With 17+ years in ESG domain at EBRD and IFC, Alexandra’s experience covers public and private investment projects across Eastern Europe, Balkans, Türkiye, Caucasus, MENA, Central Asia, East Asia & Pacific. She has worked on numerous environmental and social assessments in energy, industry and infrastructure sectors, screening projects’ E&S risks, leading ESDDs, and managing portfolio issues. As IFC’s ESG Regional Team Lead for East Asia & Pacific, she coordinated appraisal and supervision work of 15+ team of specialists and consultants. She currently holds Head of Sector Infrastructure position at the Environment and Sustainability Department of EBRD.

She completed MSc in Environmental Management from Oxford University’s School of Geography with focus on resource efficiency and climate change; BA in International Relations; MA in Management and Economics; NEBOSH International Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety; IEMA Certificate in Environmental Audit, as well as IFC’s Professional Learning Certificate in Sustainability Framework and Performance Standards.

Taisiya Afanasyeva works with the Planning and Economic Studies Section at the International Atomic Energy Agency. Taisiya has 10 years of experience working in both the energy and sustainability sectors. Since joining the Agency, Taisiya’s work has been focused on green taxonomies and similar policy documents, ESG criteria and sustainable finance instruments for nuclear energy projects

Roko Andricevic has been a full professor since 2001 at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy, University of Split. He  obtained his Ph.D. from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Minnesota, USA, in the subject area of water  resources management and environmental science. He spent two years as a visiting scientist at Stanford University and was later employed as an  assistant and associate professor at the Desert Research Institute, University of Nevada Systems in Las Vegas and Reno. After returning to  Croatia in 2001, he was nominated the public office as the Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Physical Planning, Republic of Croatia. From 2006-2008 prof. Andricevic served as a Dean of the Civil Engineering Faculty at the University of Split  and from 2008 to 2014 was Vice-rector for science and international affairs at the University of Split. From 2014-2016 prof Andricevic was  nominated as Vice-Minister of Science and Education in the Croatian Government. Prof Andricevic’s interest is in water resources management, environmental science, and environmental risk assessment. He has authored over 100 scientific papers published in international journals and   book and is currently serving as an international expert for the World Bank and EU-related projects.

Gary Baker joined IAIA as Chief Executive in 2023, having previously been Global head of Advocacy, Research and Professional Standards and Head of EMEA at CFA Institute. Gary has extensive experience in global investment banking having worked for more than 30 years as a Research Director and investment analyst in Hong Kong, Australia, USA and Europe, principally with Merrill Lynch. Gary is also a Board Trustee at the Global Centre for Risk & Innovation. 
He holds a Masters in Geography from Cambridge University, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Dr Alan Bond is Associate Professor in Environmental Management in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UK)  nd Extraordinary Professor in the School of Geo and Spatial Sciences, North West University (South Africa), with over 30 years’ experience in  Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). He runs a full-time MSc programme on Environmental Assessment and Management at the University of East  nglia. Alan has conducted research in the field of impact assessment for, amongst others, the World Health Organization, European Commission,  ealth Development Agency, European Environment Agency, Environment Agency (England & Wales), and has undertaken consultancy work with  ntec, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Ben Cave Associates, Enviros, Land Use Consultants, UNECE, and the Crown Estate. Alan has published  ver 100 peer-reviewed works, including two key text books on sustainability assessment, and has written guidance on Environmental Impact  ssessment Scoping for the (English) Environment Agency, and also co-authored best-practice guides for IAIA on Health Impact Assessment, EIA  ollow-up, Resilience Assessment, and Impact Assessment for Extraterrestrial Development. He is on the Editorial Board of three EIA journals,  nd is co- Chair of the International Association for Impact Assessment’s Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology section. 

Rafael works on social risk management and social inclusion, with a focus on the implementation of the World Bank’s ESF and Safeguard Policies in Romania. Rafael brings experience from the Latin America region, where he focused on developing pragmatic social risk management approaches, mainstreaming inclusion and stakeholder engagement in project design with a focus on indigenous peoples and vulnerable groups, and building government capacity for E&S risk management. Previously, he supported the Bank’s Grievance Redress service, and was involved in the initial design and rollout of the ESF through support for the development of guidance and good practice notes, as well as corporate E&S risk management processes.

Miguel Coutinho has more than 30 years of professional experience in strategic and environmental impact assessment, air pollution and climate change. He is currently Social and Environmental StandardsTechnical Advisor for UNDP- United Nations Development Program operating in the Latin American and Caribbean Region. He is Past President of IAIA – International Association for Impact Assessment and of APAI – Portuguese Association for Impact Assessment.

Judita Cuculić Župa is a member of the European Commission’s Recovery and Resilience Task Force, responsible for the design and the implementation of the Croatian Recovery and Resilience Plan, focusing on the energy efficiency of buildings. During her career Judita worked on a number of financial assistance programmes, including Stand-by arrangements with the IMF and European Commission’s Macro-financial assistance, designing public policies with emphasis on sustainable development. 

Alessandro d’Eri joined ESMA as senior policy officer in 2016. He is responsible for ESMA’s Sustainability Reporting Working Group which discusses supervisory issues and develops draft ESMA’s positions on sustainability reporting. He also represents ESMA at the Sustainability Reporting Board of EFRAG. Alessandro holds a PhD in business studies and he is a certified auditor.

Iakovos Dimitriou works for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Reform Support, responsible for supporting the design and implementation of structural reforms in EU Member States. During his career, Iakovos worked with several Member States on Public Financial Management reforms, including environmental considerations in public finances. Iakovos studied EU politics and governance at the London School of Economics, King’s College London and Humboldt University Berlin, and holds an MBA from University of Oxford.

Avid and curious learner and development professional. Interested in finding workable solutions to address complex social issues and impacts of major projects through emphatic listening and inclusive participation of diverse groups. Bringing in 10+ years of professional experience including first-hand experience working and living in fragile and conflict affected areas and managing projects to promote social license to operate in the extractive sector. Familiarity working in the public sector in low-, middle- and high-income countries through World Bank-financed projects.

Hanane El Hayek is an expert in sustainable buildings and finance, with an engineering background and multifaceted experience positioning her at the intersection of sustainable finance and the built environment. In addition to deep knowledge of the EU Green Taxonomy, she has extensive expertise working with various stakeholders, from developers and portfolio managers to financial institutions and international organizations, shaping her views on global ESG transitions and transformations along the value chain.
As Head of Sustainable Finance at CERTIVEA and the French Green Building Council (Alliance HQE GBC), she leads initiatives on EU Taxonomy verification and green building certifications. Hanane's influential roles include chairing the Advisory Board of Smarter Finance for EU, active membership in the Climate Bonds Initiative's Technical Working Group and leading the "EU Taxonomy verification and the role of green buildings certifications" workgroup within the World Green Building Council's Sustainable Finance Policy Taskforce. These positions place her at the forefront of sustainable finance and the built environment.

Dr Charlotta Faith-Ell is Assistant Professor in Sustainable Built Environment at Mid Sweden University. She has more than 25 years’ experience of practice and research in Environmental Assessment and planning. She is also on the Board of Directors of the Estonian Environment Institute (EKKI).

Thomas B Fischer (PhD, Dipl-Geogr, FIEMA, FHEA) is a Professor at the Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool, UK. He has over 33 years of practical, research and training/teaching experience with strategic environmental assessment (SEA), environmental impact assessment (EIA), health impact assessment (HIA) and other types of impact assessment in a number of countries. He is Director of the Environmental Assessment and Management Research Centre and Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Health in Impact Assessments, an Extraordinary Professor at the Research Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, North West University (Potchefstroom Campus), South Africa and has been a Fellow of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) since 2008. Thomas has worked in both, public and private sectors and is one of the most widely published authors on environmental and health assessment globally with 11 books, over 130 refereed journal articles, numerous book chapters and other documents, including impact assessment guidance. He has worked in practice on over 20 environmental assessments. Thomas is recipient of the outstanding services award by the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA; 2022) and has been included in Stanford’s University’s database of top-cited scientists. For further information go to https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas_Fischer4

Lucy Fitzgeorge-Parker joined Responsible Investor as editor in 2022 from Euromoney magazine, where she was ESG editor. Prior to that, she was Euromoney’s editor for Central and Eastern Europe and contributing editor at GlobalCapital. She has covered most aspects of banking and capital markets since switching to journalism from investment banking in 2003.

Kevin Flowers is the Deputy Head of the Green Finance and Investments Unit of DG Environment, European Commission. The Unit contributes to delivering the EU’s environmental policy objectives by helping to mobilise the needed public and private financing as well as supporting the greening of the financial sector. This includes support with the development and implementation of the EU’s sustainable finance strategy and policy framework, in particular, the sustainable finance Taxonomy, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, natural capital accounting, environmental investment needs/gaps assessment and the development of biodiversity/nature risk assessment frameworks for the financial sector.

As a senior scientist at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU University) with a habilitation in environmental planning Alexandra is an expert in the field of environmental assessments and environmental management research including also topics related to ESRS and the Taxonomy. Over years a focus of her works concentrated on climate change adaptation and mitigation as well as on biodiversity preservation in the field of environmental, spatial and energy planning. Her research activities have focused on various decision-making contexts, from strategic policies, plans, and programs at European cohesion planning level as well as national and federal state level to individual projects. Over the past years she started to focus also on the role of digitalisation and particularly advanced digitalisation (AI/ML) in environmental planning as well as the supervision of master and PhD theses in this field.

Louise Them Kjølholm holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering and have over 25 years of experience in ESG risk management. Additionally, she bring more than 10 years of experience working with the IFC Performance Standards, as EIFO operates as both an Equator Principles Bank and an Export Credit Agency (ECA). Louise also possess extensive expertise in ensuring alignment with the EU taxonomy in sustainable finance.

She currently work at the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy of the Republic of Slovenia. With over 30 years of experience in environmental policy  and 20 years as Head of Environmental Assessments Division, she is experienced in strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and environmental impact assessment (EIA). She is currently chair of the  UNECE buro for the Protocol on strategic environmental assessment at the Convention on Transboudary impact assessment, former chair of its Working group and former chair of the Implementation Committee.  She is current member of Working group for SEA/EIA at the European Commission and the Espoo National focal point. She is driven by the mission of promoting sustainable development and environmental protection through international cooperation, best practices development and capacity building.

In Slovenia, she  was also a member of governmental group for cohesion policy and SEA/EIA, cooperated with European Commission and Jaspers. With her practical experiences  and knowledge of environmental assessments and the non significant harm principles, she share the knowledge at the Universities and High school for sustainable development.

She published more than 120 articles and cooperate with her presentations in  the international missions and conferences in Central and Eastern Europe, Middle east, Asia, Africa and Russia.

She has been a member of Scientific Committee of HUSPO conferences from the very baginning and has been actively participated at all seven conferences from 2013 -2024 as well as at the seminar on Sustainable finance in Zagreb in 2023.

Mario Mesarić is an environmental consultant with over a decade of experience in environmental impact assessments and the Director of IRES Ecology Ltd., an environmental consulting firm. He coauthored Croatia's first guidebook on developing agrosolar projects and leads projects and teams in both environmental impact assessments and strategic environmental impact assessments. His work includes preparing key documents in the fields of environmental and nature protection, such as strategic environmental impact studies (SEA) and environmental impact studies (EIA). Mario actively participates in advisory expert committees, presenting EIA and SEA conclusions, and conducts public presentations of projects at state, regional, and local levels.

Eva Neuderlová is Ceska Sporitelna´s expert on sustainability in the built environment. Having implemented ESG in product and company strategies, Eva has been focusing on the link between finance, technical aspects and criteria in recent years. Eva believes that the key to sustainable transformation is financing. She is an active member of the CZGBC association and is involved in the decarbonization and interpretation of EU taxonomy requirements.

Passionate about effective and inclusive systems for managing and monitoring social and environmental performance. 

Dedicated social change advocate with extensive experience in impact assessment, community development and climate change adaptation. As a firm believer in the principles of degrowth, I am committed to sustainable practices that prioritize well-being and climate justice over unchecked economic growth.

Ed is the Nature Finance Lead at CreditNature – a pioneering Nature FinTech start up with a mission to mobilise private investment into nature restoration. Using CreditNature’s accredited methodology for measuring the integrity of ecosystems, Ed is responsible for developing the “business case” for nature. To achieve this, Ed leverages his experience as a former capital markets banker to create commercially viable natural capital models so that corporates and financial institutions can invest in nature and secure sustainable business growth.   

Alenka Recelj Mercina, with nearly two decades of banking experience, holds an MSc in Finance from Bayes Business School. As Head of Sustainability at NLB d.d., she leads sustainable banking initiatives. She is also the president of the Sustainable Finance Committee at the Slovenian Banking Association, a member of the Sustainable Finance Expert Group at the European Banking Federation, and part of the EU Women Climate Leaders Network. Alenka is recognized for driving innovation and positive change in banking, contributing to the UN Environment Program’s Finance Initiative.

Ms. Adina Relicovschi is Principal Advisor on Sustainable Finance, Sustainability Division at the European Investment Bank (EIB) being responsible to revamp the Group’s Sustainability Reporting framework and thereby to align it with sustainability-related disclosure and reporting requirements under the EU Sustainable Finance package. She was the Head of Environmental Policy Unit, Projects Directorate of EIB, being the main author of the new EIBG Environmental and Social Sustainability Framework and leading the adoption of sustainable finance as EIBG’s operating model which fully integrates ECS considerations across the Group’s activities and processes

Petra Remeta is a Senior Consultant at Trinomics with over 10 years of experience in nature conservation, climate change, and sustainable development. She holds a BSc in Hydrology and an MSc in Environmental Management, and her expertise spans both the practical implementation of conservation initiatives and strategic leadership in alignment with global and EU objectives. As Conservation Director at WWF, Petra led efforts on key biodiversity issues, including protected area management, marine and terrestrial habitat protection, ecological connectivity, ecosystem restoration, and climate change adaptation. In her work, she has drawn extensively on her knowledge of legislative frameworks and horizontal tools to assess impacts and facilitate stakeholder participation, with experience across both EU member states and accession countries. Since joining Trinomics, Petra has focused on advancing policies that promote biodiversity and ecosystem conservation, including integrating these priorities into sustainability assessment frameworks and ensuring adequate funding.

Martin Smutny, Managing Partner at Integra Consulting Ltd, has more than 20 years of experience in the field of environmental assessment. He coordinated over 50 SEAs and EIAs for various types of strategic documents and projects and has been involved in a number of SEA/EIA capacity-building assignments in Central and Eastern Europe, former Soviet Union countries, and South-East Asia. 

Łukasz Szkudlarek is an environmental engineer with over 15 years of practical experience in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). As the founder of Ekovert, he has led numerous complex projects, including those for large-scale national programs and investments. His expertise extends to the Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) principle under the EU budget.

Ms. Ivana Šarić has a MSc degree in Biology (Ecology) and 20 years of professional experience in mainstreaming of environment, biodiversity and climate change in policies, programmes and projects through the tools such as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Natura 2000 Appropriate Assessments. As an independent consultant for environmental and nature protection issues, she currently supports the European Commission’s Greening Facility by providing technical and advisory assistance on the greening of EU cooperation to DG INTPA and DG NEAR. She has also been engaged as an environmental expert in various projects dealing with research and planning of water management solutions.

Julian Toth is the Chief Operating Officer of the International Sustainable Finance Centre (ISFC), a Prague-based think tank focused on research, education and capacity building in sustainable finance. Julian also leads the Czech Sustainable Investment Forum (Czech SIF), an association of sustainable investors in the Czech Republic, including banks, asset managers, and private equity and venture capital funds. In addition, he is a Sherpa at the Platform on Sustainable Finance under DG FISMA at the European Commission, actively contributing to the development of the EU Sustainable Finance Framework. Julian holds degree in Ecological Economics from the University of Edinburgh.