L-R: Winston Chow (SMU), Timothy Clark (SMU), H.E Kateryna Zelenko (Embassy of Ukraine), Emily Farnworth (University of Cambridge), Hong Zhang (SMU), Dave Fernandez (SMU, SKBI).
Ladies and gentlemen,
Distinguished guests,
It is my privilege and honour to introduce our guest of honor and keynote speaker, Her Excellency, Kateryna Zelenko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Singapore.
Ambassador Zelenko is a career diplomat, having joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in 2002.
She had postings representing Ukraine in Austria and Germany, before returning to Kyiv in 2018, working in the Ministry’s Political Department, and becoming the MFA’s Chief Spokesperson shortly thereafter. Ambassador Zelenko was appointed as Ukraine’s highest representative to Singapore by President Volodymyr Zelensky in November 2020.
For 488 days now Ukraine has been spearheading a brave fight against Russia’s unprovoked aggression. This is the fight not only for democracy, but also for what humanity’s future must look like. A military aggression is an expression of ultimate disdain for standards of good international governance. This puts the war in Ukraine into the forefront of ESG debates.
At some point - we all hope soon - but it depends on multitude of factors - the war will also be over and Ukraine’s reconstruction will begin. It will require a massive effort but it will also generate massive opportunities.
Just a few days ago, Ukraine’s Recovery Conference, jointly sponsored by Ukraine and the United Kingdom, took place in London. This conference brought together public and private sector decision makers from a multitude of countries and highlighted Ukraine’s commitment to build back a more modern, innovative, and green economy.
Given Singapore’s role as the global sustainability leader, we hope that our inaugural conference will serve as a stepping stone to closer corporation between Ukraine and Singapore in the fields of ESG and climate action.
Madam Ambassador, over to you.
[Read the Ambassador's Guest-of-Honour Keynote speech here]
About the International Conference on ESG and Climate Governance
The inaugural International Conference on ESG and Climate Governance brings together academic experts, practitioners, and board directors from six continents, across disciplines and industry sectors to address theoretical and practical challenges to climate action across the world by drawing on academic expertise to develop impactful solutions which can be put to practice. Read the conference press release here.
About Dave Fernandez
Dave Fernandez is the Director of the Sim Kee Boon Institute (SKBI) for Financial Economics and Professor of the Practice of Finance at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at Singapore Management University (SMU). He is also the Co-Director of the Singapore Green Finance Centre. Outside of SMU, he sits on the Advisory Panel at the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office, Academic Council at the Impact Economy Foundation and is a member of the Stewardship Discussion Circle at Stewardship Asia. Prior to returning to academia in 2018, Prof Dave worked as an economist in the private sector at Barclays and J.P. Morgan. He started his career in the public sector, serving as an economist in the administration of President George H.W. Bush and at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE SKBI MAILING LIST*
Be alerted on SKBI news and forthcoming events.
*Please note that upon providing your consent to receive marketing communications from SMU SKBI, you may withdraw your consent, at any point in time, by sending your request to skbi_enquiries [at] smu.edu.sg (subject: Withdrawal%20consent%20to%20receive%20marketing%20communications%20from%20SMU) . Upon receipt of your withdrawal request, you will cease receiving any marketing communications from SMU SKBI, within 30 (thirty) days of such a request.