Kayshani Gibbon is a PhD candidate in Sustainable Finance at the Utrecht University School of Economics. She is convinced that issues such as climate change and inequality present a challenge to the current economic paradigm, and a key player in the necessary transition (or at least where much of the power, and friction, lies) is the financial sector. The efficacy of current attempts at sustainable finance, and alternatives to the predominantly profit-focused model, is what she wishes to explore in her PhD – under guidance and supervision by Jeroen Derwall, Dirk Gerritsen, and Kees Koedijk.

Previously she worked in the policy world, conducting social research and public engagement for several British NGOs. She has worked with the Ada Lovelace Institute and Open Data Institute on projects to do with data and data-driven technologies, most recently coordinating citizens’ juries on public perceptions of data-driven responses to the pandemic. Prior to that she worked for The RSA (The Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), focusing on economic democracy and citizen participation in economic policymaking.

She holds a BA in International Relations and Chinese from the University of Portsmouth, a MSc in Sustainability and Consultancy from the University of Leeds, a Postgraduate Diploma in Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and a Research Master in Multidisciplinary Economics from Utrecht University.