Cheryl believes strongly that to achieve a sustainable future we need to focus more on where we need to go, the new economy vs. incremental changes where we have been. To transition to a sustainable and green economy we need to support and incentivize innovation - social, technological and systemic innovation - at all levels of business, government/policy, the economy and lifestyles. This will be the challenge and opportunity of the next decade.

Cheryl is an experienced business and sustainability professional most recently working with leading multi-national companies on collaborative action projects for sustainable development with The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). The WBCSD is a CEO-led global business association of over 200 multinational corporations with a shared commitment to sustainable development and business leadership for change.

While at the WBCSD, from 2004 through 2009 Cheryl has worked with WBCSD company members on business and society issues and was the focal point for two workstreams: Sustainable Consumption & Consumers; and Valuation & Capital Markets in the WBCSD’s Business Role Focus Area.

Cheryl led the WBCSD’s work on sustainable consumption and lifestyles, exploring the relationship between business activities, consumer behavior and environmental and social challenges. In 2009 Cheryl has worked with leading global companies to define the sustainable lifestyle, and to explore critical triggers to behavior change.

Cheryl also led a WBCSD initiative which brought business together directly with financial institutions to accelerate action on valuing sustainability in the capital markets. In 2008 Cheryl designed and facilitated a workshop series in 6 global markets which brought company managers and investment managers face to face with the aim to unlock sustainable value and the new financial materiality. This initiative built on the WBCSD’s expertise in sustainability reporting & accountability where Cheryl was a member of the core team since 2004.

In 2008-2009 Cheryl was a contributor to the WBCSD’s thought leadership on a business vision for sustainability in 2050. This scenarios-inspired process brought together 29 global companies and wide range of global stakeholders to define a world on track to sustainability by 2050, the pathways of change needed and, the future agenda for business.

In 2001-2004 Cheryl was focused on the health agenda, designing a process for dialogue between company executives, medical professionals and hospital administration for The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. This dialogue aimed to shift perceptions from making sick children better, to preventing children from getting sick.

Cheryl has 14 years of business experience spanning the consumer goods, advertising, finance, health, chemicals, new technologies, NGO and public sectors with 8 years working at the intersection of business and sustainable development. Cheryl is Canadian and throughout her career has worked and lived in Australia, Canada, Colombia, South Korea, and is currently based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Since moving to Geneva in Cheryl has co-founded two professional networks of Geneva-based professionals working on sustainable development and corporate responsibility: CSR Geneva (co-founded in 2005) and Sustainable Finance Geneva (co-founded in 2007).

Jeff Keeler is Director of Business Development at Iberdrola Renewable Energies, a worldwide leader in the development of windfarms closing the year with 7,704 MW of operational wind capacity with more than 42,000 MW of projects in the pipeline. Prior to this position, Jeff Keeler was the New England Director of Community Energy, a national leader in voluntary clean energy markets.

William G. Knight (Bill) is the President of Hebb, Knight and Associates, a consulting firm based in Canada. He has expertise in emerging marketplace business issues or policy issues, identifying and analyzing patterns in industry/sector and regulatory developments in Canada and abroad.

Prior to joining the firm, he was the Commissioner of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada from 2001 to 2006 where he was delegated with the authority of a deputy head by the Canadian Federal Government. His Mandate was to oversee 3.24 trillion dollars of financial services related to market conduct. Between 1995 and 2001, Mr. Knight held the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of the Credit Union Central of Canada, where he undertook a number of strategic initiatives in order to distinguish Canadian Credit Unions as the competitive alternative to the banks.

Mr. Knight's responsibilities included direct oversight of a number of satellite companies integral to the group of financial services offered through the retail credit unions. Mr. Knight was Chairman of the Board of Directors for Credential Group of Companies: Credential Securities Inc., Credential Asset Management, and Ethical Funds Inc. He was a member of the Board of Directors for Canadian Co-operative Agricultural Financial Services, Canadian Co-operative Leasing Services, and served as an Alternate Board Director of the Canadian Payments Association. Mr. Knight was the Chairperson for Canadian Central's CEOs Advisory Committee.

Mr. Knight also served as a Federal Member of Parliament from 1971 to 1974. As the youngest Member of Parliament, he was elected Chief Whip for the Minority Parliament 1972 to 1974 and served as a member of the House Finance Committee during an important tax reform period. He was also a member of the Regional Development and Public Accounts Committees, and the committee responsible for overseeing the Foreign Investment Review Agency. He received the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal for excellence in Public Service on behalf of Canada.

Mr. Knight presently serves on the Desjardins Advisory board; the Board of Directors of AIG United Guarantee (Canada); the Board of Directors of Citizens Bank of Canada; as an advisor to the World Bank affiliate - C-Gap, the Canadian credit union system and CCAs International Development branch.

William A. Nitze is Chairman of Oceana Energy Company, a company that is developing and seeking to commercialize a new hydrokinetic technology to convert tidal energy into electricity, and of Clear Path Technologies, Inc., a company that designs and builds neutron-based systems for detecting and identifying explosives and other dangerous substances in containers.

He is also the co-founder of GridPoint, Inc., a company that develops and markets intelligent energy management systems for residential, commercial and industrial applications, and of Climate Clean, Inc., a company that markets high-quality greenhouse gas emission offsets to purchasers of new vehicles through dealers.

Mr. Nitze also serves on the boards of the Aspen Institute, the Alliance to Save Energy and the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University.

Mr. Nitze has held key positions in government, non-governmental organizations and the private sector in the United States and abroad. From 1994 to 2001, he served as Assistant Administrator for International Activities at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He was President of the Alliance to Save Energy from 1990 to 1994.

Before that, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment, Health and Natural Resources from 1987 to 1990. In that capacity, he had a lead role in international negotiations on global issues such as climate change, ozone layer protection and trans-boundary air pollution. Early in his career, Mr. Nitze worked in the legal department of Mobil Oil Corporation and was General Counsel of Mobil Oil Japan from 1976 to 1980.

Mr. Nitze is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies and Chairman of the Board of Advisors of the European Institute. Mr. Nitze is a graduate of Harvard College, Wadham College, Oxford, and Harvard Law School. He is a member of the State of New York and U.S. Supreme Court Bars.

David Runnalls is President of IISD. He is a member of the Board of the Institute of Advanced Studies of the United Nations University. He is a member of the Advisory Council for Export Development Canada; a member of the Council for Sustainable Development Technology Canada; and a member of the Ivey Business School Leadership Council. He also serves on the Inquiry Team for Tomorrow's Global Company, the SAM/SPG Leadership award, the International Sustainability Innovation Council of Switzerland (ISIS), and the Shell Report External Review Committee.

He has served as Co-Chair of the China Council Task Force on WTO and Environment. Runnalls was the Leopold Fellow at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a member of the federal External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation (EACSR). He served as Chair of the Adjudication Panel for the ALCAN Prize for Sustainability.

Runnalls has served as Senior Advisor to the President of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa, Canada, and to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. He was Director of the Environment and Sustainable Development Programme at the Institute for Research on Public Policy in Ottawa. He worked with Barbara Ward to found the International Institute for Environment and Development and directed both its London and Washington offices.

Runnalls was the Canadian Board member of IUCN - the World Conservation Union for six years and the Chair of the Committee for the World Conservation Congress in 1996. He served as a member of the Boards of the World Environment Center (New York), IIED (London) and Pollution Probe (Toronto).

An occasional writer and broadcaster, he has served as environment columnist for the CBC radio program, As it Happens and for CTV's Canada am. He was a member of the Discovery Channel's regular environment panel and political columnist for the Earth Times, the paper of record for the United Nations Earth Summit in 1992.

Peter Sibley is the founder of World Television plc, Europe’s leading moving image communications company. The company was established in 1992 and employs over 125 media professionals in six countries. It provides consultancy, high quality video content production and on-line technical intelligence to help clients actively manage their internal and external global image.

The company works with over 250 of the world’s most visible organisations, blue-chip multinationals and governments including WWF International, World Economic Forum, European Space Agency, Sony, Microsoft, British Government and the Nobel Peace Prize. Over the last 17 years Peter has been the CEO and Vice-Chairman of the Group and took the company public on the London Stock Exchange in 2004. It has recently returned to become a private company. He currently serves on the Board of World Television as a Non-Executive Director. He is a member of the Institute of Directors (IoD) in Paris and London, and a member of the Society of Authors.

Peter has previously worked for Greenpeace International, WWF International, Reuters and Ogilvy and Mather. He’s also created and produced award-winning television series including ‘Take A Minute’ for MTV, and ‘The Business of Development’ for CNBC.

Peter has lived and worked close to Geneva, Switzerland since 2001.

Chris Walker is currently Head of US operations at The Carbon Trust.

Prior to joining The Carbon Trust, Chris was Director for North America for The °Climate Group. Previously, Chris was Head of Swiss Re's Sustainability Business Development. Here he ran the unit responsible for developing commercial applications to Swiss Re Sustainability commitments and, in particular, business opportunities in sustainability, ecosystem markets, emissions reductions and renewables.

Chris also served as a North American Sustainability Officer and government affairs liaison on climate change/GHG emissions issues. While based at Swiss Re's Zurich headquarters, he created and advanced from concept to initiation the company's Greenhouse Gas Risk Solutions unit, specialising in Greenhouse Gas risk mitigation and opportunity innovation. In 2000, he created and led Swiss Re Group's worldwide GHG emissions market feasibility study determining the market facilitation role for Swiss Re.

An attorney, Chris was appointed to the California Climate Change Advisory Commission, and is a member of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), on the board of advisors for New Energy Finance publication, the Panama Canal Watershed Business Plan project at Yale University and the Climate Change Futures Study with Harvard University/ UNDP.

Chris received his BA in Government from St. John's University, attended the Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems at Georgetown and is also a graduate of the St. John's School of Law. Prior to joining Swiss Re in 1996, he practiced law in New York and New Jersey.