Nature Finance – The Next Wave

André Hoffmann is a businessman, environmentalist  and a passionate advocate for business as a force for good. André is Vice Chairman of Roche Holding AG, the family business. He also sits on the Board of SystemIQ, the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum, and the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. André has a distinguished career in nature conservation and sustainability. He is the President of Fondation Tour du Valat and board member of Capitals Coalition. He is also Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Hoffmann Global Institute in Business and Society at INSEAD.

Fabienne Fischer is a lawyer and politician belonging to the Green Party. She was elected on 28 March 2021 to the Geneva State Council and is currently State Councilor in charge of the Department of Economy and Employment. Ms. Fischer became a City Councilor in 2011. She was also a member of the board of directors of Geneva Airport, as well as vice-president of the board of directors and chair of the real estate committee of the Hospice General. Ms. Fischer acted as a teacher in social sciences at Collège Rousseau and was a partner at BM & Avocats. She has a law and a history masters from the University of Geneva.

Simon Zadek is Executive Director of Nature Finance, Senior Advisor to the Task Force on Nature Related Financial Disclosure, Co-lead of the Taskforce on Nature Markets and Convenor of The Sustainability-linked Sovereign Debt Hub. He was Head, Secretariat, UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals, Senior Advisor on Finance in the office of the UN Secretary General, and Co-Director of UNEP’s Finance Inquiry. He co-Chaired China’s Green Finance Task Force, and led the Green Finance Study Group secretariat under the Chinese, German and Argentinian G20 Presidencies. Prior to this, Dr. Zadek was Senior Advisor to the World Economic Forum and the Global Green Growth Institute, founder and CEO of the international think tank, AccountAbility and Development Director of the New Economics Foundation. He was Visiting Professor at the Singapore Management University and the Copenhagen Business School, and has been a senior fellow at Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and the University of Southern Africa. Dr. Zadek has worked with many corporations, governments and multi stakeholder initiatives on their sustainability and broader strategies, been a member of the International Advisory Board of Generation Investment Management, and has published extensively, including the award-winning book, The Civil Corporation.

Christoph Baumann is Deputy Head Strategy Division & Envoy for Sustainable Finance at the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF). In this role, he leads the Swiss government's sustainable finance activities, ranging from negotiations in multilateral bodies (such as the G20) to domestic initiatives. He is a Fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and a WEF Young Global Leader.

Patrick Odier is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Lombard Odier Group. He acted as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Lombard Odier & Co Ltd. from 2014 -2022. Previously, he was Senior Managing Partner of the Lombard Odier Group from 2008 until 2022. He joined the Lombard Odier Group in 1982 and completed his training in Zurich, New York, and Montreal, before becoming a Managing Partner in 1986. He holds an economics degree from the University of Geneva and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago. Patrick Odier is president of Swiss Sustainable Finance (SSF). He is also Chairman of Building Bridges. He was Chairman of the Swiss Bankers Association from 2009 to 2016 and was member of the Board of economiesuisse (Swiss Business Federation) from 2004 to 2022. He also serves on the boards of academic and philanthropic organizations.

Emeryc Kpenou is a Partner at Southbridge and actively participates in the development of SouthBridge’s green finance operations.

Hannah Jones has served as the CEO of Earthshot Prize since 2021. Previously, she served as President of Nike Innovation Labs and has held numerous positions at Nike since 1998.

Nakul Saran was previously Chief Operating Officer of Sea the Future, Minderoo Foundation’s global industry-led initiative to end plastic leakage to nature and accelerate the transition toward a circular plastics economy. At Sea the Future, Nakul leads a global team spanning Australia, Asia, Europe, and the United States to design innovative market-based mechanisms that can enable plastics circularity and kick-start commercially viable recycling markets. He also oversees the initiative’s programs on Transparency, Advocacy, and Technology & Innovation. Nakul’s work has largely focused on developing financing and governance solutions to restore the world’s fragile ecosystems. Prior to joining Minderoo, he served as an independent consultant for major public and social sector clients including the World Bank, World Economic Forum, and Friends of Ocean Action. From 2016 to 2018, he was the Head of Special Projects and Sustainability at Tata Trusts, where he was responsible for the organization’s portfolio on energy, climate change, and the environment in India. A passionate lover of oceans, Nakul has served as Vice President, Fish Forever at Rare, where he led the global conservation organization’s efforts to revitalize oceans, scaling the program to span five countries and over 100 coastal communities, and was awarded the Mulago Foundation’s Rainer Arnhold Fellowship for his leadership. He also spent seven years at McKinsey and Company, where he led the Oceans and Fisheries service within the Sustainability and Resource Productivity Practice. Nakul holds master’s degrees in Ocean Engineering and Engineering Management from Florida Institute of Technology.