Board members

Hans Joachim (“John”) Schellnhuber is currently the Director General of IIASA. He served as the founding director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) until 2018 and is the founder and founding director of Bauhaus Earth. He is a globally recognized authority on climate science and one of the founders and pioneers of interdisciplinary climate impact research. His expertise has earned him memberships in prestigious learned societies and numerous awards and honors and awards from various countries.

Rutger is currently the Global General Counsel and Global Director Legal, Governance and Risk at CGIAR, based in Montpellier, France. He started his career as lawyer in private practice. As one of the first lawyers globally, he started specializing in climate change in the early 00’s. He served as the first General Counsel at the Green Climate Fund and also served at the Global Fund and The Ocean Cleanup.

Anaar is a climate risk insurance expert currently leading work on inclusive insurance at CGAP, a global partnership of leading development organizations housed at the World Bank. Before joining CGAP, Anaar led AXA Emerging Customer’s Public Private Partnerships and inclusive insurance programs for smallholder farmers. She is also a CFA® Chartholder.

Fabio is the Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at The Cyprus Institute. Since the ‘90, he’s been promoting open innovation models for sustainable development, through the generation of knowledge-based start-ups, technology scouting and knowledge transfer actions. Appointed among the European leaders of innovation ecosystems by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, he’s regularly engaged at an international level as visiting expert, coach, and lecturer.

Marc  has been CEO of Credit Agricole Immobilier, the real estate subsidiary of Europe’s largest financial institution for the last 7 years. He spent the previous two decades as a banker in France, and as the head of the group’s international retail banking division during the financial crisis. He is experienced in customer insight, public policy, financial and risk management. 

Sheela is the founder director of SPARC, an NGO based in Mumbai that aims to mobilize large numbers of the urban poor and to support and strengthen their organizations to enable them to become an important part of the city system. She is recognised, nationally and internationally, for seeking urgent attention to the issues of urban poverty, housing and infrastructure onto the radar of governments, bilateral and international agencies, foundations and other organizations.

Wiebke Schloemer has extensive global experience in finance and impact investing. She has spent the last 20 years in leadership positions with the IFC/World Bank Group, working with innovation and growth driven companies and advising governments on sustainable private sector development. Wiebke’s expertise spans business transformation, risk assessment, sustainability and governance, and leading under complexity.

Fabio is the Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at The Cyprus Institute. Since the ‘90, he’s been promoting open innovation models for sustainable development, through the generation of knowledge-based start-ups, technology scouting and knowledge transfer actions.  Appointed among the European leaders of innovation ecosystems by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, he’s regularly engaged at an international level as visiting expert, coach, and lecturer.

Quentin is a skilled multidisciplinary researcher in Systems Innovation with a background in the Natural Sciences and Geosciences. In addition to his work at EIT Climate-KIC, he is a founding member of Ireland’s Knowledge Center for Carbon, Climate and Community Action (IKC3). He is also a funded Investigator with the SFI Research Centre iCRAG.

Brigitte Hasewend is founding Director and Member of the Governing Council of the European Sustainable Energy Innovation Alliance (ESEIA), where she has been responsible for devising its Strategy 2030 in the context of the European Green Deal. Since 2013, she has worked for the European Commission as an expert evaluator for Horizon2020 projects. She was Vice-President of the Supervisory Board of Joanneum Research GesmbH from 2014-17 and has headed the International Strategic Research Partnerships at TU Graz for many years. 

Diana is a professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, at the Central European University (CEU) and Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and Vice President of the Hungarian Scientific Panel on Climate Change. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California (Los Angeles and Berkeley). She has directed research projects for organisations including the European Commission, the Global Environment Facility, and the UNEP amongst others; and she serves on the Governing and Advisory boards of several organizations and companies.

Francesca is a professor at the Politecnico di Milano, where she is the Rector’s Delegate for European Projects. She hold a PhD from the University of Siena.

Jonas Kamleh is Deputy Head of the Urban Development and Climate Environmental Department at the City of Malmö (Sweden). Previously he was Senior Advisor at the United Nations Development Programme.

Kai is a Design Engineer and Founding Partner at cirka cph. He navigates the fields of innovation management and social entrepreneurship and seeks out challenges in changing and shaping society through innovation. By having an involving and strategic approach to the processes of the Fuzzy Front End, he helps to ensure that the outcome is relevant to both the actual users and the client’s business.

The Co-Founder and Director of Lobelia Earth, Laia Romero is a scientific entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in the Earth Observation field. She leads a pioneering team of scientists and engineers who operationalise scientific research into useful applications to monitor the impact of climate change. Regularly a speaker at international climate events, Laia is dedicated to innovating useful climate-risk services with earth observation technology.

Suzanne Reynders has a background in science and management and is currently Senior Advisor for Public Private Partnership at the Scientific Directorate for Environment at INRA, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research. Suzanne coordinates INRA’s participation in Climate-KIC.

Valentín Alfaya holds a Ph.D. cum laude in Biology and a M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering. His professional career in various sectors extends over 25 years, currently as Sustainability Director at Ferrovial. Author of several books, Dr. Alfaya also teaches as associate professor at Rey Juan Carlos University (Madrid) and Comillas Pontificia University (ICAI).