Helena Viñes Fiestas

Chair at EU Platform on Sustainable Finance

Speaker

Helena is commissioner of the Spanish Financial Markets Authority (CNMV) and Chair of the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance. She is also a member of the EIB´s Climate and Environment Advisory Council and formerly of the UN Secretary-General High-Level Expert Group on Net Zero Pledges.

Helena was co-rapporteur of the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance (2020-2022) and had previously been a member of the Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance whose role was to assist the European Commission in the development of EU taxonomy and the implementation of the EC Action Plan (2018-2020).

Prior to the CNMV, Helena was Senior Policy Adviser on Sustainable Finance for BNP Paribas and Global Head of Stewardship and Policy for BNP Paribas Asset Management. She led on BNPP AM’S policy and stewardship activities (engagement with companies, proxy voting ) on Sustainability. She was a board member of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), a member of the AMF Comite de Climat et Finance Durable and represented BNPP AM in the EFAMA committee on Stewardship and ESG. She sat on a number of additional committees, including the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Green Finance Advisory Group, PRI Policy Reference Group and the Technical Advisory Group of the LSE-led Transition Pathway Initiative.

As Deputy Global Head of Sustainability, Helena played a critical role in the design, development and implementation of BNPP AM’s Global Sustainability Strategy. Helena had previously led the Sustainability Research team. She has twenty years’ experience of working in responsible business and sustainable investment.

Previously, Helena led Oxfam's advocacy work on responsible investment and engagement with institutional investors in support of poverty reduction. She is the author of numerous papers and articles, book chapters and a book. She earned a BA in Economics and a postgraduate in Latin American Economics from the University of Barcelona (Spain), followed by an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science.