Our Team

Emilie Maehara is a Senior Executive and Public Policy Specialist with more than 20 years of experience in the fields of Environmental diplomacy, Sustainable finance and Sustainable cities, including 13 years in the French national administration. She serves as Deputy Executive Director of Sustainable Finance Observatory an international think tank specialised on private capital mobilisation for climate action.
She previously served as Head of Finance Engagement and Partnerships for the C40 x GCoM Bloomberg
Philanthropies Joint Programme. She was responsible for driving the strategic engagement and identifying
investment opportunities with financial institutions and key partners engaging in urban climate finance
initiatives for C40 cities (the network gathering the 100 largest cities worldwide) and GCoM (gathering 13 000
cities committed to climate action).
She has been the Deputy Executive Director and Director of Programs of the Global Fund for Cities
Development - FMDV, a global network of local governments dedicated to promoting finance solutions for
sustainable cities between 2020 and 2023. As an advisor in charge of urban development at the French
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she initiated, drafted, and negotiated the Sustainable Development Goal n° 11 on
sustainable cities, and represented the French government in multilateral fora. She also managed urban
cooperation projects in Africa and coordinated a multi stakeholder platform gathering French international
urban expertise. She previously served as an advisor at the cabinet of the French Minister in charge of Urban
policy in deprived areas. She has been Head of the Environment office at the Prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis
(implementing national policies in this Department gathering 40 cities in the Paris metropolitan area). In this
position she oversaw the environmental regulation of 4000 industrial sites, major urban development projects,
Olympic facilities, Grand Paris Express (new metro lines) and the rehabilitation of polluted industrial sites.

Nicola is Head of Retail & Impact Investing, leading the operational management of the research stream. The stream comprises four working streams including research activities, policy engagement, product development and communications campaigns.

Prior to his role at Sustainable Finance Observatory (formerly 2DII), Nicola worked as a sustainability consultant and analyst at sustainable natives eG. His projects focused on sustainability strategy and management, performance analysis and communication campaigns. He was lead of the Sustainable Finance Unit and product manager of a sustainability assessment method with which he performed over 150 company analyses.

Nicola holds an M.A. in International Politics, Administration and International Relations from Zeppelin University, where he specialized in different interfaces of sustainable development. He also completed a bachelor’s degree in International Economics and Development at the University of Bayreuth.

David Cooke serves as Law and Policy Lead at Sustainable Finance Observatory (formerly 2DII) and joined in 2019. His work involves legal analysis of the developing sustainable finance rulebook, engaging with policymakers, financial regulators and supervisors, and monitoring and coordinating the Observatory’s input to sustainable finance policy initiatives globally (with a particular emphasis on the EU).

He previously worked as a lawyer at ClientEarth in the UK focusing on the application of corporate and financial law to climate change and broader environmental, social and governance issues. While there he engaged with financial regulators, supervisory authorities and government departments to increase regulatory oversight of climate-related financial risk and helped draft recommendations on regulator implementation of a sustainability disclosure framework for the Green Finance Taskforce report to the UK Government: Accelerating Green Finance.

As well as legal qualifications, David holds a BSc Physics and Philosophy from the University of Bristol and a MSc Sustainable Development from the University of Surrey.

Thierry is a Senior project manager at Sustainable Finance Observatory (formerly 2DII).

He works on the retail investing stream in French and European markets and manages qualitative and quantitative studies but also mystery shopping visits in those territories.

Prior to joining the Observatory in 2019, Thierry worked as a digital project manager in the cultural sector. He holds a Master’s in Marketing Communications from Paris XIII.

Carole joined Sustainable Finance Observatory (formerly 2DII) in October 2022. She manages the financial and administrative aspects of the organization.

Prior to being part of the Observatory's team, she worked as a Financial & Administrative Manager within a start-up in the digital sector. She started as an Office Assistant in London and by learning on the job could go up the ladder to where she is today. After 4 years in London she came back to Paris in 2017.

She has a Master in European and International law.

Ana Rivera is a Senior Sustainable Finance Analyst at Sustainable Finance Observatory (formerly 2DII). She holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Economics from the National University of Colombia, as well as an M.Sc. in Public Policy and Development at the Paris School of Economics. Previously, she worked as a policy analyst at the Directorate for Public Governance, and as a policy intern in the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – OECD.

Ana also worked as economist of the minister’s office at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism and economist in the Directorate of Economics Studies at the National Planning Department, and as a research data analyst for Paris School of Economics and The National University of Colombia.

Over the last fifteen years, Javier has worked as an (EU) Bid and Project/Contract Manager for several research organisations, predominantly in the UK. He has been involved in both pre-and and post-award stages, including identification of calls, project management, monitoring, and reporting in R&D projects.

He has also volunteered as a bid writer and administrator for several NGOs working on human rights, water supply and sanitation, and education.

Laëtitia has joined Sustainable Finance Observatory (formerly 2DII) team as Senior Communication Manager. Before that, she worked in major companies in the corporate and financial communication department at AXA, L'Oréal, and Air Liquide, focusing on shareholder relations for over 10 years.

She also worked for public and semi-public organizations on economic diplomacy between France and the African continent, involving French Ministery for Europe and Foreign Affairs and French Parliament Members.

She graduated from Institut Supérieur de Gestion Paris (ISG) and held a Master's degree from Saint John's University (New York City, USA) and Sophia University (Tokyo, Japan).

Guillaume has 20 years experience in the financial sector with major investment banks, including HSBC. After 5 years in market, model, credit and operational risk management, he worked in trading in Paris and London for 15 years, mainly on structured products for global portfolios. His expertise in finance has been extended to the field of sustainable finance, with a focus on energy transition and carbon markets in Africa.

After a postgraduate degree in economics and finance from Sciences Po Paris, Guillaume holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Paris VIII and a master’s degree in energy, finance and carbon from the University of Paris Dauphine PSL.

Mickaël is Consultant in research, which investigates the preferences and beliefs of retail investors about green financial products and the supply of those products by the financial industry.

Mickaël is an economist with an expertise on matters at the crossroads with psychology and finance. That includes behavioral economics and finance, happiness economics and sustainable finance. He transmits his expertise through award-winning books, lectures in business schools, trainings for professionals and conferences. He is the founder of the Institut de l’Economie du Bonheur in Paris.

Mickaël holds a Master of Science in Management from ESSEC Business School, a Master of Science in Applied Economics from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and a PhD in Economics from La Sorbonne University.