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Chrissa Pagitsas    

Expert in Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG), Sustainability & Global Business, Author of "Chief Sustainability Officers at Work"

Chrissa Pagitsas is a strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and author. She advises senior executives and boards on the intersection of environmental, social, governance (ESG) and global business. She is the author of the book "Chief Sustainability Officers at Work" (Apress, 2022) which explores the leadership strategies of Chief Sustainability Officers and Heads of ESG at Fortune 500 companies including BlackRock, The Coca-Cola Company, Duke Energy, and Procter & Gamble.

Recognized as a “Green Bond Champion” by the Climate Bonds Initiative and a recipient of the US Green Building Council Leadership Award, Pagitsas is responsible for market-transforming innovations including the first Green Commercial MBS in the US, a standardized energy audit for the commercial real estate market, and the US EPA ENERGY STAR® 1 to 100 Score for Existing Multifamily.

As the first Vice President of ESG at Fannie Mae, Pagitsas launched the enterprise’s ESG Strategy to integrate ESG principles into the core strategy. Prior to her work in ESG, she launched and led the Green Financing Business which issued over $51 billion in Green Bonds through 2018, making Fannie Mae the largest issuer of Green Bonds globally.

She serves as a board member to Healthy Building Network and is a strategic advisor to Sustainable Living Innovations.

Her prior experience includes developing sustainability strategies for large real estate investors and delivering financial management software solutions for utility companies in the U.S. and Europe. Pagitsas holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and a BA from Johns Hopkins University.

Speech Topics

The Secrets to Success with ESG

How does a Fortune 500 company with billions in revenue maximize the benefits of an ESG strategy? Chrissa Pagitsas pulls back the curtain on how to use priorities, patience, products, process, and partnerships to deliver innovative solutions through ESG.

Her audience walks in her shoes to build a $50 billion green bond business and the shoes of the Chief Sustainability Officers and Heads of ESG at global companies like Amazon, BlackRock, Procter & Gamble, and Owens Corning.

Creating a “Surround Sound” for Change: How to navigate change strategies with employees, customers, and investors

Launching a new initiative? Exciting a new customer base? Whether new to their seat or highly experienced, every leader will launch a new initiative that meets resistance. Using real and tangible examples from companies such as Fannie Mae, Procter & Gamble, and Trane, Chrissa Pagitsas shows how the real magic for changes comes from creating a “surround sound” of key stakeholders to bring about the change. From employees to investors and even critical external partners and customers, she will inspire the audience to surround these stakeholders and achieve the targeted change.

Sustainability and Innovation as a Intrapreneur

What does it take to develop a new product line within an established company? How do we integrate sustainability throughout our business products? It’s not the technology. It’s the mindset. Learn from the successful product launches of Procter & Gamble, Owens Corning, Amazon, and other leading companies who took leaps of faith grounded in business realities to capture new markets.

Female Leadership and Diversity in Sustainability

To succeed today, businesses must call upon the diverse talents of their employees and into their extensive networks. Drawing on her own leadership experiences and those of senior executives at Fortune 500 companies, Chrissa Pagitsas guides the audience through a realization of the power of leaders to concrete steps to include diverse perspectives into business strategy and decision-making.

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