BwB Ambassadors

People: Testimonials

Glenn Woodcock

Entrepreneur

Glenn Woodcock is an entrepreneur and investor with a passionate commitment to improving the world around us, through better business. Glenn has more than 25 years of experience in senior management positions across banking, venture capital, product development and risk. He is the founder of Exeter City Futures, a community interest company set up to progress a programme of work to contribute to the sustainable future of Exeter. Glenn is also a founder of Sparx, the UK’s most significant Education Technology Company for enhancing maths outcomes at GCSE level. In addition, Glenn is Chairman of City Science, a transport consultancy, and a director of Low Carbon Group, a renewable energy investment company.

Victor Gancel

Manager, BSR

Victor currently aims to set the shipping industry towards transformative change, generating swift and deep decarbonization of whole sectors. As Clean Cargo Manager, Victor supports members in reducing their emissions while integrating ESG elements into their decision-making. He is an experienced program manager with proven ability to run multi-stakeholder projects, scale decarbonization and sustainability actions, manage teams and raise funding for what he believes in. Prior to working at BSR, Victor led a sustainable infrastructure finance program he built from scratch at EIT Climate-KIC in Paris and Copenhagen. He gained his first green innovation expertise within the Aerospace Industry as an Innovation Officer.

Mike Scala

Global Partnerships and Strategic Planning

Mike works to transform the way that corporations, family offices, governments, and foundations align their core values, CSR, and ESG whilst maximizing impact. He and his team have led efforts around the world in the areas of disaster relief, human rights, education, environmental sustainability, and more. With a strong background in community and youth engagement, he is currently working with a variety of family offices and corporations helping them to create projects that align with their goals and double the impact of their funding. His unique approach has led to the support of communities across 15+ countries and work with organizations such as World Health Organization, Global Citizen, and Thompson Reuters.

Leslie Labruto

Head of Global Energy, Acumen

Leslie Labruto is an Associate Director on the Portfolio team and Global Head of Energy at Acumen, where she leads Acumen’s $20M Pioneer Energy Investment Initiative (PEII). Leslie is responsible for driving strategy, portfolio construction, and thought leadership for Acumen’s Global Energy Portfolio. Leslie joined Acumen from the Clinton Foundation, where she served as Director of Clean Energy for the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) and led programmatic strategy and partnerships. Previously, Leslie worked at Summit Partners, a $15 billion venture capital firm in Boston. Leslie holds two degrees in Civil and Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London and Vanderbilt University, where she served on the Board of Trust from 2011-2015.

Gaurav Gupta

UNEP

Gaurav is a conservationist by heart and currently works with UNEP to unlock and reform financial flows to deliver biodiversity and climate goals at scale. Prior to joining UNEP, he led landscape conservation programme with WWF in Myanmar. Some of his most memorable moments in this role include putting GPS collars on wild elephants, setting up camera traps for tigers, and going on patrols with rangers. Before that he worked as a consultant for the WEF, as a programme Manager for the American India Foundation, and as an Analyst for Barclays Capital in Singapore. Gaurav holds a Bachelor and Master degree in Computer Science from IIT Delhi, MBA from ESMT in Germany and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) from CFA Institute.”

Lauren Carter

UNDP

Lauren Carter is the Deputy Manager and Insurance Investment Specialist for UNDP’s newly launched Insurance and Risk Finance Facility (IRFF), which focuses on developing sovereign risk financing solutions in partnership with industry, scaling inclusive insurance, insuring natural capital such as coral reefs and mangroves, and transitioning more insurance industry assets towards SDG and climate-aligned investments. She previously lead UNDP’s engagement with Invest4Climate, a joint partnership with World Bank to crowd-in private investment for climate action in developing countries. Before joining UNDP, Lauren served as the Director of Climate Finance Initiatives for a boutique climate finance advisory in Morocco where she guided the government’s engagement with the Green Climate Fund and other sources of climate finance. Lauren is currently based in Geneva received her MBA from HEC Paris and a B.A. from the University of Texas – Austin.

Benjamin Bartle

CFAN

Benjamin is a climate finance expert and has supported over 50 countries in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean to identify, develop, and secure funding for low-emissions, climate-resilient projects and investments. Ben is currently the Project Director at the Climate Finance Access Network (CFAN), hosted by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).Before joining RMI, Ben led teams of multisectoral experts at E Co. to secure finance for over 40 projects for clients, including national governments, IFIs, MDBs, bilateral development agencies, NGOs and the private sector. Ben previously led climate change and sustainable development work at the United Nations Development Programme and Global Environment Facility as a consultant and advisor. Ben is a board director at the Climate Markets and Investment Association (CMIA). He is the active private sector observer of the Climate Investment Fund’s (CIF) Clean Technology Fund and advisor to the active private sector observer of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Ben holds a Master’s degree in environmental management and economics.

Ulrike Glatz

Founder of Global Impact Alliance and Impact Guardian at JC Impact Investing.

As Advisor and Facilitator for multi-stakeholder projects in the field of impact investing and transformation, Ulrike Glatz works with impact investors, corporates and impact businesses to reach their impact objectives with the UN´s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework.

In her ‘pre-impact’ life, she built up a market entry advisory firm in India, and has a background in management consulting (Accenture). Ulrike Glatz was trained by the UN (UNCTAD empretec) and teaches business ethics at the ESCP Business School in Berlin.

Skylar Bee

Manager with the Climate Finance Access Network at RMI

Skylar is a Manager with the Climate Finance Access Network at RMI, where she leads on country engagement and membership outreach. Skylar has expertise in supporting countries in developing and implementing their nationally determined contributions through provision of technical assistance, navigating the international climate finance architecture, developing investment plans, and building communities of practice. She joined RMI in May 2021.

Prior to joining RMI, Skylar worked as a Climate Finance Specialist, Knowledge and Learning at the NDC Partnership. She worked to help shape the Partnership’s finance strategy, curate opportunities for peer exchanges on climate finance, and identify country case studies and best practices. Skylar has also worked on capacity building for climate finance at the sub-national level with a focus on sustainable urban infrastructure at EIT Climate-KIC, where she gained experience in building project portfolios focused on innovative municipal finance.