KEYNOTE SPEAKER 2024

Jinfeng Zhou

Secretary-General,
China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation

Connect Pekin, China Keynote Speaker

Dr. Jinfeng Zhou is the Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), a leading independent environmental NGO based in China.

Graduated from Peking University and Purdue University, where Zhou obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Post Doctorate in Physics. He has been a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) for the ninth, tenth and eleventh session, Standing committee member of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and Vice-Chair of the National Association of Vocational Education China (NAVEC) for the ninth and tenth session.

He is also an Executive Committee Member of the Club of Rome, a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL) of IUCN, and an expert of the Global Pact for the Environment, and a researcher at the Theoretical Research Base of Environmental Justice of the Supreme People's Court of China.

Believing public participation is the key to effective conservation with maximum efficiency, the public fundraiser has financed hundreds of grassroots ENGOs and community-level projects over the past five years. Under his leadership, the CBCGDF grew from 2 staff in 2014to 50 in 2021, and developed a national network of tens of thousands of conservationists and volunteers.

Zhou innovatively pioneered a new type of protected area - the Community Conservation Area (CCAfa) system in 2016 - to explore other effective measures in biodiversity conservation. CBCGDF has supported the establishment of more than 150 CCAfas in over 30 provinces throughout China, whose various protection objectives include biodiversity, natural landscape, natural resources and cultural heritage, and fighting against wild life crimes.

Zhou presided over establishing a national-level "China Biodiversity Conservation Law" research project, participating in the policy recommendations of various environmental laws and regulations in China, and insightfully exploring Environmental Public Interest Litigation(EPIL) to protect wildlife survival rights. China's newly enacted Environmental Protection Law(2015) enables Chinese NGOs to sue polluters and environmental violators on behalf of public interest. In the efforts of safeguarding people's environmental interest by China's civil society, he has led more than half of the country's total Environmental Public Interest Litigation (EPIL) cases. Famous EPIL include stories like the Tengger Desert Pollution, schools' toxic synthetic running tracks, and on the Changzhou school students sickened by chemical factories' old sites, illegal wildlife trade, saving a critically endangered plant's endemic habitats against a hydropower station, and environmental pollutions brought by six Chinese leading food take-out companies who didn't give consumers green choices on saying "No" to one-time-use utensils.

Zhou believes the most important environmental challenges are the intertwined crises of biodiversity loss, climate change and public health. They're co-related and should be addressed in a holistic way. He is an eager learner with open mindedness.

FEATURED SPEAKERS 2024

Eleonore Dachicourt

Head of Sustainable & Responsible Investments, Asia,
BNP Paribas Wealth Management

Connect Singapore Speaker

She is responsible for leading the organisation’s growth in sustainable investments as part of BNPP’s “Growth, Technology and Sustainability” (“GTS”) 2025 Strategy and drive client uptake of sustainable investments. In her role she advises clients on their sustainability journey and works closely with the investment products and services teams as well as ESG stakeholders across the group, towards a holistic sustainable investment offering spanning all asset classes and strategies: from ESG integration to impact investing.

Prior to joining BNPP in 2022, Eleonore was a Managing Director with Credit Suisse, where her last role was Head of Sustainable Client Solutions, Global Wealth Management, where she implemented the group’s sustainability investment strategy for the private bank. She was also responsible for successfully growing sales of sustainable & responsible investments across all market areas, globally.

Eleonore started her career in alternative investments in London, building out the Hedge Fund Advisory platforms for UBS and Credit Suisse. She has more than 20 years of Asset and Wealth Management experience as an investment specialist, portfolio manager and fund raiser across Asia, UK, Switzerland and EMEA, including +10 years in Singapore. Over the course of her career she has raised and managed billions of dollars across the alternatives space, primarily in hedge funds, as well as in traditional multi-asset long-only portfolios. Eleonore graduated with a Masters in Business and Finance from NEOMA Business School and an executive MBA from INSEAD. She is also a CFA Charterholder, holds the CFA ESG Investment certificate and is a professionally certified executive and wellness coach.

Janet Shum

Sustainable Investing Specialist, APAC,
Citi Global Wealth

Connect Singapore Speaker

Janet Shum is a Sustainable Investing Specialist for the Asia Pacific region. In this role, she manages Citi Global Wealth Investment's sustainable investing platform as it relates to product management, thought leadership and client engagement. She also works in partnership with Citi's investment divisions to help ensure that the integration of sustainability objectives aligns with Citi's best thinking on portfolio management, research and asset allocation.

Janet has over seven years of consulting experience in managing numerous international advisory, business development, research and engagement projects relating to sustainability, sustainable and impact investing as well as strategic philanthropy. Janet was a manager at KPMG, sustainable services in Singapore. She also worked as a consultant with Yunus Social Business, a social business fund and various non-profit organizations in Hong-Kong involved in social impact.

Prior to consulting, Janet worked at Merrill Lynch Private Wealth Management and HSBC Personal Financial Services in Hong-Kong, where she served ultra-high-net-worth clients and retail clients in the Greater China region, respectively.

Janet holds a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD, a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Human Sciences from the University of Oxford, as well as certificates in Sustainable Finance and ESG Investing from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and the CFA institute, respectively.

Maud Savary-Mornet

Senior Advisor,
The Global Impact Investing Network

Connect Hong Kong Moderator

Maud supports the GIIN with strengthening the impact investing community and building engagement with institutional investors in South East Asia. She brings over twenty-five years of experience in impact investment, international development and in the private and public sector to the GIIN.

Maud brings a track record of 12 years in ESG and impact investment in emerging economies. She grew successfully responsAbility in Asia Pacific, one of world’s leading asset managers in ESG and impact investments. She led the investment team in private debt in financial inclusion and climate finance for 8 years before becoming regional director of Asia Pacific with teams in Hong Kong, Mumbai and Bangkok. She conducted more than 100 due diligences in SME banks and microfinance institutions, closed multiple deals and opened several Asian countries for investment, ranging from Indonesia and China to Samoa in the Pacific Islands. She also developed a network of impact investors in Asia Pacific looking at private debt and private equity as well as capital market solutions.

Maud started her career at the French Central Bank as analyst in charge of the financial rating of SME and large corporates, being then seconded at the French Banking Commission to prepare and negotiate banking regulations and then posted at the French Trade Commission in Hong Kong.

Maud is a very strong supporter of Gender lens investing. She led the gender diversity initiative at responsAbility and worked extensively on a gender bond initiative for Asia Pacific.

French and Australian citizen, Maud graduated in 1991 from Sciences Po Paris, with a major in economics and finance. One of her personal goal is to open minds to sustainable finance and she is frequently invited to speak in conferences. She has published several articles on microfinance, impact investment and ESG. She also serves as advisor and Board member in several companies, networks and NGO, including Alygne Inc in California and the French Foreign Trade Advisors in Hong Kong.

OUR 2024 ADVISORY BOARD

This program was created with input from:

- Abhilash Mudaliar, Chief Impact Officer, Paul Ramsay Foundation
- Éléonore Dachicourt, Managing Director - Head of Sustainability, Asia, BNP Paribas Wealth Management
- Janet Shum, Sustainable Investing Specialist, APAC, Citi Global Wealth
- Jinfeng Zhou, Secretary-General, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation
- Maud Savary-Mornet, Senior Advisor, The GIIN

GET INSPIRED BY OUR PAST SPEAKERS

INDUSTRY LEADERS & IMPACT PIONEERS

Scilla Elworthy

Peace Builder, Three-time Nobel Prize Nominee

Connect UK Keynote

Dr Scilla Elworthy turns vision into action. Today her full attention is on developing Business Plan for Peace, resulting from her 2017 book: The Business Plan for Peace: Building a World Without War. She has been three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for developing effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policymakers worldwide and their critics, with the Oxford Research Group she founded in 1982. Peace Direct, voted ‘Best New Charity’ in 2005, goes from strength to strength under brilliant young leadership, founded by Scilla in 2002 to fund, promote and learn from local peace-builders in conflict areas. Scilla was adviser to Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Richard Branson in setting up ‘The Elders’, and was Awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003. She co-founded Rising Women Rising World in 2013, and FemmeQ in 2016 to establish the qualities of feminine intelligence - for men as for women - as essential for building a safer world. Her TED talk on non-violence has been viewed by over 1,400,000 people on TED and YouTube. Her book Pioneering the Possible: awakened leadership for a world that works (North Atlantic Books, 2014) continues to receive critical acclaim from experts in the field. She’s Ambassador for Peace Direct, a Councillor of the World Future Council and patron of Oxford Research Group; adviser to the Syria Campaign and the Institute for Economics and Peace. She advises the leadership of selected international corporations as well as young social entrepreneurs. Scilla is a mother, stepmother, and grandmother and loves messing about in her garden near Oxford in the UK.

Sir Ronald Cohen

Chair,
The Global Steering Group (GSG)

Connect UK Keynote

Sir Ronald Cohen is a pioneering philanthropist, venture capitalist, private equity investor, and social innovator, who is driving forward the global Impact Revolution. For nearly two decades, his ground-breaking initiatives have catalyzed global efforts to drive private capital to serve social and environmental good. He serves as Chairman of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment and The Portland Trust. He is a co-founder of Social Finance UK, USA, and Israel; and co-founder Chair of Bridges Fund Management and Big Society Capital. He chaired the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce (2013-2015), the UK Social Investment Task Force (2000-2010) and the UK’s Commission on Unclaimed Assets (2005-2007). In 2012 he received the Rockefeller Foundation’s Innovation Award for Social Finance. He was a co-founder and Executive Chairman of Apax Partners Worldwide LLP (1972-2005), a global private equity firm. He was a co-founder and Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association and a co-founder of the European Venture Capital Association. He is a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School; a former director of the Harvard Management Company; and formerly a member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers and the University of Oxford Investment Committee. He graduated from Oxford University, where he was President of the Oxford Union. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School to which he was awarded a Henry Fellowship. Sir Ronald was born in Egypt and left as a refugee at the age of 11, when his family came to the UK.

Fran Seegull

President,
U.S. Impact Investing Alliance

Connect New York, USA Keynote Speaker

Fran Seegull is the Executive Director of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance which works to increase awareness of impact investing in the United States, foster deployment of and demand for impact capital across asset classes globally, and partner with stakeholders, including government, to build the impact investing ecosystem. The Alliance is being accelerated by the Ford Foundation and supported by a range of philanthropies and individuals.

Fran was the Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director of Investments at ImpactAssets where she headed investment management for The Giving Fund—an impact investing donor advised fund. She also oversaw product development for and managed the Global Sustainable Agriculture and Microfinance Plus Notes.

Prior to joining ImpactAssets, Fran was Managing Director at Funk Ventures, an early-stage impact venture capital and acceleration firm. She also served as Vice President of Business Development at Novica, an online retailer of products made by artisans in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Fran has consulted to National Geographic and NPR West as well as a number of family foundations and offices.

Fran has a BS in Economics from Barnard College at Columbia University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She serves on the Investment Committee of Align Impact. Previously, Fran taught a graduate-level course on impact investing at USC’s Marshall School of Business and served on the Investment Committee of the Goldhirsh Foundation and on the G7 Social Impact Investment Task Force Working Group on Asset Allocation. She tweets on impact investing at @franseegull.

Hazel Henderson D.Sc.Hon., FRSA,

Founder, Ethical Markets Media,
Certified B Corporation

United Kingdom Keynote

Hazel Henderson D.Sc.Hon., FRSA, founder of Ethical Markets Media, Certified B Corporation. She is a world-renowned futurist, active environmentalist, syndicated columnist, and author of award-winning Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy (2006); Mapping the Global Transition to the Solar Age (2014), and other books in 800 libraries, in 20 languages, including “Planetary Citizenship “co-authored by Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda. Ethical Markets is the publisher of Henderson’s forthcoming textbook, “Mapping the Global Green Transition: 2009-2020“.

She is the producer of the global TV series “Transforming Finance“ and the Ethical Markets TV series. She created in 2004 the EthicMark® Awards for Communications Uplifting the Human Spirit & Society, showcasing positive messages to raise the ethical bar on global advertising and in 2009 the annual Green Transition Scoreboard®.

She launched the EthicMarkGEMS®.com, the first global standard certifying only gems NOT mined from Mother Earth, to phase out unnecessary global gem mining, now chemically- identical gems are cheaply available worldwide and also co-created Ethical Biomimicry Finance®. Henderson served as a cabinet-level science policy advisor to the US Office of Technology Assessment, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Engineering.

Her over 400 articles appear in Harvard Business Review, New York Times, LeMonde Diplomatique, and journals in Japan, Britain, Venezuela, China, France, Australia. Honorary Member of the Club of Rome, Fellow of Britain’s Royal Society for Arts and of The World Academy of Art & Science, Henderson shared the 1996 Global Citizen Award with Argentinian Nobelist Pérez Esquivel. She has many honorary degrees.

Eva Halvarsson

CEO,
AP2

Connect Greater Gothenburg Metropolitan Area, Sweden Keynote

Since 2006, Eva Halvarsson has acted as the CEO of the Second Swedish National Pension Fund -- AP2. She heads up an organization with more than SEK 345 billion (approx. USD 43 billion) under management in virtually every asset class, and one that is active in all parts of the world; AP2 is one of northern Europe's largest pension funds.Ms. Halvarsson began her career as an accountant, progressing to the point that before joining AP2, she spent ten years working for the Swedish Government where she was responsible for the governance and management of the large and extensive portfolio of state owned companies. Eva Halvarsson has had a distinguished and varied leadership career. She took part in the working group that put into effect the Swedish Corporate Governance Code in 2004. She also spent several years, serving on the Swedish Corporate Governance Board. Eva has been a board member of several large companies and has chaired the nomination committees of some of Sweden’s largest listed companies. She recently left after serving for ten years as the Deputy Chairperson of the board of the University of Gothenburg.Presently, she is board member of the UN-PRI (the United Nation´s Principles for Responsible Investments), Vasakronan (the largest real estate company in Sweden), The Gothenburg Award for Sustainable Development and The Royal Swedish Opera. In addition, she serves on the advisory board of the Women Entrepreneur´s Opportunity Facility, the first-ever global finance facility dedicated exclusively to women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises.Eva Halvarsson was born in 1962 and holds an MSc in Business and Economics from the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg.