James has spent his career working at the interface of the public and private sectors with a focus on mobilising finance. He is now committed to working on some of the most challenging global issues focusing on sustainable development and climate change. He is currently the head of climate change at NatWest Group, supporting the implementation of the bank’s purpose-led strategy which included principal sponsorship of COP26. He is also a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Advisory Group for the ICAEW and a trustee for the Trust for Sustainable Living. Prior to this role, he was the head of the circular economy programme for London.

Before returning to the UK, James spent five years in Washington, D.C. as the Director for Climate Change at the World Bank. Previously, he was a Partner in the Corporate Finance Practice of EY, and also worked for HM Treasury.

Richard is the Co-Founder and Co-Lead Fund Manager for Foresight Sustainable Forestry Company PLC, the LSE's first listed natural capital investment vehicle.

Richard joined Foresight in 2015 and is an Investment Director focused on natural capital and forestry. He co-founded Foresight's forestry team in 2019 and has overseen around £250 million of investment into the sector across more than 40 transactions. He is primarily responsible for investment strategy and has spear-headed the direct origination campaign for off-market afforestation land.

Richard has more than 14 years of experience in finance. Prior to co-founding Foresight's Forestry team, Richard was responsible for the origination, development and launch of innovative investment products and new business divisions. He has successfully originated and launched four innovative new fund strategies (that have to date attracted around £1.5 billion of investment) and founded three new business divisions.

Prior to Foresight, Richard worked at Accenture as a Strategy Manager, where he focused on merger and acquisition strategy across a variety of industries.

Amy Smith is a Manager in LSEG’s Capital Markets Sustainable Finance team, where she is focused on strengthening London Stock Exchange’s position as a leading venue for sustainable finance through product development, stakeholder engagement, strategy, and innovation.

Amy is key member of London Stock Exchange’s Voluntary Carbon Markets team, where she has contributed to developing a public market solution to the scaling of the voluntary carbon markets.

James is a natural capital investment and valuation specialist. He has developed a unique market approach to rate and value natural assets to unlock a premium for net asset value. This regulatory-based methodology has been used to value more than $1 billion worth of natural capital assets, underpinned more than $150 million of related transactions globally, and passed audit with the major accounting firms, IFRS and the IRS.

James is Founder and CEO of Mopane Capital, a specialist natural capital valuation and advisory firm that helps institutional, corporate and family office clients with interests in regenerative agriculture, sustainable forestry and conservation-based investments. He was an impact advisor and founder member of HSBC-Pollination Climate Asset Management joint venture, and previously an Investment Director for the Jones Family Office, managing their conservation portfolio in Africa. James has worked extensively in Africa, the UK and Central America.

Cees is the Chief Executive Officer of The International Stock Exchange (TISE), which is headquartered in Guernsey.

He has been CEO since November 2020. With a strong focus on strategy, business development and infrastructure, he aims to work with, and create enhanced value for, the Group’s stakeholders, including its staff, members, issuers and shareholders.

Cees has more than 20 years’ experience within international financial market infrastructure. He has held senior executive positions within several international exchanges, including CEO of CME Europe Ltd, CEO of Euronext Amsterdam and Head of European Cash Markets for NYSE Euronext. Prior to that, he spent a decade working in IT and programme management roles.

Martin Hartley is an award-winning expedition and adventure photographer. He has spent the last 19 years documenting his favourite place, the Arctic Ocean, possibly the most hostile and difficult place on earth to practice photography. During this time Martin has covered more than 2,000 miles skiing on various expeditions, living for 400 days on the skin of the Arctic Ocean, including a mammoth 99-day crossing from Russia to Canada.

Martin's passion for using his hard-won expedition and photographic expertise to benefit the future of our planet has taken him beyond the polar regions to desert, jungle, mountain and oceanic environments. He has documented indigenous communities, corporate social responsibility initiatives and

groundbreaking scientific programmes.

He was nominated by Time Magazine as one of their Heroes of the Environment in 2009 in recognition of his work with the Catlin Arctic Survey, documenting sea ice and ocean acidification.