Business Impact: Driving biodiversity recovery through business action

Join us for an inspiring evening immediately following IPBES-12 Stakeholder Day.

This event will bring together business leaders, sustainability professionals, and key stakeholders who will translate scientific evidence into concrete action for nature.

Why attend?

The Business and Biodiversity Assessment is the first major global scientific framework examining how businesses depend on and impact nature. It provides an unprecedented opportunity. This evening is your chance to move from awareness to action.

You'll have the opportunity to:

• Hear directly from an IPBES author on what the science tells us about business and nature
• Learn from leading businesses who are pioneering biodiversity commitments
• Connect with CEOs, sustainability directors, investors, and conservation leaders
• Share challenges and discover practical solutions with peers
• Make bold commitments that will drive real change

Who should attend

Corporate executives, sustainability directors, finance and ESG leads, supply chain leaders, academics, policy representatives, and anyone committed to making nature-positive business the norm.

Networking drinks and refreshments available before and after the event.

Speakers include:

Katie-Jo Luxton

Katie-Jo Luxton is Executive Director of Global Conservation at the RSPB, leading the organisations work to tackle the nature and climate emergencies through species conservation, habitat protection, and landscape-scale restoration.

She leads evidence-based advocacy and cross-sector collaboration across priority areas including farming and land management, the energy transition and the new legal and financial frameworks needed to enable nature recovery.

Working with partnerships across government, industry, and land management, the RSPB delivers landscape-scale nature recovery and nature-based solutions to tackle climate change, restore threatened habitats and species and build ecological resilience in the UK and internationally.

Dr Mark Johnston

Mark is Chair and Director of the UK Business & Biodiversity Forum CIC.  An ecologist by background and training with more than 35 years’ experience in this field.  Mark in his day job is the Senior Sustainability Manager (Biodiversity) in the sustainability team at bp plc, as well as lead authors for the IPBES methodological assessment of the impact of businesses on biodiversity and board member of the Tandem Global/Wildlife Habitat Council.

Previously Mark was Senior Lecturer in Biodiversity at the University of the West of England, Bristol, and Associate Director at Mott MacDonald. Has an MBA from the Open University and BSc(Hons) and Phd from Imperial College, London.

Dr Tom Burditt

Tom has been the Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside for 5 years. He represents the Northern Wildlife Trusts on the Nature North Board, is on the Great North Bog Board and sponsors the Green Northern Connections Investable Proposition (working to secure nature investment in partnership with the region’s linear infrastructure providers).

Tom is also a founder-director of the Greater Manchester Environment Trust, Chair of the Our Future Coast (developing nature-based solution pilots on the North West coast), a Trustee of the grant-giving Halpin Trust and a Trustee of Morecambe Bay Partnership, where he lives.

He has previously worked his way up from practical land management roles within Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and National Trust, including stints as Reserve Officer, Lead Ranger and General Manager.

Dr Katie Leach

Katie joined Lloyds Banking Group in May 2023 as Head of Nature, alongside this role she is a Coordinating Lead Author on the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment.

Katie previously worked at responsible investment NGO ShareAction, where she developed and led a new programme of work with investors and banks to raise the profile of biodiversity loss and drive the policies needed to shift this trend. Prior to this, she worked at UNEP-WCMC leading a portfolio of work to embed nature within corporate and financial decision making.

This included leading the development of the ENCORE tool and pioneering work on corporate biodiversity measurement. Katie has a PhD in Biological Sciences from Queen’s University Belfast and an MSc in Zoology from the University of Nottingham.

Professor Javed Siddiqi

Professor Javed Siddiqui is a Professor of Accounting at Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, where he also serves as the Director of Social Responsibility. He is a member of the Research Advisory Board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) and sits on the Due Process Oversight Committee of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
 
Professor Siddiqui’s research expertise encompasses auditing, corporate governance, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, with a specific focus on developing economies. His research has received funding from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Bangladesh Institute of Capital Markets.

Anna Gilchrist

Anna is an experienced Lecturer In Environmental Management and Ecology with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. She is a full member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) and has research and practise-based interests in Rewilding, Landscape Ecology, Biodiversity, Green Infrastructure, ArcGIS and Sustainability.

Anna works extensively with community and professional practice and has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) focused in Climate Change and Biodiversity from The University of Manchester.

Andrea Ledward CBE

Andrea has been a civil servant since 2001. Since late 2020 Andrea has been the International Biodiversity and Climate Director at Defra leading HMG’s international nature work through the G7 and Cop26 Presidencies and with responsibility for the CBD COP15.
 
Previously she was the domestic Natural Environment Director at Defra and Director of the Civil Service Group in the Cabinet Office. Most of her civil service career has been spent in DFID and DCLG. At the Department for International Development she was Head of the Climate and Environment Department, managed the £3.87bn International Climate Finance portfolio across HMG and represented the UK on the Green Climate Fund Board. She has also been the head of DFID’s largest bilateral programme in Ethiopia and led DFID’s Bilateral Aid Review in 2010.

Jo Harrison

Jo is the Director of Strategic Planning & Sustainability at United Utilities. Jo is accountable for leading United Utilities’ strategy and planning activities for the business for the next 25 years, including developing and strengthening the company’s approach to asset management, catchment planning, resilience, climate change, sustainability and the wider environment.

Jo is an environmental scientist and has worked in a variety of operational, planning and strategic roles for United Utilities over the last 25 years. Before joining the company, she worked in environmental consultancy. Jo is a chartered member of CIWEM and a Chartered Environmentalist through the Society for the Environment. Her other roles include Non-Executive Director for Foresight Environmental Infrastructure (UK) Limited and a Trustee for Rivers Trust.

The event will be introduced by Professor Nalin Thakkar, Vice-President for Social Responsibility at The University of Manchester.