Sustainable Future Forum COP28

Sustainable Future Forum

For the first time, CNBC’s Sustainable Future Forum will take place in-person, hosted in Dubai alongside the UN’s flagship climate change conference, COP28.

Hosted by Steve Sedgwick, the Co-Anchor of CNBC’s flagship show ‘Squawk Box,’ the event will explore how global leaders of business, industry and public policy convey the vision of COP28 to consumers, societies and their other stakeholders.

Amid public scepticism about progress towards a sustainable future, and tension between short-term economic demands and long-term changes, how do advocates of sustainability across business and government convince people their strategy and policies are right?

How do you sell your vision of the future to win hearts and minds when many people are focused on the impacts of the economic downturn?

Speakers

Henry A. Fernandez

As MSCI’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Henry Fernandez has led the firm for almost three decades to its position today as a premier provider of indexes and portfolio-construction and risk-management tools, as well as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and climate data and research. MSCI is an S&P 500 company that is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It has revenues of over USD 2.2 billion and a market cap of over USD 40 billion. In 2019 and 2021, Mr. Fernandez was one of 30 executives named in the Barron’s list of the World’s Best CEOs (opens in a new tab).

Headquartered in New York, and with close to 5,000 employees in more than 25 countries, MSCI is a central connecting point for the global investment industry. MSCI’s clients are the world’s largest investors, including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, asset managers, mutual funds, ETF providers, hedge funds, and banks. The firm has pursued a successful growth strategy, both organically and through the acquisition of market-leading brands such as Barra, RiskMetrics, and Real Capital Analytics, and by developing an integrated set of industry-standard offerings to meet the rapidly changing needs of sophisticated global investors.

Prior to becoming CEO, Mr. Fernandez was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, where he worked in emerging-markets business strategy, equity derivatives sales and trading, mergers and acquisitions, mortgage-backed securities, and corporate finance. Prior to Morgan Stanley, he was President of the private-equity firm HispaniMedia, Inc., and founded Ferco Partners, Inc., a private-equity investment firm in Mexico. He was also a diplomat at the Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Fernandez serves on the boards of directors/trustees of Royalty Pharma plc, Stanford University, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, the Hoover Institution, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Foreign Policy Association, and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York. Previously, he served on the boards of trustees at Georgetown University, the Trinity School, the Browning School, and MexDer (Mexican Derivatives Exchange), and he was Chair of the Advisory Council at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Fernandez holds a BA degree in economics from Georgetown University and an MBA from Stanford University, and he pursued doctoral studies in economics at Princeton University. He was born in Mexico and grew up in Nicaragua, and now lives in New York City with his wife. They have three children.

Manny Maceda

Manny joined Bain & Company in 1988 and became the worldwide managing partner in 2018 (CEO and Chairman of the Board). He has held multiple leadership roles within Bain including Chairman of the Asia-Pacific region and Lead of Bain’s Full Potential Transformation Group, Performance Improvement practice and Reengineering practice. He previously served on the firm's Management Committee, Nominating Committee and Global Operating Committee.

As CEO, Manny has overseen Bain’s accelerated growth and transformation to embed digital and technology capabilities into Bain’s core business – while maintaining Bain’s culture and its ranking as one of the best places to work according to Glassdoor (top 4 for 14 years), Fortune, Vault and others.

Manny has also increased Bain’s focus on ESG through the launch of the firm’s Impact Investing, Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility as well as Diversity, Equity & Inclusion practices, its 10-year commitment to invest over $1.1 billion in pro bono consulting work, and partnerships with leading groups such as OneTen and The Asian American Foundation. Bain has earned a platinum rating from EcoVadis, the leading platform for environmental, social and ethical performance ratings for global supply chains since 2018, and after a decade of being carbon neutral, it recently announced carbon net negative status. Bain has also been named by Mogul as one of top 100 Workplaces for Diverse Representation and Top Pioneer in Diversity and Inclusion.

Throughout his over 30-year Bain career, Manny has advised CEOs from around the globe while being recognized as one of the foremost experts on advising companies through large-scale transformations. As a global CEO Manny has also built deep-expertise in areas including stakeholder capitalism, ESG and private capital.

He is a member of the US Business Roundtable, World Economic Forum’s International Business Council and Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, and the First Movers Coalition. He is an Advisory Board member of OneTen, a founding partner of The Asian American Foundation and a member of the MIT Sloan North American Advisory Board and Bridgespan Board of Directors.

Manny holds an MS in Management from MIT Sloan School of Management and a BS in Chemical Engineering (magna cum laude) from Illinois Institute of Technology.

He lives in the San Francisco area with his wife; they have four children.

Bob Dudley

Bob Dudley is Chairman of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), an international industry-led initiative established in 2014. OGCI’s 12 member companies work together to take practical action on climate change and accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in full support of the Paris Agreement and its aims.

Bob joined the oil and gas industry in 1979. He has held a variety of engineering, commercial and management positions worldwide.

Bob served as Group Chief Executive of BP from October 2010, and held the position for just under 10 years, before his retirement in March 2020.

He was appointed to the BP Board in 2009 with accountability for the Americas and Asia. Previous executive roles include Alternative and Renewable Energy activities and responsibilities for BP’s upstream business in Russia, the Caspian region and Africa.

Prior to that Bob was the President and CEO of TNK-BP in Moscow from 2003 to 2008.

Bob has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois, and graduate degrees from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and Southern Methodist University.

Bob has been married to Mary for 40 years. They have two children.

Dr. Angela Wilkinson

Angela is one of the world’s leading global energy futures experts, an experienced energy executive, a distinguished Oxford scholar and a published author. She has 30 years of experience in leading national, international and global multi-stakeholder transformation initiatives on a wide range of economic, energy, climate and sustainable development related challenges.

Angela has worked as a senior executive in the public-, private-, academic- and civic sectors. She was appointed Secretary General and CEO of the World Energy Council in 2019. Angela joined the Council in 2017 to create a practical energy transition leaders toolkit and direct a new strategic insights programme. Prior to that Angela led an upgrade in strategic foresight at the OECD, based in Paris. Prior corporate experience includes decades in Royal Dutch Shell and British Gas plc.

Angela is a Fellow of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Centre for Strategic Foresight, an International Advisory Board Member of the Russian Higher School of Economics, Moscow (HSE), and a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Science (WAAS). She has published four books and numerous articles. Angela has a PhD in Physics.

Hela Cheikhrouhou

Hela Cheikhrouhou is IFC’s regional Vice President for the Middle East, Central Asia, Türkiye, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. She is in charge of expanding IFC’s business in the region, focusing on the COVID-19 crisis response and building a pipeline of private sector investment opportunities, rooted in country strategies. Ms. Cheikhrouhou fosters strong relationships with government officials, clients, other development finance institutions, co-financiers, donors, and counterparts across the World Bank Group to identify opportunities for collaboration and broader impact as well as to enhance business delivery.

Previously, Ms. Cheikhrouhou was the CEO of Nithio, an artificial-intelligence-driven platform for clean energy investment.

In her home country of the Republic of Tunisia, she served as the Minister of Energy, Mining, and Renewables. She was the first Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, governed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Earlier on, Ms. Cheikhrouhou was the Director of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change for the African Development Bank, where she had also previously led the Private Infrastructure Finance and Public-Private Partnerships Division. She worked for the World Bank on financial sector development in Latin America and the Caribbean, joining through the Young Professionals Program. She started her career at Citibank, last serving as Regional Market Risk Manager for Maghreb countries and Country Treasurer for Morocco.

Ms. Cheikhrouhou brings 26 years of experience to IFC, including leadership roles in the financial sector, infrastructure finance, and climate finance in emerging and developing economies, having worked across Africa, Latin America, and Asia. She has experience in the areas of low-emission and climate-resilient investments, structured and blended finance, public-private partnerships, capital markets development, and financial inclusion.

Ms. Cheikhrouhou holds a Master of Science degree in Finance from HEC Montreal, Canada.

Hubert Keller

Hubert Keller has been a Managing Partner of the Lombard Odier Group since 2006 and Senior Managing Partner since 2021.

Hubert Keller has been primarily involved with the Group’s Asset Management business since 2009 and acted as the CEO of Lombard Odier Investment Managers until 2020.

He also coordinates the Group’s sustainable investment activities, including the alignment of investment strategies and portfolios with the environmental transition.

Hubert started his career at Compagnie Financière Tradition and SG Warburg Group. He subsequently moved to Deutsche Bank, working in corporate finance and capital markets before assuming global responsibility for Equity Capital Markets and becoming a member of the Executive Committee of its Global Banking division.

Dr. Jennifer Holmgren

Dr. Jennifer Holmgren is CEO of LanzaTech. Under Jennifer’s guidance, LanzaTech is developing a variety of platform chemicals and fuels, including the world’s first alternative jet fuel derived from industrial waste gases. She is also the Director and Chair of the LanzaJet Board of Directors. Prior to LanzaTech, Jennifer was VP and General Manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit at UOP LLC, a Honeywell Company. While there, she was a key driver of their leadership in low carbon aviation biofuels.

Jennifer has authored or co-authored 50 U.S. patents and more than 30 scientific publications and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). She is on the Governing Council for the Bio Energy Research Institute in India. The institute has been set up by the DBT (Department of Biotechnology, Indian Government) and IOC (Indian Oil Corporation). She also sits on the Board of Directors of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), the Board of Directors of Nature's Fynd, the Advisory Council for the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University, the National Academies' Board on Energy and Environmental Systems (BEES), the External Advisory Committee for the Advanced Energy Technologies Directorate (AET) at Argonne National Laboratory, the Advisory Council for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the Halliburton Labs Advisory Board, the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS International Advisory Council, and the Founder Advisory for The Engine, a venture capital fund built by MIT that invests in early-stage science and engineering companies.

Jennifer holds a B.Sc. degree from Harvey Mudd College, a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a MBA from the University of Chicago.

José Manuel Entrecanales Domecq

José Manuel Entrecanales Domecq is the Chairman and CEO of ACCIONA, a global company focused on sustainable solutions for climate change mitigation, adaptation, resilience and the decarbonization of the economy, through the development and management of infrastructure and services, particularly in renewable energy, water, transportation and mobility, waste, and eco-efficient buildings.

ACCIONA S.A. as well as ACCIONA Energía and Nordex A.G., are listed on the Spanish or the German Stock Exchanges (Ibex and DAX). The group has over 50,000 employees and presence in 52 countries.

José Manuel Entrecanales is an active member of some of the world's leading organizations promoting sustainable development and the fight against climate change, such as the United Nations Global Compact, the World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

Additionally, he serves as a trustee of various social, institutional, and philanthropic organizations, such as the Spanish Pro-CNIC Foundation for Cardiovascular Research, the Princess of Asturias Board of Trustees, the Prado Museum, the Instituto de Empresa Familiar, and the acciona.org foundation.

He has been awarded with the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese Empire, the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and is Ambassador of the Spain Brand (Marca España).

Steve Sedgwick

Steve Sedgwick is a Presenter and Co-Anchors CNBC’s flagship show ‘Squawk Box’ in EMEA. The three-hour programme, which broadcasts worldwide five days a week, bookends the opening of European equity markets and is a must see for financial professionals, C-suite executives and investors.

Sedgwick has spent over three decades in and around financial markets, first as a trader and then as a journalist.

Steve has attended high levels international events for CNBC for over a decade including key G7, G8 and G20 meetings, as well as the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia and the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he also routinely moderates key panels on a host of subjects.

Steve is also CNBC’s OPEC reporter, covering major meetings and interviewing top OPEC oil ministers, non-OPEC ministers and heads of bodies such as the IEA and EIA.

Prior to joining CNBC, Steve worked for the UK Press Association on the City desk and at Dow Jones on the European Markets desk. At Dow Jones, Steve regularly broke market-moving stories and was a contributor to The Wall Street Journal Europe.

Before his career in journalism, Steve spent 11 years trading in the financial markets, specialising in equity and bond market derivative products

Steve studied politics at the University of London, with a focus on world economic development, IMF, World Bank and WTO; and journalism at the National Council for Training Journalists.

Emma Crosby

Emma Crosby is an experienced broadcast journalist who currently presents on Sky News and regularly hosts TV and podcast content for CNBC’s commercial arm CNBC Catalyst. Prior to this, Emma presented Channel 5’s flagship evening news programme for five years, leaving at the end of 2015. Before anchoring 5 News, Emma co-presented the popular ITV breakfast show GMTV for 2 years. Prior to this, Emma enjoyed her first stint as a Sky News presenter, covering some of the biggest stories for the channel including the terrorist bombings of Glasgow Airport, which earned her a BAFTA for best news coverage. Emma’s specialism is business news, she cut her teeth as a presenter for CNBC, broadcasting out of London and New York, and later was Sky News' business presenter during the 2008 banking crisis.

Alongside Emma’s broadcasting career, Emma is an experienced conference host, moderator and awards presenter. Emma has hosted high level corporate panels from the World Economic Forum in Davos, and has worked with a wide range of businesses from FTSE 100 companies to trade associations and SME’s helping them deliver fantastic events and produce valuable corporate content whatever the medium - on stage, on TV, on radio, and online.

AGENDA

10:00AM

REGISTRATION

10:25AM

WELCOME

10:30AM

INVESTING IN THE FUTURE: HOW DO WE BRIDGE THE FINANCE GAP?

Reaching climate change targets will require $11 trillion of global investment by 2050, according to the U.N. Where do we find the financing to support shifts to new energy, urban planning, biodiversity, agriculture and supply chains? How do innovators sell their vision to investors and which sectors offer the best returns and where are the highest risks? How do we scale at pace the technologies needed to support the transition?

Hubert Keller, Senior Managing Partner, Lombard Odier

Henry Fernandez, Chairman and CEO, MSCI

Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, LanzaTech

José Manuel Entrecanales Domecq, Chairman and CEO, ACCIONA

11:30AM

CATALYST SPOTLIGHT: THE VISIONARY CEO'S GUIDE TO SUSTAINABILITY

This session is sponsored by Bain & Company and brought to you by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial arm of CNBC.

Manny Maceda, CEO, Bain & Company

12:00PM

THE ENERGY TRANSITION: IS THERE A UNITED FRONT?

How can national policy makers, global corporations and investors best collaborate to speed up the transition of energy supply from fossil fuel to a range of sustainable and affordable alternatives and accelerate the pace of energy efficiencies? As we head into a year where three of the world’s largest economies have elections, how do we balance climate reform and decarbonisation with short-term economic needs?

Bob Dudley, Chairman, Oil and Gas Climate Initiative and former Group Chief Executive, BP

Dr. Angela Wilkinson, Secretary General & CEO, World Energy Council

Hela Cheikhrouhou, Regional Vice President, Middle East, Central Asia, Türkiye, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, IFC

1:00PM