Carsten Stendevad is a senior investment executive with a strong leadership track record with some of the most sophisticated global financial institutions across public, private, and non-profit sectors. Carsten is also a recognized thought leader in the sustainable investment community.

Carsten is currently a senior executive at Bridgewater, where he is responsible for overseeing the firm’s business in China as well as its sustainable investing practice. He also advises some of the largest investors in the world including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and endowments. Carsten serves as a Board Advisor to GIC (Singapore's sovereign wealth fund) and a member of the Board of Directors at Novo Holdings (the $60bn investment arm of Novo Nordisk Foundation, the world’s largest charitable endowment).

Carsten is the former CEO of ATP (Denmark’s national pension plan with 5 million members, $140bn in assets and 2,200 staff), where he was responsible for both investments and operations. Under his leadership, ATP delivered strong investment returns, developed innovative approach to portfolio construction all while integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) factors into ATP's investment processes. Prior to ATP, Carsten was a Managing Director in Citi’s Investment Banking division in New York, heading Citi’s global corporate finance advisory team. Prior to joining Citi, Carsten worked for McKinsey & Company in New York and Copenhagen as well as the Central Bank of Denmark.

Carsten has served on numerous international committees and working groups aiming to align the activities of the financial industry with broader ESG priorities. Carsten served on the global steering committee for the Blended Finance Taskforce which aims to mobilize large scale private investment for the UN Sustainable Development Goals; he served on the Corporate Governance Committee of Denmark where he chaired the working group tasked with developing a Stewardship Code for institutional investors. He was also a founding member of the global coalition entitled “Focusing Capital on the Long-Term”, which brings together leading global investors and corporate executives to fight against short term-ism in the financial markets.

Trained as an economist from the University of Copenhagen, he also holds a Master of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.