Post-Webinar: Sustainability Reporting

Panelist Bios

Headshot of Irene Heemskerk

Ms. Irene Heemskerk

Irene Heemskerk works as a Sustainability Fellow at the IFRS Foundation, where she is involved in the work the IFRS Foundation is currently undertaking on global sustainability standards.

Previously Irene was the advisor to the Chair of the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS). She was involved in the work of the NGFS since its inception in December 2017 and headed up the NGFS work on the Guide for Supervisors on integrating climate-related and environmental risks into prudential supervision.

Irene has gained extensive experience in the work of central banks. She joined the Dutch Central Bank in 2005 and subsequently took on positions as a Legal Counsel, Supervisor, Secretary to the Supervisory Board and Senior Policy Advisor on Climate Risks and Sustainability. On a secondment she headed up the revision of the Dutch Corporate Governance Code.

Irene is a strong advocate for sustainable finance with a purpose to make the world more sustainable.

Headshot of Robert Hirth

Mr. Robert B. Hirth

Bob Hirth was appointed to the standard setting board of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) upon its formation in 2017 and serves as a Vice Chair of the board. He currently heads SASB’s Technology and Communications sector committee and is a member of the Services, Healthcare and Extractive and Minerals Processing sector committees.  

Serving as COSO Chair from June 2013 to February 2018, his activities included leading COSO’s project on revising its Enterprise Risk Management Framework which was released in September 2017, issuing COSO’s Guide on Fraud Risk Management, and actively promoting COSO’s 2013 Internal Control Integrated Framework around the world and through the Media. Bob initiated COSO’s guidance on ERM/ESG integration which was issued in 2018. He has worked on assignments and made presentations in over 20 countries, serving more than 50 organizations and working closely with board members, C-level executives, University professors, finance and accounting personnel as well as public accounting firm partners and employees. 

He is a Senior Managing Director of Protiviti, a global internal audit and business risk consulting firm that operates in 22 countries. Prior to that, he was Executive Vice President, global internal audit and a member of the Firm’s six-person executive management team for the first ten years of Protiviti’s development.

In 2012, Bob was appointed to serve a two-year term on the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and was re-appointed to serve a three-year term ending December 31, 2016. 

Bob started his career in public accounting and became a global equity partner of Arthur Andersen in 1988. During his tenure there, he worked in the Dallas, Melbourne Australia, San Jose and San Francisco offices, serving as a partner in both the audit and advisory practices of the firm. For over 20 years, he practiced as a CPA in Texas and California and also qualified as a chartered accountant and registered company auditor while working in Australia. In 2013, Bob was inducted into The American Hall of Distinguished Audit Practitioners. In 2014 and 2015, he served as the Chairman of the IIA’s IPPF re-look task force. Bob graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, with a concentration in accounting.

Headshot of Ms. Carol Wilding

Ms. Carol Wilding

Carol Wilding was appointed by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario’s Council as the President and CEO in October 2014. In her role, Carol leads the qualifying and regulatory body of Ontario’s more than 94,000 CPAs and 22,000 students. CPA Ontario serves the public interest by developing, monitoring and enforcing the highest standards of professional competence and ethical conduct.

Prior to joining CPA Ontario, Carol harnessed her accounting background to work in civic growth and policy as President and CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade; in healthcare, research and philanthropy as President of Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation; and in international development as President of Plan Canada. She holds an Honours degree in Business Administration from the Schulich School of Business at York University, earned her accounting designation in 1987 and was named a Fellow in 2009.

Headshot of Patrick Kabuya

Mr. Patrick Kabuya

Patrick Kabuya is a Senior Governance Specialist at the World Bank (based in South Africa). He is involved in partnering and supporting African countries to strengthen the accountancy profession, corporate governance, sustainability reporting, integrated thinking and reporting, and public finance management for benefit of citizens. He has extensive wealth of skills, knowledge and experience in these areas.

Patrick was instrumental in establishing and serves as the convener of the Africa Integrated Reporting Council (AIRC) that is promoting and supporting implementation of sustainability reporting, integrated thinking and reporting in Africa. He represents the Council at International Integrated Reporting Council. He is also the Co-Chair of the World Bank Group Sustainability and Integrated Reporting Community of Practice whose role is to promote and empower both WBG staff and member countries to implement these reporting reforms. He has served in many leadership positions. He served in both EY (Nairobi, Kenya and Johannesburg, South Africa offices) and South Africa Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) before joining the World Bank Group in 2009.

Headshot of Anup Srivastava

Dr. Anup Srivastava

Anup holds the prestigious Canada Research Chair, at Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary. Previously, he was a professor at Kellogg (Northwestern University) and Tuck (Dartmouth College).

Anup holds a BTech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, MBA from the University of Delhi, and PhD from Texas A&M University. Before joining academia, Anup worked for fourteen years as a banker, consultant, and corporate executive in the East and West Coast cities of the United States and India.

Anup is one of the world’s foremost researchers on financial reporting issues of knowledge-intensive companies. He has published more than twenty-five articles in Harvard Business Review and California Management Review, in addition to top-tier academic journals. One HBR article, We Are Nowhere Near Stakeholder Capitalism, is relevant to the conference theme

Headshot of Rosemary McGuire

Ms. Rosemary McGuire

Rosemary McGuire is a Director with Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada responsible for overseeing research, guidance, and thought leadership initiatives related to external reporting and capital markets.  In her role, she is responsible for providing CPA Canada members with support on the application of international and domestic financial reporting standards and regulatory reporting requirements. She also monitors emerging reporting issues and investing trends such as sustainable finance and provides input on relevant public policy, regulatory and standards setting proposals.

Headshot of Jo-Anne Mitear

Ms. Jo-Anne Matear

Jo-Anne is a member of the Ontario Securities Commission’s Senior Management Team. She leads a team of lawyers, accountants and geologists in the Corporate Finance Branch that is responsible for the oversight of public companies, including the review of prospectuses, continuous disclosure documents and applications for exemptive relief.

Jo-Anne has led several significant policy initiatives. For example, she co-led the Canadian Securities Administrators’ (CSA) climate change-related disclosures initiative resulting in the publication of CSA Staff Notice 51-354 Report on Climate change-related Disclosure Project (April 2018) and CSA Staff Notice 51-358 Reporting of Climate Change-related Risks (August 2019). Previously, Jo-Anne led the initiatives that resulted in the publication of CSA Staff Notice 51-333 Environmental Reporting Guidance (October 2010) and OSC Staff Notice 51-716 Environmental Reporting (February 2008).

Prior to joining the Commission, Jo-Anne practised corporate and securities law in Toronto, Ontario and London, England. Jo-Anne received her Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from Queen’s University and her Bachelor of Laws from the University of Toronto.

Headshot of Samir Trabelsi

Dr. Samir Trabelsi

Samir Trabelsi is a Professor of Accounting and Governance at the Goodman School of Business. Professor Trabelsi began teaching at Goodman School of Business in 2004. He holds a PhD in Accounting from HEC Montreal and a CPA designation. He has taught courses in corporate governance, external reporting, and research methodology. Prior to his academic career, Trabelsi practiced public accounting at KPMG Tunisia. Trabelsi’s research interests are in the area of corporate governance, greenwashing, sustainability reporting, Corruption, and risk management. Trabelsi’s research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He won the best paper award at several conferences. He has also been the recipient of Brock University Award for Excellence in Teaching (2017) and the Departmental Researcher of the Year Award (2019).

As the founding director of the CPA (formerly CGA) Ontario Research Excellence Centre and even prior to its establishment, Dr. Trabelsi has organized many international conferences, globally as well as on the Brock University campus. These events have brought together academics and practitioners from across the province, Canada and internationally.