Mark Carney OC (Canada)

Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England, is the first non-Briton to be appointed to the role since the Bank was established in 1694. He is the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, and Chair of Brookfield Asset Management where he is also Head of Transition Investing and ESG strategy. As well as serving as President of the internationally-respected foreign affairs think-tank Chatham House, Mark is the chair of the board of directors at Bloomberg.

Mark spent thirteen years at Goldman Sachs – including senior positions in Sovereign Risk, Emerging Debt Capital Markets, and Investment Banking. He played a key role in the company’s response to the Russian financial crisis and was then headhunted by the Canadian Department of Finance to lead the sale of the government stake in Petro-Canada.

Just three years later he was appointed Governor of the Bank of Canada, and the youngest Central Bank Governor of the G20.  He has since been credited with shielding Canada from the worst effects of the global financial crash, by cutting the overnight rate and committing to the lowest possible levels of interest rates. Time Magazine subsequently included him in their Most Influential 100: 'Central Bankers aren’t often young, good-looking and charming, but Mark Carney is all three — not to mention wicked smart.'

Mark was appointed Governor of the Bank of England with a mission to "refresh and modernise the organisation.”  He restructured and expanded the senior hierarchy and broadened the policy toolkit by implementing a new Term Funding Scheme to support bank lending, while renewing focus upon ways to rein in borrowing without resorting to the use of interest rates. His introduction of ‘forward guidance’ gave businesses and consumers clarity on interest rate policy. Notably, he was the first Central Bank Governor to champion environmental concerns, overseeing the development of stress tests for measuring the vulnerability of banks to climate risk. Unafraid to act decisively in the face of instability, he called for interest rates to be cut immediately following the Brexit referendum, rallying financial markets. He later used his final week in charge to slash borrowing costs, in rapid response to the emerging crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

As UN Special Envoy for Climate Action & Finance Mark analyses the path to net zero. He believes it will need $50 trillion investment over ten years, innovative technologies, a transparent and legitimate offsets market, structural change, and new governance. Mark thinks it’s about turning climate risks into opportunities, with values-based leadership.

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