Lauren Boccardi leads the legal team supporting The Nature Conservancy’s impact investment portfolio. Before joining the Conservancy, Lauren served at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), where she most recently served as the Deputy Assistant General Counsel for USAID’s Bureau for Food Security and for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance. Her work at USAID covered private sector engagement, impact investing, legislation and policy, and Middle East issues. Prior to USAID, Lauren worked on a wide range of corporate transactions as a corporate lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton, focusing in particular on energy and environmental work. 

Mariana Herrero is a leading Mexican environmental lawyer. She holds extensive expertise on wildlife protection, waste regulation and environmental law, integrating insights from projects, litigation and M&A. As the first female partner at her firm, she champions diversity, equity and inclusion, having led the firm’s DE&I Committee and co-founded Abogadas MX to promote women in legal leadership. Mariana is widely recognised by Latin Lawyer and other international publications. She spoke at the IBA ESG Conference session ‘ESG: The Brussels Effect at a Crossroads’, focusing on EU directives’ impact in Latin America.

Naa Atswei Koney is a sustainability and climate change specialist with Ernst & Young West Africa and is the Lead Manager for the Climate Change and Sustainability Services unit in Accra. Her team focuses on providing end-to-end ESG advisory services to corporate clients, from how to build resilience and meet their compliance obligations, to how they can unlock value through sustainable business practices. Prior to joining EY, Naa was in private practice and has significant experience in litigation and dispute resolution, employment and environmental work. Finally, in addition to her degree in law, Naa also holds one in zoology and a master’s in environmental science from the University of Ghana.

Paola Fonseca is Senior Corporate Counsel at Sphera, a leading provider of integrated sustainability and operational risk management software, data and consulting services. Paola has extensive expertise in corporate governance, contracting, and ESG regulatory compliance throughout Ibero-America, and is currently completing a PhD at the UN University for Peace, where she examines how multinational business practices and global ESG standards foster impact investment regulation across the value chain. Her research also addresses how EU regulations including the EU CSDDD foster 'mandatory self-regulation' in the Global South through supply chain pressures. Paola believes that the law is not merely a framework for accountability, but a powerful enabler of the impact economy.

Steven Richman is Chair of the IBA Bar Issues Commission, and represents the Bar Issues Commission on the IBA AI Taskforce. Steven is also a member of Clark Hill PLC, based in Princeton and New York, and has extensive experience in national and international litigation across broad areas of commercial and business practice, as well as arbitration and appellate practice. Steven has written and spoken extensively on the areas of international law, business and human rights, contracts, litigation and arbitration, and professional responsibility. Steven is a past chair of the American Bar Association’s International Law Section, serves in the ABA House of Delegates, and is the ABA Representative to the United Nations.

Ambassador Willem Van de Voorde is a Belgian diplomat currently serving as Special Envoy for Climate and Environment at the Belgian Foreign Ministry. His distinguished career includes roles as Ambassador in Berlin and in Vienna, and to the European Union until November 2024, Secretary to the Queen, and Deputy Head of Mission in Berlin and Tokyo. He has also led the cabinet of two foreign ministers and coordinated the Belgian EU Presidency. His diplomatic expertise spans multilateral and bilateral arenas, and his work reflects Belgium’s leadership in climate diplomacy and EU governance.

Pascal Durand is a lawyer and former Elected Member of the European Parliament. Mon Durand co-founded the French Europe Ecologie les Verts in 2008, and was elected to the European Parliament under the green banner in 2014, where he worked on many subjects including the transparency of public life, addressing tax evasion and trade secrets, and protection of whistle-blowers. Mon Durand was re-elected to the European Parliament for a second term from May 2019 to July 2024, and during this term, served as rapporteur on the revision of the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.

Professor Damilola S Olawuyi is an international lawyer, professor, and policy adviser specialising in business and human rights, energy, natural resources, and environmental law. He serves as UNESCO Chairholder on Environmental Law and Sustainable Development at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar and is Director of the OGEES Institute in Nigeria. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (KC) and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, he has advised on major energy and infrastructure projects globally. He sits on the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights and chairs the IBA SEERIL Academic Advisory Group. His award-winning book Environmental Law in Arab States earned recognition from ASIL in 2023.

Carli Schickerling is a Namibian lawyer and Officer of the IBA LGBTQI+ Law Committee, with a 16-year career spanning a wide range of practice areas including family law, general civil litigation, immigration and human rights. She has consistently used her legal expertise to champion the rights of minorities and marginalized groups, foster a culture of diversity and inclusion and advocate for equality under the law and in society more broadly. A member of the Law Society of Namibia, she also served as the Chairperson of its Human Rights Committee and was a member on both the Ethics and Investigations Committee, and the Child, Gender and Family Law Committee.

Adeola Sunmola is a partner at Udo Udoma and Belo-Osagie in Nigeria, where she leads teams specialising in project development and project finance in the power sector. Her expertise encompasses a diverse range of legal subjects, notably cross-border lending, syndicated lending, non-interest finance, debt restructuring, and financing for intricate power, manufacturing, and infrastructure projects in Nigeria. She was named as one of the IFLR1000 Women Leaders for 2022, and maintains a consistent status as a ‘Highly Regarded’ Lawyer according to IFLR1000.