John joined National Grid in 1991 and during his time at the company has held a variety of senior management roles, including UK Director of Engineering in 2003, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President for the US Electricity Distribution & Generation business in 2007, Chief Operating Officer for UK Gas Distribution in 2010, and UK Chief Operating Officer from 2012 to 2014.  He joined the Board in 2014, as Executive Director UK, responsible for the UK’s Electricity Transmission, Gas Transmission and Gas Distribution businesses.  In September 2017, John came together with the government and thirteen other CEOs to create an Inclusive Economy Partnership, which has been established to identify and develop solutions to some of today’s most significant societal challenges, including financial inclusion and capability, mental health and transition to work.  In January 2018, John was appointed to the Rentokil Initial plc Board as a Non-Executive Director and became Senior Independent Director in May 2019.  He was appointed a member of the Edison Electric Institute Executive Committee in June 2019 and joined the Board of the Electric Power Research Institute in April 2021. John is a member of CBI’s Presidents Committee, and a Fellow of the Energy Institute and of the Institution of Energy and Technology.  He holds a BSC in Economics and an MSc in International Economics and Banking, and completed the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School in 2010. 

Mark Carney is one of the towering figures of climate finance. In 2020 Mark became the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, and the adviser to the UK on finance for COP 26. At COP26, in Glasgow, he launched GFANZ - the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, whose members manage $130 trillion of financial assets and have pledged to invest them in line with the Paris agreements. Mark co-chairs GFANZ together with Mike Bloomberg.Mark is a Vice Chair and Head of Transition Investing at Brookfield Asset Management and Board Member of Stripe.He was the governor of Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013, and then Governor of the Bank of England from 2013 until 2020. He was the chair of the Financial Stability Board (2011-2018) founding co-chair of TCFD - the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure.Mark holds a bachelor's degree with high honours in economics from Harvard University and MPhil and DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford.

In this engaging talk, Alex Honnold, the legendary rock climber famous for his free solo ascents, discusses his transition from engineering student to climbing icon. He dives into the emotional complexities of extreme sports, balancing personal milestones with competition. The conversation shifts to his Honnold Foundation, emphasizing solar energy's impact on disadvantaged communities, particularly in healthcare. Alex highlights innovative projects and the importance of sustainability, advocating for a holistic approach to climate change that empowers communities.

Claire Skinner is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles' London office and leader of the Europe region. She is a member of the firm’s CEO & Board, Industrial, and Private Equity practices.Claire has more than 20 years of experience building executive and non-executive teams for a wide range of clients involved in energy, utilities, clean technology, and sustainability. Additionally, she has substantial expertise within energy and environmental investment, building teams on behalf of leading venture and private equity companies, infrastructure and asset managers, global financial institutions, and professional services groups.Claire has significant experience in senior sustainability and climate change appointments within major corporations, government, philanthropy, and non-profit organizations. Prior to joining Heidrick & Struggles, Claire led the EMEA alternative energy & clean technology practice at a global executive search firm. Previously, she was the founding managing director of a boutique executive search firm dedicated to the power and sustainability markets.Claire serves on the Business Advisory Group of the UK Government Climate Change Committee. She holds a BSc in Agricultural Environmental Science from Newcastle University and MSc in Pollution and Environmental Control from the University of Manchester.

This episode of Cleaning Up is based on a March 2022 blog post written by Michael for BloombergNEF.https://about.bnef.com/blog/liebreich-the-quest-for-resilience-what-could-possibly-go-wrong/We would like to thank BloombergNEF for allowing us to record it. Further reading:“This Isn’t a Natural Disaster”: Climate Scientist Michael Mann on Deadly Tornadoes in 8 States (December 2021)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLKlvnc4dBM&t=648sEmpirical evidence of declining global vulnerability to climate-related hazards (July 2019)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378019300378Climate rhetoric: What’s an energy trilemma? (December 2013)https://www.carbonbrief.org/climate-rhetoric-whats-an-energy-trilemmaClimatological analysis of solar and wind energy in Germany using the Grosswetterlagen classification (February 2021)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148120316682What happens during a blackout: Consequences of a prolonged and wide-ranging power outage (August 2011)https://publikationen.bibliothek.kit.edu/1000103292Voltage collapse in complex power grids (February 2016)https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10790A Framework for Establishing Critical Infrastructure Resilience Goals (October 2010)https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/niac/niac-a-framework-for-establishing-critical-infrastructure-resilience-goals-2010-10-19.pdfA 10-Point Plan to Cut Oil Use (March 2022)https://www.iea.org/reports/a-10-point-plan-to-cut-oil-useA 10-Point Plan to Reduce the European Union’s Reliance on Russian Natural Gas (March 2022)https://www.iea.org/reports/a-10-point-plan-to-reduce-the-european-unions-reliance-on-russian-natural-gas

Tom Steyer is Co-Executive Chair of Galvanize Climate Solutions, a mission-driven investment platform.Tom Steyer founded and ran Farallon Capital Management, a multi-strategy global investment business based in San Francisco, from 1986 until 2012. During that period, it grew assets from $6mm to $36bn. Over the same time, Tom was also a partner and Investment Committee member at Hellman & Friedman, a multi-billion dollar private equity firm.After retiring from Farallon, Tom dedicated himself to public service and philanthropy, with a focus on climate action. Tom is the Co-Founder of Beneficial State Bank, a triple bottom line community development financial institution founded in 2007 with over $1 billion in assets. Tom is also the Founder of NextGen America, the largest youth voter mobilization organization in American history. Most recently, Tom was a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and beginning in April 2020 served as co-chair for Governor Newsom’s Business and Jobs Recovery Task Force. He also co-chaired Vice President Biden’s Climate Engagement Advisory Council to help mobilize climate voters.Tom graduated from Yale and received his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

Emma Pinchbeck has been the Chief Executive of Energy UK, the trade association for the energy industry since July 2020. Before taking up this post she was Deputy CEO of RenewableUK for 4 years and was the Head of Climate Change at WWF-UK. Emma holds an MA from the University of Oxford. She is a competitive rower and in 2018 ran her first marathon, raising money for WWF.

Rhian-Mari Thomas is Chief Executive of the Green Finance Institute. The Institute sits at the nexus of the public and private sectors, the Green Finance Institute convenes and leads sectoral coalitions of global experts, that identify and unlock barriers to investment towards impactful, real-economy outcomes. The Green Finance Institute is backed by the UK Government and City of London Corporation. Rhian spent 20 years in investment banking and corporate finance and was awarded an OBE for services to green banking. She is an Emeritus Member of TCFD and co-chaired the launch of the TNFD to which she is a senior advisor. Rhian sits on numerous advisory groups across UK Government including the Net Zero Expert Group, Centre for Greening Finance and Investment, Global Resources Initiative, Department for Transport Expert Panel, Her Majesty’s Treasury Green Technical Advisory Group and the UK Voluntary Carbon Markets Forum. Rhian was also a commissioner on the Zero Carbon Commission and a member of the Climate Change Committee’s Net Zero Finance Advisory Group. Rhian sits on the advisory board for UCL Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources and co-chairs the advisory board for Snowball Impact Management.A fluent Welsh speaker, Rhian holds a PhD in Physics from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.Further reading:Green Finance Institutehttps://www.greenfinanceinstitute.co.uk/

Professor Emily Shuckburgh OBE is Director of Cambridge Zero, the University of Cambridge's major climate change initiative.  Emily is a climate scientist and mathematician, a Fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, an Associate Fellow of the Centre for Science and Policy and a Fellow of the British Antarctic Survey. She leads the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training on the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks.  A polar expert, she previously led a UK national research programme on the Southern Ocean and its role in climate.  In 2016 she was awarded an OBE for services to science and the public communication of science. She is co-author with HRH The Prince of Wales and Tony Juniper of the Ladybird Book on Climate Change. Further reading:Official biohttps://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/people/efs20Cambridge Zerohttps://www.zero.cam.ac.uk/  Cambridge Zero Policy Forum  https://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/Research-Policy-Engagement/cambridge-zero/AI4ERhttps://ai4er-cdt.esc.cam.ac.uk/  Centre for Landscape Regenerationhttps://www.clr.conservation.cam.ac.uk/