United Nations Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda

Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin

Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin is an economist with more than 30 years of experience in international finance and development. He currently serves as the United Nations Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Recently, he served as the UN High-Level Climate Champion for Egypt, and as Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund representing the Arab States and The Maldives. Previously, Dr. Mohieldin was the Minister of Investment of Egypt from 2004-2010, and afterwards served as the World Bank Group Senior Vice President for the 2030 Development Agenda, United Nations Relations and Partnerships.

Dr. Mohieldin held seats on several advisory and executive boards in the banking, research, academic and corporate sectors among others, including his role as chairman of the Africa chapter for the Glasgow Financial Alliance on Net Zero (GFANZ). He was a member of the Commission on Growth and Development and was selected a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2005. Dr. Mohieldin is a Professor of Economics and Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science in Cairo University and has been a member of its faculty for almost 30 years. In addition to that, he has held posts as a visiting Professor at several renowned Universities in Egypt, Korea, the UAE, the UK and the US.

Dr. Mohieldin holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom; an M.Sc. in Economics and Social Policy Analysis from the University of York, United Kingdom; a Diploma of Development Economics from the University of Warwick; and a B.Sc. in Economics from Cairo University. He has authored numerous publications and articles in leading journals in the fields of economics, finance, and sustainable development.

Academic Scholar, University of Oxford

Arunma Oteh

Author & Economist

Prof Sir 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.

Group Chief Executive Officer, Royal London

Barry O’Dwyer

Barry O’Dwyer is an actuary with extensive financial services experience in the UK and Ireland. He began his career at Standard Life in 1988, when it was a mutual. In 2008, he moved to HBOS and, shortly afterwards, to Prudential UK & Europe, where he became Deputy Chief Executive Officer. He returned to Standard Life in 2013, where he became Chief Executive Officer of Standard Life’s platform, pensions and savings businesses. He joined the board of Standard Life plc in 2017. Following Standard Life plc’s merger with Aberdeen Asset Management, he was the head of Standard Life Aberdeen plc’s UK business, before joining Royal London in 2019. Barry is currently a member of the board of the Association of British Insurers and a non-executive director of Coop Exchange Limited.

Distinguished Fellow Asia Global Institute The University of Hong Kong

Tan Sri Andrew Sheng

Andrew Sheng is well known in global financial circles as a former central banker and financial regulator in Asia and a commentator on global finance. He is Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, the University of Hong Kong. Andrew is the Chief Adviser to the China Banking Regulatory Commission, a Board Member of Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the sovereign wealth fund of Malaysia, a member of the international advisory council of the China Investment Corporation, the China Development Bank, China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Securities and Exchange Board of India.  He is also an advisor to the United Nations Environment Program Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System.

Andrew served as Chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong from 1998 to 2005, having previously been a central banker with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Bank Negara Malaysia. He also worked with the World Bank from 1989 to 1993. From 2003 to 2005, he chaired the Technical Committee of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

He has published widely on monetary, economics and financial issues. His 2009 book entitled, “From Asian to global financial crisis: an Asian regulator’s view of unfettered finance in the 1990s and 2000s”, was published by Cambridge University Press. His forthcoming book is “Shadow Banking in China: An Opportunity for Financial Reform”, with Ng Chow Soon (John Wiley).

He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing and the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. In 2009, he became the Pro-Chancellor of Universiti Tun Abdul Razak.

He writes regularly on international finance and monetary economics, financial regulation and global governance for Project Syndicate, AsiaNewsNet and leading economic magazines and newspapers in China and Asia. A chartered accountant by training, he has a BSc in Economics and Honorary Doctorates from the University of Bristol and University of Malaya. In April 2013, Andrew was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He also appeared in the Oscar-winning film “Inside Job” in 2011.

Chief Executive, Federated Hermes Limited

Saker Nusseibeh CBE

Saker is Chief Executive of Federated Hermes Limited and is also a member of the Federated Hermes, Inc. Executive team. He was appointed CEO in November 2011 having joined the firm in June 2009 as CIO. Prior to this, Saker was Global Head of Equities at Fortis Investments, having initially been appointed to the firm as CIO Global Equities in 2005. Before this, he was CIO of Global Equities and Head of Marketing for SGAM UK. He started his career at Mercury Asset Management in 1987.

In 2015, Saker was named CEO of the Year at the Global Investor Investment Excellence Awards and, in 2018, was named CEO of the Year at the Financial News Asset Management Europe Awards. More recently, Saker was named as European Personality of the Year for 2020 at the Funds Europe Awards. He has a BA and PhD in Medieval History from King’s College, University of London.

Saker was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s 2020 New Year’s Honours list for services to Responsible Business and Finance.

Group Director of Responsible Business, Royal London

Joanna Walker

Jo is Group Director of Responsible Business at Royal London – the UK’s largest mutual life, pensions and investment company – where she leads the Group’s approach to sustainability, stewardship, responsible investment and social impact. She joined Royal London in 2019 from Virgin Money as its first sustainability lead and has since driven the development of the Group’s climate commitments, transition plan and stewardship strategy.

With over a decade of experience in sustainability and responsible business, Jo focuses on the role of purpose led financial institutions in delivering long-term value for customers, wider society and the environment. She is also Chair of the ABI’s Climate Change Working Group and a member of the UK SIF Policy Committee.

Founding Fellow, Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict (CRIC), University of Oxford

Lord Alderdice FRCPsych

In the last thirty years, John Alderdice has been involved in almost every aspect of the Irish Peace Process. As Leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland from October 1987, he played a significant role in the talks between the political parties and the British and Irish Governments on the resolution of the historic conflict in Ireland right through to the negotiation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. He then retired as Alliance Leader and became the first Speaker of the new Northern Ireland Assembly, leading the establishment of the new legislature. He retired as Speaker in 2004 on his appointment to the Independent Monitoring Commission, tasked by the British and Irish Governments with closing down terrorist operations and overseeing normalization of security activity in Northern Ireland. Later the First, Deputy First, and Justice Ministers of Northern Ireland invited him to work with two colleagues to develop a new strategy to bring an end to the remaining paramilitary organizations in Northern Ireland. He also established  and for some years chaired the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building in Belfast which works on the cultural and attitudinal changes that will complete the Irish Peace Process and gives support to colleagues working in other conflict regions.  He continues to be Emeritus Chairman of CDPB and works on the Irish Peace Process both publicly and privately from the House of Lords at Westminster and through his leadership of The Concord Foundation.

Lord Alderdice has also been committed to liberal politics outside Northern Ireland. From 1995 to 2003 he was Treasurer and then Vice-President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. From 2000 until 2009 he was Deputy President and then President of Liberal International (the world-wide network of more than 100 liberal political parties) and now as a life-time Presidente D’Honneur of Liberal International he continues to be an active member of the Bureau of LI. In 1996 his contribution to liberal politics at home and abroad was recognized when he was appointed one of the youngest ever life members of the House of Lords, the Upper Chamber of the Westminster Parliament. From 2010 to 2014 he was the elected the Chairman (Convenor) of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party in the House of Lords. In August 2010 Prime Minister David Cameron appointed him to the UK Committee on Standards in Public Life, reappointing him for a further term in 2013. After the 2015 Westminster Election, the Liberal Democrat Leader, Tim Farron MP appointed him Liberal Democrat Party Spokesman on Northern Ireland, but he retired from that role in late 2016 in order to carry out an Independent Review on Culture, Race and Ethnicity within the Liberal Democrats. This was completed and submitted in early 2018 and the ‘Alderdice Report’, as it has become known, has been welcomed at all levels in the Party, officially adopted, and is being implemented.  From 2020 to 2021 he was a member of the COVID-19 Committee of the House and from January 2024 a member of the Select Committee of the House on International Relations and Defence.  In February 2025 he undertook a new role when the government appointed him as UK Trade Envoy to Azerbaijan and Central Asia. Lord Alderdice’s professional background is as a clinical and academic physician and psychiatrist (see Medical and Psychiatric Career). He was a consultant psychiatrist in psychotherapy in Belfast and senior lecturer in psychotherapy at The Queen’s University of Belfast (UK) from 1998 to 2010. He was also a Visiting Professor, at the Department of Psychiatry and Co-Chairman of the Critical Incidents Analysis Group, at the University of Virginia (USA), and for some years a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry of the School of Medicine at the University of Maryland in Baltimore (USA). Lord Alderdice’s main focus now is at the University of Oxford, where he is an Honorary Fellow at Pembroke College and a Senior Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College. He concentrates, with colleagues in the colleges and at the Department of Politics and International Relations and the School of Anthropology, on analysing, understanding and engaging with the problems of religious fundamentalism, political radicalization and violent community conflict, including the intractable difficulties between first nation populations and incoming people.  He is also a Visiting Fellow at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, a Professor of Practice at the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University Belfast, and also a Professor of Practice at the Global Humanity for Peace Institute at the University of Wales Trinity St David. Lord Alderdice is President and Director of ARTIS (Europe) Ltd, a registered UK company that he set up in 2009 to work on Research, Teaching and Intervention Support in a range of major psychosocial challenges worldwide, and is Chairman of The Concord Foundation (CLG), a registered company in Ireland whose purpose is to address in a non-partisan way the religious, psychological and political aspects of communal conflict.

Head of Responsible Investment, Scottish Widows

Eva Cairns

Eva is Head of Responsible Investment at Scottish Widows where she leads the responsible investing and stewardship strategy for one of UK’s largest asset owners. Her focus is on embedding RI into the investments proposition and leading efforts to engage companies, asset managers and wider industry to shape best practice. She joined Scottish Widows from Aberdeen Investments where she was the Head of Sustainability Insights and Climate Strategy, responsible for leading research and strategy across key sustainability themes, including climate change, nature and social issues. Before joining Aberdeen in 2010, Eva worked at Halcrow Group (now CH2M Hill), a global engineering consultancy, where she was an Economist focused on environmental and socio-economic impact assessment of energy and transport projects globally. Eva is a member of the UKSIF Board and Investment Association Sustainability and Responsible Investment Committee in the UK. She graduated with an MSc in Economics with Distinction from the University of Edinburgh where her dissertation focused on the social cost of carbon.

Chair, GEFI Global Steering Group

Dame Susan Rice

With a career that spans medical research, leadership roles in higher education and then banking, Dame Susan chairs the Global Steering Group of GEFI (Global Ethical Finance Initiative). She also chairs Forth Green Freeport, attracting investment for industrial regeneration in Scotland, delivering net zero and fair work.

The first woman to head a UK or European clearing bank as Chief Executive of Lloyds TSB Scotland plc, she was also a director of the Bank of England, Senior Independent Director of both J Sainsbury’s plc and SSE plc, chair of Scottish Water and lay member of Court at Edinburgh University. She was founding chair of Scotland’s Fiscal Commission, the country’s official, independent economic and fiscal forecaster and until recently was a non-executive director of the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility.

Focused on the creation of long-term value in business and enterprise, she helped develop numerous social finance and impact investing entities in the US and the UK, funnelling commercial investment in novel ways into disadvantaged communities and underserved entities.

A leading voice on ethics in finance, she chaired the Financial Services Culture Board which developed a unique analytical framework to raise standards of behaviour and competence in financial services, and she led her industry, with the Chartered Banker Institute, to create for the first time anywhere professional standards for bankers.

Alongside several honorary degrees, professional fellowships and business awards, Dame Susan is a Freeman of the City of London.

Chief Investment Strategy Officer, SDG Impact Japan

Sasja Beslik

Visiting Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School

Lord David Pitt-Watson

David is a leading thinker & practitioner in responsible investment, and serves as a Member of GEFI’s Global Steering Group. 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.

Chief Client Commercial Officer, AccessFintech

Pardeep Cassells

Pardeep “Par” Cassells brings over 15 years of capital markets and fintech experience to her role as Chief Client Commercial Officer at AccessFintech. She leads client strategy and the commercial scaling of customer success, with a focus on driving measurable outcomes for clients. Par is passionate about enabling operational transformation and fostering industry collaboration to unlock mutualised opportunities across the market.

Prior to her client-centric roles, Par led the development of AccessFintech’s securities product suite, demonstrating strong leadership across product delivery, operational strategy, and end-to-end client engagement. She also served as a subject matter expert on regulatory developments, including CSDR, and stepped in as Interim Chief Operating Officer during a period of significant organisational transition.
Before joining AccessFintech in 2019, Par spent nearly a decade at BNP Paribas, where she held a range of operations and relationship management roles. She progressed into senior leadership positions, including Head of Securities & Claims.

Based in Glasgow, Par is an active advocate for fintech innovation and inclusion. She serves on the FinTech Scotland Cluster Board and contributes to HM Treasury’s UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce. Par is a respected voice in capital markets and fintech, and has contributed to many articles, panels, and authored papers for the journal of securities operations and custody.
Par holds a Scots Law LLB (Hons), a Diploma in Legal Practice (DipLP), and the CISI Investment Operations Certificate (IOC), combining legal insight with operational excellence.

Chief Economist, Triodos Bank

Hans Stegeman

Hans Stegeman is the Chief Economist at Triodos Bank, where he oversees economic and sustainability research, as well as Triodos’ impact strategy. His work centres on the fundamental belief that our economic system requires significant changes, with the financial sector playing a pivotal role in this transformation. Prior to joining Triodos, he held various positions at Rabobank, the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB), and started his career at a the labour union. In addition to his role as Chief Economist, Hans is an avid writer, contributing columns and essays to various media outlets and maintaining his own blog.

Head of Responsible Business – Stewardship, Climate and Nature, Royal London

Ruth Bryson

Ruth is Head of Responsible Business – Stewardship, Climate and Nature at Royal London, the largest mutual life, pensions and investment company in the UK. She leads the development and embedding of Royal London’s climate and nature strategy, environmental risk management and approach to responsible investment and engagement. An actuary by background, Ruth is an active member of various industry working groups including the Climate Financial Risk Forum and the Asset Owner Council.

Chairman, INCEIF University

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.

Catherine Devitt

Catherine Devitt leads FaithInvest’s programme on faith beliefs, teachings and values. With a background in environmental policy and faith-based engagement, she brings expertise in the intersection of spirituality, ecology and social justice. She previously worked with the Irish Jesuit Province on faith and environmental justice, has lectured at University College Dublin, Ireland, on environmental issues and has published in leading international journals on environmental sustainability.

Author of "How to Think Like an Economist"

Dr Robbie Mochrie

Senior Advisor, GEFI

Amanda Young

Amanda was the Chief Sustainability Officer for the Investments business at abrdn, where she led the sustainable investment strategy for the firm and the Investment Sustainability Group.  She has over two decades of experience in responsible investment. Previously, Amanda held positions at Newton Investment Management, CCLA Investment Management and Rabobank International. Amanda graduated from Lancaster University with a BSc in Psychology and has completed the University of Edinburgh Business School’s Executive Women’s Leadership Programme. She is the Chair of the Sustainability and Responsible Investment Committee of the Investment Association, a board director for Social Investment Scotland’s SIS Ventures fund and represented abrdn on the Scottish Taskforce for Green and Sustainable Financial Services. Previous appointments include Chair, workstream for the UK Government’s Taskforce on social impact investment, co-Chair of the Scottish Purposeful Business Commission, Board Director of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) and Chair of the FTSE Russell ESG Advisory Committee.  Amanda has appeared on the Financial News top 100 most influential women in European Finance for 6 years.  She was the inaugural winner of Women in Investment Awards Sustainable & ESG Investment Woman of the Year in 2021 and was on Financial News’ inaugural Fifty Most Influential in Sustainable Finance list in 2022.

Managing Director, GEFI

Omar Shaikh

Omar is the Managing Director of the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) and Board Member of the UK Islamic Finance Council (UKIFC)

A Chartered Accountant by profession, he specialises in ethical/responsible finance, Islamic finance, and private equity. He has extensive experience in financial services and has advised multiple governments and regulators on ecosystem building as a leading advocate for sustainable and Islamic finance. His background includes working with EY London, where he qualified as a CA and was the former Head of Islamic finance.

Through his GEFI work, Omar has established a number of initiatives, including the Path to COP, the SDG Financial Products platform with UNDP, which promotes innovative financing structures for the SDGs, the Global Islamic Finance and UN SDGs Taskforce launched with the UK Government and IsDB, and the award-winning interfaith Edinburgh Finance Declaration—the world’s first shared values approach to finance between Islamic finance and the Church. He also served on the Board of the University of Oxford Faith-Aligned Impact Finance Project

Omar received a BAcc and a PhD from the University of Glasgow along with an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University conferred for his work in developing ethical finance. Beyond finance, he is actively involved with Colourful Heritage which works with Glasgow Museums to preserve and celebrate South Asian heritage in Scotland, The King’s Trust Scotland and Olivewood Primary School.