Hear from Prof. J. Doyne Farmer, Professor of Complex Systems Science at the University of Oxford, as we explore new modelling approaches designed to better capture the complex and chaotic nature of our climate and economy.

We spend a lot of time on this podcast covering the transition to a low carbon economy, which will be driven largely by policies and technological innovation. These policies tend to be based on insights from economics. And our view on the pace of innovation is often informed by expert judgement. But traditional economic models often oversimplify the world, leading to poor policy design. And we tend to underestimate the exponential rate of technological change, making us unduly pessimistic about the transition. 

Today’s guest has thought a great deal about both these issues. That’s why in today’s episode we’ll be diving into the world of complexity economics and agent-based modelling, which can help us better navigate the risks and opportunities associated with the transition. We’ll discuss:

• How agent-based models are very well suited to modelling complex, non-linear systems, such as the economy;
• How past innovation cycles can provide invaluable insights on what we might expect to see in the transition; and
• What the models tell us about the appropriate speed of the transition to a net zero world.

To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr

For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate

If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: [email protected]

Links from today’s discussion:

• Making Sense of Chaos: A Better Economics for a Better World: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/284357/making-sense-of-chaos-by-farmer-j-doyne/9780241201978
• Santa Fe Institute’s Office of Applied Complexity: https://www.santafe.edu/applied-complexity/office
• GARP Climate Risk Podcast with Simon Sharpe: https://www.garp.org/podcast/five-times-faster-cr-240321
• GARP Climate Risk Podcast with David Stainforth: https://www.garp.org/podcast/predicting-climate-future-cr-241128

Prof. J. Doyne Farmer, Professor of Complex Systems Science, University of Oxford

J. Doyne Farmer is Baillie Gifford Professor of Complex Systems Science at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and Director of the Complexity Economics programme at the Institute for New Economic Thinking University of Oxford. He is also External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute and Chief Scientist at Macrocosm.

His current research is in economics, including agent-based modelling, financial instability and technological progress. He was a founder of Prediction Company, a quantitative automated trading firm that was sold to UBS in 2006. His past research includes complex systems, dynamical systems theory, time series analysis and theoretical biology. His book, Making Sense of Chaos: A Better Economics for a Better World, was published in 2024.

During the 1980s he was an Oppenheimer Fellow and the founder of the Complex Systems Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. While a graduate student in the 1970s he built the first wearable digital computer, which was successfully used to predict the game of roulette.

Hear from Prof. David Stainforth of LSE’s Grantham Research Institute, as we explore the limitations of climate modelling and the implications for risk management.

There are some things in life that we can be virtually certain about: if one throws a ball into the air, it will fall back down. Similarly, scientists have evidence beyond reasonable doubt that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased a lot in the recent past. But there are quite a lot of things that we don’t know with any confidence, giving rise to significant uncertainty when we try to forecast those things.

That’s why in today’s episode, we’ll be exploring why climate change is particularly hard to model and predict. We’ll discuss:

-        The different types of modelling and models used for forecasting, and their relative strengths and limitations,

-        The benefits of adopting a more multi-disciplinary approach to understanding and tackling climate change,

-        And the critical need for science to examine climate change more through the lens of risk management.

To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr

For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate

If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: [email protected]

Speaker’s Bio

Prof. David Stainforth, Professorial Research Fellow in the Grantham Research Institute, LSE

Dave Stainforth is Professorial Research Fellow in the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and an Honorary Professor in the Physics Department at the University of Warwick.

Dave carries out research on climate science and its relationship with climate economics and policy. He focuses particularly on uncertainty analysis and on how academic assessments can better support decision-making in the context of climate change. His new book, Predicting Our Climate Future, has recently been published, and is the focus of today’s discussion.

Hear from Prof. Pete Smith of the University of Aberdeen, as we explore the overlap in the challenges from, and solutions to, climate change and biodiversity loss.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are often treated separately – in science, policy, and even risk management. But as the connections between these global crises come into sharper focus, it’s clear that understanding them together is essential for real progress.

In this episode, we break down those silos of climate and nature, exploring an integrated approach and how it might help us address these challenges simultaneously. We discuss:

• How climate and nature impact everything from our food systems to our economies, health and security;
• The work being done by intergovernmental bodies to connect these issues;
• And how this work can lead to positive outcomes for climate, nature and society.

To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr

For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate

If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: [email protected]

Links from today’s discussion:

• The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IBPES): https://www.ipbes.net/
• IBPES’ upcoming Nexus report: https://www.ipbes.net/nexus
• The Joint IPCC-IBPES report on Biodiversity and Climate Change (2021): https://www.ipbes.net/events/ipbes-ipcc-co-sponsored-workshop-biodiversity-and-climate-change
• Soil: An Invisible Crisis and Massive Climate Opportunity: https://www.garp.org/podcast/soil-crisis-opportunity-cr-041323

Prof. Pete Smith FRS, Professor of Soils and Global Change, University of Aberdeen

Pete is the Professor of Soils and Global Change at the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland, UK), and is Science Director of the Scottish Climate Change Centre of Expertise (ClimateXChange). Since 1996, he has served as Convening Lead Author, Lead Author and Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He is a global ecosystem modeller with interests in soils, agriculture, food security, bioenergy, greenhouse gases, climate change, greenhouse gas removal technologies, and climate change impacts and mitigation. He was a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder (2008-2013), and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (since 2008), a Fellow of the Institute of Soil Scientists (since 2015), and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (since 2009). He was awarded the British Ecological Society Marsh Award for Climate Change Research in 2014, and the European Geophysical Union Duchaufour Medal for ‘distinguished contributions to soil science’ in 2017.

Hear from Gordon Bennett, Managing Director at ICE, as we dive into theory and practice of carbon pricing and its important role in driving the transition to net zero.

Carbon pricing is the poster child of market-based solutions to climate change. The principle is simple: by assigning a cost to greenhouse gas emissions, we incentivize polluters to emit less, and to do so in the most cost-effective way.

But there’s a significant gap between the theory and practice. Currently, only 24% of global emissions – about 12.8 gigatonnes – are covered by pricing mechanisms such as carbon taxes or cap-and-trade. On top of that, just half a gigatonne was traded in voluntary markets last year. Clearly, there’s still a long way to go. In this episode, we explore the carbon pricing gap, including:

• Why it exists, what’s needed to close it;
• The integrity challenges facing voluntary carbon markets, and how to address them;
• And how central counterparties can help drive the transition by ensuring transparent, reliable pricing.

To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr

For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate

If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: [email protected]

Links from today’s discussion:

• The World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Dashboard: https://carbonpricingdashboard.worldbank.org/
• Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA): https://www.icao.int/environmental-protection/CORSIA/Pages/default.aspx
• GARP Climate Risk Podcast with Simon Sharpe: https://www.garp.org/podcast/five-times-faster-cr-240321
• The Oxford Offsetting Principles: https://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/research/oxford-offsetting-principles
• GARP Climate Risk Podcast with Mark Campanale: https://www.garp.org/podcast/net-zero-supply-side-issues-cr-220303

Gordon Bennett, Managing Director of Utility Markets and Global Head of Environmental Markets, ICE

Gordon has been Managing Director at Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) since February 2015. Mr. Bennett is responsible for the sales and business development of ICE’s global environmental portfolio, the world’s largest environmental marketplace.

He is a member of the Board of ICE Endex, ICE Futures Abu Dhabi, Spark Commodities and a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of BeZero Carbon. He contributes to a wide range of external environmental and energy market initiatives including a member of the Nature Based Solutions Taskforce of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, the Transition to Net Zero Working Group of the Climate Financial Risk Forum, the City of London VCM Steering Committee, the VCMI Stakeholder Forum, the Advisory Board of the University of Cambridge Energy Policy Research Group and was named Environmental Finance’s sustainable business leader of the year in 2022.

Prior to ICE, Gordon spent 12 years at the global energy broker, Spectron, joining as Group Financial Controller and latterly serving as Chief Executive Officer. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.

Hear from three leading experts in natural catastrophe modeling, as we explore how climate change is causing the insurance industry to rethink their approach to modeling extreme weather.

In the previous episode, we discussed the challenges facing the insurance industry from climate change – so in this episode, we’re going to dive into some of the solutions.

Since natural catastrophe (Nat Cat) modeling was established in the late 1980s, the predictive power of their models has come from the statistical analysis of historical data. But as climate change continues to push the frequency and severity of extreme weather into uncharted territory, this approach begins to lose some of its potency.

In response to this, new ways of thinking about Nat Cat modeling and insurance have emerged, with a focus on better capturing the effects of the changing climate on extreme weather. In this episode, we’ll explore:

• The power of incorporating physics into the traditional Nat Cat modeling process;
• The recent explosion of earth system data and the role of machine learning in harnessing it; and
• How improved Nat Cat modelling can support innovative products, like parametric insurance, and what this means for closing the insurance gap.

To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr

For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate

If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: [email protected]

Links from today’s discussion:

• Reask’s Tropical Cyclone Database: https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/mwre/152/1/MWR-D-22-0317.1.xml
• Reask’s Tropical Cyclone Wind Model: https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/mwre/145/8/mwr-d-16-0429.1.xml?rskey=9h0SUA&result=2
• Reask’s Tropical Cyclone Rain Model: https://journals.ametsoc.org/search?f_0=author&q_0=Thomas+Loridan

Jamie Rodney, CEO, Reask

Jamie Rodney is the CEO of Reask, specializing in extreme weather risk modeling and forecasting. Jamie has over a decade of experience in applying advances in extreme weather analytics to the financial and reinsurance sectors. Jamie is dedicated to leveraging advanced technologies to enhance global climate risk understanding and support organizations in navigating complex climate challenges. Based in Zurich, he leads Reask’s pioneering vision in developing a new class of extreme weather risk measurement capabilities that do not exist today. Jamie holds a PhD in Mathematics from University College London.

Thomas Loridan, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer, Reask 

Thomas Loridan is Co-founder and Chief Science Officer at Reask, where he leads the development of cutting-edge natural catastrophe models using machine learning to quantify global climate risk. Holding a PhD in Boundary Layer Meteorology from King’s College London (2011), Thomas has deep expertise in atmospheric sciences and computational modeling. His work includes the creation of advanced wind field models for tropical cyclones and the integration of high-resolution data into probabilistic frameworks.

David Schmid, Head of Global Data Product, Reask

David Schmid is the Global Head of Data Products at Reask, where he oversees the development of products for risk assessment, parametric insurance and early warning systems. With over 15 years of experience in natural catastrophe risk modelling and parametric insurance, David has held roles at Glacier Re, NewRe, and Munich Re Capital Partners, where he contributed to advancing risk assessment and pricing standards. At Reask, David remains committed to developing innovative solutions that address the evolving needs of policyholders, brokers, and risk carriers.

Hear from two leading experts, as we explore how insurance is adapting to climate change and the role of the industry beyond underwriting.

Insurance plays a critical role in protecting households and businesses from the impacts of climate change, and with physical risks on the rise, it will become ever more important. However, insurers have also been significantly impacted by these risks, with annual losses from natural catastrophes exceeding 100 billion dollars for four consecutive years.

The primary concern is that these physical risks eventually become uninsurable, as we are already seeing for example with wildfires in California, leaving communities without the very protection that they most need. In this episode, we explore how the insurance industry has and should respond to these challenges, including:

• How insurance modelling must evolve to better capture the physical risks from climate change;
• The role of insurers in helping clients and policymakers understand and prepare for physical climate risks; and
• Why adaptation is now a top priority for allowing insurance to be effective and help spread climate resilience across our society and economy.

To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr

For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate

If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: [email protected]

Annemarie Büttner, Lead Climate Risk Solutions, Swiss Re

Annemarie leads on corporate climate risk solutions at Swiss Re, helping companies identify, assess, reduce, and report the impacts of climate change to their businesses. She has 10-years’ experience focused on consulting and insurance, working on a range of topics including renewables, natural catastrophes, and parametric insurance.

Swenja Surminski, Managing Director Climate and Sustainability, Marsh McLennan

Swenja is the managing director of climate and sustainability at Marsh McLennan, as well as a Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics. In her career as an academic, Swenja researched climate risk management and resilience strategies, with a focus on public policies, financial instruments and individual behaviour. She has also held several advisory roles with corporates, regulatory authorities and governments, including the Bank of England and the World Bank.

Hear from Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair of the London Climate Resilience Review, as we dive into the challenges of climate adaptation and what it means for our cities.

2023 was not only the warmest year on record, it also marked the warmest 10-year period on record. As we witness first-hand the impacts of a warming climate, including heatwaves, more intense precipitation and increased flooding, the case for building resilience against these risks becomes ever more important. This is particularly so in our cities, where the concentration of populations and economic activity make adaptation non-negotiable.

This episode’s guest has recently led a comprehensive review of the Climate Resilience of London, which takes stock of the city’s preparedness for climate impacts and makes a series of recommendations for how the city needs to bolster its efforts. In this episode, we explore:

• How cities are vulnerable to cascading and interconnected risks, which amplify the impacts of climate change;
• How a collaborative approach to learning and building resilience will be critical in the years ahead;
• And how adaptation and resilience need to be woven through our all our decision making, while paying particular attention to the most vulnerable communities

To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr

For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate

If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: [email protected]

Links from today’s discussion:

• Read the final report of the London Climate Resilience Review: https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/environment-and-climate-change/climate-change/climate-adaptation/london-climate-resilience-review
• C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group: https://www.c40.org/
• Thames Estuary 2100 Group report directory: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/thames-estuary-2100-te2100

Emma Howard Boyd, Chair, London Climate Resilience Review

Emma has been the Chair of the London Climate Resilience Review, leading the delivery of its work since summer 2023. She has had an extensive career in financial services at the forefront of the climate change, environmental and sustainable finance agenda.

Emma is also currently Chair of ClientEarth and a Global Ambassador for Race to Zero and Race to Resilience, and outgoing Chair of the Green Finance Institute. She has been Chair of the Environment Agency and an ex-officio board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2016 to 2022.

Emma serves on several boards and advisory committees which include The Major Projects Association, Climate Arc, and the European Climate Foundation. She was the UK Commissioner to the Global Commission on Adaptation from 2018 until its sunset in January 2021.

In this special episode, hear from Tony Rooke, Executive Director at Howden Group Holdings and Beth Gould Creller, GARP’s Sustainability & Climate Risk Program Lead, as they discuss the recent improvements to the SCR’s syllabus and learning experience.

Long-time listeners of the podcast will have noticed that we often mention GARP’s Sustainability & Climate Risk (SCR) Certificate. It’s a program that GARP launched in 2020, providing all the foundational knowledge you need to become a climate risk leader within your own firm. 

This episode is a special one, as we bring you a conversation between Beth Gould Creller, who heads up GARP’s SCR team, and Tony Rooke, who alongside his role at Howden, is a member of the SCR Advisory Committee and long-time supporter of the program. You’ll learn about:

• The latest update to the SCR Curriculum, including new topics like nature risk and transition plans;
• The enhanced e-learning platform, including practical, hands-on modules;
• And testimonials from candidates on how the certificate has advanced their skills and careers.

The SCR certificate is not only an excellent opportunity to boost your knowledge, but it also connects you with a global community of climate risk experts, fostering collaboration and innovation. Register before 31st July to save USD $100. Follow this link to find out more: https://www.garp.org/scr

For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate

If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: [email protected]

Tony Rooke, Executive Director and Head of Transition Advisory, Howden Group Holdings

Tony is Executive Director in the Climate Risk and Resilience team at Howden, and head of climate transition advisory. He helps organisations plan and achieve their climate goals, to identify and manage climate risks, and then optimise returns from their transition investments.  ​

​Tony has over 25 years global experience in strategy advisory, risk management, disclosure and programme delivery, with over 18 years as a leader and expert in climate change, environment and sustainability issues affecting businesses and financial institutions. ​Prior to Howden, Tony was Head of Transition Finance and Transition Planning at the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), Senior Director for Transition Risk at WTW, and Global Technical Director for the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the world’s largest environmental disclosure platform. He has contributed to regulatory, policy and industry work including transition planning and transition finance standards (the UK’s Transition Planning Taskforce and GFANZ), the reporting standards (EU EFRAG, CDSB, CDP, TCFD), and strategic use of models, pathways and scenarios (International Energy Agency (IEA), NGFS, MPP, CFRF, GFANZ).  

​Tony is a member of GARP and on Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR) certification advisory committee. He is additionally a fellow of both the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) and the Royal Society of Arts, Commerce and Manufacture (RSA).​

Beth Gould Creller, Sustainability & Climate Risk Program Lead, GARP

Beth manages GARP's Sustainability and Climate Risk Program. Prior to joining GARP, she was a risk professional in the upstream oil and gas industry.  Working across multiple continents, her energy career spanned enterprise risk management, internal audit, business controls, supply chain process improvement, and governance.

Hear from Lord Adair Turner, Chair of the Energy Transitions Commission, as we explore the shortcomings of nationally determined contributions and how they might be improved.

Nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, are a bit like transition plans for countries, in that they set out what a country plans to do in order to meet the ambitions of the Paris Agreement. However, NDCs are voluntary, and collectively they don’t currently have us on track to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees, let alone the more ambitious target of 1.5 degrees.

Today’s guest believes that this is a problem, as NDCs are failing to provide a clear direction for action. The less clarity there is about policy direction and ambition, the less likely markets will respond to policy signals to deliver the investment required for the transition. That’s why in this episode, we examine:

• What are the shortcomings in countries’ NDCs and how they can be addressed?
• Why NDCs don’t currently reflect the rapid technological progress that is already being made across sectors; and
• How geopolitics is influencing the transition and the challenges facing climate finance.

To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr

For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate

If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: [email protected]

Links from today’s discussion:

• Energy Transitions Commission: https://www.energy-transitions.org/
• Credible Contributions: Bolder Plans for Higher Climate Ambition in the Next Round of NDCs: https://www.energy-transitions.org/publications/credible-contributions-bolder-plans-for-ndcs/
• Mission Possible: Reaching net-zero carbon emissions from harder-to-abate sectors: https://www.energy-transitions.org/publications/mission-possible/
• Climate Change Committee: https://www.theccc.org.uk/
• Just Capital: The Liberal Economy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5859117-just-capital
• The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review: https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/publication/the-economics-of-climate-change-the-stern-review/
• Finance for climate action: scaling up investment for climate and development: https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/publication/finance-for-climate-action-scaling-up-investment-for-climate-and-development/

Lord Adair Turner, Chair, Energy Transitions Commission

Lord Turner chairs the Energy Transitions Commission, a global coalition of major power and industrial companies, investors, environmental NGOs and experts working out achievable pathways to limit global warming to well below 2˚C while stimulating economic development and social progress.

Lord Turner has chaired several high-profile organizations, including at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, the UK’s Financial Services Authority, the Climate Change Committee, the Pensions Commission and the Low Pay Commission. He was also Director General of the Confederation of British Industry. He became a crossbench member of the House of Lords in 2006.

He is also a Trustee Emeritus of the British Museum, honorary fellow of The Royal Society, and received an Honorary Degree from Cambridge University in 2017.

Hear from Robin Millington, CEO of Planet Tracker, as we discuss how and why businesses should be thinking about their dependencies and impacts on nature.

Sustainability is a complex topic, and for a long time, climate has been at the heart of discussion. Other challenges like pollution and biodiversity loss have often been sidelined. Recently however, following the work of the TNFD and others, these issues have risen up the corporate agenda, within the wider context of our impact and dependency on nature.

Throughout her career, this guest has highlighted the importance of integrating nature into mainstream business. In this episode, we’ll explore:

• The urgent need to manage climate and nature risks holistically;
• How our failure to value natural capital correctly is pressurizing the global food system and other key sectors;
• And the role that financial markets have in creating a nature-positive future.

To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr

For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate

If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: [email protected]

Links from today’s discussion:

• Planet Tracker homepage: https://planet-tracker.org/
• Carbon Tracker homepage: https://carbontracker.org/
• The Financial Markets Roadmap for Transforming the Global Food System: https://planet-tracker.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Financial-Markets-Roadmap-for-transforming-the-Global-Food-System.pdf

Robin Millington, CEO, Planet Tracker

Having dedicated nearly three decades to environmental causes including climate, biodiversity/nature and wetlands/water, Robin is an experienced senior director with an extensive track record including as a Director with the European Climate Foundation, Founding Director of Wetlands International and Managing Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels. Previously she spent many years in the private sector both in consulting and in multinational work. She has an MBA from INSEAD and her BA from Stanford University.

She is currently a member of the Supervisory Board of the Capitals Coalition, was previously a member of the Supervisory Board of the Gold Standard Foundation and serves on various advisory committees.