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Our Team

Leading Experts in Blended, Innovative & Sustainable Finance

Meet our expert team

We are pleased to have leading experts in the field of blended finance from the private and public sector as well as academia in our team. A highly valuable asset is our extended network of advisors and researchers that provide mission-critical input for individual research and education projects.

Team Leads Initiative for Blended Finance

Bjoern Struewer – Initiative Lead

Bjoern Struewer is founder and CEO at Roots of Impact, an impact finance advisory firm working with public funders, philanthropists and impact investors globally to finance private sector innovations and enterprises with strong potential for positive impact. After 20 years of experience in the finance sector, including 12 years at Credit Suisse, he dedicated his work to designing and implementing effective solutions for financing social impact at scale.

Bjoern is Senior Fellow at the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth at University of Zurich and mentor at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Impact Investment for the Next Generation Program.

Falko Paetzold – Academic Lead

Dr. Falko Paetzold is the Initiator and Managing Director of the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth at University of Zurich («CSP»). CSP is a spin-off from the Next Gen Impact Investing program that Falko co-initiated at the Initiative for Responsible Investment at Harvard University.

Before CSP, Falko was a fellow at Harvard, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT Sloan, Sustainability Analyst and M&A Consultant at Bank Vontobel, and partner at the sustainable investing consultancy Contrast Capital. Falkoalso  founded GreenBuzz, an international network of sustainability intrapreneurs.

Christina Moehrle – Education Lead

Christina Moehrle is Senior Advisor at Roots of Impact and Social Finance Academy, where she designs impact finance content and programs for onsite and online capacity building. After many years in structured finance, investor relations and venture capital, the impact space has become her passion and (freelance) profession.

Christina also enjoys sharing her impact finance knowledge as a pro bono advisor and mentor to several impact entrepreneurs.

Advisors Initiative for Blended Finance

Prof. Dr. Timo Busch

Hamburg University

Dr. David Wood

Initiative for Responsible Investment at Harvard Kennedy School

Karen E. Wilson

OECD

Dr. Peter Beez

Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation

Prof. Dr. Dirk Lehmkuhl

University of St. Gallen

Dr. Lars Stein

Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation

Mark Plant

Center for Global Development

Maya Ziswiler

UBS Optimus Foundation

Aakif Merchant

Convergence Blended Finance

Research Team Initiative for Blended Finance

Researchers from University of Zurich and partner institutions are nominated based on individual research projects.

Contact: info@IBF-UZH.ch