Board of Directors

Meet our Board of Directors

SCBF owes much of its leadership, support, and confidence to the Board of Directors. Encompassing the mission and vision of SCBF, the Board is a diverse group of professionals committed to advancing SCBF’s work, maximising its impact, and incorporating many perspectives. 

Olga Speckhardt

Board Chair
Syngenta Foundation

Olga has many years of experience in international reinsurance and insurance. She holds a degree in law and has a solid background in underwriting and in the development of regulatory strategies for international insurance supervisory standards. Olga is responsible for developing the Syngenta Foundation’s insurance and financial inclusion initiatives globally, together with international reinsurance and insurance partners, microfinance institutions, governments, stakeholders and investors. Olga is also a Member of the Board of ACRE Africa

Mario Wilhelm

Vice Chair
Swiss Re

Mario is Head Middle East & Africa with Swiss Re’s Public Sector Solutions team, a unit dedicated to supporting governments, development banks, international organisations and NGOs with their resilience strategies. Mario addresses risk management needs by co-creating innovative insurance solutions within a PPP framework. Mario joined Swiss Re in 2011 and until recently, he was leading the global microinsurance team. He is a prime mover in microinsurance and an advocate for a private sector approach in financial inclusion.

Diepak Elmer

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Diepak Elmer is Co-Head of the Section Economy and Education at SDC since September 2022. He is a senior development professional and diplomat with extensive knowledge and insights into the functioning of international cooperation. Diepak started at SDC first in 2006 in the Section International Financial Institutions, after which he joined the World Bank for four years as an Economist in Mozambique and Bangladesh. He returned to SDC in 2011 as the Deputy Country Director in Mongolia. From 2015 to 2019, he was the Deputy Head of Mission and Head of Cooperation at the Embassy of Switzerland in Nepal. In August 2019, he returned to SDC HQ in Switzerland as the Deputy Head of the Division Latin America and the Caribbean.

Nasser Bakr Alkahtani

Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND)

Nasser Bakr Alkahtani serves as Executive Director of the Arab Gulf Fund for Development (AGFUND) and is the Chairman of its Investment Committee. Alkahtani built development partnerships with Arab financial institutions, UN organisations and the private sector, in order to contribute to the SDGs. Currently, he is heading a team that establishes 15 financial inclusion banks across Africa and holds various board seats with microfinance banks in the Middle East.

Patrick Luternauer

Independent Board Member

Patrick has 30 years of management, consulting and investment experience with multilateral organisations and international financial institutions globally. He is the Principal Relationship Lead Europe for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and is based in Washington D.C. In his current role, he leads corporate fundraising from sovereign donors to support IFC’s advisory, upstream and blended finance initiatives. He also engages in crafting partnerships on private sector development with multilateral organisations, and provides senior management with business intelligence on development policies and strategies of European partners.