Building Climate and Disaster Resilience Today and Tomorrow

Megan is focused on expanding UNICEF’s private sector partnerships in the global South, broadening engagement in innovative financing, and ensuring excellence in communications for partnership. She has worked in international cooperation for 20 years in some of the most complex situations in the world including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kosovo and South Sudan. She is known as someone that can navigate politically and operationally complex partnerships and build, motivate and support diverse global teams. She has previously served as Deputy Director of Public Partnerships, Deputy Chief of Staff and UNICEF’s Regional Humanitarian Advisor for Eastern and Southern Africa.

Gautam works with a talented team to shape and advance UNICEF’s global agenda on climate change, sustainable energy and the environment. This involves the development of programmes and policies, providing guidance to country and regional offices, developing strategic partnerships, and representing UNICEF. Gautam’s previous roles include environmental engineering, management, and financial due diligence in the United States and India, managing a global portfolio of climate change products for an energy company, and supporting governments in Afghanistan and the Republic of Georgia on energy policy. His academic background includes chemical and environmental engineering, public policy, and business administration.

Carla is the Director of UNICEF’s Private Fundraising and Partnerships. Here she leads the organization's global strategy to leverage the private sector to generate sustainable income for UNICEF and drive partnerships for children worldwide. This includes engaging with the general public (UNICEF’s supporters and donors), philanthropists, foundations, and business to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for children. From 2018 to 2021, Carla served as UNICEF’s Director of the Public Partnerships Division in New York. Prior to joining UNICEF, Ms. Haddad Mardini had served at the International Committee of the Red Cross over a period spanning 17 years.

Viktoria Seifert is a Director with WTW’s Disaster Risk Finance and Parametric Practice where she leads the team’s work at the intersection of (sub-)sovereign and humanitarian crisis finance, including on shock-responsive social protection and critical infrastructure security. Prior to joining WTW, she was the Manager of the Policy, Governance and Strategies section of the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative, hosted by the United Nations University, and built the Initiative’s advisory to the V20 Group of Ministers of Finance. Viktoria has worked with public, private, and international organizations and holds a master’s in international relations and a bachelor’s in philosophy and economics.

Karina is the Head of Public Sector at AXA Climate, working with development institutions, investors and governments to spearhead adaptation, climate risk management and disaster risk financing tools. She represents AXA in the Insurance Development Forum which brings together the insurance industry, the UNDP and World Bank on climate risk. Karina previously worked at the African Risk Capacity, the first African sovereign natural catastrophe risk pool. Before that, she was working in (re)insurance and the investment sector.

Angus has been the CEO of Global Parametrics since July 2022. Prior to this, he was, since 2018, the firm’s General Counsel and COO. Angus’s background is as a lawyer having spent the first half of his 27-year career to date working at international corporate law firms before subsequently focusing upon advising public and private sector clients upon the design and implementation of public-private partnerships to address key challenges affecting developing countries across a range of sectors. As such, Angus advised the UK Government upon the design and establishment of Global Parametrics/Natural Disaster Fund from the conceptual phase in 2013.