Workshop: The Financial Sector and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework -- 17-18 June 2021

Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the CBD- Speaker

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema is the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. She has worked with the UN Environment Programme for over two decades and was the Director of Law Division at UNEP. Prior to that, she was Deputy Director of the Ecosystems Division, in charge of coordination, operations and programme delivery. She also served as Executive Secretary of the UNEP/Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. Her work at UNEP has focused on development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, including multilateral environmental agreements at national, regional and international levels.

M. Saker Nusseibeh, CEO International business of Federated Hermes -Speaker

Saker is CEO of the international business of Federated Hermes, appointed November 2011, having joined in June 2009 as CIO. He is also a member of the Federated Hermes Executive team. Prior to this, Saker was Global Head of Equities at Fortis Investments, having previously been CIO Global Equities since 2005.

Before this, he was CIO of Global Equities and Head of Marketing for SGAM UK. This followed SGAM’s acquisition of Trust Company of the West, where Saker was a Managing Director running global and international strategies, as well the London office. He started his career at Mercury Asset Management in 1987.

Saker is founder of the 300 Club and was an inaugural member of the CFA Institute’s Future of Finance Advisory Council from 2013 until 2019. He is a member of the IIRC Council, the FCA-PRA Climate Financial Risk Forum, the United Nations Environmental Programme Financial Initiative Steering Committee, the Banking Standards Board, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the UN Business and Human Security Initiative Advisory Board, and the Advisory Board of the National Youth Orchestra.

In 2018, Saker was named CEO of the Year at the Financial News Asset Management Europe Awards and was named as European Personality of the Year for 2020 at the Funds Europe Awards. He has a BA and PhD in Medieval History from King's College, University of London.
Saker was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s 2020 New Year's Honours list for services to Responsible Business and Finance.
 

Mr. Franz Perrez, Swiss Ambassador for the Environment and the Head of the International Affairs Division, Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) - Speaker

Franz Perrez is the Head of the International Affairs Division at the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). In this capacity, he is also the Swiss Ambassador for the Environment and represents Switzerland at all important international negotiations in the area of the environment. 

After studying law in Bern and Paris, Franz worked at the Directorate of International Law at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). He left the FDFA to study for a Master of Laws in the fields of international law and international environmental and economic law at the New York University School of Law. He completed his studies in New York with a doctoral thesis on the topic of sovereignty as a principle of cooperation. He then returned to Switzerland and took up a position at the WTO division of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). This was followed by a move to the FOEN where he was the Head of the Global Affairs Section of the International Affairs Division. 

As Switzerland’s ambassador for the environment and chief negotiator for environmental issues namely climate change, biodiversity, chemicals and waste, Franz Perrez was leading the Swiss delegation to the Rio+20 conference, he was President of the Basel Convention (COP 11 in 2013) and President of the Rotterdam Convention (COP 8 in 2017) and he was facilitating the negotiations on mitigation of the Paris agreement. 

Since 2008, Franz Perrez is also a lecturer for international environmental law at the University of Bern School of Law. 

 M. Basile Van Havre, Co-Chair of the Open-Ended Working Group - Speaker

Basile van Havre (Canada) is a Co-Chair for the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Open-Ended Working Group for a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. He has over 27 years of experience working in Canada’s Environment Department. His roles have also included Chair of the CITES Elephant working group and CBD Discussions on Indigenous Knowledge and Repatriation, Co-Chair of the International Joint Commission on Great Lakes Water Quality Board. 

M. Francis Ogwal, Co-Chair of the Open-Ended Working Group - Speaker

Mr. Francis Ogwal works with the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) Uganda as a Natural Resources Manager (Biodiversity and Rangelands). Francis has been in the field of environment/biodiversity conservation and management for over 20 years. He is Uganda’s National Focal Point for the CBD since 2005 to date.  Francis is also the Uganda’s National Focal Point for the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing. Francis represented the Africa region to the CBD COP Bureau from 2012-2014. From 2016 – 2018 Francis served as the first Chair of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) to the CBD having been designated by COP at its thirteenth meeting in 2016. In November 2018, Francis was designated by COP at is fourteenth meeting as Co-chair of the post 2020 global biodiversity framework.

Mr. Ma Jun, Co-chair of the Research Workstream of NGFS and Chairman of the Green Finance Committee of China Society for Finance and Banking, Advisor to the Governor of the PBoC, Co-chair of the G20 Working Group on Green Finance- Speaker

Dr. Ma is the Founder and President of Institute of Finance and Sustainability (based in Beijing). He is also the Chairman of Green Finance Committee of China Society for Finance and Banking, Co-Chair of G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group, Chair of the NGFS Workstream Research and Co-Chair of the Steering Committee of the Green Investment Principles for the Belt & Road. 

Between 2018 and 2020, Dr Ma was the Director of Center for Finance and Development at Tsinghua University. Between 2014 and 2017, he served as the Chief Economist at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)’s Research Bureau and a member of the central bank’s Macro-Prudential Committee. Before joining the PBOC, he worked for 13 years at Deutsche Bank, where he was Managing Director/Chief Economist/Investment Strategist for Greater China. During 1992-2000, he worked as a senior economist and economist at the World Bank and the IMF. From 1988-1990, he was a research fellow at the Development Research Center of China's State Council. 

Dr. Ma published numerous books and articles on monetary policy, financial market, and green/sustainable finance. He led the drafting of China’s green finance guidelines in 2015-16 and facilitated the global consensus on scaling up green finance under the G20 framework during 2016-18. Over the past decade, he provided advices to policy makers in many areas, including monetary and macro prudential policies, RMB internationalization, green finance, and the Belt & Road initiative. 

Dr. Ma received his Ph.D. in Economics from Georgetown University in 1994, and his master's degree in Management Science from Fudan University in 1988. 

 Mr. Eric Usher, Head, UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative

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. 

Ms. Fiona Reynolds, CEO, Principles for Responsible Investment

Fiona Reynolds is the CEO of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The PRI is a UN supported organisation, with over 3,500 signatories who collectively represent over US $100 trillion in AUM. She is responsible for the PRI’s global operations. 
Appointed in 2013, Fiona has 25 years' experience in the financial services and pension sector. 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.

Odile Conchou, Financial sector focal point, CBD - Chair

After a PhD in Ecology, Odile Conchou began her career in research institutes in Ecology and Agronomy in France and Germany. She worked as an environmental engineer in an agro-industrial union, became General Secretary of the French association of professionals in ecology and then a consultant in sustainable development. She joined the French Agency of Development in 2006 where she was Head of the ESG and Impact Department of PROPARCO (AFD's private sector arm) and responsible for the development of AFD's biodiversity research program. She is now seconded to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and is in charge of developing an agenda of actions with the public and private financial sector. 

Mr. Simon Zadek, Chair of Finance for Biodiversity - Chair  

Dr Zadek is Chair of Finance for Biodiversity and Director of Migrant Nation. He is co-Chair of the Technical Expert Group of the Task Force on Nature Related Financial Disclosure. He was Head, Secretariat, UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals and Senior Advisor on Finance in the Executive Office of the Secretary General, and Co-Director of UNEP's Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System. In these roles, he co-Chaired China’s Green Finance Task Force, and led the Green Finance Study Group secretariat under the Chinese, German and Argentinian G20 Presidencies. Prior to this, he was Senior Advisor to the World Economic Forum and the Global Green Growth Institute, founder and CEO of the international think tank, AccountAbility and Development Director of the New Economics Foundation.  He was Visiting Professor at the Singapore Management University and the Copenhagen Business School, and has been a senior fellow at Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, Harvard`s Kennedy School of Government,  and the University of Southern Africa, amongst others. He has worked with many corporations, governments and multi stakeholder initiatives on their sustainability and broader strategies, been a member of the International Advisory Board of Generation Investment Management, and has published extensively, including the award winning book, The Civil Corporation.

Mr. Gilles Kleitz, Director, Natural Resources, Agriculture, Water, Forests and Oceans, French Development Agency - Chair

Gilles Kleitz (PhD) has been working for thirty years on the links between biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. He has conducted policies and projects in different countries, including France, for the public service, research institutions, non-governmental organizations and at Agence Française de Développement. He has been advisor to several ministers, in the field of environment as well as overseas development aid. He has participated in several international negotiations. He was the director of the French Guyana National Park. Gilles KLEITZ is Senior Civil Engineer, MSc (Agronomy) and holds a doctorate in Development sciences from IDS/Sussex University. He was made Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. He is presently director for Biodiversity, Water, Agriculture and Oceans at the Agence Française de Développement, in Paris.

Mr. Peter van der Werf, Robeco, Senior manager engagement - Panelist

Peter van der Werf is Senior Manager Engagement, leading Robeco’s engagement program and managing the engagement research efforts in the Active Ownership team. With his engagement work he challenged sustainability leadership at more than 200 global food & agri, agrochemicals and pharma companies to align their strategy with Robeco’s sustainable investing philosophy. As a global expert on biodiversity he is a recognized speaker at global conferences and in financial media. He is an Advisory Board member of the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge and is active in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in various committees. Peter holds a Master’s in Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University.  

Ms. Madeleine Ronquest, FirstRand, Head of Environment, Social and Governance department - Panelist

Madeleine Ronquest is the Head of Environmental, Social & Climate Risk Management Change in the FirstRand financial services group (South Africa) and her portfolio includes environmental and social risk management, climate-related risk and opportunity management, climate/green finance and positive impact banking and investment. She has been with the Group for 19 years.
Her professional background includes environmental science, risk management, climate risk management and environmental law. Her role is to ensure that FirstRand is positioned as one of the global thought leaders in climate change, natural capital management, positive impact finance, responsible investment and sustainable development finance. 
She is an eternal student and an international speaker and has taken leadership roles in the Global Steering Committee and other board committees of UNEPFI (United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative), the South African Advisory Committee on Environment and Society (National Business Initiative), the NBI Advisory Committee on Green Finance, the Programme for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) and the Sustainable Finance Forum & Climate Risk Committee of the South African Banking Association (BASA)
Madeleine was recently appointed as a Senior Associate by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
 

M. Sylvain Vanston, Group head of Climate Change and Biodiversity, AXA - Panelist

Sylvain Vanston is in charge of generating new policy developments and integrating Climate Change and Biodiversity-related factors into the AXA Group’s operational, underwriting and investment processes. This work encompasses both investments (eg. TCFD strategy and reporting, ESG integration, Impact Investing, divestments, products, shareholder engagement, etc.) and underwriting  (eg. risk analysis, underwriting guidelines, coalition building, green products, etc). He also support sustainability-focused change management, external outreach, relationships with analysts and rating agencies, the Group’s ESG reporting strategy and its environmental footprint targets. The overall objective is to contribute to AXA’s growth, profitability, risk management, brand image and human capital development, while helping to address broad societal issues. His academic background is in International Relations (Sciences Po Paris, London School of Economics, Kent University). He started his career in Public Relations, business finance then SRI rating / analysis.

Ms. Maria de Netto, Financial Markets Principal Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank - Panelist

Maria Netto has an MA in economy in the International Studies Institute of Geneva.  She works at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as principal specialist in capital markets and financial institutions and is responsible to oversee programs for innovative financing strategies with local financial institutions and capital markets to promote private sector investments in low carbon and resilient projects in the Latin America and the Caribbean region. Ms. Netto has led IDB Green Finance agenda, including the promotion of the development of Green and Sustainable Bond Markets and structuring of public-private financial solutions with National development Financial institutions.
Previously Maria Netto also worked in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) where she was responsible for overseeing global projects to assist countries to assess investments and financial flows and policy options to integrate green business in different sectors and economic activities. Finally, Maria Netto worked for more than 10 years in the Secretariat of the Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where, among others, she was responsible for leading the institution's work on bilateral and multilateral financial cooperation and for the assessments and follow up of investment and financial flows to address climate change and the development of carbon markets under the Kyoto Protocol.
 

Ms. Sherry Madera, Refinitiv, Chief Industry & Government Affairs Officer - Panelist

Sherry Madera joined London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) via Refinitiv as the Chief Industry and Government Affairs Officer in March 2019 from City of London where she was Economic Ambassador to Asia and Special Advisor.  Sherry is a unique combination of ex-investment banker and ex-diplomat.  Previously, as Minister-Counsellor at the British Embassy in Beijing, Sherry was responsible for promoting trade and investment between the UK and China. Her executive experience includes leadership in topics including sustainable finance, FinTech, Data policy, international trade and geopolitics.  Sherry holds various leadership roles including a position as a Non-Executive Director/Council member at the University of Nottingham, Advisory Board member of Hong Kong Cyberport, Chair of International at IBDE (International Business & Diplomatic Exchange), and is the Chair of the Future of Sustainable Data Alliance.

Mr. Antonio Quesada, Vice President of Regulatory Policy, National Banking and Securities Commission - Panelist

Mr. Antonio Quesada serves, since 2019, as Vice-President of Regulatory Policy at the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV). At both, international and national arenas, he represents the CNBV in the following bodies: Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, FSB Standing Committee on Supervisory and Regulatory Cooperation, FSB Standing Committee on Standards Implementation, Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), Finance and Audit Committee of IOSCO, Board of Alliance for Financial Inclusion, Director for the North American Region at the Association of Supervisors of Banks of the Americas (ASBA), ASBA’s Board, and Board of the North American Securities Administrators Association.

Antonio currently chairs the Inter American Regional Committee of IOSCO, as well as the IOSCO Growth and Emerging Markets Committee Working Group on FinTech.

At the domestic level, Antonio is the Executive Secretary of the Board of the National Council for Financial Inclusion. He is also a Board member of the Mexican Financial Stability Committee, the CNBV’s Board, the CNSF’s Board (Board of the National Insurance and Bonding Commission), and of the IPAB’s Board (Institute for the Protection of Banking Savings). Antonio Quesada currently participates in the IFRS translation group, where all the new standards before issued in Spanish are reviewed. He is also an active member at the CINIF, which is the body that embraces the issuance of accounting standards in Mexico (which are aligned with IFRS). Moreover, Antonio’s Division holds the Accounting expertise at the CNBV.

Before joining the CNBV, Mr. Antonio Quesada was the Dean of the EGADE Business School of the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), a leading business school in Mexico, Santa Fe campus. He served, since 2012, as President of the Mexican Institute of Finance Executives (IMEF, by its Spanish acronym), and he was a member of the Board at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), a firm of which he also became an associate partner. His career at PwC began in 1986, in financial services, where he was the division’s leader. Subsequently, he was the Leading Partner of Clients and Markets (coordinating the accounting practices of 14 different industries as well as PWC´s strategy aimed at market focus). His tenure at PwC ended in December 2017. In parallel, Antonio Quesada became a specialist in corporate governance, bringing the measures established in the United States to the Code of Best Corporate Practices (CMPC) in Mexico. He has also led the filing of public offerings of foreign companies in the US stock markets.

José Antonio holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and Degree in Accounting from ITAM and Florida International University. He is a Chartered Public Accountant by the Mexican College of Public Accountants of Mexico. Likewise, he carried out the D-1 Leadership Program at the IPADE Business School. Currently, he is enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Financial Sciences at the EGADE Business School.

Mr. William Lockhart, Head of International Environment Negotiations, DEFRA, UK - Panelist

Dr. Lockhart is the joint head of International Environment Negotiations in the Department for the Environment in the UK. He has responsibility for the UK’s policy and representation across a number of multilateral environmental fora, including the Convention on Biological Diversity.  Dr Lockhart draws from experience in a number of Government Departments, including most recently HM Treasury, the UK’s finance and economic Ministry, where he worked on environment spending, green finance, agriculture policy, and the Dasgupta Review into the Economics of Biodiversity.

Ms. Hélène Perier, Lead negotiator on Resource Mobilisation, European Union - Panelist

Hélène Perier is a Biodiversity Policy Officer in the Directorate General for Environment in the European Commission. Within the Commission, she is responsible with resource mobilization negotiations under the Convention on Biological Diversity. She is also in charge of biodiversity financing in the European Commission, and works on operationalizing the finance commitments of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Hélène is also responsible for mainstreaming and tracking biodiversity in the EU budget, and works on other topics such as mainstreaming biodiversity in the EU trade policy. Hélène has been working as a European Union negotiator in multilateral environmental agreements since 2012, with a focus on wildlife trade and biodiversity. She worked on biodiversity and forestry policies in France from 2005 to 2012.

Ms. W.A. Dilrukshini, Director of Macroprudential Surveillance Department, Central Bank of Sri Lanka - Panelist

Ms. Dilrukshini is a carrier Central Banker who joined the Central Bank in year 2000. She has served as an Economist, Senior Economist, Additional Director of the Economic Research Department of the Central Bank. Currently, she is serving as the Director of the Macro Prudential Surveillance Department. She is a member of the Financial System Stability committee and serve as the Secretary to the Financial System Stability Consultative Committee. She was instrumental in Developing the Sustainable Finance Road Map of Sri Lanka and serving as the coordinator of the Steering Committee on Sustainable Finance at the Central Bank.

M. Ronald Kaggwa, Acting Director Policy, Planning and Information, National Planning Authority, Uganda - Panelist

Ronald Kaggwa is Development Planner, Policy Analyst, Project manager, Environmental Economist, Researcher, Technical officer, Subject matter specialist, Teacher, Lecturer, Team leader, Liaison officer, Trainer, Facilitator and Writer and has over 25 years of professional working experience in various areas of sustainable development. He is currently the Manager/Head Production, Trade and Tourism Planning at the National Planning Authority (NPA).

Ronald is well versed with sustainable development planning including; project and programme design, development, implementation and evaluation, budget policy and analysis processes. For instance, he coordinated the development of the Uganda Green Growth Development Strategy (UGGDS) and its Implementation Road Map under which many green projects were developed. He ensured the integration of green growth initiatives in the National Development Plan (NDP II and III), the sector strategic plans and their Monitoring and Evaluation frameworks. Ronald participates in many sustainable development programmes and projects development and has made several presentations, participated in various seminars, panel discussions and debates and carried out capacity building on the subject within and outside the country.  He has been involved in several programmes and projects reviews and evaluations as a developer, implementer and reviewer. 

Mr. Kaggwa is a key player in national, sub-regional, regional and global initiatives on sustainable development. He participated in the formulation and implementation of the Uganda Vision 2040, the National Development Plan (NDP I, II and III), and various Sectoral policies and Strategic plans. Ronald was part of the national delegation to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development UNCSD (Rio+20) negotiations and the Open Working Group discussions on SDGs in New York at the UN and supported their integration into Uganda’s development frameworks. He has attended various Conferences of Parties (COPs) on Biodiversity and international meetings on Green Economy and Natural Capital Accounting. He has established strong professional networks, partnerships and collaboration at local, national, regional and international levels that have been very useful in his work. 

Anne-Marie Bor, Founder & Senior Process Manager, Next Green - Moderator

Anne-Marie Bor is co-coordinator of the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge and Foundation and has a background in process management of sustainable transitions. She has led the EU Finance@Biodiversity Community since 2017. With her business NextGreen, she has set up and facilitated several collaboration processes on biodiversity, business, finance and climate adaptation.

Jessica Smith, Ecosystems Lead, UNEP FI - Moderator

Jessica Smith (BES, MA, MCom) leads the nature workstream at the UNEP Finance Initiative, promoting leadership on nature in sustainable finance across banking, insurance and investment. She coordinates the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) biodiversity working group and leads UNEP FI’s involvement in the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), Natural Capital Finance Alliance (NCFA) and other initiatives for portfolio alignment, risk and disclosure. 
For the past 7 years she has directed a consultancy firm undertaking environmental finance project development and evaluation, and leading secretariats for the Equator Principles Association (environmental and social risk in Project Finance for 100+ financial institutions) and the Cross-Sector Biodiversity Initiative (applying IFC performance standard 6 on biodiversity in oil & gas, mining, and finance). Prior to this Jessica worked for UNEP-WCMC, IUCN and UNDP. She has worked for 17 years to mobilise environment and development finance, globally and especially across Africa. 
 

Gemma James, Senior Lead, Environmental Issues, Principles for Responsible Investment - Moderator

Gemma James is a Senior Lead, Environmental Issues at PRI. She leads investor initiatives and research related to nature. Previously, she was Head of Environmental Issues at PRI with oversight of themes including biodiversity, sustainable commodities, and plastics and the circular economy.  She also ran investor collaborative engagements on water risk, methane and fracking. Gemma previously worked for the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM). She worked on water and biodiversity issues with mining companies to develop and share good practice.  Gemma holds an MA in Environment, Politics and Globalisation and a BA in Geography, both from King’s College London.

Greg Watson, Lead Specialist, Natural Capital Lab, Climate Change & Sustainable Development Sector, Inter-American Development Bank - Moderator

Greg Watson currently leads the IDB’s Biodiversity Cluster and its Natural Capital Lab, funded with $44M from the governments of France and the United Kingdom.  The lab serves as a one-stop shop for the IDB Group and partners to drive innovation in natural capital finance.  It works to incubate, accelerate, and scale new solutions to pressing environmental problems by looking at nature as asset.  Greg also leads the IDB’s efforts to mainstream biodiversity across the Bank and in countries.  

Caroline van Leenders, Senior Advisor Sustainable Transitions,  Netherlands Enterprise Agency - Moderator

Caroline van Leenders has a PhD in Environmental Studies and works for the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of The Netherlands on greening the financial sector. For more than twenty years Caroline has successfully engaged in transformational  change in the field of sustainable energy, plant based food and biodiversity. In recent years her focus has been on greening the financial sector. Bringing people together is essential to change and Caroline has therefore formed various Communities of Practice where frontrunners learn from each other and supported the forming of coalitions such as the TNFD. She also creates attention for the importance of halting biodiversity loss by writing books, presenting and doing research.

Tracey Cumming, Biodiversity Finance Initiative Technical Advisor, UNDP; Member of Expert Panel on Resource Mobilisation for the CBD - Moderator

Tracey is a Technical Advisor for UNDP-BIOFIN, and a member of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Panel of Experts on Resource Mobilisation, tasked with developing a draft framework for resource mobilisation for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

Markus Lehmann  - Moderator

Mr. Markus Lehmann is a senior programme management officer with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, United Nations Environment Programme. He is currently heading its Biodiversity Economy Unit, leading the work on biodiversity mainstreaming, business engagement, and resource mobilization.

Prior to joining the United Nations in 2001, he held various research and teaching positions in economics in Germany, including with Free University Berlin, the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, and the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. He holds a doctorate in economics (Dr. rer. pol.) from Free University Berlin and published extensively on various aspects of environmental and resource economics.
 

Dr. Andrew M. Deutz, Ph.D., Director, Global Policy, Institutions & Conservation Finance, The Nature Conservancy - Moderator

Dr. Andrew Deutz is the Director of Global Policy, Institutions and Conservation Finance at The Nature Conservancy.   He is an expert in international environmental law, policy and diplomacy.  He directs the Conservancy’s global policy work on climate change, biodiversity, oceans, and conservation finance, as well as overseeing relationships with international organizations, multilateral development banks, and foreign aid agencies.    

Prior to joining TNC, he served in several leadership roles with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and has also served as the acting Lead Forest Negotiator for the US State Department and as Forest Policy Advisor to the World Bank. He holds a doctorate in International Environmental Law from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.  

Martin Lok, Program Manager, Natural Capital
Ministry of Economic Affairs, Netherlands - Moderator

With more than 25 years of experience as policy maker for the Netherland’s government, Martin has worked in several policy domains, including environmental policy, international nature policy and green growth policy.

He is co-author of several national policy documents and has led public-private collaborative actions on natural capital in the Netherlands from 2014. In 2018 Martin initiated and led the global Government Dialogue on Natural Capital.

David Meyers, Executive Director, Conservation Finance Alliance - Moderator

David Meyers is the Executive Director of the Conservation Finance Alliance.  He is an environmental finance expert and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in sustainability, business strategy and management, environmental economics, international conservation and development, environmental impact assessment, training, education and research in ecology and evolution. From 2012 until 2018, David was a Sr. Technical Advisor for the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN/UNDP).

David has launched and managed various companies including a financial services company providing online marketplaces for impact investing and environmental assets, a triple-bottom-line bamboo-flooring manufacturer in Madagascar, and a technology incubator. At the CFA David has led the creation of the CFA Incubator and the Investment Plan for the Global Fund for Coral Reefs.  

David has spent well over a decade in Madagascar and has worked in 47 countries. In Madagascar, he helped the country plan and execute a doubling of the area under conservation, including establishing the Makira Natural Park 370,000 hectare protected area using REDD+ financing. He holds a Doctorate in Biological Anthropology and Anatomy from Duke University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

Dr. John Tobin, Professor of Practice of Corporate Sustainability, Cornell University - Moderator

Dr. Tobin is a tropical ecologist and a corporate lawyer with over two decades of private sector experience, having worked in the international finance industry for much of his career. Following a decade of corporate legal practice in the area of emerging markets finance, while actively providing counsel on environmental conservation matters on a pro bono basis, he turned his full attention towards the growing area of corporate sustainability, becoming Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainability at Credit Suisse. In this position, he pioneered a variety of initiatives and policies aimed at setting the finance industry on a more sustainable course.

In 2016, he left the private sector for a faculty position at Cornell University, where he now teaches corporate sustainability, environmental and social risk management, impact investing, environmental finance, and related topics to undergraduates and graduate students in business and public affairs. His research focuses on the use of financial tools to achieve socially beneficial outcomes in the areas of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. In addition, he actively engages with industry and civil society to develop financial solutions to sustainability problems, including as co-founder of the Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation (CPIC).

Dr. Tobin has extensive leadership and governance experience at the board level, particularly with entities in the areas of environment, science, and education.

Anita DeHorde, Sustainable Finance Expert, Sustainability Manager - Moderator

Anita de Horde is co-coordinator of the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge and Foundation and has a background in sustainable finance. She was a sustainability manager for a bank and has helped several financial institutions to achieve their sustainability ambitions as a senior consultant. Anita advices the EU Finance @ Biodiversity Community since 2019. In 2018 she initiated the Spitsbergen Ambition, a agreement on climate change with the Dutch financial sector. 

Onno Den Heuvel, Global Manager, UNDP Biodiversity Finance Initiative - Moderator

Onno is the Global Manager for UNDP’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), since 2013. He is overseeing the design of biodiversity finance plans and the implementation of over 200 financing solutions in 40 countries working with the public and private sector. He is a co-author of the BIOFIN Workbook and BIOFIN Catalogue of Biodiversity finance solutions. He previously worked in Mongolia as UNDP’s Biodiversity Programme Officer/Environment Team leader, as senior policy officer for the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as a Euroconsult Mott MacDonald/EBRD policy expert for the establishment of a Clean Air Fund. Prior to this he was with UN-HABITAT’s Regional Office for Africa and Arab States. Onno holds a Master’s Degree in Economic Geography from the University of Utrecht.

Jeremy Eppel, F4B Ambassador, Eppel Sustainability- Moderator

Jeremy Eppel is a member of the CBD’s Expert Panel on Resource Mobilisation for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, and is an Ambassador for the Finance for Biodiversity (F4B) Initiative. In 2016, he co-founded Eppel Sustainability, a consultancy whose mission is to help organisations tackle global sustainability challenges and secure funding. Jeremy has advised the World Bank’s Global Wildlife Program, the Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit, UN Environment Programme, CITES and a range of non-Governmental and private sector organisations. Until 2016, Jeremy was Deputy Director, International in the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Here, he led the UK delegation to CBD COP 11 and COP 12 and, as a member of the Bureau, co-chaired the contact group on resource mobilisation at COP 12. Jeremy is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Trustee of IUCN UK and of TRAFFIC International.
 

Mariana Bellot, National Coordinator for Mexico, The Biodiversity Finance Initiative, Consultant for the United Nations Development Program - Moderator

Mariana Bellot es especialista en financiamiento ambiental, siendo actualmente Asesora Técnica para América Latina y el Caribe de la Iniciativa Finanzas de Biodiversidad (BIOFIN) del Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo. Es internacionalista de profesión por la Universidad Iberoamericana y egresada de la Maestría en Política Ambiental y Desarrollo por la Universidad de Sussex, Reino Unido. Es también fellow del Programa Lead-México de El Colegio de México.   

Cuenta con más de 20 años de trabajo en una amplia gama de temas de la agenda ambiental nacional e internacional entre los cuales destacan la conservación y financiamiento de biodiversidad, soluciones basadas en naturales, cambio climático y resiliencia, negociación internacional, y diseño y gestión de proyectos. Fue funcionaria pública federal durante 15 años ocupando diversos puestos dentro del sector ambiental, siendo su último cargo la Dirección General de Desarrollo Institucional y Promoción en la Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas. 

Mariana Bellot ha sido negociadora internacional de México en múltiples ocasiones ante diversos convenios internacionales entre los cuales destaca el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica y la Convención Marco de Naciones Unidas sobre Cambio Climático.  
 

Lucretia Landmann, Senior Policy Adviser at the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) - Moderator

Lucretia Landmann is Senior Policy Adviser in Environmental Finance at the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment where she is in charge of the negotiations on resource mobilization in the CDB and acts as the Swiss focal point for the Global Environmental Facility among others. She holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics and the Graduate Institute Geneva respectively and an MBA from ESADE Business School. Before joining the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment she worked as a consultant and project manager in energy efficiency and renewable energy finance and as impact investment analyst out of Mexico City. She started her career in the Economic Development Cooperation Directorate of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs working on private sector development.