Beatrice Karanja is a strategic communications and sustainability expert with over 25 years of experience across the private and non-profit sectors. She leads Nature’s Pitch, advancing innovation in conservation finance and green entrepreneurship. Beatrice is a Senior Advisor to Natural State, and holds leadership roles with the Mara Elephant Project, Tusk Trust, and sits on the Board of Natural State. Her work champions environmental and social justice, with a strong focus on empowering African women and youth in conservation.

Dr. Sonja Stuchtey is Founder and CEO of The Landbanking Group and a serial entrepreneur and technology investor. She has shaped industries like STEM education and categories like CivicTech in defense of democracy.
The Landbanking Group represents her most ambitious venture to date—a Nature-Fintech company with the transformative mission of integrating natural capital into financial systems and promoting land stewardship principles.
She is chair of the board of Alliance4Europe and member of the board of Capitals Coalition.

Diana is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fair Carbon, a Swiss nonprofit working to protect and restore the world’s marine and coastal ecosystems. Fair Carbon is working with communities, investors and governments to lower the technical, financial, and regulatory barriers that prevent a fair, high-integrity blue carbon market from scaling.

Previously Diana led the Climate & Nature practice at KOIS, a global impact investment advisory firm, designing and structuring innovative finance instruments that help regenerate the Earth. She has been building on her background in management consulting, having worked at SYSTEMIQ, an environmental think-and-do tank, and Bain & Company, a strategy consultancy, advising clients from the corporate, nonprofit and public sectors.

She holds a Masters in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from INSEAD. Deeply passionate about nature, outside of work, she is most likely to be found active outdoors, in the mountains or by the ocean.

Dr. Philipp Staudacher is a leading expert at the intersection of biodiversity and finance. He holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zurich and has built a career focused on integrating nature-positive principles into financial systems. Currently serving as Head of Portfolio at Innovate 4 Nature (I4N), he scouts and evaluates high-impact solutions that promote biodiversity and sustainability.
Previously, Philipp worked at a bank ag, where he assessed whether investments aligned with sustainability goals. He also lectures on Biodiversity and Finance and advocates for systemic change in how financial institutions value natural ecosystems. His work is driven by a deep personal passion for nature and a commitment to redirecting capital flows toward regenerative and biodiversity-enhancing initiatives.

Mia Wilke is an intern with WWF Switzerland’s Sustainable Finance team, focusing on insurance sector engagement. She co-leads a COP30 white paper on climate and nature risks in insurance. She holds a BA in Economics and Cultural Anthropology and has experience across sustainable finance, consulting, and NGOs, including UBS and the UN. She is also active in environmental advocacy and youth-led climate initiatives.

Gulden Timur is a communications and marketing professional with experience across corporate, media, and non-profit sectors in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Kazakhstan. As Corporate Communications Officer at the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNi), she leads evidence-based messaging and visibility efforts. She holds a BA in Political Science and an MA in Journalism and Globalization. At Building Bridges 2025, she represents ATNi’s work to elevate nutrition in impact investing.

André Stocker is a Junior Public Affairs Manager at the Swiss Bankers Association, where he began after a one-year internship in 2023. He is completing a Master’s in Political Science at the University of Zurich, focusing on democracy, development, and international relations. He holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Geneva and studied abroad in Brussels. He speaks German, English, and French, and lives in Lucerne.

Georgina Shepherd is an academic trainee at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), working on education in emergencies, skills development, and private sector engagement. She holds a First-Class Honours BA from McGill and an MSc from the London School of Economics. Her research addresses education systems in crisis-affected contexts. At Building Bridges, she contributes a policy and cooperation perspective to discussions on finance and inclusive, sustainable development.

Maxandre graduated from the ESILV School of Engineering in Paris in 2021, specialising in financial engineering, and also obtained a double degree in corporate finance from the EMLV School of Management. He focuses on delivering sustainable and responsible investment solutions tailored to client needs. His ambition is to advance impact investments by leveraging the Building Bridges Future Leaders Programme network to connect existing solutions and support the development of new ones.