The Board

Filippo Veglio has been chairing the Board since October 2020 in an independent capacity, providing strategic guidance to the Platform alongside his Board colleagues. He is a Senior Expert on Football Social Responsibility at UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations, and the governing body of football in Europe. Previous to joining UEFA in September 2021, he was a Managing Director at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the global, CEO-led community of the world’s leading sustainable businesses working collectively to accelerate the system transformations needed for a net zero, nature positive, and equitable future. Filippo Veglio holds an M.A. in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and was formerly a professional tennis player and a member of the Swiss Davis Cup team.

Urs Furrer is the Director of CHOCOSUISSE, the Association of Swiss Chocolate Manufacturers, and the Managing Director of the Swiss Foundation of the Cocoa and Chocolate Industry since 2014. Before joining CHOCOSUISSE, he was a member of the Executive Board of the Swiss Business Federation economiesuisse. He is an attorney-at-law and worked for several years for KPMG.

Alessa Homann has about 20 years of experience in the private sector with expertise in cocoa and sustainability-related topics. She holds a nutritional science & food industry management diploma from the University of Applied Sciences Niederrhein and has been with Barry Callebaut for over six years. In her capacity with Barry Callebaut, she has been focusing on the DACH region, nourishing the contacts within the Swiss cocoa industry. Most recently, she also took up responsibilities in the Barry Callebaut Sustainability Team as West Europe Sustainability Business Development Manager. Before working for Barry Callebaut, Alessa Homann was with Cargill Deutschland GmbH for 14 years. She is fluent in German, Russian and English.

Petra Heid holds a MSc. in geo-ecology and has more than 25 years of work experience mainly in sustainability of cocoa and its entire value chain. She worked in different positions in cocoa-producing and European countries, involved in organic certification, operating with smallholder producer groups, access to markets, and transfer of knowledge in quality and sustainable production systems. Petra leads the sustainability department of the chocolate and snack company HALBA, Switzerland where they cover sustainability topics of the whole HALBA supply chain. Concerning raw materials, Petra has been working with dynamic agroforestry systems in cocoa, cashew, and coconut for the last eight years in South America, West Africa and Madagascar.

Monica Rubiolo is the head of Trade Promotion and leads SECO’s efforts to make trade in developing countries socially responsible, environmentally friendly, inclusive and thereby sustainable. She holds a PhD from the University of Tübingen, Germany and worked as an Assistant Professor at the Catholic University in Cordoba (Argentina) as well as in the private sector in Argentina, Taiwan and Spain, before joining SECO in 2003.

Philippe Schneuwly has over 20 years of practical experience in international development cooperation. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Zurich and a PhD from the University of St. Gallen. He has worked for Swisscontact since 2009 in different capacities. Before joining Swisscontact, he worked in consultancy and research. He lives in Zurich and is fluent in German, English and Spanish and has a fair command of French and Portuguese.

Christoph Oberlack works as an assistant professor, co-leading the sustainability governance impact at the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) of University of Bern, Switzerland. He is also a member of CDE’s Executive Committee. After obtaining a PhD in economics from the University of Freiburg, Germany, on climate change adaptation, he embarked on research for development. He has conducted, participated in and supervised research and development projects mostly in Switzerland, Peru, Myanmar as well as in Laos, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, India, and at the UN level. A focus of his research, teaching and implementation activities are governance strategies in the public and private sectors for more sustainable supply chains and land use systems.