IDEACARBON - Key Persons


Ian Johnson - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman

Lord Desai

Job Titles:
  • Advisor
  • Chairman of the Meghnad Desai Academy of Economics
  • Member of the House of Lords
Meghnad Desai, Lord Desai, joined IDEAcarbon's Advisory Board in 2007. Lord Desai is a member of the House of Lords and is Chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) Advisory Board. OMFIF is an independent think tank for central banking, economic policy and public investment, providing a neutral platform for public and private sector engagement worldwide. Mr Desai joined IDEAcarbon's Advisory Board in 2008. Mr Nitin Desai is a Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General for Internet Governance, and chairs the Advisory Group that organises the annual UN Internet Governance Forum. Nitin is an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in London. In India, he is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and advises the Indian Government on its national climate change action plan. Lord Desai has been an advisor to IDEAcarbon since 2018. Lord Desai has been awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India, in 2008. Lord Desai serves as the founder chairman of the Meghnad Desai Academy of Economics in Mumbai (MDAE). Mr Desai joined IDEAcarbon's Advisory Board in 2008, announcing, "I have joined the IDEAcarbon Advisory Board because I believe that a global carbon market is the key that will open many opportunities for preventing catastrophic climate change. I am particularly interested in the work on rating of potential carbon credits as that will help in price discovery and deepen the market." To see the full Press Release click here.

Lord Nicholas Stern - Founder

Job Titles:
  • Advisor
  • Founder
  • IDEAglobal As Vice - Chairman
  • Vice Chair, IDEAglobal Group ( 2007 - 2009 ) Advisor, IDEAglobal Group ( 2009 - 2013 )
  • Vice Chairman, IDEAglobal Group ( 2007 - 2009 ) Adviser, IDEAglobal Group ( 2009 - 2013 )
In June 2008 Lord Stern, alongside IDEAcarbon's Founder, Shandi Modi and Chairman Ian Johnson, officially launched the Carbon Rating Agency (CRA). To view the video of Stern's presentation, see below. For the full Press Release, click here. Lord Stern joined IDEAglobal as Vice-Chairman on 13 August 2007 and served as an advisor between 2009-2013. Former Chief Economist at the World Bank, Lord Stern is Author of the seminal 'Stern Review', The Economics of Climate Change, and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics (LSE). In addition, Lord Stern was Adviser to the UK Government on the Economics of Climate Change and Development, reporting to the Prime Minister from 2003-2007.

Meghnad Desai

Job Titles:
  • Advisor

Mr Bob Litterman

Job Titles:
  • Advisor
  • Advisor to
Biography Bob Litterman joined IDEAcarbon's advisory board in September 2014. He is also Chairman of the Risk Committee of Kepos Capital LP, a globally focused asset management firm, and recently retired from a 23-year career at Goldman Sachs & Co., where he served in research, risk management, investments and thought leadership roles. He has been one of three external advisors to Singapore's Government Investment Corporation (GIC) and sits on the board of the WWF.

Mr Neil Eckert

Job Titles:
  • Advisor
  • Advisor to
Biography Mr Eckhert joined the IDEAcarbon Advisory Board in June 2011. Mr Neil Eckert was Chief Executive of Climate Exchange Plc, an AIM listed company, which owned the European Climate Exchange (ECX) and the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) until sale to ICE in July 2010. Mr Eckhert is Chairman of Trading Emissions plc, an AIM listed company, which is one of the world's leading funds investing in emission reduction permits. Mr Eckhert is Chairman of Design Technology and Innovation Limited, a patenting and intellectual property company. Until April 2005, Mr Eckhert was Chief Executive of Brit Insurance Holdings PLC, which is a UK and International insurance and reinsurance company. Neil founded the company in 1995 as an Investment Trust listed on the London Stock Exchange. In the early 1990's he was a reinsurance broker and main board Director of Benfield Group plc.

Mr Ng Kok Song

Job Titles:
  • Advisor
  • Advisor to IDEAglobal Group, Parent Company
Biography Mr Ng joined the Advisory Board of IDEAglobal, IDEAcarbon's sister company in 1997. He has been a leading figure in the development of financial markets in Singapore and is currently Managing Director of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC). At the GIC, Mr Ng is responsible for global asset allocation and global currency risk management, and operations of equities, bonds, foreign exchange, economics, and client services. Mr Ng previously held positions at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, including Director of the International Department and of the Banking Department. Mr Ng is an adviser to Agency France Tresor and the International Capital Markets. Mr Ng was the founding Chairman of the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX), the first financial futures exchange in Asia, now incorporated into the Singapore Exchange (SGX). Kok Song initiatives helped to stimulate the establishment of the larger Asian futures industry and he was responsible for laying the foundation for SIMEX's success, which has built up into SGX's position today as the Asian Gateway for derivatives.

Mr Nick Mabey - CEO, Founder

Job Titles:
  • Advisor
  • Chief Executive
  • Director
  • Founder
Biography Nick Mabey is Chief Executive and a founder director of E3G (Third Generation Environmentalism) a non-profit European organisation dedicated to accelerating the transition to sustainable development. In addition to his management role, Nick leads E3G's work on European climate change policy, climate diplomacy and foreign policy, and the security implications of climate change and resource scarcity. (e3g.org)

Mr Nitin Desai

Job Titles:
  • Advisor
  • Advisor to IDEAglobal Group, Parent Company
  • Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General for Internet Governance
Biography Mr Desai began his government career in 1973 in the Planning Commission of the Government of India. From 1985 to 1987, he served as Senior Economic Adviser for the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission) where he introduced the concept of sustainable development and was responsible for drafting the key chapters dealing with this aspect in the report of the Commission ‘Our Common Future'. From 1990 to 1993, Nitin was the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992 Rio Earth Summit). In that capacity one of his primary responsibilities was to coordinate the work of the Secretariat relating to the development of Agenda 21. In 1993, Mr Desai was appointed at the Under-Secretary-General level to head the newly created Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development. The substantive work of this Department supported the various United Nations intergovernmental bodies, including the Commission on Sustainable Development. Desai was the Secretary-General of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002 Johannesburg Summit).

Mr Paul Ezekiel

Job Titles:
  • Advisor
  • Advisor to
  • Managing Partner at Yallingup Capital
Biography Mr Ezekiel joined the IDEAcarbon Advisory Board in 2009. Mr Paul Ezekiel has been a key participant in the carbon market, and has been responsible for creating a number of innovative structures for carbon emissions producers, including pioneering securitizations of tradable greenhouse gas emissions credits. Mr Ezekiel is currently a Managing Partner at Yallingup Capital, a global Asset Management firm focused on principal investments in next generation energy infrastructure. He was previously Managing Director at Credit Suisse, where he ran the Global Carbon Trading business and developed the bank's carbon strategy. Prior to that he founded Antipodean Partners, an environmental hedge fund, in 2002.

Mr Robert Johnson

Job Titles:
  • Advisor
  • Advisor to IDEAcarbon, Joined May 2015
Biography My Johnson joined the IDEAcarbon advisor board in May 2015. He is the Executive Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, a Senior Fellow and Director of the "Project on Global Finance" at the Roosevelt Institute, and regularly contributes to NewDeal 2.0 with his "FinanceSeer Column." He also formerly traded currency on Wall Street under George Soros.

Ms Christiana Figueres

Job Titles:
  • Advisor
  • Member of the Costa Rican Negotiating Team
  • New Executive Secretary of the UNFCC
  • Vice Chair of the Carbon Rating Agency ( 2009 - 2010 )
  • Vice Chairman of the Carbon Ratings Agency 's ( CRA ) Ratings Committe
Ms Figueres has been instrumental in shaping the company during her time as Vice Chairwomen of the CRA between February 2009 and July 2010, such as providing insights on climate finance issues. Ms Figueres has been instrumental in the development of our ratings process and keeping the Carbon Ratings Agency as a leader in the field. In May 2009, Ms Figueres helped the Carbon Rating Agency conduct the first rating of a Programme of Activities for Programmatic CDM. To read the full Press Release click here. Biography Ms Figueres joined IDEAcarbon as Vice Chairman of the Carbon Ratings Agency's (CRA) Ratings Committe in February 2009. Since July 2010, Ms Christiana Figueres has served as the new Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and as such had to relinquish her role with the CRA. Ms Figueres has had a long and distinguished career in and around the UNFCCC and has dedicated herself to the global strategy of addressing climate change for 15 years. Ms Figueres became a member of the Costa Rican negotiating team in 1995. She was then elected Vice President of the Bureau of the Convention in 2008 and 2009, representing Latin America and the Caribbean, and having represented the region on the Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board (CDM EB) in 2007. Ms Figueres co-chaired the Contact Group on CDM Guidance in Nairobi in 2006, in Poznan in 2008, and in Copenhagen in 2009, and the Contact Group on flexible mechanisms Post-2012, in Bonn, Accra and Poznan in 2008.

Prof Dr Schlesinger

Job Titles:
  • Advisor

Shandi Modi

Job Titles:
  • Founder of IDEAglobal Group
Dr. Modi is the founder of IDEAglobal Group, a globally recognized ratings development company that advises governments, hedge funds and finance professionals worldwide. Shandi also founded the Carbon Ratings Agency and IDEAcarbon to service the IDEAglobal Group's network of public and private sector organizations.

Sir Mark Moody Stuart

Job Titles:
  • Advisor