Stephen Rumsey – Chairman, Permian Global

Stephen Rumsey is Chairman of Permian Global, an environmental investment company. He was formerly investment manager for Postel, one of the biggest pension funds in Europe. He then designed and ran the debt markets business for BZW, which was re-named Barclays Capital after he left. Subsequently he built a business for Merrill Lynch, before establishing his own asset management business, ECM (with two colleagues) which grew from zero to $30 billion AUM in six years before being sold to Wachovia/Wells Fargo in 2007.

A life-long environmental conservationist who grew up in West Africa, Stephen has also served on the board of a number of non-profit organisations and was Deputy Chairman of Birdlife International. He lives on his organic farm on the south coast of England where he has developed his own nature reserve during the last thirty years. Elsewhere he has been particularly involved with tropical forest projects in Brazil, West Africa and South-east Asia.

Joseph A Biernat CFA, FSIP – Chief Investment Officer, Permian Global

Joe Biernat is Chief Investment Officer of Permian Global, an environmental investment company. Previously he was Director of Research and the Chief Investment Strategist at European Credit Management (ECM), an institutional investment management company, where he served as a managing board member from 2000 until its sale to Wachovia/Wells Fargo in 2007. In total Joe worked in London for twenty years in various senior investment banking positions, prior to that he spent ten years on Wall Street. Joe’s positions have included Global Head of Credit Research at BNP Paribas, Managing Director in charge of Global Credit Research at Deutsche Bank and Head of European Credit Research at Merrill Lynch.

Joe was Chairman of the CFA Society of the UK where he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Investment Professionals. He was also a founding board member of the European High Yield Association. He holds an MBA from Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute and a BA in Biology from Gettysburg College. Joe is a member of the Board of Trustees of Gettysburg College where he is Chairman the college’s Endowment Committee. He is also a member of the oversight board of the Sunderman Conservatory of Music.