Tharman Shanmugaratnam was elected as Singapore’s President in September 2023.

He served in politics for 22 years before resigning to contest in the Presidential Election. Tharman was Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister for several years, and Education Minister earlier. He last served in government as Senior Minister. He also served as Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator, from 2011 to 2023.

Tharman has spent his working life in public service, in roles principally related to economic and social policies. Tharman has also led several international councils focused especially on global financial reforms, preparedness for future pandemics, global water sustainability, and access to quality education.

He currently chairs the board of the Group of Thirty, an independent global council of economic and financial leaders from the public and private sectors. He also co-chairs the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, whose initial recommendations helped shape the outcomes of the UN Water Conference in March 2023, as well as the Advisory Board for the UN’s Human Development Report. 

Vishal Agarwal is a Senior Partner in McKinsey’s Singapore office and leads the firm's Energy and Environment Sustainability work in Southeast Asia, where he advises and serves leading businesses across the energy and process manufacturing sectors.

In his 16 years with McKinsey, Vishal has worked with clients across Australia, China, India, and Southeast Asia to implement holistic transformations. Over the past few years, he has worked to reduce carbon intensity of these operations as well as help identify new growth opportunities for his clients in the context of decarbonisation and broader sustainability.

Selected examples of his recent client work include supporting one of largest power generation companies, where he helped develop a new strategic plan which considered the technological opportunities available to futureproof the business in the medium- to long-term, including conventional and renewable generation, ancillary services and supporting value chain activities.

Vishal holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore.

Mark Carney is currently the UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and Co-Chair for the Glasgow Finance Alliance for Net Zero, a practitioner-led coalition working to increase the financial sector’s ambition on climate change and accelerate the transition to a net-zero economy. Mark is a member of the Arnhold Distinguished Fellowship Program Board within Conservation International.

Mark was previously Governor of the Bank of England (from 2013 to 2020), and Governor of the Bank of Canada (from 2008 to 2013). Internationally, Mark was Chair of the Financial Stability Board (from 2011 to 2018). He chaired the Global Economy Meeting and Economic Consultative Committee of the Bank for International Settlements (from 2018-2020) and was First Vice-Chair of the European Systemic Risk Board (from 2013-2020). Mark is also an external member of Stripe’s Board, a global technology company building economic infrastructure for the internet.

He is Chair of Brookfield Asset Management and Chair of the Chatham House Panel of Senior Advisers. Mark is a member of the Global Advisory Board of PIMCO, the Group of Thirty, the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, as well as the boards of Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, The Hoffman Institute for Global Business and Society at INSEAD and Senior Counselor to Macro Advisory Partners.

Mark was born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, Canada in 1965. After growing up in Edmonton, Alberta, he obtained a bachelor degree in Economics from Harvard and a masters and doctorate Degrees in Economics from Oxford. After a thirteen-year career with Goldman Sachs, Mark was appointed Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003. In 2004, he became Senior Associate Deputy Minister of Finance. He held this position until his appointment as Governor of the Bank of Canada in February 2008.

Isabel is the Regional Head of Industry, Infrastructure and Natural Resources, Asia and Pacific, based in Singapore. For seven years prior to her current role, Isabel was the Regional Manager for PPP Transaction Advisory Services, initially for South Asia based in Delhi, and subsequently in Singapore as her mandate expanded to cover all Asia Pacific for the last four years. Isabel spent four years in IFC’s Subnational Finance unit where she worked in deal origination, structuring and supervision of debt and structured finance products in more than six countries in LAC.  

Before joining IFC, Isabel held various positions in World Bank operations in the urban sector in the Middle East and North Africa region, the water sector in Latin America, and the transport, power and urban sector in South Asia. Before joining the World Bank in 2001, Isabel worked in emerging markets and Western Europe for WS Atkins in the UK as Senior Management Consultant; working on infrastructure finance in Thailand, Argentina, Barbados, Qatar, the UK, and Europe.

Isabel, a civil engineer by training, holds an MBA and a PhD from the University of Birmingham (UK).

Michael Dennis, Managing Director, is Head of Alternatives Strategy & Capital Markets in Asia-Pacific. Mr Dennis is responsible for leading BlackRock Alternatives and leading BlackRock Capital Markets (BCM) in the region. Mr Dennis is a member of the BlackRock Alternatives Executive Committee and a member of the APAC Executive Committee.

Mr Dennis is responsible for BlackRock's alternatives business in the region, across Infrastructure, Credit, Real Estate, Hedge Funds and Private Equity. He is responsible for setting direction in the region and partnering with clients to drive a holistic view of alternatives. BlackRock Capital Markets (BCM) operates across the entirety of the firm's investment platform to provide their investors the ability to access primary issuance markets, source across the capital structure and unlock greater alpha opportunities for the benefit of their clients. Covering the full spectrum of public and private markets, BCM offers a centralized function for sourcing and syndication, financing, co-investment and corporate solutions activities.

Having been part of the team launching Capital Markets in EMEA and Asia-Pacific, Mr Dennis works to build deep relationships with leading clients, corporates, investments banks and financial sponsors in the APAC region. Previously, Mr Dennis worked in BlackRock's London office as part of Capital Markets, up until May 2013 when he moved to Hong Kong.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2012, Mr Dennis was a long/short equity portfolio manager at Marshall Wace LLP in London. Mr Dennis earned a BA degree in Economics and Politics from the University of Birmingham.

Dirk Forrister is President and CEO of the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), a non-profit business association dedicated to market-based climate policies. With over 300 member companies, IETA is respected globally as a thought leader on strategies to harness the power of markets to deliver climate protection.

Dirk brings a long history of public and private sector engagement in energy and environmental policy. He spent a decade as Managing Director at Natsource LLC, the manager of carbon funds valued at $1.2 billion. Earlier in his career, Mr. Forrister served as Chairman of the White House Climate Change Task Force in the Clinton Administration, and Assistant U.S. Secretary of Energy for Congressional and Public Affairs. His environmental markets career began when he advised US Congressman Jim Cooper, a leader in crafting the US acid rain trading legislation in 1990.

Allister Furey has an MBA from London Business School, and a PhD in computational neuroscience and robotics from University of Sussex, where he focused on optimizing control of wind energy systems. He has worked as a consultant for Bain & Company, as CTO of a leading UK wind energy technology company, and venture partner at Entrepreneur First.

Allister and his co-founder Sam Gill observed that carbon markets needed a revolution in data quality to reliably deliver climate benefits, and to achieve the necessary scale to have a meaningful impact. Together they founded Sylvera in 2020 to bring transparency and, ultimately, trust to carbon markets.

Mr Gomez Pensado is Head of the Net Zero Climate pillar and a Member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum. Before holding this position, Pedro led the Forum’s work on mobility leading the transport sector’s agenda on sustainability, business resilience and inclusiveness. Prior, he was Head of the Partnership Against Corruption Initiative team and had steered one of the longest-standing collective action initiatives in this field. He was also part of the leadership of the energy team at the Forum where he oversaw the production of the Energy Transition Index and oil and gas industry transformation.

Prior to joining the Forum, Pedro served at the Mexican Ministry of Energy as Director for Sectoral Studies where he contributed energy reform & transition policies and at Pemex. In academia, he was Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies working on the political economy of energy in Latin America and Chevening Fellow at the University of Edinburgh’s Business School where his focus was low-carbon investment and finance. He was also a senior consultant for Deloitte’s energy practice and was a Partner at the Swiss-based shipbroking firm 1.8.9 Shipping GmbH.

Pedro holds a Master’s Degree from St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford.

Tim Gould was appointed the Agency’s Chief Energy Economist in 2021. As Chief Energy Economist, he provides strategic advice on energy economics across a wide range of IEA activities and analysis. Mr Gould is also Head of the Division for Energy Supply and Investment Outlooks, in which capacity he co-leads the World Energy Outlook, the IEA’s flagship publication, and oversees the Agency’s work on investment and finance, including the World Energy Investment report.

Mr Gould joined the IEA in 2008, initially as a specialist on Russian and Caspian energy, and in recent years has designed and directed the World Energy Outlook together with the IEA’s Chief Energy Modeller while contributing to the Outlook as a principal author. Prior to joining the IEA, Mr Gould was Senior Advisor to the Secretary General of the Energy Charter and has ten years of experience in Eastern Europe, primarily in Ukraine. He graduated from Oxford University and has a post-graduate diploma from the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University

Piyush Gupta has been the Chief Executive Officer and Director of DBS Group since 2009.

Prior to joining DBS, Piyush had a 27 year career at Citigroup, where his last position was Chief Executive Officer for South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Piyush is currently the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Singapore Management University, Vice-Chairman of the Institute of International Finance, Washington, and Vice-Chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Executive Committee. In addition, he is a member of Singapore’s Advisory Council on the Ethical Use of AI and Data. He sits on the boards of Singapore’s National Research Foundation, and the Singapore’s Council for Board Diversity. Piyush is a term trustee of the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA). Previously, he has been a member of the Singapore Emerging Stronger Taskforce, aimed at defining Singapore’s future in a post-Covid world, the UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the McKinsey Advisory Council.

Piyush has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Degree in Economics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, India and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM, Ahmedabad.

Philipp Hildebrand, Vice Chairman of BlackRock, is a member of the firm’s Global Executive Committee and oversees the BlackRock Investment Institute (BII).

Mr. Hildebrand joined BlackRock in 2012. Prior to that, he served as Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank (SNB). In that capacity, he was also a Director of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Swiss Governor of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a member of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), of which the Leaders of the G20 appointed him Vice Chairman in 2011. He was also Chairman of the Administrative Committee of the Board of Directors of the BIS, and part of the Steering Committee and the Plenary of the Financial Stability Board (FSB). Previously, Mr. Hildebrand was Chief Investment Officer of a Swiss private bank and a partner at Moore Capital Management in London.

Mr. Hildebrand is a Trustee of the British Museum, Chair of the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft, a member of the Group of Thirty and an Honorary Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. He sits on the International Leadership Council for Europe for the University of Toronto. He was awarded the Legion d’Honneur and Ordre National du Mérite by the President of France.

Mr. Hildebrand earned a BA from the University of Toronto, an MA from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, and a DPhil from the University of Oxford.

Dr Steve Howard is Vice Chairman, Sustainability, Temasek. He first joined Temasek as Chief Sustainability Officer in January 2021. Steve is a board member of GenZero, which he helped establish, and chairs the Investment Committee. He is also a founding board member of the Temasek-BlackRock joint venture, Decarbonization Partners, and is a member of the Investment Committee. In addition, Steve is Founding Chair of the We Mean Business Coalition and a member of the LeapFrog’s Global Leadership Council. He is also chair of the Advisory board of Tilt Collective, a global initiative promoting plant-rich food systems. He was, until recently, on the Administrative Board of SEforALL.

Before joining Temasek, Steve was Chief Sustainability Officer at IKEA Group and served on IKEA’s Executive Group Management from 2011 to 2017. In 2015, Steve co-founded We Mean Business, a leading climate change coalition of organisations that helped support the Paris Agreement. Prior to IKEA, Steve was Founder and CEO of The Climate Group, a global NGO that has built networks of cities, states, regions, and businesses committed to a net-zero carbon world. Before the Climate Group, Steve consulted on sustainability working as a partner at ERM Group in London and a Director at URS Corporation.

Steve has worked with various NGOs and UN bodies on a wide range of global sustainability topics. Earlier in his career, Steve worked in WWF, where he established the Global Forest and Trade Network, chaired the UK Forest Stewardship Council and helped launch and chair The Forest Trust. Steve is trained as an ecologist and has a PhD in Ecophysiology and Environmental Physics based on research on agroforestry systems in Kenya.

Angela Churie Kallhauge is the Executive Vice President for Impact at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). She joined EDF from the World Bank where she headed the Secretariat of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC). 

Before that she was at the Swedish Energy Agency where she worked for 14 years on climate change, energy, and development issues. During her time at the Swedish Energy Agency, she worked on carbon market development issues, including portfolio development and capacity building in developing countries. She also served as the EU lead negotiator on adaptation and resilience issues under the UNFCCC for close to a decade and represented Sweden in the Adaptation Fund Board where she led the work on accreditation for direct access. Angela also draws experience from the International Renewable Energy Agency, where she led the work to develop a climate change work program that places renewable energy action as a key part of climate change strategies.

Prior to her engagement at the Swedish Agency, Angela spent close to a decade working at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and in Zimbabwe and Kenya with civil society organizations on climate, energy and development policy.

As The Rockefeller Foundation’s chief representative in Asia, Deepali Khanna oversees efforts to amplify the Foundation’s impact and initiatives to make opportunities universal and sustainable. She leads the efforts of the Asia Regional Office team to build and sustain networks with different institutions, leverage financing and collaborations, innovative grants, thought leadership and information on trends driving the Asian continent’s development.

In her role, Deepali is leading engagement with India’s G20 presidency to advance global economic equity, public health, clean energy and sustainable food systems. Deepali currently serves as co-Chair of G20 India’s Business20 task force on Financing For Global Economic Recovery and as co-chair of G7 Japan’s Think7 task force on Development and Economic Prosperity. Deepali is also on the Skoll Foundation Global Advisory Group, Global Alliance on Mass Entrepreneurship Advisory Board and Digital Green Foundation Board, and the International Jury of The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure Fellowship Programme.

Mikkel Larsen is the Chief Executive Officer of Climate Impact X (CIX), a global marketplace, auctions house and exchange for trusted carbon credits based in Singapore. He is responsible for developing and executing CIX’s vision to scale carbon markets through transparency and integrity; as well as build trust for and bring to market the next wave of impactful carbon credit solutions.

Mikkel was one of the early pioneers of the international Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and of Singapore’s Emerging Stronger Taskforce, a public-private partnership to develop a more carbon-conscious society. Prior to his current role, he was the Group Chief Sustainability Officer and chair of the Sustainability Council at DBS Bank. He has also held leadership positions at UBS, Citigroup and KPMG in Europe.

Mikkel is involved in numerous international and Singaporean sustainability-related councils and committees. These include: the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market; World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and Natural Climate Solutions Alliance (NCS Alliance); and World Wildlife Fund Advisory Council (Singapore), amongst others.

Mikkel is passionate about wildlife, animal rights and nature conservation. He is a frequent speaker on sustainability related topics including green finance and voluntary carbon markets and has authored publications in these fields.

A seasoned management consultant and finance industry professional, Helene has held various senior management positions in strategic planning, marketing and branding throughout her career which includes tenure at global consulting giants Boston Consulting Group and Willis Towers Watson.

Prior to founding GoImpact platform developed to accelerate the adoption of Sustainable Finance, Helene was Managing Director and Head of Strategic Planning, Brand and Communications Asia Pacific for BNP Paribas Wealth Management, a role she held for five years. She also held similar roles at J.P. Morgan Private Bank and Swiss wealth management firm Lombard Odier. In these capacities, she was instrumental in advancing the agenda of sustainable finance and investments across a broad client base of family offices and asset owners.

Helene is a known influencer and key opinion leader in Fintech and Digital Transformation, recognised by Thomson Reuters Refinitiv as top 5 in Asia Pacific, and globally a top 2 influencer in Sustainable Finance. She has received numerous accolades as Top 100 Women in Finance from FinTech Times, and Top 50 Hall of Fame Global Fintech Leaders. GoImpact platform has already forged partnerships with key players like Temasek Foundation, UNDP, Financial Times and Bloomberg since inception in 2022 .

A sought-after speaker and moderator at fintech and sustainable finance forums, Helene graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a First Class Honors degree in English and Economics.

Seok Hui is Chief Executive Officer of the Philanthropy Asia Alliance (PAA), a Temasek Trust initiative focused on collaborative philanthropy. PAA aims to catalyse collective action for a better world, and prime Asia as a force for the greater good.

Prior to joining Temasek Trust, she was Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). During part of her tenure at SIAC, Seok Hui served concurrently as the first Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC). She is a former member of the Board of SIMC.  

Over the years, Seok Hui has worked in Singapore and Hong Kong with local and international law firms as a corporate, mergers and acquisitions, and securities lawyer, and has also served as General Counsel at multinational corporations. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics, qualified as a barrister, and is admitted as a solicitor in Singapore, Hong Kong SAR and England and Wales.

Tiza is a public policy expert specialising in climate finance. Tiza has led work at CPI in advising several government initiatives, including advising PT SMI on the establishment of SDG Indonesia One Fund, facilitating Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Finance in establishing the Environmental Fund Public Services Agency, and providing technical assistance to the Coordinating Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Investment on JETP implementation.

Tiza’s prior work experience includes working as a corporate attorney in Jakarta, the Office of the Special Staff of the President, McKinsey, and Ceres.org. She holds a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School, with studies focusing on environmental law and climate change.

Kyung-Ah is Chief Sustainability Officer at Temasek. She is responsible for integrating ESG across Temasek’s global portfolio working with teams on portfolio company engagement and ESG investments. She also oversees the firm’s sustainability strategy to advance net zero, nature positive, and inclusive growth.

Kyung-Ah has over two decades of experience in the finance industry, majority of which was dedicated to building and leading the global environmental markets initiatives at Goldman Sachs and advancing innovative finance solutions to address climate change. She was most recently the head of Environmental Markets and Innovation and a member of the Sustainable Finance Steering Group. She joined Goldman Sachs in Mergers & Acquisitions and worked in investment banking in New York and Hong Kong. Prior to Goldman Sachs, she was a management consultant at McKinsey in South Korea and South Africa.

Kyung-Ah has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Yonsei University in Korea. She serves on the boards of ClimateWorks Foundation and Resources for the Future and is an advisory member for NYU’s Center for Sustainable Business. She is also a board director of Clifford Capital Holdings.

Avinash Persaud’s career spans finance, academia and public policy. 

He was a former senior executive of J. P. Morgan, UBS, State Street and GAM London Ltd and former Chairman of Elara Capital PLC and RBC Barbados. He is a non-executive director of Proven Investments Limited. 

He is a former Governor, London School of Economics and 2010 President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He was elected Trustee of the Global Association of Risk Professionals and the Royal Economics Society. He won the Jacques de Larosiere Award in Global Finance from the Institute of International Finance and was voted one of the top three public intellectuals in the world on the financial crisis by an expert panel. He is Emeritus Professor of Gresham College in the UK. 

He was Chairman, regulatory sub-committee of the UN Commission on Financial Reform; Chairman, Warwick Commission on Financial Reform; Chairman, Financial Services Commission of Barbados; Member of the UK Treasury’s Audit and Risk Committee and the Pew Task Force to the US Senate Banking Committee; Visiting Scholar at the IMF; Distinguished Advisor, Financial Sector Law Reform Commission of India; and Chairman, CARICOM Commission on the Economy.

Anshari is a Director in the Strategy and Development Group (Policy & Analytics) at GenZero, and he is responsible for providing thought leadership on policy, regulations and standards in support of GenZero’s investment activities.

Before GenZero, he was a climate change negotiator with the National Climate Change Secretariat under the Prime Minister’s Office. He had represented the Singapore Government at various multilateral fora such as the UNFCCC, UNCBD, IPCC and ASEAN. In total, Anshari has accumulated over 10 years of experience in multilateral negotiations and policymaking.

Anshari has coordinated whole-of-government initiatives such as Singapore’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution and carbon markets strategy. He was also the lead carbon markets negotiator for Singapore, and has co-chaired expert level negotiations on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement (international market and non-market based cooperation).

In terms of external appointments, Anshari currently sits on the Board of Verra. He graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Science (Life Sciences).

Kim leads the Group’s investment management activities at Singlife and is also Chairman of Navigator Investment Services Limited, a Singapore Life company.  

He has previously held senior executive roles with ICAP, Deutsche Bank and ABN AMRO Bank in London, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai, always with significant Risk, Regulatory and Revenue responsibility.  

He holds an ESG Competent Board Designation Program certification, has an Advanced Management Program with Harvard Business School and Investment Management Program from London Business School.

Rohit Sipahimalani joined Temasek in 2008 as Head of Telecommunications, Media & Technology. In 2012, he was appointed Co-Chief Investment Officer and has since held various roles across the organisation before being appointed to his current position. 

Prior to joining Temasek, Rohit spent 11 years with Morgan Stanley holding senior positions across its Mumbai and Hong Kong offices before his appointment as Managing Director & Head of South East Asia Investment Banking in Singapore.

Rohit started his career with Citibank, India and McKinsey & Co in India.

Mr Michael Syn is Head of Equities at SGX.

Mr Syn has management responsibility for SGX’s equities business, across both the stock market and futures market. He is director and CEO for SGX’s regulated businesses for Securities Trading (ST), Central Depository (CDP), Derivatives Trading (DT) and Derivatives Clearing (DC). Prior to this role, Mr Syn led the Exchange’s successful derivatives business in equity, commodity and currency assets. He joined SGX in 2011 with a background in investment banking and investment management.  

Mr Syn serves on the council of Economic Society of Singapore and the board of Sentosa Development Corporation. He graduated with MA and PhD degrees from Cambridge University and attended the Harvard Advanced Management Program.

Dr Priyantha Wijayatunga, Chief of the Energy Sector Group, Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department, Asian Development Bank (ADB) has over 30 years of professional experience, including 14 years in ADB. He was the Director, South Asia Energy Division prior to assuming the current position. Prior to ADB, he served as the Director General of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka and a Senior Professor of Electrical Engineering. He has extensively contributed to the areas of energy policy and regulation, energy planning and clean energy development.

Priyantha, a Chartered Electrical Engineer, holds a Doctorate in Power Systems Economics from the Imperial College London. He was the Chairman of the South Asia Forum for Infrastructure Regulators (SAFIR) in 2006 to 2007 and was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Ceylon Electricity Board. He was an Advisory Board member of the Melbourne Energy Institute at the University of Melbourne during 2016 to 2019.

Yuki is the Director overseeing the Asia Pacific (APAC) Network for the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) which was launched in June 2022.  She is focused on bringing together the financial sector across developed and emerging APAC to accelerate an inclusive and just transition to a net-zero economy.

Prior to joining GFANZ, she was at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Finance Initiative for 20 years and leading its activities in Asia Pacific for the last four years. She has represented UNEP FI at all three major sustainability reporting initiatives, GRI, IIRC and SASB, at various points in time. Other projects include developing and running the UNEP FI online course on climate change for the finance sector and representation at Rio+20.

She is a qualified chartered accountant in the UK (ICAEW) and trained and worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She is currently based in Singapore and has worked in Bangkok, Geneva and London.

Yuki has a BSc honours degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford.