Fri 19 May 2023 - It is clear that we, humanity, are not doing enough to address the risks and opportunities of climate change. In finance – investment, insurance and banking – we are bedevilled by the not-fit-for-purpose NGFS/CBES climate scenarios.
The good news is that a tipping point in finance is at hand. And actuaries can, and must, accelerate its arrival. How? We must enter the wheelhouse. When? ASAP. With what? With our risk and uncertainty skills (and a dash of public interest ‘fairness’). We need to help out the economists, and support regulators and policymakers. Perhaps the best opportunity of our careers!
The talk will:
At the IFoA, Sophie is a member of the Finance and Investment Board and the Risk Management Board and Chair of the Lifelong Learning Committee for Risk Management.
Sophie has expertise in business strategy and risk oversight in the financial sector. She has held senior roles at international investment banks BNP Paribas, JP Morgan, and ABN Amro over 25 years. She has led global projects with multicultural teams to improve business performance.
As a risk and strategy advisor, Sophie has focused on 3 topics: digitalisation at the International Banking Federation, board governance, diversity and inclusion for senior roles and community development at European Women on Boards.
She is a member of the Risk Coalition Advisory group, helping to raise the bar for risk management in financial services, and regularly gives back to London Business School as an MBA alumna.
Mike Clark is Founder Director of a responsible investment advisory firm. Mike represents IFoA on the Advisory Council of the Oxford's Smith School. He spent nearly four years as a NED at Brunel (LGPS). He was Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee for their 2018 green finance inquiry. He continues to be involved with the work of select committees, including on LDI.
Mike was a member of the team that built what became GFANZ. He had over 20 years at Russell Investments, and roles prior to that included Head of Fixed Income at a major insurer. He is a member of too many IFoA climate-related working parties, and is surprised to realise he started work 50 years ago this September!
He curated the IFoA climate reading list. Much of his work across the financial system focuses on the financial risks of climate change, and the uncertainty which lies “beyond risk”. He is currently trying to persuade the Bank of England that the current CBES scenario modelling is not fit for purpose! Victory is assured, he says, but is some way off…
Sandy Trust is passionate about climate change and sustainability. His personal mission is to help re-tool the financial system to deliver a future worth living in. He is passionate about this because we have a capital allocation problem: unless we change the way we think about investing, we will be unable to solve the climate and sustainability crises.
He works in financial services with large investors: pension schemes, asset managers, and insurance companies with typically several hundred billion dollars of assets under management. Sandy helps them to develop and implement their approaches to sustainability, allowing them to protect value, comply with regulation, and compete in this fast moving area.
Sandy is past Chair of the UK actuarial profession’s Sustainability Board. He was the first ESG hire into EY’s UK Financial Services business, helping to build its consulting capability in this space. He is Head of Organisational Risk at M&G plc, a FTSE 100 investment firm, where he is the risk lead on sustainability. Sandy also works in the charity sector and founded the UK branch of climate action charity Protect Our Winters UK.
He lives in Edinburgh with his wife and two children and loves getting outdoors.