SNV welcomes new members to its Supervisory Board

Effective 1 July 2021, SNV has extend its Supervisory Board with the addition of two new members Jenny Elissen and Laure Wessemius-Chibrac, for four-year terms.

The specialist expertise and in-depth experience that both new members bring further strengthens the Supervisory Board and its mandate to ensure that SNV carries out its mission in the most effective and efficient way possible.

Jenny Elissen and Laura Wessemius-Chibrac have more than 30 years and 20 years’ experience respectively in both private and non-profit sectors, and have extensive executive-level experience gained in a number of renowned organisations.  SNV’s seven-member Supervisory Board comprises expertise in the areas of law international development, human resources, project administration sustainability, research, governances, finance, auditing and marketing.

Simon O’Connell, CEO of SNV commented, ‘Together with the Managing Board, I am delighted to be welcoming both Jenny and Laure to the Supervisory Board at this significant moment where we look to deepen and scale the impact of our work around the world.’ He continued, ‘In these two new members we have gained a level of experience which complements that of our Supervisory Board whilst deepening our capacities in the areas of impact investing, innovative financing and systems thinking, which we see as particularly important to our future.’

Chair of SNV’s Supervisory Board, Koos Richelle added, ‘We were honoured to have received more than 200 applications for the vacant positions on the Supervisory Board. The rich diversity in candidates meant that were able to carefully select from those offering the best alignment with the desired profile.’ He continued, ‘As a result, we have now extended the variety of expertise on the Board, while also remaining faithful to our commitment to a gender-balanced composition of the Board.’

Born in the Netherlands, Jenny Elissen is an accomplished business leader who spent the first 20 years of her career in marketing and business development. Having started her career at Heineken, Jenny subsequently went on to hold management positions at Ogilvie Amsterdam and TBWA Amsterdam.

She is the founder of two organisations – NewGenes business impact in which she holds several impact investments; and accelerator and consultancy Giantleapers.com, where she provides boardroom consulting on both sustainable strategy and organisational quantum leaps. Jenny was also a Supervisory Board member of Bunq Bank and a number of NGOs including Plan International, Habitat for humanity and  Justiggit. She is currently the Supervisory Board chair of Transavia.

Jenny holds a number of certified marketing qualifications and graduated in business leadership from the University of Groningen.

Laure Wessemius-Chibrac is an investment professional with over 25 years of experience in the financial sector, who specialises in sustainability and impact. A former investment banker, Laure began her career in 1995 at Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) in equity advisory. She then joined ABN AMRO Rothschild in 2000 where she worked in equity capital markets.

Laure moved to The Netherlands in 2005 where she worked as an independent consultant in strategy and financial advisory. In parallel, she remained involved in various impact initiatives as a volunteer. From 2013 to 2018, Laure became the head of investments at Cordaid Foundation and led the transformation into a fully independent impact fund manager (Cordaid Investment Management B.V.).

Since 2018, Laure has been working as an independent impact advisor and is currently the Managing Director of the Netherlands Advisory Board on impact investing (Stichting NAB). She also holds Supervisory Board positions at REGMIFA (Regional MSME Investment Fund for Sub-Saharan Africa), FPM (Fond pour l’inclusion Financière au Congo) and is actively involved in voluntary initiatives in The Hague.

A French national, Laure holds a Masters in Management Grande Ecole from NEOMA Business School with a major in banking and finance.

For an overview of all Supervisory Board members, please click here.