About Us
Vision
To be the leading and most trusted global data services company in the measurement, monitoring and evaluation of natural capital assets
Mission
To make every hectare count to achieve global climate, biodiversity and food security goals
Management Team
Josephine Wapakabulo
Josephine brings over 20 years' corporate, entrepreneurial and board experience to Downforce Technologies and served as inaugural CEO of Uganda's National Oil Company.
An electrical engineer with a PhD in data standards and executive MBA from INSEAD, she spent most of her early career at Rolls-Royce.
She is also an Adjunct Teaching Fellow at the University of Western Australia and Advisory Board Member of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.
Jacquie McGlade
Chief Scientific Officer
Jacquie is a highly respected and experienced scientist and technologist.
Jacquie was Chief Scientist of the UN Environmental Programme and Executive Director of the European Environment Agency.
Jacquie has been a pioneer in the use of satellite technology for measuring and understanding the environment. Jacquie is also a hands-on technologist.
Maria Whittaker
Chief Development Officer
Maria brings extensive experience building data businesses particularly in the financial sector.
She was the Director of Strategy at DataExplorers (successfully exited to Markit), Global Head of Machine Readable News and Head of Ratings amongst other roles at Thomson Reuters (now Refinitiv).
Maria began her career in Investment Banking at JP Morgan and Salomon Brothers, has an MBA from INSEAD and a family background in farming in Argentina.
Aeham Abushwashi
Aeham has extensive experience in the software industry and has led tech teams in several successful start-ups.
Before joining Downforce, Aeham was CTO at OXMT, where he was responsible for R&D, technology strategy and information security.
Aeham holds an MSc in Software Engineering from the University of Oxford.
Board
Mary Catherine Di Nunzio
Charles Brecque
Charles was one of the first employees of Mind Foundry, an Oxford University spin out specialising in automated data science and AI. As an engineering graduate of the École Centrale de Lyon, Charles both mastered Mind Foundry's technology and built up its commercial presence.
In April 2020, Charles founded Legislate, a legal tech start-up and is also a Trustee of The Downforce Trust.
Deborah Kiers
Deborah is a Non-Executive Director, Advisor and Consultant. She is Chair of the Tiverton Agriculture Impact Fund, a Non-Executive Director of IFM Investors, where she Chairs the Responsible Investment and Sustainability Committee and a Non-Executive Director of the Bank of Queensland.
Deborah brings over 30 years of corporate advisory and consulting experience to boards, CEOs and executive management teams across a range of industries including Financial Services, Energy and Resources, Industrials, Property, Infrastructure and Regulated Utilities, in Australia and internationally.
Kristin Vaughan
Kristin has been investing in early- and growth-stage companies for almost 16 years, as a director at private equity firm CHAMP Ventures, as a director at Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation and now as Managing Partner of Virescent Ventures. She has invested across a range of industries including climate tech, education, and food, from pre-seed to growth and buyouts.
Kristin is currently director of several other climate tech companies including lithium technology developer Novalith Technologies and alternative protein company All G Foods.
James Alexandroff
James studied law at the University of Bristol and qualified as a solicitor in London with Clifford Chance before becoming a fund manager in Edinburgh and then Hong Kong.
He co-founded Arisaig Partners, an emerging markets focused investment management firm headquartered in Singapore, gifting his ownership to the Perivoli Trust.
He is now a Trustee of the Perivoli Foundation and the Perivoli Africa Research Centre at the University of Bristol.
Advisory Board
Alyson Greenhalgh-Ball
Alyson is founder of Conscious Impact and has over twenty-five years' experience in the public health sector and was a global nutrition lead within the food industry at the Kellogg Company.
Alyson is a board member for several private and public sector organisations, a former Business Fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment University of Oxford and an active member of the United Nations SDG2 Advocacy Hub.
Hadi Michel
Ida Kubiszewski
Ida is Associate Professor at University College London in the Institute for Global Prosperity.
She was also a climate change negotiator, representing the Dominican Republic. Ida holds a BA in Astronomy and Physics, an MA in Energy and Environmental Analysis, and a PhD in Ecological Economics.
Her background, as well as her work with farmers and the banking sector, give her a unique insight into opportunities for Downforce Technologies.
Paul Hawken
Paul is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, author and activist who has dedicated his life to environmental sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment.
Paul founded Project Drawdown, a non-profit dedicated to researching when and how global warming can be reversed; and edited the ground-breaking Project Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.
Robert Costanza
Robert is Professor of Ecological Economics at the Institute for Global Prosperity, University College London.
His areas of expertise include: ecosystem services, landscape ecology, integrated ecological and socioeconomic modelling, and social traps and addictions.
He is the author or co-author of over 600 scientific papers and 28 books. His work has been cited more than 130,000 times in Google Scholar with an h-index of 135.
Investors
