BSR’s 2025 Outlook for Financial Services: Three Areas to Watch

BSR Members Only

Webinar

January 14, 2025

10 - 11 am EST

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Geopolitical uncertainty made 2024 a challenging year for financial services sustainability practitioners. Now, mandatory reporting and the paradox between EU and US regulations are set to strain company resources.

Join us to hear our experts' outlook for navigating sustainable business in 2025 across three key areas: Governance and Leadership, Climate and Nature, and Human Rights.

The webinar is open to all BSR member companies and their employees. We encourage you to invite additional colleagues inside or outside of your team and take full advantage of BSR’s member benefits.

Scheduled Speakers

Lara Birkes, Managing Director, Climate and Nature, BSR

Managing Director, Climate and Nature, BSR

San Francisco

Lara is responsible for leading BSR's Climate and Nature team globally and driving the organization’s work with Member companies' impact consulting, grants, and collaborative initiatives.

Lara is a sustainability and policy professional with over fifteen years of experience managing partnerships, sustainability initiatives and policy engagement with companies, international organizations, governments, and NGOs.

Prior to BSR, Lara was Global Head of Sustainability at Sonder, joining in 2020 to establish the corporate responsibility function, implementing policies to engrain responsible business practices across the company pre to post IPO.

She also serves on the Advisory Board of EQX Biome, a start-up working to mobilize financial markets to protect the world’s remaining biodiversity hotspots. In 2024 Lara started hosting a web series & podcast called Nature IS to raise awareness of the critical need for protection, conservation, and regeneration of biodiversity.

Lara holds a B.S. degree in International Business & Management from the University of Montana, a M.A. degree in International Trade Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California and is a World Economic Forum Global Leadership Fellow.

Recent Insights From Lara Birkes

Full Bio

Hugh W. Brown, Jr., Director, Financial Services, BSR

Director, Financial Services, BSR

New York

Hugh is the Global Head of BSR’s Financial Services practice and partners with public and private companies across sectors.

He advises institutional investors, corporations, and other capital market participants on corporate strategy, sustainability, investment value creation strategy, risk management, and stakeholder engagement.

Prior to joining BSR, Hugh was a senior director at Ceres, where he led investor engagement with global institutional investors representing over US$20 trillion in assets under management (AUM). Hugh managed research and analysis linking climate risks including land use change and water risks to investment portfolios and company supply chains to help investors and companies manage sustainability impacts and opportunities.

Hugh has over 15 years of investment management expertise in various roles. At the $250 billion AUM Florida State Board of Administration, he worked on corporate governance, liquidity cash management, risk management across asset classes, and portfolio value creation strategy. He also worked at Morgan Stanley, where he provided investment management and consulting services to municipal entities.

Hugh is a veteran of the US Air Force. He holds a BA in History and International Affairs from Florida State University and an MBA from Nova Southeastern University.

David Korngold, Managing Director of BSR Innovation Group, BSR

Managing Director of BSR Innovation Group, BSR

New York

David partners with corporate boards, executives, and investors to develop high-impact sustainability strategies. As part of BSR’s Transformation team, he co-leads engagement with boards of directors to promote effective board governance and leadership ambition on sustainability.

Having previously led BSR's Financial Services team, David continues to work closely with financial companies on sustainability, ESG integration, and impact investing. David has led engagements in nearly all of BSR’s focus areas and major industry groups. This includes leading climate scenarios workshops with boards, creating net-zero road maps for investment firms, designing and operationalizing a leading impact investing fund, conducting materiality assessments, undertaking human rights impact assessments, and co-authoring research on topics like ESG for emerging public companies and responsible investment policies for private equity firms.

Before joining BSR, David worked in strategy and management consulting at Bain & Company.

David holds a BA in History from Amherst College.

Recent Insights From David Korngold

Full Bio

Kindra Mohr, Associate Director, Financial Services and Human Rights, BSR

Associate Director, Financial Services and Human Rights, BSR

New York

Bringing her expertise as a business and human rights attorney, Kindra leads BSR's work at the intersection of finance and human rights.

Kindra has nearly 15 years of experience in advancing human rights, social and environmental sustainability, and access to remedy within the financial sector. She advises financial institutions and their corporate clients and investees on innovative solutions to prevent and address human rights risks and impacts on the ground, including through stakeholder engagement and the development of grievance mechanisms.

Previously, Kindra consulted for the International Finance Corporation and worked with clients at PwC to integrate best practices into their corporate governance frameworks. She also worked for the US Senate and served for five years as the Policy Director for a global nonprofit, advocating with communities for environmental and social protections and access to remedy in international finance. In addition, Kindra has lived and worked for nonprofits in Argentina, Haiti, and Peru on access to justice and corporate accountability.

Kindra obtained her law degree at Boston College and holds a MA in International Economics and International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Recent Insights From Kindra Mohr

Full Bio

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