Canadian and European Perspectives on Green Bonds and Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance: Opportunities and Challenges

Karina Häuslmeier is Permanent Representative of the Ambassador at the German Embassy in Ottawa and Head of the Embassy's Science and Economic Affairs Departments. Previously, she was Deputy Special Representative for Relations with Jewish Organizations, Combating Anti-Semitism, International Sinti and Roma Affairs and Holocaust Remembrance in Berlin and Head of the Culture and Science Section at the German Embassy in Cairo.

Nikolai Badenhoop is a legal scholar whose research covers European Union law, financial regulation, competition, contract and tort law, corporate governance, consumer protection, professional secrecy and Brexit. He currently focuses on sustainable finance.

As a European Lawyer, he holds law degrees from Humboldt University Berlin (German state examination), Sapienza University of Rome (Laurea Magistrale in Giurisprudenza) and King’s College London (LL.M.). Nikolai obtained his Ph.D. from Humboldt University Berlin and published a book exploring EU banking regulation and its impact on national private law. He speaks English, German, French, Italian and Spanish fluently.

Nikolai gained practical experience working several years for international law firms in London and Berlin, the German Federal Ministry of Finance and a leading European start-up bank.  He is a fully qualified lawyer (Volljurist) and holds the necessary qualification to become a judge in Germany. Nikolai’s teaching experience includes courses at bachelor, master and PhD levels at Sapienza University of Rome and the EUI’s Department of Law. Currently, he teaches at the Florence School of Banking and Finance on ‘Green bonds and the sustainable bond market‘.

During his Max Weber Fellowship at the EUI, Nikolai focuses on sustainable finance in the EU legal framework. His research reaches from the definition of environmental, social and governance sustainability goals to their implementation within financial markets, banking regulation and corporate law. Starting from the European Green Deal, he analyses how existing regulatory tools impact sustainability goals and how the tools can be enhanced to increase sustainability. As a legal expert, Nikolai delivered an independent and objective study on the proposed EU Green Bond Standard at the request of the European Parliament’s ECON committee to support its legislative work.

Nikolai’s research has attracted news coverage, including interviews and reports on the green bond study by Bloomberg and the FT Group. His recent paper on greening supply chains and their financing under EU law was cited by the Financial Times.

Caroline Flammer is a Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. She is an expert in sustainable investing and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards. Her research examines how, and under which conditions, firms can enhance their competitiveness and long-term profitability while strengthening—instead of undermining—the very system in which they operate and hereby play a critical role in addressing climate change, inequality, global health, and other grand challenges related to society and the natural environment. The Web of Science ranked her among the top-100 Highly Cited Researchers in the economics and business profession in terms of impact over the past 10 years. Among other roles, she serves as the Chair of the Academic Advisory Committee of the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the largest network of responsible investors to date. Moreover, she serves as Associate Editor for both Management Science and the Strategic Management Journal.

Ryan Riordan is the Associate Professor & Distinguished Professor of Finance at Smith School of Business, Queen’s University. Prior to joining Smith, Ryan was an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and an Assistant Professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. His work has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Financial Markets among many others.

Marlen Vesper-Gräske is an attorney at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Germany. She advises companies globally on corporate and criminal compliance, corporate governance as well as internal investigations. A particular focus of her work lies on ESG and human rights advice. Marlen studied law in Berlin, Tours and New York (LL.M., NYU Law School) and received her PhD from Humboldt-University Berlin.

Gregor Weiss is Professor of Finance and Chair in Sustainable Finance & Banking at Leipzig University, Germany, and frequent Visiting Professor of Economics at Keio University, Japan. His research and policy work has focused on financial stability and regulation in the banking and insurance industry, quantitative risk management, and dependence modeling, and has inter alia been published in the Review of Finance, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Journal of Banking & Finance, Journal of Risk and Insurance, and Insurance: Mathematics & Economics. He studied business, mathematics, and management information systems in Passau, Hagen, and Kyoto, and received his PhD in financial economics with honors (summa cum laude) from Ruhr-University Bochum in 2010.