Webinar on Sustainable Corporate Governance: Setting the incentives and obligations for companies to transition towards sustainability

Paul Tang is a Member of the European Parliament for the Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) since July 2014, as part of the Group of Socialists and Democrats. He received a PhD in Economics from the University of Amsterdam and worked for the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs and the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis before entering the Dutch parliament in 2007. Here, Paul Tang was spokesperson for financial and fiscal affairs from 2007 until 2010, right through the financial crisis.

In 2014, Paul Tang led the list of the PvdA for the European elections. In 2019 he was re- elected. Paul Tang mainly works on economic and financial affairs (ECON), with a focus on fair taxation and sustainable finance, and the role of data in our society (LIBE). Since September 2020, Tang is chair of the subcommittee on taxation (FISC).

Beate Sjåfjell is Professor of Law at the University of Oslo, Faculty of Law, and holds a fractional appointment as Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Faculty of Economics. She is also a Visiting Professor at College of Europe, European Legal Studies Department. Professor Sjåfjell is founder and head of the Oslo Faculty’s Research Group Companies, Markets and Sustainability (the Company Law Group), which is now in its second period (2017-2022), as well as of several international networks and projects. Her main publications include The Cambridge Handbook of Corporate Law, Corporate Governance and Sustainability (co-edited with Christopher M. Bruner; Cambridge University Press 2019), Creating Corporate Sustainability. Gender as an Agent of Change (co-edited with Irene Lynch Fannon; Cambridge University Press 2018), and Company Law and Sustainability: Legal Barriers and Opportunities (co-edited with Benjamin J. Richardson; Cambridge University Press 2015).

Olivier has been Accountancy Europe’s CEO since 2006. He regularly speaks on issues related to European affairs and has been active in the sustainable corporate governance field for several years. A lawyer and economist by training, Olivier’s prior experiences include being a public prosecutor in France, director at PwC, board member of the European Policy Centre and director of XBRL international.

Victor van Hoorn is the Executive Director of Eurosif, the European Sustainable Investment Forum, the leading pan European Sustainable and Responsible Investment association advocating for a more sustainable financial system. It works as a partnership of European national Sustainable Investment Forums (SIFs). SIF members include institutional investors, asset managers, index providers and ESG research and analysis firms totaling over €8 trillion of assets under management, as well as other stakeholders such as NGOs, trade unions, think-tanks and philanthropic foundations. Eurosif is also a founding member of the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, the alliance of the largest SIFs around the world.

Prior to Eurosif, Victor was Head of Financial Services at Hume Brophy, a leading EU public affairs consultancy, advising asset managers and asset owners on their engagement with EU policymakers. In that role he closely followed the EU sustainable finance since its inception.

Victor is an attorney-at-law admitted to the New York and Amsterdam bar. He holds the French and Dutch citizenship.

Heidi Hautala is Vice-President of the European Parliament, Member of the European Parliament in the Greens/EFA group.

She was elected as a Vice-President of the European Parliament in October 2017 and serves on the Committee on International Trade and the Subcommittee on Human Rights. In 2017, she established a Working Group on Responsible Business Conduct in the European Parliament.

In Finland, Ms Hautala served as a Member of Parliament from 1991 to 1995 and from 2003 to 2009. From 2011 to 2013, she was the Minister for International Development and State Ownership Steering.

She holds a Master’s degree in Agriculture and Forestry.

Tyler Gillard is the Head of Due Diligence Unit and Senior Legal Adviser in the OECD Centre for Responsible Business Conduct. He leads the OECD’s work in the financial, textiles, mining & metals, oil & gas and agriculture sectors. Tyler joined the OECD in 2009 to lead the multi-stakeholder negotiation of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas. He has since overseen the development of numerous global supply chain standards. Tyler works closely with governments, the private sector and civil society to implement these standards and integrate them into national policies, regulations and industry practice.

Before joining the OECD, Tyler was a fellow in international law at Columbia Law School where he worked with the Human Rights Institute and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment on responsible business conduct, international investment law and transparency in the extractive industry. He has an LL.M. from Columbia Law School and an LL.B. from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

Andrea is an international lawyer and expert on business and human rights with nearly twenty years of experience helping business, finance and government address strategic and operational social sustainability challenges. She is the founder and principal of SILA Advisory, a mission-driven organisation seeking to embed respect for human rights across business activities and public policy. Since 2015, Andrea has also served as an expert to the Project Complaint Mechanism at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, assessing the Bank’s compliance with its ESG policies.

Andrea was a visiting fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (Columbia University, NY) and at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where she established and led the LSE Investment & Human Rights Project. She has taught business & human rights at the LSE, ESSEC Business School Paris, ESCP Business School Europe and Sciences Po School of Management. And she has participated in the adoption of seminal regulations on social sustainability, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Anselme Mialon is Deputy Head of the Sustainable Finance, Corporate Law, Accounting and Corporate Governance Unit at the French Treasury. He is in charge of audit and corporate governance matters. In this capacity, he takes part in various committees of the French audit supervisory authority. He has also acted as rapporteur of a report dealing with purpose-driven companies entrusted to French CEO Bris Rocher by Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance and the Recovery and Olivia Grégoire, Secretary of State to the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Recovery.

Prior to joining the French Treasury, Anselme Mialon worked as a lawyer in various international law firms, working on both securities regulation and financial services matters.

Anselme Mialon is an alumnus of the Ecole nationale d’administration. He holds a masters’ degree from Sciences Po in Paris and is law graduate from Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.