Andreas Armyros has over 20 years of experience in capital markets, treasury and strategic corporate finance. Currently, his is heading the capital and financing group and performing a leadership role at DZ BANK by advising group treasury and a broad range of institutional clients (financial institutions, corporates, Mittelstand and investors) on capital, bond and financing transactions, green finance, resolution and regulation, strategy and treasury projects. Further on he is in charge of the funding coordination in group treasury. He and his group have strong structuring and execution skills (both from a business and legal perspective) in transactions and projects and a proven track record like DZ BANK’s successful EUR 1,1 bn. AT 1 Offering in 2023.

Jason Andreou is Senior Portfolio Manager at EIB Treasury, leading a team managing fixed income portfolios on behalf of EIB's external clients. The team manages over EUR20bn in assets across the full investment grade universe. Prior to joining EIB in 2017, he worked as a fixed income market maker for RBC Capital Markets in London, Hong Kong and Toronto.

Tim Armbruster is Treasurer and Head of Financial Markets department and serves as a member of the Supervisory Board of The Currency Exchange Fund N.V.. He joined KfW in March 2020. Before he joined KfW, he was Treasurer of the Federal Government`s Winddown Institution (FMS-WM) and Aareal Bank AG.

Raphael Auer is head of the BIS Innovation Hub Eurosystem Centre, which is located in Frankfurt and Paris. Before taking up his current assignment, he was Principal Economist in the BIS's Innovation and Digital Economy and Monetary Policy units. Before that, he was Deputy Head of the International Trade and Capital Flows unit at the Swiss National Bank, a Globalization and Governance Fellow at Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and a junior visiting fellow at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Raphael holds a PhD in economics from MIT and is president of the Central Bank Research Association. He has published on topics relating to international macroeconomics, exchange rate pass-through, and digital currencies.

Hisham Badr is National Coordinator of the National Initiative for Green & SmartProjects- COP 27, the Egyptian Ministry of Planning and Economic Development. With a focus on all agriculture, waste management and water security projects. He is the General Supervisor for the Egyptian Government Excellence.

Sonia Baldeira is a senior analyst for infrastructure and building with Bloomberg Intelligence. Before joining Bloomberg in 2014, she was head of investor relations at an Euronext listed industrial group, this after being ten years in Investments Banking in Iberia. Sonia has a degree in Economics, a Master in Finance from Catolica University in Lisbon, and a Master degree in International Strategy and Diplomacy at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where she defended a thesis on the Belt Road Initiative and China's Power.

Souâd Benkredda joined the Board of Managing Directors of DZ BANK AG in September 2022, where she is responsible for Capital Markets - Institutional Clients, Trading, Retail Banking and Group-Treasury. She was previously Global Head of Strategic Investor Group Sales at Standard Chartered Bank, responsible for servicing an institutional clients segment globally. She started her career in 2001 in the Global Markets division of Deutsche Bank and held various management positions in different markets over the course of 16 years in Frankfurt, Dubai and London. Born in Frankfurt, Souâd Benkredda studied Business Administration in Frankfurt am Main and Paris, graduating with a "Diplom-Betriebswirtin" (MBA) and a "Maîtrise en Sciences de Gestion".

Michael Bennett is the head of market solutions and structured finance in the Treasury Department of the World Bank. He has spent more than 20 years with the World Bank and has worked in both the World Bank’s Paris office and its Washington DC headquarters. Among other areas, he is responsible for the World Bank's capital markets work related to new structured instruments and catastrophe risk financing. He has led the World Bank’s execution of many landmark transactions, including the first multilateral development bank issued catastrophe bond, the first global pandemic bond, the first vaccine sukuk, the first wildlife conservation bond and the first bond linked to carbon and plastic credits. Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked for two international investment banks in Tokyo and Hong Kong. He is a graduate of Columbia University School of Law.

H.-Theo Brockmann started his career at DZ BANK AG in 1995, where he held various leading positions in the Capital Markets Division. In May 2013 Theo was appointed as a Managing Director of DZ BANK AG and its Global Head of Capital Markets Business Institutional Clients. He oversees the entire treasury and asset-liability-management-solutions to cooperative banks, fixed income, foreign exchange, ETD and OTC derivatives, money-markets-business, equity-sales to Institutional and Corporate Clients, Equity and Debt Capital Markets and the Business, - Process - and Institutional Client Management. Theo is also member of the Advisory Committee of Union Investment Institutional GmbH and the Investment Advisory Committee of DZ BANK’s Pension Trust e.V..

Menno Broos is the project lead for the digital euro at the Nederlandsche Bank, the Dutch central bank. In this capacity, he participates in the project steering group (PSG) of the digital euro project together with other counterparts from the Eurosystem. Before this role, he has worked as a principal expert in market infrastructures policy in the payments division of DNB and in the financial stability division. Menno was previously seconded to the ECB in Frankfurt and has represented DNB in various international meetings in working groups worldwide. He studied economics at the University of Amsterdam and also holds a Master of Science in Financial Management from Nyenrode Business Universiteit.

Ruurd Brouwer was appointed CEO of TCX in January 2015. Since, the fund grew tremendously in impact, visibility and in catalysing the private sector. Prior to joining TCX he held several senior management positions within FMO, the Dutch development bank, amongst which Global Head Financial Institutions and Director Credit, chairing the Bank’s Credit Committee. As investment officer he focused on investments in financial institutions, infrastructure and capital market development. Ruurd started his career in 1993 with the United Nations Protection Force in Croatia and Bosnia Hercegovina, after which he joined the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the private sector department. Ruurd is an experienced Supervisory Board member, having served on the Board of Directors and/or investment committee of financial institutions and funds in Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Mauritania and of EM focused (PE) funds based in the UK, the US, Geneva and Luxemburg. He currently chairs the Board of Directors of the Global Gender Smart Fund, the world’s largest gender lens investment fund. Parallel to his professional career Ruurd was lecturer International Finance at The Hague University of Applied Sciences and Guest Lecturer at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and the Institute of Social Studies. He thoroughly enjoys teaching on Sustainable Banking, Emerging Markets and Financial Instability and he publishes frequently on these topics.

Nicolas Charnay is a Managing Director & Sector Lead in S&P Global Ratings’ Financial Services Ratings team, based in Frankfurt. He leads on the publication of research commentaries on key sectoral trends and topics and represents the European FI ratings team externally. As chair of rating committees, he also oversees the analytical activities for major European banks. Before joining S&P Global Ratings in January 2022, Nicolas was an Adviser in banking supervision at the ECB. He holds an M.Sc. in Management from HEC Paris and an M.Sc. in Public Law from Sorbonne University.

Sagarika leads on finance for the UN Climate Change High-level Champions, HE Ms Razan Al Mubarak (UAE) and Ms Nigar Arpadarai (Azerbaijan). The Champions catalyse climate action and act as a bridge for non-state actors to parties to the Paris Agreement, with 13,000 non-state actors from over 130 countries in their network. This includes corporates, cities and financial institutions. The Champions’ finance priorities in 2024 include mobilising capital for developing countries, financing nature, adaptation, net zero and transition. Sagarika initially joined the Champions on secondment from the PRI and helped establish GFANZ with the COP26 Private Finance Hub. Sagarika was PRI’s Director of Climate Change and the Environment, having set up PRI’s climate change work including the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, the Inevitable Policy Response and early green finance work in China. Sagarika was seconded to PRI signatory Aviva Investors, to support Aviva and the PRI Chair’s in the TCFD recommendations. Before PRI, Sagarika worked for over ten years at F&C Asset Management, was as an investment committee member for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for five years and a trustee at Earthwatch, an environmental research organisation. Sagarika started her career in a commercial role sourcing independently certified timber for B&Q, part of European retailer Kingfisher plc. Sagarika serves as an expert on the advisory board of the Imperial College Business School Centre for Climate Finance and Investment, on the Global Capacity-Building Coalition Working Group and on the GFANZ workstream on Mainstreaming Transition Finance and Real Economy Transition. Sagarika has an MSc in Development Studies from University of London, a post-graduate diploma in Management Studies from the University of Oxford and a BA in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge. Sagarika is bilingual in English and Bengali.

Adam Cotter is senior vice president, senior executive banking of DZ BANK AG stationed in Singapore. His primary focus is to lead strategic engagement with government, sovereign supranational agencies, and other official institutions in the Asia and Pacific region.

Constantin M. is Global Head of International External Relations for Bloomberg L.P., Chairman of Bloomberg Tradebook, and a Board Director of Bloomberg Multilateral Trading Facility Ltd, Bloomberg Index Services and Bloomberg Data Reporting Services. He sits on the Mayor of London Economic Advisory Board and sat on the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council in 2018 and the Chancellors Advisory Council in 2020. He was previously CEO of Bloomberg’s legal and regulatory news and research division. He joined Bloomberg in 2001 as Chief Counsel. Prior to Bloomberg, Cotzias was a senior mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Denton Wilde Sapte (presently known as Dentons), one of the United Kingdom’s largest law firms, where he advised on mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and IPOs across industries including media, telecoms, technology, and energy. From 1998-2000, he was Chief Counsel of Denton Wilde Sapte’s Moscow office. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Modern History and Politics and is a Law graduate from the London School of Economics (University of London). He earned honours in the English Law Society Final Examinations and is a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.

Andrew Cross was appointed to the position of Chief Financial Officer of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on January. 1, 2020. His primary responsibility is to provide strategic and technical leadership in financial and treasury management to ensure AIIB’s sustainable financial strength and steady growth in financial resources. He also prioritizes the safeguarding of AIIB’s Triple A credit ratings in support of the Bank’s overall mission. Cross joined AIIB in May 2019 and served as the Assistant CFO before his appointment. Prior to this, Cross was the Deputy Treasurer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. He supported the IFC Treasurer in providing leadership and oversight for IFC treasury hub operations in London and Singapore. He joined IFC in January 2006 as a Principal Financial Officer and was a member of the funding team. He was also involved in IFC’s market borrowing operations and its emerging market local currency issuance program. Cross was an investment banker at Merrill Lynch International from 1993 onwards, initially based in London. He worked as a Director in Debt Capital Markets with responsibilities spanning sovereign, corporate and financial institution clients in the Europe, Middle East and African regions. From 2000 to 2002, he was based in Johannesburg at Merrill Lynch International with responsibilities for Southern Africa debt capital markets. Cross has an undergraduate degree from the University of Waikato, New Zealand and an MBA from the University of Cranfield, United Kingdom.

Lucia De Carlo is Head of the Division for Sustainable Economic and Financial Systems at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). She has held various positions there, including on the ministry's management staff and in the areas of cooperation with the private sector, sustainable economic policy, new private donors, political planning and strategic management.

Thilo has worked for the German Stock Exchange for 24 years, of which he spent the last 18 years in their Post-Trade business at Clearstream.

He has spent most of his career in client-facing and sales roles but also ran the Asset Servicing Product for Clearstream for several years.

In his current role he is responsible for Business Strategy, Business Development and Commercialisation of Clearstream’s Isuer Services Business, covering traditional as well as digital and tokenized asset issuance topics globally.

Matthias Ebert is Head of DCM FIG Origination at DZ BANK AG in Frankfurt. Within the firm's debt capital markets unit, he is responsible for the bond origination from financial institution groups globally. He joined DZ BANK in November 2019 from Commerzbank in London where he successfully built a debt capital market bond coverage team for financial institutions in North America and Asia-Pacific. During his career he has gathered in-depth experience in advising, structuring and executing covered, senior and subordinated notes in GBP, CHF and EUR for clients in Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America. Matthias holds a Master Degree in Economics from the University of Giessen in Germany.

Dr Frank Engels has been a member of the Executive Board of Union Asset Management Holding AG since July 2022. As Chief Investment Officer he is responsible for securities portfolio management. Prior to that Frank was Global Head of Fixed Income at DWS for six months. He already worked at Union Investment from 2012 to 2021, initially as Head of Fixed Income. In August 2014 he was appointed to the Management Board of Union Investment Privatfonds GmbH and also took over as Head of Multi Asset at the beginning of 2017. At the end of 2017 he became Head of Portfolio Management and Chairman of the Union Investment Committee.

Marcello Estevão is the incoming Managing Director and Chief Economist of the Institute of International Finance located in Washington, DC, USA, starting on July 1, 2024. He is also a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University, with a focus on macroeconomic crises and debt sustainability. Dr. Estevão has many years of experience as a policymaker and researcher in international and national institutions both in the public and private sectors. He has led work in a wide range of topics, going from sovereign debt crises, fiscal policy issues, climate financing, and economic forecasting to obstacles for higher emerging market and developing countries’ productivity growth, inflation risks, capital flow volatility, and macroeconomic stabilization strategies. He joins IIF from the World Bank Group, where he has been serving as Senior Advisor for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions and Global Director of Macroeconomics, Trade, and Investment. In this role, he oversaw the World Bank’s global macroeconomic agenda and provided strategic intellectual direction for a large team of professionals, working in all regions of the world. Prior to joining the World Bank, Dr. Estevão used his policymaking skills as Deputy Minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance in Brazil, serving as Brazil’s G20 Deputy and leader of numerous international negotiations and positioning at major multilateral institutions. He was also a Board member of Brazil’s third largest pension fund. Previously, he worked at Tudor Investment Corporation as its Chief Economist for North America and Oceania, when he interacted with a broad array of portfolio managers, policymakers, and researchers to distill economic and policy events and market positioning into investment strategies; roles of increasing responsibility at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which included leading negotiations of IMF programs, writing regional and global reports, and doing original academic research; and the Research and Statistics Division of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board as a researcher and member of the US forecasting team. Dr. Estevão holds a PhD in Economics from MIT, as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. He has an extensive body of published work in peer-reviewed academic journals, books, policy reports, and media. A native of Brazil, he is fluent in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French.

Gareth joined Temasek in 2014 and is a member of the Macro Strategy team based in London with responsibility for covering Europe. He began his career in 1994 working for Capel-Cure Myers as a quant analyst. Subsequently he worked as a European equity strategist at Nikko Europe, then ING Barings. He then moved to UBS as Head of UK equity strategy where he was the lead author of Warburg’s long running publication, The Friday Equity Briefing and was voted No.1 for UK country analysis in the 2009 Extel Survey. From there he moved to Deutsche Bank where he became Head of European equity strategy and the team was ranked no.1 in the 2012 Institutional Investor Survey. He has a degree in Mathematics and masters degree in International Economics, Banking and Finance from Cardiff Business School.

Gaston Gelos is Deputy Head of the Monetary and Economic Department and Head of Financial Stability at the Bank for International Settlements. In that role, he is also a member of the Bank’s senior management team. He leads policy-based analytical work and oversees the work of the secretariats of various committees. He also represents the BIS externally in senior groups, including the Financial Stability Board and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Previously, he was Assistant Director at the Western Hemisphere Department of the IMF, where he was mission chief for Mexico. Between 2017 and 2022, he was the Chief of the IMF’s Monetary and Macroprudential Policies Division and before that, Chief of the Global Financial Stability Analysis Division, where he led the work on the analytical chapters of the IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report. Previously, he held a variety of other positions at the IMF, including as Resident Representative to Argentina and Uruguay. His research includes work on capital flows, financial stability, and monetary policy, and has been published widely in leading academic journals. He holds a Ph.D. from Yale University and a Diplom from Bonn University. He is a CEPR Research Fellow.

Philip Grosse has been member of the Management Board of Vonovia SE as Chief Financial Officer since January 2022. After studying business management, he worked in investment banking in Frankfurt and London between 1997 and 2012, most recently as Managing Director and Head of Equity Capital Markets Germany & Austria at Credit Suisse. As of 2013, Philip Grosse worked in leadership roles focusing on corporate finance and investor relations for the Deutsche Wohnen Group. He was appointed to the Management Board of Deutsche Wohnen as CFO in 2016.

Steffen is Head of CRE Finance International and Institutional Investors & Syndication at DZ HYP. He has several years of experience in Corporate Banking in Asia and Commercial Real Estate Finance with international institutional and private investors in Europe and North America. He started his professional life as a trade representative of the Hamburg based East-Asia Association (OAV) in Vietnam and later worked in various senior banking positions in the International Business of Berliner Bank and Bankgesellschaft Berlin AG. Before joining DZ HYP in 2008 Steffen was Head of Business Development at Berlin-Hannoversche Hypothekenbank AG/Landesbank Berlin AG.

Dr. Alexandra Hachmeister was born in Hamburg in 1975. From 1994 to 1999 she studied business administration at the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel, with study stays in the USA and France. From 1999 to 2007 she worked in various positions at Deutsche Börse AG and completed a doctorate in 2007. In the following years, she held several management positions at Deutsche Börse AG, including department head and chief regulatory officer. From 2019 to 2021 she was Managing Director for Market Data & Services. In January 2022, she moved to the Deutsche Bundesbank and took over the management of the central department for economic education, universities and the international central bank dialogue. Since February 1, 2024, Alexandra Hachmeister has headed the newly founded Digital Euro central department.

Tobias is member of Münchener Hypothkenbank’s treasury team based in Munich since 2007. As senior funding manager his responsibility is the refinancing of the bank as well as the domestic and non-domestic bank relationships. He is involved in strategic topics, developing new products and projects. Some highlights of the last years have been an introduction of a IT-Front-Office system and an acquisition and merger of a mortgage bank. Tobias is an expert in derivatives and a frequent speaker at conferences. With his passion and knowledge in Covered Bonds, he is member of working groups within the German Pfandbrief Association (vdp) for many years. Before he started at Münchener Hypothekenbank, he studied economic and financial mathematics at Technical University of Munich.

I have some 20+ years of international work experience, mostly in project & structured finance. I started my career on the lending side when working for the World Bank Group in Washington DC and various field offices, financing infrastructure projects in Emerging Markets. When returning to Europe, I joined industrial sponsor HOCHTIEF, where I managed numerous international and European PPP projects in roads, airports, ports, renewable energy and social infrastructure, structuring bank, rated and un-rated bond as well as hybrid financings.

For several years I supported the Group’s business development efforts in Poland while residing in the country. I also gained operational experience when being seconded to one of HOCHTIEF’s Project Companies in Greece.

In 2023 I took over the Group’s Project Finance Department, heading a diverse team of experienced and committed professionals. Part of our current efforts also include supporting HOCHTIEF’s new initiatives such as EV charging and Data Centers, with an aim to leverage the Group’s equity as the investments are being scaled up.

Since 2023 I am a guest lecturer at Dortmund University introducing students to the principles of project finance.

During my master program of Finance & Business Administration in Germany and Great Britain, I was a working student with Arthur Andersen / EY in Leipzig and Shanghai and interned for the strategy consulting firm Roland Berger in Munich.

Dr. Axel Hesse is Founder, Shareholder & Managing Director of SD-M® GmbH, a Germany based provider for non-financial ESG data. Since 2010, SD-M has been developing global standards for material ESG KPIs, so-called "Sustainable Development Key Performance Indicators" (SD-KPIs). Axel has 30 years of experience in Sustainable Finance and has published numerous studies on the sustainable investments of institutional investors as well as on the sustainable indicators that are relevant to financial performance. His PhD thesis was devoted to Sustainable Banking.

Dag Hjelle is heading the treasury in SR-Bank. He is also the CEO of SR-Boligkreditt. Hjelle holds a master in finance from the Norwegian School of Economics.

Christoph Hock is a managing director and Head of Tokenisation and Digital Assets (PM). He joined Union in 2014 and, with his team, is responsible for all trading activities associated with portfolio management of cash equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, listed and OTC derivatives, fund and ETF business and securities lending. Recently, Christoph has established an organizational structure with high touch trading, electronic solutions & technology and trading- & regulatory services as the groups within his team. Christoph graduated with a bachelor’s degree in banking and obtained an MBA degree from St Galler Business School in 2022. He has more than 25 years of international investment banking, trading and management experience, having worked for companies on the sell- and buy-side. Christoph was head of Execution Sales at Barclays Bank. He was founder, partner and co-CEO/Head of Portfolio Management and Trading at Tungsten Capital Management, a hedge fund company. Prior to this, Christoph was Head of Proprietary Equity Derivatives Desk at J.P. Morgan.

Helena Huang joined ICBC Standard Bank in 2016 as China Economist in Global Markets Department. At ICBC Standard Bank, Helena provides frequent market commentary on China macro, produces leading China markets and strategy research, and develops content for clients across fixed income, currencies and commodities. She led the launch of the Belt and Road Economic Indices research series, which offers unique insight into China’s growing connectivity across emerging economies. Her focus is to deliver China macroeconomic and market insights to international clients and stakeholders with interest in China as part of the emerging markets asset allocation. Prior to this role, she has worked as senior research officer at Bank of China and researcher in international economics department at Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs) since 2011 in London. Helena’s main research interests include China macroeconomic conditions and the spillover effects, the RMB internationalization strategy, and the international monetary system. Helena holds degrees in economics and international public policy, and was educated at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, University of Pennsylvania and University College London.

Adam holds a Diploma in International Business from the International Business School Berlin, Germany and a Bachelor of Arts in International Business Administration from the University of Lincoln, UK. He joined Union Investment in 2005 and was responsible for property investments and sales in Spain and the UK until 2012. From 2012 until 2016 he focussed on transactions in the UK. Adam has also worked in Union Investment’s Singapore and New York City office in 2015. Between 2017 and 2023 Adam was Head of the Investment Management Europe Office team, which covers the European investment markets (acquisitions and sales) outside the DACH region. Since August 2023 Adam is Head of the Investment Management Global department which covers the overseas regions in the Americas, UK/ Ireland and Asia-Pacific, where Union Investment has local offices in New York, London and Singapore.

In that role, he is responsible for stewarding the innovation strategy, executing on the portfolio of innovation sprints and leading the response to disruptive 'new frontier' trends such as digital currencies and tokenised assets. Nick has a wealth of experience from over 20 years working in payments and banking across developed and emerging markets. Prior to joining Swift in July 2020, he was Managing Director for Future Payments at Barclays, creating next-gen customer experiences and partnering with FinTechs. His expertise is in digital payments, growth strategies and product development, grounded in behavioural trends. Nick is a thought leader and financial sector influencer.

Jürgen Kern is Head of Corporate Strategy and Sustainability at KfW Group. He is responsible for advising KfW’s Board on business strategies and sustainability including the management of KfW’s subsidiaries. Jürgen Kern is also representing KfW in Germanys Sustainable Finance Advisory Committee and a member of the stakeholder committee of French Caisse des Dépôts. He has more than 20 years of Experience in International Development Finance. Among others he was Head of Division Energy South East Europe, Director of KfW in Brazil and seconded to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Jürgen Kern holds a master’s degree in international economics. He is also an INSEAD and German Development Institute Alumni.

Dr Friederike (Fritzi) Köhler-Geib is Chief Economist of KfW Group and Head of KfW Research. Prior to this, she spent more than 10 years at the World Bank, most recently in the position of Lead Economist and Programme Leader for Central America. She studied Economics in the USA, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. As Chief Economist of KfW Group, she analyses trends relevant for KfW in the economy, society and on the financial markets and brings a new dynamic to the economic and financial policy debate. The focus of her work lies in the analyses of economic developments and growth trends in Germany. A particular focus is placed on small and medium-sized enterprises and the role of innovation and digitalisation in improving competitiveness, as well as issues related to the goal of a climate-neutral economy. Furthermore, Dr Fritzi Köhler-Geib also actively addresses economic policy connections between Germany, Europe and the world.

Peter Kohl-Landgraf holds a diploma degree in business mathematics. He works as Senior Business Analyst at DZ BANK’s capital markets trading department with over a decade of experience in risk management and quantitative analytics related to structured products and derivatives. Besides other digitalization projects Kohl-Landgraf is Product Owner of the Smart Derivative Contract project. This cross-institutional initiative aims risk reduced and efficient processing of OTC derivatives by the use of DLT and smart contracts.

Robert Koller is a rare expert with in-depth knowledge of every single step and stakeholder in the primary capital markets value chain. He has also a deep understanding of programming and IT processes paired with 15+ years’ experience as a lawyer and partner in top tier law firms. As a lawyer Robert has vast expertise in debt capital markets, regulatory and funds as well as in the social impact area. This unique combination of both, IT, and law, allowed him to develop NowCM – the world’s first regulated market infrastructure provider and issuer within the primary debt capital markets that offers a market-leading, cloud-native data platform for creating, negotiating, and managing debt, along with an end-to-end secure, digital workflow platform. Robert has also made himself a known name in European law by winning a landmark case before the European Court of Justice and the Austrian Constitutional Court.

Antti Kontio has more than 16 years of experience in the international capital markets. In his current position Antti is responsible for all long-term funding operations and sustainability issues at MuniFin. Funding activities include pricing and execution of funding transactions (EUR 10-12 billion annually), execution of derivative transactions and bond buybacks. An important part of the role is the long-term funding planning and being a member of the Capital Markets and Sustainability Management Team. Antti and his team are responsible for investor relations and co-operation with the bank community. Furthermore, Antti is responsible for sustainability issues at a company level. This includes establishing and developing company-wide strategies, long-term goals and policies. Between 2015 and 2016 he led the Green finance project and between 2019 and 2020 the Social finance project at MuniFin. Antti Kontio holds an MSc (Econ) degree from Aalto University School of Business with Finance as major. He is also a CFA Charterholder.

Christian Kopf joined Union Investment in September 2017 as Managing Director and CIO Fixed Income and FX. He oversees a team of more than 50 investment managers and approximately € 60 billion in assets under management. Mr Kopf is one of the Union Investment Committee’s six voting members. On a monthly basis, the UIC lays out Union Investment’s asset allocation and thereby sets guidelines for tactical fund positioning by the firm’s portfolio managers. Prior to joining Union Investment, Mr Kopf spent eleven years in the London office of Spinnaker Capital, a dedicated emerging markets asset management firm. At Spinnaker Capital, he was the partner responsible for global economic research and investment strategy, for risk allocation in currencies, rates and sovereign debt across the European and Asian time zones and for the management of the Spinnaker Emerging Markets Macro Fund. Previously, Mr Kopf worked for seven years as a Senior Portfolio Manager at DWS Investments in Frankfurt, where he was responsible for Global Emerging Markets Fixed Income. Mr Kopf holds a master’s degree in economics from Witten/Herdecke University in Germany and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Stefan Lachhammer became Head of Fixed Income and Alternative Debt at R+V Versicherungen AG in Wiesbaden in 2010 and is a member of the Investment Committee of R+V and the ALM Committee of Gruppo Assimoco. Before joining R+V, he was a senior portfolio manager at companies such as Allianz Asset Management, COMINVEST Asset Management GmbH and Frankfurt Trust of BHF Bank.

Mr Lay is currently Senior Managing Director of The Rock Creek Group, an asset management firm based in Washington, D.C., that manages globally diversified portfolios of public and private assets for major institutional investors. In addition to his responsibilities in the firm, Mr Lay works with international institutions, private foundations and NGOs seeking to develop new approaches to increasing the scale and reducing the cost of financing for humanitarian, environmental and other global priorities. As Treasurer of The World Bank, Mr Lay and his colleagues managed more than $100 billion in investments for the Bank and other international financial institutions and for more than 40 of the World Bank’s member countries’ central banks, sovereign wealth and pension funds. He also led the World Bank Treasury’s banking and capital markets programmes as they delivered financing and risk management for the World Bank itself and introduced green bonds and catastrophe bonds to deepen the institution’s engagement in mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. At other stages in his World Bank career, Mr Lay served as a country director in Latin America and Southeastern Europe. In an earlier stint in the World Bank Treasury, he conceived and led the issuance of the first “global bond,” which has become a principal vehicle for sovereign and supranational financing in international markets. Before joining the World Bank, Mr Lay was an enforcement lawyer with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he headed the branch of corporation finance enforcement. Mr Lay holds a BA from Dartmouth College, a JD from the George Washington University, the CFA designation and active membership in the State Bar of California. Since 1992, he has supervised his family’s ranch in Converse County, Wyoming.

Friedrich (“Fritz“) Luithlen is Head of Debt Capital Markets & Syndication at DZ BANK. Before taking up his current role in late 2017, Fritz ran the private placement business of the bank, and acted as Head of Covered Bond Origination, promoting the Bank’s covered bond franchise with issuers across the globe. In addition to his day-to-day activities, Fritz is also at the helm of a number of DZ Bank’s digitalisation projects that aim to combine legal, financial and risk technologies in the digital realm to transform current business models in the primary markets.

David entered the Sustainable Finance-market in 2018, being part of NRW.BANK’s Investor Relations-Team where he worked on the agency’s Green and Social Bond Programme. After joining the DZ BANK Sustainable Finance-Team in 2020, he started to support issuers on their way into the Sustainable Finance Market by providing assistance in the structuring and issuance of Sustainable Notes, with a focus on SSA issuers. David holds a Master of Science degree in International Business Studies from the University of Paderborn.

David Marsh is Chairman and Co-Founder of OMFIF. Before starting at OMFIF in late 2009, he worked for City merchant bank Robert Fleming, corporate finance boutique Hawkpoint, German management consultancy Droege and London investment firm London & Oxford. Marsh took over the chairmanship from John Plender on 1 January 2018 having been Managing Director since 2014. He moved to a non-executive role following John Orchard’s appointment as Chief Executive effective 1 January 2020. Marsh is a Board Member of the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany, and visiting Professor at Sheffield University and King’s College London. He is former co-founder, chairman and deputy chairman of the German-British Forum. He was made Commander of the British Empire in 2000 and was awarded the German Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) in 2003. He started his career at Reuters in 1973 having graduated with a BA in chemistry from The Queen’s College Oxford. Between 1978 and 1995 he worked for the Financial Times in France and Germany, latterly as European Editor in London. Marsh has written six books: Six Days in in September – Black Wednesday, Brexit and the Making of Europe (2017, with William Keegan and Richard Roberts); Europe’s Deadlock: How the Crisis Could Be Solved – And Why It Won’t Happen (2013); The Euro – The Politics of the New Global Currency (2009 – re-released in 2011 as The Battle for the New Global Currency); Germany and Europe – The Crisis of Unity (1994); The Bundesbank – The Bank that Rules Europe (1992); and Germany – Rich, Bothered and Divided (1989 – re-released in 1990 as The New Germany.

Lewis is responsible for content, including reports, podcasts and commentaries. Before joining OMFIF, he spent six years at GlobalCapital, a capital markets newspaper and part of Euromoney Institutional Investor. There, he covered debt capital markets, breaking news and developing themes in public sector bond markets, emerging markets, ESG and digitalisation. He formed relationships with senior bankers and key borrowers. He holds an MA in Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh.

Dirk Meyer studied history and German language and literature at Bielefeld University, Germany, and at University College Cork, Ireland. Following his academic training, he headed the office of the Member of the European Parliament for the constituency of Ostwestfalen-Lippe, Germany. From 1996 to 2018, Mr Meyer worked in various ministries in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, most recently as a Director-General at the Ministry for Innovation, Science and Research of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. From April 2018 to December 2021, he served as a Director-General at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. From December 2021 to the End of August 2023, he was head of Department 1 - Global Health, employment; transformation of the economy; digital technologies; food and nutrition security. From September 2023, he assumed position as head of Department 4 - Multilateral development policy; transformation; climate.

Thammarak Moenjak is Chief Representative, Bank of Thailand (BOT) London Representative Office and Senior Advisor to the BOT’s Digital Currency Unit. Thammarak has been deeply involved with BOT’s CBDC effort since the planning of its wholesale CBDC project (Project Inthanon) in 2017. A career central banker, Thammarak has also worked in the areas of monetary policy, reserves management, corporate strategy, and financial institutions policy. Thammarak’s new book, Central Banking at the Frontier: Creating a Digital Financial Landscape will be released in 2024 by Emerald Publishing in the UK. His previous book, Central Banking: Theory and Practice in Sustaining Monetary and Financial Stability (John Wiley and Sons, 2014), has also been translated into Mandarin. Thammarak has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Melbourne, Australia, Master in Public Management from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore, and B.Sc. (Econ) from the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. He was also a Lee Kuan Yew Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, USA, in 2013, and Assistant Chief Representative, Bank of Thailand New York Representative Office in 2008-2009, during the height of the Great Financial Crisis.

Edge is a leading office project developer in the fields of sustainability, smartness, well-being, design and flexibility. As CEO DACH and member of the Executive Committee of Edge Technologies BV in Amsterdam, Dr Andreas Muschter is responsible for all of Edge's real estate activities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Projects with a total value of around EUR 1.5 billion are currently under construction in Germany and further projects with a value of around EUR 2.5 billion in the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. At Group level, he is part of the Executive Committee and has joint responsibility for all strategic and other issues. Prior to joining Edge, Dr Muschter was CEO of Commerz Real AG for over 7 years.

Joachim Nagel has been President of the Deutsche Bundesbank since January 2022. Prior to this, he had already served in management positions at the Bundesbank between 1999 and 2016, including as an Executive Board member from 2010 with responsibility for the Directorates General Markets, Controlling and IT. From 2016 to 2020, he worked for the KfW Group, including as an Executive Board member. In 2020, he moved to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) where he became Deputy Head of the Banking Department. Dr Nagel studied economics at the University of Karlsruhe and received a doctoral degree in 1997. He also serves as a member of the Governing Council of the ECB, a Governor at the IMF and a member of the BIS Board of Directors.

Lorenz Nagel, Managing Director of PRIMUS, develops properties that combine building culture, ecology and economy. For some years now, PRIMUS has been focussing on the development of buildings in modular timber construction. Following the award-winning WOODIE in Hamburg, PRIMUS further developed the modular timber construction method for the LUISE House of Representatives in Berlin and the ROCKYWOOD office building in Offenbach. Further projects are now under construction in Berlin (between the Federal President's Office) and Rostock, and in planning in Hamburg and Lübeck.

Barbara is the Sustainability-Linked Sovereign Debt Hub Lead on Stakeholders' Engagement at NatureFinance. Before joining NatureFinance, Barbara launched and served as Director of the Sovereign Decarbonization Program and the Labelled Bonds Campaign at the Emerging Markets Investors Alliance. Barbara is a former investment banker, having held London-based roles focused on fixed income structured products, high yield and emerging markets at Salomon Brothers, Citibank, and Unicredit, as well as having led bank-wide regulatory and strategic projects focused on governance and transformational change at Natwest Markets. Barbara holds a BSc and MSc in Economics and Social Sciences (DES) from Bocconi University in Milan and a CFA ESG Investing Certificate.

John Orchard is chief executive officer of OMFIF. He has expanded OMFIF’s activities into setting up key forums on digital money, sustainability and public debt, alongside OMFIF’s longstanding work on monetary policy and policymakers. He chairs OMFIF’s executive committee and is a member of the OMFIF board. Up to November 2019, he was a member of Euromoney’s management board, having started with the London stock market-quoted global information business in 1994.

Taylor Pearce is Senior Economist of OMFIF’s Economic and Monetary Policy Institute. She contributes to a range of research, reports and commentaries on macroeconomic themes, covering global themes as well as advanced and emerging Europe. Taylor holds a BA in International Relations from Brown University and an MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics, where she specialised economic development of Central and Eastern Europe. She is fluent in German.

Inger Huus-Pedersen is Senior Portfolio Manager at PKA Pensions where she has the responsibility for Emerging Market Sovereigns and Green Bonds. In her more that 30 years at PKA Inger has also been working with credit investments, ALM, regulatory implementation, and market infrastructure. Inger has a Master of Science in Economics from the University of Copenhagen, is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Stanford Alumni. Inger is also one of the founders of a ESG Network for portfolio managers in Denmark.

Ayelet Perlstein is the Head of Investor Relations at IFC, responsible for managing relationships with investors and stakeholders. Perlstein joined the IFC Funding team with over 12 years of experience in debt capital markets, lending operations, and sustainable development. She and her team are responsible for maintaining and creating new investor relationships and lead IFC’s sustainable finance activities from the issuer’s perspective. Perlstein is also dedicated to IFC's green and social bonds program, which aims to raise capital for projects that have a positive impact on the environment and society. She strongly believes in finance's potential to address global challenges such as climate change and poverty and is committed to mobilizing capital for sustainable development through collaboration with investors and stakeholders. Most recently, Perlstein worked in IFC’s Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Program (MCPP) where she played an active role in creating the first fully Paris-aligned mobilization platform, MCPP One Planet and developing an enhanced ESG and impact reporting package to meet the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation. From 2016 to 2020, Perlstein was Israel’s Representative to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Board of Executive Directors. Prior to this, Perlstein served as Head of Global Debt Capital Markets at the Debt Management Office of the Israeli Ministry of Finance, where she managed all aspects of international sovereign debt issuances and facilitated the issuance of over USD 7 billion of sovereign debt. In 2019, Perlstein was named one of the 40 under 40 most promising professionals by The Marker magazine.

Avinash Persaud is Special Advisor on Climate Change to the President of the Inter-American Development Bank. Persaud has over 30 years of experience in finance, public policy, and academia. Prior to this appointment in January 2024, he was Special Climate Envoy to the Prime Minister of Barbados and an architect of the 'Bridgetown Initiative’ that played an instrumental role in helping to set the international financial reform agenda in recent years. Persaud is a member of the High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance of the COP26, 27 and 28 Presidencies and a member of the first Board of the new Climate Loss and Damage Fund. He previously served as Chairman of the Caribbean Community's Commission on the Economy and Commissioner of the UN Commission on Financial Reform. Prior to his public policy roles, Persaud was a senior executive at several major banks including J. P. Morgan, State Street and UBS. Persaud has authored multiple academic publications with particular emphasis on financial policy. An Emeritus Professor of Gresham College in the UK, he is 2024 Perry World Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, former Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute and winner of the Jacques de Larosiere Award in Global Finance for his work on financial risk management and systemic crises.

Alexander Plekhanov is Director, Transition Impact and Global Economics, at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. He edits the Transition Report, the annual economic report of the EBRD, and the Regional Economic Prospects. His responsibilities also include trade policy and analysis of development impact of EBRD projects. Previously Alexander covered economic developments Russia, Belarus, Mongolia, Central Asia and a number of other economies. Alexander joined the Bank in October 2007. Prior to that, he worked as an economist at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. Alexander holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

Marcus Pratsch has been working in the financial industry since 1996 and has more than 18 years of experience in Sustainable Finance. Since January 2019 he is heading the Sustainable Bonds & Finance team of DZ BANK and is responsible for the global sustainable capital market business of the bank. Prior to his current position, Marcus served for more than 10 years as DZ BANK‘s Head of Sustainable Investment Research. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Principles (ICMA), a member of the advisory council of the OMFIF Sustainable Policy Institute (OMFIF SPI) as well as Co-Chairman of the Sustainability Expert Group of the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany (BCCG). Marcus has graduated from University of Mannheim, one of the leading business schools for economics and business administration in Germany.

Gisle Råsberg is a senior portfolio manager at Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM). Together with his team in Oslo he manages the European rates portion of the Government Pension Fund Global and is active in EGBs, inflation-linked, SSAs, covereds and derivatives. Before moving back to Norway in 2019 he spent a decade managing US IG credit for NBIM in New York.

Tobias Rischen is a Capital Markets Officer in the Core Currency division of the European Investment Bank. The division is responsible for planning, execution and hedging of all funding in EUR & USD, comprising 70-80% of the yearly funding programme. Previously, Rischen worked at the BMW Group in Munich, where he was part of the Equity & Debt Capital Markets department. Prior to that, he had started his career as a working student at the DZ BANK, followed by an internship in New York and a full-time position in Frankfurt at the same institution. Rischen graduated from the University of Mannheim with a Master of Science in Management.

Tom Rogers is Senior Director, Macro Research, at AustralianSuper, with a principal focus on UK and Eurozone. Tom joined AustralianSuper in July 2023, having previously worked for Oxford Economics since 2010. At Oxford, he supported investment clients with bespoke macroeconomic analysis, including three years based in Singapore. Prior to joining Oxford Economics, Tom worked as an economic advisor to HM Treasury and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Tom studied BSc Economics and Politics at Warwick University, and MSc Economics at Southampton University. When not thinking or writing about economics, Tom is typically found playing or watching football. As John mentioned, we have some internal forms we need to fill ahead of speaking at a conference. Could you clarify if media will be present (I don’t think it’s a problem, I just need to specify). And based on earlier correspondence I saw between John and you, I have confirmed on the form that this will not be an all-male panel, please let me know if this changes.

Lars-Hendrik Röller is professor of economics at ESMT Berlin, the European School of Management and Technology and the Chairman of the Berlin Global Dialogue. He is also director at E.CA economics, an economic consultancy in competition policy, which he co-founded in 2006 and the Chairman of Blackrock’s Transition Investing Advisory Council. Lars-Hendrik Röller is Fellow of the European Economic Association, Distinguished Fellow of CEPR (Centre for Economic Policy Research), member of the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, and member of the Board of Trustees of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). From 2011-2021, he was Chief Economic Advisor to Chancellor Merkel. In this capacity he was responsible for the economic, financial and energy policy at the Chancellery. He was also Germany’s Sherpa for G7 and G20 Summits and has organized and prepared 17 summits, including Germany’s G7 presidency in 2015 and G20 presidency in 2017. Since 2022 he is the economic advisor to the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama. Previous positions include Europe’s first Chief Competition Economist of the European Commission (2003-2006), President of the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin (2006-2011), Professor at Humboldt University Berlin (1995-2011), Professor at INSEAD (France, 1987-1994), and Director at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center (Europe’s largest social science research center, 1994-2003). He has also been President of the German Economic Association (2009-2011) and President of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (2005-2007). In 2002 he was awarded the Gossen Prize (to honor the leading German economist under the age of 45 whose work has gained international reputation). In 2013 he has been awarded the Order of Merit Grand Officer of the Republic of Italy, in 2021 the Order of the Danneborg 1st Commander from Denmark, and the Order of Oranien-Nassau Commander of the Netherlands. Lars-Hendrik Röller holds a Ph.D. (in economics), a Master of Arts (in economics), a Master of Science (in Artificial Intelligence) from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a Bachelor (in Computer Science) from Texas A&M University. He is married and has three children.

Mr. Alexander Ruf is a Director at Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) in Helsinki. Alexander is, together with the rest of the Funding and Investor Relations team, responsible for funding the Bank’s activities on the international capital markets. Before joining the NIB in 2011 he worked for more than ten years in various positions in the debt capital markets unit in UniCredit Bank AG, Germany. He holds a Master degree in Economics from the University of Tübingen.

Siegfried Ruhl is Hors Classe Adviser in the Directorate-General for Budget of the European Commission since 1 December 2021. Since October 2020, he had been seconded by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to the European Commission. In his role, he supported the operationalisation of the NextGenerationEU borrowing programme and continues to support its day-to-day operations, in addition to the global borrowing and lending work of the European Commission. In the ESM, Siegfried was Head of Funding & Investor Relations and responsible for the management of €300 biEEion of outstanding debt with a more than €80 biEEion funding programmes in bonds and bills for both ESM and European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). He was also in charge of the management of related derivatives transactions. Additionally he managed the communication and relationship with more than 1,700 investors. Siegfried Ruhl officially joined the ESM in January 2013 but he was already heading the division that established the funding programme for EFSF at the Bundesrepublik Deutschland Finanzagentur, which was initially responsible for the issuance of EFSF bonds and bills. Previously, he worked in the trading and issuing business of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland Finanzagentur for 11 years. He also worked for the Deutsche Bundesbank for six years, where he started his career in financial markets as a trader at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Siegfried Ruhl graduated in Business Administration from the University of Applied Science in Hachenburg, Germany.

Juliane Sakellariou, Founder and Managing Director, FORIMPACT GmbH. The political scientist founded her company in 2022 after working in the European Parliament and for the real estate network specialist Heuer Dialog. Trained as a Business Sustainability Manager at the University of Cambridge, she uses her diplomatic experience in the field of international political relations to integrate sustainability measures and develop successful business models. She is fluent in German, English, French and Greek.

Stefan Scharff is a Managing Partner at SRC Research GmbH in Frankfurt. He has been with SRC Research since July 2003. Prior to that, he worked for MLP Finanzberatung SE, Concord Effekten AG and Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen. Stefan Scharff holds an MBA from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and completed postgraduate studies as a Certified Real Estate Investment Analyst (CREA). Stefan Scharff has received the Thomson Reuters Analyst Award in "Real Estate Europe" in both 2017 and 2018. He is also a Member of the Board of Directors at Alarick SA in Zug, Switzerland, and a Member of the DVFA Real Estate Commission in Frankfurt am Main.

Frank Scheidig is global head of Senior Executive Banking at DZ BANK, leading DZ BANK’s high level global strategic engagement with government and official institutions. His network covers – amongst others - the German government, Bundesbank and KfW; the EU commission, EIB and ESM as well as SAFE, AIIB and Worldbank. Having previously had a 40+ years career in the capital markets, with Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank among others, covering governments, central banks, supranationals, state funds, and development banks. He is Deputy Chairman of the Advisory Board of OMFIF (The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum), a well-connected think-tank for central banking, economic policy and public investment. He chairs the Rhein-Main regional committee of the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany, is a member of the Board of the IBF International Bankers Forum and of the German government’s committee for sustainable development.

Mark is a veteran US Treasury official, who was at the forefront of international financial diplomacy for two decades. Mark, who represented the US on the International Monetary Fund executive board up to April 2018, has had a 40-year Treasury career with extensive around-the-world engagement. He works with OMFIF in dealings with private and public sector organisations, speak regularly on international and US policy, and provide OMFIF members with insight and analysis. Mark was Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for international monetary and financial policy between 2000 and early 2015. He helped lead Treasury preparations for G7 and G20 finance minister and central bank governor meetings, formulated US positions at the IMF, and coordinated Treasury and regulatory agencies’ work in the Financial Stability Board. Mark founded the US/EU Financial Market Regulatory Dialogue and chaired an international group of private and official sovereign debt experts that developed enhanced collective action clauses for sovereign debt restructuring. He managed the $100bn-plus Treasury Exchange Stabilization Fund and played a key role in US foreign exchange policy including coordinating the Treasury’s semi-annual foreign exchange report on China and other countries.

Alex Constanze Steinmann, CEFA/ CIIA, is a senior credit analyst for financial institutions at DZ BANK AG. Before joining DZ BANK AG end-2007, she worked as a fixed income analyst at an insurance asset manager. She studied International Economics in Tübingen and Córdoba/ Argentina.

Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller is the Director of the Center on the United States and Europe and the inaugural holder of the Fritz Stern Chair on Germany and trans-Atlantic Relations at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. A German native herself, she is an expert on German, European, and trans-Atlantic foreign and security policy, as well as international law and human rights. From 2019-2020, Dr. Stelzenmüller held the Kissinger Chair on Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress and from 2014-2019 served as the inaugural Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Prior to joining Brookings, she directed the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and later served as Senior Transatlantic Fellow with the organization, heading the Transatlantic Trends Program. Dr. Stelzenmüller’s work in the think tank sphere follows a distinguished career in journalism, including the role of Defense and International Security Editor in the political section of DIE ZEIT from 1994-2005. She has contributed to a variety of publications, writes a monthly column for the Financial Times, and is a frequent commentator on American and European news outlets.

Ms. Suga joined ADB in 2004 and worked in the Southeast Asia (SERD) and Pacific Regional Department (PARD) including a two-year assignment to the Lao Resident Mission. She also worked for the European Investment Bank (EIB) where she led the process of drafting and introducing EIB’s first social policy guidelines and established institutional arrangements for EIB operations worldwide to operationalize the new policy. Prior to joining ADB, Ms. Suga worked for UNDP in the context of institutional policy planning, resource mobilization and project management. Currently, Ms. Suga is the Representative of the European Representative Office (ERO) of ADB in Frankfurt in which role she maintains relationships with key stakeholders across ADB’s 17 European member countries, including knowledge sharing initiatives, outreach activities, and external relations. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Suga served as ERO Deputy Representative, where she pioneered approaches that improved ADB’s collaboration with Europe, opening new opportunities for European stakeholders to support the region. Prior to joining ERO, Ms. Suga was responsible for the social development and social safeguards issues for ADB supported development projects in South-east Asia and the Pacific region. Since joining ADB, Michiko has worked in multiple infrastructure teams and anchored compliance together with social dimensions and ensured quality assurance of investments. She has also held a number of development related positions in other multilateral banks, the United Nations, and in the private sector. Ms. Suga has over 20 years of experience in project implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and project design with a successful track record of securing funding, budget and grant management, external engagements, and strategic planning. She also has accumulated a background in policy development, human resource management, interagency coordination across Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Africa and Northern America.

Sahil has been with Google Cloud since Aug 2018 in various partner and customer facing roles. Thriving at the cusp of business and technology, Sahil Leads the Customer Engineering team at Google Cloud Germany working to ease Google Cloud Adoption for the Financial Services Industry. Sahil is a thought leader on scaling Cloud Adoption and associated Cloud Governance in large regulated organizations across the globe. He also is a frequent speaker on Artificial Intelligence and how organizations need to think beyond off the shelf Large Language Models for leveraging the true potential of AI. He holds a bachelor's degree in Information Technology and a Ph.D. in Image Processing from Technical University in Munich.

Marcus Svedberg is chief economist at Folksam, one of the largest insurance and pension savings companies in Sweden. He is responsible for macro analysis and strategy across the group with a special focus on sustainability. He previously had a similar role at the Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund (AP4) and have also worked at the World Bank and East Capital. He has been involved with research institutes such as Stockholm Sustainable Finance Centre and Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics as well as Kyiv Economics Institute and Institute of International Relations in Prague. Marcus is a member of a number of advisory and working groups related to sustainable finance and pension investments. He has a master’s degree in political economy from the London School of Economics.

Jens Tolckmitt, born 1971, has been Managing Director of the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (vdp) since 2009 of German Pfandbrief Banks (vdp) since 2009.

From January 2003 to May 2009, he was the sole Managing Director of the Association of Foreign Banks in Germany. From 1998 to 2002 he held

various functions, most recently as Head of the Pfandbrief/Capital Market division, for the Association of German Mortgage Banks, the predecessor organisation of the vdp. Tolckmitt holds a degree in economics and specialises in specialising in "Monetary Macroeconomics" and "Finance".

Dr Florian Toncar has been a parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Ministry of Finance since December 2021. He served as a member of the German Bundestag from 2005 to 2013 and has been a Bundestag member again since 2017. From 2011 to 2013, he was the deputy head of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) parliamentary group, and from 2017 to 2021 he served as parliamentary secretary of the FDP parliamentary group. He worked as a lawyer specialising in financial market regulation from 2009 to December 2021.

Dr Hans Volkert Volckens is the founder of the consulting firm Blacklake and has many years of experience in the operational management of real estate companies. His previous positions include Hannover Leasing GmbH & Co. KG, IC Group AG, IVG Immobilien AG and CA Immobilien Anlagen AG. Most recently, he was Head of Real Estate & Asset Management and EMEA Head of Real Estate Advisory at KPMG and was responsible for the successful reorganisation of the Real Estate division. Dr Volckens is a recognised specialist for the professional management of companies in times of major change and the successful support of management, supervisory boards and also financial creditors in corresponding company phases. Among other things, he is Chairman of the Tax Committee of the German Property Federation (Zentraler Immobilien Ausschuss e.V.) and a member of the Executive Board of the Institute of Corporate Governance for the Property Industry (Institut Corporate Governance für die Immobilienwirtschaft e.V..

Mark van Doorn is head of the Treasury department at the Dutch agency NWB Bank (Aaa/AAA). His team is responsible for investor relations, ALM and also issuing short and long term funding in the international capital markets. Since 2014 both Green and Sustainable issuance has been a regular part of NWBs toolkit, now accounting for over 30% of annual issuance (10bn EUR). Clients of the bank are public sector entities in the Netherlands, being either direct part of the Dutch government or under guarantee of the Dutch government. In line with the climate action plan for 2050 of the bank, it has started financing renewable energy projects in the Netherlands. The main client group of the bank are the social housing authorities, which account for roughly 1/3rd of the total number of houses in the Netherlands. These clients are actively making their stock of houses more energy efficient, which NWB Bank stimulates by offering them Sustainability Linked Loans. In these loans the interest rate paid by the client is dependent on them meeting certain sustainable KPIs. Mark joined the bank in 2013 after his study Econometrics, holds the FRM certificate and has been part of the treasury team since 2016.

Petra Wehlert is First Vice President and Head of Capital Markets at KfW. She is responsible for all capital market funding activities including the EUR- and USD-Benchmark programs, Green Bonds and structured private placements. Furthermore she oversees investor relations, ratings and documentation issues. Preceding her current role Petra headed the team for new issues in public markets within the Capital Market division of KfW. Since her start at KfW in 1995 she worked in diverse areas such as derivative markets or liquidity management. She took over her new role in February 2016. Before her career at KfW, she worked for the Deutsche Bundesbank in capital markets. She holds a degree in business administration/economics. Petra is married and has two children.

Silke Weiss is Head of Funding and Investor Relations. She joined the ESM in 2013 as Principal Funding Officer. Before taking on the current position, Weiss has been Team Lead for Planning and Execution in Funding and Investor Relations division. She previously worked as a trader in the Front Office at the German Finance Agency (Deutsche Finanzagentur) in Frankfurt and as a trader in the Global Treasury and Liquidity Management Department at JPMorgan Chase in London. Silke is member of the ECB Bond Market Contract Group (BMCG) and represents the ESM at the Public Sector Issuer Forum (PSIF) and EFC Sub-Committee On EU Sovereign Debt Markets (ESDM).

Carolin Wenke is an Expert in Blockchain/DLT and Digital Assets at DZ BANK. She is part of the product management team of DZ BANK's Digital Asset Custody Platform for institutional clients, which was successfully implemented last November. The platform can currently offer the settlement and custody of crypto securities according to the German Electronic Securities Act. Previously, she has worked for Accenture’s Metaverse Continuum Business Group in Munich and supported projects in the area of Blockchain/ DLT and digital currencies. Carolin Wenke studied in Germany and Spain and holds a master degree in Business Development with a focus on international management and corporate finance.

Martin is co-head of UBS Asset Management’s Fixed Income Investment Specialists team where he is responsible for bridging the firm’s Fixed Income investment capabilities with our various distribution channels. As part of this role, Martin is responsible for developing and servicing client relationships as well as delivering and communicating fixed income solutions to institutional, wealth management and wholesale clients globally working closely with portfolio managers, products and client coverage teams. Martin joined UBS in 2018 as a Fixed Income Specialist and took over the leadership of the APAC specialist team in 2022 for all client segments. This encompasses communicating our Fixed Income and Money Market investment strategies, working on business development, responding to client requests, and interlinking business- and investment-related issues. Prior to joining UBS Asset Management Martin worked for a smaller Swiss /Liechtenstein based private bank as Senior Fixed Income Portfolio and Asset Liability Manager and Würth Finance International B.V (financial competence center for the whole Würth Group) managing Group's liquidity resources and investment portfolios. Before that Martin held various positions in fixed income at J.P. Morgan Investmentbank and BlackRock Asset Management in London (UK) and J.P. Morgan Asset Management in Frankfurt (Germany). Martin earned a Diplom-Kaufmann degree (master equivalent) in finance from the University of Mannheim, Germany and Ph.D. from EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht, Wiesbaden (Germany). He also undertook the ICPSR program in quantitative methods at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA). His research studies were nominated for renowned finance conferences. Martin’s work has also been published in international academic journals and finance books.

Stefan Wintels has been CEO of KfW since November 2021. He joined KfW as Co-CEO in October 2021. Prior to joining KfW, Wintels worked at Citigroup for 20 Years (2001 - 2021) in various leadership roles. Most recently, he was the Global Co-Head Financial Institutions Group and a member of the Global Executive Committee of the Banking Capital Markets & Advisory Division. He was also Vice Chairman of Citigroup in Germany, Chief Country Officer for Germany as well as CEO of Citigroup Global Markets Europe AG until March 2020. Stefan Wintels began his professional career in 1994 at Deutsche Bank AG (1994-2001) and left as Managing Director at Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Development / Group Strategy Department. He received a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Technische Universität Berlin and participated in a 2nd year MBA program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Stefan Wintels is also Chairman of the Supervisory Board of KfW Capital GmbH & Co. KG and a member of the Supervisory Boards of Deutsche Telekom AG and DHL Group. Stefan Wintels lives in Frankfurt with his wife and their four children.