Search for:
Asia-Pacific

From Strategy to Action — Advancing ESG in Asia Pacific

By , , , , , , and 2 Mins Read

This report, the fourth in our Asia Pacific Business Renewal Series, explores how businesses are now fortifying their ESG efforts and pivoting from strategy to action. As businesses integrate ESG action into business renewal, there is an imperative to mitigate risks and pre-empt regulatory and compliance complexities amid uneven recovery and progress across jurisdictional and sectoral landscapes in the region.

Key highlights include:

  • the uneven jurisdictional and sectoral ESG landscape
  • the ESG risks that are top of mind for businesses
  • key forces propelling ESG action in the region
  • how advancing ESG is now intertwined in business renewal strategies
DOWNLOAD

 About the Asia Pacific Business Renewal Series

Over a year into the global pandemic, businesses have had to pivot to survive and adjust to new ways of conducting business. Now, more than ever, Asia Pacific business leaders are making the necessary strategic changes to meet the needs of a vastly changed business landscape — and deciding where legal expertise may be needed most to limit and manage disruption and soften risks.

This series of four reports unpacks the hypercomplex nature of business in 2021. Understand the momentum and mindset of business leaders and decision-makers in the region as they navigate challenges relating to four main areas of business: Supply Chains, New M&A Landscape, Digital Transformation and Sustainability ESG.

Each report is based on a custom survey of 800 respondents, in partnership with Acuris. Reports feature key considerations and action points to helping businesses to understand the horizon ahead as they make strategic decisions, pursue growth and secure lasting success.

Categories:
Author

Ilona Millar is a partner in the Environmental Markets team at Baker McKenzie's Sydney office. Ilona is an environmental and projects lawyer with a diverse range of experience in domestic and international climate change, carbon markets, environmental law and policy, and a strong background in all aspects of water management, planning and projects. She joined the Firm in 2008 from the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development, and International Institute for Environment and Development, in London. Ilona regularly writes, teaches and presents on environmental topics — she has lectured on environmental law, environmental markets and international climate change law at UNSW, Sydney University and University College London and for the past six years has co-coordinated the international climate change law course at ANU where she is a visiting fellow at the College of Law. Ilona's extensive pro bono work includes advising a number of developing country governments and non-government organizations on international climate change negotiations, and advising the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists on water and natural resource management law. She is listed among the best lawyers for Climate Change by Best Lawyers Australia 2016.

Author

Alyssa is Baker McKenzie's Chief Sustainability Officer. In this role, Alyssa is responsible for the Firm’s multi-practice sustainability client offering as well as for overseeing the Firm's internal sustainability program, goals and reporting, working closely with other Firm functions that are key to the Firm’s sustainability efforts. She maintains the Firm's relationships with global policy-shaping forums such as the World Economic Forum, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the UN, with a keen focus on engaging the businesses community on sustainability issues, and promoting collaboration, such as through the Firm’s patronage of the Action Platform for Peace Justice and Strong Institutions (Goal 16), working with clients and like-minded businesses to encourage deeper corporate engagement on Goal 16.
Alyssa brings to the role of Chief Sustainability Officer strong client relationships and deep industry knowledge, thanks to her most recent role as Global Chair of the Firm's Consumer Goods & Retail (CG&R) Industry Group and her practice as an M&A lawyer, dual-admitted in the United States and France, advising French, American and multinationals and private equity funds on their acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, partnerships and strategic alliances worldwide, as well as on their international expansion. With nearly 30 years of transactional experience, Alyssa was a partner in the Paris office of Baker McKenzie for 15 years, ran the Paris office M&A practice through 2012 and was a member of the Firm’s EMEA M&A Steering Committee.
In her CG&R industry role, Alyssa organized numerous initiatives, seminars, roundtables and conferences with global industry experts, including several focused on sustainability given its importance to the industry. She created a Baker McKenzie podcast series, Off the Shelf, to provide short, practical tips and legal advice to CG&R companies, is ranked by Legal 500 as a “Leading Individual” in the luxury goods sector and participated in the Vogue Business Brand Index as a member of its Advisory Board. She has been interviewed by several leading industry publications on topics of relevance to the industry, including sustainability.
Alyssa is based in Paris, France, is a Franco-American dual national and speaks French and English fluently.

Author

Elisabeth White is a partner in Baker McKenzie's Sydney office. Elisabeth has over 15 years' experience as an intellectual property and regulatory advisor, focusing upon IP protection and enforcement with a particular emphasis on regulated industries and related disputes. Elisabeth is described in Asia Pacific Legal 500 as providing “decisive expert opinion and a pragmatic approach”. She has been featured in Best Lawyers - Intellectual Property listed annually since 2013.

Author

Gavin Raftery is a partner of the Finance & Projects Group, and is currently the Co-Managing Partner of the Tokyo office. Gavin is also one of the heads of Baker McKenzie's Global Fintech Initiative. He has extensive experience practicing finance law in Australia, the UK and Japan. He is listed as a leading lawyer for Banking and Finance in Japan by Chambers, Legal500 and IFLR.

Author

Kiyoshi Endo is a member of the Firm’s Corporate/M&A Practice Group in Tokyo. He has experience working as a secondee at the London subsidiary of a Japanese securities firm. Prior to joining Baker McKenzie, he worked as a managing associate at Linklaters.

Author

Mini vandePol is the Head of Baker McKenzie's Asia Pacific Investigations, Compliance & Ethics Group, after successfully completing three years as the Global Chair. Mini focuses on anti-bribery and corruption, trade sanctions, fraud and other senior executive misconduct investigations across Asia but most particularly in Hong Kong, China and India. Mini has more than 30 years' experience and is the trusted advisor to the boards and audit committees of the Firm's most significant global clients — assisting them to establish and enhance their risk management programs, assess risks in transactional opportunities and credibly investigate transgressions to support a strong commitment to a culture of compliance. In her previous Global Chair role, she led a team of 900+ compliance and investigations practitioners in Asia Pacific, EMEA, Latin America and North America, which was ranked amongst the Top 10 global investigations firms by Global Investigations Review in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Mini herself has recently been awarded "Woman Lawyer of the Year" in The Macallan ALB Hong Kong Law Awards and "Best in White Collar Crime" Euromoney Asia Women in Business Law Awards in 2019. She is also named as one of the "Top 100 Women in Investigations" by Global Investigations Review. Mini is the Firm's representative assisting the World Economic Forum's Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) and a member of the WEF's Global Future Council.

Author

Nadia has more than 20 years of experience handling a wide range of finance and corporate transactions, including project finance, general banking and finance, and mergers and acquisitions.

Author

Robert Wright is a senior lawyer in the Baker McKenzie Asia Pacific M&A group and is a lead member of the Hong Kong office Private Equity team. Robert has significant experience in advising financial sponsors and multinational corporates across a range of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, corporate restructurings and strategic investments for listed and unlisted companies.

Related Posts

Write A Comment