Speakers New York

Charles Conwell is President and CEO of Novele, Inc. In his role at Novele, Charles is responsible for all facets of the business. Novele provides its customers with a clean, resilient and sustainable backup power supply that reduces carbon footprints, and integrates with renewable energy generation. Prior to joining Novele, Charles was a partner at ABS Partners Real Estate in New York City. Mr. Conwell’s 18 years of real estate experience includes all facets of property ownership and operations in markets throughout the United States. Charles is a current member of the Board of Directors for the Union Square Partnership in New York City and the Advisory Board for the Borrelli Institute for Real Estate Studies in the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University.

Antonino Laspina graduated with honors in Political Science, earned a master’s degree in foreign trade and export management and then attended SIOI postgraduate school in diplomatic affairs in 1981. In the same year, he joined the Italian Trade Agency and experienced different positions in his career, both in the headquarters in Rome and in major foreign offices. As Trade Commissioner, he was posted mainly in Asia, including Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, and Taipei. He then went on to become the Director of the Beijing office and Coordinator of the ITA network in China for 12 years. In 2015, Mr. Laspina was appointed as the Director of Marketing in the Rome headquarters. He focused on the innovation of on-demand services for the international business development of ITA customers, and supported them on every step of international trade, including market approach, access and consolidation. He also utilized groundbreaking innovations in ITA core activities such as executive and HR training and omnichannel business services. He was posted in NYC on November 9th, 2019 as the Executive Director of ITA in the US market.

Mariama Mounir Camara is one of the most influential African woman in fashion, philanthropy and entrepreneurship. She has founded numerous ventures aimed at promoting economic empowerment, dignity, environmental sustainability within the African fashion industry, and the MADE IN AFRICA textiles in international markets. She is the Co-founder of There Is No Limit Foundation, founder of MARIAMA FASHION PRODUCTION, KANAFRIK, RAW REAL TALKS and her Eponymous name brand MARIAMA CAMARA, Mariama Camara is also an activist and public speaker who continues to advocate for women, girls, and artisans rights in international conferences such as Oslo Freedom Forum with the Human Rights Foundation, TEDx Talk, African Union Heads of State conference and the United Nations.

Kerry Bannigan is a social entrepreneur pioneering global fashion and media initiatives to advance the creative economy as a driving force for sustainable development. As the Executive Director of the Fashion Impact Fund, Kerry spearheads high-level partnerships with business, Governments, and United Nations agencies to support female founders in the fashion industry advancing education, media, and workforce development programs to accelerate women’s economic empowerment and leadership; collectively transforming communities for people and planet.

A flagship initiative includes the United Nations Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle Network – an online platform for industry stakeholders, media, Governments, and UN system entities to showcase collaborations that accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr. Sweta Chakraborty is a risk and behavioral scientist who is regularly interviewed on major, international news media outlets like CNN, the BBC, MSNBC, etc. Sweta is the US President for We Don’t Have Time, the world’s largest review platform for climate solutions. She is a partner at Pioneer Public Affairs and is on the steering committee of the Global Commons Alliance. She is an Independent Director at Lightbridge Corp. where she chairs their ESG committee, and is on several advisory boards like the New York Academy of Sciences and Climate Power. She is a book author from her time as a postdoc at Oxford University. She is a TEDx, SXSW, and globally recognized keynote speaker and consultant for multinational companies like Goldman Sachs and Mercer.

Ms. Ligia Noronha began her role as United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the New York Office at UNEP on 1 April 2021. In this role she works in establishing and maintaining critical links with the Permanent Missions of Member States to the United Nations, the United Nations Secretariat, other UN System organizations and entities headquartered in New York, major groups, civil society organizations, academia and the private sector. Through her leadership of the New York Office, she promotes effective integration of the environmental dimension in the UN System work programmes, in the inter-agency mechanisms and in the intergovernmental processes while raising awareness of emerging environmental issues and the outcomes of the United Nations Environment Assembly.

Ezgi Barcenas is AB InBev’s Chief Sustainability Officer since August 2021. Ezgi holds a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, a master’s degree in Environmental Health from Harvard School of Public Health and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Since joining the company in 2013 through the Global MBA Program, Ezgi has held key roles within the Corporate Affairs and Procurement functions. She most recently served as the Global Vice President of Sustainability. Prior to joining AB InBev, she worked in international trade, public health and international development.

Denise Lee leads a team that is defining Cisco’s long-term sustainability vision and roadmap, building new business blueprints and embedding prototype offers across multiple portfolios. She and her team collaborate across every function of the business to develop and create integrated capabilities that serve as the foundation to incubate and scale sustainable products that accelerate the journey to net zero for Cisco, its customers and partners.

Barbara Humpton is President and CEO of Siemens Corporation, where she guides the company’s strategy and engagement in serving the company’s largest market. Siemens USA employs approximately 40,000 people serving customers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico and generated $17 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2020. She views the true purpose of technology as expanding what is humanly possible. She is also passionate about diversity, STEM education and what she calls a work life blend that honors her priorities both at Siemens and as a grandmother.

Barbara serves on the board of directors of the American Heart Association Greater Washington Region, Triumph Group, National Association of Manufacturers, Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, Economic Club of Washington, D.C. and the Seabee Memorial Scholarship Association.

As Head of Sustainability for Siemens USA, Matt is responsible for advancing the company’s decarbonization on its path toward becoming net zero across all operations by 2030. He manages the implementation of U.S. initiatives, furthering Siemens as an industry leader in sustainability. These initiatives include the ongoing transition to a zero-emission fleet, targeted installation of essential EV infrastructure, empowering renewable energy generation in the U.S. market, deploying distributed energy and energy efficiency projects across key Siemens U.S. sites, and creating partnerships with Siemens’ customers and stakeholders to drive toward common sustainability targets.

Frank Reig is the CEO and Co-Founder of Revel, a Brooklyn-born company that’s accelerating EV adoption by providing the infrastructure and services that make it easy to go electric. Prior to Revel, Frank held senior roles in the energy and corporate sustainability sectors, most recently leading the North American Energy, Industrials & Real Estate Product Team at the Gerson Lehrman Group. Frank received an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University and also holds a Culinary Arts degree from the Culinary Institute of America and a Bachelor of Science degree from Rutgers University.

As Director of the SME Climate Hub, Pamela works with international partners, multinational companies and governments to accelerate a global movement and develop a one-stop-shop platform mobilizing small and medium-sized enterprises to take climate action on net zero. Pamela previously served as Head of City Business Climate Alliances at C40, where she was responsible for expanding C40’s service offering to member cities relating to the acceleration of climate solutions with local and global businesses. Her experience also includes initiating and leading multi-partner programs focused on innovation and sustainability for Virgin Unite, the non-profit arm of the Virgin Group, and University of the Arts London.

I am a PhD physicist who has spent my career working towards fusion energy. I was one of the leaders of the team that achieved fusion ignition on the National Ignition Facility laser — which was an important step towards fusion energy. I have over 200 publications in scientific journals, am a Fellow of the APS, and recently received the Fusion Power Associates leadership award

Murielle and her team are responsible for the Vodafone Business units in the Europe Cluster and Enterprise Americas & Asia Pacific, including Vodafone’s largest global corporate customers. This includes the strategy and operational execution required to help customers with a large international presence. Murielle has over 23 years of telecommunications experience at CEO level. Joining Vodafone in 2013, she managed Vodacom before becoming President of the Board and CEO of Vodafone Romania.

During her time at Vodafone Romania, she ran projects of high complexity from the acquisition process of UPC services, the transformation of Vodafone Romania into a convergent player in the telecom industry, the launch of the first 5G commercial services in the country and one of the first in Europe to position Vodafone as a trusted partner for digitisation both for the public and private sector.

As Colgate-Palmolive’s Chief Sustainability Officer Ann leads Colgate’s Global Sustainability strategy and key initiatives, integrating a strong technical foundation across people, performance and planet into commercial strategic purpose. Ann holds a BA degree in Applied Science, a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering, and a Master’s of Engineering degree in Manufacturing Systems. Most recently Ann has completed a Certificate of Sustainability from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Currently she is on the Boards or the UNGC Network USA and Flow Beverages.

Cyrill is an award-winning designer and brand/product developer. In 1998 he created a method called Cross Intelligence, which brings a culture of collaboration to major organizations. In 2012 he decided to focus on a new client vital to us all: the oceans. He founded Parley for the Oceans as a collaboration network for creators, thinkers and leaders to raise awareness for the beauty and fragility of the oceans and to develop and implement strategies that can end their destruction. Parley and their partners won the Grand Prix for Product Design at Cannes Lions, two D&AD Pencils and an ADCN Grand Prix in 2014. Gutsch was named 2017 Environmentalist of the Year by the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association for his tireless work for the oceans. In 2018, Parley was named Environmental Organisation of the Year at EARTHx and Gutsch was honored with a Special Recognition Award for Innovation by the British Fashion Council. In 2019, Gutsch was inducted into the UBS Global Visionary community – a select group of leading entrepreneurs and individuals working towards one or more of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

My mission is to scour the globe for technologies that can transform the Lufthansa Group airlines towards a more sustainable future operation, and then implement them into our organization. The CleanTech Hub focuses on scaling and commercializing homegrown tech from within the group companies and establishing partnerships with startups and corporates in the areas of aircraft retrofits, SAF and alternative fuels, digital solutions, waste and circular economy, and everything between and beyond, comprising new powertrains, hydrogen, electric, hybrid, etc. I have a background in logistics, aviation, IT, and have lived and worked in 6 countries.

Anthony is President and CEO of Siemens Financial Services, the U.S. financial arm of Siemens. Previously, Casciano served as CEO of the global Industry and Healthcare Finance business at SFS, overseeing the growth of SFS’s activities in the global healthcare and industrial markets in addition to managing the global leveraged finance business across all industries. Throughout his tenure, Casciano built a global equity business, namely with infrastructure finance expertise.

Andini Makosinski is a 24 year old inventor, speaker, writer, and 2022 Renaissance Woman. She is best known for her invention the Hollow Flashlight, a flashlight that runs off the heat of the human hand. Andini is currently writing a book on the Inventing Mindset, and how we are all innately inventors built to solve problems. Andini is also pitching a television show about Futurism that she hopes to host.