Our board

Frederic Hoffmann devotes his time to supporting entrepreneurs in both non-profit and commercial organisations. He focuses on sustainability strategy and enjoys working on innovative and cross-sectorial projects. Frederic has entrepreneurial experience and, in 2018, built a venture fund investing in food and agtech.

Today, Frederic serves on the board and advises sustainable startups and philanthropic foundations, including the MAVA Foundation. He is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and holds an BA in Geography and Development Studies from McGill University, an MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the LSE, and in 2022 completed an Executive Master’s in Social Business and Entrepreneurship also from the LSE.

Lynda has been the Director General of the MAVA Foundation since 2010. She is responsible for implementing the strategy of the foundation and leading the secretariat team. Since joining the foundation, Lynda has overseen a complete reshaping of MAVA including changes at the levels of the board, staff, strategy, processes, project selection, and communications. Lynda led the foundation to incorporate a new programme to work on the intersection of economic growth and natural resource depletion which has become a major focus of its work.

Given the end of MAVA’s grant-making in 2022, Lynda is now leading the team to ensure the greatest impact of funds invested as well as ensuring the sustainability of work in our areas of interest even after MAVA’s closure.

Lynda is deeply invested in developing the leaders the world needs now and tomorrow to meet the global challenges we face. She has an IDC/EMCC coaching certificate as well as an ACC accreditation from the International Coaching Federation and has coached and mentored several dozen people throughout her career. She has overseen the development of two different leadership development programmes and has developed and delivered trainings in leadership, team building, negotiations, conflict within teams, and change management.

Before joining the foundation, Lynda spent 13 years with WWF International in Switzerland. She brought with her the experience of managing and directing global strategies for all aspects of office operations in the WWF Network and developing performance tools for its offices. Prior to that, she spent five years in charge of WWF leadership and organisational development. Lynda began her career as a San Francisco stockbroker and then earned an MBA from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Lynda is on the board of the African Leadership University, Unearthodox, and has just agreed to join the board of the Audemars Piguet Foundation. She is American and Swiss and has two grown sons.

Didier Nsanzineza is a partner and the co-head of the Kellerhals-Carrard Geneva Tax Department. He is a lawyer admitted to the Geneva Bar and a certified tax expert. He specialises in all aspects of corporate tax including private equity, fund structuring, public and private M&A, restructurings, complex financings and tax disputes. He also advises private and family offices on different topics including the restructuring of assets and estate planning.

Didier advises several non-profits and start-ups in the field of sustainability. He is also involved in civil society, having been elected Chairman of the Young Bar Association of Geneva, a section of the Geneva Bar Association which brings together nearly 1,000 lawyers under the age of forty and trainee lawyers. In addition to promoting and defending the interests of its members, the Chairman represents the Young Bar Association before Swiss and foreign bars and institutions.

He has served on the Committee of the International Fiscal Association (IFA) as the Swiss representative of the Young IFA since 1 January 2023. The purpose of the Young IFA is to develop a programme of networking and academic activities at national and international levels. Didier holds degrees in economic and international law from the University of Geneva and Freiburg im Breisgau.

Elizabeth Tolu Ojo joined the African Leadership University (ALU) from African Wildlife Foundation’s (AWF) Conservation Management and Leadership program. At AWF, she designed an environmental education framework, as well as a monitoring and evaluation system for the Classroom Africa programme.

In 2016, she joined ALU as a consultant to launch the University’s School of Wildlife Conservation (SOWC). Over a five-year period, she served in pivotal leadership roles for the School, building it into a thought leader for the business of conservation in Africa while recruiting 300+ students from 32 countries, awarding over $2m in scholarships across three academic programmes, hosting three successful editions of the Business of Conservation Conference, and running a conservation entrepreneurs’ incubator programme in collaboration with the Luc Hoffmann Institute and WWF. She now serves as the University’s Director of Talent Management, ensuring that the university has the right people in the right roles and at the right cost.

She received her undergraduate degree in Microbiology from the University of Lagos, a master’s in Environmental Management from Yale School of the Environment, and an MBA at the ALU School of Business.

Dr Rebecca Shaw is chief scientist at World Wildlife Fund. She works with experts around the world to identify the emerging challenges to WWF’s mission and advance scientific inquiry to develop strategic solutions to those challenges. Dr Shaw leads WWF’s Global Science team, whose research agenda informs WWF’s global conservation framework and identifies tools critical to achieving WWF’s goals. 

Dr Shaw has been published widely in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals such as Science and Nature, and she is the recipient of numerous awards for her academic and non-academic work. She was a lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report on impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Dr Shaw holds an MA in Environmental Policy and a PhD in Energy and Resources from the University of California at Berkeley.

President of the MAVA Foundation and Fondation Tour du Valat

André Hoffmann is a businessman, environmentalist, and philanthropist. He firmly believes in business as a force for good and is a passionate advocate for the corporate pursuit of societal purpose and sustainability.

André is Vice Chairman of Roche Holding AG, a highly innovative pharmaceutical company established by his great-grandfather in 1896. He also serves on the board of the fully-owned subsidiary, Genentech Inc.

Alongside these non-executive roles in the family business, André joined the Board of SystemIQ to help drive positive disruption in economic systems and sits on the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum and the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

André also has a distinguished career in nature conservation and sustainability. He is the President of the MAVA Foundation, a leading conservation foundation, and President of Fondation Tour du Valat, a world-renowned institute dedicated to wetland conservation. He has also served on the boards of WWF International, Wetlands International, Global Footprint Network and FIBA.

André has also helped establish the Hoffmann Global Institute in Business and Society (HGIBS) at INSEAD and chairs its Advisory Board.

André studied economics at St. Gallen University and holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Claudio Segré Chair of Conservation and Development, Graduate Institute Geneva

Bill Adams is Claudio Segré Professor at the Graduate Institute Geneva. He held the Moran Chair in Conservation and Development in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge from 2006 to 2020.

Bill’s research addresses relations between society and nature, looking particularly at issues of sustainability and conservation from the perspectives of political ecology and environmental history.

His books include Future Nature (Earthscan 2003), Against Extinction (Earthscan 2004), Green Development (Routledge 2020) and Strange Natures (with Kent Redford, 2021).

Bill’s current research projects address the political ecology of conservation at the landscape scale, the significance of digital technologies for human relations with nature, and the application of synthetic biology in conservation.

Associate Director for Agriculture, Deep Science Ventures

Edward Perello is the Associate Director for Agriculture at Deep Science Ventures, , where he builds and invests in new companies delivering food security and biodiversity outcomes. He is also the Principal Researcher for Arkurity, a consulting firm conducting research on public policy challenges in synthetic biology, conservation biotech and biosecurity.

Edward’s research has focused on the oversight of genome editing, state and non-state actor development of biological capabilities, and the application of synthetic biology to ecological challenges. He currently serves on the IUCN Task Force on Synthetic Biology and Biodiversity Conservation, and is working with conservation groups to realise new opportunities for biotechnology in ecosystem restoration.

Edward previously founded Desktop Genetics, a CRISPR biotechnology company, and served as Chief Business Officer for six years. Edward co-chaired the iGEM software committee for two years and is an alumnus of the ELBI biosecurity and SynBio LEAP fellowships. He was a Research Fellow at George Mason University, where he worked on security policy for genome editing tools.

Director General of Tour du Valat

Jean Jalbert is the Director General of Tour du Valat, a research institute for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands. He is a biologist with an engineering degree in agronomy. After various professional experiences in the fields of environment, corporate management and vocational training, Jean joined the Tour du Valat in 1994 as a project leader. In 1998 he took the position of Conservation Director and was nominated Director General in 2004.

Over the years Jean has covered various topics such as engineering training, development and/or management of local, national and international projects, development of partnerships and networks, strategic planning, team management and corporate development. He is a member of the Steering Group of the Mediterranean Wetlands initiative (MedWet), Vice-President of the IUCN French Committee and board member of various nature conservation organisations such as Eurosite, Wetlands International European Association, the Society for the Protection of Prespa (Greece), and Conservatoire du Littoral (French Coastal Agency).

Global Finance Practice Leader, WWF-International

Margaret L. Kuhlow leads WWF’s Finance Practice, providing strategic direction and thought and content leadership to WWF’s global engagement with the finance sector.

Before joining WWF, Ms. Kuhlow was Vice President of Investment Policy at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and was a member of the team that established and implemented the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation, leading the new agency’s approach to environmental and social assessment of major investment projects.

In her 25-year career she has lived and worked extensively in developing and emerging markets, and has broad sectoral experience in sustainable investment, project finance and grant making. She holds a Master in Public Policy, International Trade and Finance from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

WWF Chief Scientist

In her role as WWF Chief Scientist, Rebecca works with the WWF network and partners around the world to identify emerging challenges to WWF’s mission and advance the scientific inquiry to deliver solutions to those challenges. Rebecca is climate change and biodiversity expert who has published in Science and Nature and has served as Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Rebecca holds an M.A. in environmental policy and a Ph.D. in energy and resources from the University of California, Berkeley.