Richard Gerster

A development economist and activist, PhD Econ of the University of St Gall (Switzerland).

1972/81 staff member of Helvetas, Swiss Association for Development and Cooperation.

1981/98 first Coordinator for Development Policy and then Executive Director of Alliance Sud, the former Swiss Coalition of Development Organisations.

Since 1998 Director of Gerster Consulting.

1978/1994 Member of the Advisory Committee on Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid to the Swiss Government.

2000 - 2011 member of the Development Cooperation Advisory Council to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria.

Winner of several development policy awards.

Author of numerous books and articles on development policy issues. For a list of selected publications, see List of Publications (PDF)

Sonja Beeli-Zimmermann

Graduated from the University of Berne with a secondary school teaching degree in Maths, Geography and English (1998) and with a Master in Educational Science (2009; Master Thesis on planning skills of microcredit clients in Nicaragua). Teacher for English as a Second Language in China (1999); assistant and PhD student at the University of Bern, Institute of Education (2010 onwards). Member of the board of the Society for Threatened Peoples Switzerland. Mother of two children.

Since 2001, Project Manager of Gerster Consulting with a particular focus on information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D), poverty reduction strategies (PRS), fair trade, budget support, evaluations and organisational issues. Fluent in German, English and French, knowledge of Spanish and Chinese.

Konrad Matter

Trained as economist (Ph.D. University of St. Gallen, Switzerland) he has worked for 30 years in development cooperation, in the past few years with special focus on fair trade and socially accountable business, on evaluation, aid effectiveness, governance and decentralisation.

1975-86 staff member of Swissaid, a NGO for development cooperation, as project officer and member of Management Board, 1980-82 Executive Secretary of Swissaid.

1986-2001 residence in South America (Bolivia, later Ecuador), working as self-employed organic farmer, freelance consultant for development and fair trade, part-time staff of Swissaid in Ecuador.

Since 2001 back in Switzerland as a development consultant.

Franziska Pfister

MSc in Biology (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, ETHZ) in 1998.

Field experience in Nicaragua 1993-2003 and 2007 - 2010.

Course Postgraduate Studies on Developing Countries (NADEL, ETHZ) and Ph.D./Postdoc at the Department for Environmental Engineering (ETHZ) (1999-2004).

2004 - 2007 Deputy Coordinator in the NCCR North-South, Centre for Development and Environment, University of Berne and Project Manager with Gerster Consulting. Fluent in German, French, English, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Portuguese.

Evelin G. Bermudez

Graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Political Science (1991) and from Columbia University (New York, USA) with a masters degree in Economic and Political Development (1993).

Thirteen years' experience and training in sustainable development issues and community-based social development project design and management. Areas of expertise include institutional and organisational development; analysis of the poverty-social-environmental nexus; and the promotion of corporate productivity and sustainability of programs, through research, analysis and the development of indicators for monitoring and evaluating social and environmental impact.

Between 1990 and 1993 worked for UNICEF and UNIFEM.

From 1993 to June-2002 worked as staff member of the World Bank in the Environmentally and Sustainable Development Vice Presidency.

Since 2003 living in Switzerland and doing free-lance work as a development consultant.

Roland Jenni

University degree in Political Sciences (University of Lausanne, Switzerland, 2000).

Post-graduate degree (2003) in International Relations with a research on the Mexican Crisis 1994/95 and the Monetary Policy of the United States.

Apprenticeship in banking (1991). Voluntary member of the executive committee of an interdisciplinary journal of social sciences at the University of Lausanne (2001 – present).

Stays abroad in Great Britain, France, Latin America and the South Pacific region.

2002 – present project-oriented work with Gerster Consulting.