Cassie Flynn is the Global Director of Climate Change at UNDP. The portfolio supports over 150 countries to take bold climate action. She previously served as the Strategic Advisor on climate change to UNDP’s Administrator and Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Fiji as COP23 President. Cassie is an internationally recognized expert on the treaty negotiations on climate change and has been a featured expert by CNN, BBC, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, New York Times, and other publications. Cassie earned her master's degree from Yale University and undergraduate degrees from Bowdoin College.

Kristy Drutman, otherwise known as “Brown Girl Green,” is passionate about working at the intersections between media, diversity and environmentalism. As a youth climate activist, Kristy has spoken in front of thousands as well as facilitated workshops centered around environmental media and storytelling in cities across the United States. She has also worked with youth from around the world to create collaborative, intersectional online media with the goal of creating conscious, culturally relevant content to engage audiences about proactive solution-building to the climate crisis.

Dr. Sweta Chakraborty is the CEO of North America, We Don’t Have Time. She is a partner at Pioneer Public Affairs. She is also the founder and principal of Adapt to Thrive, a venture that seeks to better inform individuals, businesses, and government entities on the complex, interconnected challenges, such as food insecurity and disease, already existing and emerging from a warming planet.

Boaz Paldi is the United Nations Development Programme Chief Creative Officer. In this role, Boaz oversees UNDP’s advocacy, flagship campaigns, events and partnerships. Most recently Paldi managed the design, rollout and launch of the #dontchooseextinction campaign. Before being appointed to his current role, Paldi led UNDP’s advocacy and communication as well as implementing UNDP’s multimedia strategy and co-founding the Social Good Summit. Prior to joining UNDP, Boaz worked as a TV journalist for 17 years covering conflicts, natural disasters and human-interest stories in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Balkans first for the BBC then the Associated Press and finally joining Reuters where he worked as a TV News Executive Producer for over 12 years.

Marcene Mitchell is the Senior Vice President of Climate Change at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Marcene is advancing WWF's important climate agenda in the US and globally and building greater synergies across WWF's climate change mitigation and resilience initiatives—with a particular focus on nature-based climate solutions. Marcene’s role is crosscutting because addressing the climate crisis cuts across all aspects of work at WWF. Marcene previously served as the Global Head of Climate Strategy and Business Development at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank. In addition to her work internationally, Marcene has been part of Green Bank initiatives in the United States, which scale climate finance by leveraging public sector funds with private investment. She is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Montgomery County Green Bank which brings renewable energy and energy efficiency to small businesses and moderate- and low-income households in Maryland.

Jessica “Jessie” Buendia is the Dream.Org Vice President of Sustainability and Green For All National Director. Green For All works at the intersection of the environmental, economic, and racial justice movements to advance solutions to poverty and pollution and to ensure that the people hit first and worst by pollution and climate change do not benefit last and least from the solutions. Under her leadership, Green For All is working to advance proactive bipartisan climate policy, support the implementation of Biden’s Justice40 initiative, and uplift Black and Brown entrepreneurs and job pathways in the green economy.

Jad Daley is serving as the 40th president and chief executive officer of American Forests, the nation’s oldest forest conservation organization, founded in 1875. Under Daley’s leadership, American Forests has grown three-fold and launched partnerships to tackle climate change and social inequity in cities across the United States. Follow Daley on twitter (@JadDaley).

Isaias Hernandez is an environmental justice educator and activist with years of experience in intersectional environmental work. Isaias works with businesses, institutions, and organizations to amplify and empower their environmental missions through science-based storytelling. Isaias is well-known in his field under the social moniker, QueerBrownVegan, his independent media platform with a global audience of over 150,000+ followers. Isaias attended the University of California Berkeley, earning his bachelor's in Environmental Science. Isaias has interviewed Vice President Kamala Harris and was featured on the digital cover of Vogue with Billie Eilish and on the Harvard-C-Change program as Climate Creators 2023 Program.

As Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Corps, Tjada leads a global team of more than 5,600 humanitarians, who provide immediate relief and help communities forge new paths to prosperity in the face of disaster, poverty, and the impacts of climate change, reaching 37 million people in more than 40 countries. Previously, Tjada served as Chief Operating Officer of CARE, where she oversaw the organization’s programming and global operations. Tjada spent more than a decade working to end world hunger in roles with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. government. During the Obama administration, Tjada served as the Deputy Coordinator of Development for Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, and the Assistant to the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Food Security in Washington, D.C.

Bradley Palmer is Executive Chair of Palm Ventures, a family investment company which he founded in 1992. Mr. Palmer also serves currently as Board Chair of Project Drawdown, the most comprehensive plan proposed to reverse climate change using the 100 most substantive, existing market-based solutions. Previously, Mr. Palmer was a Senior Associate with James D. Wolfensohn, Inc., an investment banking firm where he worked for Jim Wolfensohn and Paul Volcker on strategy and acquisitions for Fortune 100 clients. In addition to Project Drawdown, Mr. Palmer currently serves or has previously served on the boards of numerous private companies and charitable organizations including Save the Children, Education Development Center, the Kelley School of Business, the Millennium Development Goals Health Alliance and the Maritime Aquarium. Mr. Palmer holds a BS from Indiana University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dinara Ermakova is a nuclear advocate, public speaker, and expert in nuclear technology and policy. Originally from Astana, Kazakhstan, Dinara earned her doctorate in Nuclear Engineering from UC Berkeley and is currently working in strategy, communication, and outreach to advance nuclear as an avenue to solving climate disruption and providing just access to abundant clean energy.

Anusha Narayanan is the Global Project Leader for Greenpeace's campaign to stop the expansion of fossil fuels. She works with Greenpeace offices across the world to deploy hard-hitting investigations, non-violent actions and creative communications to tackle the planet’s biggest carbon bombs. Over the past decade, she has run state-level clean energy and electoral campaigns, and worked as a Senior Campaigner with the Union of Concerned Scientists where she ran advocacy campaigns to fight for regulatory policy reforms to build a renewable future.

Brianna is the founder of Anact and based out of Austin, TX. In 2019, she helped pass legislation to legalize hemp in the United States so that Anact can reintroduce manufacturing back to the USA. Prior to starting Anact, Brianna worked in the apparel industry for prAna, a subsidiary of Columbia Sportswear, and Under Armour. She has traveled to over 40+ countries and has worked in factories on almost every continent. She was Under Armour’s first ever full-time sustainability employee.

Passionate game changer & team leader, entrepreneur, advisor and executive director, I co-founded We Don’t Need Roads, a global business initiative dedicated to reinventing, creating and scaling positive impact at its core. The company involves a Brand Studio, a Positive Impact Innovation Bureau and a business scaling capacity, equiped with a Pack of 110+ international partners, and 600+ experts all around the globe, all focused on tackling Climate Change. https://wedontneedroads.io/en/welcome/

Mark is the EVP of Luminate & Head of Film & TV; Luminate is the preeminent entertainment data and insights company, unlocking the most essential information across the music, film, and television industries. An entertainment and technology entrepreneur, Mark founded TVtracker.com, a leading research & data solution for the entertainment industry. His speaking engagements include SXSW, MIT Media Lab, Harvard Alumni Network, industry podcasts and more.

Alissa Baier-Lentz is the Co-Founder and COO of Kintra Fibers, a materials science company that has developed a proprietary polyester that is bio-based, biodegradable, and produced on standard manufacturing equipment. Since Kintra's launch in 2020, the company has received interest from over 500 apparel brands and manufacturers. This year, Kintra is scaling its resin and yarn production in partnership with seven frontier brand partners, who will prototype Kintra’s materials in their product lines. The consortium represents category-leaders in the luxury, athletic, and ready-to-wear markets, and will be announced at a later time. As a circular fashion advocate, Alissa has spoken at the United Nations, COP26, Milan Fashion Week, and EARTHDAY, among others, and has been recognized by the Forbes 30 Under 30 “Retail and E-Commerce” list, the United Nations “Conscious Fashion” campaign, the Think Beyond Plastics “Textile Innovation” award, among others.

Isabella Spataro is the founder & CEO of Della Terra Apparel; a radically sustainable fashion brand leveraging technology to trace and measure the social & environmental impacts of its entire supply chain. As a #1 fan of mother earth, and having been raised surrounded by nature in the outskirts of Cali, Colombia in a family of clothing manufacturers, she grew to be a lover of both fashion and nature. Isabella moved to NYC to pursue a career in fashion where she grew increasingly disappointed by the catastrophically negative impact the industry has on the environment. Having experienced first-hand the disregard large fashion companies have for both people and planet she decided to shift gears toward impact driven start-ups, eventually finding her way to her own venture. Since its inception, DELLA TERRA has grown steadily, tripling its size year to year, all while creating pieces that consume 60%+ less environmental resources (water, CO2, PO4 3 and energy) than its regular counterparts. The Colombian fashion start-up paving the sustainability path in LATAM is certified by Bcome Tech (a 5% best for the planet Bcorp), CO2Cero and Climate NeutraL and has been featured in Vogue, HOLA, Solstice and Glamour.

Josh Cliffords is the founder of FreeWater which uses free spring water in aluminum bottles and paper cartons as a new type of advertising medium. Not only is freewater free but each water donates ten cents per beverage to charity to fight the global water crisis. When only 10% of Americans drink freewater we will donate a billions dollars annually. FreeWater is just the first product of their future free supermarkets and free groceries will cut USA food waste by up the 30% because a third of all US food waste is dumped at supermarkets because it was too expensive to sell. Free products enable new ways to manufacture and distribute goods locally that are more efficient and less wasteful.

Nick Arbuckle is a musician, entrepreneur, and sustainability advocate. While touring as a bass guitarist, he witnessed the devastating effects of pollution and poor air quality in cities across the globe. This experience sparked his passion for inspiring daily sustainability through Viro, a mobile app that empowers individuals to measure the positive impact of their day-to-day environmental actions.

Tiya holds 20 years experience in design, leadership, and operations across a range of disciplines for some of the country’s top firms and institutions. She is now venturing to spend the next 20 years on projects that use design to wage war against the Climate Crisis. Tiya's work has received the industry’s top accolades, including The National Design Award from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; the Inaugural Cannes Gold Lion for Creative Data; the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival; and the designation of second most innovative design firm in the world by Fast Company.

Ashley's passion is aiding founders and companies with the foundation to scale their business. She focuses on breaking down an organization into actionable components that lead to immense growth, client satisfaction and, most importantly, employee engagement. Financially minded and operationally focused she has three main principles with her approach: Context, Goals, Accountability.

Zahra is a youth climate activist and entrepreneur that has been sharing action items and tidbits of hopeful news for the planet for over 2 years to ~50K people on her social media platforms. She is the CEO and Founder of In the Loop, a circular economy software startup, the author of forthcoming book “Climate Optimism: Climate Wins and Creating Systemic Change Around the World”, and a TED Speaker.

Sarah, CEO and Co-Founder of Beni, is on a mission to make resale the new norm. In September 2022, the Beni team publicly launched the Beni browser extension, a free and easy-to-use tool that instantly shows you the best resale listings while you shop your favorite brands online. Prior to Beni, Sarah was at Imperfect Foods where she led the development of a company-wide sustainability strategy and team. She holds an MBA and Masters in Design Innovation from Northwestern and is proud to be part of the group of innovators accelerating circular fashion.

Alex is an award-winning humanitarian, filmmaker, and co-founder of Applied Bioplastics, the world's first affordable biocomposite solution for durable plastic replacements.

Quenita (aka Que) is a Digital Media & Data Analytics Strategist making the unknown world of data make sense for individuals, leadership teams and brands in being more effective in their strategic outcomes, revenue targets and resource spends. Her past leadership accomplishments has resulted in Que being selected as one of 280 business owners and leaders from around the United States to be invited to attend the White House's Business Council meeting (Obama Administration under leadership of Valerie Jarrett). One of Que’s most memorable achievements has been the acknowledgement as a "Who's Who in Black Dallas" (2nd Edition) for her commitment to leadership, volunteerism and her strategic advisory work with clients. Specific to SXSW, Que has committed to lifting up Black accomplishments in the food space at SXSW by being apart of the team that has played official panel host to the top Black Women Building FoodTech at SXSW 2022 (with one of the female Founders recently exiting with an acquisition by Patagonia) and top Black Chefs in America (with one of the chefs being the 1st Black man to earn a Michelin star in the United States) at SXSW 2023.