Sonja Gibbs

Managing Director and Head of Sustainable Finance Institute of International Finance (IIF)

Sonja leads the IIF’s work on sustainable finance and sovereign debt policy, focusing on research and advocacy for the Institute’s global membership across the financial services industry. Her research interests include the economic impact and financial market pricing of climate and ESG risks, sustainable investment and capital markets development in emerging markets. She oversees the IIF Weekly Insight, which offers a concise perspective on global financial markets with an ESG lens, and the IIF Global Debt Monitor, which looks across mature and emerging economies for debt-related vulnerabilities such as the rapid buildup in EM corporate debt levels. Her policy work on behalf of the IIF includes outreach and liaison efforts vis-à-vis the G20/G7, the multilaterals, global regulators and standard setters, and the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), as well as the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). She also serves on the boards of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (IC-VCM), and of Egypt’s Regional Center for Sustainable Finance (RCSF).

Sonja has spent over 20 years in banking and financial markets, most recently with Nomura International in London, where she was Chief Equity Strategist. Earlier positions include stints as a U.S. economist and bank credit analyst in New York and Los Angeles. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) has an MBA and BA from the University of California, Berkeley. Sonja’s work is widely cited in the financial press; she is a regular speaker on sustainable finance and global debt issues at industry conferences and in the media. She and her team also host the popular series of IIF Transition Finance Workshops and ESG Webinars.