Elsa Palanza

Managing Director & Global Head of Sustainability & ESG at ICG

Speaker

Elsa Palanza is Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainability & ESG at ICG, where she is responsible for establishing and embedding the firm’s sustainability strategy, including advancing the integration of ESG factors across the firm’s asset classes as well as broad stakeholder engagement.

Prior to assuming this role, Elsa was Global Head of Sustainability & ESG at Barclays, where she led strategy, policy, and engagement for the bank on sustainability and ESG matters, including climate change and environmental stewardship, social impact, human rights, and sustainable finance. Elsa served in several industry leadership positions, including Western Europe Representative on the UNEP FI Banking Board, Co-chair of the Financial Services Task Force Net Zero Working Group at the SMI, and Co-chair of the UK Finance Sustainability Committee, and has done extensive public speaking on ESG.

Elsa has over 20 years of experience as a strategic advisor for companies, foundations, and civil society organizations, forging comprehensive solutions to complex global challenges. She served for six years as Director of Commitments for the Clinton Global Initiative, a role that afforded her broad insight into best practices in sustainability, and was enlisted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create and launch a platform to advance progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Earlier in her career, Elsa worked for several years in Washington, D.C. delivering geopolitical and industry risk analysis to international energy companies, and lived in Istanbul, Turkey, leading business operations for an education company’s pilot program.

Elsa has a BA in international studies from Middlebury College and attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she concentrated on international security studies.