"True Global Soul" - The Sustainable Aquaculture Group welcomed the visit of Stephanie Rakels,  from Aqua-Spark, Global Investment fund, based in Utrecht, Netherlands, to the Institute. Stephanie gave a presentation at the Institute's Lunchtime Seminar Series on:

“Aqua-Spark, investing in sustainable aquaculture across the value chain”

Stephanie is an Investment Manager at Aqua-Spark, an investment fund based in the Netherlands fully dedicated to sustainable aquaculture.

The funds mission is to generate investment returns, while simultaneously creating positive social and environmental impact. It  invests all over the aquaculture value chain, on a global scale - supported by an extensive network, a highly experienced advisory board and incubator partner WorldFish.  Aqua-Spark has the ambition to discover and transform aquaculture ventures into profitable market innovators that will help to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, reduce poverty, address food security and protect the environment.

Since its inception Stephanie has been one of the lead investment managers, managing a broad range of investments and managing a global team of aquaculture experts. Prior to Aqua-Spark she worked with several healthcare projects, focusing on nutrition and supplemental medicine and rehabilitation in different settings, within businesses, leading an NGO and as an entrepreneur. She is specialized in nutrition and sports science and spent 1.5 years in East Africa on the ground setting up a local, sustainable, community run rehabilitation centre, hiring and training a local team and creating community partnerships to assess need and build systems that worked and were owned by the community. She is a true global soul and passionate networker, and her experience working with local communities to develop and create solutions focusing on possibilities instead of problems led to her passion of helping SME's startup and grow.

For further details on Aquaspark go to http://www.aqua-spark.nl/