Annual Thought Leadership Summit on S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA)

Robert joined S&P Global in 2020 as Head of Corporate Engagement as part of the company’s acquisition of the Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) from asset manager RobecoSAM. Robert worked in CSA related roles at RobecoSAM since 2014 gaining in-depth knowledge of the CSA methodology and engaging with hundreds of companies on their CSA results.

Robert’s career in Sustainability started in 1999 with a focus on Climate Change and Emissions Trading, including market strategy at Deutsche Boerse Group, Deputy to the CEO of the International Emissions Trading Association, Consultant to the World Bank, and Vice President Climate Change Services at technical verification firm SGS.

Robert holds a MSc in Economics (Diplom Volkswirt, Universitaät Konstanz, 1997) and a BSc (hons) in Digital Technology, Design and Innovation Management (Dublin Institute of Technology, 2018).

Koel Ghosh is the regional head of South Asia for S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI). Koel leads the regional commercial efforts and actively educates and advocates for passive investing. She explores new markets and works with market participants to offer suitable solutions.

Her previous experience in the asset management and financial industries add to her in-depth knowledge in that space. She contributed to the growing Indian asset management industry through her marketing and sales roles at IL&FS Mutual Fund and UTI Asset Management Company. At Thomson Reuters, she further extended her business development skills in the financial data industry.

Koel additionally heads up the business initiatives in India and serves as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Asia Index Private Limited (a BSE and S&P DJI venture). She was recognized by AIWMI as one of the top 100 women in finance in India in 2019.

Koel is a Chartered Accountant and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Erik Christianto is a Director, ESG Product Specialist for S&P Global Ratings. He started his career at S&P Global as the business development lead for Asia-Pacific accounts at Trucost, an ESG data and analytics division.

Today, Erik is responsible for managing products that help companies to communicate financially material ESG information and unlock access to sustainable finance instruments, such as green bonds and ESG-linked loans. Prior to joining S&P Global, Erik was an ESG consultant at a Big 4 professional services firm based in Singapore. He has worked with corporates and financial institutions, providing environmental & climate analyses to understand business impacts to climate scenarios and to meet disclosure requirements.

Erik holds a B.Eng. in Environmental Engineering (Honours) from National University of Singapore.

Nat has over 22 years’ experience in working together with local and multinational corporations, advising on sustainability challenges and gaining business value through a fit-for-purpose approach for environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities management.

He leads the development and implementation of Corporate Sustainability and Climate Change services, including Policy, Strategy and Program development for various industry sectors.

Steve leads the ESG Innovation and Analytics Team at S&P Global providing essential data and intelligence to companies and financial institutions so that they can better understand their exposure to ESG risks and opportunities and report in line with mandatory and voluntary reporting requirements.

As Global Head of ESG Product Innovation and Analytics, Steve has successfully led the development of S&P Global’s suite of climate and impact analytics products, including Carbon Earnings at Risk, Physical Risk and SDG Analytics. Steve was also S&P Global Trucost’s lead on the world’s first public environmental profit and loss “EP&L” account for PUMA and supported GPIF, the world's largest asset owner, on their inaugural TCFD-aligned reporting. Steve has also contributed to the technical

Shivananda Shetty is a Partner with ERM based at the Gurgaon office. He has over 25 years of experience in the field of Sustainability, Environment and Safety. Before joining ERM, he was the Director of Environment, Health and Safety Services at a leading global certification company wherein he was also leading Climate Change Program for South East Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

He has led over 600 project across the world, relating to Environmental and Social Due Diligence, Regulatory Compliance Reviews for Air, Soil and Water Quality, Stack and Flue gas emissions, Industrial Hygiene studies, Climate Change, Green Building, Energy Efficiency, Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR), Asbestos Survey, Indoor Air Quality. His expertise lies across varied sectors such as Oil and Gas, Steel, Chemicals, Cement, Beverages, Infrastructure and Manufacturing.

He leads the Corporate Sustainability and Climate Change Advisory wherein he is supporting the companies in evaluating the physical and transition risks and opportunities through quantification of financial impact and implementing governance program and reporting as per TCFD.

He is a graduate in Chemistry from Mumbai University, postgraduate from TERI, Policy and Regulatory Studies and PhD from Department of Business Economics, Delhi University wherein he studied the impact of environmental program on the economic performance of the firms in India.

Rutuja is a Principal Consultant at ERM based in Mumbai. She is the APAC Social Performance Lead. She specializes in social impact assessments, planning and implementation of resettlement and livelihood restoration projects, sustainable finance transactions and labour/human rights due diligence. Rutuja has been involved in the planning and implementation of major capital projects and has interpreted IFC, AIIB, World Bank, ADB, JBIC, EBRD and OPIC environmental and social safeguards requirements (particularly related to land acquisition, community-based impacts, stakeholder engagement and labour) for projects across their lifecycle. Rutuja also leads sustainable finance transactions that pertain to project finance and multilateral investment (direct and through financial intermediaries).

Rutuja is one of ERM’s key practitioners to support private equity funds and projects in meeting sustainable finance requirements through development of E&S Management Systems, development of E&S assessment documentation (e.g. ESIA and RAP) and to provide advisory support on ESG and sustainability issues. Her experience in the infrastructure sector covers: power (conventional, hydro and renewable), linear infrastructure, roads and highways, urban transport projects and energy. Her experience at ERM has given her an exposure to geographies in South Asia; Africa; South-east Asia; East Asia; and CIS countries. She has directly worked with multilateral institutions that include ADB, AIIB, IFC, DEG, Proparco, CDC, Swedfund, US Exim Bank, FMO and JBIC.

She is a post-graduate in Sustainability (Ecological Economics) and is a trained SA 8000 auditor.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of our Thought Leadership Summit. We are pleased to announce that we are collaborating with S&P Global to organize multi-lateral conversations spread over two days. The sessions are aimed at enabling attendees to benchmark their company’s performance on a wide range of industry specific economic, environmental and social criteria that are relevant to the growing number of sustainability focused investors and financially relevant to their corporate success.

In the past 4 years, this initiative has been successfully bringing together 400+ business leaders, corporate sustainability personnel, investor relations executives and think tanks from across the globe that have shared their insights and success stories through this series.