Aligning Profits and Sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean
This session will bring together different actors from the Latin American investment ecosystem to discuss ongoing efforts to expand and ensure the integrity of sustainable finance in the Latin America and Caribbean region, including the adoption of innovative financial instruments, and emerging public-private sector partnerships.

Speakers:

Sahba Sobhani
Director, Instanbul International Centre for Private Sector in Development, UNDP
Tenke Zoltani
Senior Advisor, Thematic Debt Instruments, UNDP
Beatriz Peloia Elias
Head of Markets and Credit Risk,Symbiotics
Juan Diego Gómez
CEO, SunColombia
Guillermo Pepe
CEO, MamotestGuillermo Pepe’s purpose is to build the path from sickcare to healthcare. He founded Mamotest to decrease the high breast cancer mortality rates due to lack of access in underserved populations.

Tim Radjy
Founder & Managing Partner, AlphaMundi; Chair, Gender Lens Initiative for Switzerland
Maria Teresa Zappia Panelist,
Chief Impact & Blended Finance Officer, Deputy CEO, BlueOrchard Finance; Head of Sustainability and Impact, Schroders CapitalMaria Teresa Zappia has covered a number of positions in BlueOrchard since 2008 like head of the investment team and chief investment officer. At present, Maria Teresa leads the blended finance and impact management team and is responsible for BlueOrchard’s blended finance mandates (PPPs) and overall impact management and measurement practice.
Ms. Zappia also leads the Sustainability and Impact team at Schroders Capital, the private assets business of Schroders created in June 2021. Here, Maria Teresa contributed to a number of investment solutions across asset classes focusing on implementing net-zero tailored portfolio and mandate offerings for institutional investors seeking to climate-align their investment activities.
Ms. Zappia has over 25 year experience in emerging and frontier markets, has authored and co-authored a number of publications, and is a guest speaker at several universities. Maria Teresa is the convenor of the Advisory Board of the Operating Principles for Impact Management, which is a best-in-class impact investing framework for asset managers and asset owners.
She represented BlueOrchard at the G7 Impact Taskforce created by the UK under its G7 Presidency. Maria Teresa 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 Ms. Zappia joined the Board of the NatCapResearch, a company specialised in biodiversity and net zero carbon measurement, and the Board of Swiss Sustainable Finance.
Prior to BlueOrchard, Maria Teresa 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 (Africa, Asia, Central Asia) and in Head Office.