The Next Steps for Sustainable Finance in Jersey

12/03/2025•2.00 pm - 4.30 pm GMT

Freedom Centre, Jersey

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Sustainable Finance Summit Events

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2025 marks Jersey’s five-year countdown to its 2030 sustainable finance vision and in November 2024, Jersey’s sustainable finance action plan was launched. What’s next for Jersey, both as an Island community and an international finance centre (IFC) ?

Stephen Nolan Managing Director of UNDP Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S) will kick start this event, detailing the role IFCs must play in the transition. Miguel Zaragoza from the Government of Jersey, will then guide us through Jersey’s sustainable finance action plan which an expert panel will then explore in greater detail, including fiduciary duties, sustainability risk, ESG integrity risk and sustainability disclosures.

Olivia Dakeyne of Themis will then present on environmental crime, before Dame Susan Rice, our new Sustainable Finance Awards judge, will moderate a panel session which explores local sustainable finance projects that touch on nature, climate and the great wealth transfer, including Affinity’s Scottish rewilding project and Greening Jersey.

Speakers include:

Stephen Nolan, UNDP Financial Centres for Sustainability
Miguel Zaragoza, Government of Jersey
Dame Susan Rice
Olivia Dakeyne, Themis
Dipak Vashi, Grant Thornton
David Stearn, Affinity
Sian Langley, Walkers
Rebecca Brewer, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
David Postlethwaite, KPMG in the Crown Dependencies
Chris Webb, HSBC
Pia Holm, Jersey Financial Services Commission
Sally Edwards, Jersey Finance

If you have any questions, please contact a member of the events team.

Speakers

Sally EdwardsLegal and Technical Manager, Jersey Finance

Profile

Sally is qualified as an English solicitor and Jersey advocate (currently non-practising) and was a private client lawyer at offshore law firm Ogier for more than 18 years, where she became a partner and global head of the private wealth team.

Chris WebbHead of Climate Change & Sustainability Europe, Global Head of Carbon Markets

Chris is the Head of Climate Change & Sustainability for HSBC Europe where he supports the bank in delivering its net zero ambitions across the region, with a particular focus in engaging and supporting the banks’ clients as they transition to net zero. Chris also leads HSBCs global strategy on carbon markets. He works closely with senior management across the bank to develop carbon market solutions that support the transition to net zero. He drives HSBC external engagement with regulators, central banks and governments on carbon markets policies, carbon credits and nature-based solutions, whilst also providing strategic advice and thought leadership to customers and internal stakeholders. Prior to HSBC Chris worked at environmental NGO The Nature Conservancy, and before that PwC - where he trained as a Chartered Accountant and then worked as a climate change consultant.

Dame Susan RiceGlobal Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI), Chair – Global Steering Group

Dame Susan Rice, a Chartered Banker, chairs the Financial Services Culture Board and was founding chair of the Chartered Banker: Professional Standards Board. She also chairs Scottish Water, Business Stream and the Scottish Fiscal Commission, Scotland’s independent economic and fiscal forecaster. In addition, she is Senior Independent Director of J Sainsbury, and of the North American Income Trust. The first woman to head a UK clearing bank, she was Chief Executive and Chairman of Lloyds TSB Scotland plc, then Managing Director of Lloyds Banking Group. She was previously a Non-Executive Director of the Bank of England and energy company SSE. She has helped develop approaches to social finance in the US and UK, led work on cultural and ethical standards for bankers, chaired Scotland’s 2020 Climate Group and now works with P-CAN. Previously, she was Senior Vice President at NatWest Bancorp in New York and, earlier in her career, a Dean at Yale and Colgate Universities in America.

David Postlethwaite Director, KPMG in the Crown Dependencies

David is a Director at KPMG in the Crown Dependencies. Based in Jersey, he leads the ESG Advisory practice across the Crown Dependencies. His team helps clients from a range of sectors including asset management, financial services, corporate and Government, with their ESG challenges. Leveraging both global expertise and local insights, his team covers the full spectrum of services from ESG strategy, risk transformation, policies and procedures, sustainable finance regulation and reporting and deals support. He also supports the local audit teams with their growing ESG assurance practice. Previously, he was Sustainable Finance Lead at Jersey Finance, working with industry, the Government and regulator to develop a sustainable finance strategy for Jersey’s finance sector. His background includes a decade as a lawyer in London, Paris, and Jersey, supporting financial institutions and corporates.

David StearnChief Executive, Affinity

David is the Chief Executive of Affinity, whilst maintaining a client focused role utilising his many years’ of wealth management experience in London and Jersey. Affinity is an independent wealth management company providing advice, structuring and investment solutions; helping individuals and families preserve and enhance their assets for themselves and across generations. Privately owned, our interests are wholly aligned with clients. Our ethics and values are at the core of everything we do. We were the first UN Global Compact participant in Jersey, consistent with Affinity’s commitment to sustainability and are members of the Jersey Good Business Charter. Our primary focus is to understand our client’s requirements and aspirations, relating these to their finances. Our goal is to provide relevant advice, founded on a relationship of trust, with clear and timely communication.

Dipak VashiBusiness Advisory Senior Manager, Grant Thornton

Dipak Vashi joined Grant Thornton in 2022 and leads for ESG and Sustainability strategy and activities to advise clients at all stages of their ESG journey. He focuses on the importance and urgent need for businesses to bring sustainability into their strategy. He has over 11 years’ experience in the accounting profession, within industry and via a membership body in the ICAEW, having initially qualified in the audit practice of KPMG in London. He has been a frequent commentator in the media on Sustainability matters, as well as appearing on webinars, videos and at external events and panels to promote the importance and urgent need of recognising Sustainability within business models.

Miguel Zaragoza Senior Policy Advisor, Government of Jersey, Department for the Economy

Miguel is a Spanish-qualified lawyer with masters degrees in geopolitics and European affairs from the University of Strasbourg and the College of Europe in Warsaw. After living in Brussels, where he worked at the European Commission overseeing the funding of wind farm projects, Miguel relocated to Jersey with his British wife. In Jersey, before joining the Government, Miguel worked for the executive team at the Jersey Financial Services Commission and in a legal team at Royal Bank of Canada Wealth Management International. Miguel also worked for the Jersey Institute of Law as an EU Law and Trusts Law tutor.

Olivia Dakeyne Associate Director of Insight, Themis

Olivia is the Associate Director of Insight at Themis, an anti-financial crime provider, where she leads financial and environmental crime research projects for the private and public sector, including for a number of governments across the world. She specialises in projects involving modern slavery and human trafficking, wildlife trafficking and other environmental crimes, especially through the lens of serious organised transnational crime. She has 13 years’ varied experience across the public and private sectors in a fulltime and freelance capacity, including in research, finance, sustainability, policy and strategy for organisations like the Natural History Museum, Kew Gardens and Client Earth.

Pia HolmSenior Policy Advisor, Jersey Financial Services Commission

Senior Policy Adviser and International Consultant with over twenty years in financial services, including over a decade at the Jersey Financial Services Commission. Sustainable finance lead and countering terrorist financing expert with a passion for complex challenges, collaborative efforts, and innovative solutions.

Rebecca BrewerChief Executive Officer, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust

Rebecca was appointed as Durrell’s CEO in December 2024 after serving as interim CEO for a year. She joined Durrell in March 2019 initially as Director of Finance before taking responsibility for the commercial and IT operations in 2020. Prior to joining Durrell, she spent 15 years working for PwC delivering assurance and advisory engagements across a range of financial services and hospitality and leisure clients both in the Channel Islands and the Middle East. She is a Chartered Accountant, has an MSc in environmental science and also serves as Treasurer for the Jersey Association of Sustainability Practitioners.

Sian Langley Senior Counsel (Regulatory & Risk Advisory), Walkers Jersey

Sian moved to Jersey from Ireland in 2023. She is a senior counsel in Walkers' Regulatory & Risk Advisory practice, specialising in contentious and advisory financial services regulation matters. Sian has always been keen to support charitable organisations and the communities within which she lives and was chair of NASC, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, for five years and has recently taken up the position of Chair of FREEDA (Free from Domestic Abuse) in Jersey. Sian is delighted to be a committee member of the Greening Jersey Trust and to be part of such a wonderful initiative to support and maintain the beautiful Island of Jersey.

Stephen Nolan MD, UNDP FC4S and Head of Secretariat, UNDP SIF

Stephen Nolan is the Managing Director of the UNDP Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S) initiative, a global network of 44 financial centres collaborating to achieve the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement. He also serves as Head of Secretariat for the UNDP Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF), a grouping of 39 insurance supervisors. He is Chair of Ireland’s Climate Finance Week series and a member of the High-Level Advisory Group of Switzerland’s Building Bridges series. He has served on several non-profit boards, including the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Haven Partnership, and Children's Cancer Fund Ireland. In 2020, he received the Irish Green Leader award for his contributions to sustainable finance.