2023 Speakers

Adam is Partner and Head of ESG & Sustainability at Coller Capital. He holds a BSc (Hons) Environmental Science, MA Environmental Law and a post-graduate in Occupational Health and Safety. Adam’s first in-house private finance role was in 2008 (Doughty Hanson), and as one of the first dedicated ESG leads for the asset class he implemented one of the first ESG value creation programmes in private equity. Adam left Doughty Hanson as Partner and Head of Sustainability to join Coller Capital (global private markets secondaries) in 2016, where he has responsibility for ESG across all investment decision-making and management processes, as well as various initiatives applicable across the wider business.

Maria joined Mayfair in 2015 to work alongside portfolio companies to identify, quantify and unlock business process improvement activities. Maria’s expertise as both a former practitioner and consultant allows her to focus on opportunities to drive incremental value in areas such as tax, ESG and finance with the aim of supporting the teams Mayfair partners with to deliver their plans faster or with less risk.

Maria is a qualified accountant, tax and treasury adviser, has a first-class honours degree in Chemistry from The University of Surrey, a PhD in Nanotechnology from Cambridge University and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. Maria is also a member of the British Venture Capital Association’s Tax Committee and Responsible Investing Advisory Group.

Joana Castro, Partner, Head of Primary Investments, is product head for the Climate Impact Fund and responsible for ESG integration in private equity. Joana is a member of the advisory board of several private equity funds and member of British Venture Capital Association’s Responsible Investment Advisory Group. She joined Unigestion in September 2016. Joana began her career in 2007 in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. In 2010, she joined the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as Senior Analyst focusing on private equity funds investments and became Principal at EBRD in 2013. Joana graduated in Economics from Catolica Lisbon School of Business and Economics in Lisbon, Portugal.

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Axel works as Sustainability Lead at Verdane, a leading European growth investor in sustainable. tech-enabled businesses. At Verdane he is responsible for building a centre of excellence around sustainable growth and strengthening Verdane’s existing sustainability proposition as a core value creator across the firm’s activities.

He brings deep expertise in the opportunities and risks presented by the climate transition and the Circular Economy, and comes most recently from Material Economics, a consulting firm focused on the strategic and commercial implications of the sustainability transition. There he worked with large investors and financial institutions, globally leading industrial and agriculture players, and several European organisations to help them future-proof their business models. Prior to this he worked at another consulting firm, Oliver Wyman, and has experience from both Fintech and Venture Capital in Germany.

Axel holds an MEng. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering with Management from Imperial College London

Victoria is responsible for the management and development of JTC’s ESG Service offering to clients and supports JTC Plc’s ESG Strategy.

She is a Certified Chartered Accountant with 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry, specialising in various aspects of E S and G. Victoria has conducted bespoke projects, including working with Fundsmith to assist with their oversight and supplier governance framework for the Equity Fund when it launched in 2011.

Victoria holds the Investment Operations Certificate awarded by the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment, Certificate in ESG Investing with the CFA Institute, Certificate in Sustainability within Finance, awarded by ACCA and Certificate in Leading Sustainable Organisations, Certificate in Private Markets – both awarded by Oxford Said Business School.

As Director of ESG and Responsible Investing, Mr. Hill is the Chairperson of Adams Street’s Environmental, Social, and Governance Committee, and supports Adams Street’s ESG efforts across all investment strategies. He collaborates with internal and external stakeholders to analyze, measure, and report ESG performance, as well as drive improvement. Mr. Hill’s career in the fields of ESG research and sustainability spans two decades. Prior to joining Adams Street, he was at S&P Global Trucost where he played a key role in managing and delivering projects that provided data-leveraged ESG insights to leading businesses and institutional investors.

Beth Houghton leads the Impact team at Palatine and has been responsible for successfully

investing Impact Fund I. Beth joined Palatine in 2007 having completed her MBA with
distinction at Manchester Business School. In 2016, Beth was awarded the BVCA’s
“Outstanding Individual Contribution” award, in recognition of her contribution
to responsible investment within the industry. Beth was also recognised by Real Deals in
2020 as a leader in Diversity and Inclusion within the private equity industry. Beth sits
on the Responsible Investment Committee for the BVCA and often contributes to
industry panels and webinars regarding ESG, Impact and Diversity.

Stefanie is a specialist in impact measurement and management. An economist by training, she previously led the impact team at Bridges Fund Management in the UK before recently joining the team at Three Hills Capital Partners to build the sustainable European alternatives platform, Atypical Partner. Alongside her colleagues from Bridges, she also launched the Impact Management Project, a global network to define standards and norms for impact measurement and management.

With eight years’ experience working in a private equity backed business, Lucie joined NorthEdge in 2019 to bring her experience of delivering change in a fast growth business to the private equity house itself.

Given her role on Value Creation, she has always taken an interest in the wider ESG spectrum, recognising the role it plays in building better businesses. At NorthEdge, Lucie has supported the business to integrate all aspects of ESG into the value creation plan, supporting NorthEdge and its portfolio to implement initiatives that create positive change and drive long-term value for businesses, people and communities.

Fabio Ranghino is Head of Strategy & Sustainability at Ambienta and is based in

Milan. He has joined Ambienta in 2011 and since then has led the development of
Ambienta’s approach to sutainability driven investment across asset classes
building internal proprietary knowledge across sectors and industry.
Under his leadership, Sustainability & Strategy develops sustainability driven
insights and ideas generation for Ambienta’s investment teams, advises on
investment decisions across asset classes and develops proprietary environmental
impact methodologies.
Prior to Ambienta, he was a management consultant with Value Partners where he
developed experience on a wide range of sectors and industries as industrial
goods, automotive, luxury goods and energy.
He hold a BSc and a MSc in Aerospace Engineering from Politecnico di Torino and
has an MBA from INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France and Singapore)

dr Robert Sroka is the ESG Director and Chief Ethics Officer for Central Europe at Abris Capital Partners. He is responsible for developing and overseeing a responsible investment policy and all ESG areas. He has 15 years of experience working on business ethics, ESG, corporate governance, ant-bribery, human rights, and sustainable development projects.

Previously, Manager at EY Climate Change and Sustainability Services and EY Business Integrity and Corporate Compliance practices. Robert is a member of the Invest Europe Responsible Investment Roundtable and the European Business Ethics Network. Author and co-author of many research reports, books and articles available on www.robertsroka.pl.

Serge is the Head of Sustainability at Investindustrial, responsible for Sustainability (ESG), Responsible Investing, Impact Investment and sustainable growth. He leads a team of highly experienced domain experts in Sustainability & ESG to deliver tangible value and impact in the investment process working closely with portfolio companies. Serge was previously a Director at Accenture Strategy and previously was a Director of Sustainability Services at WSP Environment & Energy.