Chris Leeds

Chris is the Head of Carbon Markets Development at Standard Chartered, building the bank's environmental trading and financing business and growing its profile as a global leader in sustainable finance. This involves advising clients, supporting trade bodies, originating carbon related transactions and building the trading infrastructure. He supported SCB's Group CEO, Bill Winters, in his role as Chair of the Taskforce for Scaling the Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM) and is now a board member of the newly formed Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Markets (IC-VCM). He is also a board member of Carbonplace, a global carbon credit transaction network, a member of the Climate Impact X (CIX) Advisory Forum and serves on the CPLC's Advisory Group. Chris’ experience in the commodity markets spans over 30 years in origination, sales and trading. At Standard Chartered, he built the Bank’s energy risk management platform, originating deals with state-owned and merchant refiners, oil producers, airlines, utilities and shipping companies. Previously Chris was with Barclays where he was Global Head of Environmental Markets Sales and before that at Merrill Lynch where he traded power, gas and set up their carbon emissions trading desk. He was a founder member of the Carbon Markets and Investors Association (CMIA) and was the Chairman of Power Trading Forum a division of the Futures and Options Association (FOA). He also worked as a base metals trader for a number of years before moving to energy. Chris has a strong understanding of commodity deal structuring, trade finance and managing price risk.