Thursday December 3rd, 2020
12:00PM-1:30PM EST
A Joint Webinar of:
-IIEP Rethinking Capitalism and Democracy Series
-Thunderbird Finance and Sustainability Series
From central banking to fintech to the management of sovereign & private debt and investment, the architecture of global finance is evolving rapidly under growing pressures to take environmental and social issues seriously in financial decision-making. In the context of a new US administration, US economic and foreign policymakers have many options for making environmental and social sustainability a central part of global finance.
In this webinar, Simon Zadek led a discussion of the changing landscape of global finance, the recommendations of the UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the key role the US could play in remaking global finance into a pillar of a new green economic system. He was joined by discussants Ann Florini (ASU Thunderbird) and Sonja Gibbs (IIF).
This webinar was moderated by Dr. Sunil Sharma, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Institute for International Economic Policy, alongside IIEP Co-Director James Foster, Oliver T. Carr Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics. This event was co-sponsored by the Thunderbird School of Management at Arizona State University and the Institute for International Economic Policy at GWU.
About the Speakers:
Dr. Simon Zadek is Chair of the Finance for Biodiversity, and Director of the Migrant Nation Initiative. Until recently, he headed the secretariat of the UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals. Previously, he was Senior Advisor on Finance in the Executive Office of the Secretary General and Co-Director of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System. In these roles, he co-Chaired China’s Green Finance Task Force, and led the Green Finance Study Group secretariat under the Chinese, German, and Argentinian G20 Presidencies. Prior to this, he was Senior Advisor to the World Economic Forum and the Global Green Growth Institute, founder and CEO of the international think tank AccountAbility, and Development Director of the New Economics Foundation. His academic affiliations have included Singapore Management University, the Copenhagen Business School, Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, Harvard`s Kennedy School of Government, and the University of Southern Africa. He has worked with many corporations, governments, and multi-stakeholder initiatives on their sustainability and broader strategies, and was a member of the International Advisory Board of Generation Investment Management. His extensive publications include the award-winning The Civil Corporation and the much-used Harvard Business Review article, ‘Paths to Corporate Responsibility’.
Ann Florini is the Clinical Professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, where she directs programs at the Washington, D.C. campus. She was previously Professor of Public Policy at Singapore Management University founding director of the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the National University of Singapore; and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. She has spearheaded numerous international initiatives on global governance, energy and climate policy, and cross-sector collaborations including government, civil society, and the private sector. Her many books and articles have addressed governance in China, transparency in governance, transnational civil society networks, and the role of the private sector in public affairs. Dr. Florini received her Ph.D. in Political Science from UCLA and a Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton University.
Sonja Gibbs is the Managing Director and Head of Sustainable Finance and Global Policy Initiatives at the Institute of International Finance (IIF). Sonja’s research interests include multi-asset investment strategy, with a focus on emerging/frontier markets, capital flows and ESG investment. She authors the IIF’s Weekly Insight, which offers a concise perspective on global financial markets in the context of topical economic and political developments, and oversees the quarterly Global Debt Monitor, which looks across mature and emerging economies for debt-related vulnerabilities such as the rapid buildup in EM corporate debt levels. Sonja co-leads IIF policy work on sustainable finance and infrastructure investment, including advocacy and liaison efforts vis-à-vis the G20, the multilaterals and the international regulatory community. Ms. Gibbs is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), and received her M.B.A. and Bachelor’s degrees from the University of California at Berkeley.
James E. Foster is the Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs, Professor of Economics, and Co-Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the George Washington University. He is also a Research Associate at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at Oxford University. Professor Foster’s research focuses on welfare economics — using economic tools to evaluate and enhance the wellbeing of people. His work underlies many well-known social indices including the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) published annually by the UNDP in the Human Development Report, dozens of national MPIs used to guide domestic policy against poverty, the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) at USAID, the Gross National Happiness Index of Bhutan, the Better Jobs Index of the InterAmerican Development Bank, and the Statistical Performance Index of the World Bank. Prof. Foster received his PhD in Economics from Cornell University and has a Doctorate Honoris Causa from Universidad Autonoma del Estado Hidalgo (Mexico).
Sunil Sharma is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Institute for International Economic Policy, Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University, Washington DC, USA, and a Senior Associate at the Council on Economic Policies, Zurich, Switzerland. He was Assistant Director in the IMF’s Research Department from 2015-2018, and the Director of the IMF-Singapore Regional Training Institute (STI) in Singapore from 2006-2015. Before moving to Singapore in 2006, he was Chief of the IMF Institute’s Asian Division in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the IMF in 1992, he was on the Economics faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from Cornell University, and his current interests include rethinking capitalism and democracy, systemic hazards, complex systems, the international financial architecture, and the institutional structure and design of financial regulation.
