Driving the Just Transition

Bertrand Badré is Managing Partner and Founder of Blue like an Orange. Previously Bertrand was Managing Director of the World Bank and World Bank Group Chief Financial Officer. In this capacity he was finance deputy at the G7/G20 and representative of the World Bank. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Bertrand was the group chief financial officer at Société Générale and Crédit Agricole. Bertrand served as a member of President Jacques Chirac’s diplomatic team where he was the President’s deputy personal representative for Africa. Bertrand also spent a total of seven years at Lazard, half in New York, and London, and then in Paris as partner where he co-led in particular the restructuring of Eurotunnel.

Bertrand authored the book “Money Honnie, si la finance sauvait le monde?” published in 2017 under the title “Can Finance Save the World?” translated into multiple languages. More recently he wrote the book ” Voulons-nous (sérieusement) changer le monde ?”,

Bertrand is a graduate of ENA (Ecole Nationale d’Administration), SciencesPo (Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris), La Sorbonne and HEC business school.

Diane Kaldany is the co-founder of The CSG Group. After obtaining her B.A. in Philosophy from Fordham University, Diane embarked on professional self-discovery via the real estate, banking, and insurance sectors as a business development executive. She was compelled to make a difference, joining nonprofit boards; curating art shows; and organizing discussions on a variety of topics, such as economic inequality, women and children’s issues, and education. During her tenure as the U.S. Development Director of a Lebanese NGO, Diane came to understand the challenges of grassroots organizations and the communities they serve.

In 2018, Diane realized that systemic change takes time and commitment and that enterprises have the capital and resources to make an impactful difference, especially through private-public partnerships. To that end, she co-founded The CSG Group with the mission to encourage and help enterprises lead through purpose and values by incorporating more transparent social and sustainable business practices into their operations.

Minjia Yang is the Vice President of Investing for Health at the International WELL Building Institute, where she leads efforts to elevate the meaning of health, well-being, and equity to organizations and communities at scale. Ms. Yang uses her interdisciplinary background to put the “H” – humanity and health – in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives.

Prior to joining IWBI, Ms. Yang worked with Delos, a wellness technology company, to establish more than ten subsidiaries and joint ventures in Asia. She has extensive professional experience across public, private, and nonprofit sectors in Asia, Africa, and North America. Ms. Yang’s projects range from financial inclusion, healthcare, and education to environmental protection and sustainable technology for underserved communities.

Ms. Yang holds a Bachelor of Law degree from Sun Yat-sen University in China, where she served as the captain of the parliamentary debate team and was elected as the Chinese youth representative to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP). Ms. Yang was elected as a W.T. Chan Fellow to the Social Entrepreneurship Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, and received a Master of Public Administration degree from Cornell University.

Monica Touesnard is the Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University. She is responsible for conceptualizing, designing, launching, and championing new programmatic enhancements for the Center as well as managing and cultivating existing ones.

As Executive Director, Monica fills numerous roles, including the execution of the Center’s communications strategy and career coaching, advising current and prospective Cornell students interested in careers at the intersection of business, environmental, and social issues. She also fosters and maintains collaborative relationships domestically and internationally with companies, nonprofits, alumni, entrepreneurs, executives, academic institutions, and others. Monica manages projects with various organizations, including companies and NGOs, focused on enterprise development in low-income communities.

Prior to her current position, Monica was the founding Executive Director for the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. She has additional experience in project management, speaking, and consulting, both locally and internationally. Monica is
regularly invited to review social entrepreneurship proposals such as Echoing Green’s Fellowship Program or sustainability grants such as the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future’s Academic Venture Fund.

Monica earned her MBA from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School with focus on Sustainable Enterprise and has a B.A. from McGill University in Canada.

Rene Bonomi pursued his MBA at Cornell University and has a degree in Industrial Engineering from UFSCar in Brazil. He brings years of experience both in business development, for startups as well as corporations, and in financial advisory, structuring M&A and capital-raising transactions. Rene has international business experience working in Latin America, United States, and Europe. His industry expertise includes industrials, renewable energy, healthcare, biotechnology, agriculture, food production, and social and environmental impact.

Rene is passionate about environmental finance and impact investing, venture capital, and startup acceleration. He has a consulting business focused on supporting entrepreneurs, startups, and corporations on financial strategy, business modeling, and business strategy in the fields of social and environmental impact. Rene’s business has a collaboration partnership with The CSG Group to work on these projects globally. He also collaborates with Idea Lunchbox, an U.S. accelerator that internationalizes and expands deep tech startups to the U.S. market.

Valentina Villa is counsel in the Mexico City office of Creel, García-Cuéllar, Aiza y Enríquez, S.C. In addition, she is Director of Social Responsibility.

Ms. Villa has actively worked as Mexican counsel in numerous transactions, representing domestic and international clients. She has also worked for well-known transnational companies such as Prudential – Latin America, where she served as VP and Chief Legal Officer for PREI Latin America overseeing fund formation matters, capital markets, lending, M&A, core real estate matters, litigation, and the company’s legal needs for Mexico and Latin America.

Ms. Villa received her law degree (J.D.) from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), graduating with honors in 2000. She obtained her LL.M. degree from Northwestern University Law School in 2003.

Yun Fu is an associate director on the Innovative Finance team at the Milken Institute. She contributes to the research, development, and execution of Financial Innovations Labs, which explores innovative financing models to address global social and economic challenges. Most recently, Fu was the innovative finance principal at the Health Finance Institute (HFI), leading the efforts in designing blended finance solutions for health equity in LMICs. Before joining HFI, Fu had a demonstrated history of working in IPO filing, mergers and acquisitions, and portfolio management, as well as in coordinating international training programs. Fu holds an MBA from the McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, an LLM from the George Washington University Law School, and an LLB from East China University of Political Science and Law. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.