing on the various methods and standards that are available, and the appropriate use-context of those methods. He has a particular interest in exploring the distinction between attributional and consequential methods, and applying that distinction to understand the conceptual nature of different carbon accounting methods.
Matthew is also interested in the issue of green power accounting, and the importance of additionality for ensuring corporate greenhouse gas accounts are accurate and relevant to decision making. An open access paper on this issue is available at:
Matthew’s further interests are in greenhouse gas accounting for bioenergy, greenhouse gas removal, the construction sector, and the alignment of financial flows with the Paris Agreement.
Derik Broekhoff
Stockholm Environment Institute
Derik Broekhoff has over 20 years of experience in energy and climate policy. His current work focuses on the effective design and implementation of environmental market mechanisms, and assessing subnational and local climate mitigation policies.
Prior to joining Stockholm Environment Institute, Derik was Vice President for Policy at the Climate Action Reserve in Los Angeles, where he oversaw development of the Reserve’s voluntary carbon offset program and its transition into California’s regulatory cap-and-trade program.
Before that, he led work for the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative at the World Resources Institute, focusing on how to quantify emission reductions from renewable energy projects.
He has advised numerous state, national, and multi-national policy initiatives on carbon accounting and program design, including voluntary and regulatory offset programs and programs to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+).
Derik has a master's degree in public policy (MPP) from the University of California at Berkeley, and a bachelor's degree in international relations from Stanford University.
Tracey Osborne
University of California Merced
Tracey Osborne is Associate Professor and Presidential Endowed Chair in the Management of Complex Systems Department at the University of California Merced. She is also the Founding Director of the University of California Center for Climate Justice.
Tracey’s research focuses on the social and political economic dimensions of climate change mitigation in tropical forests and the role of Indigenous Peoples, the politics of climate finance, global environmental governance, and climate equity and justice. She has worked on these issues globally with extensive field experience in Mexico and the Amazon (Peru, Ecuador, and Guyana).
She also leads the Climate Alliance Mapping Project, a collaborative effort between academics, environmental non-governmental organisations, and Indigenous organisations working for a socially-just response to climate change through research, maps, and digital stories.
Her work has been published in high-impact geography, social science, and interdisciplinary journals, and she has been invited to share her research internationally in academic and non-academic venues such as the Conference of the Parties climate change meetings. She received her PhD from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California Berkeley.
Owen Hewlett
Gold Standard
Owen is the Chief Technical Officer at the Gold Standard Foundation. Owen has been at the Gold Standard since 2014, his work there involves setting high quality standards for climate and sustainable action and making sense of where they fit amongst the various corporate, market, and finance options to support them.
Owen’s background and expertise is in carbon accounting, sustainable development, and social and environmental safeguards. He began his career in the construction industry before becoming involved in climate and sustainability.
2020 speakers
Amal-Lee Amin
CDC Group
Dr Amal-Lee Amin joined CDC Group in February 2020 as Climate Change Director in a pivotal role for implementing a new climate change strategy. Amal-Lee is also advising the UK's COP26 Unit on the role of public finance in delivering more ambitious climate action.
Dr Amin is a highly respected climate change expert who has most recently served as the Chief of Climate Change Division at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), leading the organisation's efforts to support Latin America and the Caribbean region with implementation of the Paris Agreement. At the bank she led on a governor's resolution for doubling climate finance by 2020; supporting countries with long-term development pathways for net zero emissions and use of innovative financial instruments to mobilise private capital for low carbon and climate resiliency solutions.
She has been a key player in developing collaboration among the multilateral development banks in support of climate and development, including for scaling up investment in Sustainable Infrastructure and a joint approach towards alignment with the Paris Agreement.
Before joining the IADB, Dr Amin spent 10 years working on sustainable energy and climate change policy within the UK Government, including at the Cabinet Office, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), and the Foreign Office. Her lead roles involved engaging developing countries on the UK's G8 and EU Presidency climate change agendas, leading negotiations under the UNFCCC, designing and implementing the Climate Investment Funds, and leading for DECC on design of the UK's Green Investment Bank.
Chinelo Anohu
Africa Investment Forum
Chinelo Anohu runs the Africa Investment Forum (AIF), the preeminent investment platform on the continent. A flagship initiative of the African Development Bank (AFDB), in concert with key founding partners, the AIF is increasing deal flow, accelerating the pace of deal-making, and bringing financial closure to impactful transactions in Africa.
Prior to joining the AFDB, Chinelo served as Director General of the National Pension Commission of Nigeria, where she led the transformation of the role and effectiveness of pension funds in the country with the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme.
Chinelo obtained an LLB from the University of Nigeria, a BL from the Nigerian Law School, and an LLM in Communications and Computer Law from the London School of Economics. She has undergone Executive Education at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Colombia Business School, and the INSEAD Business School, France.
She executed the first ever World Pension Summit Africa, held in Abuja, for three years in a row, and was named one of New African magazine's Most Influential Africans in 2014. She is a member of the London Stock Exchange Africa Advisory Group, and sits on the International Advisory Board of the University of Edinburgh Business School, UK.
Dr Jack Barrie
Zero Waste Scotland
Jack is an expert on the topic of the circular economy. He holds a PhD on Scotland's transition to a circular economy. He has worked on a range of radical sustainable technologies across Europe, Africa, and Asia including pay-as-you-go solar home systems and kite powered wind energy systems.
In his role as Circular Economy Policy Analyst for Zero Waste Scotland, he develops the research, evidence, analysis, and advice to Zero Waste Scotland and the Scottish Government to help realise circular economy policy commitments. He currently manages the Decoupling Advisory Group which also looks at how Scotland can deliver a wellbeing economy through sustainable consumption. Jack also lectures on the Circular Economy at the University of Strathclyde. He has recently published a thought piece around how to end Scotland's contribution to climate change by going Beyond Net Zero.
Sue Bonney
KPMG
Sue is a Vice-Chair and Head of Environmental, Social and Governance agenda for KPMG UK. She leads a number of senior client relationships in the Consumer Markets sector and is a former EMA head of Tax. Sue drives the ESG agenda as a Board priority and helps clients meet the increasing stakeholder demands for a more sustainable approach to their business. This involves helping them set strategic ESG priorities, build and execute the supporting business transformation programmes, and capture and report the data to evidence the change.
Sue is the founder and lead of KPMG's C-Suite Leadership Programme. This is an experiential programme for those 2-3 years from senior executive leadership at FTSE 100 and equivalent public sector organisations, helping them develop the skills and perspectives needed to succeed in their role as responsible leaders.
She is also a Board member of the Forward Institute, a not-for-profit organisation working with a cohort of senior leaders in major institutions across the UK committed to becoming beacons of purpose and responsibilitity. Sue has just completed her term as an Elected Member of the Board of KPMG UK, and has held multiple senior executive leadership roles over 35 years in the firm.
Dr Ian Cochran
University of Edinburgh Business School and Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE)
Ian is part of the Accounting and Finance Group in the University of Edinburgh Business School and is a member of the Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability (B-CCaS). As a lecturer, he is the course organiser for three courses in the MSc in Climate Change Finance and Investment: Climate Policy and Investment, International Climate Finance, and Climate Risk and Investment Alignment.
Ian Cochran is also a Senior Advisor on Investment and Governance at the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE). He contributes to the public interest think-tank's work on investment, climate, and decision-making support.
Ian holds a PhD in Economics from Université Paris-Dauphine (France), a Master's of Public Affairs (MPA) from Sciences-Po Paris (France), and a BA in Policy Studies from the Syracuse University Maxwell School of Public Affairs (USA). Before joining I4CE, Ian worked at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. In 2015, he served as co-reporter on the French Presidential Commission on Innovative Climate Finance 'Mission Canfin-Grandjean'. Ian has lectured in master's level programmes at Sciences-Po Paris and the Université Paris-Dauphine.
Roseanna Cunningham
Member of the Scottish Parliament
Roseanna Cunningham was born in Glasgow in 1951 but spent most of her early years in Edinburgh and East Lothian. In 1960, she travelled to Australia with her family and subsequently completed her schooling in Fremantle, Western Australia and obtained her first university degree from University of Western Australia.
She became interested in politics while still a teenager and in fact first joined the SNP in 1969 as an overseas member. Ms Cunningham returned to Scotland in 1976 and, within only a few months of her arrival, was working full time at SNP HQ, while also being involved in branch and constituency politics in Edinburgh.
In 1980, she returned to university in Edinburgh and obtained a Law Degree followed by a Diploma in Legal Practice from Aberdeen University. From her graduation in 1983 to 1988, she worked as a solicitor in local government. After a brief period in private practice, she became a member of the Faculty of Advocates.
She was elected to the House of Commons in the Perth and Kinross by-election in 1995, was re-elected in 1997 and subsequently stood successfully for the Scottish Parliament in 1999. She stood down from Westminster in 2001. Ms Cunningham held a number of local and national offices in the SNP, including Deputy Leader from 2000-2004.
She has remained a member of the Scottish Parliament from 1999 to present and has been a Committee Convener for the Justice Committee, the Health Committee and the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee. She became Minister for the Environment in 2009 and Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training in November 2014.
Marco De Benedictis
Barclays
Marco heads Barclays’ Corporate Banking Sustainable Product Group, which was established in early 2020 to support the company’s 2050 decarbonisation ambition. His responsibilities include: origination, focused on growing both sides of the balance sheet; portfolio management of the existing book; and sustainable product innovation. Marco also co-chairs the Corporate Banking Sustainability Forum.
Prior to this role, Marco spearheaded the launch of Corporate Banking’s Colonnade synthetic securitisation programme. With an extensive background as an originator and structurer of syndicated loans, Marco led many syndications during five years in the Middle East, focused on broad, deep knowledge of local banking dynamics and superlative account coverage.
Marco earned an MBA with honors distinction as a merit scholar of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. His experience in building new businesses and his dedication to advancing the careers of his colleagues’ positions him well to develop, lead and execute new strategic ventures.
Niklas Hagelberg
UN Environment Programme
Niklas Hagelberg is a Senior Programme Officer at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) where he is the Coordinator of UNEP's programme on Climate Change. Niklas' work includes setting the strategic direction of the programme, programme management, oversight, and progress review.
Previously Niklas worked as Coordinator for the Healthy and Productive Ecosystems programme, and his responsibilities included building a project portfolio on integrated landscape management. Niklas was also part of the team that established the global UN-REDD programme and country programmes in Tanzania and Vietnam.
Before joining UNEP, Niklas worked with various organisations in development including NIRAS, the Government of Finland, and WWF. His work included forest certification, forest conservation, good governance, rural development, and monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects. He lived in Finland, Tanzania, and Ghana before moving to Kenya.
Lord Dr Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE
University of London and Utah State University
Lord Dr Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE is the Chancellor of Regent's University London, installed on 21 February 2017, and also Professor of Leadership at the Stephen R Covey Institute, Huntsman Business School, Utah State University.
Lord Hastings was the Global Head of Citizenship for KPMG International, and retired in 2019. He began his career as a teacher before moving into government service. He was the BBC's Head of Public Affairs and its first Head of Corporate Social Responsibility. He was a trustee of the Vodafone Group Foundation until 2019 and a vice president of UNICEF and Tearfund. He continues as a Governor of the Vodafone/Safaricom MPESA Academy in Nairobi, Kenya, and is a board member of the Africa Philanthropy Forum.
In 2003, Lord Hastings was awarded a CBE for services to crime reduction and in 2005 was awarded an independent peerage to the House of Lords. In the same year, he received the UNICEF Award for his outstanding contribution to understanding and effecting solutions for Africa's children.
In 2014, he was conferred with a Doctorate in Civil Law from the University of Kent, Canterbury. This was in recognition of his leadership at KPMG, the BBC, and his work in international development and corporate responsibility.
Professor Saleemul Huq
International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD)
Prof Saleemul Huq has been the Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) since 2009. Prof Huq is also a Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) where he is involved in building negotiating capacity and supporting the engagement of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in UNFCCC. This includes negotiator training workshops for LDCs, policy briefings and support for the Adaptation Fund Board, as well as research into vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in the least developed countries.
Prof Huq has published numerous articles in scientific and popular journals. He was a lead author of the chapter on Adaptation and Sustainable Development in the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and was one of the coordinating lead authors of 'Inter-relationships between adaptation and mitigation' in the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report (2017).
Prior to these roles, he was at the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) where he was in charge of management and strategy for the organisation. In 2000, he became an Academic Visitor at the Huxley School of Environment at Imperial College London.
Sarah Ivory
University of Edinburgh Business School
Dr Sarah Birrell Ivory is a Lecturer in Climate Change and Business Strategy at the University of Edinburgh Business School and Director of the Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability (B-CCaS). She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a past Chair of the British Academy of Management Sustainable and Responsible Business Special Interest Group. Dr Ivory has been teaching at the Business School for over a decade.
Dr Ivory has a BCom (Hons) from the University of Melbourne, an MBA from Melbourne Business School (including a semester at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), and an MSc by Research and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. Prior to academia Dr Ivory worked for a decade in the private sector in Singapore, Indonesia, and Australia.
Dr Ivory established the Global Challenges for Business compulsory first-year course for all Business School undergraduate students, which focuses not only on the global challenges students will face as they embark on their scholarly and then graduate lives, but explicitly on the skills of critical thinking that will be essential to navigating such issues. Designed around three foundational aspects of critical thinking (quality of argument, strength of evidence, and clarity of communication) the course acts as a foundation for a business degree focusing on teaching students how to think, rather than what to think. The course won a prestigious 2019 Aspen Institute Ideas Worth Teaching educational award. It was the only European-based course to receive an award in that year.
Dr Katharina Kaesehage
University of Edinburgh Business School
Dr Katharina Kaesehage is a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh Business School where she organises and teaches contemporary postgraduate and MBA courses. With her highly interdisciplinary research she is the Director of Research at the Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability, where she explores the role of climate change for business strategies.
Dr Kaesehage is specifically interested in how entrepreneurs and businesses can be potential frontrunners in attaining a low-carbon economy through their embeddedness in local communities. She has worked closely with representatives from industry bodies, companies, and governments such as Volvo, Costain, Edinburgh City Council, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, and the German Corporation for International Cooperation across the world.
Dr Kaesehage has presented her research internationally in Financial Times 50 and ABS 3* listed journals and has an award-winning social entrepreneurship book. She was instrumental in acquiring and implementing numerous research studies as principal and co-investigator, and has most recently been awarded a grant to investigate the Covid-19 practices in Central and South America. She is currently writing a book on leadership and climate change under Edward Elgar Publishing.
Thomas Lingard
Unilever
Thomas is Global Sustainability Director - Climate and Environment, Unilever. He led the development of Unilever's new climate and nature strategy, launched in June 2020, which included a re-commitment to 1.5 degree Science-based Targets, a new Net Zero by 2039 commitment, and the launch of a €1bn Climate and Nature fund.
Thomas joined Unilever as a graduate trainee in finance and IT, subsequently moving to external affairs. In 2008 he left the business to join the think tank Green Alliance as Deputy Director. He re-joined the business in 2010 and was part of the original team that launched the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, subsequently founding the Unilever Global Advocacy team to drive transformational change on systemic issues such as recycling, public health, and sustainable agriculture.
During that time he served as senior adviser to former Unilever CEO, Paul Polman KBE in his role as Co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, and the UN Secretary General's High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. He was part of the Dutch delegation to COP21 and was part of the virtual team that choreographed the business input to the Paris Climate Summit.
Thomas read Philosophy and Modern Languages at Durham University and holds an Advanced Diploma in Sustainability and a Postgraduate Certificate in Cross-sector Partnerships for Sustainable Development from Cambridge University, and a Master's in Development Management from the Open University. Thomas is a Chartered Management Accountant and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Robert Litterman
Kepos Capital
Robert Litterman is a founding partner of Kepos Capital, a New York City based systematic global macro firm, and the Chairman of the Kepos Capital Risk Committee. Prior to joining Kepos Capital in 2010, Dr Litterman enjoyed a 23-year career at Goldman Sachs & Co., where he served in research, risk management, investments, and thought leadership roles.
While at Goldman, Dr Litterman also spent six years as one of three external advisors to Singapore's Government Investment Corporation. He was named as a partner at Goldman in 1994 and became head of the firm-wide risk function. During his tenure at Goldman, he researched and published a number of groundbreaking papers in asset allocation and risk management. He is co-developer of the Black-Litterman Global Asset Allocation Model, a key tool in investment management, and has co-authored books including The Practice of Risk Management and Modern Investment Management: An Equilibrium Approach (Wiley & Co.).
Dr Litterman earned a PhD in Economics from the University of Minnesota and a BSc in Human Biology from Stanford University. He was inducted into Risk Magazine's Risk Management Hall of Fame and named the 2013 Risk Manager of the Year by the Global Association of Risk Professionals. In 2012, he was the inaugural recipient of the S. Donald Sussman Fellowship at MIT's Sloan School of Management. In 2008, he received the Nicholas Molodovsky Award from the CFA Institute Board as well as the International Association of Financial Engineers/SunGard Financial Engineer of the Year Award. He serves on a number of boards, including Commonfund, the Niskanen Center, Resources for the Future, World Wildlife Fund, and the Climate Leadership Council. He also chaired the CFTC Climate-related Market Risk Subcommittee which published its report 'Managing Climate Risk in the US Financial System' in September 2020.
David Lockwood
Babcock Intl Group plc
David Lockwood was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Babcock Intl Group in September 2020. David was CEO of Cobham plc (from 2016 to March 2020) and prior to that he was CEO of Laird PLC (from 2012 to September 2016). His career includes senior management roles at BT Global Services, BAE Systems, and Thales Corporation.
David brings wide-ranging knowledge of the defence and aviation markets, as well as a wealth of experience in both technology and innovation.
David has a degree in Mathematics from the University of York and is a chartered accountant. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Royal Society of Arts and Commerce. He received an OBE for services to industry in Scotland in 2011.
Rachel McTavish
Presenter, Journalist and Broadcaster
With over 20,000 hours of live TV broadcasting under her belt, Rachel McTavish is one of the UK's most experienced broadcast journalists. In the last 20 years Rachel has worked for ITV, BBC, Channel 5, GMTV, STV, ITV London, and a host of corporate and foreign broadcasters.
The result is that Rachel has a diverse range of credits, from being on air leading the ITV News Channel's coverage of the Twin Tower attacks on 11 September 2011, to presenting a monthly online car show.
Charles Ogilvie
COP26
Charlie Ogilvie is the Director of Strategy for COP26. Charlie is responsible for the strategic oversight of the 26th Conference of Parties and the oversight of the Presidency campaign.
Alistair Phillips-Davies
SSE plc
Alistair joined SSE in 1997 and through a variety of senior roles possesses extensive knowledge of each business area. Prior to joining the Board in 2002 as Energy Supply Director, Alistair was Director of Corporate Finance and Business Development. In 2010, he became Generation and Supply Director, before becoming Deputy Chief Executive in 2012, then Chief Executive in 2013.
Alistair's career has supported the development of sound leadership skills, and a considered strategic approach to business matters. He has a detailed understanding of the energy markets in the UK and Ireland, including the factors which can have a material impact on the operating context such as politics and regulation.
He is a Fellow of the Energy Institute and holds a broad knowledge of markets across Europe as a former Vice President of Eurelectric. Through regular and proactive engagement, he understands stakeholder priorities, and provides focus to people development and efficient operations in order to develop SSE's capabilities for future growth.
Kaisie Rayer
Royal London
Kaisie Rayner is Climate Change Lead at Royal London, the UK's largest purpose-driven modern mutual, and the finance sector representative on the Edinburgh Climate Commission. The Commission convenes and catalyses action to help Edinburgh achieve their 2030 Net Zero ambitions.
Kaisie is passionate about working with financial institutions to help them understand climate change and their role in enabling the transition to a low-carbon economy. A more recent focus has been on 'greening the system', working with the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change to develop a net zero investment framework, and the British Standards Institute to develop new standards on responsible and sustainable investment.
Kaisie is a firm believer that climate change is the challenge that will define our generation; that we each have a responsibility to create a future worth living in. In doing so, we must remember that financial markets are a tool to serve society which has no inherent moral compass, therefore we must be wary of allowing the tool to become the master.
Dave Reay
University of Edinburgh
Professor Dave Reay joined as the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation's (ECCI) Executive Director in January 2020. He is also Professor of Carbon Management at the University of Edinburgh and Director of Policy at ClimateXChange, acting as the key contact for Scottish Government.
Professor Reay has worked at the University of Edinburgh for almost 20 years, working closely with ECCI from its inception in 2011. Dave has authored over 100 articles on climate change, including 6 books and is also an advisor for the Scottish Government on rural policy and climate change. His latest project involves managing his farm on the West Coast of Scotland to sequester a lifetime's carbon emissions.
Tara Schmidt
Wood plc
Tara Schmidt is Wood's Vice President of Strategic Planning. She is responsible for developing, implementing, and leading Wood's strategic development process for Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia in responding to the emerging market and evolving needs of their customers.
With more than 20 years of energy industry experience, Tara brings a wealth of expertise in global energy and infrastructure markets, climate-related financial risk, technology, and sustainable development. For over a decade, she has assisted corporate development teams in some of the world's largest energy companies and financial institutions in strategic planning, scenarios development, and market analysis.
Before joining Wood, Tara worked for the world's largest sustainability consultancy, ERM, in building out their strategic offering on energy transition in conjunction with the G20 Financial Stability Board's Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). At the leading energy research firm, Wood Mackenzie, Tara managed Global Energy Trends research, overseeing a team of global market analysts. She began her career as a petroleum engineer working for BP and Shell, and later moved into management consulting with Accenture.
Chris Stark
Climate Change Committee (CCC)
Chris Stark is the Chief Executive of the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC), the public body tasked by the Climate Change Act to be the independent authority on tackling climate change. Chris leads a team of analysts and specialists, offering expert insight into the challenges of reducing UK emissions and adapting to the changing climate.
Chris led the CCC's work in 2019 to recommend a 'Net Zero' target for the UK, now brought into law. He speaks regularly on the transition to a zero-carbon economy and the need to confront climate change with urgency. Chris has wide experience in government. He has designed economic policy in Whitehall, including in HM Treasury and the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. He was previously Director of Energy and Climate Change in the Scottish Government, leading the development of the Scottish energy and climate strategies.
Luca Taschini
University of Edinburgh Business School
Luca Taschini is a Reader at the University of Edinburgh Business School and an Associate Professorial Research Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, where he is a member of the Sustainable Finance and the Policy Design and Evaluation research programmes. He holds a PhD in Finance from the University of Zurich.
Luca has published research on a wide range of issues and works with international organisations, governments, and businesses on topics of shared interest, such as carbon pricing, sustainable finance, and investments.
Luca is a CESifo Research Network Fellow and was previously a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, USA, and Visiting Scholar at the Research Centre for Sustainability Science at Ritsumeikan University, Japan.
Hermione Taylor
Do Nation
Hermione's passion for the environment led her to set up Do Nation in 2010, after cycling from London to Morocco to raise awareness of, and action against, climate change.
Through Do Nation's online pledge platform, people can raise support for challenges or events through action instead of cash. Do Nation has also helped over 100 organisations, from innocent drinks to Network Rail and Ella's Kitchen to Siemens plc, to actively engage their employees in sustainability. Together, they're inspiring thousands of people to form new healthy, environmentally friendly habits every year.
Do Nation is a core part of the team behind Count Us In, a collaborative global project aiming to inspire a billion people to take climate action by 2030.
Dr R. Camilla Thomson
University of Edinburgh
Camilla divides her time between research and teaching in the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. Her primary research interest is the techniques used to examine the environmental consequences of changes to energy systems. This aims to provide tools that reliably calculate the effectiveness of decarbonisation activities for policy makers and investors. It includes environmental impact analysis and carbon footprinting methodologies, the carbon emissions and offsets of power generation, the flow of carbon through electricity networks, and the impacts of renewable generation on network operation.
Camilla's current projects include:
- quantifying the atmospheric carbon reduction potential of waste-to-energy plants with carbon capture and storage (NEWEST-CCUS)
- developing a multi-criteria evaluation method for smart local energy systems (EnergyREV)
- investigating the potential for emissions-led dispatch of hybrid heating systems (Supergen Energy Networks Hub flex fund)
Camilla is an electrical and mechanical engineer, and used to work in building services. She now teaches in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on sustainable energy technologies and Life Cycle Assessment. She also leads the Molly Fergusson Initiative, promoting visibility and community of women in Engineering, and is a member of the interdisciplinary Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability (B-CCaS).
Katherine Trebeck
Wellbeing Economy Alliance
Katherine is Advocacy and Influencing Lead for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and co-founder of WEAll Scotland.
Katherine lives in Glasgow; her love of Scotland brought her from Australia over 15 years ago. She was Honorary Professor at the University of the West of Scotland and is Senior visiting Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde (based at the Fraser of Allander Institute), and a Distinguished Fellow of the Schumacher Institute. She has over eight years' experience as a policy wonk and researcher with Oxfam GB.
Holding a PhD in Political Science, her latest book The Economics of Arrival was published in January 2019.
Fran van Dijk
One Stone Advisors UK
Fran is a founding partner of One Stone Advisors Ltd, a global strategy and communications team which helps companies become more effective sustainability leaders. One Stone is a founding B Corp and a Best for the World honouree.
She advises on managing opportunity and risk to build long-term value, working with corporates to ensure that their business strategy, sustainability values, and communications align. She helps emerging sustainability leaders integrate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their strategy and prioritise the goals for effective business planning. Clients include Carlsberg Group, Danish Crown, Edrington, Electrolux, Ericsson, Tetra Pak, TUI Travel, and SSE.
Fran holds Masters degrees from the University of Cambridge and the European Association for Environmental Management Education. She is co-author of Creating a Culture of Integrity: Business Ethics for the 21st Century.
Fran is a Board Member of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Chairs the Macaulay Development Trust, and serves on Montanaro Asset Management's Advisory Committee.
Rob Woodward
MET Office
Rob Woodward is former CEO of STV Group plc and founding Trustee of the STV Children's Appeal. Rob led the turnaround of the company and positioned STV as Scotland's leading commercial media company before leaving in December 2017.
Rob was appointed Pro-Chancellor and Chair of the Council of City University of London in February 2018 until February 2018. In March 2018, he was appointed as Chair of Court of Glasgow Caledonian University. He is Chair of the technology company, Blancco plc, and in May 2018 was appointed Chair of Ebiquity plc. He was appointed by the Scottish Government as Chair of the Developing Young Workforce Group, which is leading work to support employer involvement in developing Scotland's young workforce. In 2017 he became a Commissioner of the Northern Lighthouse. He is also Chair of the MET Office. In December 2019 he was appointed as Chair of Two Rivers Media Ltd, an independent production company.
