PHD PROJECT+ FORDHAM ESG WORKSHOP: JUNE 22-23

Rob serves as KPMG’s US ESG leader responsible for building holistic solutions that pave a clear path to purpose-led, sustainable business to build resilience and drive profitable and measurable growth. These services and capabilities focus on key ESG themes, such as ESG strategy, climate change and decarbonization, ESG measurement and reporting, and sustainable supply chains, supported by a wide range of data-driven solutions, technology tools and deep industry experience to navigate and simplify the complexities of every stage of our clients’ ESG journey. Rob also serves as KPMG’s global leader for ESG transformation and reporting services.

Previously, Rob served in various leadership roles including the US Risk Assurance practice leader, and Chief Operating Officer of the US Risk Consulting practice.

Jeffrey Hales teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Bake Chair in Global Sustainability Leadership, is the Charles T. Zlatkovich Centennial Professor of Accounting, and serves as the Executive Director of the Global Sustainability Leadership Institute.

He is a graduate of the accounting program at Brigham Young University and received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. His research interests center on accounting standard setting and regulation, individual decision making, and behavioral finance, using techniques from applied game theory, experimental economics, and psychology. His research has appeared in The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, and the Journal of Financial Economics, among other journals. He has served in editorial capacities at several journals, including editorial terms at Contemporary Accounting Research and Accounting Horizons.
Since July 2022, he has served on the International Sustainability Standards Board. From 2012 to 2022, he served in various leadership capacities at the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), including as Chair of the SASB Standards Board. During 2009-10, he was a Research Fellow at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in Norwalk, CT, and served as a member of the FASB’s Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council from 2016-2019.

Karen Y. Johns serves as the CEO for GOOD Institute, the parent organization of NetImpact. GOOD Institute is a thought leader and social action think tank, empowering socially responsible organizations and individuals through strategic partnerships with Net Impact, Leaps.org, GOOD Worldwide, and Upworthy. Net Impact, the action-oriented network of GOOD Institute, supports over 300 Net Impact Chapters located across 40 countries worldwide, training and leading university students and young professionals to take action and make a positive impact on people and the planet.

Karen is a seasoned professional in the education and nonprofit arena with expertise in fostering business development and philanthropy, and has assisted a wide variety of organizations, from the Gates Foundation to the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands.

A graduate of Tufts University, Karen is founder of the Tufts Black Alumni Association and remains an active alumna. Karen is a native of Jamaica and serves in an advisory capacity with several Caribbean-based organizations.

Shari Helaine Littan is director of corporate reporting research and thought leadership at IMA. Her primary focus is delivering knowledge and resources in the areas of financial reporting and sustainable business information and management.  Adding to her numerous reports, articles, and webinars on sustainable business, corporate reporting, and diversifying talent in accountancy, in 2023, she led the authorship of Achieving Effective Internal Control Over Sustainability Reporting (ICSR): Building Trust and Confidence through the COSO Internal Control—Integrated Framework.

In 2015, she completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Business, with commendation, from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Shari holds a J.D. from Boston University School of Law and a B.S., magna cum laude, from the School of Management at Binghamton University. Earlier in her career, she was a practicing litigator with a focus on matters that addressed corporate governance and financial reporting. She began this professional journey on the staff of two international accounting firms.

Blane Ruschak serves as the President of The PhD Project where he oversees the strategy and operations of The PhD Project which is a program designed to create more diverse business leaders by supporting diverse professionals to get their PhD in business and become role models in the classroom, academic administration and academic leadership positions. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina and works out of the Montvale, New Jersey National Office.

Mariana is a New York-based Director within KPMG’s ESG and Climate Advisory practice. She specializes in ESG and decarbonization strategies, sustainability program development, financed emissions, net zero transition plans, and climate risk management. She applies her professional experience in project management, operating model design, process optimization, analytics, and executive communications and credentials (MBA in Sustainability, BSc in Environmental Geosciences and Geology, SASB, GRI, PMP) to ESG and climate delivery.
As an advisor, she values empowering client counterparts, engaging diverse stakeholders, and striving for excellence to ensure that your sustainability transformation is inclusive and successful.

Brad Sparks is Executive Director of The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) Project in the United States. He leads the US Chapter of the A4S CFO Leadership Network, supporting Fortune 500 CFOs and their finance teams in embedding sustainability into strategy and business decision-making. He also leads A4S activities across the US, including working with asset managers, asset owners and the wider finance community. Brad previously served as an Executive Director with KPMG focused on ESG issues. Brad is a lecturer at UCLA Anderson and serves as an Executive-in-Residence at Cornell University’s Center for Global Sustainable Enterprise. He lives in Los Angeles.

Lorie is a Ph.D. environmental economist, modeler, and climate specialist. She brings extensive experience in climate economics, GHG emissions and energy, and sustainability to support clients in making strategic decisions for their organizations. Lorie assists our clients in financially and economically quantifying natural resources and environmental benefits, as well as climate-related risks such as transition and physical risks and opportunities via climate scenario analysis and conveying key insights to internal and external stakeholders to drive climate-resilient growth. Lorie has helped global clients leverage insights from these analyses for disclosures, such as TCFD, CDP, Board reports, and corporate responsibility reports. She has deep experience quantifying the economic benefits of environmental justice and social equity for low income and disadvantaged communities. Lorie has conducted in-depth, rigorous technical research on the effect of climate change on the economic value of environmental benefits and natural assets, through her research position at UC Davis, funded by the US Forest Service, the EPA, and the California Natural Resources Agency. She has served as a technical reviewer of the 4th California Climate Change Assessment. She has also examined carbon pricing effects while at Environment Canada (carbon tax) and Parliament of Canada as research staff for standing House and Senate Committees. Her peer-reviewed research covers climate-related topics, such as risks and impacts associated with CO₂ emissions, extreme weather events, wildfire, drought, air quality, climate resiliency, and social cost of carbon (SCC).

Lorie is a senior manager in the KPMG New York office. She leads KPMG’s ESG initiatives from an economic perspective, working extensively in the areas of full benefit analysis, climate risks and opportunities, renewable energy, economics of decarbonization such as the economic benefit of avoided or reduced GHG emissions, disclosure alignment, social equity, environmental justice, and water issues. She specializes in environmental economics, climate scenario analysis, water economics, environmental return on investment (EROI), social return on investment (SROI), human health effects of pollution and climate change, economic valuation of natural capital asset and ecosystem services, environmental justice, economics of social justice, sensitivity analysis, and regulatory analysis. She has a particular interest in wildfires, droughts, and how these affect local and regional communities.