Bridging the Gap:

David Carlin leads the Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures (TCFD) program for the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI). He most recently managed a banking pilot with over three-dozen global financial institutions on topics of climate scenarios, climate risk assessments, and climate governance. He is also a contributor to Forbes, where he writes about climate change and leadership.

Prior to joining UNEP-FI, he worked as a senior manager in risk and public policy for Oliver Wyman Consulting and in model risk management for PNC Bank. His background is in quantitative modeling and decision science.

He conducted research in financial decision-making at Carnegie Mellon University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College.

Aziz Durrani 19+ years’ experience in international banking and finance, setting, enforcing, and providing training on regulatory policies and standards, including climate risk and sustainable finance policies. At the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), he is responsible for the provision of capacity development and technical assistance to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and China; Hong Kong, China; Japan; and Korea.

He worked for five years at The Southeast Asian Central Banks (SEACEN) Research and Training Centre, providing technical assistance and delivering training programs to SEACEN’s 35 central banks and regulatory authority stakeholders on issues related to supervision, financial stability, risk management, climate risk, and financial market infrastructures.

Durrani spent seven years working as a senior technical specialist at the Bank of England/Prudential Regulation Authority, undertaking asset quality and non-performing loan reviews and managing the wholesale concurrent stress testing program. He began his career in the Strategy, Finance and Economics practice of Andersen Business Consulting in London, and later worked at Standard Chartered Bank UK, covering the origination, structuring and syndication of loan products. He also worked at Lloyds Banking Group in anti-money laundering and leveraged finance loan restructuring and workout.

Durrani is a graduate in economics and philosophy from University of Nottingham, UK, and also studied for a master’s degree in computing for industry at Imperial College, London.

Federico Galizia is the chief risk officer at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). He leads the Office of Risk Management, advising the president, the executive vice president, and the board of directors on their oversight of market, credit, socio-environmental, and operational risk, in accordance with the shareholders’ triple-A mandate. A founding member of the Multilateral Development Bank (MDB) CRO Forum, he sponsors implementation of the G20 Action Plan to Optimize MDB Balance Sheets.

Before joining the IDB, Galizia was head of risk and portfolio management at the European Investment Fund, supporting small business finance during the European sovereign crisis. Previously, as adviser to the president of the European Investment Bank, he designed guarantee instruments leading up to the Junker Plan’s European Fund for Strategic Investments. He also established the team tasked with monitoring systemically important financial institutions at the International Monetary Fund during the US financial crisis of 2007-09.

Galizia began his career with McKinsey & Company, after receiving a doctorate in economics from Yale University, where he is a member of the Graduate School Alumni Association Board. He was an adjunct faculty member and served as member of the Luxembourg Board of Regents of the Jack Welch College of Business & Technology at Sacred Heart University. He has been a keynote speaker at events held by RiskMinds, GARP, Risk and the Center for Financial Professionals, and he was the editor of Managing Systemic Risk: a risk management framework for SIFIs and their markets, published by Risk Books.

Gilles Gharios is the Head of Investment Risk at Man GLG. He is responsible for risk management across all Man GLG funds.

Prior to joining Man GLG in January 2020, Gharios was part of the Risk department at JPMorgan. Before that, he spent seven years trading equity, credit, and commodities at various companies including JPMorgan.

Gherios graduated with a masters in financial mathematics from Stanford University, and a bachelor’s in applied mathematics from the École Polytechnique.

Jing Lü Gramespacher is the head of the model methodology for treasury and liquidity risk/interest rate risk in the banking book at Credit Suisse Schweiz AG. Before she joined Credit Suisse in 2017, she gathered more than 17 years of risk management experience in credit risk management, operational risk management, enterprise risk management and asset and liability management at GE Money Bank.

Gramespacher holds a doctorate in physics from the University of Basel, Switzerland. She has been a certified FRM since 2011. As an FRM Subject Matter Expert she supports GARP's effort in developing the FRM qualification, including item writing, participating in the GARP Practice Analysis Task Force, and standard setting activities. She has been the GARP Switzerland Co-Chapter Director since 2019.

Jacob Kosoff is the head of model risk management and validation (MRMV) at Regions Bank, serving in this role since May 2014. He also serves on the Alabama Commission on Artificial Intelligence and Associated Technologies, an appointment he received from the governor of Alabama. He was recently nominated by Regions Bank and selected by the Birmingham Business Journal as a” Top 40 under 40 Professional.”

Kosoff has 16 years of experience in the financial services industry, including in model development, model risk management and credit review. Prior to Regions, he served in roles at PNC Bank, Freddie Mac and Genesis Analytics.

He has developed a strong and stable quantitative team that has benefited from under 10% annual external turnover over the past five years. Kosoff’s biggest accomplishment at Regions is helping 25 MRMV alumni move into other crucial roles at Regions that align with their career architecture plans.

Rebecca Mikula-Wright is the chief executive officer for the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC) for Australia/New Zealand and has also led the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC) since it was launched as a member organisation in 2016. She has worked in climate change, sustainability, and investment banking for over 20 years in Hong Kong, Europe, and Australia.

Mikula-Wright started her career in investment banking working in equity research, credit analysis, commodities and derivatives for groups such as Nomura Securities, BlackRock, ExxonMobil, and JPMorgan. Involvement in early corporate sustainability programs in many of her roles was the catalyst to move into the nascent sustainable finance and investment field in Asia where she led the Association for Sustainable and Responsible Investment in Asia (ASrIA) in Hong Kong. Back in Australia, she was the project director for the IGCC, Australia /New Zealand.

A member of the global Steering Committee for the Climate Action 100+ and the Investor Agenda, Mikula-Wright is also a board member of The Orangutan Project that works on direct orangutan and habitat conservation in Indonesia. Rebecca has a bachelor’s degree in Asian studies/commerce, holds a diploma in business administration, and speaks conversational Japanese, French, and Czech.

John Schiavetta is a senior vice president and chief risk officer for AllianceBernstein (AB), overseeing all aspects of risk management to ensure that risks being taken are well understood and appropriately managed. He joined AB in 2008 as director of risk management, with responsibilities for fixed-income risk, liquidity risk, counterparty risk and valuation.

Previously, Schiavetta was at Fitch Ratings for 15 years, most recently as group managing director, responsible for managing the agency’s global structured credit ratings group. Prior to that, he was product manager at pension-consulting firm CDA Investment Technologies. Schiavetta began his career at the Dreyfus Corporation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bates College and is a CFA charterholder.

Debbie Toennies has responsibility for assessing regulatory issues impacting the Corporate and Investment Bank and fintech and digital asset issues globally where her team sets the strategy and directs the Firm’s advocacy efforts for regulatory issues which impact the CIB and fintech and digital assets broadly. She also serves as advisor for clients on the changing regulatory landscape.

Prior to this role, Toennies was responsible for the analysis, coordination and advocacy of capital, liquidity and securitization regulatory issues within the Office of Regulatory Affairs. Prior to joining the Office of Regulatory Affairs, Debbie served as Head of Conduit Management and Business Development within J.P. Morgan’s Securitized Products Group where she was an industry leader in advocacy initiatives with global regulators regarding securitization related issues, originated a variety of securitization transactions for the Firm’s clients and headed investor relations for the securitization business.

She has a bachelor’s in accountancy from Miami University and a master’s in finance and strategy from the University of Chicago.

Phil Venables is the chief information security officer of Google Cloud where he leads the risk, security, compliance, and privacy teams. Prior to joining Google, he was a partner at Goldman Sachs where he held multiple roles over a long career, initially as their first chief information security officer, a role he held for 17 years.

In subsequent roles, Venables was chief operational risk officer, an operating partner in their private equity business and a senior advisor to the firm’s clients and executive leadership on cybersecurity, technology risk, digital business risk, and operational resilience. In addition to this, he was a board director of Goldman Sachs Bank. Before Goldman Sachs, Venables held multiple chief information security officer roles, as well as senior engineering roles across a range of finance, energy, and technology companies.

Outside of Google, Venables serves on the boards of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and the NYU Stern Business School Volatility and Risk Institute. He also serves on the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board of NIST and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Phil is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.