Lisa Walker recently left BG Group (now part of Royal Dutch Shell) where she served as Vice President for Environment & Climate Change to become CEO of start-up Ecosphere+. Lisa worked in the oil and gas sector for >17 years, closely involved in all aspects of climate change strategy development & implementation, public policy formation, sector coalition building and low-carbon business development. She was a driving force behind the UK Emissions Trading Group, the CCAC Oil & Gas Methane Partnership (which she Co-Chaired), the Sustainable Gas Institute and the CEO-led Oil & Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI). Lisa helped BG Group secure multiple industry awards for sustainability. Before BG Group Lisa held various roles at BP including Director of the BP Carbon Ventures corporate-VC fund. Lisa successfully secured capital for many innovative investments in sustainable land-use and forestry, low-carbon technologies and b io-energy, including first-of-their-kind deals for the private sector such as the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). Lisa is a mother of four and originally from New Zealand.

Richard Walker is the managing director of Iceland, the United Kingdom grocer specializing in frozen foods. Iceland was founded in 1970 by Walker's father, Sir Malcolm Walker. Walker took over as managing director in August of 2018 and has led the retailer's concerted charge against the use of plastics and palm oil in the grocery sector. Previously, Walker was managing director of Iceland Food’s sister brand the Food Warehouse and Iceland’s director for sustainability. Iceland has been at the forefront of driving sustainability initiatives in the retail industry, which includes the frozen food chain’s commitment to eliminating plastic packaging for all own-brand products within five years and, most recently, a pledge to remove palm oil from the ingredients in all its products by the end of 2018.

Pooja is the Senior Advisor at Apolitical, a peer to peer and first of its kind learning platform for government. Apolitical helps government transform itself by connecting public servants to the latest and best ideas, skills, and partners they need to solve today’s complex challenges. She is also the Interim Executive Director of the Apolitical Academy that accelerates the transition of the next generation of transformational leaders to governments or elected offices.

Prior to that, she was the Founding and Managing Partner of Conduit Connect, an impact investing platform for The Conduit, a community of investors, entrepreneurs and business leaders. She also supported the formation of Conduit Capital to fund and scale high impact solutions with The Conduit community. Pooja was the co-founder and former CEO of UnLtd India, that finds, funds and supports early-stage social entrepreneurs in India. She also co-founded Bombay Connect, a co-working space for entrepreneurs and Journeys for Change that brings global leaders to learn from social entrepreneurs in India.

Pooja serves as an advisor for private family offices and sits on advisory councils of Educate Girls and Greenwood Place. She is a TED India Fellow since 2009, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum since 2013 and an Aspen India fellow since 2016.

Entrepreneur, speaker and leadership consultant. Thought leadership at the intersection of the arts and education, China, migration and globalization, women’s empowerment, leadership, entrepreneurship and spirituality.

Entrepreneurship

As the founder and director of Hua Dan and Scheherazade Initiatives, two global enterprises that use participatory theatre to empower migrant and refugee populations to overcome the challenges of enforced displacement and both contribute to and benefit from their host communities. We use a combination of theatre games, exercises, role play and creative arts approaches that develop valuable life skills that enable individuals to take action to solve some of the challenges they are facing in their life.

I am also the founding member of the Global Arts Impact Agenda, an initiative to radically innovate in how the arts can be used to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Speaker

I am regularly invited to speak about my work in founding Hua Dan and Scheherazade and my experience running a global business. Some of the topics I address include:

• Leadership and entrepreneurship
• Living and working in China and the emerging world
• Globalization, migration and supply chain issues
• Diversity and inclusion
• Women’s empowerment
• The role of the arts for personal and social development
• Spirituality and transformative leadership

See more at my personal site at www.carolinewatson.org

Leadership consultant

I run inspirational corporate leadership programmes that use interactive and behavioural-change techniques to cascade transformation throughout an entire company, from senior management right down to front-line workers across all areas of the supply chain. I do this both as an independent consultant and also as part of my global social enterprise Scheherazade Consulting. All programmes can be delivered online and in-person, for large-scale team-building, group or 1:1 coaching for executives. Learn more at www.act-for-impact.com.

IMPACT

Driving through all of my work as an entrepreneur, speaker and thought-leader, and leadership consultant, is the importance of behaviour change and the IMPACT that innovative, participatory processes can bring to both individual and global change. We work with partners in the area of data analysis to leverage key performance indicators you would like to see in your company, and bring in knowledge-experts in key areas to complement our behaviour change work.

I am based in Europe and have team members all over the world. Email: caroline@carolinewatson.org

Scott M. Weber is President of Interpeace, the international organization for peacebuilding and a strategic partner of the United Nations. With over 300 peacebuilders in 20 conflict zones around the world, Interpeace is helping societies prevent violent conflict and civil war in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. As Director-General, he has provided strategic direction to the organization, expanding its operational presence, partnerships and budget. Prior to joining Interpeace, Weber worked in the UN, first in disaster reduction and then in political affairs. Weber holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, Economics and Russian from Georgetown University and conducted Executive Education Courses in Leadership at Harvard University's JFK School of Government and Saïd Business School at Oxford University.

President, CEPR, the leading European network of economists; Distinguished Fellow, Emerging Markets Institute, INSEAD; Professor of International Economics, Graduate Institute in Geneva (from Jan. 2019). Has held the Chair for International Macroeconomics at the University of Mainz in Germany and visiting positions at Harvard University, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations University in Tokyo and INSEAD in Singapore. Was a member of the German Council of Economic Experts for eight years and has provided high-level policy advice to European governments, the European Commission, international organizations and central banks. Has served as non-executive director on the boards of leading companies in banking, development finance, pharmaceuticals, technology and insurance globally. Member of the Board: Bombardier, Bosch and UBS.

Despite a life-threatening bicycle accident in 2000 that left him as a paraplegic, Christian Wenk went on to complete his medical studies and became a Senior Physician in the Emergency Ward of Clinic St Anna in Switzerland, specializing in internal and emergency medicine. He is also an accomplished triathlete and is the winner of Paralympic gold medals as the Swiss handcycling head coach. In addition, Wenk is a musician who plays the piano thanks to a sophisticated pedals system. He has recorded a number of CDs and performs regularly for charity. He also gives inspiration talks throughout Switzerland, acting as an ambassador for inclusion and dignity.

Lea Wermelin currently holds the position as Minister for the Environment in The Social Democratic government of Denmark. She is a member of the Danish Parliament and former Chairman for The Parliament's Fiscal Affairs Committee as well as former co-chair for the Environment and Food Committee and the Climate, Energy & Utilities committee. Since she was elected to parliament at the age of 30, she has represented her home region, Bornholm, and their key interests in green energy and circular economy. For more than a decade she has been actively engaged in politics and was in 2020 elected to be one out of the 40 most promising young leaders under 40 in Europe.

Silvia Wiesner is an FMCG Executive (General Management, Sales, Marketing), who has led business and organizational transformation that improved P&L structure, growth, internal and external collaboration, and engagement. Her 17-year tenure at Unilever – including the roles as Country Managing Director and Category General Manager – enabled her to gain deep insights into purpose-led business development.
In 2021, she was selected as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. In 2022, she joined the Executive Committee of European Women on Boards, developing and chairing the Committee for European Memberships and Partnerships. In 2023, she joined IMAGINE, developing the transformational leaders our world needs and driving collaboration across value chains, as the Chair of the Global Membership Committee. Silvia is also a member of the CMO Club, the LEAD Network, the Club of European Female Entrepreneurs, and The Corporate Governance Institute.
Silvia currently contributes to the WEF workstream of “Defining and Building the Metaverse”, educates on Diversity and Inclusion in Advertising and in the Metaverse, and regularly talks about Positive Leadership as the source for individual wellbeing an organizational growth. She is a strong believer in cross-company, cross-industry, and cross-country collaboration.

Lisa Witter is a serial political and policy entrepreneur. She’s the co-founder of Apolitical, a global peer-to-peer learning platform, used by 180k+ public servants in 170 countries and was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in the World. She's the CEO of the Apolitical Foundation whose mission is to support the next generation of trusted and transformation politicians. They have recently released Better Leaders, Better Democracies: Mapping the Organizations Shaping 21st Century Politicians. She’s a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, co-chairs the Forum’s Council on Agile Governance. She is a former public servant with deep experience in gender and behavioral science and has founded numerous political leadership incubators over the last 25 years. She was awarded the 2020 Creative Bureaucracy Award and named a BMW Foundation Futurity Fellow in 2022. Lisa co-authored, with Lisa Chen, The She Spot: Why Women are the Market for Changing the World and How to Reach Them. She loves wearing dresses, her childhood nickname was ‘Animal’ from the sports fields, and dreams of being a stand-up comedian (but might not be funny enough).

Peter Würtenberger is Executive Vice President at Axel Springer (Europe’s leading digital publisher).
Previously Peter held positions as CEO of UPDAY for SAMSUNG, CMO of Axel Springer SE, responsible for growing print and digital advertising revenues, as CEO of the WELT Newspaper Group and as CEO of BILD.T-Online. Before Axel Springer he served in various management positions at Yahoo! and Bertelsmann.

Peter holds a degree in Business Management from Cologne University and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. From 2008 to 2012 he was an active member of the Group of Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland. In 2013 he spent 10 months on a digital research project in Palo Alto, Silicon Valley, in order to support Axel Springer’s digital transformation. In his free time he enjoys music, contemporary arts and sports.

Werner Wutscher is a Member of the Board of resPACT, the Austrian Business Council for Sustainable Development. He also works as consultant and business angel in the start-up area. Wutscher scouts interesting start-ups around the world and serves as a facilitator for start-up ventures. As an angel investor he focuses on e-commerce and retail. He also serves as director on different boards in Austria, Mumbai and Amman. Werner was COO and CFO of Rewe International. Prior, he worked as Secretary-General of the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management of Austria, and he served as a special adviser to the Minister for Agriculture and in a public company. Wutscher is Vice-President of the Ökosoziales Forum Europe and President of the National Park Hohe Tauern. He was awarded “Business Angel of 2012” and is Member of the Board of the Austrian Business Angel Association. Wutscher obtained a law degree from Karl-Franzens University in Graz and holds a Master's degree from the Harvard Kennedy School.