Ep. 34. Kayalin Akens-Irby: Planet FWD

Kayalin Akens-Irby is an impact-driven strategist focused on building a sustainable future through her work across tech, investment, and policy. As Head of Growth at Planet FWD, she helps consumer companies measure and reduce their carbon footprint and decarbonize supply chains. Previously, she served as Head of VC and Growth Equity at Malk Partners, where she developed ESG investment strategies for top private equity funds, contributing to over $500B in AUM. A frequent speaker at global climate conferences, Kayalin co-built a 26,000-member climate tech community on Clubhouse. She is a Claremont McKenna College graduate, a Board Member of the Upcycled Food Association, and an advisor to green tech startups.

Mr Tim Dunn is the co-founder and CIO of Terra Alpha Investments, a firm offering sustainable public equity investment strategies to accredited investors, combines decades of investment experience with a science-based understanding of environmental risks and opportunities. Terra Alpha uses two proprietary research frameworks—Enduring Business Models and Environmental Productivity—to identify companies that can deliver strong financial returns while contributing to a sustainable economy. With over 30 years in professional investing, including 19 years at Capital Research as a lead manager of major global equity funds, Mr Dunn draws on experience with environmental organizations, emphasizing the importance of aligning capital markets with sustainable resource use and societal needs.

Sophie invests in and supports early-stage climate tech founders & their companies via Planeteer Capital, and writes CTVC for 75,000+ subscribers. Prior, she launched an ESG fund at a major endowment. Formerly, she worked at Bain & Co., published a book on sustainable investing, and helped found carbon-negative fertilizer co (raised +$65m).

Ron is the CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York-based investment firm focused on building a circular economy through venture capital, growth equity, private equity, and project finance, with investors including major retailers and family offices. He authored Waste Free World and previously served as Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation in NYC, overseeing recycling and waste management. Ron is also an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and has received numerous accolades, including being named a United Nations "Champion of the Earth." He co-founded RecycleBank and holds patents in recycling technology. He earned his MBA from Columbia Business School

Louise Emmanuelle Mabulo is a 22-year-old chef, farmer, and entrepreneur. She is the Founder of The Cacao Project, which cultivates resilient and Climate-smart livelihoods, positioning farmers for sustainable success in San Fernando, Camarines Sur, Philippines. Louise is a National Geographic Young Explorer, a featured honouree for Forbes Asia’s list ‘30 Under 30’, a Young Champion of the Earth under United Nations Environment Programme, an honouree of Tatler’s ‘Generation T’, and was awarded Outstanding Young Farmer of the Year in 2018. She is a recipient of the Friend Of Humanity Award under Friendship Ambassadors Foundation New York, Social Entrepreneur award from the University of Connecticut, Champion for Sustainability Award from the Economic Times India, and on Straits Times ’30 Under 30 to watch for’ Asia list. Louise has also hosted pop-up dinners that source local ingredients and highlight locally produced components of her menus. She was the host to the cooking show ‘Simply Sarap’, aimed at promoting cultural diplomacy under the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Philippines. Mabulo strives toward empowering farmers and advancing climate action & environmental stewardship through her work.

Satyajeet Tambe is an educationalist, an entrepreneur, and a young Politician from Maharashtra, India. He attended Pune University and John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. 

Ara is the founder of the Aha! Project (www.ahaproject.id | @aha.projectid ). It is a social initiative that provides quality and fun learning tools for young students at home. Within less than 12 months since its inception, her initiative has already impacted ~2,400 children across 13 provinces and 35 villages in Indonesia.  "We need every one of us to take action and solve the problems we face around us, instead of waiting for a hero and demanding the change from other people we all must reflect and understand what can we do to make the world a better place". Background:  Ara is a serial social entrepreneur and she began her social entrepreneurial journey at 10 years of age with the Moo's project 🐄. Ara was quickly recognized as a Changemaker of the future, and she became an Ashoka Youth Venturer at the age of 11.  Growing up, Ara experienced a range of schooling systems. In her elementary years, she was home-schooled, then she went to a local school, followed by a stint as an international undergraduate student living in a new country. Following her studies in marketing and management in Singapore, she returned to Indonesia and at the age of 21, and started a travel-learning project URTravelearner to help others envision changemaker lives by seeing social entrepreneurs in action.  In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic stuck, she launched Aha! Project, a scheme to improve the access of study resources for children during the pandemic. A Changemaker in every sense, in this podcast episode Ara shares her journey of correcting the problems she sees in the world, keeping her eyes open to new ways of making an impact and paying it forward.  Recommendations:  Book: Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi Get in touch with Ara: Ara's Instagram and LinkedIn Aha! Project website, and Instagram 

Mesut is an Ashoka Fellow, and founder-CEO of E-Bursum. E-Bursum is the biggest educational finance platform in Turkey that digitizes and democratizes financial opportunities for students. Background:  Mesut established E-bursum to build a democratization and digitization movement aiming to make student scholarships and loans more transparent, fair, and impactful in Turkey. Mesut is turning a dysfunctional financial instrument in education into an empowerment tool and fundamentally changing the ways scholarship givers and recipients interact with one another. Mesut grew up in a large family in Eastern Turkey. When a devastating earthquake hit their city and his father’s business went into bankruptcy in 2011, Mesut came across financial hardship for the first time in his life. Having spent his youth years away from home, in boarding schools, Mesut mentioned his first year at the university as the hardest one of his life due to many other problems following the earthquake incidence. Mesut spent his first year at university searching for scholarships, loans, and flexible job opportunities while observing many others like him dropping out of school or ending up homeless. Being one of the members of the city council at the age of 18, Mesut tried his best to persuade municipalities to build living centers for homeless students. After failing in this exert, he started to contemplate the ways of building a democratic and transparent system that triggers citizens to work for the overall wealth of the youngsters. A computer engineer by education, Mesut started to design an online platform to ease the processes of scholarship applications and evaluations by the age of 20. After the launch of the beta version of E-bursum, Mesut kept innovating and improving his platform, while also noticing other challenges youth face because of financial difficulties in Turkey. He dedicated himself to solving these problems one by one by using the opportunities of 21st century, especially the internet and new technologies. Links: Mesut Keskin | LinkedIn

Layusa Isa-Odidi is an Associate Partner, leading Dalberg’s presence in Melbourne, Australia. She focuses on strategic planning and financing across the areas of education, employment, agriculture, and gender.  Her recent work in Education to Employment includes working closely with the Secretariat and Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education to develop a new financing and funding framework and supporting a large private foundation on its 2018-2030 strategy, a realignment of its current and planned investments towards increasing youth employment across Africa. Layusa’s work at the intersection of agriculture and gender includes collaborating with the African Development Bank to outline its $2bn 10-year agriculture strategy, supporting a large private foundation to develop its initial strategy for Women’s Market Inclusion in agricultural transformation, and developing the gender component of IDH’s service delivery model analysis. Before joining Dalberg, Layusa worked with McKinsey & Company in Lagos and the Boston Consulting Group in Boston advising private, government, and public sector clients. Layusa holds a Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA-ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School, a Master in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School, and a Bachelor in Arts from Harvard University. Links: Layusa Isa-Odidi - LinkedIn LAYUSA ISA-ODIDI - Dalberg

Dr. Arunabha Ghosh is a celebrated public policy professional, adviser, author, columnist, and institution builder. In this warm conversation, we chat about Dr. Ghosh's Inflexion Points, which is also the name of his monthly Business Standard column. From making documentaries with Jay Z, and working with the United Nations in New York, to coming back to New Delhi, and starting a policy think tank from scratch, Dr. Ghosh has done it all. While his TED talk crossed over 250,000 views, this podcast episode is the only show that opens you to the person behind the genius.   As founder-CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, since 2010, he has led CEEW to the top ranks among Asia's leading policy research institutions (8 years in a row); and among the world’s 20 best climate think-tanks. He conceptualized and designed the International Solar Alliance. He conceptualized and is a founding board member of the Clean Energy Access Network (CLEAN). Co-author/editor of 4 books and with experience in 45 countries, he previously worked at Princeton, Oxford, UNDP (New York), and WTO (Geneva).  In 2018, the UN Secretary-General nominated him to the UN's Committee for Development Policy. In 2020, Govt. of India appointed him Co-Chair of the energy, environment, and climate change track for India’s Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP2020). His 2019 TED Talk on air quality (Mission 80-80-80) has crossed 240,000 views. He is co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Clean Air and a member of the international high-level panel of the Environment of Peace initiative. He is the lead author of Jobs, Growth and Sustainability (CEEW, 2020). He is co-author/editor of four books: The Palgrave Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy (2016); Energizing India (SAGE, 2016); Human Development and Global Institutions (Routledge, 2016); and Climate Change: A Risk Assessment (FCO, 2015). Arunabha’s essay “Rethink India’s energy strategy” in Nature was selected as one of 2015’s ten most influential essays. Arunabha advises governments, industry, civil society, and international organizations around the world. This has included India’s Prime Minister’s Office, several ministries & state governments. He was invited by France, as a Personnalité d’Avenir, to advise on the COP21 climate negotiations. He advised extensively on HFC negotiations. He has been a member of Track II dialogues with ten countries/regions. His columns have been widely published (Business Standard, Financial Express, Forbes, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Nikkei Asian Review, The Times of India, etc.). He has hosted a documentary on the water in Africa, featured in National Geographic and Discovery Channel documentaries on energy and climate change. He has been regularly interviewed on Al Jazeera, CNBC, CNN News 18, India Today TV, NDTV, etc. He is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader; & Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader. He holds a D.Phil. from Oxford and topped Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. Links:  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/arunabhaghosh/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/ghosharunabha CEEW Website - https://www.ceew.in/