How Singapore Companies Can Maximize ESG Opportunities & Respond to Anti-ESG Pressures hosted by Morrison Foerster

Please join ACC Singapore and Morrison Foerster for an evening discussion on how Singapore companies and investors can maximize ESG impact and opportunities, particularly in relation to climate change, whilst effectively managing the challenges of a far-reaching ESG compliance and disclosure regime in Europe and other jurisdictions and anti-ESG backlash in the U.S. The discussion aims to explore best practices and emerging trends in this space.

This is a fantastic opportunity to hear from Susan (Suz) Mac Cormac while she is in Singapore speaking at the GenZero Climate Summit.  Suz is known as a go-to legal resource for social enterprises (for-profit and nonprofit companies focused on social or environmental purpose), impact investors (investors interested in social or environmental returns), and mainstream companies developing environmental, social, and corporate governance policies. With deep knowledge in the impact investing model, she understands the nuances of how institutional investors can craft creative solutions and structure both investments and companies to emphasize impact and returns. She co-led the drafting group for the first of the new corporate forms (the Social Purpose Corporation in California, which became the Public Benefit Corporation in Delaware), has created hybrid/tandem corporate structures and crafted debt and equity instruments that blend impact with traditional financial terms, and has used corporate law to develop creative capital markets solutions to pressing environmental problems. She also advises the boards of public and private companies on corporate governance and fiduciary duties as applied to sustainability and climate change.

Discussion topics will include:

• Practical guidance for Singapore companies and investors on maximizing ESG opportunities and impact.
• Navigating the evolving ESG regulatory landscape, including often contradictory compliance requirements.
• Learning from the ESG backlash and how companies can tackle this.
• How Singapore-listed companies can prepare for mandated International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) reporting by 2025.

Speakers

• Maree Myerscough – Maree is the COO & General Counsel of Aquila Clean Energy Asia Pacific, a clean energy platform that funds, develops, builds and operates clean energy assets across the region. Within her role she is responsible for all legal and operational matters including environmental, social and governance considerations for APAC. Previously she worked with Conergy, SunEdison and with Latham & Watkins and Mallesons in private practice.
  
  In 2023, Maree was awarded In-House Lawyer of the Year by The Legal 500 at the Southeast Asia Awards. Maree was honoured to win the “General Commercial” award the Global Counsel Awards at an event in New York and was included in ALB’s In-house Counsel “40 Under 40” List for Asia Pacific in 2018. Maree was short-listed for an FT Innovative Lawyers Asia-Pacific 2021 award, including for her work on pro bono projects, community service initiatives, mentoring and service leadership within the legal community. Maree was also included in Transition Economist’s TE100 Women of the Energy Transition in the Renewables category.
   
• Susan H. Mac Cormac – Co-Chair, ESG + Sustainability and Social Enterprise + Impact Investing groups, Morrison Foerster and is in Singapore as a guest speaker at the GenZero Climate Change Summit 2024.
  
  Suz is a recognized global leader on impact investing and advises private and public companies that are committed to getting ESG right. She was California lawyer of the year twice and named the most innovative lawyer in North America in 2015. Suz is a founding board member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), a member of the board of directors of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), having served as their primary corporate counsel for 20 years. She is also a board member for the Earth Genome Project and as an advisory board member for the UN Environment Program Finance Initiative, and American Carbon Registry. She was recently elected to the American Law Institute Advisory Board for the Restatement of Corporate Governance.
   
• Shirin Tang – Managing Partner, Morrison Foerster Singapore. Shirin has over 20 years of experience in M&A and private equity transactions across Asia and globally.  She has led the Singapore office for five years and also serves on the firm’s global Executive Committee.  Shirin has been recognized as a Woman Leader in Private Equity/M&A by IFLR1000 and as a leading practitioner in Singapore by all major legal directories, including by The Legal 500 in its inaugural M&A Private Practice Powerlist: Asia Pacific 2024. She was also named Lawyer of the Year, Singapore, for Mergers & Acquisitions in 2024 by Best Lawyers.
   

This event is for ACC Singapore members only.  If you are interested in becoming an ACC Singapore member please contact ACCSingapore@accglobal.com.