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campaign Test Event1 new 11/02/22

Bangalore
Bangalore Palace, Palace Cross Road, Vasanth Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

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ABOUT THE EVENT | PROGRAMME | SPEAKERS & PANELLISTS

OVERVIEW

Achieving net zero requires significant adjustments and adaptation in the world’s economy, production and usage of energy and land-use systems. Mobilising capital at the scale necessary to facilitate this transition will require innovative financing structures, and collective efforts by the public and private sectors to catalyse investments.

Themed “Transition Finance towards Net Zero: Scaling Blended Finance”, the conference will support global efforts in galvanising public and private sector actors to mobilise transition capital, and focus on scaling up the use of blended finance to support the global net zero transition.

The conference aims to round up leading expertise and insights in financing the net zero transition and concrete plans for reaching a sustainable future, including:

What is the financing gap to reach a net zero world?
What are the enablers for a successful public-private partnership?
How do we make blended finance work at a level required to meet the Paris-aligned goals?
What are innovative ways to increase the pipeline of sustainable investments?
How can we scale blended finance in nature-based solutions and energy transition?

Vaccination checks (subject to any prevailing COVID-19 regulations)
As TFNZ Conference is a fully vaccinated event, vaccination-differentiated safe management measures (VDS) will be implemented. To attend this event, you must be fully vaccinated or exempted from VDS under the prevailing regulations. Please refer to the Singapore Ministry of Health website for more information on VDS.

Vaccination eligibility checks will be done prior to your entry into the event space. Please bring along either your mobile device with the updated TraceTogether (TT) app. Other Acceptable Documents can be found here.

For any enquiries, please contact the event organiser at : TFNZ@mas.gov.sg
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PROGRAMME

TIME	PROGRAMME
8:00am - 9:00am	Registration
9:00am - 9:40am	Welcome Remarks & Opening Keynote Addresses These sessions set the broad context for the issues the Conference will address. This includes setting out the global effort underway to meet the Paris goals, the necessary critical adjustments and adaptation needed for the net zero transition as well as the importance of and challenges faced in mobilising capital at scale through public-private partnerships to finance this transition. Dr Rania Al-Mashat Minister of International Cooperation, Arab Republic of Egypt Kristalina Georgieva Managing Director, International Monetary Fund Ravi Menon Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore
9:40am - 9:55am	Sizing the Financing Gap for Net Zero This session will explore how much capital is needed to achieve the net zero transition, how much of this will need to come from private vs. public financing sources, how much private financing could be catalysed through blended finance mechanisms, and how blended finance can take lessons from other large capital programs throughout history to enable it to scale up to meet the challenges of the net zero transition. Dickon Pinner Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company
9:55am - 10:10am	An Overview of Blended Finance: What is it and how does it work? The power of blended finance lies in its ability to pool capital from public, private and philanthropic sectors to achieve superior development outcomes and contribute to the SDGs in developing countries. This session will introduce the concept of blended finance and demonstrate how, where and when this approach is best deployed. It will also provide an overview of the blended finance landscape and cover the role of the various stakeholders in the space. How does blended finance mobilize commercial capital by altering the risk and return paradigm? How can various stakeholders support a transaction whilst concurrently achieving their organisational objectives? These are some of the questions that this session will seek to cover amongst others. Joan Larrea CEO, Convergence
10:10am - 11:15am	Keynote Panel: Public-Private Partnership for Net Zero Transition Public-private partnerships can help ensure that capital is deployed at the necessary speed and scale to achieve our net zero ambitions. With numerous stakeholders such as financial institutions, multilateral development banks and national authorities involved, strong collaboration and coordination within the ecosystem is key to ensure synergising efforts in transition finance. The session explores ideas around the leadership required for successful public-private partnerships as well as to identify creative approaches for financiers to facilitate effective capital mobilisation. Professor Lord Nicholas Stern Professor of Economics and Government & Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics Sri Mulyani Indrawati Minister of Finance, Republic of Indonesia Tharman Shanmugaratnam Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies & Chairman of MAS, Republic of Singapore Moderator Sven Smit Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company
11:15am - 11:45am	Coffee Break
11:45am - 1:00pm	Panel: Making Blended Finance Work Blended finance has been identified as having an important role to play in terms of bridging the net zero funding gap. This panel discussion will focus on unpacking how this financial structuring approach can be used to catalyse capital towards the net zero transition. The panel will share their experiences and reflections on where the opportunities and challenges lie and what needs to be done to scale this approach and attract higher volumes of commercial financing. Panellists Audra Low CEO, Clifford Capital Pte Ltd Fabio Natalucci Deputy Director, Monetary and Capital Markets, International Monetary Fund Hiromichi Mizuno Special Envoy of U.N. Secretary-General on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments Kruskaia Sierra-Escalante Senior Manager, Blended Finance and Corporate Strategy, International Finance Corporation Omer Farooq Global Head of Asset Finance, Bank of America Paul Bodnar Global Head of Sustainable Investing, BlackRock Moderator Joan Larrea CEO, Convergence
1:00pm - 2:00pm	Lunch
1:30pm - 2:00pm	Mobilising Capital for the transition to Net Zero This session explores what new financial architectures can better raise, pool and leverage concessional and private finance at the scale needed to support the transition of emerging markets and developing economies. Mark Carney Co-Chair, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) Vice-Chair, Brookfield Asset Management Special Envoy of U.N. Secretary-General on Climate Action and Finance Interviewer Cindy Levy Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company
2:00pm - 2:15pm	The Power of Design Funding in Fostering Early-Stage Innovation Design funding is a unique market acceleration program that provides early-stage grant funding focused exclusively on the design of innovative blended finance structures. This session will cover the various features of this program including what it aims to solve, how it works, and examples of key success stories aligned to green/climate finance. Leah Pedersen Senior Director, Convergence
2:15pm - 3:10pm	Panel: The Challenges & Opportunities of Using Blended Finance to Support and Curate Early-Stage Innovation Despite having significant impact and financing potential, transactions that are at the early stage of their lifecycle face a myriad of risks including high cost to structure/launch and technical issues amongst others. Blended finance can make such transactions bankable by shifting and/or mitigating these risks. This session will cover various examples of this approach with a focus on challenges, lessons learnt and best practices. Panellists Lisa Genasci Managing Director Sustainable Finance, ADM Capital Maya Ziswiler CEO, UBS Optimus Foundation Shilpa Gulrajani Head of Corporate Development & Sustainability, APAC, BNP Paribas Srini Nagarajan Managing Director and Head, Asia, British International Investment Plc Moderator Joan Larrea CEO, Convergence
3:10pm - 3:30pm	Coffee Break
3:30pm - 4:25pm	Panel: Blended Finance for Nature-Based Solutions This session explores the key challenges in mobilising financing into nature-based solutions, how we are starting to see these systems quantified in terms of economic value, how blended finance can be applied to help them scale, and how these models can be accelerated. Panellists Alejandro Litovsky CEO, Earth Security David Craig Co-Chair, Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures Flora Ji Vice President – Nature Based Solutions, Shell Group Kevin Tan Founder and CEO, Tri-sector Associates Maria Teresa Zappia Deputy CEO, BlueOrchard and Head of Sustainability and Impact, Schroders Capital Moderator Diaan-Yi Lin Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company
4:25pm - 5:20pm	Panel: Blended Finance for Managed Phaseout of High-emitting Assets This session explores why managed phaseout of high-emitting assets (e.g., coal power plants) can be critical for the transition, what the key challenges are in achieving managed phaseout, and the potential unlocks, including how blended finance could help accelerate the timelines for this shift to happen. This panel will also discuss examples of where this has been applied, and the key challenges to unlock and accelerate these efforts in the region. Panellists Ahmed Saeed Vice-President, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, Asian Development Bank Claire O’Neil Former UK Minister for Energy and Clean Growth and COP26 President-Designate Co-Chair of WBCSD Imperatives Advisory Board Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company David Wong Deputy Director, Asia Pacific Network, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) John Greenwood Managing Director, Project, Infrastructure and Principal Finance, Goldman Sachs Moderator Vishal Agarwal Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company
5:20pm - 5:30pm	Summary and Way Forward The closing session will provide a synthesis of the key discussions and outcomes, including how they support mobilisation of blended finance towards closing the financing gap for the net zero transition. A broad roadmap for the next 3 years will be outlined, highlighting how this annual transition finance event will serve as a regular platform for key stakeholders to take stock of progress, diagnose further challenges, collaborate, and innovate on concrete solutions to scale transition finance. Oliver Tonby Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company

SPEAKERS & PANELLISTS

Welcome Remarks & Opening Keynote Addresses

Kristalina Georgieva
Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

Kristalina Georgieva currently serves as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, a position she was selected for on September 25, 2019 and has served as since October 1, 2019. Before joining the IMF, Ms. Georgieva was CEO of the World Bank from January 2017 to September 2019, during which time she also served as Interim President of the World Bank Group for three months. Previously, Ms. Georgieva helped shape the agenda of the European Union while serving as European Commission Vice President for Budget and Human Resources. In this capacity she oversaw the EU’s €161 billion (US $175bn) budget and 33,000 staff, as well as the EU’s response to the Euro Area debt crisis and the 2015 refugee crisis. Before that, she was Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, managing one of the world’s largest humanitarian aid budgets.

Ms. Georgieva began her career in public service at the World Bank as an environmental economist in 1993. After serving for 17 years, and in many senior positions, including Director for Sustainable Development, Director for the Russian Federation, Director for Environment, and Director for Environment and Social Development for the East Asia and Pacific Region, her career culminated in her appointment as Vice President and Corporate Secretary in 2008. In this role, she served as the interlocutor between the World Bank Group’s senior management, its Board of Directors, and its shareholder countries. Ms. Georgieva serves on many international panels including as co-Chair of the Global Commission on Adaptation, and as co-chair of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing. She has authored and co-authored over 100 publications on environmental and economic policy, including textbooks on macro- and microeconomics.

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1953, Ms. Georgieva holds a Ph.D in Economic Science and a M.A. in Political Economy and Sociology from the University of National and World Economy, Sofia, where she was an Associate Professor between 1977 and 1993. During her academic career, she was visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2010, she was named “European of the Year” and “Commissioner of the Year” by European Voice in recognition for her leadership in the EU’s response to humanitarian crises. In October 2020, she received the Atlantic Council’s Distinguished International Leadership Award in acknowledgement of exceptional and distinctive contributions during her career of public service.

Ravi Menon
Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore

Ravi Menon has been Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) since 2011. The MAS is Singapore’s central bank and integrated financial regulator.

Prior to his appointment at the MAS, Mr Menon was Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade & Industry (2007-11), where he led the ministry’s work in economic strategy, international trade, energy policy, and research and development; and Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Finance (2003-07), where he was responsible for fiscal policy and government reserves. Mr Menon spent the first 16 years of his career at the MAS, which he joined in 1987.

On the international front, Mr Menon serves as Chair of the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System as well as Chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero APAC Network Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Steering Committee. Mr Menon previously chaired the FSB Standing Committee on Standards Implementation and the International Monetary and Financial Committee Deputies Meetings.

A recipient of the Singapore Government’s Meritorious Service Medal and Public Administration (Gold) Medal, Mr Menon has served on boards in the public, private, and people sectors. He is currently Chair of the Institute of Banking and Finance and a Trustee of the Singapore Indian Development Association, a community self-help group. Mr Menon was previously Chairman of the Singapore Co-operation Enterprise; Deputy Chairman of the Central Provident Fund Board; and a board member of the Housing and Development Board; Singapore Totalisator Board; Agency for Science, Technology, and Research; Civil Service College; and National Research Foundation. He was also on the board of directors of DBS Bank, the largest bank in Southeast Asia.

He is a two-time winner of the Prime Minister's Book Prize. Mr Menon holds a Master's in Public Administration from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours) in Economics from the National University of Singapore.
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Sizing the Financing Gap for Net Zero

Dickon Pinner
Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company

Dickon is a Global Leader and Co-founder of McKinsey Sustainability, a new platform dedicated to helping businesses transform and innovate to halve their carbon emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. He leads McKinsey’s work with clients on sustainability strategy and portfolio optimization, green business building, decarbonization transformation, net-zero financial institutions, and sustainable investing. Dickon serves investors, energy and industrial incumbents, technology conglomerates and start-ups, and policy makers and influencers.

Dickon leads McKinsey’s relationships with key ecosystem partners such as the World Economic Forum, COP26, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. He also leads the knowledge development in sustainability, climate, and energy topics that underpins McKinsey’s client service and thought leadership. He is a prolific author and prominent speaker at industry forums such as Climate Week NYC and the Financial Times Moral Money Summit. He has a BA and PhD in physics from the University of Cambridge and a master’s degree in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Fulbright scholar.
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An Overview of Blended Finance: What is it and how does it work?

Joan Larrea
CEO, Convergence

Joan M. Larrea is an expert in catalyzing investment in places that need it most and brings with her over 20 years of experience in emerging markets investing. Joan serves on HRH The Prince of Wales' Sustainable Markets Council, the Global Environment Facility Advisory Group for Non-Grant Instruments, the Impact Canada Initiative Advisory Committee for the Government of Canada’s Privy Council, and the Advisory Council for FinDev Canada. Prior to joining Convergence, she led the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation's (OPIC) efforts to partner with philanthropic and private investors to increase capital flows to OPIC's target markets. While at OPIC, she also directed a pilot program to finance smaller, high impact, and innovative funds, many of which drew on blended finance structures. Before OPIC, Joan served as a managing director on the emerging markets team at Global Environment Fund, an asset manager dedicated to the energy, environmental, and natural resource sectors. She began her career as an investment officer at International Finance Corporation, where she concluded pioneering transactions in a variety of infrastructure and manufacturing sectors across Asia.

Keynote Panel: Public-Private Partnership for Net Zero Transition

Sven Smit
Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company

Sven is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company in Amsterdam, and chairman of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey's business and economics research arm. He is a member of McKinsey’s Shareholders Council as well as McKinsey’s executive committee, known as the Acceleration Team, overseeing insights and ecosystems.

Sven works with leading companies to develop strategies for growth, serving all industries in analyzing the success factors required for business growth, examining the way megatrends influence it, and defining the lessons of diversified growth. He builds on the ideas in Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick (2018) and The Granularity of Growth (2008), two books he co-authored.

As co-chair of MGI, Sven leads research and authors MGI reports on global economic trends and topics such as productivity and growth, urbanization, innovation and technology, labor markets and the future of work, sustainability, emerging markets, and Europe's economic outlook. Sven holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University of Technology & an MBA from INSEAD.

Panel: Making Blended Finance Work

Audra Low
CEO, Clifford Capital Pte Ltd

Audra has overall responsibility for strategic leadership for the company and performance of the business. Since joining Clifford Capital at its inception in 2012 as Head of Origination and Structuring, Audra had spearheaded the growth of the Clifford Capital franchise in the relevant project and asset finance markets across the sectors covered by the company.

She brings with her a wealth of experience working with Singapore-based companies on infrastructure projects locally and overseas. Prior to Clifford Capital, she spent 12 years in project finance with HSBC, playing a key role in the origination and financing of numerous award-winning projects in South East Asia, both as financial advisor and lead arranger. Audra has an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business and a Bachelor of Accountancy from Nanyang Technological University.

Fabio Natalucci
Deputy Director, Monetary and Capital Markets, International Monetary Fund

Fabio M. Natalucci is a Deputy Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department with responsibility for the IMF’s global financial markets monitoring and systemic risk assessment functions. He is responsible for the Global Financial Stability Report that gives the IMF’s assessment of global financial stability risks. Prior to joining the IMF, Fabio was a Senior Associate Director in the Division of Monetary Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board, where he conducted research and current analysis on the relationship between monetary policy, financial regulatory policy, and financial stability. Between October 2016 and June 2017, Mr. Natalucci was Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Financial Stability and Regulation at the U.S. Department of Treasury. His responsibilities included leading U.S. engagement on financial regulatory cooperation in the G-20, representing the U.S. Treasury at the Financial Stability Board, coordinating between domestic and international post-crisis regulatory reforms, and monitoring developments and vulnerabilities in global financial markets. Fabio holds a PhD in Economics from New York University.

Hiromichi Mizuno
Special Envoy of U.N. Secretary-General on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments

Mr. Mizuno is a Japanese financial executive, serving as the Special Envoy of U.N. Secretary- General on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments since January 2021. He previously served as Executive Management Director and CIO of GPIF (Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan with AUM $1.5 trillion). Prior to joining GPIF, Mr. Mizuno was a partner at Coller Capital, a London-based private equity firm (January 2003 - January 2015). He formerly worked for Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. Ltd. in Japan, Silicon Valley and New York (April 1988 – January 2003).

Mr. Mizuno’s current commitments include:

External Board Member, Tesla, Inc.
Mission Committee Member, Danone S.A.

He also works in the following capacities to promote long term and ESG investment:

Global Future Council member, World Economic Forum (WEF)
Special Adviser, Milken Institute
Future of Finance Advisory Council member, CFA Institute
Leader, The B Team
Advisory Board Member, Global Business Coalition for Education Advisory board
Adviser, CiRA Foundation

His involvements with academic institutions include:

Executive Fellow of Harvard Business School, Harvard University
Executive in Residence and Global Leadership Council member of Said Business School, Oxford University
Visiting Fellow of Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge
Senior Fellow of Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Guest professor of Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine

Kruskaia Sierra-Escalante
Senior Manager, Blended Finance and Corporate Strategy, International Finance Corporation

Kruskaia Sierra-Escalante is the Senior Manager of IFC’s Blended Finance Department, managing a pool of contributor funds of over $5 billion focused on accelerating IFC’s engagement in low-income and fragile and conflict-affected countries, climate, infrastructure, gender, small and medium enterprise development, and agriculture. Since 2013, Kruskaia has managed IFC’s blended finance facilities for climate with more than $1 billion in bilateral and multilateral donor contributions for climate-smart co-investments in IFC projects. During this period, IFC’s blended climate finance portfolio doubled in volume and helped IFC enter riskier markets. She also manages the International Development Association’s Private Sector Window, created in 2017 to support private sector development, growth, and job creation in some of the world’s least developed countries. Prior to her current position, she headed the Blended Finance unit, a governance unit performing credit review, quality assurance and knowledge-sharing functions and served as IFC’s Global Lead Counsel for Climate and Blended Finance at IFC.

Kruskaia holds a master’s degree in Public Affairs, with a concentration in Economics and Public Policy, from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law. Before joining IFC in 2003, Kruskaia was at Chadbourne & Parke, LLP, working primarily in project finance in the power sector.

Omer Farooq
Global Head of Asset Finance, Bank of America

Omer Farooq is a Managing Director within Bank of America’s Global Sustainable Finance Group. He leads the Sustainable Asset Finance team, which is focused on financing opportunities globally that align with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In support of Bank of America’s commitment to mobilize and deploy $1.5 trillion in sustainable finance capital by 2030, Omer has built his team from the ground up to lead the financing and structuring of renewable energy transactions. Over the last 8 years, the Sustainable Asset Finance team has completed $25 billion in transactions and helped Bank of America become a top renewable energy investor. The company’s tax equity investments have contributed to the development of approximately 16% (38 gigawatts) of the total installed wind and solar energy capacity in the U.S. Omer has completed transactions that span the community solar, commercial & industrial (C&I) solar, residential solar, utility-scale solar, offshore wind, fuel cell, electric vehicle, water desalination, and geothermal domains. He is focused on expanding Bank of America’s activities in these areas while driving the company’s entry into additional clean energy and sustainable infrastructure asset classes.

Omer joined Bank of America 16 years ago and has held numerous positions across the firm, all within the renewable energy space. Prior to leading the Sustainable Asset Finance team, he was the co-head of the Cross Asset Solutions & Strategies team and, before that, he ran the Energy Capital Solutions team.

Beyond his work at Bank of America, Omer serves on the board of The American Clean Power Association, a leading federation of renewable energy companies expediting the advancement of clean energy as the dominant power source in America. He is also a member of the Hydrogen Taskforce of the SMI, which develops policy and regulatory levers needed to accelerate the adoption of hydrogen fuel cells for transportation. Omer graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Science in computer science and holds Series 7, 63, and 24 certifications.

Paul Bodnar
Global Head of Sustainable Investing, BlackRock

Paul Bodnar, Managing Director, is Global Head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock. Paul’s team drives BlackRock’s leadership in sustainable investing through the development of cutting-edge climate and sustainability research and integration of these insights throughout BlackRock's suite of investment solutions and Aladdin.

Paul previously served as Chief Strategy Officer at RMI, a global non-profit working to accelerate the clean energy transition. While at RMI, he founded the Center for Climate-Aligned Finance to support some of the world’s largest financial institutions transition to net-zero emissions portfolios. He also helped establish the Mission Possible Partnership to orchestrate net-zero sector transformation platforms for seven global industries. Prior to this, Paul served in the Obama White House as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Energy and Climate Change at the National Security Council. He was a key architect of the Obama Administration's international climate policies culminating in the Paris Agreement, including the U.S.-China climate deal of 2014. Additionally, Paul has served at the State Department as U.S. lead negotiator for climate finance and led the design of numerous initiatives including the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance and the U.S.-Africa Clean Energy Finance Initiative. Earlier in his career, Paul was Director for Carbon Finance at the $1.2 billion carbon fund managed by London-based Climate Change Capital, where he structured the fund's largest deals. He was also co-founder and partner at Vertis Environmental Finance, now one of Europe’s leading environmental commodity brokerage firms. Paul holds a BA from Stanford and an MA from Harvard, both in international relations.

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Mobilising Capital for the Transition to Net Zero

Mark Carney
Co-Chair, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ)
Vice-Chair, Brookfield Asset Management
Special Envoy of U.N. Secretary-General on Climate Action and Finance

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 Vice 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.

Cindy Levy
Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company

Cindy is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, London, and previously led the firm’s global Risk & Resilience Practice and the Financial Services Practice in the UK. She is an elected member of the firm’s Shareholders Council and co-chair of the senior partner election committee.

Cindy has extensive experience in helping financial institutions address their most complex business challenges, with a particular focus on risk strategy, enterprise risk management, and risk culture. She has worked on multiple commercial strategy engagements for banks across the trading, investment banking, corporate/commercial banking and innovative retail businesses. She also maintains a focus on climate risk and sustainability, working with companies to capture the opportunities and mitigate the risks posed by climate change and other sustainability issues through strategy and risk-capability development, portfolio restructuring and digital tools. She was also Leader of Green Finance initiatives for COP26 in McKinsey, where she spearheaded the Taskforce for Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets and the Portfolio Alignment team. Cindy holds a degree in Economics from Harvard University & an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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The Power of Design Funding in Fostering Early-Stage Innovation

Leah Pederson
Senior Director, Convergence

Leading Convergence’s Market Acceleration & Design Funding initiative, Leah brings 15+ years of risk management, structured finance, and international development experience spanning the public and private sectors. Prior to Convergence, Leah served as the Chief Innovation Officer and Director of the Innovation, Technology, Research (ITR) Hub in the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as well as Senior Advisor on gender lens investing and blended finance, for the White House led Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) initiative, mobilizing $100M+ of private capital to advance women as entrepreneurs and in the workforce. Before USAID, Leah served in private sector executive roles as the Vice President of Growth for a healthcare consolidator overseeing M&A and interim Turnaround CEO leading the restructure of a mobile advocacy platform. Previously, Leah joined Malaria No More (MNM) as co-founder & Director of MNM’s innovative finance subsidiary (NetGuarantee), a blended finance facility mitigating risks to mobilize private investment in improving healthcare delivery in Africa. From 2003 to 2008, Leah held senior positions with AIG’s global product development group launching new risk management solutions in emerging markets including AIG's micro-insurance portfolio (in Africa and Asia) focused on low-income women entrepreneurs and rural farmers. Leah started her career in management consulting working at Accenture and later Dalberg. She earned a BA in International Economics from University of St. Thomas and dual-MBA from Columbia University and London Business School. Leah was recognized by the Houston Business Journal as a “40 Under 40” award recipient and African Leadership Network (ALN) as an African Business Fellowship (ABF) winner. Leah also served as a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and founding Board Member of Healing Hands of Joy (maternal health in Africa).
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Panel: The Challenges & Opportunities of Using Blended Finance to Support and Curate Early-Stage Innovation

Lisa Genasci
Managing Director Sustainable Finance, ADM Capital

Lisa Genasci is Managing Director, Sustainable Finance, with ADM Capital, where she leads the firm’s ESG Committee and sits on the Investment Advisory Committee. She is helping to build the Asia Climate Smart Landscape Fund as part of a new climate vertical within the Hong Kong based private credit manager. The US$200 million private debt vehicle is to finance SMEs in Indonesia striving for climate-smart land management and emissions reduction, with a strong gender focus. Lisa is also an ESG advisor to ADMC’s London-based Cibus private equity funds, which invest in sustainable food and farming and Agricultural technology. Lisa is the founder and for 15 years led the ADM Capital Foundation (ADMCF), an innovative philanthropic vehicle established to support critical research and impact-driven approaches to promoting environmental conservation in Asia. ADMCF has been recognised for its research-led solutions to some of our most intransigent challenges: Our depleting oceans, the nexus between forestry and development, air quality and public health, the intersections among food, energy and water. A director of the Hong Kong-based Civic Exchange, Lisa is an advisor to the Washington DC-based Ocean Foundation, on the Tropical Forest Alliance SE Asia Advisory Board and is an advisor to the R Collective, a London-based sustainable textile and clothing brand. She is a member of the UNDP SDG Impact Steering Group and has been appointed to the WRI Global Leadership Council. Lisa holds a BA degree with High Honors from Smith College and an LLM in Human Rights Law from Hong Kong University.

Shilpa Gulrajani
Head of Corporate Development & Sustainability, APAC, BNP Paribas

Shilpa Gulrajani is the Head of Corporate Development and Sustainability for Asia Pacific, BNP Paribas, and is based in Singapore. Shilpa started her banking career in 2002 with Citigroup in India and since joining BNP Paribas more than 17 years ago, Shilpa has held various roles in investment banking in Hong Kong and India.

In her current role, Shilpa is responsible for leading the Bank’s sustainable finance engagement in the region to enable the client franchise to transition with suitable banking solutions. Shilpa represents the Bank on Singapore/ASEAN Taxonomy – an initiative by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). She is also a member of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) Advisory Group – a global initiative which brings together leaders from government, private sector and academia to expand the use of carbon pricing policies.

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Panel: Blended Finance for Nature Based Solutions

Alejandro Litovsky
CEO, Earth Security

Alejandro Litovsky founded Earth Security in 2011 to address a critical problem at the intersection of climate and business – how to create financing breakthroughs in the protection of the planet's resources when there is no numerical way of valuing nature's assets? Under his leadership, Earth Security drives innovation processes that enable companies and investors to adopt and deploy new solutions.

Alejandro has more than two decades experience as an advisor to banks, multinationals and governments on solving climate and natural resource problems. He has held senior positions at London-based sustainability consultancies AccountAbility and Volans, has worked with Shell International's Future Scenarios team and at AVINA, a Swiss-based foundation investing in sustainability models in Latin America to build their sustainable oceans strategy.

Actively involved in climate, nature and international cooperations since his early school days, he has won many prizes and accolades. In 2004 he received the London School of Economics’ (LSE) Hobhouse Memorial Prize for highest academic achievement during his political sociology Msc. In 2012 he won a BMW Foundation Global Leaders Award for his pioneering work with Earth Security.

David Craig
Co-Chair, Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures

David Craig is the current Co-chair of TNFD, former CEO and Founder of Refinitiv, a major global provider of data, analytics and technology to financial markets, and Strategic Advisor to London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). He was previously a partner at McKinsey and Group Head of Strategy for Reuters plc.

He has been a leader in developing the data and infrastructure that markets need to mainstream sustainability and has a wealth of experience in forging partnerships between data, insight and technology providers and financial markets. David was one of the driving forces behind the deal which transformed the LSEG into a leading data provider and orchestrated the buyout of Thomson Reuters with a private equity consortium led by Blackstone to form Refinitiv. David is on the World Economic Forum (WEF) Banking Governors Board, and the WEF Digital Disruption and Innovation group. He also co-chairs the India-UK Financial Services Partnership (IUKFP).

Kevin Tan
Founder and CEO, Tri-sector Associates

Kevin is Founder and CEO of Tri-Sector Associates, a not-for-profit intermediary whose mission is to develop new ways for the public, private, and people sectors to collaborate in solving the most complex social problems around Asia.

Tri-Sector helps to advise leading wealth management, philanthropic, and governmental institutions on adapting blended finance models to Asia’s unique context. Tri-Sector has helped to design several pioneering blended finance instruments in the social and environmental space, including a pioneering recyclable technical assistance facility for conservation in Southeast Asia, the first “Payment For Success (PFS)” social blended finance project in Hong Kong, and the first Social Impact Guarantee (SIG) globally.

Kevin previously worked at Third Sector Capital Partners, a leading PFS intermediary in the US. He was previously listed by Forbes Asia as one of its 30 under 30 social entrepreneurs, and his work has been featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. He holds an MPP (Business and Government) from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a BA (First Class Hons) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Maria Teresa Zappia
Deputy CEO, BlueOrchard and Head of Sustainability and Impact, Schroders Capital

Maria Teresa leads the Blended Finance and Impact Management Team at BlueOrchard. She is also Head of Sustainability and Impact at Schroders Capital, the private assets business of Schroders. Here she contributed to a number of investment solutions focusing on implementing net-zero tailored portfolio and mandate offerings for institutional investors seeking to climate-align their investment activities. Maria Teresa represented BlueOrchard at the G7 Impact Taskforce created by the UK under its G7 Presidency. She also joined the Impact Investing Institute Advisory Council in 2022. Both initiatives are leading the “Just Transition” agenda focusing on the imperative to leave no-one behind when focusing on climate finance. More recently Maria Teresa joined the Board of the NatCapResearch, a company specialised in biodiversity and net zero carbon measurement, and the Board of Swiss Sustainable Finance. Maria Teresa has over 25 years of experience in emerging and frontier markets. Prior to BlueOrchard, she covered several positions at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Asian Development Bank, and the Overseas Development Institute based both in the field and in Head Office.

Diaan-Yi Lin
Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company

Diaan-Yi Lin is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, Singapore and leads the Social, Healthcare and Public Entities (SHaPE) Practice across Asia. She previously led McKinsey’s Singapore office, and its Principal investing and Infrastructure Practices in Asia. She helps direct the Firm’s work with government entities, government-linked companies, and sovereign wealth funds across Asia. Diaan-Yi’s expertise includes designing and helping implement large-scale programs to drive performance transformation, accelerated digitization, and greater productivity across the public sector. She also works with sovereign wealth funds and government entities to maximize value and transform performance across their portfolio companies.

Diaan-Yi is now helping to drive sustainability transformation at both the sovereign and portfolio level, supporting sovereigns in developing net zero pathways, and establishing the enabling environment and ecosystems such as developing voluntary carbon markets. She is also working at the portfolio company level to help them transition to net zero. Diaan-Yi holds an MA in Law with honors from University of Cambridge, where she was a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar and received the Dr. Cooper’s Law Studentship for academic excellence. As a Fulbright Scholar, she obtained an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
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Panel: Blended Finance for Managed Phaseout of High-emitting Assets

Ahmed Saeed
Vice-President, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, Asian Development Bank

Mr. Ahmed M. Saeed joined ADB in 2019 and has significant prior leadership experience in both government and the private sector. He is currently responsible for overseeing ADB’s operations in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific.

Between 2004 and 2008, Mr. Saeed served in senior roles at the US Treasury. He was an advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury (2004–05) and the later Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for the Middle East and Africa, with responsibility for US economic diplomacy and financial engagement across 68 countries (2005–08).

Claire O’Neil
Former UK Minister for Energy and Clean Growth
COP26 President-Designate
Co-Founder, Powering Past Coal Alliance

Claire is considered a global expert on sustainability and decarbonisation with a particular focus on practical action and the leading role of the private sector.

She served as a UK Member of Parliament from 2010. As Minister of State for Energy and Clean Growth she created the UK’s Clean Growth and Green Finance Strategies, established the global Powering Past Coal Alliance, oversaw the deployment of £3 billion of international Climate Finance and £200 million of cleantech innovation funding, negotiated the world’s first public-private Offshore Wind Sector Deal and led the UK Carbon Capture and Storage taskforce. In 2019 she brought forward the country’s ground-breaking Net Zero legislation and led the UK’s winning bid to host COP26. She served as COP26 President-Designate until she left politics in 2020 to lead the Climate and Energy team at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the world’s leading corporate sustainability organisation. She now co-chairs the WBCSD global Imperatives Advisory Board and has several non- executive Director and Advisory roles. She is a Senior Global Advisor to McKinsey and Company

Claire grew up in the UK, studied Geography at Oxford University followed by an MBA at Harvard Business School and had a transatlantic career in consultancy and finance before entering politics. She is a member of the UK Privy Council, a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and the Energy Institute and Is a Business Fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment at Oxford University.

David Wong
Deputy Director, Asia Pacific Network, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ)

David is the Deputy Director of the Asia Pacific Network for the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). He drives the strategic and corporate development of the APAC office, and leads the Network’s work on the managed phaseout of coal power generation assets in APAC. David also supports the development of capacity-building programmes to assist regional financial institutions in developing and implementing their net-zero transition plans.