Plenary Speakers

Andy Pitman is a Professor in climate science at the University of New South Wales. He is the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes. His expertise is in climate modelling, with broad interests extending across climate change, climate extremes and land cover change. He has worked extensively on how land cover change and increasing greenhouse gases change the probability of extremes. He has been a lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and on the Copenhagen Diagnosis. He is a member of the advisory board of Risk Frontiers. He won the Priestley Medal in 2004, the AMOS Medal in 2009, the NSW Climate Scientist of the Year in 2010 and was elected Fellow of the American Meteorological Society in 2016. He has served on multiple federal government reviews.

John Clarke has managed the provision of Climate Change Services on behalf of CSIRO for a wide range of national and international stakeholders since 2009. He has over 25 years’ experience undertaking, interpreting, applying and communicating science to a range of clients in the fields of climate change impacts and adaptation, and conservation ecology. His expertise lies in developing applicable, fit-for-purpose, scientifically robust climate projections and assisting users understand and make appropriate use of them.

Dr Karl Braganza is the Head of Climate Monitoring at the Bureau of Meteorology. The Climate Monitoring Section is responsible for the preparation and analysis of Australia's instrumental climate record. It is also responsible for the official reporting of observed climate variability and change in Australia and in collaboration with international agencies.

Sharanjit Paddam is a Principal at Deloitte Actuaries & Consultants. He has over two decades of experience in general insurance and workers compensation. He has acted as Appointed Actuary to a number of insurers and reinsurers, and specialises in climate risk analytics. He is an editor of Actuaries.Digital and convenes the Actuaries Institute's Climate Change Working Group.

Dr Nick Wood is the Director of the consultancy Climate Policy Research and member of the national steering committee for the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub – the co-ordination body for climate research in Australia. After completing a Doctorate in Nuclear Reactor Technology and Post - Doctoral Research in Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Leeds, Nick went on to work on some of the most complex and rewarding aspects of climate policy, both mitigation and adaptation for UK companies and Government. 

Nick joined the Sydney based sustainability team of a big four global accountancy firm in 2008 and initially worked on assisting Australian business prepare for the (eventual) introduction of the carbon price mechanism in 2012. Subsequently, Nick worked on highly complex audits of the greenhouse gas emission data, developed carbon strategies and carried out analysis of the financial risks from a changing climate.  Nick established Climate Policy Research in September 2014 to explore the great business opportunities emerging as Australian companies grapple with the complexities of disclosing climate related financial risks.

Emma Herd has been Chief Executive Officer at the Investor Group on Climate Change since August 2015. Emma has worked in climate change, sustainability, public policy and finance for almost twenty years.

Prior to IGCC, Emma spent 15 years at Westpac Banking Corporation where she worked at the vanguard of climate change and finance. She held a range of roles across carbon finance and emissions trading, ESG Risk assessment, public policy and advocacy, sustainability strategy development and corporate affairs across Westpac Institutional Bank and Westpac Banking Corporation. She started her career working in Parliamentary Committees (Senate and House of Representatives) in Parliament House, Canberra.

Emma is a Non-Executive Director of the Carbon Market Institute and a member of the Queensland Climate Change Advisory Council. She holds a Bachelor of Asian Studies (Thai) Hons.

Serena Blanch is in the Corporate Responsibility team at Commonwealth Bank and manages the approach to climate change as well as corporate responsibility reporting. This includes oversight of the implementation of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.

Prior to this she consulted on climate change and sustainability at KPMG and also spent a number of years working for the Federal Government on emissions trading and offset mechanisms.