Leadership, Advisors, and Board

Allison Binns is an organizational behavior and sustainable investing expert, and founder of the consultancy Peregrine Strategy LLC.

Previously, Allison served as Global Head of ESG & Sustainable Investing Strategy for Angelo Gordon, a private credit and real estate-focused alternative asset manager. Prior to joining Angelo Gordon, Allison was an Executive Director for Global Sustainability Research at Morgan Stanley, where she headed ESG research across fixed-income asset classes and led corporate governance research for equities. Allison also worked for Chevron where she held a number of senior advisory roles in ESG and geopolitical risk. Prior to Chevron, Allison worked for the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball and the Boston Red Sox, where she focused on salary arbitration and international baseball concerns. She serves on the boards of the Morgan Library & Museum, the Poetry Society of America, the FDR Four Freedoms Park Conservancy, and the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship.

Allison received her A.B. in Sociology and Latin American Studies from Princeton University and holds an A.M. and PhD. from Harvard University.

Mark Kroese is a seasoned business professional with a career that lives at the intersection of technology and environmental sustainability. The bulk of Mark’s work experience has been at Microsoft Corporation, where he spent 25 years in various business and technology leadership roles.

Mark cut his teeth as the lead product manager for Microsoft Excel in the early 90s (when it had just 8% market share) and was instrumental in the creation of Microsoft Office – now Microsoft 365. Mark eventually pivoted his career toward environmental sustainability, first focusing on (REDD) forest preservation projects in the South America and Africa, and eventually serving as the General Manager for Sustainability Solutions for Microsoft.

Mark’s responsibilities at Microsoft included oversight of the $1b Climate Innovation Fund, commercial product strategy (The Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability), advancing carbon accounting standards, corporate narrative (annual Sustainability Report), engineering incubations, and being a Microsoft spokesperson at numerous industry gatherings (COP, UNGA, Climate Week, etc.). In his role, Mark presented Microsoft’s sustainability plan to more than 100 enterprise customers. These C-Suite conversations helped Mark appreciate the burden that companies face with sustainability measurement and reporting – especially CSRD. Mark retired from Microsoft in late ’23 so he could spend more time exploring the wonders of this fragile planet. Mark enjoys mountaineering, rock climbing, cycling, and skiing, and served as board President for the American Alpine Club—a nonprofit climber’s advocacy organization. Mark has an undergraduate degree from the University of Washington and is a Harvard Advanced Leadership Fellow. Mark resides in Bellevue, WA, with his wife Lisa.

Toby Belsom is currently Head of Investor Practices at PRI managing a team of 12 that develops and publishes asset specific guides and tools for PRI members.

Toby spent 17 years at two of the UK’s leading investors – Aviva Investors and Henderson. For the majority he worked as a UK equity manager – managing almost £1bn in UK equities for retail and institutional clients. He started his city career as an analyst as part of the No.1 Extel rated Aviva & NPI Socially Responsible Investment team in the late ‘90s. After leaving Aviva in 2017, he subsequently spent time at Edison Investment Research and Progressive Asset Management - founding governance focused investment fund.

Prior to joining PRI, he spent two years managing the 12 strong climate and data/ranking team at ShareAction – a global capital markets advocacy group. At PRI his team produces guides and tools for fixed income, listed equities, private markets and asset owners to help them integrate ESG issues into policies, processes and practices. Recent work has covered strategic asset allocation, EU Taxonomy, TCFD in private markets, passive investment strategies, PRI reporting framework review, sovereign credit & selection, appointment and monitoring of asset managers. He is also currently a member of the CFA’s ESG Working group and an Advisory Panel member to CEN Advisory.

Ben Meng is executive vice president and chairman of Asia Pacific for Franklin Templeton. In this role, Dr. Meng is responsible for expanding the firm's investment offerings and client reach in the Asia Pacific region, with a particular focus on leading the private equity, venture capital and other alternative asset investment capabilities. Additionally, Dr. Meng leads Franklin Templeton's China business, including our joint ventures and Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise. He also supports efforts to expand the reach of Franklin Templeton's tailored solutions for the firm's institutional clients globally. Dr. Meng reports to the CEO and is a member of Franklin Templeton's Executive Committee, a small group of the company's top leaders responsible for shaping the firm's overall strategy.

Dr. Meng has more than two decades of experience working in the global finance industry across three continents, including extensive experience in Asia Pacific, as well as a strong track record for delivering results across a broad range of asset classes. He has served in top investment roles at two of the largest asset owners in the world. Previously, Dr. Meng was Chief Investment Officer for the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and Deputy Chief Investment Officer at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). Most recently, he served as Director of Eight Sequoias LLC, an independent firm providing consulting services to the financial industry.

Dr. Meng holds a Master of Financial Engineering degree from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Davis. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Investment Management and frequently teaches at top business schools globally such as the Haas School of Business, where he received the 2014 Cheit Award of Excellence in Teaching. He is the Citi Visiting Chair in International Business at the Schwarzman College. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Committee of 100.

Bob is the world's foremost expert on integrated reporting and an expert on how companies and investors can create sustainable strategies and Co-Chair of Novata's Sustainability Advisory Council. He was previously a tenured Professor and Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School.

He is the founding chairman of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and one of the founders of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). He recently joined the board of Mistra Centre for Sustainable Markets (MISUM) in Sweden andis on the Advisory Board of the JANA Impact Capital Fund. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

In 2011, Bob was selected as one of the “Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior,” for his extensive, positive contribution to building trust in business. In 2014 and 2015, he was named as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics.

An award-winning author, Bob’s books include seminal works on integrated reporting, sustainability, and the role of business in society. Bob is a prolific writer for both academic and practitioner audiences, including a column for Forbes.com. His most recent book (co-authored with Michael P. Krzus and Sydney Ribot) is ”The Integrated Reporting Movement: Meaning, Momentum, Motives, and Materiality” (John Wiley & Sons, 2015).

Throughout his career as an academic and practitioner, Bob has dedicated himself to turning theory into practice. His current initiative is the “Statement of Significant Audiences and Materiality Campaign,” which was developed in collaboration with the American Bar Association’s “Task Force on Sustainable Development,” the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), and the UN Global Compact. The campaign calls for boards of directors at listed companies, by 2025, to publish an annual statement that demonstrates the extent to which companies are committed to supporting sustainable development in the interest of companies and their shareholders.

Bob received an SB in Mathematics and an SB in Humanities and Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (both degrees in 1973) and an AM (1975) and a PhD in Sociology (1979) from Harvard University. He joined the faculty of Harvard Business School that year and received tenure in 1989.

Elizabeth has extensive experience in the financial services industry, having been CEO of Allianz Global Investors, initially for Europe then globally, from 2005 to 2016. She continued to act as an advisor to the company until the end of 2019. Elizabeth was previously at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (formerly Mercury Asset Management), Coopers & Lybrand and Sun Alliance. She is active in representing the investment industry and developing standards within it.

Elizabeth is chair of the Impact Investing Institute and is a non-executive director of Pearson plc, BAE Systems plc and Morgan Stanley Inc. She joined the board of Schroders plc in September 2021 as Chair Designate, effective from the AGM currently scheduled for 28 April 2022.

She is a director of the Green Finance Institute; serves on the investment committee of the Leverhulme Trust; is a member of the CFA Future of Finance Advisory Council, AQR Asset Management Institute, the Committee of 200 and the 300 Club.

As well as being a trustee of the British Museum, Elizabeth is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is also a published author of crime thrillers. She was awarded a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in January 2015 and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in June 2019 for services to the economy and financial services.

In 2016, Elizabeth received an honorary doctorate from the London Institute of Banking and Finance (formerly the IFS University College) and in June 2019 she was made an honorary fellow of the London Business School.

John W. McArthur is senior fellow and inaugural director of the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution. He is also a senior adviser to the United Nations Foundation and a board governor for the International Development Research Centre. He serves as a member of the UNICEF Advisory Group and of Policy Horizons Canada’s Deputy Minister Steering Committee. He co-founded and co-chairs the “17 Rooms” initiative as a new approach to catalyzing action for the Sustainable Development Goals.

John was previously CEO of Millennium Promise Alliance, the international nongovernmental organization whose mission is to advance achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on local and national levels across sub-Saharan Africa using innovative solutions and scalable systems aimed at achieving the SDGs including the end of extreme poverty. Prior to that he served as manager and deputy director of the U.N. Millennium Project, Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s independent advisory body mandated to recommend an action plan for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. He has also been a senior fellow with the Hong Kong-based Fung Global Institute, a faculty member at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, and policy director at the University’s Earth Institute. Earlier in his career he was a research fellow at the Center for International Development at Harvard University, where he supported the World Health Organization’s Commission on Macroeconomics and Health and co-authored the “Global Competitiveness Report.”

John co-chaired the International Commission on Education for Sustainable Development Practice and then co-founded the global network of Masters in Development Practice programs across five continents. He has chaired the Global Agenda Council for the World Economic Forum and was a member of the Forum’s Advisory Board on Sustainability and Competitiveness. In 2009, he was recognized as a Young Global Leader. In 2016 he was an adviser to the Business and Sustainable Development Commission. He has served as a member of the Global Nutrition Report's Independent Expert Group and of Grand Challenges Canada’s Scientific Advisory Board.

He recently co-edited the books “Breakthrough: The promise of frontier technologies for Sustainable Development,” (Brookings Press, 2022), “Leave No One Behind: Time for Specifics on the Sustainable Development Goals” (Brookings Press, 2019), and “From Summits to Solutions: Innovations in Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals” (Brookings Press, 2018).

John grew up in Vancouver and is a Canadian citizen. He completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) at the University of British Columbia; a Master’s in Public Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; and then an M.Phil. and D.Phil. (Ph.D.) in economics at Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

Linda is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and chair of the Leadership Initiative. Linda is regarded as one of the world’s top experts on leadership. She was named by Thinkers50 as one of the top ten management thinkers in the world in 2013 and 2021 and received the Thinkers50 Innovation Award in 2015. Linda is the author or co-author of several award-winning articles and books including “Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation,” “Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives of Becoming a Great Leader” and “Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership.” Linda’s TED talk on how to manage for collective creativity has more than 2.6 million views.

Linda’s research and consulting focuses on leadership development, leading innovation, leading digital transformation, and implementing global strategies. In 2014, she co-founded Paradox Strategies, a consulting firm that advises organizations and boards on leadership, innovation, and diversity and inclusion.

Linda is a member of the board of directors of Relay Therapeutics and is on the board of trustees of the ArtCenter College of Design and of Brigham Health. She is also a member of the Team8 Fintech Strategic Committee and serves on the advisory boards of several organizations, including the American Repertory Theater, the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), Eight Inc., the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. She sits on the board of the Global Citizens Initiative, Inc. and is a Special Representative to the Board of Trustees of Bryn Mawr College. Hill is a former member of the board of directors at Harvard Business Publishing, State Street Corporation, The Bridgespan Group, and the Eaton Corporation. She is also a former member of the board of trustees of The Rockefeller Foundation and the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund USA.

Linda completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Harvard Business School and earned a Ph.D. in Behavioral Sciences at the University of Chicago. She has a B.A., summa cum laude, in psychology from Bryn Mawr College.

Margot is Senior Program Officer of Mission Investments at the Ford Foundation and Co-Chair of Novata's Sustainability Advisor Council. Margot focuses on building and strengthening the infrastructure of the impact investment market — with an eye to shaping the broader capital markets. She has spent two decades working at the intersection of philanthropy, capital markets, and social and environmental justice.

Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Margot served as founder and CEO of MyStrongHome, a benefit corporation delivering resilience finance services to homeowners across the Southeast and Gulf Coast of the US. Before that, she helped design and lead the impact investing initiative at the Rockefeller Foundation. She co-authored the book The Power of Impact Investing with former Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin. While at Rockefeller, she also focused on job creation and issues of economic security for low-wage workers.

Margot began her career in international microfinance and has worked with several community development finance institutions in the US. She serves on the boards of the Workers Lab, Brooklyn Cooperative Credit Union, and the Woodcock Foundation, and as an adviser to the National Domestic Workers Alliance as well as the National Energy Improvement Fund.

She received a master’s in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and holds an undergraduate degree from Stanford University.

Peter Dunbar is a Principal on the Responsible Investing team at StepStone, focusing on ESG integration across asset classes and investment strategies.

Prior to joining StepStone, Peter was Head of Private Equity at the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), where he led the PRI’s work on private equity and venture capital. Previously, he was a Senior Manager at Capital Group working in their emerging markets private equity business, focusing on ESG and investor relations.

Peter received a BSc in Human and Physical Geography from the University of Reading.