Meet Our Board
Dr. Jane Goodall DBE (Chair)
Dr. Jane Goodall DBE (Chair) Founder – the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace
Dr. Jane Goodall DBE is an ethologist and environmentalist, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 1960 she first arrived at Gombe in Tanzania to begin research into the lives of wild chimpanzees and that research continues today. Through more than 60 years of ground-breaking work, she has not only shown us the urgent need to protect chimpanzees from extinction but has redefined species conservation to include the needs of local people and the environment. Today there are 25 Jane Goodall Institutes working to support JGI’s core programmes including TACARE a community conservation programme, two sanctuaries for orphan chimpanzees in Africa and Roots & Shoots, JGI’s environmental and humanitarian programme empowering young people of all ages to become involved in hands-on projects for their community, animals and the environment in more than 65 countries.

Arnaud Apffel (Treasurer)

Arnaud has spent close to 30 years in the financial industry, across London, Paris and Geneva. He has worked both in Investment Banking (financial markets, risk management) and in Asset Management (investment strategy, portfolio management), being in charge of various European business lines for leading organizations (such as Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank Asset & Wealth Management, where his last position was Head of Global Investments for the Private Bank in EMEA). Arnaud has sat on the Board and/or chaired Boards and Investment Committees of various pension funds. Since 2013, Arnaud leads Perennium SA, a financial advisory firm dedicated to the nonprofit world. Aside from this, he is an adjunct professor at HEC Paris (and formerly at EPFL in Lausanne), in charge of courses on investing, portfolio management and sustainability, topics on which he also regularly gives conferences. He is also a registered banking & finance expert with the Civil Court of the Geneva Canton.
Arnaud holds a Master in Management (Finance) from HEC Paris and a Master of Science (Engineering & Robotics) from ENSEIRB.

Jon Cummings

Jon Cummings recently retired as a senior partner from McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, where he worked from 1987 to 2019. His leadership positions included founding managing partner of the African Office, head of the Americas Consumer Practice, and co-head of the North American Merger Management Practice. Jon recently joined the Board of Solo Gelato, an emerging consumer goods/device company. Actively involved in international conservation for many years, he currently serves on the Advisory Board of African Parks, the Board of Directors of Big Life USA, and the Advisory Board of the School of Wildlife Conservation. Jon also chairs the Advisory Board of the Yale Center for Customer Insights at the Yale University School of Management. A U.S. citizen, he earned a B.A. from Yale College and an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics.

Mary Lewis

Following 25 years in the oil and gas business with Conoco Inc, and having volunteered for JGI UK since meeting Jane Goodall in 1990 – the 30th anniversary of Gombe, Mary began working and travelling with Jane Goodall in 1995.

As Vice President - Office of the Founder - Global, she works closely with Jane Goodall on all aspects of her complicated JGI life. She has played a key role in the evolution of Roots & Shoots and the development of many of the JGI offices around the world. Mary currently serves as a board member for the Jane Goodall Institute Global, the Jane Goodall Institute UK and the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation. She divides her time between London and Orkney.

Julia Marton-Lefèvre

Julia Marton-Lefèvre was Director General of IUCN from 2007 to 2015. Prior positions include Rector of the UN affiliated University for Peace: Director of LEAD International and Director of the International Council for Science. She currently serves on the boards of NGOs, foundations, universities and corporations, and chairs the Board of Trustees of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT; the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund and the Strategic Advisory Council to the French think tank, IDDRI. The government members of IPBES elected Julia as a member of the IPBES Bureau in 2019. She lectures regularly on environment and sustainable development topics in various universities including Yale University where she was the Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the Environment. Julia was born in Hungary, educated in the United States and in France, and having lived in several continents, considers herself a global citizen.

Mike O'Sullivan

Michael O'Sullivan is an author, economist and investor. He has over twenty years experience as an investor, most recently as chief investment officer at Credit Suisse Wealth Management and advises a number of new finance companies. His latest book is called 'The Levelling - what's next after globalization'. He was a member of the WEF Council on the New Economy, and taught finance at Princeton and Oxford. He was educated at Cork and Balliol College Oxford (Rhodes Scholar). He lives in Paris with Helene and their three children.

Ketan Patel

CEO and Founder, Greater Pacific Capital; Chairman of Force for Good; Formerly Managing Director, Head of Strategic Group, Goldman Sachs; Formerly Partner KPMG; Author of ‘The Master Strategist’ (Random House, 2005)

Ketan Patel is a CEO, investor, strategist and author with a 30-year career in industry, advisory, investment banking and investing. He was formerly a Managing Director, and head of the Strategic Group, at Goldman Sachs. He has worked extensively in the US, Europe, China, Japan and India, providing strategic counsel to the bank’s leading corporate, investing and government client leaders. Ketan established the Force for Good Initiative, leading its outreach and research and co-authors its report, ‘Capital as a Force for Good’, which examines 100 leading global financial institutions and engages 30 as active participants, establishing the industry’s efforts to impact the world for good.

Ketan grew up in London and India and studied Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and has earned an MBA and ACMA. He moved to New York on 9/11. His grandfather walked on the Salt March and his parents, years later, moved to London, the centre of the great power of their early days. The daily practice of meditation is part of his daily diet alongside running, art, history and science fact and fiction.

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For more information, do not hesitate to contact our Executive Director, Olympia Ammon.

Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation | c/o Richa & Partners SA | Rue Charles Bonnet 4

Jane Goodall Giving Long Term

Olympia Ammon

Executive Director

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