Meet the Foundation Board

Manuel Bessler has more than 30 years' experience in the humanitarian field. He was an ICRC delegate from 1991 to 1994 and from 1995 to 2000, working mainly in the Middle East, Central America and Asia. In 1994, he was military assistant to the UN Inspector General of the UN Force in the Balkans (UNPROFOR). From 2000 to 2011, he worked for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), both at UN Headquarters in New York and in operations in the Middle East and Asia. From 2011 to March 2023, Manuel Bessler was Delegate of the Federal Council for Swiss Humanitarian Aid and Head of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit.

Matthias Boss has been swisspeace's Chief Operating Officer since 2014. In this capacity, he is responsible for the strategic direction of swisspeace and oversees its operations, partnerships and budget. He also works on peace policy, state (re-)formation and dialogue processes.

Matthias holds a Master of Science in Public Policy and Management from the University of London and a postgraduate diploma in Development Cooperation from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Before joining swisspeace in 2014, he worked as a partner and senior consultant at KEK-CDC Consultants and as a project coordinator and advisor for large SDC-funded governance projects at Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation.

His interests lie in organisational development, programme design and evaluation, with a particular focus on the Western Balkans, South Asia and North Africa.

Barbara Boyle currently manages specific advisory assignments with a focus on the project cycle and operational partnerships. Previously, she worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for more than 20 years in various contexts; in 2015, she started her own business to support families relocating to the Lake Geneva area. She holds a Master's degree in International Relations from the Geneva Graduate Institute. Her interests lie in institutional and policy development, economic security and humanitarian dialogue.

Daniel Endres, former Director of the Global Refugee Forum at UNHCR – a critical opportunity to build momentum towards achieving the objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees – held several other senior positions at UNHCR in recent years, in Geneva and Brussels (Director, Division of Resilience and Solutions; Comprehensive Responses; Division of External Relations; Bureau for Europe).

Having started his career in international cooperation as a Swiss JPO in Pakistan – after training in law and political science and a few years of practice as a lawyer – Daniel Endres also brings with him more than 20 years’ field work experience with UNHCR. Some examples: Representative for Iraq; Deputy Chief of Mission in Afghanistan; Senior Emergency Preparedness and Response Officer, with emergency deployments to DR Congo, West Africa, North Caucasus, Northern Albania, and more.

Isabel Günther has been Professor of Development Economics and director of NADEL, ETH Zürich since 2014.

From 2008 to 2014 she was acting as Assistant Professor for Development Economics at ETH Zürich. She had previously been research associate at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Göttingen for three years and at the Harvard School of Public Health for one year. Her main research interest is in empirical microeconomics with a particular focus on measurement of poverty and inequality, population economics, technologies and policies for poverty reduction, and effectiveness of development aid. Isabel Günther has carried out most of her research in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa.

Barbara Hintermann has been Director General of Terre des hommes Lausanne, the leading Swiss organisation for children’s aid, since 2020.

Director General of Initiatives of Change Switzerland between 2015 and 2020 working mainly in peace promotion and reconciliation, she also has extensive experience in humanitarian aid, mainly with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC): HR Director ad interim and HR Deputy Director; Director of operations for Europe and Northern America – both at the Geneva headquarters; Head of Delegation in Colombia; Head of Delegation / Subdelegation / etc. in Guinea, South Sudan, Rwanda. She also carried out missions in Lebanon and Israel/Occupied Territories. Previously, Barbara Hintermann was Head of Marketing with UNICEF Switzerland. She was originally trained in Business and Managerial Economics at the HWV Zurich (today: HWZ Zurich, University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration).

Lorenz Indermühle is Director of Fairmed, a Swiss foundation that promotes access to basic healthcare for the poorest communities in Asia and Africa.

Previously, he worked for more than 20 years with the Swiss Red Cross (SRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to protect human life, health and dignity. As an example, between 2012 and 2021, he was Head of the Africa/America Division of the SRC, responsible for the strategic planning and staff leadership. Lorenz Indermühle also worked for smaller NGOs in Central America. He holds an MSc in Development Cooperation from the University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies) and a CAS in Leadership Development from the FHNW.