Astanor Ventures

Christina Ulardic joined Astanor Ventures as a partner in 2020, following more than a decade of work with agri-food entrepreneurs across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. She previously led Swiss Re Corporate Solutions' energy and agri-food business development for the Middle East and Africa, and earlier contributed to building a global carbon emission certificate portfolio. Her prior work also includes roles with the Geological Survey in Chile, a United Nations Institute climate change program, and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment.

David Barber is co-owner of Blue Hill, a 138-acre working farm, restaurant, and consulting operation in Great Barrington, Massachusetts that has remained in his family for four generations. He is a founding partner of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Westchester County, a nonprofit focused on regional and ecologically based food production, which operates in association with a Blue Hill restaurant location on its campus. Barber serves as an early-stage investor in food and hospitality through Almanac and holds board positions at Stone Barns Center, Maman, Luke's Lobster, MAD Copenhagen, and Caramoor Center for the Arts.

Emmanuel Faber is a Partner at Astanor Ventures and the former Chair and CEO of Danone, where he advanced regenerative food and agriculture practices and environmental, social, and governance initiatives. During his tenure, Danone adopted the French Entreprise à Mission status and reported financial earnings on a scope-3 CO2-adjusted basis. He founded and chairs the One Planet Business for Biodiversity coalition and co-founded the G7 Business for Inclusive Growth coalition.

George Powlick joined Astanor in 2020 as a Venture Partner, based in the United States, bringing 25 years of venture capital experience. He served as managing director of Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures from 2000, focused on early-stage European technology startups, and previously spent six years at Intel Corporation, helping establish what became Intel Capital in EMEA. Over the past decade he has concentrated on sustainability investments, including chairing several renewable energy startups, and now advises agri-food tech founders.

Hans Marteau is a former Managing Partner at Astanor Ventures with legal training from Columbia University (LL.M., 1989) and business education from IESE Business School (PADE-AMP, 2004). Admitted to the New York Bar in 1990, he has structured and closed over 75 transactions across M&A, project finance, capital markets, and venture capital fund establishment in multiple jurisdictions. His experience includes fundraising, portfolio management, and board service.

Harry Briggs began his career at McKinsey before co-founding the health-drinks brand Firefly Tonics, which was later sold to a private equity buyer. He worked as a VC at Balderton Capital and went on to co-found two venture funds, BGF Ventures and OMERS Ventures Europe, where he served as Managing Partner. He joined Astanor Ventures as Partner in January 2024.

Hélène Henry-Prince is a Partner at Astanor Ventures on the Growth/Investment team. Before joining the firm, she spent 13 years at Tikehau Capital, where she co-headed the Nature & Biodiversity private equity practice as Executive Director and helped develop and manage a €500m+ regenerative agriculture fund. Her background covers fundraising, investment origination and execution, portfolio management, and governance.

Hendrik Van Asbroeck joined Astanor as a Partner in 2020, following two decades working in the energy sector in various line management and board roles. He founded Engie New Ventures in 2014, a corporate venture capital fund investing globally in cleantech start-ups. He has worked on clean energy since 2000 and now focuses on the food and agricultural sector for its climate and environmental impact.

Leslie Kapin is a Partner and Director of Impact at Astanor Ventures, which she joined in 2019 to build and lead the firm's impact management framework, including its impact measurement and valuation methodologies and the Impact Valuation Hub industry initiative. She also oversees parts of Astanor's Finance and Operations functions and sits on the boards of several portfolio companies. Before Astanor, she spent 13 years in asset management, including nine years at Russell Investments as a research analyst and portfolio manager focused on Asian equity markets across London, Paris, and Sydney, and three years at the Bank for International Settlements selecting investment strategies for its pension fund.

Arnoot Dijkhuizen is an Investment Principal in Agrifood at Rockstart with over a decade of experience in venture capital, business development, and strategy. He has led more than 25 investments and partnerships across agriculture, food, energy, and mobility sectors, with prior roles at Astanor and ENGIE involving deal origination, due diligence, negotiations, and board participation. His experience includes scaling businesses in clean energy, managing international teams across multiple continents, and advising accelerators.

Focuses on the Future Content Fund, with over 10 years of experience in private equity and deep tech and a background in media supporting IP-driven and creator economy companies.

Marie Wennergren began her venture capital career at Fly Ventures, a European seed fund focused on automation, where she led the seed investment in 9fin. She was also a Venture Partner at impact investing firm Aurum Impact, backing climate startups and global impact funds, and previously worked as an operator leading product development at an edtech startup. She founded Germany's first "Women in Venture Capital" group and at Astanor focuses on food and agriculture investments in the DACH region and Nordics.

Dan Cohen joined Astanor as a Venture Partner in January 2024 and is part of the value creation team, working on venture and growth initiatives. Earlier in his career he served the Israeli government and worked at McKinsey & Co, then became Managing Director at John L. Thornton & Company with a focus on Asia. At Quantum Pacific he managed the firm's venture arm and led investments globally, and he later served as Chairman of the Board at Koenigsegg Automotive in Sweden.

Kathleen A. Merrigan serves as Executive Director and Professor at Arizona State University. Previously, she held the position of Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the US Department of Agriculture under President Obama. In addition to her academic role, Merrigan invests in food technology ventures and serves on multiple boards.

Adrian Friederich is a Principal at FoodLabs, where he invests in early-stage companies focused on deep biology, bio-industrial platforms, and food systems. Previously, he held investment roles at Astanor Ventures and Maersk Growth, where he backed companies including Einride, afresh, and Prometheus Fuels across seed to Series A stages. His investment experience spans venture capital across Europe, the US, and emerging markets, with particular focus on science-driven opportunities in agriculture automation, supply chain software, and bio-industrial applications.

Antoine Cuny joined Astanor in February 2021 as Legal and Compliance Manager and serves as Director of Operations. Before Astanor, he worked in the structuring and implementation department of an alternative investment fund services provider in Luxembourg. He has expertise in fund structuring and in legal and compliance matters relating to alternative investment fund managers.

Arne Hautekiet holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Business Economics from KU Leuven, specializing in Finance and Business Information Management, and a second Master's in Finance from the Rotterdam School of Management, where his work examined the link between ESG factors and corporate performance. He previously worked in consulting and in financial services at KPMG, building experience in financial analysis and business evaluation. He also collaborated with a University of Rotterdam research team to help agtech startups design and set up pilot projects for early validation and deployment of new technologies.

Camille Grisard is Head of Investor Relations at Astanor Ventures, which she joined in 2021 as Investor Relations Manager. Before Astanor, she spent seven years as a Wealth Manager at Rothschild & Co and Indosuez Wealth Management, handling business development and investor relationships, and oversaw the Village by CA startup accelerator for Indosuez's Belgium branch. She holds a master's degree in Finance from Esdes Business School and a Certificate in Corporate Finance from HEC Paris.

Eric Archambeau is Founder and Managing Partner at Astanor, a global impact investing firm focused on agrifood with roughly €1B in assets under management. Before Astanor, he worked as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and later a technology venture capitalist. He has held roles including Global Chairman of the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation and lecturer at INSEAD, and authored the 2022 book "Costing the Earth: How to Fix Finance to Save the Planet." He holds graduate degrees from UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and Santa Clara University.

Eric Bregand is a product and technology leader with over 35 years of experience building and scaling software and AI businesses. Trained as a software engineer specializing in AI at Supélec, he held product and R&D leadership roles at Business Objects, served as CEO of AI and semantic analysis company TEMIS, and founded the SaaS marketing platform smilein. He currently coaches high-tech founders and leadership teams on product strategy and execution, with a focus on AI-enabled innovation.

Filip Kegels holds master's degrees in economics from UFSIA (Catholic University of Antwerp) and in management and business administration from VUB (University of Brussels). He spent much of his career in the food industry at Danone, where his roles included Vice President Dairy Asia, India & Middle East, Non-Executive Chairman of Group Danone China & Japan, VP Eastern, Central and Northern Europe, and CEO. He later served as interim Managing Director at Michel and Augustin in France and works as an Operational Partner at Astanor Ventures on its value creation team.

Gina Socquet joined Astanor in 2022 as a Personal Assistant and Office Manager. She holds a bachelor's degree in office and management assistance from Leuven and has a background in corporate and marketing communications. She supports the smooth running of the firm's office operations.

Giorgio Bonachela joined Astanor Ventures in September 2025 as an Investment Analyst on the Venture team, focusing on sourcing and diligence of new investment opportunities. Originally from Brazil, he holds a degree in Business Administration from ESADE Business School in Barcelona and previously interned at Kraft Heinz and Syngenta Group. He began his career at Syngenta Group Ventures in Switzerland before joining Astanor.

Karine Clément (MD, PhD) is a medical doctor and full professor of Nutrition at Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital and Sorbonne University in Paris. Since 2006 she has directed a research group at INSERM and Sorbonne University focused on the pathophysiology of obesity and nutrition-related disorders, and from 2011 to 2016 she founded and led the Institute of CardiometAbolism and Nutrition (ICAN). She coordinated the EU FP7-METACARDIS project on gut microbiota in cardiometabolic diseases for six years and has contributed to more than 400 publications.

Lewis Dutton joined Astanor as Compliance Manager in January 2024, overseeing the firm's regulatory, compliance and governance framework, including AML/CFT, regulator interaction, and supervision of delegates across Luxembourg, France, Belgium and the United States. He holds Board Member and MLRO (Responsable du Contrôle) mandates for Astanor's General Partner entities. Before Astanor, he worked for more than 15 years in the Luxembourg investment fund industry at PwC, Aviva Investors and Brown Brothers Harriman.

Nikolaj Abrahamsen works as a Portfolio Analyst at Astanor Ventures, which he joined in February 2024. He previously held investment analysis and risk management roles at Nordic banks including Nordea and Danske, as well as at Denmark's ATP and Kirk Kapital, with experience across public and private markets. He holds an MSc in Finance and Investments from Copenhagen Business School.

Pavlos Kalaitzoglou joined Astanor Ventures as an Advisor in 2023, with a background in plant physiology, precision agriculture, and agricultural automation. He previously served as VP of Science at Infarm, where he worked across photobiology, genetics, integrated pest management, and nutritional biochemistry in controlled-environment agriculture. He is an alumnus of Wageningen University with a specialization in Greenhouse Technology and has conducted research on LED lighting strategies in agriculture.

Peter Eckes is an operational partner at Astanor, which he joined in May 2023, where he works with the investment team and supports portfolio companies. He spent 32 years at BASF SE, including roles as CTO of its Agricultural Solutions R&D and Regulatory team and membership of the company's global Technology Leadership Team, with experience across agriculture, nutrition, specialty chemicals, and industrial biotechnology. His background covers R&D strategy, technology portfolio management, and large organizational transformations.

Philippe de Lathuy joined Astanor Ventures in 2024 as Legal Counsel. He previously practiced law at CMS and Linklaters, advising corporates and financial sponsors on cross-border mergers and acquisitions. He studied law at Ghent University, holds an LL.M. from Berkeley Law, and is admitted to practice in Belgium and New York.

Pietro Hughes joined Astanor in October 2023 as part of the Growth investment team, where he supports deal sourcing, due diligence, and financial analysis. He previously worked in investments and sustainability at Oxford University Endowment Management with a focus on rural assets, and interned with agriculture and food startups in Europe, an intergovernmental organization in Central Asia, and a research group in the Midwestern USA. He holds Master's degrees from the University of Oxford and Imperial College London and speaks English, Italian, and conversational Spanish.

Thomas Nagy spent nearly three decades with the Novo group, including 16 years at Novozymes A/S, where he served on the Executive Leadership Team from 2007 to 2016 and as Executive Vice President for Supply Operations, overseeing global supply chain operations across four continents. He later founded the BioInnovation Institute and served as Chief Operating Officer at 21st.BIO, a Danish early-stage biotech support company. He joined Astanor Ventures in November 2023 as Operational Partner, working with the investment team to source opportunities in sectors and geographies where he has connections.

Yuhua Bai joined Astanor in 2022 as an accounting officer. She holds a Master's degree in Human Ecology from VUB and a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a finance specialization from BI Norwegian Business School. She previously worked as an accounting assistant at Black Dragon Group Europe in Oslo and as a sales consultant at Travelex NV in Antwerp.