Background
Damian is the Deloitte Middle East Reporting Assurance Leader for Sustainability and is based in Dubai. He has over 25 years experience in providing Assurance services with over 20 years in London working primarily in the Financial Services industry and 4 years in Dubai, working with a variety of industries. He has assisted many clients with a wide variety of Sustainability assurance engagements including Sustainability Reporting Assurance, Green Social Bond assurance, ethical presentation of asset management, investment performance records, ESG investment and Asset Management Code procedures, Asset Stewardship reporting, and Carbon Disclosure Reporting. He has also led supply chain focused In Country Value (certification and audit teams for ADNOC Qatar Petroleum
Experience
Damian has led assurance engagements on a large number of Sustainability Reports, in the UK and Middle East, providing an assurance opinion on their non financial disclosures and claims of compliance with reporting standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative. He has worked with a number of Asset Management and Private Equity firms to review their ESG policies, metrics and procedures confirmed their claims of compliance with Stewardship Codes and assisted them in their preparation for UN Principles of Responsible Investment (UN PRI) signatory applications. He was heavily involved in the development of the Climate Bond Initiative’s Climate Bond Standard, sitting on the Certification Committee and assisting in the creation of their Green Bond Standards. He was previously a Climate Bond Initiative recognized certifier. He provided assurance over the Statement of Proceeds of a number of Green Bonds, Social Bonds and Social Lending initiatives created by UK and Qatar based banks. Damian has worked with the City of London in a cross industry committee, to help its development as a Centre of Excellence in Green Finance. As a member of the CFA’s Global Investment Performance Standards
(Verification Technical Committees, he has helped develop an ethical standard for the presentation of asset management investment performance records. He currently sits on the CFA’s Global Industry Standards Committee, overseeing the development of GIPS, the Asset Management Code and the ESG Investment Standard. He has worked with the Equator Principles to develop an assurance standard for bank lending and the Principles for Responsible Lending
(to develop an assurance standard for Responsible Investment. He is a member of the Abu Dhabi Global Market
(Sustainable Finance Declaration committee, representing Deloitte Middle East.