Laura-Marie Topfer
Venture Advisor at Extantia
Laura-Marie Topfer
Venture Advisor at Extantia
Zurich, Zurich
Overview
Work Experience
Chief Sustainability Officer, Area Leader Western Europe
2023 - Current
Leading the commercial Sustainability strategy across Microsoft Western Europe, by helping customers, startups and governments navigate their sustainability journey. Member of the Western Europe Leadership team.
Venture Advisor
2023
Partner
2021 - 2023
Venture Partner
2020
Advisor to the Chairman
2021 - 2022
- Advisor to the Chairman of tGELF, part of The Nand and Jeet Khemka Family Foundation, advising the Chairman on designing investing strategies, structuring fund vehicles and developing ESG measurement methodologies for investment portfolio. - Part of the Leadership Advisory Councils for the foundation’s ESG programme.
Lead, UpLink - Funding & Investors
2019 - 2021
• Lead business development, fundraising and co-investment partnerships as part of founding team for UpLink, the first digital platform that connects high-impact startups with WEF’s network of influential investors, corporates and policymakers • Drive business model design & go-to-market strategy incl. customer journeys, user engagement & monetisation strategies with technology partners Salesforce, Microsoft & Deloitte • Spearheaded healthtech & foodtech verticals for UpLink - P&L, orchestrated budget & sales plans & scale public-private partner ecosystem • Represent UpLink at industry conferences & lead business development campaigns at WEF summits https://www.weforum.org/press/2019/09/crowd-sourcing-the-sdgs-new-open-source-digital-platform-to-unlock-ideas-and-spur-funding-for-sustainable-development
Lead, Information & Communication Technology Strategic Partners
2019 - 2019
ICT Lead for Strategic Partners, helping corporates navigate the intersection of Climate Tech, ESG measurement and data policy.
South East Asia (ASEAN) Director / InnoVentures
2017 - 2018
- Source, screen, evaluate partnerships & deals with FinTechs & adjacent verticals for ‘build, buy, partner’ roadmaps with venture fund SIV - Build ecosystem of alliance banks, law firms, government bodies & service providers to help growth-stage clients expand in Asia & inform SIV investment thesis
Senior Manager
2017 - 2018
Board Advisor
2017 - 2017
Secured USD 3m pre Series A by angel syndicate, deal process & terms negotiation; market expansion advisory & strategic partnerships
Senior Scholar
2013 - 2017
Senior Scholar, Sustainable Finance - ESG Behaviour of asset owners at University of Oxford, incl. Visiting Scholar to Stanford University's Global Projects Centre for Infrastructure Investments & to Tsinghua University, Beijing - Lead team on institutional investor projects at Tsinghua University and Stanford - 4+ publications
Senior Associate (Asia Advisory Team)
2014 - 2017
§ Help build MAP's Asia advisory team from scratch and work with network of senior advisors on EU-China issues § Co-design market entry strategy & list client acquisition targets for German market § Strategic risk management projects for a portfolio of Fortune 500 financial services and high-tech clients incl. M&A strategy, market entry strategy macro policy risks, technology risks linked to China’s ‘Industry 4.0 Internet of things’ policy
Sustainable Corporate Governance
2012 - 2012
Benchmarking analysis on sustainable corporate governance in emerging markets including sustainable production, sustainability audits, innovation management and Intellectual Capital Statements (InCas Europe).