ClimateRisk50

Sid is the Chief Researcher at Chartis Research with more than 20 years of experience in the financial, energy and commodities markets in various functions across the trade and software development lifecycles. He has held various roles in product development, trading, risk management, software development and consulting in banks, hedge funds, and risk advisory and software firms, including Standard Chartered Bank, TCG Group, HCL and Cognizant.

Sid’s specific areas of interest and research include risk data, model risk management, quantitative models in illiquid markets, high-performance analytics, energy and commodity trading risk, market structure design, new computational models, and the use of innovative mathematical methods in various emerging areas of risk management .He has a MBA from the Indian Institute of Management and is a qualified Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst CAIA, Financial Risk Manager (FRM) ,Energy Risk Professional (ERP), Member of GARP and CIPM from the CFA institute.

Dr. Ron Dembo is an academic, entrepreneur, author, and world-renowned expert in risk management. He has been an Associate Professor at Yale, a Visiting Professor at MIT, and a consultant to Goldman Sachs. In 1989, Dr. Dembo founded Algorithmics Inc., which he grew from a start-up to the largest supplier of enterprise financial risk systems, serving more than 350 clients, including 80% of the world's largest banks and insurers. Dr. Dembo has received many awards for his research in risk management, optimization, and climate change, and in 2007, he was named the Lifetime Fellow of the Fields Institute of Mathematics. Currently, he is the Founder and CEO of Riskthinking.AI, a climate risk data and technology company that built its Climate Earth Digital Twin platform to model the financial impacts of climate risks. Today, it is the only truly stochastic solution available for probabilistically measuring climate financial risk worldwide and into the future.  

Naimish Shah has close to 20 years experience in the financial industry and is currently Global Head of Risk Modelling for Fixed Income, Climate Risk, Economic Capital and Stress Testing at HSBC. He also double hats as the Chief of Staff to the Global Head of Traded Risk Modelling. He is responsible for developing and enhancing models that help in more accurate capture of risk in these areas. Prior to joining HSBC, Naimish held various roles in Risk Methodology at Barclays Investment bank. He is passionate about Climate Risk and the role financial industry can play towards a lower-carbon economy. He holds a MSc from LSE, MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and a B. Tech from IIT Bombay.

Dr. Perihan Mostafa Abdelghaly is a Climate, Sustainable Finance and ESG Risks Expert with 18 years of experience in emerging markets. She has been involved with many projects in the fields of sustainable finance, sustainability reporting, strategy and policies. Her expertise include conducting ESG due diligence and providing support to entrepreneurs and start-ups building their sustainable business model. She has designed and delivered several capacity building programmes to enhance banks’ human and institutional capacity in ESG, Climate and sustainable finance in emerging markets. 

Dr. Abdelghaly started her work at the Arab African International Bank in the early 2000s, where she enacted sustainable finance by endorsing international key performance indicators guided by international frameworks such as UNGC, UNEP FI, PRI, EP and KPIs derived from data providers. During this role, she also launched and managed MOSTADAM - the MENA’s first sustainable finance platform – to achieve standards in capacity building and policy advocacy as well as develop a blueprint for FIs to achieve sustainable finance. Her role at the bank as Senior ESG and Sustainable Finance Specialist also involved conducting ESG due diligence on investments (100$ and above), developing sustainability strategies, policies and conducting industry benchmarking analysis of FIs in MENA. Later as Senior Capacity Building Officer at the Integrity Initiative Network from 2017 to 2018, this dedication was furthered by developing policy recommendations for the Egyptian government and training 500+ SMEs on internal anti-corruption and compliance standards and practices. 

Dr. Abdelghaly holds Doctorate (PhD) in Business Ecosystems in Emerging Markets from the Middlesex University (UK), a Master of Science in Management and Development from the Manchester University (UK) and a bachelor's degree in science in Politics and Management from the Cairo University (Egypt). She is native in Arabic and fluent in English.

Veng Hoong Loh is currently Digital Propositions Lead in Corporate Solutions' Risk Data & Services (RDS).

Based in Singapore, Veng Hoong is actively building our datadriven risk management solutions in partnership with technology providers and digital ecosystems. Aside from pioneering innovative risk solutions, Veng Hoong is responsible for the delivery of our digital risk services in the Asia Pacific region.

Veng Hoong joined Swiss Re in 2011. In his tenure with Swiss Re he has held various positions in the areas of underwriting, structuring, and risk management in Singapore and Hong Kong. He graduated with a Bachelor of Actuarial Studies and Economics degree from the Australian National University. He is a CFA charterholder.

Pearl is a senior risk modeller at Sillion, a boutique ESG consultancy. She has facilitated LiDAR remote sensing flights for SAR missions, performed environmental risk assessments in Canada's mining and lumber industries, facilitated successful start-up exits, and carried out academic research in Polar regions. Most recently, she's worked with financial institutions, stock exchanges,  governments, and heads of state to launch a free and open climate disclosure platform. 

Pearl holds a BSc in Atmospheric Science from the University of British Columbia and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge where she researched glacial melt with the British Antarctic Survey. Pearl enjoys rainy day hikes, and aspires to join at least one hurricane hunter flight in her lifetime.

Rutang is an independent risk and sustainable finance practitioner. He has supported tens of institutions -- banks, asset managers, asset owners and international exchanges -- with embedding enhanced risk management and sustainability in their business practices. He specialises in bringing behavioural perspectives and incentive-based solutions to decarbonisation and risk management.

His prior experience has been Deloitte, Standard Chartered, HSBC and Fitch and a start-up. Rutang has a PhD in a quantitative discipline. A former Henry Grunfeld Research fellow, he is also currently a visiting fellow at the London Institute of Banking & Finance.

Ioana has a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from University of Washington and is heavily involved with the Willis Research Network and the application of scientific findings within our industry. She actively researches, works and presents within the climate change arena. 

Paul Russell is the Natural Hazards Research Lead at Beazley. He is responsible for evaluating and validating vendor and internally developed natural catastrophe models, including climate change models, for use on the Beazley Property team. Paul is also responsible for summarizing and communicating the latest climate and natural hazard research throughout the company, and working with a variety of stakeholders to ensure that Beazley has a consistent, scientifically supported approach to climate risk. He has worked in the industry for 6 years, and lives in NYC with his partner and two dogs.

Maryam is a Senior Research Specialist at Chartis, focusing on quantitative methods in financial risk management – including Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning. Maryam has been the lead analyst and author of a variety of industry and thought leadership reports, including insurance risk systems, asset and liability management and credit risk analytics. She also works on risk-aware accounting and governance risk and compliance (GRC) – focusing on model risk management (MRM). Maryam has been involved with a variety of Business - Technology strategy projects and other types of consulting work. Maryam has experience using statistical software, machine learning libraries, Python and MATLAB. She also specializes in graphics production and visualizations. Maryam holds a first-class BA Honours from the London School of Economics and an MSc in computation and cognition with distinction from Birkbeck, University of London. Maryam also has a certificate in Risk in Financial Services from the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.

Other areas of interest include computer vision research, rule-based symbol systems, neural computation and cognitive modeling.

Amy Thompson is the Head of Climate Risk and Disclosures at Nationwide Building Society, where she leads the organization's efforts in climate-related financial disclosures, science-based targets, net-zero transition planning, and climate change risk management. With over five years of experience in sustainability leadership roles at Nationwide, Amy also serves as the Head of Sustainability Disclosures, driving the development of core sustainability reporting. She has previously held positions in Treasury Sustainability and climate change risk management, playing a key role in developing strategies that align with regulatory standards and engaging stakeholders such as investors and rating agencies. Amy’s career at Nationwide spans over a decade, where she has consistently contributed to shaping strategy across various sectors, including digital banking and governance.

Giorgis Hadzilacos leads the nature & climate modelling, data driven insights workstream within M&G Investments. His work supports investment desks with sustainability-related data-driven insights ranging from evaluating portfolio decarbonisation projections to building sustainability investment tests. Prior to joining M&G, Giorgis led a specialist team in the Bank of England working on climate stress testing and assessing Banks’ and Insurers’ alignments to regulatory climate objectives. Before that, Giorgis worked for WTW where he led the climate & natural catastrophe risk modelling for reinsurance transactions. Giorgis has 20 years of industry experience on financial risk assessment from climate & nature risks spanning the insurance, regulation, government and engineering sectors. He is an Imperial College graduate, and has worked as Chartered Civil Engineer both in the UK and internationally.

Ioana has a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from University of Washington and is heavily involved with the Willis Research Network and the application of scientific findings within our industry. She actively researches, works and presents within the climate change arena. 

Juan Duan is Head of Financial Climate Risk at Beazley. Juan provides strategic leadership on financial climate risk at Beazley, responsible for embedding climate risk into underwriting, leading and coordinating climate risk initiatives across business functions, and strengthening technical capabilities on managing climate risk.

Prior to Beazley, Juan worked at the Bank of England where she held a number of catastrophe and climate risk roles, and at AIR Worldwide (now Verisk) as a researcher in catastrophe risk. She holds a PhD in Hydrology and Climate Change from Imperial College London.

Naimish Shah has close to 20 years experience in the financial industry and is currently Global Head of Risk Modelling for Fixed Income, Climate Risk, Economic Capital and Stress Testing at HSBC. He also double hats as the Chief of Staff to the Global Head of Traded Risk Modelling. He is responsible for developing and enhancing models that help in more accurate capture of risk in these areas. Prior to joining HSBC, Naimish held various roles in Risk Methodology at Barclays Investment bank. He is passionate about Climate Risk and the role financial industry can play towards a lower-carbon economy. He holds a MSc from LSE, MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and a B. Tech from IIT Bombay.

Pearl is a senior risk modeller at Sillion, a boutique ESG consultancy. She has facilitated LiDAR remote sensing flights for SAR missions, performed environmental risk assessments in Canada's mining and lumber industries, facilitated successful start-up exits, and carried out academic research in Polar regions. Most recently, she's worked with financial institutions, stock exchanges,  governments, and heads of state to launch a free and open climate disclosure platform. 

Pearl holds a BSc in Atmospheric Science from the University of British Columbia and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge where she researched glacial melt with the British Antarctic Survey. Pearl enjoys rainy day hikes, and aspires to join at least one hurricane hunter flight in her lifetime.

Dr. Perihan Mostafa Abdelghaly is a Climate, Sustainable Finance and ESG Risks Expert with 18 years of experience in emerging markets. She has been involved with many projects in the fields of sustainable finance, sustainability reporting, strategy and policies. Her expertise include conducting ESG due diligence and providing support to entrepreneurs and start-ups building their sustainable business model. She has designed and delivered several capacity building programmes to enhance banks’ human and institutional capacity in ESG, Climate and sustainable finance in emerging markets. 

Dr. Abdelghaly started her work at the Arab African International Bank in the early 2000s, where she enacted sustainable finance by endorsing international key performance indicators guided by international frameworks such as UNGC, UNEP FI, PRI, EP and KPIs derived from data providers. During this role, she also launched and managed MOSTADAM - the MENA’s first sustainable finance platform – to achieve standards in capacity building and policy advocacy as well as develop a blueprint for FIs to achieve sustainable finance. Her role at the bank as Senior ESG and Sustainable Finance Specialist also involved conducting ESG due diligence on investments (100$ and above), developing sustainability strategies, policies and conducting industry benchmarking analysis of FIs in MENA. Later as Senior Capacity Building Officer at the Integrity Initiative Network from 2017 to 2018, this dedication was furthered by developing policy recommendations for the Egyptian government and training 500+ SMEs on internal anti-corruption and compliance standards and practices. 

Dr. Abdelghaly holds Doctorate (PhD) in Business Ecosystems in Emerging Markets from the Middlesex University (UK), a Master of Science in Management and Development from the Manchester University (UK) and a bachelor's degree in science in Politics and Management from the Cairo University (Egypt). She is native in Arabic and fluent in English.

Rodney Gollo specialises in risk management, with expertise in emerging and frontier markets. He has international experience enhancing enterprise risk management frameworks, and currently leads the risk management function for a multinational insurance company.

He has a strong interest on the role sustainability and ESG factors have on businesses, societies and the global economy, and is a contributor to industry publications such Investment & Pensions Europe, AsianInvestor and Investor Relations Magazine. He has served as a judge for the Asia Risk Technology Awards, recognizing innovation and excellence in the financial services industry.

He is a certified European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS) ESG Analyst (CESGA), a CFA ESG, holds a Masters in Management and Regulation of Risk from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), a Certificate in Risk Management in Financial Services from the Institute of Risk Management (IRM) and a First Class Bachelors in Economics and Politics from The University of Sheffield. 

Rutang is an independent risk and sustainable finance practitioner. He has supported tens of institutions -- banks, asset managers, asset owners and international exchanges -- with embedding enhanced risk management and sustainability in their business practices. He specialises in bringing behavioural perspectives and incentive-based solutions to decarbonisation and risk management.

His prior experience has been Deloitte, Standard Chartered, HSBC and Fitch and a start-up. Rutang has a PhD in a quantitative discipline. A former Henry Grunfeld Research fellow, he is also currently a visiting fellow at the London Institute of Banking & Finance.