Nature disclosure, how are financial institutions gearing up?

Sandrine Salerno has been the Executive Director of SFG since January 2021. SFG’s vision is to accelerate the transformation of the financial sector by setting ambitious environmental and social goals which is perfectly in line with Sandrine’s vision for the future of Geneva: an international city and the second-largest financial center in Switzerland. Sandrine has 13 years of experience working in governance as an executive member of the City of Geneva and the head of its Finance Department. Prior to that, she was Deputy of University Affairs at the Geneva’s Department of Education and a researcher at the University of Geneva. She started her career as the Deputy Chief of the European Third World Center and later became a Coordinator in the Swiss Immigrants’ Contact Center. Sandrine is well known in Geneva for her commitment to the public good: she currently serves as a Member of the Board of Geneva Public Transport and Groupe Serbeco, as the Vice-President of the Grand Théâtre de Genève Opera, and as the President of the Puppet Theatre of Geneva. In the past she also dedicated herself to the CAP Prevoyance, as President of the Foundation Council, as well as to the FIPOI, as member of the Foundation Council. Sandrine holds a master’s degree in public policy assessment from the University of Geneva.

Jessica Smith has led the Nature programme at the UNEP Finance Initiative since 2020. For the previous 7 years she directed a consultancy firm undertaking environmental finance project development and evaluation, and leading secretariats for the Equator Principles Association and the Cross-Sector Biodiversity Initiative (applying IFC performance standard 6 on biodiversity in oil & gas, mining, and finance). She has worked extensively to mobilise and evaluate environmental finance, globally and across Africa. Her key areas of interest are mobilising private and blended finance for ecosystems (SDGs 14 and 15) and managing biodiversity-related risks in banking and investment.

Michal Kulak is Head of Consumer & Health within Robeco's Sustainable Investing Research Team. He is a member of the Biodiversity Committee and leads the development of ROBECO’s proprietary Biodiversity Investment Framework. He also serves as a Coordinating Lead Author in the ongoing IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment. Prior to joining in 2019, Mr. Kulak worked for Unilever's Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre where he managed research teams working on measuring environmental impacts of business activities and business exposure to climate change. He was also a part of the sustainable sourcing steering team and a link between the R&D Sustainability team and procurement. Before that, Mr. Kulak worked in the Life Cycle Assessment team of the Swiss federal research station. Agroscope, focusing on sustainability of agriculture and food systems. He started his career as an intern at the United Nations Environmental Program in 2008. Mr. Kulak holds a PhD from ETH Zürich and a Master in Innovation and Design for Sustainability from Cranfield University, UK.

Aksel Mjøs chairs the Norwegian government’s Nature Risk Commission, appointed in 2022 and due to deliver by end 2023. He is also associate professor and Head of the Finance Department at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH). Before becoming an academic, Mr Mjøs had a career in the financial services industry, being CEO of DnB Asset Management, Vice President in Morgan Stanley Investment Banking, London, as well as Company Secretary of Vital Insurance. Between 2013 and 2021, he also chaired the Kavli Trust, a charity-owned multinational food group. Mr. Mjøs was a member of a commission which proposed revised legislation of foundations and chaired the Norwegian government’s Capital access commission (2017-2018). He is also the founder of Gi Gaven Videre, a non-profit provider of digital gift-cards that the recipient may allocate to a charity of her choice. Mr. Mjøs holds a Master of Science degree from NHH and received his dr.oecon. in financial economics also from NHH in 2007. In addition, he has a Master of Science degree from London Business School and is an Authorized Financial Analyst.

Marianne Haahr currently works with TNFD as lead support on specific guidance for the agriculture, fishing and aquaculture sectors. She is also the Nature-related Finance Lead at Global Canopy, where she leads TNFD engagements via pilot testing of the TNFD framework and sector guidance development. Prior to these roles, Ms. Haahr served as Executive Director of the Green Digital Finance Alliance, a not-for-profit foundation working on scaling green finance with digital technologies, co-founded by UNEP. There, she developed publications on tokenised green bonds, alongside other topics, and developed data supply maps for financial service institutions. She has served on the TNFD Informal Technical Expert Group and she has developed input papers to the G-20 Sustainable Finance Working Group on sustainable digital finance and to the UN SG’s Task Force for fintech and SDGs. Ms. Haahr holds an MSc from Copenhagen University.