Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad is Malaysia’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability (NRES) and Member of Parliament for Setiawangsa. He is also the Vice-President of the People’s Justice Party (KEADILAN).
 
A law graduate from King’s College London, he was Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Private Secretary before being elected as Selangor State Assemblyman for Seri Setia in the 2008 General Elections. He was appointed as the Political Secretary to the then Selangor Chief Minister.
 
He then became Deputy Speaker for the Selangor State Legislative Assembly and then State Executive Councillor (State Minister). In the 2018 General Elections, he was elected to Malaysia’s Parliament, representing Setiawangsa. With the formation of the Unity Government, he was appointed Minister of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change in 2022.
   
He is the author of several books, including Saving the Planet: Climate and Environmental Lessons from Malaysia and Beyond.

Sir Danny Alexander joined HSBC in November 2024 and is CEO of HSBC Infrastructure Finance and Sustainability, CIB. In this role, Danny leads on infrastructure finance and project finance advisory opportunities associated with the transition to net zero in HSBC’s strategic markets. Danny also leads on sustainable finance and clean tech initiatives and oversees partnerships such as Pentagreen Capital, HSBC’s joint venture with Temasek that targets marginally bankable clean energy and adaptation projects in Southeast Asia.

Previously Sir Danny was Vice President, Policy and Strategy, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). He joined the AIIB – the first new multilateral development bank of the 21st century and the first to be headquartered in Beijing - at its inception in 2016 and led the Bank through its start-up and growth phases. Sir Danny was responsible for AIIB’s strategic direction, including its thematic sectoral and country priorities. He led the Bank’s ambitious climate agenda and oversaw AIIB’s environmental and social and other operational policies. He represented AIIB at the G20 Finance Ministers meetings, climate COPs, and other international meetings. He led the Bank’s partnership with the World Bank and other multilateral, bilateral, and private sector partners.

From 2010-2015, Sir Danny was Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the United Kingdom Cabinet. He led the Liberal Democrat negotiating team that established the Coalition that governed in that period, and was one of the four member ‘Quad’ that provided the core political leadership of that government. In government, he was responsible for the UK’s deficit reduction, pension reform, and national infrastructure plan. He was a member of the National Security Council. He was MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey from 2005 to 2015. He was Knighted by Her Majesty the Queen in 2015 for his services to government.

He holds a BA in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Oxford and is an honorary fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. He was born and brought up in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. 

Bruna is Manager at the COP30 Extraordinary Unit in the Brazilian Ministry of Environment and Climate Change where she is currently leading the preparation of the COP30 Action Agenda to engage businesses, investors, subnational governments and society in global climate action to implement the Paris Agreement. An international relations professional with a master's degree in management and public policies, Bruna has over 16 years of experience in international climate cooperation and monitoring of multilateral environmental agreements. She coordinated delegations and advocacy for Local and Subnational Governments of South America at COPs in Doha, Lima, Paris, and Madrid. She received the British Empire Medal - BEM awarded by Queen Elizabeth II for services rendered to COP26 in Glasgow, leading the COP engagement strategy with Brazil and as Deputy Director of Climate, Nature, and Energy at the British Embassy in Brazil, she coordinated a new Bilateral Partnership for Green and Inclusive Growth.

Connie Chan is Head, Financial Services at Temasek, responsible for investments and portfolio management globally in the financial services sector, including banking, insurance, payments and other financial technology.

She also leads Temasek’s Sustainable Finance initiatives, including the setup of Pentagreen Capital, a JV with HSBC focused on debt financing for marginally bankable sustainable infrastructure projects, and Temasek’s participation in the Green Investments Partnership under MAS’ Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership (“FAST-P”), a Singapore blended finance initiative in collaboration with key public, private and philanthropic sector partners that aims to mobilise up to US$5 billion to de-risk and finance transition and marginally bankable green projects in Asia.

Connie graduated from the University of Chicago with honors in Economics and also studied Economics at Trinity College, Cambridge University in the U.K.

Susan Chan, Senior Managing Director, is the Head of Asia Pacific at BlackRock. Ms. Chan serves on BlackRock’s Global Executive Committee, as well as the firm’s Asia Pacific Executive and Steering Committees.

Ms. Chan is responsible for leading the Asia Pacific region and overseeing the full range of business, client, investment and operational platforms serving wealth and institutional investors via BlackRock’s active, index, ETFs, alternatives and technology offerings. 

Ms. Chan was previously Deputy Head of Asia Pacific, Head of Greater China, and Head of Trading, Liquidity & Lending for Asia Pacific. She also oversaw the Sustainable & Transition Investing group in Asia Pacific. She joined the firm in Hong Kong in 2013 as Head of iShares Capital Markets and Products for Asia Pacific, before becoming Head of ETFs and Index Investing, a role she held until 2021. 

Prior to joining BlackRock, she was a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank AG, Hong Kong where she was Head of Equity Structuring, Strategic Equity Transactions and DBx Asia Pacific. Before Deutsche Bank, she was Managing Director at Barclays Capital Asia Limited where she held various leadership positions in equity derivatives with the most recent being Head of Equity and Funds Structured, Asia Pacific.

Ms. Chan received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Finance in 2023. She also serves as a member of the Financial Infrastructure and Market Development Sub-Committee, under the Exchange Fund Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. 

Ms. Chan is a graduate of Boston University, Boston, Mass.

Mr Chia Der Jiun was appointed Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on 1 January 2024.  He was previously Permanent Secretary (Development) at the Ministry of Manpower.

Prior to his appointment at MOM in 2020, Der Jiun had spent 18 years at MAS in a range of functions covering monetary policy implementation, reserve management, macroeconomic surveillance, and banking supervision and regulation. At MAS, he was last Deputy Managing Director (Corporate Development) with responsibilities for risk, finance, payment system and currency operations, HR and organisation transformation. Der Jiun also served as Executive Director for Southeast Asia at the International Monetary Fund from 2011 to 2013. He holds a BA(Hons) in Politics and Economics from Oxford University and an MBA from INSEAD.

Dr Joseph Curtin is a Managing Director on the Power & Climate team, which is aimed at scaling up energy access and accelerating an inclusive energy transition in emerging markets. Joe currently leads the Foundation’s coal to clean programme, including the Coal to Clean Crediting, Coal Pipeline, JET-P and the Energy Transition Accelerator initiatives. He also leads the Foundation’s programmes focused on human capital and institutional development for energy transition in Africa.

Prior to joining the Foundation, he was a member of the Irish Government’s Climate Change Advisory Council and a Senior Fellow at the Institute of International and European Affairs. He previously worked for the OECD evaluating the climate policy performance of countries across the world, for the National Economic and Social Council (an advisory body to the Irish Prime Minister) and at University College Cork. He has contributed on coal transition, climate mitigation, climate finance and international climate negotiations to the New York Times, BBC, Foreign Policy, the Financial Times, the Atlantic, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, and has published on these topics in leading academic journals.

He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, the London School of Economics, and he has a Ph.D. on climate finance from University College Cork.

Gina Domanig is the Managing Partner of Emerald Technology Ventures. In 2000, she founded the business as the first independent cleantech venture capital fund in Europe. She is the co-chair of innovation at the World Energy Council and serves on the advisory boards of the Danish Innovation Fund and the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Food and Water Security. She is on the board of directors of Actnano Ltd, GeoDigital International Inc, Urgently Inc. (ULY NASDAQ), Die Mobiliar and the Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE) Foundation.

Featured in Forbes 50 over 50, Gina has over 30 years of international business experience including banking, M&A, strategic development, and venture capital. Prior to Emerald, she was senior vice president at Sulzer, a Swiss multinational, responsible for strategic planning and M&A. She holds a B.A. in Finance from Arizona State University and MBA degrees from Thunderbird and ESADE in Barcelona. 

Anthony is a well-known global leader in the fields of climate finance, law, international policy development, philanthropy and sustainability where he has worked since 1990. He speaks and write widely on these topics. In 2014 Anthony was invited by the then UN Secretary General to address the UN Climate Summit from the UN General Assembly Hall. In additional to his role at Howden he is currently the Chair at the Inevitable Policy Response (IPR), Adjunct Professor at the Singapore Institute for Technology, Chair of the Climate Action Advisory Board, Co-Chair of the Carbon Tracker Advisory Board, Member of the Climate Bonds Advisory Board and member of the Editorial Board of the journal Carbon & Climate Law Review (CCLR). He is a former Executive Fellow at the World Economic Forum's Centre for Nature and Climate, Executive Director at the Mission Possible Partnership, CEO at the Carbon Tracker Initiative, Global Head, Climate Finance and Sustainability & Partner at the Global Law Firm, Norton Rose Fulbright and General Counsel to the €1bn climate fund at Climate Change Capital.

His experience, passion, consistent delivery and profile have helped him to develop a leading reputation in these fields. He brings a long-term, strategic perspective to all his roles. Combining this with his legal expertise, proven diplomacy skills, work in the energy, banking, finance and NGO sectors, scientific training and collaborative style he is a highly effective leader who has proven his ability to identify key new areas of relevance for the corporate sector and to grow multiple organisations and new business lines in response.

Linda-Eling Lee is the Institute’s founding director and a leader in the field of sustainable finance.

She most recently led global ESG and climate research at MSCI, where she built one of the world’s top teams of analysts dedicated to understanding long-term drivers of sustainable value. Linda has authored multiple research papers on sustainable investing and twice been named by Barron’s to its annual list of the Top 100 Women in Finance. She serves as a director of US SIF: Sustainable Investment Forum and is a Fellow of the Finance Leaders Fellowship of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Linda joined MSCI in 2010 following the acquisition of RiskMetrics, where she led ESG ratings research and headed consumer sector analysis. She received her doctorate in organisational behavior from Harvard University, holds a master’s from the University of Oxford, and has a bachelor’s in East Asian Studies from Harvard College.

Anika McManus is ESG Managing Director for Australia and Asia Pacific of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a part of BlackRock. She is based in Sydney. 

Ms. McManus oversees GIP’s results-focused and data-driven approach to ESG across its portfolio of assets in Asia Pacific, applying GIP’s rigorous ESG due-diligence framework to potential acquisitions, and working directly with the assets to promote and integrate best practice Environmental, Social and Governance considerations throughout the life-cycle of an investment, with a view to enhancing the long-term value of these investments and delivering tangible improvements where feasible and appropriate. Key assets Ms. McManus works closely with at the Board, Executive and ESG team level include Malaysia Airports, Sydney Airport, Port of Melbourne, NSW Ports, Pacific National rail, Perdaman urea and ammonia plant currently under construction, and various LNG assets.

Ms. McManus has over 30 years’ experience in a diverse range of senior leadership roles including sustainability, indigenous relations, government relations, environment, safety, strategy development, communications, leadership coaching, cultural change, workplace relations and Non-Executive-Directorships across various industry sectors including Resources, FMCG, Industry Associations, Aerospace and Not-For-Profit. She is on the Board of Directors for the Port of Melbourne, and was previously on the Board of Directors for the Gold Industry Group.

Prior to joining GIP, Ms. McManus was Director Corporate Affairs, Environment & Sustainability at Graymont. Her previous roles include Group Manager External & Indigenous Relations at Evolution Mining and Group Sustainability Leader at LionCo.

Ms. McManus holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Kavitha Menon joined SSFA in October 2023 as its Director. As the head of SSFA, she is responsible for ensuring that the association achieves its mission of building a vibrant and inclusive ecosystem for sustainable finance in Singapore. Apart from the day-to-day running of the association, Kavitha’s role involves stakeholder engagement, membership recruitment, thought leadership, and enabling collaborations across the financial sector, non-financial sector, and government organisations to advance sustainable finance in Singapore.

Prior to her current role, Kavitha was the Global Head of Equity Research team at Foord Asset Management in Singapore where she headed their ESG integration process. She has over 15 years of experience in equity investment management, specialising in Global Financials, based out of Singapore and India.

Kavitha has a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, where she was a John F. Kennedy Fellow and Edward S. Mason Fellow. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and has a Master’s in Business Administration (Finance) from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (India) and a Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics and Communication) from Anna University (India).

Kavitha is passionate about sustainable finance. Having analysed investments using a risk-return framework for all these years, she is keen to delve into ‘impact’ to marry investor returns with social and environmental good and drive that change in the financial markets.

Daniel Oehling is a core member of the Principal Investors & Private Equity (PIPE), Climate & Sustainability, and Industrial Goods practices at Boston Consulting Group.

Daniel works with investors and industrial conglomerates on developing their climate and sustainability investment strategies, decarbonizing their investment portfolios, and measuring and sustaining their climate efforts.

Daniel has extensive experience across climate change and energy transition topics.

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.

Riccardo Puliti, an Italian national, is IFC’s Regional Vice President for Asia and the Pacific and oversees all investment and advisory operations across the region.  Mr. Puliti is focused on leveraging the World Bank Group to scale sustainable private sector led growth by supporting innovative products and transformative technologies. His key priorities for the region include enhancing financial and digital inclusion for underserved communities, closing the gender divide, increasing climate financing, helping countries transition to cleaner sources of energy, and bridging infrastructure gaps.

Previously, Mr. Puliti was the Vice President for Infrastructure at the World Bank. In this role, he led the Bank's global efforts to build effective infrastructure in emerging markets and define the World Bank Group’s strategic business priorities such as the climate change action plan. Mr. Puliti also served as the World Bank’s Regional Director, Infrastructure for Africa, where he led operations and provided strategic direction. Working alongside IFC and MIGA, he helped in the increase in private sector mobilisation. Riccardo joined the World Bank Group as Senior Director of the Energy and Extractives Global Practice in November 2016 and led a team of 500 professionals, developing policies and financing in the global energy and extractive industries.

Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Mr. Puliti was the Managing Director in charge of Energy and Extractive Industries at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He began his career at Istituto Mobiliare Italiano and later worked at Banque Indosuez and NM Rothschild and Sons in M&A and equity capital markets.

Mr. Puliti holds an MBA from Instituto Superior de Estudios de la Empresa (IESE) and postgraduate studies at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and Imperial College.

Gautier is Managing Director of Natural Capital activities at Mirova in France with two decades of experience in sustainable finance. From 2004 to 2016, he led climate finance initiatives at Natixis through the European Carbon Fund, a $150 million fund focused on supporting emission reduction projects in emerging markets under the Kyoto Protocol. In 2013, he played a key role in scaling up renewable energy investments at Mirova and founded its natural capital department in 2016. He currently oversees $600 million in assets, focusing on sustainable land use with the LDN Fund and nature-based solution projects through the Climate Fund for Nature, amongst others.

Gautier holds an engineering degree with a focus on environment and energy from the Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse and graduated from Sciences Po Paris in 2004.

Mary L. Schapiro is Vice Chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) and Vice Chair for Global Public Policy at Bloomberg L.P., where she also serves as Special Advisor to the Founder and Chairman. She previously served as Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and CEO and Chair of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) – the only person to have led all three U.S. financial regulatory agencies.

Schapiro chaired the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) from its launch until its remit was fulfilled in 2023. She currently chairs the Climate Data Steering Committee and the Global Capacity Building Coalition. She serves on the boards of Morgan Stanley and CVS Health, is a trustee of Franklin & Marshall College and the Humane Rescue Alliance and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She holds a J.D. from George Washington University and a B.A. from Franklin & Marshall College.

Woochong Um is the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), a multi-sector coalition committed to ending energy poverty and advancing an equitable transition to renewable energy. GEAPP empowers emerging economies across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean by accelerating access to clean, sustainable power—driving economic growth, resilience, and inclusive prosperity for millions.

With over 30 years of extensive experience in international development, Woochong previously served as Managing Director General of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), where he forged transformative global partnerships and pioneered financing solutions to advance sustainability and community resilience. A leader in climate and renewable initiatives, he seamlessly integrated environmental action across sectors to promote lasting impact.

Woochong began his career in the private sector at Pfizer and Pitney Bowes. He holds an MBA from NYU and a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and Management from Boston College.