Viola, Head of Physical & Transition Risk Center of Excellence at Moody's, drives the climate positioning across Moody's various customer segments. Before Moody's, she served as Executive Director, Head of Climate Solutions, at ISS ESG, assisting financial market participants in understanding, measuring, and acting on climate-related risks and opportunities across all asset classes. Viola holds a Master of Public Affairs from Sciences Po Paris and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Mr. West has served as President of Moody’s Ratings since November 2019. Mike served as Managing Director—Head of MIS Ratings and Research from June 2016 to October 2019. Previously, Mike served as Managing Director—Head of Global Structured Finance from February 2014 to May 2016 and Managing Director—Head of Global Corporate Finance from January 2010 to January 2014. Earlier in his career, Mike was also responsible for the research strategy for the ratings businesses and before that led Corporate Finance for the EMEA Region, European Corporates and the EMEA leveraged finance business. Prior to joining Moody’s in 1998, Mike worked at Bank of America and HSBC in various credit roles.

Viola, Head of Physical & Transition Risk Center of Excellence at Moody's, drives the climate positioning across Moody's various customer segments. Before Moody's, she served as Executive Director, Head of Climate Solutions, at ISS ESG, assisting financial market participants in understanding, measuring, and acting on climate-related risks and opportunities across all asset classes. Viola holds a Master of Public Affairs from Sciences Po Paris and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Nic Berg currently leads SCOR P&C operations across North America. Before joining SCOR in April 2022, Nic spent nearly 20 years at AIG, where he held multiple global and regional executive roles based in New York, Paris, and London, overseeing various P&C underwriting divisions. He also served for a few years in claims leadership capacities, notably holding the position of AIG Chief Claims Officer for North America from 2017 to 2019. Nic began his (re)insurance career in the Finance department of SCOR US in New York

Nic holds a Master’s Degree in Law from the University of Paris II and a Master’s Degree in International Risk Management from HEC business school. He is based in New York City.

Sonja leads the IIF’s work on sovereign debt policy and sustainable finance, focusing on research and advocacy for the Institute’s global membership across the financial services industry. Her research interests include global debt markets and risks to financial stability; sovereign debt stress and debt restructuring; the economic impact and financial market pricing of climate and environmental risks; and capital markets development in emerging markets. Her policy work on behalf of the IIF includes outreach and liaison efforts vis-à-vis the G20/G7, the Paris Club, the IMF/World Bank and other multilaterals, global regulators and standard setters, and the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS). She also serves on the boards of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (IC-VCM).

Sonja has spent over 20 years in banking and financial markets, including sell-side research in London and New York as well as stints as an emerging markets economist and bank credit analyst. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), and has an MBA and BA from the University of California, Berkeley. Sonja’s work is widely cited in the financial press, and she is a regular speaker on global debt and sustainable finance policy issues at international conferences.

Cathy Ansell previously worked in the London natural catastrophe reinsurance market at a Reinsurer, Broker and also as lead of the Event Response model development team at Moody’s RMS . Cathy then worked at the World Bank for 3 years as a Financial Sector Specialist in the Crisis and Disaster Risk Finance team as Trust Fund Manager of the UK FCDO funded Disaster Protection Programme where she was technical advisor to Ministry of Finance led projects in Africa, Southeast Asia, Pacific, and the Caribbean supporting climate finance initiatives.

During her time at the World Bank Cathy was also a contributing author of the NGFS Climate Scenarios for central banks and supervisors published in June 2021 as a member of the physical scenario working group. She joined JP Morgan Chase in July 2021 as Physical Risk and Modelling team lead in the Climate Risk Team and was appointed to the FSOC Climate-related Financial Risk Advisory Committee (CFRAC).

Rowan leads Climate Risk and Resilience (CRR) at Howden and sits on the company's Global Leadership Team. The CRR comprises approximately 100 personnel centrally and embedded across business units and geographies. We help clients to evaluate and derisk their climate related exposures, maintain access to capital and navigate their path towards a resilient, net zero transition.

Rowan has been a pioneer in the field of climate risk and insurance for over 20 years. He led the foundation of the Insurance Development Forum with UN, World Bank and Industry leaders and incubated the award-winning Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment. Previously Rowan served on the board of Willis Re as CEO Analytics and founded the Willis Research Network in 2006.

Beyond insurance Rowan was appointed to the UK Prime Minister's Council for Science & Technology 2011-2016 and served on the UK Green Finance Task Force. In 2016 he was made CBE for services to the economy for risk, insurance and sustainable growth.

Rowan read Geography at Durham and Bristol Universities and lives and works in London

Michael is responsible for supporting environmental, social, and governance integration across the Credit business as well as further incorporating sustainability considerations into Apollo’s lending platforms and other non-majority equity stake investment processes.  Michael also serves as the co-chair of Apollo’s Transition Task Force. Michael currently represents Apollo across several industry initiatives, including as the inaugural Steering Committee Chair of the Integrated Disclosure Project and a member of the Sustainability Reference Group at the IFRS Sustainability Alliance.

Michael formally served as the Global Head of ESG Portfolio Management within the Fixed Income division at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM). Within that role, Michael was responsible for coordinating the sustainability integration efforts across all fixed income teams as well as serving as the lead portfolio manager for sustainability focused mandates. Michael was previously on the GSAM municipal team as a senior research analyst covering healthcare, education and distressed municipalities.

Prior to his time at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Michael worked as a credit analyst at American Capital Access and Standard & Poor’s, focusing predominantly within the healthcare and education sectors.

Lucia Lopez is the Global Head of Credit in Moody’s Ratings Sustainable Finance group.

In her role, Lucia manages a global team of talented analysts responsible for developing and implementing initiatives to transparently integrate the impact of environmental, social, and governance considerations into credit ratings, analytics, research and outreach. This includes building data platforms, tools, and insights to assess the credit impact of these considerations in Moody’s Ratings rated universe.

The team also produces thematic research that continue to cement Moody's Ratings' thought leadership in Sustainable Finance and lead related outreach efforts with regulators, investors, and other market participants.

Lucia frequently represents the firm as a speaker through conversations with investors, policymakers and other market participants around the world.

Lucia brings multi-disciplinary expertise through past positions as a senior credit officer and senior underwriter in leading investment banks.

Before moving to the Sustainable Finance team, Lucia was a lead analyst in the EMEA Corporate Finance Group since 2018.

Prior to Moody’s, Lucia held several roles over 15 years at a number of banks including Deutsche Bank and Barclays, specializing in  leverage finance, commodities and natural resources.

Lucia holds a Masters in European Law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Becky Leeper is the Senior Director, Americas Insurance at Moody's RMS, where she leads the Model and Product Specialist team serving insurance clients across property and catastrophe modeling solutions, as well as physical risk and climate risk solutions. With over a decade of experience at Moody's RMS, Becky has deep expertise in physical risk and catastrophe modeling, working extensively with both insurance and non-insurance clients to help them quantify and manage risk from natural catastrophe events and other physical hazards.

In her current role, Becky oversees a technical team responsible for the sales and adoption of catastrophe models and modeling applications across the Americas, ensuring clients can better understand and respond to risks such as hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and earthquakes. She also collaborates with organizations across banking, investment management, corporate sectors, and governments on applying catastrophe analytics to manage physical risk and meet regulatory and sustainability goals.

Before joining Moody’s RMS, Becky spent over a decade working with financial firms on integrating models for valuation and risk management in fixed income markets. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Duke University.

Becky Leeper is the Senior Director, Americas Insurance at Moody's RMS, where she leads the Model and Product Specialist team serving property and casualty insurance clients with catastrophe modeling, physical risk, and climate risk solutions. With over a decade of experience at Moody's RMS, Becky has developed deep expertise in physical risk and catastrophe modeling, working extensively with insurers to help them quantify and manage risks from hurricanes, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, and other natural catastrophe events. Her team focuses on driving the adoption of RMS models, analytics, and data to enable insurers to better understand and respond to risks affecting their portfolios.

In addition to her work with insurers, Becky collaborates with organizations in banking, investment management, corporates, and governments to support broader applications of catastrophe analytics. These efforts help institutions manage physical risks, improve regulatory compliance, and enhance sustainability strategies. Prior to joining Moody’s RMS, Becky spent more than a decade partnering with financial firms to integrate models for valuation and risk management in fixed income markets. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Duke University.

Sarah Hibler is an Associate Managing Director in the Property and Casualty Group at Moody’s Ratings. She is responsible for managing analysts who cover a broad array of P&C insurers, reinsurers and insurance brokers. Prior to joining Moody’s in 1997, Ms. Hibler was a senior manager in the mergers & acquisitions practice of Deloitte & Touche LLP in New York City. At Deloitte & Touche, she also worked for a number of years in both the New York and London offices providing auditing and consulting services to insurance companies.

Ms. Hibler holds a degree in business administration from the University of Michigan and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Chris Lafakis is a director at Moody's. His expertise is in model validation, macroeconomics and energy economics. Based in West Chester PA, he also covers the California economy and contributes to Economy.com. Chris has been quoted by media outlets, including CNBC and the Wall Street Journal, and often speaks at economic conferences and events. He received his bachelor's degree in economics from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his master's degree in economics from the University of Alabama.

Denise Rappmund is a Vice President/Senior Analyst on the States Rating Team, currently covering several state governments, mass transits and state-sponsored property insurance issuers, including Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, West Virginia, North Carolina, MBTA and DART. Prior to joining the States Team, Denise was a lead analyst on the Southwest Local Government team, and covered Texas, Colorado and Kansas, during which time she was the state lead for Kansas, lead for the City of Dallas, and headed up the team’s Colorado metropolitan district sector.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2014, Denise was a public finance investment banker with Piper Jaffray in California. Over the course of her nearly two-decade career in public finance, she has developed expertise in a broad range of sectors and complex structures, spanning macro areas like international trade and the economies of the US-Mexico border, to concentrated economies in sectors like energy or tourism; as well as real estate and project-specific expertise in special district transactions covering hotels, convention centers, commercial and residential developments.

Denise holds a B.A. in economics and international affairs from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Viola, Head of Physical & Transition Risk Center of Excellence at Moody's, drives the climate positioning across Moody's various customer segments. Before Moody's, she served as Executive Director, Head of Climate Solutions, at ISS ESG, assisting financial market participants in understanding, measuring, and acting on climate-related risks and opportunities across all asset classes. Viola holds a Master of Public Affairs from Sciences Po Paris and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.