Lisa M. Fairfax, Penn Carey Law, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Lisa M. Fairfax is the Presidential Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, and a co-director of Penn Law’s Institute for Law & Economics (ILE). An award-winning scholar and teacher, Professor Fairfax's research and scholarly interests include corporate governance, board fiduciary duties, board-shareholder engagement, board composition and diversity, board oversight of environmental, social and governance (ESG), shareholder activism, securities regulation, and affinity fraud (securities and investment fraud targeted at members of identifiable racial, ethnic or affinity groups).
Professor Fairfax served as a member of the Investor Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Professor Fairfax is a former public governor of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and a former member of FINRA’s National Adjudicatory Council and FINRA’s NASDAQ Market Regulation Committee. Professor Fairfax is a former member of the America Bar Association Committee on Corporate Laws, which committee has jurisdiction over the Model Business Corporation Act. Professor Fairfax currently serves on the board of BSR, a sustainable business network that provides global insights, strategic advisory services and collaborations to the world’s largest businesses in support of long-term sustainable business practices. Professor Fairfax is a current member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and the ALI’s Advisory Group for the Restatement of Law, Corporate Governance. Professor Fairfax has previously served on the board of DirectWomen, an organization aimed at increasing board diversity, and the SEC Historical Society. Prior to joining the Penn Law faculty, Professor Fairfax was the Alexander Hamilton Professor of Business Law at the George Washington University Law School, and the Founder and Director of the GW Corporate Law and Governance Initiative. Prior to GW, Professor Fairfax was a Professor of Law and Director of the Business Law Program at the University of Maryland School of Law. Before academia, Professor Fairfax practiced corporate and securities law with the law firm of Ropes & Gray LLP.
Eldrid Herrington, Honorary Fellow of Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK
Dr Eldrid Herrington is Honorary Fellow at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and a Lancet Commissioner. Her work focuses on collaboration between academia, business, law, and policymakers to accelerate climate action, through high-level dialogues and publications with global institutions. She has shaped evidence-based approaches for the UNFCCC, COP presidencies, High Level Champions, the IPCC, as well as law firms, corporations, NGOs, policy makers, regulators, law firms, investors, and many more.
As a Lancet Commissioner, Eldrid integrates health and climate policy in international frameworks and has contributed to national research policy and strategy. With a PhD from Cambridge, fellowships from national research councils in the US and Ireland, and 30 years in academia, she has published on climate governance and sustainability, positioning academic insight at the heart of corporate and policy transformation.
Sherwat Elwan Ibrahim, The American University in Cairo, Egypt
Sherwat Elwan is Associate Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at the Onsi Sawiris School of Business, American University in Cairo's (AUC) and network lead on Business Schools for Climate Leadership (BS4CL) Africa. She is founding member of the UN Global Compact Principals of Responsible Management (PRME) Chapter Africa and former Chair. Her previous roles included Director of the MBA & EMBA programs at AUC School of Business and Visiting Associate Professor at the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) at Princeton University. She is an expert on Africa sustainable development, global value chains, supply chain resilience, and technology and innovation. She is a Partner & Senior consultant at INNOVETY, an innovation management consulting firm, and is an expert on SMEs' business growth and development. Her research interests include sustainable supply chain management, global value chain resilience, responsible sourcing, supplier governance, and supply chain technology adoption.
Sherwat has published in leading journals such as Journal of Supply Chain Management, Journal of Africa Business, Journal of Economic Geography, Global Perspectives, Africa Journal of Management, International Journal of Production Research, and Management Decision, and co-edited a book on Africa and sustainable global value chains and The Handbook on Business and Society. Sherwat is Editor-in-Chief for the Cambridge Forum on Corporate Climate Governance, Regional Editor for the Journal of Supply Chain Management (Africa), and Associate Editor for Engineering Management Review (EMR). She also serves on the boards of the Africa Academy of Management (AFAM), the Center for Applied Research and Innovation in Supply Chain–Africa (CARISCA), and the African Interdisciplinary Studies (AIR).
Jane Nelson, Corporate Responsibility Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School, USA
Jane Nelson has been the founding director of the Corporate Responsibility Initiative at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government since 2004 and taught at the Kennedy School for over a decade. She is a nonresident senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution and was previously a senior associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. She serves as a co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council (GFC) on the Energy Nexus, which explores the nexus between energy, water, food and land use, and has previously served on GFCs focused on good governance, transparency and anti-corruption, food systems innovation and public-private partnerships for sustainable development. She currently serves on the Boards of Newmont, South32 and the Niger Delta Partnership Initiative and on sustainability-related advisory councils for Bank of America, Abbott, Griffith Foods and on the Imperatives Board of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
Jane worked with The Prince of Wales International Business Forum for over a decade, serving as the forum's research and policy director, including a secondment in the office of the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, where she drafted a report on business and UN partnerships that was presented to the UN General Assembly in 2001. She has co-authored seven books and more than 100 publications focused on the role of the private sector and multi-stakeholder partnerships in driving more inclusive and sustainable development. Jane was appointed as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the UK’s Overseas and International Honours List for services to business and sustainability.
Dan W. Puchniak, Centre for Commercial Law in Asia, Singapore Management University, Singapore
Dan W. Puchniak is the Yong Pung How Professor at the Yong Pung How School of Law – Singapore Management University (SMU), Director of the SMU Centre for Commercial Law in Asia, Inaugural Director of the Asian Corporate Law Forum, and a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute. He is an internationally recognised scholar of comparative corporate law and governance, with a focus on Asia, whose work has pioneered the emerging field of intra-Asian comparative corporate law and governance. His scholarship is published in leading corporate and comparative law journals, has been profiled in The Economist, The Japan Times, and The Business Times, and has been cited by Singapore’s apex court. He has received numerous research and teaching awards, including the 2023 ECGI Cleary Gottlieb Law Prize and the 2025 YPHSL Most Outstanding Legal Studies Teacher Award.
Dan has held visiting appointments and delivered invited lectures at leading universities worldwide, including Cambridge, Columbia, Harvard, Melbourne, Oxford, Stanford, UChicago, UTokyo, and UPenn. He has advised international organisations on corporate law development in Asia and served as an expert in high-stakes corporate disputes across the region. Prior to joining SMU, he was a tenured faculty member at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, where he held senior leadership roles and received multiple faculty and university level teaching awards. Before entering academia, he practised as a corporate and commercial litigator at one of Canada’s leading law firms.
Sabrina Bruno, University of Calabria, Italy
Sabrina Bruno is Full Professor of Company Law and Comparative Law at University of Calabria, Italy and Adjunct Professor of Law and Economics at Luiss G. Carli, Italy. Her research focuses on: corporate governance, shareholders’ rights and activism, directors’ duties and liabilities with particular reference to sustainability and climate change, European Union company law. She wrote three monographs and several papers and chapters on the mentioned topics.
Since 2012 Sabrina has served as non-executive director mainly in energy and banking companies also chairing sustainability, as well as control and risk committees. She has been co-founder and former member of the board of the Climate Governance Initiative and is now Ambassador. She has been co-founder and is member of the steering committee of Chapter Zero Italy and of Nedcommunity (the Italian Association for Neds) and is member of the education committee of EcoDa (the European Confederation of Directors’ Associations). She graduated cum laude in Law from Luiss G. Carli, Italy (Bachelor Degree) and from Oxford University (M.Litt. in Law). She was: Visiting Scholar at Stanford Law School (2019), Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School (2010), Visiting Scholar at Southern Methodist University Dallas (1998), Visiting Scholar at University of California, Davis (1995).
Jill Dauchy, Potomac Group LLC, USA
Jill Dauchy is the founder and Chief Executive of Potomac Group LLC, a Washington, DC-based financial advisory firm specializing in advising governments on complex sovereign balance sheet management. She is also Senior Advisor to Squire Patton Boggs in their Public Policy division. With over 25 years of experience as a trusted advisor to governments and public entities across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, she has worked extensively on debt sustainability, restructuring, and financing strategies to stimulate economic growth, maintain market access, and fund critical infrastructure. Jill has a particular interest in developing innovative financial solutions that help governments meet their development priorities. Since founding Potomac Group, Jill has advised a range of sovereign and institutional clients, including the World Bank, United Nations, and African Development Bank, as well as a number of non-governmental organizations. Her sovereign advisory work spans countries such as Nepal, Zimbabwe, Botswana, The Gambia, Côte d’Ivoire, Iceland, Serbia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Pakistan, and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Jill began her career in finance on the Emerging Markets fixed income trading floor of a Swiss investment bank and financial services company in New York. Following the bank’s subsequent merger, she moved to London, joining its sovereign advisory team. She continued working with that team for over 15 years, advising governments worldwide before returning to the US in 2015. Prior to founding Potomac Group, Jill was a managing director at Millstein & Co. In addition to her advisory work, Jill is the host of the globally recognized podcast, Sovereign Debt, which has been downloaded in over 159 countries. She also serves as an external expert to the IMF and is an active member of the Institute of International Finance (IIF), where she contributes to the Principles Consultative Group, the Committee for Sovereign Risk Management and the Committee for Debt Transparency.
Frank den Hond, Hanken School of Economics, Finland
Frank den Hond (PhD) is the Ehrnrooth Professor of Management and Organization at Hanken School of Economics and affiliated with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He teaches business ethics and research methods at MSc level and is involved in PhD teaching.
Frank is a past co-editor in chief of Organization Studies and Business Ethics Quarterly. His work has been published in journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Business & Society, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Journal of Management Studies, and Organization Studies.
Ivan Diaz-Rainey, Griffith University, Australia
Ivan Diaz-Rainey is a Professor of Finance at Griffith University (Australia) and an Honorary Professor at the University of Otago (New Zealand). His expertise spans climate finance (particularly climate stress testing), carbon markets, energy finance, banking, financial regulation, and energy and environmental policy. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, with a bibliometric analysis ranking him among the twenty most productive researchers in climate finance globally. He was the lead Principal Investigator on the STRAND Marsden Fund project (NZ$869,000, 2021–2024) on climate stress testing, funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand and undertaken in collaboration with GNS Science, NIWA, CoreLogic, Bodeker Scientific, and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ).
Ivan has conducted research, policy, executive training, and consultancy work for a wide range of organisations, including the Boston Consulting Group, EMMI (Distributed Carbon Pty), the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment (MfE), the OECD, E.ON UK plc, the European Capital Markets Institute (ECMI), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). In 2024, he was also a Visiting Fellow at the Edinburgh Futures Institute (University of Edinburgh, UK) and served as an Advisor/Instructor to the Florence School of Banking and Finance (European University Institute, Italy) on a climate stress testing training programme for the European Central Bank and the Single Supervisory Mechanism.
Renee Jones, Boston College Law, USA
Renée M. Jones is Professor of Law and Dr. Thomas F. Carney Distinguished Scholar at Boston College Law School. She served as Director of the Division of Corporation Finance of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2021 to 2023, where she led a team of more than 400 lawyers, accountants and analysts charged with interpreting, implementing and ensuring compliance with the principal U.S. securities statutes: the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. As Division Director, Professor Jones oversaw the preparation of the SEC’s proposed rule on climate-related disclosures which was released by the Commission in 2022.
Professor Jones’s scholarship focuses on securities regulation, corporate governance and startup financing. Her book Untamed Unicorns: Why Startup Finance is Broken and How to Fix It is due to be published by Harvard University Press in August 2026.
Kamiar Mohaddes, University of Cambridge, UK
Kamiar Mohaddes is an expert in the macroeconomics of climate change and sustainability at the University of Cambridge, where he is the Director of the climaTRACES Lab, a new interdisciplinary research initiative at the University of Cambridge focusing on climate, nature and sustainability. He is also the Director of the Global Executive MBA programme (as well as Deputy Director of the Cambridge Executive MBA) and Fellow in Economics at King’s College, Cambridge, where he co-founded and directs the King’s Entrepreneurship Lab. Over the last 4 years Kamiar has raised more than $14 million to support research and innovation programmes, as well student activities at the University of Cambridge. His articles have been published in a number of edited volumes (Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Routledge) as well as in leading journals, including the Journal of Applied Econometrics, Journal of International Economics, Management Science, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. His research has also been covered in major international news outlets including the BBC, Bloomberg, The Economist, the Financial Times, the New York Times, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.
Kamiar has worked extensively on issues related to climate change and sustainability with both the public (including the United Nations, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, IDB) and the private sector (BCG, BNP Paribas, KPMG and many others). He is a regular visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund and has previously served as a Departmental Special Advisor at the Bank of Canada. He has worked closely with colleagues at these institutions to, for instance, develop tools to help examine and disentangle the size and speed of the transmission of different global, regional, and national macroeconomic shocks. Kamiar is also an Academic Programme Director at Cambridge Judge Business School Executive Education. He has also co-designed the global ESG training initiative for KPMG’s 223,000 employees, which has reached more than 10,000 participants so far, and has contributed to dozens of Executive Education programmes at Cambridge and beyond.
Mahmoud Mohieldin, American Univeristy of Cairo, Egypt
Mahmoud Mohieldin is a global economist and the UN Special Envoy on Financing Sustainable Development, with over 30 years of experience in international finance and development. He co-leads the UN Secretary General expert group on debt solutions. Formerly Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund, Senior Vice President and Managing Director at the World Bank Group, he was Egypt’s first Minister of Investment. He also served as the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP27. He chairs and serves at key international and regional advisory boards, co-chairs the WEF Global Future Council on the Business of Economic Growth.
Mahmoud is also a Professor of Economics and Finance, Cairo University, a Visiting Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University, a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Science and Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution.
Chukwumerije Okereke, University of Bristol, UK
Chukwumerije Okereke is Professor of Global Climate Governance and Public Policy at the School of Policy Studies at the University of Bristol, UK and also CO-Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Development at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike. He is a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Senior Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford, UK. Over the last 20 years, he has maintained an extensive high-impact engagement with national governments, businesses, and NGOs in Africa and led on several high-profile international projects on climate change policy, mainstreaming, and green economy transition in Africa including the UNDP funded Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI) commissioned by the Committee of African Heads of State on Climate Change (CAHOSCC), the Analysis of the Adaptation Components in Africa’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDCs) commissioned by the African Development Bank and the Rwandan Green Growth and Climate Resilience Project, which was the first-ever national low-carbon plan in Africa.
Chukwumerije was the technical leader of the Committee Convened by the Hon Speaker of the House, Rt Hon Femi Gbajabiamiala to review the Climate Change Bill. He has provided leadership on several other national climate change research and policy including the Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy, Nigeria’s Long Term Vision, and Which Way Nigeria, Citizens Scenario 2060. He is the Coordinating Lead Author of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report. He has served as Lead Author on other major global scientific assessment projects including the IPCC Special Report on 1.5degree global warming and the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC; the United Nations Environment Programme’s Urbanization, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Services Assessment. He has published widely in the field.
Enase Okonedo, Pan-Atlantic University, Nigeria
Professor Enase Okonedo is Vice-Chancellor of Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria, and a management professor with over 30 years’ experience in higher education and financial services. She previously served as Dean of Lagos Business School, guiding its development into a globally recognised and highly ranked institution.
Enase is an experienced non-executive director in the telecommunications, banking, and energy sectors, currently serving on the boards of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, ATC Nigeria Wireless Infrastructure (Chair), and Midwestern Oil & Gas. She has also held leadership roles and board positions with international management education organisations, including AACSB International, the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), and the Global Business School Network. Her professional interests focus on corporate governance, strategic leadership, and responsible management in emerging markets.
Sonia Tatar, INSEAD, France
Sonia Tatar is a seasoned executive serving as Senior Director at INSEAD, managing a global portfolio of twelve centres and initiatives, and acting as Executive Director of the INSEAD Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise. She brings over 27 years of educational expertise combined with extensive experience in business leadership and governance across public and private sectors.
Sonia has been an active member of various boards and governance groups for over two decades, including roles with the Cambridge Forum on Corporate Climate Governance, Nasdaq Center for Board Excellence, and Chapter Zero France under the Climate Governance Initiative. She has also contributed to multiple advisory boards and governance working groups worldwide. She has held senior leadership positions such as Global CEO of an international educational institution and Director General of two startup family-owned hospitality businesses, working closely with boards, owners, investors, and C-suite executives globally. An INSEAD alumna and Certified Director in Corporate Governance, Sonia is a frequent speaker and writer on corporate governance and family business topics. She was recognized among the “100 leading personalities” in Suisse Romande and as a “Women of Power” in the Swiss Alps region.
Peter Tufano, Harvard University, USA
Peter Tufano is Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and Senior Advisor at the Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. He leads the multi-institution doctoral reading group, Financial Economics of Climate and Sustainability, which brings together researchers from over 150 institutions. His current work focuses on climate finance, especially insurance, as well as climate alliances and stakeholder governance.
From 2011 to 2021, Peter was Dean of Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. Previously he was a Professor at Harvard Business School for two decades, where he researched and taught about financial innovation, financial engineering, and household finance.
Umakanth Varottil, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Umakanth Varottil is Vice Dean (Graduate Studies) and Professor of Corporate Law at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. He specializes in corporate law and governance, mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. While his work is generally comparative in nature, his specific focus is on India and Singapore. He has co-authored or co-edited several books and published articles in international journals. He has also taught on a visiting basis at law schools in Australia, Bhutan, India, Italy, New Zealand and the United States.
Umakanth is a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI). He is also an editor of the Indian Law Review, Asian Journal of Comparative Law, Oxford Business Law Blog and the ECGI Blog. Prior to his foray into academia, Umakanth was a partner at a pre-eminent law firm in India. During that time, he was also ranked as a leading corporate/mergers & acquisitions lawyer in India by the Chambers Global Guide.
Wang Yao, Central University of Finance and Economics Beijing, China
Professor Wang Yao currently serves as the Director General of the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF) at the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE), a Researcher at the National Academy of Financial and Economic Strategy and the Beijing Finance Research Base at CUFE, and a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Economic Transformation at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is the Deputy Secretary-General of the Green Finance Committee of the China Finance Society, an Advisor to the Green Development Committee of the Securities Association of China, and a Sustainable Finance Advisor to the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Previously, she served as a Researcher at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, an Expert on the Sustainable Finance Advisory Committee of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, and a Consulting Advisor to the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Economics at Harvard University and a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Environmental Economics Program and the Harvard China Project, in addition to completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Bank of Beijing.
Her research focuses on the green economy and sustainable finance. Since 2006, she has published over 120 papers in high-level academic journals, led and completed more than 100 domestic and international research projects, and authored 33 monographs, including Carbon Finance: Global Perspectives and China’s Strategies and Climate Finance, which are pioneering works in the field. She also has nearly seven years of experience in investment banking. In 2019, she received the Asiamoney Award for Excellence in China’s Green Finance for “Outstanding Contribution.”