Sustainable Finance Forum 2022

After graduating with an International Baccalaureate from the Canadian Academy International School in Kobe in 1989, Yuriko Backes obtained a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1992. She then attended the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where she successfully completed a master’s degree in Japanese studies in 1993. Yuriko Backes obtained a second master’s degree in European political and administrative studies from the College of Europe in Bruges in 1994.

On 5 January 2022, following the resignation of Pierre Gramegna, Yuriko Backes joined the coalition government between the Democratic Party (DP), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) and the Green Party (déi gréng) as Minister of Finance.

Yuriko Backes began her professional career in 1994 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has held various positions, including at the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the United Nations in New York, the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the Western European Union in Brussels, and the Luxembourg Embassy in Japan.

As attaché at the Directorate of European Affairs and International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Luxembourg, she was sworn in as a civil servant in 2001.

The career diplomat was then assigned to the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the European Union in Brussels from 2001 to 2006.

She continued her diplomatic career as deputy head of mission at the Luxembourg Embassy in Japan from 2006 to 2008 and as deputy head of the Directorate for International Economic Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Luxembourg from 2008 to 2010.

From 2010 to 2016, Yuriko Backes was the diplomatic adviser and sherpa to Luxembourg Prime Ministers Jean-Claude Juncker and Xavier Bettel.

She was the representative of the European Commission in Luxembourg from 2016 to 2020.

From June 2020 until her appointment to the government, she served as marshal of the Grand-Ducal Court.

Born in Belgium in 1962, Kris Peeters is currently Vice-President of the European Investment Bank. He graduated with a law and philosophy degree in 1986. Peeters also obtained a license degree in taxation at the Vlerick School.

Subsequently and before entering politics, Kris Peeters was a lawyer and held several managing positions at UNIZO, the Belgian Union of Self-Employed Entrepreneurs and SMEs.

In 2004, Kris Peeters became Minister for the first time in the Flemish Government, succeeding Yves Leterme as Minister-President three years later. During the period 2014-2019, Peeters was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Consumer Welfare and Labour.

Between 2019 and 2021, Kris Peeters was a member of the European Parliament, focusing notably on Internal Market & Consumer Protection, Justice & Home Affairs and Defence & Foreign Affairs, with a special interest in NATO-related topics.

Kris Peeters joined the EIB in January 2021 where he holds the Benelux seat in the Management Committee. His oversight includes transport financing, financing of security and defence, operations in the Benelux, relations with the European Parliament and NATO as well as operations in the ASEAN countries.

Judith Bogner is a television presenter, event facilitator and commentator for international finance, business and geopolitics based between the UK and Germany. For more than ten years she was one of the main European anchors of the financial news channel Bloomberg Global Television in London. Since 2012 Judith runs her own business, offering event and business facilitation, client advisory boards and strategic consulting. She is also a UK accredited mediator.

Judith regularly leads public and private events for corporate and institutional clients in the financial sector and beyond. Her list of clients include the Federation of German Industries, the Euro Finance Week (Frankfurt), Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bank of New York Mellon, The Brewers of Europe, Luxembourg for Finance, the Dutch Development Bank FMO, Ergo Insurance, State Street, Scope Ratings, the Institute of Culinary Art, Allianz Global Assistance, Wacom and the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Born in Germany, Judith has lived in Switzerland, China, Ukraine, France and Italy. Currently she divides her time between Munich and London. She is bilingual in English-German and also speaks Italian, French and Mandarin Chinese. Judith holds a degree in International Business Management and Chinese from the University of Applied Sciences in Bremen.

Rie Asakura is Deputy Director for the International Affairs and Risk Analysis Division of the Japan Financial Services Agency (FSA) since 2018, where she establishes the framework to manage climate-related risk and enhance sustainable environmental growth. She represents the FSA in climate-related work streams of Financial Stability Board (FSB) as well as Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) and contributes to the establishment of the NGFS scenarios and drafting of various reports.

Prior to her current position, she implemented prudential regulations including margin requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives, settlement risk management, Pillar 3 disclosure requirements, and G-SIB/D-SIB designation. She also served as an FSA representative for a variety of working groups on the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) to establish the capital requirement and risk management framework. She was Executive Assistant to the Vice Minister for International Affairs.

Rie has extensive experience in implementing Basel regulations at the Inspection Bureau and was seconded to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Rie holds a Master in Finance from the London Business School.

Cecilia Barral Diego is a senior consultant and the head of the legal research team at Löning – Human Rights & Responsible Business GmbH.

Cecilia’s work at Löning focuses mainly on the assessment and set-up of human rights due diligence processes for companies, including human rights impact assessments and risk assessments and the development of policies and measures aligned with international standards and best practices. Her advisory work encompasses both German and international companies from different sectors, such as textile, food, and energy.

In her role as the head of legal research, she acts as the focal point for all regulatory developments on business and human rights. Cecilia is also involved in Löning’s think-tank arm where she develops knowledge papers. In addition, she is a founding member and the former vice-chair of Finance and Human Rights.

Cecilia is a law graduate and holds an LL.M in International and European Law with a focus on human rights law from the University of Amsterdam.

Dorothée Baumann-Pauly is a Professor at Geneva University’s School of Economics and Management. She directs the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights, the first human rights center at a business school in Europe.

Since 2013, she is also the Research Director at the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University. In these roles, Dorothée works with companies to advance human rights in corporate practice. Her applied research is focused on embedding human rights in organisations and developing business models that enable profits and principles to coexist.

Dorothée also teaches Business and Human Rights and she co-edited the first textbook on Business and Human Rights (Routledge 2016). In 2016, she also co-founded a business school network to integrate human rights in business education as well as the BHR Young Researchers Summit for emerging scholars.

Dorothée earned her PhD in Economics (summa cum laude) at the University of Zurich in 2010 while working for the Fair Labor Association, a multi-stakeholder initiative with the mission to improve labor rights in global supply chains.

Julie Becker has been at the helm of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) since April, 2021. She joined LuxSE in 2013 and was appointed to its Executive Committee in 2015, before being named Deputy CEO in 2019, and CEO two years later.

Her career in the financial sector in Luxembourg spans over two decades and includes positions at the Central Bank of Luxembourg and Dexia. In 2016, Julie Becker founded the Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX), the world’s leading platform for sustainable securities. A recognised expert in the field of sustainable finance, Julie Becker has represented LuxSE and LGX at numerous, international expert forums and conferences over the past years, including at the prestigious EU High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance from 2016-2018. She is also the Chair of LuxCMA, a capital markets industry association established in 2019.

Julie Becker specialises in regulatory and legal matters linked to capital markets. She holds a Master Degree in European & Corporate Law and a Master Degree (DEA) in Private Law from the University of Nancy II, France. She is also an alumna of the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, USA.

Sasja Beslik is a Swedish and international financial expert known for promoting financial sustainability across the world. In 2004, he landed his first bank job as Head of Responsible Investments and later as deputy CEO at Banco Funds/ABN AMRO branch in Stockholm. His work for Nordea started in 2009, when he became head of responsible investments and corporate governance. He was named CEO of Nordea Investment Funds Sweden in 2011 and head of responsible investments and identity at Nordea Asset Management in 2013. Finally, at the beginning of 2017, Nordea placed Beslik at the head of a new unit, Sustainable Finance, tasked with implementing the decisions made by the company’s corporate responsibility unit.

He is the author of the books “Where the Money Tree Grows” (2021) and “Guld och gröna skogar” (2019) and the weekly newsletter “ESG on a Sunday”. In 2019, he left Nordea to join Bank J. Safra Sarasin. In 2021 he joined biggest Danish commercial Pension Company PFA as Head of Sustainability. In, 2022 he joined NextGen ESG in Japan as Chief Investment Officer.

Beslik won the Swedish Banking Profile of the Year award in 2016.

In 2013, he received the H. M. The King’s Medal, 8th size with the ribbon of the Order of the Seraphim from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden for outstanding contributions within Swedish environmental and sustainability theory.

He was chosen as a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in 2011 Stars Fund, the Nordea sustainable fund launched by Beslik in 2011, was chosen as Sweden’s best overall equity fund in 2017. It was the first sustainable fund to receive the award.

In 2020, Beslik was ranked the world’s most influential person within green finance.

Kenza Bryan is a Money Moral Reporter at Financial Times and she covers sustainable investment stories in Europe and Africa.

She previously was an investigative reporter at Global Witness covering climate, commodities and finance investigations.

She also spent three years at The Times and Sunday Times. Kenza Bryan has also been a freelance journalist for Agence France-Presse, City AM, The Independent, L’Express, The World Weekly, and Buenos Aires Bubble.

She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Cambridge.

Genuino M. Christino is a member of the Group Management Committee since 2016 and Executive Vice President and Group Chief Financial Officer of ArcelorMittal since February 2021.

Prior to Mr. Christino’s appointment as Group CFO he was the Group Head of Finance since 2016. As Group CFO Mr. Christino is responsible for all of the Company’s financial functions, including treasury, corporate finance, accounting, performance management, insurance and investor relations. In addition Mr. Christino oversees group M&A, Legal and IT activities and is a member of the Company’s Investment Allocation Committee. Mr. Christino also heads the Company’s Corporate Finance and Tax Committee where all key financial transactions of the group are reviewed and approved.

Prior to joining the ArcelorMittal Group in 2003, Mr. Christino had spent ten years at KPMG in Brazil and in the United-Kingdom, as an auditor and a consultant.

Mr. Christino holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and business administration from the Universidade Paulista in São Paulo, Brazil and has also completed an Executive MBA Program from the Dom Cabral Foundation in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Mr. Christino is a citizen of Brazil.

Florent Deixonne is Head of ESG Regulatory Strategy at Amundi.

Florent is responsible of the ESG regulatory strategy and aims to support AMUNDI in its development faced with changes in future ESG regulations, and provide contribution to industry related to on-going reinforcement of ESG investing framework across jurisdictions.

Florent has 17 years of experience in the asset management industry, of which 15 years within the Société Générale Group. Florent headed the Sustainable & Responsible Investments team at Lyxor Asset Management, where he set-up the activity ‘from scratch’ in 2014, and led its deployment and development. For 6 years, as Global Head of Risk in charge of new products & new activities, he developed a highly skilled multi-expertise center in terms of risk management. Previously, he spent 5 years as Senior Structured Products Fund Manager at the portfolio insurance desk. Prior to that, he was a Quantitative Analyst during 2 years at Axa Investment Managers.

He is a graduate from Ecole Spéciale de Mécanique et d’Electricité (2003) and from HEC in International Finance (2004).

Denise Delaney is Head of Responsible Business at Liberty Specialty Markets.

Denise was appointed Head of Responsible Business, Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM) August 2021. She is responsible for evolving and implementing our responsible business and ESG strategy across global LSM.

Denise joined LSM in 2021 from ERM, where she was a Partner and Head of Corporate Sustainability Services for Northern Europe (following SustainAbility’s acquisition in 2019). She is a trusted advisor with over a decade of experience developing effective corporate sustainability/ESG strategies, designing and delivering strategic stakeholder engagement, and shaping thought leadership.

Denise’s career has spanned many sectors and geographies with experience in the financial services as well as pharmaceutical, energy/oil and gas, food and beverage, and technology sectors, among others, and working across more 20 countries.

She was a member of the UNEP Global Environmental Outlook (GEO) 6 for Business Advisory Committee member and a lead Author of the first UNEP GEO 6 for Business brief, Adapt to Survive: Business transformation in a time of uncertainty.

Denise represents LSM in several industry bodies, including ClimateWise and relevant committees of the Lloyd’s Market Association and International Underwriting Association.

Isabelle Delas is the CEO of LuxFLAG.

She was formerly the Head of Luxembourg Branch of Finance in Motion GmbH (FiM), an impact asset manager, as well as a Member of the Board of Managers of FiM Asset Management. She also worked in Rome, Italy for the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), the intergovernmental organisation promoting the rule of law in Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa and Sud-Saharan Africa, where she designed and developed technical assistance and capacity building programs with associated research on a wide range of topics, including anti-corruption, environmental and social issues, good governance, human rights, microfinance, procurement, in a number of countries.

Prior to joining IDLO, she was Assistant Professor at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin in Yvelines, France and Visiting Professor in the Master’s degree on “Management of Development Aid Projects in Africa” at the University of Paris XI, France.

Isabelle holds degrees at post-graduate and Masters levels in Law from the University of Poitiers, France. She is also a volunteer member of the World Association for the Protection of Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage in Times of Armed Conflict (WATCH) and of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law.

Christopher Flensborg joined SEB in 2003 and is Head of Climate & Sustainable Finance, mandated to identify areas where financial mandates can help solve societal challenges – and develop and implement solutions through collaboration with clients.

As a pioneer in Green Bonds, which was developed in close collaboration with The World Bank, he has developed concepts and mechanisms enabling mainstream investors to address climate investments in their portfolios. As a thought leader, SEB works to enable access for mainstream investor’s core portfolios to sustainable investments.

SEB´s goal is to be a prime provider of mainstream financial climate solutions across various financial mandates. In this capacity, Christopher Flensborg is involved in climate investment strategies worldwide, from development to execution – from borrowers to investors.

Christopher Flensborg spent over 30 years working in leading international financial institutions. He received his management training from international banks through schooling at Oxford, INSEAD, and Harvard Kennedy School.

Ross Keeling is an Origination Director focussed on originating Sustainable Finance transactions across Europe at HSBC.

Ross joined HSBC in 2013 as a Relationship Manger in Ireland covering Large Corporate clients across a number of different sectors. Since 2018, Ross has lead HSBC Ireland’s CRE & Infrastructure proposition and has worked on various sustainable finance transactions in recent years having developed a keen interest in the topic. Earlier this year, Ross moved into a dedicated Sustainable Finance role tasked with building out HSBC’s proposition across Europe.

Prior to joining HSBC, Ross worked in Project Finance with KBC and also covered Food & Agriculture clients with Allied Irish Banks.

Ross has a Bachelor’s degree in Business & Economics from Trinity College Dublin where he also completed an Executive MBA.

Adrienne Klasa is an Asset Management Reporter at  the Financial Times. She was previously a reporter covering breaking news as well as an editor on the FT’s markets and world desks.

Abraham Lioui is Professor of Finance at the EDHEC Business School, France.

His research interests focus on portfolio theory, dynamic asset allocation, pricing and hedging of derivatives, asset pricing theory, monetary policy and asset pricing.

His articles are published in journals including Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Money Credit and Banking and many others.

Current projects focus on carbon risk measurement and zero-net factors construction.

Nicolas Mackel is CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, the Agency for the Development of the Financial Centre, since July 2013.

Nicolas is a career diplomat. He has graduated with a law degree from the University of Aix-en-Provence, and holds two post-graduate diplomas in European law from the Sorbonne University, respectively the College of Europe in Bruges where he then also served as a teaching assistant in the Law Department. He worked as a legal clerk at the European Court of Justice before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1999. His assignments focused on the successive EU Treaty negotiations (Amsterdam, Nice, Constitution, Lisbon).

Nicolas was consecutively posted at Luxembourg’s Permanent Representation to the EU (2002-07), as Deputy Chief of Mission at Luxembourg’s Embassy in Washington DC (2007-11) and as Consul General in Shanghai (2011-13) where he was in charge of promoting Luxembourg’s economic interests throughout China as the Executive Director of the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office.

Sherry Madera joined Mastercard’s global public policy and government affairs team as Senior Vice President in 2022. She oversees the company’s public policy and government affairs activities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Central Asia and China.

A Canadian and British national, Madera joined Mastercard from LSEG where she last held the position of Chief Industry & Government Affairs Officer. She was also the Economic Ambassador and Special Advisor to Asia for the City of London. Previously, she was Minister-Counsellor at the British Embassy in Beijing, leading the trade and investment agenda between the UK and China.

Madera is instrumental in representing Mastercard with policymakers in key markets around the world. Her experience and track record of leadership roles in sustainable finance, FinTech, Data policy, international trade and geopolitics advance Mastercard’s agenda and efforts, in particular on policy issues related to inclusion, sustainability and ethical data practices.

Madera is the Chair of the Future of Sustainable Data Alliance, a global alliance dedicated to working with the financial industry to use data to build a sustainable future. She also sits on the Board of the University of Nottingham and is an Advisor to Hong Kong’s tech hub, Cyberport.

Claude Marx was appointed Director General of the CSSF by the government in February 2016. Claude is also a member of the Board of Supervisors of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

Prior to his nomination as Director General of the CSSF, Claude Marx was the CEO of Lombard International Assurance S.A., the largest unit-linked life insurance company, owned by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities. He was also Chairman of the Board of Lombard Intermediation Services S.A. Claude was with Lombard for 4 years.

Prior to that, Claude worked for HSBC for 17 years, and was Deputy CEO of its Private Banking Division.

At the beginning of his career, Claude worked as a lawyer with a local firm that is now Allen & Overy, as well as Arthur Andersen.

Claude is a lawyer by training, he holds a Master of Laws Degree from the University of Paris and a Master of Laws in International Business Law from the University of London. He was admitted to the Luxembourg bar as Avocat à la Cour in 1990.

Simon Mundy is the Moral Money Editor at the Financial Times, covering environmental and sustainability issues for the award-winning Moral Money platform and the wider FT.

He began his reporting career in Johannesburg, where he covered Southern Africa for the FT before a period writing on the London financial sector.

He then spent seven years in Asia, heading the FT bureaux in Seoul and Mumbai, before two years travelling through 26 countries on six continents to research Race for Tomorrow, a book on the global scramble to respond to climate change.

Verena Ross is the Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). She took up the role on 1 November 2021 and is responsible for representing the Authority as well as preparing the work of and chairing its Board of Supervisors and Management Board.

Between 2011 and 2021 Verena Ross served as ESMA’s first Executive Director, when she was responsible for building up the organisation and overseeing its day to day running.

Prior to this, Verena held a number of senior posts in the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) and was a member of the FSA’s Executive Committee. Verena joined the FSA in 1998 to run the Executive Chairman’s office during the regulator’s start-up phase and was briefly a seconded advisor to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission in 2000. She held various positions in the FSA’s Markets Division and was Director of Strategy & Risk Division before becoming Director of the International Division.

Verena is a German national. Following studies in Sinology and Economics in Hamburg, Taipei and London (SOAS) she began her career at the Bank of England in 1994, where she worked as an economist and banking supervisor.

Per Sandell is Head of Sustainable Financial Services at Nordic Ecolabelling and in charge of the Nordic Swan Ecolabel for funds.

Mr Sandell has extensive experience in using ecolabelling in complex services to support companies on the transition towards sustainability.

Mr Sandell has played a leading role in developing Nordic Swan Ecolabel criteria for investment funds and introduced the Nordic Swan Ecolabel to the financial industry in 2017.

Under his leadership, the first generation of criteria was launched in 2017 and the updated EU-taxonomy aligned version was launched in February 2022.  As of today, 76 funds from 25 different asset managers across Europe carry the Nordic Swan Ecolabel.

Victor van Hoorn is ICI Global’s Managing Director. A dual citizen of France and the Netherlands, he joins ICI from Eurosif, where he has served as executive director since 2020. At Eurosif, van Hoorn expanded the association and helped establish the group as a leading voice on sustainable finance and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues.

He is a well-known presence at the European Parliament and European Commission, with deep experience in their legislative and regulatory processes. He is also an appointee to the French Ministry of Finance’s advisory committee on ESG fund labeling.

Earlier in his career, van Hoorn headed financial services public affairs for an international communications firm. As an attorney, he has worked on capital markets issues in commercial practice.

He is a graduate of Maastricht University, Sciences Po, and Georgetown University and a qualified lawyer admitted to the New York and Netherlands bar.

Petr Wagner is currently Deputy Head of International Affairs Unit in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services, and Capital Markets Union.

Lawyer by education, he started his professional career in the private sector before joining the European Commission in 2005, where he worked in the Directorate General for Internal Market, in the area of public procurement policy, negotiating the WTO Government Procurement Agreement and then moving to financial services.

From 2015 to 2018, Petr represented the EU (DG FISMA) as Finance Counsellor at the EU Delegation to the USA in Washington D.C. .

Back at the Brussels headquarters, he joined the insurance unit until 2019, then he was appointed Deputy Head of unit of DG FISMA International affairs, with as a main task the handling the negotiations with the United Kingdom in the area of finance.

Petr holds a Master degree in European law from the College of Europe in Bruges and a Master degree from the Palacký University in Olomouc (Czech Republic).

Jennifer Wu, Managing Director, is the Global Head of Sustainable Investing, responsible for leading the firm-wide strategic efforts in building a global sustainable investing platform across ESG and climate change research, client solutions and engagement, investment stewardship and ESG integration, and development of innovative strategies.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Jennifer was responsible for leading the global effort of creating innovative investment solutions and analytics at BlackRock’s Sustainable Investing team. Previously, Jennifer was BlackRock’s Head of Corporate Strategy & Development for Asia-Pacific. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2014, Jennifer worked for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the energy sector of the Central and West Asia Department and was responsible for project finance across power infrastructures and country-level energy sector reforms.

Before ADB she served as Managing Director in the Strategic Development group of CLSA Limited responsible for acquisitions and strategic partnerships. Jennifer started her career in venture capital and private equity focusing on technology and renewable energy as a research analyst and subsequently a portfolio manager.

Jennifer received her Master of Science in Economics from the University of Edinburgh and her Bachelor of Science in Finance from the National Cheng-Chi University in Taiwan.