Current board members
As the EY EMEIA Sustainability Tax Leader, Alenka helps companies navigate new green taxes and business impacts. She has over 20 years of experience advising multinationals on their operating model and digital transformations. Alenka is a UK Chartered Accountant.and UK Chartered Tax Advisor (CIOT).
Alexia Perversi is a qualified Chartered Accountant working at KPMG helping clients with sustainability reporting. She has experience in delivering sustainability and ESG governance, materiality assessment, strategy alignment, measurement, reporting and assurance services. Alexia is a member of the ISSB Technical Reference Group, she is Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) qualified and has contributed as a subject matter expert to projects sponsored by the Capitals Coalition.
Cecilia is a member of the ICAEW, and throughout 2024 will be supporting the Audit & Assurance Faculty’s work on climate and sustainability assurance. Prior to this Cecilia was a Head of Audit at Lloyds Banking Group responsible for climate risk and sustainability. She has extensive risk management and audit experience across financial services, and from her time at PwC where she trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in their Government and Public Sector practice.
Hannah is founder of Keartland & Co, which helps businesses to scale up and amplify their impact. She is a bold, strategic thinker who’s spent her career working in and with impact-focused organisations, including Innocent Drinks and Cancer Research UK where she was Innovation Director. She’s spent 20+ years leading innovation and change at director and board level with the unusual blend of having led both Innovation and Finance & Operations functions. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and a TEDx speaker.
Jan Bebbington is the Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University with a longstanding track record of research and publication on topics such as: the Sustainable Development Goals; sustainability science; motivations and rationales for non-financial reporting; carbon accounting; sustainability assessment and accounting education. Jan is also part of a long-term collaboration between ecologists and sustainability scientists that provides knowledge to a practice-based cohort of seafood companies who are seeking to actively contribute to ocean stewardship
Karen Ellis, Chief Economist at WWF-UK, has over 25 years of experience in both public and private sectors. She focuses on transforming the financial and economic system for sustainability. Ellis has represented WWF on the UK Government’s Transition Plan Taskforce and Green Technical Advisory Group. Her previous roles include working at HM Treasury, the Department for International Development, and the Overseas Development Institute. She began her career as a consultant for London Economics, advising on financial regulatory issues for private sector clients.
Katherine Quinn is the International Policy Lead at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Prior to moving to the UK, she worked in several roles with the Australian Government, including developing the Department of Defence’s first climate change resilience strategy, and representing Australia in a range of climate and security dialogues in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. She holds a masters in Public International Law specialising in international environmental law, and has worked as an Associate to Judge Neville in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia, as well as with UNHCR and ClientEarth.
Lee is a seasoned strategist with a keen eye for sustainable solutions. After qualifying as a chartered accountant with one of the UK’s top ten practices, Lee embarked on a diverse career journey, tackling senior finance roles across continents and industries. This experience granted him invaluable first-hand exposure to the challenges businesses face, particularly in the realm of carbon management and procurement.
Mardi McBrien is Director Strategic Affairs at the IFRS Foundation where she is currently playing an active role in setting up the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Prior to the IFRS Foundation, Mardi spent over a decade leading the global ESG standard setter, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB). Mardi has enjoyed an eclectic career which has seen her lead flagship environmental campaigns for WWF to working on the United Kingdom’s carbon market policy for their Department for Energy and Climate Change and public private partnership management for the UK timber supply chain.
Michelle Singleton joined Halma plc as Head of Sustainability in September 2020. Halma is a purpose-driven FTSE 50-listed group of around 45 small to medium sized manufacturing and engineering companies operating within the safety, health and environmental sectors. In this role, Michelle has led the creation of a sustainability strategy that builds on Halma’s positive impact, as well as providing education and support to Halma’s companies and managing external sustainability reporting and investor engagement.
Myfanwy is Head of ESG at BKL, Chartered Accountants and Tax Advisers. Myfanwy specialises in working with property & construction clients, as well as purpose-driven businesses across all sectors. She is developing ESG consultancy as a BKL service, using her auditor's experience of thorough reviews and the knowledge gained through her CISL qualification. She is passionate about sustainability conversations at SME level. As a longstanding member of BKL’s board, Myfanwy has driven BKL’s own Sustainability initiatives - in 2022, BKL became the first Top 100 accountancy firm to achieve B Corporation status.
After graduating from Loughborough University with a degree in Civil Engineering, Nick joined Price Waterhouse in London and was admitted to the PricewaterhouseCoopers partnership in 2003. He specialised in M&A related work, formed the financial services team in Transactions Services and was Global Financial Services Deals Leader. Since leaving practice in 2014 Nick has been CEO of a family office and CFO of a FinTech business. He is now expanding a portfolio of roles which include Non-Executive Director positions with ESG Book and private equity fund of funds business Qazaqstan Investment Corporation, as well as becoming an ICAEW Council Member.
Pyarali has 28 years of experience across several sectors and geographies, including four years as a banker and ten years at EY in the Transaction Advisory Services group. Whilst at EY, Pyarali was Head of the EY Canada Corporate Finance Renewable Energy and Cleantech team, and a senior member of the national Real Estate and Public Sector teams. Since leaving EY in 2011, Pyarali has predominantly worked with large and small purpose-driven organisations on issues spanning governance and strategic planning, financing, operational improvement, expansion, business due diligence, and ESG integration.
Ravi Abeywardana, qualified Chartered Accountant with ICAEW, is the Director of Strategic Affairs and Capacity Building at the IFRS Foundation. He is closely involved in the establishment of the International Sustainability Standards Board and ongoing standard developments, which is aimed at accelerating the convergence of global sustainability standards. Ravi has a demonstrated global understanding of business, corporate disclosures and driving action towards a global sustainable future where business plays a central role.
Reinoud Clemens is currently working as Sustainability Portfolio Manager within the Corporate Sustainability team of DSM-Firmenich, a global, purpose-led, science-based company active in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living. He is responsible for the Brighter Living Solutions program, which measures the environmental and social impact of the DSM product portfolio. Also, he takes part in EU-groups related to the new EU Sustainable Finance strategy, contributing to the newly developing CSRD and EU Taxonomy regulations.
Rodney Irwin is Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Senior Management Team at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), based in Geneva, Switzerland. Rodney is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and member of the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland. As COO, Rodney provides leadership of WBCSD’s Finance, HR, ICT and Facilities functions and is responsible for WBCSD’s corporate governance and statutory duties as the Company Secretary. He also leads the WBCSD Education program and is the course director of WBCSD’s flagship leadership programs.
Roshana is a Finance Director with over 20 years of experience mobilising capital to reduce inequality and embed social impact into decision making across local government, social housing and financial sectors. Throughout her career in the corporate, nonprofit, and public sectors, Roshana has advanced sustainable finance through developing new initiatives bringing together social policy and capital markets. She is currently on the board of Womankind Worldwide and the New Economics Foundation and is a diversity mentor for start-ups at Bayes Business School.
Rosie Dunscombe (FCA) founded Blue Crane Consulting in 2021 to provide business and the public sector with the skills and knowledge to integrate sustainability into accounting, business decisions and strategy. As a Chartered Accountant with a Masters in environmental economics she has 20 years’ experience focusing on accounting and sustainability. Her work includes developing sustainability training for accountants; enabling finance teams to integrate sustainability into accounting practices; and undertaking natural, social and human capitals assessments. She is author of the ICAEW’s Sustainability Certificate; lead author of the Capitals Coalition’s Biodiversity Guidance; and sits on the International Sustainability Standards Board’s Technical Reference Group.
Stephen Heathcote (FCA) joined PrimeGlobal in 2019 as its Chief Executive Officer. His extensive background in the accounting profession includes undertaking the COO role at the UK Financial Reporting Council, a senior management position at KPMG, leading the development of international risk-based auditing standards and over ten years in the senior management of a global membership association. PrimeGlobal is the 4th largest association of independent accounting firms in the world, with over 300 successful public accounting firms in over 100 countries.
