Virtual panel discussion: Extending the lens on climate change: Beyond investment strategies to investment policy and capital market assumptions

Mirko Cardinale, Head of Investment Strategy – USS Investment Management

Mirko Cardinale is Head of Investment Strategy & Advice at USS Investment Management Limited (USSIM). In this role, he is responsible for investment advice to nonexecutive stakeholders, strategic asset allocation for DB and DC funds, dynamic asset allocation, and total portfolio management.

Prior to joining USSIM, Mirko was Head of Asset Allocation – EMEA at Russell Investments, where he designed model portfolios and reviewed the asset allocation of EMEA funds. Before that, he was Head of Strategic Asset Allocation and MultiAsset Fund Manager at Aviva Investors, overseeing the asset allocation of UK life and pension funds and managing the DC default fund for the Aviva Staff Pension Scheme.

Earlier in his career, Mirko was a Senior Investment Consultant at Watson Wyatt (now Willis Towers Watson), where he built an offshore research team in Uruguay, and a Research Manager at Financial Times Business.

Mirko holds a PhD in Finance from Imperial College London, an MSc in Economics from Universitat Pompeu i Fabra (Barcelona), and a BSc in Economics from Università Bocconi (Milan).

David Carlin, Founder – D.A. Carlin and Company

David Carlin advises governments and executives on how to thrive in a changing and volatile future. He is a globally recognized thought-leader on sustainability, finance, and innovation. He is the CEO of D.A. Carlin and Company, which provides future-proof tools and skills to organizations around the world.

He co-founded the Risk Centre at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which produces practical resources for the financial sector to manage environmental risks and capitalize on sustainable opportunities.

David has been an advisor to the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), the UK’s Transition Finance Council, the Glasgow Financial Alliances for Net Zero (GFANZ), and the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI).

A Forbes contributor and senior research associate at Cambridge, he also teaches sustainability strategy at University College Dublin.

David has spoken at numerous COPs and other international summits, and his work has appeared in the Financial Times and Time Magazine. He is the author of Accelerating Transition and The Customer is the Planet.

Gjermund Grimsby, Chief Advisor Climate Change – KLP

Gjermund is responsible for the climate and nature investment strategy at KLP, Norway’s largest private pension fund. He also serves on the board of Norsif, the Norwegian Forum for Responsible and Sustainable Investment. Prior to joining KLP, he was a Partner at Menon Economics, where he headed the advisory team on green transition and industrial policy.

Gjermund holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Oslo, with a research focus on 'competent capital.' He also holds a professional master’s degree from the University of Oslo, UC Berkeley, and Humboldt University in Berlin.

Sarah Wilson, Managing Director, Head of Climate Center of Excellence - Nuveen (a TIAA company)

Sarah Wilson is the head of the Climate Center of Excellence on the Responsible Investing team at Nuveen, the investment management business of TIAA.

Sarah leads a team that sets firm-level climate vision and accelerates alignment of brand, investment process, and products with the market’s rising climate expectations for the financial sector. Her team also advises on Net Zero implementation for the TIAA General Account. Throughout her career at Nuveen, Sarah has also led ESG integration across asset classes and, prior to that, within fixed income.

Prior to joining TIAA, Nuveen’s parent company, in 2015, Sarah managed corporate sustainability reporting and renewable energy credit portfolios for Green Mountain Energy, a subsidiary of NRG, and helped structure debt financing for renewable energy projects as a summer associate at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

She holds an M.B.A. and Master of Environmental Management from Yale University and a B.A. in Economics and Plan II Honors from the University of Texas at Austin. Sarah sits on the advisory board of the Yale Initiative for Sustainable Finance.

Maurits van Joolingen, Managing Director, Climate Scenarios & Sustainability - Ortec Finance (Moderator)

As Managing Director of the  Climate Scenarios & Sustainability team, Maurits is responsible for the development and expansion of  ClimateMAPS, Ortec Finance’s top-down climate scenario analysis solution to support the risk management needs of financial institutions.

Since joining Ortec Finance in 2008, Maurits has partnered with large institutional investors around the world, supporting them with their risk modelling and development of investment policies and strategy using Ortec Finance’s asset liability management and performance measurement technologies.

He has worked closely with leading global financial institutions, to develop machine learning optimization algorithms, as well as with CalPERS, the California-based pension and health benefit agency, to create a liquidity forecast model for its total portfolio.

Maurits holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Master of Science in Finance from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and is an accredited Financial Risk Manager from the Global Risk Management, Inc.