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Sonya Dreizler, the founder of Solutions With Sonya, helps financial services firms to drive successful rollout and adoption of Impact Investing, SRI, & ESG solutions. Sonya is a former financial services CEO with 15 years of industry experience and enjoys helping financial services executives to grow their businesses and tackle complex business issues. She is a subject matter expert in the rapidly growing field of Impact Investing and authors Connected Investing, a popular weekly educational newsletter covering the latest developments in Impact and ESG investing, as well as terminology, interviews, and business tips. Sonya is a respected leader, practical thinker, and consensus-builder with excellent communication skills and deep experience in Independent Broker Dealer and Investment Adviser management. Her areas of expertise include sustainable and impact investing, streamlining operations, business development & oversight, BD/RIA regulation & financial reporting, and small business marketing strategy. Sonya previously spent 13 years at Protected Investors of America, a boutique Broker Dealer and SEC registered Investment Adviser. She started at the firm as an executive assistant and took on increasing roles in the firm, eventually rising to COO, and then CEO. For in depth details on her work experience, please see her LinkedIn profile. She is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and previously held the Series 7, 66, 24, and 28 securities licenses. She is a recipient of the Investment News 40 Under 40 award, is a 2018 LinkedIn Top Voices Recipient, speaks frequently at conferences and has published articles and been quoted in numerous trade publications. She serves on the advisory board for the Investment News Women Adviser Summit, and informally advises a number of other financial services conference organizers and committees. Sonya is the board chair of CUESA, a sustainable agriculture and education non-profit and also volunteers with Friends of the Urban Forest and JVS. Sonya earned a BA from UCLA in English Literature and speaks fluent Spanish. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and their two sons and she enjoys travelling with her family, weight lifting, and cooking.

Ken Hayes helps start-ups grow, get funded and build value. He joined Cleantech Open in 2017 as Executive Director with US National and Global responsibilities for this established environmental tech startup accelerator, working with 100 companies per year. Concurrently, he is Venture Partner and Co-founder of Canyon Creek Capital's Fund II, a VC fund focused on SoCal tech companies from Seed to Series A, with 40+ investments since late 2014. He is also a Director Emeritus of the Pasadena Angels, where he continues to focus on deal sourcing, mentoring entrepreneurs, and performing due diligence.

Mike Lombardo is the director of ESG strategy at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors where he is responsible for the firm’s overall ESG strategy and consideration of ESG risks in the investment process. Prior to joining Kayne Anderson in 2018, Mike was a vice president of ESG Research at Calvert Research and Management, where he helped lead the ESG research team, developed best practices for integrating ESG into the investment process, and engaged dozens of portfolio companies on material ESG risks. Throughout his career, Mr. Lombardo has taught at George Washington University School of Business, where he developed a course on ESG investing. His previous experience also includes international development and policy work across multiple organizations domestically and internationally. Mr. Lombardo is a former member of the advisory committee of ECPAT-USA and has served on a number of advisory committees of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment

Gloria Nelund founded TriLinc Global after a rewarding career in the international asset management industry. She is responsible for leading the Company’s high-level strategy and directing its growth since its founding in 2008. Gloria brings to TriLinc Global more than 30 years of experience in executive management of multi-billion dollar financial institutions including former CEO of US Private Wealth Division of Deutsche Bank and former President and CEO of Bank of America Capital Management. She is an active guest speaker and guest lecturer on Impact Investing at conferences and top business schools, including Columbia, Georgetown, Wheat, Kellogg, Stanford and MIT.

Jamie Nulph, CFA, manages MSCI’s West Coast ESG Consultants Team and partners with investors on incorporating ESG into the investment decision-making process. She works closely with the largest institutional investors in the U.S., helping them define and implement ESG investment strategies, analyze ESG risks and opportunities, and provide training around emerging issues. Jamie has been working in ESG for a decade; prior to MSCI she worked in London with EIRIS, a UK-based ESG research firm, supporting European Institutional Investors on ESG integration. Jamie is on the organizing committee of Bay ESG, a group focused on building connections and facilitating knowledge sharing for responsible investment professionals across the San Francisco Bay Area.

Aron Potash is counsel in the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins, where he has practiced since 2007. Mr. Potash’s practice focuses on environmental law, with a special emphasis on air quality and climate change matters. He handles regulatory, transactional, and litigation matters. Mr. Potash represents domestic and international businesses, including many in the petrochemical, energy, cleantech, manufacturing, REIT, and pharmaceutical sectors. Mr. Potash also assists private equity firms and investment banks with environmental matters connected to M&A deals, financings, and other transactions. He is experienced in evaluating environmental liabilities, negotiating environmental agreements for business transactions, and formulating and implementing environmental risk transfer strategies.

Jesse Simmons is a Senior Investment Analyst at Align Impact. He focuses on due diligence of investment opportunities in private markets, including funds, direct deals, and alternative structures. Jesse also manages the development of landscape analyses of investment opportunities across a range of social and environmental sectors, as well as the graduate intern and student consulting programs.

Topaz Simply is a Senior ESG Consultant at RPS Group, a leading environmental consultancy. He helps private equity firms develop ESG strategies, processes, and policies aimed at satisfying their limited partners’ expectations, identifying risk and opportunities, and enhancing reputation. Specifically, over the past 5 years, Topaz has helped clients (1) address limited partners’ ESG expectations during fundraising; (2) assess target investments’ ESG standing during the due diligence process; (3) develop and implement action items within the first 100 days of the investment; and (4) generate KPIs and analyze data to create a firm-wide ESG program.