Women in Fund Finance Event

WFF US Navigating ESG Communications: Strategies for Challenging Times

Name: WFF US Navigating ESG Communications: Strategies for Challenging Times
Start: 2023-02-28T11:00:00Z
End: 2023-02-28T12:00:00Z

February 28, 2023

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST

Virtual

Join WFF US for a virtual discussion on ESG Data, Disclosure, & Ratings/Scoring.

The panel will explore how different types of data may be used for risk analysis/mitigation, strategic planning/value creation and stakeholder engagement/communication. Panelists will discuss the types of data that fall under the “ESG” umbrella, some of the major voluntary and required disclosure frameworks, and scoring and assessment methodologies. Additional discussion will focus on challenges and diligence practices both for company’s internal assessments and for investors & other stakeholders in assessing data quality and well as the more general issues of greenwashing, hushwashing and coping with a rapidly changing regulatory environment.

Our moderators and panelists represent a wide range of perspectives on ESG communications. Join us for a lively and thoughtful discussion.

Speakers

Pamela Ellis

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Pamela Ellis

Senior Counsel | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Pamela Ellis is a Senior Counsel in the Investment Company Regulation Office in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management. The Division’s Investment Company Regulation Office is responsible for rulemaking activities under the Investment Company Act and provides advice on policy initiatives affecting the asset management industry.

Before joining the SEC, Pamela was an Associate General Counsel at the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, where she provided legal expertise and support associated with the development of regulations governing municipal market professionals, including dealers and municipal advisors. She also was counsel at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP, where she advised financial institutions on the development, disclosure, and administration of innovative life insurance products, including variable, indexed and fixed products.

Pamela earned her A.B. from Wellesley College as a Wellesley College Scholar with Honors in Political Science and her J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law.

Deborah Low

Haynes Boone

Deborah Low

Partner | Haynes Boone

Deborah Low is a partner in the Finance Practice Group in the New York office of Haynes and Boone. Her background is in representing foreign and domestic institutional lenders in various forms of secured and unsecured finance transactions including subscription finance, syndicated lending, corporate finance, leveraged finance, commodities and energy finance and project finance. In connection with subscription-secured credit facilities, Deborah also regularly advises clients on additional leverage solutions for private equity funds including NAV and hybrid facilities, management fee lines, GP and employee coinvest lines and letters of credit.

Sarah Russell Crowe

Nasdaq

Sarah Russell Crowe

ESG / Sustainability Lead | Nasdaq

Sarah Russell Crowe is a sustainability and ESG leader with a passion for helping organizations align and achieve their business and sustainability goals. Having thoughtfully led ESG work in-house for US corporations and external consulting across sectors, she now guides Nasdaq’s clients through the ever-evolving ESG reporting landscape. Through Nasdaq’s ESG Corporate Solutions, she empowers organizations to define and own their ESG narrative. Sarah has deep expertise in energy and climate, and holds an MBA from the University of St. Thomas as well as BAs in Economics and French from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Elizabeth Seeger

IFRS Foundation

Elizabeth Seeger

Board Member, International Sustainability Standards Board | IFRS Foundation

Elizabeth Seeger was appointed as a full-time member of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in July 2022, effective November 2022.

Ms Seeger has over 20 years’ experience of standard-setting, investment and working on sustainability topics. She joined the ISSB from global investment firm KKR, where she served as Managing Director, Sustainable Investing, responsible for helping oversee the firm's consideration of sustainability matters throughout KKR’s investment process and part of KKR's Global Impact team. She also oversaw KKR’s public sustainability reporting efforts, including the development of SASB and TCFD-aligned reporting.

Before joining KKR in 2009, she served as a project manager in the corporate partnerships programme (now known as EDF+Business) of Environmental Defence Fund and a consultant with the Corporate Executive Board (CEB, now known as Gartner), where she advised companies from a broad range of industries in Europe and the United States. Before CEB, Ms Seeger was an associate at the Environmental Law Institute, a non-profit organisation focused on environmental law and policy research and education.

Ms Seeger served on the SASB Standards Board as an inaugural member, but began her standard-setting work when becoming a member of the SASB Standards Council in 2012.

She is a 2013 Aspen Institute First Movers Fellow and earned a BA in Environmental Studies with honours from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Shari Siegel

Ranieri Partners LLC

Shari Siegel

Managing Director, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary | Ranieri Partners LLC

Shari Siegel has served as Managing Director, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary of Ranieri Partners LLC, a family of private investment-related companies founded by Lewis Ranieri, since 2011. She is also Of Counsel & Head of the Environmental Social and Governance (“ESG”) practice group at SRD Legal Group, where she practices corporate law focused on strategic and transactional advisory work, corporate governance, general corporate counsel & risk mitigation services, investment funds, and all stages of corporate and partnership organizations. Shari also advises on corporate ESG initiatives and provides outside corporate secretarial and governance services. She has designed, developed and implemented anticorruption, lobbying, regulatory and general corporate ethics and compliance programs. In addition, she has also recently consulted on novel financing vehicles, economic development strategies and fintech ventures for other sophisticated investors.

Prior to her tenure at Ranieri Partners, Shari was Assistant General Counsel at CA, Inc., where she focused on mergers & acquisitions, divestitures, corporate transactions, governance, compliance, FCPA/anticorruption and government ethics law. Shari previously practiced law at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Latham & Watkins.

In addition to her JD, Shari has an MBA in Sustainable Innovation and has developed and led a series of panel discussions on ESG issues affecting the investment community for Women in Fund Finance and moderated panels and served as a speaker on ESG topics for various other organizations. She has served as a business mentor and coach in the Bennington Intrapreneur Challenge run by Lever, Inc. She has also been personally trained by former Vice President Al Gore to speak on climate change challenges and solutions as a Climate Reality Leader.

Shari currently serves as a member of the Boards of Directors of Peters Valley School of Craft, where she is on the Board’s Executive, Governance and IDEA (DEI) Committees, and Manchester Riverwalk Inc.

Shari has published numerous articles on corporate restructuring, corporate sustainability and governance and has lectured and trained on both corporate restructuring and corporate ethics & compliance topics. She was the Managing Editor of the Cardozo Law Review and an Editor of the Sustainable Innovation Review.

Melisa Simic

Nuveen

Melisa Simic

Senior Director, ESG Integration Private Infrastructure | Nuveen

Melisa is responsible for leading the environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration strategy across private infrastructure by working closely with investment teams, to build capacity on material ESG issues and develop proprietary frameworks and tools. In this role she provides strategic direction on best-in-class programs for ESG, climate, and sustainability efforts. Additionally, she supports the development, launch and reporting for ESG products.

Melisa’s experience includes transactions across the Energy, Food & Agri, Metals & Mining, Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, Real Estate and Infrastructure sectors. In previous roles, Melisa supported the development of firm wide strategies to measure a portfolio’s biodiversity footprint, conducted environmental impact assessments, and implemented biodiversity action plans in project sites located in South and North America.

Melisa held similar positions at APG Asset Management and ING Capital LLC, as well as sustainability consulting roles at Ramboll-Environ and ERM. Melisa started her career working on the design and construction management of various infrastructure projects in the New York City area. Melisa graduated with a B.S in Civil Engineering from Politecnico di Torino and M.S in Sustainability from Columbia University.

Swami Venkataraman

Moody's Investors Service

Swami Venkataraman

Associate Managing Director, ESG | Moody's Investors Service

Swami Venkataraman, CFA, is an Associate Managing Director in Moody’s Environmental, Social and Governance group. He manages a global team of analysts responsible for the development of analytical methodologies for ESG assessments and scores and for the integration of ESG considerations into Moody’s credit ratings and research across all asset classes. He is a spokesperson for Moody’s Investors Service on ESG and sustainable finance with regulators and investors. Before moving to the ESG team, Swami was a Senior Vice President in the North American utilities and infrastructure team, with rating committee chair responsibilities.

Prior to Moody’s, he was a Director of Project and Export finance with Standard Chartered bank in Asia. Swami has broad credit and banking expertise in the power, clean energy and infrastructure sectors over the past 25 years. He has worked in New York, San Francisco, London, Mumbai and Mexico City.

Swami is a CFA charter holder, with a B.Tech in Electronics Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras and an M.B.A. in finance from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM),Calcutta.