Dr Aoibhinn Ni Shuilleabhain is director of the BSc. Science, Mathematics & Education initial teacher education programme in the UCD College of Science. Her research investigates issues in Mathematics Education, with particular focus on teacher education, and on making STEM more accessible and exciting for those who have historically been left out, whether because they are underprivileged economically or because they are female. A former post-primary teacher in a DEIS school, she is committed to making the teaching of mathematics more effective and this commitment has taken her well out of the university classroom as a science communicator on TV, radio and in print.

Mark Halle lectures, writes and publishes frequently on issues relating to sustainable development and was previously IISD's European Representative and its Director for Trade and Investment. In this capacity, he supervised a team of some 30 professionals based in Europe and around the world. He began his career in the field of international negotiations, serving in the diplomatic secretariat of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. In that capacity, he was associated with the negotiation of the Barcelona Convention on the Mediterranean Environment, one of the first regional environmental conventions ever adopted. He then spent five years with UNEP, starting in the Policy Planning Unit and ending up working on the global State of the Environment report published 10 years after UNEP’s establishment. From UNEP, he worked with WWF and IUCN in writing the World Conservation Strategy, a document which fundamentally changed the way in which conservation of nature was approached, namely by abandoning the earlier notion that conservation and development were necessarily in opposition to one another and embracing the notion that they are essential components of sustainable development. He is founder and former Chairman of the Board of the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development.

Prior to joining TNFD in May 2023, Thomas Viegas was at the Bank of England where he spent nearly a decade working on and influencing a broad range of UK and global macro-financial policy issues. Thomas led the Bank of England’s initial approach and strategy to nature-related financial risks. He also played a key role in establishing the foundational work on nature-related financial risk within both the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) and UN Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF). Thomas has been responsible for leading the Bank of England’s external technical assistance program to other central banks and financial regulators on greening finance issues, in the run up to and including COP26. Thomas was previously seconded as an Economic Adviser and Finance Sector lead to The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review, based at the UK’s Finance Ministry (HMT).

Willie Walsh became the eighth person to lead the International Air Transport Association (IATA) when he took on the role of Director General on 1 April 2021, after an airline industry career spanning over 40 years. Walsh is deeply familiar with IATA, having served on the IATA Board of Governors for almost 13 years between 2005 to 2018, including serving as Chair (2016-2017). Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1961, Walsh joined the country’s flag carrier Aer Lingus in 1979, as a cadet pilot, becoming a captain in 1990. One year earlier, he had moved into a management position in the airline’s flight operations department, beginning a rise that led to his being appointed chief executive of Futura, Aer Lingus’ Spanish charter airline in 1998. He returned to Aer Lingus in 2000 as COO and was appointed chief executive in October 2001 at a time when the carrier was in a grave financial crisis following the 9.11 attacks. Walsh led a radical restructuring that returned Aer Lingus to profitability. In 2005, Walsh was appointed chief executive of British Airways (BA). He led BA through the 2008/09 Global Financial Crisis, established a transatlantic joint business venture with Iberia, Finnair and American Airlines, and oversaw the 2011 merger of BA and Iberia under a newly established parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG). Walsh served as chief executive of IAG from its inception until he retired in September 2020.

Oisin Lunny is an award-winning marketer, webinar and podcast host, MC, public speaker, virtual event consultant, UX business professor, and journalist. His work has been translated into Chinese and Arabic, and read over half a million times as a senior contributor to Forbes, music editor at PHOENIX Magazine, and via regular contributions to The Guardian, CX Magazine and many others. Oisin has hosted, moderated, and given keynote presentations at over 250 conferences in every corner of the world, including TEDx and SXSW, where he is a member of the advisory board. He is the host of the Siemens Advanta podcast and the Audio Talks podcast by HARMAN and has worked in a series of leading global technology firms over the past 20 years as Global Product Manager, Country Manager, VP of Technology, Senior Market Development Manager, and Chief Evangelist.

Andy Cronin is a globally recognised leader within the aviation industry, having held a range of senior roles across the sector for more than 20 years. As part of the founding team and serving as Avolon’s CFO from 2010 to 2022, Andy has played a central role in building the company to the industry-leading position it holds today. He has successfully led Finance and Capital Market teams through numerous capital raises, corporate acquisitions, and most notably Avolon’s listing on the NYSE. Prior to joining Avolon, Andy served as SVP Investor Markets at RBS Aviation Capital with responsibility for disposal, financing and debt syndication of operating lease and structured debt products to a wide pool of investors and banking communities. Before working at RBS Aviation Capital, Andy worked in numerous commercial and operational roles at FLS Aerospace.

Claudia Hügel has been responsible for group-wide sustainability / ESG rating and reporting at Lufthansa Group for more than five years. She deals with the sustainability regulation landscape such as the non-financial declaration ,the EU Taxonomy and (draft) CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), the European Sustainability Standards but also with the overall strategic aspects of ESG and future impacts for the airline industry In this capacity, she is also responsible for the Lufthansa Group’s Reporting which addresses in particular the finance industry such as Sustainability Factsheet, the TCFD-, SASB- and CDP reporting to name the most important ones. Claudia acts also as interface to the finance community and in particular towards investor relations and the rating agencies as well as corporate finance. Since 2001 Claudia has been working at Lufthansa Group in various senior management positions. She was responsible at headquarters for the global sales strategy and sales steering before moving to Singapore as country representative for Lufthansa being responsible for sales in parts of Asia including Oceania. Back in headquarters Claudia Hügel established lean management as an approach to agile working processes and set up a group-wide process academy. Before joining Lufthansa Claudia worked as a project manager at Roland Berger, International consultants for 4 years. Claudia studied business administration at Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich. 

Peter Barrett has worked in aircraft leasing and finance for over 30 years, starting his career with Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA). Peter holds a B.Eng from University College Cork (UCC).

Ryan Faucett has responsibility for strategy, global partnerships, and climate policy within Boeing’s Global Environmental Sustainability (GES). In this capacity he provides strategic direction for Boeing’s leadership role in de-carbonizing the aviation industry. Previously, Ryan led global enterprise market intelligence and market development within Corporate Strategy. He was responsible for future market intelligence and forecasting, competitive intelligence, external benchmarking, as well as inorganic strategy, partnership, & business development integration. He led efforts to create a lifecycle strategy for the New Middle Market (NMA) development program within BGS business development. He has also been a Product Line leader with PL responsibility for a division of Aftermarket parts within BGS. Early in his Boeing career he helped drive the BCA and EHS environmental integration platform, including one of the world’s first sustainable aviation biofuel business cases, policy analysis, and chairing of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group (SAFUG).

Shane O'Reilly is a Director at KPMG Sustainable Futures leading the ESG & Sustainability service line. Sustainable Futures are a dedicated cross-functional team of experts who help corporates and public sector clients plan and execute programmes addressing ESG topics, decarbonisation and long-term value creation. The team brings together a wide range of disciplines including sustainability practitioners, economists, engineers, corporate strategists, accountants and financiers to help clients navigate the complex and fast evolving climate change and sustainability agenda. Our service lines include ESG & Sustainability, Decarbonisation & Circular Economy, Renewable M&A, Energy Advisory, Reporting & Assurance and Sustainable Finance.

Jimmy Samartzis' career has focused on climate change and in particular advancing the decarbonization of industries reliant on fossil fuels. He is known for his inspirational leadership, building private/public partnerships, and impact by enabling change across industries, governments, companies, and teams. He effectively navigates the complexities of first-of-a-kind technologies, commercial partnerships, regulation and policy, global adoption, and stakeholder relations. While in the airline industry, his contributions led to pioneering test flights, the first commercial-scale sustainable jet fuel deal and commercial production, and to a global industry agreement to enable a reduction in aviation emissions and adoption of low-carbon fuels. Additionally, he led a global coalition of stakeholders across the value chain to break down the barriers associated with the commercialization of sustainable fuels.

As the Aviation Lead at the Mission Possible Partnership and the Energy Transitions Commission, Maximilian Held develops strategies how to align the aviation sector and other hard-to-abate sectors with a 1.5°C target. Max holds a PhD in CO2 reduction strategies for the European transport sector from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and Master’s Degrees in Mechanical Engineering and in Automotive Engineering from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Due to his prior engagements at AUDI, BMW, Deloitte and Siemens, he combines industry expertise from the transport and the energy sector. Max is working on climate change mitigation since ~395 ppm CO2 and is convinced climate action is a chance, not a burden. 

Julien Manhes graduated from the ENSICA, a French aerospace engineer school, in 2001 and got a master in project management from the French business school HEC in 2002. He started his aviation career in 2002 at Aircelle (now known as SAFRAN nacelle), a French engine nacelle manufacturer fully owned by the SAFRAN group. He joined Airbus in 2005 and has worked in A380 Marketing as well as Airbus Product Strategy where he led studies on potential evolitions of the A380. In 2013 he worked again in Marketing, dealing with airlines in central and northern Europe and acting as a supervisor on other accounts. He then contributed to the transition to digital and data analytics in particular for marketing before joining the contract leading a team in charge of aircraft pricing. In 2020, Julien became the executive assistant to the Chief Commercial Officer of Airbus. In this role he supported the CCO and his team handling the COVID crisis commercially. Since June this year, he joined corporate affairs at Airbus as the leader of a project aiming at ensuring Airbus acts as a catalyst in the SAF deployment globally.

Oskar Meijerink is the head of Future Fuels at SkyNRG, a pioneer and global leader in the development of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). The Future Fuels team runs over a dozen projects with the aim of developing new SAF production capacity in cooperation with technology suppliers and other partners. The aim of these projects is the commercialization of future SAF production pathways by assessing the technological and economic viability. As head of the department, he is also responsible for SkyNRG’s advisory and research activities and he specializes in the commercialization of CO2-to-jet, Fisher-Tropsch and Alcohol pathways. Oskar studied Energy Science at Utrecht University and graduated with distinction by assessing investments in the biojet fuel industry at Imperial College London. 

Alex McLean leads the cross-firm ESG Group, which assists clients with the identification and integration of ESG priorities at all levels of their business. He has a broad-based infrastructure and utilities practice, with particular expertise in renewables, energy and natural resources law. Alex has almost twenty-five years energy regulatory, transactional and major projects experience in Ireland and Australia and has been centrally involved in the liberalisation of the energy markets in both jurisdictions. He has extensive experience acting for government, regulators, financiers, market participants and customers, both on the island of Ireland and internationally, and combines broad industry expertise with a strong background in energy regulation and reform.

Dr Barry O'Dwyer os an internationally recognised expert in climate change impacts, risk and adaptation with over 10 years experience working in both the public and private sector. In practice, he supports and advises public and private sector decision makers employing complex climate risk information in operational and strategic planning.

Sarah Thompson has experience in advising a broad range of clients on financial regulation matters and is admitted to practice in Northern Ireland, Ireland and England & Wales. She advises on Central Bank of Ireland authorisation processes, perimeter issues, ongoing compliance with conduct of business and other requirements with a special focus on ESG matters and on the Individual Accountability Framework and the Senior Executive Accountability Regime, as well as financial services M&A. Prior to joining Arthur Cox, Sarah worked in London in the financial regulatory groups of two major international law firms.

Eva Sheehy has worked with a wide variety of public and private clients including those in the Retail, Food & Agri and Transport and Construction industries. Eva joined KPMG in 2013 and has extensive experience working on audit and assurance engagements. Eva assists clients completing ESG reporting readiness assessments and advises clients on current and future ESG reporting standards relevant to their business and sector.

Henry Coyle primarily focuses on supporting the development of IDA’s growing funding program. He also supports World Bank funding operations as needed. Henry previously worked for Credit Agricole, and spent more than ten years running MTN and Private Placement desks across various banks including RBS, Jefferies and Dresdner. Originally from Ireland, where he grew up and studied at UCD, Henry studied at ESCP Europe has since spent time exploring and living in various cities across Europe.

Ioanna-Victoria Kyritsi has 20+ years of experience in finance and financial structuring. Prior to her appointment in EIB Global, Victoria headed the team implementing the Pan-European Guarantee Fund. She has also worked in a number of front office roles in both the EIB and the EIF covering a wide range of geographies. Prior to joining the EIB Group, Victoria worked in Standard & Poor’s London. Victoria holds an MSc (Distinction) in International Accounting & Finance from the London School of Economics (LSE), UK and a BA (Honours) from the University of Piraeus, Greece.

Francesca Pellegrino is responsible for working alongside bankers and originators to advise clients globally on sustainability matters. During her 5+ years in the ESG and sustainable capital market space, she worked on a number of sustainable finance deals including the inaugural green bond of the Government of Canada and numerous sustainability bonds from the SSA, financial, real estate and utility sectors. Prior to joining TD, Francesca worked at Arabesque, a sustainable investment advisory company, after starting her career at Goldman Sachs.

Michael Bennett leads the team that is responsible for structured note issuance, all derivatives related to funding, structure finance transactions for the Bank and its clients (including catastrophe bonds and swaps, carbon emission rights linked bonds, sukuk (Islamic bonds) for IFFIm and project linked bonds) as well as monetization of certified emissions reductions as agent for the United Nations’ Adaptation Fund. Michael has spent sixteen years with the Bank, including five years (2006-2010) in the Bank’s Paris office. Prior to joining the Bank, Michael worked for Chase and Lehman Brothers in structured finance and two international law firms in New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. He holds a doctoral degree in Law, with a specialization in international and comparative law, from Columbia University in New York. 

Thomas Ball leads the team’s work on nature and biodiversity and corporate transition planning. A scientist by training with a 20 year career spanning corporate sustainability strategy, communications, policy and advocacy. Prior to KPMG he was Head of Business Advocacy at WWF (The World Wide Fund for Nature) where he led a technical team working with global financial institutions and real economy businesses to drive the transition to a net zero and nature positive economy. Alongside this he was a core technical member of the UK Government’s Transition Plan Taskforce. Prior to this he ran an award-winning documentary business for over 10 years producing environmental and social documentaries for clients such as National Geographic and The Guardian. He is also a founding director of Our Yard, an award-winning social enterprise in NW London. Thomas has a degree in Natural Sciences from Trinity College Dublin, an MA in Documentary making from University of the Arts London and an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London.

Mark Merrigan is Head of Bond Products and Documentation at the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) in Ireland. The Funding and Debt Management directorate is responsible for debt issuance on behalf of the Irish State and the risk management of that debt within guidelines set by the Minister for Finance. Mark has 32 years’ experience of operating in financial markets during his career at the NTMA, mainly in funding and trading roles. More recently, he was responsible for the project management of Ireland’s first sovereign green bond issue. He is a former Chairman of the Society of Investment Analysts in Ireland (now known as CFA Ireland). He holds a B.Comm from University College Dublin and the ASIP qualification from the Society of Investment Analysts of Ireland.