CV

Curriculum Vitae

General Information

Full Name Pearl Ayem
Social LinkedIn, GitHub

Experience

  • Lead Environmental Risk Modeller
    Risilience, United Kingdom
    April 2025 - Present
    • Lead development of asset-level climate and nature risk models that quantify and forecast physical and transition risks across industries.
    • Design and implement agentic workflows for supply chain risk, reducing release cycles from 8 to 4 weeks.
    • Oversee multidisciplinary teams (modellers, economists, data scientists, engineers) to deliver end-to-end SaaS risk products.
    • Partner with Head of Product on roadmaps, digital twin development, and scaling analytics into market-ready platforms.
    • Build geospatially resolved models using climate scenarios, hazard maps, DEMs, and supply chain data to generate actionable insights.
    • Translate geospatial and climate science into financial risk metrics for insurers, underwriters, and corporates.
    • Apply exposure mapping, portfolio stress-testing, and regulatory alignment to support insurance and asset management clients.
  • Senior Climate Risk Modeller
    Sillion, United Kingdom
    December 2023 - March 2025
    • Led development for climate risk models for FTSE100 clients, integrating outputs into TPT, CSRD, SECR, TCFD/ISSB, CDP, and GRI reports.
    • Delivered transition risk assessments, scenario analysis, and double materiality evaluations for boards and executive committees.
    • Product Lead for an ESG research tool tracking 600+ companies, integrating KPIs with climate and financial data.
    • Embedded geospatial hazard and transition datasets into financial analytics software to map climate risks to business operations.
    • Led design of backend infrastructure that integrated client data with climate risk models.
    • Managed and mentored analysts/consultants, aligning work with climate risk, disclosure, and sustainability strategy.
    • Expert in Scope 1,2,3 GHG emission models, global reporting standards, and jurisdictional policies.
  • Net-Zero Data Specialist
    Bloomberg L.P (Secondedment with GFANZ , and NZDPU)
    July 2022 - December 2023
    • Led data modelling and engineering for the Net-Zero Data Public Utility (NZDPU), a global open-data platform for climate transition.
    • Collaborated directly with heads of state including Mark Carney and Emmanuel Macron, UNFCC, and governments of Canada, UK, Switzerland and Singapore to shape climate disclosure policy.
    • Published two high-impact reports for GFANZ and NZDPU, with partners from ISSB, and IEA.
    • Supported CTO with RFP processes, vendor evaluation, and management of engineering contractors from Google to build the NZDPU Proof of Concept.
    • Managed a 40-person analyst team for GFANZ's data launch at COP27, delivering insights used by President Macron and Michael Bloomberg.
    • Helped secure partnerships, including with CDP for 10,000+ companies to be hosted on the NZDPU platform.
    • Built ETL pipelines, APIs, and data transformation scripts for climate and emissions data.
    • Developed AI/ML/NLP modules for data collection, validation, and automated net-zero progress tracking.
    • Designed models mapping data across regulatory frameworks (TCFD, CDP, GHGP, PCAF, EFRAG, SBTi), enabling cross-jurisdictional compliance.
    • Delivered briefs and insights on 700 climate KPIs for Bloomberg's CEO to present at COP27
  • Climate Science Researcher
    University of Cambridge, British Antarctic Survey
    October 2021 - June 2022
    • Conducted fully-funded research by the Scott Polar Research Institute, and the British Antarctic Survey on atmospheric drivers of Antarctic surface melt.
    • Experience with multi-dimensional, geospatial data, academic research, writing papers, and conference presentations.
    • Investigated atmospheric drivers of surface melt in Antarctica using climate models and real-time in-situ data.
    • Experience with climate models (CMIP5 GCMs, RCMs), multi-dimensional, geospatial data, academic research, writing papers, and conference presentations.
    • Technical analysis done in Python, with data from direct in-situ sources, NOAA and Copernicus(ESA).
    • Developed a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and performed EOF analysis to identify seasonal melt patterns.
    • Tech stack included xarray, pandas/geopandas, scipy, pyproj, netCDF, HDF5, Rasterio, GDAL, Shapely, sklearn, EOF, Fiona, plotly, cartopy, matplotlib etc.
    • Featured in media on Cambridge's website and social media for my work on diversity and climate research.
  • Brand Manager, Sustainability
    P.G.A. Hospitality
    September 2018 - October 2021
    • Worked as an independent contractor with the CEO to drive sustainable business development, and lead a team of 10.
    • Achieved significant growth; Increased revenue by 233%, raised 1.5 million CAD in investment, increased profits by 31%.
    • Proactively secured contracts with local, sustainable suppliers to mitigate supply chain challenges during the pandemic.
    • Developed business plans, marketing materials, seasonal menus.
    • Wrote and won an RFP bid for a new location.
    • Got the business recognized for excellence, earning 9 awards and a position in Greater Vancouver's Top 30 cafes.
  • Teaching Assistant in Computer Science
    University of British Columbia
    December 2016 - June 2020
    • Managed a team of 18 TAs as the Head Teaching Assistant of Computer Science
    • Ran lectures for ∼1000 students in Python, C++; created + graded course modules and labs
    • Helped pilot a new data science course; created course modules in Climate Data Computing and taught about contrast stretching using open-source satellite imagery.
  • Research Assistant
    University of British Columbia
    December 2016 to May 2020
    • Worked with several research labs in the Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science Department at the University of British Columbia
    • Used open-source satellite imagery and ECMWF Climate reanalysis data to study the role of glacial katabatic winds on cloud formation over Greenland.
    • Employed Python libraries for cloud type differentiation and formation cluster analysis (e.g., pandas, numpy, scipy, rasterio, sklearn, fiona).
    • Collaborated with the Atmospheric Science Department to create course modules in Climate Data Computing.
    • Designed ETL pipelines to retrieve MODIS, GOES-16/17, and Landsat (7 & 8) data from AWS's EC2 cloud Computing and virtual platforms.
    • Worked in UBC's glaciology lab, utilizing image clustering, PCA, Sobel edge detection, and Self-Organizing Maps to detect melt season streamflow across Canada.
    • Conducted eddy covariance measurements during the Buckley Bay wildfires, comparing them with NASA Aerosol Optical Depth data to test diffused radiation fertilization.
    • Collected, identified, and analyzed phytoplankton in the Burrard Inlet, studying their distribution, chlorophyll levels, and carbon sink role.
    • Analyzed plankton distributions, temperature, and salinity measurements using MATLAB to investigate climate change's impact on productivity.
    • Constructed and set up weather sensors to study blue carbon and analyze the urban heat island effect, demonstrating proficiency in meteorological field instruments and adherence to WMO standards.
    • Additional climate-tech projects are available on my website.
    • Languages - Python, JAVA, C++, Matlab
    • File Formats used - NetCDF, GRIB, TIFF, CSV, Excel, text, JSON, XML
    • Stats/ ML PCA, Edge detection, Self-Organizing Maps, CNNs, Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF)
  • Geospatial Engineer
    UAViation Aerial Solutions
    July 2018 - September 2019
    • Team Lead for the software team responsible for flight automation app development.
    • Experience with project feasibility analysis.
    • Project Lead on LIDAR drone mapping operations and GIS post-processing.
    • CEO's right hand in client meetings. My work led to a successful exit (company acquisition - now a part of Volatus Aerospace).
    • Experince working with Android Studio, Rest APIs, Google Maps API and DJI's UX SDK.
    • Point of contact for reesearch based operations, Geospatial analysis and post processing using pix4d, arcGIS and QGIS.
    • Used C++, Java, and Python to tackle photogrammetry and LiDAR flight mapping problems across Canada.
    • Completed 18 projects in a year with government bodies, natural resource sectors, academia and private industry combined.
  • Robotics Instructor
    Science World British Columbia
    Sep 2014 - October 2018
    • Robotics Instructor for youth aged 9 to 14
    • Introducing children and teens to programming, system design, electrical circuits, the VEX Robotics Design System , 3-D Printing principles and Engineering Design Procedures
    • Encouraging interest in STEM, Teamwork, Leadership and Problem Solving
    • Mentor and Instructor for VEX Level 1, VEX Level 2, and VEX Competitive programs at Science World BC

Education

  • MPhil in Polar Atmospheric Science and Data Modelling
    University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
    • Conducted research with the Scott Polar Research Institute and the British Antarctic Survey
      • Studied the George VI Ice Shelf (GVIIS), Antarctica under the supervision of Dr. Ian Willis and Amélie Kirchgaessner.
      • Worked with the RACMO 2 climate model and in-situ data to find the atmospheric drivers of melt on the GVIIS.
      • Created a CNN and carried EOF analysis to detect seasonal patterns of melt.
    • Wrote research essays studying the Stratospheric Polar Vortex and its impact on weather extremes in the Northern Hemisphere.
    • Won the Scott Polar Scholarship - a full scholarship awarded to the top applicant.
    • My work is used as course curriculum at the University of Cambridge's graduate-level MPhil classes.
    • Featured on Cambridge's website and social media for my work on equality and climate research.
  • Bachelor's of Science, Atmospheric Science, Minor in Computer Science
    University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    • Graduated Top of Class
    • Used weather and satellite data to study storms, climate change, glaciers, plant health, and air quality
    • Helped UBC's Climate Data Computing course set up infrastructure to let students run MODIS, GOES-16 and 17, and Landsat (7 & 8) data in AWS.
    • Carried out field work + data analysis on plankton and published results to the phytopedia project.
    • Built, deployed, and used custom weather sensors to WMO standards.

Volunteering

  • Co-Organizer and DEI Expert
    Polar Impact
    October2021 - March 2023
    • Co-run an NGO as a volunteer that supports BIPOC professionals in the polar research community.
    • Helped write grant proposals that won a cumulative of £50,000 from National Science Foundation, UKRI and National Geographic.
    • Organized COP26 speakers for climate justice talks.
    • My work is used as course curriculum at the University of Cambridge's graduate-level MPhil classes.

Certifications