Meet the Team
A dedicated team with extensive experience identifying and managing investments grounded in a landscape approach
Our team consists of international experts in impact investing, climate adaptation and integrated landscape approach. Together we are working to mobilise transformative climate adaptation finance for rural communities in the global south. Find out more about our team here and get in touch to learn more about the work of the Landscape Resilience Fund.
Core Team
Valérie Burgener
Managing DirectorValérie Burgener
Managing DirectorValérie is the Managing Director of the LRF. Before this role, she has been working for WWF for 12 years, contributing to setting up several global conservation programmes, with a strong focus on supporting resilient and sustainable coastal communities.
James Rawles
Project ManagerJames Rawles
Project ManagerJames manages landscape coordination and SME engagement for the LRF and is based in Vietnam. He has worked on impact investing and sustainable land use for WWF since 2019, and previously for Mirova.
Yougha von Laer
Senior AdvisorYougha von Laer
Senior AdvisorYougha co-developed the LRF and provides strategic advice on design and implementation of the LRF as a Lead for WWF on Bankable Nature Solutions for land-use. She has over 15 years of experience in forestry and climate projects worldwide.
Lucia Guaita
Communications ManagerLucia Guaita
Communications ManagerLucia advises and coordinates communications at the LRF. She has over 5 years experience working with philanthropic foundations and regranting NGOs and initiatives to increase the impact of grant-making where most needed and in the most overseen and underfunded regions worldwide.
Julian Smykalla
Project ManagerJulian Smykalla
Project ManagerJulian manages the SME engagement for LRF. He has several years of experience in impact finance and sustainable land use and has been working with WWF since 2025. He previously worked on the eco.business Fund at Finance in Motion and coordinated an IKI-funded Forest Landscape Restoration project in Latin America.
Landscape Coordinators
Robson Capretz
Landscape Coordinator, BrazilRobson Capretz
Landscape Coordinator, BrazilRobson is an ecologist at WWF Brazil, with over 20 years of experience in the Atlantic Rain Forest, Amazon Forest and Cerrado, dealing with climate change, green finance and conservation biology.
An Nguyen Nhat
Landscape Coordinator, VietnamAn Nguyen Nhat
Landscape Coordinator, VietnamAn brings over 20 years of professional experience working across the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), with a strong background in development practice. Throughout his career, he has contributed to a wide range of initiatives supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), trade promotion, biodiversity conservation, and community development.
Board of Trustees
Stefan Schwager
LRF PresidentStefan Schwager
LRF PresidentStefan Schwager is a Partner at 5S Swiss Sustainable Solutions. Previous roles include Council Member at the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Board Member at the Green Climate Fund (GCF). From 2010 – 2020 Stefan served as Head of International Climate and Biodiversity Finance at the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment.
Simone Stammbach
LRF Vice PresidentSimone Stammbach
LRF Vice PresidentSimone Stammbach is the Head of WWF Switzerland’s Global Network Development unit and a member of the Executive Board. Simone serves as WWF Switzerland’s leader for a portfolio of strategic projects and initiatives and develops new programmes in pursuit of WWF’s goal to conserve the world’s biological diversity and combat climate change.
Marc R. Büttler
LRF TrusteeMarc R. Büttler
LRF TrusteeMarc Büttler has been working as an attorney in Zurich since 2000, initially as a partner at the Holenstein law firm and, since mid-2025, at his own office Büttler I Benn Attorneys-at-Law. He is specialized in media, intellectual property, litigation and business law while advising also international organizations with various commercial and social purposes. He has represented numerous cases and authored several publications on the subject of his expertise.