Net Zero Investor’s Nature Positive Investment Forum 2024

Tegs, an established professional trustee and Head of Sustainability at IGG, brings extensive experience in overseeing pension schemes across various sectors, encompassing DC master trusts, DB, and hybrid schemes. As a qualified actuary, her expertise extends to profound insights into pension finance, risk management, and regulatory landscapes .

Before joining Smart Pension in 2019, Paul was a Managing Director at BlackRock (and subsequently Aegon), leading their UK defined contribution workplace pension business. He has also held senior positions at Fidelity, AXA and PwC.

I am a sustainable investment specialist with over 15 years’ experience, most recently with the United Nations supported Principles of Responsible Investment, where I led a team supporting 1400 investors to implement environmental, social and governance criteria into investment strategy, decisions and stewardship. At Redington, I am responsible for leading the firm’s global sustainability strategy, integrating this across different business channels, and expanding the organisation’s capabilities across new global markets and with a broader class of asset owners including endowments, foundations, and charities.

Nick is the Head of Nature Based Solutions for Nuveen Natural Capital. He is responsible for developing the Nature Based Solutions investment strategy across farmland, timberland and ecological restoration. Nick brings over 15 years’ experience in leading investment and technical advisory services across forestry, agriculture and climate finance. Most recently Nick has been Managing Director at Cardano Development, managing strategies investing in projects which support forest conservation and sustainable agriculture.

Chris currently leads nature-related activities at Phoenix Group, focusing on developing the approach for understanding and assessing nature related risks across Phoenix investment portfolios as well as supporting the work to identify, define and integrate nature-related investment opportunities into existing investment strategy.  Prior to joining Phoenix in November 2021, Chris led financial sector engagement at Global Canopy, a UK based not for profit organisation focused on enabling a tropical deforestation free economy through data and tools development. Prior to that he held roles as both equity portfolio manager and financial analyst predominantly for in-house managed pensions schemes.

Robbie currently leads on environmental projects within the Church Commissioners for England’s Farmland portfolio. Having graduated with a degree in Environmental Science from Newcastle University, Robbie spent the early part of his career working at Ceres Rural as an Agri-Environmental Consultant before he joined the Church Commissioners for England at the beginning of 2023. Through this new role, Robbie focusses on working with tenants to reduce emissions and pollution from agriculture, encouraging nature creation and promoting sustainable farming practices in the tenanted sector.  He also aims to collect data, improve tenant engagement, and advance the farmland portfolio’s overall sustainability across the country. This is achieved through several approaches, including estate visits throughout the year, as well as hosting focussed tenant workshops. The Church Commissioners for England also invite tenants to events that promote sustainable and regenerative farming practices across all sectors within the portfolio.

With a background in crop research and business consultancy, as well as on farm experience, Robbie has a detailed understanding of the challenges the agricultural industry faces, and the role it must play for both halting biodiversity decline and meeting net zero.

Danielle Carreira is an environment and sustainable finance specialist and brings over fifteen years’ experience developing and implementing multi-stakeholder initiatives that helps the global finance sector to understand and integrate environmental risks and opportunities into investment and lending processes.

As Head of Finance Sector Engagement at the Tropical Forest Alliance, an initiative hosted by the WEF, she is responsible for the strategic development, implementation and coordination of a platform, that brings together public policy makers, financial institutions, global companies and commodity producers from key countries, towards an inclusive and collective action agenda to reduce deforestation and accelerate the transition towards more sustainable land use practices.

Danielle has previously worked at the Principle for Responsible Investment (PRI), the Natural Capital Finance Alliance, Trucost, FTSE Russel, Reuters and Bloomberg.

She has co-authored the report ‘Natural Capital Risk Exposure of the Finance Sector in Brazil’ in 2015 and ‘The State of Finance for Nature’, published in May 2021. Her most recent publication, in 2022, was the co-authoring of a chapter for the Brazil CFA Society book “Novas fronteiras de risco e retorno – Guia prático para integração ESG nos investimentos”. Danielle holds an MA in International Finance and a BSc in Economic Sciences.

Based in London, Jo leads the development of the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute (AFII)’s research, which supports fixed income investors in aligning their portfolios to climate and sustainability goals.

Jo joined AFII from JPMorgan where she worked for 18 years in fixed income markets. She has extensive experience trading structured, flow and index credit products, and in the modeling and valuation of derivatives.

Jo has an MA Hons Mathematics & Management Studies from Trinity College Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Management Accountants. She serves as trustee and advisor to a number of charities and social enterprises in the UK.

Olly Hughes is a Managing Director and a member of the Forestry Investment Committee at Gresham House since January 2019 leading the Forestry Division. He is responsible for managing the growth and development of Gresham House’s forestry

activities including acquisitions, fund and private client management and forestry asset management. Prior to joining Gresham House, he was a Partner and Head of Infrastructure at Oxford Capital for six years where he built and managed a portfolio

of over £300m of solar and wind renewable energy assets. He started his career at ING Barings in 1995 focusing on asset backed structuring and since then has focused his career on real asset investment management.

Olly has over 20 years of investment experience and holds a Bachelor of Arts and a master’s degree from the University of Oxford in Biological Science. He also obtained the Investment Management Certificate from the CFA Society in the UK.

Dr. Stavros Siokosis a Co-Founder, the Managing Partner and Member of the Investment Committee at Astarte Capital Partners.
Stavros is primarily responsible for strategic business development across all markets and investor reach.
He has more than 30 years of experience in building and managing businesses in various areas of Capital Markets, Asset Management and Alternative Investments.
Stavros started his career at Salomon Brothers in London, which later became part of Citigroup. He spent many years at Citigroup as
Managing Director and global head of alternative executions, portfolio trading strategies and pension fund solutions.
He is the author to several books and academic papers related to finance, engineering, econometrics, and advanced mathematics.
Stavros holds an Electrical and Computer Engineering Diploma from the University of Patras, Greece, a MSc in the same field and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the University of Massachusetts.

Michael is an investment manager at South Yorkshire Pensions Authority (SYPA), a Local Government Pension Scheme with c£10.5bn of AuM and part of the Border to Coast pool. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the selection and performance of managers within the Authority’s UK impact portfolio, which consists of private market and alternative assets. Additionally, he conducts due diligence for investments made outside of the pool. Furthermore, he takes the lead on climate and stewardship reporting to advance SYPA’s ambitious target of achieving a net zero target for the investment portfolio. Having previously worked in the energy sector, and with a background in renewable energy, he has a keen interest in the energy transition and security of energy supply.

Michael is a CFA® Charterholder and holds a Bachelor of Engineering and a Master’s degree from Loughborough University in Renewable Energy Systems Technology.

Mr. Turnbull joined Federated Hermes and the UKNIF Investment Team in April 2023. He is responsible for taking natural capital investment opportunities from initial site survey through to presentation to the IC. Along with Mr. Caughlin, he will lead on the underwriting of natural capital Real Assets and the management of UKNIF’s relationship with development manager counterparties. Prior to joining Federated Hermes, he was Head of Asset Management at Climate Impact Partners, a major global Nature-Carbon investment platform that works with investors, corporates, ENGOs and governments to develop and deliver high quality carbon-financed nature restoration projects across global voluntary carbon markets. Prior to that, Mr. Turnbull was Head of Natural Capital & Sustainable Investment and a Partner at Bidwells, one the UK’s largest Nature-based investment asset managers (GBP 5.2 billion in assets under management), where he spent a decade focusing on then leading the natural capital work across one of the largest land, estate and property management divisions in the UK including commercial woodland, biodiverse woodland, peatland, large mixed use rural estates and the application of Biodiversity Net Gain and other natural capital projects across over 1 million acres of the English and Scottish countryside and coastline. During his early career, he spent time as a food commodity trader in international markets with Freeworld Trading, establishing and building supply-side relationships in LATAM and APAC countries for a customer base in Europe. Mr. Turnbull also focused on developing the companies environmental and social impact, particularly in relation to Non-Timber-Forest-Products sourced from communities in Amazonia. Mr Turnbull has a BSc Honours Ecology (Forestry Hons) from the University of Edinburgh, is a Chartered Forester under the Institute of Chartered Foresters and qualified as a RICS Chartered Surveyor & Valuer of land property assets.

Cain Blythe is a Chartered Environmentalist and an award-winning leader in ecosystem restoration and nature recovery. He is the founder and CEO of two pioneering organisations leading the drive to help accelerate global rewilding. His expertise merges applied ecosystem practice, technology, finance and the recognition that the best outcomes are achieved through partnership and collaboration. With a career spanning over three decades, Cain has integrated his expertise in biodiversity and habitat management to unlock the full potential of rewilding, as one of the most viable nature-based solutions available today. His journey began working in zoological parks in the UK and Australia and he studied at Southampton and Surrey Universities, leading to key roles in organisations such as Jacobs Engineering Ltd, Ecosulis, and now, CreditNature. Cain is instrumental in leading initiatives that merge technology and finance with nature recovery efforts, pushing boundaries within the sector

A specialist in sustainability, stewardship and responsible investment, Jacqueline joined London CIV in 2020 with 12 years’ prior experience working for and engaging with global companies, governments, regulators and investors on ESG-related issues.

She joins LCIV from Trucost, S&P Global, where she directed business development and responsible investment, assessing investment risks relating to climate change, natural resource constraints and broader environmental, social and governance factors.

Jacqueline has extensive experience working with government bodies and regulators such as The Environment Agency, UNEP, PRI as well as previous engagement with London Authorities and pension funds to quantify ESG risks and advise upon the development of policies and guidance. 

Lee is part of the Responsible Investment and Stewardship team at one of the UK’s leading pension providers, Scottish Widows, where he specialises in nature-related risk management, the growth of carbon and nature markets and TNFD. He authored Scottish Widows’ report on nature and biodiversity for the pensions industry and is an active contributor to several nature-focused industry initiatives, advocating for industry-wide action. With a background in investment risk and compliance, Lee is a team SME on matters of sustainable finance policy and regulation.

Josh is Responsible Investment Officer for the Oxfordshire County Council Pension Fund, part of the Brunel Pensions Partnership. He is currently leading the process to develop an expanded responsible investment policy for the Fund, including its approach to managing risks related to nature and biodiversity.

Prior to joining the Oxfordshire Pension Fund, he worked at the nature data NGO Global Canopy, where he led engagement with the finance industry to encourage take-up of deforestation data in the sector. He is a non-executive director of Global Canopy’s commercial company.

Josh has 18 years’ experience working in the responsible investment field, including leading Finance and Energy sector research teams at ESG data provider Vigeo Eiris, and helping highly impactful organisations raise finance through Ethex, a retail investment crowdfunding platform.

James is a Workplace Investment Director looking after FutureWise Target Dated Fund Strategy and a number of key strategic IO clients since February 2023. He comes with 13 years DC Investment industry experience from Aon, where he was Head of DC Investments for 8 Years and is qualified as a Regulated Financial Planner, with a specialism in DC investment strategy design, sustainability, less liquid asset integration and provider market knowledge. His responsibilities included working on the Bank of England’s Productive Working Finance Group, governing the Aon DC Product (including the Aon Master Trust), reviewing the investment and bundled proposition of pension providers and advising Employers and Trusts on their workplace investment strategy.

Paul King joined Built by Nature as CEO after serving as Managing Director, Sustainability and Social Impact, Lendlease Europe, since February 2015.

Previously he was the founding CEO of the UK Green Building Council, May 2007 – January 2015. Before that he worked for WWF-UK as Director of Campaigns, Campaign Director for WWF’s One Million Sustainable Homes campaign and co-founder of One Planet Living.

Paul is a Director of BeOnsite, a not-for-profit organisation that supports people furthest from work into sustained employment, and a Design Council Expert Specialist in the areas of sustainability and net zero carbon. Between February 2017 and February 2023, he was a trustee and Vice Chair of the Board of Centre for London, the city’s only dedicated think tank.

Paul was Chairman of the public/private sector Zero Carbon Hub 2008 – 2016 and a member of the Zero Carbon Homes 2016 Task Force, established by the UK Government to translate the zero carbon homes policy ambition into reality. He was a member of the UK Government’s Green Construction Board and Chair of its Buildings Working Group. He was also a member of the Low Carbon Construction IGT, Sustainable Buildings Task Group, Code for Sustainable Homes Steering Group and the Egan Review of Skills for Sustainable Communities, all commissioned by the UK Government. On an international level, he was a member of the Board of the World Green Building Council and Chair of the WorldGBC Europe Network 2007 – 2014.

Mike is a Project Manager in Sustainable Finance at Systemiq, a systems change company that partners with business, finance, policymakers, and civil society to make economic systems truly sustainable.

Sitting at the junction between finance and the built environment, Mike advises banks and investors on decarbonisation and climate positive strategies. Much of his focus is on tackling key challenges and questions that require a system perspective – for example, what is needed to unlock and scale the net zero real estate market? And what does nature-positive mean for real estate investors?

Mike has 10+ years’ experience in finance, strategy, and sustainability. Prior to Systemiq, he worked in corporate strategy and investment banking, and holds an MBA from Imperial College London.

Fuyao is a Research Analyst in the Ocean Programme. Holding a master’s degree in Finance from the University of Cambridge, Fuyao’s professional background includes years of experience as an equity research analyst in both China and the UK, specializing in the China machinery industry as well as the global interactive entertainment sector.