Mark is presently Chairman and Non-Executive Director of two private equity backed companies located in the U.S.A. and the Middle East, and has extensive experience of managing operating and investment portfolios.

Prior to founding Natural, Mark led the growth and development of a Middle Eastern family conglomerate; as well as undertaking a number of international technology investments for its family investment office. In the course of Mark’s tenure as Board Director and ultimately CEO, he led the investment, growth and exit of over 30 businesses resulting in a 6x cash on cash shareholder return.

Prior to moving to the Middle East, Mark was Executive Vice President of Corporate Development for Atos Origin and previously Origin, from 1999 to 2002, leading the merger of Atos and Origin (€5 billion) as well as the outsourcing of KPN’s IT, desk-top and consulting services (€1.5 billion); amongst other strategic initiatives for the group. Mark also served as an Executive VP of Corporate M&A for Philips, where he supported Corporate Venturing and Corporate Redesign. Prior to this he led corporate development activities for Philips’ cutting-edge new media activities such as the CD-interactive platform and in-car navigation systems business NavTech (digital mapping).

Before joining Philips, Mark qualified as a Chartered Accountant in the UK with Price Waterhouse, and helped to establish their highly successful corporate finance practice. Mark is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, and has a B.A. (Hons) in Accounting from the University of Kent, in the UK.

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Prior to founding Natural, Maarten was a Junior Partner and Investment Director at PureTerra Ventures, a water-focused VC firm which he helped build from the ground up. His responsibilities there included deal structuring, deal sourcing, portfolio management and fundraising, working out of their Shanghai office.

During his time at PureTerra he led the legal establishment of the fund in The Netherlands, including the negotiation of the first Advanced Tax Ruling with the Dutch tax authorities under new regulations in 2019. He led financing rounds into Ellona (smart pollution identification technology, co-investors including Airbus Ventures and Groupe ADP), SIGA (critical infrastructure cybersecurity, co-investors including Phoenix Contact Innovation Ventures and AWZ Ventures), and Transcend (automated water treatment engineering design, co-investors including HG Ventures and Aspen Capital).

Prior to joining PureTerra he worked as a Management Consultant assisting foreign SMEs in the water technology sector on market entry strategy in China.

Next to his work at Natural, Maarten serves as a Resident Mentor for global VC and accelerator firm 500 Global, where he advises start-ups in various sectors on topics including value proposition, growth strategy and fundraising. He holds an MSc in Economics from Tilburg University and has completed executive education at London Business School.

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Prior to joining Natural, Paul was the founder and Managing Director of Regenerate Ventures, marking the UK’s inaugural dedicated Agtech fund focusing on sustainable agriculture, from soil health to nutrition. His career in venture capital spans over a decade, marked by innovation and a strong agricultural focus. Paul’s entrepreneurial journey includes founding two venture capital funds, Fuel Ventures and Blackfinch Ventures. He also played a pivotal role in the launch of the UK’s first Agtech accelerator, Shake Climate Change.

His experience extends to consultancy, where he has led and supported sustainability and digital transformation projects within the agriculture sector. Parallel to his commitments at Natural Ventures, Paul offers his expertise as a mentor to Thrive Agtech, L Marks and other innovation ecosystems.

Prior to this he served as a Captain in the British Army, and was with Goldman Sachs in London. He is also involved in running the Rous family farm, which has been in the family since 1042. His educational background and extensive professional experience position him as a key figure in driving agricultural innovation and sustainable investment practices.

Paul holds an MBA from Imperial College London, was honoured with the Dean’s Award for Sustainable Business and is a member of the Institute of Agricultural Management. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD focusing on enhancing the impact of agricultural innovation.

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John is a seasoned executive coach and business transformation expert who has been operating in private equity and venture capital backed companies for the last three decades. He is an expert in Management Due Diligence, with an accuracy record of over 90% across more than 250 assignments, throughout multiple sectors including energy, renewables, finance, technology, social-impact, manufacturing and health across 25 countries worldwide.

Prior to venturing into leadership development and due diligence, John spent ten years at the UK NHS in various roles, including Senior and Principal Clinical Psychologist and an honorary lecturer in Psychology at Leicester University.

John is a regular contributor to European Business Review on senior team work, leadership development and business transformation and serves as an Operating Partner at Frog Capital.

John holds a BA in Psychology from Bangor University, an M.Psych in Psychotherapy from Liverpool University, and a Msc. In Clinical Psychology from Warwick University

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Next to his work at Natural, Ben serves as the CEO of Isle Utilities, recognised as water consultancy of the year 2021, with over 130 experts in countries across the globe. He is also the Director for the Institute of Water and the UK Chair for the International Water Association.

Ben has a background in science and innovation, which started out with a PhD in Biochemistry. Since then, Ben has worked in the water industry fulfilling a variety of scientific and managerial roles. Ben is particularly interested in scientific problem solving and managing the complexities and challenges of implementing new technologies, strategies and ideas. He managed a wide portfolio of innovation projects at Anglian Water, which enabled him to develop his expertise and scientific knowledge of water quality, water and wastewater treatment processes. In addition, Ben has experience in data management, multimedia customer engagement and smart water networks.

He is passionate about innovation in the water sector and enjoys collaborative working to deliver successful projects. Ben holds a BSc in Physiology and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Liverpool.

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Paul is responsible for leading technical and commercial due diligence on Agtech opportunities, as well as providing our portfolio companies with a deep network in the global agricultural technology sector via AgBioScout .

Next to his work at Natural, Paul is AgBioScout’s Chief Operating Officer and head of the company’s Advisory Team. AgBioScout is a leading global Agtech scouting and advisory company with deep technical sector knowledge. Paul leads AgBioScout’s Investment and M&A practice across the AgBioScout global client base and its global network.

AgBioScout specialises in the food and non-food agricultural sectors helping identify, qualify and accelerate the adoption of sustainable technology innovations across biotechnology, life science, genetics, and digital tech sectors.

Paul has over 25 years of Finance, Strategy, Corporate Development and M&A global experience across Deloitte, Braxton, BP, Castrol, Hilti, Chimimport Oil, and Brown Forman. Paul has been working on digital and biotechnology innovation in the Agricultural Food sector since 2010 in the areas of forestry, viniculture, row crop, horticulture and amenity industries.

Paul is passionate about innovation in the agricultural sector, and has a strong track record of delivering successful assignments for large corporates in the space. Paul holds a MSc in E-Business from Robert Gordon University.

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Next to her work at Natural, Keren is working at The European Institution for Technology, leading their West-EU Urban Mobility start-up investment activity. She also advises some of the most influential private investors in Europe on start-up due diligence, is the inventor of the 3P Model – Start-up Methodology (2014) and the founder of VÖR – Hybrid intelligence AI-based business intelligence platform for start-up investments.

She was previously involved in a various start-up assessment and business development projects, including as the coordinator and co-designer of Leiden University’s cross-faculty entrepreneurial programme and as their Venture Academy’s partner.

Keren holds a Bachelor of Law from Tel Aviv University and a MSc. in Organisational Consulting and Development from the College of Management Academic Studies

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René Savelsberg is Co-Founder and Partner of SET Ventures since 2007. He has 25+ years of experience in technology investing both in deeptech and in the energy transition with a background in corporate venturing and venture capital. René is an open and honest business leader and supports portfolio companies by focusing on the strategic issues and leveraging a great network.

René started his career in both small and large companies as part of sales and marketing teams. After moving to California in 1990 he became engaged in the start-up and venture capital community when shaping Philip Electronics’ external innovations in Silicon Valley and beyond.

René holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering & Management from the Technical University Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and has successfully led multiple exits and serves on the Supervisory Board of several leading European companies.

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Next to his work at Natural, Rong is Vice President at the Shanghai Technology Exchange, a technology and IP transfer platform mandated by the National Government of China.

Prior to joining Natural, he founded and led UMORE Consulting, a consultancy dedicated to cleantech cross border commercialisation and M&A, where he specialised in commercialising and exiting foreign environmental technology companies into the Chinese market. He has since sold a majority of his ownership interest to a leading IP Management firm in China, and currently serves on the Board of directors. Rong also worked at GE Water and served as the Executive VP of the Jiangsu Environmental Protection Industry Technology Research Institute.

Rong is a certified Technology Expert of Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission and serves as an Advisory Member for the China-US Green Fund. He holds a BS. In Genetics and a Ph.D. in Developmental Biology from Fudan University.

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With more than 20 years in the water sector, Eric is an accomplished inventor and entrepreneur having co-founded a number of water (and other) technology companies such as NanoH2O, Water Planet, PolyCera Membranes, IntelliFlux Controls, MembranePRO Services, Hydrophilix, Pacifica Water Solutions, Active Membranes and SpecifX. In addition, he advises a number of other technology companies and investment funds.

Eric’s day job is as a professor in UCLA’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering where he teaches and directs the Nanomaterials & Membrane Technology Research Lab. His research explores the union of membrane technology, nanomaterials and electrochemistry for water, energy, resource recovery and environmental applications – all keys to a more sustainable future. Eric has published over 117 scientific journal articles and filed over 70 patents filed globally. He has written books on Sustainable Desalination & Water Reuse, Oil & Gas Produced Water Management and is editor-in-chief of npj Clean Water.

Dr. Hoek has a Ph.D. from Yale University, M.S. from UCLA, B.S. from Penn State and Certificates in Executive Management and Board of Directors Education from UCLA Anderson.

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Rami serves as the CEO of Metito Utilities, a globally recognised developer, investor, owner and operator specialising in desalination, wastewater treatment, water reuse, and industrial solutions with a strong portfolio of projects across its key emerging geographies.  Rami is also the co-CEO of the Metito group, which operates across the entire water treatment value chain with 4500 employees, experience in over 50 countries and over 20 offices globally.  Notable projects include engineering and delivering the world’s largest agricultural wastewater reuse plant, in Egypt, and the world’s largest sea water reverse osmosis plant, in Saudi Arabia.

Rami has led the development of the first PPP projects in the sector in markets as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Rwanda, Serbia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, and oversaw the creation of the largest non-Chinese wastewater platform in China. He also leads Metito’s endeavours into strategic partnerships, mergers, acquisitions, and equity investments. Rami spearheaded Metito’s industry-leading corporate social responsibility efforts.

Before joining Metito, Rami was a process engineer and project manager at Bechtel in London, and a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in New York. Rami has an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School and an MEng, MA, and BA in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge.

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