IJGlobal ESG Outstanding Individual – Shami Nissan

The independent panel of judges selected Shami Nissan as the winner of the outstanding individual award for – as one judge puts it – being “clearly a figurehead within ESG and sustainability, and a role model for all”.

Another of the judges said: “Shami has demonstrated exceptional leadership in embedding ESG across Actis’ global infrastructure portfolio.

“Her development of proprietary tools like the Actis Impact Score, execution of climate scenario analysis, and delivery of large-scale renewable projects with measurable social and environmental outcomes set a new benchmark for the industry.

“Her influence spans strategy, execution, and global thought leadership.”

This was joined by: “Shami seems to be a real trailblazer for ESG development in finance and investing with a strong footprint going beyond her pure job profile.

“She has shaped Actis' approach to sustainable investing in a significant and positive way in the past decade.”

Shami is a partner at Actis and serves as its head of sustainability having worked at the fund manager since 2014.

She leads Actis’ approach to sustainability and impact, working closely with investment colleagues and portfolio company management to manage sustainability issues, helping build businesses striving to be sustainability leaders and aiming to deliver measurable environmental and societal benefits.

With more than 24 years’ experience in sustainability, Shami leads Actis’ dedicated in-house sustainability team, comprising 6 professionals with a combined sustainability experience of 100+ years.

Shami reports to Torbjorn Caesar, senior partner and chair. She herself chairs many of the sustainability committees across the portfolio, chaired the Actis Net Zero Steering Committee and leads its efforts on inclusion and diversity across the portfolio. She has held this sustainability leadership role for more than 11 years.

Her sustainability leadership is tied to the business position as a leading growth market energy investor, with Actis having built or operated more than 25GW of renewables installed capacity since inception.

She has played a central role in cementing the manager’s sustainability leadership having, in 2024 alone, across the portfolio added 6.5GW of renewable power, generated more than 20,000GWh, and avoided 1.2 million tonnes of CO2e.

Shami was instrumental in developing the Actis Impact Score – an open-source framework to forecast and measure the positive environmental and social impact of Actis’s investments.

The submission states: “Shami is a recognised leader and a prominent advocate for sustainable investment.

“This year, Shami was re-elected to the advisory board of the impact principles, hosted by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), for a second term.

“Shami represents Actis at: IIGCC, GIIN, ILPA Diversity In Action Initiative, PRI (Supply Chain and Value Creation Working Groups) and Shami was previously an Advisory Panel Member of the G7 Impact Taskforce.”