Previous Speaker Spotlight
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Jan Peter Balkenende
Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands
Professor Jan Peter Balkenende was Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 2002 to 2010. During 2011-2016, Balkenende worked as Partner at EY. Since 2016, he is an External Senior Advisor to EY and since May 2021 Associate Partner at Hague Corporate Affairs. Balkenende chairs the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition, and the Noaber Foundation. He is a Professor Emeritus at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Member of the World Leadership Alliance - Club de Madrid, and since October 2022 Minister of State of The Netherlands.
Salla Ahonen
Vice President, Sustainability at Neste
With over 20 years of experience in sustainability, PA & innovation, Salla is passionate about climate, innovation, partnerships and sustainability. Examples of milestones at Neste: Realigning Neste’s sustainability priorities and ensuring their integration to the business strategy; Publishing of the new sustainability vision as part of the company strategy; and approval of the climate strategy to reach carbon-neutral production by 2035, and developing a roadmap to achieve this target, e.g. changing the investment criteria supportive of climate targets and linking the targets to executive remuneration. Prior to Neste, Salla has worked at the Brussels office of the Confederation of Finnish Industries, Microsoft, Nokia, among others.
Anton Kotov
Head of Strategy, Business Development and Sustainability, Electrification Business, ABB
Anton Kotov is heading Strategy, Business Development, and Sustainability at ABB Electrification Business ($14bn). Anton leads the teams who run Strategic Planning, M&A and Portfolio Management, Venture Investments, Business Intelligence, Open Innovation, Partnership Ecosystem, and Sustainability at the global level, based out of the HQ in Zurich, Switzerland.
Prior to joining ABB in 2017, Anton spent 10 years at Schneider Electric where he was driving Business Optimization for the global business unit, worked on strategy projects and M&A deals within the Corporate Strategy & Development team, and held a position of Strategy VP for Global Segments & Strategic Accounts.
Nidhi Gulati
Principal, Business Consulting Sustainability & Design, Infosys
Nidhi is a sustainability practitioner and social impact strategist with twelve years of experience in the built environment sector. During this time, she has held various positions leading community-based consulting projects, managing a team of place makers, to serving as a Co-Executive Director. In addition, she has served on advisory bodies for international programs led by The Brookings Institution, the World Economic Form among others. She holds a Principal Consultant position within the Sustainability and Design Unit at Infosys Limited in Amsterdam. On a daily basis, she works on projects and assignments coalescing urban transformation and digital transformation towards resilient, regenerative, and just built environments.
Laia Mas Perez
Director, Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Danone Iberia
Laia is a corporate business leader passionate about sustainability and brand impact. After more than two decades leading roles in corporate business she understands and has witnessed first-hand the change of business consciousness towards a more ethical and social impact model. Being a member of the Executive Committee in Danone Iberia, as Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Director, Laia is responsible for defining the strategic sustainability framework, setting up a steering committee to govern the inside and outside the company and promoting an ecosystem of alliances interconnected to the company transformational agenda, aimed to build company credibility and reputation. Laia believes in the genuine force of people and acknowledges the importance of building teams from trust, empowerment and mutual respect.
Randall Krantz
Head of Strategy & Partnerships, Global Commons Accountability Accelerator
Randall is a strategist, systems thinker and creator of constellations; a process facilitator with the goal of helping others solving today’s most complex environmental and social challenges. He has built partnerships with business and on climate change, circular economy, and nature. Over the past two years, he has set up the Accountability Accelerator, which is working with the Science-based Targets Network and standards setters to provide the tools companies need to reward corporate ambition and delivery, and punish greenwash and non-compliance.
Laurien Meuter
Founder, Tiny Miracles
Laurien Meuter founded Tiny Miracles in 2010 after a life-changing trip to India opened her eyes and heart to the harsh realities of poverty. Her firm, Tiny Miracles, is focused on helping people break the poverty cycle through a for-profit business model. Prior to Tiny Miracles, she was working in the investment division of ABN Amro Bank in The Netherlands. She was recognized as Alumnus of the Year by her alma mater, University of Groningen, in 2020.
Montse Montaner
Former Chief Sustainability Officer, Novartis
Montse Montaner is a visionary and strategically driven transformational leader with more than three decades of international experience across large pharma companies delivering excellence in Quality and Manufacturing Operations Management and Sustainability. Montse was the first Novartis Chief Sustainabilty officer .Prior to this appointment, Montse served as Novartis Chief Quality Officer , leading quality organization from research to commercial. Montse has received accolades for her work : she was awarded as 100 Top Women in Sustainability, awarded in the Sustainability Magazine´s Top 100 Leaders Program and short list for the European Diversity Award due to her commitment on promoting diverse teams in their organizations.
Ulli Waltinger
Partner, Siemens AI Lab
Dr. Ulli Waltinger is the Vice President for Artificial Intelligence & IoT (#AIoT) at Siemens Advanta Consulting and a Fellow of the Siemens AI Lab. Prior to this, he was the Technology Head of the Siemens AI Lab and Head of the Machine Intelligence Research Group at Siemens Technology, Siemens’ global research organization. He is passionate about enabling an open and interdisciplinary research and innovation culture with meaningful impact on people’s lives.
Teresa González Barreda
Head of Sustainability and ESG, Arcano Partners
Prior to joining Arcano, Teresa worked at Johnson and Johnson as a Corporate Social Responsibility Coordinator. During this time, Teresa designed and implemented the CSR strategy for Spain. Previously, Teresa worked at Fundación Codespa, helping companies to integrate CSR programs in their business operations. Formerly, and also at Fundación Codespa, she spent five years in Latin America, doing projects and consulting work in the field of micro-finance, development and impact for different local governments and international organizations (United Nations, Inter-American Development Bank, Latin American Development Bank). Teresa started her career at Arcano and spent four years working as a member of the Private Equity investment team. Teresa has a bachelor's degree in business administration from Universidad Pontificia de Comillas (ICADE) and a master's degree in international Cooperation and Development.
Elena Aguirre Martin
Head of Ratings Operations, BeZero Carbon
Elena is Head of Ratings Operations at BeZero Carbon, leading on the end-to-end delivery of carbon project ratings. She has more than 7 years of experience in the sustainability sector. Before joining BeZero, Elena worked as a senior consultant at Global Factor, an international climate change consultancy. Her main work involved managing projects and teams to help industries comply with all the requirements of the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), creating carbon foot-printing tools and emissions reduction plans, helping to report to the CDP and assisting in several verifications based on different standards.
Andrea (Ginka) Christenson
Senior Advisor at Rhodion Advisors
Andrea works with family businesses, supporting them with strategic, organizational, but also personnel issues and helps prepare these companies in the long term and, if necessary, prepare them for a transfer of generations.
Her main interests are in the areas of governance, human resources, structuring the implementation and complex decision-making processes. She is a member of advisory boards and administrative boards of European companies, among those, Cementos Molins Spain, Corvatsch/Diavolezza AG.
professionalizing the production. In 2013, the company was sold to a strategic investor. Ginka Christenson studied business economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and earned an MBA at IESE in Barcelona. She also holds a diploma in Mediation from the IMS (Institute for Mediation) in Munich (2004). She is the mother of three grown sons.
Daniel Truran
B Corp Ambassador at B Lab Europe
Daniel is a strategist, impact innovator, speaker and enabler. He has dedicated the last 20 years to explore and harness the connection between the values, the purpose and the actions of people and companies, inspiring and creating communities and movements that are building the future - a better, more prosperous, sustainable and just future.
He is currently director general at EBBF - ethical business building the future, B Corp ambassador at B Lab Europe, Partner at BforGoodLeaders.org, Professor of Impact Innovation at EOI and Visiting Professor at IESE & ESADE, Uni Cadiz, UCJC teaching at various master's in business schools, to spark the transition that people and the world want and need.
Ernesto Barcelo
ESG Corporate Director at Gestamp
Ernesto Barceló Rodríguez joins the ESG area of Gestamp after a long career at a global level in Spain, France and Switzerland. His professional career has a strong focus on Sustainability, Health & Safety, Regulatory Affairs and Quality, among others. His experience includes managing the coexistence of linear and circular economies, while transitioning to a new low emissions system. With a degree in Industrial Engineering (Textile Chemistry) from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), a Master's in Industrial Quality Management (UPC-EFQM) and a PDD in Executive Education from IESE Business School, Barceló began his career in 1995 as Head of Quality Assurance in Nubiola (formerly Colores Hispania). Subsequently, he joined Omya in 1997, first as Director of Quality, Environment and Safety in the Spanish division of the Swiss company, which later led him to different global positions such as Marketing Director, Commercial Director, Head of Regulatory Affairs and Group Vice President Sustainability .Barceló also actively participates in ESG academic research in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems of the Aalto School of Chemical Engineering (Finland).
Peter Zandee
Global Relationship Manager, Tony's Chocolonely
Peter Zandee is a Relationship Manager at Tony’s Chocolonely. Peter joined Tony’s Chocolonely in 2014 and was responsible for launching Tony’s in the USA, the first expansion outside of the Netherlands. Tony’s Chocolonely has grown quickly into a highly coveted brand in the US with distribution across the country in national retailers. Currently he manages the expansion of Tony’s in the France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Tony's Chocolonely works to realize a 100% slave-free chocolate industry by making great tasting chocolate without the bitter aftertaste and urging other - much larger - chocolate manufacturers to take responsibility for their cocoa. Honest, transparent and scrumptious chocolate!
Katherin Kirschenmann
Co-founder, The DO
Katherin Kirschenmann is founder and Chief Program Officer of The DO. Katherin is an international speaker, executive facilitator, and TV host with Deutsche Welle. She draws on her wide international experience across sectors to develop new ways to co-create innovation, develop Purposeful DOers, and impact entrepreneurs. Engagements under her leadership have empowered thousands of individuals and businesses to create meaningful innovation and lasting social change. Her firm, The DO empowers people to take action and create positive impact in their companies, their communities and the wider world. It is home to The DO Group, where they work with companies and organizations on their purposeful transformation, The DO School, a life-long learning center that believes in the power of hands-on learning, and, a social business, The DO Community, an effort to connect their global ecosystem in the belief that together, our actions can solve the big challenges of our time.
Henrietta Onwuegbuzie
Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship (Lagos Business School)
Dr. Henrietta Onwuegbuzie is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Lagos Business School and a certified Management consultant. She is passionate about economic development and social transformation in Nigeria and Africa, and has initiated the creation of over 100 profitable, impact-driven businesses through the MBA and Executive programmes at Lagos Business School (LBS), where she leads sessions in Entrepreneurship on the MBA and Executive programmes. Onwuegbuzie was one of the first two African Visiting Faculty at Yale School of Management, in the US in 2019. She is currently the Director of the Business Innovation Accelerator (BIA), and Project Director for the Impact Investing initiative at LBS. She was recently conferred the Excellence award in Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing and appointed a Distinguished Fellow of the Global Africa Leadership Council.
Diego Sanz
Founder and CEO, Reforestum
Diego is a software engineer with 15+ years of experience building web applications. He holds an Executive MBA degree from IESE. His true passion is finding practical ways for sustainable living on this planet combining cutting-edge and traditional technologies with nature-based solutions. Reforestum is an online marketplace to drive reforestation and forest conservation, incentivizing companies and individuals to easily offset their carbon footprint by acquiring and tracking forest shares and carbon credits.
Anil Sachdev
Founder and CEO, Grow Talent Company Limited & School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL in India)
Beginning his career at Tata Motors in 1975, Anil has gained diverse experience in India and across the world covering areas such as talent management, strategic change and organizational transformation. Recognized as a thought leader in leadership development and organizational transformation, Anil has done pioneering work with leading global and local firms. He has been adjunct Faculty to leading business schools such as Indian School of Business, Kelly School of Business, Indiana University, GMI, Flint Michigan, Antioch University, Seattle, Ohio University and the University of New Brunswick, Canada. Anil is a member of the Academic Committee of CEDEP, the leading Leadership Institute of Europe, located at Fontainebleau. He is a member of the World Compassion Council, based in Seattle and a Trustee of the Chinmaya Mission.
Alexander Holst
Managing Director, Sustainability Strategy & Services Lead, Accenture
He is the Managing Director of the Management & Technology Consultancy Accenture and is part of the European Leadership Team of the Sustainability Strategy & Services practice. He has supported clients for more than 23 years to integrate sustainability into their core business ensuring their future viability. With his background of working in the specific field of Digital and Sustainability since 2008 and leading numerous studies and client engagements, Alexander is a thought leader in this field
