Unlocking ESG Success: The Investor Perspective

Michael Jantzi was appointed as a full-time member of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in June 2022, effective 16 July 2022.

He has 30 years’ experience in responsible investment and sustainable finance. He joined the ISSB from Morningstar, where he served as Managing Director of ESG Strategy. He is the founder and former CEO of Sustainalytics, an ESG research and ratings firm that grew to global market prominence under Michael’s leadership and was subsequently acquired by Morningstar in 2020.

In 1992, he founded Jantzi Research and led a multiple-company merger that formed Sustainalytics in 2009.

He has served on the Board of Directors of the Value Reporting Foundation and of the Principles for Responsible Investment. He has also served as a committee member of the Independent Review Committee on Standard Setting in Canada and as a board director of the MakeWay Foundation.

Mr. Jantzi holds a Master of international relations from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

Samer Kamal is an environmental entrepreneur & impact investor who has been developing sustainable ventures in North America, the Middle East and Africa for over 20 years. He now serves at the Chief Strategy Officer of Minus Global Holdings.

Starting his career in the technology industry in Canada in the 1990s, Samer has gone on to found a number of sustainability and environmental companies including Bee’ah, the largest recycling company in the Middle East. From 2007 to 2011 Samer grew the team from 3 people to 2,000, while leading fund-raising of over $ 250,000,000 and managing USD $1.2 billion in municipal infrastructure assets. He also oversaw the design, procurement, construction and operation of a series of state-of-the-art waste treatment facilities including a 4 sq. Km landfill receiving 17,000 tons of waste per day, 3 sorting facilities generating and trading in recyclables including 40,000 tons per annum of plastics, Hazmat, Waste Oil Recovery, Compost and a medical waste venture (Wekaya). Operating a fleet of over 300 collection vehicles and 80 street sweepers, and servicing over 1,100,000 people, Bee’ah was twice named the “Best Waste Management Company in the Middle East” under Samer’s management. The company now has over 10,000 employees working in 4 countries in the Middle East.

He has since established a number of green infrastructure ventures including the first private wastewater recycling facility in Dubai and the first food-grade PET recycling company in the Middle East in partnership with Veolia.

Samer is now focusing his attention on advancing the circular economy through a focus on first-mile recovery of discarded resources. This includes is leadership role at Minus Global, a company focused on eliminating garbage trucks and recovering food waste as well as his role as chief advisor to Nadeera – a digital recycling engagement app driving recycling rates across emerging markets.

Samer holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto in Pharmacology & Toxicology and is firmly established as a regional thought leader on the future of sustainability in business. He is also an advisor to a number of private equity funds and start up incubators. Samer is a columnist on sustainability it the Gulf for Gulf News and was recently named one of the top UAE sustainability leaders driving change in the region alongside the President Designate of COP28, Sultan Al Jaber and the CEO of Masdar and the UAE representative to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Sarah Thompson is Managing Director, Sustainable Finance at RBC Capital Markets. As part of the Sustainable Finance Group, Sarah works closely with the growing number of institutional, corporate and government clients globally who are integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations into their organizational strategy, investment process and disclosures.
Sarah joined RBC in 2011 as the bank’s first Green IT Manager. In 2013, she moved to RBC’s Corporate Sustainability Team to oversee enterprise-wide operational footprint reduction initiatives, produce ESG disclosure and support business units with the development of sustainable financial products and services. In addition, Sarah partnered with RBC’s Corporate Treasury Group to establish RBC’s Green Bond Program. The bank issued its inaugural Green Bond in April 2019 following the publication of its Green Bond Framework outlining the process for Green Bond issuance and reporting.
Sarah represents RBC Capital Markets on Canada’s Sustainable Finance Action Council (SFAC) Taxonomy Technical Expert Group, the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) Climate Transition Finance Working Group and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) Sustainable Bond Market Advisory Group (SBMAG). She is also a Vice Chair of the CSA Group-led Transition Finance Technical Committee.
Sarah is based in Toronto, Canada. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics from McGill University and an MBA in Sustainability from York University’s Schulich School of Business.