Eberhard Brandes
CEO, WWF Germany 

Eberhard Brandes is CEO of WWF Germany, member of the global WWF Network Executive Team (NET) and champion for the WWF Wildlife Practice.
Prior to joining WWF in 2006, he held several Executive Management positions in the medical technology industry between 1991-2006 and worked in the pharmaceutical industry between 1987-1991. Eberhard Brandes studied Economics and Organisational Studies in Hamburg.
Eberhard Brandes is truly passionate about nature, highly interested in the complexity of ecosystems and the planet, behavioural science and big mammals, especially the tiger. He was awarded the renowned BAUM environmental prize in 2001 and was honoured with the City of Hamburg’s Innovation Award for his cradle-to-cradle concept of portable medical technical equipment.  Over the years, he has been appointed into numerous climate and sustainability advisory councils. Eberhard Brandes currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the Aid by Trade Foundation (AbT) and the Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG).
WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.

Shalini Unnikrishnan
Managing Director and Partner, BCG 

Shalini is part of the Social Impact, Public Sector and Global Advantage practices. She has deep topic experience across Total Societal Impact of corporations, global health, nutrition public policy, agriculture, economic development, humanitarian emergencies, and women and work. Shalini has given a TED talk and published on several of these topics. Shalini has worked extensively in the "field" on global development in Africa, India and Southeast Asia. She managed BCG's efforts in West Africa during the Ebola crisis. She was deployed by former UK PM Tony Blair and his team in President Kagame's government in Rwanda and as a day to day advisor to President Banda in Malawi. Shalini is a Presidential Leadership Scholar, a national leadership program led by Presidents Bush and Clinton. She holds an MBA from Wharton in Healthcare Management and a Masters in International Relations from SAIS, Johns Hopkins.  Prior to BCG, Shalini has interned at Genentech and World Bank/IFC, and has worked at McKinsey and Company and at a healthcare tech startup.

Peter van Mierlo
CEO, Management Board, FMO - The Dutch Development Bank 

Peter van Mierlo is FMO’s Chief Executive Officer since July 1st, 2018. 
Prior to joining FMO, Peter worked in the professional services industry for over 30 years. He started his career in 1987 at one of the predecessors of PwC in 1996 he was admitted to the partnership. 
Peter has built his career on advising clients around mergers and acquisitions and he held a wide range of national and international leadership positions such as Transaction Leader ('01-'07), Chairman of the Assurance Board ('09-'13), CEO of the Dutch PwC organization ('13-'18) as well as Managing Partner of PwC Europe ('15-'18).  He has worked with various clients amongst others in the Financial Institutions industry. 
In May 2019, Peter joined the board of EDFI, a platform of European Development Finance Institutions. The platform supports all members to realize their vision: invest in creating jobs, boost growth, and fight poverty and climate change. EDFI facilitates knowledge-sharing and learning and fosters cooperation with European Union 
institutions and with other DFIs, including bilateral DFIs outside Europe, and the IFC.  
Peter holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Erasmus University. 

Maurizio Paternello 
CEO, Nestlé Waters 
Interviewed by Editor, Reuters Breakingviews 

Maurizio Patarnello graduated from the University of Bologna with a degree in business administration.  He is also a graduate of the IMD Business School and has an MBA from STOA Business School.  He joined Nestlé, the large Swiss F&B company, in 1993 where he has spent the majority of his career.  He held various positions in finance over six years before joining San Pellegrino.  He took on different positions of increasing responsibility at Nestlé Waters and overseas, notably in the Middle East region, before being appointed to the position of Market Head in the Ukraine and then Russia.  He has been the CEO of Nestlé Waters since the 1^st of January 2017.
Nestlé Waters is the bottled water division of the Nestlé Group.  Its leading brands are Perrier, S. Pellegrino, Nestlé Pure Life, Vittel and Contrex.

Venera Vlad
Associate Director EBRD Infrastructure, Europe

Venera Vlad is responsible for leading the Infrastructure business in Romania and Poland at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a portfolio of approximately EUR 1 billion of investments, including loans to local authorities, municipally-owned utilities and companies as well as private sector financing.
Prior to joining EBRD in 2008, Mrs Vlad worked at the Ministry of Environment as Programming Director for EU Funds; in this capacity she designed and promoted the regionalisation of water services in Romania, a key policy that enabled unprecedented sector reforms and facilitated large investments of about EUR 6 billion.
She is a graduate of Engineering University and of Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.

Yannick Ouaknine
Head of Sustainability Research, Société Général 

Yannick Ouaknine is heading the Sustainability Research team and joined Société Générale Corporate & Investment banking (SGCIB) in March 2007. Yannick has a deep understanding of investor needs in the area of Sustainability, having worked for more than 16 years in the field, with global coverage and responsibility (including exercising voting rights). He advises the broad financial community (asset owners, asset managers, hedge funds, corporates and academics) on the integration of sustainability criteria into financial analysis or reporting and is a regular speaker at international events. Prior to working at SGCIB, Yannick was Product Manager / RFP Analyst at BNP Paribas Asset Management (2000-2002) and Senior ESG analyst at BNP Paribas Investment Partners (2003-2007) in France. During this period, he worked with equity/credit analysts across all sectors to enhance traditional financial modelling by highlighting the impact of environmental, corporate governance and social issues on business performance and/or valuations. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA Hons) and a Master of Business Administration degrees from the École Supérieure de Gestion de Paris (ESG), and an executive training certificate in Corporate Finance from INSEAD.

Margaret Kuhlow 
Finance Practice Leader, WWF International

Margaret L. Kuhlow leads WWF’s Finance Practice, providing strategic direction and thought and content leadership to WWF’s global engagement with the finance sector. Before joining WWF, Ms. Kuhlow was Vice President of Investment Policy at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and was a member of the team that established and implemented the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation, leading the new agency’s approach to environmental and social assessment of major investment projects. In her 25-year career she has lived and worked extensively in developing and emerging markets, and has broad sectoral experience in sustainable investment, project finance, and grant making. She holds a Master in Public Policy, International Trade and Finance, from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Stuart Orr 
Global Freshwater Lead, WWF 

Stuart Orr is the Leader of WWF’s Freshwater Practice, driving the freshwater strategy of the world’s largest independent conservation organisation. A global authority on water stewardship, Stuart has spent the past decade devising and testing innovative approaches to freshwater conservation at WWF by engaging business and finance, and focussing on emerging themes such as the water-food-energy nexus, economic incentives and water-related risk. He has written numerous scientific papers and mainstream publications on issues ranging from corporate water governance to fish protein in the Mekong. Stuart has also sat on various advisory panels and boards, including the World Economic Forum’s Water Security Council and the IFC’s Infrastructure & Natural Resources Advisory Steering Committee. Stuart holds an MSc in Environment and Development from the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia.

Ulrike Sapiro 
Senior Director Water Stewardship & Sustainable Agriculture, The Coca-Cola Company

Ulrike Sapiro serves as senior director of water stewardship and sustainable agriculture for The Coca-Cola Company where she leads the long-term strategic planning for the company’s water stewardship programs and sustainable agriculture ingredients sourcing. In her role, she builds closer integration of our programs across the business and brands.
Ulrike joined The Coca-Cola Company in 2008 and, most recently, was Director of Sustainability in the Western Europe Business Unit and across the Europe, Middle East & Africa region. She worked closely with bottling partners and across functions to lead strategy, policy, programs and stakeholder engagement across the system’s strategic sustainability priorities. Her work included leading the sustainable packaging strategy; piloting and embedding emerging concepts such as water footprinting and natural capital; developing long-term partnerships and business action on water replenishment, sourcing, packaging and circular economy; and the system’s contribution to society, notably women and youth empowerment.
Prior to joining The Coca-Cola Company, Ulrike held sustainability and external affairs roles at RWE Thames Water, an international water utility managing external engagement on water resources, public infrastructure and development policy.
Considered an expert on sustainability, Ulrike often speaks at global events including World Water Week, One Young World and annual investor, supply chain and policy conferences. She serves on the steering committee for both the 2030 Water Resource Group and the CEO Water Mandate, and she is on the Board of Trustees for Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor.
Ulrike holds a master’s degree in political sciences from the University of Munich and a post-graduate degree in sustainable development from the University of Cambridge.

Victoria Crawford
Lead, Environmental Resilience, World Economic Forum

Victoria leads the World Economic Forum`s work on investing for environmental resilience, bringing together actors from across the investment value chain to drive systemic level change. Prior to this, she managed the World Economic Forum`s partnerships with multilateral organisations, as well as the IGWEL programme, the Forum`s highest level political dialogues. 
She has a background in environment and development, previously working in the UK Parliament on issues related to Africa, and on climate change, as well as for the International Institute for Environment and Development on the economics of climate change adaptation.
She holds a BA in Geography and an MSc in Dryland Science and Management from Oxford University.

Monika Freyman
Director, Investor Engagement Water, CERES 

Monika works with institutional investors on deepening their integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, and in particular water, into investment decision-making. She directs the Investor Water Hub, a working group of over 100 global investment institutions. Her work with the Hub promotes peer-to-peer learning on water, with the ultimate goal of recognizing water’s true value in financial decision-making and mitigating impacts on water resources globally.   Monika designed and developed, in collaboration with the Hub, the Investor Water Toolkit, a how-to guide on ESG and water integration.
Prior to Ceres, Monika worked as a research consultant for the Initiative for Responsible Investment at Harvard where she published An Exploration of Sustainability and its Application to Corporate Reporting, to inform the evolution of the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB). Previous to this she worked as a financial analyst for an emerging market equity fund and in fixed income sell-side research.
Monika was awarded the National Science Foundation Fellowship for her Master of Science research in aquatic ecology, she has an undergraduate degree in finance, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.   Monika actively contributes to the CFA Institute’s Enterprising Investor Series and is on the CFA Board of Regents, where she raises awareness of sustainability and ESG factors within the investment management profession.   
A major theme in all of her work is to more closely connect the scientific and financial fields.

Philippe Prufer 
CEO, SKP Investimentos 

Career Snapshot
Philippe Prufer is an investor, board member and philanthropist. 
As founder and CEO of SKP Investimentos, he manages a broad (equity, fixed income, private equity and venture capital) global portfolio of investments, with increasing environmental, social and governance (ESG) footprint.
Philippe had a 22 year executive career at Eli Lilly and Company and has an extensive multicultural and international background having lived in various countries.  He speaks several languages.
He is currently a board member of GTT, member of the board and chair of finance/investment committee of WWF International, and a board member of the Instituto Ayrton Senna. In addition, he is an advisor of JGP’s Health Care and Biotech Funds.
Philippe's Philanthropic focus is related to: environment/biodiversity (with a special focus on marine conservation), education and sports for underprivileged children.
Formal Education
Philippe Prufer has an undergraduate degree in Economics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, an MBA from the Ross Michigan Business School.  He has undertaken executive training programs at several institutions, including Harvard and INSEAD.
He currently lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has three grown up children. 
Mr Prufer’s first term of office expires in December 2019.

Kathleen Dominique
Project Lead, Roundtable on Financing Water, OECD

Kathleen Dominique leads the OECD’s programme of work on financing water, including managing the Roundtable on Financing Water -- a dedicated platform to engage policy makers and the finance and investment community. Since joining the OECD in 2010, Kathleen has led  work on water resources allocation, groundwater, water management in the context of climate change adaptation, and biodiversity policy reform. She has also led country-focused Environmental Performance Reviews. Prior to joining OECD, Kathleen worked in the US and Nigeria as well as the Paris-based think tank the Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI). She is a faculty member of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po, where she teaches a course in water finance. She has a Master’s in Public Policy from Science Po (France) and a Bachelor’s in Business Adminstration from the University of Notre Dame (USA).

Thibaud Clisson 
Senior ESG Analyst, BNP Paribas 

Thibaud joined the ESG research team of BNPP AM in 2009 and is a senior ESG analyst in charge of the energy and utilities sectors. Thibaud is a member of the PRI Methane Advisory Committee which works on PRI-coordinated collaborative engagement on methane risk. He is also a member of the IIGCC Corporate programme and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Euronext Low Carbon 100 Europe index.
Prior joining the firm, he spent two years working at GDF Suez in France as part of his apprenticeship track degree as a business analyst.
Thibaud holds a Master degree in Management from the SKEMA Business School, Lille, France (2008) and a Master degree in Corporate Social Responsibility from the Gustave Eiffel Business School at Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne University, France (2009). He then went on to complete an Executive Master in Energy Management (EMEM) from the ESCP Europe, Paris (2017).

Chris Holmes
Senior Advisor, Boston Consulting Group 

Christian Holmes became a Senior Advisor and Global Water Security Expert to The Boston Consulting Group in 2017.
Chris’ focus is on strengthening the social and environmental impact and related financial  performance of public and private sector organizations in the United States and developing world. 
His technical expertise spans: water management, climate change adaptation, social impact, sustainability, environmental protection and international economic development. 
Chris most recently served at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as the first Global Water Coordinator in the history of USAID. He also oversaw USAID offices responsble for biodiversity and forestry, global climate change and land tenure. 
At the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Chris held two US Senate-confirmed positions, including serving as the agency's third ranking executive and first Chief Financial Officer in the history of EPA. 
Other positions include: Director of the US Trade and Development Program (now Agency), Acting Director of USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Refugee Programs. 
In the private sector, he was Executive Director for Environment, Health, and Safety at Tenneco Inc., a conglomerate in the manufacturing and energy sectors. 
He was the founding Executive Director of the Rice University Shell Center for Sustainability. He also served as Vice President, World Wildlife Fund. 
Chris holds a BA in Government from Wesleyan University, Conn. and an Honorary MA  from Wesleyan in recognition of his international economic development achievements. 
He served as 2nd Lt., US Army Reserve, and is a recipient of the US Army Soldiers Medal for Herorism.  


 

Thomas Verheye
Principal Advisor Green Finance & Investment, EC 

Thomas Verheye is Principal Advisor at the European Commission's Directorate General for the Environment on matters relating to sustainable finance and investment.  He advises the Director General and senior managers on strategic directions and actions necessary for promoting greening the financial system and the economy.  His prior positions include several other managerial responsibilities at the Commission including for EU policies on air quality, ozone depleting substances and fluorinated gases, innovative financing solutions relating to climate and energy, technology transfer under the UNFCC, the auto-oil programme, etc.  Previous employers include the Bank of New York (VP corporate action at the bank's global custody branch), the International Monetary Fund (Treasurer's department), and Ernst & Young (Audit). He holds a bachelor and master's degree in business economics from the University of Ghent, and an MSc in audit and tax from the Vlerick Business School.
 

Pierre Rousseau 
Senior Strategic Advisor Sustainable Business, BNP Paribas

Lisbon based Pierre Rousseau, is Senior Strategic Advisor for BNP Paribas’ Sustainable Business and leads Global Sustainable Finance Investment initiatives. Prior to this, Pierre was Head of Global Markets Asia Pacific from 2015 - 2018, in addition to supervising the Financial Institutions Coverage unit for APAC. From 2009 - 2015 Pierre was Head of Equities, Asia Pacific, where he led BNP Paribas’ Equity Cash and Equities Derivatives platforms.
Pierre has almost three decades of experience across the financial services industry, two thirds of which have been spent in Asia Pacific. Before joining BNP Paribas, he was Head of Equity APAC for Credit Agricole, as well as creating an integrated electronic trading platform at Indosuez WI Carr Securities (IWICS) in Hong Kong.
Pierre started his career in 1985 as a financial controller with Citibank Benelux, after attaining a degree in commercial engineering. He joined Banque Indosuez’ Luxembourg office in 1988 and between 1993 - 2000 moved to Singapore, followed by Tokyo, where he was Chief Operating Officer at Banque Indosuez and Credit Agricole Indosuez.
In addition to his professional life, Pierre has been actively involved in supporting projects in the circular economy such as Nomad Plastic, and raising funds for sustainable NGOs such as the internationally renowned Room To Read and the Hong Kong-based and independent NGO, Sunshine Action.

Shelagh Whitley
Director ESG, UN PRI

Shelagh Whitley is the Director of ESG and Acting Director of SDGs at the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). From 2011-2019 Shelagh was a Research Fellow and Head of the Climate and Energy Programme at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) where her research focussed on private climate finance and private sector models for development. Prior to joining ODI she worked in the carbon markets, on clean energy finance, and climate policy development within the public and private sectors, including with The Climate Group where she ran a finance sector leadership group and contributed to the development of the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS). Shelagh has a Masters Degree in International Environmental Policy and Finance from the Fletcher School at Tufts University in the United States, and a Combined Honours BSc in Biology and International Development Studies from Dalhousie University in Canada.

Aaron Vermeulen
WWF Green Finance Lead

Aaron Vermeulen currently holds the position of Director Green Finance for WWF-NL and concurrently is the global lead on Finance and Freshwater. He supports the WWF teams worldwide in their engagement with financial institutions to mainstream water considerations in their investment decisions. Before this Aaron has been the partnership manager at the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila. In this position he  leveraged conservation impact for the 28 WWF offices in Asia by influencing ADB's policies, strategies, standards and investments. Before joining WWF Aaron was the director of the business group Water & Ecology for Royal HaskoningDHV in Amsterdam. Prior to this position Aaron worked as a senior consultant for the same company in Egypt, Vietnam and Yemen and as the resident project manager in Egypt for the Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS) of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Aaron received his BSc. Geology at the State University of Utrecht (Netherlands) and his MSc in Hydrology with a Minor in development economics at the Free University of Amsterdam.
 

Ambika Jindal 
VWI Global Project Lead 

Ambika is the Lead of the Dutch government's Valuing Water Initiative. The initiative focusses on bringing systematic change in the way water is valued in policy, practice, finance and behavior by the practical application of the Valuing Water Principles developed under the United Nations and World Bank High Level Panel on Water.
A banker by profession, Ambika has been seconded by ING Bank for three years to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At ING, she worked as the Global Lead for Water and structured financial products such as, green loans/bonds and ESG linked products for international and large corporates based in Europe.
Ambika holds a Master degree from Cambridge University on Sustainability Leadership and has life and work experience in sales at Wall Street, financial journalism in Mumbai and credit risk in Amsterdam.

Jeroen M. Tielman
Founder and Managing Partner, QStone Capital 

Jeroen M. Tielman is founder and managing partner of QStone Capital (www.QStoneCapital.com). QStone Capital develops water re-use project investment opportunities in India  and Europe. We translate innovative water treatment technology developed by SME’s into savings for water project operators and into attractive returns to financiers. Previously Jeroen was founder and CEO of IMQubator, backed by €250mln from APG. He started his career with several positions within ABN AMRO in Amsterdam and New York. Jeroen holds a Master’s degree in Business Economics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam and is a registered investment analyst (RBA).

Ariane Laporte-Bisquit
Water Risk Filter Lead

As WWF Water Risk Filter Project Manager, Ariane is responsible for overseeing the ongoing development and implementation of the Water Risk Filter strategy. She engages with financial institutions and corporate users of the tool in collaboration with the wider WWF network to drive water stewardship awareness and actions. Before joining WWF, she led CDP’s water security work in Europe and worked on several water-related projects in South Africa, Bangladesh, and the French Guianas.

Alexis Morgan
WWF Water Stewardship Lead & AWS Chair

Alexis is the Global Lead for Water Stewardship for WWF. In this role he helps to lead corporate engagement on freshwater throughout the network and coordinate WWF’s network of over 40 staff working on water stewardship. Over his 17 years at WWF, he has led corporate partnerships, helped to establish the Alliance for Water Stewardship – where he currently chairs the board, and helped to lead the redevelopment of the Water Risk Filter. He has published extensively on water stewardship, including on the links between water and value, and currently sits on CDP Water’s advisory board. He holds an MBA in Sustainable Business from York’s Schulich School of Business, and an masters degree in hydrological modelling from the University of Toronto.

This year's Water Summit will be moderated by Vanessa de Lacaze. She is an energetic and passionate journalist as well as a tv presenter with over 15 years of experience. The Hamburg-born with Haitian roots, is currently working as an on-air reporter for the german TV network RTL. Vanessa is empathetic and curious reporter who likes to get close to people and their stories.  She moderates selected events, including conferences, panel discussions, award ceremonies and has excellent skills as a moderator in German and English. In her spare time she works as an ambassador for Haiti Care e.V. – a non profit organization that helps and educates poor children in Haiti.