Unlocking capital for sustainability 2020: Building back better

Sumi Dhanarajan is the Associate Director, APAC for Forum for the Future, an international non-profit that works with business, government and civil society to solve complex sustainability challenges. She is an experienced advocate and international development practitioner with expertise on the impacts of the private sector on the environment, poverty reduction and human rights. Previously, she served at Oxfam GB for 10 years as senior policy adviser, then head of the private sector team; and, on moving to Singapore, at the Centre for Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, leading their programme on the Public Roles of the Private Sector. Before embarking on her career in international development, Sumi served as a senior legal adviser to the Secretariat for Legislative Councillors of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, and established the human rights desk for the Malaysian Bar Council. She has served as trustee and board director to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, the Ethical Trading Initiative and the Commonwealth Human Rights Institute and has had various advisory roles including on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Human Rights.

Mr. Elliott Harris is the Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and Chief Economist of the United Nations. He served previously as Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the Office in New York of the UnitedNations Environment Programme, from 2013-2018. Prior to joining the United Nations, Mr. Harris spent 25 years as an economist at the International Monetary FundIMF), working in the African and Fiscal Affairs Departments, including as IMF Mission Chief in Togo, Chad and Guinea. He served from 2008-2012 as the IMF Special Representative to the United Nations, in parallel to his role as Assistant Director of the Strategy Policy and Review Department.

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Feng Hu works as Senior Sustainability Consultant at Vigeo Eiris (VE), an affiliate of Moody’s Investors Service, and is primarily responsible for providing Second Party Opinions on green finance projects. Prior to VE, Feng led water-nomics work at CWR (China Water Risk), a think-tank specialised in water and climate risk analysis. He initiated and led joint projects with the Foreign Economic Cooperation Office of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, and co-authored reports on sectoral water risks such as in energy and agriculture, and basin water-nomics of Asia’s major rivers. In addition, Feng also worked as a senior carbon auditor on climate change mitigation projects of various types ranging from wind, hydro, solar PV, energy efficiency to waste management. As the project leader, he worked in China as well as across Asia and Africa

Georg Kell is the founder and former executive director of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the world’s largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative with over 8,000 corporate signatories in more than 160 countries.

As its founding executive director, Kell helped to establish the UNGC as the foremost platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible and sustainable corporate policies and practices.

In a career of more than 25 years at the United Nations, Kell also oversaw the conception and launch of the Global Compact’s sister initiatives on investment, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and on education, the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), together with the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative. Mr. Kell is currently chairman of Arabesque, an asset management firm that integrates environmental, social, and governance data with quantitative investment strategies.

He started his career as a research fellow in engineering at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and Innovation in Berlin. He then worked as a financial analyst in various countries in Africa and Asia before joining the United Nations in 1987. A native of Germany, Kell holds advanced degrees in economics and engineering from the Technical University of Berlin.

Mr. Kell has received numerous recognitions and has been named among the "100 Most Influential in Business Ethics" every year since 2011.

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Harjan Kuiper is the Chief Executive Officer of Rabobank Singapore & Representative Markets.

Based in Singapore,  Harjan is responsible for the overall management of Rabobank’s offices in Singapore and Malaysia, as well as the wider South-East Asian franchise for which Singapore is the hub for clients from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Harjan has over 20 years of successful banking and finance experience most notably in investment and portfolio management, markets and trade finance. He started his career with Rabobank in London, and subsequently took on various key management positions in Dublin, Utrecht and New York with his most recent position being the Head of Markets North America at Rabobank New York and double hatting the role of Chief Executive Officer for Rabo Securities USA, Inc.

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Mikkel Larsen is the Group Chief Sustainability Officer of DBS and a committee member of Global Compact Network Singapore’s Management Committee. Mikkel chairs the DBS Sustainability Council, which comprises senior leaders across business and support units and is responsible for developing DBS’ overarching sustainability framework, setting key performance indicators and targets in consultation with the relevant stakeholders, and driving sustainability initiatives across the bank. Prior to joining DBS, Mikkel was the Chief Financial Officer for Asia Pacific in UBS from 2009 to 2012 covering Investment Bank, Wealth Management and Asset Management. He was previously the Asia Pacific Head of Accounting Policy and location controller for Hong Kong at UBS. Mikkel has also worked in Citigroup in London and KPMG in London and Denmark. Mikkel holds an MBA from London Business School, Graduate education from Harvard University and a Bachelor and Masters Degree in Economics from Copenhagen Business School in his native country Denmark where he also holds his CPA.

Xin Yi is the South East Asia Green Finance Lead in the Carbon Trust Singapore office.

She previously spent five years at a leading independent think tank, the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA), as a Senior Policy Research Analyst (Sustainability) where she focused on environmental sustainability in ASEAN’s resource sector. She is actively involved in engagement with corporations and the financial sector with a view to drive sustainability and deepen cross-sector partnerships.

Prior to this, Xin Yi worked at Sustainalytics where she evaluated and benchmarked the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices of publicly-listed companies in three industries: Consumer Discretionary, Food and Utilities.

Xin Yi holds a Bachelor of Science (Economics) with a second major in Political Science (Public Policy, Development and Management) from the Singapore Management University.

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Andrew Naylor joined the World Gold Council in 2016. He is head of ASEAN, Australia, Japan and Korea. In this role he is overseeing the expansion of the World Gold Council’s activities in the region, including a renewed focus on investment. He is also global head of public policy and is responsible for the Council’s regulatory and policy initiatives.

Prior to the World Gold Council, Andrew worked for international consultancy firm Cicero Group advising financial institutions on foreign investment, the regulatory reform agenda and trade policy in Asia and Europe.

Andrew sits on the management committee of the Singapore Bullion Market Association (SBMA). He was a board member of the European Chamber of Commerce in Singapore from 2012 to 2019.

Andrew regularly gives broadcast media commentary on global and political economic developments on the BBC, Sky News, ChannelNewsAsia and CNBC.

Andrew has a degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the College of Law of England and Wales.

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Mike has been involved in project and infrastructure financing for more than 20 years. As Head of Structured Finance, he is responsible for the origination and execution of project financing, cross-border export financing and event-driven financing across a wide range of industries, including renewable energy, power and utilities, telecommunication, and general infrastructure. In 2018, Mike assumed the role of Head of Sustainable Finance. In this capacity, Mike is responsible for the origination and execution of sustainable finance transactions, including green loans, sustainability-linked loans, and financing for sustainable industries. Prior to joining OCBC, Mike was in the project and structured financing business in various institutions including the Royal Bank of Scotland (Hong Kong) and ABN AMRO (Hong Kong). Mike graduated with a Master of Science (International Accounting and Finance) with the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor of Business (Financial Analysis) with the Nanyang Technological University.

Steven Okun is Founder and CEO of Singapore-based APAC Advisors, a public affairs consultancy working with clients on ESG, sustainability and stakeholder engagement. In addition, he serves as the ASEAN Representative for EMPEA and is a member of its global ESG community. Steve has lived and worked in Asia since 2003, most recently for KKR. As KKR’s first Director of Asia Public Affairs, Mr. Okun’s responsibilities encompassed government affairs, communications, stakeholder engagement and sustainability including KKR’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives. Prior to moving to Asia, Steven served in the Clinton Administration and is a graduate of the University of Virginia and University of Virginia School of Law.

Vivek Pathak is IFC’s Regional Director for East Asia and the Pacific, leading advisory and investment operations across 18 countries, which in 2019 reached US$3.8 billion in long-term investments, including funds mobilized from other investors. He has extensive emerging markets experience in principal investments, restructuring and risk management. Mr. Pathak was Director for Investment and Credit Risk, responsible for global coverage of credit risk, investment risk, integrity risk, pricing and credit/equity training. Prior to that he oversaw IFC’s portfolio in the Middle East and North Africa and led business development in frontier markets like Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. Before IFC, Mr. Pathak worked at Bank of America and ABN AMRO Bank in new business and risk management.

Steve Peters is a Senior Energy Specialist (Waste-to-Energy) in the Energy Sector Group of the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department, Asian Development Bank.  He is responsible for developing the knowledge base, project development and implementation in waste to energy and supporting projects across waste, the circular economy and ocean impacts.

Prior to joining ADB, Mr. Peters was the Director at Stratcon Singapore Pte Ltd where he consulted on waste to energy, waste to fuels, biomass, biogas, biofuels and innovation in clean technology. He was a Founder and Technical Director for the Technology and Development Network which is a network of professionals in clean technology in Asia. He was the Managing Director at Waste to Energy Pte Ltd, a Stratcon JV biogas developer in ASEAN from 2004 to 2010; Deputy Project Manager at Kumagai Gumi Co. Ltd., in Singapore in 1997-1999; Director at Stratcon Pty Ltd., in Australia in 1993-1999; and a Director at Foster Sturrock Pty Ltd in Australia from 1988 to 1993. He is the immediate past Chairman of the Asia Pacific Biogas Alliance.

Mr. Peters obtained his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Civil Engineering both from University of Melbourne, Australia in 1996 and 1987 respectively.

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Michael Salvatico leads environmental, social and governance (ESG) business development in Asia Pacific for Trucost, based in Sydney. He works with investors and companies to consult on industry trends, assess their ESG performance and advise on the integration of tools that help manage ESG exposures and opportunities.

Prior to joining Trucost, Michael was an Executive Director at MSCI Inc. and oversaw the company’s ESG Research in Australia and New Zealand. His career experience involves working in portfolio analytics, quantitative investment analysis and ESG research. Before MSCI Inc., he was part of the highly rated research team at Bank of America -Merrill Lynch where he was head of Emerging Markets quantitative analysis.

Michael was a cofounder in the Climakind initiative to reduce global carbon emissions by promoting a price on carbon and a thought leader in solutions to the rising levels of global carbon emissions.

Michael received a Master of Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia, and a Bachelor of Commerce with Merit from the University of New South Wales.

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Regula Schegg is Circulate Capital’s Managing Director, Asia. She leads the investment strategy, manages the investment team and oversees Circulate Capital Ocean Fund’s investment portfolio in South and Southeast Asia.

Together with her team, Regula manages asset allocations as well as due diligence, portfolio management of fund investments. She also provides strategic advisory to the portfolio companies, focusing on strategy, business development, fundraising, key hiring decisions, financial management and governance.

Regula is an experienced global professional with over 20 years' of leadership, business development, project management, finance and social enterprise/start-up expertise. Throughout her corporate career, she held positions in corporate strategy, M&A, private equity, financial controlling and business development.

She was further engaged in the microfinance industry, establishing a growth guarantee fund, financing microfinancing institutions. She further established a social enterprise in the Philippines, developing sustainable housing technologies, establishing production and construction of affordable housing solutions in collaboration with urban poor communities and civil society organizations in Southeast Asia.  

Regula graduated with an MBA (Honors) in Global Management from Thunderbird, School of Global Management, USA, with undergraduate studies in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and France. She is an Aspen Institute Business & Society First Movers Fellow. Regula speaks German, English and French.

Michael is the head of Listing Policy & Product Admission at Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo), a subsidiary of Singapore Exchange (SGX) that undertakes frontline regulatory functions. He oversees listing policy and rules development and has oversight of the listing admission of securities products, including debt securities, structured products and exchange-traded funds. Michael graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a Bachelor of Laws degree and is admitted to the Singapore bar. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the NUS Business School’s Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organisations (CGIO). Michael leads SGX’s efforts to promote sustainability across stakeholder groups.

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Eric Usher Heads the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative, UNEP FI, a global partnership bringing together the UN with a global group of banks, insurers and asset managers working to develop the sustainable finance and responsible investment agendas. Eric oversees governance, strategy and day-to-day management of UNEP FI’s work programme and global network development. Over the years UNEP FI has established some of the most important sustainability oriented frameworks within the finance industry, including the Principles for Responsible Investment (2006), the Principles for Sustainable Insurance (2012) and the Principles for Responsible Banking (2019). Since joining in 2015, Mr. Usher has focused on accelerating the deep integration of sustainability risks into financial practice, including addressing climate change, natural capital loss and human rights abuses, as well as building out the frameworks for positive impact finance needed to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Eric sits on several industry bodies including as UN representative on the Board of the Principles for Responsible Investment, and as a member of the governing boards of the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, the Investor Agenda and the impact fund REPP Africa.

Prior to leading UNEP FI, Mr. Usher has over twenty years of experience in the low carbon sectors, spanning technology commercialisation in Canada, solar rural electrification in Morocco and financial sector development across emerging markets. During 2011, Mr. Usher worked on the establishment of the Green Climate Fund and led efforts to create its Private Sector Facility. Eric has been an editor of the Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment report published annually with Bloomberg and was lead author for finance of the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources. Earlier in his career, Eric was General Manager of a solar rural electrification company based in Morocco.

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Bernadette Victorio is an international development and finance specialist with extensive experience delivering high impact initiatives in a variety of strategic, management, and policy advocacy roles in organisations including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), German International Cooperation Agency (GIZ), and Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI). She has proven track record in influencing policy discussions on financial inclusion, sustainable finance, and ESG (environmental, social and governance) investment transparency and accountability.

Originally from the Philippines, Bernadette has lived and worked across highly diverse cultural contexts in Asia and worked extensively on assignments to other regions including Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific. Currently, Bernadette leads Oxfam Novib’s regional program, Fair Finance Asia, which aims to accelerate policy implementation and action on sustainable finance across Asia.

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El Lynn is the Head of Ethics at Prudential Singapore. She is responsible for ensuring a successful corporate ethics culture, developing and implementing an Environmental,Social and Governance (ESG) framework, as well as a framework around the responsible use of AI and data analytics.

Prior to this role, she was Head of Community Investment at Prudential Singapore responsible for driving community investment and sustainability initiatives in Singapore. She began her career in the corporate communications industry and spent 17 years consulting for major MNCs across banking and financial services, travel, arts, FMCG and for the public sector.

Before joining Prudential in August 2017, she ran her own corporate communications consulting business for three years where she worked with start-ups and non-profits in the technology, real estate, arts and aviation sectors. Prior to that, El spent eight years with Hill+Knowlton in various roles including Business Development and Marketing Director, Asia and Asia Lead for Sports Marketing and Sponsorship. During this time, she oversaw new business activities and multi-market pitches across Asia with a focus on improving conversion rates.

Before taking on her role at Hill+Knowlton, she led both corporate and marketing communications teams across Asia including in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai, managing clients such as DHL, HSBC, P&G, National Heritage Board, National Parks Board, UK Trade & Investment, State Street Corporation, Linde Gas, Pernod Ricard, Rio Tinto Alcan and American Express.

El holds a BA in Communication from Olympia College and is currently pursuing a BA inSociology and Psychology at the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

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Ricco Zhang is Senior Director, Asia Pacific of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) based in Hong Kong. Mr. Zhang is responsible for ICMA’s development in Greater China and works very closely with regulators, financial institutions and other organizations who are active at the capital markets in the region to promote and maintain the best market practice. He has previously worked for international law firms, investment banks and other financial institutions engaged in capital market transactions and mergers & acquisitions in Asia and has extensive experience as a market practitioner. Mr. Zhang graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong.

Jessica is the Founder and Managing Director of Eco-Business, an award-winning journalist, TV presenter, director, producer, and a social entrepreneur. She has more than a decade of experience in media, journalism and sustainable development and is a columnist for print and digital publications such as The Straits Times and TODAY.

She is an independent and non-executive director of Singapore-listed ComfortDelGro, one of the world's largest land transport companies, and sits on the nomination and investment committees.

She serves as Strategic Advisor to Blue Planet Environmental Solutions, and is founding Director for Embodhi (Singapore), a non-profit for women empowerment in Asia. She is also an associate member of the Singapore Institute of Directors, and currently chairs the Climate Action SG Alliance – an initiative supported by the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources to advocate climate action and raise public awareness on climate issues.

A Singapore Press Holdings scholar, she has won many journalism awards. In March 2018, she was announced the winner of the Women of the Future Southeast Asia Awards for the media and communications category. She was also named as one of LinkedIn's Power Profiles for Singapore for 2018.

Robin is the Deputy Editor of Eco-Business. He has spent a decade living and working in Asia Pacific, including in Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore, and has 17 years of experience in journalism,writing about media, marketing, government, technology and the environment.

Robin is currently the Deputy Editor of Eco-Business, where he reports on the big stories in sustainability as well as manages Eco-Business’s network of writers across the region.

 Robin has a degree in Zoology from the University of Bristol in the UK, and spends his weekends as a volunteer for Singapore animal welfare charity ACRES. He is also a long-suffering supporter of West Ham United FC.

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Nicholas brings a strong international background in the chemicals and plastic business. A Canadian and Australian citizen, he has worked extensively in Europe and Asia throughout his career.

Nicholas joined the Alliance to End Plastic Waste on May 1st, 2020 as Vice President of Projects, responsible for the sourcing, development, planning and implementation of projects focused on ending plastic waste in the environment.

Nicholas held various management positions in the Borealis Group from 2009 – 2020. Most recently as Head of Marketing Automotive, based in Vienna Austria. Prior to that he was located in Singapore as Strategic Planning Manager for Borouge Pte. Ltd.

He started his international career in the chemical industry in 1998 with Ciba Specialty Chemicals where he held several sales, marketing, strategy and management positions in Hong Kong, Switzerland, Thailand and the United Kingdom.

Nicholas holds an MBA in Marketing and Strategy from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

Junice is Eco-Business' Acting Executive Director, and Director for Greater China, based in Beijing and head of Eco-Business's consulting practice.

She was previously the Director for Southeast Asia at global sustainability advisory, Corporate Citizenship, where she worked with Asian-based corporations, governments and non-profits on strategic environment and social issues.

Junice is no stranger to China. She started her career in Shanghai with French consumer goods multinational, Danone. She returned to China again in 2011, where she was appointed by Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City (SSTEC) to be responsible for the marketing and communications of the bilateral project driving sustainable urbanisation. Prior to that, she spent four years as Deputy Head for the Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) based in the Embassy of Switzerland in Singapore, helping Swiss companies, particularly in the cleantech and sustainable architecture industries - invest into Southeast Asia.

A certified trainer under the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)'s GRI Standards, Junice has trained over 200 individuals on sustainability reporting. She has also trained community specialists on social impact measurement.

As a mother of two young kids, Junice has genuine concerns about their immediate futures in an era of imminent climate change. Besides brushing up on her Mandarin, Junice is committed to helping businesses in China bridge knowledge, ideas and understanding on sustaining our planet for generations to come.

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