Panel: Impact That Lasts: Women in Sustainability
This panel is focused on women that work in Sustainability, whether a big corporation, startup or VC. The intention is to bring forward women that are working towards sustainability in different spaces while also shedding some light in the topic
Jennie Graham
Senior Investment Associate
Jennie is a Senior Investment Associate at Burnt Island Ventures, an early stage fund focused on water technology. Jennie has a background in social enterprise, spending several years supporting founders to build sustainable businesses across Afghanistan, Myanmar, and the Middle East, and as Entrepreneur Advisor at The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network in London. She has since worked at Alumni Ventures and the Ecosystem Integrity Fund, investing across water, food and agriculture, supply chain, and waste. Jennie holds a BA from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Duke, where she was a Fulbright Scholar.
Mary Jacques
Executive Director, Global ESG and Regulatory Compliance
Mary leads the corporate organization responsible for driving Lenovo’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Regulatory Compliance programs. In her role, Mary advances Lenovo’s ESG strategy, performance and governance through her regulatory expertise, vision and passion for sustainability. Under Mary’s leadership, Lenovo became the first PC company with SBTi-validated net-zero targets and has garnered industry-leading ESG recognition including AAA ratings from MSCI. Mary oversees programs supporting the transition to a circular economy, climate change mitigation, ESG risk management and regulatory disclosures. Mary is most proud of her success in developing a diverse and thriving team focused on promoting meaningful and lasting change, establishing strong ESG governance structures and KPIs, building robust compliance programs in a highly dynamic regulatory environment, and supporting award-winning ESG reporting.
Mary began her career as an engineer with IBM’s Corporate Environmental Affairs organization within its Engineering Center for Environmentally Conscious Products. She then served as the Environmental, Health, and Safety Risk Manager at MIT before joining Lenovo. Her commitment to building organizations dedicated to sustainability and compliance has been the touchstone of her career.
Mary earned a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy and a Master of Environmental Management in Resource Economics and Policy, both from Duke University.
Jennifer Thompson
CEO and Co-Founder
Jennifer Thompson is the CEO and Co-Founder of COLOURizd, a global startup rethinking textile coloration by redesigning the wet-processing stage of manufacturing to dramatically reduce water and energy use while eliminating wastewater. She is a textile innovator and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience across global manufacturing, product development, and commercialization.
Jennifer previously served as Director of Textile Design at Target, where she led large-scale textile design and sourcing initiatives, and has held leadership roles across multiple textile innovation startups. She is passionate about systems-level change and helping future business leaders understand how sustainability and economics must work together to drive real impact.
