ESG Summit

Karina has over 20 years’ experience in boardrooms as a Governance Professional, all gained within a Financial Services environment. She began her career as a Company Formation Agent which led to her first company secretarial role at SmithKline Beecham plc. In 2002, Karina joined Invesco, a global independent asset manager, where she held progressively more senior company secretarial roles. She began as Company Secretary of a variety of investment trusts and finished as Head of Company Secretarial for EMEA. Karina joined Aviva in 2017 as Director of Company Secretarial for UK Insurance and has since progressed and is now the Company Secretary, Aviva Investors, UK General Insurance and UK Life & Pensions. In this role, she leads a team in the provision of company secretarial and corporate governance services to Aviva's regulated UK businesses.

As a leader in a Governance function, Karina works on building strong team engagement and performance, and promoting a culture of collaboration. She is particularly passionate career progression, particularly the development of future generations of corporate governance professionals.

Karina has a degree in Business with Economics and a postgraduate Certificate from the University of Bristol in Commercial Law. She is also a Fellow of The Governance Institute. She lives in Essex with her partner, and their two children, a son aged 13 and daughter aged 10. Karina also enjoyed playing competitive badminton and represented her county for many years.

Carolyn specialises in risk, governance, assurance and transformation with a background as a professional services advisor and audit partner with PwC and an in-house executive leader.

At PwC she worked across a range of sectors focussing on transformation and change, particularly in relation to governance and organisation structures. She moved to Centrica plc to gain in-house experience and was involved in the separation of the upstream gas exploration and production business and its readiness for IPO as a joint venture. She also had oversight of the risk and control frameworks of the regulated financial services businesses covering the trading and insurance operations in the UK, Europe and North America.

Since leaving Centrica, Carolyn has carved out a portfolio consisting of a number of NED roles with companies focussed on disruptive and innovative technologies that are rapidly developing, seeking alternative sources of financing and preparing for IPO. She is the Chair of the Audit Committee and the Ethics and Sustainability Committee for Starling Bank and also performs these roles for the advanced plastics recycling company, Agliyx AS, and the green hydrogen company, Elcogen plc.

Carolyn founded Brave Consultancy to work with similar companies who need to ensure they have a proportionate and effective system of risk management and internal control, the right governance frameworks and organisation structures, and who are focussed on embedding ESG effectively.

Phil became Director of the Financial Reporting Lab in 2017. He is a Chartered Accountant in the UK with over 20 years of experience in accounting and audit, focusing on improving the quality of company reporting. He has worked for the Financial Reporting Council since 2009 and was previously the Head of Case Examination and Enquiries. Phil started his career in the audit practice of KPMG where he spent ten years, the latter half of which he worked as a senior manager in the firm’s professional practice department. After leaving practice, he spent five years as a training consultant helping companies with their corporate reporting requirements before joining the FRC. Phil is also a board member of xBRL International.

Deborah is the Founder of The 100% Club, a networking alliance and independent advisory business on investment stewardship, ESG integration and diversity. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland, serves on the Advisory Panel of the UK’s Financial Reporting Council and is a member of the Nomination Committee of the International Corporate Governance Network. Deborah is a 30% Club Ambassador and a member of the 30% Club’s Race Equity Group.

Previously Deborah was an ESG Investment Director at Aberdeen Standard Investments and, prior to that, Head of Sustainable Ownership at Railpen, having started her career in responsible investment at the UK’s Co-operative Insurance Society in December 2000. Deborah initially worked in corporate tax at EY and read Mathematics & English at the University of Manchester.

Deborah has been recognised for her work on gender equality and diversity. She is a regular commentator and writer on sustainable finance issues and her work and opinions has featured in the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and other mainstream financial media.

Vanessa is founding partner of Linklaters’ global environment and climate practice and also established Linklaters global ESG offering,

She has also been a member of the firm’s crisis response and risk management team.  

She advises financial institutions, corporates and funds across the spectrum of emerging ESG requirements, including disclosure obligations, governance, strategy and risk management and the integration of transition strategies into wider corporate governance, culture and management systems.

Vanessa is a member of the UK Government’s Transition Plan delivery group. She is acting chair of UKEF’s Export Credit Advisory Group and also sits on the board of UKEF.

Paul has been working in the corporate governance field for fifteen years, including experience in working in the public, private and third sectors, including a national lobbying association and high-profile charitable organisations. Paul has been working for nearly the last decade in a corporate governance and company secretarial consultancy and advisory capacity for two professional services firms and has wide-ranging experience in working with private sector clients, including those in the FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and AIM indices.

Having worked with a range of companies at different stages of their development, Paul strongly believes that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach toward corporate governance and that governance frameworks must be developed in a way that serves as a core enabler of the Board, management and the company more generally.

He also believes strongly in supporting and empowering the corporate governance profession and currently chairs the South-East England Branch of the Chartered Governance Institute. He has also spoken at a number of corporate governance events and has recently co-authored a publication looking at Board diversity in FTSE Small Cap and AIM-listed companies.

Paul also acts as Company Secretary for the Blockchain and Climate Institute (BCI), an international think tank promoting the use of emerging technologies in combatting climate change, and represented the BCI at COP 27. Paul holds a master’s degree in Corporate Governance.

Outside of work, Paul enjoys playing piano, as well a range of sports, including tennis and triathlons.

Steve has managed the Secretariat of the UN Global Compact Network UK since 2007, connecting 800+ UK companies and other organisations in a global movement dedicated to driving corporate sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals. During his tenure, the Network has become the UK’s leading responsible business platform. He has been Chair of the UN Global Compact’s Global Network Council and was a member of the UN Global Compact Board.

He was previously a Programme Director at the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) leading projects across a wide range of responsible business issue areas. Prior to joining IBLF, Steve was the founder and Managing Director of a successful retail sports equipment business in Canada.

He has a B.Comm from the University of British Columbia and an MSc in Business & Environment from Imperial College London.

Melissa Kittermaster is Chief Executive of Asesoria Group, a professional services company specialising in Governance, Sustainability and Climate Change, and Leadership Services. She leads and is operationally responsible for Asesoria’s Board Effectiveness and Governance practice, Board Insight.

Following a successful executive career, Melissa has been advising boards of FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and large private organisations for over 20 years on a range of governance issues including board effectiveness, policy development and implementation, stakeholder engagement, workforce and diversity, and strategy development around a range of ESG issues, as well as how to report on these topics. She has undertaken projects across a wide range of industry sectors, including major multi-nationals and has an in-depth understanding of the issues faced by boards in managing risks, and integrating ESG into strategy and business practices.

She regularly engages with institutional investors and other key stakeholders to understand their expectations of corporate governance and ESG, to enable informed discussions with her clients. She also advises in the field of non-financial reporting, supporting companies to develop the narrative and Non-Financial Metrics/KPIs for sustainability reports and the non-financial elements of annual reports. Melissa’s expertise is in helping organisations develop practical solutions to ESG reporting, including how to gather and, interpret the data and use it to demonstrate an organisation’s progress against its commitments. This includes incorporating TCFD, SASB, GRI,< IR > and other frameworks into the company’s reporting.

Justine Lutterodt is Managing Director at the Centre for Synchronous Leadership (CSL) - a leadership think tank, consultancy and membership organisation designed to research, activate and support corporate changemakers. She brings to her coaching practice 20 years of experience working with senior executives and has led numerous senior teams and entire divisions through cultural transformation. Additionally, her projects relating to race and ethnicity received awards in 2013, 2014 and 2018.

Outside of client work, Justine is a researcher, writer and international conference speaker. Her thought pieces on ethical leadership have been featured at the World Economic Forum and in several mainstream publications. More recently, Justine and CSL have collaborated with The Chartered Governance Institute to publish the Mindful Exclusion report. This features a quantitative study of over 300 governance professionals, board directors and senior executives and reveals key insights about effective governance in a post-pandemic world.

Before founding the Centre in 2010, Justine was the Director of Marketing at QTS, where she reconfigured the customer relationship and pricing strategy to prepare the business for sale. Before this, Justine was at Monitor (Deloitte), a management consultancy founded by strategy guru Michael Porter. Here she gained initial experience leading teams along with exposure to a broad range of sectors and methodologies.

Outside of CSL, Justine serves as NED for the nominations committee of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. She is also Chair of the Diversity Legal Awards, Patron of Bright Stars (a charity supporting young people with autism) and Co-Founder of the Africa Women’s Circle.

Justine was recognised in 2016 by BE Mogul as one of Britain’s Most Influential Black Entrepreneurs and in 2017 by Brummell Magazine as one of the City’s 30 Most Influential Female Industry Changemakers.

Justine holds a BA in Maths and Philosophy and an MSc in Organisational Psychology.

Rumi Mahmood is a member of the ESG Research team where his focus is primarily on analyzing funds. Previously, he was Head of ETF Research and Fund Selection at JP Morgan - Nutmeg. Prior to that he worked at BNY Mellon in fund structuring and before that at Shell in Carbon capture and storage. Rumi received a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Manchester and holds the CFA certificate in ESG investing.

Glen is part of Red Bee Media’s Governance, Risk and Compliance team with specific responsibility for global legal entity management. He also oversees risk management in five market areas and is part of the compliance programme roll-out across the group. This team is responsible for ESG across the Red Bee Media organization, including sustainability and environmental programmes. Red Bee Media is a subsidiary of Ericsson Telecommunications and currently Glen is working on an assignment with the Ericsson Compliance Office.

In 2022, Red Bee Media won the CGI Diversity and Inclusion award for an initiative led by Glen to increase the amount of director positions held by women by 34%.

Red Bee Media is a sponsor of the Rise scheme to support gender diversity in media technology and partners the DPP in its industry-wide sustainability scheme. Glen has completed several mentoring roles, including the award-winning GirlsTalk London STEM programme.

Glen originally comes from a broadcast technology background, working in different roles for over 15 years prior to his move into governance five years ago. These included television network director positions through to the account management of a number of high-profile broadcasters such as Disney, BT Sport, BBC and NBCU, working on major global television events such as the UEFA Champions League Final.

Glen is also a board director for the patient and health charity Healthwatch Bucks.

Sapna is a recent transplant to London from San Francisco, and is currently leading Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion work at Tate & Lyle. She is passionate about bringing out the best in people and organizations.

Having over 20 years’ experience in learning, leadership development, and behaviour change – and working to address the pain points in companies from the insurance industry through to retail and food manufacturing, Sapna has realized that the heart of being successful as a leader and at work is being able to truly see, hear, and recognize the needs and strengths of each person in an organization. It’s only through creating truly inclusive cultures that we can unlock the potential of our teams.

Caroline Missen is SVP Sustainability & Growth at Cultivo, a Public Benefit Corporation focused on regenerating land to healthy ecosystems. She has over 20 years general management and commercial experience based in London, Beijing, Washington DC and Melbourne across the energy, automotive and professional service sectors.

Prior to joining Cultivo she was Chief of Staff to Shell’s Downstream Director and led an Executive Committee sponsored transformation programme supporting customers to decarbonise. Prior to this she worked with Ford, industry associations in finance and communications and co-founded a boutique winery.

An active diversity champion, she led Shell’s UK Gender Equality network, representing Shell on Business in the Community’s Gender Leadership Board and HRH The Countess of Wessex Women’s Network Forum. She is currently a Trustee of The Soil Association and its Certification Business, and a member of Catalant Technologies’ Future of Work Advisory Board.

Caroline has a Science degree from the University of Melbourne, a Master’s in Marketing from Monash University and recently completed a Business Sustainability Management executive programme at the University of Cambridge.

Bernadette O’Donoghue is a corporate governance and executive remuneration specialist working for leading independent proxy advisor, Glass Lewis. Located in the company’s European headquarters in Limerick, Ireland, Bernadette has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting & Finance from Limerick Institute of Technology and a Diploma in Programming and Design Principles.

As Director of Research, UK & Product, she co-ordinates Glass Lewis’ Research Product Initiatives, while remaining a research policy lead for the UK and Irish markets. Bernadette engages regularly with public company representatives to discuss Glass Lewis’ policy guidelines and approach to corporate governance and compensation research.

Jen leads the Goldman Sachs Asset Management Global Stewardship Team’s EMEA efforts. In this role Jen oversees proxy voting, leads company ESG related engagements and participates in a range of industry initiatives.

Jen is a member of the CII Corporate Governance Advisory Council, the Investment Association’s Company Reporting and Auditing Group (CRAG) and the SASB Investor Advisory Group’s EMEA Working Group. She joined from the UK Financial Reporting Council (“FRC”), where she worked for four years, most recently as deputy director of stakeholder engagement and corporate affairs, following a year as Chief of Staff. She was responsible for coordinating the FRC’s outreach with the global investment community, listed company leadership teams and board members across all areas of the regulator’s scope. Jen led policy outreach on ESG, audit and reporting matters including the creation of the 2020 UK Stewardship Code and the 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code.

Prior to working at the FRC, Jen was part of PwC’s global investor engagement team, where she was responsible for research and engagement with the investment community on accounting, reporting, regulatory, governance and ESG issues. Jen holds a BA in Business Accounting and Finance from the University of Newcastle and a Masters in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge.

Following a roundabout route into governance through London’s orchestras, Phoebe qualified ACG in 2019 following two years as a Trainee in Prudential plc’s Group Secretariat, where she was shortlisted for the Chartered Governance Institute’s The One to Watch Award, and won a place on the Governance 100 Innovator’s list.

Phoebe is currently Senior Assistant Company Secretary at Tate & Lyle PLC, where she supports the team in managing the global subsidiaries and share plans, and strengthens governance practices in emerging markets. Shortlisted in 2021 for the Chartered Governance Institute’s Governance Professional of the Year Award, Phoebe is recognised for her proactive contributions to Tate & Lyle’s recent and concurrent Class I and II transactions, and her innovative use of technology to promote sustainable governance across the Group.

Phoebe is the Vice-Chair of Doorstep, a homeless families charity in Camden, and at Tate & Lyle she leads the Ally Training in Neurodiversity.

Carrie brings over 12 years of experience operating as a member of the C-Suite and as a governance, legal, compliance and regulatory advisor to Boards across a range of industries and sectors.

Former General Counsel and Company Secretary to Mitsubishi Motors UK Group, Carrie was Chair of the Risk and Compliance Committee with overall responsibility for the legal, compliance, risk management and governance functions. At Mitsubishi, Carrie had oversight of the risk and governance frameworks for the automotive and online retail business as well as the regulated financial services business and focussed on embedding ESG strategy and requirements into existing capabilities and control frameworks. She is well accustomed to advising boards on their respective ESG, legal, governance, and regulatory compliance obligations.

Since leaving Mitsubishi, Carrie founded Brave Within LLP to empower individuals and organisations to contribute to society in terms of both commercial outcomes and a broader purpose. She works with companies, from start-ups to FTSE100, with a similar mindset to align and integrate functions, whether legal, compliance, risk or assurance, that support operational managers in delivering their responsibilities and enable directors and the board to act effectively and responsibly allowing them to make commitments – be they profit, people or environmental – with confidence.

Carrie believes that if good governance practice is integrated and driven from within an organisation, it will drive positive financial returns, maximise impact, create real insight and commercial value leading to long term resilience and sustainable growth.

Outside of Brave, Carrie holds a number of advisory board roles helping SMEs with strategic input and advice. Carrie is also a Governance and Policy Brand Ambassador for the Institute of Directors.

Colleen is a tri-qualified solicitor and founder of Ardea International, a specialist company that provides sustainability, business and human rights and modern slavery expertise to enable companies to meet both their legal obligations and develop voluntary best practice standards. She is a fellow of IEMA and a research fellow of the Bakhita Centre for Research on Slavery and Abuse and a lecturer at Birkbeck University, London on human rights and business.

She has over 30 years of legal and commercial experience of working with business, organisations and NGOs across sectors and provides training and online resources on human rights, modern slavery and sustainability issues. Her book ‘Strategic Sustainable Procurement: law and best practice' is published by Routledge. She recently published a chapter ‘Modern Slavery and Transparency in Supply Chains- the Role of Business’ In The Modern Slavery Agenda: Policy, Politics and Practice in the UK’.

She has spoken widely on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, modern slavery, and sustainable business... She sits on the advisory board for LexisPSL Environment, is a committee member of the Social Responsibility Alliance and is an independent member of the APSCA Disciplinary Board for Member Firms. She is nominated as one of the Top 100 Corporate Modern slavery influencers in the UK in 2018 and Ardea International was recently shortlisted for the Thomson Reuters Foundation Stop Slavery Award for SME’s.

Greg is Inclusion Manager at Rolls-Royce SMR, where he uses his Engineering background and his passion for diversity to help shape a more inclusive culture for the organisation. Greg graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering before later achieving an MSc in Engineering Management.

After working in the Energy sector in his early career, he joined Rolls-Royce in 2006 and worked in multiple technical roles within the Civil Aerospace business. Greg was instrumental in the launch of Prism, the Rolls-Royce LGBTQ+ employee network, which he led from 2015 to 2021, stepping down on Rolls-Royce becoming a Stonewall Top 100 Employer. Following his success with Prism, and combined with his ever growing passion for diversity and inclusion, Greg accepted the role of Group Inclusion and Diversity Lead in 2020, allowing him to support the global Rolls-Royce inclusion strategy.

Just a few months ago, Greg moved to Rolls-Royce SMR where he now leads on delivering an inclusion strategy that will help the business achieve its ambitions to provide clean, affordable energy for all. Greg has been shortlisted for multiple awards, including Diversity Hero at the 2021 British LGBT Awards, and Inspirational Role Model at both the 2022 European Diversity Awards and 2023 British Diversity Awards.

Ida was appointed Group Company Secretary at Intertek Group plc in April 2023, having previously been the Group’s Head of Sustainability and Deputy Company Secretary since 2015. Intertek is a leading Total Quality Assurance provider to industries worldwide. Intertek’s purpose is ‘Bringing Quality, Safety and Sustainability to life’ through its global network of over 1,000 laboratories and offices delivering innovative and bespoke Assurance, Testing, Inspection and Certification solutions for its customers’ operations and supply chains.

Ida’s focus is to lead and demonstrate visible, tangible and sustained progress on Intertek’s governance and sustainability agenda, through embedding frameworks, policies and processes to mobilize change and create sustainable impact across a complex business.

Ida is an experienced Charted Governance Professional, having trained and qualified with Intertek from 2007 to 2011 and, gaining experience in large re-organization and governance projects at International Power plc during its takeover by GDF-Suez Energy International in 2012. In 2013 Ida moved to Burgess Hodgson, a firm of Chartered Accountants, providing full range of statutory compliance services to small and medium clients across Kent and the South East, before returning to Intertek as Deputy Company Secretary in 2015. She has been an Associate of the Chartered Governance Institute since 2012.