Who we are

With nearly 20 years' experience working in impact and philanthropy, Tom leads the UBS Social Impact team of over 150 professionals across the globe to help clients and UBS employees to maximize their impact locally and globally. Tom has personally advised over 2,500 clients and their families during his time at UBS and is passionate about finding ways to catalyze scalable solutions to the pressing social and environmental problems the world is facing. A regular speaker at conferences globally, Tom believes that through partnerships we can build an Impact Economy that values people and planet in all investment decisions and builds a world that is profitable for all.

Prior to joining UBS in 2013, Tom spent his career in the non-profit sector. As Director of Philanthropy and Social Investment at the Disability Charity Scope, he pioneered the use of social investment structures, including the Scope Bond which was the first listed bond issued by an operational charity in the UK. Tom also worked with the cabinet office on the development of the new Social Investment Tax Relief.

Earlier in his career, Tom was the first UK employee of the Microloan Foundation securing the investment for the charity to expand into sustainable microfinance, with over 50,000 customers in Malawi.

Tom, is a father of four children, a keen runner and has a Politics degree from Exeter University as well as professional qualifications in marketing (CIM), fundraising management, financial planning and is a Green and Sustainable Finance professional. Tom is also proud to be #madebydyslexia and to be an advocate for personalized education to help every child achieve their full potential.

Cedrine serves as Program Director managing health investments across the UBS Optimus Foundation ‘capital stack’ including grantmaking, debt and equity, and outcomes-based financing instruments. In this role Cédrine sets the Foundation’s health investment stratgy and cultivates a portfolio to contribute towards scalable quality primary healthcare that improves the health of the world’s most vulnerable children. She also co-leads the Emergency Response work of the Foundation supporting children and their families to recover more quickly from disasters and build resilience to cope with future shocks.

Prior to UBS, Cedrine spent over two years in the life science industry. At Novartis, she most recently worked in Corporate Responsibility Strategy contributing to a new company-wide social impact reporting approach. She graduated from the University of St.Gallen with a Master's degree in Business Innovation. During her studies she conducted research on scaling mobile health innovations in low and middle income countries. 

Marissa leads health investments across the UBS Optimus Foundation ‘capital stack’ including grantmaking, debt and equity, and outcomes-based financing instruments. In this role Marissa sets the Foundation’s investment strategy and cultivates a portfolio to contribute towards measurable impact on children’s health. Marissa also co-leads the Foundation’s Emergency Response efforts with the aim of providing immediate relief and supporting longer-term recovery for children affected by humanitarian crises.

Prior to UBS, Marissa spent over 10 years at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where she most recently served as the Innovation Team Leader in the Global Health Center for Innovation and Impact, a center of excellence established to accelerate the development, introduction, and scale up of priority global health interventions.
Marissa also has a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Anita joined UBS Optimus Foundation in 2018 as a Social Finance Program Director. Anita’s role at the foundation has a focus on social finance investments, including both impact bonds and investments in social enterprises. Anita brings extensive experience in structuring impact finance funds from initial concept through investment thesis, governance, financial modeling and full launch.

Previously Anita dedicated five years of her career to microfinance, working as a microfinance investment consultant in Luxembourg as well as in microfinance program implementation in Burkina Faso, Togo and Ghana.

Anita started her career at BNP Paribas in France and holds a double Master’s degree in Management and Corporate Finance from the EDHEC Business School in France as well as a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Corvinus University of Budapest.

Andre joined UBS Optimus Foundation in 2020 and was responsible for building up and managing the foundation's grants and providing programmatic support to donors in Southeast Asia covering health, education, child protection, and climate and environment. She is currently co-leading the global education portfolio based out of London with a focus on Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
 
She has a background in sociology and program management and applies her experience to work with grantees on achieving broad social impact through systemic solutions. Andre was previously the Regional Program Manager for Microsoft Philanthropies covering 18 markets in Asia and helping drive the creation of education, employment, and entrepreneurial opportunities for underserved youth.
Prior to Microsoft she was deeply involved in the implementation and management of projects on reconstruction, education, gender, and agrarian reform that contributed to Philippine development in partnership with agencies such as USAID, KfW, and GIZ. Andre holds a degree from the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.

Rohit is a climate and environmental expert with over 15 years international experience of working in climate adaptation, environment and water resources management in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Rohit has worked for a variety of public and private sector organisations and is passionate about nature-based solutions that deliver resilience, carbon mitigation and biodiversity outcomes. Most recently, Rohit has worked in developing and implementing financial mechanisms that bridge investment gaps in climate and environmental sectors by bringing together a host of investors, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders. In the past, Rohit has advised several development financial institutions on identification, preparation and implementation of climate and environmental projects.

Rohit holds an MSc in Water Resources Management and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.

Patrick joined the UBS Optimus Foundation in July 2024 as the Strategic Partnerships Director. He brings extensive experience in private sector development and impact finance, particularly in frontier markets. In his role, he is responsible for developing and nurturing collaborations to co-create impactful programs, mobilize expertise and resources, and deploy innovative instruments aimed at scaling solutions and maximizing impact.

Throughout his career, Patrick has worked in academia and across both private and public sectors, gaining over 20 years of experience in addressing contemporary challenges, with a focus on climate change, mission-driven companies, and startup acceleration. Before joining the Foundation, he held positions at the United Nations, where he designed and implemented flagship interventions.

Patrick holds a degree in engineering, complemented by a PhD in environmental sciences. He is fluent in English, French, and Spanish, and his work is widely published, with more than 20 peer-reviewed articles to his name.

Michael joined the Social Finance team at the UBS Optimus Foundation in 2020. He focuses on social investments into businesses and development impact bonds in the area of environment, education, and health. Michael has a special focus on equity investments into impactful businesses.

Prior to joining UBS Optimus Foundation, Michael worked for the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (CGEP), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation in Côte d’Ivoire, Southeast Asia, and New York. During the three years at CGEP, he we was building social businesses from scratch and developed business cases for new social investment opportunities. Before joining CGEP, Michael worked in academics as a research assistant in the field of political economics.

Michael has a Bachelors degree in economics from the University of Basel and a Master's degree in economics from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.

Martina manages a team of strategists who deal with institutional partners and clients. In order to scale effective solutions for impact, UBSOF aims to work across the public and private sectors in multi-stakeholder partnerships, using all available instruments of funding impact, and collaborating across all divisions at UBS to achieve system-level change for good.

Her own career reflects the interdisciplinary approach of the team, with her former roles on the programmatic team (Head of Director for Strategy & Performance/MEL), on the philanthropy advisory team (Head of the UBS Philanthropy Services Switzerland) and in foundation management (Head of UBS Philanthropy Foundation Switzerland).

Before joining our team, she worked for a decade as a strategy consultant for UBS Wealth Management, Strategy& (former Booz & Company), and Executive Insight.
Martina holds a doctoral degree in Economics and Sociology and a Master in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen HSG, complemented by a CAS from the Center for Development and Cooperation NADEL at ETH Zurich.

Matthew joined the UBS Optimus Foundation in November 2024 and leads on impact measurement and management across the Foundation’s activities including grantmaking, impact investments and outcomes-based financing. Matthew also leads the Foundation’s Impact Transparency agenda, promoting evidence-based and impact-driven philanthropy.

Prior to joining UBS Optimus Foundation Matthew spent over ten years working for international education and research organizations in program management, research and measuring learning outcomes. He has lived and worked in countries across Europe, Africa and the Middle East and has provided technical consultancy and research services to multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, UNICEF and UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Matthew holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Durham University.

Clarissa Mayer is part of the Strategic Partnerships team at UBS Optimus Foundation. In her previous role, she worked as a Philanthropy Advisor in the European markets. She joined UBS in 2022 to fully dedicate her efforts towards Social Impact and Philanthropy. Her focus is collective action and initiatives in Environment and Social Finance.

Clarissa is a trained psychologist and completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Psychology at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg. After completing her studies, she started her professional career in strategy consulting at KPMG. She managed and supported projects from ESG strategy and business model development to large-scale deal and value creation projects in the private sector. In 2021, she joined Impacc gGmbH leading the Due Diligence of their first green and impact investment cohort in East Africa.

As a psychologist, she deeply cares about global equality and creating impact through investment in effective & scalable projects to reshape the economy. After 5 years of strategy consulting, she is bringing together clients & partners to shape their non-profit investment strategies and execute on their purpose.

Svetle is the Social Finance Transactions Manager at the Optimus Foundation, based in Zurich. In her role Svetle is driving the optimization of the social investment approval and execution process, supports the rest of the team on direct  and fund investment opportunities, and contributes to the structuring and set-up of new blended finance initiatives/funds, as well as to the ongoing management of the existing blended finance fund, the SDG Outcomes Fund.
 
Svetle is an experienced impact investment professional coming from one of the key international development finance institutions active in Europe. Previously based in London, she was responsible for corporate loans, acquisition finance and direct investments in the TMT (telecom) sector in emerging markets for the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) with her projects spanning from North Africa, Central and Eastern Europe to Central Asia. She brings extensive experience in structuring and executing transactions as well as identifying and measuring project impact. Prior to the EBRD, Svetle has been part of the Italian Unicredit Group where she specialized in Project Finance in Turkey, Corporate Risk in Bulgaria and Wealth Management in Italy.

Sietse is program director for Social Finance at the UBS Optimus Foundation. Sietse has worked closely on the design, structuring and contracting of the Quality Education India, Utkrisht Maternal and Newborn Health Development Impact Bonds. Outside of impact bonds Sietse has worked on direct investments of UBS Optimus Foundation in social enterprises and programmes – from investment origination through to management of the investments of the social finance portfolio.

Prior to his current role, he worked within UBS & Society, an umbrella platform within UBS Group, to grow the Bank into a leader in sustainable banking as well as within strategy development at UBS Asset Management.  Before joining UBS he worked in M&A and strategy for ABN AMRO Bank in Singapore and the Netherlands and at Arthur D. Little as a strategy consultant. He has a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Science specializing in Process Technology from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. and grew up in the Netherlands, Botswana and Kenya.