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Ambassadors

Partnering for Global Impact is fortunate to have the support of esteemed, selected individuals, who share a passion in our mission and help to build support for our efforts around the world. Each is a successful global citizen who has made a personal commitment to philanthropy, social impact and to the success of the event. We would like to thank them for their active engagement. The Ambassadors for PGI 2013 are:

Stephen Brenninkmeijer – Willows Investments

Stephen is a private investor with interests in impact investing, education and mental health. For 30 years he was involved in the family retail business. He then became interested in Impact investing, creating the Andromeda Fund. After exiting the fund in 2007 he founded Willows Investments, using his personal assets to fund and support promising ventures with a social mission. On the philanthropic side he is trustee of NTYE (Network for Teaching Young Entrepreneurs) and chairman of NFTE Germany, as well as a number of non-profit organisations. Next to his business interests he is a passionate jazz musician and enjoys a variety of sports.

Additional positions:

  • Social Stock Exchange, London: Chairman
  • ResponsAbility Social Investments AG, Zurich: Board Member
  • Grassroots Business Fund, Washington DC: Board Member
  • The Mentoring Foundation, London: Chairman
  • Beyond Capital, Zurich: Board Member
  • TeachFirst, London: Trustee

  • Stephen Brenninkmeijer – Willows Investments
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    Samir de Chadarevian – Partner, Secunda Advisors

    Samir de Chadarevian is Founder & Partner of Secunda Advisors (Switzerland) and an advisor to for profit and social impact companies as well as foundations.

    Over a 30-year career, he has worked as COO of OphthalmoPharma Switzerland - of which he was a co-founder - and has supported over 200 organizations as a partner at Deloitte Consulting and Arthur Andersen where he built up several successful new business areas.

    Samir is currently applying his experience in three main areas:

    • Supporting social impact companies looking to scale up
    • Helping corporations increase and enhance the social return on their philanthropic and social impact activities and better integrate social impact into their business processes
    • Fostering win-win partnerships between corporations and social impact ventures
  • Samir de Chadarevian – Partner, Secunda Advisors
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    Patricia Dinneen – Director, Siguler Guff and Company, LLC

    Patricia M. Dinneen has focused on Emerging Markets for most of her 36-year career. She is currently a Managing Director at Siguler Guff & Company, a global multi-strategy private equity investment firm with over USD 10.0 billion in assets under management. Dr. Dinneen joined the firm in 2004 to build the BRIC private equity investment business, focusing on Brazil, Russia, India, China and select Frontier Markets. She has primary responsibility for overseeing the due diligence, selection and monitoring of funds and co-investments for the firm’s USD 2 billion BRIC strategy. Prior to joining Siguler Guff in 2004, Dr. Dinneen was at Cambridge Associates where she led research, client advisory work and due diligence in Emerging Markets private equity, including performance benchmarking. Prior to Cambridge, she spent ten years at British Telecommunications (BT), where she was involved in establishing over ten joint ventures in the Emerging Markets of Asia and Europe. Before BT, Dr. Dinneen worked at Hughes Communications, leading business projects to extend digital data and TV satellite communications in developed and Emerging Markets. She has also held positions at The RAND Corporation and the White House. Dr. Dinneen holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  • Patricia Dinneen – Director, Siguler Guff and Company, LLC
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    Thorsten Dueser – Shareholder Advisory, Solution Partners, Credit Suisse

    Thorsten Düser is a Managing Director at Credit Suisse specializing in advising company owners and large private investors on issues of financial impact at the personal or company level. He was co-founder of a global team at Credit Suisse for that purpose whose geographic and services competence is unique to the banking industry: Solution Partners. His contribution to “Partnering for Global Impact” consists of his worldwide network and transaction experience in sectors relevant for social entrepreneurship. Since 1990, Mr. Düser has held a number of M&A and Corporate Finance roles at Credit Suisse and JP Morgan in London, New York, Frankfurt and Zurich. Mr. Düser holds an MBA from St. Gallen University, Switzerland, and a PhD from the London School of Economics. He is a Foreign Associate of the Royal Institute of International Affairs ("Chatham House") and Switzerland chairman of “Arts for India”, a charity dedicated to providing formal education and international exposure to young Indian artists.
  • Thorsten Dueser – Shareholder Advisory, Solution Partners, Credit Suisse
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    Catalina Escobar – Founder, Juan Felipe Gomez Escobar Foundation

    Catalina Escobar is a Colombian woman, a wife and mother of two children. Catalina began in the field of banking, but in 2001 she created what would become her passion and greatest life project: The Juan Felipe Gomez Escobar Foundation. This followed two tragic and painful personal experiences in the year 2000. The foundation provides healthcare to the most disenfranchised communities in Cartagena, including impoverished young mothers, infants and children. Her active participation in this field, has made Catalina a recognized entrepreneur with a great social sense and spirit, and an example of positive leadership in Colombian society. Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos, awarded her with a National Merit Award Order in 2011 and the followig year she was selected along with 25 other women to be part of the Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women’s Partnership. She was also acknowledged as one of the top 30 Colombian Leaders in 2012 by Revista Semana, and voted a Top 10 CNN Heroes for 2012. Catalina is a member of the Sovereign Order of Malta and an Ashoka Fellow.

  • Catalina Escobar – Founder, Juan Felipe Gomez Escobar Foundation
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    Joseph Field – Senior Regional Partner - Asia, Withers

    Joe represents substantial international families on structuring their affairs and estate planning. He also advises financial institutions with respect to the establishment of international trust companies and a wide variety of financial services, particularly with respect to life insurance. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences on legal issues facing international families and family offices.
  • Joseph Field – Senior Regional Partner - Asia, Withers
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    Belinda Fleischmann – Founder, ZYNYA Consulting

    Belinda Fleischmann is the founder of ZYNYA Consulting, a venture focused on connecting people in philanthropy and impact investing, particularly in the sectors of water, health and education. Belinda's lateral thinking and energy allows her to facilitate fruitful meetings and the development of win-win relationships. Belinda has worked or volunteered on development projects on four continents and been involved in business and philanthropic endeavors since 2000. She holds a BA in Government from Smith College and an MSc in Urbanization & Development from the London School of Economics, and is a designated board member of the Dr. Carlo Fleischmann Stiftung.

  • Belinda Fleischmann – Founder, ZYNYA Consulting
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    Michael Lindenmayer – Co-Creator, Eirene and Peace + Prosperity Endeavors

    Michael co-founded Eirene with John Kluge. Eirene is a firm focused on building for-profit, for purpose and venture philanthropy endeavors that tackle problems affecting at least 1 billion people. It focuses on caregiving, sanitation, education and design led innovations. Micheal was an early adopter of the Grameen Bank when it was a fledgling organization starting out on its big mission. He co-created the volunteer platform at Room to Read, which went from 12 volunteers to over 10,000 across 56 cities helping to raise funds that helps bring literacy to over 6.7 million children. Michael is a founding member of the global Sanitation Hackathon, an Eirene alliance with the World Bank in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has also built wellness ventures in Europe, Africa and the Americas as an entrepreneur. Micheal started out in banking at Morgan Stanley in New York and London and has lived in Rio de Janeiro where he spent time collaborating with brilliant change agents and social entrepreneurs. Michael is the co-author of Charity and Philanthropy for Dummies, 2013 and is a frequent speaker and lecturer. Michael is on the advisory board of the Stan Lee Foundation (he is a self-confessed comic geek) and also serves on the advisory board of Giving Water and World Blu.

  • Michael Lindenmayer – Co-Creator, Eirene and Peace + Prosperity Endeavors
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    Frederick Shepperd – Chief Executive Officer, Shepperd Investors AG

    Dr. jur. Frederick Metz Shepperd is the Chief Executive Officer of Shepperd Investors AG with offices in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the successor to his family’s real estate investment business established in 1918. For over 25 years, Dr. Shepperd has consulted public and private companies in the development and implementation of his global strategies. He invests with his own family office and works closely with other family offices to develop club deals and specialized investment structures. Dr. Shepperd is a noted author and is often engaged as a speaker for major conferences in Asia, Europe and the Americas on family office investment strategies and structures. One of his most recent articles, published in PRIVATE magazine in Switzerland focused on global impact investing and the Lugano event, “Partnering for Global Impact.” Active in philanthropic endeavors since childhood, he supports many cultural, musical, educational and economic development efforts for communities in Europe and the United States. Dr. Shepperd has worked in the emerging markets of Eastern Europe and Latin America, in addition to establishment of production for automotive companies and their suppliers around the world. Twenty of the BUSINESS WEEK 100 Global Companies attended his seminars for global supply. He is assisted in his efforts with the new addition of Wendy Craft, based in New York, and other SIAG Associates in the US, Europe, Asia and other locations throughout the world.
  • Frederick Shepperd – Chief Executive Officer, Shepperd Investors AG
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    Jack Sim – Founder, World Toilet Organization (WTO)

    Jack broke the global taboo of toilet and sanitation by putting the issue centre-stage in global media through his unique mix of humour and serious facts.

    After attaining financial independence at the age of 40 as a businessman, he decided to devote the rest of his life to social work.

    Realising the need for a global body on the subject, Jack created the WTO in 2001 as a global network and service platform for toilet associations, academia, government, UN agencies and toilet stakeholders to learn from one another and leverage media and corporate support that in turn influenced governments to promote sound sanitation and public health policies. Today, WTO is a growing network of 235 organizations in 58 countries. WTO has a commitment from President Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative to promote market-based sanitation and to launch the BOP HUB, a global business platform for the poverty marketplace. Jack heads the Base of Pyramid (BOP) entrepreneurship drive at the World Entrepreneurship Forum.

    Jack has received numerous accolades and awards including; Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006, Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum, Ashoka Global Fellow, Asian Development Bank Water Champion, Time Magazine Hero of the Environment in 2008, and Asian of the Year by Channel News Asia in 2009 and by Reader’s Digest in 2011.

    In January 2012, his film “Meet Mr Toilet” premiered at Sundance Film Festival.

  • Jack Sim – Founder, World Toilet Organization (WTO)
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    Alwyn Smit – Chairman, Basel Trust Group

    Alwyn has more than 18 years experience in banking including work in treasury and derivatives. With a degree in law from Stellenbosch University and in economics and investment management from the University of Johannesburg, he has been managing director of a division of a South African bank and founded a risk advisory and proprietary trading company.
  • Alwyn Smit – Chairman, Basel Trust Group
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    Amer Vohora – Rothschild Bank

    Amer Vohora is an Advisor at Rothschild Bank in Zurich. He is responsible for international clients with a focus on families and family offices from the UK and emerging markets.

    Before joining Rothschild, Amer was a Partner in FIO Partners AG, a multi-family office in Zurich from 2010 to 2011 where he was responsible for merchant banking (incl. impact investments) and advising UHNW families.

    Prior to moving to Switzerland from London, Amer spent almost a decade advising entrepreneurs and family businesses in private equity and M&A at First Capital where he was a Vice President from 2000 to 2010. He had a particular focus on water, sustainability and energy efficiency. At First Capital he held two roles in both First Capital and First Ventures, the fund management arm of First Capital which represented a wealthy German family on their private equity investments.

    Amer studied Manufacturing and Management at Cambridge University as a post-graduate and earned a Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Commerce from Birmingham University, including a year spent at Kansai University, Osaka, Japan.

  • Amer Vohora – Rothschild Bank
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