Advisory Board and Speakers
Advisory Board
Jos Boeren
Head of Agriculture & Food Investments, Stafford Capital Partner
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.
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 Creighton
Chairman, Convergence Blended Finance
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
Managing Partner, Institutional Capital Associates
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.
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 Miler
Group Head of Marketing, Quintet Private Bank & Founder, SmartPurse
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
CEO and Founder, PHINEO
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.
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 Söhnholz
CEO, Diversifikator
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.
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).
Partners can offer many responsible transparent (impact) portfolios without investing in additional data or personnel.
Dr. Christin ter Braak-Forstinger
CEO and Founder, Chi Impact Capital
Dr. Christin ter Braak-Forstiner, LL.M. is the co-founder and CEO of Chi Impact Capital in Zurich an independent Impact Fund Manager.
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.
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.
Mag. Markus Zeilinger
Founder and CEO, fair-finance Vorsorgekasse
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.
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.
Speakers
Dr. Lukas Adams
Head of Private Banking, GLS Bank
Dr. Lukas Adams is head of Asset Management at GLS Bank eG where he advises institutional clients, family offices and endowments on their ESG investments.
He previously served as Head of Business Development and Marketing for the asset management division of a family-owned private bank based in Dusseldorf. Prior to that he worked with a leading Swiss private equity and real estate private equity placement agent, covering clients in Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Spain and Germany.
Mr. Adams received an M.A. in Politics, Geography and Sociology from the University of Würzburg (Germany) and a PhD from ETH Zurich.
Dr. Klaus Bader
Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright
Dr. Klaus Bader is a corporate partner at Norton Rose Fulbright in Munich and Head of the European Energy Practice.
Klaus has wide experience in domestic and international M&A and private equity transactions as well as joint ventures and corporate reorganisations with a strong focus on the energy and infrastructure sector. He works for private equity and infrastructure funds, utilities and asset managers of major insurance companies.
Klaus is frequently recommended as notable practitioner for corporate M&A and energy in the legal directories Chambers, Legal 500, Juve and Best Lawyer.
Klaus became a partner in 2008. Before joining Norton Rose Fulbright in 2005, he worked for a reputable German audit and tax advice firm, where he focused on financial due diligence reviews and tax structuring in the context of M&A transactions.
Jos Boeren
Head of Agriculture & Food Investments, Stafford Capital Partner
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.
David Creighton
Chairman, Convergence Blended Finance
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-Jürgen Dannheisig
CEO, NIXDORF Kapital AG
Activities as managing director and board member in leading companies in the financial industry. Independent member of supervisory board and advisory board. Main focus in the areas of sales and investor relations with institutional market participants. Hans-Jürgen Dannheisig has a degree in Betriebswirtschaftslehre from the University of Bielefeld and is the author of numerous studies and special publications.
Hans-Peter Dohr
Managing Partner – IC Institutional Capital
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.
Andreas Fiedler
Managing Director, EB-SIM
Andreas Fiedler Managing Director EB Sustainable Investment Management GmbH
has a sustained track record of more than 30 years in various positions in international and national Banks and Investmentsmanagements companies like SEB AG, SEB Assetmanagement, GLS Bank, BfG Invest, BB Invest, BHF Bank and NordLB including general management, sales, Bond trading, advisory, client coverage institutional investors for innovative investments, financier solutions and ESG integration
Background/ Education: Bankfachwirt / Frankfurt School, Training as a Bank Officer / Nord/LB
Dr. Dennis Fritsch
Researcher, responsible investor
Dennis joined Responsible Investor in 2017 to establishing the RI Research department, investigating knowledge gaps in the ESG and responsible investment markets. Its aim is to produce forward-looking research exploring how financial markets and the investment community view the world’s most pressing sustainability concerns and how they are impacted by the inherent long-term risks and opportunities encapsulated in these issues.
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.
Dr. Hendrik Garz
Executive Director, Sustainalytics
Amara Goeree
Founder, Blue Phoenix
Cyril Gouiffès
Head of Social and Environmental Impact, European Investment Fund
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.
Alan D. Hahn
CEO, MycoTechnology
Alan Hahn is a serial entrepreneur with three successful exits. He has been a key executive in six startups and four public companies. With over 20 years of leadership experience in startup companies, Alan is a respected leader with strong interpersonal skills and a propensity for building a team from the ground up.
Alan has guided MycoTechnology since its founding in 2013 leading successful Angel, Series A, Series B, and Series C fund raising initiatives. Alan’s creativity is the source of new product initiatives and generates significant value through key partnerships. Alan is a true motivator with a knack for overcoming objections, streamlining processes, and finding creative ways to grow the company. He is open to new ideas while still maintaining constant focus on the big picture goals of the company. His passion for health and wellness falls in line with MycoTechnology’s goals for increasing the availability of healthy and sustainable food options.
Ullrich Hartmann
Partner, PwC
Ullrich Hartmann is a PwC partner in the Banking and Capital Markets Practice. For more than 20 years, Mr. Hartmann has been assisting banks and financial services companies in all questions relating to risk management and regulation. He heads the Risk & Regulation in PwC Europe, Compliance and Sustainable Finance units in PwC Financial Services. In addition, Ullrich Hartmann is chairman of the WpHG working group and chairman of the investment committee at IDW and a member of the Securities working group at BaFin.
He is a banker, business graduate, certified public auditor and tax consultant.
Dr. Caroline Herkströter
Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright
Dr. Caroline Herkströter is an investment and banking regulatory lawyer based in Frankfurt.
Caroline advises credit institutions and financial services providers, including investment and universal banks, AIF and UCITS management companies and securities trading companies on all aspects of German, European and international investment, banking, and capital markets law. In particular, she focuses on the cross-border distribution of financial products, and issues related to clearing, settlement and global custody and depositary services.
Caroline advises on the establishment and distribution of open- and closed-ended investment funds, particularly securities and real estate funds within Germany. Her experience also includes prime brokerage, securities lending, international securities custody, collateral management, and investment advisor liability. Additionally, Caroline advises on the establishment and acquisition of German credit institutions, joint ventures, the extension of banking licences and global outsourcing projects as well as the listing of funds on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Dr. Anja Hochberg
Head of Multi-Asset Solutions, Zürcher Kantonalbank
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
Managing Director, MobilityFund
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 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.
Dr. Scott Horner
Managing Director, Middleland Capital
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.
Dr. Hannah Lea Hühn
Senior Sales Manager, Amundi Deutschland
Dr. Hannah Lea Hühn works in the Institutional Sales team at Amundi. Previously, from 2016 to 2018, she worked in the Department of client coverage for institutional clients at Assenagon Asset Management.
From 2011 to 2016 she was a research assistant at the chair of Banking and Finance at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. She received her PhD in finance with the topic “Essays on reversal and momentum patterns in stock markets: Evidence from the U.S. and Europe” in November 2015. Part of her research is published in the Journal of Asset Management as well as the Review of Financial Economics.
She studied international business administration at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, and the University of Seville, Spain.
Júlia M. Profeta Johansson
Founder, ella impact
Julia Profeta Johansson is the co-founder of Conscious Growth, a fintech providing fast, impact-driven and non-dilutive capital to tech entrepreneurs, and the founder of Ella Impact, a global community of women focused on developing connections and knowledge around the theme of impact investments and impact businesses.
She was previously a partner at Vox Capital, the first impact investing fund manager in Brazil, and thus has been featured among the top women investing in tech in Latin America since 2017. As an impact investing and venture capital specialist and a Responsible Leader from the BMW Foundation Network, Julia writes about these topics for the BMW Foundation blog and is also co-founder of Startup.Life Berlin.
Julia has also worked with Yunus Social Business, Rocket Internet, Itaú BBA, and Mundo InNova, her former business innovation magazine. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from FGV-SP, studied at the University of Mannheim in Germany and at the Disney Institute in California. Passionate about photography and filmmaking, she is also involved with the entertainment industry, in order to use it as a positive social transformation tool at large scale.
Born in Brazil, she lives in Berlin, Germany.
Florian Kemmerich
Managing Partner, Bamboo Capital Partners
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
Director Investor Relations, Finance in Motion
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 Klein
Managing Partner, ESG Portfolio Management GmbH
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.
Dr. Klaus Kunz
Head of Sustainability & Bus. Stewardship, Bayer
Dr. Klaus Kunz holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry and a degree in economics. He joined Bayer in 2001 and has gained 18 years of experience directing business strategic topics in R&D at a global level, taking leadership roles in research, R&D project management, and regulatory and public / governmental affairs, including issues management and stakeholder engagement.
Since 2018 he is leading Sustainability & Business Stewardship in Bayer Crop Science. Klaus is passionate about driving innovation and change, cross-cultural collaboration, politics and history, also holding a lectureship for chemistry at the University of Aachen. He is married with three children.
Dr. Susanne Lederer-Pabst
CEO and Founder, Dragonfly Finance
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.
Paul Leibold
Chief Executive Officer, ACM Adaptive City Mobility
Paul Leibold is the CEO of and Technical Project Coordinator at Adaptive City Mobility (ACM). Seven years ago Paul initiated ACM, built the partnership among 10 industry partners for the ACM research project and raised funding from the German Ministry of economic affairs and energy. Parallel to the research project Paul also founded in 2017 the ACM GmbH to industrialize the results of the research project. The ACM GmbH is funded by international investors from Europe and China. As early as 15 years ago, the industrial engineer headed micro e-mobility projects for BMW Group. After, he played a significant part in building two successful German e-mobility start-ups. Last year October Paul was invited by the German chancellor Angela Merkel as reference project for green urban mobility to join here to India in the business delegation.
In the eyes of Paul Leibold, rather than being a mere product solution, e-mobility is a comprehensive system solution consisting of different modules: the electric vehicle, the energy system and an intelligent real-time network. Paul Leibold is convinced that e-mobility will only be able to face the competition coming from combustion engine solutions if the business model both generates more benefits for the environment and becomes more economically viable. This approach is the core idea underlying the Adaptive City Mobility project. Meanwhile, current TCO considerations persistently confirm this hypothesis.
Andreas Nilsson
Founder and Managing Director, Sonanz
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.
Stephanie Petrick
Head of Impact Investing, PHINEO
Stephanie Petrick is the Head of Impact Investing at Phineo gAG since 2015 and has more than 20 years of experience in advising private equity investors, international corporations and social enterprises in Europe and the US.
Prior to joining Phineo, Stephanie Petrick co-grew the German impact investing pioneer Impact in Motion, worked for Ashoka Germany and was Principal at L.E.K. Consulting, an international strategy consulting firm.
She graduated from European School of Business in Reutlingen (D) and Reims Management School (F). Additionally, Stephanie Petrick holds a degree in Management of Foundations from the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel (D).
Sebastian Popik
Managing Partner, Aqua Capital
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.
Dr. Rupini Deepa Rajagopalan
Head of ESG Office at Berenberg
Dr Rupini Deepa Rajagopalan, since March 2018 Heads the ESG office at Berenberg where she supports the wealth and asset management team in their sustainable investment product offerings.
She was previously a Junior Professor of Business Administration, especially in Social Investment at the University of Hamburg. She also previously worked in Chicago, USA and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in various banking and consulting roles. Dr Rajagopalan received her PhD in Finance from the University of Reading (UK).
Michael Reinhard
CEO, Universal-Investment
Michael Reinhard was appointed Managing Director of Universal-Investment in 2018. As Chief Executive Officer since May 2019, he has been responsible for corporate strategy and the product units Securities (Master KVGs / Private Label Funds), Alternatives and Portfolio Management as well as for Human Resources and Communications. Prior to his current role he was Chief Operating Officer, overseeing Administration Services, Tax and IT.
Since September 2019, he has also been a member of the executive committee of the German fund association BVI. Before joining Universal-Investment, he worked for AXA Group where his most recent post was as Global Head of Operations at AXA Investment Managers. He was responsible for international teams in Europe, America and Asia. At the same time, he was active for AXA Investment in various supervisory and administrative board mandates.
The banker and business administration graduate began his professional career in 1999 as a Principal Consultant at the management consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers, focusing on the areas of asset management and private banking.
Philipp Rühle
Executive Director, ISS ESG
Philipp Rühle has been responsible for ISS’ sales in Germany as an Account Executive since mid-2019. In this position, he oversees the further development of existing customer relationships as well as advising new customers in the ESG segment, which continues to grow rapidly.
Philipp Rühle joined oekom research as an sustainability analyst in 2006 before he became head of the “Extractives & Utilities” research team. From January 2016, he built up global client service at oekom research. Before entering the sustainable finance arena, Mr. Rühle worked for the Green Party in the Bavarian State Parliament for three years.
Thomas Schafbauer
Director, Arabesque Asset Management
Prof. Dr. Dirk Söhnholz
CEO, Diversifikator
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. Katharina Sommerrock
Director Investor Relations & Business Development, LGT Lightstone
Dr. Katharina Sommerrock is Director, Investor Relations and Business Development at LGT Lightstone, a global direct private equity platform focused on impact investing in scalable businesses that achieve positive societal outcomes by harnessing breakthrough developments in technology.
Before her role at LGT Lightstone, Dr Sommerrock held several other positions at LGT Group contributing to the areas of sustainable investing, impact investing and venture philanthropy. When joining LGT in 2013, she was Head of Client Relations at LGT Venture Philanthropy. Subsequently, she also coordinated internal and external communication, advisory, trainings and representation on LGT Group’s activities in sustainability, social impact, corporate social responsibility and philanthropy.
Before joining LGT, she was a case team leader at the international strategy consulting firm Bain & Company, where she focused on financial services and private equity. In 2009, she received a PhD for her award-winning dissertation on “Social entrepreneurship business models”. She holds a Master in International Business Administration from the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany.
Dr. Bernd Spendig
Head of PIP & WM Structuring & Solutions, HypoVereinsbank – UniCredit
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 Talseth
Founding Partner, Neptune NRCP
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.
Dr. Christin ter Braak-Forstinger
CEO and Founder, Chi Impact Capital
Dr. Christin ter Braak-Forstiner, LL.M. is the co-founder and CEO of Chi Impact Capital in Zurich an independent Impact Fund Manager.
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.
Michael Volkermann
Managing Director, Deutsche Bank
Daniel Wiener
Founder and President ecos & Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation
Daniel Wiener is the Founder and President of the Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation (GIB), which has been promoting sustainable and resili-ent infrastructure finance since 2009. GIB is the issuer of the globally recognized, independent SuRe® Standard for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure. www.gib-foundation.org
In addition to his responsibilities at the GIB, Daniel is the Founder and Chairman of ecos, the leading Switzerland-based international consulting firm for sustainable development, located in Basel. Since 1987, ecos has supported businesses, public institutions, associations, municipalities and national governments in designing and implementing sustainable development strategies, financial solutions, innovations and projects. www.ecos.ch
Daniel is a member of the Board of Directors and Chief Financial Officer of the Swiss logistics infrastructure platform Cargo Sous Terrain (CST). www.cst.ch
Daniel is a Swiss national, born in 1953 in Bern. He is an economist, who holds a postgraduate degree in Art’s Management from the University of Basel.
Karen Wilson
Strategic Partnerships, Office of the Secretary General at OECD
Karen Wilson is the Founder of GV Partners, a research and consulting firm focused on entrepreneurship, innovation and finance. Among other organizations, Karen has been working with the OECD since 2009 on topics related to entrepreneurship, finance and innovation. For the past several years, she has been leading the OECD work on social impact investment. She has been engaged in the venture philanthropy and social investment community for over a decade through involvement with EVPA and other organisations.
She is also an Associate Fellow at Said Business School at Oxford University, a Visiting Lecturer at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and a Member of the Harvard Business School Impact Investment Alumni Steering Committee.
Karen was a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, an international economics think tank based in Brussels from 2012-2017 and a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation from 2008-2012. Earlier, Karen worked with international venture capital firm, Index Ventures, and before that was part of the senior management team at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. Previously, she served as the Executive Director of the Global Initiative at Harvard Business School. Her earlier experience includes investment banking and consulting.
She received, with honors, a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Inka Winter
CEO, ESG Screen17
Inka Winter is CEO of ESG Screen17 GmbH, a Frankfurt-based FinTech company. ESG Screen17 develops data-driven solutions for clients – asset owners and asset managers – to support them in making better-informed decisions regarding their sustainable investment strategies.
Inka brings over 20 years’ experience in international banking. She worked in a range of investment banking, global transaction banking and asset Management roles at M.M. Warburg and Deutsche Bank, in both Frankfurt and Singapore. From 2013, as COO of the ESG Head Office at Deutsche Asset Management, she was globally responsible for the operational implementation of the divisions’ Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy. Under her leadership, ESG criteria were integrated in all new product approval processes within Deutsche Asset Management.
Inka then served as the global Sustainability Officer for Deutsche Asset Management where was responsible for ESG governance, ESG transparency, the Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) and Corporate Responsibility Reporting. She also ran the external stakeholder dialogue including the interface to NGOs, shareholders and the wider public.
Stephen Zehr
Investment Manager, Stafford Capital
Please note that the speakers are not complete yet.