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Marja Kooistra- CEO and Co-Founder
“Meeting the challenges of this century requires updating our economic logic and operating system. From an obsolete “ego-system” focused entirely on the well-being of oneself to an eco-system awareness that emphasizes the well-being of the whole.” -Otto Scharmer, MIT Presencing Institute
My personal mission: ‘to accompany leaders, teams and organizations on their journey of Transformation- from the inside out’.
I love people ánd business! My passion and strengths lie in accompanying and guiding processes of inner(personal) and outer (governance, business, project) growth and transformation by challenging and stretching people, projects and organisations, towards what is genuinely needed, not just what is familiar.
During the COVID lockdowns my mind and heart opened to the climate change and its effects. Together with my husband Hans, we changed our lives- sold our house, moved to the Caribbean, worked in the mangroves on Bonaire, cleaned the beaches from Sargassum- and started working for a greater good: the Earth and its inhabitants. That journey took us from Blue Carbon into the Blue Economy, and into Blue Governance. Today as CEO and Co-Founder of TFTBG, I work at the intersection of Ocean conservation projects, Ocean Rights, governance design, financial structuring and human transformation. I have more than 30 years’ experience in the financial services business, fund- and asset management, retail and the semi-public service.
As a leader, project-, business manager and as a business and executive coach I understand the systems you are operating in- and I know how to connect with you and your stakeholders in ways that create real movement.
I appreciate an open environment, where there is room for deeper connections, deep listening, new ideas, and the courage to look at the future by being fully present to what is happening now!
Hans Bergsma – CFO and Co-Founder
“I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied”- John Masefield, Sea Fever
The investment fund & asset management industry was my passion… I became a specialist in specific fields of this industry, with more than 30 years of experience. Now I embraced this new passion, the ocean and the preservation of the blue carbon ecosystems are in need of my experience!
During my career I gained profound knowledge of the internal-, administrative- and financial organization of fund- and asset managers, operations, control and creation of monitoring & control frameworks for assigned external service providers. On top of that I gained profound product & fund structuring experience being the initiator of the launch of the (public & private markets) institutional investment funds. Since then, I was heavily involved in the set up and maintenance of a hedge funds platform, Operations and the AIFMD compliancy.
The passion of structuring and collaborating with a variety of (external) service providers to create a well-oiled product/framework/platform that delivers in a mutually respecting international environment is what drives me. Achieving structured goals within set deadlines in a multi-disciplinary positive open environment are organizing assets I bring along.
Together with my wife I became passionately and intrinsically motivated to do what is in my power and experience to leave this home, called Earth, somewhat better behind for my children and their children.
Alexander Evatt – Change Agent
“May my actions be a drop
A drop of awareness
Enabling life alignment
Care taking for the earth & humanity”
– Din van Helden, OD for Life
It is clear that the world’s environmental crises require urgent and meaningful action. That’s why at the heart of everything I do is supporting life’s ability to thrive. Our lives, the life of our organizations and communities and life within the more- than-human community.
My passion for personal, organizational, and societal transformation is rooted in my upbringing in New Zealand and Finland, where I developed a profound connection to nature and a reverence for its beauty and power. Through my life, I have gained knowledge and insight from Pacific indigenous elders, Nordic innovators, and cutting-edge researchers in consciousness, human development and whole systems transformation.
As a steward for life, entrepreneur, and change agent I am co-leading a small global team translating cutting edge science and indigenous wisdom into applicable practices and tools for helping individuals and organizations come together in service of a greater purpose, fostering ongoing leadership and learning, promoting collaboration and new possibilities, and empowering them to create significant and positive change.
At the core of my philosophy, I recognize that for the world to undergo essential transformative changes, both inner and external actions are crucial. That’s why I established the Inner Development Goal Vienna Community Hub, where we focus on nurturing personal growth for reaching the SDGs.
I strongly believe that each one of us possesses unique gifts that can contribute to solving the biggest challenges of our time. It is our responsibility to stand together, as individuals and organizations, for the greater good.
Rebecca Lane – CIO-Chief Investment Officer
“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” – Jacques Cousteau
The ocean is where I find perspective. I learnt to dive off the coast of Mozambique when I was fifteen and the sea has been the constant thread through my life ever since. It’s where I think most clearly and where everything else gets quieter.
It’s also where I started to notice what was changing – the reefs I’d known since I was a teenager weren’t the same, and seeing how much they’d lost made me question what I was spending my career on. A pivotal moment was a humpback whale research project in Mozambique before I left traditional finance. Looking a whale in the eye on a dive is not something you can easily go back to the office after!
I spent over ten years in traditional finance, first in equity sales and trading at UBS, then in investment banking and equity research at Jefferies, where I covered European leisure and consumer companies and worked with CEOs, CFOs and boards on M&A, capital raising and ESG. I left at the end of 2023 to set up Vitalia, my own advisory practice focused on mobilising capital into the blue economy and natural capital. I now spend my time on blended finance, bankability work, and investment strategy for marine and nature-based projects.
A decade in capital markets taught me how institutional investors think, what they need to see to commit capital, and how to make the case for it. The work I do now is about taking marine and nature-based projects, which are often scientifically rigorous but financially illegible to the people who could fund them, and making them investable. Bankability is as much about communication as it is about modelling.
Our story
During the COVID crisis we lingered about some existential questions:
Is this what it is? How do we continue our lives after living through the lockdowns and being through and through aware, that life can pass by so quickly?
The climate change and the effects on Earth became a big theme in our daily conversations. Being a true lover of the Caribbean already for more than 25 years, we became more and more passionately inspired by the Caribbean. Seeing the climate effects there and the sustainability and self-sufficiency issues the islands are coping with we became intrinsically motivated to be a part of the change which must be made to fight climate change and become more resilient. We want to protect and help the islands to sustain the beauty, peace and nature let alone to let it thrive again.
We decided to provide the means to match our ambition. We built our company, sold our house, and went to live on the Caribbean during 2022. Working with projects and performing also voluntary work in the Mangroves and cleaning the beaches from Sargassum on the island of Bonaire we (re)discovered our passion for nature.
From Blue Carbon to Blue Governance
We knew that we had to take advantage of all the knowledge and experience we had built during our lives and careers in mostly the financial services industry and turn that into something that could be used in a broad context.
We started with Blue Carbon. We followed the science, the eco-systems and the communities. And everywhere we went, we found the same thing: the science was not the bottleneck. The financing wasn’t either. Governance was.
The frameworks determining how the Ocean is used, protected and financed, remained fragmented, under-resourced and disconnected from the living systems and communities they were meant to serve.
So we grew. From Blue Carbon into the Blue Economy and into Blue Governance- the full architecture of what it takes to govern the Ocean well. Rights based. Financially sound. And built around the human capacity to hold it all together.
Today TFTBG is a Blue Governance Advisory working on the intersection of Ocean rights, financial structuring, stakeholder management and cross-sector collaboration.
Inner Development
The worldwide implementation of the SDG’s is going slow, too slow. We notice that globally but also in the daily interactions we have.
People are mostly not intrinsically motivated to make the change. They might move, but it comes from an outer pressure- regulation, compliance, reputation risk.
Something was missing. Not in the frameworks. Not in the financing. In the people who have to carry the change forward. So change gets stuck.
This is why inner development is at the heart of what we do. Alongside our governance and advisory work, we offer executive and team coaching, stakeholder facilitation and leadership development- grounded in EMCC/NOBCO professional standards, and deepened through Theory U (MIT- Presencing Institure) and the Inner Development Goals Framework.
Because the SDGs will only be reached from an inner place of awareness and motivation. When that inner shift happens, the outer work will follow with more ease, commitment and joy.
Changing the inner world to change the outer world.
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