Board members

Peter Sorensen - Director

Peter is the founder of Development Ratings. He started Development Ratings whilst working in the financial sector in London and aims to bring the transparency of markets to philanthropic giving. He has over ten years of experience in financial services and was one of the first to aim to bridge the gap between traditional investing and social investing. He is a former Vice President in the investment banking team at Deutsche Bank, has worked at Novator Partners LLP, an alternative investment firm, at Fox-Pitt, Kelton (Macquarie Capital) and at Capital Group. He is an expert in evaluating and executing complex social and financial investments in developing markets. He has lived in Vietnam since late 2008 where he has worked on identifying high impact social investments. Peter wrote his Masters thesis on the political influence of credit rating agencies and he has degrees from the University of Copenhagen and from the Graduate Institute of International Studies at the University of Geneva. 

Natalie Pinon - Director

Natalie is a founding Director of Development Ratings. Natalie has over ten years of experience in philanthropic advice and project management. She is a freelance consultant with Marmanie and is an expert in developing high level effective social investment strategies, specifically in the field of Climate Change and Health in the developing world. She was most recently Head of Philanthropy and Social Investment at a family office. Formerly she worked for the United Nations Director General Office in Geneva and other international organisations such as UNITAR and OSCE, in areas ranging from advising non-profits to analysing political economy trends in emerging markets. She has Masters degrees from the London School of Economics and l'Institut des Sciences Politiques Paris. Natalie is London-based.

Research advisory committee

Ricardo Espinosa – Head of Research Advisory Committee

Ricardo Espinosa is Head of the NGO liaison bureau part of the Office of the Director General at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva. He has been working with charities and civil society for close to 25 years, nine of which have been with the United Nations, and prior to that with the University of Geneva and the private sector. Ricardo's involvement with many charities and umbrella organisations has been in both Switzerland and the developing world, mostly in South America and Africa. He was President of the Association of Colombia in Geneva and was on the Committee of Centre Europe - Tiers Monde (CETIM), he also sat on the Board of Directors of the Geneva Federation for Cooperation and Development (GFCD) and was President of the NGO Education et Libération. Ricardo has dedicated a lot of his work to Human Rights in the developing world and was the first Co-Director of the Summer University on Human Rights and the Right to Education of Geneva; he has also worked for the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour of the ILO. Ricardo was born in Colombia and has lived in Senegal, Burundi, Rwanda, Cameroun, Mali and Nicaragua.

Ben Cattaneo – Research Advisory Committee Member

Ben is a Principal Consultant with ERM, the world’s largest sustainable development consultancy. He was previously a Senior Consultant and Mining and Metals Sector Practice Leader at Control Risks, a specialist risk consultancy. He has substantial experience of assessing political, environmental and other risks for a variety of companies and organisations. He has published and presented widely on political risk and corporate social responsibility.

Denise Garcia – Research Advisory Committee Member

Denise is an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University. She has worked and studied in a number of countries including Mozambique and Sierra Leone and currently lives in the United States. Her research areas include analysing the impact of the proliferation of small arms in developing countries and she has co-authored a book on Small Arms and Security. Denise has worked for a number of NGOs and international organisations including the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNESCO.

Fiona Curtin – Research Advisory Committee Member

Fiona is the Editor of the ‘Optimist’, the quarterly development magazine of Green Cross International, a leading environmental NGO. She is also a Director of Green Cross International’s London arm, a coordinator of the Earth Dialogues Fora and has extensive experience of charity management. She was previously Water Programme Manager at the Green Cross and has worked at several international development organizations including the UNHCR.