Our Senior Leadership Team

Martina Macpherson is an accomplished financial markets and sustainability expert, academic researcher, and board member, with extensive experience across strategic planning, product, operations, risk and regulatory compliance management. Martina co-founded the XpertEcosystem with Marie Lehmann after recognising the challenges companies and financial services firms face in finding the right experts for sustainability long-term roles, projects and consulting services in today’s economic landscape. 

With nearly 25 years of experience, Martina specialises in corporate sustainability strategy, governance, as well as product innovation. She has a proven track record of driving transformative business initiatives, scaling new ventures, and integrating ESG principles into commercial and operational frameworks for FTSE100 firms and start-ups. 

Her expertise spans regulatory compliance, risk management, sustainable investing, and the development of data, analytics, and index products. 

An award-winning author and entrepreneur, Martina has co-authored several influential sustainability and regulatory handbooks, including the "ESG in Portfolio Analysis Handbook" by RiskBooks which she co-edited with Marie Lehmann and Daniel Ung, the Corporate Reporting Research Handbook" by E. Elgar Publishing, the "AI Book" by Wiley, and the "Biodiversity Handbook" by Routledge. 

She has been recognised as a "Global Sustainability Ambassador" and as one of the "Top 50 Women in Finance." A doctoral fellow, academic researcher, and mentor, she combines visionary thinking and cutting-edge research with meticulous execution and practical applications to advance sustainability assessments, connect stakeholders across the financial ecosystem, and create impactful solutions for global challenges.  

Passionate about sustainability, Marie co-founded the XpertEcosystem with Martina Macpherson after recognising the challenges companies and financial services firms face in finding the right experts for sustainability projects, consulting services and long-term roles in today’s economic landscape. 

On one hand, there is a wealth of exceptionally talented professionals with deep sustainability expertise. On the other, companies are increasingly looking to outsource projects and consulting engagements or struggling to find experts for long-term roles. XpertEcosystem was created to bridge this gap. 

Marie brings over two decades of extensive experience in relationship management, business development, commercial strategy, strategic partnership management and sustainability within large organisations across the global financial services and FinTech industries. She also worked as an Advisor with Accounting for Sustainability (A4S), an initiative established by His Majesty King Charles III. During her adoption leave, Marie founded a successful childcare recruitment consultancy, which was later acquired by a larger recruitment firm when she decided to return to her career in the City. 

She holds a Master in Management from Montpellier Business School, an MBA from the University of Warwick as well as a Master of Studies in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). 

Marie co-authored ESG Investing and Analysis – A Practitioner’s Guide alongside Martina Macpherson and Daniel Ung, Head of Quantitative Research and Analysis, ETF Portfolio Solutions EMEA & APAC at State Street Global Advisors. She also contributed to a book on biodiversity extinction with Martina and Jill Atkins, Chair in Financial Management at Sheffield University Management School. 

Marie is deeply committed to advocacy in child adoption, social impact, and climate risk.

Running go to market for XpertEcosystem, Daniel keeps the engine humming, lining up sustainability specialists with the firms that need them and turning those matches into repeat business.

His commercial chops were forged selling financial data and software inside big names like Moody’s Analytics and TraditionDATA, and honed further in nimble start ups and scale ups where he learnt to crack new territories, steer C-suite conversations and build pipelines from scratch.

Before XpertEcosystem Daniel spent three intense years running Salesmentor, the advisory he founded to give early-stage SaaS founders the fire-power for their first real growth spurt. Working elbow to elbow with leadership teams he sharpened value props, bolted on predictable lead funnels and jumped on live demos. The hands-on formula helped more than twenty fledgling tech firms triple pipeline and land flagship enterprise logos inside six months.

Daniel balances practice with theory: an MSc in International Planning, a Postgraduate Diploma in Innovation and Design, plus ESG Investing and Investment Management Certificates. Fluent in four languages, he blends strategy, numbers and frontline selling, equally happy mapping a revenue model, polishing a marketing funnel or hopping on a live deal.

Walter D'Onofrio is a successful Senior Advisor, Technical Expert Lead with a proven track record in leading complex, large-scale IT projects to successful completion. 

As a strategic leader, he drives innovation and efficiency within organisations, skilfully navigating the intricacies of technology and business needs. Walter excels in managing significant IT initiatives and fostering collaboration among cross-functional teams, ensuring alignment with organisational goals. 

His unwavering commitment to excellence and continuous improvement positions him as a valuable asset for any technology-driven firm aiming to enhance operational capabilities and achieve sustainable growth.

Evan Vahouny, MPP is the founder of Higher Impact, an independent consultancy that helps companies and investors design and execute sustainability strategies that drive long-term business value. He also serves as Chief Product & Solutions Officer at Proof, a sustainability data intelligence and reporting platform used by companies and investors to track sustainability performance and regulatory compliance.

Based in the Washington, DC area, Evan brings over a decade of experience at the intersection of sustainability, technology, and policy. As a member of the founding team at Proof, he helped scale the company from pre-revenue to a leading global platform by spearheading solution design, enterprise implementation, product strategy, and cross-functional team development. He has led multimillion-dollar federal contracts and large teams focused on impact reporting and sustainability compliance.

Evan’s background spans climate tech, sustainability data systems, and policy strategy. He is particularly skilled at helping organizations operationalize complex sustainability goals, such as materiality assessments, regulatory readiness, and net zero targets, through clear frameworks, data infrastructure, and collaborative implementation.

Evan holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Virginia, where he specialized in sustainability regulation and systems change.