Our purpose: Invest in a positive society and healthy environment
Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. Edward I. Altman
is the Max L. Heine Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business, New York University, and Director of the Credit and Fixed Income Research Program at the NYU Salomon Center.
Dr. Altman has an international reputation as an expert on corporate bankruptcy, high yield bonds, distressed debt and credit risk analysis. He was named Laureate 1984 by the Hautes Etudes Commerciales Foundation in Paris for his accumulated works on corporate distress prediction models and procedures for firm financial rehabilitation and awarded the Graham & Dodd Scroll for 1985 by the Financial Analysts Federation for his work on Default Rates and High Yield Corporate Debt.
He was inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Society Hall of Fame in 2001 and elected President of the Financial Management Association (2003) and a Fellow of the FMA in 2004, and was amongst the inaugural inductees into the Turnaround Management Association’s Hall of Fame in 2008.
In 2005, Dr. Altman was named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Finance” by Treasury & Risk Management magazine and is frequently quoted in the popular press and on network TV.
Dr. Altman is an advisor to many financial institutions and publishing companies including Classis Capital, SpA (Italy), Wiserfunding, Ltd (U.K), Golub Capital (NY), Clearing Bid (SF), as well as on the Boards of the Franklin Mutual Series Funds and, until recently, Automated Trading Desk Inc. He is also Chairman of the Academic Advisory Council of the Turnaround Management Association.
Markus Büchter
has over 30 years of capital market experience and is the owner of MBV Vision & Consulting FZCO Dubai.
Until 2019 Markus Büchter was Managing Director and Senior Banker for Asset Managers and Insurance at Deutsche Bank AG, Frankfurt am Main.
His responsibilities included advising the executives of the highest revenue clients on all financial market relevant topics, especially macro strategy/multi asset and was Senior Representative for DB Global Markets Frankfurt for key foreign clients.
Previously, he was Head of Flow Rates and Flow Credit Sales and Managing Director/Head of Rates Sales Germany and Austria at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank and BNP Paribas.
Prior to that, Markus Büchter was Executive Director/Head of Equity Trading at Morgan Stanley Bank AG, Frankfurt am Main.
Dr. Bob Buhr
is founder and Director at Green Planet Consulting Limited, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Center for Climate Finance and Investment at Imperial College Business School. A former Managing Director at Citigroup, and most recently a Director at Societe Generale before his retirement, he was often cited as a top-ranked bond analyst in various investor polls. He previously worked at Loomis, Sayles & Co., Moody’s Investors Service, and Credaris, where he was Head of Credit Research. He is currently engaged with several NGOs on a variety of climate-related activities, with climate change and natural capital risks as a core focus. At the Centre for Climate Finance and Investment he is pursuing research into Green Funding issues, particularly some of the issues surrounding Green Bonds, assessment of the impact of climate risks on vulnerable countries, and investigations into the quantification of climate and natural capital risks for various economic sectors. He has a B.A. in Philosophy from Ithaca College, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Brown University.
Dr. Helmut Kaiser
is an independent advisor on capital market issues and Managing Director of Kaiser Financial Consulting. Until November 2022, he was Chief Investment Strategist of Deutsche Bank AG for twenty years and previously Head of Fixed Income Research. He holds a PhD in applied economics from Goethe University Frankfurt and the London School of Economics.
Eveline Lemke
Eveline Lemke is founder of Thinking Circular®. The think tank focusses on the advancement of the Circular Economy as a modell for sustainable economy and is listed on the United Nations Sustainability Help Desk.
As former Minister for Economy, Climate Protection, Energy and Land Planning in Rhineland-Palatine, she was first in office coming from a green party. Her mission has always been the creation of sustainable and environmentally clean businesses. She is a dual trained steel merchant coming from the recycling sector and carries BSc in economy and management (University of Hannover). curriculum vitae She is author, lateral thinker, speaker and innovation manager.
As consultant in public affairs, she is situated in Niederzissen, but joining offices in Berlin in Brussels. Lemke is experienced to tear down innovation barriers. Together with her partners like the German Aerospace e. V. she and her team can offer broad experience in almost all fields of sustainable business and climate protection.
Eveline Lemke is also Chair of the nonprofit organisation FAST - Friends’ Association for the Advancement of Systems Thinking.
Contact:
Jutta Bruns
Thinking Circular®
Im Schülert 13
D-56651 Niederzissen
J.Bruns@thinking-circular.com
www.thinking-circular.com
www.eveline-lemke.de
+49 2636 9691795
Dr. Altfried M. Lütkenhaus
is a non-executive director of Internationaler Bund e.V., Frankfurt am Main, a non-profit organization engaged in youth, social and educational work in Germany.
Until 2019, Dr. Lütkenhaus was a member of the Management Board of Frankfurter Sparkasse with responsibility for Treasury, Corporate Banking including international business, commercial real estate financing as well as business with institutional and public-sector customers.
Previously, Lütkenhaus worked for DZ Bank AG, Frankfurt, and for Dresdner Bank AG in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt. During his career, he held various positions, mainly in corporate banking for traditional German medium-sized companies.
Altfried Lütkenhaus is a fully qualified lawyer and holds a doctorate from the University of Münster.
Christoph Michel
After his successful studies in business administration (MBA) in England, Christoph Michel gained more than 8 years of professional experience as an executive in various corporations before establishing and shaping medium-sized companies in the field of foundations as a founder and managing director.
In 2015, he launched his mission "Foundation Leader" and his enthusiasm for philanthropy.... His goal to make non-profit organizations fit for the future and to make sure that foundations, clubs, associations & more get the influence they deserve: in society in general and with donors and sponsors in particular.
To this end, he finds celebrities from sports, film and television to support his work and is also bringing "Wir tun Gutes" to Switzerland in 2019. The impact of his business model in the foundation market ultimately drives him to also offer a digital platform to the approximately 600,000 clubs, associations & more in Germany. His next strategic thrust: a global platform with over 10 million non-profit organizations. As a business angel of SPOTIC GmbH in Berlin, Christoph Michel himself has helped build over one hundred platforms.
In this way, Christoph Michel has been able to build up a broad network of thousands of contacts over the last few years and therefore knows very well how to maintain and expand strategic business relationships. Most recently, as a member of the Advisory Board of the Cusanus University of Applied Sciences for Social Design and as Communications Director of the initiative THE ECONOMY OF TOMORROW, he supported and accompanied the development of the area of university promotion and partnerships.
Currently, Christoph Michel is also Head of Philanthropy Service at the Listening Foundation and responsible for fundraising for the City Bees in Berlin.
Christoph Michel was taught the importance of social responsibility by his family when he was young. It drives him in his work every day.
In an honorary capacity, Christoph Michel is the founding president of the Rotary Club Wiesbaden Rhein-Main, where he maintains a worldwide network.
What distinguishes Christoph Michel: his entrepreneurial thinking, his lived customer orientation, his enthusiasm and his speed in implementation.
Lara Obst is founder and chief climate officer of THE CLIMATE CHOICE. She believes that climate transformation is the greatest opportunity of our time. Together with Yasha Tarani and Dr. Rey Farhan, Lara therefore founded her Berlin-based ClimateTech startup in the middle of Corona Year 2020 to help companies reduce emissions. Via SaaS tool, the Climate Team enables companies to record their holistic climate performance, derive fields of action and implement tailored solutions. Lara's mission is to make every company a Climate Champion!
Lara's mission was born when she studied the IPCC Report with Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer in 2014 and realized that business is the lever for CO2 reduction.
Since then, she co-developed a 'Sustainability Indicator Model' to capture the sustainability impact of companies in her European Philipp De Wood Award-winning master thesis for CSR research, co-founded the modular small wind turbine startup MOWEA in 2016, and set up the Corporate Accelerator as DACH Accelerator Manager at Europe's largest cleantech initiative Climate-KIC in 2017.
Dr. Schumacher is a Lecturer in Sustainable Finance and ESG at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In addition, he is an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Oxford, as well as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Luxembourg and the United Nations University. His research focuses on ESG data and impact metrics, sustainable finance frameworks, green bonds, natural capital, biodiversity and ecosystem services, renewable energy project development, and TCFD/TNFD disclosure.
Prior, he worked as a consultant for the Luxembourg Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development and as a postdoctoral researcher in sustainable finance at the University of Oxford. He holds a PhD degree in Environmental Science from the University of Tokyo (2017) and Masters degree in Environmental Law from the University of California, Berkeley (2012).
He currently serves as a member of the GRI Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB). He is also a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) and sits on the ISO Technical Committees on Sustainable Finance (TC 322) and Environmental Management (TC 207). Furthermore, he belongs to the Technical Working Groups of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), and the Green Finance Network Japan (GFNJ).
Paresh Sheth
Is a Director on the board of CASI, the global certification body for CSR & Sustainability, New York, USA. And before that he was the full time director and CEO for a Swiss Bank Wealth Investment Banking & Securities Subsidiary.
He is also a director at Indus1Advantage a boutique investment bank specializing in M&A advisory, He is an advisor to multiple boards and advises in corporate governance, mentoring management committees, designing cross border business strategies and establishing global competitive sales organisations.
He is the founder of CSR Diary; one of the world’s largest volunteering platform with a reach of over 3 million student volunteers.
Paresh is an alumnus of IIM Calcutta & Mumbai University. He is a regular speaker at events on Corporate Governance, Growth Strategy, Sustainability, Entrepreneurship, Banking, CSR, Investment Banking and Strategic Management.
Paul Smith, FCA, CFA, MA
Is an independent corporate director. He served as President and CEO of CFA Institute from January 2015 to September 2019. Previously he owned and ran Asia Alternative Asset Partners, a Hong Kong Hedge Fund Group.
He first came to Hong Kong in 1996 to run the Bank of Bermuda’s securities servicing business and on sale to HSBC acted as Global Head of HSBC’s alternative funds servicing business.
From 1984 to 1995 he worked for Ermitage International a European fund manager spending the last seven years as CEO.
He started his career as an auditor at PriceWaterhouse in London.
Paul is a Fellow of the Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds a Master of Arts degree from Oxford University.