By Mrs Gilbert, Alumnae Relations Officer

Last Thursday, NHEHS and Royal High School Bath hosted a remote event for GDST parents and students which provided a fantastic opportunity to find out more about the variety of careers in Sustainability. An expert panel of speakers, which included a NHEHS alumna, Emily Bolton (Class of 2012), a NHEHS current parent, Jasandra Nyker and Rachel Wibberly, an alumna from Nottingham Girls’ High School, shared their experiences, insights and advice about how to kickstart a career in this rapidly growing and exciting industry.

We were delighted that there was such a great turnout for this online event and the audience learnt that there really are endless opportunities and pathways in the field of sustainability.

Speakers:

Jasandra Nyker has been working in renewable and clean energy investing since 2005, having set up and invested some of the first funds in the climate and energy transition sector. She is the CEO of Nala Renewables Limited, a global renewable energy investment and development platform that, builds, owns and operates solar, wind and energy storage projects. Jasandra has held the position of CEO since April 2021. The company is jointly owned by IFM and Trafigura. Under her leadership, Nala has amassed a global portfolio of 3.0GW of renewable energy assets across the USA, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Prior to Nala Renewables, Jasandra spent a decade within the Denham Capital stable, first as CEO of its pan- African focused renewable energy platform BioTherm Energy. Jasandra built the business into a successful wind and solar IPP with projects across Africa. She also worked at Denham Capital as a Managing Director, overseeing its renewable energy portfolio in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Jasandra holds a degree in Finance, Economics and Statistics from the University of Cape Town, as well as an MBA in Finance from the London Business School where she was a Merrill Lynch Scholar. She has also completed the Global Leadership and Public Policy Program at Harvard. Jasandra is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (Class of 2012).

Emily Bolton is the Climate Crisis Strategy Manager for Cambridgeshire County Council, working across the organisation and with partners to strengthen collaborative action on the climate and biodiversity crises. Her work focuses on developing the tools and frameworks needed to support all service areas, as well as communities and businesses, to integrate environmental considerations and translate policy into action.

Emily’s broad remit has evolved from energy management through to developing and implementing environmental strategies including the authority’s Climate Change and Environment Strategy(s) (2020 and 2022). She has a strong collaborative strategic planning base, leading the ongoing development of the region’s Climate Risk and Adaptation Plan and Net Zero by Design guidelines to embedded decarbonisation into all council activities. Alongside this she has developed carbon calculator tools to support decarbonisation of waste disposal and treatment services which are nationally available via the Local Government Association.

Prior to her time in Cambridgeshire, Emily worked in public facing roles at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and the National Trust. She has a MSc Applied Ecology and Conservation, and a BSc (Hons) Natural Sciences from the University of East Anglia.

Rachel Wibberley is a Consultant in Deloitte’s Sustainability and Climate Strategy team with previous experience in public sector policy and strategic communications. She served as a Delegate to the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women and the UN Human Rights Council, where she prioritised the empowerment of women and girls in global environmental governance.

Rachel earned her MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy at the University of Oxford while acting as an inaugural research fellow at the University of Oxford’s UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Impact Lab, working on global sustainability challenges. She also holds a first class degree from King’s College London. Rachel is a GDST alumna.

Rachel’s career highlights include leading the strategy of a cross government major programme to facilitate better climate policy making, partnering with NATO to deliver their Global Britain campaign, working with UN Women on Gender and Climate Change policy, and supporting an industry leading sustainability strategy for a major airline company