Dr Ajay Mathur
Director General
TERI

Is the Director General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, and a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change. He earlier headed the Indian Bureau of Energy Efficiency, and was responsible for mainstreaming energy efficiency in houses, offices and industries through a number of innovative initiatives. He was a leading climate change negotiator, and was the Indian spokesperson at the Paris climate negotiations. He served as the interim Director of the Green Climate Fund during its foundational period.

At TERI, he has spearheaded the move to accelerate action towards a low-carbon and cleaner economy through the adoption of renewable energy in the Indian electricity sector, enhancing efficiency in buildings and industry, and promoting environmental quality through recycling of material wastes and biotechnology-based solutions.

He co-chairs the global Energy Transitions Commission

Mr Mahendra Singhi
Managing Director and CEO, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd.

Mr. Mahendra Singhi has been associated to the growth and development of the cement sector in India for the last 41 years. He leads Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited in the capacity of Managing Director and CEO. Dalmia Cement is well recognised globally for its lowest carbon footprint cement, water positive operations and bold ambitions of carbon negative by 2040. In Addition, Mr. Singhi also serves following organisations and commissions in India and abroad as:

- President - Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA), India
- Chairman - National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCCBM) India
- Chairman - Development Council for Cement Industry, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, India
- Co-Chair, TERI Council for Business Sustainability (TERI-CBS), India
- Member, Climate Change Council in Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India
- Commissioner, Energy Transitions Commission (ETC), London, U.K.
- Commissioner, High-Level Commission on Carbon Pricing and Competitiveness, World Bank Group, U.S
- Director, Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA), London. U.K.

A visionary and advocate of sustainability, Mr. Singhi has been the driving-force in inculcating this concept in the objectives and operations of the cement companies he has worked with. Today, leading Indian cement companies are setting global benchmarks in climate protection and energy efficiency. This is the result of long efforts of business leaders like Mr. Singhi and, the results are overwhelming. For example, Dalmia Bharat has been ranked # 1 cement company across global cement sector by award winning research series of CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) on business readiness for a low carbon transition. Mr. Singhi has also represented business and cement sector globally in the most recognised multi-country platforms such as:

- Paris Climate Agreement Ceremony on invitation from Ex. UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban ki-Moon,
- Global Climate Action in COP-24 on invitation of UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Ms. Patricia Espinosa,
- High-Level Govt.-Business dialogues invited by COP-21 and French Presidency.
A positive thinker and strong supporter of happiness culture in the organisation, Mr. Singhi also promotes innovative ideas. He deeply believes that sustainable business is all about creating future opportunities for businesses while mitigating the global challenges such as climate change.
Mr. Singhi is a spiritual person and an avid reader of behavioural psychology.

Mr. Singhi is a science & law graduate and a Chartered Accountant.

Mr Nigel Topping
CEO
We Mean Business

Nigel Topping serves as CEO of We Mean Business, a coalition of organizations working on climate change with thousands of the world’s most influential businesses and investors. We Mean Business harnesses business leadership to support the implementation and policies that accelerate action on climate change.

Topping has 18 years experience in the private sector, consulting for and running manufacturing businesses. Previously, he was executive director of CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project). Prior to joining CDP, he spent 18 years in the manufacturing sector, most recently as a member of the MBO team and senior vice president of supply chain for an automotive component manufacturing company with a turnover of $800 million and facilities all over the world.

Topping has extensive international experience, having worked in Spain, the USA, Germany and the UK at various times in his career. He also has significant experience in emerging markets, having led projects in Brazil, India and China. He holds a BA in Mathematics from Cambridge University and an MSc in Holistic Science from Schumacher College

Mr Girish Sethi
Senior Director, Energy Program, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

Girish Sethi is Senior Director of the Energy Program at TERI, having more than 33 years of experience in the field of energy, environment and sustainable development. His direct responsibilities at TERI include providing strategic direction and coordinating the activities related to industrial energy efficiency, renewable energy, fuels and electricity including demand side management. These involve energy conservation studies, technology assessments, sectoral studies, demand forecasting, capacity building programs and projects concerning rational use of energy. Other areas of interest include GHG inventorization of corporate level GHG emissions and aspects related to technology transfer and promotion of low carbon energy technologies in the context of climate change. He is presently coordinating a new initiative at TERI that looks at options for deep Decarbonization in harder-to-abate industrial sectors in the longer term. He has represented TERI in various national and international forums on different aspects related to energy and environment.

He is a Chemical Engineer and holds Masters Degree in Energy Studies from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. He has also completed a multi-disciplinary Masters course on “Technology in the Tropics” from University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany.

Mr Rajani Ranjan Rashmi
Distinguished Fellow in The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI)

Shri Rajani Ranjan Rashmi is a Distinguished Fellow in The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), India where he is the Programme Director for Integrated Policy Analysis. He was, for several years, India’s principal negotiator for climate change negotiations under the UN FCCC and was deeply involved in the making of India’s policy on climate change. He is a former member of India’s civil service and in this role, he served India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change in key positions for almost 8 years before and after the Paris Agreement.

He is currently associated with the Sub Committee of India’s Ministry of Finance on Climate Finance and is also a Member of the Technical Advisory Body of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

Mr Thomas Spencer
Fellow,
TERI

Thomas Spencer is a Fellow at TERI, where he manages TERI's work on the low-carbon transition in the power sector. He has an MSc in carbon management from the University of Edinburgh.

Mr Sébastien Treyer
Specialist, foresight for public policies and international negotiations

Sébastien Treyer is a graduate from Ecole Polytechnique and AgroParisTech, and holds a PhD in environment management. He is a specialist in foresight for public policies and international negotiations on sustainable development. A civil servant of the French ministries of Agriculture and Environment, he has been in charge of foresight at the French ministry for the Environment, and has also coordinated the Agrimonde Foresight exercise (How to feed the world in 2050?), before joining IDDRI as Director of programmes in 2010. He has played an active role at the interface between science and policy and in scientific programming for the European Commission, the French National Research Agency as well as for regional scale administrations such as the Seine Normandy Water Agency. He is currently Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM) and a member of the Lead Faculty of the Earth System Governance Network.

Sébastien Treyer speaks French, English, German, Spanish and Arabic.

Mr Nick Mabey
Chief Executive and a founder director of E3G

Nick Mabey is Chief Executive and a founder director of E3G (Third Generation Environmentalism) a non-profit European organisation dedicated to accelerating the transition to sustainable development. In addition to his management role, Nick leads E3G’s work on European climate change policy, climate diplomacy and foreign policy, and the security implications of climate change and resource scarcity.

Nick was previously a senior advisor in the UK Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit leading work on national and international policy areas, including: energy, climate change, countries at risk of instability, organised crime and fisheries. Nick was employed in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Environment Policy Department, and was the FCO lead for the Johannesburg Summit in 2002 where he established international partnerships on clean energy, tourism and environmental democracy.

Before he joined government Nick was Head of Economics and Development at WWF-UK. He came to WWF from research at London Business School on the economics of climate change, which he published as the book “Argument in the Greenhouse”. This followed a period in the UK electricity industry working as a negotiator for PowerGen and an engineer for GEC-Alsthom. Nick trained as a mechanical engineer at Bristol University and holds a masters degree in Technology and Policy from MIT where he specialised in energy systems analysis.

Nick is the currently the vice-chair of the European Alliance to Save Energy, and sits on the steering group of Norstec (the industry-led alliance for offshore renewable energy) and the Global Stranded Assets Advisory Council. Among other appointments Nick has served on the advisory board of Infrastructure UK, the independent UK Green Investment Bank Commission and the Advisory Council of the European Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power.

Dr Annapurna Vancheswaran
Senior Director-Communication Outreach and Advocacy Unit
The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi

As Senior Director, Communication Outreach and Advocacy Unit (COAU) at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the focus of Dr Vancheswaran's work is mainly in the area of global sustainable development and includes interactions with international and Indian organisations, Government Departments, NGOs and the private sector with particular application to the diverse problems of India.

The Unit that she leads is also involved in cutting-edge research on education for sustainable development. Various projects undertaken by the Unit have tremendous reach and influence on school and college students in addition to other stakeholders.

From 2009 - 2015 she was additionally appointed as Vice-President, TERI, North America to oversee TERI’s programmes and activities in the region.

Since 2010, she has been associated with TERI University as an Adjunct Faculty and a Guest Faculty at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Shillong, Meghalaya, India.

Given her two decades of experience in sustainable development, she is nominated as the Advisory Group Member for the Regional Hub South Asia, GRI South Asia. She had been the Advisory Council Member of Bayer CropScience Child Care Programme as well international advisor to on sustainable reporting for Abengoa. In addition to her engagement with Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) on issues of Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility, she was also a Member of Social Responsibility Sectional Committee of Bureau of Indian Standards (2016 – 2019). She has been nominated as the Executive Committee Member of Indian Chemical Council-Northern Region in February 2019. She also had represented the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India as Member of the Expert Group in drafting the National Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Business.

Dr Vancheswaran has a Ph.D in Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and a Bachelor of Science from the Delhi University.

Ms Kate Hampton
CEO, CIFF

Kate is a member of the FP2020 Reference Group and she sits on the board of the European Climate Foundation. Current advisory roles include to the Observer Research Foundation (India) and the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development. She has been featured in the top 100 Profiles of Paris, a collection of stories from the key people who created the Paris Agreement.

Kate’s career spans roles in government, finance, consulting, a think tank and NGOs. Before joining CIFF she was Head of Policy at Climate Change Capital, a boutique investment firm with $1.5 billion under management, advising asset managers and multinational companies on clean energy opportunities. She has also advised policy-makers in a number of roles, including as Senior Policy Advisor for the United Kingdom's G8 and EU presidencies in 2005, and as a Sherpa to the EU High-Level Group on Competitiveness, Energy and Environment in 2007.

In 2008, Kate was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She holds a BSc from the London School of Economics and a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. She has also completed the Singularity University Executive Programme. She speaks French and Spanish fluently.

Mr Will Hall
Associate Fellow in the Industrial Energy Efficiency Division, TERI

Will Hall is an Associate Fellow in the Industrial Energy Efficiency Division at TERI. He works in the Energy Transitions Commission India team, with a focus on the ‘harder-to-abate’ sectors. These include iron & steel, cement and petrochemicals. Before joining TERI, Will was a senior analyst in the UK Government, working across a range of energy and environment policy areas. Will is an economist with a Bachelor’s in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and a Master’s in Economics and Policy of Energy and Environment.

Ms Tomasz Chruszczow
Special Envoy for Climate Change, High Level Champion for COP 24

Mr. Chruszczow graduated from the Technical University of Warsaw and has been active in environmental protection for more than 30 years, with a focus on industrial emissions, as well as waste management.

He has represented Polish glass manufacturers, including as the Vice President of CPIV – Standing Committee of European Glass Industries. He was the Delegate to the Consultative Commission on Industrial Change (CCMI) in the European Economic and Social Committee and worked on implementation of the IPPC and EU ETS directives in Poland. He was Chair of the Technical Working Groups in the Polish IPPC Centre and Poland’s delegate to the European IPPC Bureau.

Since 2009, he has held various roles in the Ministry of Environment, including Director of the Department of Climate Change and Atmosphere Protection, Chief Negotiator and Special Envoy for Climate Change, Head of the Polish delegation and National Focal Point for UNFCCC. He chaired the EU delegation to the UNFCCC negotiations during Poland’s Presidency of the EU Council in 2011. He was Coordinator and Chief negotiator for the COP 19/CMP 9 Presidency during the COP in Warsaw.

He has acted as Chair of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies, including the Subsidiary Body for Implementation in 2012-2013 and 2016-2017, and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice in 2014-2015 and was a member of the Adaptation Committee 2012-2015. He was named High-Level Climate Champion at COP 23 in 2017.

Mr Ashvin Dayal
Associate VP & Managing Director, Power Initiative, The Rockefeller Foundation

Ashvin Dayal Associate VP & Managing Director Power Initiative, The Rockefeller Foundation   Ashvin Dayal leads the Foundation’s global Power initiative aimed at scaling up energy access in order to drive economic and social development. He oversaw the Foundation’s pioneering investments in the renewable mini-grid space in India and the establishment of Smart Power India, a dedicated platform to support the acceleration of last-mile electrification. As one of the Foundation’s long-term priorities, Ashvin is responsible for shaping its global power portfolio with an ambitious goal of ending energy poverty and improving the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people over the next decade.  Mr. Dayal joined the Rockefeller Foundation in 2008 as its Asia Managing Director, running the Foundation’s regional office in Bangkok, Thailand.  From there he led the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network, a nine-year partnership that equipped over 50 Asian cities to better cope with climate change impacts. He also oversaw the Foundation’s global Inclusive Economies portfolio, a policy and research effort to advance more broadly shared prosperity. Before joining the Foundation, he held a range of senior leadership roles over 15 years with Oxfam in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.  Ashvin holds a bachelor’s degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and a master’s degree from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins. 
 

Mr Sumant Sinha
Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, Renew Power

A leading first generation entrepreneur, Sumant Sinha is the Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of ReNew Power - India’s largest clean energy company.

Sumant founded ReNew Power in January 2011, starting with a small wind project of 25 MW in Gujarat and a vision to transform the way energy is produced and consumed in India. Since then, under his leadership, ReNew Power has grown significantly to become India’s largest renewable power producer with nearly 8,000 MW of commissioned and under-construction, wind and solar capacity, spanning more than 100 sites across India. To fund this growth, ReNew has raised more than Rs 8,000 cr of equity funding and more than Rs 30,000 cr of debt financing. Equity investors include Goldman Sachs (the storied US investment bank), CPPIB (the largest Canadian pension fund), ADIA (the biggest sovereign wealth fund in the Middle East), and JERA (the biggest Japanese utility). This size of the asset base is now one of the largest among Indian infrastructure companies, and the total funds raised is among the highest of any new company in India.

For his achievements in the area of entrepreneurship and clean energy, Sumant has won several awards including the “EY Entrepreneur of the Year, 2017” in the Energy, Real Estate and Infrastructure category, “Champion of Tomorrow” by CEO Awards, and the “Outstanding Start-up of the Year”- Forbes India Leadership Awards for ReNew Power 2017. Most recently he received the coveted “Economic Times Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 2018”, and the “IIT Delhi Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2018”.

Sumant is a passionate advocate for solutions related to climate change through the intersection of business and public policy. As an expert on economic policy & climate change, Sumant speaks extensively at global platforms, such as the World Economic Forum at Davos and forums organized by the Financial Times, Goldman Sachs, Fortune, Boao Forum, Observer Research Foundation and top global universities. Sumant is a sought after columnist and commentator. He has authored more than 100 articles in leading global and Indian publications.

Sumant is a member of the Stewardship Board on Shaping the Future of Energy at the World Economic Forum, and serves as the Chair of the Climate Group’s India Advisory Board. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF). He chairs the CII’s Renewable Energy Council, is Co-chair of CII’s Climate Change Council, and has been the CII Northern region head as well. He is on the Board of Governors of prestigious institutions such as IIM Calcutta, IIT Delhi and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). Sumant is also an alumnus of the same three institutions - IIT Delhi (B.Tech), IIM Calcutta (PGDBM) and SIPA at Columbia (Masters).

Starting his career as an investment banker in the US and UK with leading global banks such as Citibank and ING Barings, Sumant returned to India in 2002 and has held senior leadership positions in large companies, such as the Group Chief Financial Officer of the Aditya Birla Group, which he held for six years; Founder and CEO of Aditya Birla Retail; and Chief Operating Officer of Suzlon, India’s leading wind turbine company. As CFO of the Aditya Birla Group, and working closely with the Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, he was responsible for some of India’s largest M&A transactions such as the acquisition of Idea Cellular, Novelis and L&T’s cement business, along with wide scale restructuring of the Group’s business lines and overall portfolio.

Mr Mitch Bernard
Interim President, NRDC

Mitch Bernard has successfully litigated water, air, toxics, and environmental justice cases against Texaco, Mallinckrodt, Duke Energy, and a variety of government agencies. He is recognized by Lawdragon as one of the 500 leading lawyers in the United States for 2019.

From 1995 to 1998, as a monitor appointed by U.S. District Judge John S. Martin, Jr., Bernard oversaw the creation and implementation of an environmental compliance program at Con Edison. He later served as a consultant to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He is a graduate of Princeton University and New York University School of Law, where he was a Hays Civil Liberties Fellow. He was a law clerk in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Bernard is based in NRDC’s New York office.

Ms Frances Beinecke
President Emeritus, NRDC

Ms. Frances Beinecke is the President Emeritus with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a leading nonprofit environmental organization that works to curb global warming, protect people's health, preserve wild landscapes, and foster vibrant and sustainable communities. Using legal and scientific expertise, NRDC creates and enforces the laws that protect our environment

Mr Andrew Prag
Head of the Environment and Climate Change Unit, International Energy Agency

Andrew Prag is Head of the Environment and Climate Change Unit at the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, where he leads IEA’s work on climate policy and oversees the agency’s involvement in the UN climate negotiations. Before joining the IEA, he spent 7 years at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) where he led research projects related to energy, climate change, trade and environment policy, including extensive work on carbon pricing. Prior to the OECD, Andrew was a principal consultant for Camco Clean Energy where he developed carbon credit projects for renewable energy and industrial efficiency, as well as chairing policy working groups for the Carbon Capture and Storage Association. Earlier in his career he held a variety of roles in the energy sector, including downstream production management with Royal Dutch Shell.  He holds an MSc in environmental technology from Imperial College, London, and an MA in natural sciences from Cambridge University, UK. 

Mr Siddarthan Balasubramania
Senior Adviser- Strategy, ClimateWorks Foundation

In this position, Siddarthan supports ClimateWorks and several other Foundations who are committed to deploy philanthropic resources to India to advance India’s development goals, particularly related to clean energy and climate change. In this cross-cutting role, Siddarthan helps developing compelling ideas, common strategies around those ideas and identifying partners on the ground to implement programs and projects. Siddarthan also works to advance ClimateWorks' mission of expanding climate philanthropy by providing India and 'India and the rest of the world' perspectives and act as a bridge between international and Indian philanthropies particularly around climate change, energy and related thematic areas.

Siddarthan joined ClimateWorks Foundation after working for 3 years as the first India Country Head at the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), an inter-governmental organization with 30 Member Countries. Prior to GGGI, Siddarthan was in Washington DC as Director of the Major Economies Program at the World Resources Institute (WRI). He also had two stints with the UK Government working in the Department for International Development (DFID) and later with UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (UK FCO), focusing on climate change, energy, environment and natural resource management. His other experience includes Senior Advisor in Norwegian NORAD where he spent 6 years promoting and deepening bilateral relationship between India and Norway in the areas of climate change, energy and environment.

His areas of expertise include but are not limited to climate change mitigation and adaptation, INDC implementation, international climate policy, green growth policy and planning, and energy policy. Siddarthan is an agricultural engineer by education and is an Indian national.

Mr Manish Chourasia
Managing Director - Tata Cleantech Capital Limited