Akira Kirton is a purpose & values driven leader, with a huge passion for diversity and sustainability. He has spent his career working in the chemicals & energy manufacturing sectors - in both commercial/operational & business development/innovation roles.

Akira is Vice President of Global Acetyls. In this role, he has full commercial & operational accountability for Acetyls Globally (~$2.5bn business). His business is at the forefront of fighting CV-19, with product sales going into key sectors such as pharmaceuticals (ibuprofen, paracetamol, insulin) and powder detergents. Akira has accountability for 9 operational sites across US, Europe & Asia (Korea, Malaysia, & 6 China JV's).

Prior to this role, Akira was Commercial Director for the European Acetyls business. In this role, Akira led on programmes in sustainability, agile, and digital for the business – particular Zero-Carbon Humber, WEF Low Carbon Chemicals Biomass Group, and Acetylated Wood (Tricoya). Akira is bp's Board Director for Tricoya Technologies (sustainable wood production), having structured & led the investment/spin-out from Accsys plc in 2014/15.

Across 2012-17, Akira was Managing Director for bp Ventures Europe & Asia, growing the portfolio to $500m capital invested, having led a number of game-changing deals in green manufacturing, CO2 to chemicals, mobility & digital. Akira was Portfolio Director & Board Director for the green manufacturing sector, with board roles with Fulcrum Bioenergy (waste to biojet), Solidia (low carbon cement/concrete products), Tricoya (acetylated wood), Liquid Light (CO2 to chemicals), CarbonFree Chemicals (CO2 to bicarbonates), StoreDot (ultra-fast charging batteries); and originated and led the structuring for the OGCI CI ($1bn climate fund).

Akira has experience in the public sector and was seconded to the UK Energy Technologies Institute ($1b UK Gov backed climate change/sustainability fund) for three years. He sat on the UK Chief Scientific Advisor’s Group on Bioenergy and was Director for Strategy for Biomass and Distributed Energy; developing the priorities to 2050 for >$1trn in investment focus.

Prior to this, Akira worked globally in business development roles, engineering, and technology roles in Chemicals, Fuels, and Trading for both bp & Ineos.

External Profile: Akira has been recognised as #4 Rising Star (out of 10,000) by Global Corporate Venturing in 2018; a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (2015-20); A Fellow of the Marshall Memorial Foundation 2012; and a 2008 IChemE Award for Innovation.

On a pro-bono basis, Akira is a Trustee of #iamthecode: A UN HCR & WEF YGL backed global charity focussed on providing STEM skills/digital skills to underprivileged young women/girls, targeting 1m by 2030. Akira sits on the board of trustees with Founder/CEO Marieme Jamme (#Truly Inspirational), Kelly Buchanon (YGL), and Patron - Christoper Schlaeffer (YGL) - with strong support from Unilever, UBS, Salesforce, AliBaba, Coursera and more....

Dr. Daniel Klier joined ESG Book as Chief Executive in June 2021. ESG Book is a leading ESG data and technology company with offices in Boston, London, Frankfurt, Delhi, Singapore and Tokyo.

Prior to this, Daniel was Global Head of Sustainable Finance for HSBC, where he developed the global climate strategy for the bank and led the sustainable finance business across the organisation. Daniel chaired the Bank of England Climate Risk Working Group and the Sustainable Finance Working Group at the Institute of International Finance. He is a member of the Board of Sustainable Energy for All.

Daniel joined HSBC in 2013 as Group Head of Strategy in London, following a successful career at McKinsey & Company where he was a Partner. In 2016, Daniel was selected as Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum.

Silvana is the President and Founder of Women Political Leaders (WPL), the worldwide network of women politicians. WPL is an independent, non-partisan and not-for-profit foundation that aims to increase both the number and influence of women in political leadership.

Silvana served as Vice-President of the European Parliament (2009-2011) and Member of the European Parliament (2004-2014).

Before her time in politics, she founded and ran a public affairs consultancy in Brussels, which later merged with a larger US firm. In addition to her work for WPL, Silvana serves on the board of the Council of Women World Leaders, the network of women Presidents and Prime Ministers. She is also a member of the European Leadership Network (ELN), a member of the Global Advisory Network of Apolitical Academy Global and an advisory board member to PINK!. She also works as Senior Advisor to Binance, and is a Venture Partner at Conny&Co. Previously, she was a senior Special Advisor for EY. 2016-2020 Silvana represented the EU in the Executive Committee of W20, an official engagement group of the G20. In 2018 and 2019, she was ranked as one of the 100 most influential persons in gender equality by Apolitical. Silvana is a Young Global Leader Alumni of the World Economic Forum.

A four-time Olympic gold medalist in speed skating for Norway, Johann Koss is Founder Right To Play International, an organization committed to improving the lives of disadvantaged children and their communities through the power of sport and play. Johann is currently an investment partner, investing in growth impact companies and start ups from the Nordic region. Johann has served as a director of several public and private companies from real estate, retail, industrial and shipping companies. Koss has a medical degree from the University of Queensland Medical School and received his MBA from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from Carleton University, University of Calgary, Agder University and the Free University of Brussels.

Frank Krings is a Franco-German banker and financial services executive who, over the past two and a half decades, has held executive and non-executive directorships and management roles at banks, asset management and investment companies, industry associations and chambers of commerce in numerous developed and emerging market jurisdictions across Europe and Asia. Currently, he serves as Non-Executive Director on the statutory boards of various European financial institutions and organizations within and outside the European Union.
In the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Krings is a Member of the Supervisory Board, the Risk Committee, and the Nomination Committee of Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A., since January 2021; he is also an elected member of the plenary assembly of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce for the 2019 – 2024 term, and a Member of its Audit Committee. In the Republic of Türkiye, he is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Deutsche Bank A.Ş., Istanbul, since March 2019, a Member of its Audit Committee, and the Chairman of its Compensation Committee. In France, he is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Franco-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Paris, since June 2022.
Previously, from July 2020 until December 2022, Krings was Deutsche Bank Group’s Chief Executive Officer for Western Europe as well as, from January 2021 to December 2022, the President and General Manager of Deutsche Bank in France. There, he also served on the Board of the Association Française des Banques (AFB). Beyond, from November 2020 until March 2023, he was a Member of the Board of Directors, the Audit Committee, and the Credit Committee of Deutsche Bank (Schweiz) AG, Geneva.
From 2016 through 2020, Krings was the Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A., Luxembourg. He was also a Member of the Supervisory Board and the Audit & Risk Committee of DWS Investment S.A., Luxembourg, from 2016 to 2021. He further served on the Board of Directors of The Luxembourg Bankers’ Association (ABBL), chaired its Audit Committee and was a member of its Board Council. Before, from 2011 to early 2016, Krings was the General Manager of Deutsche Bank in Thailand, where he also served as Chairman of the Association of International Banks (AIB), the foreign bankers’ association in the Kingdom, from 2013 through 2015. Krings had rejoined Deutsche Bank in 2011 after serving as Member of the Management Board of Munich-based Hypo Real Estate Holding and Deutsche Pfandbriefbank from October 2008 through 2010, mandated to assure their restructuring. Previously, he had spent twelve years with Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and New York, holding various senior roles and serving on statutory boards of several regulated Deutsche Bank subsidiaries across Europe.
Krings is of German and French nationality and graduated with a combined degree in Business Administration and Electrical Engineering from Brunswick Technical University.

Until November 2019 Michal Krupinski served as Chief Executive Officer of Bank Pekao, 2nd largest universal bank and a leading corporate and investment bank in Poland. Prior to joining the Bank, held number of senior managerial roles in leading financial institutions. Most recently, as Chief Executive Officer, PZU Group, the region’s largest financial group, repositioned the firm for growth and strengthened its presence in banking. Previously, from 2011, was Head of Global Banking and Markets for Central and Eastern Europe at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, responsible for M&A projects, financing and capital advisory. Also has broad-based public sector experience. 2008-11, Alternate Executive Director of the Board of Directors, World Bank Group, Washington. Prior to this, served as Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Treasury. Graduate, Warsaw School of Economics, KU Leuven; MBA, Columbia University. Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum (2012).

Umit Kumcuoglu is the Chief Executive Officer of Kare Investments, a fund management company of the family office of Suna and Inan Kirac who are among the leading investors in Turkey. Formerly, he was an investment banker for Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan in New York, London and Istanbul. Kumcuoglu holds Bachelor degrees in Electrical Engineering and Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Master's in Human Rights Law from Istanbul Bilgi University. He is currently working towards a PhD in political science at Istanbul Bilgi University. Kumcuoglu has been active in Turkish economic and financial affairs for over 15 years as researcher and writer, with a particular focus on contemporary Turkish politics and comparative Western and Islamic political philosophy.

Maja is a generalist - experience designer, artist, futurist and process facilitator, with a fondness for contemplation and futurecrafting. She is the founder and president of FoAM, a laboratory for speculative culture at the interstices between art, science, nature and everyday life.

Maja leads transdisciplinary teams in prototyping possible futures as creative experiments. She co-creates multisensory experiences, facilitates participatory processes, writes, speaks and cooks worldwide. Maja's academic background is in design futures and interactive media. In recent years, her embodied experience of living with uncertainty became the backbone of her creative practice.

PhD in Electrical Engineering, INSA de Lyon, France; completed postdoctoral research, Princeton University, USA, and the University of Cambridge, UK. Currently, Bertarelli Foundation Chair in Neuroprosthetic Technology, School of Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Research focuses on the materials, technology and integration of soft bioelectronic interfaces including artificial skin and ultra-compliant neural electrodes for therapeutic neuroprosthetics. Founding Member, EPFL Centre for Neuroprosthetics. Recipient: MIT TR35 (2006); University Research Fellowship, Royal Society (UK); European Research Council ERC Starting and Proof-of-Concept Grants; SNSF-ERC Consolidator Grant.

Peter Lacy is the global sustainability services lead and chief responsibility officer, overseeing the integration of sustainability in all client work and ensuring the responsible business agenda across Accenture services and internal operations. Peter is a member of Accenture's Global Management Committee.

He leads sustainability services with clients and ecosystem partners, working across Accenture's service offerings to help clients create value and impact. Peter's work spans environmental, social and governance issues as they impact business, clients and ecosystems, as Accenture builds toward achieving the United Nations Global Compact's Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. He directs market growth for sustainability services and demand for responsible business consulting.

Peter previously led Accenture Strategy in Europe and Asia Pacific and helped launch the company's sustainability practice in 2008.

He has led the world's largest CEO studies on behalf of the United Nations Secretary General and co-led a global research program on digital transformation with the World Economic Forum, where he also sits on the Forum of Young Global Leaders foundation board.

Peter is the author of two books on the value of the circular economy: Waste to Wealth, an international best seller, and its follow-up, The Circular Economy Handbook.

Peter achieved First Class Honours at the University of Nottingham, winning the David and Elizabeth Marsden prize, and has been a Business Fellow at the University of Oxford since 2010. He has completed executive programs at Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Cambridge and INSEAD.

He lives in London with his family.

Dr Tamás Landesz is Director, Administration and Finance at the World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) based in Lyon. Prior, Landesz held senior management functions in international organizations and advised governments, including the Office of the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, European Defence Agency, and United Nations system organizations. He has been posted in complex post-conflict hot spots across four continents. Landesz started his career as a management consultant, providing strategic advise to companies expanding to Eastern Europe, during the transition from centrally planned to market economies. He is a Member of Prof. Michael Porter`s Harvard Business School network, lecturing on the microeconomics of competitiveness. Landesz holds a PhD from Paris, an MPA from Harvard University, an MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and an MBA from Vienna. His research interest focuses on the future of leadership, and his PhD dissertation dealt with Authentic Leadership and Machiavellianism in Young Global Leaders.