Meet the Climate Safe Lending Fellows
Lydia Hascott, October 2021
Today we’re thrilled to announce the 23 Fellows who have been selected to join our inaugural Climate Safe Lending Fellowship 2021/22.
The Climate Safe Lending Fellows are all climate intrapreneurs - banking professionals who are embedding transformative climate action within the core strategy, operations, and culture of their institutions. Over a six-month period, the Fellowship will support them to grow their knowledge, networks, skills, and motivation to help their banks finance a just transition to a climate-safe world.
See the full list of Fellows here.
About the Fellowship
In the year of COP26 institutions and nations must not only step up the scale of climate commitments but also vastly accelerate their progress toward them if we are to avoid the worst social and environmental impacts of a climate crisis that is already here. We know that there are individuals working within banking institutions who feel the existential imperative of this challenge and are working tirelessly to enable their banks to finance a just and equitable transition to a low carbon future. We call them climate intrapreneurs.
The Climate Safe Lending Fellowship is a six-month leadership development program providing intensive support to a select group of committed climate intrapreneurs as they influence faster and greater climate action within their institutions. Through accessing sector insights and emerging new practices in climate finance, Fellows will leave the program with new tools, skills and multi-stakeholder networks gained in a collaborative, high-trust environment.
About the Fellows
The 2021/22 cohort consists of a rich diversity of individuals from different backgrounds bringing a wide range of experience across varied roles, banks, and geographic locations. The Fellows are located across Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The group predominantly holds mid-to senior-level roles in their banks, ranging from Vice President right up to Chief Risk Officer. Half of the cohort hold Sustainability and ESG roles in their banks, with the remainder working across business functions such as risk, portfolio management, credit underwriting, origination, innovation, and learning and development. We have intentionally curated this mix of roles to foster learning and relationships across the traditional silos of sustainability and ‘business as usual’ parts of banks.
The majority of the institutions represented by the Fellows are mainstream global and domestic banks such as Bank of America, Capital One, HSBC, Barclays, and Gulf International Bank. However, some Fellows also represent smaller values-based and community banks including Triodos, Ponce Bank, and Beneficial State Bank. The larger institutions will learn from the experiments that are possible in more agile organizations and smaller banks can learn about implementing climate finance at scale from larger institutions. We know that the diversity of this cohort will enable rich learning through creative tensions while offering the support of peers through the shared climate intrapreneur experience.
This committed group of climate intrapreneurs was selected through a rigorous application process assessing candidates on their drive and commitment to addressing the climate crisis through their day job; evidence of taking action towards climate goals within their institution; their potential for creating systemic change in banking; and, their appetite to learn and grow in an inter-bank peer learning community.
When asked what it means to be selected for this cohort one Fellow shared:
“I am looking forward to joining my cohort of Climate Safe Lending Fellows as we embark on a learning adventure that I hope will build relationships, knowledge, skills, and self-awareness to help support the work that we all do to advance sustainability and climate action. What attracted me to this program is that, unlike other certifications or training, this fellowship will meet the participant where they are in their sustainability career and identify the tangible skills that will help take us to the next level. I am very excited to be challenged and grow in the coming months!” - Connie Joe, Bank of the West (USA)
In agreement with the Fellows, we will be documenting the key themes and insights generated through the Fellowship program about how banks can accelerate their transition plans. We will share these insights with the wider ecosystem working for bank climate action as we work toward shared goals. To receive these insights subscribe to the Climate Safe Lending Network newsletter here.
About the Partners
The Climate Safe Lending Fellowship is a collaboration between the Finance Innovation Lab and the Climate Safe Lending Network. The Climate Safe Lending Network is a multi-stakeholder collaborative working to align bank lending with the Paris Agreement by 2025. Finance Innovation Lab is a UK-based charity working for a financial system that serves people and the planet, and a founding member of the Climate Safe Lending Network. The Lab brings over a decade’s experience in incubating purpose-driven financial innovators through Fellowship programs and its community of banking intrapreneurs to lead the design and delivery of the Climate Safe Lending Fellowship.
Climate-concerned banking professionals interested to join future Fellowship programs can sign up to the Climate Safe Lending Network newsletter here for invitations to upcoming events and to receive information about the next Fellowship cohort.
If you are working to accelerate bank climate action from the outside, we also encourage you to subscribe to the Climate Safe Lending Network newsletter here for updates and opportunities to get involved.
*****