Wang Yao
Wang Yao, professor and director general of the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF) at Beijing-based Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE), has won international fame not only for her outstanding green finance research, but also for the prominent role she has played in promoting green finance development in China. Wang started research on green finance while working in the banking sector at the start of the millennium. There, she gained first-hand experience of how green finance worked in the real world and why it was urgently needed in China.
She joined the faculty of CUFE in 2006. She also did her post-doctorate at Bank of Beijing from 2008 to 2010. Wang has become a respected scholar in the area of green finance; while leading the green finance research institute at her university, she also serves as fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and as adviser to the Sustainable Finance Programme at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford.
She is the author of several publications on climate finance and green finance, such as ‘Carbon finance: Global vision and distribution in China’ and ‘Climate finance’. Led by Wang, IIGF has become a leading research institute for green finance in China. But her contribution to green finance in China goes beyond the academic world.
She has played a crucial role in advising government agencies and financial regulators in China on the drafting of green finance policies by serving as deputy secretary general of the green finance committee of the China Society for Finance and Banking, and as secretary general of the green securities committee of the Securities Association of China. She is also an opinion leader and a leading advocate for green finance development in the Chinese media and on public occasions such as business forums and industry conferences.