In-person event: 9 am - 5 pm, London
IR, governance, and sustainability professionals share best practices on articulating material ESG issues.
Regulators in Europe continue to develop regulations that impact sustainable finance, ESG reporters, and ESG raters. However, a section of the investment universe is becoming more vocal regarding their opposition to the ESG movement.
At the ESG Integration Forum – Europe 2022, you will join sustainability professionals, investor relations officers, and corporate secretaries to examine future investor expectations of company ESG performance and sustainability reporting.
Happening in person, in London on November 22, be sure to register to learn how to adapt your ESG strategy to tackle the challenges of the year ahead.
“ESG risks and opportunities are constantly changing and bringing up new challenges. In the last 12 months, we have seen ESG activism, momentum building regarding policy on sustainability, new diversity requirements for public companies and increased focus on net-zero commitments. The ESG integration forum was the only event that brought together the key functions within a public company to tackle the challenges in this rapidly developing space. We believe that businesses don’t operate in silos, and neither should our events!” – Steven Wade, head of event content, Corporate Secretary and IR Magazine.
The format, far removed from a traditional conference, consisted of fast-paced panel discussions, exclusive investor Q&A, face-to-face networking and topical roundtable discussions. Attendees included investors, analysts, IR, governance and sustainability professionals at publicly listed companies from the UK and Europe.
This year's line up will be announced shortly. Here are some of our past speakers. To inquire about speaking opportunities, please contact [email protected] or call +44 20 3865 8103
Professor Richard Clegg
Managing director
Lloyd’s Register Foundation
Amra Balic
Managing director and head of EMEA investment stewardship
BlackRock
Amra Balic, Managing Director, is Head of BlackRocks EMEA Investment Stewardship team based in London.
Amra is responsible for leading BlackRocks investment stewardship efforts in London, covering company engagement including voting in Europe, the Middle East and Africa on behalf of BlackRocks clients globally and integration of extra financial issues in the investment process. She is an alumna of BlackRock’s Women’s Leadership Forum. Amra is also a member of the European Commission (EC) Expert Group on technical aspects of corporate governance processes.
Amra is an active participant in the public corporate governance, stewardship and responsible investment debate and as such regularly speaks on the importance of these issues for company performance and investment decisions. Amra represents BlackRock on a number of industry bodies including the UK Investment Association Corporate Governance and Engagement Committee and the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (UK) Stewardship Advisory Group. Amra is also a board member of Eumedion, the leading Dutch association representing institutional investors interests in the field of corporate governance and sustainability. Amra is also a member of the FRC Investor Advisor Group.
Prior to joining BlackRock, Amra spent 14 years working on issues surrounding investors and investment decisions ranging from analysis of financial and extra-financial issues, deal origination, investment appraisal and management. Amra joined BlackRock after 11 years with Standard Poors (now S&P Global), where she was a Director in European Corporate Credit Ratings. During her time at SP Amras responsibilities included integration of corporate governance into the credit ratings process. Amra started her career in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), London in 1997 as a financial analyst.
Amra holds a B.A. (Hons) Economics and MSc Accounting and Finance from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Saftar Sarwar
Chief investment officer, managing director
Binary Capital
Binary Capital Investment Management. Saftar works closely with all clients on asset allocation, investment portfolio implementation and management as well as on client relationships and business development. He works with all client types: HNW, IFAs/Wealth Managers, family offices and institutions. He manages the multi-asset, multi-fund product range as well as working closely on other investment products, portfolio areas. He leads the investment team. He sits on the board at Binary Capital Investment Management Limited.
Overall Saftar has 25 years institutional, private client investment experience across a broad spectrum of financial services and investment asset classes. He holds an Honours degree in Economics from Strathclyde University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Accountancy from the same institution. He also holds the Investment Management Certificate (IMC) and the CISI Private Client Investment Advice and Management certificate. He has also undertaken a Finance Masterclass from the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School, Executive Education programme and from the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments – FCSI, as well as a member of the CFA Society UK. Saftar is a regular public speaker on finance, investment markets.
Asad Butt
Senior ESG analyst
HSBC Global Asset Management
Asad is Senior ESG Analyst at HSBC Asset Management. Before this, he was Vice-President EMEA at ISS Corporate Solutions and also spent 12 years working in IR roles for the likes of Nasdaq and PE-backed specialist firms. He started his career with Alenia Marconi Systems, followed by Procter & Gamble and then Ford. Asad has been in the industry since 2004, he has a degree in European Business with Technology from the University of Brighton and a Laurea di Produzione Industriale from Turin Polytechnic, Italy.
Jennifer Anderson
Co-head of ESG
Lazard Asset Management
Jennifer Anderson is the Co-Head of Sustainable Investment and ESG at Lazard Asset Management. She oversees the firm’s Sustainable Investment & ESG integration strategy. She works closely with analysts and portfolio managers to enhance their investment processes and works on new product development. She co-chairs the firm’s ESG Steering Committee and sits on the firm’s Stewardship and Proxy Voting Committees. She also leads client engagement and thought leadership on ESG topics. She began working in the investment field in 2006. Prior to joining Lazard in 2019, Jennifer was an Investment Manager for TPT Retirement Solutions and during this time she also served on the Board of the Directors of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC). Her previous role was as an Equity Research Analyst in Sustainable Investment at Citigroup Global Capital Markets and she started her career as an SRI Analyst at Jupiter Asset Management. Jennifer has a BA in Economics and Economic History from the University of Leicester and an MSc in Environment Technology from Imperial College London.
Mark Babington
Executive director of regulatory standards
The Financial Reporting Council
Mark Babington is the Acting Executive Director of Regulatory Standards at the Financial Reporting Council. He leads the division responsible for the FRC technical and public policy work covering audit, corporate reporting, corporate governance and stewardship, actuarial and the FRC Lab. The division also includes the all FRC’s Investor and Stakeholder Engagement work. Prior to joining ExCo, Mark led the FRC’s UK Audit Policy programme, measures to support greater competition in the UK audit market and work to support the reform of international standard setting for auditors, by global regulatory authorities.
Prior to joining the FRC, Mark had a twenty-year career in audit and was a Director at the UK National Audit Office. Prior to that he was a technical advisor to a number of EU capacity-building programmes. He was also involved in the audit of the United Nations.
For five years, Mark was a member of the UK government’s counter-fraud taskforce. He is a former Chairman of the International Colleges of Auditors of a number of European defence-related organisations. Mark is an Independent Governor, Board Member and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, which is the UK public body dedicated to supporting democracy around the world.
Elly Irving
Director of stewardship
Lazard Asset Management
Ed Heaven
Head of sustainable investment
Montanaro Asset Management
Ed graduated from Durham University with a 2:1 BA (Hons) degree in Theology. His thesis was on the Ethics of Genetic Engineering. He began his career in asset management as a Portfolio Manager with Newton Investment Management, before moving to Standard Life following the acquisition of his department. Ed joined Montanaro in 2014 and is Deputy Chairman of the Sustainability Committee. He has been heavily involved in the further integration of ESG in the investment process, culminating in the launch of the Montanaro Better World Fund. Ed directs the impact analysis of companies within the Better World Fund across the Investment Team and writes the award-winning Better World Fund Impact Report, as well as Montanaro’s ESG Handbook and Montanaro’s market commentaries. He is also Deputy Chairman of the Sustainability Committee.
Qualifications
• Durham University, Theology BA (Hons) 2:1
• CFA Institute, Certificate in ESG Investing
• The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment Diploma
Personal
Away from work, Ed is kept busy looking after his young family. An avid reader, Ed likes to relax by working his way through an ever-growing reading list. He is interested in the development of new technologies, particularly “AI” and in his spare time has completed Stanford Professor Andrew Ng’s course ‘AI for Everyone’. When he can, Ed likes to travel, a highlight being a trip across the Middle East to Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Israel in 2005.
Márcia Balisciano
Global head of ESG and corporate responsibility
RELX
Chief Sustainability Officer, Global Head of ESG and Corporate Responsibility
Márcia is Chief Sustainability Officer and founding global head of ESG and corporate responsibility at RELX, a FTSE 15 information, analytics and events company with 33,000+ people and operations in 40 countries.
Engaging colleagues throughout the business, she works to ensure RELX’s extra-financial performance furthers competitive advantage and stakeholder confidence. She drives practice that ensures recognition for RELX as an environment, social and governance (ESG) leader: in 2021, Sustainalytics ranks RELX 1st for in the media and publishing sectors (and 8th overall) among 13,000+ companies; holds a AAA ESG rating with MSCI for fifth consecutive year; came 3rd in sector in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index; and 3rd in the Responsibility 100 Index, a ranking of the FTSE 100 on sustainability.
She is Chair of the UN Global Compact Network UK; Chair of the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Council of the Conference Board; and a founding member of the Board of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens. She is founding director of London museum and educational facility Benjamin Franklin House and previously was special advisor to the American Chamber of Commerce (UK).
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, she holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago, and a PHD in Economic History from the London School of Economics. She is a Member of the British Empire (MBE), an honour awarded by the Queen, and lives in London with her husband and two boys.
Keren Pakes
Vice president of communications and ESG
Bright Data
Former award-winning journalist Keren Pakes is the VP of Brand Marketing and Communications at Bright Data and the General Manager of The Bright Initiative.
As a former leading BBC News journalist, Keren covered the top news and current affairs stories that characterized that period and led the news, political and social agenda at that time.
After almost 14 years with the BBC, Keren left to pursue marketing senior leadership roles in the technology space; she also volunteered as the spokesperson for various non-profits, helping them advance their valuable goals.
Today, Keren focuses her efforts on expanding the reach and impact of The Bright Initiative, an organization that she initiated and established that uses data to drive change across the globe.
Victor Drozdov
Director of communications and investor relations
Polyus
Victor Drozdov is head of business communications and investor relations at Polyus, the Moscow-headquartered mining firm that is also Russia’s largest gold producer.
Before joining Polyus in 2016, he worked in equity sales and sell-side equity research at VTB Capital, and later as part of Severstal’s investor relations team. In 2020 Victor was named Russia’s best IR professional by Institutional Investor.
Romy Kenyon
EMEA sustainability manager, sustainability centre of excellence
3M
20 years experience in marketing strategy and sustainability in the paper, industrial markets and 3M consumer business. Romy is an internal sustainability consultant for all 3M businesses and EMEA regions. This involves understanding customer needs for data, sustainability claims, roadmaps and social sustainability and working with manufacturing, product development, packaging development to ensure 3M are ahead of legislation, anticipate trends and work with like minded suppliers, NGOs and government agencies. 3M are looking to be leaders in sustainability with new products, innovative materials and new business models whilst doing business in an transparent and ethical way that supports all stakeholders.
Adrian Fleming
Vice president of ESG and sustainability
Diligent
Adrian is a father of two, self confessed sports mad, technology enthusiast with a passion for Environmental conservation.
He combines this unique combination of interests with a passion for using Easy-to-Use technology to enable large organisations do more to improve their impact on the environment, the economy and society in general. Adrian’s background prior to founding Accuvio was in technical architecture with Accenture, and Dell as a Software Development project manager after completing his BSc Degree in Computer Science at UCD.
It was on this career journey that he encountered the challenge of Sustainability reporting across global organisations which lead to his light bulb moment that it needs to be made easier, for such accountability to be “main stream”. He was also involved in the early days of CoderDojo.com, a volunteer-led worldwide charity that teaches children from ages 6 – 14 how to develop software and electronics.
Jonathan Ekin
ESG offering manager
OneTrust ESG
Jonathan Ekin serves as an ESG Offering Manaber at OneTrust ESG – the #1 most widely used privacy, security and trust technology platform. In his role, Jonathan advises companies large and small on EU GDPR, California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Brazil LGPD, and hundreds of the world’s privacy laws, focused on formulating efficient and effective responses to data protection requirements as well as building and scaling privacy programmes.
Joseph Oakenfold
Vice president
ISS Corporate Solutions
Joseph (Joe) joined the ISS Corporate Solutions (ICS) team in 2021 after almost 25 years in Banking and Finance. He currently works with UK, Irish and European corporates in a new business and sales capacity to provide platform and advisory solutions to the Governance, Environmental and Social issues of the day. Prior to joining ICS, Joe covered multiple roles including Trading, Operations, Investor Relations, Sales and Project Management across a number of International Tier 1 banks and worked in most markets from Asia to Europe to the Americas and spent several years on assignment in Hong Kong. His speciality was cross border finance and supported companies from Mega Cap conglomerates to private Life Sciences companies raise capital across the financial markets.
Joe holds a Certificate in Investor Relations (CIR) and Securities Institute qualifications.
Tish Crawford-Jones
Investor relations
Q4
James Beech
Editor in chief
Corporate Secretary and IR Magazine
James Beech joined IR Media Group as Editor in Chief in January 2022. He was a multimedia journalist, editor, client relationship manager, awards host and public speaker at Campden Wealth, for and about the global ultra-wealthy multigenerational family business and office community, in 2016-21.
The Englishman reported and photographed news and features for daily and weekly regional newspapers and websites, in New Zealand and Australia, including the Otago Daily Times and Canterbury-Bankstown Express, in 2006-15.
He wrote and edited market-leading consumer magazines and websites in Bournemouth then worked in public relations and media communications in London, in 1999-2006.
He graduated Bournemouth University with a BA (Hons) in Multimedia Journalism in 1999.
Tim Human
Senior reporter
IR Magazine
Tim Human is senior reporter at IR Magazine. He rejoined the publication in 2019 after two years working as a freelance writer for a range of international clients. Previously, he was editor of IR Magazine between 2013-2017. He has also written for Corporate Secretary, IR Magazine’s sister publication, and CorpComms, the UK-based magazine for corporate communications professionals.
Steve Wade
Head of event content
Corporate Secretary and IR Magazine
Steve Wade is a content researcher and conference producer at IR Magazine where he is responsible for crowd-sourcing intelligence on the big global issues facing investor relations. Steve also creates events where the IROs and the wider financial community can discuss, debate and learn about ways to develop the IR function.
Prior to IR Magazine, Steven’s background has been in corporate social responsibility and responsible investment. During his time at Ethical Corporation (now Reuters Events), Steve launched the ESG symposium, an event focused on connecting the socially responsible investment community with corporate sustainability leaders at listed companies. Steve was a judge for the Deloitte Green Frog Awards, celebrating the best corporate reporting in Eastern Europe. Steve also presented research at the Global Sustainable Event Summit in London and has spoken about extra-financial reporting with the United Nations Global Compact, the World Bank and the Polish Ministry of Finance.
Steve has a degree in Event Management and enjoys playing rugby in his spare time.
Why partner with us?
The ESG Integration Forum – Europe brings together some of the most influential people in the IR and governance communities.
The event offers an effective approach to targeting clients when they are exploring how they can improve their ESG practice. Through our unrivalled knowledge of the subject matters and commitment to in-depth agenda research, our events are guaranteed to attract a qualified audience.
The unique buzz we create at our hybrid events – a far cry from a traditional conference – makes them multi-faceted and highly interactive with great engagement in particular from heads of IR and governance teams. This allows our partners to have meaningful conversations with corporates who are deciding which parts of their ESG program to invest in, which service providers to engage and which consultants to retain. By partnering with us on an event, you can generate leads, showcase your thought leadership and position yourselves as the partner of choice to the IR and governance communities.
We’d love to have a chat with you about how you can get in front of a truly engaged and motivated audience. Get in touch with Ross Ingram or call on +44 78265 38072.
Our attendees are leading governance, IR and sustainability practitioners with an established track record and strategic governance or IR role within their company.
Below is a sample of some of our past attendees:
Job title | Company | Job title | Company | |
CG officer | IFC | Head of sustainability | Northam Platinum | |
Chief sustainability officer | Global Fashion Group | Head of sustainability | Society Generale | |
Corporate and investor relations assistant | Melexis Technologies | Investor relations | Société Générale | |
Corporate communications & IR | S IMMO | Investor relations | UniCredit | |
Corporate finance chief expert | ALROSA | IR & corporate communications manager | Conzzeta | |
Corporate sustainability manager | Sonova | Investor relations manager | Ford Otosan | |
Director of capital markets & strategic initiatives | EN+ Group | Investor relations manager | Stora Enso | |
Director of corporate branding & responsibility | Sonova Group | Investor relations manager | Uniper | |
Director of financial control & corporate reporting | Polymetal | Investor relations officer | Lenta | |
ESG analyst | Carmignac | IR client manager | RD:IR | |
ESG analyst | Franklin Templeton | IR manager | CCHBC | |
Fixed income IR & SRI | Iberdrola | IRO | Mediaset | |
Group communications director | Oxford Instruments | IRO | Sonae | |
Group investor relations and ESG | Mediobanca | M.D. APAC & MEA | Stolt Nielson Singapore | |
Group sustainability manager, IR | FirstRand | Organization & strategic planning director | B2Holding | |
Head IR & sustainability | Cembra | Partner | Gibson Dunn & Crutcher | |
Head of ESG | AO World | PR & IR manager | IP Group | |
Head of ESG | Severstal | Research assistant | Gather London | |
Head of investor relations | Cellnex Telecom | Research manager | SEGRO | |
Head of investor relations | National Grid | Responsible business manager | Henry Boot | |
Head of investor relations | Plus500UK | Responsible investing manager | Chelverton AM | |
Head of investor relations | Rolls-Royce | Senior account manager | FleishmanHillard Fishburn | |
Head of investor relations | Seplat Petroleum | Senior director IR | ASM International | |
Head of investor relations | The Go-Ahead Group | Senior group corporate communications manager | GoCo Group | |
Head of investor relations | WENDEL | Senior sustainability manager | ASOS | |
Head of investor relations and company secretary | Good Energy Group | Sustainability coordinator | RA International | |
Head of IR & sustainable capital markets | EIB | Sustainability manager | Virgin Atlantic | |
Head of investor relations | Aker Solutions ASA | Sustainable development director | X5 Retail Group | |
Head of investor relations | UBI Banca | VP, associate general counsel | Vontier | |
Head of IR & CSR | Sanoma | VP, IR and associate general counsel | Adobe | |
Head of IR & ESG | MASMOVIL | VP, investor relations | Esprit | |
Head of IR, EMEA & Asia | Burford Capital | VP, IR & communications | Veoneer | |
Head of regulatory affairs & sustainability office | SEB | VP, IR & communications | Veoneer |
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The super early bird rate expires on October 21, 2022. After this date, the price will increase to the early bird rate of £195. The standard rate is £295.
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