Founders and board
A shared passion and wide range of expertise
Dr. Marc van Loo
Initiator and co-founder
Dutch by birth, cosmologist by training, educator, and international educational author by profession, Marc opened LooLa Adventure Resort in 2000 — which went on to become the world’s most highly decorated eco resort. Spurred on by the preventable death of the daughter of Loola’s cook, LooLa’s team (together with LooLa’s guests) has been building 500 Safe Water Gardens (SWGs) in Bintan since 2014 for households and schools. These SWGs formed the main base of our research.
Tim-Frederik Kohler
Co-founder
Frequent Traveller & Global CSO. Connecting different worlds.
Tim has comprehensive global background in global business administration, sales, marketing, and business development. He is acting Managing Director of multiple entities, where he is building high-performing regional and cross-functional teams. Helping people and driving and leading change is his passion.
Prof. Dr. How Yong NG
Co-founder
How Yong has over 20 years of experience in wastewater treatment. He is a Provost’s Chair Professor in NUS’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Director of the NUS Environmental Research Institute; Director of the Sembcorp-NUS Corporate Laboratory; Fellow of the International Water Association (IWA); Fellow of the Academy of Engineering Singapore, Vice-Chair of the Management Committee of the IWA Specialist Group on Membrane Technology; and President of the Environmental Engineering Society of Singapore.
Mike Flache
Co-founder
Mike Flache is an entrepreneur, business angel, and philanthropist. Together with talented teams, he builds and transforms digital businesses worldwide. Mike spends much of his time helping build high-tech startups in Silicon Valley, Europe, and Asia. As a recognized thought leader, he collaborates with Fortune 500 companies, innovators, and technology vendors. The analysts of Onalytica voted Mike as one of the Top-10 global thought leaders in digital transformation.
Rik Sneep
Rik is Shell’s Country Chair for Bolivia and Paraguay and has worked in various leadership roles in six countries. He is the founder of TOPAZ Transformations, a niche consultancy focused on educating executive leadership in how to make profit through purpose. With a passion for sustainable business and geopolitics, Rik is a member of the Baker Institute Roundtable for Emerging Leaders and advises non-profit organizations on energy market development.
Frédéric Giraudet
Frédéric spent most of his 25 years banking career in commodity and structured trade finance, leading regional teams across Asia Pacific. At the start of the business for 2 large global banks in Asia Pacific, he set up business units and teams in several countries in the region. He has been a member of various senior internal working groups on sustainable palm oil. A firm believer in the importance of well-being and mental health, especially for young people, he initiated talks on this topic at the workplace.
Organizations working with Safe Water Gardens
From early supporters to deployment partners to medium-sized companies and multinational corporations, we pride ourselves on working with each and every one of our partners.
