Evilard, Berne, Switzerland
Balz Strasser graduated in Agricultural Economics from the ETH Zurich and in Knowledge Management from the Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands. Following his studies he spent four years working at the University of Zurich, where he wrote a dissertation on the income strategies of small-scale farmers in Kerala, Southern India in the North-South National Competence Centre in Research. He then lived on the subcontinent for a year. Between 2006 and 2008 Balz worked as a programme coordinator for Helvetas in Zurich. During this time he founded Pakka AG, a company which specialises in developing sustainable food value creation chains in developing countries. In September 2012 Pakka AG received the Swiss Ethics Award for its work. Between january 2014 and October 2017 he spent 4 years in Bangalore, India as CEO of swissnex India, an initiative of the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, managed by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Since November 2018 he is Managing Director of Bio Suisse, a private organisation and main federation of Swiss organic farmers. Specialties: International project management, start-up development, business development, development of sustainable agricultural value chains, agricultural socio-economist, organic and fairtrade certification.
swissnex India connects Switzerland and India in the fields of innovation, science, education, and arts. swissnex India is an initiative of the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation.
International Project Management Fairtrade Value Chain Development
International Project Management Fairtrade Value Chain Development