ESG 101 (Members Only)

1. What is ESG and why has it become so important?
2. Director's responsibilities
3. ESG strategies and challenges

*Speakers*

Natalie Waller

An experienced leader in investment management with an excellent track record in equity portfolio management and trading. Skilled in indexing ecosystems and rich experience in fund management, ETF, Factor Investing, and ESG integration, including Decarbonisation, Climate Change, Sustainability, reporting, risk management, governance & regulatory frameworks. Rich Sell-Side and Buy-Side experience supporting a deep understanding of asset owners’ needs and expectations. Previous executive experience includes State Street Global Advisors, Gartmore and Nomura.

Dr Valentina Kretzschmar

Dr Valentina Kretzschmar has 25 years' experience in the energy sector. She is an expert on the energy transition of the oil and gas sector into clean energies.

In her current role as Energy Transition Director at Cairn Energy, she is responsible for the development of Cairn’s sustainability strategy aimed at delivering the company’s net-zero target by 2040.

Valentina joined Cairn after 18 years at Wood Mackenzie, where she served as Vice President of Corporate Research, leading the development of Corporate New Energy Research. Previously, Valentina worked as a Petroleum Engineer with Edinburgh Petroleum Services Ltd and Research Fellow in the Energy Group at the University of Edinburgh.

She is an Advisory Board Member at CauswayGT – a geothermal company. She also held a non-executive director role on the board of NHST Global Media (Norway).

Valentina has a BEng Honours Degree in Engineering from the University of Edinburgh, MSc in Advanced Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, London, a PhD in Clean Coal Technology from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA (Finance) from Durham University. Valentina is a Chartered Engineer (C.Eng. MIMechE) and holds a Non-executive Director Diploma.