A4S Summit 2024

Robert S. joined the HBS faculty in 1984 after spending 16 years on the faculty of the business school at Carnegie-Mellon University, where he served as Dean from 1977 to 1983. Kaplan has co-developed both activity-based costing (ABC) and the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), widely recognized as seminal contributions to management theory and practice. His current research applies these two innovations to important problems at the intersection of business and society.

In 2021, Kaplan partnered with Oxford professor Karthik Ramanna to create the E-liability method, the first system to accurately measure and report corporate greenhouse gas emissions across corporate supply and distribution chains. The approach, readily extendible to societal and other environmental outcomes, is the first rigorous approach for ESG reporting.

An expert on business-government relations, sustainable capitalism, and corporate reporting and auditing, Professor Ramanna studies how organisations and leaders build trust with stakeholders. His scholarship has won numerous awards, including the Journal of Accounting and Economics Best Paper Prize, the Harvard Business Review McKinsey Award for “groundbreaking management thinking,” and three times the international Case Centre’s prizes for “outstanding case-writing,” dubbed by the Financial Times as “the business school Oscars.”

Professor Ramanna established and leads the Case Centre on Public Leadership and the Transformational Leadership Fellowship at the School. In 2022, he co-founded the non-profit E-liability Institute, where he serves as principal investigator, with a mission to drive decarbonisation processes through rigorous GHG accounting. From 2016 to 2023, he was director of the Blavatnik School's Master of Public Policy programme that has educated over a thousand public leaders from about 120 countries. From July 2023, Professor Ramanna is on partial public-service leave from Oxford to advise the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, an “auditor of auditors” in global markets.

Jon Creyts is an internationally recognized leader on global energy issues and climate change. Since joining the organization in 2012, Jon has managed the strategy and execution of RMI’s global research and collaboration activities in multiple senior positions, most recently serving as chief program and strategy officer.  Jon helped found RMI’s China Program and set up RMI’s office in Beijing. He has worked on electricity transition issues, helping found RMI’s Electricity Innovation Lab (e-Lab), and stewarded RMI’s Business Renewables Center to eventually spin out and become the Clean Energy Buyer’s Alliance. He conceived and built RMI’s breakthrough technology accelerator, Third Derivative. Prior to joining RMI, Jon was a partner with McKinsey & Company where he spent 11 years in the global energy practice.

Professor Tim Flannery is one of the world’s most influential environmentalists. An author of best-selling books, presenter for numerous television documentary series, and founder of several highly influential not for profit organisations, his skills are in high demand with corporate and non-corporate entities.
Over 2 decades he led 25 expeditions into Melanesia, contacting some indigenous people for the first time, and discovering and describing 28 species of living mammals, feats described in his best-selling book Throwim Way Leg. Sir David Attenborough has described Flannery as being “in the league of the all-time great explorers, such as Sir David Livingstone”. He has published over 140 scientific publications and is noted as one of Australia’s most renowned authors having published over 30 books.
Best known for his work in climate change, Tim established the Copenhagen Climate Council (2007), the Climate Council of Australia (2013), and served as Australia’s Climate Commissioner (2011-2013). His network is extensive, having served on the Sustainability Advisory Boards of Siemens and Tata Power, and advising Sir Richard Branson on the Virgin Earth Challenge.

Brian Moynihan leads a team of more than 210,000 employees dedicated to making financial lives better for people, companies of every size, and institutional investors across the United States and around the world. Brian participates in several organizations that focus on economic and market trends, including the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics Initiative (chair), the Financial Services Forum, the Bank Policy Institute, the Business Roundtable, The Clearing House Association (chair), the American Heart Association CEO Roundtable (co-chair), the Steering Committee of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism (co-chair), and the Business Council. He also is chair of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, which was founded by His Majesty King Charles III in his former role of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

Nicholas Goodman is responsible for allocating the Corporation’s capital across Brookfield’s various businesses and new business initiatives. He also has overall responsibility for global finance, tax, treasury and capital markets.
Nicholas joined Brookfield in 2010 and since then has held several roles, including Chief Financial Officer of Brookfield Asset Management and Chief Financial Officer of Brookfield Renewable Partners. Prior to Brookfield, Nicholas worked for large financial institutions in London and New York.

In addition to overseeing accounting, treasury and internal audit activities, Maarika is responsible for valuation activities, monitoring financial performance and applying financial governance and taxation best practices. She also heads all CDPQ operations, and oversees human resources, talent management, public affairs and information technology. She is a member of CDPQ’s Executive Committee. Maarika is a Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCPA, FCA) and a Chartered Business Valuator (CBV) with more than 30 years of experience in financial management. She began her career at audit and tax services firm KPMG, where she worked for 10 years.

Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien was appointed as a full-time member of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in June 2022. Her career has been focused on building connections between business and sustainable development, working across multinational and indigenous companies, public institutions and civil society organisations—in Africa and Europe—to initiate sustainable development initiatives. She served as the inaugural Group Chief Sustainability and Governance Officer of Dangote Industries Limited—one of Africa’s largest manufacturing businesses—from 2017 to 2020. Ndidi has also served on several boards, committees and initiatives focused on corporate culture, impact investing, sustainability reporting and governance. 

A highly meticulous and commercial Chartered Accountant, Susanne was appointed CFO of the De Beers Diamond Trading in May 2018.
Prior to joining the De Beers Diamond Trading business, which spans Botswana, Namibia, Dubai and Singapore, Susanne’s career started as an auditor with Deloitte. After 10 years in the audit field, she joined the mining industry where she spent with another 14 years working extensively across the mining sector in Botswana for copper nickel and diamond mines.
In May 2017, Susanne was presented with the “Woman of the Decade in Finance and Leadership Award” by the All-Ladies League & Women Economic Forum (New Delhi, India). She currently sits on the board of directors and audit committees of several companies in Botswana, Namibia, Singapore, Dubai and Belgium including serving as a Board Chairperson of two such companies.

Melanie began her career in 1997 as a consultant at McKinsey. In 2000 she moved to private equity investor Apax Partners. In 2004 she joined Deutsche Post DHL Group, where she initially worked in the Corporate Development department in Bonn and later in the UK as part of the Exel integration. In October 2006 she assumed the position of Executive Vice President (EVP) Corporate Office. In 2009 she took over as EVP Corporate Controlling and in April 2013 as CFO of DHL Express. On November 1st 2014 Kreis was promoted to the Board of Management of Deutsche Post DHL Group, as the Board Member for Human Resources and Labor Director. Since October 1st 2016, she has been the Chief Financial Officer of Deutsche Post DHL Group.

Laura started her career as a Finance Auditor in PWC Buenos Aires, Argentina. She became Financial Controller in Villa Alpina (Groupe Danone) in 1999, and in 2003 she moved to France as Sales & Marketing Controller for the World Wide Waters Division. She later became VP Finance Nature in 2009, in charge of developing and deploying the environmental reporting for the company, including the CO2 accounting system. Between 2018 and 2021 Laura was seconded to the UN Global Compact where she served as Senior Advisor on Sustainability Reporting, leading the creation of the SDG Action manager tool (in collaboration with B Lab) and the re-launch of the Communication of Progress. Back in Danone’s HQ, Laura serves as Head of Sustainable Finance, reporting to the CFO of the company.

Will was appointed Chair of Eurosif in December 2015. With a career spanning over 20 years in sustainable finance, Will was formerly the Responsible Investment Advisor to leading global asset manager First Sentier Investors (FSI) based in the UK, responsible for advising the business on its responsible investment and stewardship strategy and execution globally.

Will is also a Non-Executive Director and Champion for Ocean Recovery at the UK’s Marine Conservation Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Honorary Professor at Nottingham University Business School’s International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, Co-Chair of King Charles III’s Accounting for Sustainability Expert Panel and sits on a number of investment industry advisory boards and committees.

Will’s holds positions as a Pension Scheme Trustee (Commonwealth Bank of Australia UK Staff benefits Scheme), an Investment Consultant (Mercer), and in ESG benchmark design, development and management (FTSE Russell – FTSE4Good Indices).

Koushik Chatterjee joined Tata Steel in 1995. During his stint in the Company, he worked in the areas of Corporate Finance and Planning. Koushik was appointed as Group Chief Financial Officer in January 2008. He was inducted into the Board of the Company as a full time Director in 2012. He has been responsible for Group Financial Reporting, Investor Relations, Financing Strategy including debt and equity raising, Corporate M&A, Risk Management and Compliance, Taxation Strategy and planning and co-ordination of statutory and management reporting. Koushik was declared one of India’s best CFOs by Business Today Magazine in 2005 and 2006 and by CNBC in 2007. In March 2012, he has been awarded the Best Performing CFO in the Metals Sector by CNBC TV18. He was declared India’s “Best Executive” for 2009 by Asia Money Magazine.

Emma Howard Boyd is Chair of the Green Finance Institute, and formerly Chair of the Environment Agency and Ex officio board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and member of the UK Board of Trade. She is currently chairing a review for the Mayor of London on the city’s resilience in the face of climate change, having also previously been the UK Commissioner to the Global Commission on Adaptation, and a Global Ambassador for Race to Zero and Race to Resilience ahead of COP26.

Andrew Bonfield is responsible for Finance Services, Financial Products, Enterprise Strategy, and Global Information Services. Andrew joined Caterpillar in September 2018 and brings more than three decades of financial expertise to the role, most recently serving as Group CFO and board member of National Grid plc, a British multinational electricity and gas utility company.

Prior to National Grid, Bonfield held the position of chief financial officer at Cadbury plc and served as executive vice president and chief financial officer at Bristol Myers Squibb. He serves as a non-executive director and chairman of the audit committee at Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, a British multinational consumer goods company.