Jos is head of Stafford’s Agriculture & Food investments where he is responsible for all investment management activities in this sector. In this capacity he is also a board member of aquaculture-focused asset manager Neptune NRCP LLC.

Most recently he was Global Lead Capital at agri-food executive search firm Kincannon & Reed, servicing a variety of investors, investment managers, portfolio companies and agribusinesses. He also served as head of Agriculture & Food at the advisory firm, Sherpa Millbank. Prior to this, he was Head of Agri Corporate Finance at Société Générale and worked in strategic planning at publicly-traded agribusiness company, Bunge. Jos has deep industry insights across the entire agri-food value chain and holds longstanding relationships with a wide array of industry operators and stakeholders across the world.

He started his career working in Corporate Strategy & Development roles at AirFrance-KLM and JTI. Jos studied Economics at the University of Amsterdam.

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Founded in 2000, Stafford Capital Partners (SCP, Stafford www.staffordcp.com) is a boutique investment management firm with a global presence and USD 5.3bn under management and advice as at 30 September 2019. We provide clients with access to alternative assets including Real Assets (Infrastructure, Timberland and Agriculture & Food) and Private Markets (Private Credit and Private Equity) through a combination of primaries, secondaries and co-investments with greater emphasis on latter two. With offices in the UK, Switzerland, USA, Australia, South Korea and Brazil, our specialist teams are in each of our target geographies and have access to high quality deals.

David has accumulated over 35 years’ experience in international capital markets in a career that has taken him around the globe. Returning to his native Montreal in 1999, he co-founded Cordiant, a leading emerging and frontier market asset manager with a focus on private credit. He was previously a Vice-Chairman of Cordiant and has overseen more than 200 investments in 55+ emerging countries.

David is a member of the Government of Canada’s Infrastructure Advisory Board. He is also a chairman of Convergence, an initiative launched by the Canadian government and the World Economic Forum to blend public and private capital for investment in the emerging markets. He is a Senior Advisor and Chair of the Private Credit Council for EMPEA and Chairman of the Investment Committee for the BCS Foundation. He is a former director of the US Institute.

David is an honours graduate from the University of Guelph (Agriculture) and a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D.). He guest lectures at McGill University and at The Wharton School and is the Commodore of the Chester Yacht Club.

Hans-Peter Dohr is founder and Managing Director of ICA Institutional Capital Associates GmbH. Mr. Dohr focuses on the investment advisory segment of our business.

He has over 30 years of investment and finance experience, including board and investment committee positions at state investment holding companies and infrastructure and private equity investment funds.

Prior to founding ICA, he served as head of advisory at DC Placement Advisors, one of the leading European private markets advisory firms. Earlier in his career, he worked for multiple groups within investment banking at Fox-Pitt, Kelton, Salomon Brothers, Credit Lyonnais and Chase Manhattan Bank as well as the Ministry of Finance and the State Development Bank in Austria.

Hans-Peter Dohr holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

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ICA (www.ic-ica.com) provides investment advisory and capital raising services and delivers unique, exclusive investor events.

The focus of the firm lies on tailor-made investment solutions in the private equity, private debt, infrastructure and real estate sectors. In addition to that, ICA helps raising funds for alternative investment firms. The firm takes on a limited number of assignments each year, preferring to work on a tailored basis with each mandate specified and executed to best suit its client.

ICA is owner-managed and headquartered in Munich/Germany.

Olga is a marketing and innovation expert, specializing in sustainability, gender-smart investing, and women and finance.

She has been broadly recognized for her transformational achievements to change the financial services industry for women and gender equality with features in the global press such as BBC News, CNBC, the Financial Times, Bloomberg and The Guardian and won numerous awards including ‘Inspirational Woman of the Year 2019’ by CityWealth Magazine.

Olga is a TEDx speaker and frequently speaks at international conferences on innovation, sustainability and SDG5. Following her career at UBS has followed a dual career in marketing and entrepreneurship: she has founded her own start-up – SmartPurse – a financial toolkit for women and serves as the Group Head of Marketing of KBL epb . Olga has two children and lives in Zürich and London.

Dr. Andreas Rickert is CEO and founder of PHINEO and incubated the organization as Director of the former program ‘civil society’ at the Bertelsmann Foundation. Andreas also worked as Senior Governance Specialist at the World Bank in Washington D.C. Prior to this he was Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, Inc. globally working on public sector and healthcare projects in Bahrain, The Netherlands, UK and Switzerland. He studied Biology and completed his Ph.D. on genetics in Germany and the United States.

Andreas serves on various boards such as the expert group of the European Commission on social entrepreneurship (GECES) and is member of the German Council for Sustainable Development. His large network comprises top level decision makers in the private, public and third sectors. He has specific expertise in public private partnerships, corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability, impact investing, social business and philanthropy. At PHINEO he is responsible for the organization’s overall strategy, strategic partnerships as well as external representation.

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PHINEO gAG (https://www.phineo.org) is a non-profit research & analysis institute and consultancy. Its mission is to support the non-profit, business and public sector in having a strong positive impact in society and making a difference in people’s lives.

Phineo has a broad network and strong relationships to organizations and individuals across all sectors and currently employ 60 people with various professional backgrounds. One focus of the work is on research and analysis of non-profit organizations (NPOs) and social businesses, social impact assessment as well as capacity building in the third sector. So far, they have published 17 market reports that introduce the character and scope of social challenges, structures of non-profit and social investor engagement in each particular area and highlight best practice to guide social investors. Topics include: inclusion of people with disabilities, dementia, depression, child poverty, generation 55+, integration of people with migration background and school-to-work transition.

We also identify, analyze and highlight (with the PHINEO impact label) best practice among NPOs and projects, i.e. activities with a very high potential to achieve impact and to bring about social change. Via the consulting unit we have supported hundreds of social investors such as global corporations, large foundations, family offices and public administration at the international, federal and regional level with expertise and consultancy in order to improve their strategies and implementation on shared value, social impact investment, social business development, high-impact engagement activities, impact assessment and reporting.

Prof. Dr. Dirk Soehnholz (1963) is the founder and CEO of Diversifikator GmbH, book author, honorary professor of asset management at Leipzig University and a blogger on Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) and Robo-Advisor topics (www.prof-soehnholz.com).

Previously he worked for The Boston Consulting Group, Feri Alternative Asset, Feri Institutional Advisors and Veritas Investment.

 

 

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Diversifikator GmbH (www.diversifikator.com) is a provider of (online-) model portfolios with focus on passive multi-asset (ETF) and pure and strict ESG equity portfolios and indices for advisors, asset managers and banks (partners).

Dr. Christin ter Braak-Forstiner, LL.M. is the co-founder and CEO of Chi Impact Capital in Zurich an independent Impact Investing Advisor.

Christin is passionate about pro-actively making the shift towards a regenerative and deep impact economy a reality. Christin has a long-standing experience and a 15 year+ track record in the financial services sector, private equity, the impact investing field, sustainable investing, strategic philanthropy advisory and the collaboration with international organizations and public Stakeholders.

Christin completed her Doctoral Thesis at Harvard Law School (summa cum laude) and her Master Studies at Duke Law School; She has published numerous peer reviewed articles in the field of sustainable investing and impact investing, authored and co-authored several books the latest of which is “Conscious Investing”; Christin is a lecturer at various universities on impact investing; Privately, Christin is the co-founder and president of award winning NGO Braveaurora, active in North Ghana since 2009.

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Chi Impact Capital (https://chi-impact.com) is an independent Impact Fund Manager based in Zurich. Our purpose is to assist qualified investors achieve both: attractive financial returns, while simultaneously being pro-active enablers of positive and systemic change.

Chi Impact Capital invests in a new species of entrepreneurs in Europe with an integrated business mission to serve a critical social or environmental issue. These companies provide a strong growth potential next to transformative and typically tech-heavy solutions across the following impact themes: Circular Economy & Conscious Commerce, Green innovation & Energy Efficiency, Affordable and Climate Resilient Healthcare, Food Safety & Security, and Smart Infrastructure & Mobility.

After studying commercial sciences and political science, professional experience in marketing consulting. Subsequently management of a direct marketing company.

1996 Change to the financial sector and establishment of Winterthur Pensionskasse, Vienna. Various positions at Winterthur CEE as well as Board Member for Life & Pensions at Winterthur Austria until the merger with Zurich Insurance. Management of the joint subsidiaries of Zurich and Generali in the area of company pension schemes (pension fund and consulting company) from 2002 – 2007. From 2008, foundation and development of fair-finance.

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Based on the vision of investing the funds of the obligatory pension fund System in Austria exclusively in a „responsible and effect-oriented“ way, fair-finance was founded in 2010 together with a group of private individuals, GLS Bank and Concordia Insurance.

The search for sustainable and profitable Investment opportunities has led to the establishment of an asset management company and a real estate company as well as several participations in the real estate and impact sector (KlimaGut Immobilien, Berlin; faire Windkraft, Vienna).

In 2019, „Die Versicherei fair-insurances“ was founded, a brokerage company in which fair-finance holds a majority stake. With the Social Entrepreneurship Fund, the first Austrian equity fund for social enterprises (financed and managed by fairfinance) is currently in the start-up phase. The fair-finance group employs almost 40 people and manages assets of around EUR 645 million.

First professional years in the banking sector, „FGG“ (financing guarantee company) as a project consultant.

Since 1989 management consultant and trainer with a focus on project management, coaching of executives in questions of management culture as well as personnel, organizational and team development.

From 1990 co-partner and project consultant in the ÖSB management consultancy (Österreichische Studien- und Beratungsgesellschaft GmbH.). 1992 – 1994 Management and execution of projects financed by the EU PHARE program and the Federal Chancellery in the transformation processes of regions in the Slovak and Czech Republic. 1994-2000 Consulting and management of change / personnel development projects in Austrian regions and in the Objective 1 area Burgenland, consulting on the introduction of ESF fund management.

Since 2001 systemic management consultant „systemic-develop“, organizational development projects with a focus on change projects, introduction of goal-oriented management culture, supervisor ÖVS. 2010 foundation of the photovoltaic purchasing community and 2013 solar power citizen participation acc. GmbH.

Lecturer for change management at the Vienna University of Economics and Business since 2017.

Current activities focus on advice on sustainable strategy projects, organizational development and change projects.

Steve is a Founding Partner of ONE group solutions, a provider of next-generation fund management solutions.

Prior to founding ONE, Steve was CEO of the Carne Group in Luxembourg and a member of the group’s global Executive Committee.

Starting his career with the Luxembourg government, he quickly realized that a career in the fund sector would provide the desired international exposure and joined the investment fund industry in 1998. Steve’s particular skills are in business development and building successful companies. He is an excellent networker with international business partners and connections.

He has worked in fund operations, product and customer service for companies such as Citibank, State Street Bank, Lemanik Asset Management and Pioneer Asset Management for around 12 years.

Steve is Luxembourgish and speaks fluent English, German, French and Luxembourgish. He is an active member of international committees, various working groups in the fund industry and regularly speaks at conferences around the world.

Jos is head of Stafford’s Agriculture & Food investments where he is responsible for all investment management activities in this sector. In this capacity he is also a board member of aquaculture-focused asset manager Neptune NRCP LLC.

Most recently he was Global Lead Capital at agri-food executive search firm Kincannon & Reed, servicing a variety of investors, investment managers, portfolio companies and agribusinesses. He also served as head of Agriculture & Food at the advisory firm, Sherpa Millbank. Prior to this, he was Head of Agri Corporate Finance at Société Générale and worked in strategic planning at publicly-traded agribusiness company, Bunge. Jos has deep industry insights across the entire agri-food value chain and holds longstanding relationships with a wide array of industry operators and stakeholders across the world.

He started his career working in Corporate Strategy & Development roles at AirFrance-KLM and JTI. Jos studied Economics at the University of Amsterdam.

Alexandra Bolena has been serving institutional clients on the topic of „alternative investments“ since 2001. In recent years, focus on „Impact Investing“. Lobbying for „sustainable investments“, knowledge transfer on ESG/SRI as well as concrete investment structuring and placement activities.

Since 2019 teaching assignment on University of applied science, St.Pölten Master’s degree program „Economic and Financial Communication“ on the topic of Cultural Finance with focus on Impact Investing/Measurement.

David has accumulated over 35 years’ experience in international capital markets in a career that has taken him around the globe. Returning to his native Montreal in 1999, he co-founded Cordiant, a leading emerging and frontier market asset manager with a focus on private credit. He was previously a Vice-Chairman of Cordiant and has overseen more than 200 investments in 55+ emerging countries.

David is a member of the Government of Canada’s Infrastructure Advisory Board. He is also a chairman of Convergence, an initiative launched by the Canadian government and the World Economic Forum to blend public and private capital for investment in the emerging markets. He is a Senior Advisor and Chair of the Private Credit Council for EMPEA and Chairman of the Investment Committee for the BCS Foundation. He is a former director of the US Institute.

David is an honours graduate from the University of Guelph (Agriculture) and a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D.). He guest lectures at McGill University and at The Wharton School and is the Commodore of the Chester Yacht Club.

Hans-Peter Dohr is founder and Managing Director of ICA Institutional Capital Associates GmbH. Mr. Dohr focuses on the investment advisory segment of our business.

He has over 30 years of investment and finance experience, including board and investment committee positions at state investment holding companies and infrastructure and private equity investment funds.

Prior to founding ICA, he served as head of advisory at DC Placement Advisors, one of the leading European private markets advisory firms. Earlier in his career, he worked for multiple groups within investment banking at Fox-Pitt, Kelton, Salomon Brothers, Credit Lyonnais and Chase Manhattan Bank as well as the Ministry of Finance and the State Development Bank in Austria.

Hans-Peter Dohr holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Studied Business Administration at Graz University after being trained as a mechanical engineer. He completed his business studies by handing in his final paper with the topic of “Ethical Investment”. His first professional activities included work as an engineer, business journalist and Managing Director of a financial services provider.

Since 1997, he has had his own company rfu Business Consulting, Vienna, specialized in sustainable investment. Various teaching assignments and functions in Supervisory Boards, activities as an examiner and auditor as well as numerous publications.

Dr. Dennis Fritsch is Member of the Secretariat and Coordinator of the United Nations’ Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative, part of UNEP FI, focused on bringing banks, insurers and investors together to develop guidance and tools to enable financial institutions to align their activities with a sustainable ocean economy. The initiative is the host of the Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles; the gold-standard for investing in the ocean economy. Previously, Dennis established the Research department at Responsible Investor, where he led several investor research projects, most recently ‘Investors & the Blue Economy’. He also worked as a consultant and expert jury member for the European Commission’s BlueInvest Fund and BLUE Marine Foundation. After graduating from the University of Tübingen (GER), Dennis worked in research at the University of Cambridge and was awarded a PhD from University College London.

Prior to joining EIF, Cyril gained unique field experience working with microfinance institutions in Northern Africa and the Middle East. Cyril studied at Institut d’Études Politiques de Toulouse where he received a Masters in Development Economics with a focus on poverty alleviation and local development.

At EIF, Cyril’s entire career has been dedicated to impact related activities in the area of social entrepreneurship and microfinance. In this context, he was responsible for the implementation of the JASMINE programme, an EU initiative aimed at boosting the institutional capacity of microfinance institutions in Europe and in the set-up of the EPPA programme, one of EIF’s early direct investment pilots in microfinance.

Cyril moved from microfinance to impact investing in 2012 and raised the first impact dedicated fund-of-funds at EIF (Social Impact Accelerator) now fully invested with 19 funds in portfolio and EUR 220m committed. Since October 2019, he is heading the team in charge of social impact investing with the venture capital department of EIF.

Günther Herndlhofer has been head of investment and authorized signatory of VBV – Vorsorgekasse AG since 2011.
VBV – Vorsorgekasse AG is the leading severance payment fund in Austria with over €4.5 billion assets under management. Since the company was founded in 2002, ESG factors have been an integral part of every investment decision.
Mr. Herndlhofer holds an MBA (Financial Management) and an MSc (Executive Management) and has many years of professional experience in portfolio
management and company pension schemes. He has been an internationally recognized expert in the field of sustainable investment for many years.

Roman Herzog is an ESG Specialist at ISS ESG, where he is in close contact with asset managers and asset owners in Austria and Germany regarding SRI, SDGs, Impact, Decarbonisation and ESG. Before he joined ISS ESG, Roman was responsible for the business development at the climate start-up right. based on science for 15 months. Prior to this, we worked for Deloitte Consultancy within the business unit Financial Service Solutions for 2.5 years.

Roman holds a MSc in Finance and Management from Cranfield University.

Dr Anja Hochberg (49) has been Head of Multi Asset Solutions for Swisscanto Invest by Zürcher Kantonalbank since 1 January 2020. With 25 years of experience along the entire value chain of the investment business, Dr Hochberg is a proven expert in asset management. Prior to joining Zürcher Kantonalbank, she had worked for Credit Suisse in responsible management positions since 2001. As head of the economics department, she was responsible both for traditional economic research and for the analysis and forecasting of all macroeconomically driven asset classes.

In 2009 she was appointed Head of Investment Strategy of the Asset Management Division and in 2013 she was appointed „Chief Investment Officer Europe (incl. Switzerland)“. From 2016, she headed the global product department and from 2018 she focused on sustainable and impact products for institutional and private investors.

Dr. Martin Hohla is a managing director of MobilityFund. Dr. Hohla has an extensive background in the optoelectronics industry as a business leader, senior executive and innovator. Dr. Hohla has built several businesses. He is a Senior Advisor to Frankfurt based Consus Partner – a corporate finance advisory firm. He is a private investor in the laser industry.

Until 2014 he served as CEO of Neaspec GmbH, an atomic force microscope company using various lasers for nano-scale imaging and spectroscopy. He was hired to sell the company. Neaspec was succesfully sold in March 2014 to Attocube GmbH, a subsidiary of Wittenstein AG.

Before that he served as director for strategic marketing and portfolio management at Technolas Perfect Vision GmbH where he was instrumental for the conception and commercialisation of the next generation laser and diagnostic hardware for cataract and refractive surgery which led to the sale of the company to Bausch & Lomb, Rochester in early 2013. He co-founded Rangetainment Technologies, a sports sensor company. He served as a founder and chief financial officer of TuiLaser, the leading company in compact deep UV laser sources for visions correction and semiconductor manufacturing , which was acquired by Coherent Inc. of Santa Clara in 2005. Dr. Hohla furthermore serves on the Board of Directors of Toptica Photonics AG, the leader in tunable diode lasers and femto fiber lasers for scientific and industrial applications.

Dr. Hohla has a PhD in finance from Ludwigs Maximilians University (Munich, Germany) and a masters degree from the University of St. Gallen (St. Gallen, Switzerland) in accounting and finance.

Dr. Horner is a Managing Director at Middleland Capital where he is responsible for portfolio management and evaluating investment opportunities across food, agriculture and biotechnology. He currently sits on the boards of Mycotechnology Inc., Plant Response Inc., Benson Hill Biosystems, ZeaKal, Advanced Animal Diagnostics, and Vive Crop Protection.

Prior to joining Middleland, Dr. Horner was a Managing Director at Third Security, LLC, where he was responsible for assessing potential investments in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. He worked with several of Third Security’s portfolio companies, providing business intelligence and operational support.

Dr. Horner received his Ph.D. in Bioorganic Chemistry and an M.S. in Biophysics from the University of Rochester, School of Medicine and a B.S. in Biochemistry from the State University of New York at Albany.

Florian is Managing Partner of Bamboo Capital Partners, Founder of Ryan-Kay and Board Member of numerous organisations. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, Master of Science in Marketing and different diploma on business and personal development.

Florian leverages his extensive background on start-ups, fundraising and transactions in healthcare and life science to invest in, build and (re-)position organisations in the competitive global marketplace.

In particular his passion is around impact investment and effective personal development methodologies to create high-performance teams, whereby many members have become successful executives and entrepreneurs themselves. In addition, Florian founded a medical education foundation in Mexico while supporting many NGOs, patient advocacy groups and extramural surgery programs in Central-America’s most remote locations. As an active Member of the Young Presidents’ Organization he is on the Executive Committee of the Social Entrepreneur Network.

With over 25 years in life sciences Florian held senior executive positions at B. Braun Medical, Olympus Biotech, Small Bone Innovations (now Stryker), Parter Capital and numerous hands on investments in early & commercial stage life science companies. Fluent in German, English, Spanish, French, Italian.

Steffen Klawitter is the Head of Investor Relations at Finance in Motion, a leading global impact asset manager with EUR 2.4 billion in assets under advisory/management and offices in 17 countries. At Finance in Motion, he is responsible for fostering relationships with existing and prospective private sector investors.

His career began in 1993 at Deutsche Bank, where he held several positions in the Private and Corporate Wealth Management Divisions. Before joining Finance in Motion, he managed Deutsche Bank’s Competence Center for Church Investors. In addition, since 2005 he served as the Wealth Management Division’s expert for Sustainable and Impact Investing. He holds a degree in Business Administration from the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, Mannheim, Germany, and is a Certified Wealth Advisor through studies at the European Business School (EBS).

In 2013 he built one of the first German Energy-Plus Houses (which produces more energy than it consumes) as part of a two-year governmental research project.

Christoph M. Klein, CFA, CEFA is managing partner and portfolio manager at ESG Portfolio Management GmbH. Previously, he served as a partner at nordIX AG and as portfolio strategist, managing director at Deutsche Asset Management.

Before rejoining Deutsche Asset Management in 2007, he served as partner and head of fixed-income credit at TriPoint Asset Management. Mr. Klein also worked as a multi-strategy Portfolio Manager for credit hedge funds at CPM Advisors and as an analyst and portfolio manager for corporate and convertible bonds at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management. He has served as a visiting scholar at Salomon Center for the Study of Financial Institutions at New York University.

Mr. Klein began his career as a private banking investment strategy analyst at Deutsche Bank. He served as a member of the UN PRI Fixed Income Working Group and received his diploma in business administration from the University of Trier.

Marcus has more than 20 years of experience in the asset servicing and asset management industry. He started his career at Deutsche Bank’s Global Securities Services and in the last two decades held various management positions at DB and State Street in Germany and Switzerland.

As Head of Asset Manager Solutions at Universal-Investment, he and his team support international Asset Managers in establishing of UCITS and AIF fund structures with the focus on distribution into German-speaking Europe and globally.

As member of the Universal-Investment’s ESG Working Group, Marcus acts as ESG ambassador and interface between Asset Managers and Asset Owners.

Dr. Susanne Lederer-Pabst is founder and CEO of Dragonfly Finance. Her vision is to help shape a sustainable economy. Knowledge transfer on ESG & SRI as well as investment structuring and placement activities are on her daily agenda. She focuses on responsible investing with deep conviction, as a society-nurturing economy needs funding. Keywords: energy transition, social infrastructure, education.

Susanne has over 20 years of investment experience, including board and investment committee positions. Prior to founding Dragonfly Finance she’s served as head of Austria at Fidelity International, as board member at Fondsfabrik and as Portfoliomanager at Volksbanken Invest.

She is member of CFA Society, Finance Club, VAIÖ and Fondsfrauen. She writes for several financial media guest comments and appears as neutral court appointed expert.

Susanne holds a PhD and a Master’s degree in Business Administration and is lecturer and member of the development team for the Financial Communication studies at the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences.

Hannes Manndorff heads the department of Equity at the Development Bank of Austria (OeEB), the Development Finance Institution of Austria. He forms part of the senior management team of OeEB and is responsible for developing and overseeing a portfolio of private equity fund investments and direct investments.

Before joining OeEB in 2017, Hannes worked for 17 years for Accion, a global financial inclusion impact investor, where he held various positions, including as Chief Regional Officer for East Asia and the Pacific, based in Singapore, Head of Global Business Development, CEO of a Microfinance Institution in India and European Representative.

Before joining Accion, Hannes worked for the Austrian Development Cooperation, based in Vienna and in Mozambique. Hannes holds a PhD in Development Economics of the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and speaks five languages.

Marc joined LGT Venture Philanthropy in 2014 before transitioning into a dedicated role on Impact & ESG with LGT Lightstone, LGT’s newly established private equity impact investment platform, in 2018. He oversees Impact & ESG management activities of LGT Lightstone globally, advising and working closely together with regional investment teams in Africa, Latam, India and Europe.

Marc is also a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich where he previously worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute for Strategic Management. In this role he worked on various interdisciplinary and international research projects in the areas of sustainability, economic development and CSR. His doctoral thesis focused on microfinance investments from a stakeholder-oriented strategic management perspective. Prior to his academic career, Marc worked for UBS AG and was a co-founder of a local lifestyle portal.

Marc earned his doctorate degree in Business Administration at the University of Southern Queensland and has a Master’s degree from the University of Zurich and Stellenbosch University.

Andreas Nilsson is the Managing Partner of Sonanz, a private equity fund-of-funds manager. Sonanz has a thematic focus on sectors that are essential for the future of society: Renewable Energy, Sustainable Food & Agriculture, Affordable Healthcare and Financial Services.

Prior to founding Sonanz, Dr. Nilsson worked as a private equity investor at EQT Partners and UBS. He has also acted as advisor to the first private equity firm in Bangladesh and the first social investment fund in Sweden. Dr. Nilsson holds a PhD and a MSc in Finance from the Stockholm School of Economics and spent two years as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Business School.

Joined Erste Group Bank AG in 2000. First job experience as customer advisor. In 2004 changed to the asset management subsidiary in the area of performance measurement and data quality management.
Since 2008 working at the Responsible Investments department.

Since April 2016 investment fonds product manager at GLS Bank specialized in alternative investments Between October 2013 and March 2016 trainee and junior level position in the private wealth and security department of GLS Bank International experience gained in the microfinance and social business sector in Tamil Nadu India in 2013 Between September 2004 and February 2010,  industrial operative manager in a mid-tier electrical company (export/import supply chain management as well as cooperate finance)

Qualifications:
Master of Science in Finance (FH) (2010 – 2012) & Diplom Kaufmann (FH) economics (2006 – 2010)
(and maybe interesting due to the topic of the discussion: qualified and state-approved nutrition expert/advisor (2018 -2020))

Mr. Popik is the founder and Managing Partner of Sao Paulo-based Aqua Capital, a private equity firm investing in middle-market agribusiness and food companies. Mr. Popik has 16 years of private equity experience in South America with a full focus on agribusiness, food and logistics and a comprehensive operational approach to value creation.

He is currently Chairman of the Board of Comfrio, Brazil’s largest cold-storage logistics operator, and Fertiláqua, one of the main producers of high value-added micronutrients and biostimulants in Brazil. He is also Chairman of the Board of Grand Cru leading wine importer, distributor and retailer in Brazil, Geneseas, a leading tilapia production integrated player and Yes, a high-technology additives producer for animal nutrition.

Previously, he ran healthcare services operator Salutia and consulted for Booz & Co in Latin America. Mr Popik earned a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar, and a BA in Economics from Universidad de San Andrés. He has two children.

Christine Scharinger, is a pioneer in the field of e-mobility and has been known as an expert in Austria for 10 years. She was active in the financial services sector for 30 years and financed the first alternative powered vehicles in Austria. Her commitment in this area was aimed at establishing e-vehicles in Austria’s vehicle fleets. She also has extensive knowledge in the field of renewable energies, having been responsible for the operation of 60 wind turbines and 6 photovoltaic power plants.

Today she develops smart mobility solutions in the form of a marketplace for the DACH region in the KIR-Group GmbH. Together with the renableenergy player, she supports large companies on their way to energy self-sufficiency. She also supports the Graz-based high-tech company Levion GmbH in the market launch of its innovative energy management solution and establishes the sales strategy in several European countries for the Raiffeisen Lagerhaus Group and the Chinese car manufacturer JAC.

Jürgen Schneider is the Director General of the Directorate-General Climate at the Federal Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism in Austria. He holds a phD in chemistry.

Before joining the Ministry 2018, he was spokesman and member of the management board of the Environment Agency Austria. He lead the work on climate change and energy at the Environment Agency Austria for more than a decade. From 2002 to 2004 he worked at the World Health Organisation as a project manager in the field of environment and health.

He is also co-editor of the first Austrian Assessment Report on Climate Change.

Prof. Dr. Dirk Soehnholz (1963) is the founder and CEO of Diversifikator GmbH, book author, honorary professor of asset management at Leipzig University and a blogger on Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) and Robo-Advisor topics (www.prof-soehnholz.com).

Previously he worked for The Boston Consulting Group, Feri Alternative Asset, Feri Institutional Advisors and Veritas Investment.

Dr. Bernd Spendig received his PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Hanover in 2002 and also owns a degree in economy. After a short intermezzo as a trader for exotic equity derivatives at HSBC Trinkaus, he has been working for UniCredit Bank AG since 2004, where he heads the structuring department for private and wealth management clients.

A focus of his work has been on the product development of sustainable investment products, in particular structured products on equity indices. He is also responsible for the first European ETF that combines smart beta factors with ESG criteria.

Dr. Spendig is a member of various national and international working groups that are developing a new target market standard for sustainable products.

Thor is the Founding Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Neptune NRCP, LLC – and asset manager dedicated to investing in the global aquaculture industry. As a former senior executive of public and private aqua businesses Thor brings a hands-on approach to investing in and adding value to portfolio companies.

Prior to founding Neptune Thor was head of private equity at AMERRA Capital Management where he was a voting member of the investment committee.

Thor has more than 20 years of experience from the international aquaculture industry as investor, senior executive and as a sector focused senior investment & corporate banker.

Thor has been a speaker at and organized industry focused investor conferences in New York, Chicago, London, Oslo, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Thor is the Chairman of the Board of Andromeda Group, AquaShip and Biomega Group.

Since 2019, Volker Weber has been a member of the board of NIXDORF Kapital AG as Chief Sustainability Officer. Activities as managing director and board member at various financial service providers and investment companies.

Voluntary work as chairman of the board of the FNG – Forum Sustainable Money Investments e. V.. Volker Weber is responsible for the sustainability strategy in the company and the products.

He has a degree in business administration and is the author of numerous studies and specialist publications in the field of sustainable investments.

Dr. Christin ter Braak-Forstiner, LL.M. is the co-founder and CEO of Chi Impact Capital in Zurich an independent Impact Investing Advisor.

Christin is passionate about pro-actively making the shift towards a regenerative and deep impact economy a reality. Christin has a long-standing experience and a 15 year+ track record in the financial services sector, private equity, the impact investing field, sustainable investing, strategic philanthropy advisory and the collaboration with international organizations and public Stakeholders.

Christin completed her Doctoral Thesis at Harvard Law School (summa cum laude) and her Master Studies at Duke Law School; She has published numerous peer reviewed articles in the field of sustainable investing and impact investing, authored and co-authored several books the latest of which is “Conscious Investing”; Christin is a lecturer at various universities on impact investing; Privately, Christin is the co-founder and president of award winning NGO Braveaurora, active in North Ghana since 2009.