Responsible Investment Forum New York 2022

Michael Altschuler

Chief Administrative Officer & General Counsel, Comvest Partners

Michael serves as Chief Administrative Officer & General Counsel, and is responsible for Comvest’s administrative operations and legal function. Prior to joining Comvest, Michael spent five years as the general counsel and corporate secretary for a NYSE listed finance company. Earlier in his career, Michael was a Director & Counsel at UBS Investment Bank where he had legal responsibility for high-yield originations and bridge lending and also practiced as a securities and capital markets attorney with Latham & Watkins LLP.

Michael received a J.D. from Columbia Law School, an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Comvest Partners is a private investment firm providing equity and debt capital to middle-market companies across the U.S. Since its founding in 2000, Comvest has invested over $7.1 billion. Today, Comvest Partners has approximately $6.5 billion of assets under management. Through extensive capital resources and a broad network of industry relationships, Comvest Partners offers companies financial sponsorship, critical strategic and operational support, and business development assistance. For more information, please visit www.comvest.com

Ada Arevalo

Founder and CEO, iimpact capital

Ada Arevalo is the Founder and CEO of iimpact capital, a purpose-driven, women- and minority-owned investment platform focused on affordable, sustainable and equitable housing and community investments. As the leader of the organization, she directs the overall strategy, vision and culture of the firm.

Prior to founding iimpact, she was the Chief Impact Officer at Alliant Strategic Investments, a national private equity firm focused on the preservation and impact of affordable housing. In this capacity, Ada led the firm’s capital raising and investor relation strategies while also being responsible for the development, implementation, and measurement of sustainable and social impact programs across the portfolio. As a member of the investment committee, Ada brought over 15 years of real estate investment experience and a unique perspective and passion for ESG and DE&I to the investment thesis. Prior to joining Alliant Strategic Investments, Ada was part of the executive team at Avanath Capital Management. Serving nearly 9 years in several capacities, Mrs. Arevalo most recently served as VP of Fund Management, in that role she led multiple initiatives and was responsible for fund management, capital raising, investor relations as well as impact and sustainable initiatives. Ada also focused her efforts on creating a national and global presence for the firm by participating in multiple industry conferences as both a speaker, moderator, and general delegate.

In 2020 Ada became the Founding Chair of REAL, the first and only commercial real estate organization focused on increasing visibility, advancement and equity for Latinx professionals. Ada also serves in multiple private and nonprofit boards in various capacities.

iimpact capital is a purpose-driven, woman- and minority-owned investment firm focused on the development and preservation of affordable, sustainable and equitable housing and community investments.

Sean Barr

Regional VP of Sales - Americas, EcoVadis

Sean's career has spanned numerous industries at the intersection of sustainability and technology. In his present role at EcoVadis, he leads the company's go to market efforts in sustainable finance and responsible investing globally, and manages a sales team responsible for strategic sectors in North America. Sean holds an M.B.A. with specialization in venture capital, entrepreneurship, and social impact and innovation from the NYU Stern School of Business, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Penn State.

EcoVadis is the world's most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings. Global supply chains, financial institutions and public organizations rely on EcoVadis to monitor and improve the sustainability performance of their business and trading partners. Backed by a powerful technology platform, EcoVadis’ evidence-based ratings are validated by a global team of experts, and are adapted to more than 200 industry categories, 160 countries, and companies of all sizes. Its actionable scorecards provide benchmarks, insights, and a guided improvement journey for environmental, social and ethical practices. Industry leaders such as Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, L’Oréal, Unilever, LVMH, Salesforce, Bridgestone, BASF, and ING Group are among the 85,000 businesses that collaborate with EcoVadis to drive resilience, sustainable growth and positive impact worldwide. Learn more on ecovadis.com, Twitter or LinkedIn.

James Bilko

ESG Consultant, Bridge House Advisors

James Bilko is an ESG Consultant at Bridge House Advisors, a purposely built, full-service ESG and sustainability service provider dedicated to building relationships with middle and upper middle market private equity firms and their portfolio companies. He leads Bridge House’s GP ESG strategy consulting practice and supports clients on transactional due diligence. Mr. Bilko specializes in right-sizing ESG programs to satisfy investor and market expectations and fund needs.

Prior to Bridge House, Mr. Bilko was a Senior Associate at Malk Partners where he was focused on supporting clients via industry agnostic transactional ESG due diligence reviews. Mr. Bilko has served as an advisor for single- and multi-strategy funds across venture, growth equity, and traditional buyout market segments. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College.

Bridge House Advisors is a purposely built, full-service ESG and sustainability advisory firm that is dedicated to building relationships with middle and upper middle market private equity firms and their portfolio companies. We provide a unique blend of traditional environmental and forward-looking ESG services, which we combine with decades of experience working with portfolio companies on EHS Compliance and Sustainability engagements.

Jessica Bonsall

Director of ESG, ACA

Jessica Bonsall is a Director at ACA and is the technical lead on all environmental work undertaken by the ESG team. Jessica is a 15-year veteran of the environmental industry. She specializes in the development and execution of corporate environmental management systems, environmental impact studies, environmental permitting strategies for large-scale development projects, stakeholder engagement planning, environmental due diligence, and climate related risk management.

Ms. Bonsall has previously worked at multiple environmental focused advisory firms. She excels at integrating diverse teams to successfully execute complex environmental planning projects (e.g. large project construction and operation authorizations), leveraging technical and non-technical risk identification and mitigation techniques to optimize strategy planning. Her experience includes project work in the energy, power, chemical, and finance sectors across the US and internationally.

ACA's Compliance Consulting
Our global team of regulatory compliance professionals includes former SEC, FINRA, FCA, CFTC, NFA, and state regulators, as well as former senior managers from prominent financial institutions and advisory firms. We work with compliance and legal professionals to review and develop compliance programs based on best practices, current regulatory requirements, and robust oversight processes.

ACA's ESG Advisory
Gain clarity on your ESG requirements and build a strong compliance program with ACA. Our dedicated advisory practice helps firms of all sizes develop and monitor ESG programs to mitigate risk, make informed choices, grow profitably and sustainably, and combat greenwashing in the process.

Tynesia Boyea-Robinson

President, and CEO, CapEQ

As an entrepreneur, Six Sigma blackbelt, and technologist, Tynesia helps businesses achieve their true potential through social impact. She has been religiously leading and writing about enterprises that “do well and do good” for over a decade.

As President and CEO of CapEQ™ (formerly Reliance Methods), which she founded in 2011, she demonstrated how business and community goals can align towards mutual outcomes, helping Fortune 500 clients like the Carlyle Group, Marriott, and others change the way the world does business. In her previous role as Chief Impact Officer of Living Cities, Tynesia was responsible for ensuring $100M of investment produced outcomes that improved the lives of people across the country.

Tynesia has published articles featured in the Washington Post, Forbes and more, and her most recent book is The Social Impact Advantage: Win Customers and Talent By Harnessing Your Business For Good.

Tynesia leveraged effective cross-sector partnerships to help establish the Social Innovation Fund and the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act. As founding Executive Director of Year Up National Capital Region (NCR) she raised $20M, was recognized by President Obama, and supported the organization to ensure thousands of low-income young adults are hired in careers with family-sustaining wages.

Tynesia has been a featured speaker at events ranging from South by Southwest to the White House Council for Community Solutions. Her work was highlighted in the New York Times bestseller A Year Up.

Tynesia received her MBA from Harvard Business School and has a dual degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Duke University. She and her college sweetheart, Keith, are committed to indoctrinating their children, Dylan and Sydney, with a love of Duke basketball and all things geeky and sci-fi.

CapEQ™ is an Impact Investment & Advisory Firm that helps investors and businesses achieve superior financial returns through social impact. Our team is uniquely positioned with a wealth of expertise, vision and experience, and is led by President and CEO Tynesia Boyea-Robinson. Tynesia has helped Fortune 500 clients like the Carlyle Group, Marriott, and others change the way they do business – and has been religiously leading, speaking and writing about enterprises that “do well and do good” for over a decade

Winna Brown

Private Equity Client Service Partner and Americas ESG leader, Ernst and Young

Winna is focused on ensuring consistent global delivery of EY services to PE portfolio companies aligned with the investment, value creation and ESG strategies of these businesses. She works directly with Operating Partners as well as investee management teams to ensure quality and responsiveness of EY services, bringing the best-in-class EY skills, solutions and portfolio insights. Winna is also the EY Americas ESG Leader for Private Equity.

Winna has over 25 years of experience working with both global and fast-growing companies, leading large assignments including and transactions, integration, finance modernization and process improvement projects, IPOs, cross-border filings and transactions, audit engagements and IFRS-US GAAP conversions. Winna has served clients in a variety of sectors including private equity, technology, life sciences, healthcare, retail, education, and manufacturing and distribution.

Winna holds a GDPA from McGill University, a BA in Industrial Relations from McGill University and she is a US Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Chartered Accountant (CA) in both Canada and Australia.

EY Private Equity services can help Sponsors and Portfolio Companies discover new strategies to navigate complex transformations that shape the future and unlock innovative paths to growth and value creation. The Global EY network helps source deal opportunities and combines sector insights with proven, innovative private equity strategies that have guided the world's fastest-growing companies. We help PE firms drive meaningful impact across the breadth of their fund and portfolio by helping in the creation of long-term value in an actionable, sustainable and transparent manner for all stakeholders and drive rapid change in private equity portfolio companies through strategy and transformation that delivers measurable results.

Natasha Buckley

Vice President, Head of ESG, HarbourVest Partners

Natasha Buckley joined HarbourVest in 2019 and is responsible for sustaining the Firm’s ESG strategy and partnering with our general partners, limited partners, and the Firm’s employees to embrace sustainable investing.

Natasha joined HarbourVest from Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), where she was responsible for their work in the private equity sector, developing tools and resources for PRI signatories to integrate ESG considerations into their investment processes. During her time at PRI, Natasha co-authored the organization’s guide for general partners, and guidance for LPs and GPs on ESG in fund selection, fund terms and fund monitoring/reporting.

Natasha received a BA in History from University College London, an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics, and has completed the University of Oxford Private Equity Programme at the Saïd Business School.

HarbourVest is an independent, global private markets investment specialist with over 35 years of experience and more than $80 billion in assets under management, as of June 30, 2021. The Firm’s powerful global platform offers clients investment opportunities in private equity, private credit and real assets through primary fund investments, secondary investments, and direct co-investments, in commingled funds or separately managed accounts. HarbourVest has more than 700 employees, including more than 170 investment professionals across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This global team has committed more than $48 billion to newly-formed funds, completed over $29 billion in secondary purchases, and invested over $23 billion directly in operating companies. Partnering with HarbourVest, clients have access to customized solutions, longstanding relationships, and actionable insights.

Michael Cappucci

Managing Director - Compliance and Sustainable Investing, Harvard Management Company

Michael Cappucci is a Managing Director for Compliance and Sustainable Investing at Harvard Management Company (HMC). He joined HMC in 2012.

Michael helps to manage HMC’s sustainable investment program, where he focuses on integrating ESG factors in HMC’s private fund investments and meeting the endowment’s net zero commitment. His articles have been featured in the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, NYU Journal of Law & Business, Virginia Law & Business Review, Responsible Investor, and the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance. He is a member of the ISSB Investor Advisory Group, ILPA ESG Advisory Council, and Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Hedge Fund Advisory Committee, and a past Chair of the PRI Private Equity Advisory Committee.

Eugenie M. Cesar-Fabian

Head of ESG & Sustainability, Palladium Equity Partners

Ms. Cesar-Fabian joined Palladium in 2011. She serves as Head of ESG & Sustainability and is a Partner of the Firm. Previously, Ms. Cesar-Fabian served as Palladium’s first General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. Prior to that, she served as counsel in the broker-dealer defense and securities litigation group at Bingham McCutchen LLP, and began her career at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, LLP. She previously served as an Adjunct Professor at St. John's University School of Law, and sits on the board of the St John’s University School of Law Alumni Association. She is a member of the Financial Women’s Association and the Association for Corporate Growth. In 2020, Ms. Cesar-Fabian was recognized as a Notable LGBTQ Leader & Executive by Crain’s NY Business, and received the National Organization for Women’s ‘Women of Power and Influence’ Award. In 2021, Ms. Cesar-Fabian was recognized as a Leader in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Private Equity by Mergers & Acquisitions. Ms. Cesar-Fabian received a B.A. from New York University and a J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law.

Palladium is a middle market private equity firm with nearly $3 billion of assets under management. Founded in 1997, it is one of the oldest and largest minority-owned firms in the industry, with a present team of employees that is over 70% diverse or female, and a management committee that is over 60% diverse or female. The firm seeks to invest in and grow companies in partnership with founders and experienced management teams by providing capital, strategic guidance and operational oversight. In its almost 25-year history, Palladium has invested over $2.8 billion of capital in 36 platform investments and 141 add-on acquisitions. The firm focuses primarily on buyout equity investments in the range of $50 million to $150 million. The principals of the firm have significant experience in consumer, services, industrials, and healthcare businesses, with a special focus on companies they believe will benefit from the growth in the U.S. Hispanic population. Palladium is based in New York City. For more information, visit www.palladiumequity.com

Dave Chen

CEO, Equilibrium Capital

Equilibrium invests and operates sustainably driven real assets portfolios in agriculture, food and distributed waste-water-energy infrastructure, for institutional investors. Dave is responsible for Equilibrium’s strategy, executive leadership, and developing the firm’s investment products and asset strategies.

Before Equilibrium, Dave was a general partner at OVP Venture Partners (2000-2007); CEO/co-founder GeoTrust (acquired by VeriSign 2006); founder of The Ascent Group; Vice President Marketing Mentor Graphics; McKinsey & Company; Solectron. Dave served on the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank Board system until 2012.

Dave is an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (2009-present) and was faculty at Stanford GSB (2011-13), teaching courses on sustainable finance and impact investing.

Equilibrium innovates and manages sustainability-driven real asset investment strategies and products for institutional investors.

We believe sustainability creates economic value and portfolio advantage.

Sustainability is seeing and expressing the value in reduction, re-use, recycle and resilience.

Sustainability is risk management and adaptation in a changing climate and society.

Sustainability drives alpha returns from and with intentional positive impact in our environment and community.

Sustainability is growth, opportunity, and advantage.

We build proprietary sustainability driven real assets investment strategies in two sectors:
• Agriculture & Food
• Water, Waste & Energy

These sectors are being transformed and reshaped by:
• Technology
• Climate adaptation and resilience
• Changing consumer and business usage

These sustainability drivers are coming together, shifting the value chain, redefining the points of control, and driving new business models. Our proprietary research translates these trends into investable assets and strategies.

Our firm is organized around four functions:
• Innovation and research to deliver unique scalable investment product.
• Management and operations for portfolios of productive real assets.
• Structuring, administration, and reporting on our portfolio performance, delivering transparency, returns, sustainability, and continuous improvement.
• Capital formation to deliver both current returns and future appreciation.

With offices in San Francisco, Portland, and London, we serve a global list of institutional investors.

Emanuel Citron

Managing Partner, Volery Capital Partners

Emanuel Citron is a Managing Partner at Volery. He serves on five of Volery’s firm committees, including as co-chair of the Investment Committee, and a member of the firm’s Operations, Finance, Valuation, and Compliance Committees. Previously, he was a Principal at Stone Point Capital (2005-2017). He has extensive financial services-focused private equity experience, including on investments in financial services businesses totaling more than $3 billion. Prior to joining Stone Point, Emanuel was the CEO of privately-held internet business and an Analyst at Beacon Group (1998-2000). Emanuel holds a B.S. (magna cum laude) from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. (Palmer Scholar) from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Volery Capital Partners is a private equity firm focused on growth investments in financial services companies addressing climate change and economic inclusion.

Sharadiya Dasgupta

Founding Partner, Blue Dot Capital

Sharadiya leads Blue Dot’s strategy, client partnerships, and industry engagement and advises CEOs, CIOs, and family office principals. She is also the lead champion of Blue Dot’s “commitment-to-constant-learning” policy.

Before founding Blue Dot Capital, Sharadiya led the ESG advisory efforts at Good Capital Project and oversaw the development of educational and thought leadership resources like Total Impact Portfolio Challenge. Previously, Sharadiya spent 10+ years in corporate banking and asset management.

Education: Master’s in Economic Policy from Columbia University, MBA from Indian School of Business, B.Sc. (Hons) in mathematics, SASB FSA credential.

Blue Dot Capital is a sustainable finance consultancy. Blue Dot partners with financial services firms to support the end-to-end development and execution of ESG and impact investing programs, capabilities, and products. Blue Dot’s clients and partners include asset managers, alternative investment managers, family offices, and data providers.
https://www.bluedotcapital.co/

Rob Day

Partner, Co-Founder, Spring Lane Capital

Rob Day has been a sustainable resources private equity investor since 2004, and acts or has served as a Director, Observer and advisory board member to multiple companies in the energy tech and related sectors. Rob also serves on the Board at the New England Clean Energy Council and the Investment Committee of the Clean Energy Trust. From 2005-2016 he authored the column Cleantech Investing, which appeared on GreentechMedia.com, and co-hosted several conferences with that group on the topic of new investment models for the sustainability sector.

Formerly a consultant with Bain & Company, Rob has worked with companies and evaluated private equity transactions in the energy/ utilities, telecom, IT, medical/pharmaceutical, and retail industries. Earlier in his career, Rob was a member of the World Resources Institute’s Sustainable Enterprise Program, where he co-authored the report The Next Bottom Line: Making Sustainable Development Tangible. Rob received his MBA at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management (Northwestern University), and his BA at Swarthmore College. A strong advocate for youth sports, he also serves as the President of the Marblehead Youth Soccer Association.

Spring Lane Capital is a private equity firm based in Boston, MA and Montreal, QC focused on providing catalytic project capital – project finance and growth capital in tandem – for smaller-scale "distributed" solutions in the energy, food, transportation, water and waste industries. The firm’s structured financial model seeks to tap into some of the fastest growing segments of these markets, that more traditional forms of project capital cannot access due to their scale and the limitations of existing investment models. For more information, please visit springlanecapital.com.

Peter Dunbar

Principal – Responsible Investment, StepStone Group

Peter Dunbar is a member of the Responsible Investing team at StepStone, focusing on ESG integration across asset classes and investment strategies.

Prior to joining StepStone, he was Head of Private Equity at the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), where he led the PRI’s work on private equity and venture capital.

Previously, he was a Senior Manager at Capital Group, working in its emerging markets private equity business, focusing on ESG and investor relations.

Peter received a BSc in Human and Physical Geography from the University of Reading.
StepStone Group
StepStone Group Inc. (Nasdaq: STEP) is a global private markets investment firm focused on providing customized investment solutions and advisory, data and administrative services to its clients. As of June 30, 2023, StepStone was responsible for approximately $640 billion of total capital, including $143 billion of assets under management. StepStone’s clients include some of the world's largest public and private defined benefit and defined contribution pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies, as well as prominent endowments, foundations, family offices and private wealth clients, which include high-net-worth and mass affluent individuals. StepStone partners with its clients to develop and build private market portfolios designed to meet their specific objectives across the private equity, infrastructure, private debt and real estate asset classes.

Colin Etnire

Head of ESG, BC Partners

Colin Etnire joined BC Partners in New York in 2020. Previously, Colin spent 4 years at The Carlyle Group as an ESG analyst where he worked under the Chief Sustainability Officer to implement an ESG program across Carlyle’s $221 billion AUM platform. Prior to this, Colin worked for the New Hampshire Democratic Party and interned at the White House.

Since inception, BC Partners Private Equity has completed 123 private equity investments in companies with a total enterprise value of over €161 billion and is currently investing its eleventh private equity fund. For more information, please visit www.bcpartners.com.

Peter Fox-Penner

Chief Impact Officer, Energy Impact Partners

Peter Fox-Penner is Partner and the Chief Impact Officer of Energy Impact Partners. In this capacity he directs all ESG and impact measurement and reporting, works with EIP’s portfolio companies to improve their ESG performance, and collaborates with EIP’s limited partners to accelerate their clean energy transitions. As a member of EIP’s founding team, he originally served as Chief Strategy Officer. He is also a founding member of the steering committee of Project Frame, a coalition of leading PE firms developing impact reporting guidelines, and co-founder and senior fellow of the Boston University IMAP program, a collaboration between industry and academia to improve ESG metrics.

Prior to EIP, Peter served for over two decades as Principal and Chairman of The Brattle Group, a leading energy consultancy, as a Professor at the BU Questrom School of Business, and as founder and director of the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy. He also previously served as a Senior Advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. He has served on the boards and advisory boards of numerous companies, including EOS Energy Storage (EOSE), Gridpoint, the Global Energy Group (GHG), and Lighting Retrofit, Inc (now Envocore).

Peter now serves on the global leadership council of the World Resources Institute and on the advisory boards of Mobility Impact Partners and the National Regulatory Research Institute’s Training Initiative. He is also affiliated with the Energy Futures Initiative and an invited participant in the World Economic Forum’s Chief Strategy Officer energy group.

Peter is a frequent speaker and guest lecturer on clean energy and ESG topics and the author of numerous published articles and books, including the highly acclaimed Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities (Island Press, 2010) and its sequel Power After Carbon: Building a Clean, Resilient Grid (Harvard University Press, 2020). His research has been widely cited, including in one Supreme Court decision.

Peter holds degrees in Electrical Engineering (BA, 1976) and Mechanical Engineering (MS, 1978) and a Ph.D from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (1987).

Energy Impact Partners

Energy Impact Partners, LP (EIP) is a global venture capital firm leading the transition to a sustainable future. EIP brings together entrepreneurs and the world's most forward-looking energy and industrial companies to advance innovation. With over $2 billion in assets under management, EIP invests globally across venture, growth, credit, and infrastructure – and has a team of nearly 60 professionals based in its offices in New York, San Francisco, Palm Beach, London, Cologne, and Oslo.

Lee Gardella

Head of Private Equity North America, Member of the Investment Committee, Schroders Capital

Responsibilities at Schroders Capital
Lee Gardella is the head of Private Equity North America and leads the Firm’s Investment Risk and Monitoring efforts and is a member of the Investment Committee.

Background
Before joining Schroders Capital in 2007, Lee was a Managing Director leading the Private Markets Group for CTC Consulting, the family office investment advisory subsidiary of US Trust Company in Stamford, Connecticut. From 1997 to 2005 he worked for the US Trust Company in the private equity and Alternative Investment Divisions making private equity direct and fund investments and leading the development of private equity, real estate and hedge fund investment products. Prior to that, Lee was an Associate at the Edison Venture Fund and Wilshire Associates and a Treasury Analyst at National Steel Corporation.

Education
Lee holds a Bachelor's degree in Finance from Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University
of Notre Dame, US. He is also a CFA® charterholder.

Schroders Capital is the private markets investment division of Schroders, one of the world’s leading asset managers. It offers investors a local approach to investing across a broad range of private asset strategies, supported by a global perspective.

Schroders Capital is a business built to provide investors with access to a broad range of private asset investment opportunities, portfolio building blocks and customized private asset strategies. Its team has been operating in private markets for over two decades, focusing on delivering best-in-class, risk-adjusted returns and executing investments through a combination of direct investment capabilities and broader solutions in all private market asset classes, through comingled funds and customized private asset mandates. The team aims to achieve sustainable returns through a rigorous approach and in alignment with a culture characterized by performance, collaboration and integrity.

With over $65 billion* assets under management, Schroders Capital offers a diversified range of investment strategies, including real estate, private equity, secondaries, venture capital, infrastructure, securitized products and asset-based finance, private debt, insurance-linked securities and BlueOrchard (Impact Specialists).

Nandini Hampole

Principal, ESG & Responsible Investment, Bregal Investments

Nandini Hampole joined Bregal in February 2021 as Vice President of ESG & Responsible Investment. She recently joined hands with a number of PE front runners in leading the Science based target initiative to launch the Science based Target PE Sector Guidance. She has spent over 10 years in designing and implementing a variety of social and environmental programs across manufacturing, technology, consumer products and financial services sectors. Prior to Bregal, she worked at BSR, a business membership organization in integrating ESG considerations and climate risk management more broadly into their business strategies, asset classes, and products and services. Also, during her time at BSR, Nandini was seconded to KKR to support their Responsible Investment Program implementation. Earlier in her career, Nandini worked with the global professional services firm EY LLP on its climate change and sustainability services practice, leading its social and human rights engagements in the Americas. She speaks French, Italian, Kannada, and Hindi fluently. Nandini has a M.A. in International Affairs from the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).

Bregal Investments is an international private equity firm providing a platform for five direct investment teams and a fund-of-funds team across the US and Europe. With distinct investment strategies, all our teams and their related funds focus on investing in mid-market companies in a variety of sectors and geographies, either through a variety of majority control equity, minority equity or credit investments. Collectively, this represents €12 billion of assets under management.
More info here: https://www.bregal.com/about/

Andrew Harris

Managing Director, Head of Investor Relations and ESG, Tiger Infrastructure Partners

Andrew Harris is a Managing Director and Head of Investor Relations and ESG at Tiger Infrastructure Partners, an innovative private equity firm focused on providing transformational growth capital to middle market infrastructure companies. Tiger’s value-add approach targets growth investments across the Digital Infrastructure, Energy Transition and Transportation sectors in North America and Europe, where Tiger believes strong tailwinds are driving demand for new infrastructure. Tiger maintains offices in New York and London.

Previously, Andrew was a Managing Director at North Sky Capital. Prior to that, he held positions at Threadmark, Forum Capital Partners and Broadgate Consultants. Andrew is an Honorary Advisor to the Board (emeritus status) of The Resolution Project. He holds a BA in History from Columbia University.

Tiger Infrastructure Partners

Tiger Infrastructure Partners is an innovative private equity firm focused on providing transformational growth capital to middle market infrastructure companies. Tiger’s value-add approach targets growth investments across the Digital Infrastructure, Energy Transition and Transportation sectors in North America and Europe, where Tiger believes strong tailwinds are driving demand for new infrastructure. Tiger maintains offices in New York and London.

Adam Heltzer

Partner, Head of ESG, Ares Management

Mr. Heltzer is a Partner and Head of the Environmental, Social and Governance Group, reporting to Ares' President and CEO, where he leads the Firm's environmental, social and governance efforts. He additionally serves as a member of the Ares Enterprise Risk Committee. Prior to joining Ares in 2020, Mr. Heltzer was the Head of ESG and Sustainability at Partners Group, where he focused on ESG integration across the investment platform, including the development of sustainable investment products. Previously, Mr. Heltzer was a Global Leadership Fellow at the World Economic Forum (WEF), where he focused on facilitating partnerships among the Forum's agribusiness members and public and non-profit sector counterparts. Mr. Heltzer holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in Political Science and U.S. History, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and an M.P.A. from Harvard Kennedy School.

Ares Management

Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) is a leading global alternative investment manager offering clients complementary primary and secondary investment solutions across the credit, private equity, real estate and infrastructure asset classes. We seek to provide flexible capital to support businesses and create value for our stakeholders and within our communities. By collaborating across our investment groups, we aim to generate consistent and attractive investment returns throughout market cycles. As of June 30, 2021, including the acquisition of Black Creek Group which closed July 1, 2021, Ares Management Corporation's global platform had approximately $262 billion of assets under management, with approximately 2,000 employees operating across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

Brett Hickey

Founder and CEO, Star Mountain Capital

Brett Hickey is the Founder and CEO of Star Mountain Capital, LLC, a $1+ billion AUM specialized U.S. lower middle-market investment firm. Star Mountain employs a data-driven approach to provide value-added debt and equity capital to established small & medium-sized companies leveraging its large market expertise, scale-driven resources, and longstanding relationships.

With approximately 30 full-time people and over 25 operating partners and advisors, Star Mountain brings proven large market expertise to help business owners maximize value. Star Mountain's team and partners include former senior executives from GSO / Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, and Citigroup. Star Mountain provides flexible capital solutions including debt and equity for business owners and has a strategic primary and secondary fund business through which it invests in over 250 U.S. private businesses. This secondary business provides early liquidity to investors in U.S. lower middle-market credit and equity funds.

Star Mountain's in-house technology team has built proprietary systems to support its data-driven approach to maximize value for investors and business owners alike. Star Mountain is a trademarked brand, including "Investing in the Growth Engine of America " and Star Mountain's distinctive "Collaborative Ecosystem ®" includes hosting and participating in 100+ events per year. Star Mountain's Charitable Foundation supports career development form women, veterans, and athletes as well as health & wellness initiatives including cancer research.

Prior to becoming a principal investor starting in the early 2000s, Mr. Hickey was an Investment Banker at Salomon Smith Barney / Citigroup Global Markets in New York City where he covered global Asset Managers and Financial Institutions. In that role, he analyzed asset managers and asset classes, ultimately working on over $20 billion in completed strategic acquisitions and capital raises.

Mr. Hickey's board memberships include member and former Chairman of Networks for the NYC Chapter of the Young Presidents' Organization {YPO), Global Board of Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs, and Global Board of Help for Children {HFC).

Mr. Hickey received a Bachelor of Commerce with Distinction from McGill University {Finance Major and Accounting Concentration) and is an alumnus from Harvard Business School's Owner/President Management executive leadership program. He is a frequent guest lecturer on industry panels and at academic institutions. Mr. Hickey is also a former Canadian national gold medalist and North American medalist in speed skating.

Mr. Hickey is married with two children and lives in New York.

Investing in the Growth Engine of America ® Star Mountain Capital optimizes absolute and risk adjusted returns as a specialized investor exclusively focused on providing capital to lower middle market established small and medium sized businesses that have between 3 million and 20 million of EBITDA. Star Mountain’s data driven approach, bringing large market expertise and resources to private equity and private credit investing lending is powered by its custom built technology, Collaborative Ecosystem ® and team who have been investing in this market since 2001. Star Mountain was recognized as one of the Best Places to Work by Crain’s and Pensions Investments in 2019.

John Higelin

Partner, Zouk Capital

John Higelin is Partner in the technology team at Zouk and leads the Firm’s investments within the climate technology space. John has over thirteen years of combined experience in growth equity investing, sustainability, technology and investment banking.

Prior to Zouk, John spent a total of three years in investment banking at JP Morgan and later Alantra, where he advised on a wide range of M&A transactions in technology, energy, and diversified industrials. In addition, John served as a consultant to the United Nations Development Programme in New York, where he worked directly with the Head of the Sustainable Energy Programme to promote energy access initiatives in developing countries. He was also involved in several research projects for Columbia University’s Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Joint European Torus, one of the world’s largest nuclear fusion research facilities.

John holds graduate degrees in sustainable economics and technology policy from Columbia University in New York and the University of Cambridge, as well as a degree in industrial engineering from École Centrale in Lyon, France.

Zouk Capital is a fund manager, with assets under management of c. €1 billion, focused on the opportunities emerging at the intersection of infrastructure, technology and sustainability that stem in response to some of the most pressing environmental and social challenges of our time. Our Infrastructure track focuses on investing in, building, and scaling projects and companies in environmental infrastructure and renewable energy. Our Technology track helps commercially proven, technology-enabled companies to accelerate their growth, increase market share, and create value while delivering scalable environmental and social impact.

Mary Beth Houlihan

ESG and Impact Partner, Kirkland and Ellis

Mary Beth Houlihan is an environmental, social and governance (ESG) and impact partner in the New York office of Kirkland and Ellis LLP. Her practice focuses on advising clients with respect to complex and dynamic ESG issues, including regulatory compliance considerations, investor demands, and voluntary reporting frameworks, in the context of fund formations, public disclosure, and due diligence. Mary Beth’s ESG practice builds upon more than a decade of experience providing environmental, health and safety counseling to financial institutions, investment funds, and private and public company clients in hundreds of complex corporate, real estate, and financial transactions, including helping clients to evaluate and address physical and transition risks from climate change, product and supply chain risks, legacy environmental issues, and the potential business implications of pending and proposed changes to environmental, health and safety regulations.

Mary Beth is also a thought leader on ESG topics and has written on related subjects for such publications as Wall Street Lawyer, Law360, the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, the ABA Environmental Disclosure Committee Newsletter, and Bloomberg BNA Mergers and Acquisitions Law Report.

Kirkland and Ellis is a global leader in providing sophisticated advice to investment fund sponsors, institutional investors and other market participants in the alternative investment fund space. Kirkland offers clients the unsurpassed resources of a large, integrated, multidisciplinary, global team located across offices in the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific. With approximately 3,000 attorneys, no other law firm matches the breadth, depth and scope of Kirkland’s experience in real estate legal services.

Kirkland has extensive experience in every stage of ownership of global real estate assets, including fundraising and structuring, deployment of capital, financings and refinancings, and final asset disposition, as well as complex restructuring and recapitalization transactions.

Since January 2017, Kirkland has formed more than 1,250 funds representing in excess of $1.6 trillion of commitments, including 210 real estate funds.

Alison Humphrey

Director of ESG, PJT Partners

Alison Humphrey is an ESG leader with over a decade track record advising c-suites, boards and investors.

In her current role as a Strategic Advisor at PJT Partners, Alison advises institutional investors and alternative asset managers on new fund formation and ESG strategies. She also advises top executives at >10 multinational companies with a combined market cap of over $2.3 trillion to enhance exposure to ESG-linked growth and capital.

Alison previously led ESG globally for TPG where she developed an integrated, value-centric ESG approach across the investment cycle. During her time, she led ESG-related business building with over 200 portfolio companies, many from pre-investment to successful exit. She also directed ESG-related engagement with LPs as well as externally.

PJT Partners is a premier global advisory-focused investment bank. We offer a unique portfolio of advisory services designed to help our clients achieve their strategic objectives. Our team of senior professionals delivers a range of strategic advisory, capital markets advisory, restructuring and special situations and shareholder advisory services to corporations, financial sponsors, institutional investors and governments around the world. We also provide, through PJT Park Hill, private fund advisory and fundraising services for alternative investment managers, including private equity funds, real estate funds and hedge funds.

Alison spent her early career advising companies like Apple, McDonalds, Bank of America, and The Gates Foundation on sustainability and business strategies.

Neda Jafar

Partner, Kimmeridge

Neda Jafar is a Partner at Kimmeridge, responsible for investor relations and business development. Ms. Jafar joined Kimmeridge in 2013, advancing the firm’s growth from $40 million in commitments to over $3.0 billion in funds raised to date.

Prior to joining Kimmeridge, Ms. Jafar was an Assistant Vice President at HSBC on the New York Credit Trading desk and spent two summers with General Electric in the company’s Financial Management Program.

Ms. Jafar is an alumna of the Cornell University chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi and graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. from New York University.

Founded in 2012, Kimmeridge is a private equity firm based in New York and Denver focused purely on the development of low-cost unconventional oil and gas assets in the US upstream energy sector. The firm is differentiated by its direct investment approach, deep technical knowledge, active portfolio management and proprietary research and data gathering.

Chris Janiec

Americas Editor, Agri Investor

Chris Janiec is an America's Editor with Agri Investor and previously wrote about non-bank finance for Private Debt Investor. A graduate of the NYU Center for Global Affairs, Janiec is also a member of the Carnegie New Leaders and the National Committee on Untied States – China Relations.

Chase Jordan

Partner/Principal, Ernst and Young

Chase Jordan leads Ernst and Young’s American Private Equity ESG Due Diligence Practice. Previously he was an entrepreneur and on the founding management team of the boutique ESG consultancy – Malk Partners. Chase focuses on building end-to-end solutions to all of Private Equity’s ESG challenges. He has specialized in helping funds start their program while embedding it in core functions across IR, Compliance, and the investment process. He helps deal teams collaborate with portfolio companies to unlock new value both during the hold period and in preparation for exit.

EY Private Equity services can help Sponsors and Portfolio Companies discover new strategies to navigate complex transformations that shape the future and unlock innovative paths to growth and value creation. The Global EY network helps source deal opportunities and combines sector insights with proven, innovative private equity strategies that have guided the world's fastest-growing companies. We help PE firms drive meaningful impact across the breadth of their fund and portfolio by helping in the creation of long-term value in an actionable, sustainable and transparent manner for all stakeholders and drive rapid change in private equity portfolio companies through strategy and transformation that delivers measurable results.

Alan Kao

Principal and Global Director, ESG Services, Ramboll

Alan Kao is a Principal and Global Director for ESG Services at Ramboll. Alan has more than 30 years of experience in ESG and EHS due diligence for mergers and acquisitions, compliance auditing, and strategic regulatory compliance assistance. He works with financial, legal, and corporate clients to help them understand ESG risks and opportunities in M&A transactions. Alan assists companies with identifying priority ESG topics, evaluating the competitive landscape through benchmarking studies, setting targets that align with the companies’ ambitions, and defining implementation roadmaps and communication strategies to achieve their ESG objectives. He also works with clients to evaluate climate resiliency issues and assess physical and transition risks associated with climate change, as well as navigating the evolving landscape of sustainability reporting and disclosures (e.g., SFDR, CSRD, CSDDD).

Ramboll

Ramboll is a global sustainability, engineering, architecture and management consulting company, working with clients as their Partner for Sustainable Change. Our globally recognized ESG and sustainability practice has earned a reputation for technical and scientific excellence and innovation. A market leader in EHS and ESG due diligence, Ramboll supports investors throughout the buy-operate-sell cycle, completing hundreds of merger and acquisition transactions each year. We have a strong reputation for responsiveness and provide clear, commercially focused advice, which is built on our understanding of the processes, pace and language of transactions, as well as the differing requirements of representing acquirers, vendors and/or lenders. Our experts understand the traditional risks to investments – such as contaminated land – as well as the material areas around carbon, product safety and sustainability. Ramboll also provides services to support clients wherever they are on their ESG journey, from identifying ESG risks and opportunities to developing KPIs and targets, and implementing business-aligned ESG strategies.

Michael Kashani

Head of ESG Credit, Apollo Global Management

Michael Kashani joined Apollo Global Management as the Head of ESG Credit in October 2021. Michael is responsible for supporting ESG integration across the Credit business as well as further incorporating ESG into Apollo’s lending and investments processes. Michael formally served as the Global Head of ESG Portfolio Management within the Fixed Income division at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Within that role, Michael was responsible for coordinating the ESG integration efforts across all fixed income teams as well as serving as the lead portfolio manager for ESG focused mandates. Michael was previously on the Goldman Sachs Asset Management municipal team as a senior research analyst covering healthcare, education and distressed municipalities and was instrumental in the developing its ESG capabilities as well. Prior to his time at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Michael worked as a credit analysts at American Capital Access and Standard & Poor’s, focusing predominantly within the healthcare and education sectors.

Justin Kulla

Partner of Impact Investing and Head of ESG, TZP Group

Justin Kulla joined TZP Group as a Partner of Impact Investing and Head of ESG in May 2020. Mr. Kulla began his career at Credit Suisse where he was an engineer working in New York, London and Zurich, and at Google where he worked in business development. Following business school, Justin joined the Hearst Corporation's venture capital group focused on early stage internet and media investments. In 2010, Justin was a founding member of Weld North, an education technology private equity firm backed by KKR. During his tenure at Weld North, Justin invested in Edgenuity, Imagine Learning, The Learning House and Performance Matters and held senior operating
roles including as Chief Technology Officer at Edgenuity. In 2015, Justin founded and served as CEO of BusinessBlocks, an education technology company for working adults and small businesses. BusinessBlocks was acquired in 2017 by AmTrust Financial Services, a Fortune 500 insurance company and following the acquisition Justin served as SVP of M&A and Investments. Justin currently serves as a director on the board of Errigal and Force Management.

Justin holds BS and MISM degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MPA from Harvard University. He's a frequent lecturer at leading universities including Stanford, MIT, and USC, a board advisor at 826 National, and a Term Member on the Council on Foreign Relations.

TZP Group, a multi-strategy private equity firm managing approximately $2.0 billion across its family of funds, is focused on control, growth equity and structured capital investments in business services and consumer companies. Founded in 2007, TZP targets companies with solid historical performance and sustainable value propositions and aims to be a “Partner of Choice” for business owners and management teams. TZP seeks to invest primarily in closely-held, private companies in which the owners desire to retain a significant stake and partner with an investor with complementary operating and financial skills to accelerate company growth, increase profitability, and maximize the value of their retained stake. TZP leverages its investment professionals’ operating and investment experience to provide strategic and operational guidance and is dedicated to long-term value creation. For more information, please visit www.tzpgroup.com.

Adrien-Paul Lambillon

ESG & Sustainability, Partners Group

Adrien-Paul Lambillon is part of the ESG & Sustainability team, based in Zug. Prior to joining Partners Group, he worked at Finreon and had assignments at Goldman Sachs and HSBC. He holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland, as well as a master's degree in Quantitative Economics and Finance from Ecole Polytechnique and ENSAE, France. He is currently also pursuing a PhD in the area of Sustainable Finance at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Partners Group is a leading global private markets firm. Since 1996, the firm has invested over USD 170 billion in private equity, private real estate, private debt and private infrastructure on behalf of its clients globally. Partners Group seeks to generate strong returns through capitalizing on thematic growth trends and transforming attractive businesses and assets into market leaders. The firm is a committed, responsible investor and aims to create sustainable returns with lasting, positive impact for all its stakeholders. With over USD 127 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2021, Partners Group provides an innovative range of bespoke client solutions to institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, family offices and private individuals globally. The firm employs more than 1,500 diverse professionals across 20 offices worldwide and has regional headquarters in Baar-Zug, Switzerland; Denver, USA; and Singapore. It has been listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange since 2006 (symbol: PGHN). For more information, please visit www.partnersgroup.com or follow us on Linkedin or Twitter

Barrett Lawson

Director, North America, Anthesis

Barrett leads the Investment Strategy and Services team at Anthesis, the world’s largest dedicated sustainability and ESG consulting firm. Barrett and his team support private markets clients to create value for their investors through forward-looking integration of ESG into their investment processes. He is experienced in leading ESG strategy, due diligence, portfolio company assessment, and reporting engagements that deliver impact. Barrett and his team also serve as a bridge for their private equity clients to access Anthesis’s wide array of sustainability subject-matter experts when there is need to go deep on a particular subject. He serves clients executing on a range of strategies including upper middle and middle market leveraged buyout, growth equity, venture capital, infrastructure, fund of funds, and investment banking.

Throughout his career Barrett has also served many leading large corporates across a range of sustainability and ESG needs, deepening the perspective and insights he can bring to private equity clients and their portfolio companies.

Prior to Anthesis, Barrett spent six years at PwC as part of their Sustainable Business Solutions group. He holds a BA from Bowdoin College and is a published author through Cornell University Press.

Anthesis is the Sustainability Activator. Proud to be a B Corp, we are the largest group of dedicated sustainability experts in the world: a team of 800+ people, operating in 40 countries, to serve more than 2,000 clients. We exist to shape a more productive and resilient world by helping organisations transition to new models of sustainable performance. Our team combines broad and deep sustainability expertise with the commercial and operational capabilities it takes to conceive and deliver real change.

Catherine Lien

Vice President and Head of Impact & ESG for North America, GEF Capital Partners

Catherine Lien is a Vice President and Head of Impact & ESG for GEF Capital Partners U.S.’ Investment Program. Ms. Lien is responsible for deal execution involving sourcing, structuring, and monitoring investments as well as establishing and implementing the U.S. team’s impact and ESG strategy.

Prior to joining GEF Capital, Ms. Lien worked at impact investment firm, Impact Engine, and private equity investment firm, McNally Capital. She has over a decade of experience at the intersection of Sustainability and Industrial Technology sourcing and executing private equity, venture capital, and growth equity transactions as well as working closely with management teams and Boards on strategic initiatives.

GEF Capital Partners was formed in March 2018 following the completion of a collaborative spinout from Global Environment Fund, an early pioneer in global sustainability and environmental investing. Today, we seek to build on the legacy established by Global Environment Fund by focusing on investments that promote resource efficiency and contribute to building a more sustainable future. These include operating companies that enable clean energy or improve energy efficiency, that are reducing the amount of waste we generate or water we use, that build products using fewer or more efficient materials, or that take action to improve the quality and conservation of our land. In other words, we want to invest capital in ways that does more with less, that improves the world around us, while also rewarding our investors who participate in investments with us.

With offices located in Washington, D.C., São Paulo, Brazil and Mumbai, India, we have a global mindset but a decidedly local focus. We consider investments principally in the United States, Brazil and India, but will also look to neighboring countries on a selective basis. We believe that by living and working in the places where we principally invest, we can identify, manage, improve and exit investments in ways that not only generate superior financial returns but also have a positive environmental impact.

Inna Khidekel

Partner, Capital Markets, Bridge Investment Group

Inna Khidekel is a Senior Managing Director in the Client Solutions Group at Bridge Investment Group and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. She is responsible for business and product development across Bridge’s global institutional client base. Inna serves on the Investment Committees of the Bridge Workforce & Affordable Housing and Bridge Office strategies. Inna also chairs Bridge Gives, Bridge’s charitable giving committee, and spearheaded and serves on the firmwide Bridge ESG Steering Committee. Inna is a prominent voice in the industry regarding a private sector solution to the US affordable housing crisis and helped to devise a new paradigm for impact reporting that provides actionable intelligence and transparency on community revitalization. Her work helped Bridge Investment Group’s Workforce and Affordable Housing strategy win ESG Private Fund of the Year, as well as to be recognized by UN PRI for real-world impact in addressing the “missing middle.” Inna also initiated Bridge’s partnership with TOIGO and PREA Foundation, to support diverse leadership in finance, and serves on the leadership committee of the Bridge Women’s Network (BWN).

Inna is a frequent writer, commentator, and blogger on the real estate industry. Most recently, she won the REFI US Awards and the Harvard Business School Women’s Rising Star Award and was recognized by Crain’s New York as a 2021 Notable Woman on Wall Street and as a Woman of Influence by Globest. Real Estate Forum.

Before joining Bridge Investment Group, Inna worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in the Investment Management Division where she served as a trusted advisor and managed assets on a three‐person advisory team with over $4 billion in assets under management. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Inna worked for Lehman Brothers and Nomura in their London offices, as a Vice President and founding team member in High Yield and Distressed Credit, advising institutional clients on the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. She began her career at Lehman Brothers on a start‐up Emerging Markets Equities trading desk in London. Inna received her Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, with concentrations in Finance and Legal Studies & Business Ethics, and her Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the CFA Society New York. Inna serves on the Board of the Harvard Business School Women’s Association.

Yup Kim

Head of Investments, Private Equity, CalPERS Private Equity

Mr. Yup S. Kim serves as the Head of Investments for Private Equity and Investment Director at CalPERS, California’s $480 billion pension fund. He serves on the private equity investment review committee and helps lead CalPERS’ private equity program across all functions, including strategy, team management, and investment activities across primary, secondary, and co-investment opportunities globally.

Previously, he served as the Senior Portfolio Manager at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (“APFC”), a $80 billion sovereign wealth fund, where he helped lead their private investment activities. He also held positions at DB Private Equity, where he served on the investment committee, Performance Equity, Silver Point Capital and began his career at Citigroup in New York.

Yup received his B.A. in Economics from Yale University and speaks six languages.

For more than eight decades, CalPERS has built retirement and health security for state, school, and public agency members who invest their lifework in public service. Our pension fund serves more than 2 million members in the CalPERS retirement system and administers benefits for more than 1.5 million members and their families in our health program, making us the largest defined-benefit public pension in the U.S. CalPERS' total fund market value currently stands at approximately $480 billion.

Mary Knobler

Managing Director – External Affairs, Oaktree

Ms. Knobler is Managing Director – External Affairs. In this role, she is heavily involved in the areas of Diversity & Inclusion, ESG and Broker Relations, and serves as an ambassador to outside constituencies in these areas. Previously, Ms. Knobler was the co-head of trading for Oaktree. Prior to joining the firm in 1995, Ms. Knobler worked at Lehman Brothers, where she was a high yield bond salesperson. Her previous experience includes four years at Kidder Peabody in high yield bond sales and four years at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. in the Syndicate and Private Placement Groups. Ms. Knobler is an advisory board member of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, a center focused on international human rights research, teaching, and convening based at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. She is a graduate of California State University at Northridge with a B.S. degree in psychology and is a Harvard University Advanced Leadership Fellow.

Oaktree is a leader among global investment managers specializing in alternative investments,
with $166 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2021. The firm emphasizes an opportunistic, value-oriented and risk-controlled approach to investments in credit, private equity, real assets and listed equities. The firm has over 1,000 employees and offices in 19 cities worldwide. For additional information, please visit Oaktree’s website at http://www.oaktreecapital.com/.

Sam Lissner

Principal, Ridgewood Infrastructure

Sam Lissner leads Ridgewood Infrastructure’s ESG and sustainability initiatives related to the firm’s investments in water, power, energy and other infrastructure. Prior to joining Ridgewood in 2013, he focused on investments in distributed renewable power in the U.S. and Middle East. Previously, Sam worked as part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Mobile Sources Team.

Sam received his A.B. from Harvard University, where he concentrated in Middle East Studies. He earned a M.S. from New York University focused on energy and environmental policy, and he received an MBA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. Sam is a member of the Board of Advisors of NYU’s Center for Global Affairs, where he also teaches a graduate-level course on Energy and Infrastructure Finance.

Ridgewood Infrastructure invests in essential infrastructure in the U.S. lower-middle market. It directly originates investments that provide essential services to customers, and it implements responsible and operationally focused initiatives to enhance value. Through this strategy, Ridgewood focuses on creating beneficial outcomes for stakeholders with investments that generate long-term, high-quality, non-correlated cash flows.

Andrew Malk

Managing Partner, Malk Partners

Andrew Malk, Managing Partner of Malk Partners, founded the firm in 2009 after recognizing that even the most astute investors and well-managed companies need guidance to leverage environmental, social, and governance (ESG) management to protect and create value. Malk Partners is the category creator of private market ESG advisory, and Andrew has worked with over 100 investment firms, representing more than $700 billion in assets under management, to design and deliver impactful ESG strategies. Andrew has built long-standing advisory partnerships by earning the trust of Malk’s clients.

Malk Partners is the foremost advisor to private equity firms on creating and protecting value through environmental, social, and governance (ESG) management. We guide our clients throughout the fund and investment cycle to mitigate risk, secure opportunities, and satisfy their investors.

Our reputation is built from our singular focus on ESG management. We understand our clients’ processes, collaborate closely with other due diligence vendors, calibrate our findings to a materiality threshold, and work efficiently with management and deal teams.

Malk has advised many of the world’s most respected investment firms, helping them to define ESG goals, conduct ESG due diligence reviews, and support portfolio companies in mitigating ESG risks. Our fully-customized services and solutions keep our clients doing what they do best: buying, growing, and selling businesses.

You can learn more at www.malk.com

Rita Mangalick

Managing Director & Global Head of ESG for Hedge Fund Solutions, Blackstone Credit

Rita Mangalick is a Managing Director and Global Head of ESG for Hedge Fund Solutions (BAAM) and Blackstone Credit where she partners with both groups to lead various initiatives around ESG diligence, reporting and engagement.

Prior to her current role, Ms. Mangalick was focused on BAAM’s Advisory Business. She was also involved in performing operational due diligence of underlying hedge fund managers of BAAM from a business and financial perspective. Before joining Blackstone in 2013, Ms. Mangalick was a Director at UBS Asset Management performing operational due diligence on hedge funds. Ms. Mangalick also previously worked at Union Bancaire Privee after starting her career in audit at KPMG.

Ms. Mangalick received her BA from The George Washington University.

Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our $881 billion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow @blackstone on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Amanda Mari

Director of ESG, Benefit Street Partners

Amanda Mari is a Director and Head of ESG with Benefit Street Partners. Amanda leads ESG efforts and initiatives across the BSP investment platform, working closely with the leaders of each investment strategy, origination, and business development, and is a member of Franklin Templeton’s Stewardship and Sustainability Council, which brings together leaders from across FT’s investment managers. Prior to joining BSP in 2020, Amanda served as Director of Strategic Relations at Broadstone Real Estate. Amanda joined Broadstone from Carestream Health, where she served in multiple finance roles, and led market and competitive intelligence analysis. Prior to Carestream, Ms. Mari held investor relations and marketing roles at Atlas Venture. Amanda received a Master of Business Administration from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester, and a Bachelor of Arts in Finance from Stonehill College.

Benefit Street Partners L.L.C. is a leading credit-focused alternative asset management firm with approximately $36 billion in assets under management as of November 30, 2021. BSP manages assets across a broad range of complementary credit strategies, including private/opportunistic debt, structured credit, high yield, special situations, long-short liquid credit and commercial real estate debt. Based in New York, the BSP platform was established in 2008. BSP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc.

Antonio Marquez

Principal and Managing Partner, Comunidad Partners

Antonio Marquez serves as Principal and Managing Partner of Comunidad Partners. He is chairman of the firm’s Investment Committee. He is responsible for strategic planning, culture building and capital raising.

Antonio founded Comunidad Partners in honor of his family’s immigrant heritage to provide improved opportunities and a better life for people who live in communities that the company serves. “My father came from abject poverty in Mexico, and with no more than a fifth-grade education, started a company with his family that served his community and flourished into a respected national brand,” he says.

“Opportunities were limited growing up for the family, yet through entrepreneurial spirit and hard work, we were able to build a business and create something special. We were able to create our own version of the American dream, and my ‘why’ is to support others from underserved communities to realize theirs.”

Fostering the company’s deep commitment to social impact, diversity and equity, Antonio leads Comunidad Partners’ value-add approach that creates inclusionary housing with a sense of place and cultural vibrancy that elevates its low- to moderate-income workforce residents. He spearheaded the company’s unique ESG model, which enhances economic returns while driving sustainable social and environmental value for all stakeholders.

He has been involved in multifamily real estate transactions working or partnering with a number of firms, namely Nuveen, Carlyle, GE Capital, Prudential, Hines and Singerman.

He serves on the National Multifamily Housing Council (“NMHC”) Workforce Housing Committee, Racial Equity Task Force, and Diversity & Inclusion Committee. He is founder and co-chairman of Veritas Impact Partners, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission of improving social impact and creating positive outcomes for residents living in affordable and workforce housing communities. He is a founding board member of Real Estate Association for Latinx professionals (REAL), a nonprofit organization focused on the professional advancement and equity of Latinx commercial real estate professionals. He is the founder and co-lead of the Multifamily Impact Collaborative that brings together executive and senior leaders in the multifamily industry to focus on social impact/ESG solutions.

He is a board member at Up For Growth, a 501(c)(4) legislative action organization that promotes pro-housing policy, housing equity and reducing barriers of production to alleviate the national affordable housing crisis. In addition, Antonio is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and is a frequent speaker nationally on matters related to affordable/workforce housing, ESG, Hispanic/immigrant rentership trends, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Antonio graduated cum laude from California Polytechnic – San Luis Obispo and attended the Stan Ross Program in Real Estate at the University of Southern California’s Lusk Center for Real Estate where he focused on affordable/workforce housing. In addition, he is an alumnus of Harvard’s Institute for Responsible Investing program focusing on social impact strategies, best practices, and standards in impact measurements/reporting.

Comunidad Partners is a dynamic real estate investment firm that specializes in workforce and affordable housing in culturally diverse neighborhoods. To date, the firm has invested in more than 40 communities throughout the country totaling more than 10,000 workforce and affordable housing units. Core to its investment strategy is creating culturally relevant, inclusive communities that are tailored to the various ethnicities living at its communities. The company specializes in revitalizing apartments in infill locations and implementing its proprietary cultural management platform.

Kristina Matthews

Partner, Falcon Investments

Kristina Matthews is a Partner, heading up Investor Relations and Fund Raising at Falcon Investment Advisors, a leading private credit provider focused on junior capital solutions. She joined the Falcon Team in May 2023 from Brightwood Capital Advisors where she was a Managing Director, Head of Investor Relations and ESG. While she led investor relations, Kristina primarily focused on business development and fundraising strategy along with oversight and implementation of the firm’s ESG policy. Her engagement commenced in February 2014 in a Consulting role which led to her joining Brightwood full time in May 2018. In 2012 she founded and was the Managing Partner of, Rising Tide Fund Advisors LLC, an entity providing consulting services to private credit and private equity firms. The prior 6 years she was a Managing Director at PineBridge Investments/AIG Investments and Head of Investor Relations for all Emerging Markets Private Equity. She was also part of the Central and Eastern European Private Equity Investment Team and was integrally involved in strategy, deal sourcing, and working with portfolio companies. She spent 6 years at Merrill Lynch as a Regional Sales Manager for Alternative Investments. She was a high-yield bond and distressed securities trader with BNP-Paribas, though most of her early career was as the Head of Sales for Currencies and Currency Derivatives. She holds an MBA in Economics and International Finance from New York University Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Business Administration from Northeastern University with a dual Major in Finance and International Business and a Minor in Economics.

Ryan Miller

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Financial Services, Persefoni

Ryan leads Persefoni's Financial Services division which includes strategy, product, development, sales and go-to-market functions. Prior to Persefoni, he spent seven years at Malk Partners, a boutique management consultancy that works exclusively with alternative investment firms and their portfolio companies to create and protect value through Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Impact management, where he finished as a Partner. He had a decade of expertise related to sustainability in the private markets and other complex financial asset classes.

Persefoni is the leading Climate Management and Accounting Platform (CMAP). The company’s Software-as-a-Service solutions enable enterprises and financial institutions to meet stakeholder and regulatory climate disclosure requirements with the highest degrees of trust, transparency, and ease. As the ERP of Carbon, the Persefoni platform provides users a single source of carbon truth across their organization, enabling them to manage their carbon transactions and inventory with the same rigor and confidence as their financial transactions.

Dan Mistler

Partner, Head of ESG Advisory, ACA Group

Dan joined ACA as a senior practitioner to head ACA's ESG advisory practice. He has spent his career leading the development of ESG programs for private markets investors, hedge funds, diversified financial services firms, and large corporates. He has helped entrepreneurs raise funds from ESG and impact-interested investors, advised investors and companies on monetizing the environmental and social aspects of their businesses, quantified environmental and social impact in transactions, and guided asset managers in getting the most out of ESG reporting. Prior to his work at ACA, Dan led ESG services at multiple other global and boutique consulting firms, focusing on financial services and implementing ESG with assets across sectors.

ACA's Compliance Consulting
Our global team of regulatory compliance professionals includes former SEC, FINRA, FCA, CFTC, NFA, and state regulators, as well as former senior managers from prominent financial institutions and advisory firms. We work with compliance and legal professionals to review and develop compliance programs based on best practices, current regulatory requirements, and robust oversight processes.

ACA's ESG Advisory
Gain clarity on your ESG requirements and build a strong compliance program with ACA. Our dedicated advisory practice helps firms of all sizes develop and monitor ESG programs to mitigate risk, make informed choices, grow profitably and sustainably, and combat greenwashing in the process.

Anibal Montes

Head of ESG, WM Partners

Aníbal is the Head of ESG at WM Partners, a health and wellness-focused private equity firm based in Aventura, FL. In his role, Aníbal formalized WM Partners’ ESG policy and oversees ESG integration at the firm and portfolio company levels. Previously, Aníbal worked at J.P. Morgan in New York City, where he covered Financial Sponsors in the U.S. and ultra-high net worth clients in Latin America. Aníbal graduated from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

Jonathan A. Needell Kairos Investment Management Company

Jonathan Needell

President & CIO, Kairos Investment Management

Jonathan Needell is President and Chief Investment Officer of Kairos Investment Management, an employee-owned, entrepreneurial real estate investment company. Mr. Needell joined the company’s predecessor in 2006 as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. He directs the firm’s investment strategy and decisions, forms and fosters investor relationships, and is a voting member of Kairos’ investment, credit, and risk committees.

Mr. Needell started his career at Merrill Lynch in 1992 and held several positions within the Real Estate Group, Investment Banking division, prior to serving as Director of the division’s Corporate Finance Group. During his tenure at Merrill Lynch, Mr. Needell executed over 50 transactions with an aggregate value of more than $15 billion.

From 2003 to 2006, Mr. Needell was the Investment Director and Chief Financial Officer of commercial real estate investment and development firm Schnitzer West. While at Schnitzer, Mr. Needell was responsible for sourcing and structuring the firm’s debt and equity financing efforts as well as its lender and equity partner relations.

Mr. Needell also serves on the Investment Committee of the Board of Directors of Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), the Board of Directors of Sterling Realty Organization, and the Board of Directors of Stratton Mountain School. Additionally, he is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and a member of the Urban Land Institute. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in Economics and History from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, and is a four-time Ironman.

Kairos Investment Management Company is an employee-owned, entrepreneurial real estate investment company. Kairos was established with a long-term orientation to focus on value-based real estate investments with favorable risk/reward characteristics, often with a contrarian investment approach.

Our investment team averages approximately 30 years of real estate experience across disciplines including acquisitions, asset management, property management, development, redevelopment and distressed investing. We make direct investments and provide capital to sponsors through preferred equity, joint venture partnerships, and junior debt positions.

Our strategy is focused on identifying properties below the size preferred by institutions and located in growing or supply-constrained markets throughout the United States. Kairos employs disciplined underwriting with a “margin of safety,” granular due diligence expertise, alongside tactical strategies to execute business plans that are tailored to each asset.

Our philosophy enables us to be both opportunistic and patient with our investments, management approach, and disposition strategies. Kairos has a flat management structure which enables our team to quickly evaluate projects and make investment decisions across several geographic markets in order to capitalize on the dislocations and inefficiencies that are inherit in real estate investing.

Kairos is a registered investment adviser*. Additional information about Kairos is also available on the SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website.

*Registration with the SEC as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training.

William Orum

Partner, Capricorn Investment Group

William Orum is a Partner and member of the Investment Committee of Capricorn Investment Group. He joined the Firm in 2004 and has been based in its New York office since 2008. William has primary responsibility for leading marketable investments, portfolio construction, and risk management across asset classes. Prior to Capricorn, he was an investment banker with Merrill Lynch in their global industries group focused on corporate finance and M&A advisory for technology clients. William received a BA from Amherst College and an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.

One of the largest mission-aligned firms in the world, Capricorn Investment Group was born from a belief that sustainable investment practices can enhance risk-adjusted returns. Underlying this investment approach is a deep desire to demonstrate the huge investment potential that resides in breakthrough commercial solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. With offices in New York City and Palo Alto, the firm has grown to manage more than $10 billion in multi-asset class portfolios for families, foundations and institutional investors.

Jon Patty

Managing Director, White Oak

Jon Patty is a Managing Director of White Oak Global Advisors. In his role as Partner of the White Oak Impact Fund, Mr. Patty will be focused on financings that generate attractive risk-adjusted returns and drive strong social and environmental benefits. Mr. Patty will also work with senior leadership on strategy, capital raising, and new opportunities for the firm. Mr. Patty has spent the last 20 years in private equity and structured debt investing, the last 10 years of which were exclusively focused on impact investing. Most recently, Mr. Patty was the Managing Director and Head of Private Equity at New Island Capital, a leading global private impact investment firm, where he led private equity, structured debt, and project finance investments. Previously, Mr. Patty was a senior investment professional at MC Partners, a $1.5 billion top-quartile private equity investment firm, and JPMorgan Partners, then a $4 billion private equity investment group. Mr. Patty earned his B.Mus. in Classical Guitar Performance and his bachelor’s degree in Economics at Northwestern University where he graduated magna cum laude. He also earned an MBA with honors at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Nancy Pfund

Founder and Managing Partner, DBL Partners

As a pioneer and leading player in impact investing, DBL has helped to reveal the power of venture capital to promote social change and environmental improvement. Nancy writes and speaks frequently on the field of impact investing. She sponsors or sits on the board of directors of several companies, including: Farmer’s Business Network (FBN), Andela, The Muse, Zola Electric, Bellwether Coffee, Spatial, Rain, Droneseed and, prior to their public offerings, Tesla and Pandora. She also served on the board of SolarCity, on both the audit and compensation committees as well as the chair of the corporate governance committee, from 2008 through its IPO in 2012 and acquisition by Tesla in December 2016. Prior to founding DBL, Nancy was a Managing Director in Venture Capital at JPMorgan, having started her investment career at Hambrecht & Quist in 1984. Previously, Nancy worked at Intel Corporation, the State of California, Stanford University, and the Sierra Club.

In September 2020, Nancy was named to the FORBES 2020 Impact 50 List of the most notable impact investors. She was also a recipient of The Commonwealth Club 2018 Distinguished Citizen Award and the Earth Day Network 2018 Climate Visionary Award. She was featured #17 in the 2014 FORTUNE Inaugural World's Top 25 Eco-Innovators and appeared on Fast Company’s 2016 List of Most Creative People in Business.

Nancy serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Geographic Society, where she chairs the Compensation Committee. She is a member and Chapter Chair of the Silicon Valley Women Corporate Directors Foundation. She is a member and former chair of the Advisory Council of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University; an advisor to the UC Davis Center for Energy Efficiency; and co-chairs the Yale School of Management Program on Entrepreneurship. She also serves on the Investment Advisory Committee of Prime Coalition.

She has been a lecturer in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Yale School of Management and is a C3E Ambassador to the U.S. Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Program, led by the U.S. Department of Energy. From 2001-2019, she was also a founding officer and director of ABC2, a foundation aimed at accelerating a cure for brain cancer. She was also a founding member of the California Clean Energy Fund from 2005 to 2012. She served as an Advisory Board member of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Cyclotron Road, its Clean Energy Incubator from 2014 to 2019.

Nancy received her BA and MA in anthropology from Stanford University, and her MBA from the Yale School of Management.

As a pioneer and leading player in impact investing, DBL has helped to reveal the power of venture capital to promote social change and environmental improvement. DBL invest in companies that can deliver top-tier returns and enable environmental and economic benefits. DBL believes healthy financial performance and positive social change are inherently connected which is why it invests in and help nurture outstanding entrepreneurs and companies in Cleantech, Information Technology, Sustainable Products and Services, Circular Economy and Healthcare.

Sanaz Raczynski

Managing Director, Sustainability, Kohlberg and Company

Sanaz Raczynski is a Managing Director and Head of Sustainability at Kohlberg. Sanaz is an active participant on Kohlberg’s investment team, reporting to the Chief Investment Officer. She sets the sustainability strategy and drives the implementation of ESG best practices at Kohlberg. Sanaz also acts as a sustainability strategist and a resource for Kohlberg portfolio companies. Sanaz is an active contributor to industry-wide initiatives designed to promote the adoption of ESG best practices within the private markets industry.

Prior to joining Kohlberg, Sanaz was a Managing Director and Head of Sustainability for Nuveen Real Assets and Private Markets, which include investments across farmland, timberland, agribusiness, commodities, private equity and private debt.

Sanaz received a M.Sc. in Sustainability Management from Columbia University, an M.A. from New York University and a B.A. from University of California at Los Angeles.

Kohlberg and Company is a leading U.S. private equity firm based in Mount Kisco, New York. Since its inception in 1987, Kohlberg has organized nine private equity funds, through which it has raised $11 billion of committed equity capital. Over its 35+ year history, Kohlberg has completed 85+ buyout transactions and more than 200 add-on acquisitions, with an aggregate transaction value of nearly $30 billion. For more information, please visit www.kohlberg.com.

Leela Ramnath

Senior Vice President, Head of ESG, Warburg Pincus

Leela Ramnath is Senior Vice President and Head of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) at Warburg Pincus, where she leads global ESG strategy for the firm, collaborates with investment teams and portfolio companies to drive and optimize implementation, and manages key partnerships. Leela has twenty years of experience working across capital markets, emerging markets, and ESG. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, she led innovation and sustainability at an impact-focused investment firm and worked in international development as a Technoserve Fellow in East Africa and at the Millennium Challenge Corporation. She previously worked at Barclays covering emerging markets and in securitized products at a global insurer. Leela is a board member at ClimeCo, LLC and Ownership Works. She a former Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations and holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing. The firm has more than $60 billion in private equity assets under management. The firm’s active portfolio of more than 200 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector, and geography. Warburg Pincus is an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 19 private equity funds, which have invested more than $90 billion in over 930 companies in more than 40 countries. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore.

Jackie Rantanen

Managing Director, Co-Head of Impact, Hamilton Lane

Jackie is a Managing Director and the Head of Product Solutions at Hamilton Lane, where she is responsible for aligning our specialized fund's offerings to meet client objectives and needs. Jackie is also Co-Head of Hamilton Lane’s Impact Fund and serves as a member of the Investment and Responsible Investment Committees.
Jackie began her career with Hamilton Lane on the Fund Investment Team, and she has held roles in Relationship Management, PR, and Marketing. Prior to joining Hamilton Lane in 1997, Jackie was a Corporate Finance Analyst for Comcast Corporation. Previously, she was a member of the Chemical Division’s Financial Analysis Department for Sunoco, Inc.
Jackie received an M.B.A. from Villanova University and a B.S. from Drexel University.

Hamilton Lane (NASDAQ: HLNE) is a leading private markets investment management firm providing innovative solutions to sophisticated investors around the world. Dedicated exclusively to private markets investing for 30 years, the firm currently employs more than 500 professionals operating in offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Hamilton Lane has $805 billion in assets under management and supervision, composed of $96 billion in discretionary assets and $709 billion in advisory assets, as of September 30, 2021. Hamilton Lane specializes in building flexible investment programs that provide clients access to the full spectrum of private markets strategies, sectors and geographies. For more information, please visit www.hamiltonlane.com or follow Hamilton Lane on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hamilton-lane/.

Keren Raz

Senior Responsible Investment Manager, APG Asset Management

Keren G. Raz is the Senior Responsible Investment Manager at APG Asset Management. In that role, she serves as the global responsible investment lead for private equity, hedge funds, and private credit. Prior to joining APG, Keren was the Global Head of Environmental and Social Risk Management at Morgan Stanley. Previously, Keren worked at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and as a Senior ESG Advisor to Apollo Global Management. Keren received her J.D. cum laude from New York University School of Law and a certificate through Columbia University’s inaugural Sustainable Investing Certificate program. Keren graduated summa cum laude with honors from the University of Arizona, with a B.A. in English and Political Science.

Brendan Reilly

Chief Technology Officer, Riskthinking AI

Brendan serves as the CTO of Riskthinking.AI, a global leading provider of climate risk data, algorithms and Climate Risk Ratings™. Brendan also serves as a Managing Partner at Black Bean Capital, is a co-founder of 9H Energy and the Chairman and co-founder of Climate Risk Labs. Brendan has 30 years of IT related entrepreneurial experience. After starting his career and spending almost 10 years at EMC Corporation, Brendan co-founded or was a seed investor and Director in six venture-backed high-tech companies. Two of these companies quickly surpassed $100 million in revenue prior to being sold. Three of these start-ups sold to publicly traded companies and two were successfully exited by Brendan in private transactions. Much of Brendan’s professional career has been focused on leading organizations that provide Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Secure Communications solutions to government agencies as well as Fortune 500 companies. He has held a top-secret security clearance and has personally led projects within the U.S Army, U.S Special Operations Command, USGS, S&P, Moody’s, New York Stock Exchange, Microsoft, Marriott, and many more. Brendan is an alumnus of Providence College and Harvard Business School.

Riskthinking.AI is a global leading provider of Climate Risk Data, Analytics and Climate Risk Ratings. Our CLIMATEWISDOM™ Data Exchange, provides subscribers with a central location for easily accessing and leveraging the most comprehensive, science-based, regulator ready Climate Risk Data in the world. This data is what is needed to identify, evaluate and stress-test the potential financial impacts of climate change, and to calculate physical as well as transition risk.

Riskthinking.AI collects and maps physical asset data, market sentiment data, carbon emissions data, macroeconomic data, climate policy data, and even net zero commitment data to user defined Climate Risk Regions. These regions scale in size from resolutions of 150 sq.km down to 5 square meter and even to a specific latitude/longitude.

By standardizing the data structure using the emerging Climate Risk Classification Standard methodology and aligning the disparate data sources to our unified geospatial grid Riskthinking.AI is able to calculate the potential distribution of climate related risks across spatial and temporal scales for every asset, asset class, industry, sector, company, country, supply chain and more covering the entire surface of the earth and spanning from 1850 to 2100.

Our tools and services allow subscribers to access, visualize and publish comprehensive climate risk datasets, to calculate the full distribution of exposures to climate, policy, economic, social and even carbon related risks that align to a specific transition scenarios, Global Mean Temperature target or net zero commitment.

Climatewisdom provides users the ability to load their own IAM or bespoke transition scenarios specific to their operational or regulatory needs and to stress test assets, portfolios, equities, and even credit in a consistent, transparent and fully auditable manner.

Toby Robertson

Head of InvestorPortal, Greenstone

Having lived and worked in Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York, Toby has accumulated 20+ years of financial experience at major financial institutions. In addition, he has co-founded, supported and mentored numerous SaaS companies – some of which have now become market leaders in their sectors (mainly analytics and cybersecurity).

Currently based in London, Toby created and now manages Greenstone’s InvestorPortal software solution and works with PE firms to enable ESG data management across their portfolios. InvestorPortal is a purpose-built solution that provides centralised analysis of ESG data at portfolio, fund and portfolio company level. As well as simplifying the collection, management and analysis of standard and proprietary ESG data and documents, InvestorPortal enables location-based GHG emissions calculation (using Greenstone’s database of over 1million emissions factors), customised scoring and ratings, communications, and much more.

Greenstone provides software and services that enable its clients to advance their ESG reporting and become responsible businesses. It delivers this through its award-winning software, its externally recognised best-of-class customer service and its brand promise ‘data that talks to you’.

Greenstone was founded in 2007 and its solutions are currently deployed in over 100 countries across 15 industry sectors. Greenstone’s software enables the collection, management, analysis and reporting of data across an organisation, a supply chain or an investment portfolio.

Greenstone’s InvestorPortal software is a purpose-built solution that provides centralised analysis of ESG data at portfolio, fund and portfolio company level. As well as simplifying the collection, management and analysis of standard and proprietary ESG data and documents, InvestorPortal enables location-based GHG emissions calculation (using Greenstone’s database of over 1million emissions factors), customised scoring and ratings, communications, and much more.

www.greenstoneplus.com

Lindsay Rosenstein

Principal and Head of ESG, Crestview Partners

Lindsay Rosenstein joined Crestview as an associate in 2015 and rejoined in 2019 after receiving an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a Palmer Scholar. As an associate and now as Principal, Lindsay evaluates, executes and monitors investments across a variety of industries. Lindsay is the Head of ESG at Crestview and currently serves on the boards of directors of ATC Drivetrain, AutoLenders and OneMagnify. While enrolled at Wharton, Lindsay worked on the corporate development team at Stash, a digital-first financial services company committed to making saving and investing more accessible. Prior to Crestview, Lindsay was an analyst in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley. Lindsay also serves on the Young Professionals Board for Youth INC. Lindsay received a B.S., summa cum laude, from Cornell University in Applied Economics and Management.

Founded in 2004, Crestview Partners is a private equity firm focused on the middle market. The firm is based in New York and manages funds with approximately $10 billion of aggregate capital commitments. The firm is led by a group of partners who have complementary experience and distinguished backgrounds in private equity, finance, operations and management. Crestview has senior investment professionals focused on sourcing and managing investments in each of the specialty areas of the firm: media, industrials and financial services. For more information, please visit www.crestview.com.

Samantha Rowan

Editor, Real Estate Capital USA

Samantha Rowan is the editor of Real Estate Capital USA, a PEI Media publication which sits alongside Real Estate Capital Europe and PERE. Prior to joining PEI, Sam was the editor of publications that included Real Estate Finance & Investment, Securitization News, and REIT Café at both Euromoney Institutional Investor and With Intelligence. A graduate of Barnard College, Sam is the president of the Columbia University Band Alumni Association, a registered 501c3, and a past volunteer coach of the Columbia University Cycling Club.

Avantika Saisekar

Managing Director of Sustainable Investing, Wafra Inc.

Avantika Saisekar is a Managing Director at Wafra, where she leads the Firm’s initiatives focusing on ESG integration, working with the investment teams to provide ESG due diligence and value creation guidance to the wide range of Wafra’s investments. Previously, Ms. Saisekar served as the Head of Institutional ESG Product at Northern Trust Asset Management where she oversaw product development and innovation of over $70 billion in ESG assets. Ms. Saisekar currently serves on two of the United Nations Principals of Responsible Investing (“PRI”) working groups including the Venture Capital LP group and the Assurance group, where she advises the PRI on relevant research and market guidance. Ms. Saisekar earned a BA in Economics from Claremont McKenna College and is also a Fundamentals of Sustainability (FSA) credential holder.

Wafra Inc.

Wafra Inc. is an alternative investment manager focusing on Strategic Partnerships, Real Assets, Real Estate, Absolute Return Strategies, and Public Markets. Wafra has discretionary and non-discretionary AUM of approximately $32 billion and employs over 195 professionals, including 70 investment professionals. By providing flexible and accretive capital solutions and focusing on the long term, Wafra aligns with and invests in high-quality investment management teams. Wafra’s principal offices are in New York, NY with affiliated and associated offices in Bermuda, London and Kuwait City.

Jakob Schenker

Director, ESG and Climate Advisory Practice, KPMG

Jakob is a Director in the KPMG ESG & Climate Advisory practice. Jakob has over 13 years of sustainability-related consulting experience with both corporate and private equity clients. Jakob specializes in supporting private equity with ESG and climate-focused strategy, due diligence, data portfolio management, and reporting. Jakob has his MBA and MSc from the University of Vermont and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Skidmore College.

Matt Schey

Senior Director, Sustainable Investing and Strategic Projects, Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA)

Matt Schey is Senior Director of Sustainable Investing and Strategic Projects at the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), where he leads the Association’s sustainable investing and ESG efforts.

Prior to joining ILPA in 2019, Matt was a management consultant specializing in providing business transformation advisory services to clients in both public and private markets. Previously, he was a manager at Cambridge Associates, supporting the firm’s institutional client consulting business and leading the daily operations of its Singapore-based performance reporting function, serving APAC, Europe, and ME&A client relationships.

Matt holds a BA in International Business & Management from Dickinson College and an MBA from the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School.

The Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) engages, empowers and connects limited partners to maximize their performance on an individual, institutional and collective basis. ILPA’s members include public and private pensions, insurers, endowments and foundations, family offices, development finance institutions, and sovereign wealth funds. With over 575 member institutions representing more than 2 trillion USD of private equity assets under management, ILPA is the only global organization dedicated exclusively to advancing the interests of LPs and their beneficiaries through best-in-class education, research, advocacy and events.

Joseph Schuhow

Senior ESG Advisor, RepRisk

Joe Schuhow is a Senior ESG Advisor at RepRisk where he helps asset managers, private equity, and credit firms implement ESG and reputational risk concepts throughout the investment process.

Prior to RepRisk, Joe spent 14+ years at FactSet where he helped launch their fixed income analytics business and held various management roles across the US and Latin American investment management division.

Joe earned a BBA in Finance from The University of Iowa and was previously a Big Data Advisory Board Member at Rutgers University.

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Switzerland, RepRisk is a pioneer in ESG data science that leverages the combination of AI and machine learning with human intelligence to systematically analyze public information and identify material ESG risks. RepRisk’s flagship product, the RepRisk ESG Risk Platform, is the world’s largest and most comprehensive due diligence database on ESG and business conduct risks, with expertise in 23 languages and coverage of 190,000+ public and private companies and 50,000+ infrastructure projects. For more than a decade, the world’s leading financial institutions and corporations have trusted RepRisk for due diligence and risk management across their operations, business relationships, and investments.

Eren Shultz

Solutions Lead, ClimateAI

Eren leads ClimateAI’s go-to-market efforts across the financial services complex. A native of the U.S. Midwest, Eren grew up between the dairies of Wisconsin and coffee cooperatives of Eastern Africa. Following his studies in economic development and agriculture science, Eren worked for two natural resource investment firms – Homestead Capital and TIAA/Westchester, where he worked until 2020 managing $4 Bn + in farmland investments and leading the firms launch of its latest open-ended farmland fund.

At ClimateAI, we seek to make agriculture more profitable and food systems more resilient by bringing climate intelligence and agronomics into the age of machine learning. We are a team of passionate, hardworking scientists, engineers and agriculture entrepreneurs who all believe that climate change is the most important problem of our generation.

Elizabeth Seeger

Board Member, International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), IFRS Foundation

Elizabeth Seeger was appointed as a full-time member of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in July 2022, effective November 2022.

Ms Seeger has over 20 years’ experience of standard-setting, investment and working on sustainability topics. She joined the ISSB from global investment firm KKR, where she served as Managing Director, Sustainable Investing, responsible for helping oversee the firm's consideration of sustainability matters throughout KKR’s investment process and part of KKR's Global Impact team. She also oversaw KKR’s public sustainability reporting efforts, including the development of SASB and TCFD-aligned reporting.

Before joining KKR in 2009, she served as a project manager in the corporate partnerships programme (now known as EDF+Business) of Environmental Defence Fund and a consultant with the Corporate Executive Board (CEB, now known as Gartner), where she advised companies from a broad range of industries in Europe and the United States. Before CEB, Ms Seeger was an associate at the Environmental Law Institute, a non-profit organisation focused on environmental law and policy research and education.

Ms Seeger served on the SASB Standards Board as an inaugural member, but began her standard-setting work when becoming a member of the SASB Standards Council in 2012.

She is a 2013 Aspen Institute First Movers Fellow and earned a BA in Environmental Studies with honours from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Snehal Shah

Reporter, New Private Markets, PEI Group

Snehal Shah is a reporter for New Private Markets, PEI Group’s publication for climate, sustainability, ESG, impact investing and diversity in private markets. She works across private equity, venture capital, private debt, infrastructure and real assets. She covers topics such as investors’ allocations and policies; managers’ investment strategies and ESG and diversity credentials; new regulatory measures; and ways to measure, report and compare sustainability issues and initiatives.

Jennifer Signori

Managing Director, ESG and Impact Investing, Neuberger Berman

Jennifer Signori is a Managing Director at Neuberger Berman, and joined the firm in 2017. Jennifer is leading the development and implementation of impact investing strategies with a portfolio management focus on private equity, and oversees environmental, social, and governance integration in private markets and multi-asset class solutions. Previously, Jennifer was a Director at Bridges Fund Management, a specialist impact investing private equity fund manager, where she played a key role in establishing the U.S. presence, including new fund development and executing due diligence and impact management of investments. Jennifer began her career in investment banking at J.P. Morgan, where she conducted credit analysis and structured syndicated leveraged loans and bonds. Jennifer also worked in a number of investment and advisory roles focused on impact investing, including at Imprint Capital and Next Street. Jennifer received a BS of Foreign Service in International Economics from Georgetown University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Jennifer is on the Principles for Responsible Investment Private Equity Advisory Committee, Wharton Private Equity Venture Capital Association Board, and Impact Management Project Advisory Board.

Neuberger Berman was founded in 1939 to do one thing: deliver compelling investment results for our clients over the long term. This remains our singular purpose today, driven by a culture rooted in deep fundamental research, the pursuit of investment insight and continuous innovation on behalf of clients, and facilitated by the free exchange of ideas across the organization.

As a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager, Neuberger Berman is structurally aligned with the long-term interests of our clients. We have no external parent or public shareholders to serve, nor other lines of business to distract us from our core mission. And with our employees and their families invested alongside our clients—plus 100% of employee deferred cash compensation directly linked to team and firm strategies—we are truly in this together.

From offices in 36 cities across 25 countries, Neuberger Berman manages a range of equity, fixed income, private equity and hedge fund strategies on behalf of institutions, advisors and individual investors worldwide. With more than 600 investment professionals and over 2,400 employees in total, Neuberger Berman has built a diverse team of individuals united in their commitment to client outcomes and investment excellence. Our culture has afforded us enviable retention rates among our senior investment staff and has earned us citations as first or second (among those with 1,000 or more employees) in the Pensions & Investments “Best Places to Work in Money Management” survey each year since 2014.

Andrew Siwo

Director of Sustainable Investments and Climate Solutions, New York State Common Retirement Fund

Andrew Siwo is the Director of Sustainable Investments and Climate Solutions at the New York State Common Retirement Fund. He is charged with providing leadership and oversight of sustainable investment efforts across the Fund’s $260 billion portfolio. Previously, Siwo was an Investment Director and Head of Mission-Related Investments at Crewcial Partners, an investment consultancy to over 150 leading foundations and endowments.

Prior to joining Crewcial Partners, Siwo was a manager at the Global Impact Investing Networking (GIIN). In his capacity there, he was responsible for the operation, sourcing, and development of ImpactBase, the largest platform of impact investment funds globally, which he grew by north of $10 billion and approved more than 100 prospective impact funds targeting a financial return as well as social/environmental benefits. He also educated and fostered institutional investors seeking exposure to sustainable investments.

Prior to joining the GIIN, Siwo spent five years in the investment banking division at JP Morgan—most recently in the Global Special Opportunities Group, a $3 billion proprietary portfolio of principal investments in private equity, debt, mezzanine, infrastructure, and real estate. He also held roles on the Rates Desk executing fixed income financing transactions as well as the Securitized Products Group valuing collateralized mortgage obligations.
Before JP Morgan, Siwo was a member of the Corporate Finance and Real Estate Strategy Group at Victoria's Secret where he oversaw capital budgeting. He began his career at E*Trade Financial managing a team of investment representatives serving active traders and high net-worth investors. His investment articles have been printed in various industry publications.

Siwo completed an MPA in Finance and Fiscal Policy at Cornell University and holds a BA in Accounting from Morehouse College. He has held FINRA Series 7, 63, and 24 licenses. He teaches an ESG course at The Wagner Graduate of Public Service at NYU where he is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service. Siwo also serves on the Board of New York Professional Advisors to Community Entrepreneurs (NYPACE).

The New York State Common Retirement Fund is one of the largest public pension funds in the United States. The Fund holds and invests the assets of the New York State and Local Retirement System on behalf of more than one million state and local government employees and retirees and their beneficiaries. It has consistently been ranked as one of the best managed and best funded plans in the nation.

Allison Spector

Head of ESG, One Rock Capital Partners

Allison Spector is the Head of ESG of One Rock Capital Partners, LLC. Prior to joining One Rock, Ms. Spector was Director of Responsible Investing and Sustainability at Nuveen, where she focused on sustainability initiatives across Real Assets and Private Markets. Prior to Nuveen, Ms. Spector was a Senior Manager at The Global Impact Investing Network and a Director at Initiative for Global Development.

Ms. Spector earned a B.A. in international studies from Emory University and an M.S. in sustainable development from the School of Oriental and Asian Studies at the University of London. She serves on the Novata ESG Advisory Council and on the board of the Fund for Education Abroad (FEA), and as a mentor in the Columbia's Women & Sustainability Mentorship Program.

Founded in 2010, One Rock Capital Partners is a value-oriented, operationally focused private equity firm with ~$5.0 billion of cumulative capital commitments under management that executes on complex buyouts. One Rock is focused on enhancing value by bringing operational, strategic, and financial resources to companies in a spectrum of industries, including chemicals and process industries, specialty manufacturing and healthcare products, business and environmental services and food and beverage manufacturing. One Rock’s investment process utilizes the expertise of its Operating Partners to execute upon value-creation initiatives alongside management teams. One Rock has offices in New York, Los Angeles and London.

Marshall Sprung

Global Head of Compliance, BlackStone

Marshall S. Sprung is the Global Head of Compliance at Blackstone. Before joining the firm in 2016, Mr. Sprung was Co-Chief of the Asset Management Unit of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement. In this capacity, Mr. Sprung oversaw a nationwide program of investigations focusing on investment advisers, investment companies, mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity funds and other investment vehicles managed by investment advisers. He co-led a team of nearly 80 attorneys, industry experts and other professionals in all 12 SEC offices, and was responsible for directing the SEC’s asset management-related enforcement efforts. In recognition of his leadership and integrity, he received the Chairman’s Award for Excellence in Leadership in 2015.

Mr. Sprung received his JD from New York University School of Law, where he served as Executive Editor of the New York University Law Review, and his BA with honors from Brown University. He serves on the Board of God’s Love We Deliver.

Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our $881 billion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow @blackstone on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Kyle Strumfels

Associate, ESG M&A Consulting, Langan

When Langan sought a leader in Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) consulting, the firm turned to Kyle Strumfels, an accomplished ESG and EHS expert with 20 years of industry experience. In one year, Strumfels, Associate at Langan, has doubled the size of the firm’s ESG M&A Consulting practice. Langan’s team works with financial, legal, industrial, and real estate clients to implement tailored ESG solutions, with a focus on stakeholder engagement, value creation, and equitable outcomes. Langan, a premier environmental and engineering firm with nearly 1,500 employees and 37 offices worldwide, provides strategic support in evaluating ESG performance for investments, mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. Strumfels holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from The College of William & Mary and a Master of Environmental Studies degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Langan provides an integrated mix of engineering and environmental consulting services in support of land development projects, corporate real estate portfolios, and the energy industry. Our clients include developers, property owners, public agencies, corporations, institutions, and energy companies around the world.

Jordan Stutts

Senior Writer, Private Markets, PEI

Jordan Stutts is a senior reporter at Infrastructure Investor based in New York. Since 2015, Jordan has covered trends in the funding and financing of infrastructure assets around the world. His stories range from the simple power-purchase agreement to how the use of data is making assets more efficient. Prior to joining Infrastructure Investor, Jordan produced videos on international affairs and reported local news in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Mona Sutphen

Partner & Head of Investment Strategies, Vistria

Mona Sutphen is a Partner and Head of Investment Strategies at the Vistria Group. Prior to joining Vistria, Ms. Sutphen was a Partner at Macro Advisory Partners, where she led the firm’s US practice advising the firm’s global corporate and capital markets clients. Earlier she was Managing Director at UBS AG, where she developed new tools for political risk evaluation impacting capital markets. From 2009-2011, she served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy for President Obama, where she advanced the policy and regulatory agenda on a range of domestic and international issues. Early in her career, Ms. Sutphen was a career diplomat, serving on the staff of the National Security Council during the Clinton Administration and the U.S. Mission to the UN, as well as posts in Asia and Europe.

Ms. Sutphen serves on the Boards of Spotify (NYSE: SPOT), renewable energy company Pattern Energy, Unitek Learning, and is a Trustee for Putnam Mutual Funds. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Boards of the International Rescue Committee and Human Rights First. Ms. Sutphen is a Trustee of Mount Holyoke College and serves on the advisory boards of the Warner Music Social Justice Fund and the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

Previously, she served on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and was an adjunct professor at the Princeton School of Public & International Affairs. Ms. Sutphen is co-author of The Next American Century, and Executive Producer of two documentary films Battleground (PBS 2020) and Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union (HBO 2021).

Ms. Sutphen received a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and an MSc from the London School of Economics.

Suzanne Tavill

Global Head of Responsible Investment, Partner, StepStone Group

Ms. Tavill is the global head of responsible investing, which encompasses ESG and Impact across all asset classes and investment strategies. She is also a member of the private equity team.

Prior to StepStone, Ms. Tavill was responsible for AMP Capital’s global alternative investment platform that included private equity, infrastructure and real assets. Before that, she spent five years at Van Eyk Research in Sydney, the last four as head of research. Before moving to Australia, she was an executive director at Goldman Sachs Investment Management, responsible for their UK small-and mid-cap portfolios.

Ms. Tavill received an MSc in finance and economics from the London School of Economics, in addition to a BBS with honors in economics and honors in finance from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

StepStone Group Inc. is a global private markets investment firm focused on providing customized investment solutions and advisory and data services to our clients. Our clients include some of the world’s largest public and private defined benefit and defined contribution pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies, as well as prominent endowments, foundations, family offices and private wealth clients, which include high-net-worth and mass affluent individuals. We partner with our clients to develop and build private markets portfolios designed to meet their specific objectives across the private equity, infrastructure, private debt and real estate asset classes. These portfolios utilize several types of synergistic investment strategies with third-party fund managers, including commitments to funds (“primaries”), acquiring stakes in existing funds on the secondary market (“secondaries”) and investing directly into companies (“co-investments”). As of March 2022, we oversaw $588 billion of private markets allocations, including $137 billion of assets under management (“AUM”).

Eric Taylor

Founder and CEO, Trident

Eric Taylor is the Founder, CEO and CIO of Trident, a private equity firm focused on acquiring US-based small businesses in industrial, consumer and healthcare sectors. Trident uses proprietary technology to systematically source and diligence small-cap opportunities, with an eye towards reducing the racial wealth gap by incorporating post-transaction elements of diversity, equity and inclusion to amplify commercial outcomes. Eric oversees all day to day operations, leads the firm’s Investment Committee, and makes final decisions on all additions to the portfolio. Mr. Taylor began his career at Goldman Sachs, where he spent four years in the Special Situations Group, focused primarily on lower and middle market companies. After Goldman and prior to Trident, Mr. Taylor was a Portfolio Manager (credit) and Originator (equity) at Brightwood Capital, a lower-middle market asset manager that invests debt and equity primarily in companies with $5 million to $75 million of EBITDA. Mr. Taylor holds an AB from Harvard University with Honors and is a CFA Charterholder.

Trident is a private equity firm focused on acquiring US-based small businesses across three core sectors: Industrials, Consumer, and Healthcare. We generally target companies that do a $10-100mm in revenues and look to invest $5-40mm of equity per opportunity. Trident’s competitive advantage is in its systematic approach to sourcing and diligence of small-cap opportunities and the incorporation of proprietary technology to make the investment process scalable and repeatable. Trident’s strategy also encompasses reducing the racial wealth gap through investment in people and opportunities by using a post-transaction playbook that incorporates elements of diversity, equity and inclusion designed to amplify commercial outcomes (IRR and MOIC) for our Limited Partners.

Astha Ummat

Head of ESG, Centerbridge Partners

Astha Ummat is a Director and Head of ESG at Centerbridge Partners where she leads ESG integration for the Firm’s global Private Equity, Credit, and Real Estate investment platforms. She works closely with the Firm’s leadership, investment teams and portfolio companies on ESG strategy, diligence, and value creation. Astha started her trajectory at Centerbridge as an Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps Fellow where she led ESG value creation at a key Centerbridge portfolio company.

Prior to joining Centerbridge in 2017, Astha worked with the Indian federal government on energy and climate change policy and sustainable infrastructure projects. Previously, she has held roles at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the International Labor Organization, after starting her career at Google Inc.

Astha holds an M.P.A. from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, an M.S. in Environmental and Resource Economics from TERI School of Advanced Studies, and a B.A. from Delhi University.

Centerbridge Partners, L.P. is a private investment management firm employing a flexible approach across investment disciplines – private equity, private credit and real estate – in an effort to develop the most attractive opportunities for our investors. The Firm was founded in 2005 and as of January 31, 2022 has approximately $33 billion in capital under management with offices in New York and London. Centerbridge is dedicated to partnering with world-class management teams across targeted industry sectors and geographies. For more information, please visit www.centerbridge.com.

Devasena Vallabhaneni

Managing Director, Antares Capital

Devasena is a managing director with Antares Capital. She is responsible for structuring, underwriting, documenting and managing transactions.

Devasena joined Antares in 2004 and has held roles in the workout and unitranche structuring groups. Since 2016, she has also been focused on underwriting and marketing within the healthcare portfolio. Devasena also leads efforts for the credit team focused on secondary purchases and is on the working group managing the integration of ESG efforts at Antares. Prior to joining Antares, she was an associate in the workout and restructuring group of Societe Generale.

Devasena has a bachelor’s degree in economics with a minor in computer science from Johns Hopkins University.

Antares is a private debt credit manager and a leading provider of innovative financing and investment solutions for private equity-backed borrowers and investors. In 2020, Antares issued approximately $14 billion in financing commitments across more than 220 transactions. Since its founding in 1996, Antares has built one of the industry’s largest and longest-tenured portfolios of middle-market companies with more than 485 borrowers. Through its Asset Management & Funding team, Antares offers investors the opportunity to invest in collateralized loan obligations, funds and separately managed accounts. Antares is committed to championing middle market growth throughout market cycles. Doing so allows its people, partners and communities to achieve their full potential.

Maaike van der Schoot

Head of Responsible Investment, AlpInvest Partners

Maaike van der Schoot is AlpInvest Partner’s Head of Responsible Investment and oversees the development and implementation of the Responsible Investment policy. She joined AlpInvest Partners in 2002. Prior to her current role, she was an investment manager in the Co-Investment team. She previously worked at Morgan Stanley in London as an investment banking analyst. Maaike is also the Chair of Invest Europe’s Responsible Investment Roundtable and a member of its Professional Standards Committee. Maaike received an MSc in Financial Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

AlpInvest Partners

AlpInvest, a core division of The Carlyle Group, is a large global private equity investor. We have deep, global experience managing primary fund commitments, secondary investments and co-investments. AlpInvest manages private equity investments for 450+ institutional investors worldwide through both commingled funds and customized strategic accounts. Leveraging decades of experience, our teams work closely together to build differentiated portfolios that deliver value for our investors. AlpInvest employs more than 190 people and operates globally with offices in Amsterdam, New York, San Francisco, London and Hong Kong.

Marianne Voss

Managing Director and Chief ESG Officer, Webster Equity Partners

Marianne joined Webster in 2021 and serves as the Chief ESG Officer. In this role, Marianne is responsible for evolving Webster’s ESG program to meet company, investor, and stakeholder expectations, and to aid management in risk mitigation and in creating further value at a fund and company level.
Prior to Webster, Marianne’s career included senior leadership positions within Global 500 companies such as, Head of Operations for Social & Environmental Affairs at the Adidas Group. She has also held key roles with NGO’s defining corporate responsibility best practices such as Acting Deputy Director and Senior Advisor, Private Sector at Oxfam America. Marianne was also a founder of Ethos Matters, a boutique management consultancy helping companies in all sectors meet and exceed global standards through their operations, products, services, or business relationships to build a global economy good for business, people, and the planet. Marianne has also taught corporate responsibility courses at Bentley College and the University of Rhode Island.
Marianne is a graduate of Boston University School of Law and holds a master’s degree concentrating in Public International Law and Human Rights from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
Founded in 2003, Webster Equity Partners is a private equity firm that partners with healthcare service companies with a focus on high impact growth strategies based on delivering the highest quality care and exceptional service. The firm has 200+ platform and add-on investments over the firm’s history. Our seven Partners have over 80 years of combined experience investing in, operating, and advising, growing companies.

Lexi Wachter

Co-Founder & ESG Business Advisor, Bridge House Advisors

Lexi Wachter is a Co-Founder and ESG Business Advisor at Bridge House Advisors, an ESG and sustainability advisory firm dedicated to servicing private equity, their portfolio companies, and beyond. She leads the firm's ESG Due Diligence service and supports private equity firms across investment theses and fund sizes in integrating ESG into their operations. Lexi specializes in the delivery of ESG due diligence, GP ESG strategy development and implementation, ESG metrics and monitoring, ESG reporting, portfolio company support services (e.g., sustainability strategy development), and impact opportunity assessments.

Prior to joining Bridge House, Lexi was a Project Manager at Environmental Resources Management (ERM) and has extensive experience delivering global environmental due diligence of businesses across industries including manufacturing, chemical, pharmaceutical, aerospace and defense, technology, food and beverage, and more. Her background includes Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs), Limited Environmental Compliance Reviews (LCRs), and soil and groundwater remediation. Lexi holds a B.S. in Environmental Science at Lehigh University.

Bridge House Advisors is a purposely built, full-service ESG and sustainability advisory firm that is dedicated to building relationships with middle and upper middle market private equity firms and their portfolio companies. We provide a unique blend of traditional environmental and forward-looking ESG services, which we combine with decades of experience working with portfolio companies on EHS Compliance and Sustainability engagements.

Shonda Warner

Founder and Managing Partner, Chess Ag Full Harvest Partners

Shonda Warner is the founder and managing director of Chess Ag Full Harvest Partners which has invested in farming and agri-business since 2006. Chess Ag has both managed and developed more than 50,000 acres of agricultural land across the U.S. Warner has more than 40 years experience farming and managing agricultural products, financial assets and hedge funds around the world.

Warner is a member of the board of directors of ACDI-VOCA and Agribusiness Systems International (ASI), one of the largest non-profit development organizations implementing food, agriculture, innovative agriculture financing and food security projects for the U.S. Agency for International Development, The Gates Foundation, and other donors in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Warner also serves as an advisor to AGree, a collaboration funded by leading foundations to forge policy consensus and tackle the critical challenges of the global food and agriculture system. In 1998 Warner was a founding member of the Indian Environmental Trust, originally established to protect the fragile ecosystem that underpins the environs of Mumbai.

Out of concern for the need to strengthen rural communities, Warner created the non-profit, the PORCH Society, dedicated to the preservation of rural cultural heritage. Warner is a fellow at the Linnaean Society of London, the world’s oldest active biological society founded in 1788. Warner was born and raised on her parents’ family farm in Nebraska and earned her grain grading license at the age of 15 while helping to operate the family grain elevator.

Prior to Chess Ag Full Harvest Partners , Warner was based in London as the managing partner of the fund of hedge funds Chess Capital Partners from 2002 through 2006. From 1998 through 2002, she was co-managing director and partner of Montier Partners, also an UK-based fund of funds. From 1989 through 2002, Warner was an executive director at Goldman Sachs where she was a member of the London and Tokyo equity derivatives and the global proprietary trading desks. Ten years ago, Warner helped found MENA Capital, one of the first hedge funds focused on the Middle East and North Africa and serves on it. She began her career in 1985 as a grain trader at Cargill. She graduated from the University of Texas in Austin where she studied zoology and physical anthropology.

Lorraine Wilson

CIO and Head of ESG, Novata

Lorraine is Chief Impact Officer and Head of ESG at Novata. Prior to Novata, Lorraine was managing director of investor solutions at JUST Capital, a nonprofit research organization, where she developed ESG product partnerships and research collaborations with global asset managers. Previously, Lorraine held roles in investment management in New York at Bank of America Merrill, Third Avenue Management, and Goldman Sachs. Lorraine is an advisor to the NYU Center for Sustainable Business. She is based in Washington, D.C.

Novata is a public benefit corporation created to empower the private markets to achieve a more inclusive capitalism. We are building the technology infrastructure to make collecting, managing, and benchmarking ESG data easy. We help companies curate their reporting metrics from leading standards, provide guidance for painless data collection, offer a secure contributory database to store data, and tools for analysis and seamless reporting to key stakeholders, including limited partners and regulators. Novata was formed by a unique consortium of philanthropic and for-profit leaders including Hamilton Lane, S&P Global, The Ford Foundation & The Omidyar Network. https://www.novata.com/.

Tricia Winton

Partner and Global Head of ESG, Bain Capital

Tricia Winton joined Bain Capital in 2020. She is a Senior Vice President and Global Head of ESG for the firm.

Ms. Winton has over 25 years of experience building effective and successful businesses, focusing on value creation, organization performance and responsible operations. Prior to joining Bain Capital, she worked at ArcLight Capital Partners for twelve years where she led ESG, Strategy and Human Capital. Previously, she advised public sector, private sector, and non-profits at McKinsey and Company and led client relationship management at Cambridge Associates.

Bain Capital, LP is one of the world’s leading private multi-asset alternative investment firms that creates lasting impact for our investors, teams, businesses, and the communities in which we live. Since our founding in 1984, we’ve applied our insight and experience to organically expand into numerous asset classes including private equity, credit, public equity, venture capital, real estate and other strategic areas of focus. The firm has offices on four continents, more than 1,600 employees and approximately $160 billion in assets under management. To learn more, visit www.baincapital.com.

David Wynn

Chief Product Officer, Greenstone

Greenstone provides award-winning software solutions and services enabling companies to advance their sustainability strategies and become responsible businesses. As Chief Product Officer, David is responsible for overseeing Greenstone’s global software product direction and strategy. His role is to ensure that product developments align with client needs and the latest in GHG accounting and ESG reporting. David leads the Client Service Team’s delivery of support to PE firms on their portfolio GHG accounting approaches. David has been with Greenstone for over 9 years and has 15 years’ experience in sustainability consultancy helping public and private sector organizations transform their ESG journeys.

Effectively integrating ESG to create sustainable value

Leading the way in responsible investment practices

Connect with investors

Hear from corporate governance leaders

Join the discussion

Keynote speakers

Senior Director, Sustainable Investing and Strategic Projects, Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA)

Director of ESG, Benefit Street Partners

Private Equity Client Service Partner and Americas ESG leader, Ernst and Young

Founding Partner, Blue Dot Capital

Chief Administrative Officer & General Counsel, Comvest Partners

Managing Director, Head of Investor Relations and ESG, Tiger Infrastructure Partners

Vice President, Head of ESG, HarbourVest Partners

Partner, Kimmeridge

Partner of Impact Investing and Head of ESG, TZP Group

Partner and Global Head of ESG, Bain Capital

Managing Partner, Volery Capital Partners

Head of ESG & Sustainability, Palladium Equity Partners

Founder and CEO, Star Mountain Capital

Managing Director and Chief ESG Officer, Webster Equity Partners

Partner, Falcon Investments

Senior Vice President, Head of ESG, Warburg Pincus

Director of Sustainable Investments and Climate Solutions, New York State Common Retirement Fund

Senior Writer, Private Markets, PEI

Managing Director - Compliance and Sustainable Investing, Harvard Management Company

Co-Host

Founding ESG Sponsor

Lead Sponsors

Sponsors

Media Partners

Testimonials

Agenda

Day 1 - Wednesday 2nd

Registration and welcome breakfast

PEI welcome

Chair’s opening remarks