The new Asia Pacific Chapter of the Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) Chief Financial Officers Leadership Network has been announced at the A4S Annual Summit opened via video message by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.
The Asia Pacific Chapter will collaborate with global peers to progress sustainability in business as part of the global A4S CFO Leadership Network, founding members of the chapter said .
CFOs are key to developing sustainable businesses as they control the flows of money, provide the data needed to inform decision making and support integration across the business, A4S CO Leadership Network noted.
The network empowers CFOs to take a lead by using their unique positions to drive change internally, and influence and inspire others to act, including boards and executive management, the network added.
The founding members of the Asia Pacific Chapter — as follows —represent organizations from countries spanning across Singapore, India, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Australia, according to the network.
- Rishi Kalra, executive director and Group CFO, Olam Food Ingredients (OFI) (Chapter Co-chair)
- Andrew Lim, CFO, CapitaLand Investment
- Chaye Cabal-Revilla, chief finance, sustainability, and risk officer, Metro Pacific Investments
- Kevin Monteiro, chief CFO & executive director, Japfa
- Manfred Seah, CFO, SATS
- Martyn Roberts, Group CFO, Ramsay Healthcare
- Marc Rivers, CFO, Fonterra Co-operative Group
The global CFO Leadership Network is a unique group of over 60 CFOs from large organisations representing more than US$20.7 trillion in combined total assets, with members having a commercial presence across 200 plus countries, according to a statement of the network.
“We simply must seize the current window of opportunity to re-imagine our global systems in a way that puts nature, people, and planet at the heart of how we operate,” said HRH The Prince of Wales, in a message broadcast to global financial leaders to open the A4S Summit. “My Accounting for Sustainability Project is providing you with the guidance, tools and training required. My only hope is that you can learn from these examples and take heart from the success of the members of the various A4S networks.”
As climate and other sustainability-related risks are growing, embedding sustainability into strategy and processes makes business sense, the network noted.
This is particularly important for the Asia Pacific region, with 11 of the top 20 countries experiencing the greatest level of GDP impact, due to the key risks of extreme weather and adaptive capacity, being within the region, the network noted, adding that the top five are all APAC countries.
