Speakers

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ANN METTLER, Head of the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC)

Ann Mettler is the head of the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC), the in-house think tank of the European Commission.

Prior to assuming this position in December 2014, she was for eleven years executive director of the Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based think tank she co-founded in 2003. From 2000-2003, she worked at the World Economic Forum, where she last served as director for Europe.

Ann Mettler holds Masters Degrees in political science and European law and economics, and graduated with distinction from the University of New Mexico, USA, and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University in Bonn, Germany.

NICOLA POCHETTINO, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank

Nicola Pochettino works at the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg. He is currently Head of the Project Impact and Reporting Division within EIB’s Project Directorate. Prior to joining the EIB, he worked at the International Energy Agency in Paris and in various positions in the financial sector and the energy industry, both in Italy and the UK. Nicola is a CFA charterholder and holds a master of science in nuclear engineering from the Polytechnic of Turin and a master's degree in energy economics and management.

GEORG KELL, Chairman of Arabesque Partners, and founder of the UN Global Compact

Georg Kell is Chairman of Arabesque, an ESG quant fund that specializes in self-learning quant models and big data to assess the sustainability and performance of listed equity.

He is the founding Director of the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative with over 9,000 corporate signatories from more than 160 countries. Through Georg’s leadership, the Global Compact became the foremost platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible and sustainable corporate policies and practices.

 Georg also oversaw the conception and launch of the Global Compact’s sister initiatives, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), and the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative.

Georg started his career as a research fellow in engineering at the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin. He then worked as a financial analyst in various countries in Africa & Asia before joining the United Nations in 1987. Georg holds advanced degrees in economics and engineering from the Technical University of Berlin.

Georg has received numerous awards and recognitions.

GERT JAN KOOPMAN, Director-General for DG BUDG, European Commission

Gert Jan Koopman was appointed Director-General in the Directorate-General for Budget of the European Commission in August 2018, taking up the top position of the department dealing with the EU's financial programming, annual budgets, accounting and financial rules.

Previously, Mr Koopman was in charge of State Aid control at the Directorate General for Competition. He launched a major overhaul of State Aid Policy through the State Aid Modernisation (SAM) programme which has led to a streamlining of State Aid control, provided greater possibilities for Member States to implement state aid measures without prior authorisation by the Commission and put significant emphasis on transparency and evaluation. SAM has also allowed to focus the Commission's resources on priority cases such as those in the banking and energy sectors as well as fiscal aid.

Prior to his posting at Directorate General for Competition, Mr Koopman held Director posts in the Commission's departments for “Economic and Financial affairs” as well as “Enterprise and Industry” and was a member of the Commission Impact Assessment Board. He worked in the Cabinets of Vice President Kinnock – lastly as his Head of Cabinet. Prior to joining the Commission, Mr Koopman was an associate of the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Research (CPB). He holds degrees in Economics and Latin and Greek from the University of Amsterdam.

HEIDI HAUTALA,
Vice-President of the European Parliament, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, Finland

Heidi Hautala is a Vice President of the European Parliament and a former Minister for International Development and State Ownership Steering of Finland. Currently she is a member of the Development committee, Legal Affairs committee, and the International Trade committee.

Throughout her career, Heidi has focused on human rights, sustainability, transparency and responsible business. She recently established a cross-party working group on Responsible Business Conduct at the European Parliament.  

HILDE BLOMME, Deputy CEO of Accountancy Europe

Hilde Blomme joined Accountancy Europe in 2003 and has been Deputy CEO since 2011. Hilde provides regulatory and technical expertise in the areas of reporting, assurance, (sustainable) finance, tax and practice development and contributes to developing the Federation’s strategy as a Board member. Prior to this assignment, she spent nine years with PwC as an external auditor, consecutively in Brussels, New York and London dealing with both multinational and SME audit and assurance clients. Prior to joining PwC, she spent three years with local Belgian auditing firms serving SME clients.

She started her professional career at Morgan Guaranty Trust in Brussels. She is qualified as a US Certified Public Accountant, Belgian Chartered Accountant, and member of the UK Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). She is a member of the Reporting Lab@EFRAG Steering Group.

JYRKI KATAINEN, Vice-President of the European Commission

NATALIA AGÜEROS-MACARIO, Integrated Reporting Manager at Umicore

Natalia Agüeros-Macario joined Umicore in December 2017 as Integrated Reporting Manager. Her first report in this post won the Award for Best Belgian Sustainability Report 2017 - “Best Impact Sustainability Report” in the category “Large organizations”. Natalia also manages communication with investors on Environment, Social and Governance topics, and sustainability communications in general.

Natalia’s background includes multilateral science cooperation and interdisciplinary environmental research, practice and policy development in the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Middle East. Prior to joining Umicore, Natalia managed international climate policy activities for The Prince of Wales’ Corporate Leaders Group at the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership. As a consultant, she developed programs and strategic partnerships for the Global Science & Technology Innovation Conference (G-STIC) and VITO, after relocating to Brussels from New York, where she managed an interdisciplinary research program and published the annual research report at The Earth Institute. She began her working career in New York State government where she specialized in “environment as quality of life” issues to inform policy development, and grew to manage campaign initiatives, nationally and abroad. Natalia holds an MSc in Sustainability Management from Columbia University. Her graduate research took place in Jordan where she developed custom metrics for evaluating sustainable business operations for the King Abdullah II Center for Excellence in Amman. She is French-Puerto Rican,  and speaks Spanish, French, English, Italian, German and Dutch. 

RICHARD HOWITT, CEO of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC)

Richard Howitt is Chief Executive Officer of the International Integrated Reporting Council. As such he is spearheading the adoption of integrated reporting globally and is a major thought-leader in international debates on good corporate governance, shifting investment to the long-term and inclusive capitalism.

Richard travels extensively internationally to meet with the over 1,500 global businesses who are adopting integrated reporting as well as with advocates of integrated reporting in policy and investor communities. He is a member of the B20 group of international business leaders who dialogue with G20 governments. He is also a member of the EU’s multistakeholder platform on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in the EU. Richard has spoken widely on issues of financial stability, sustainable development and capital market reform as part of the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Forum on Responsible Business Conduct, the UNCTAD Expert Group on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting and at other international fora.

Prior to being appointed to the IIRC, Richard served as an elected Member of the European Parliament for over twenty years and was rapporteur on corporate responsibility. In this capacity, he was key architect of the EU’s non-financial information directive, one of the biggest transformations in corporate disclosure anywhere in the world.

VALÉRIE ARONOLD, Partner and Corporate Responosbility and Sustainability Leader for PWC Luxembourg

VILLE MAJAMAA, Board Vice-President of the European Youth Forum

ROBERT SCHARFE, CEO of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange

SARA FRÖHLING LIND, Expert in consumption and lifestyle at Ungdomsbarometern

Starting in the FMCG industry at the age of 22, Sara Fröhling Lind has been focusing on business development and consumer insights for the past six years. In her present role as an expert in youth consumption and lifestyle trends at Sweden’s largest youth insights company, Ungdomsbarometern, Sara spends most of her time analyzing the behavior and opinions of young Swedes.

For the past two years, Sara has been responsible for several studies within the areas of consumption, lifestyle, health and sustainability. Among others, the largest survey studying youths in Sweden with approximately 23 000 respondents. An annual study first conducted in 1991. With access to historic data and ability to study behavior and attitudes over time, Sara is able to predict future trends in her scope of work and has impacted the way many FMCG marketeers interact with their younger target groups.

TYTTI YLI-VIIKARI, Auditor-General of the National Audit Office of Finland

Tytti Yli-Viikari has served as the Auditor General of Finland since 2016. Prior to her nomination she worked as Deputy Auditor General at the National Audit Office and she has previously worked at the Government Controller’s Function and the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance.

Ms Yli-Viikari is a public audit, public policy evaluation and risk management professional. She is driven by a strong will to enhance good governance and to develop relevant and timely information on public accountability. Ms Yli-Viikari regularly holds speeches in national and international seminars on themes such as digitalisation, ethics, democracy, trust and the future of public audit. She holds a Master in Public Administration from the French National School of Administration ENA and M.A.s from the College of Europe and from the Panthéon Sorbonne University.

ARNOLDAS ABRAMAVIČIUS, First Vice-President of the ECON Commission of the Committee of the Regions, Member of Zarasai District Municipal Council in Lithuania

WIM BARTELS, Corporate Reporting Partner at KPMG Netherlands, and Programme Lead for the Corporate Reporting Dialogue

Wim is an experienced accountant who decided to focus his career on helping companies apply a sustainability lens to their business and reporting activities. “I recognized that businesses need to change the way they think, and take a holistic approach to decision-making, taking into account environmental and social factors, not just financial ones,” he says.

Having joined KPMG in 1989, Wim is KPMG’s Global Leader for Climate-related Risk Services, and also Partner for Corporate Reporting at KPMG in the Netherlands. He is a member of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which has developed guidance to help companies understand and disclose their financial exposure to climate-related risks.

Wim has been the lead author of several research reports, including KPMG’s successful series of surveys of corporate responsibility reporting, and has spoken about sustainability topics at over 100 conferences around the world.

Wim is an accomplished musician and, outside work, he enjoys performing music and holding concerts to raise money for charity.

ARNOLDAS ABRAMAVIČIUS, First Vice-President of the ECON Commission of the Committee of the Regions, Member of Zarasai District Municipal Council in Lithuania                 

SARAH-JAYNE DOMINIC, Standards Senior Manager of Global Reporting Initiative

Sarah-Jayne currently works at the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in the Netherlands where she leads teams and groups of technical experts to develop global sustainability standards for organizations to report their economic, environmental and social impacts. She also works with other organizations to develop guidance on Assurance of sustainability reporting and other non-financial information.

Prior to her current role, Sarah-Jayne spent over 16 years at PwC in the UK, Australia and the USA. Sarah-Jayne is a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) and is the Chair of the ICAS Sustainability Panel and a member of the ICAS Policy Leadership Board.  

PHIL WYNN OWEN, Member of the European Court of Auditors for the United Kingdom

Phil Wynn Owen has been a Member of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) since January 2014. He worked initially within the Court’s Chamber II, covering cohesion, growth and inclusion. Since June 2016, he has been in the Court’s Chamber I, of which he was the Dean until May 2018, leading the Court’s work on the sustainable use of natural resources. Phil was responsible for the 2017 Landscape Review on EU action on energy and climate change, and has led several tasks addressing sustainability in energy and climate fields, such as on flooding, desertification and energy storage in the EU.

Before joining the ECA, Phil worked for over 30 years on a wide range of public finance and policy issues for UK Governments, in the Treasury, the Cabinet Office, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Energy and Climate Change.

EVA LINDSTRÖM, Member of the European Court of Audutors for Sweden

Eva Lindström has been a Member of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) since March 2018, where she has been responsible for the ECA Rapid Case Review on Reporting on Sustainability, several ECA opinions, and the Annual Report Chapter on Revenue.

She has more than 25 years experience in the public finance and audit area, including in supervisory and management functions. Prior to joining the ECA, she was State Secretary at the Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation in the Swedish Government for three years, working with the improvement of the corporate governance model of Swedish state enterprises, including incorporating Agenda 2030 into the management of the state enterprises. Between 2003-2010 she was Auditor General at the Swedish National Audit Office (NAO), responsible for financial and performance audit areas. As one of three auditor generals, she contributed to setting up the NAO as a new institution independent of the government and directly accountable to the Swedish Parliament. From 1997-2003 she was Budget Director and Head of the Budget Department at the Swedish Ministry of Finance. In this position, she was also responsible for implementing a new budget process put in place to ensure financial stability in the aftermath of the Swedish financial crisis in the beginning of the 1990s. Before this, she worked with implementing large savings and structural reforms as Director and Head of Division in the same department (1994-1997). Ms Lindström served on the Board of several Swedish public agencies, including as member and Vice-President of the Swedish Fiscal Policy Council. She holds a B.A. in economics from Stockholm University.

LAZAROS LAZAROU, Member of the European Court of Auditors for Cyprus

Lazaros S. Lazarou (Member of the European Court of Auditors since November 2010) is the Dean of Chamber V ‘‘Financing and administering the Union’’ and the Member responsible for ECA’s Annual Report.

He began his professional career with audit firms in the UK and Cyprus for seven years and then served in the Inland Revenue Department for ten years. In January 2000 he was appointed Accountant General of the Republic of Cyprus serving until his appointment to the European Court of Auditors.

He is a Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and holds a Master degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and a BEcon from the University of Hull, UK.

LAZAROS LAZAROU, Member of the European Court of Auditors for Cyprus

Annemie Turtelboom started her political career as a member of the Belgian Federal Parliament (2003-2007), after teaching marketing for 10 years as a Lecturer in Leuven. She served as Minister of Migration (2008-2009) and Minister of the Interior (2009-2012) in the Belgian federal government, the first time in Belgian history that a woman held such a position. She served as Minister of Justice (2012-2014), when she oversaw the abdication of Albert II, King of the Belgians, and the investiture of King Philippe. During her tenure in these positions, she represented the Kingdom of Belgium in the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs Council, which she presided in 2010.

After having served as Deputy First Minister, Minister of Budget, Finance and Energy in the Flemish regional government (2014-2016), she returned to the Belgian Federal Parliament, where she was an active member of the Committee for Foreign Affairs until April 2018. She has spoken extensively on topics related to security and migration in Europe at the United Nations, in Washington, D.C., and in various European capitals.

Annemie Turtelboom obtained an MA in Economics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. She was a Greenberg World Fellow at Yale University in 2017.

Moderated by: MANJ KALAR, Kalar Consulting

Manj Kalar is a highly experienced public sector finance professional with a track record of blending theory and practice. As a highly experienced UK public sector accountant, she has held leadership positions within HM Revenue & Customs, the Home Office, and the Department for Communities and Local Government.

She has also served as the Technical Manager for UK & International Central Government at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA),  as well as the Head of Public Sector at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), before going independent to consult private organisations, public institutions and SAIs, all while tutoring at the University of Greenwich.

Manj Kalar holds an Honour’s degree in Accountancy from the Birmingham City University and a number of professional qualifications, such as: FCCA, Shared Services, CPFA and PRINCE 2.