Sustainability Talks

We’re heading to the movies for our latest episode of the ‘Sustainability Talks’ podcast. Our host and managing partner Rob Genieser sat down with Hollywood screenwriter and director Jeffrey Nachmanoff who wrote the screenplay for the 2004 blockbuster film 'The Day After Tomorrow'. The film depicts the catastrophic effects of climate change and the dawning of a new ice age.

Life often imitates art, but how much of the film’s predictions have come to pass? The answer is in places as chilling as the film's closing scenes. In this episode we explore Jeffrey’s journey into filmmaking, the science behind ‘The Day After Tomorrow’, and how telling fictional stories can have real-world resonance.

Whether you’re a film enthusiast or a sustainability expert, this episode offers a unique perspective that combines the world of entertainment with pressing global issues.

More About Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Jeffrey Nachmanoff was born and raised in Virginia and moved to London with his family as a teen. He majored in Visual Arts and English at Harvard, where he somehow convinced his instructors to give him credit for travelling with a family circus as a senior thesis. The photo-documentary book he made about the experience, a mix of black and white images and oral histories, convinced him that what he really wanted to do was tell stories with pictures. He subsequently went to USC film school and, after a brief stint as an editor, embarked on a career as a director and screenwriter.

His big break came when he wrote the ecological disaster movie “The Day After Tomorrow.” He spent several years as a screenwriter before transitioning to writer/director on the feature film “Traitor,” an international espionage thriller starring Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce.

Nachmanoff’s extensive television credits include directing the pilots for the dramas “Detroit 187” (ABC), “Chicago Fire” (NBC), and Hostages (CBS), which he also wrote and served as co-showrunner on for the series. In addition, he co-wrote the pilot for “Legends” (TNT). His episodic directing work includes “Homeland” (Showtime), “The Brave” (NBC), “The Passage” (FOX), “Lovecraft Country” (HBO), “Echo 3” (APPLE) and “Daredevil: Born Again” (MARVEL). He served as a consulting producer on Chicago PD (NBC) and directed the independent sci-fi feature “Replicas” (starring Keanu Reeves). He currently lives in Los Angeles with his family.

Find out more about Jeffrey Nachmanoff and his work HERE

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The team at ETF Partners presents 'Sustainability Talks', a new series featuring in-depth conversations with influential leaders from across the global sustainability, investment, and startup ecosystems. The podcast examines the biggest challenges and opportunities in delivering sustainable prosperity.

Find out more about ETF Partners here: etfpartners.capital

Theme music by Lee Olivier Hall. Listen on Spotify

In this episode of Sustainability Talks, our Managing Partner Rob Genieser checks back in with Professor Tim Benton, Chair of Chatham House’s Climate Change Science programme, that works to develop evidence-based solutions for tackling climate change.

Our regular listeners will remember that Professor Benton was a guest on the podcast back in March 2023. Tim is back to discuss the key points from COP28 and the prospects for climate investment and action in 2024. Tim shares his expert insights on how environmental risks impact societies and the strategies needed to mitigate, adapt to, and build resilience against these risks. Tim and Rob also discuss the ongoing challenges around food security, a pressing concern in the context of climate change.

About Professor Tim Benton

Professor Tim G. Benton leads the Environment and Society Centre at Chatham House. He joined Chatham House in 2016 as a distinguished visiting fellow, at which time he was also dean of strategic research initiatives at the University of Leeds. From 2011–16 he was the ‘champion’ of the UK’s Global Food Security programme which was a multi-agency partnership of the UK’s public bodies (government departments, devolved governments and research councils) with an interest in the challenges around food.

As a leading expert on food security and food systems, he has worked with UK governments, the EU, G20 and a range of other governments around the world, as well as leading businesses and civil society organizations, and has conducted many foresight exercises on the future of food systems, how to increase their resilience to climate change, reduce their environmental footprints and increase public health through nutrition. He has been a global agenda steward of the World Economic Forum and was an author of the IPCC’s Special Report on Food, Land and Climate (2019), and the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment (2017, 2022).

He has published more than 200 academic papers, many tackling how systems respond to environmental change. He has an h-index of 83, and >35,000 citations on GoogleScholar. His work on sustainability leadership has been recognized with an honorary fellowship of the UK’s Society for the Environment, and a doctorate honoris causa from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He also remains a (part-time) Research Professor at the University of Leeds.

Find out more about Chatham House at chathamhouse.org

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In this episode, we had the privilege of hosting the insightful Maryam Golnaraghi, Director of Climate Change & Environment at The Geneva Association. With a 25-year career spanning executive leadership, entrepreneurship, and advisory roles in private and public sectors, Maryam is a seasoned expert.

In this episode, Maryam joins our managing partner Patrick Sheehan for a lively and in-depth conversation about her fascinating journey into the realms of sustainability and the transformative projects she has spearheaded.

About Maryam Golnaraghi

Over the last 25 years, Maryam’s career has spanned working as a senior executive, founder& entrepreneur and serving on advisory boards in private and public sectors and the United Nations. She has launched, led and managed transformative climate change initiatives and multi-stakeholder partnerships with systemic impacts, to enable transitioning to a resilient low-carbon economy. In 2020, Maryam was included on the list of 20 ‘Most Influential on Climate Change’ by InsuranceERM and among the top 100 influencers in the world on ‘Resilience’ by The Leaders’ Magazine.

Since 2015, Maryam is the Director of Climate Change and Environment at The Geneva Association, the strategic international think tank, whose members are CEOs of 90 largest insurance companies, globally. Working with corporate boards and CEOs, regulatory and standard setting bodies, fintech and insurtech firms, governments and policy makers, she leads strategic initiatives to innovate and scale up insurance industry’s contributions as risk managers and investors to transitioning to a resilient low-carbon economy.

From 2004 to 2014, Maryam was the Chief of Disaster Risk Reduction Program at the World Meteorological Organization, where she headed up and built an international program and led major initiatives with 40+ governments for development of their national polices, institutional and operational capacities in climate and disaster risk management. Maryam was actively involved in the formulation and implementation of international framework agreements for disaster risk reduction and the UN climate change agreements. She developed the initial concept of demand-driven climate information services and data policies to enable private-sector access to publicly-funded, climate data and modelling for decision-making support. Following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, she served as an adviser to former U.S. President Clinton in his capacity as the UN Special Envoy on Tsunamis. She negotiated international agreements and coordinated activities that enabled the development and dissemination of tsunami alerts to all countries in less than five minutes.

From 1997 to 2004, as founder and CEO of Climate Risk Solutions, Inc. the first climate risk analytics and advisory firm, headquartered in Boston, USA, she delivered innovative climate-risk assessment and risk management solutions to companies in the energy, agriculture and financial sectors and the U.S. government.

Maryam mentors high-tech start-ups with climate risk analytics and net zero transition focus. She serves on a number of executive and advisory boards of companies, governments, centers of excellence and multi-lateral organizations, and is a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Her work is regularly featured by platforms such the Economist Climate Summit, Responsible Investor, ClimateAction, Risk.net, InsuranceERM, among others.

She has authored numerous internationally referenced reports on climate change as well as a book, “Partnerships in Multi-hazard Early Warning Systems” (Springer-Verlag).

Maryam holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University, an MS in Applied Physics and a PhD in Physical Oceanography from Harvard University after which she served as a senior research fellow at the Harvard Business School.

Follow Maryam Golnaraghi HERE

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It's time for our latest episode of Sustainability Talks and we're thrilled to have our Partner & Head of Sustainability & Investor Relations Zoë VanderWolk hosting this episode. Zoe is joined by strategist, investor and serial entrepreneur Azeem Azhar. Zoe and Azeem discuss the intricate dynamics shaping the future of sustainability startups and VCs. They explore thought provoking topics such as how ESG factors are influencing investment decisions and the potential of technology as a catalyst for sustainable innovation. They also discuss the challenges and opportunities startups face while embedding sustainability into their business models.

You can follow Azeem on Twitter and Instagram.

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In this episode of 'Sustainability Talks' our managing partner Patrick Sheehan sits down with Dame Elizabeth Corley, Chair of the Impact Investing Institute and is a Non-Executive Director of BAE Systems plc. 

Among the topics Patrick and Elizabeth discuss in this episode are how Elizabeth became involved in sustainability, why she believes impact investing is the future of capital markets, how to create coherence around different ESG and sustainability initiatives and the role that tech and data has to play.

Elizabeth also talks about being a published author of crime thrillers in her spare time and the relationship between creativity and business.

About Dame Elizabeth Corley 

Elizabeth is Chair of the Impact Investing Institute and is a Non-Executive Director of BAE Systems plc. She was appointed Chair of Schroders plc in April 2022 having joined the Board in September 2021.

Elizabeth has extensive experience in the financial services industry having been CEO of Allianz Global Investors, initially for Europe then globally, from 2005 to 2016. She continued to act as an advisor to the company until the end of 2019. Elizabeth was previously at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (formerly Mercury Asset Management), Coopers & Lybrand and Sun Alliance. Elizabeth is active in representing the investment industry and developing standards within it.

She is a director of the Green Finance Institute; serves on the investment committee of the Leverhulme Trust; is a member of the CFA Future of Finance Advisory Council, AQR Asset Management Institute, the Committee of 200 and the 300 Club.

As well as being a trustee of the British Museum, Elizabeth is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is also a published author of crime thrillers. She was awarded a CBE in January 2015 and a DBE in June 2019 for services to the economy and financial services.

Find out more about Impact Investing Institute: impactinvest.org.uk

Find out more about BAE Systems: baesystems.com

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In this episode of the Sustainability Talks podcast our Managing Partner Patrick Sheehan sits down with Michael Liebreich, Co Managing Partner EcoPragma Capital and Chairman and CEO of Liebreich Associates.

Michael and Patrick discuss the technological revolution required to make the transition to net zero possible. Michael also shares his thoughts on the challenges that we still face with energy demand, why traditional renewables are only part of the picture and why continued innovation and new technology is vital in ensuring energy resilience.

Michael also shares his thoughts and predictions for what the future holds in terms of global emissions, global temperature levels and how close we are to achieving net zero. 

About  Michael Liebreich

Michael Liebreich is Co Managing Partner EcoPragma Capital and Chairman and CEO of Liebreich Associates. He is also a senior contributor to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the world’s leading provider of research on clean energy and transport, which he founded in 2004. He led it up to its sale to Bloomberg in 2009 and beyond, acting as Chairman of the Advisory Board until 2017.

He serves on the UK Department of International Trade's Advisory Board on Overseas Investment in Infrastructure. He is Chairman of the Advisory Board of Ecovillages, a Swiss charity he founded to focus on sustainability of mountain communities and is Visiting Professor at Imperial College Energy Futures Lab. He also chairs smart mobility startup Zeelo and is a technology investor.

Between 2012 and 2018 Michael served as a Board Member of Transport for London. He was a member of the high-level Advisory Group for the UN Secretary General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative and Founder of Finance for Resilience (FiRe). He was the Chairman for ten years of St. Mark’s Hospital Foundation, a charity supporting research in colorectal medicine.

Michael is a three-time finalist in the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, and winner of Lifetime Achievement Award from the Renewable Energy Association and GreenBusiness.

Earlier in his career, Michael acted as Deputy Managing Director of Associated Press Television and Founding Director of Sports News Television and was UK Managing Director of Groupe Arnault’s technology investment arm. Before that, he was an associate and manager at McKinsey & Co.

Michael graduated in Engineering from the University of Cambridge with 1st class honours, winning the Ricardo Prize for Thermodynamics and Christ’s College Wyatt Prize. He has an MBA from Harvard, where he was a Harkness Fellow and Baker Scholar. He was a member of the British Olympic Ski Team in 1992.

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Welcome to the latest episode of Sustainability Talks. In this episode our host Rob Genieser, Managing Partner of ETF Partners, is joined by Antonis Schwarz, an impact investor, philanthropist and impact investing consultant of Greek-German descent. 

In 2013, Antonis co-founded Vouliwatch, a Greek parliamentary monitoring organization that aims to increase political accountability and transparency. A strong believer in the power of activism, in 2016 he founded the Guerrilla Foundation, which supports social movements and activists working towards bringing about major systemic change across Europe. The following year, he co-founded the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth (CSP), an academic research and training institution at the University of Zurich. 

Since 2018, together with the Social Entrepreneurship Netzwerk Deutschland and several partner organizations he has been campaigning for the establishment of a German impact investing wholesaler funded through dormant assets. As a proud member of Millionaires for Humanity and Taxmenow, he advocates for tax justice in Germany and internationally. He currently works part-time as an impact investing consultant for PHINEO.  

In today's episode Rob and Antonis discuss how Europe can move towards a more sustainable and impactful VC and startup ecosystem. In particular, they’ll be exploring what sustainability trends are emerging in the European venture capital landscape, how those trends are being affected by macroeconomic factors, what investors should look out for when considering sustainable investments, and how government policies can help foster more sustainable venture capital investing. This episode will be a must-listen for anyone interested in how we can marry profit with purpose and deliver consistent sustainable innovation.

Listen to the episode in full below or on your favourite podcast platform for a unique and thoughtful exploration of this important topic.  

Listen on Spotify, Apple or Google Podcasts HERE 

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Welcome to the latest episode of Sustainability Talks. In this episode our host Rob Genieser, Managing Partner of ETF Partners, is joined by Antonis Schwarz, an impact investor, philanthropist and impact investing consultant of Greek-German descent. 

In 2013, Antonis co-founded Vouliwatch, a Greek parliamentary monitoring organization that aims to increase political accountability and transparency. A strong believer in the power of activism, in 2016 he founded the Guerrilla Foundation, which supports social movements and activists working towards bringing about major systemic change across Europe. The following year, he co-founded the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth (CSP), an academic research and training institution at the University of Zurich. 

Since 2018, together with the Social Entrepreneurship Netzwerk Deutschland and several partner organizations he has been campaigning for the establishment of a German impact investing wholesaler funded through dormant assets. As a proud member of Millionaires for Humanity and Taxmenow, he advocates for tax justice in Germany and internationally. He currently works part-time as an impact investing consultant for PHINEO.  

In today's episode Rob and Antonis discuss how Europe can move towards a more sustainable and impactful VC and startup ecosystem. In particular, they’ll be exploring what sustainability trends are emerging in the European venture capital landscape, how those trends are being affected by macroeconomic factors, what investors should look out for when considering sustainable investments, and how government policies can help foster more sustainable venture capital investing. This episode will be a must-listen for anyone interested in how we can marry profit with purpose and deliver consistent sustainable innovation.

Listen to the episode in full below or on your favourite podcast platform for a unique and thoughtful exploration of this important topic.  

Follow Antonis on LinkedIn 

Find out more about ETF Partners here:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠etfpartners.capital⁠⁠⁠

Follow ETF Partners: ⁠Website⁠ /⁠ LinkedIn⁠ /⁠ Medium⁠

And don’t forget to subscribe to the Sustainability Talks podcast on your favourite podcast platform here: ⁠⁠⁠SUBSCRIBE⁠

In this episode of Sustainability Talks, our Managing Partner Rob Genieser sits down with Dr. Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos to talk about one of the big issues of our time; AI and its potential role in making one of the world’s most critical industries more sustainable. Recognised in 2020 by Forbes as one of its ‘30 under 30’, Konstantinos is a globally respected figure in cutting-edge AI solutions as well as being a visionary CEO. Whether you’re interested in sustainability or AI generally or specifically in the intersection of AI and sustainability, this one is for you.

About Dr. Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos

Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos is a Greek entrepreneur and the co-founder of DeepSea AI, a cutting-edge startup that develops artificial intelligence solutions for the maritime industry. Kyriakopoulos obtained his Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in 2011. Following this, he pursued his Master's degree in Robotics, Systems and Control from ETH Zurich, where he gained a deep understanding of robotics and artificial intelligence.

After completing his studies, Kyriakopoulos worked as a researcher and software engineer at various companies, including SAP and CERN, where he gained valuable experience in software development and big data analysis.In 2017, Kyriakopoulos co-founded DeepSea AI with a vision to revolutionise the maritime industry with advanced AI technology.

As the CEO of DeepSea AI, he oversees the development of the company's AI-driven solutions for optimizing vessel performance, reducing fuel consumption, and enhancing safety at sea.Kyriakopoulos has received numerous awards and recognition for his work at DeepSea AI, including being named on Forbes 30 Under 30 in Europe in the Technology category in 2020. His passion for AI and commitment to solving real-world problems has made him a respected figure in the tech industry.

Find out more about Deep Sea AI here: deepsea.ai

Follow Dr. Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos here: LinkedIn

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