The Board
Our Board Members bring top-level, international experience from the worlds of industry, private equity and start-up ventures – providing guidance and perspective that help us to hone our advisory skills.
Sylvie Mutschler-von Specht
Switzerland | Germany
Sylvie Mutschler-von Specht was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany. She studied Business Administration at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland and at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, USA.
For the last 30 years, Sylvie has acted as an entrepreneur, advisor and active investor, with a focus on commercial and residential real estate projects, as well as early and later stage investments in a significant number and variety of start-up companies. She is a Board member and Chief Executive of Mutschler Outlet Holding AG, Mutschler-Ventures AG, as well es as chairwoman of MIAG Mutschler Immobilien AG and board member of the Swiss Private Bank Bergos Berenberg, Zurich.
Sylvie is based in the Zurich area, Switzerland, and has been active in a number of cultural and social activities, e.g., EDUCA SWISS, a non-profit organisation fostering talented but economically disadvantaged students, and Startup Teens, a non-profit organisation providing mentoring and seed capital to teenagers with significant business start-up projects. She supports young musicians and ballet-dancers as well as some art-related events.
Dr. Wolfgang Colberg
Germany
Wolfgang Colberg was born in Kiel, Germany, and completed his studies of business administration at the University of Kiel with a doctorate.
After joining the Robert Bosch group in 1988, Wolfgang held different management positions within the Bosch Group in Germany and abroad. In 1996, he was appointed Senior Vice-President-Central Purchasing and Logistics, and in 2001 became Chief Financial Officer at BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH. He left BSH in 2009 to become Chief Financial Officer of Evonik Industries AG. From 2013 to 2018, Wolfgang was an Industrial Partner, and since then has been a Senior Advisor, at the international Private Equity group, CVC Capital Partners.
Wolfgang serves as a non-executive director of various privately held and publicly traded companies, as well as start-ups: AMSilk GmbH (Chairman), Germany; Burelle S.A., France; ChemicaInvest Holding, Netherlands (Chairman); Efficient Energy GmbH, Germany (Chairman); Pernod Ricard S.A., France; ThyssenKrupp AG, Germany.
Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard
Denmark | Switzerland
Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard was born in Denmark and has a BA and a Graduate Diploma in Organisation and Management from the University of Southern Denmark. He started working in the business of his family, who were Denmark’s largest independent distributor of confectionary and tobacco.
In 1986 he joined Seagram, then the world’s largest spirits company and worked in Italy, Hong Kong and finally as General Manager in Thailand. In 1993 he moved to LVMH/Guerlain, as CEO for the Asia Pacific region until 1998. Later he became President of the Coty/Lancaster Group, in Paris, and in 2002 was appointed CEO of Georg Jensen, the leading Danish jewellery, watch and silverware group. In 2008 he became CEO of Timex Group, the US watch and jewellery company. In 2011 he became the first external CEO of Oettinger Davidoff. From September 2018 to June 2019 he served as interim CEO for the MCH Group, the organiser of, e.g., Art Basel and Baselworld.
Hans-Kristian serves as Chairman of the Board of Calida Group in Switzerland and he also Chairs the Board of Bonhams in the UK and is a non-executive Board member of Barclays Bank (Suisse). He is a CEO Mentor at Mentore Consulting in London and a Jury Member of the Women’s Board Awards Switzerland.
Verena Pausder
Germany
Verena Pausder was born in Bielefeld, Germany, and graduated with a degree in Business from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Verena founded two start-ups in the field of digital life and education of children: Fox & Sheep (2012) is the largest developer of apps for kids in Germany and among the top ten in Europe. HABA Digitalwerkstatt (2016) enables children to look behind the digital scenes and empower them to shape their world in an active and creative way. Verena acted as CEO of both companies and was instrumental in their success.
Besides her involvement in building up and leading start-up companies, Verena has been very active in a number of other fields. She founded the non-profit association Digitale Bildung für Alle e.V. and started the initiative STARTUP TEENS to teach students entrepreneurial skills. Furthermore, she serves on several boards (comdirect bank AG, media:net Brandenburg, CODE university council, Lufthansa Innovation Lab and Röhlig Logistics) and gives first-hand advice on the latest issues of digitalisation as part of the Innovation Council for the Minister of State for Digitalisation. In 2016, Verena was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2018, Forbes featured her as one of the 50 Most Influential Women in European tech.
Lorna Davis
USA
Lorna Davis is originally South African and has lived and worked in seven countries on five continents including the US, where she currently lives.
She has served as the President and CEO of multinational consumer goods companies for 20+ years, in Danone, Kraft and Mondelez, including China where she led Danone/Kraft for 6 years based in Shanghai. She was a key leader in Danone’s purpose journey and in 2017, Lorna served as CEO and Chairwoman of Danone North America, where she established that $6 Billion entity as a Public Benefit Corporation. It achieved B Corp status in 2018, making it the largest B Corp in the world. Lorna was on the global board of Electrolux for 6 years and the board of BLab Global, the Not For Profit organization that certifies B Corporations.
Lorna inspires, coaches and provokes leaders to use business as a force for good – and to live and lead collaboratively. She also serves on the board of a number of organizations that are committed to having meaningful purpose. She is a member of the Social Mission Board of Seventh Generation (a Unilever Company), the Advisory Board of Radicle Impact, the board of the Volgenau Climate Initiative and the board of Guayaki. Her TED talk on Radical Interdependence has been viewed by nearly 3 million people.
