Aldo Romani
Head of sustainable finance, finance directorate, European Investment Bank
Romani was the EIB’s deputy head of funding, euros, from 2001 to 2018 and head of sustainability funding from 2018 to 2022.
In 2007, he shaped the transaction through which the EIB inaugurated the green bond market, subsequently promoting best practice in working groups of the Green Bond Principles, China and the EU. He has driven the gradual alignment of the EIB’s sustainability funding with evolving EU legislation on sustainable finance – in close cooperation with the projects directorate.
Marlene Walch
Senior funding manager for green bonds, KfW
Walch specialises in the strategic development of KfW’s green bond framework. She is also actively involved in the bank’s sustainable finance project tranSForm, focusing on impact data gathering, processing and calculation. Coordinating between sustainable assets and liabilities, Walch is driving positive environmental and social change through sustainable finance.
Her professional background includes roles such as budget and finance adviser at the Hessian state parliament for the Green Party and head of pricing intercont (ad int.) at Deutsche Lufthansa, where she also held positions in lean management and controlling.
Ralf Berninger
Head of investor relations and sustainability, SFIL
Berninger started his career as a fixed income syndicate manager at WestLB, subsequently holding positions as senior debt capital market originator at DZ Bank, Calyon (now Credit Agricole CIB), and as head of origination at Dexia Group before joining SFIL in 2013.
He has been selected to the ICMA Green and Social Bond Principles Advisory Council twice, in 2020 and in 2024.
Laurent Adoult
Head of sustainable banking, FI & SSA Europe, Credit Agricole CIB
Adoult joined the sustainable banking team in September 2021 as managing director to develop the SSA & FIG business. Prior to this, he had worked in the debt capital markets team at the bank since 2007 where he was in charge of coverage for banks and insurance companies in France and the Benelux region as well as German and Swiss insurance companies. He has experience in sustainable bonds (green, social and sustainability) having worked on numerous inaugural green or social bond transactions. Adoult began his career at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
Christian Engelen
Head of unit in the directorate-general for budget at the European Commission
Engelen is responsible for the borrowing and lending operations, including the implementation of market operations under the NextGenerationEU programme. He has worked in various areas dealing with contingent liabilities, risk management and stability mechanisms in the directorate-general economic and financial affairs and macro-prudential policies in the directorate-general stability, financial services and capital markets union.
Engelen previously worked for the financial stability department of Deutsche Bundesbank.
Julian Lewis (moderator)
Associate editor, Green/ESG finance, IFR
Lewis has covered capital markets and banking for over 35 years, serving as IFR’s bond editor and senior editor in an earlier stint with the publication.
He has also worked in investment banking research in the UK and Scandinavia.
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