Tamara Close, CFA - Founder & Managing Director, Close Group Consulting
Tamara is the Founder of Close Group Consulting, which is a boutique ESG advisory firm that uses in-depth capital markets and ESG expertise to assess, design and implement tailored end-to-end ESG integration practices across asset classes for asset managers, asset owners and corporates. She was previously the Head of ESG Integration for KKS Advisors, and has over 20 years of combined experience in capital markets and ESG strategy. Tamara has held various investment management positions for the Bank of Montreal and Credit Lyonnais in the global derivatives and foreign exchange markets and was previously the head of research and risk for a start-up fixed income asset management firm in Montreal. Before founding Close Group Consulting, she spent 10 years in senior management roles within the risk and public markets investment groups of PSP Investments. She is also the founder and creator of the Sustainable Risk Assessment Framework. Tamara holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification and is a council member of the Canadian Advocacy Council for CFA Societies Canada. She is also a Board director for CFA Montreal and Chair of the ESG Committee. Tamara is an Advisor to the Veristell Institute, a globally focused think-tank on ESG and Corporate Purpose, as well as PracticalESG, a source for ESG thought leadership. She earned a Bachelor in Economics from McGill University and a Master of Science degree in Finance from the John Molson School of Business. She is fluent in French and English.
Ryan Bohn - Senior Manager, Ernst & Young
Ryan is a senior manager at EY with over 15 years of experience serving banking and capital markets, wealth and asset management, and insurance clients. He is a leader for our Financial Services Office Sustainable Finance campaign, driving our go-to-market strategy and engaging clients on their net zero ambitions and climate-related risks and opportunities. Ryan has a deep understanding of key environment, social and governance (ESG) frameworks, specifically: Task Force for Climate-Related Disclosures (TCFD), Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), and the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) as well as experience with data vendors across the ESG landscape. He has authored multiple whitepapers covering climate risk disclosures, regulations and frameworks and routinely engages clients in developing their decarbonization strategies and embedding climate risk into the risk management framework. Ryan has a Bachelor of Arts in Business and minor in Economics and Communications from Muskingum University.
Ronan Crosson, CFA - Director, Data Strategy & Analytics, Eagle Alpha
Ronan’s background spans 20+ years in both the investment and the data industries. He started his career at Bank of Ireland Asset Management and State Street Global Advisor’s, most recently as an equity analyst and portfolio manager. For the last six years Ronan has worked with the Irish fintech data startup Eagle Alpha. Eagle Alpha is a leading alternative data aggregation platform and advisor. Amongst Eagle Alpha’s clients are the largest hedge funds and asset managers in the world. At Eagle Alpha Ronan provides alternative data consulting and advice to some of the largest funds in the world and also oversees Eagle Alpha’s premium, client-only, webinars and publications. Ronan also speaks regularly on the topic of alternative data at industry conferences as well as webinars and podcasts. Ronan is a CFA charterholder, and also holds the CFA certificate in ESG investing.
Vittoria Bufalari - Senior Associate, ESG Data and Analytics Lead, KKS Advisors
Vittoria is Senior Associate Consultant and ESG Data and Analytics Lead at KKS Advisors. Experienced in financial materiality and ESG data analysis, she helps clients understand how ESG integration can enhance value in investment decisions.During her time at KKS, Vittoria has supported investor clients in the development and enhancement of ESG integrated strategies, from building proprietary materiality views and ESG scoring methodologies, due diligence processes for private market investors, to conducting research on price discovery from integration of ESG factors. Her ESG research and thought leadership has been featured in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Responsible Investor, Harvard Forum on Corporate Governance, and other publications.Prior to joining KKS, Vittoria achieved a MSc in Specialized Economic Analysis from Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (Pompeu Fabra University) and a BSc in International Economics and Finance from Bocconi University. During her studies, she gained vast knowledge across a range of topics including finance and investment, corporate valuation, development economics and advanced econometrics while developing strong quantitative and analytical skills. With strong analytical and computational skills, Vittoria works at the intersection of finance and sustainability in a way that allows global market players to address the most pressing and material environmental, social and governance issues while safeguarding competitive investment returns.
Anshul Vikram Pandey, Ph.D. - CTO & Co-Founder, Accern
Anshul Vikram Pandey is the Co-Founder and CTO of Accern, a no-code AI startup with offices in New York and Bangalore, where he leads the AI technology and innovation efforts. Accern allows Financial Organizations to easily build AI models that uncover risk and investment insights with a no-code development platform. Data teams from the world's leading organizations, such as Allianz, IBM, and Jefferies, are using Accern to build and deploy AI solutions powered by Accern’s adaptive NLP and predictive features. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from NYU, and a B.E. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BITS Pilani, India. He has published several award winning research papers at top computer science conferences and his research is widely covered in books and popular media such as Reuters, NewScientist, Wired etc. He is also an advisor for Rutgers University’s big data program. He has won several awards in statistics, data science and entrepreneurship, received best doctoral research award, named among top 25 Fintech CTOs, and was listed in global Forbes 30 under 30, 2018.
Moderated by: Ruben Alba - Strategic Partnerships, Accern
Bio coming soon.
