Vivek Pathak is IFC’s Global Head and Director of Climate Business. In this role, he facilitates business growth, provides thought leadership, new product development and facilitates all work related to climate business. He is responsible for identifying new business opportunities for climate business and facilitating the mobilization of capital into this space. Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Pathak was IFC’s Regional Director for East Asia and the Pacific, leading advisory and investment operations across 18 countries, which in fiscal year 2020 reached US$4.2 billion in long-term investments, including funds mobilized from other investors. He has extensive emerging markets experience in principal investments, restructuring and risk management. Earlier in his career, Mr. Pathak was Global Head and Director for Investment and Credit Risk, responsible for global coverage of credit risk, investment risk, integrity risk, pricing and credit/equity training. Prior to that he oversaw IFC’s portfolio in the Middle East and North Africa and led business development in frontier markets in the Middle East and North Africa. Before IFC, Mr. Pathak worked at Bank of America and ABN AMRO Bank in new business and risk management.
Bernice Van Bronkhorst is the Global Director for Climate Change at the World Bank. Ms. Van Bronkhorst, a Dutch national, joined the Bank in 2005 as an Urban Specialist in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region. She has since held various positions, including as Sector/Practice Manager from 2012-2016 for the Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change unit in the South Asia Region and, most recently, as Practice Manager for Urban Development and Disaster Risk Management for East and Southern Africa in the Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience GP. She oversees the work of the Bank’s climate change team, working with other Global Practices, and internal and external clients.
Arame Tall is a Senior Adaptation & Resilience Specialist in the Climate Change Group of the World Bank. Dr. Tall leads coordination of the Bank’s work on Adaptation & Resilience and is the team leader for the World Bank Group’s first of its kind Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience. Before joining the Bank Group, she was with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)’s Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) based in Dakar Senegal, where she managed the Regional office for Africa supporting all of Africa’s 53 governments with policy guidance to mainstream adaptation and establish effective national/regional frameworks for climate services. From 2012-2015, she worked as a senior climate services scientist and champion at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), based at ICRISAT in India, then IFPRI in Washington DC, Prior to that, she was with the Red Cross International Federation where she served as regional technical adviser for West and Central Africa for several years. She holds a PhD from the Johns Hopkins University-SAIS in Climate Adaptation and African Studies, an MA from Columbia University’s Climate & Society Program, and a BA from Smith College in Anthropology and Environmental Policy.
Sadiye Yalcin is the Deputy Director General of State Hydraulic Works of the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry since October 2018. State Hydraulic Works (DSI) responsible for the development of water and soil resources in general, with its mandate stretching across various water uses, including development of water resources for potable services, irrigation and drainage, and hydropower. Sadiye is a Civil Engineer by training. She joined State Hydraulic Works (DSI) in 1990 and since then she has worked at different positions including Irrigation Unit Manager, Tendering Unit Manager, Deputy Head of Projects and Construction Department and Head of Drinking Water Department. She is the Deputy Director General of DSI since October 2018. She has been leading the PPP related activities of DSI and has attended numerous national and international workshops and events in this field.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan was appointed as Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth at the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on 8 January 2021, and the UK International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for the COP26 Presidency on 7 November 2020. Previously, Anne-Marie was the Secretary of State for International Development from February to September 2020. She was Minister of State for the Armed Forces from December 2019 to February 2020, and Minister for Defence Procurement from July 2019 to December 2019.Anne-Marie was first elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Berwick-upon-Tweed constituency at the 2015 general election. A chartered accountant by trade, Anne-Marie sat on the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee from July 2015 to May 2017 and December 2018 to July 2019. She has previously served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence. As an MP, she has campaigned with colleagues for greater autism awareness and has focused on the Armed Forces Covenant. Her wider interests involve spending time with her family, making the most of the incredible landscape her vast and varied constituency affords and putting her passion for singing to good use by taking part in Singing for Syrians concerts in Westminster.
Jay Koh is co-founder & Managing Director of The Lightsmith Group, as well as the founder and chair of the Global Adaptation & Resilience Investment Working Group (GARI). GARI is a private-led initiative that was launched at Paris COP21 and is an official partner of the UN Secretary General’s A2R Climate Resilience Initiative. Prior to co-founding Lightsmith in 2016, Mr. Koh was a Managing Director and Partner of Siguler Guff, a global alternative investment firm with over $10 billion under management. Prior to joining Siguler Guff in 2012, Mr. Koh was the Head of Investment Funds and Chief Investment Strategist at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). In this role, Mr. Koh led the agency’s $2.6 billion active emerging markets private equity program. From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Koh led private equity and illiquid investing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at R3 Capital, formerly the Global Principal Strategies Division of Lehman Brothers. Mr. Koh serves on the Private Sector Advisory Group to the UN Green Climate Fund, the Board of the New York State Energy Mr. Koh serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds an A.B. magna cum laude in Economics from Harvard College, a master’s degree in Management from Oxford University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Brooks Preston is the Managing Director of Infrastructure and Real Assets at the Macquarie Group. Brooks has been an advising Macquarie on sustainability, emerging markets and impact since December 2017. Prior to working with Macquarie, Brooks served as Vice President and Head of Investment Funds for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) from 2014 to 2017, where he was Chair of the investment committee for Investment Funds Department, a member of the Investment Committee for OPIC, and on the Executive Management Committee of OPIC. Prior to OPIC, Brooks was the co-managing partner and founder of the Virgin Green Fund Emerging Markets and a member of its Investment Committee. Brooks was also the Principal at Wolfensohn & Company, an emerging market private equity firm led by former World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn, where Brooks focused on direct investments in low carbon energy businesses in global emerging markets. He was also Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of Natural Resources and Environment and Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Forestry at USDA in the Clinton/Gore Administration. Brooks has a BA from Dartmouth College (geography & environmental studies) and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and studied abroad in Nairobi, Kenya.
John Haley is the CEO of Willis Towers Watson and Chair of the Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment. John joined the company in 1977 and throughout his career served in a variety of roles including consulting actuary to several of the company’s largest clients, manager of the Washington, D.C. consulting office and leader of the global retirement practice. John was named CEO in 1998. Under his leadership, the company went public in 2000, and completed three historic mergers, in 2005, 2010 and 2016 that formed present-day Willis Towers Watson. John also serves on the board of directors of MAXIMUS, Inc. the Miami Cancer Institute, and the New World Symphony. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and the Conference of Consulting Actuaries, and has served as a trustee of The Actuarial Foundation. Previously, he served on the board of Hudson Global, Inc. John has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Rutgers College and studied under a Fellowship at the Graduate School of Mathematics at Yale University.
Imad N. Fakhoury joined the World Bank as Global Director of the Infrastructure Finance, PPPs & Guarantees Group in November of 2019. Fakhoury comes most recently from the IFC, where he held the position of Senior Adviser for Private Sector Solutions. Before joining the World Bank Group, Fakhoury served in successive Jordanian governments as Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Minister of Public Sector Development, and Minister of State for Mega-projects. He served as Senator in the Jordanian Parliament and as Chief of Staff/Director of Office of His Majesty King Abdullah II. In his capacity as Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Fakhoury led pioneering work to launch Jordan 2025, successive resilience-based Jordan Response Plans to the Syria refugee crisis and the Jordan Compact. He also served as Governor of Jordan at the World Bank Group, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Islamic Development Bank Group, the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. Fakhoury has a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering, a master's degree in engineering management from Case Western Reserve University, a master’s in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and an executive MBA from Kellogg Business School at Northwestern University.
Anderson Caputo Silva is Practice Manager for Long-Term Finance, within the Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice, leading the Capital Markets, Infrastructure Finance, Housing Finance, Agriculture Finance, Pensions & Insurance product lines. Anderson joined the World Bank in 2006 and has been actively involved on advisory services to develop capital markets and on the design of financial solutions to mobilize financing through bond markets and for infrastructure financing. Prior to joining the World Bank, Anderson worked for the Brazilian Treasury from 1993 to 2005, where, among others, he served as Head of the Public Debt Strategic Planning Department, managing the risk and formulating refinancing strategies in domestic and international capital markets for the overall government debt portfolio. Anderson holds a Ph.D. degree in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Christina Chan is the Director for the Climate Resilience Practice at the World Resources Institute (WRI), which seeks to help national and sub-national decision-makers understand the drivers of climate vulnerability in their countries, engage vulnerable people in adaptation efforts, and access the information, tools, and resources they need to take account of climate change in planning and programs. Christina also co-directed the Global Commission on Adaptation, which raised the political visibility of adaptation and catalyzed action and support.
Carlos Manuel Rodriguez was elected as CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility in June 2020. The former Costa Rican Environment and Energy Minister was a pioneer in the development of Payment for Ecosystem Services initiatives and strategies for forest restoration, ocean conservation, and de-carbonization. Rodriguez has held various technical and political positions over the past 30 years. In the early 1990s, he worked as Director of Costa Rica’s National Parks Service and is also founder and board member of many environmental NGOs and tropical research institutes. Since the 1992 UN Sustainable Development Summit in Rio, he has participated in all multilateral environmental negotiations, as an expert negotiator in UNFCCC, CBD, and UNCCD, and participated in negotiations for the creation and implementation of the GEF and the Green Climate Fund. After his second tenure as Minister, he was Vice-President for Global Policy at Conservation International, for 12 years, working in 30 tropical countries in Central and South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
