Australian Government
Australian Accounting Standards Board
Keynote Speakers
Dr Claire Horner (Senior Research Scientist, Natural Capital Accounting and Assessment team, CSIRO)
Dr Horner is a Senior Research Scientist in the Natural Capital Accounting and Assessment team at CSIRO. As a Certified Practicing Accountant with research expertise in environmental accounting, Claire stays abreast of the latest developments in both the financial and environmental accounting environments, placing her in a unique position to consider how environmental accounting can be incorporated into both voluntary and regulatory reports. Claire understands that interdisciplinary work is necessary to address the environmental challenges we are presently facing, and has worked with academic, government and industry collaborators from across Australia.
Dr Sue Ogilvy (Leader, Farming for the Future program)
Dr Ogilvy leads the Farming for the Future program, a public interest research and change program that aims to provide, as a public good, the evidence base, tools, and resources for the agricultural sector to understand whether and how natural capital impacts farm businesses and farming families. By considering natural capital as a factor of agricultural productivity and profitability, Farming for the Future aims to support a more financially prosperous, climate-resilient, and environmentally positive agricultural sector in Australia.
Farming for the Future leverages Sue’s research over the past decade which has focused on adapting and extending financial accounting concepts and standards and developing practical and useful measurement methods to enable farmers and their advisors to include ecosystems (natural capital) as part of their asset base.
Panelists
Alison George (Head of Impact and Ethics, Australian Ethical Investment)
Alison has more than 20 years’ experience in responsible investment and stewardship, working with numerous industry leaders in her prior roles. Currently, Alison is responsible for evolving ethical investment approaches to further Australian Ethical Investment's contribution to real world progress toward a more sustainable future.
A Chartered Accountant, Alison also completed a Master of Environment and was previously a corporate sustainability advisor with EY. She is a member of the board for IEEFA AsiaPac, a not for profit producing market-based research with a mission to accelerate the energy transition.
Patrick Viljoen (Sustainability Leader, CPA Australia)
Patrick is the Sustainability Leader, working in the Policy and Advocacy team at CPA Australia.
Prior to his current role, Patrick held a wide range of roles at CPA Australia within the Finance and business services and Education business units.
Prior to joining CPA Australia, Patrick worked for the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in London and Shanghai as Regional Finance Manager Africa / Asia.
Patrick also lectured in Finance and Investment Management, and prior to that held several key finance positions in the wealth creation industry in both the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Karen McWilliams (Business Reform Leader, Advocacy and Professional Standing team, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand)
Karen McWilliams is the Business Reform Leader in the Advocacy and Professional Standing team at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ). She is responsible for shaping and influencing business reform issues of relevance to Chartered Accountants, including insolvency, corporate governance, anti-money laundering, corporations law, climate change and sustainability matters. Karen is also a non-executive director on the UN Global Compact Network Australia Board and was recently appointed to the Australian Government’s Nature Finance Council.
She is a Fellow Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds a Master of Arts in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Oxford.
Lachlan Vogt (Managing Director, AIgorithm)
Lachlan Vogt is Managing Director of AIgorithm a technology science driven company focused on monitoring climate, emissions, and uses AI to help to accurately understand future impacts of climate change. The company aggregates hundreds of data points such as the actual emissions per day across Australia leveraging satellites from NASA, European Space Agency plus many other science bodies and partnered with Geoscape Australia (Federal Government body) to overlay the emissions and climate risk to land parcels. He has over a decade of experience in artificial intelligence from Accenture and at NAB where he worked for climate change risk of the loan book, credit risk models, and geospatial mapping. He was course content SME for the AI Strategy course at RMIT university and Australia New Zealand lead of machine technology learning for Accenture Technology.
Moderator
Dr Eric Lee (AASB Research Director)
Currently serving as the AASB Research Director, Eric is the head of research and leads the AASB Research Centre with the primary responsibility to develop, implement and oversee the AASB’s research strategies that are coherent with the evidence-based approach to setting standards. He is tasked with initiating and managing research/thought-leadership projects that will inform AASB and international standard-setters about current and future accounting and reporting issues. He also plays a significant role in developing and building relationships with Australian and international researchers, policymakers, and standard setters.