People

Michael Wilkins

Executive Director and Professor of Practice

Mike's career encompasses 28 years at S&P Global Ratings. As Managing Director and global head of Sustainable Finance, Mike had global responsibility for the firm’s sustainable finance research activities. Previously head of the Infrastructure Finance Ratings analytical group covering utilities, project finance, PPPs and transportation in EMEA. Mike is a member of the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), holds an MBA from Cass Business School and a BA from the University of Bristol.

Patrick Bolton

Research Director CCFI, and Professor of Finance & Economics

Patrick was Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. His career began at University of California at Berkeley, then Harvard University, L' Ecole Polytechnique, LSE, l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, and Princeton University. A graduate of University of Cambridge and Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, London School of Economics (PhD) and Co-author of, Contract Theory, and Credit Markets for the Poor.

Enrico Biffis

Associate Professor of Finance 

Enrico's expertise is in risk analysis and asset-liability management, with a focus on the insurance and investment management sectors, and predictive analytics and risk management tools. Collaborations with financial institutions include the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and Enrico has won awards for modelling and hedging of large risks. Formerly at Georgia State University, Nanyang Business School and Bocconi Milan, and a fellow of the Pensions Institute and MRIC.

Dalia Daou

Centre Manager

Dalia worked in market risk consulting to institutional asset managers, PWOs and hedge funds advising on risk management, analysis, attribution and reporting for portfolio strategies and managed the development of historical scenario analyses. Dalia is also the founder and CEO of an award-wining creative arts business. Graduate of Imperial, MSc, and University of Bristol, BSc Physics.

Mili Fomicov

Research Associate

Milica was a Director and Portfolio Manager in the Multi-Asset Strategies team at BlackRock. Previously, a Portfolio Manager on J.P. Morgan's CIO team, and multi-manager for US and Japan equity funds at Barclays, and AllianceBernstein in the US.  Graduate of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, MBA and Austin College, BA.

Abhi Desai

Project Manager

Abhi holds a masters' in Climate Change, Management & Finance from Imperial College Business School, his research interests are climate risks and technology solutions. Previously in valuation and business development roles in the distributed energy team at EDF Renewables North America, focusing on solar, battery storage and EV charging projects. Graduate of University of California, Los Angeles in mechanical engineering.

Pernille Holtedahl

Research Fellow

Pernille has over 25 years of international experience in climate finance and sustainable development. Her expertise lies in green finance, green bonds, investor trends and public-private financing of nature-based solutions, and conservation finance, how to monetise environmental benefits and increase private investment in conservation. Pernille holds a PhD in environmental economics from George Washington University and previously worked for leading consultancies and think tanks.

Alexandre Koberle

Advanced Research Fellow

Alex works with both CCFI and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. His research on long-term scenarios of socio-environmental change, focuses on the energy-land-climate nexus. His work into policy objectives spanning energy use, climate action, agriculture, and conservation uses energy systems and land use models at national to global scales. Previously at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Marcin Kacperczyk

Professor of Finance

Marcin's research interests are in investments, information economics, climate risk, financial intermediation, and artificial intelligence. Including pricing of carbon risk, incentives to divest carbon-intensive assets, and the role of global regulation and technological changes therein. Research Associate at the Center for Economic Policy Research, research advisor at the European Central Bank and formerly President of the European Finance Association.

Eva Klein

Administrative and Communications Coordinator

Eva works on the communications and operations of the CCFI. Eva holds a BA in English at the University of Sussex and an MRes in Art Theory and Philosophy at Central Saint Martins. She has worked for numerous arts organisations in a communications capacity, as well as within the Occupational Psychology sector as an administrator.

Iva Koci

Research Assistant

Iva is researcher in sustainable finance investigating how capital markets can address environmental externalities. She is currently finalising a PhD at King’s College London on a full Doctoral Research Scholarship. Concurrently, Iva is a Teaching Fellow at Imperial College Business School at masters’ and MBA level. Iva previously worked as a consultant in financial advisory services at Deloitte and in fixed income at Robeco Asset Management.

Anastasiya Ostrovnaya

Research Fellow

Anastasiya worked for 10 years as a credit trader at a global investment bank on structured credit products, index ETF, bonds and CDS developing expertise in financial markets and risk management. She worked on green bond market research with Climate Bonds Initiative, and led an ESG portfolio review for a wealth management. Graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, PhD.

Raul Rosales

Senior Executive Fellow

Raúl has 20+ years of experience in banking and multilateral development banks, focusing on capital management solutions and private debt. Raúl serves on Imperial's Singapore Green Finance Centre executive committee and Senior Advisor to Orchard Global Asset Management. Previously, Senior Banker for Energy at EBRD; Senior Advisor to the Chairman and Global Head MDBS at BBVA. Raúl holds a PhD (2013) in Civil Engineering from Universidad Politécnica Madrid.

Mandeep Singh

Research Associate

Mandeep joined CCFI after finishing his Ph.D. in Banking and Finance at the University of New South Wales. His research interests are climate finance, banking, and empirical asset pricing. His current work focuses on the implications of climate-related factors for credit markets. Previously, Mandeep worked as a Senior Credit Risk Analyst for the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Charles Donovan

Honorary Fellow

Charles was the first Executive Director of the CCFI. Previously  Head of Structuring and Valuation for Alternative Energy at BP and an Analyst at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Graduate of University of Washington, Vanderbilt University, and IE Business School. Currently a professor at University of Washington. He is the Editor and Co-Author of Renewable Energy Finance: Powering the Future.

Bob Buhr

Honorary Research Fellow

Bob retired from a 30-year career focused on bond markets as a corporate bond analyst. He worked at a major rating agency, asset manager, hedge fund, Citigroup (MD), and at Societe Generale. He has published ESG and climate-related reports and written on environmental risks for years, including Moody’s first report in 1991. Graduate of Ithaca College, and Brown University (PhD).

Gireesh Shrimali

Honorary Research Fellow

Gireesh Shrimali is the Director of CPI’s India program, and a Fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University. Working to reduce barriers to increase investment for India’s renewable energy targets. Graduate of Stanford University, PhD, University of Minnesota, MS, and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), B.Tech.

Zahra Hashemzadeh

Visiting Research Fellow

Zahra is a researcher in sustainable finance, studying the integration of ESG criteria in portfolio management as well as the effects of companies’ adoption of sustainability-oriented measures. She will be awarded her PhD in financial economics from Lund School of Economics & Management, Sweden in May 2022. Zahra is visiting the CCFI on a scholarship from the Swedish foundation “JanWallanders och Tom Hedelius Stiftelse samt Tore Browaldhs Stiftelse.”