Since 2008, David Bresch has headed the Sustainability & Political Risk Management unit at Swiss Re. A central role of the team is to guide Swiss Re’s commitment to provide ethical, environmentally and socially responsible financial services. For Swiss Re as a global risk taker, climate issues feature prominently on the agenda. David Bresch has been a member of the official Swiss delegation to the NFCCC COP15 (2009) in Copenhagen and COP16 (2010) in Cancun.

His previous roles at Swiss Re since joining the company in 2000 included Head of University and Risk Research Relations and Head Atmospheric Perils Group. He served as Swiss Re’s chief architect for natural catastrophe risk assessment models and has been a member of the deal teams for many innovative risk transfer transactions including cat bonds and weather index solutions.

He serves as a member of the adaptation board of the Global Network for Climate Solutions hosted at the Earth Institute of Columbia University and as a steering committee member of ProClim, Switzerland.

At the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), he is a member of the industry advisory board of the Competence Center Energy and Mobility, the natural science and technically oriented disciplinary spectrum of the ETH Domain. Dr. Bresch also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of its Center for Climate Systems Modeling in the Department of Environmental Sciences. He is also a lecturer at ETH on the economics of climate adaptation.

He further supports the advancement of sustainability matters in research and management education as a steering board member of National Centres of Competence in Research in Switzerland, and as member of the advisory board of the INSEAD Energy Club at Fontainebleau.

After receiving a master’s degree in physics from ETH, Dr. Bresch received his PhD at the ETH’s Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in 1998. He spent a year at MIT as a research associate in science and policy of climate change.

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Bas Gehlen has a background in supply chain management and controlling at Unilever. Upon joining Van Houtum as director of operations in 2001, he became an expert in the field of corporate social responsibility. Since 2007 Mr Gehlen has been focusing on Cradle to Cradle projects. He developed the world's first and only Cradle to Cradle tissue and toilet paper, both of which were awarded the FSC Recycled label and the European Union Ecolabel.

Van Houtum plans to introduce an integrated Cradle to Cradle washroom concept to the market. An independent maker of hygienic paper for 75 years, the company employs190 staff at two factories in the Netherlands producing 45 000 tonnes and generating EUR 60 million in sales annually.

In addition to managing international Stoll Giroflex Group, Tobias Gerfin is responsible for its strategic orientation and product development. A dual German-Swiss citizen, Mr Gerfin gained a great deal of international experience while serving as the Managing Director of Glas Trösch Intérieur and the COO of the Welding Business Unit at Sperian Protection. He received his doctorate in science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH).

Guy Geuskens is in charge of the international marketing strategy and operation of the Mosa Group.

In this capacity he coordinates the product and market development of all products of Royal Mosa and Mosa Systems. He is also the leader of the sustainability programme at Mosa and coordinated the Cradle to Cradle developments within the company.

Mr Geuskens joined the Mosa Group in 2001 in his current position after working in marketing and sales in other leading companies in the building sector.

Royal Mosa is a Dutch-based leading ceramic tile manufacturer that focuses on the international architectural building market. Mosa Systems is a supplier of cutting-edge solutions for high-quality ceramic facades and other tile systems, including raised flooring. Innovation, design and sustainability are the drivers of the Mosa Company.

The Mosa Group is privately owned and generated EUR 117 million in sales in 2010.

René Hermse is responsible for Tanatex marketing strategy group-wide, including public relations, communications, price setting and input for new R&D programmes and directions. In this function, he is a driving force in new directions for TANATEX both on the operational and strategic levels.

Mr Hermse joined TANATEX (or its predecessors) in 1992. He has been in his current position since 2007.

In the textile industry, as in most sectors, the road to sustainability is the one to take even if purely financial goals must be met first along the way. Mr Hermse initiated the thinking process within TANATEX toward implementing the Cradle to Cradle® framework – not simply for product selection purposes but also to be able to offer customers a full-fledged process.

Mr Hermse holds a bachelor of science in chemistry, a background he relies on in his work within the field of textile auxiliaries.

Annabelle Hett is Head of the Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue, a platform for the exploration of key global issues and trends from a risk transfer and financial services perspective. The Centre facilitates dialogue between Swiss Re, its clients and others from the areas of business, science, academia, and politics thereby positioning Swiss Re as a global leader at the forefront of industry thinking, innovation and worldwide risk research.

Before joining the Centre Annabelle Hett was Head of Emerging Risk Management at Swiss Re. She was in charge of the systematic identification, assessment and evaluation of emerging risks on Group level and also had responsibility for screening existing exposures arising from novel, unprecedented scenarios and accumulations.

Annabelle Hett joined Swiss Re in 2002 as a risk expert. She assumed responsibility for developing Swiss Re’s risk perception system “SONAR”. She was involved in various projects relating to the identification, assessment and communication of risk. She published several risk-related articles and brochures.

Examples include “CRO briefing on Climate Change & Tropical Cyclones”, “Pervasive Computing”, “Nanotechnology – small matter, many unknowns”.

Annabelle Hett obtained a degree in veterinary medicine with a doctorate in radiology and nuclear medicine from the University of Berne, Switzerland.

Under his management in the '90s, Swiss firm Rohner Textil AG won 19 international recognitions and design awards. His environmental and financial management approach made him a world renowned pioneer in the field and resulted in the development of the world's first Cradle to Cradle^® products: the Climatex^® lines of fabrics.

In 2005 Mr Kälin was appointed CEO of the scientific consultancy EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH (www.epea.com) in Hamburg, Germany, by Michael Braungart. In 2006 he supported the intensive development of Cradle to Cradle^® for the Netherlands and later became CEO of EPEA Nederland BV, which was established in 2008.

At the end of 2009, Mr Kälin founded EPEA Switzerland GmbH. As CEO of the management team he implements Cradle to Cradle^® projects in all industries in Switzerland and Austria using his core expertise in the global textile industry in cooperation with EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH in Hamburg.

Returning to his roots, Mr Kälin resigned his two managing positions with EPEA in Germany and the Netherlands at the end of 2009 to continue pursuing his passion, namely to help the Cradle to Cradle^® concept break through by successfully implementing Cradle to Cradle^® projects worldwide.

Andreas Schläpfer founded schlaepfer:associates in 2010. The company delivers innovative services with a strong focus on sustainability in the building and construction sector, the facility management of buildings, and related procurement practices. As a member of the network of EPEA Switzerland he also represents the Cradle to Cradle® concept in these areas.

Prior to that, Mr Schläpfer was managing director of a SME in the construction sector from 2007 to 2009. Between 1997 and 2007 he served as Head Internal Environmental Management and Head Functional Management of Division Logistics at Swiss Re.

Andreas holds a bachelor of arts in landscape architecture from the University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil, a degree in business administration from the University of Applied Sciences Zurich, and a masters of science from the University of Bath.

As Head of Emerging Risk Management at Group Risks & Analytics, Reto Schneider is responsible for scanning the horizon to collect early risk indicators and relating these findings to Swiss Re’s business. Before assuming his current function in 2009, he headed the casualty risk engineering team in Risk Engineering Services for more than ten years. With this team he developed various methods and tools to conduct risk assessments and bench marking for the oil, chemical and life sciences industries. Prior to this, he served the company as a non-proportional property treaty underwriter for the UK and US markets for two years. He joined Swiss Re in 1994.

Reto Schneider’s expertise lies in assessing and landscaping risks, benchmarking industries, developing risk assessment tools for various industries and modelling risk scenarios, but also in managing emerging risks, implementing business responses, and managing risks in the healthcare sector. He is an experienced manager, trainer and educator in these fields, and serves on the boards of several organisations in related industries.

Mr Schneider holds a diploma in cell biology and a PhD in natural sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

Arthur Thomaes joined Royal Mosa as CEO in 1998. Apart from general management of the Mosa Group, including its main subsidiaries Royal Mosa and Mosa Systems, his main focus areas are strategy and design management.

Royal Mosa is a Dutch-based leading ceramic tile manufacturer that focuses on the international architectural building market. Mosa Systems is a supplier of cutting-edge solutions for high-quality ceramic facades and other tile systems, including raised flooring. Innovation, design and sustainability are the drivers of the Mosa Company.

The Mosa Group is privately owned and generated EUR 117 million in sales in 2010.