Barbara Strozzilaan 101

1083 HN Amsterdam
The Netherlands
climate@globalreporting.org

GRI Topic Climate ChangeStandard(s) project
Subgroup member biographies
May 2023© GRI 2022

Contents
GRI Topic Climate Change Standard(s) project ................................................................. 1
Subgroup members ................................................................................................................................. 3
Brandon Abdinor ............................................................................................................................... 3
Avi Allison .......................................................................................................................................... 4
David Burns ....................................................................................................................................... 4
Rahnuma Chowdhury ....................................................................................................................... 5
Leanne Govindsamy ......................................................................................................................... 5
Carolin Gresch ................................................................................................................................... 6
Mark Hodge ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Injy Johnstone ................................................................................................................................... 8
José Luis Reséndiz ........................................................................................................................... 8
Michael Macrae .................................................................................................................................. 9
Fernando Reyes-González................................................................................................................ 9
Katie Sierks ...................................................................................................................................... 10
Ally Wilson ....................................................................................................................................... 10

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Subgroup members
In accordance with due process, the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) has selected thefollowing members to participate in the subgroup that will be responsible for reviewing the Climate
Change disclosures in the GRI Standards. The members represent diverse, multi-stakeholder
backgrounds and bring an excellent combination of relevant knowledge and experience in Climate
Change.

Brandon Abdinor
Climate Advocacy Lawyer, Centre for Environmental
Rights, South Africa
Constituency: Civil Society
Brandon joined the CER as a Climate Advocacy Lawyer in
2021. In this role he engages with climate change related
laws and policies with a view to helping ensure that these are
effective and advance the needs of climate justice for all. The
role includes liaising with a wide range of stakeholders togather and share information and build consensus aroundlegal advocacy in pursuit of an increasingly sound and justclimate change response. Since March 2023, Brandon has
been acting at the Head: pollution and Climate Change
programme overseeing all activities.
He obtained an LLB from University of the Witwatersrand andwas admitted as an attorney in 1998 after serving articles at
Routledges Incorporated in Johannesburg. He went on to
fulfil various management and legal roles in the corporate
sector before opening his own legal and consulting practicein 2018, focussing on dispute resolution and sustainability
matters.
Brandon became aware of the extent of the environmental
crisis in the early 2000’s, which led him to introduce climatechange response and general sustainability initiatives into theorganisations he was leading at the time. Some of these
efforts culminated in a greening of a corporate head office,the formulation of energy efficient building standards for theconstruction industry, climate change awareness training andstanding engagement on the Durban Climate Change
Partnership.
Most recently Brandon acted as first a board member, thenconsulting associate at Earthlife Africa, which saw him designand deliver legal rights training for grassroots communities,
as well as provide legal support on various environmental
campaigns.

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Avi Allison
Carbon Portfolio Strategy Lead, Microsoft, UnitedStatesConstituency: Business Enterprise
Avi Allison is a Carbon Portfolio Strategy Lead at Microsoft,where he focuses on Microsoft’s electricity decarbonization
strategy and Microsoft’s approach to carbon accounting. Mr.
Allison’s recent work has included developing Microsoft’s
approach to addressing its upstream (supply chain) anddownstream (sold products) electricity emissions andcoordinating Microsoft’s position regarding the evolution of
corporate carbon accounting standards. Previously, Mr.
Allison worked as a program manager within Microsoft’s CloudOperations & Innovation Energy team, where he developedand executed strategies to supply Microsoft datacenters withreliable, affordable, sustainable energy. Prior to joining
Microsoft in 2020, Mr. Allison worked as a consultant with
Synapse Energy Economics. In that role, Mr. Allison
conducted research, developed analyses, and authoredreports and expert testimony on a variety of electric-sector
topics, including resource planning, power plant economics,
rate design, market design, and emission reduction strategies.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Allison conducted research on climatechange and environmental health topics for nonprofit
environmental organizations. Mr. Allison holds a Master ofEnvironmental Management from Yale University and a
Bachelor of Arts in economics from Columbia University.

David Burns
Senior Associate with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol,
United States
Constituency: Mediation Institution
David is a Senior Associate with the Greenhouse Gas
Protocol, focused on market-based approaches, strategy
development, governance, and external stakeholder
engagement. He also serves as WRI’s Natural Climate
Solutions Policy Lead. Based in the Climate Program but
working closely with experts across the organization, he
supports WRI’s engagement with key stakeholders andinitiatives working on Nature-based Solutions and carbon
markets, guides relevant research, and coordinates
communications on the use of nature to enhance climate
ambition.
Prior to joining WRI, David served as a Senior Manager with
the National Wildlife Federation, where his work centered on
eliminating deforestation and human rights abuses from theproduction of globally traded agricultural commodities likepalm oil, soy, and cattle products. He previously consulted for
the World Bank and Climate Focus, specializing in REDD+,
carbon markets, and land-use policy.

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David holds a Master of Environmental Management from the
Yale School of Forestry (now Yale School of the Environment)
and a B.A. from Bates College. He is based in Washington,
DC.

Rahnuma Chowdhury
Consultant at the United Nations Environment
Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), Switzerland
Constituency: Civil Society/ Investment institution (NonGovernmental Organization)
Rahnuma Chowdhury joined UNEP FI in February 2021,
specialising in the development and implementation oftransition plans for investors, specifically the Investor Climate
Action Plans (ICAPs) Expectations Ladder. She sits across
UNEP FI’s Investment and Climate teams where she focuses
on developing investor leadership practices in responsible
investing and building approaches to track and assess investor
performance on net zero commitments. She also acts as
ICAPs Manager for the Investor Agenda and is UNEP FI'srepresentative on the ICAPs WG. Rahnuma sits as an Advisor
to the GFANZ Workstream on Financial Institution Transition
Plans and on the Steering Group for the Act 4 FinanceDecarbonising the Transition project. She was also an Expert
on the Race to Zero Criteria Consultation for Transition Plans& Immediate Action.
Prior to her role at UNEP FI, Rahnuma worked on a number ofprojects relating to climate change for financial services firms
including developing ESG frameworks, setting climate strategy
and assessing sustainable investments within roles at QBE,
PwC and the Bank of England. Rahnuma holds a BA in Public
Affairs and Policy Management with High Honours from
Carleton University in Ottawa and a MSc in Development
Management from the London School of Economics.

Leanne Govindsamy
Head of the Corporate, Accountability andTransparency Programme, Centre for Environmental
Rights, South Africa
Constituency: Civil Society
Leanne Govindsamy is a human rights lawyer working towards
social and environmental justice. As head of the Corporate,
Accountability and Transparency Programme at the Centre forEnvironmental Rights, she utilises legal advocacy and othertools to promote and protect constitutional rights and values
through corporate accountability and transparency.”
Centre for Environmental Rights, Programme Head: Corporate
Accountability and Transparency
Leanne holds an LLB from the Wits University and an LLM in
International Human Rights Law summa cum laude from thePage 5 of 10

University of Notre Dame. She served as a law clerk in theConstitutional Court to Justice Tholakele Madala and worked
briefly at legal NGOs in India, which reinforced hercommitment to the attainment of social justice and theprotection of human rights through judicial and non-judicial
mechanisms of accountability. She completed her articles atthe law firm Cheadle Thompson and Haysom, where she
continued to work as an associate before joining Corruption
Watch as Head of Legal and Investigations in 2014. She has
obtained an MA in Anthropology from Wits University.
Leanne joined the Centre in October 2018 and manages its
Corporate Accountability and Transparency programme.

Carolin Gresch
Consultant at the United Nations Environment
Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), Switzerland
Constituency: Civil Society/ Investment institution (NonGovernmental Organization)
Carolin Gresch is a consultant at the United Nations
Environment Programme Finance Initiative, where she has
dedicated her efforts to the Un-convened Net-Zero Asset
Owner Alliance. Over the past two years, she has gained
substantial expertise in the critical areas of climate target
setting and reporting, while working within the Monitoring,
Reporting and Verification Track of the Alliance. In addition to
supporting the Target Setting Protocols, which are the flagshipprojects of the Alliance, Carolin manages the Working Groupsof the MRV Track.
Prior to her work at UNEP FI, Carolin served as a member of
the Climate Team of the Principles for Responsible
Investment, contributing to various projects focused on
financing the transition. She also provided support to the ESG
Implementation Team of the Allianz Investment Management
SE.
Carolin's academic achievements include a Master's degree inManagement and Technology from the Technical University of
Munich, with a focus in Finance & Accounting and MechanicalEngineering.

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Mark Hodge
Vice President, Shift, United States
Constituency: Civil Society
As Vice President with Shift, Mark helps shape Shift strategy
and oversees a range of collaborations with companies,
governments, investors, civil society and other partners. Markco-led Shift’s Valuing Respect Project, focused on developing
better ways to evaluate business respect for human rights. He
has extensive insight into how businesses implement the UN
Guiding Principles in practice. As a trained moderator andfacilitator, Mark has deep interest and experience in leading
processes that address complex challenges and lead topractical outcomes.
Based on Shift’s leading expertise in advancing business
respect for human rights consistent with the UNGPs, Shift isincreasingly asked to partner with various climate andenvironment focused organisations to integrate a people-lensto their work. These have included the Climate Disclosures
Standards Board (prior to its integration into ISSB); theTaskforce for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures and theScience-Based Target Network.
Mark has focused significantly on the implementation of the
UN Guiding Principles in the context of emerging digitaltechnologies such as AI, facial recognition, cloud computing
and social media. He has served as Senior Advisor to the UN
Human Rights Business, Human Rights and Technology (BTech) project to develop guidance and recommendations forcompanies, States and investors about how to embed respectfor human rights into the business of technology. Mark has
also been a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at Harvard
Kennedy School’s Carr Center.
Mark was previously the Executive Director of the Global
Business Initiative on Human Rights (GBI) which he cofounded in 2009. In that role he led the development of GBI’s
cross-industry peer learning program that addressed the daily
realities and dilemmas of doing business with respect forhuman rights. His work also included a project on leverage incorporate lending and project finance for the Dutch Banking
Sector Agreement on International Responsible BusinessConduct, and the development of a program of work on new
digital technologies for the Institute for Human Rights andBusiness. Mark has designed and delivered training andcapacity building around the world to business leaders, NGO
representatives and students, and conducted factory and mineassessments and field visits in several countries with a focus
on India, where he was based between 2009 and 2012.

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Injy Johnstone
Research Associate within the Oxford Sustainable
Finance Group, University of Oxford, UK
Constituency: Mediation Institution (Academic)
Injy is a Research Associate within the Oxford Sustainable
Finance Group working to establish a new research
programme focused on offsetting. She is a PhD Candidate inInternational Environmental Law at the Faculty of Law atVictoria University of Wellington and an Enrolled Barrister andSolicitor of the High Court of New Zealand. Her research
focuses on conceiving Net-Zero as a source of new legal
norms and delving into their substance, including theenvironmental integrity of carbon markets. Injy has attended
Columbia University as a Visiting Scholar and Edinburgh Law
School as a Visiting Researcher. Prior to this, and as a
Fulbright scholar, Injy gained an LLM in Environmental andEnergy Law from the University of Colorado-Boulder. She also
holds an LLB(Hons) from Victoria University of Wellington anda BSc in Physical Geography and Economics from the
University of Otago. Throughout her career Injy has worked
with and for a range of public, private and third-sector entities
across four continents. These include Oxford Net-Zero, theGlobal Center on Adaptation, UNESCO and the UN MGCY.
While at New Zealand’s Ministry for the Environment she wasthe Project Administrator for New Zealand’s Zero Carbon Act.
Injy attended COP26 and COP27 as an observer focused on
Article 6 Carbon Markets and is keenly interested in how
Article 6 will be operationalised in coming years. She is also
currently part of the Early Career Scholars for an Inclusive
Stocktake (ECSIS) program

José Luis Reséndiz
Doctoral Researcher at the Oxford Sustainable FinanceGroup, University of Oxford, UK
Constituency: Mediation Institution (Academic)
José Luis Reséndiz is a Doctoral Researcher at the Oxford
Sustainable Finance Group, specializing in transition financeand business model transformation aligned with a net-zeroand nature-positive economy. His research is focused onsustainability-linked finance and transition plans in the power
and aviation sectors. In addition to his role at Oxford, he is a
Research Fellow at Boston University's Global Development
Policy Center and a member of the Secretariat for the UK
Transition Plan Taskforce, established by HM Treasury. This
taskforce aims to develop the standard for corporate climatetransition plans in the UK and inform the FCA. José Luis has
provided consultation and policy advisory services onsustainable finance and energy policy to governments andmultilateral agencies, including the World Bank and theGovernment of Mexico City

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Michael Macrae
Senior Manager with Greenhouse Gas Protocol ,United States
Constituency: Mediation Institution
Michael Macrae is a member of WRI’s GHG Protocol
Secretariat facilitating the review and update process for the
Scope 2 Guidance. Prior to WRI, he led development of Enel
North America’s market advocacy and regulatory strategy for
the North eastern United States, ensuring and enabling growthof distributed energy resources, renewable generation andstorage, demand response, and electric vehicle infrastructure.
Michael has also worked with Harvard University, managing
the University’s wholesale and retail electricity market
participation, developing energy procurement strategies tomeet energy supply, environmental, and sustainability needs.
Leadership positions in that capacity included serving as Vice
Chair of the NEPOOL End User Sector, Vice Chair of the
NEPOOL-GIS working group, and a member of the joint
nominating committee for the ISO-NE Board of Directors. With
Harvard he also oversaw the University’s state and federal
regulatory air compliance programs, including permitting a
new Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit and a new District
Energy Facility as well as managing Harvard’s voluntary
Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG inventory. He serves on his town’s
Municipal Light Board of Directors and teaches courses on
corporate carbon accounting at the Harvard University.
Michael earned his PhD in chemistry from University ofCalifornia, San Diego.

Fernando Reyes-González
Environmental Monitoring & Reporting Program
Manager, Microsoft, United States
Constituency: Business Enterprise
Fernando is the Environmental Monitoring & Reporting
Program Manager within the CELA Sustainability team at
Microsoft. In this role, he leads the measurement and reportingof environmental impacts across the business by working withstakeholders to identify objectives, key results andenvironmental impacts across the organization, andcollaboratively determine goals/KPIs to track progress. Prior to
Microsoft, Fernando spent 12 years with Johnson Controls,part of their corporate sustainability team leading the internaland external reporting of environmental sustainability data;
third party data audit and CDP response; sustainability metrics
projections; and supported various sustainability initiatives.
Fernando is originally from Monterrey, Mexico and has abachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering with a minor in
Environmental Engineering from ITESM (Monterrey Tec); anda Masters in Environmental Management from IIT Stuart
School of Business in Chicago, IL.

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Katie Sierks
Senior Program Manager Carbon Removal, Microsoft,
United States
Constituency: Business Enterprise
Katie Sierks is a Senior Program Manager on the Microsoft
Carbon Removal Team. She procures high-quality carbon
removals to ensure Microsoft achieves ambitious carbon
neutrality and carbon negativity commitments. She aims todevelop a high-quality, global voluntary carbon market bycatalyzing market growth, transparency, and accessibility.
Prior to Microsoft, Katie helped launch and scale Corteva’s
Carbon Initiative, enabling farmers to de-risk the adoption ofnew, soil-health building practices. She also worked inengineering, corporate sustainability, and supply chain
management roles at Cargill and Walmart. Katie completed an
MBA and Masters of Environmental Management at Yale
University and bachelors in Environmental Engineering andEarth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard College.

Ally Wilson
Senior Leader in Sustainability Standards, Microsoft,
United States
Constituency: Business Enterprise
Ally is a senior leader in Sustainability Operations with three
decades of successful experience with Microsoft in data,systems and digital transformation. In her current role, she
leads
enterprisesustainability
datameasurement,
governance, and internal/external disclosures. Driven by thedesire to create and innovate, she is leading efforts totransform climate physical and transition risk enterprisemodelling. A relative newcomer to the Sustainability discipline,
Ally brings operational structure and discipline to support
progress against commitments. Ally is inspired by finding new
ways to integrate technology to streamline, automate andunlock solutions.

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