Greenwashing Risk Management Seminar 2024

Valerie Wang is a Sustainability Solution Consultant at EcoVadis, a purpose-driven company providing sustainability solution suite to a global customer base. In her role, Valerie consults and guides businesses to strategize and deploy EcoVadis’ risk mapping, risk verification, carbon maturity review, and e-learning tools to drive impact in the value chain. Valerie’s main focus areas are modern slavery, diversity, equity & inclusion and Scope 3 value chain emissions.

Prior to her current role, Valerie worked as a Sustainability Analyst and Team Lead focusing on labor and human rights ratings methodology and engagement with the rated companies.

Valerie graduated with a Master’s Degree in Sustainability and Social Innovation from HEC Paris.

Ms. Song has 17 years of professional service experience in financial service industry and is committed to providing comprehensive solutions for accounting consulting, auditing, management improvement, and sustainability.

In recent years, Ms. Song has focused on providing green finance consulting, ESG information disclosure consulting and assurance service, carbon accounting, ESG rating enhancement, green bond and green deposit assurance services to large financial institutions.

She has participated in the policy researches and discussions organized by governments and professional organizations such as the China Banking Association, the Ministry of Finance, and the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants. .

Ms. Song graduated from the Renmin University of China and is a Chinese Certified Public Accountant (CICPA).

Gary Yang is a partner from the corporate department of Shanghai office and a member of Global ESG Steering Committee. Before Dacheng, Gary Yang was APAC General Counsel at Fortune 500 MNCs (AkzoNobel and Air Liquide). Prior to that, he worked at Simmons & Simmons LLP and Zhonglun Law Firm at their Shanghai offices. He has passed the bar in China and New York.

In 2023, a corporate liability case represented by Gary Yang was published by China Supreme Procuratorate as a guiding precedent for businesses seeking non-prosecution verdicts. In China, a guiding case serves as a pivotal reference for judicial decision-making, much like case law in other legal systems. This case has become the first in China to attain a non-prosecution decision through the implementation of an ESG improvement plan and also the first non-prosecution verdict for multinational company environmental criminal liability.

Gary has in-depth experience in investments and transactions with ESG impact. He also assists clients in disputes, government investigation and corporate criminal liability in areas of ESG non-compliance (Environment, Social and Governance).

Stephen Baron works as the Head of Reputational & Sustainability Risk for HSBC China. Prior to working for HSBC he worked for the UK Government as the Director and also Deputy Director for Financial and Professional services for the Department for International Trade based in the Consulate General Shanghai.

He initially came to Shanghai to work for a financial services focused strategic consultancy as a deputy director, supporting global financial services companies on their China business.

He came to China in 2009 to undertake his MSc in International Business at Ningbo, Nottingham University. After graduating with a distinction Stephen moved to Beijing to pursue further studies at Tsinghua University.

Dr Zhang Guoxiong is the Managing Director of Deloitte China’s Economic Advisory Service. He has rich economic research experience in academia, international institutions and business consulting, and has provided macroeconomic and strategic advice to the C-level executives of more than 100 multinational companies, including dozens of Fortune 500 companies. At Deloitte China, Dr. Zhang provides macroeconomic and policy advice to senior executives of foreign and local companies, and helps multinational companies localize in the Chinese market and Chinese companies expand their global business.

Previously, Dr Zhang was Shanghai Director and China Research Head of The Economist Corporate Network. Before joining The Economist Group, Dr Zhang was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and a Visiting Scholar at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. During his doctoral studies, Dr Zhang also worked as a summer intern economist at the Asian Development Bank. Dr Zhang has directed and led a number of national research projects, and his research papers have been presented at several international academic and policy conferences, and some of them have been published in top academic journals. Dr Zhang taught macroeconomics and finance at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Zhang Guoxiong graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a Ph.D. in Economics and a Master’s degree in Statistics. Dr Zhang also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Zhejiang University.