Our Candidates 2022

For over a decade, Yolanda has championed climate action and a sustainable blue economy, via education programmes and community action plans. In her current position with Blue Prosperity Micronesia, she leads the nation’s efforts to protect 30% of its ocean, covering over 900,000 km2. In addition, she founded the grassroots NPO Island PRIDE to empower women and youth fighting for climate and social justice. Yolanda was named the first-ever President’s Advocate on Climate Change and has spoken at prestigious global events.

An influential voice and changemaker for climate action in Latin America, Xiomara has been a climate entrepreneur and activist for 10 years. Passionate about harnessing the power of the youth to solve the global climate crisis, she founded Barranquilla +20 Foundation, a youth-led NGO with a mission to educate and mobilise young people around climate change, biodiversity and water in Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, Xiomara is launching a new project in Paraguay to develop a climate academy and summit.

Wen-Yu provides financial, regulatory, commercial and technical advisory to numerous governments, businesses, multilateral institutions and organisations, with a focus on renewable energy and low-carbon transport, corporate sustainability strategies, and low-carbon and sustainable practices and products. With a passion for education and mentoring, she has also co-founded major youth climate and sustainability programmes, working with the Initiatives of Change and the UNCCD, among others.

As Founder of Canal Novo Mundo, a socio-environmental impact NGO that promotes environmental education and initiates community-led efforts, Thaiane has headed up over 200 clean-up projects in public spaces – coordinating over 1,000 volunteers – and secured key investors. She has also worked as an environmental consultant at Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro and as an environmental engineer, a keynote speaker and an actress. In addition, Thaiane currently serves as a consultant for the Water Movement of UN Global Compact Brazil.

After starting her career in sustainable development as a design researcher and consultant to organisations including the United Nations and Amnesty International, Moh co-founded Happy Grocers to address the food supply chain issue and connect small farmers to consumers in Bangkok. Happy Grocers is now Bangkok’s favourite sustainable grocery delivery service, committed to enabling consumer health while supporting local farmers and protecting the environment.

With diverse policy and consultative experience promoting freedom of information, digital literacy and gender equality, Stephanie founded Seidea, a social enterprise intent on increasing diversity and inclusion in the cybersecurity sector. Seidea achieves this through virtual internships and mentorships, and cybersecurity programmes and scholarships. In addition, Stephanie is a Forbes 30 Under 30 listee, an EU Prize for Women Innovators nominee, and the author of two academic books.

Sinead has campaigned for diversity and inclusion since her youth: co-founding Google’s AfroGoogle Network, launching a social enterprise to support the LGBTQ community, and founding the charity, We Are We to combat discrimination against women and to end period poverty in the UK. Outside of the charity, she is also a powerhouse consultant, having worked with over 80 multi-million dollar companies listed on the London, Euronext and New York Stock Exchanges. Her 10 year experience expands across world leading companies such as Google, Shopify Plus, SocialTalent and Salesforce where she travels the world engaging in consultative relationships focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategies focused on changing mindsets, breaking biases and removing barriers to create a truly inclusive and psychologically safe environment for all.

19-year-old Shreyaa is an award-winning international speaker, humanitarian and global changemaker who has dedicated over 3,500 hours to initiating grassroots activism, supporting causes ranging from global hunger and social justice to quality education and climate action. She founded NEST4US, an NPO striving to make the world better and kinder through volunteer mobilisation, via an extended programme of accessible and personalised services that tackle various ESG issues, including waste mismanagement, gender and racial disparities, and underrepresentation of community voices.

Shaped by her childhood experiences as a Kashmiri Pandit refugee and terrorist attack survivor, Shireen decided to pursue human rights law as an advocate, activist and academic. She founded her university’s Legal Aid Society, increasing access to justice in more than 500 villages, and also founded a nationwide student movement mobilising law graduates to pursue social justice. To date, she has provided legal aid to more than 1,000 undertrial prisoners, collaborated with international universities, been a visiting scholar at Cornell in the USA and co-authored significant academic papers.

An influential leader in the Australian beef industry, Shannon started out as a cattle vet before turning her focus to research and genomics. After recognising a gap and crucial need in the livestock market for data transparency and supply chain cooperation, she co-founded Black Box Co, which uses animal data to shed light on how the livestock industry can positively influence the environment and move towards carbon neutrality and sustainability. Hers is a track record of pushing innovation, sustainability and community.

Passionate about design thinking and collaboration for the advancement of social and environmental causes, Selin founded Goodsted. This stakeholder engagement and impact enablement platform helps businesses effectively engage their employees, customers and suppliers in volunteering programmes to progress their ESG and social value objectives. Prior to this, she worked in brand and strategy consulting, completed her master’s in Design & Innovation at Goldsmiths in London and, in recognition of her early work with Goodsted, she won the FBN Lombard Odier award.

Driven by a passion for customer strategy and service, Rachael started her career at Accenture, before moving to NatWest in 2016. In addition to her responsibilities in the bank’s financial capability space, she leads on the organisational strategy for vulnerable customers, driving practical, cultural and strategic change across the company with a focus that is values driven and human-centric. Rachael is also a trustee for West Lothian Women’s Aid, where she helps deliver the organisation’s long-term plan to better support victims of domestic abuse.

In addition to co-founding Future Females, an organisation championing female entrepreneurs across 55 cities around the world, Philippa founded the Future Females Foundation. This NPO works to combat gender-based violence (GBV) in South Africa via two main focus areas: prevention, through educational workshops for young boys on topics like consent; and empowerment, supporting survivors of GBV with trauma counselling and business skill development. Philippa also heads up marketing operations at Meltwater, the world’s first online media monitoring company

Adenike is an eco-feminist, climate justice activist and eco-reporter, passionate about women’s rights and their inextricable connection to environmental stability, and green democracy. She founded I Lead Climate, a youth-led movement to raise awareness about climate change induced problems in conflict zones. Adenike is also committed to the recharge of Lake Chad and, through her pioneering eco-feminist vision in Nigeria and across Africa, has reached over 30 communities and 10,000 students.

An environmental scientist, climate change activist and acclaimed speaker, Nasha co-founded Sustentabilidad Sin Fronteras (Sustainability Without Borders), a rapidly growing team dedicated to campaigning and raising awareness about carbon footprint measurement and climate change. She has consulted on climate action and youth engagement to international organisations including the United Nations Development Programme and UNICEF, and has for many years headed up the Regional Conference of Youth for Latin America and the Caribbean.

A PhD candidate in Systems Engineering at Oxford, Nadja conducts research on the urban (circular) bioeconomy, striving to contribute to the sustainable and systemic economic transition of cities to become carbon-neutral and biodiverse. In parallel, she serves as President of European Young Engineers, an NPO representing about 500,000 members in issues relevant to the industry. Nadja is also a Fulbright Scholar; was named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and has delivered talks at the One Young World Summit.

Committed to renewable energy and social diversity, Mu founded 060 Energy Tech, a renewable energy development and consulting company. In parallel, Mu serves in vital positions to advance ESG concerns in the industry, including as an International Ambassador for C3E (Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Initiative); as the China Liaison Office Coordinator of CEM (Clean Energy Ministerial) and their Equal by 30 initiative, and as Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Department of the Chinese Wind Energy Association.

Melissa has worked across private and non-profit sectors for 10 years, driving social impact and innovation, and championing financial inclusion and women’s economic empowerment. She leads the Financial Inclusion and Resilience vertical at Ownership Works, an NPO that helps companies and investors implement broad-based ownership programmes that allow employees to share in the wealth that they create. Melissa believes that young people, especially in growing economies, are the greatest resource we have to drive positive change.

In addition to her role at Fitch Ratings’ sustainability division, where she’s tasked with creating climate risk solutions, Maria is a DeepMind Scholar and PhD candidate in Safe & Trusted AI at Imperial College London, where her research looks into making AI for DNA sequencing more transparent and trustworthy. Maria is also an ITU (UN specialised ICT agency) member, Women of the Future Ambassador, Ada Lovelace Hackathon mentor and lecturer, and founded Capital Group’s first innovation hub and data science community.

Formerly a journalist, Mariko focuses on fostering greater cross-sector engagement with social and environmental issues and leads strategic partnerships with global brands. She is Co-founder and Director of Social Innovation Japan, an award-winning organisation at the forefront of environmental impact, and also Co-founder of mymizu, a circular economy and tech-driven initiative to eliminate plastic waste, which has reached 50 countries and hundreds of thousands of users.

Mariana is responsible for leading the implementation and coordination of ESG strategies at the largest retail company in the western Amazon. In addition, she serves as a professor of ESG at higher education institutions, acts as an ESG consultant to other local companies, and manages one of the largest solar power plants in the Amazon. Mariana has also founded two volunteer organisations, including Tchibum, a volunteer organisation focused on increasing social activity for hospitalised children, young people and the elderly.

María is Argentina’s first woman to hold the state position of Minister of Mines, a major achievement in a male-dominated culture and industry. Adept at conflict resolution and communication, her goal is to empower sustainable development by generating greater transparency within the mining industry, so that all provinces, communities and stakeholders can access knowledge about the management of non-renewable resources. Her significant accomplishments – despite her gender, age and non-technical background – have made María an inspiration to women throughout the country.

A social entrepreneur, Maria is tireless in her pursuit of sustainable solutions for issues in mental health, education and peace building. To this end, she founded Life Academy, an NGO focused on suicide prevention among young people between the ages of 14 and 28. To date, Life Academy has reached 2,000 students through school and higher education programmes across Colombia, Bolivia, Mexico, the UK and China. An influential voice for change, Maria is also a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and a One Young World Ambassador.

From an early age, Maly wanted to work with women and children, as she saw them as the most disadvantaged members of Lao society. She qualified as a nurse in 2009, spent five years working for healthcare NGOs and projects in rural areas, and is now the first Lao director of the NGO-run Lao Friends Hospital for Children. Maly’s role is central to the hospital’s goal of merging with the local government institution to provide world-class paediatric care, becoming the only paediatric hospital in northern Laos that provides healthcare free of charge.

Madiha is Co-founder of PlusVibes, a mental health and wellbeing solutions provider that has 30,000 mobile app users. In just two years, PlusVibes has prevented 800 suicide ideations and assisted thousands of people suffering from depression and anxiety. In the coming years, it is set to expand globally by establishing Madiha’s vision and tech solutions within corporate companies and educational institutions. By sharing her own survival journey, Madiha aims to provide hope and strength for young people facing mental health issues.

Lim En was the first woman to become Commanding Officer of the 24th Battalion Singapore Artillery, where she led 300 soldiers. In her current role in Singapore’s Ministry of Defence, she strategises and conducts humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and counter-terrorism operations. Outside of work, Lim En has long served the youth, the elderly and disadvantaged families in her community, holding senior roles with numerous organisations that drive social impact strategy through over 50 mentoring, upliftment and empowerment initiatives.

Kornelia is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Bern. Her research is focused on corporate finance and corporate governance, especially on insider ownership, CEO incentives, and environmental, social, and governance projects. She is a recipient of the 2021 Lamfalussy Research Fellowship from the European Central Bank as well as a Research Affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. Her research has been published in top peer-reviewed journals and presented at global conferences.

Konstantina is leading work on the financialisation of nature, ecosystem services, valuation and natural capital markets. She currently works on TreesAI, an independent initiative within Dark Matter Labs to create a digital platform enabling investments in urban nature – funded by Google.org and Morgan Stanley Sustainable Solutions Collaborative. She is also completing a strategic study for the European Environment Agency. With her vast expertise, Konstantina is a guest lecturer, speaker and mentor.

As founder of Helen’s Daughters, Keithlin advocates for gender equity in agriculture, championing the economic development of rural women through improved market access, adaptive agricultural techniques and capacity building. Her mission is to expand Helen’s Daughters across the Caribbean and to offer free training programmes in sustainable agriculture, and agribusiness development; as well as launch a micro-finance programme, agritourism and social enterprise model. Prior to her current role, Keithlin held numerous positions within the United Nations.

A clinical neuropsychologist and therapist, Kayumba is a dynamic mental health advocate who contributes immensely to the sector in Zambia – both in the provision of mental health services and in the raising of public awareness. She is Clinical Services Director of PsycHealth Zambia, a youth-led organisation that provides non-drug clinical services, capacity-building and research on mental health. Kayumba also lectures in psychology at Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts and has served as treasurer of the Psychology Association of Zambia.

After completing her master’s degree in biotechnology applied to crop science, Kamila was selected for the trainee programme at BRF, one of the world’s largest global food companies. Initially focused on commodity procurement, she rose through the ranks swiftly and was promoted to Senior Analyst the following year – a role in which she headed up an initiative committed to achieving 100% traceability of all grains sourced from the Amazon and Cerrado biomes in Brazil. Kamila now leads on sustainability in agricultural commodities sourcing, including traceability, green financial strategies and emissions estimation.

Jehan is a mathematician and AI researcher pursuing her DPhil at the University of Buckingham, focusing on design strategy to make highly accurate tumour diagnoses based on ultrasounds. Prior to this, she was one of the youngest staff members at Iraq’s Koya University, where she was employed as a lecturer and researcher between her BsC and MsC studies. She chose to specialise in AI despite opposition and prejudice from her male counterparts, all the while mentoring students and encouraging other marginalised individuals, and going on to achieve significant success today.

Hui Yan is her firm’s youngest female board member, and also heads up Gamuda’s corporate social responsibility arm. Her multiple groundbreaking engineering solutions – including world-first tunnel engineering technologies and Malaysia’s first digital industrialised building system – have not just advanced the industry, but also broken gender taboos; furthered diversity and inclusion; led to training and employment opportunities through knowledge-sharing and academic collaboration; and yielded unprecedented, award-winning green construction innovations.

Hortense is the Founder of Codi, a Lebanon-based NGO that combines a coding bootcamp with a leadership course, empowering vulnerable youth through accessible, quality education and enabling sustainable employment. Hortense has also co-founded the European operations of UNICEF NextGen, raising over £3m for the initiative during her five years of co-leadership. She continues to actively invest in and advise businesses across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

In her role at the Carbon Management Research Initiative, Hadia manages the organisation’s publications, public-private partnerships, and researches the impact of natural disasters, climate change and energy poverty on the youth, the disabled and refugees. She has received huge recognition for her contribution to reaching sustainable development goals and has also presented research on gender-inclusive frameworks in national disaster risk reduction to the UN, World Bank and conferences worldwide.

In her current role, as a Research Fellow in Climate and Minerals Finance at University College London, Francesca focuses on how investments and capital can support a just and fair energy transition, touching upon some of the most pressing issues and supporting scientific progress around decarbonisation, sustainability and climate-smart economies. Francesca is also an affiliated researcher at the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change and has a solid track record of publications on climate innovations.

Faryal started her gender rights and consent education NPO, The Mirror, when she was just 17 years old, growing it into an internationally funded national network of 300 volunteers. After mentoring five South Asian girls in a DE&I-focused leadership development programme, she was hired to develop its proceeding cohort, leading 30 girls from five countries. Faryal has also coached nearly 100 disadvantaged first-year students, and recently launched Blue Rose – a startup that supports students struggling with mental health issues.

Eleni’s career is founded on the belief that sustainability and business can go hand in hand. In 2020, she founded Sintali, an environmental verification body and global certification partner for EDGE (a green building certification standard developed by the International Finance Corporation). Sintali focuses on verifying the environmental impact of the built environment and driving the sustainability agenda, and Eleni leads its commercial division, building strategic partnerships with banks and developing the international marketing strategy and new business streams.

Elena was introduced to the concept of green finance while working at Bank of America, which sparked her interest in the potential impact of sustainable development on responsible business, as well as the financing of the shift to a low-carbon economy. Her current role at London Stock Exchange includes leading the proactive development of their Sustainable Bond Market – the LSE’s sustainable debt finance offering. A trained mental health first aider and qualified counsellor, she also volunteers at a suicide prevention charity.

Edita is a consummate ESG professional focused on driving the waste sector towards net zero. At Viridor, Edita has led development of the corporate ESG focus with three key pillars – decarbonisation, transition to circular economy and corporate culture – these commitments and vision have put the business at the forefront of the UK waste industry. Edita’s drive to achieve a change in culture and approach, and the way in which she creates links between policy, ESG and investment sees her achieve rapid and lasting change.

Skye seeks to address health inequality through her clinical work as a doctor in the field of mental health, and through extensive charity work and public advocacy. Skye is a prolific writer, speaker and respected rural health commentator. Skye was named Victoria’s Junior Doctor of the Year in 2017; Young Victorian of the Year, and Young Australian of the Year in 2019. She has also been recognised by the Australian Financial Review as one of the country’s top 100 Women of Influence and honoured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list

After joining BHP as a marketing strategy specialist, December was promoted to Principal after just one year, where she has excelled in advancing the company’s sustainability journey in two key ESG projects. First is the driving of a coordinated implementation of industry standards, including The Copper Mark process across the world’s largest copper mine, and second is the trialling of innovative technology to provide greater transparency across the value chain, including a copper industry first: a blockchain-enabled traceability and carbon offsets pilot in the decarbonisation transition.

Daniela’s vision is to build a more sustainable chemical industry and democratise the use of AI with a disruptive approach that leverages small datasets for the first time. To this end, she co-founded Sunthetics, a groundbreaking machine-learning platform enabling up to five times faster development of new chemicals, materials and processes, which significantly reduces waste and emissions. Daniela holds multiple patents on sustainable chemical technologies and was named on Forbes 30 Under 30 (North America) Energy list.

Cornelia has an impressive record in public service in Liberia, having worked in various ministries and agencies on key reforms in education and infrastructure. She has enjoyed a rapid rise as a politician, climbing the ranks of the Unity Party to become its Assistant Secretary General – one of the leading public voices and a fierce advocate for women’s empowerment and good governance. Outside of public service, Cornelia mentors many young people and has held numerous leadership roles across a range of organisations.

Carlotta is the Nature-based Solutions Mission Holder at Dark Matter Labs and leads the climate Fintech venture, TreesAI, an open-source platform harnessing the power of data and remote sensing technologies to collectively value and invest in urban nature. Passionate and multi-skilled, Carlotta’s journey pivots around the use of design and cross-disciplinary approaches to tackle society’s systemic problems. Over the years, she has developed skills in strategic, urban, and systems design, focusing on the development and financing of digital and green infrastructure.

With 11 years of experience in education policy and EdTech management at public and private organisations, Carla strives to strengthen teachers, students, schools and governments. She co-founded MásEducaciónPe, an organisation focused on educational innovation solutions in Peru, and she also leads the education and business development strategy at Mangahigh, a digital resource for blended learning. To date, Carla’s work has positively impacted more than 15,000 teachers and improved education quality for students across Peru and Latin America.

Barbara swiftly progressed from Associate to Executive Director at Morgan Stanley, where she played a key role in building the firm’s ESG capabilities and reputation. She now heads up a dedicated Fixed Income Sustainable Investing team, where she is responsible for leading their ESG integration and for launching the division’s first suite of sustainable fixed income funds. She previously worked for the International Labour Organisation and the World Bank, where she succeeded in delivering an $80m policy lending project to the Tanzanian government to promote job creation and a transparent business environment.

Anna began her journey in diversity, equity and inclusion in tech empowerment in 2017 – when she started Coding Girls. Within two years, the NPO grew to 5,000 members with chapters all over the world. In 2019, she founded WomenTech Network, a global organisation working to empower women in tech through mentorship, career development and networking. Her leadership has inspired over 6,000 ambassadors from 172 countries to unite in times of uncertainty.

Anna is a scientist, biotechnologist and social entrepreneur, who works to democratise access to water and sanitation in Brazil and throughout the world. At the age of 15, she started developing Aqualuz, an affordable device with a 20-year lifespan, and the only technology in the world to treat rainwater harvesting systems using only sunlight. She has since founded Sustainable Development & Water For All to develop and launch tech that ensures access to clean water is a universal right. To date, Anna’s work has impacted more than 15,000 people.

Ally founded The Starving Artist as an art initiative that researches eating disorders; presenting publications, exhibitions, workshops and artist talks to educate people about the illness and promote prevention. Using the proceeds from these publications and events, Ally also created The Starving Artist Scholarship to provide financial assistance to individuals needing medical treatment for eating disorders. She has worked with prestigious institutions including the British Museum, the Smithsonian Museum and Art House Holland.