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Sarah Clawson
Director, Investor Relations of New Forests Pty LimitedSarah Clawson leads New Forests’ investor relations team and oversees the company’s capital raising and client relations. This includes providing strategic direction and coordination for funds marketing and client services functions across New Forests’ investment strategies. Sarah is responsible for driving a best practice approach within New Forests’ investor relations team and ensuring coordination of marketing campaigns, determining strategies to expand New Forests’ client base, and applying a consistent approach to managing client services across the business. Sarah has over 15 years of experience in marketing, client relations, and communications in the sustainable and responsible investment sector worldwide. In her previous roles she managed marketing and membership recruitment for international sustainable investment groups in the EU and Australasia, and developed educational responsible investment programs designed for international institutional investors. Sarah has a Bachelor of Arts in French and English literature from Colgate University and is a Fulbright scholarship recipient.
Abigail Dean
Global Head of Sustainability at NuveenAbigail oversees the sustainability strategy, which positions Nuveen Real Estate as a global leader on environmental, social and governance issues. She also ensures that the business is well placed to pursue growth opportunities, whilst minimising the risk of accelerated depreciation and early obsolescence within Nuveen Real Estate’s portfolio of assets. She is also a member of the Global Executive Leadership Team.
She joined the firm in 2016. Abigail previously worked at JLL, where she led on sustainability for the property and asset management business, embedding it into core processes and deliverables. Particular achievements include the successful integration of sustainability into procurement and supply chain management, the roll out of a rigorous ISO14001 certified Environmental Management System and the standardisation of deliverables to clients. She began working in the real estate industry in 2008.
Abigail graduated with a B.A., with honours, in English Literature from The University of Sheffield. She is an active member of the Better Buildings Partnership and sits on a number of their working groups. She has also contributed to the Word Green Building Council’s Better Places for People campaign, by taking part in the Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Retail working group.
Cullen Gunn
Chief Executive Officer at Kilter Pty LtdCullen is a founding director of Kilter Rural and has spent more than 30 years advancing sustainable farmland, water and ecosystem management in Australia. Before helping establish the business in 2004, Cullen was working in the Australian farming and water management sector as a resource manager. His experience in innovative resource management attracted a request from a major institutional investor 15 years ago to develop investment management services for large-scale, real asset investments in regenerative farming, water and ecosystem protection.
His decades of hands-on experience in the development of farmland and water markets continues to inform Kilter Rural’s investment and asset management business. As CEO of Kilter Rural, Cullen has oversight of a$500M impact investment portfolio. Kilter Rural’s approach to regenerative farmland, water and ecosystem protection was acknowledged in 2019 when it was awarded ‘Impact Asset Manager of the Year’ at the Australian Impact Investment Awards in Sydney.
Chris Nunn
Head of Sustainability, Real Estate at AMP Capital Investors LimitedChris Nunn is Head of Sustainability at AMP Capital Real Estate. AMP Capital has a real estate portfolio valued at approximately A$28 billion, consisting of approximately 100 shopping centres, offices and industrial assets located mainly in Australia and NZ. Chris has 20 years' experience in sustainability with expertise in environmental law, sustainability consultancy, green building design and operations, sustainability rating systems, corporate sustainability strategy and reporting.
Chris initially trained and worked as an Environmental Lawyer, before moving into sustainability consulting in the building sector. At AMP Capital Real Estate, his role as Head of Sustainability involves working with the Funds Management team to set Sustainability (Environment, Social & Governance) strategies; engaging with key stakeholders within and outside the business to communicate our sustainability performance and initiatives; supporting Investment Managers & Property Managers to develop asset-level ESG plans to implement the Fund sustainability strategies; overseeing energy procurement; representing AMP Capital Real Estate through industry bodies; overseeing sustainability reporting including quarterly ESG updates to investors for each Fund and our annual submission of the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) survey.
Simon O'Connor
CEO of Responsible Investment Association AustralasiaSimon operates at the intersection of economics, finance and sustainability and has extensive international experience as an economic adviser, investment analyst and sustainability consultant across finance, corporate and not for profit sectors.
Simon works with RIAA’s 240 member organisations with the goal of delivering on RIAA’s mission of promoting, advocating for, and supporting approaches to responsible investment that align capital with achieving a healthy and sustainable society, environment and economy.
Simon is active across the region and internationally in responsible investment and sustainable finance initiatives. He sits as Co-Chair of the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative, working group member of the NZ Sustainable Finance Forum, a member of the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, the UN backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Australia Network Advisory Committee, as well as a member of the National Advisory Board on Impact Investing in New Zealand.
Kate Webster
Senior Responsible Investment Analyst at First State SuperKate Webster is a Senior Responsible Investment Analyst at First State Super (FSS) focusing with the team on integrating responsible investment principles within the c. AUD100bn of investments, including directly held investments and with fund managers. Additionally, Kate is heavily involved in the implementation of the Fund’s Climate Change Transition Plan and establishing a methodology for FSS to measure and monitor the impact of its investments on the environment and society.
Prior to joining FSS Kate has worked in research at the University of Sydney and utilities and infrastructure debt and equity financing at ANZ and Palisade Infrastructure Partners. Kate holds a BSc. (Hons) from Manchester University, UK, an MBA from Melbourne Business School and a Masters of Sustainability from the University of Sydney.