Advisors

Bernd is the founder and Managing Partner of EBG Capital AG, an agricultural investment advisory boutique which provides advice to investors, governments and international  organizations on responsible investments in agriculture and food security matters. He is an acknowledged leader in  agricultural investments, sustainability and socially responsible investments, with over 25 years of experience in financial markets, business practices, and international public policy. Prior to EBG Capital AG, Bernd was Global Co-Head of Credit Suisse’s Environmental Business Group (EBG), where he led the implementation of the overall strategy and execution of EBG’s clean-tech and natural resource investment strategies. Until 2007, Bernd was Credit Suisse's Global Head of Sustainability Affairs. He was a Lead Author to the Chapter on "Impacts of Climate Change on Financial Services" of the IPCC Third Assessment Report. Before joining Credit Suisse Group in 1998, Bernd was the Economic Affairs Officer with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya, and in Geneva, Switzerland.

Bernd is a lecturer at the Cornell University in New York and the agricultural college of the University of Applied Science in Berne as well as a sought-after speaker at agricultural and sustainability conferences world-wide. In addition to managing EBG Capital, Bernd holds board / advisory board mandates for Foundation Prince Liechtenstein, RiceTec AG and Ovis AG. He sits on boards of five Australian farmland trusts and Ariya Capital and is Vice-Chair of the OECD Advisory Group on Responsible Business Conduct. Bernd holds a Masters in Agronomy and a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Hohenheim in Germany.

Dr. Ingeborg Schumacher-Hummel has more than 25 years of experience in the field of sustainable investments. With her company Responsible Impact Investing she advises investors and financial service providers on the development and implementation of sustainable investment strategies. Clients are mainly institutional investors, especially pension funds. In her mandates the focus is not only on strategic positioning, but also on implementation processes, such as the search for external partners or setting up operational processes for ESG quality assurance.

After completing her studies in business administration and ecology, Ingeborg Schumacher held various positions in asset management or at private banks. Her roles included building up the sustainable fund range at UBS, implementing a responsible investing strategy at a private bank and, most recently, the role of Head Sustainibility at an asset manager that specializes in sustainable credit strategies. In addition to her professional practice in the context of sustainable investing, she is active in research and teaching: in parallel to working at UBS , she wrote a dissertation on the role of pension funds as active shareholders. Currently, Ingeborg Schumacher works as an external lecturer at various academic institutions, including at ZHAW in the context of the CAS Financial Planning and Sustainable Investing and at the School for Employee Pensions in relation to its diploma training and the training for pension fund managers. She also designed the course "ESG-CA: ESG for client advisors" for the Swiss AZEK.

On top of her role as a board member of the Sustainable Investment Forum, she is a member of various investment committees, including the Investment Committee of the Servisa Collective Foundation and the Investment Committee of Swiss Life Select. Not only does she engage as a member of the investment committee, but is also involved in other internal strategic processes on ESG integration.

Peter heads Gehrenholz GmbH, an investment consulting firm based in Zürich. Before that, he was a member of the management and senior consultant at onValues. Previous to that he co-founded Wuethrich, Henz & Co. AG where he advised owners of large wealth on their long-term investment strategies and manager selection. He also served on Rothschild Bank Zurich's executive board and was the bank's Chief Investment Officer and Global Head of Research for many years. He held similar positions at VZ VermoegensZentrum, Bank Julius Baer and Cantrade Private Bank. Peter invented the “Cantrade Fund Radar”, the first fund analysis tool using visual means to illustrate complex evaluations of asset managers. His first experience in the finance sector reaches back to 1987 when he joined Barclays Bank on New York’s Wallstreet as a financial analyst trainee.

Peter graduated with a master degree in Banking and Finance from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He subsequently passed the Chartered Financial Analyst and Financial Risk Manager exams to become CFA and FRM charter holder. He keeps close ties to academia by working closely with Universities and think tanks on subjects like behavioural finance, economic history and alternative economic theories. Peter is member of the CFA Institute and regularly advises financial journalists on investment topics. He is a founding member of Advisornet.ch, a network of independent investment consultants. He lives with his wife and two sons in Zürich.