Opportunities and Challenges for Queensland in the Lead Up to the Olympics – Hosted by WiBF, ANZ & Ashurst

Elena leads Ashurst Risk’s Sustainability and Climate Change practice and works with clients to implement sustainable, agile and effective risk management that supports the achievement of business strategies and commitments in relation to sustainability, net zero and climate positive targets, while ensuring regulatory and compliance obligations are met.

Our sustainability practice includes sustainability, climate change and social license risks. It avoids traditional practice silos and brings together teams of professionals to advise on regulatory, judicial and governance changes, including stakeholder and community expectations as well as risks that are hard to place or measure, yet are very real for customers, investors and employees. Elena focuses on specialist risk advisory services, optimising risk strategy to facilitate consistent risk-based decision making and operationalising these decisions across the organisation to address the complex challenges associated with sustainability, climate change and social license risks.

Gautier Desme is Head of Data Innovation at Sustainable1, leading the development of new datasets on environmental and climate issues, such as the development of analytics that allow investors and businesses to quantify the nature-related risks in their portfolios and operations. Prior to that, Gautier served in other leadership roles, leading on sovereign carbon risk, green bonds analytics and positive impact.

Gautier started his career at Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank in London, first as a credit structurer, then in commodities derivatives structuring, where he designed investment strategies and products across energy, metals and agriculture markets. He developed and issued the first EUTS carbon note in 2010, allowing investors to benefit from arbitrage opportunities in the EU Carbon Allowance market.

Gautier holds a master’s degree in Financial Markets from University Paris Dauphine, and a master’s degree in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London.

Evelyn was appointed as ANZ’s Customer Fairness Advisor in March 2022, reporting to CEO Shayne Elliott. Evelyn has senior executive responsibility to guide and inform ANZ’s decision making on the fairness of the bank’s products and services for retail and small business customers. Prior to joining ANZ, Evelyn was the Lead Ombudsman – Banking and Finance at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. She was previously a partner in the Corporate group at international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills where she advised clients on a range of corporate transactions and governance matters. Evelyn has combined her professional career with a parallel career as an elite athlete in the sport of fencing. Evelyn represented Australia at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympics and has won 6 Commonwealth gold medals and 12 World Cup medals. Evelyn holds a variety of leadership roles in Australian and international sport. She is currently Vice President of the Australian Olympic Committee and was Deputy Chef de Mission of the Australian Olympic Team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Evelyn is also a member of the IOC’s Athletes Entourage Commission, ANOC’s Legal Commission, Athletics Australia’s Ethics & Integrity Commission and Wrestling Australia’s Nominations Committee.  Evelyn was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2024 Australia Day Awards.

Allison Hill joined QIC’s State Investments (SI) team in January 2018. The SI team is responsible for managing approximately $58B in assets on behalf of the State of Queensland. Allison is the State Chief Investment Officer within the SI Team and she has direct responsibility for all the portfolios managed on behalf of the State of Queensland. Allison has over 28 years’ experience in investment management and financial markets. Prior to joining QIC, Allison was the Chief Executive Officer at DMP Asset Management, where she oversaw the investment process and asset consulting practice. Prior to this, Allison spent 11 years at Frontier Advisors as a Senior Consultant. Allison was the lead consultant for several of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, was the Head of Debt and Alternatives Research and a member of Frontier’s investment and leadership committees. Allison has a Bachelor of Commerce from Melbourne University and holds several post graduate qualifications including a Graduate Diploma in Management from the AGSM and is a GAICD. Allison is also a member of Chief Executive Women (CEW).