Luxembourg 2019 Digital Edition

Pamela Castillo Barahona

Vice Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica and President of FUNBAM,

Gautier Quéru

Director, Land Degradation Neutrality Fund and Mirova

Gautier Quéru heads the Land Degradation Neutrality Fund, an innovative fund co-promoted by Mirova, the responsible investment management company of Natixis, and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). He also manages investment opportunities, sourcing and analysis, and acts as a focal point for diverse organizations.

Carole Dieschbourg

Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development of Luxembourg

Following the legislative elections of 20 October 2013, Carole Dieschbourg joined the government as Minister for the Environment on 4 December 2013 in the coalition government formed by the Democratic Party (DP), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) and the Green Party (déi gréng). In December 2015, under the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Carole Dieschbourg coordinated the position of the European Union at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris. After the legislative elections of 14 October 2018, Carole Dieschbourg was appointed Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development on 5 December 2018 in the coalition government formed by the DP, the LSAP and déi gréng. Within the programme "Leader+ Müllerthal", Carole Dieschbourg was the project coordinator for “Moulins – inventaire, excursion et sentier régional” (Mills – inventory, excursion and regional trail) and “Millebuch” (Book on mills) from 2005 to 2006. In 2007, she published the book Die Mühlen des Müllerthals (The mills of the Müllerthal). Carole Dieschbourg was a board member of Moulin J.P. Dieschbourg, the family mill business established in 1897, until her appointment to the government in December 2013.

Jennifer Pryce

President and CEO, Calvert Impact Capital

Jennifer Pryce is President and CEO of Calvert Impact Capital. For nearly a quarter of a century, Calvert Impact Capital has strived to make markets work for more people, more often, by investing in communities overlooked by traditional finance. Calvert Impact Capital invests through organizations that on-lend to people and businesses in the US and over 120 countries. In 2017 the organizations in their portfolio provided more than $5 billion to finance everything from solar panels in Tanzania and small businesses in Texas. Jenn began her career in the Peace Corps where she taught math in Gabon. She then worked as an equity research analyst for Neuberger Berman and on the investment banking team at Morgan Stanley’s London office before joining The Public Theater in New York City and leading the Washington DC regional office for the Nonprofit Finance Fund. Jenn studied engineering at Union College and holds an MBA from Columbia University. She currently serves as a Forbes contributor, a lecturer at Oxford Saïd School of Business and the Advisory Board Chair of Quantified Ventures.

Antoine Sire

Director of the Company Engagement Department, BNP Paribas

He was Assistant to the Director for Communications and Regional Action of the French Association of Banks - now FBF - from 1992 to 1995, then Communications Director of the Confédération Nationale du Crédit Mutuel (1995-1997). For 16 years, he was Head of Group Communications for BNP Paribas, where he created the company’s new brand following the merger of BNP and Paribas, and developed its strong reputation. He also played a key role in developing the brand’s international recognition and broadened its social commitments. For 13 years, he co-hosted BFM Business’s radio programme dedicated to new technologies called Atelier Numérique. In 2013, he left BNP Paribas to focus on a long-term personal project, writing a historical book on Hollywood’s Golden Age actresses, published in 2016. In parallel, and since 2015, he has been Partner at Havas’s Paris agency.

Martin Berg

Climate Asset Management

Martin is a Partner at Pollination, a specialist climate change advisory and investment firm, accelerating the transition to a net zero, climate resilient future. His focus at Pollination is to build out investment ideas for environmental asset classes such as natural capital and carbon markets. He joined Pollination from the European Investment Bank (EIB) where he led investments into new sectors including natural capital and the blue economy, developing new business models and blended finance solutions for more developed low carbon sectors, such as energy efficiency and renewable energy. He also supervised the Natural Capital Financing Facility, a pioneering joint EIB and European Commission initiative, and raised over EUR 2 billion for carbon, capture and storage and innovative renewable energy demonstration projects as part of the NER300 initiative. He served on the Board of Directors for the Green for Growth Fund in Luxembourg and was Vice President at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London responsible for carbon finance. Martin also worked for the environmental investment firm RNK Capital in New York, the OECD Climate Change Unit in Paris and started his career at the UNFCCC in Bonn.

Mariem Dkhil

Director of Sustainable Financing, Credit Agricole of Morocco

Mariem Dkhil is in charge of the design of innovative financing products to promote sustainable development projects, and of setting up an environmental and social management system. She joined Crédit Agricole du Maroc in 2006, where she has held several positions related to her chosen field, sustainable rural development. She contributed to the creation of GCAM’s subsidiary Tamwil El Fellah, a financing company for smallholders excluded from traditional bank financing. She graduated from the Paris-Grignon Institut National Agronomique and University of Montpellier, and was initially a consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on the issue of water management. For the record, Caisse Nationale de Crédit Agricole (CNCA), which was set up in 1961, became a classic bank in 2004. GCAM has 4,000 employees and a balance sheet of MAD 91.3bn (USD 9bn), a consolidated net income of MAD 542m, and MAD 71bn of credit to the economy, over half of which is earmarked for the agricultural, agribusiness and rural sectors.

Frank Mars

Board Member, Mars Incorporated

Frank Mars is a Member of the Board of Directors of Mars, Incorporated, and was, until recently, the Global President of Mars Symbioscience. Pioneering some of the most innovative and breakthrough fundamental scientific research, and with sustained funding from Mars, Incorporated, Frank led the creation of Mars Symbioscience in 2005 as an internal technology based health and life sciences venture area to develop and commercialize new products and services supported by evidence-based science. Through June 2017, he and his team successfully incubated, introduced, and transitioned five technology platforms in the areas of food, plant, biomedical, and life sciences, including Wisdom Panel®, a range of complex canine genetic tests, and CocoaVia®, a revolutionary new cocoa flavanol extract-based dietary supplement that promotes healthy blood flow and thus supports cardiovascular health. In addition to his time leading Mars Symbioscience, Frank has held a variety of senior positions within Mars, Incorporated for over his 28 years in the Electronics, Snack Food, Pet Care and Food segments across the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has a solid understanding of many of Mars’ raw material supply chains, including cocoa, from seedling to finished product. Frank passionately believes that nature-based solutions offer the best option to dramatically improve the livelihoods of small holder farmers and fisherman and create long term sustainable economies and food supply chains. As part of his new role as Vice President, Mars Sustainable Solutions, he and his new team will be building upon the work started in Mars Symbioscience, including developing next generation agroforestry-based, sustainable cocoa farming models and solutions. In addition, recognizing the critical role that healthy coral/marine ecosystems play locally (protein) and globally (climate) in both the nurturing and production of blue biomass and coastal protection, Mr. Mars will be working to expand the use globally of a novel, low-cost, and successful method of coral reef rehabilitation method developed by Mars over the past five years. Mr. Mars is also Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Heliae® Development, an applied life sciences and technology company located just outside of Phoenix, Arizona. Heliae is focused on researching and developing algae-based commercial scale production platforms, which sustainably produce renewable raw materials from existing carbon-based waste streams, with a current focus on high value nutraceutical ingredients and specialty products for agriculture and aquaculture. Finally, Frank and his wife Susan are dedicated supporters of several local and international humanitarian/conservation organizations including CARE, Médecins Sans Frontières, World Wildlife Fund, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institutes (where Mrs. Mars is presently the Vice-Chair of the Advisory Board), as well as the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Frank and his wife have been instrumental in supporting (via SCBI) the efforts of the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation project along with IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG), and the IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG).

Pauline Nantongo Kalunda

Director, EcoTrust

Pauline Nantongo Kalunda is the Executive Director of Ecotrust - the Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda. Pauline is an expert in establishing & managing innovative conservation financing mechanisms. Among her several achievements, Pauline has successfully established a commercially viable payment for environmental services scheme - Trees for Global Benefit (TGB). TGB links smallholder farmers to the voluntary carbon market. TGB won the 2013 SEED Award for its innovation and entrepreneurship, its promising efforts to promote economic growth, social development and environmental protection in Uganda, and the potential of its partnership to inspire others. Pauline also sits on the Board of Directors for several conservation organisations.

Edit Kiss

Chief Investment Officer, Revalue Nature

Edit Kiss is Chief Investment Officer at Revalue Nature, a next generation nature-based carbon project developer. Edit is also a Non-Executive Board Director of the UK’s first rewilding business, the Real Wild Estates Company, co-chair of IETA’s Natural Climate Solutions Working Group and Steering Committee Member and Co-Chair of the Biodiversity Credit Working Group of the Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation. Prior to her current role, Edit was Investment and Development Director at Mirova Natural Capital where from its launch in 2013 until March 2022, she managed the pioneering EUR100m Althelia Climate Fund portfolio including the monetisation strategy through its affiliate Ecosphere+, as a Member of the Executive Committee. In addition, she has been leading on the company’s new development activities, including the origination, and structuring the L’Oreal Fund for Nature Regeneration, Nature+ Accelerator Fund and Orange Nature Fund managed by Mirova. Edit has over 17 years of experience in climate finance, carbon markets and conservation finance impact investing having worked in various financial institutions, carbon funds and renewable energy companies in London, Paris, Lugano, Rotterdam and Budapest. She is an environmental economist, HEC Paris, CEMS and Goldman Sachs Global Leader Alumni and has been a guest speaker at several international climate and conservation finance conferences worldwide.

Yahya Rachmana Hidayat

Director of Energy Resources, Mineral and Mining, Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas

Yahya Rachmana Hidayat is a Director for Energy Resources, Mineral, and Mining at the Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) of the Republic of Indonesia. He graduated B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Indonesia in 1986 and in 1995 continued his study in the Economic Planning and Policy field from the Department of Economy, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He finished his M.Sc. in 1997 and 2002 was awarded Ph.D. in International Money and Finance from Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, USA. He has been worked at Bappenas for 20 years and started his career in the electricity sector. He has already placed in other sectors. In 2005-2007, he served as Head of Bureau for Internal Planning, Organization, and Procedural Affairs. Then he officiated Directorate for Energy, Telecommunication, and Informatics for 3 years. In 2010 until 2016, he served as Head of Center for Planners Development, Education, and Training and lastly before assigned in this current position he was the Director for Trade, Investment, and International Economic Cooperation.