The TVP Steering Committee
Mathis Wackernagel
Dr. Mathis Wackernagel created the footprint concept in the early 1990s, with his Ph.D. advisor Prof. William E. Rees, to compare human demand against planetary or regional ecosystem regeneration. This tool allows researchers to track global overshoot and countries’ ecological deficit. The carbon footprint portion has become the most popular footprint variant. In 2003, he founded Global Footprint Network, a sustainability think-tank, making planetary constraints relevant to decision-making. Its largest engagement campaign is its annual Earth Overshoot Day.
Mathis’s main interest is how to turn overshoot into a magnet that motivates, rather than an “inconvenient truth” that triggers resistance. While Mathis is mostly interested in engaging with what is afore, he can also bicycle backwards. Mathis’s honors include the 2024 Nobel Trust Award, two medals of merit from the Colombian parliament, the 2018 World Sustainability Award, the 2015 IAIA Global Environment Award, and the 2012 Blue Planet Prize, the 2011 Zayed International Prize for the Environment, three honorary degrees, and a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. Mathis is also a full member of the Club of Rome.
Teresa Nielsen
Teresa Nielsen is the Head of Crisis Simulation for Authorities at Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. She is a senior manager with 10+ years of expertise working with her peers and executives, leading matrix groups across business divisions and functions. She has successfully delivered the design for Sustainability Impact Accounting, the FINMA required Group ICAAP, Project Rigi, and the UBS Global Resolution Strategy. Teresa has more than 8+ years’ experience as sell-side equity and credit analyst for the banking sector which has allowed her to aquire a profound understanding of the financial markets, the banking sector and a holistic knowledge about each division of the bank.
Melissa McDonald
Melissa McDonald is an experienced non-executive director, board adviser and investment governance specialist with over 35 years’ experience in asset management, fiduciary oversight and sustainable finance. She has held senior leadership roles at HSBC Asset Management, AXA Investment Managers and MSCI, where she was responsible for investment process design, product development, risk management and ESG integration across asset classes. Melissa has served as a director of HSBC ETF plc, HSBC Global Asset Management (UK) Ltd, HSBC Pollination Climate Asset Management Ltd and the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association.
She has also played an active role in industry initiatives such as the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund initiative, the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s Investment Leaders Group and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. Through her advisory firm, PositiveEdge Consultants Ltd, she supports organisations working with asset owners, including UK pension schemes, on investment strategy, stewardship frameworks and transition planning. She has a long-standing commitment to using robust investment processes and governance to align capital with climate and nature goals. As a member of the Greenings Transition Valuation Project Steering Committee, her work focuses on making impact and transition valuation tools decision-useful for boards and investment committees.
Pavan Sukhdev
Pavan is a scientist by education, an international banker by training, and an environmental economist by passion. He previously led (2008-2011) the United Nations’ Green Economy Initiative and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study.
As Founder and CEO of GIST Impact, a leader in sustainability data and analytics which works across the domains of sustainability, machine learning and artificial intelligence to discover a business's full value contribution to the world, Pavan works with leading corporations and investors worldwide, harnessing the power of impact economics and technology to discover a business's full value contribution to the world.
Pavan was awarded the McCluskey Fellowship (2011) by Yale University, where he taught a graduate course on TEEB and wrote his book “Corporation 2020: Transforming Business for Tomorrow’s World.” He is a former President and Chair of WWF International (2018-2021) and has served on the boards of Conservation International , the Global Reporting Initiative and the Stockholm Resilience Centre. His work on the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity and on corporate sustainability metrics has been recognised through several awards, including the Blue Planet Prize (2016), the Tyler Prize (2020) and the EAERE European Practitioner Achievement Award in Applying Environmental Economics (2024).
Dr. Céline Bilolo
Dr. Céline Bilolo is the Chief Sustainability Officer at TÜV SÜD. Before her current role, she was a sustainability management consultant and investment manager, and has extensive experience in establishing sustainability organisations and managing diverse sustainability projects. Throughout her career, she has supported companies of varying sizes and public institutions in regulatory initiatives, gaining international exposure. Before joining TÜV SÜD, Dr. Bilolo oversaw investments in social enterprises across sub-Saharan Africa for a global pharmaceutical company’s impact investment fund. She holds a business administration degree with a major in finance from Augsburg University and an MBA from the University of Dayton (USA). Additionally, she completed her doctorate on “Legitimacy, Public Value & Capital Allocation” with honors at the University of St. Gallen and the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.