Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

​Alina Truhina.

Managing Partner, The Radical Fund

Alina Truhina is the Founding & Managing Partner of Utopia Capital Management SEA/ME. She leads The Radical Fund, a climateTech early-stage venture capital fund investing in founders in Southeast Asia, who are scaling adaptation and mitigation solutions in the region and globally, including the Middle East where Utopia has a Venture Studio and Fund.

With over a decade of experience launching funds and venture studios across emerging markets, Alina has backed 100+ startups in Africa and supported ventures across East Africa and South Asia. Before VC, she spent over five years at the World Bank.

She holds an MSc from the Geneva Graduate Institute and a BSc from the University of Melbourne. She is a Milken Young Circle Leader.

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Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Aris Moro.

Head of Knowledge & Partnerships, C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF)

Aris is the Head of Knowledge and Partnerships for the C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF), a joint initiative of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and GIZ.

The CFF works with cities to develop infrastructure projects that have a tangible impact on the lives of their residents. These projects include electric buses, solar farms, energy efficiency improvements, sustainable waste systems and river restorations.

Aris holds a MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation from LSE and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of York and the University of California, San Diego.

Prior to joining C40, Aris worked for Carbon Analytics, an environmental accounting start-up, and for ABC Trust, an Anglo-Brazilian NGO helping children in Brazilian cities.

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Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Ben Wall.

Co-Founder & Commercial Director, NUNA Studio

Ben is the co-founder of NUNA Studio, a nature-tech startup dedicated to integrating biodiversity into urban environments. He holds an MSc in Sustainable Cities from King’s College London, where he focused on the development and funding of green infrastructure in urban environments. 

Before founding NUNA, Ben held commercial leadership roles at Bloomberg and led the ESG specialist sales team. His work brings together urban sustainability expertise with global business experience to create greener, healthier cities.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Carole Viaene.

Strategic Partnerships Lead, Open Earth Foundation, Open Earth Foundation

Carole is a creative generalist with over a decade of international experience, including leadership roles in a climate start-up and venture studio, strategy consulting, institutions such as IESE and Esade Business School, Fortune 500 companies and tech/media giants. She is also a published author, a sustainability advocate, and is fluent in English, French, Dutch, Catalan, and Spanish.

Carole's credentials include an ICF-Certified PCC Coach designation, with over 3,000 hours of coaching experience, underscoring her belief in empathy, ethics, impact, diversity, inclusion, health, and well-being.

As an alumni, she also advises/mentors for the Norrsken Impact Accelerator, supporting early-stage companies with a focus on creating positive social and environmental impact. Her eclectic background enables her to adeptly navigate and quickly comprehend intricate ecosystems, positioning her at the dynamic intersection of business, science, technology, innovation, and environmental stewardship.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Christina Last.

Machine Learning Scientist / Tech Advisor Okhtapus

Christina Last is an AI researcher Mila, the Quebec AI Institute, where she builds climate models using AI. She serves as Co-Director of TipplyAI, a GenAI startup forecasting critical climate Tipping Points, part of ARIA, the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency.

She completed a combined postgraduate degree in Urban Studies and Computer Science at MIT supported by the US-UK Fulbright Commission, and developed AI methods to estimate vehicle emissions for Amsterdam and New York City at the Senseable City Lab.

Alina founded and scaled UNICEF's open source air pollution AI early warning system, featured at the 78th UN General Assembly and NASA. Her research has supported investigations into illegal activity and urban environmental pollution featured in the Guardian and the BBC.

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Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

​Dimple Patel.

CEO, Nature Metrics

Dimple Patel is a highly accomplished entrepreneur, currently CEO at NatureMetrics, the leading provider of nature data intelligence solutions. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated expertise across all stages of business, from generating initial ideas and developing minimum viable products (MVPs) to executing strategic plans, launching new markets, and overseeing acquisitions and exits.

With a strong background in Finance, Dimple brings a wealth of experience in macroeconomic analysis, financial management, fundraising through venture capital (VC), private equity (PE), and debt, as well as investor relations and forecasting for strategic business projects. Her insights and skills in these areas have proven instrumental in securing financial support and driving strategic growth.

Dimple is deeply passionate about creating social impact and actively supports underrepresented founders as a mentor and advisor. She also serves as an ambassador for grassroots organizations that provide opportunities for young people.

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Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Emily White.

City Business Engagement at C40 Cities

Emily is an experienced programme manager with extensive international experience managing diverse projects, compiling research, organising events, building partnerships and communicating complex ideas to various audiences. During her career, she has advised political, business and non-profit leaders from over 20 countries and has delivered over 30 online and in-person events.

Emily is currently the Senior Manager of C40’s City-Business Climate Alliance (CBCA) programme. In this role, she facilitates the delivery of local and global city-business partnerships by organising peer-learning events, developing tools and offering tailored guidance to cities. Before this, Emily managed business engagement activities for the UrbanShift programme and supported the Climate Action Planning Programme with internal coordination and communication. She also supported the C40 City Solutions Platform programme as an intern in the Business and Innovation team.

Before joining C40, she worked as an Explainer at the Science Museum in London and completed an international climate entrepreneurship course with EIT Climate-KIC. Emily has an MSc in Climate Change: Environment, Science and Policy from King’s College London, and previously completed a Bachelor in Natural Sciences at Nottingham University.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Eilidh Forster.

Head of Forest Carbon, Drax 

Eilidh leads on delivering science-based evidence to inform sustainable practices for the business (Drax), with a focus on sustainable biomass sourcing. Drax is delivering large-scale Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) to reduce atmospheric CO2,  and will generate millions of tonnes a year of high integrity, permanent carbon removals.

Eilidh uses expertise from her PhD (environmental science and forestry) from Bangor University where she studied the sustainability of forestry value chains. She combines forest modelling and lifecycle assessment to provide new evidence on the relative impact of different types of forestry and wood use for climate change mitigation; including the impacts of forest expansion, modified forest management; and enhanced cascading and circular uses of wood. Her research is published open-access by Nature portfolio.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Francesco Valente.

Investment Director of Risk Capital, Global Innovation Fund

Francesco is an Investment Director on the Risk Capital team at GIF.

Prior to joining the team, Francesco was an advisor at Volta Capital (prior D.Capital, Dalberg Group) where he worked with impact investors on the design of financial instruments and strategies to deploy impact capital.

Previously, Francesco also worked on the development impact evaluations team at British International Investment and was based in Kenya for five years as a Senior Program Manager at One Acre Fund.

In this capacity, he led One Acre Fund new markets research and strategy efforts to expand operations in West Africa and South-Asia. Francesco holds an MBA and a MSc in Economics.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

​Giacomo Magnani.

Associate, Arup

Giacomo is an urban economist and strategic planning expert, currently part of the leadership team within Arup’s Cities Planning and Design practice.

He has collaborated with a wide range of cities and international organisations—including the World Bank, EBRD Green Cities, ADB, 100 Resilient Cities, and UNDP—across Europe, Central and Southeast Asia, and North Africa. His work focuses on shaping investment strategies that foster more sustainable, resilient, and prosperous urban futures.

Most recently, he led a multidisciplinary team advising over 10 cities across the European Union on advancing clean tech manufacturing and positioning themselves as lead markets for innovation in the built environment. This work was delivered as part of the European Commission’s Intelligent Cities Challenge programme.

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Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Isabel Carlisle.

CEO, Bioregional Learning Centre

Isabel is the CEO of the Bioregional Learning Centre (BLC) South Devon, with responsibility for Strategy and Partnerships.

BLC was formed in 2017 as a Community Interest Company dedicated to working for climate resilience across South Devon. The expertise in the core team includes large-scale project management, regenerative and experience design, as well as graphic design, data and evidence, community engagement and learning programmes.

In the international world of bioregion-scale working (with whole rivers, whole landscapes and whole systems) BLC and South Devon are one of the leaders.

Most recently, BLC was funded by South Hams District Council to lead a learning journey for climate adaptation and produce a policy-recommendation report/discussion paper on how South Devon can plan now in a strategic and joined-up way for climate change. The work of the organisation is now focusing on establishing a bioregional financing facility, linking that to bioregional governance and a knowledge network.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Co-Founder and Managing Director, Ostara

Justin is a climate and biodiversity leader with over 25 years of experience across the private sector, finance, and civil society, including roles as Partner at Just Climate and Executive Director of the Tropical Forest Alliance. Recognised with an OBE for his contributions at COP26, Justin believes a radically new approach is essential. He founded Ostara with a conviction in our collective ability to innovate and dream ‘unreasonably large dreams,’ reimagining a very different future to address the increasingly complex challenges we face today.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Katie Adnams.

Associate Director, Smart Places & Digital Infrastructure, Jacobs

Katie is an Associate Director for Smart Places & Digital Infrastructure at Jacobs, experienced in delivering projects that look at the intersection between technology, innovation and cities. She has worked on smart city projects and innovation initiatives both in the UK and internationally, in existing urban contexts and in the masterplanning of new places.

Prior to Jacobs, Katie led the Urban Innovation team at Connected Places Catapult, the UK's innovation accelerator for cities and transport. With a background in urbanism and data science, and experience across public and private sectors, Katie specialises in taking a user-centred design approach to understand how data, technology and digital services can be embedded and scaled in cities.

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Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Mansi Agrawal.

Data Scientist, Kita

Mansi Agrawal is a Data Scientist at Kita, specialising in risk modelling, portfolio assessments, and performance benchmarking for carbon projects. With expertise in machine learning, remote sensing, and GIS, she develops data-driven solutions to quantify risks and enhance transparency in the carbon markets. She holds a Master’s in Data Science, where she researched wildfire risk and built a machine learning model to classify aerial imagery by wildfire risk levels.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Mehrnaz Ghojeh.

Founder of Okhtapus

Mehrnaz is the Founder of Okhtapus, the first global platform providing the missing blueprint to replicate and scale solutions that work in our ocean, islands, and coasts.

She is a globally recognised urbanist and climate justice leader bringing over a decade of expertise in scaling and financing solutions at nexus of climate, society and economy and advising mayors and governments across cities in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Europe.

Mehrnaz has most recently been leading a UNFCCC award winning global programme at C40 Cities, working with a network of over 100 mayors and mega cities and leading efforts on scaling and financing a just transition and helping mobilise over $ 2.5 billion in climate finance.

Trained as an architect, Mehrnaz has been working across the public, private and third sectors as a multidisciplinary designer, futurist and international development specialist, focusing particularly on some of the most pressing matters of our time including the future of our cities, our planet, our economy, our health and our society. Mehrnaz, holds several advisory positions with WHO, WRI, Google, Wellcome Trust to name a few.

She has been a regular lecturer at universities in the UK and internationally helping design and deliver a number of executive and higher education courses.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

​Illai Gescheit.

Venture Partner, Systemiq Capital

Illai is an entrepreneur, board advisor and investor. Illai is a Founding Partner of Gescheit & Partners, a multi-stage venture advisory firm and a Venture Partner at Systemiq Capital. He was a Venture Partner at Siemens Energy Ventures and previously served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at BP.  

Illai is an inventor of over 20 patents and his early entrepreneurial story was featured in the Harvard-MIT book publication Entrepreneurial Negotiation. He is a Top Voice on Linkedin, a member of the Ashoka Entrepreneur-to-Entrepreneur Network and a member of the Expert Network for the World Economic Forum. 

Illai is an Affiliate Lecturer of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School and an Executive Affiliate, at the Institute of Quantitative Social Sciences at Harvard University. 

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Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Leigh Madeira.

Co-founder & Head of Investments, Ponterra

Leigh Madeira is Co-Founder and Head of Investments at Ponterra, a carbon project developer that develops and operates the world's highest quality nature restoration projects.

As Head of Investments, Leigh leads all investor and buyer engagement, including closing a transaction last year with Microsoft, Rubicon, and Carbon Streaming to restore 10,000 hectares of biodiverse forest on degraded agricultural land in Panama.

Leigh started her career as an investment banker at Credit Suisse before moving on to become an investor at two different asset managers in California, managing a combined $50 billion. She then co-founded Blue Forest Conservation, a climate finance startup backed by the Rockefeller Foundation, where she developed and launched the innovative and highly successful Forest Resilience Bond. In total, Leigh has over 15 years of experience in investing, climate finance, entrepreneurship, and nature-based solutions.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Leon Seefeld.

Co-Lead, Dark Matter Capital Systems at Dark Matter Labs

Leon is the Bioregional Finance Lead as well as Co-Lead of Dark Matter Capital Systems as part of Dark Matter Labs.

In addition, he is involved with the financial innovation work of the Bioregional Weaving Labs collective. He co-founded and led a consultancy firm for regenerative business model innovation and advised on the B Corp certification.

Prior to working at the nexus of finance and systems change as well as finance and bioregional regeneration, Leon has built some expertise across the topics of (Social) Entrepreneurship and (Social) Innovation, Sustainability (Strategy) Consulting and Corporate Purpose Consulting, International Development, Personal Development and Sustainability Education as well as complex multi-stakeholder alliance work in various contexts (including the national and bioregional scale).

Leon holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business Management and a Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Paige Perillat-Piratoine.

Head of Community, Nature Tech Collective

With almost a decade’s experience animating communities of practice, Paige is dedicated to fostering collaborative and future-focused networks. Her background spans in-person and online communities across placemaking, open science and open innovation - where she champions cross-sector dialogue.

Currently serving as Community Director at the Nature Tech Collective (NTC) - a nonprofit membership organization, sector intelligence and corporate accelerator working towards a Nature Positive Future. The NTC community now gathers over 180 members including leading nature tech companies, corporations, financial firms and NGOs. There, she specializes in designing and nurturing environments where participants feel empowered to connect and co-create a thriving Nature Tech sector. 

In her spare time, she experiments with crafting biomaterials, interspecies design and sauna rituals.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Philip Ehrhorn.

Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, The Great Bubble Barrier

Philip has a B.Sc. in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering with an additional B.A.Sc. in Aquatic Ecosystem Analysis. As an avid surfer and diver, his desire to protect our ocean led him to co-found The Great Bubble Barrier, where he acts as CTO. Philip is responsible for the engineering and technical development of the Bubble Barrier system, ensuring it operates in the most optimised & efficient way. 

Through his work, he discusses and challenges the complexity of our modern life with politicians and industry experts, as well as activists.

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Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Sandy Tung.

Principal Policy Officer, Innovation & Tech at Greater London Authority

Currently leading tech and innovation policy at the Greater London Authority. Sandy also runs London City Hall's open innovation service, connecting people with transformative ideas to solving big and complex public sector problems.

She spent her career working at the intersection of innovation and climate action, working for and with cities around the world find effective ways to look outside their silos to tackle big challenges such as covid recovery, the cost-of-living crisis, boosting economic growth, and adapting to the impact of climate change.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Steve Melhuish.

Founder & Investor, Planet Rise / Wavemaker Impact

Steve is an entrepreneur, investor and sustainability advocate. He's founded, built & exited businesses in Asia & Europe - including a unicorn NYSE IPO, scaled teams from zero to 1,300 staff in 5 countries, created a platform used by 40M monthly users, raised >$400M funding and executed 5 M&A deals.

He co-founded and is general partner of Wavemaker Impact and has personally invested in >20 climatetech start-ups in last 6 years. He lived in Asia with his family for two decades before moving to UK end of 2023. Steve is passionate about tackling climate change & gender/social inequality.

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Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Yuya Toyoshima

Forest Value-Creation & Promotion Manager, Oji Holdings

Yuya Toyoshima manages the Oji Forest Value-Creation & Promotion Department within the Oji Management Office, a division of Oji Holdings. He currently heads the Forest Value Visualization Project, which aims to quantify and elevate the diverse values of forests—such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity, water resources, nutrient cycles, and soil health. He is passionate about reconciling industrial activity with nature conservation and believes sustainable forest management can play an important role in that regard.

Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Victoria Burrows.

Strategic Partnerships & Insight, Kompas VC

Victoria has dedicated her career to radically improving the sustainability of the built environment by transforming its design, construction, operation, and repurposed.

As Director of Advancing Net Zero at the World Green Building Council, Victoria was responsible for a pioneering global programme to accelerate the total decarbonisation of the sector by 2050. She holds a degree in Architecture and Environmental Design from the University of Nottingham, UK, and co-authored the book ‘A Whole System Approach to High-Performance Green Buildings’. Victoria brings a combination of technical and strategic expertise to KOMPAS VC' mission to identify the approaches, solutions and technologies needed to transform the sector.

Based in France, Victoria supports the portfolio of decarbonisation technology investments by forging impactful industry partnerships and providing public policy insight to help navigate the constantly evolving regulatory landscape.

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Concave Summit 2025 - Speaker

Partner, Ananda Impact Ventures

Zoe is a former tech entrepreneur and Partner for Ananda Impact Ventures with over 25 years operating and board experience in technology companies. She devotes her time hunting down Europe’s most impactful deeptech impact entrepreneurs to invest in and partner for growth from pre- seed to late seed.

Focus areas include Digital health, NatureTech, Decarbonisation of Industry, Biosecurity and TechBio. Board representations include Nature Metrics, Dr Doctor, Quantistry, Ovom Care and Resistomap.  Zoe is also founder of FutureWorldVC a community of diverse, impact minded VCs who work together to change the balance of power in the industry.