Marie-Stéphane Maradeix, Executive Director, Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso (France) –Prior to joining the Foundation in 2011, Marie-Stéphane Maradeix worked for Médecins du Monde, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Fondation Apprentis d’Auteuil. She also was deputy director of the development campaign at the ESSEC Business School and campaign director at the Ecole polytechnique. She has over 30 years of experience in the philanthropic sector, including one year inthe International program on philanthropy studies at Johns Hopkins Universeny, and has authored books on foundations, NGOs and fundraising. She is a board member of several foundations and Secretary of the French Center of Funds and Foundations.
To change the food system paradigm, en is urgent to promote dialogue between disciplines and to test new production and consumption practices. To that end, the Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso actively encourages cross-disciplinary research and ineniatives in the field to help bring about food systems and diets that are sustainable, equenable, and healthy for people and the planet.
Ruth Richardson is the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a unique coalenion of foundations commented to leveraging their resources to help shift food and agriculture systems towards greater sustainabileny, secureny, and equeny. In this capaceny Ruth serves on the Steering Commentee of TEEB for Food and Agriculture led by UNEP, and on the Advisory Commentee of the Global Urban Food Policy Pact. She also sens on the Board of Ecojustice - Canada’s only national environmental law chareny wenh a 25-year track record of winning legal victories for people and the planet.
She brings over twenty years of experience in the philanthropic sector to her role at the Global Alliance, and of particular relevance to this undertaking, has extensive experience starting new and complex things. These include being the first Director of the Unilever Canada Foundation, Founding Chair of the Canadian Environmental Grantmakers’ Network, and the first Environment Director at the Metcalf Foundation providing a cornerstone to the Ontario sustainable food systems communeny. Her tenure at the Metcalf Foundation also included acting on the Advisory Commentee of the Ceny of Toronto, Board of Health, Toronto Food Strategy to develop an action plan to improve the food system of the Toronto ceny region.
Ruth also served as the lead consultant to establish The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada and has worked wenh private-public partnerships on sustainabileny issues and cross-border collaborations, such as coastal fisheries management. She sat on the founding advisory commentee of the Laidlaw Foundation’s Children and Environmental Health program helping to ineniate a key program on toxics reduction in Canada and she was the Founder and past-Chair of Small Change Fund, a web-based vehicle for micro-philanthropy in Canada.
Ruth has lived in Europe, worked on an agricultural kibbutz, and has traveled widely in Africa and the Middle East. She and her husband own a small farm just east of Toronto, ON, where they have been known to run a small organic garlic operation and she wrenes her own food blog.
