DETAILS
DATE: Wednesday, March 13
TIME: 5:30 PM Check in | 6:10 PM Panel | 7:15 PM Networking | 7:45 PM Program Concludes
LOCATION: Latham & Watkins LLP, 1271 6th Ave, New York, NY 10020
COST: $10.00
ABOUT THIS EVENT
Corporate sustainability professionals and their accountant, investors and CFO colleagues may view value differently. What if a big component of value is being missed for all of these stakeholders? In this session, learn how values have quantifiable benefits and how to re-think your approach to calculating the value of sustainability.
Our speakers, author Daniel Aronson and corporate sustainability executive Karen Coyne, and our moderator, Austin Pierce, will illustrate how an innovative approach, through a real case study and other data, demonstrates sustainability programs are 4-10 times greater in value than often considered.
MODERATOR
Austin Pierce,
Senior Associate
Latham & Watkins
Austin Pierce is a senior associate at Latham & Watkins. He helps clients across industries to navigate ESG matters – including climate change, biodiversity and natural capital, human rights, Indigenous rights, and corporate culture – both individually and where such matters intersect with each other or other topics.
Austin regularly works with public and private companies, funds, and their boards on issues regarding:
– Voluntary and required reporting and disclosure
– ESG policy development and implementation
– Board and management education
– Sustainable finance and fund formation, including cross-jurisdictional offerings
– Development and execution of strategic initiatives
Austin serves on the international human rights committees for several bar associations. He regularly speaks and authors articles on ESG-related topics for a variety of publications.
SPEAKERS
Daniel Aronson,
Founder
Valutus
Daniel Aronson is the founder of Valutus, which specializes in creating value through sustainability and responsibility, the creator of the Value of Values™ Model, and the author of the book The Value of Values (MIT Press, 2024). He has helped leading companies identify and quantify over $2 billion in sustainability-driven business value.
Daniel coined the term “submerged value” and is the author of He is also the creator of Impact Science™, True Plastic Impact™, Materiality Science™, and Customer Science™. He has guest lectured at Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan’s Sustainability Lab, has written or been featured in over 100 articles and publications, and is an Executive in Residence at NYU’s Stern School of Business.
Daniel holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a BA with High Honors from UC Berkeley. He lives in the New York City area. And if you’ve read this far in his bio, let him know and he’ll buy you a drink.
Karen L. Coyne,
Vice President
WomenExecs on Boards
Karen L. Coyne
Karen is a Fortune 200 Global VP of Sustainability, Board Director, and Certified Professional Environmental Auditor (CPEA). She is experienced in navigating the operational complexities of sustainability in dynamic, multifaceted business, regulatory, and stakeholder environments. She has delivered meaningful positive business impact and value creation, ultimately helping companies progress from ‘measuring what matters’ to ‘moving what matters.’
Karen’s last industry role was as Vice President, Global Head of Environment at Novartis AG where she pioneered the role of Chief Sustainability Officer, now a formalized position. She has nearly three decades of global leadership and operations experience, with functional expertise in corporate sustainability, environment, health & safety (EHS), and enterprise risk management (ERM). Her sector proficiency extends beyond life sciences from prior jobs working in, or with clients in, energy, industrials, automotive, consumer goods, defense, and professional services.
With the scope, scale, and variety of leadership roles she has held, ranging from a large-cap, global public company (Novartis (NYSE: NVS)), an academic institute (New York University) and a consulting and engineering firm (AECOM (NYSE: ACM)), Karen possesses a broad set of hands-on experiences and unique points of view. She is known and recognized for her ability to combine her functional expertise with sound business judgement, strategic foresight, and inclusive collaboration to achieve a vision or mission successfully and collectively.
Karen serves as a Vice President of WomenExecs on Boards, an international network of women prepared for board service at Harvard Business School, where she focuses on strategic partnerships, governance excellence, and advancing board opportunities. She has held prior corporate and non-profit governance and board roles, most recently serving on the Sustainability Advisory Council at Terrascope, a Singapore-based climate tech startup. She is currently focused on additional corporate governance service as a private company board director.
Karen is a native New Englander who has lived and worked internationally with her family, and is back living outside Boston, Massachusetts, USA.