- Creating comprehensive education programs from the board down
- Educating the institution on the current priorities of ESG risk management programs
- Informing decision making throughout other functions of the institution
- Expanding ESG risk management teams: training from within or recruiting specialists
Mitch Carpen
Mitch Carpen has over 25 years of experience designing, leading and implementing a broad range of growth, realignment and startup initiatives in financial and governmental organizations.
He is the Climate Risk Executive at KeyBank and currently leading their Climate Risk Framework buildout.
In his previous role at the Green Climate Fund in South Korean he served as the head of the Office of Risk Management, Compliance and Sustainability where he built up a team and the due diligence framework to allow the Fund to significantly scale up its portfolio of climate change transactions in developing countries.
Before joining the Green Climate Fund, he worked with the State of New Jersey as an Executive Director to startup an infrastructure bank that focused on financing resilient energy assets after the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy.
Before this he was an Assistant General Manager at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in Singapore where he led the startup of the risk function for their newest regional headquarter. He also held senior positions with Societe Generale’s risk team in New York City, Instinet Corporation and Prudential Financial.
Mitch has a masters degree in Mathematics of Finance from Columbia University in New York City, and a masters and bachelors degree in Economics and Information Science from Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Emily Westendorf
Emily Westendorf serves as vice president and ERM program manager. She is responsible for establishment of the climate risk program including execution of climate scenario analysis, design of a data strategy, and climate-related communications.
Emily previously served in multiple operational risk roles including Scenario Analysis Program Manager, KRI Program Manager, Operational Risk Governance Manager. In these roles, Emily managed integration of key risk indicators from the MB Financial merger, enhanced governance protocols in alignment with Heightened Standards, and executed large scale scenarios on topics ranging from cyber to LIBOR to climate. Emily also provided second line operational risk oversight of Consumer Bank and centralized functions. Emily began her career at Fifth Third as a Learning Facilitator supporting Retail.
Jim Costa
James Costa is Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of Banner Bank. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the company’s risk and compliance functions as well as the Bank’s interactions with industry regulators. He is also a member of the Bank’s Executive Management Committee.
Prior to joining Banner, Costa served as Chief Risk and Chief Credit Officer for TCF Financial a regional bank where he managed all credit and risk functions as well as operations. At TCF Jim managed the enterprise integration of the merger equals between Chemical Bank and TCF. Prior to TCF, Jim held executive leadership positions in risk, credit and lines of business as EVP at PNC Financial and Head of Enterprise Credit Strategy at Wachovia Corporation, now Wells Fargo. Jim has been active in financial services for almost 30 years with focus areas including enterprise strategy credit risk, and regulatory relations.
Jim earned his bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University and conducted his doctoral studies from the University of Minnesota. Jim is a veteran of the US Air Force. In Minnesota, Jim is active in community organizations to include Habitat for Humanity, Humane Society and The University of Minnesota Center for Children’s Cancer Research. Jim is also an advisory board member for the Midsize Bank Coalition of America.