Felix von Keudell

Conservation & int. Finance @ FZS | Yale School of Environment | MSc. (WU) in Management | Co-Founder of Dunkelgrün - Rainforest projects

Germany

About

Ambitious professional for conservation, finance, project management and a future to live in!

Experience

  • Frankfurt Zoological Society / Zoologische Gesellschaft Frankfurt (On-site)
    • Project Finance Specialist
      Jan 2026 - Present · 7 mos

      // Project Support for Financial, Administrative and Grant Management in DRC & EQG // 3 month in DRC (Kindu): Audit, Financial Training and Guidelines Financial Audit 2025 Preparation and financial system improvements based on Management Letter Identification of risks and proposal of mitigation strategies for financial compliance Analysing and improving financial and administrative systems with local colleagues Documentation and improvement of financial processes, Set up of SOPs as user-friendly guides Training sessions for local staff on accounting, controlling and general modernisation Structuring of the finance department and organisational chart 3 months in Equatorial Guinea: Set-up of new organisation, financial systems, Accounting, Recruitment & Legal

    • Finance & Controlling Officer
      Feb 2025 - Jan 2026 · 1 yr

      // International Finance and Controlling for conservation in South America, Africa and Asia // Finance and project controlling for FZS in Colombia, Brazil and Guyana, while supporting African and Asian FZS project countries as the second contact person for financial requests and reporting. Accounting and administration for several foundations related to FZS, while supporting on a secondary level the investment allocation of these foundations and FZS for more conservation income. Grant reporting and controlling for international donors, which stretch over multiple project countries and require a global approach to provide a financial overview on expenditure for available budget. Spanish and French trainings for local finance teams in project countries, such as in DR Congo and Colombia.

    • Assistant to Head of Finance
      Oct 2023 - Feb 2025 · 1 yr 5 mos

      // Assisting in strategic financial overview on conservation in South America, Africa and Asia // Presentations and analyses on financial development for Annual report, Management Board, Internal Head of Departments Meetings and Investor Reunions. Organisation of international meetings and trainings, such as in DR Congo, Tanzania, Colombia and in Frankfurt to bring together all FZS colleagues, while preparing relevant agendas and content on financial processes. Grant reporting and controlling for international donors, which stretch over multiple project countries and require a global approach to provide a financial overview on expenditure for available budget. Accounting, reporting and audit tasks for specific purposes in the realm of the strategic planning of the Head of Finance. Including budget support for other departments and global 5-year budget planning template creation. Set-up and documentation of financial processes in form of Finance Manuals or Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) to streamline the work of finance globally in all FZS entities. Nature Finance research, knowledge base, presentations and initiation on meetings with potential partners. The relevant topics were: Debt-for-nature swaps, Token, Carbon and Biodiversity Credit Certification, Voluntary and institutional carbon market and Corporate Carbon Credits (CCC). Implementation and roll-out of IT tools such as Personio (HR), Qlik (Data analysis BI tool), Zoho (Travel expenses), DocuSign (digital signatures)

  • Change Management Consultant at bicg
    Aug 2021 - May 2023 · 1 yr 10 mos

    // Changing the way we work at European companies and publishing research // Change Management for transformation projects in the context of New Work implementation and architecture for modern offices. Publication of books and white papers on various topics such as ESG, artificial intelligence workspaces and innovative companies. Organization and realization of workshops with customers including kick-off events, co-creation of offices and strategic meetings.

  • Project Assistant at AHK Panama / Cámara de Comercio e Industria Panameña Alemana
    Apr 2021 - Jul 2021 · 4 mos

    // Supporting German organizations doing business in Panama // Realization of market research for German businesses and analysis on specific topics: export regulations, investment opportunities, tourism, forestry. Promotion of networking events and B2B meetings. Focus on a reforestation project in cooperation with "The Generation Forest", which offers investors an ecological investment opportunity. Final output was a 15-page report on reforestation and field-work in Darién.

  • Management-Consultant & Audit-Associate at BDO Austria GmbH
    Jun 2020 - Feb 2021 · 9 mos

    // Audit and Consulting for the Public and Nonprofit Sector in Austria // Management Consultant: Development of the public strategy, competitive analysis of the Austrian nonprofit market, preparation & presentation of the results in front of partners, contributions to business development, client acquisition and product portfolio Audit Associate: Audit of annual accounts of clients in the public and nonprofit sector, Assessment of the client’s internal control systems (Corporate Governance), audit protocols and data documentation

  • Data Analyst at EFS Unternehmensberatung GmbH
    May 2018 - Aug 2018 · 4 mos

    // Consulting project for mayor European companies in car industry // Data Analyst: Management of data bases and client information, advanced Excel calculations and formulars, international clients' requests in French and Spanish, preparing documents in cooperation with Senior Consultants