Ravi Abeywardana

Ravi Abeywardana, Qualified Chartered Accountant with ICAEW, is a Director of Strategic Affairs and Capacity Building at the IFRS Foundation, where he leads the Capacity Building programme linked to the new IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards with respect to the accountancy profession.

Ravi has close to 2 decades of experience across public, private and non-profit sectors, across multiple geographies, on a range of financial, environmental, social and governance matters. These include Corporate Finance (Financial Controller for a SGX Listed Company), Corporate Disclosures (IFRS Accounting Standards and various Sustainability Frameworks / Standards), ESG Policy / Monitoring / Adaptation (including GHG Emissions), ESG Enterprise Risk Management, Financial and ESG assurance, Treasury (for example, Sustainability Linked Working Capital Solutions) and Capacity Building.

He is previously a Technical Director at the ISSB and was one of the original architects of IFRS S1, having led both the IFRS Foundation Trustees Technical Readiness Working Group General Requirements Prototype released at COP26 and the development of the inaugural [draft] IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards: General Requirements [IFRS S1]. He was previously the Technical Director at the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) that was consolidated by the IFRS Foundation in February 2022, and led their expansion of the CDSB Framework from wider environmental matters into environment and social matters that was consolidated by the IFRS Foundation.

Prior to standard setting, he worked for Olam International as a Chartered Accountant, initially in its finance function before moving into CSR where he worked on a range of Corporate Sustainability matters, including disclosures, financing, strategy, and was one of the original architects of its global Integrated Impact Statement.

Ravi Abeywardana

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Ravi Abeywardana

Will Farrell

Federated Hermes
Assistant Manager, EOS
London

Will co-leads the climate change theme at EOS, the stewardship arm of Federated Hermes Limited, where his coverage includes companies in Europe and Australia, primarily financial services, energy, chemicals, and materials. Prior to joining EOS, Will worked in the energy and infrastructure investment banking team at Macquarie Capital, where he specialised in renewable energy. Before that, Will held a number of roles across the UK climate policy space, including as a parliamentary researcher for Rt. Hon. Chris Skidmore MP on climate and energy issues, and as a climate and economic policy analyst at a diplomatic institute. He was appointed as a voluntary adviser to Rt. Hon. Alok Sharma MP, President of COP26, on preparations for COP26 after co-founding a Westminster climate policy group in 2019, which engaged MPs and Members of the House of Lords to advocate for more ambition on climate action in public policy. Will has a Bachelor’s degree (1st Class Honours) in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.