Chrissa Pagitsas keynote speaker

Chrissa Pagitsas is a strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and author. She advises senior executives and boards on the intersection of environmental, social, governance (ESG) and global business. She is the author of the book Chief Sustainability Officers at Work (Apress, 2022) which explores the leadership strategies of Chief Sustainability Officers and Heads of ESG at Fortune 500 companies including BlackRock, The Coca-Cola Company, Duke Energy, and Procter & Gamble.

Recognized as a “Green Bond Champion” by the Climate Bonds Initiative and a recipient of the US Green Building Council Leadership Award, Chrissa is responsible for market-transforming innovations including the first Green Commercial MBS in the US, a standardized energy audit for the commercial real estate market, and the US EPA ENERGY STAR® 1 to 100 Score for Existing Multifamily.

As the first Vice President of ESG at Fannie Mae, Chrissa launched the enterprise’s ESG Strategy to integrate ESG principles into the core strategy. Prior to her work in ESG, she launched and led the Green Financing Business which issued over $51 billion in Green Bonds through 2018, making Fannie Mae the largest issuer of Green Bonds globally.

She serves as a board member to Healthy Building Network and is a strategic advisor to Sustainable Living Innovations.

Her prior experience includes developing sustainability strategies for large real estate investors and delivering financial management software solutions for utility companies in the U.S. and Europe. Chrissa holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and a BA from Johns Hopkins University.