Country Manager Solidaridad Germany, Solidaridad Network
COFFEE EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS
I have been working with coffee for more than 20 years, with a strong track record in different leadership roles for non-profit civil society and sector organisations (including German Coffee Association, European Coffee Federation and 4C Association, Bonsucro). My focus and passion lie with sustainable development, collective impact and tangible solutions for smallholder farmers.
Since 2021 I am serving as the Country Manager for the Solidaridad Network in Germany, where I effectively build up – together with my team – fundraising, public relations, and partnerships in Germany for Solidaridad’s global (coffee) work. I am part of the Management Team of Solidaridad Europe as well as the global Solidaridad coffee group.
With a strong link to Latin American coffee producing countries and their local stakeholders (and fluency in Spanish and Portuguese), I have also closely worked with many African and Asian countries on projects and programs over many years.
WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR A SUSTAINABLE COFFEE SECTOR?
My overall vision for a sustainable coffee sector is driven by enabling small-scale farmers and workers to earn a decent living for their families and to continue to grow their coffee in a resilient and regenerative way at farm level, and coffee companies, governments and NGOs working together at system-level to create the enabling framework and collective action needed to achieve this.
HOW WILL YOU SUPPORT GCP’S WORK AND GOAL?
As a GCP Board member, I want to support strategic initiatives of GCP and its members that accelerate our shared 2030 goal of prosperity for 1 million coffee smallholder farmers.
To achieve this, I will facilitate, leverage, and champion action to effectively address and advance smallholder economic viability, ensuring we make measurable progress toward closing the Living Income Gap. I’ll commit to supporting sound governance decisions and strategies in my Board role and through my direct work in the global Solidaridad Network.
Specifically, I will contribute to advocating for aligning with the sector through GCP and its membership behind climate-smart agriculture and regenerative practices, which build farmer resilience and provide economic value through Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) while setting the foundation for future farming.
Finally, in my board role I’ll commit to support GCP in its unique role as a multi-stakeholder membership organisation to provide thought leadership, joint goals and shared tools for the sector and mobilize its members for collaborative action and collective impact for the benefit of the coffee sector overall and the millions of smallholder farmers in particular.
Relevant Skills
Board Management (Multi-Stakeholder/Corporate Governance): I have extensive governance experience, having served as a Director and Vice-Chair on the Board of Bonsucro, and having been involved in the global sugarcane platform Bonsucro (where I contributed significantly to the strategic and organisational development of the organization, its governance and management).
Leadership: I possess over a decade of strategic leadership experience in international NGOs in a global context, incl. as Secretary General of Youth For Understanding International (successfully led a complex organisational transformation process and first global strategy development and implementation for this global network of 55 member organizations.)
Finance: extensive strategic finance oversight experience with Bonsucro.
Donor Landscape: current role involves successful fundraising with German donors.
Coffee Production: good understanding of coffee production in different countries.
Value Chains beyond coffee: sugarcane, cocoa.
Social dimension: strong focus.
Environmental aspects: good general understanding, but not technical expertise.
Previous board service, leadership or volunteer experience
Throughout my career, I have served in many leadership roles. The most relevant for the GCP role are the Bonsucro Board of Directors, where I served as an independent, honorary Director from 2018 to 2025. During my tenure, my roles included being the Vice-Chair of the Board since 2019, a member of the Strategy Steering Committee 2020/2021, Chair of the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee and Chair of the Governance and Nominations Committee. I have also served on the Board of the ISEAL Alliance from 2013-2016.
