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).

Andre has a background in Applied Mathematics and for the last 20 years he has been supporting the Financial Services industry in developing and validating credit risk models. Andre now leads EY's UK Consulting Sustainability practice, focusing on Net Zero, Climate Modelling, Data and Reporting. Outside work Andre is a keen mountain biker.

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

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.

Antonios is a Senior Director in the Banking strategy group focusing on market development for climate and ESG solutions for banks. Previously with the Moody’s EMEA advisory team, he has led engagements on IFRS9 provisioning, portfolio modelling, stress testing and strategic capital and liquidity planning among others.

Prior to joining Moody’s he was helping financial institutions improve and develop their risk and capital management capabilities as part of the Financial Services advisory practice of a Big 4 firm in the UK, after a number of years in credit and analytics leadership roles in banking.

Antonios holds a Masters in Economics and Finance with focus in Econometrics from Warwick Business School.

Viola Lutz is Head of Climate Center of Excellence at Moody’s. Viola helps drive climate positioning across Moody’s with the goal to firmly establish the company and our offerings as a global leader in integrated climate risk analytics. 

Prior to joining Moody’s, Viola was Executive Director, Head of Climate Solutions, at ISS ESG, the unit of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) that helps financial market participants to understand, measure, and act on climate-related risks and opportunities across all asset classes. Viola joined ISS in 2017, following its acquisition of the financial industry business of South Pole Group, where she was a member of the team that developed the world’s largest database of company-level climate change data and pioneered the development of leading, standardized investment climate screening tools. Viola was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30: European Finance list in 2020. She holds a Master of Public Affairs from Sciences Po Paris and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland.

Viola is an avid improv theatre performer as well as a mountain sports and Yoga enthusiast.

Marc is Head of Client and Portfolio Transition at HSBC Corporate and Institutional Banking, responsible for developing the capabilities to engage with and support our client’s climate and environmental transition and manage transition and physical risks as well as manage the greening of our corporate balance sheet and meeting bank’s financed emissions reduction and net zero commitments. 

Marc has had a 30 year career in financial services spanning roles in trading, fintech, management consulting, risk management and sustainability. With HSBC for 17 years, including 5 years as the Global COO for Wholesale Risk, 4 years leading Libor Transition for the Wholesale loan book (including chairing the public / private sector loans working group tasked with developing the RFR interest calculation conventions), and in Sustainability and Sustainable Finance for the last 4 years. 

Prior to joining HSBC, Marc spent 2 years at Oliver Wyman, the management consultancy and 10 years SunGard / FIS, developing and selling trading and enterprise risk management software predominantly for the trading book. Growing up in South Africa, Marc started his career as an equity and options trader on the South African Stock Exchange before transitioning into equity and credit analysis while completing his CFA.

Gwen Safa is the Global Head of Sustainable Corporate Solutions, based in London. She is responsible for the integration of sustainability in M&A and IPOs globally. Gwen has 20 years of Financial Services experience in London and New York. Prior to joining Barclays, she worked 14 years at Moody’s, where her most recent role involved overseeing parts of Moody’s ESG business strategy. 

Gwen also has 6 years of M&A and IPO experience in Retail, Luxury, Consumer, & Healthcare sectors at JPMorgan. Gwen has a Master’s degree in Finance from EDHEC Business School.

Viola Lutz is Head of Climate Center of Excellence at Moody’s. Viola helps drive climate positioning across Moody’s with the goal to firmly establish the company and our offerings as a global leader in integrated climate risk analytics. 

Prior to joining Moody’s, Viola was Executive Director, Head of Climate Solutions, at ISS ESG, the unit of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) that helps financial market participants to understand, measure, and act on climate-related risks and opportunities across all asset classes. Viola joined ISS in 2017, following its acquisition of the financial industry business of South Pole Group, where she was a member of the team that developed the world’s largest database of company-level climate change data and pioneered the development of leading, standardized investment climate screening tools. Viola was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30: European Finance list in 2020. She holds a Master of Public Affairs from Sciences Po Paris and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland.

Viola is an avid improv theatre performer as well as a mountain sports and Yoga enthusiast.

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

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).

Viola Lutz is Head of Climate Center of Excellence at Moody’s. Viola helps drive climate positioning across Moody’s with the goal to firmly establish the company and our offerings as a global leader in integrated climate risk analytics. 

Prior to joining Moody’s, Viola was Executive Director, Head of Climate Solutions, at ISS ESG, the unit of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) that helps financial market participants to understand, measure, and act on climate-related risks and opportunities across all asset classes. Viola joined ISS in 2017, following its acquisition of the financial industry business of South Pole Group, where she was a member of the team that developed the world’s largest database of company-level climate change data and pioneered the development of leading, standardized investment climate screening tools. Viola was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30: European Finance list in 2020. She holds a Master of Public Affairs from Sciences Po Paris and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland.

Viola is an avid improv theatre performer as well as a mountain sports and Yoga enthusiast.

Andre has a background in Applied Mathematics and for the last 20 years he has been supporting the Financial Services industry in developing and validating credit risk models. Andre now leads EY's UK Consulting Sustainability practice, focusing on Net Zero, Climate Modelling, Data and Reporting. Outside work Andre is a keen mountain biker.

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.

Antonios is a Senior Director in the Banking strategy group focusing on market development for climate and ESG solutions for banks. Previously with the Moody’s EMEA advisory team, he has led engagements on IFRS9 provisioning, portfolio modelling, stress testing and strategic capital and liquidity planning among others.

Prior to joining Moody’s he was helping financial institutions improve and develop their risk and capital management capabilities as part of the Financial Services advisory practice of a Big 4 firm in the UK, after a number of years in credit and analytics leadership roles in banking.

Antonios holds a Masters in Economics and Finance with focus in Econometrics from Warwick Business School.

Marc is Head of Client and Portfolio Transition at HSBC Corporate and Institutional Banking, responsible for developing the capabilities to engage with and support our client’s climate and environmental transition and manage transition and physical risks as well as manage the greening of our corporate balance sheet and meeting bank’s financed emissions reduction and net zero commitments. 

Marc has had a 30 year career in financial services spanning roles in trading, fintech, management consulting, risk management and sustainability. With HSBC for 17 years, including 5 years as the Global COO for Wholesale Risk, 4 years leading Libor Transition for the Wholesale loan book (including chairing the public / private sector loans working group tasked with developing the RFR interest calculation conventions), and in Sustainability and Sustainable Finance for the last 4 years. 

Prior to joining HSBC, Marc spent 2 years at Oliver Wyman, the management consultancy and 10 years SunGard / FIS, developing and selling trading and enterprise risk management software predominantly for the trading book. Growing up in South Africa, Marc started his career as an equity and options trader on the South African Stock Exchange before transitioning into equity and credit analysis while completing his CFA.

Gwen Safa is the Global Head of Sustainable Corporate Solutions, based in London. She is responsible for the integration of sustainability in M&A and IPOs globally. Gwen has 20 years of Financial Services experience in London and New York. Prior to joining Barclays, she worked 14 years at Moody’s, where her most recent role involved overseeing parts of Moody’s ESG business strategy. 

Gwen also has 6 years of M&A and IPO experience in Retail, Luxury, Consumer, & Healthcare sectors at JPMorgan. Gwen has a Master’s degree in Finance from EDHEC Business School.