SEED Annual Report 2014

Amélie Heuër

Amélie Heuër worked for SEED from 2009 to 2016 as Head of Research. Before joining SEED Amélie worked for several years on marine conservation and coastal resources management in the Philippines, where she conducted and managed several socio-economic and livelihood research projects. While working for the NGO Coral Cay Conservation, she was also in charge of community development and initiated a few livelihood development projects.

Previously she worked in London as Deputy Manager for the Author’s Licensing and Collecting Society to protect and promote the rights of authors. 

Amélie has a Masters Degree (MSc) in Human and Development Geography, which she studied at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the University College of London (UCL).

Anais Mangin

Anais supported SEED between 2010 and 2015 with the management and implementation of the SEED Awards and the SEED Capacity Building. In her position as Project Manager at Adelphi Research, Anais works on projects concerning social and environmental entrepreneurship and business models at the Base of the Pyramid.

Before joining adelphi she worked for the German Parliament in the field of interethnic relations in conflict areas, as well as the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in the field of private sector development in Africa.

Anais studied political science with a focus on International Relations in France and Germany. She also completed a Master in International Management at ESCP European School of Management in Berlin and the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok. 

Helen Marquard

Helen Marquard has been the Executive Director of SEED from 2007 to 2015, accompanying the organisation through considerable change as it has scaled up the reach of its partnerships, extended the elements of its support to growing numbers and types of small enterprises in the developing world, and built bridges between local enterprises and policy makers.

Previously Helen was Deputy Director at the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Deputy Head at the UK FCO’s Environment Policy Department at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office; her responsibilities were international and European sustainable development, chemicals, and biotechnology safety. Helen’s academic background is in molecular biology and cancer research which she pursued mainly in Germany.

Jona Liebl

Jona Liebl has supported SEED since 2010 and is in charge of the operational management and implementation of the SEED Programmes. In his position as Senior Project Manager at adelphi research, Jona works on projects in the area of sustainability entrepreneurship, corporate responsibility and green and inclusive business models.

Prior to joining adelphi, he trained as IT Specialist at Hewlett-Packard. He also worked as Programme Assistant at the UNDP Equator Initiative and was a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Equator Prize 2012 and 2014.

Jona holds a Masters Degree (M.A.) in Political Science from Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich (LMU). He was a visiting fellow at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM).

Mirko Zürker

Mirko Zuerker works with SEED since 2009. He continuously enhanced SEED's enterprise support and ecosystem building programmes and helped to position SEED as the leading schemes in the field of eco-inclusive enterprise development. He helped connect SEED with donors, investors, foundations, and intermediaries, making SEED a key player in the space.

He co-developed multiple enterprise support and ecosystem building programmes building best-in-class enterprise support mechanisms supporting enterprises at the different stages of development. He co-designed the finance labs and the green recovery ecosystem builder programme triggering the development of innovative finance instruments and high-quality enterprise support programmes. He is author of multiple flagship reports demonstrating the positive contribution of eco-inclusive SMEs to global agendas. In co-developing about 100 tools and a dozen enterprise support toolkits he coined the term toolification.

Prior to that, Mirko worked as a journalist and conducted policy analysis in his work at the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government of Germany and at the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation in the People's Republic of China. He studied political science, economics, and Chinese studies in Munich, Shanghai, and Madrid and completed a post-graduate program, focusing on adult education and business ethics at the Munich School of Philosophy.

Rainer Agster

Rainer Agster has supported SEED since 2006. He serves as Director of Operations at SEED and oversees all operations within SEED's Hosting Partner adelphi research, providing input to the strategic development of SEED. Rainer joined adelphi in 2002 as a Senior Project Manager and is now adelphi's Director of Private Sector Cooperation. His focus is on social and environmental entrepreneurship, energy efficiency, green finance and adaptation to climate change.

Rainer has experience in the development, implementation and evaluation of sustainable development projects for national and international clients (EuropeAID, DG Energy and Transport, DG Education and Culture, UNFCCC, UNEP as well as Austrian, Chinese, German and Indian ministries, GIZ and KfW). Rainer graduated from the University of Applied Science Bremen in an International Study Programme for Environmental Engineering and has a Masters degree in Business Administration with a focus on sustainability management from the University of Leuphana in Lueneburg. He also studied one year at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.