The ESG Review Panel is conceived to safeguard the quality of EFFAS certifications in the ESG area, contributing to the maintenance of the Programmes Syllabus’ and certification exams.
The ESG Review Panel is composed of outstanding academics and practitioners who are all ESG experts. As the CESGA matures and consolidates itself as a global leader in the market the experts’ combined abilities will safeguard the quality of the CESGA certification. In addition, they will use their expertise to maintain the same high standards with the forthcoming ESG Essentials Programme for Financial Advisors.
Chair
Prof. Dr. Alexander Bassen (Chair) (DVFA, Germany)
Alexander Bassen is a full professor of capital markets and management at the University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Science (Germany). Alexander is the Academic Director of the CESGA Programme, a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development – advisory body of the German Federal Government, member of the UN PRI Academic Network Advisory Council, Honorary Research Associate, Smith School of Enterprise, and the Environment (University of Oxford), member of the Commission on Environmental, Social & Governance Issues (CESG) of the European Association of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS) as well as member of several other advisory committees.
Members
Sonia Artuso, CEFA, CIIA, CESGA (AIAF, Italy)
Sonia is the ESG Investment Integration Manager at Generali, where she plays a key role in driving sustainable strategy and investment innovation. As the central liaison between the Group Chief Sustainability Office, the Group Chief Investment Office, Asset Management, and Wealth Management area, she actively facilitates the adoption of sustainable investment practices. Sonia holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Torino. She is a certified CIIA, CESGA and CEFA.
She collaborates with standard setters and contributes to several influential sustainability committees and task forces, including the FinDatEx ESG Technical Working Group, the Insurance Europe Sustainability Working Group and the AIAF Education Commission for ESG Issues. Sonia’s commitment to sustainability also extends to academia, where she shares her knowledge as a lecturer at Cattolica University in Milan.
Among her latest publications are: Exploring the Effectiveness of Sustainability Measurement: Which ESG Metrics Will Survive COVID 19? published in the Journal of Business Ethics (Springer); How to improve Biodiversity information published in Extinction Governance edited by Atkins J. and Macpherson M. (Routledge) and Introduction to SRI: From Traditional to Sustainable Investing (McGraw-Hill).
Aurélie de Barochez, CIIA (SFAF, France)
Aurélie de Barochez has been the Head of ESG Integration for Groupama Asset Management since May 2018. She is currently implementing a new ESG Strategy aiming to develop ESG integration into investment decisions. Therefore, she has created an ESG training programme for portfolio managers. She joined Groupama AM in 2015 as financial and ESG analyst, in charge of the energy sector and as specialist in environmental issues.
From 2012 to 2015 she was an analyst at Novethic, responsible for the certification of SRI funds, for developing sustainable investment training and for conducting statistical studies.
She began her career as an SRI analyst at General in 2011 and then at Agicam.
Aurélie holds a master’s degree in management from Audencia Nantes and a master’s degree in International Law from Université Paris 2 Panthéon Assas. She graduated from the SFAF (CIIA) in 2017 and is a member of the Commission in charge of Extra-financial analysis.
Corinne Baudoin, CEFA (SFAF, France)
Corinne Baudoin has been a member of SFAF’s board in charge of ESG topics since 2017. She co-chairs the Commission in charge of Extra-financial analysis. She began her career as an equity fund manager at CCR Actions from 1997 to 2002. Then she participated in the creation of the “value investing” asset management company Metropole gestion in 2002, where she stayed until 2014. As an equity fund manager, she worked on the development of an ESG criteria integration tool into financial analysis and fund management. She is now a financial and extra-financial reporting consultant and teaches extra-financial analysis and reporting at the PPA business school in Paris.
Ms Baudoin is an SFAF member and diploma accredited (CEFA – Certified European Financial Analyst) since 2000, she is also an agricultural engineer (ENSFA, Rennes) and has a master’s degree (DESS) in land-use planning and local authorities.
Dag A.D. Messelt, CEFA, CESGA (SFF, Sweden)
Dag has over 30 years of experience in financial markets and asset management and a strong focus on Sustainable and Responsible Investing. Since 2019, he has led efforts to address ESG risk research gaps, particularly for private credit issuers and for small and micro-cap equity issuers. In February 2021, he co-founded SustainAX, aiming to help asset managers better understand and integrate ESG risks in under-researched segments. Prior to this, Dag led product development initiatives and managed specialist teams at Alfred Berg Asset Management, a Nordic subsidiary of BNP Paribas. He has also worked for Societe Generale and Lehman Brothers.
Dag is actively involved in sustainable finance workgroups like Norsif and Swesif, and supports the practical implementation of SFDR. He is also a thought leader in sustainable finance, regularly publishing insights in specialised press and through SustainAX’s channels. Dag holds a Master’s degree from NHH (Norway) and HEC (France), and is a Certified European Financial Analyst (CEFA) and a Certified ESG Analyst (CESGA 4.1).
Gunnar Friede, PhD, CEFA, CIIA (DVFA, Germany)
Gunnar Friede is Head of ESG in Multi Asset & Solutions at DWS Group and Senior Portfolio Manager. He and his team manage several very successful multi asset ESG strategies. Gunnar is a member of the EFFAS Commission on ESG and co-chairs the German DVFA Commission on Sustainable Investing. He contributes to the EFFAS ESG Certified Analyst program since its launch.
Gunnar works for DWS since 2005, initially as a global equity portfolio manager, and has since then a focus at ESG. His professional career started in the Private Client division of Deutsche Bank. He holds a PhD from the University of Hamburg where he researched on the relationship between ESG and financial performance and the investor impediments for wider ESG adoption. He holds a master (Diplom-Kaufmann) in business administration from HTW Berlin, is a trained banker (“Bankkaufmann”) and is Certified International Investment Analyst and Certified European Financial Analyst.
René Nicolodi, PhD (SFAA, Switzerland)
René Nicolodi is the Head of Equities & Themes and Deputy head of Asset Management at Swisscanto Invest by Zürcher Kantonalbank. Mr Nicolodi received his Ph.D. from the University of Zurich, and since 2009 has been a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA). In addition to his role at ZKB, Mr Nicolodi is a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences for Business Administration Zurich (HWZ), the University of Zurich and the Swiss Training Centre for Investment Professionals (AZEK), and the International Management Institute in Kiev. René Nicolodi is a member of the EFFAS ESG Commission and is a board member at Swiss Sustainable Finance (SSF).
Sofia Santos, PhD, CESGA (APAF, Portugal)
Sofia is an accomplished economist with 27 years of experience, particularly in sustainability and sustainable finance. Her career began in London with Merrill Lynch, before moving back to Portugal, where she worked with NGOs, Reuters, Bloomberg, and the National Statistics Institute. In 2004, she co-founded Sustentare Lda, guiding major Portuguese companies in creating their first sustainability reports and strategies. She further expanded her impact by co-founding SystemicSphere in 2013, specializing in sustainability trends and implementation. Today she is also consultant for the World Bank, French Development Agency, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the Green Climate Fund, for the Africa region on climate and sustainable finance.
In 2018, Sofia took on a pivotal role in coordinating the “Portuguese Think Tank on Sustainable Finance” at the Portuguese Ministry of Environment and Energy Transition. Her leadership culminated in the “Letter of Commitment for Sustainable Finance in Portugal,” a landmark initiative for the country. She also holds the Certified Environmental, Social, and Governance Analyst (CESGA) designation since 2019, underscoring her expertise in ESG analysis.
Academically, Sofia co-coordinates executive courses on sustainable finance at ISEG Executive Education and teaches Ethics and Sustainability at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, in Rabat, Morrocco. She earned her doctorate in 2012 from Middlesex University, London, with a thesis titled “The Legitimacy of Portuguese Banks and the Environment – Is the Portuguese Banking Sector Greenwashing?” A published author of six books, she continues to shape the field through consultancy and involvement in international climate finance projects.
Susana Peñarrubia Fraguas, CFA, CESGA
Susana Peñarrubia began her career in finance at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson as a multi-product fixed income sales specialist before joining a leading European asset management company in 2001. Since then, she has held several senior roles within the firm, including serving as Head of the Utilities Research Team. Over the course of her career, she has spent 14 years managing equity ESG portfolios and 20 years working as an equity analyst, consistently focusing on the integration of sustainability into investment decision-making.
She holds a Master’s degree in Economics (Licenciada en Económicas) from the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) and pursued further academic studies at Leeds Polytechnic (UK), Fachhochschule für Wirtschaft Pforzheim, and Hochschule für Bankwirtschaft Frankfurt. She is a CFA Charter holder and a Certified ESG Analyst (CESGA).
Since 2011, she has worked at the intersection of ESG integration, investment research, and active ownership. In her current role as Head of ESG Integration – Active Investment Management and Co-Chair of the Engagement Council, she develops and oversees frameworks that embed ESG considerations across all stages of the active investment process—including issuer analysis, valuation, portfolio construction, and engagement. She provides strategic direction to investment teams, ensures ESG risks and opportunities are systematically assessed, and contributes to aligning engagement outcomes with proxy voting practices.
In addition to her professional responsibilities, she is actively involved in ESG education and capacity building across the investment industry. She contributed to the development and dissemination of the CESGA program by EFFAS, which has become a leading ESG certification for financial professionals. She regularly leads training sessions, webinars, and conferences to support analysts and portfolio managers in integrating sustainability metrics into financial models, interpreting ESG disclosures, and applying ESG insights in engagement and voting activities.
Teresa Royo, CESGA
Teresa Royo is Senior Manager of the Governance, Risks and Compliance area at KPMG, focusing on ESG (environmental, social, governance) research and delivery of services for public companies and ESG reporting, in Madrid.
She joined the company in 2011, after 6-years’ experience working for Ecodes, providing ESG Research for institutional investors and sustainability indexes as FTSE4good, FTSE4good IBEX, Carbon Disclosure Project; with the English research agency EIRIS.
She was a Member of the stakeholder council of the Global Reporting Initiative during 2010-2011.
She has a master’s degree (“Licenciada en Económicas”) in economics from Universidad de Zaragoza; additional studies at Maastricht Universiteit (The Netherlands); and Instituto de Estudios Bursátiles (IEB). She is a Trainer at the EFFAS ESG Training Programme Valuation, Measurement and Integration, and for the Global Reporting Initiative reporting guidelines.
Teresa is also member of the ”ESG Information for Financial Analysis” Commission at the Spanish Institute of Financial Analysts (IEAF).