The Rise in Boardroom ESG: Speakers

Kim Baird
Owner
Kim Baird Strategic Consulting

Kim is the owner of Kim Baird Strategic Consulting and offers First Nation related and strategic advice to industry, government and First Nations.  While Chief of the Tsawwassen First Nation for over thirteen years, her most notable achievement was when she negotiated and implemented British Columbia’s first urban treaty, replacing the Indian Act with self-governance for her community.  She spent six years on the BC Hydro Board – providing her with in-depth knowledge on energy issues in BC.  She is on several boards including the Canada Infrastructure Bank, Vancouver Board of Trade, Canada Public Policy Forum, and Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.  Kim is a member of both the Order of British Columbia and the Order of Canada and holds an Institute of Corporate Director’s designation.

Helle Bank Jorgensen
CEO
Competent Boards Inc.

Renowned global sustainability, climate change, and ESG advisor with close to 30 years of experience helping companies and investors turn sustainability into strong financial results. Helle has worked with hundreds of world-leading companies, including IKEA, Nike, Levi's, Pfizer, Shell, Orsted, Unilever, Maersk, Novozymes, Novo Nordisk, Vestas, as well as SMEs and investors.

Competent Boards Certificate Program is a professional development program for boards, executives, investors and their advisors on how to identify, articulate and confidently act upon the most material environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects of their business. Over 70 of the greatest board stewards from around the world train participants in 12 online sessions related to ESG, Climate and Sustainability oversight and reporting. The program has engaged several world-class business leaders like Paul Polman, former Unilever CEO, who calls it an “Incredible initiative.”

Besides being a board member and running Competent Boards, she serves on His Royal Highness Prince of Wales A4S Global Expert Panel, the Cornerstone Capital Global Advisory Council, the WBCSD Governance & Internal Oversight High-Level Advisory Group,  The Ethical Corporation Global Responsible Business Awards 2020 Expert Judge team and the Future-Fit Business Benchmark Release Council. Helle is a Board Facilitator for the UN Global Compact Board Program and a regular keynote speaker and author of many thought-leading articles and books. 

Helle was the creator of the world's first Green Account based on lifecycle assessment, as well as the world's first Integrated Report, the first holistic supply chain program, and was the principal organizer for the CEO/Investor-network for Business Ethics and Non-Financial Reporting. She led the improvement of DJSI and CDP ranking and investor communication for global companies and has worked on Natural Capital Accounting for IFC/World Bank. 

Helle was a Partner with PwC for 11 years, building and leading sustainability and climate change practices in Europe and the US. She has extensive experience providing strategic and operational guidance to all functions within an organization, including advising at the C-suite and board level. 

Helle is a Business Lawyer, and State Authorized Public Accountant by training and holds a Master's degree in Business Administration and Auditing. 

John Bell
Chief Advisor Strategic Planning, Governance and Sustainability
BC Housing

John Bell holds the position of Chief Advisor, Strategic Planning, Governance and Sustainability at BC Housing. BC Housing is the provincial Crown corporation responsible for the administration and delivery of affordable and social housing programs across British Columbia, and also for the administration of the Homeowner Protection Act.

John has served as BC Housing’s corporate secretary since 2007. His unique combination of responsibilities enables the integration of strategic planning and sustainability with the overall governance practices of BC Housing. He holds a Masters degree in Environmental Studies from York University in Toronto where he studied housing and urban planning, and an Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Manitoba where he studies sociology and political studies.

Stephanie Bertels
Director, Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability, SFU Beedie School of Business and Founder, Embedding Project

Stephanie Bertels is the director of the Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability at Simon Fraser University's (SFU) Beedie School of Business in Vancouver, Canada. She founded and leads the Embedding Project, where she works with dozens of global companies to help them embed sustainability into their operations and decision-making. Stephanie developed an online knowledge portal (www.embeddingproject.org) featuring the most relevant corporate sustainability resources - including practical guides and tools developed through her own research. Her most recent work reviews of over 3200 board position statements and taps into interviews with over 300 global CEOs and Board Chairs to explore how corporate governance and corporate strategy processes are shifting to account for environmental and social constraints. Stephanie is the Chair of SFU’s Faculty Pension Plan and a regular fellow of the Salzburg Global Corporate Governance Seminar.

Jamie Bonham
Director, Corporate Engagement
NEI Investments

Jamie has over thirteen years of experience in researching and engaging with companies on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. At NEI he is responsible for managing the extractive industry corporate engagement program and conducting direct, collaborative dialogues aimed at mitigating risks for the companies within the NEI portfolio. Jamie is also responsible for the analysis of company performance and industry trends in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in order to support NEI’s thesis that companies can mitigate risk and take advantage of emerging business opportunities by integrating best ESG practices into their strategies and operations. He also oversees NEI’s public policy and research work on extractive industries and has authored numerous submissions and reports on topics ranging from climate change policy and environmental oversight to the duty to respect human rights.

Blythe Clark
Engagement & Stewardship Analyst
Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group Ltd.

Blythe Clark leads the Engagement & Stewardship team at Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group (CCLFG). With roots dating back to 1982, CCLFG has grown to become one of Canada’s largest privately owned asset management firms with its affiliate teams collectively managing over $76 billion in assets from offices located across Canada and in New York, Chicago and London. The Engagement & Stewardship team supports CCLFG’s active ownership activities including engagement with issuers, proxy voting and collaboration with other shareholders and advocacy organizations. Prior to joining CCLFG, Blythe worked at Bloomberg LP in London. Blythe obtained a BA from the University of British Columbia and an MSc International Political Economy from the London School of Economics.

Jennifer Coulson
Vice President, ESG
Public Markets

Jennifer Coulson has worked in the financial services industry for over 17 years.   She began her career in the mutual fund business working for a national firm that specializes in responsible investing solutions. As a senior member of the Public Markets Department at BCI she now oversees Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risk analysis for portfolio companies; engages with companies to manage ESG risk; develops public policy submissions on ESG matters of broad relevance to the investment industry; and oversees the proxy voting program. Jennifer has an undergraduate degree in Environment & Resource Management from the University of Western Ontario as well as a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University. She has attained the Institute of Corporate Directors designation (ICD.D); serves on the PIAC Investor Stewardship Committee; the 30% Club of Canada Steering Committee; and the Investment Advisory Committee for the University of Victoria Student Investment Fund. Jennifer was recently recognized as one of B.C’s Most Influential Women in Finance by BC Business Magazine.

Roopa Davé
Partner, Sustainability Services
KPMG

Roopa is a partner in KPMG’s Sustainability Services practice. Having trained as an accountant, Roopa focused her career on sustainability because she believes there is a role for business in addressing societal issues like climate change and human rights. She sees an opportunity for organizations and individuals to look beyond the traditional way of doing business and to recognize a wider group of diverse stakeholders and ever-changing business issues, whether environmental, social or economic, in their activities.

As a sustainability professional, Roopa works in a global setting helping clients and boards of directors to understand and respond to their shifting environments effectively and profitably by helping to reduce risks, find opportunities and ultimately build more resilient and sustainable businesses. She has over 14 years of experience delivering a range of services including ESG and climate risk identification, sustainability measurement and reporting, strategy, assurance, materiality and greenhouse gas emissions estimates and verifications.

Roopa has experience as a lecturer for BCIT’s Sustainable Business Leadership Program where she taught sustainable accounting and finance for four years.

Roopa holds an honors business administration undergraduate degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University, obtained her Chartered Professional Accountant designation in British Columbia and is a graduate of the Yale-WBCSD Leadership Program.

Michelle de Cordova
Principal
ESG Global Advisors

Michelle has played a prominent role in Canadian responsible investment for over ten years and has more than twenty years’ experience in sustainability. As a Principal at ESG Global Advisors, she works to bridge the gap between companies and investors on environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) factors: assisting companies and boards of directors to develop ESG strategies that generate long-term value and respond to emerging capital markets expectations, and assisting investors to integrate ESG to their investment processes. Prior to joining ESG Global in 2019, for eight years she was Director of Corporate Engagement at NEI Investments, leading the firm’s well-regarded program of dialogue with portfolio companies, engaged proxy voting, and public policy work on corporate regulations and standards. Before moving to Canada, she worked for ten years as a staff member and consultant for environment and social development non-profits in Europe, Asia, and Africa, including Oxfam and WWF, and earlier she served for six years in the U.K. Diplomatic Service. She holds a Master of Science degree in the management of integrated conservation and social development. Michelle is Vice-Chair of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance Environmental and Social Committee and has played a leading role in numerous industry-leading ESG collaborations at the Canadian Responsible Investment Association, the U.S. Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, and globally through the Principles for Responsible Investment and the Investor Alliance for Human Rights. She is a 2020 Clean50 Honouree for leadership in clean finance.

Wes Hall
Executive Chairman, KSS Group of Companies and Founder and Chair of The BlackNorth Initiative

Wes Hall came from very humble beginnings in Jamaica to become one of the most influential business people in Canada. He has established himself as the preeminent leader in shareholder advisory services and contested investor situations. Canada’s leading newspaper The Globe & Mail has called him one of the nation’s “most influential powerbrokers” and Canadian Business magazine named him one of the “most powerful business people” in 2016.

Wes is Founder and Chairman of The Canadian Council of Business Leaders Against Anti-Black Systemic Racism and the BlackNorth Initiative, committed to the removal of anti-Black systemic barriers negatively affecting the lives of Black Canadians.

Gary Hawton
Senior Director of Client Relations
Sustainalytics

As Senior Director of Client Relations at Sustainalytics, Gary drives business development for Sustainalytics in Canada. Prior to joining Sustainalytics, Gary was the CEO of Meritas Financial Group, where he was responsible for the development of the Meritas Mutual Funds, one of Canada’s leading socially responsible fund families. In 2010, Gary successfully led the firm to a merger with OceanRock, where he remained as President until 2016. Gary is an executive member of the Responsible Investment Association.

Lisa Hayles
Investment Manager
Trillium

Lisa Hayles is an investment manager in Trillium's Boston Office who joined the firm in 2020.  She has more than 18 years experience in sustainable investing, having worked in Canada, the UK and the U.S. advising clients on incorporating ESG analysis into investment approaches.   Lisa is a board member of the Thirty Percent Coalition, a national non-profit committed to raising the number of women on boards across the U.S.  She also serves as a resource person on responsible investment issues with Intentional Endowment's Network, and Confluence Philanthropy's Asset Owners Working Group.

 A native of Toronto, Canada, Lisa worked in the UK for a decade before relocating to New England in 2013. An enthusiastic traveler, dancer and yoga practitioner, she supports Womenade, a philanthropic giving circle funding community-based organizations serving women and girls in the greater Boston Area and also serves on the board of the Boston Impact Initiative, an impact fund focused on economic justice.​

Argiro Kotsalis
Vice President, Legal and Chief Governance Officer
Vancouver Airport Authority

Argiro joined YVR’s Executive Team in October 2015 following 19 years of private practice. She leads an in-house legal department that includes 7 lawyers servicing the organization. Argiro is directly involved with all material legal issues facing YVR, including identifying and mitigating risk through her oversight of the Insurance Portfolio and co-chairing YVR’s rigorous Enterprise Risk Management Program. She also has oversight of all corporate governance matters for YVR’s Board and its employees, and acts as Corporate Secretary to the Board of Directors. Argiro was recently named to The Legal 500 GC Powerlist: Canada 2020. During her tenure, the Governance Professionals of Canada have awarded Vancouver Airport Authority with numerous Excellence in Governance awards, most recently (2019) for Best Practices in Sustainability and ESG and Best Practices in Diversity and Inclusion.

Carol Liao
Associate Professor, Peter A. Allard School of Law
University of British Columbia

Dr. Carol Liao is an Associate Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law and the UBC Sauder Distinguished Scholar of the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics, UBC Sauder School of Business. She is a widely published scholar and award-winning teacher. She is the co-author of Business Organizations: Practice, Theory, and Emerging Challenges, and is a contributing author to a number of ground-breaking new books in business law & CSR: The Cambridge Handbook for Corporate Law, Corporate Governance, and Sustainability; The Cambridge Handbook for Social Enterprise Law; and Creating Corporate Sustainability: Gender as an Agent for Change.  Dr. Liao is a past Bertram Scholar of the Institute of Corporate Directors and a former senior associate in the New York Mergers and Acquisitions Group of Shearman & Sterling LLP, a global law firm. She is a steering committee member of the Themis International Network of Female Business Scholars, and is currently co-editing a collection on sustainable business models with Dr. Beate Sjåfjell of the University of Oslo. Her work has been cited in multiple media sources including The Globe and Mail, Financial Post, Director Journal, and Business in Vancouver.

Karina Litvack
Non-Executive Director, Eni S.p.A. and Founder/Executive Director of Chapter Zero

Karina serves on the boards of Italian Oil & Gas major Eni S.p.A., where she chairs the Sustainability & Scenarios Committee, and serves on the Remuneration Committee; the CFA Institute, home of the professional qualification for investment management professionals; and Business for Social Responsibility, a consultant specialising in sustainable business practice.  She is also Executive Board Director of Chapter Zero, and serves on the Senior Advisory Panel of oil & mining consultant Critical Resource and the Advisory Council of Transparency International UK. Previously, Karina had a 25-year career in Finance, latterly running the Governance and Sustainable Investment activities of UK asset manager F&C Investments*.

Since the passage of the Paris Agreement at CoP21 in 2015, Karina has been working to build a global network for fellow NEDs to share experiences, engage with technical experts and stakeholders, access specialised training, and help to drive more effective climate transition strategies in the boardroom. Under the auspices of the World Economic Forum, she co-founded the Climate Governance Initiative (CGI), home of the CGI Principles for Non-Executive Directors, and with colleagues in Italy, Malaysia, France, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Switzerland and several others in the pipeline, has been working to build a global network of national Chapters for directors.  Her focus in Chapter Zero, the UK Chapter of the CGI network, is on partnering with experts to develop new interdisciplinary content specifically designed for non-executive directors, and leveraging these across the global network of Chapters.

* now BMO Global Asset Management, a unit of the Bank of Montreal

Will Martindale
Director of Policy & Research
PRI

Will Martindale is Director of Policy and Research at PRI, the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment. Will leads PRI’s global regulatory affairs and public policy programme, the flagship fiduciary duty project jointly with UNEP FI and the implementation of PRI’s climate policy reform programme. Will has a background in banking, joining JPMorgan's graduate programme in June 2004. In September 2010, Will joined French bank, BNP Paribas, as a business manager for their credit trading desk. Will holds a MSC in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics and a BSC in Maths from King’s College London.

Penny McIntyre
Corporate Director
PVH

Penny McIntyre is a Senior Executive and international business leader with extensive experience living and working abroad at premier consumer packaged goods companies including Newell Rubbermaid, The Coca-Cola Company, and S.C. Johnson. Most recently, she was CEO and board member of Sunrise Senior Living, an international elder care residential company. She sits on the Board of Directors of PVH, where she chairs the Corporate Responsibility Committee and on the board of Primrose Schools, a private equity owned school for early childhood learning. She serves as an Advisor to the Board at Ocean Spray Cranberry Co-operative, providing counsel to the owner/grower board members on strategic, marketing, and growth initiatives. Penny is also the Chair of the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics, a non-profit established in 2015 associated with the University of British Columbia Sauder Business School focused on the furthering of ethical perspectives in business.

Penny is a dual citizen born in Montreal Canada and graduated from Western University’s Ivey Business School in 1982. She currently lives near Washington D.C. and attends Georgetown University in the Masters of Liberal Studies program.

Margie Parikh, C.Dir. MBA, CFP 
Principal, On Governance Consulting, & Board Director

On Governance helps organizations get results, tackling specific issues and assessing governance processes and performance: is the board adding value?

Margie serves on the boards of Camosun College, BC Oil and Gas Commission, and Oikocredit Canada, and chairs CISV International. She is the former Chair of MEC, Canada's beloved and leading outdoor equipment retailer.

A Chartered Director, Margie’s qualifications also include an MBA from Columbia University, the Certified Financial Planner designation, and NFP and Crown governance certifications from the Institute of Corporate Directors. At home in a global, multicultural setting, she helps boards and senior executives develop resilience to navigate and capitalize on opportunity in an increasingly fast-changing environment.

Margie is a Regional Ambassador for Women Get on Board, a mentor for G(irls)20 Girls on Boards, and a member of the 30% Club, all of which strive for greater representation of women in governance.

Boards, the great outdoors, and dark chocolate keep her days filled on the beautiful coast of Vancouver Island.

Ian Robertson, CFA, MBA, MA
Vice President, Director, Portfolio Manager
Odlum Brown Limited

Ian sits on the Odlum Brown Executive Committee and has been a leader in responsible investing and proxy voting at the firm.  He is an active member of the Responsible Investment Association (Canada) and the Institute of Corporate Directors, and a long-time volunteer at the University of British Columbia. 

Ian is a longstanding volunteer with the CFA Institute.  He is a past president of the Vancouver CFA society and chaired the institute’s global 2008 Annual Conference held in Vancouver. More recently, Ian volunteered for six years on the CFA Institute’s Disciplinary Review Committee.  He is a contributing author to the Financial Analysts Journal book reviews online and in print, and is a presenter for CFA Institute’s financial ethics seminars.

Ian is currently pursuing his DPhil (PhD) part-time at the University of Oxford, focusing on corporate governance and responsible investment.  He has presented on various aspects of responsible investment at industry and academic conferences.

Shannon Rohan
Chief Strategy Officer
Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE)

Shannon has worked in the areas of responsible investment and corporate sustainability for over 17 years. She is currently the Chief Strategy Officer at the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE) where she works with pension funds, foundations, Indigenous trusts and other asset owners to develop and implement responsible investment policies and practices. Shannon leads strategic projects for SHARE in the areas of climate change, decent work and reconciliation.

Dottie Schindlinger
Executive Director of the Diligent Institute

Diligent

Dottie Schindlinger is Executive Director of the Diligent Institute, the think tank and global governance research arm of Diligent Corporation, leading provider of secure corporate board communication and collaboration software used by over 650,000 directors and executives globally. In her role, Dottie provides thought leadership on governance, cybersecurity, and technology topics through presentations to boards and executives dozens of times each year at events around the globe. Her work has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and multiple governance and technology publications. She is co-author of the book, Governance in the Digital Age: A Guide for the Modern Corporate Board Director, ©2019, John Wiley & Sons, and she co-hosts the fortnightly show, The Corporate Director Podcast.

Dottie brings over twenty years’ experience in governance-related roles, including serving as a director, officer, committee chair, senior executive, governance consultant and trainer for private, public, and nonprofit boards. She was a founding team member of the tech start-up BoardEffect – a board management software provider focused on healthcare and nonprofit boards, acquired by Diligent in late 2016. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Diligent Institute and is the Vice Chair of the Board of the Alice Paul Institute, and she is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar on Corporate Governance. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Christie Stephenson
Executive Director, Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics
UBC Sauder School of Business
University of British Columbia

Christie Stephenson is the Executive Director of the Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics at the UBC Sauder School of Business. She previously spent more than 15 years at socially responsible investing firms Sustainalytics, NEI Investments (Ethical Funds) and Purpose Capital.

Christie also has more than two decades of diverse board experience, including having served as a director of cooperatives, non-profit organizations and private companies in diverse industries and ranging from startup to $100 million in annual revenue.She currently serves on the boards of the UBC Staff Pension Plan and Vancity Credit Union.

Coro Strandberg
President
Strandberg Consulting

Coro Strandberg is a leading expert in corporate social purpose, sustainability and social responsibility, with over thirty years’ experience in the field. She specializes in Purpose Governance, Sustainable Boards, Sustainability Strategy, Sustainable Risk Management, Sustainable Supply Chains and Sustainable Industry Associations. She is a Corporate Director of BC Lotteries Corporation, and a member of their Governance and Social Purpose Committee, and has over 20 years of corporate director experience in the financial sector, including three as Chair of the Board. She is a faculty member of the Conference Board of Canada's Director's College and of Governance Professionals of Canada where she trains Directors and Corporate Secretaries respectively on the board's role providing oversight of sustainability performance. She is an Associate with Canadian Business for Social Responsibility and a member of the Canadian Office of the Auditor General’s Senior Advisory Panel. In 2015 she was named the top CSR Consultant in Canada for her impacts. As a thought leader, she publishes research and opinions on next generation sustainability practices on her website at www.corostrandberg.com.

Andrew Sweeney
Vice President & Portfolio Manager
PH&N Institutional, RBC Global Asset Management

Andrew is an institutional portfolio manager specialized in equities and broad-based mandates with a focus on the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in institutional portfolios. He is a thought leader on ESG developments in the industry and, as a CFA charterholder and CPA, CA. Since entering the industry in 1995, Andrew has held analytical research responsibilities for most sectors within the Canadian equity market and, as a result, has acquired a strategic, long-term outlook on capital market dynamics.