Eric Usher
Head, UNEP Finance Initiative
Eric Usher currently heads the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative, UNEP FI, a global partnership bringing together the UN with more than 230 banks, insurers and asset managers working to develop the sustainable finance and responsible investment agendas. Eric oversees governance, strategy and day-to-day management of UNEP FI’s work programme and global network development. Over the years UNEP FI has established some of the most important sustainability oriented frameworks within the finance industry, including the Principles for Responsible Investment (2006), the Principles for Sustainable Insurance (2012) and work now underway on the establishment of Principles for Responsible Banking. Since joining in 2015, Mr. Usher has focused on accelerating the deep integration of sustainability risks into financial practice, including addressing climate change, natural capital loss and human rights abuses, as well as building out the frameworks for positive impact finance needed to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Eric sits on several industry bodies including as UN representative on the Board of the Principles for Responsible Investment, as a member of the Evaluation Council of the French sovereign green bond, as Director for the impact fund REPP Africa and founder of the Seed Capital Assistance Facility.
Prior to leading UNEP FI, Mr. Usher has over twenty years of experience in the low carbon sectors, spanning technology commercialisation in Canada, solar rural electrification in Morocco and financial sector development across emerging markets. During 2011, Mr. Usher worked on the establishment of the Green Climate Fund and led efforts to create its Private Sector Facility. Eric has been an editor of the Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment report published annually with Bloomberg and was lead author for finance of the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources. Before joining the UN, Eric was General Manager of a solar rural electrification company based in Morocco.
| Programme Operations Manager | Yuki Yasui |
| Administration | Ken Maguire Lydia Beaujois Linh Doan |
| Communications & IT | Sally Wootton Mustafa Chaudhry Richard Hansen Rob Wilson |
| Industry Committees | |
| Banking | Simone Dettling Puleng Ndwili-Potele |
| Investment | Elodie Feller Matthew Ulterino Margarita Pirovska Marcelo Seraphim Rebecca Elliott |
| Insurance | Butch Bacani Olivia Fabry |
| Thematic Work | |
| Climate Change | Remco Fischer Jesica Andrews |
| Energy Efficiency | Martin Schoenberg |
| Ecosystems Management and Sustainable Land Use | Anders Nordheim Jonathan Gheyssens Martin Halle Thomas Yapo Paula Alves Lisa Petrovic Lara Yacob |
| Positive Impact Finance | Careen Abb Jerome Tagger (Communications) |
| Regional Activities | |
| Membership and Regional Co-ordination Manager | Liesel van Ast |
| Africa & Middle East | Geeda Haddad Caroline Wakesho Sonje |
| Asia-Pacific | Yuki Yasui Dae-Woong Lim (Republic of Korea) Kaori Nomura (Japan) Rakesh Shejwal (YES Bank India) Peiyuan Guo (China) |
| Europe | Liesel van Ast |
| Latin America | Liesel van Ast Carolina Lopez (Chile) |
| North America | Liesel van Ast |
| Training | Carolina Lopez Yushan Zhang |