Benjamin McCarron Head of Research, Responsible Research Benjamin was most recently at The Co-operative Asset Management (TCAM) in the UK, where he led integration of environmental and social analysis into the investment and engagement processes. TCAM, a signatory to the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), has £18.7bn (€22bn) in assets under management and was named the world’s most sustainable bank at the Financial Times’ Sustainable Business Awards 2010. During his time at TCAM Benjamin was the lead author of the Good Companies Guides, published in The Observer, which focused on issues such as gender balance and how sustainability affects business. He was involved with several collaborative engagements through the PRI and sat on the steering group on the Forest Footprint Disclosure project. Benjamin’s previous career as a fund manager included time as a small cap pension fund manager at Framlington, now AXA Framlington, where he managed £100m of small cap UK pension money and significantly outperformed the benchmark. He also co-managed a global technology fund covering IT and healthcare research. Benjamin brings to Responsible Research experience in the social economy from his time at Clearly So, a platform for social business. He was Head of Research at Fair Pensions UK. Benjamin is an Associate of the CFA Society of the UK. He graduated with joint honours in Maths and Philosophy from University College, Oxford.    Download Forum slides

Chiew Chun Wee Head of Policy, Asia Pacific, ACCA Chiew Chun Wee is the newly appointed head of policy, Asia Pacific, ACCA. Chun Wee is tasked in his role to drive new research initiatives that will add value to the business community and the profession across Asia Pacific especially in key markets such as Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia. He will work with stakeholders and organisations in key markets to identify opportunities where ACCA can contribute to the agenda of the region in relation to accounting and business. Prior to joining ACCA, Chun Wee was a senior manager with the Professional Practice Department of Deloitte & Touche LLP, Singapore, where he focused on audit methodology and policy, and regularly delivered internal and external trainings on auditing matters. He also has more than 11 years of experience in public accounting in Singapore and has worked in the audit of multinationals and local listed companies.    Download Forum slides

Deanne Ong Business Development Director, Origin Exterminators Pte Ltd Mrs Deanne Ong is the Business Development Director for ORIGIN Exterminators Pte. Ltd. She oversees the regional growth of the organisation and is instrumental in harnessing new revenue streams and growth opportunities for the company. She lived in the United Kingdom from aged 13 and graduated with a Bachelor in Economics. Deanne has been at ORIGIN for 15 years, during which she has amassed a wealth of experience on environmental management garnered from time spent in the field. She has served on several environmental associations both locally and in the region. In Singapore, she has been serving on The Environmental Management Association of Singapore (EMAS) for ten years and is currently taking the helm as the President. Regionally, Deanne represents Singapore on The Federation of Asean Oceanic Pest Management Association (FAOPMA). Deanne’s job scope encompasses working broadly across the value chain, various businesses and regions to identify and drive action plans for improving ORIGIN’s operational performance and promoting yield management through specialized service solutions. As a home-grown SME, with roots from a family business, ORIGIN has both benefitted from the gains and also battles with the challenges of the development of a family business. Deanne is instrumental in shaping the ideology that is needed to grow the business further regionally and also shape the legacy that the family hopes to leave behind.    Download Forum slides

Herman Mulder Initiator, Equator Principles Herman Mulder (1946) was in the period 1998-2006 Director-General and Head of Group Risk Management of ABN AMRO Bank, Amsterdam, Netherlands. In the period 1995-1998, he was at ABN AMRO Head of Global Structured Finance. He is the initiator of the Equator Principles. He created the ABN AMRO Foundation and was its first chairman. He is board member of inter alia: Global Reporting Initiative(GRI), Utz Certified/Good Inside, Dutch National Council for Development Cooperation & Sustainable Development (NCDO), Dutch National Contact Point for OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (NCP-NL), Trustee of Tomorrow’s Company (London), Business in Development (BiD), Consensus Building Institute (CBI, Boston), Steering Committee of the Worldconnectors, Social Micro Finance Technical Assistance Foundation (SMF-TA), Social Equity Fund (SEF).He is a member of the Advisory Board of TEEB, the EU study task force on “The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity”.

Jean-Pierre Dalla Palma Director, Ere-S Pte. Ltd. Jean-Pierre is the director of Ere-S Pte Ltd a consulting company specialising in sustainability reporting and report assurance. He has been the lead auditor for assurance engagements on sustainability reports of Singaporean companies, including the first verifications in the country executed under AA1000 assurance standard. Jean-Pierre has also worked on diverse CSR-related projects and has co-written the recent books "CSR for Sustainability and Success” and “Socially Responsible and Sustainable – Company Perspectives and Experiences”, which provide insights into the motivation, process, challenges and opportunities of adopting CSR in Singapore.

Jenny Costelloe Director, Singapore, CSR Asia Jenny Costelloe is country director of CSR Asia in Singapore. She has extensive corporate experience, including twelve years of communications roles in the oil and gas sector, which included communicating and reporting CSR activities. Jenny advises companies and other organisations on CSR, working recently with BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Aviva and Singapore Petroleum Company, amongst others. She has lived and worked in Singapore for several years. Jenny has a BSc in Natural Sciences (Physics) from the University of Bath,UK, a professional diploma in Marketing Communications and is currently studying an MBA at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.    Download Forum slides

June Sim Vice President & Head, Catalist Regulation, Singapore Exchange Limited June Sim is currently the Vice President and Head of Catalist Regulation in SGX, which oversees the Catalist Board. Her primary responsibilities include regulation of Catalist issuers as well as Full and Continuing Sponsors authorised to advise on compliance with the listing rules and regulations. She has extensive experience in the regulation of companies on the Main Board including review of initial public offerings and monitoring compliance with the listing rules. Her span of experience also includes regulatory action against listed companies for breaches of listing rules. She has also participated as a panel member on various Corporate Governance seminars as well as seminars organised for listed companies in relation to compliance with SGX’s continuing listing rules. She graduated from the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada with Honours in Business Administration.

K Sadashiv Partner (ASEAN), Climate Change and Sustainability Services (CCaSS), Ernst & Young LLP Sadashiv is a Partner heading the Climate Change and Sustainability Services Practice for Ernst & Young across ASEAN and is based in Singapore. Sada has over 25 years of advisory experience in assisting clients and advising them on their business, sustainability and related practices. Sada is helping clients developing their carbon strategy spanning GHG footprinting, energy efficiency improvement, CO2 mitigation, peer benchmarking, CDM advisory and disclosure. Work relating to corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) includes providing pre-assurance advisory which covers advising on the choice of reporting indicators, their measures, benchmarking to global peers, and reporting and disclosing to international standards. Sada’s academic qualifications include a B.Tech (IIT, Madras) in Electrical Engineering, followed by an MBA (IIM, Bangalore) majoring in Marketing and Finance. He has also studied Strategic Business at Arthur D Little’s Management Education Institute, Boston and International Business at GATT, Geneva.

Leena Wokeck Director, CSRACA Leena Wokeck is the Director of the CSR Asia Center at the Asian Institute for Technology (AIT) in Bangkok (CSRACA). Leena’s expertise is in the area of sustainable development, responsible business strategy, and sustainability reporting. She has worked with sustainability experts, CSR practitioners, and international and civil society organizations worldwide, and advised organizations of various sectors and sizes on CSR strategy development, stakeholder engagement, and reporting processes. Having previously worked for the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), she has in-depth knowledge of the GRI reporting framework. Since moving to Bangkok in 2009, her focus is now mainly on working with companies in Asia and especially Southeast Asia on the implementation of effective and innovative sustainability solutions. Through the unique set up between academia and practice of the CSRACA she leads research projects on cutting edge issues and trends for the role of the private sector in sustainable development in Asia and works on developing and delivering training and executive education programs. Leena holds an MSc in International Relations and Transnational Governance from the VU Amsterdam, the Netherlands, a BA in International Studies from the University of Birmingham, UK, and has studied Cultural Anthropology and International Law at the University of Cologne, Germany.

Patricia Mui Siang Tan Associate Professor (Accounting), Associate Dean (Undergraduate Academic), Nanyang Business School Associate Professor Patricia Mui Siang Tan is an Associate Professor in Accounting at the Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University and the Associate Dean for the Undergraduate programmes. Her research interests are mainly in financial reporting issues. Her research has been published in both professional accounting and top academic journals in the field, and she has presented her research findings at numerous international conferences. She has also been studying the issue of sustainability and sustainability reporting. She is currently leading a team of professors to develop business courses on sustainability, and to consider how to embed sustainability issues into the main accounting curriculum. She has also attended various sustainability conferences and seminars including the AACSB Sustainability Conference (June 2010) and the MIT-NTU Sustainability as Social Well-Being program (March-April 2010).

Rikke Netterstrom Executive Director, CSR Asia Rikke Netterstrom is an Executive Director of CSR Asia based in Malaysia. Rikke has over 10 years multi-sector experience in corporate responsibility strategy, stakeholder engagement and communications. She was responsible for environmental and social issues for two of the world’s sustainability leader - The Body Shop International plc and Novozymes A/S, preparing strategies for over 50 markets globally. As an investment analyst and a public affairs consultant, she provided advisory services to multinational companies within a range of sectors, including consumer goods, agrichemicals and financial institutions. She has worked extensively throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas, delivering workshops at Board and senior management level in China, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the US. Rikke was closely involved in the creation of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil as an Executive Board member, and continues to provide advisory services to companies in the oil palm sector. She holds an MSc in International Business from Copenhagen Business School and postgraduate qualifications from Thammasat University, Thailand.

Rebecca Lewis Investment Analyst, Arisaig Partners Rebecca Lewis is an investment analyst at Arisaig Partners, an investment management firm who focus exclusively on listed consumer sector businesses in emerging markets. Arisaig Partners is a signatory to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment and Rebecca leads their work on integrating Environmental, Social and Governance data into their investment process and ownership practices. Previously Rebecca was a Responsible Investment Analyst at Responsible Research, publsihing reports in both the consumer and real estate sector. Rebecca has undertaken independent research projects for the United Nations Global Compact on the engagement of the private sector on climate change and has experience implementing sustainable development projects throughout South East Asia. Rebecca has a Masters Degree from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University and an MBA from INSEAD.

Richard Welford Chairman, CSR Asia Richard is one of the founders and the chairman of CSR Asia based in Hong Kong. He is also a director of ERP Environment, a UK-based publisher. Richard has twenty years of experience working in the fields of environmental management and social responsibility. He was one of the early pioneers in developing social audit and reporting methodologies with UK-based organisations such as The Body Shop, IBM and Eastern Electricity in the 1990s. From 2002 to 2010 Richard was a professor at the University of Hong Kong and headed up the Corporate Environmental Governance Programme. He has sat on the Swire Environmental Committee as an external adviser for the past four years and has undertaken consultancy work with a number of leading companies, including the MTR Corporation, Disney, CLP, Nike, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, HP, HSBC, Citigroup and Adidas. Richard’s work has had a strong emphasis on environmental sustainability and social justice. Richard has worked with Cathay Pacific and the Swire group developing a climate change strategy. He has also worked on policies and implementation plans covering conservation and biodiversity. For Shangri-La Hotels he is developing initiatives not only covering environmental sustainability but also aspects of human rights and local community engagement. He has been an advocate of human rights auditing as a means of ensuring social justice and has undertaken assessments of the Freeport Human Rights audit in Papua.    Download Forum slides

Sean Gilbert China Director, Global Reporting Initiative Sean Gilbert is currently the Director for the China Focal Point of the Global Reporting Initiative. He has been responsible for setting up GRI’s operations in China and establishing working relationships with government, business, research institutes, and other stakeholders. Previously, he was responsible for the development of GRI’s reporting standards and performance indicators, including the development of the G3 and GRI’s sector guidelines. Sean led the design of GRI’s multi-stakeholder process as well as worked extensively with the financial sector on their use of ESG information and also on alignment with other standards in this role. He has extensive experience working in the Asian region, including working previously as a market research consultant for the environmental technology sector and chemical industry for seven years. During this time, he also worked with the American Chamber of Commerce Environmental Committee in Taiwan, including serving as Chair of the Committee. Originally from the United States, Sean is fluent in Chinese and French.    Download Forum slides

Shannen Fong Corporate Affairs Manager, Asia Pacific Breweries Limited Shannen currently holds the position of Corporate Affairs Manager at Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd (APB) and oversees corporate social responsibility, regional alcohol policy and the Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation. Shannen was previously in public relations consultancy for over seven years and was a partner of a local public relations consultancy firm.    Download Forum slides

Sharad Somani Partner & Head - Climate Change & Sustainability Advisory, KPMG Advisory Ltd Sharad heads the Climate Change and Sustainability Services practice as well as oversees the Infrastructure & Project Group based in Singapore. Sharad leads the Infrastructure practice of KPMG in Singapore covering utilities and carbon advisory. With over 12 years of experience in infrastructure, power and oil & gas sectors, his project finance advisory experience includes bid advisory, business planning, financial modeling, contract structuring, regulatory advisory, risk mitigation, project appraisal and fund syndication. Sharad has provided advisory services to various government and private sector clients in the region. His main focus is on privatization advisory, PPP structuring, transaction process management, contract structuring and arranging financing for power, oil & gas and water projects in the region. He has worked on power projects in Singapore, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. He has also advised clients on gas regulations and transportation issues in the SE Asian market. He was previously with Enron and worked on power and LNG projects in South Asia Sharad graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics) degree from Regional Engineering College, Nagpur, India. He also holds a Master of Management Studies (Finance) degree from Jamanalal Bajaj Institute (JBIMS), Mumbai, India

Simeon Cheng Group Environmental Manager, CLP Holdings Limited Simeon Cheng is the Group Environmental Manager of CLP Holdings. His responsibilities include CLP’s annual production of its Sustainability Report, management of CLP’s environmental and climate change regulatory risks, and to provide internal technical advice on environmental and climate change related issues. Prior to CLP, Simeon was an environmental consultant for over 10 years, and served as senior environmental specialist of a railway company in Hong Kong for 3 years. Simeon was the co-chair of Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) working group for the “Electric Utility Sector Supplement reporting guidelines” between 2006/2007 and is currently a member of GRI’s Technical Advisory Committee. He is also the chairman of the Hong Kong Australian Chamber of Commerce’s Sustainable Development Committee. Simeon is a chartered Chemical Engineer and also holds degrees in law and business administration.    Download Forum slides

Simon Lord Director Of Sustainability, New Britain Palm Oil Ltd Simon has Twenty five years management experience in the oil palm sector. He began his career with NBPOL in 1995 after 10 years with Unilever. As Director of Sustainability Simon has responsibility for all sustainability programs across the group’s holdings in PNG and Solomon Islands. Involved with the RSPO commodity standard initiative since 2002. He was one of the Vice Presidents of RSPO (2006-2008) and Chair of the Standards and Certification sub group (2008). Simon has been a member of the numerous working Groups including the Criteria, Verification, New Planting, GHG and Smallholder think tanks from 2003 – 2010). He has facilitated in the National Interpretation of the RSPO standards in numerous countries and is currently on the RSPO Executive Board as alternate member for the Rest of the World producer sector. Simon holds a PhD in Environmental Micro-biology from Bath University (UK). He is author of a number of publications on oil palm research and environmental issues.    Download Forum slides

Yang Sook Chin Associate Director, Climate Change & Sustainability Advisory, KPMG Advisory Ltd Sook Chin joins the Climate Change and Sustainability Services with over 10 years of experience in managing communications and organisational stakeholders programmes for publicly-listed MNCs and local enterprises from a cross-section of industries in the Asia Pacific region, ranging from industrial & technology, consumer, logistics to government. She has also managed sustainability reporting project to support the client in mapping out their reporting strategy, stakeholders’ engagement programmes and report preparation. The KPMG team also leverages on its competencies in reporting & assurance standards, business management and compliance work to value-add during the reporting process. Among other areas of sustainability reporting advisory services include sustainability assessment services, and the review of business performance and organisational key performance indicators. She holds a Masters Degree (Business Administration/ International Business), Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts & Social Sciences degree (Hon), National University of Singapore.