GOVERNANCE BOARD

Studied ecology in Vienna and has been a vegetarian/vegan since 1989. He was one of the first to investigate and video-document chicken battery farms and was involved in making Austria's supermarkets commit to go "cage-free", back in the 90's. He has since accumulated over 30 years of experience in nature conservation, animal welfare and human rights. He has worked in African national parks, led high-profile lobby campaigns on banning GMOs in Europe and for many years has been involved in the fights to preserve the Amazon in Brazil. He is one of Sinergia's co-founders.

A graduate of Monash University in Melbourne, Luke has over 20 years’ experience managing campaigns for environmental protection organizations in Australia and the EU. He served as campaigns manager for The Wilderness Society in Australia before moving to the EU in 2013. Since then he has provided policy expertise and campaign support to EuroNatur (Germany), Riverwatch (Austria) and Agent Green (Romania). Luke heads up efforts, through coordination with multiple NGOs across the EU and internationally, to increase European forest protection and eliminate burning forest wood from the EU’s renewable energy strategy. 

Débora is a lawyer postgraduate in environmental law and sustainability. Vegan for more than 20 years, Débora has always been involved in the animal rights cause. For 4 years, she was a member of the OAB (the BAR Association in Brazil) Animal Protection and Defense Commission of a city in Brazil, whose responsibilities included investigation of animal abuse and mistreatment and working on legislative changes regarding animal welfare. As a member of that Commission, Débora held lectures on veganism and animal law. Débora has also done projects as a legal consultant for another international organization that works on ending cruelty to farmed animals.

Carolina is Brazilian and has 20 years of experience in research, investigation, strategic planning, mobilization, communication, and movement building. She has worked in over 30 different countries as an investigative journalist for several leading NGOs and her work has been covered by some of the world’s most prominent media. Between 2013 and 2018, she worked at different organizations in Brazil and was responsible for negotiations and campaigns that led some of the largest food companies in the world—such as Cargill, Bunge, JBS and McDonald’s, —to announce animal welfare policies in Latin America. Carolina is a graduate of Unicamp in Brazil (in economics) and has a master’s degree in International Journalism from City University, London. In September 2017, Carolina founded Sinergia Animal.

Eduarda Nedeff graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from the University of the Itajaí Valley in Brazil and has a postgraduate certificate from George Brown College in Canada. After working in the marketing sector for over six years, she joined the animal protection movement in 2016 with a focus on campaigns, corporate engagement, strategies, development, and management. She has been involved in driving forward animal welfare policies that have been adopted by leading companies in Latin America, Asia, and globally (including McDonald’s, Burger King, Krispy Kreme, Minor International, Carrefour, and Dunkin Donuts)