Difference Makers Discuss... Sustainability: Connecting the Dots

This event will showcase Chartered Accountants who have risen to the challenge of connecting stakeholders to sustainability issues and driving positive change within organisations. Across all sectors, every department is connected to the finance function. It is the nexus for strategic decision making and resource allocation.

Chartered Accountants are uniquely placed to influence others, effect change and transform organisations. They gather, analyse and interpret data, provide strategic advice, manage risks and resources and measure performance. They also have the crucial responsibility to communicate to key stakeholders ‘what story the numbers tell?’ and inspire change in others. In this role they help businesses to ‘connect the dots’ between business objectives and economic, environmental, social and governance issues.

Meet the Speakers

Host: Susan Rossney

Susan Rossney is Sustainability Officer for Chartered Accountants Ireland, former Chair of the Institute’s Expert Working Group on Sustainability and Chair of the Sustainability Taskforce of Chartered Accountants Worldwide. She is author of Sustainability for Accountants, Climate Essentials for Accountants and co-author of Sustainability for Small Businesses. Susan works with Institute teams to promote sustainability initiatives for Chartered Accountants Ireland both internally and externally, including curating the Institute’s annual sustainability conference programme.

Frances Carter

Frances is the Operations Director for Conservation Capital where she works on a range of conservation area business planning and innovative financing projects across Africa, Asia and South America. Frances is also a Subject Matter Expert on corporate sustainable development, sustainability reporting and carbon management, including organisational and project-level carbon offset strategies. This involves a focus on global carbon offset investments that deliver ecological and social co-benefits and meet international best practice standards. Prior to joining Conservation Capital, Frances spent over ten years as a senior Chartered Accountant in auditing, agriculture, banking and funds management, and international development. Frances has two international Masters’ degrees: Master of Science (Sustainability Management) from Columbia University (New York City), and a Master of International Business Administration from IE Business School (Madrid).

Belinda Carreira

Belinda qualified as a CA(SA) in 1998, since then her focus has been on value creation, strategy, people and most recently sustainability. Belinda has experience working in audit, finance, strategy consulting and as an entrepreneur. She founded WELL, an employee wellbeing company in 2018 as she has a passion for good health and wellbeing and believes that people are an organisations most valuable asset.

Belinda co-founded #SustainableSA in 2020, a project now sponsored by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). The project works in collaboration with strategic partners and experts to provide focused monthly updates and education on South Africa’s progress towards achieving the SDGs.

Belinda also co-founded SustainableDNA which is a Sustainability solutions business. She is driven to ensure that all businesses incorporate Sustainability and Climate Action into their strategies and that Boards and Shareholders receive the timely feedback and insights they need. She says that Sustainability is key for increasing organisations resource efficiency and is ultimately a source of competitive advantage. She notes that even though 90% of executives acknowledge its importance, only 60% of companies have a sustainability strategy. Hence there is a strong need to interpret changes in the external environment, work on strategic consequences and deliver corporate strategies that tackle these issues properly while still delivering great results.

She recently won the SAICA Chairman’s Difference Markers Award for Sustainability (in June 2022) and being a passionate lifelong learner, is currently completing a Sustainability and Innovation programme through MIT.

It is her dream to see all people and our planet thrive and for us all to live prosperous, successful lives.

Shian Goh

Shian Goh is a Fellow Chartered Accountant of Singapore and has more than 20 years’ experience of working in the financial stewardship of large organisations that span multiple countries and businesses.

He is currently the Group Finance Director of Goodpack IBC (Singapore) Pte Ltd, responsible for leading the head office finance and accounting functions as well as the group’s treasury and funding operations in support of the company’s strategies.

Prior to joining Goodpack, Shian was the Finance Director of Teckwah Group, where he led the accounting, taxation & finance functions of the Group and its subsidiaries in Asia Pacific. This includes supporting business units with their respective investments and activities across the region. A role created during his tenure in Teckwah was leading and crafting the company’s Sustainability Report and initiative from 2017. A strong advocate of sustainability, Shian believes that companies must always be raising the ambition and the targets to achieve ESG goals and in the importance of all stakeholders adopting a sustainability mindset.

Past Event Highlights

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Highlights from Difference Makers Discuss… The Value of Diversity

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The Difference Makers Podcast

We created this podcast in order to celebrate the lives and work of people who have transformed communities, businesses, and the wider world, making a real difference in the lives of others. We call them “Difference Makers”.

In each episode, our host, Indy Hothi, meets a new Difference Maker. Listen to our first episode today – David Nussbaum, a prisoner of hope.

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts and other podcast networks.

Watch the series on YouTube

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In this episode we meet David Nussbaum, a true Difference Maker. Throughout his career he's fought corruption, battled climate change, and worked at the highest levels of industry and politics to make meaningful change in the world.

He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse, moved into venture capital with 3i, and then into manufacturing, becoming the Financial Director of Field Group plc

In 1997 David left the world of business and finance and joined Oxfam as FD and Deputy CEO and was later seconded to head up Oxfam’s operations in India. David went on to become Chair of Transparency International, the leading global anti-corruption organisation, CEO of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) UK, and now Chief Executive at The Elders. The Elders are an independent group of global leaders working together for peace, justice and human rights. They were founded by the late Nelson Mandela, and are currently chaired by Mary Robinson.

In each of these roles he used the knowledge, perspective, skills and capabilities that he gained from his background as a Chartered Accountant to make a difference. Whether that was through using his skills with numbers to improve logistics for aid operations, using numbers to help tell the story of corruption in countries around the world, using communication and interpersonal skills to help further the goal of persuading leaders to work with a greater sense of justice, ethics, and consideration for the good of all.

He ends by quoting Arch-bishop Desmond Tutu, who when asked why he was such an eternal optimist, replied: "I'm not an optimist, I am a prisoner of hope".

David Nussbaum - A prisoner of hope

YouTube Video UExjcnZneEVLczFLNmdvVjFHNDRVVklLMGt4MnloS3JHcC41NkI0NEY2RDEwNTU3Q0M2

David Nussbaum - A prisoner of hope

In this episode Indy meets Zahid Fakey, the CEO of weFEEDsa, an organisation conceived during the lockdown of COVID-19 with the principle purpose of feeding the less fortunate in a dignified manner.

In 2018, he'd left his role Price Waterhouse Coopers as regional head of risk assurance for cases in South Africa and Swaziland to fulfil "his greater purpose".

He has since devoted his time to improving society through such endeavours as his consulting company "Unplugged", his many board positions. During lockdown, his organisation We Feed SA, provided 12,000 meals a day to those in need in KwaZulu Natal as well as the project "The House of Opportunity", which helps the homeless obtain skills and jobs.

Zahid holds multiple board positions. He is a non-executive director of National Bioproducts Institute and the Chairman of their Audit and Risk Committee. He also serves as a trustee on the board of the organisation’s Provident Fund. He holds a non-executive director position with Albaraka Bank Limited where he serves as a member of the main board, the Chairman of capital, risk management and compliance committee and as a member of the social and ethics committee.

He has been appointed as the independent Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of Dube Tradeport Corporation as of September 2018.

Zahid Fakey - Fulfilling his greater purpose

YouTube Video UExjcnZneEVLczFLNmdvVjFHNDRVVklLMGt4MnloS3JHcC4yODlGNEE0NkRGMEEzMEQy

Zahid Fakey - Fulfilling his greater purpose

In this episode Indy meets Mufseen Miah. He talks about how growing up he was scared to come out as gay, fearing that if he was open about his sexuality his education, career, and social life might suffer. Mufseen studied economics and later accountancy. Once he started his career he became aware of the importance of supporting ED&I initiatives at work.

Mufseen talks about how he became involved in Pride London, becoming director of finance. Pride is important because it creates a safe space where people can express their sexuality without being judged. It is a celebration of love and diversity, he says.

Mufseen is a co-host on Queer Talk, an exciting new LGBTQ+ podcast which he founded. It is a passion project and explores the many real intersectional issues faced by LGBTQ+ people. In addition to this Mufseen is creative in many areas including design, photography and writing and regularly brings these together in consulting or collaborating with charities on awareness campaigns.

Mufseen is a member of ICAS (Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland) and has several years experience in auditing and assurance services, financial forecasting, budgeting and strategic planning.

Mufseen is an experienced financial accountant working in digital media specialising in FP&A and financial reporting for Little Dot Studios.

Mufseen Miah - Pride is a Beacon of Hope

YouTube Video UExjcnZneEVLczFLNmdvVjFHNDRVVklLMGt4MnloS3JHcC4wMTcyMDhGQUE4NTIzM0Y5

Mufseen Miah - Pride is a Beacon of Hope

In this episode Indy meets Jonny Jacobs CA, is the Finance Director EMEA at Starbucks, he is also a passionate advocate for positive mental health.

Jonny speaks openly about his own struggles with mental health in his teens and talks about the importance of acknowledging challenges people may be experiencing in their lives.

Helping and supporting others is not just a moral and social responsibility in leadership but also has a business case. A healthy economy is about our environment, our communities, our employees – and the health of employees. In the UK alone, mental health-related issues carry a £40 billion cost to business and a further £80 billion in social cost, he explains.

Jonny is a trustee of the Mental Health Foundation, the UK is leading mental health charity, a non Executive Director of Mental Health at Work, a One Young World ambassador and a goalkeeper of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He also plays a key role in supporting ICAS. In 2017, he was recognised as a young chartered accountant of the year and is co-leading the mental fitness in business strategy to drive change on the subject amongst the finance and accounting profession. We hope you find Johnny's story inspiring.

Jonny Jacobs - Ending the stigma around mental health

YouTube Video UExjcnZneEVLczFLNmdvVjFHNDRVVklLMGt4MnloS3JHcC41MjE1MkI0OTQ2QzJGNzNG

Jonny Jacobs - Ending the stigma around mental health

In this episode Indy meets Amir Dossal CA, Founder and President of the Global Partnerships Forum – a not-for-profit knowledge platform to provide changemakers with tools to build innovative partnerships for the SDG.

Amir describes his varied career with emphasis on his journey to, and work within the United Nations. Reflecting on his humanitarian work in various developing countries, Amir describes it as a privilege to be involved in the problem solving required to meet the different challenges. “It was a system based approach…you capture data on epidemiology…and the moment you do health, you’re doing education.”

Amir is a 25-year veteran of the United Nations, and was the UN’s Chief Liaison for Partnerships. As Executive Director of the UN Office for Partnerships, he managed the $1 billion gift by media mogul Ted Turner.

Amir is currently President, Global Partnerships Forum; Champion, UN Safe Ground Campaign; Vice Chair, Blockchain Commission; Distinguished Fellow of Healthcare, World Economic Forum.

We hope you find Amir’s story inspiring.

Amir Dossal - Hope for Humanity

YouTube Video UExjcnZneEVLczFLNmdvVjFHNDRVVklLMGt4MnloS3JHcC4wOTA3OTZBNzVEMTUzOTMy

Amir Dossal - Hope for Humanity

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