Discover also our 2024 rankings of the Most Read Thought Leaders in Carbon, Climate Change, Energy, Energy Transition, and Social Responsibility. Explore how this year’s leaders compare to the most influential ESG voices of 2023 and 2022!

We are proud to present the most-read Thought Leaders of the year in ESG globally, as recognized by illuminem's ever-growing community of over 500,000+ readers.

The authors listed below are part of a distinguished group of over 1,500 Thought Leaders publishing on illuminem. They include business leaders, scientists, academics, activists and policymakers from every corner of the globe. While their perspectives may differ, they are united by a shared mission: to advance Environmental, Social, and Governance principles, foster sustainable business practices, and inspire innovation for a more equitable and responsible future.

Please help us congratulate the TOP 10 Sustainability Thought Leaders of the 2024 in ESG!

1️⃣ Markus Müller - Chief Investment Officer for ESG and Global Head of Chief Investment Office of Deutsche Bank Private Bank
Country: Germany 🇩🇪
Most-Read Thought Piece: Adjusting our perspective on economic growth
Profile: Markus Müller serves as the Chief Investment Officer for ESG and Global Head of the Chief Investment Office at Deutsche Bank Private Bank. He is also a Steering Council Member of the Ocean Risk Resilience Action Alliance and a columnist for the Global Policy Journal at Durham University. A renowned author, Markus is currently completing his third book, India: The 21st Century, which explores the nation's journey toward a post-industrial economy.

2️⃣ Harald Walkate - Advisor on Financing Sustainability and Blended Finance and ESG Advisory Committee member of the Financial Conduct Authority
Country: The Netherlands 🇳🇱
Most-Read Thought Piece: What’s needed to create more bankable projects in least-developed countries
Profile: Harald Walkate is a founding partner and advisor of Route17, an independent blended finance advisory firm. He is also a senior fellow at the University of Zurich Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth and a member of the ESG Advisory Committee of the Financial Conduct Authority, UK. Previously he was the head of ESG and member of the Executive Committee of Natixis Investment Managers, and the global head of Responsible Investment at Aegon Asset Management.

3️⃣ Jef Teugels - Member of the Faculty of the Cracow School of Business
Country: Belgium 🇧🇪
Most-Read Thought Piece: By 2060, global production and use of plastics forecasted to triple
Profile: Jef Teugels is the interim director of Nested Circle. He designs planet- and people-first solutions and he is a faculty member of the EMBA Program at the Krakow School of Business, Krakow University of Economics, and a postgraduate researcher at the Institute of Business, Industry. He explores the energy created by the friction between customer behavior, organizational readiness, and exponential technologies. 

4️⃣ Georg Kell - Founding Director of the United Nations Global Compact and Chairman of Arabesque Group
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Most-Read Thought Piece: Corporate sustainability at a crossroad
Profile: Georg Kell is a prominent figure in the field of sustainable business and corporate social responsibility. He is the founding director of the United Nations Global Compact, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative. He currently serves as the chairman of Arabesque, a technology company that uses AI and big data to assess sustainability performance. 

5️⃣ Theo Vermaelen - Finance Professor at INSEAD Business School and UBS Chair in Investment Banking
Country: France 🇫🇷
Most-Read Thought Piece: Letter: don’t be misled by the climate change claims of ESG funds
Profile: Theo Vermaelen is a professor of finance, the UBS chair in Investment Banking, and the chair of the Finance Area at INSEAD. He teaches in the MBA, PhD and Executive Education programmes and is an academic director of the Advanced International Corporate Finance programme. Professor Vermaelen has taught at the University of British Columbia, the Catholic University of Leuven, the London Business School, UCLA and the University of Chicago.

6️⃣ Noa Jay - Policy Officer of Broadpeak
Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Most-Read Thought Piece: The Biodiversity Trilogy: Strategic conservation
Profile: Noa Jay is a policy analyst at Broadpeak, a Swiss-based International Advisory Company specialised in Impact Finance. Noa holds a BSc in Economics at the University of Lausanne, she was a communications intern at CHS Alliance, and she’s pursuing her Master’s in International Economics at the Geneva Graduate Institute.

7️⃣ Patricio Lombardi - Executive Director of the Environmental Markets Fairness Foundation and fmr. Minister of Argentina
Country: Argentina 🇦🇷
Most-Read Thought Piece: Biodiversity credits: right from the start
Profile: Patricio Lombardi is the executive director of the Environmental Markets Fairness Foundation, a strategic alliance forged between regions, governments and civil organizations from the Global South. Patricio was the first-ever Climate Minister appointed in the Americas, serving as Secretary of Climate Change for Argentina.

8️⃣ Sandhya Sabapathy - Global Head of Environment and Net Zero of Entain
Country: India 🇮🇳
Most-Read Thought Piece: Transferable skills & corporate citizenship
Profile: Sandhya Sabapathy is the global head of Environment and Net Zero of Entain, a FTSE100 company, and the founder of Kaleidoscope. With a robust background in leading transformative ESG initiatives in global Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 corporations, she is passionate about integrating sustainability into business strategies. 

9️⃣ Antoine Mach - Managing partner at Covalence
Country: Switzerland 🇨🇭
Most-Read Thought Piece: After the ESG party
Profile: Antoine Mach is managing partner of Covalence, an ESG rating agency based in Geneva, Switzerland, which he co-founded in 2001. He also teaches sustainable finance at Haute école de gestion de Genève and Institut Supérieur de Formation Bancaire. Antoine also received the prize for Best Pedagogical Innovation at the FIR-PRI Finance & Sustainability Awards 2019.

🔟 João Graça Gomes - PhD Candidate of Imperial College London and Board Member at the Global Future Energy Leaders program of the World Energy Council
Country: Portugal 🇵🇹
Most-Read Thought Piece: The future of energy: Geopolitics and the essential minerals of the 21st century
Profile: João Graça Gomes is the head of research and development at the Sino-Portuguese Centre for New Energy Technologies. His work is focused on joint research projects between Portugal and China, mainly related to energy storage and electricity planning. João is also a board member of the Global Future Energy Leaders program at the World Energy Council and the Coordinator for Asia and Oceania of the Portuguese Diaspora Council.

To the most read sustainability thought leaders in ESG, congratulations on your well-deserved recognition. Your commitment to excellence has set a high standard for us all, and we are excited to see the continued growth and innovation that will undoubtedly define the future of sustainability initiatives in 2025.

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