2023 Speakers

Emin was a member of the Stirling Square investment team from 2005 until 2010. He re-joined Stirling Square in 2019 as Head of Sustainability after having worked as an independent consultant and investor in the meantime. Previously, he held roles at Agilitas Partners, Credit Suisse First Boston, Siemens, and Dicke & Associates Management Consultants. Emin holds an MBA from The Wharton School and an MSc in Computer Engineering from the University of Siegen.

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.

Zoe Bulger manages Impact & ESG at Summa Equity, a private equity fund with c. EUR 4bn assets under management.

Summa was the first private equity firm to align its strategy with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Summa has also joined as a key partner with UNDP and UN PRI in UN SDG Impact Initiative to help develop an SDG-alignment framework relevant to all private equity firms.

Zoe is an impact expert, with nearly a decade of experience advancing impact in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. At Summa, Zoe works cross-functionally to integrate impact and ESG across the investment process, portfolio company management, reporting, and LP engagement. Zoe also leads work to monetize the fund’s impact through Harvard’s pioneering impact-weighted accounting methodology.

Before joining Summa, Zoe worked as a consultant at The Bridgespan Group, leading strategy projects for mission-driven funders and organizations. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a BSc in Psychology from Duke University.

Richard is Chief Sustainability Officer and Director for Earth Capital Limited, as well as a member of the Investment Committee.

Richard has spent over 35 years in international banking. In his 20 years with ABN AMRO he was Head of UK Structured Finance and Corporate Banking and sat on the UK Executive and Credit Committees. As Global Head of Project Finance, he was responsible for ABN AMRO’s award-winning business franchises in Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and Brazil. In this role he was also instrumental in the creation of the Equator Principles, a market recognised standard for managing environmental and social risk issues in project financing.

Latterly, as Global Head of Sustainability, he chaired the group’s Sustainability Council and developed the bank’s strategy on climate change and the carbon markets. He is a former Chair of the UNEP Finance Initiative, a former Steering Committee member of Renewable Energy Networks for the 21st Century and external board member of Forest Renewables (part of the Forestry Commission in Scotland).

Richard is currently a Fellow of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and holds a BA and MBA from Durham University. He is an Independent Non-Exec Director of Triodos Bank UK and a Senior Adviser to the Earth Security Group.

Michelle is a co-founding partner of Blume Equity, a climate-tech growth equity investor transforming the health of planet and people. She has spent two decades in private equity and venture capital. Prior to co-founding Blume Equity, Michelle was an early-stage investor in climate and food-tech businesses. She was previously a Partner and Investment Committee member at Mid Europa Partners, where she spent 13 years investing in high-growth companies across a range of sectors. She started her career in investment banking at Merrill Lynch. Michelle holds a BSc in Finance from Wharton and is a Swedish citizen.

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.

At the European Investment Fund, Nathalie is heading the unit focusing on lower mid-market investments in Northern Europe. She invests in equity, hybrid debt/equity and private debt funds across various thematic strategies in Europe and she represents the EIF in a number of Advisory Boards. Before joining the EIF, Nathalie had worked as a Financial Auditor in the private equity practice at EY.

She holds a Master degree in Corporate Finance from Neoma Business School and is a CFA charterholder.

Director Head of Impact Jo Daley is responsible for setting the strategic direction of Clearwater International’s ESG & Impact strategy which embeds ESG into all areas of the UK business.

With more than 15 years of experience, Jo has a strong background in leading global ESG and sustainability strategy development and implementation for large corporate organisations, with a focus on transition risk mitigation, commercial value generation and brand reputation positioning.

Jo enjoys working with entrepreneurial management teams and investors to truly understand their business and ensure that Clearwater adds value through enhanced ESG integration.

Coralie De Maesschalck is currently the Head of CSR & ESG at leading lower mid-market credit specialist Kartesia. Coralie is in-charge of CSR initiatives at corporate level, impact & ESG analysis at portfolio level and communication.

Prior to that, Coralie has held the title of Head of Portfolio & ESG at Kartesia from 2015 to 2021, until a full time CSR & ESG position was created. When she joined Kartesia in 2015, Coralie had over 5 years of experience in Private equity and a further 5 in audit services. Before joining Kartesia, Coralie worked as Portfolio Monitoring Manager at Inter IKEA. Next to setting up the monitoring function, Coralie was in charge of cash flow monitoring and actively participated in the development of their Social and Responsible Investing (SRI) practices. Previously, Coralie worked for five years at KPMG Belgium where she started her career as a financial auditor.

Prior to joining Stafford Silva worked for Robeco where she was responsible for ESG integration and the implementation of ESG engagement across different private equity programs.

Before this role Silva oversaw the Responsible Investing Program at Rabobank Sustainability Directorate and held a position of a fund analyst at Rabobank Private Banking. She started her career in responsible investing as an SRI analyst at the Institute for Investment Services Research in 2007. Prior to that, Silva was an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.

Silva is a member of the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative’s Advisory Group and Invest Europe’s Responsible Investment Roundtable. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and a Master’s degree in Finance from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

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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

At Astarte, Teresa is responsible for investment and portfolio activities including evaluating, negotiating and structuring investments across sectors.

Before co-founding Astarte, she was Head of Private Equity for a multi-family office, where she oversaw the investment strategy and investment selection for fund investments and co-investments.

Prior to this, Teresa was CIO for Private Equity at Piraeus Group, where she co-led the establishment of the private equity group, launched three private equity and venture capital funds and developed the group’s strategy in the renewable energy space.

Teresa joined Piraeus from UBS Investment Bank in London and New York, where she advised on corporate transactions in the real assets space in the US and Europe and was part of the team that launched the renewable energy practice of UBS globally.

She holds a BSc. in Economics and Finance from the University of Athens, Greece and an MBA from Columbia University in New York.

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.

Dörte Höppner is the Chief Sustainability Officer of The Riverside Company and heads up global ESG initiatives for the firm. In addition, she leads the firm’s European fund raising and investor relations activities. An economist by training, Dörte joined Riverside in 2017 as Chief Operating Officer for its European operations. Prior to Riverside, she was Chief Executive at Invest Europe, the European private equity association, and Managing Director of the German private equity association. Dörte has been widely recognised for her work championing ESG within the wider PE community and is a frequent speaker at conferences and author or media articles on the importance of ESG and D&I initiatives.

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.

Cilian Jansen Verplanke (57) studied Law at Leiden University and has over 30 years of experience in the financial sector in private equity, equity capital markets and commercial banking of which 20 years at ABN AMRO and Rabobank and since 2010 at her own co-founded investment Fund Karmijn Kapitaal. She has done numerous acquisitions and exits and has encountered many entrepreneurs. Karmijn only invests in SME companies led by balanced gender divers management teams.

Cilian is a.o. Chair of the Dutch Level20 Committee.

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.

Nina is a Principal on Hamilton Lane’s global Fund Investment Team.  She is based in the firm’s London office, where she focuses on fund investments across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  Nina is a member of Hamilton Lane’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council and leads the global Fund Investment Team’s ESG Taskforce.

Nina began her career at Hamilton Lane in 2013 and has previously worked for Hamilton Lane in Philadelphia and Munich, where she focused on North American and DACH market fund investments, respectively. Nina is involved in Level20 as a member of the Future Leaders Committee.

Nina received a B.A. in Economics, with Honours, and a minor in Biology from Hamilton College.

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.

Matthew Powell is a Vice President on the BeyondNetZero team and serves as Head of ESG & Reporting for the venture. Before joining BeyondNetZero, Powell was the Chief of Staff at L1 Energy.

Established in 2021, BeyondNetZero combines General Atlantic’s significant expertise in growth equity with a dedicated, senior team of climate investors, advisors and industry experts. The team focuses on identifying entrepreneurs who are addressing climate-focused problems and helping them scale.

Olivia is a Partner at Bridges Fund Management, a sustainable and impact investment manager. Olivia is responsible for Bridges’ impact strategy and impact management practice across all funds. Olivia also leads the firm’s research and development efforts to promote the growth of the wider sustainable and impact investment sector.

Previously, Olivia co-founded the Impact Management Project (IMP), an ambitious sector-wide initiative to build market consensus on sustainability and impact management. The IMP concluded in 2021 having achieved the creation of the UN-managed Impact Management Platform, and facilitated the launch of the International Sustainability Standards Board, out of the IFRS Foundation.

Olivia began her career working in emerging market impact investing at BII (formerly CDC)), the UK development finance institution. Olivia has extensive experience advising both investors and corporates on designing impact management approaches and investment strategies across diverse geographies and asset classes. Olivia is a visiting lecturer at a number of global academic institutions and industry networks, and is currently authoring the CFA qualification on Impact and Investing.

Benjamin joined Paragon Partners in 2021. He is responsible for driving value creation within the portfolio companies.

Prior to Paragon he was in leadership and strategy roles for a leading testing, inspection and certification player.

Before that, he built a team for buy & build platform sourcing for the leading German small-cap buy & build PE investor. He started his career in restructuring at Roland Berger.

Benjamin holds a PhD in Finance from Technical University Munich (TUM) and a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Passau. He is still an active lecturer on Private Equity in the executive education

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)

Sarah is the COO at Seraphim Space, overseeing Finance, Legal, Compliance, Operations, Investor Relations, Risk Management and HR. She has 25 years of finance experience.

Prior to Seraphim Space, Sarah was a partner at Development Partners International for 14.5 years from its inception in 2007. She was responsible for administration of the firm and its funds, including legal, compliance, HR, IT, operations, facilities and ESG and also sat on the investment committee.

Sarah has experience as an active board director on private equity fund general partners and investment holding companies. She was previously a co-chair of the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) Compliance & Best Practice Committee.

Before joining Development Partners International, Sarah was an Associate Director on the Technology Equity Research team at UBS in London, specialising in the telecommunications equipment sector and covering large-cap European companies, including Nokia, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent.

Sarah worked in various operations risk, accounting and financial systems analyst roles at UBS, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and HSBC Investment Bank in the early stages of her career.

Sarah holds a BSc (Hons) in Economics and Accounting from the University of Bristol.

A CFO with over 15 years’ Private Equity experience. Strong Finance and Investor Relations background with both operational and investor-facing skills. Developed best-in-class investor and stakeholder reporting. Advises on ESG and Sustainablity in PE. Recently completed studies in Sustainability and Sustainable Finance with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).

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.

Eva is Head of ESG & Impact at EMK Capital, a global private equity firm that specializes in control buyouts with hard-to-recognize value in the business services, consumer, and industrial sectors. Eva has a diverse and broad range of experience in sustainability in her professional career spanning the last 15 years. She has held her role at EMK Capital for the last 2 years.

Emily joined Beechbrook in May 2015 following 5 years at Royal Bank of Scotland plc. At Beechbrook, Emily is Head of Investor Relations and ESG, having set up the IR function in 2018. Prior to this, she was an Associate Director in the Investment Team. Beechbrook Capital, a specialist direct lender founded in 2008, invests in SMEs across a range of industries in the UK and Europe. To date, it has raised more than €1bn through eight funds and has invested in 90+ companies in the European lower mid-market. Beechbrook’s private debt funds support northern European private equity-backed companies with a typical enterprise value of €10 million to €100 million, investing between €5m and €25m per transaction. Beechbrook’s UK SME funds support non-private equity backed SMEs across the UK with a typical enterprise value of £10 million to £100 million, investing between £5m and £20m per transaction. The Beechbrook team consists of 20 plus investment professionals located in the UK, Germany and Ireland. Beechbrook is a signatory to the UN PRI.

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.