Group Chief Financial Officer, NatWest Group

Katie Murray

Katie Murray joined the Group as Director of Finance in November 2015 and was appointed as Deputy Chief Financial Officer in March 2017. She was then appointed as Group Chief Financial Officer in January 2019.

Katie has worked in Finance and Accounting for nearly 30 years with experience in capital management, investor relations, financial planning and all areas of financial services. Katie was previously the Group Finance Director for Old Mutual Emerging Markets, based in Johannesburg from 2011-2015, having held various roles across Old Mutual from 2002. Prior to this Katie worked at KPMG for 13 years.

Katie is a Chartered Accountant having trained in Scotland and is a member of ICAS.

Chairman, MIFC Leadership Council

Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar

Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar is currently the Chairman of Lembaga Tabung Haji Malaysia (Hajj Pilgrims Fund Board), the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), the Chairman of INCEIF (The International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance) and the Chairman of the Leadership Council of the Malaysia International Islamic Finance Centre (MIFC). Between June 2004 and July 2018, he was the Managing Director of Khazanah Nasional Berhad (“Khazanah”), Malaysia’s strategic investment fund. His other current affiliations include as a member of the Global Future Council on Investing of the World Economic Forum (Davos), a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) based in Edinburgh and as a board member of MERCY Malaysia, a humanitarian relief organization. Azman was the Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge (February 2019 to February 2021) and a Bye-Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge (February 2019 to February 2022). His research interest is in the area of Finance and its impact on Society.

He is also currently a member of the Majlis Kebangsaan Hal Ehwal Agama Islam Malaysia (National Council for Islamic Affairs, Malaysia) and until recently, the Majlis Pemulihan Negara (National Recovery Council (for Covid-19)) and the Majlis Kemakmuran Bumiputera (Bumiputera Prosperity Council) in Malaysia. Azman is also a member of the Board of Governors of The Malay College Kuala Kangsar, an Adjunct Professor at UTM, a trustee of the Wawasan Education Foundation in Penang, Malaysia, a member of the Finance Advisory Committee of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, a board member of VB Asset Management LLC, a Venture Capital Fund investing in Life Sciences in the United States and an Advisor to The Hive IV, a Silicon Valley based Technology Venture Capital fund. In early 2020, he co-founded Fitrah Capital Associates, a financial and strategy advisory firm incorporated in the United Arab Emirates.

Chair, Global Steering Group

Dame Susan Rice

Dame Susan Rice, a Chartered Banker, chairs the Banking Standards Board and was founding chair of the Chartered Banker: Professional Standards Board. She also chairs Scottish Water, Business Stream and the Scottish Fiscal Commission, Scotland’s independent economic and fiscal forecaster.  In addition, she is Senior Independent Director of J Sainsbury, and of the North American Income Trust. The first woman to head a UK clearing bank, she was Chief Executive and Chairman of Lloyds TSB Scotland plc, then Managing Director of Lloyds Banking Group.  She was previously a Non-Executive Director of the Bank of England and energy company SSE. She has helped develop approaches to social finance in the US and UK, led work on cultural and ethical standards for bankers, chaired Scotland’s 2020 Climate Group and now works with P-CAN. Previously, she was Senior Vice President at NatWest Bancorp in New York and, earlier in her career, a Dean at Yale and Colgate Universities in America and a published medical researcher.

Broadcaster, Writer and Owner, Monster Media Productions

Dr Vanessa Collingridge

Professor of Finance, London Business School

Prof. Alex Edmans

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School and Academic Director of the Centre for Corporate Governance. Alex graduated from Oxford University and then worked for Morgan Stanley in investment banking (London) and fixed income sales and trading (New York). After a PhD in Finance from MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar, he joined Wharton in 2007 and was tenured in 2013 shortly before moving to LBS.

Alex’s research interests are in corporate finance, responsible business and behavioural finance. He is Managing Editor of the Review of Finance, the leading academic finance journal in Europe, and was inducted as a Fellow of the Financial Management Association.

Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, presented to the World Bank Board of Directors as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, and given the TED talk What to Trust in a Post-Truth World and the TEDx talks The Pie-Growing Mindset and The Social Responsibility of Business with a combined 2.5 million views. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review and World Economic Forum and been interviewed by Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, Fox, ITV, NPR, Reuters, Sky News, and Sky Sports.

Alex serves on the Steering Group of The Purposeful Company, a UK consortium of leaders in responsible business and on Royal London Asset Management’s Responsible Investment Advisory Committee. The UK government appointed him (jointly with PwC) to conduct a study on the effect of share buybacks on executive pay and investment. Alex also serves as Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Business at Gresham College, giving a four-year programme of lectures to the public. His 2020/21 lecture series is on The Principles of Finance and his prior series were on The Psychology of Finance, Business Skills for the 21st Century and How Business Can Better Serve Society. His book, Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit, was named to the Financial Times Business Books of the Year for 2020 and is being translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, Korean, Russian, and Turkish. He is a co-author of the 14th edition of Principles of Corporate Finance (with Brealey, Myers, and Allen).

At Wharton, Alex won 14 teaching awards in six years. At LBS, he has won eight Best Teacher awards in the MBA and Masters in Financial Analysis programmes, as well as the Excellence in Teaching award for best professor across all programmes. He was named Professor of the Year by Poets & Quants, won the Finance for the Future award for Driving Change in the finance community, and featured in Thinkers50 Radar.

Author & Economist

John Kay

John Kay is an economist whose career has spanned the academic world, business and finance, and public affairs. He has held chairs at the London Business School, the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and is a Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. John is a director of several public companies and a contributing editor of the Financial Times. He chaired the Review of UK Equity Markets and Long-Term Decision-Making.

He is the author of many books, including The Truth About Markets, The Long and the Short of It and Obliquity. His latest book, Other People’s Money was a book of the year for Bloomberg, The Economist and the Financial Times, winner of the Saltire Literary Prize for non-fiction, and was short-listed for the Orwell Prize for political writing. His next book, Radical Uncertainty, jointly written with Mervyn King, will be published in March 2020.

Regional Managing Director, Scotland & North of England at Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest

Judith Cruickshank

Judith Cruickshank has worked with NatWest for 14 years in a variety of roles, focused on customer solutions for both Retail and Commercial customers. She is currently Regional MD Business Banking, Scotland and North England and Climate Lead for the Business Bank. She is particularly passionate about helping personal and business customers prepare for the future through building financial capability and transitioning to a lower carbon world.
Prior to joining the bank she worked in oil & gas for Shell International and for Marakon Strategy Consultants, with experience in both Asia and Europe. She is also a Finance Committee member of Heriot Watt University.

Co-Founder & CIO, Tribe Impact Capital

Amy Clarke

Amy is Co Founder & Chief Impact Officer of Tribe Impact Capital (“Tribe”), an award winning wealth management firm and B Corps dedicated in its entirety to advising and managing private and institutional wealth for impact

Professor of Modern Slavery Policy

Dame Sara Thornton DBE QPM

Dame Sara Thornton DBE QPM is a Professor of Modern Slavery Policy at the Rights Lab in the University of Nottingham where her focus is on research in the area of prevention, business responses, supply chains, and the role of the financial sector in tackling modern slavery. She is particularly focussed on the important role of investors and works as a modern slavery consultant for CCLA Investment Management.Dame Sara completed a three-year term as the UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner in April 2022, a role in which she spearheaded the UK’s fight against human trafficking and modern slavery. She joined the Metropolitan Police Service in 1986. During her 33-year career within policing she served as Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police from 2007 until 2015. She was the national lead on intelligence; Vice-Chair of ACPO Terrorism and Allied Matters; Director of the Police National Assessment Centre; and ACPO Vice-President. She was the first Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council from 2015 to 2019. She was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in 2006, made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2011 and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2019. She has been recognised with a Career Achievement Award from the Police Training Authority Trustees and the Sir Robert Peel Medal for Outstanding Leadership in Evidence-Based Policing. She is an Honorary Air Commodore in the Royal Air Force supporting the work of the auxiliary police squadron, Chair of the Government Skills and Curriculum Unit Leadership Advisory Board, and a trustee and board member of the Police Foundation.She is an Honorary Professor in Modern Slavery at the University of Liverpool and holds honorary doctorates from Durham University, Oxford Brookes and Buckinghamshire New University.

Executive Chairman, Z/Yen Group, and Alderman & Sheriff of the City of London

Prof. Michael Mainelli

Executive Chairman, Z/Yen Group, and Alderman & Sheriff of the City of London

Director, University of Edinburgh Business School’s Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability

Dr Sarah Ivory

Dr Sarah Ivory is the Director of the University of Edinburgh Business School’s Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability (B-CCaS). She is a Lecturer in Climate Change and Business Strategy and serves on the University of Edinburgh COP26 working group. She is a regular contributor to BBC Scotland on climate change issues. Dr Ivory has taught on topics of climate change, sustainability, leadership, and strategy to undergraduates, postgraduates, and MBAs, and leads climate change executive education programmes. In 2019 Dr Ivory was awarded a prestigious Aspen Institute ‘Ideas Worth Teaching’ education award.

Dr Ivory has an established research career in sustainability and climate change, social enterprise, and critical thinking pedagogy including in leading publications such as the Journal of Business Ethics and Business Strategy and the Environment. Her book ‘Becoming a Critical Thinker: for your university studies and beyond’ was recently published with Oxford University Press.

Prior to joining academia, Dr Ivory spend a decade in senior strategy and operational roles in the private sector in Singapore and Australia. She has a PhD and MSc (by research) from the University of Edinburgh, an MBA from Melbourne Business School, and a B.Com(hons) from the University of Melbourne.

Head of Social Strategy & Impact, NatWest Group

Thom Kenrick

Thom is Head of Social Strategy and Impact at NatWest Group. Part of the Sustainable Banking function, Thom’s team lead and coordinate the bank’s approach to social issues and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Focus areas include financial capability, human rights & modern slavery, vulnerable customers, and ‘controversial’ sectors.  The team also lead and deliver the bank’s flagship MoneySense financial education programme.

Thom is the Chair of NatWest Social & Community Capital, a bank-supported social finance charity which lends money to community businesses and social enterprises. He is also a Trustee of the Coutts Foundation and a Fellow of the RSA. He holds a First Class Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering & European Studies from the University of Edinburgh. At GEFI, with NatWest Group being the host Thom has been guiding the Ethical Finance Global Summit since 2017.

Chief Executive Officer, CFA Society of the UK

Will Goodhart

Will Goodhart is chief executive of CFA Society of the UK (CFA UK), a position he has held since 2006. CFA UK represents the interests of over 12,000 members of the UK investment profession. Will leads the Society’s advocacy and engagement work and authored its 2016 report on the ‘Value of the Investment Profession’. He is a member of the Diversity Project’s steering committee, the Impact Investing Taskforce and the BSI groups working on sustainable finance and investment standards. Under Will’s leadership, CFA UK instituted its annual Ethical Leadership Programme and launched the Certificate in ESG Investing and the new Certificate in Climate & Investing. He is an affiliate member of CFA Institute and CFA UK.

Managing Partner, Prosperar Development Consulting

Modupe Ladipo

Modupe Ladipo is a financial inclusion expert and financial sector development specialist, with over 25 years’ diverse experience in development, financial services and the food industry. She was the first Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA), and is one of the pioneers of financial inclusion in Nigeria.

She is the Managing Partner of Prosperar Development Consulting. She also holds the following non-executive positions – Chair of EFInA’s Board; Senior Adviser, Islamic Finance Council UK; and Legatum Institute Fellow.

Ms. Ladipo has extensive experience of providing strategic, fiscal, operational and thought leadership in complex and challenging environments. She is a dynamic, results-oriented leader with a strong track record of high performance in fast-paced organisations and a proven ability of setting up and successfully managing businesses. She has worked on assignments in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the US.

Founder & CEO of the Institute for Quality

Dr Hayat Sindi

Dr. Hayat Sindi is one of the world’s leading biotechnologists and a global champion of science and technology. She is a pioneering, inspirational female leader, working to improve the lives of people around the world, through her resolute belief in the power of science, technology and innovation to solve the greatest development challenges.

The Chief Advisor to the President of the Islamic Development Bank, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Sindi was voted one of the BBC’s top 100 Women 2018, a list of inspiring and influential women from around the world. Her remarkable career includes co-founding and co-inventing ‘Diagnostics For All’ – a programme to create to affordable diagnostic devices for millions of people in impoverished regions. alongside a team from Harvard University. These innovative, inexpensive, point-of-care diagnostic devices require no power, water or trained doctors and have the ability to provide potentially life-saving medical results in minutes. In 2008 Dr Sindi led the ‘Diagnostics For All’ business team to first place in Harvard Business School’s Business Plan Contest, in the social enterprise track, and also to first place in MIT’s $100K Entrepreneurship Competition in the same year. (The first time in history that the same team won first place in both competitions in the same year).

Dr. Sindi Graduated with honors from King’s college London in Pharmacology in 1995 and the first woman from the Gulf to obtain a Ph.D in biotechnology from the University of Cambridge, Dr. Sindi is driven by a passion to develop entrepreneurial ecosystems that can transcend existing gaps between education and opportunity. Additionally, Dr. Sindi was a visiting scholar at Harvard University; as such, she travelled often between Jeddah, Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Sindi ‘s laboratory work at Harvard earned her a spot with four other scientists in a documentary film supported by the Executive Office of the President of the United States in order to promote science education among young people.

This led to her to launching iQ, the Institute for Quality, in 2011. Through fellowships, trainings and mentorships, iQ seeks to empower and inspire the next generation of innovators so that they may realize their dreams and ultimately contribute to the world. She has also invented a low cost diagnostic tool for early detection of breast cancer by converting light into sound, and holds nine patents. Her work encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship among young people was recognised in 2014, when she was awarded the Clinton Global Citizen Award for “Leadership in Civil Society.”

In 2017, Dr Sindi was appointed Chief Scientific Advisor to the President of the IsDB. In this role, she has put Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) at the heart of Islamic Development Bank’s work, where it is a powerful driver of economic growth and sustainable development. In 2018, she contributed to the launch of the IsDB’s $500m Transform Fund and Engage platform to support innovators find solutions to development challenges through the power of innovation, the first digital hub of its kind for the developing world.

In 2019, Dr. Sindi was exceptionally awarded by TWAS with one of the 2020 Medal Lectures in recognition of her achievements in biotechnology as well as the leading and inspirational role as a woman scientist by putting innovation to the service of the developing world and of the promotion of science education among the new generations of scientists. (it is unusual that TWAS awards a Medal Lecture to a non-TWAS member)

Dr. Sindi is frequently sought out as a commentator by international media outlets due to her passion and knowledge for entrepreneurialism and innovation in developing countries. Her inspired vision for an empowered youth through science, technology and innovation has contributed to her being chosen as a recipient of several prestigious awards, including:

• Named a 2009 and 2010 PopTech Social Innovation Fellow. This is the first time in the history of the organization that Poptech awarded a Poptech Science Fellowship to the same person in two consecutive years (2009, 2010)
• Winner of the Mekkah Al Mukaramah prize for scientific innovation, presented by HRH Prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud (2010)
• One of the emerging explorers selected by of the National Geographic’s Emerging Explorers Program (2011)
• Selected as one of Newsweek’s “150 Women Who Shake the World” (2012)
• Ranked by Forbes as Number 2 in’ list of the most powerful Arab women in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2012)
• Selected by Newsweek and The Daily Beast as one of ‘150 Fearless Women’ (2012)
• Named as a Global Ambassador for Vital Voices global partnership (2012)
• Named by CEO Magazine as the 9th most powerful Arab woman and the 3rd most powerful Saudi Arabian women (2012)
• Named one of “50 Academics and Think Tanks” by the prestigious Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin. (2015)
• Selected as one of 24/7 Wall St.’s 32 Amazing Women Inventors (2018)
• Indispensably contributed to the launch of IsDB $500mTransform Fund & Engage Platform (2018)

Dr. Sindi’s high profile and internationally recognized contributions has seen her invited and selected on a number of esteemed panels and boards as below:

• Appointed in 2012 by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for her efforts in promoting science education in the Middle East, especially for girls.
• Invited in 2013 by the Prime Minister of Malaysia to join his Science and Innovation Advisory Council to support the country’s Vision 2020.
• Selected in 2013 among the first 30 women to be appointed to the Saudi Arabia’s highest consultative body, the Shura Council.
• Selected in 2013 as one of 25 global experts selected by United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to be a member of the newly constituted UN Scientific Advisory Board, which provides advice to the UN’s leadership on science, technology and innovation for sustainable development.
• Appointed in 2015 as an honorary Advisor to the UN Environment Programme for the Eye on Earth Summit
• Appointed in 2016 by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as one of a 10-member group to support the technological facilitation mechanism (TFM) for the Sustainable Development Goals.
• Appointed in 2017 as Senior Advisor to the IsDB President for Science, Technology and Innovation.
• Selected on BBC 100 Women list of inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2018.
• Appointed in 2019 by the Director-General of UNESCO as one of the five International Jury members for the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education, which is Funded by the Government of the People’s Republic of China.
• Awarded in 2019 by TWAS with one of the 2020 Medal Lectures in recognition of her as a high caliber Saudi Arabian scientist.
• Appointed in 2020 by Alan Donnelly, Convener of the G20 Health and Development Partnership and Executive Chairman of Sovereign Sustainability and Development as a Global Ambassador for the G20 Health and Development Partnership.
• Appointed in 2020 as a member of the Islamic Finance News Advisory Board.
• Appointed in 2020 as a member of the World Economic Forum’s network of Global Future Councils.

Taskforce Chair

David Pitt-Watson

David is a leading thinker & practitioner in responsible investment, and serves as a Member of GEFI’s Global Steering Group and Chair of the Scottish Green Finance Taskforce. Born & brought up in Scotland, he was co-founder, and CEO of Hermes Focus Funds & Equity Ownership Service. These became the largest responsible investment group of any fund manager in the world.  Throughout his career he has been deeply involved in policy, particularly in the field of corporate governance and financial market regulation. He has led numerous initiatives to improve the performance of the financial system.

Founder and Chairman, Naisbitt King and Sheriff and Alderman of the City of London

Alastair King

Alastair is the Founder and Chairman of Naisbitt King Asset Management Limited, an independent, FCA-regulated fund management firm, headquartered in the City of London.  He started his career as a lawyer and practice­­­d as a solicitor at a leading international law firm.

Alastair was first elected as a Common Councilman of the Ward of Queenhithe (where he resides) in 1999 and was then elected Alderman in 2016.

He serves on a wide range of City of London Corporation Committees, including the Finance and Culture, Heritage and Libraries committees.  Alastair sits on the Governing Bodies of the Bridewell Royal Hospital, the Samuel Wilson Loans Trust, Morden College and Emanuel Hospital.

A Liveryman of five City Livery Companies, Alastair also serves as Vice-Chairman of Breast Cancer Haven Trust and Chairman of Onside Youth Zone, Haringey Project.

Contributing Editor, Bloomberg and Co-Founder, Zeroism

Allegra Stratton

Allegra spent nearly 20 years as a well-known journalist for national broadcasters and newspapers before entering government at the beginning of the Covid pandemic. As head of strategic communications in the Treasury she helped roll out once-in-a-generation policy interventions (Furlough, Kickstarter, Bounce Back loans, Eat Out to Help Out) and went on to be the PM’s press secretary in No10 and his spokesperson for COP26. Along with Co-Founder Anouka Dhadda, the pair worked hard to make sure net zero was well understood by business and families and that COP26 was a moment for the UK to be proud of. Now also a Contributing Editor to Bloomberg News.

President RJ Fleming ME

Tariq Shaikh

Business Advisor, Z/Yen

Dr Kevin Parker

Dr Kevin Parker started his career with a bang by blowing up a laboratory at the University of Cambridge while studying for his Ph.D. Some 40 years later, he runs a training and consultancy company helping start-up companies and individuals achieve their promise. He has completed 500 assignments in this area since 1995. His company’s clients have included 19 Russell Group Universities, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, departments of both the UK and Scottish Government, and the Episcopal Church of Scotland.

During this time, he has won awards for industrial research at British Petroleum, sold oil to the Arabs, privatised Science Institutes in Romania, been an interim manager at the Roslin Institute, delivered finance training to accountants, devised and delivered Undergrad and Post-grad courses at Edinburgh University, learned polite words of greeting in Slovenian, trained over 2500 students in transferable/business skills, run 22 Cub Scout camps, and been an award winning mentor for the Princes Trust.

He has been a long standing collaborator and Associate of Z/Yen since its founding, working on technology, energy, finance, and green projects for a variety of major commercial and NGO clients. In 2001 he co-authored a peer-reviewed paper with Professor Michael Mainelli ‘Great Mistakes in Technology Commercialisation’ critically examining the obstacles around getting new technology to market. This influential paper is still being cited in 2019-20.

In 2009 he provided the science input to the first Z/Yen paper on Green Finance and Policy Performance Bonds – ’Gilty Green Government’. This concept is perhaps an ‘idea whose time has come’ as Governments contemplate Green Policy Initiatives in the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference COP26.

Kevin has Chemistry degrees from Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities, is a Chartered Chemist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and has an M.Sc/MBA from the Sloan Fellow of London Business School.

Founder, Matinecock Capital LLC

Kristian Nammack

Portfolio Manager, Aegon Asset Management

Irina Kurochkina

Irina Kurochkina, Portfolio Manager, joined Aegon Asset Management in 2019. Irina focuses on the European sovereign portfolios. Prior to her current role in the Rates & Money Markets team, she worked for the insurance company Aegon Nederland as an investment analyst for the investment office of the general account. She holds a Master’s degree in Financial Markets and Institutions, cum laude, from Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and an MSc in Financial Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Global Head of ESG, Simmons & Simmons

Sonali Siriwardena

Sonali leads the firm’s advisory offering on environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters.

Sonali has significant experience in the complex legal and policy landscape governing ESG. She has expertise advising on ESG matters in a multi-jurisdictional setting and helping assess the application of ESG regulations to companies with global footprints.

Having worked within industry, Sonali has a good understanding of how clients can apply ESG-focused regulatory and policy developments to mitigate risks and leverage business opportunities. Her focus is on enabling clients to navigate the ESG sea change in a proactive and productive manner.

She has current and previous experience in leadership positions in several ESG-focused industry bodies and is an active contributor to ESG-policy discussions. Amongst other commitments, she is a member of the ESG Advisory Committee convened by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to help further develop the ESG regulatory landscape in the UK. Sonali is also a member of the City of London Law Society ESG Committee.

As Global head of ESG, Sonali is responsible for developing and driving the firm’s ESG strategy across all practice areas and offices, to deliver market leading ESG advice to clients across all matters.

Director & Co-founder, Global Ethical Finance Initiative

Omar Shaikh

Omar is the Managing Director of the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI). A Chartered Accountant by profession, he specialises in ethical finance, Islamic finance and private equity. He has extensive experience in financial services, has advised multiple governments on their capital markets, banking, pension and insurance regulation and is a regular speaker at ethical finance conference and events. Omar’s background includes working with EY where he was a Subject Matter Expert for Islamic finance.

Through his work at developmental body UKIFC, Omar launched the award winning Edinburgh Ethical Finance Round Table series, a platform that led to the inception of the Ethical Finance Hub and GEFI. Since 2018, GEFI has convened and connected stakeholders from across finance, government, business and the third sector to promote finance for positive change. As well as further building the Ethical Finance Round Table series, GEFI has established a number of events and campaigns, including the Ethical Finance Summit (a major conference), the Finance for Nature Series with UNEP and UNDP, the interfaith Edinburgh Finance Declaration, the unique Radical Old Idea platform and the Path to COP26 campaign, bringing together stakeholders to advance climate finance ahead of the crucial 2021 Glasgow summit.

Senior Advisor, Global Ethical Finance Initiative

Graham Burnside

Graham is a recognised expert in banking and finance law, specialising in particular in structured finance and capital markets, along with debt trading and financial product documentation. He pioneered the legal development of Islamic finance within Scotland on which he is now considered the country’s leading expert, having structured and documented the first (and so far only) Islamic mortgage products operating under Scots law and the first fully Sharia-compliant commercial real estate financing in Scotland. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Islamic Finance Council UK. The latest edition of Chambers & Partners Guide to the legal profession conferred on Graham the accolade of “Senior Statesman” in banking and finance law in Scotland, the only lawyer so recognised.

Chief Executive, Chartered Banker Institute UK

Simon Thompson

Simon Thompson was appointed as Chief Executive of the Chartered Banker Institute in 2007 after working for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in Central & Eastern Europe, and for the International Federation of Accountants. Under his leadership, the Institute has grown to become the largest professional body for bankers in the UK, with nearly 35,000 members and students in more than 100 countries.

Simon is the author of Green & Sustainable Finance: Principles and Practice, published by Kogan Page (www.koganpage.com/product/principles-and-practice-of-greenfinance-9781789664546) and leads the Institute’s work in this area.

He chairs the UK’s Green Finance Education Charter on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Ethical Finance ASEAN 2023 Speaker Briefing Pre-Recorded: Sustainable Finance Skills is a Board member of the UK’s Financial Services Skills Commission (FSSC). Simon is a former Vice President of the European Bank Training Network.

Green Financial Regulation Initiative Lead, WWF

Maud Abdelli

Maud Abdelli, Green Financial Regulation Initiative Lead, WWF

Vice President, ESG & Climate Research, MSCI

Liz Houston

Liz is a member of the MSCI ESG and Climate Research team, focusing on retail and luxury. Her research looks at the environmental and social risks facing these industries and the performance of the companies within them.

Prior to joining MSCI, Liz spent the first fifteen years of her career as an investor in the retail and luxury industries, working in the investment management industry. Her work spanned from providing fundamental analysis of companies, financial modelling and valuation to ongoing stewardship and engagement with company management on issues such as corporate performance, governance, strategy and sustainability. Most recently she was Director of Equity Research – London at Allianz Global Investors where she managed a team of analysts covering multiple sectors across European markets. She has always covered the consumer sector and the retail and luxury industries have a special place in her heart.

Liz studied Mathematics and Philosophy at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford and is a CFA Charterholder.