Alyssa Jade Macdonald-Baertl

Ms. MacDonald-Baertl was previously the Head of International Communications at Deutsche Telekom where she was responsible for its communication strategy in over 50 countries including from acquisition to post-merger integration, product launch, stock communications. She has also worked as an International Brand Manager with TSystems in Germany. She is a member of the Executive Board of the UnternehmensGruen (German Federation of Green Economy), a nonpartisan, non-profit, and financially independent entrepreneurs' association that campaigns for the protection of the environment and a sustainable economy, and is in constant dialogue with policymakers, both at German state and federal level. She is a former Board Member of the European Sustainable Business Federation.

Ms. MacDonald-Baertl brings a valuable, dynamic, and energetic entrepreneurial perspective and approach in a broad international development context, coupled with a passion for the role of research and evidence-based change and strong knowledge and engagement of sustainable business in midcap/SME sector, as well as experience of organizational change and successful lobbying skills.

Ms. MacDonald-Baertl advises on green turnaround strategies, sustainable finance market strategies, and multi-beneficiary stakeholder projects for boards and companies that want to adapt to new market conditions brought on by the green or social economy. Over the last five years, she has written market strategies for over EUR 4 billion of green investments, impacting over 3,000 organizations. Clients range from the European Commission to mid-cap companies in a variety of industries from Europe to Australia. She advises governments, various industry bodies, and unilateral organizations specializing in generating systems change and brings these groups together.

Ms. MacDonald-Baertl founded a social enterprise company to grow and process cacao into chocolate in Ecuador, Philippines, and Papua New Guinea (where her family farmed rubber). While producing chocolate that is highly rated in technical assessments, the initiative increases farmer livelihoods. She also founded the CACAO.academy operating from a One Health model which builds nurseries and delivers cacao farmer education to improve farmers' health, wealth, and crop yields. The organization has directly trained over 2,000 farmers and seen marginal improvements in living income profit and increase in available household nutrition.