2. Speaker Biographies

Richard Sherman is the substantive lead for the climate finance programme at the Cape Town-based NGO, South-South North (SSN). Richard is a member of the South African delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where he also serves as one of the African Group lead coordinators on climate finance negotiations, and where he coordinates the African Board members of the Green Climate Fund and serves as lead adviser to the developing country Co-Chair of the Board. He was also one of the African representatives on the Standing Committee of Finance between 2014 and 2018, which is mandated to oversee coherence between the funds under the financial mechanism of the Convention.

João Carlos Ferraz is a Professor at the Instituto de Economica housed at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He served as Vice-President and Executive Director of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) between 2007 and 2016. Previously (2003-2007), he was Director of the Division of Productive Development of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN / ECLAC) in Chile. His areas of expertise cover business strategies and competitiveness, industrial and innovation development, technology foresight, development finance and industrial and innovation policies.

Penelope Hawkins is a published economist with a PhD in economics from Stirling University, Scotland. She is a Senior Economic Affairs Officer in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) Debt Analysis and Finance Division on Globalisation and Development Strategies. Her research focuses on external and public country debt, finance for development, illicit financial flows, financial inclusion, and how development finance can contribute to structural transformation and addressing climate change.

Alberto Lemma is a Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute in London. He works as a researcher and economist in the organisation’s International Economic Development Group. Alberto specialises in private sector development, specifically in access to finance, business partnership programmes and the interplay between the private sector and climate change adaptation and mitigation. His work on finance focuses on Development Finance Institution impact assessment and the role of DFIs in development, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) finance and access to innovative sources of finance such as crowdfunding or alternative financial mechanisms for SMEs.