Martin Powell

Martin is the Group Sustainability Director at AXA based in Paris. This involves the development and delivery of the Sustainability Strategy, Climate Strategy, policies on energy and human rights as well as deployment of philanthropy and volunteering activities. Martin is also the Director of the AXA Research Fund, which supports academic research in various fields to further the understanding of key emerging risks. 

Martin graduated in Engineering from the University of Dundee. He started his career at Impresa Fortunato Federici, Ove Arup & Partners and then Network Rail. From 2007 to 2011, he was environment advisor to the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, and also Director of Environment for the Mayor’s economic development agency.  As Managing Director of Cambridge Management & Research he was a special advisor to The C40 Cities Group, chaired by the former Mayor of New York, Michael R Bloomberg. He joined Siemens in 2012 as Global Head of Urban Development and later as Chief Sustainability Officer for Siemens US and Siemens Financial Services. Martin is an author of various publications on climate and resilient cities. He has also written and edited The Climate City - a book of essays - published by international publishing house Wiley, released in 2022.