Charting a sustainable path: Nature-climate scenarios in financial decision-making

Emily has significant experience on integrating nature in policy, finance, economics and decision-making. Prior to joining TNFD in November 2021, she led the analytical team that produced the global Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity, based at the UK Economics and Finance Ministry.

Emily was previously seconded to the Capitals Coalition where she helped develop the Natural Capital Protocol in its Technical Group.

Emily worked for a decade in the WWF Global Science team, where she helped establish and lead the Natural Capital Project at Stanford University, helping decision-makers apply InVEST – leading ecosystem service modelling software. While at WWF, she supported The Coca Cola Company and Guggenheim Partners to consider dependencies and impacts on nature, and sustainability standards.

She helped design the Environmental Land Management scheme in England – a major national agricultural subsidy reform programme – based at the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Other previous roles included establishing environmental economics programmes at the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission as an Overseas Development Institute Fellow.

She holds Masters degrees in International Policy from Stanford University and Economics at the University of Cambridge.

Based in London, Emily speaks English, and basic Bislama, Fijian, German and French.

Alessandra has significant experience across financial regulation and supervision, risk assessment and sustainable finance. She is a Senior Manager in the Technical Team of the TNFD Secretariat, where she leads on the TNFD’s efforts on engagement with standard setters and regulators, along with leading support on the technical priorities around risk assessment and scenario analysis.

Before joining the TNFD, Alessandra was a consultant at the Risk Practice of McKinsey & Company in London, where she specialised on the impact of climate change on European banks’ risk management practices and GHG emissions portfolio pathways to reach Net Zero. During this time, she gained significant experience in climate risk approaches and methods for financial institutions and strategic portfolio decarbonisation.

Prior to McKinsey, Alessandra was part of the Risk Analysis and Stress Testing Unit at the European Banking Authority (EBA), where she gained valuable experience in EU banking regulation, risk and supervision, including stress testing practices and capital requirements regulation.

Alessandra holds an MSc in Banking and Finance from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy.

Based in London, Alessandra speaks English, Italian and Brazilian Portuguese.

Simon Zadek is the Co-CEO at Nature Finance and has worked on sustainability and finance for several decades including leading the G20 secretariat serving its green finance workstream and running a task force on digital finance and the SDGs for the UN Secretary General.  In addition, he has written and published extensively, including the award-winning book, ‘The Civil Corporation’. Simon has been a senior adviser to TNFD, supporting various aspects of its technical development, since its inception in June 2021.