Who we are

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.

Ingrid Holmes, Executive Director of the Green Finance Institute, brings 15+ years' experience in environmental policy and sustainable finance. Formerly at Federated Hermes International, she led climate change initiatives. With roles at E3G and advisory positions like the UK Green Finance Initiative, she's a leading expert.
Holmes holds a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc/DIC in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London, with accolades including a published BSc thesis and the Kathleen Lacy Prize. Currently a Member of the Lloyd’s ESG Advisory Group, she's also served on EU and UK advisory boards.

An experienced and passionate green finance specialist, Emma Harvey-Smith is Chief of Staff, responsible for unlocking growth opportunities and driving impact across the organisation. Emma previously led the GFI’s built environment programme. From convening the UK’s largest green home finance network, to catalysing new markets including Property Linked Finance and Green Mortgages, Emma’s leadership accelerated the mobilisation of capital towards net-zero and resilient homes. She is a non-executive director of Trustmark and the Future Homes Hub. She began her banking career at Barclays, working across corporate debt structuring, relationship management, and product management.

James Hooton is Managing Director of the Green Finance Institute Europe, leading on European strategy and building relationships with key public and private sector stakeholders. Under his leadership, the GFI has expanded internationally. James is a founding member of the Sustainable Energy Finance Association, an advisory member of the Science Based Targets initiative Expert Advisory Group on Buildings, and a member of the Core Project Team for the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials. He joined the GFI from his role as Finance and Ops Director for a charity, and previously spent 16 years at Goldman Sachs in Europe and Asia managing teams across a range of financial products from commodities, equity derivatives to vanilla cash equity.

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.

Andy leads the people, finance and governance function and has significant experience in scaling start-ups and working with organisations that span the public and private sector. Andy was Global HR Director and General Manager of the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) where he led the transition from Government to the private sector and expansion into USA, Australia and Singapore markets. He has a degree in Music, a post-graduate Diploma in Management and is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Helen leads the Institute’s nature team, whose work supports the transition of the economy to one that values and invests in nature. The team works across nature market development in the UK and internationally, and across nature-related financial risk, focusing on mobilising private sector finance into nature restoration and nature-positive outcomes. Prior to joining GFI in 2020, Helen was Global Sustainable Finance Editor with Euromoney Magazine.

Senior Advisor

Senior Advisor

Eduardo has over 25 years of experience in the financial and legal environment, having held leadership positions in several multinational financial institutions including Banesto, Santander Group, Ge Capital and Iberdorla, across corporate finance, securities markets, consumer finance and renewable energy sectors. In April 2023, he joined the Green Finance Institute as Director for Spain where he is building the GFI brand in Europe and bringing financial products to market to decarbonise Spain’s built environment.

Signe Fosgaard leads the Green Finance Institute’s work in Denmark with an initial focus on catalysing and scaling investment into renovating the built environment. Signe joined from the Danish Green Building Council, where she focused on attracting investment into sustainable building projects. Prior to this, Signe worked on sustainability in the social housing sector, and did investment advisory in Shanghai. Signe has working proficiency in Danish, English, German and Mandarin and holds an MA in International Economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Ryan is a Programme Director, with his work including leading the team advising the UK Government on implementing the UK Green Taxonomy, through the Green Technical Advisory Group (GTAG), and developing criteria for new sectors, via the Land, Nature and Adapted Systems (LNAS) advisory group. Ryan also works with the Institute’s sector-focused coalitions and initiatives, and previously led the Zero Carbon Heating Taskforce (ZCHT) and established the Local Climate Bond (LCB) Campaign. Before joining the Institute, Ryan worked in investment banking at Cantor Fitzgerald and Jefferies, specialising in infrastructure and renewable energy.

Raph leads the GFI's New Energy Technologies programme, spanning sectors such as hydrogen, long duration storage, heat networks, carbon dioxide removals and industrial decarbonisation. Raph brings 10 years of expertise in green finance: she led the first green finance policy team in UK Government; worked with emerging market clients, and on cleantech and carbon credits funds at Macquarie Group; and headed up the first climate innovation programme at Aon which launched new insurance products for CCUS and hydrogen. She holds an MA from Oxford and an MBA from Quantic School of Technology.

Jo is the Head of Communications at the GFI, responsible for Brand, Marketing and Communications across all channels, driving engagement among our communities through content. She joined the GFI in 2023 from an international financial sector specialist communications consultancy, where she spent two years as a Director leading global green finance initiatives across FTSE100 clients, boutique fund managers and membership bodies. Before that, she spent a decade at Prudential – latterly M&G – in various senior positions across the MarComms mix.

Juliet is the Associate Director leading GFI’s Transport Team, looking after the GFI’s work on charging infrastructure, HGVs and the UK battery supply chain. She leads on bringing a series of financial products including Utilisation Linked Finance and a Battery Investment Facility to market. She joined the institute from the Power, Utilities and Infrastructure Investment Banking team at Jefferies, where she worked on several deals within the green energy and energy transition sector, and was involved in the successful completion of several infrastructure transactions.

Chloe leads the Green Finance Institute’s (GFI) Green Mortgage Campaign as part of their Built Environment Programme, which aims to spur the UK mortgage market towards innovative and scalable solutions to the housing decarbonisation challenge. With a background in regulatory policy and financial planning, Chloe is a passionate advocate for sustainability – having previously led the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries’ cross-industry Green Mortgage Advice Initiative and the multi-award-winning ‘Working in Mortgages’ Diversity and Inclusion programme. She is also the author of a book about the UK housing crisis and has appeared on national and regional radio to discuss issues affecting renters and first-time buyers.

Miles leads the GFI’s Local Climate Bond campaign, which supports local authorities in exploring innovative financing mechanisms to fund their climate action plans. Prior to joining the Institute, Miles worked at ABN Amro Bank, in the Netherlands, where he specialised in the design and delivery of blended finance programmes that promoted social and environmental impact in developing countries. Miles holds a MSc in Finance from the University of Amsterdam and a BEng in Civil Engineering from the University of Bristol.

Clive is the Head of Finance & Operations, leading the financial and accounting activities at the Green Finance Institute and its subsidiary companies. Prior to joining GFI, Clive was Finance Director for a group of media companies and has over 25 years' experience in finance and operations roles in both the public and private sectors.

As Head of Financial and Investment Analysis, Josh brings his corporate and strategic finance experience to the GFI. He works across various workstreams, with a primary focus on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and carbon dioxide removals (CDR), working to address key investment risks through broad sectoral engagement, complemented by thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis, with the goal of enabling the flow of capital to these nascent net zero technologies.

Prior to the GFI, Josh worked in corporate and strategic finance for companies in the logistics and mining sectors.

Charlie heads up market engagement on the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) in the UK for the GFI. He works closely with senior leadership of UK companies to build a strong business case for getting started on nature and coordinates the TNFD’s UK Consultation Group. Charlie joined GFI from McKinsey & Company where he helped build and lead its global nature and biodiversity service line for 3 years, in particular supporting financial institutions to develop organisational strategies on nature, undertake nature-related risk assessments, and build nature-positive funds and products. Prior to this, Charlie spent 8 years at Vivid Economics, where he led its agriculture, forestry and land use (AFOLU) practice.

Maria focuses on accelerating development of green consumer finance for decarbonisation of the UK’s homes. Leading the GFI’s Green Loans workstream, she drives efforts to establish a robust, transparent, and scaled unsecured green home finance market. Maria also supports the GFI’s Residential Property Linked Finance workstream, developing an innovative product for the UK market. She joined the GFI from J.P. Morgan Chase, gaining experience from teams across the Corporate Investment Bank and Asset Management businesses.

Claudia has over 6 years of experience in development finance, managing national, European, and multilateral resources for impact investments via public-private partnerships. In June 2024, she joined Green Finance Institute Spain as Senior Associate, where she is building the GFI brand and introducing financial products to help the Spanish built environment and cities transition towards decarbonization. Previously, she was a Senior Investment Analyst at COFIDES, the Spanish development finance institution. Claudia also held roles at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the World Bank, specializing in project management, climate finance, and financial inclusion.

Vic is the Senior Communications Manager at the GFI, where she leads on delivering corporate communications, programmatic communications, and campaigns across the Institute. Before joining the GFI in 2022, she worked in communications consulting across research, strategy, and public affairs for energy, financial services, tech and third sector clients. She studied Strategic Communications at the London School of Economics.

Adam joined the Green Finance Institute in November 2021 as a Senior Analyst to work on the Green Taxonomy programme advising UK Government and has continued to work on the programme as an Associate. Adam led on the research, analysis and drafting of several Green Technical Advisory Group (GTAG) papers and is also involved in the GFI’s Carbon Dioxide Removals (CDR) work. Adam has a policy background, and previously worked in various analytical roles within the UK Civil Service.

Associate

"Amy Allan joined the Green Finance Institute in September 2022 to support the Green Taxonomy and Nature Programmes on workstreams related to sustainable agriculture.
Amy has a research background focused on international development, impact investing and sustainable food systems. Amy holds a BSc in Global Resource Systems from the University of British Columbia, an MA in International Studies from Simon Fraser University and an MSc in Development Management and Applied Development Economics from the London School of Economics."

Charlie works with experts from across the private, public, and third sectors to identify solutions to unlock increased private investment into nature-based solutions in the UK. This included the launch of GFI’s Financing Natural Flood Management report for Defra in March 2024. Charlie’s previous experiences include Standard Chartered Bank Tanzania and Westcountry Rivers Trust.

Jonathan joined the Green Finance Institute in April 2020 and works across its portfolio of coalitions and projects as well as supporting the Institute’s operations, marketing, research, events and communications functions. He has experience in financial research across different asset classes, financial products and sectors, having interned at Allianz Global Investors, Peel Hunt and Standard Life Aberdeen. He is passionate about the areas of ESG and sustainable and responsible finance.

Phoebe focuses on the UK’s implementation of nature markets, including voluntary carbon and Biodiversity Net Gain. She leads market engagement to identify the solutions and enabling market conditions that allow projects to access private finance. This culminated in the launch of the Investment Readiness Toolkit and the Farmers’ Toolkit for Assessing Nature Market Opportunities. Alongside this work, she is an advisor and assessor to the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF) in England and the Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland (FIRNS).

Sandie leads the subgroup of the Green Technical Advisory Group (GTAG), providing independent advice to Defra on resilience-based investing and the UK Green Taxonomy areas that relate to the UK’s wider environmental economic activities. Sandie joined the Institute from Defra where she held various roles. This included the delivery of Defra Carbon Budgets and Net Zero, a secondment to the Green Finance Team and as a fisheries policy advisor.

Tom leads the GFI Transport Team’s work on designing and scaling financing solutions for zero emission heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), and the associated charging or refuelling infrastructure. Since joining the GFI, Tom has led on a variety of projects across the Transport team including development of the ‘Delivering Net Zero’ report which identified ways to accelerate private investment into zero emission HGVs and infrastructure, as well as a guide for investors in the EV Battery Supply Chain. He joined the Institute from the Growth Lending Group.

Kitty joined the Green Finance institute in April 2024 to lead the School Retrofit Financing workstream, as part of the wider UK Decarbonisation programme. She works closely with Miles and also supports on the Local Authority engagements. Prior to joining the GFI, she was at NatWest where she specialised in structured debt financing and advisory for energy transition assets such as Battery Energy Storage Systems and EV Fleet & Charging Infrastructure.

Conor joined GFI in 2024 after working for 6 years as a Marketing Manager at St John Ambulance, leading on their digital strategy, and 2 years in a media agency working across digital marketing across various industries and clients. Conor is our Digital Marketing Manager, where he is responsible for all of our social media marketing and website management and marketing and delivering campaigns across the Institute.

Nicole joined the Green Finance Institute as HR Manager in August 2023 to support the business across all aspects of the HR function including recruitment, reward, policy, learning and development and performance management. Prior to joining the GFI, Nicole worked for 5 years within the People and Wellbeing team at MJ Hudson (now part of Apex Group). Nicole holds a BSc in Psychology from the University of Bristol and CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma in People Management.

Kim joined the Green Finance Institute in February 2023. Kim is part of the Finance and Operations team and is responsible for the purchase ledger function for Green Finance Institute and its subsidiary companies. Prior to joining the GFI, Kim worked for 12 years within the finance team at the Food & Drink Federation. Kim holds a BA degree in business studies and is CIMA part qualified.

Lauren is Senior Executive Assistant to our CEO, Rhian-Mari Thomas and Chief of Staff, Emma Harvey-Smith. Lauren has over 18 years’ experience in similar roles at The Behavioural Insights Team, PwC and CBRE respectively. Most recently Lauren supported the CEO and Founding Director, David Halpern, at the BIT, from 2015 until spring 2024.

Clodagh is a senior analyst in the GFI’s Transport Team, which focuses on developing new financial products and solutions to help accelerate the decarbonisation of transport. She focuses on charging infrastructure including Utilisation Linked Finance and the UK battery supply chain. Prior to joining, Clodagh worked at the Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI) in the Reporting and Assessment team, where she supported investment managers and asset owners on their responsible investment strategies. She holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Manchester.

Analyst

Hannah works on market engagement for the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) where she supports UK company senior leadership to build the business case for nature and convenes sector groups to discuss disclosure approach. She also works with the nature team to develop nature market supply and demand, within policies such as Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and other UK-based biodiversity markets. Prior to joining GFI, Hannah worked in built environment decarbonisation and Net Zero investment strategy at Buro Happold and Evora Global. She holds an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London.

Joe joined the Green Finance Institute in January 2024 to work on the Green Taxonomy programme. Specifically, he works to support the Land, Nature, and Adapted Systems (LNAS) Advisory Group, which provides independent advice to Defra on defining economic activities as environmentally sustainable. Joe holds a BA in Geography from Durham University and an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London.