Dr. Fiona Stappmanns is a Private Sector Engagement Expert at the Wyss Academy for Nature, where she leads the Innovation Fund supporting nature-positive business models in emerging contexts. Her work focuses on structuring and deploying innovative financing approaches that align economic incentives with ecosystem conservation and community livelihoods. She works closely with partners across the Amazon and other regions to strengthen sustainable value chains, including in the bioeconomy, and to translate collaboration into investable solutions. Fiona holds a PhD in sustainable business models from the University of St. Gallen and works at the intersection of finance, systems change, and environmental sustainability.

Paulo is an entrepreneur and partner at Manioca and Amazonique, food and beverage companies specialized in the biodiversity of the Amazon. Since 2013, he has been involved in research, business, and projects related to the bioeconomy and the sustainable development of the Amazon. He is the founder and president of the Association of Socio-Bioeconomy Businesses of the Amazon, and a visiting professor at CESUPA – University Center of Pará. He also serves as a board member and advisor for organizations such as Conexsus, IDB, Embrapa, and Selo Amazônia–MDIC.

Experience Impact Investor investing mainly in the Amazon basin across the value chain of the forests. We deploy Blended Finance and Impact Linked loans as a tool to mobilise capital to the Amazon Basin.

Vanessa Boanada Fuchs is the Director of the St.Gallen Institute of Management in Latin America, and Adjunct Professor of International Development and Sustainability at the University of St.Gallen (HSG) and a visiting professor at EAESP-FGV. She also directs the Swiss Leading House for the Latin America region, which funds research and innovation cooperation between Switzerland and Latin America. Vanessa’s research and teaching interests relate to the socio-environmental dimensions of development projects, including stakeholder engagement. She also focuses on decolonial approaches and the social control of on-the-ground practices of rights and policies. Vanessa studied Law and International Relations in Brazil (PUC-Rio) and obtained her PhD in International Development Studies at the Graduate Institute in Geneva (IHEID).

Senior researcher at the interface of macroecology, biodiversity research, and climatology. His research focuses on how climate and biodiversity are linked in time and space. A focus of his recent work has been the development of algorithms to downscale climate data to the biologically relevant scales needed for ecological studies. He is currently studying how extreme weather and extreme events, such as megadroughts, affect vegetation and biodiversity. He have also done extensive work on the geography and biodiversity of cloud forest ecosystems in the tropics and the biogeography of tropical islands.

Rahel Guggenbühl is a nature-fintech entrepreneur and co-founder of reilo., a company developing nature-based solutions that integrate social finance to support smallholders and incentivize ecosystem restoration. She specializes in sustainable finance, carbon, and biodiversity assessment, and corporate sustainability strategy, building models that align environmental regeneration with inclusive economic growth. With over nine years of experience across the nature-based, climate, food-tech, and HR-tech sectors, Rahel has led projects in forestry, agriculture, employee engagement for climate protection, and climate consulting. She has collaborated with governments, NGOs, corporations, and communities to deliver scalable, locally grounded solutions. Her work spans Tanzania, Brazil, and Switzerland, where she has built partnerships that connect financial and climate innovation with ecological and social outcomes.

Arend leads work on innovative finance. He has 15 years of experience in sovereign debt, credit trading, risk management, economic research, credit ratings, and debt advisory. Arend was part of the sovereign advisory team at Citigroup, where he helped governments manage a wide range of debt management challenges. He also designed innovative tools for governments while working at BFA Global as a policy specialist and product manager. Arend was a Director of Sovereign Ratings at Fitch Ratings and an investment banker at Standard Bank. He holds a B.A. from McGill University and a MSC from the London School of Economics.

Hanna Jager is a Senior Partnership Lead at Earthworm Foundation, where she works with companies and partners to drive transformation in global supply chains—from producers to markets. She focuses on developing practical, scalable solutions that deliver impact on the ground, connecting farmers, businesses, and finance. She brings extensive experience in sustainability and responsible sourcing, including previous roles at Nestlé, where she worked on advancing responsible supply chain practices. Hanna is actively engaged in landscape initiatives in the Amazon, including in Tomé-Açu, Pará, supporting efforts to protect forests, strengthen livelihoods, and scale regenerative production systems. Her work supports nature-positive supply chains and the development of a sustainable bioeconomy.

Co-Founder of Impact Finance SA, an impact infrastructure firm bridging the gap between global capital and the Amazon in Brazil. By integrating specialized banking, foreign exchange (FX), credit operations to SMEs, and digital accounts, the firm ensures a seamless flow of resources from the Global North to the last mile in Brazil. Ian leads the expansion of the Impact Map—a SaaS platform for radical transparency and reporting—while spearheading the Amazon Food & Forest facility to pioneer blended finance for nature-based supply chains. A serial entrepreneur, he has championed climate finance and Indigenous empowerment at global stages such as COP30 and the A Possible Amazon summit in Oslo, ensuring that innovation directly serves both the forest and its people.

Benjamin Bollmann is CEO of Swissnex in Brazil since January 2025. He previously served as CEO of Swissnex in Boston and New York, and as Consul of Switzerland in Boston. He is Chair of Swissnex’s CEO Committee, which coordinates strategic priorities across the global Swissnex network. Throughout his leadership across the Swissnex network, Benjamin has driven initiatives at the intersection of science, innovation, and global challenges, with an increasing focus on sustainability and planetary issues. He has launched and shaped long-term initiatives such as Project Quantum, Climate Collider, Swissnex for the Planet, and most recently the Planetary Embassy at COP30 in Belém. In Brazil, he has set a strategic focus on socio-bioeconomy, positioning Swissnex as a connector between Swiss and Amazonian ecosystems and fostering collaborations around biodiversity, climate, and sustainable innovation. Until 2020, Benjamin was Deputy CEO at Swissnex in San Francisco, where he led interdisciplinary programs spanning science communication, humanitarian technologies, and human rights in the digital age. Before joining Swissnex in 2015, he worked as a journalist and communications consultant at the intersection of science and design in Switzerland. He is a graduate of ETH Zurich and has conducted research in neuroscience and artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As Head of Programs, Vincent leads the strategic development and execution of Swissnex in Brazil’s initiatives, driving collaborations between the Swiss and Brazilian innovation ecosystems. He oversees projects in biodiversity, sustainability, and entrepreneurship, advancing international partnerships that contribute to the SDGs through joint efforts in innovation, academia, and education. Vincent holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the University of St.Gallen. Brazil became the epicenter of his personal and professional journey when he began working for a local NGO in 2019, later writing his final thesis in and about the country.