{"id":15799,"date":"2026-07-08T11:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T10:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/?p=15799"},"modified":"2026-07-08T11:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T10:44:14","slug":"top-10-most-read-thought-leaders-in-esg-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/fr\/2026\/07\/08\/top-10-most-read-thought-leaders-in-esg-2\/","title":{"rendered":"TOP 10 Most-Read Thought Leaders in ESG"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/illuminem.com\/illuminemvoices\/top-10-thought-leaders-in-esg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"130\" src=\"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/illuminemtopESG.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15796\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">illuminem is proud to present the\u00a0<strong>most-read Thought Leaders in ESG globally<\/strong>, as recognised by illuminem&#8217;s ever growing community of <a href=\"https:\/\/illuminem.com\/illuminemvoices\/illuminem-in-numbers-a-journey-toward-sustainability\">700,000+ readers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ESG spent the past year under fire from all sides. In the US, it became a political target; pension funds were forced to curtail it, and asset managers grew wary amid litigation threats. In Europe, the Omnibus package and a proposed overhaul of the SFDR disclosure regime redrew the rules mid-game, excluding the majority of previously covered firms from mandatory reporting. Shareholder support for environmental and social resolutions fell sharply, and &#8220;greenhushing&#8221; \u2013 companies pursuing sustainability goals while saying as little as possible about them \u2013 became the industry&#8217;s defensive posture of choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And yet the underlying logic refused to disappear. As one observer put it, what looked like retreat was often reframing: ESG repositioned from a values argument to one about risk, resilience, and long-term value. The voices on this list approached that reframing from every angle \u2013 nature as a financial risk, the refinement of ethical exclusions,<a href=\"https:\/\/illuminem.com\/category\/sustainable-finance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> transition finance<\/a>, and the role of markets and property rights in solving environmental problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/illuminem.com\/illuminemvoicesprofile\/markus-mller\">Markus M\u00fcller<\/a> tops the list this year, as Chief Investment Officer for ESG at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.data.illuminem.com\/company\/30cde895_deutsche-bank?utm_source=media&amp;utm_medium=article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Deutsche Bank<\/a> Private Bank and author of a fourth book on <a href=\"https:\/\/illuminem.com\/category\/nature\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">nature<\/a> as capital. He writes with a rare command of both markets and ecology: his most-read piece dissected China&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/illuminem.com\/category\/carbon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">carbon<\/a> transition playbook, a clear-eyed look at how the world&#8217;s largest emitter is turning decarbonisation into industrial strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Joining him on the list, <a href=\"https:\/\/illuminem.com\/illuminemvoicesprofile\/sasja-beslik\">Sasja Beslik<\/a>, Chief Investment Strategy Officer at SDG Impact Japan, \u00a0reflects on why sustainable investing hurts but is worth it, <a href=\"https:\/\/illuminem.com\/illuminemvoicesprofile\/antoine-mach\">Antoine Mach<\/a>, co-founder of Swiss ESG rating agency Covalence, examines how ethical exclusions are becoming more refined, and pioneer of free market environmentalism\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/illuminem.com\/illuminemvoicesprofile\/terry-anderson\">Terry Anderson<\/a> makes the case for turning markets into environmental tools. <a href=\"https:\/\/illuminem.com\/illuminemvoices\/top-10-thought-leaders-in-esg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/illuminem.com\/illuminemvoices\/top-10-thought-leaders-in-esg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">illuminem<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>illuminem is proud to present the\u00a0most-read Thought Leaders in ESG globally, as recognised by illuminem&#8217;s ever growing community of 700,000+ readers. ESG spent the past year under fire from all sides. In the US, it became a political target; pension funds were forced to curtail it, and asset managers grew wary amid litigation threats. In&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":665,"featured_media":15796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"wds_primary_category":1720,"wds_primary_post_series":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1720],"tags":[],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-15799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications-fr","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15800,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15799\/revisions\/15800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15799"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covalence.ch\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=15799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}