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Jury

  • Shortlisted pool of applications (finalists) will be judged by an independent panel of expert jury members to choose the winners.
  • The jury is composed of the following members, with each bringing a distinct perspective to the SEE Impact Award :

Kathryn Imboden

Board and Investment Committee Member, Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (SIFEM)

Kathryn Imboden is a Board and Investment Committee Member for SIFEM. Alongside her active involvement in the SIFEM Board, she served for 15 years as a Senior Financial Sector Specialist at the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a research and policy platform on financial inclusion housed at the World Bank. In this position, she focused on the engagement of global standard-setting bodies in financial inclusion. In earlier years, she spent 20 years with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), where she led SDC’s macroeconomic and financial sector work. Between the time at SDC and at the World Bank, she held financial sector policy related positions at Women’s World Banking, United Nations Capital Development Fund, and the Aga Khan Foundation.

Michael Fiebig

Head of Private Equity & Funds, responsAbility Investments | Team Lead - Portfolio Manager, SIFEM

Michael Fiebig serves as the Head of Private Equity & Funds and is a Member of Executive Management at responsAbility Investments AG, Switzerland. He oversees the financial inclusion- and sustainable food-focused direct private equity practices. Michael is also heading the management mandate of the Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (SIFEM), the development finance institution of the Swiss Confederation. He capitalizes on 28 years of extensive experience in executive and non-executive investment and leadership roles across numerous emerging markets to drive impact investments that combine attractive financial returns with positive societal and environmental outcomes.

Dr. Usha Bhandari

Advisor on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Skills Development, Swisscontact

Dr. Usha Bhandari is a widely recognized advocate for sustainable skills development, with a focus on aligning education and training systems to evolving labour market demands through strategic public-private collaboration. With over 25 years of experience, she has led transformative initiatives in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), including the implementation of Dual VET apprenticeships, career guidance frameworks, and school quality improvement models. Her work also encompasses policy development in safer labour migration and Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI), contributing to inclusive, evidence-based strategies with international relevance.

Sonja Hofstetter

Head of Skills, Labour, and Migration, Swisscontact

Sonja Hofstetter is the Head of Skills, Labour, and Migration at Swisscontact based in Zurich, Switzerland, where she leads a team of thematic experts working on skills development. Her expertise spans basic education, vocational education and training as well as higher education, and she can draw on ample experience in facilitating, moderating and guiding processes as part of the project management cycle. Sonja has been working in the field of education and training for 20 years and has technically supported and managed projects in development cooperation in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia.

SEE Impact Award

Supporting innovative workforce initiatives in
emerging markets to foster sustainable economic growth and inclusive employment opportunities.

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