ESG Zone

Aiaze has worked in Fintech in 40+ countries and advised many financial regulators and international organizations. He currently leads a global program on digital finance innovations to accelerate financing for the SDGs. A lot of his work focuses on fintech innovations for SME, climate, and nature finance. Previously, Aiaze led a coalition of digital platforms (e-commerce, banks, payments) harnessing AI/tech to enable greener choices for their users. Aiaze was also a Senior Advisor to the UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the SDGs and was leading a global Dialogue seeking to align the governance of BigFintechs with the SDGs.

Prior to that, Aiaze was Chief Officer at Tiaxa, a digital lending Fintech primarily in Africa but also Latin America and Asia. Aiaze also sits on the Board of several Fintech startups. 

Antony leads KPMG's fast growing global fintech and Singapore based Financial Services Advisory practices. He has 25 years digital experience in new business model development, advising on innovation within global institutions, supporting scaling of technology led firms and working with Investors and Regulators to prove out new ways of working. Anton works across all regions and key global markets supporting the next generation of ecosystem cross sector development.

Carolina is the CEO of Arabesque AI. Prior to joining Arabesque AI, Carolina was Global Head of Product, Solutions & Quant at Schroders where she was a member of the Global Management Committee. She was involved in several technology projects, including mass customisation and blockchain technology to deliver personalised investment tokens.

In 2013, she joined Lombard Odier IM as Deputy CIO and Global Head of Solutions where she focused on sustainability long before it became a prominent trend. She led the integration of ESG across asset classes and built some of the first SDG-aligned thematic investment propositions for Private Wealth clients including Lombard Odier’s Private Bank.

Mr. Colin Chen has built MUFG’s sustainable finance business in the region as the Head of ESG Finance, APAC. He is also a part of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Green Finance Industry Taskforce (GFIT). He actively engages with clients across sectors in Asia advising them on their sustainability strategy and is a regular speaker at industry forums as a strong ESG advocate.

Mr. Chen joined MUFG in 2000 and has been involved in structured finance for over 30 years. Prior to his current role, he was MUFG’s Head of Structured Finance, Asian Investment Banking Division. Under his leadership, MUFG has consistently been ranked one of the top project finance lenders in APAC and renowned for the inroads it has made into renewables financing.

Prior to MUFG, Mr. Chen held senior positions at Morgan Grenfell, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and DBS Bank with assignments in London, New York and Singapore.

Dr Darian McBain is the Founder and CEO of Outsourced Chief Sustainability Officer Asia, and a Visiting Professor In Practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is the former Chief Sustainability Officer for the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Global Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability for Thai Union, a global food producer. She has over 20 years experience in sustainability and ESG, working for corporates, government, the UN, academia, with startups and NGOs. She is highly awarded for her work, including being named one of Asia’s Top Sustainability Superwomen in 2019, one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business 2020, and a UN Sustainable Development Goal Pioneer in 2021.

Diana Guzmán is Group Director ESG for Prudential Plc. She brings with her a wealth and breadth of experience working with public and private institutions across sustainability themes.

Before Prudential she was Head of Sustainable Development Investment Partnership & Development Finance at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Geneva, where she spearheaded global alliances to create innovative de-risking approaches through blended finance and inclusive net zero transitions and other sustainable development goals across emerging and developing economies. Before the WEF, Diana was Director for CDP, the global environmental disclosure system, where she was responsible for driving listed companies, investors and cities to effectively measure and manage environmental risks and opportunities to drive investment decisions.  Before that, she worked in the carbon markets in Asia, Africa and Europe developing and trading emission reduction certificates.

Born and raised in Mexico, Diana has worked in America, Europe, the Middle East and China (including Hong Kong) and is fluent in Spanish, English, Italian and conversational in Mandarin and French.

Helge is the Chief Sustainability Officer at DBS. He is responsible for developing DBS’ overarching sustainability framework and driving sustainability initiatives across the bank. He acts as Secretary to the bank’s Board Sustainability Committee, and chairs the Group Sustainability Council. Helge also represents DBS in several global and regional working groups, is appointed as alternate director in Climate Impact X Pte Ltd, and sits on the Impact Advisory Panel of the Asia Impact First Fund. Helge holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from Munich University (major in Developing Economics) as well as a postgraduate degree in sustainability from Cambridge University. He is also a CFA charter holder.

Max Song is CEO of Carbonbase (carbonbase.co) building Asia’s first blockchain based carbon registry, a Forbes 30u30, HuRun U30, Prestige 40U40 and Tatler Gen T Honoree, Schwarzman Scholar. Carbonbase also leverages data science and blockchain for enterprise solutions for measuring, managing and reducing individual and corporate carbon emissions. Previously, Max worked in investments for HK family offices, where he invested in TMT, AI, blockchain, and healthcare. Max worked as a data scientist in Silicon Valley for Ayasdi, where he helped with data analysis applications for finance, biotech and healthcare. Max received a Masters degree from Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University, and Bachelor of Science from Brown University, where he majored in Applied Math and Computer Science. Max is the co-chair of IEEE Planet Positive 2030 Forestry Committee, and a board director of an Asia virtual bank. 

Sopnendu Mohanty, currently the Chief Fintech Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is responsible for creating development strategies, public infrastructure, and policies around technology-driven innovation. Mohanty has over two decades of public and private sector experience in technology, operations, digital Finance, and investment strategies. Mohanty extensively engages with global technology and financial services ecosystems and has championed notable collaborative public goods like API Exchange (APIX), Singapore Fintech Festival, Payment Rails, Data exchange platforms, and experimental programs like Project Ubin. In addition, Mohanty advises many international global advisory bodies on Fintech, Innovation and Inclusion. Within five years of his leadership, Singapore has become a leading global Fintech hub producing unicorns and home to many vibrant fintech companies. He has co-authored several patented works in the application of digital technology in Finance and won many industry recognitions.