Rhian-Mari Thomas is Chief Executive of the Green Finance Institute, an independent organisation at the forefront of shaping how finance can be used to facilitate real economy transition.

Rhian spent 20 years in investment banking and corporate finance and was the first person to be awarded an OBE for services to green banking.

She is a former member of the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and co-chaired the launch of the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) – having served as a senior adviser to the TNFD since its inception in June 2021. Rhian is a Trustee of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) UK, and chairs the independent National Wealth Fund Taskforce. She also sits on an Independent Advisory Board for carbon ratings agency, BeZero Carbon, offering strategic advice on the future of carbon markets.

A fluent Welsh speaker, Rhian holds a PhD in Physics from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.

James Hooton is Managing Director of Missions, managing the Programme Directors across all GFI’s sectors. James previously spent 16 years at Goldman Sachs in London and Asia as a Vice President managing teams across geographies and a range of financial products from commodities, equity derivatives to vanilla cash equity. James is a founding and board member of the Sustainable Energy Finance Association, based in Brussels where he advises on financing real estate decarbonisation.

Simon is responsible for our strategic communications, relationship with governments and key external stakeholders. Prior to joining the GFI, Simon was Innovation Director at the City of London Corporation where he served on the secretariat for the Green Finance Taskforce which led to the creation of the GFI. He also served on the board of the Kalifa Review into UK Fintech. Most recently he was a Director at Flint Global, advising investor clients on sustainability.

Sandie leads the Institute’s international programme in the Philippines, designing financing mechanisms to mobilise private capital into priority NDC sectors. She previously led the Land, Nature and Adapted Systems (LNAS) Advisory Group, advising the UK government on a Green Taxonomy to help capital into nature positive investments and to support the delivery of a resilient UK economy. With a background spanning NGOs, UK Civil Service and energy sector consultancy, Sandie brings deep expertise in environmental policy and energy transition. She began her career as an offshore geophysicist and holds an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London.