Professor Richard Calland came to South Africa in 1994 to work on a voluntary basis for the ANC’s election campaign, following seven years as a barrister in London. He stayed in South Africa in order to take a position at democracy thinktank Idasa, to head a new parliamentary monitoring and information service during the heady days of the first democratic parliament. In due course he founded or co-founded a number of organisations including the Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG), the Open Democracy Advice Centre and CASAC – the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution on whose advisory council he still serves.
Following 16 years based at the University of Cape Town as an Associate Professor in Constitutional Law from 2007-2023, he is now Emeritus Associate Professor at UCT and a Visiting Adjunct Professor at the University of Witwatersrand School of Governance. Since 2022, he has led the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)’s new Board Leadership programme and in mid-2023 was appointed as Director of CISL’s new Africa programme, from its South African office. Previously, as a Fellow, he was a regular member of faculty on CISL leadership programmes with organisations such as Anglo American, Namdeb, PWC, Tata, the World Bank and African Development Bank.
He has a particular interest in multistakeholder governance, having been an advisor to the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST) since its inception, arising from his legal specialism in freedom of information. For ten years, he served as a member of the World Bank’s Access to Information Appeals’ Board, and has been consultant to the Green Climate Fund and European Bank of Reconstruction & Development on their respective information disclosure policy reviews.
A prominent political analyst, and a columnist for the Mail & Guardian newspaper in South Africa since 2001, his latest book – The Presidents: From Mandela to Ramaphosa, Leadership in The Age of Crisis – was published in late 2022. Earlier books include Anatomy of South Africa: Who holds the power? (2006), The Zuma Years (2012) and Make or Break: How the next three years will shape South Africa’s next three decades (2016). His debut play – The Brothers, Number One and a Weekend Special – was performed at the Market Theatre in April 2024.
He is a founder partner at political risk consultancy, The Paternoster Group, whose past and present clients include Discovery Health, Anglo American PLC, VWSA, Citadel Wealth, South32, Air Liquide, the New Zealand High Commission and the French Development Agency.
Khanyi Mlambo is passionate about driving sustainability and shared value principles for businesses to purposefully pursue sustainable growth while positively impacting customers, society, and the environment. She is the MD of KM ESH consulting, an Independent Sustainability Consultant, a Facilitator, a Transformational Executive Coach and a Speaker. Her career spans over 30 years across multinational businesses, including Old Mutual as Head of Responsible Business, Standard Bank Group, and Corobrik, as an Executive Director and Board member.
She is a Non-Executive Director at Nozala Investment Trust, the Southern African HIV and Aids Collaboration (SAHAC) and Legacy Africa Publishing (LAP). She is a Committee Member of the Institute of Directors SA (Social and Ethics Committee), an associate of the Shared Value Africa Initiative (SVAI), and a Senior Associate at Cambridge Institute of Sustainable Leadership. She is a previous Board Member of the UN Global Compact SA Network, the National Business Initiative (NBI), Motheo Construction Group – Chair of SEEC, South African Women in Construction – Chair, Construction Industry Development Board.
She holds an Honors in Psychology, a Bachelor’s in Applied Social Sciences, a National Diploma in Architecture, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management. She attained certificates in Business Management (UCT) and Executive General Management (GIBS) and attended Cambridge's CISL Prince of Wales’s Business & Sustainability Programme. She is a Master’s Degree in Community Psychology candidate.
She co-founded and Chaired the South African Women in Construction (SAWIC) and is key in assisting stakeholders in collaborative efforts to deliver the UN's sustainable development goals.
Malcolm is CFO and a co-founder of Libryo, a UK based legal tech start-up with a sustainability bias. Prior to co-founding Libryo he spent 16 years working for Investec Asset Management in a number of senior roles, including Head of Client Service, Portfolio Manager and Global Head of ESG.
Malcolm has been involved in the establishment of a number of key sustainability initiatives in South Africa and abroad. He was a founding member of the JSE SRI Index Advisory Board, the world’s first emerging market Sustainability Index. He was a member of SAICA Integrated Reporting Working Group which developed the original guidelines for Integrated Reporting (
Malcolm, an admitted attorney, graduated with a BSc in Geology and Hydrology, an LLB and an LLM in Environmental Law. Malcolm held a Gencor bursary and during his BSc and LLB studies spent time working on mineral sands exploration projects in the Free State, gold mining in Stilfontein and during his legal studies at the mining rights department in Johannesburg.
Malcolm is a Senior Associate of the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) and a faculty member on a number of their programmes. He contributes and teaches on sustainability, climate change, sustainable finance and regulation. He is an ALI Fellow and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Malcolm is married to Colleen and they have three wonderful boys: Daniel, James and Joshua. They live in Cape Town and share a passion for travel. He and the boys are also snowboard enthusiasts! Malcolm enjoys running, cycling and yoga.
Stefan Raubenheimer started his career as a lawyer, first in general practice and then in labour and human rights law in South Africa in the 80’s. For the last 5 years of his career, in two partnerships, he extended his experience during the difficult final years of Apartheid and the fight to end that regime. His final work was to represent the accused on the Upington 25 death penalty political trial. He left the profession in 1991 to start his own office in conflict resolution and transition facilitation.
In 1999 he attended COP5, and started a career focused on how climate will impact the Global South. Stefan led various major projects from 1999 to 2023:
1. SouthSouthNorth CDM projects: Dutch funded programme in six developing countries over 2000 to 2008 testing elements of the Kyoto Protocol
2. Long Term Mitigation Scenarios Project for South African government: developed mitigation data and scenarios
3. Mitigation Action Plans and Scenarios Programme (MAPS): major international programme over 2010 to 2016 in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Chile (collaborating with South Africa) focusing on government-led long-term mitigation action and development of Paris contributions. www.mapsprogramme.org
4. Gestion: Programme for financing mitigation action in Peru, 2016 to 2021
5. IKI Latin America: upcoming programme in Brazil, Argentina and Peru developing mitigation action on NDC 1, and developing further mitigation potential, 2019 to 2021
6. CDKN: 2010 to 2021: member of CDKN board and now CDKN as a programme of SSN, www.cdkn.org
7. FILE Foundation: Executive Director, www.filefoundation.org
8. African Climate Foundation: Founding Board member, www.africanclimatefoundation.org
9. Senior Fellow, Cambridge University’s Institute for Sustainable Leadership
10. Senior Advisor to the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation
Sibusiso is the Africa programme manager at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Prior to joining CISL, Sibusiso worked in political polling at Afrobarometer. He has experience with a diverse background spanning media, academia, and think tanks. He held key roles at Afrobarometer, focusing on strategic partnerships, communications, and research. A major part of his work focused on the African Union.
Sibusiso Nkomo is CISL’s Programme Manager for the Africa Programme. He manages work streams on Africa executive education, foresight, innovation and CLG Africa. Sibusiso is also a faculty member on the Sustainability Practitioner Programme, FSD Africa Climate Finance Leadership Programme and BSP Africa. He also serves on the CISL foresight strategy group.
Prior to joining CISL, Sibusiso worked in political polling at Afrobarometer. He was a research associate at the University of Cape Town, including the Centre for Social Science Research, then the Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa, and lastly, a doctoral research fellow in the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative. Sibusiso has published widely, particularly on democratic governance and public policy and media in Africa.
He began his professional journey as a newspaper journalist, specialising in government and political reporting for The Sunday Independent, Cape Argus and Cape Times. Sibusiso has also worked for Good Governance Africa, Afrobarometer and the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. He has also presented at major governmental organisations including the East African Community, the African Union, African Development Bank, United Nations, the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the South African Government and US Congress etc.
Sibusiso holds a BA and Postgraduate Diploma from Stellenbosch University and a MA from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Anton Cartwright is an economist focussed on Africa’s urban transition, infrastructure and services, green finance, environmental degradation and poverty alleviation and the implication of these issues for the discipline of economics itself. He has post-graduate degrees in Economics and Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
He is the founding Director of Credible Carbon South Africa's first voluntary carbon market registry and a candidate registry for the Department of Minerals and Energy’s Domestic Carbon Standard.
Gary is the author of the WWF publication on electromobility “Plugged In: The End of the Oil Age”. He has a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Liverpool and has been a season ticket holder with Liverpool F.C. since 1991.
He is affiliated to the African Centre Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town and a Fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) and Cambridge University (UK). He led the New Climate Economy’s Special Initiative, the Coalition for Urban Transition’s, and in this capacity established and runs the Tanzanian Urbanisation Laboratory in Dar es Salaam and the Ghana Urbanisation Think Tank and advised local and national governments in the respective countries on infrastructure procurement programmes.
He was a lead author on Chapter 4 of the IPCC’s Special Report on of 1.5°C of warming released in 2018 and a Contributing Author to Chapter 6 of the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report (WG2).
Dr Nina Seega is the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Finance at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). The Centre incorporates CISL’s finance industry groups to provide the insight and cooperation needed to advance policy and market practices including; the Banking Environment Initiative (created in 2010 by CEOs of some of the world’s largest banks) ClimateWise (set up in 2007 for global insurance), and the Investment Leaders Group (leading investment managers and asset owners with over $9 trillion under management). Nina has worked with De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) on the financial impact of disruptive energy transition, collaborated with the South African National Treasury and Banco de Mexico on embedding environmental scenarios into financial risk frameworks, and was the knowledge partner for the G20 Green Finance Study Group in 2016 and 2017. Previously, Nina was the Head of the London Traded Products Desk for Dresdner Kleinwort. In addition to her role at University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Nina is a member of the Sustainable Finance Advisory Panel at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Strategic Advisory Board on Sustainable Finance at the British Standards Institute, the Sustainable Finance Scientific Council at S&P Ratings, and the Board of Directors at the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance.
Nina is driven by mainstreaming environmental and social considerations into daily financial and corporate decision making. Previously a risk manager with leadership experience in traded credit risk management. Nina has defended her PhD on strategic practices that drive resilience in finance at the University of Cambridge. She also holds an MPhil in Innovation, Strategy and Organisation from University of Cambridge and an MSc in Information Systems from the London School of Economics.
In his role as Senior Advisor within the Bank of England, Michael Sheren provided counsel and independent challenge to senior BoE Management on critical risk, governance and operational matters within the financial markets. Michael has been one of the Banks leaders in the area of climate risk in the financial system. As part of his climate work, he Co-Chaired the G20 Sustainable Finance Study Group with China, is a UK delegate to the NGFS and a contributor to the digital green bond work within the Innovation Hub of the Bank of International Settlements. Michael was also a co-founder of the BoE's Fintech Accelerator.
Michael is actively involved in the global greentech and greenfintech sectors. He sits on the board or mentors C-Suite leaders within firms advancing sustainable technology. Michael is passionate in the belief technology can enable the real economy and financial markets to transition to a more sustainable world at pace and scale.
Prior to his work in the public sector, Michael spent over twenty-five years in the debt capital markets where he specialised in the structuring, distribution and trading of PE, CRE and structured debt for major global financial institutions in New York and London. Michael holds Master’s degrees from Harvard, The London School of Economics and New York University and a BA from the George Washington University.
Michael is Vice-chair of the Banking Environment Initiative.
Edgar is holder of the DST/NRF South African Research Chair in Urban Policy, directs the African Centre for Cities and is Professor in the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, all at the University of Cape Town. He has served as a Faculty Member of the Prince of Wales’s Business & Sustainability Programme at several seminars worldwide. In earlier roles he served as Special Advisor to the Premier of the Western Cape Provincial Government and directed a number of urban policy think tanks before his stint in government. He is a founder member of Isandla Institute, serves on the Boards of the Sustainability Institute and the Cape Town Partnership; and is a member of the Research Advisory Committee of the Gauteng City-region Observatory and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. He regularly provides advisory services to international development agencies such as: UN-Habitat, African Development Bank, DBSA, National Planning Commission, OECD urban division and UNEP. Edgar holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, an MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies (The Hague, The Netherlands) and BA-Honours from the University of the Western Cape.
Mark Swilling’s primary research focus can be defined as ‘societal transitions’, initially with respect to democratization and governance up until the late 1990s, and subsequently within the wider discipline of sustainability studies. The dynamics of urban change has always been a consistent theme. His published research was coupled to major institution-building collaborations – an achievement that was recognized in 2010 when he was awarded the Aspen Faculty Pioneer Award for success in introducing sustainability into leadership education. His most significant academic output is his book entitled Age of Sustainability: Just Transitions in a Complex World (Routledge 2019). This builds on the co-authored book with Eve Annecke entitled Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World (United Nations Press 2012) that was awarded runner-up prize for the Harold & Margaret Sprout Award in 2013 for best academic book in the environmental governance field – this being the first time African researchers have been recognized by this award since its inception in 1972. In recent years he has increased his participation in international research collaborations, particularly via UN institutions (International Resource Panel 2007–2019) and several Scientific Committees of international conferences, including the Scientific Committee of the International Sustainable Development Research Conference for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, as well as member of the International Review Panel of the Biennial Conferences of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) in 2010 and 2014. In 2015 he was invited to become a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. In 2016 he was appointed ‘advisor to the curator’ of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) and in 2017–2019 he convened the State Capacity Research Project on the dynamics of state capture in South Africa. In 2020 he was invited to become a member of the prestigious Club of Rome – the oldest sustainability think tank, founded in 1968. He is formally appointed as Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Development and Co-Director of the Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST). He is a member of the International Resource Panel (since 2007), fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, member of the Board of the Development Bank of Southern Africa since 2014 and Chairperson of the Board from January 2019 – September 2019, and from November 2021 to September 2023. He was appointed onto the National Planning Commission by the President in 2021.
Trevor Manuel served as a Cabinet Minister from 1994 to 2014 under the first four Presidents of democratic South Africa: Mandela, Mbeki, Motlanthe and Zuma. He was first appointed to Cabinet as Minister of Trade and Industry in May 1994, a portfolio he held for two years. In April 1996, he became Finance Minister, steering the South African economy for 13 years as one of the world’s longest serving finance ministers. During his Ministerial career Mr Manuel assumed a number of ex officio positions in international bodies, including the United Nations Commission for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Bank, the IMF, the G20, the African Development Bank and the Southern African Development Community. He was elected by his peers as chair of a number of these bodies. He served two terms as Chairperson of the Development Committee of the World Bank. Mr Manuel has received a number of awards and recognitions, including Africa's Finance Minister of the Year and the Woodrow Wilson Public Service award. He has 8 honorary doctorates from South African tertiary institutions in a range of disciplines Commerce, Law, Technology and a Doctor of Laws from MacMaster University, Ontario Canada. He has served as the Chancellor of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) since May 2008 until 2013. He is an Honorary Professor in the School of Development Policy & Practice at UCT (since 2015) where he is a Senior Political Fellow, and as Professor Extraordinaire at the University of Johannesburg (since 2014). Mr Manuel is Chairperson of Old Mutual Group Holdings and serves on the boards of Old Mutual Plc and Old Mutual Emerging Markets. He serves as a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of SwissRe. He is a Senior Advisor to and the Chairperson of Rothschild. He also serves as a Trustee on the Allan Gray Orbis Endowment Trust. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Centre for African Cities at UCT. He matriculated from Harold Cressy High School in Cape Town. He has a National Diploma in Civil and Structural Engineering from the Peninsula Technikon and completed the Executive Management Programme - a joint programme between Stanford University and the National University of Singapore. He is married to Maria Ramos and they live in South Africa.
Catherine Koffman is a qualified attorney with commercial and financial services expertise, and over 19 years’ experience in financial services, project finance lending, investments, and board participation. She has gained vital skills to professionally guide and advise clients, management, and employees to effectively increase profits, drive turnarounds, and enhance productivity. She is passionate about creating a perfect balance between a profit-centred business and an employee-oriented environment—focused on driving projects that ensure sustainability and display corporate responsibility, while successfully growing shareholder value. She enjoys mentoring, guiding, and helping colleagues and team members to deepen their skillset, take ownership, grow professionally, and strive to always give a 100%. In a variety of senior positions, she has successfully developed and monitored strategic business unit plans to generate new investment opportunities in both the public and private sectors in South Africa and across the continent. She is skilled at identifying profitable market opportunities in her area of expertise, particularly in project analysis and developing transactions to bankability. She is comfortable and has the necessary skills to participate in various bodies, platforms, or discussions focused on addressing a range of business-related topics and issues. Throughout her career, she has strengthened her critical thinking and professional judgment with sound industry knowledge. She is solutions-driven and analytical, always anticipating and seeking solutions to solve current issues.
Dipak joined the South African Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) in June 2021 as Head: Climate Finance and Innovation. He leads the team in its work in the areas of climate finance mapping, financing a just transition and developing a strategy for financing the pathway to a net-zero emissions target for 2050. Prior to joining the PCC, Dipak was Special Advisor to the Minister of Public Enterprises from 2018 to 2020. In this capacity, he was an integral part of the Minister’s Office, developing strategic and financial programmes for state-owned enterprises. He was also integral to the process of determining a statewide framework for the financial and governance management of all state-owned enterprises. Dipak is a chemical engineer, and a qualified artisanal brewer, with a MSc in Development Economics (University of London) and a MBA (University of the Witwatersrand) He worked in various technical, production management and capital development roles at South African Breweries from 1985 to 1993. Dipak worked at Standard Bank (2002 – 2012), in various capacities in investment banking, finally becoming global head of Structured and Project Finance, as well as Global Head of transactional products. He served on the group credit and investment committees. Between 2012 and 2018, Dipak operated his own financial and investment management and trading enterprise, based in New York.