Roger Lienhard

Roger Lienhard is a serial entrepreneur and business incubator. Founder and initiator of the Blue Horizon Corporation and the affiliated Blue Horizon International Foundation, which invest in sustainable social entrepreneurship and international development projects with a focus on food and agriculture around the globe. Primary objective is to generate synergies between the associate companies for maximum impact on the major global shift towards more sustainable solutions in food and agriculture.- Roger Lienhard is also founder of LIVEKINDLY Collective, Re Asset Management, Reach Media AG, MAILPROFILER Technology Solutions AG, Orts Information AG and SHR AG.

Thomas Kindler

Thomas Kindler is a Partner at Blue Horizon Group and a co-initiator of the LIVEKINDLY Collective. For over 20 years, he has been active in start-up ventures with a focus on food and agri-tech. His projects include a partnership-farming program supporting more than 1,000 Indian banana-farming families, and the development of India’s first industrial-scale FCOJ (frozen concentrated orange juice) processing plant in collaboration with Cargill/Black River and PepsiCo. Earlier in his career, Thomas worked in both law firms and in-house counsel roles in Switzerland and the United States. He holds a PhD in Law from the University of Bern, Switzerland, and an LL.M. from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Steve Ellis

Steve Ellis is Co-Managing Partner of The Rise Fund.  Prior to joining TPG in 2015, Steve was the CEO of Asurion, the world’s leading provider of technology protection services with over $6B in revenues.  Prior to Asurion, Steve served as the Global Managing Partner for Bain & Company.  Steve is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Stanford Business School, where he is a regular guest lecturer. He is a trustee for the UC Berkeley Foundation and serves on the boards of InStride, Greenhouse Software, UBQ Materials, Renaissance Learning, Persefoni, Teachers of Tomorrow, and Charles Schwab.

Shujun Li

Shujun Li is Founder and Managing Partner of Trustbridge Partners, a private equity fund focused on making growth capital investments in China-based companies. Before founding Trustbridge Partners in 2006, he was CFO and held other senior management positions at Shanda Online Games, a leading online game distributor and developer in China, between 2002-2006. Before joining Shanda in 2002, he also worked for China Southern Securities Company. Shujun Li holds a Master of Economics degree from Nan Kai University, Tianjin, China.

David Knopf

David Knopf is a seasoned executive in the food industry, known for his leadership in both traditional and plant-based sectors. He began his career at Goldman Sachs in investment banking, then joined private equity firm 3G Capital, where he became a partner in 2015. At 3G, Knopf played a pivotal role in major mergers, including the formation of Restaurant Brands International and the Kraft-Heinz merger. Following the latter, he joined Kraft Heinz, serving as Vice President of the Planters nuts division and later as Global CFO from 2017 to 2019, becoming the youngest CFO of a Fortune 500 company at age 29. In 2020, David joined LIVEKINDLY Collective as CFO and later CEO. During his tenure, he raised over $500 million in capital, completed six acquisitions, and led a significant business turnaround. Currently, David is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of KDSA Investment Partners, focusing on investments in founder-led and family-owned businesses within the food and beverage industry.