Our Speakers

Frances Deft is the Sustainability Programme Manager at the BBC, managing the governance and implementation of the BBC’s Planet Positive strategy (covering net zero, nature positive, and societal impact).

Frances has over a decade’s experience across in-house sustainability transformation and strategy and operations consultancy for large corporate and FS clients – such as Willis Towers Watson, Quilter, Avast, Sainsbury’s, SABIC, and Prudential. She previously led the sustainability strategy offering for Deloitte UK, before managing the ESG department of a boutique consultancy specialising in quantitative climate scenario analytics. She was a technical judge for the Earthshot Prize (2021), BBC Green Sports Awards (2023), and worked with Facebook to deliver a social impact bursary fund during the COVID pandemic.

Frances has a BA Hons degree in Politics and was an early participant in the Sustainable Business Design leadership course at the University of Cambridge. She is passionate about travel and exploration – with a keen interest in UK mountain climbing.

Manuela is a London-based Consulting Director that focuses on working with private equity firms and their portfolio companies in adopting ESG strategies and regulatory requirements as a change and value creation lever.

Prior joining ERM, Manuela was the Head of ESG for abrdn Private Equity department where she implemented the team’s first climate change strategy, led the team efforts under SFDR, including the launch of an Article 8+ and worked closely with the investment teams in assessing ESG materiality of targets as well as supporting portfolio companies in entering new markets via adopting ESG strategies.

Ahead of abrdn, Manuela worked as a Private Equity Investment Professional at M&G Investments where she invested in primary and co-investment deals across Europe and Asia. At M&G, Manuela was also responsible for the design and implementation of the ESG strategy and launched the team first Impact Fund of Funds. The work Manuela led in Private Equity was rolled across the Alternative Assets and shaped the basis for M&G’s contribution to the ILPA ESG Assessment Framework, which Manuela supported.

Manuela holds a BSc (Hons) in Management at Bayes (previously known as Cass) Business School in London and is now completing a MSt in Sustainability Leadership at Cambridge University, where she researched the issues of “Investors’ potential to Improve Labour Rights across Value Chain” and the “Barriers to scale sustainable investments in the Food Systems in the European Private Equity market”. Manuela is also an Impact Champion for the Conduit Club in London where she fosters a community of purpose-led female leaders.

Adinah is Head of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) and is responsible for overseeing and further developing Permira’s ESG activities across private equity and credit. She is also a trustee of The Permira Foundation.

Prior to joining Permira, Adinah spent eight years with ERM, a global sustainability consultancy, as a Principal Consultant focusing on transaction services and ESG for private equity clients. Before that, she spent over a year in construction as an Environmental Coordinator. Adinah is a member and former chair of the BVCA’s Responsible Investment Advisory Group. She is also a member of Invest Europe’s ESG Committee, a member of Initiative Climate International’s OpCo and represents Permira on the ESG Data Convergence Initiative Steering Committee.

Having worked across FTSE and Fortune companies plus the not-for-profit sectors for the past 20 years, Elsa has extensive experience in launching and driving ambitious and diverse ESG initiatives.

Elsa joined ICG from Barclays, where she was Global Head of Sustainability & ESG for four years. Prior to that, she worked for the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, giving her a unique and global perspective on best practices in sustainability and cross-sector partnerships.

Chantal is a partner in McKinsey’s energy sector based in London. During her time with the firm, she has completed projects in strategy and planning, organization, and marketing topics in energy, basic materials, and telecommunications industries in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Chantal convenes McKinsey’s events associated with women in power and natural resources. She is the leader of the firm’s work in the energy sector in the UK and leads the energy transition and decarbonization movement globally.

Her recent experience includes leading our work on energy transition and decarbonization, supporting private sector oil and gas companies in driving 20 to 30 percent out of their cost structure, and application of new technologies to core operating models to support digital transformations.

Honor joined UCIM in May 2020 from her role as Head of Responsible Investment at Redington, an investment consulting firm advising long term savers and investors. At Redington, Honor built and oversaw Redington’s Responsible Investment strategy and worked closely with the Manager Research and Investment Consulting teams to provide advice to a range of institutional clients. Honor has a Geography degree from Cambridge University. She is a CFA Charterholder and has a Masters in Sustainability Leadership from Cambridge University.

Jay is a Managing Director at Accenture. Working with C-suite executives and at Board level, he is responsible for leveraging Accenture’s unrivalled depth of experience across technology, sustainability and capital markets to support the world’s leading investors finance the changes that the world needs. 

This includes working across asset classes and the capital stack, from ESG data and analytics in public equity; compressed sustainability transformations in private equity; climate resilience in commercial real estate; and machine learning applications to drive nature positive outcomes.

Prior to joining Accenture, Jay spent over 15 years as a sustainable investor. He started his career at a hedge fund in London where he launched and co-managed a $40m long-short portfolio investing across renewable energy, alternative energy technology, biofuel and carbon, before spending the next 10+ years in private markets from Base of the Pyramid venture capital in India, to sustainable real assets in APAC. 

He currently serves as a NED of The Real Wild Estates Company, the first ecosystem and species restoration specialists for natural capital investors, delivering financial returns alongside biodiversity gains. Also a proud Trustee of the Historic England Foundation, supporting the work of the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, the public body responsible for championing England’s historic places, and helping people understand, value and care for them.

Denise joined PAI in 2022 as Head of the ESG & Sustainability team. She is responsible for developing PAI’s sustainability strategy and creating value through sustainability initiatives in the portfolio.

Denise joined from The World Bank Group’s private sector arm IFC, where she spent over 11 years based in the US and Europe. She was Head of Investor Relations & Sustainable Finance Coordination and chaired both the ESG Capital Markets Integration and Sustainable Finance Committees. Denise also served as Chair of the global Green, Social and Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles Steering Committee under ICMA. Denise started her career in the UK, working for Goldman Sachs, GE Capital and Lehman Brothers in various capital market roles.

Denise holds an MBA in Finance from Cornell University and a MSt in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge. She is an alumna of the Emerging Leaders Program at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Caroline heads up the Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) team at Hg and covers ESG topics across the firm and portfolio. Caroline is part of Hg’s Portfolio team and is working actively with Hg’s businesses to reduce risk, share best practice and improve ESG performance. She is also responsible for Hg’s ESG reporting to clients and other external stakeholders such as the UNPRI.

Caroline is part of the BVCA’s Responsible Investment Advisory Group, Invest Europe’s Responsible Investment Affiliate Network, as well as the UK Operating Committee of initiative Climate International (iCI). Furthermore, she is a Board Trustee of the Hg Foundation.

Before joining Hg in 2017, Caroline spent over eight years in strategy consulting and in-house sustainability roles across various industries, most recently as the global supply chain sustainability lead at GlaxoSmithKline. Caroline has a MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management from Lund University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and a Post Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Value Chains from Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.