Siet Meijer is a Senior Environmental Specialist in the World Bank's Global Environment Department, where she serves as Program Manager of PROGREEN, a Global Partnership for Sustainable and Resilient Landscapes. Prior to this role, she worked in the Climate Change Department on the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and the BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes (ISFL). Her broader experience at the World Bank also spans the South Asia Environment and Africa Energy Departments. Before joining the World Bank, Siet held positions at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), where she worked on food projection models, and at the World Resources Institute (WRI), where she focused on nutrient trading. She holds an MSc in Rural Development and Environmental Economics from Wageningen University, the Netherlands.

Veerle de Smit is a Consultant in the World Bank Group's Financial Services Sector department, where she focuses on sustainability-linked financing. She applies econometric methods to develop statistical models for benchmarking, KPI selection, and target-setting within sustainability-linked finance frameworks. She contributed to the structuring of the €433 million Côte d'Ivoire Sustainability-Linked Loan, supporting the operationalization of forestry-related KPIs through quantitative analysis. She holds a background in Climate Econometrics.

Marek Hanusch is a Lead Economist in the World Bank’s Fiscal Policy and Growth Global Practice in the Eastern and Southern Africa Region, based in Nairobi. He was previously Senior Economist for Brazil and South Africa. He holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and has published in various economics and development journals including the European Economic Review, Economics Letters, and Public Choice. He led numerous World Bank reports including “A Balancing Act for Brazil’s Amazonian States: An Economic Memorandum” and “An Incomplete Transition: Overcoming the Legacy of Exclusion in South Africa”, published by the World Bank and Cape Town University Press respectively. His main professional and academic interests lie in structural policies for economic growth, poverty reduction, equity, and fiscal and environmental sustainability.

Kanta Kumari Rigaud is a Lead Environmental Specialist at the World Bank with more than 25 years of professional experience in natural resources management, environmental management, and climate change adaptation. She joined the World Bank in 2004 and has worked in the Middle East North Africa Region, the Climate Change Group, and is currently working in the Africa Region as the Regional Climate Change Coordinator. In her current role, she led the development of the Next Generation Africa Climate Business Plan and continues to support the rollout and implementation of the plan and associate knowledge work working with team across the institution. She also works directly in Uganda and Kenya, including on their National Determined Contributions.

Isfandyar Zaman Khan is the Lead Specialist, for Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation for East Africa.  Prior to his current assignment he worked as a Program Leader for the Central/Eastern Europe and the Baltic Countries. He leads on work related to the for the Financial Sector,  Business Environment, Competitive Industries, and Innovation with a focus on Financial Sector Crisis Management & Stability,  Sustainability Issues (Greening, Climate Finance, Carbon) and access to finance. He has worked on a diverse set of countries such as Armenia, Bosnia, China, Croatia, Kenya, Malawi, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine. Prior to the Bank, Mr. Zaman Khan worked for Salomon Smith Barney in New York. Mr Zaman Khan holds a degree in Economic Policy Making and International Finance from Columbia University in New York.  

James Seward is a Lead Climate Finance Specialist in the World Bank’s Climate Department, where he focuses on carbon finance transactions. Prior to this role, he was on the Capital Markets team at the World Bank Treasury, where he led the design and implementation of financial solutions that enabled emerging-market governments to access sustainable development financing and manage financial risks. During his over 20-year career at the World Bank, James focused on financial sector development, stability, regulation and supervision, banking system reform, market-building, and access to finance. He has also managed large teams in East Asia and Africa. James holds a Master's from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree from James Madison University, and earned the Sustainability and Climate Risk certificate from the Global Association of Risk Professionals. 

GianLeo Frisari is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist at World Bank Group’s Financial Services Sector department, focusing on climate finance instruments and development of sustainable capital markets, including sustainability-linked structures for climate and nature goals. He joined the World Bank in 2024 from the Inter-American Development Bank where he developed climate finance solutions and sustainable financial instruments for the public sector, such as sovereign governments in Latin America and the Caribbean. GianLeo holds a Ph.D. in “Science and Management of Climate Change” from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, graduated in Economics from Bocconi University in Milan and is a Chartered Alternative Investments Analyst (CAIA).