Archives: Speakers

Mario Abela is a Director, Redefining Value at WBCSD where he leads projects aimed at transforming performance management, governance and assurance to make sustainability an integral part of mainstream business and investor decision-making. Mario is a CPA and Chartered Management Accountant, his expertise are in corporate reporting and he has held senior management positions in both the private and public sectors in Australia, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the US.  He has extensive regulatory and standard setting experience.  Mario is a visiting professor at IESEG School of Management in Paris where he teaches in the Masters in Accounting, Audit and Control program.

Grant Sanders is an entrepreneur who has founded a number of successful businesses. He has extensive experience and training in various fields including finance, manufacturing and agriculture and is a dual Canadian and European citizen. Grant is a visionary who sees the potential for high value agricultural pharmaceutical crops as a global renewable resource and a catalyst for change. Grant also sees the potential of these emerging global commodities that have the power to transform the third world.

He has worked specifically in agricultural industries for more than 30 years and has developed a wealth of knowledge and connections in this field. Grant also has extensive experience in private banking as well as global asset structuring, and corporate finance.

Courtney Fingar is editor-in-chief of Investment Monitor and a widely known commentator on international investment trends. She oversaw the launch of the publication in September 2020 after joining from the Financial Times. Her 20-year career in business journalism includes running the FT’s fDi Magazine and serving as head of content for its associated data division fDi Intelligence. She has covered business stories in more than 80 countries and she is a popular moderator and keynote speaker at economic and investment events worldwide and has appeared on television and radio in dozens of countries.

Glenn Barklie is chief economist at Investment Monitor and head of FDI services at Global Data Media. He was previously with Financial Times, where he was the head of benchmarking services for fDi Intelligence. With almost 15 years’ experience in FDI and economic development, he has worked with many government agencies and corporates, specialising in location benchmarking, rankings and investment trends as well as managing FDI databases.

Ruth Strachan is a senior reporter at Investment Monitor, focusing on manufacturing, mining and commodities. She joined from the Financial Times, where she worked as a content editor in the events division FT Live. In this role she wrote content for various global events across a number of topics including FDI, technology, C-suite roles and compliance. Before this, she was a journalist at DC Thomson.

Jon Whiteaker is a senior editor at Investment Monitor focusing on FDI in the energy sector. He is also Middle East and Africa editor. He joined from Euromoney Institutional Investor. He has been a business and finance journalist for more than a decade, five of which he spent as the editor of IJGlobal – a leading news and data title covering energy and infrastructure finance. Jon has reported on transactions and investment trends across all continents and is an experienced leader and participant in industry events.