About

What we do and what we offer

We conduct and share cutting edge research on food and climate change.

We campaign with partners for food systems transformation.

We work with civil society, companies and policymakers to deliver the protein transition.

We produce memorable communications to drive the shift in narrative around proteins.

Staff

Emily Armistead, Interim Executive Director

Emily is an accomplished strategist, campaigner and organisational leader. She lives in London, UK with her partner and two children.

Emily has over 20 years experience of making change happen, having worked across the environment, development and human rights sectors. Notable wins include big name corporates changing supply chain approaches in fashion and palm oil sourcing and influencing global policy on the diamond trade.  More recently Emily oversaw Greenpeace UK’s first campaign to address meat reduction, sparking a strong personal interest in how we transform our food system to prevent the breakdown of climate and biodiversity. As a senior leader, Emily is equally passionate about creating strong and inclusive organsational cultures that support impactful change.

Rebecca Pons, Chief Operations Officer

Rebecca is an experienced operations leader, who enjoys dancing salsa, merengue and bachata, and holds a second-degree black belt in Manaka-Ryu Jujutsu. She lives in Washington, USA.

Rebecca brings 14 years of non-profit operations experience in new, small to long-established, large charities, with a strong background in financial management, legal compliance, grant lifecycle, staff development, internal communications, and system improvement. Prior to joining Madre Brava, she was a Senior Program Operations Manager at Greenpeace USA, supporting the management, strategy development, and evaluation of various teams that work to protect the planet and serve the people. Before that, Rebecca was a Project and Information Coordinator for The United Council of University of Wisconsin Students, where she managed and trained a multidisplinary, decentralised team of over 20 people on organising and campaigning.

Nico Muzi, Co-Founder & Managing Director

Nico is a creative thinker, storyteller, and son of an Argentine rancher. He lives in Brussels, Belgium.

An award-winning communications professional, Nico Muzi leads campaigns to minimise the impact of agriculture on people, planet and animals. Nico has been campaigning and communicating on climate issues for around 20 years. He ran the flagship European Meat Campaign for Mighty Earth. Prior to that, he served as the Senior Director of Communications and Campaigns for Transport & Environment, Europe’s leading NGO for clean transport. He co-directed the award-winning documentary Frontera Invisible. Nico learned the art of storytelling while working for global PR firm Weber Shandwick at the start of his career.

Sarah Lake, Co-Founder & Strategic Advisor

Sarah is the Co-Founder of Madre Brava and currently works as CEO of Plantworks. She continues to actively support the team at Madre Brava as an Advisor.

Sarah Lake has been at the forefront of sustainable agricultural solutions for over a decade. She brings expertise in private sector action on climate change, particularly emissions from agricultural production and land use. She previously worked at WRI, leading corporate engagement and science-based targets on land use, co-directed Trase in collaboration with the Stockholm Environment Institute, and was Vice President and Global Director at Mighty Earth. She holds a PhD in the environmental and social impacts of cattle supply chains and has dedicated her career to scaling innovative initiatives to transform the private sector.

Robin Willoughby, Co-Founder & Strategic Advisor

Robin is the Co-Founder of Madre Brava and currently works as Director of Strategy at Plantworks. He continues to work closely with the team at Madre Brava as an Advisor and supporter.

Robin Willoughby brings nearly 20 years of experience as a director and leader in international affairs and environmental organizations with expertise on human rights, development, and sustainable supply chains. Robin has previously worked at the United Nations in New York; served as Head of Policy and Campaigns on Food and Climate Change at Oxfam GB; led research on energy and the environment at Chatham House and directed the UK campaign work of environmental organisation – Mighty Earth.

Wichayapat Piromsan, Thailand Director

Wichayapat, known as Wich, is a dedicated animal advocate. She lives in Bangkok with a black cat she rescued from the street.

Wich is the Country Director for Thailand at Madre Brava. She brings eight years of experience in transforming animal agriculture to her current role. She believes that our reliance on animals to produce food is harmful to people, animals and the planet, and she aspires to take actions to promote diets rich in plants.

Prior to joining Madre Brava, Wich served as the Managing Director for Thailand at Sinergia Animal. She was the first person to represent Sinergia Animal in Thailand and built an impactful six-strong team during her tenure. At Sinergia Animal, she led successful campaigns that resulted in cage-free commitments from major food companies, including Burger King and Subway.

Florian Wall, Germany Senior Associate

Florian is a thinker-doer who loves socialising ideas and climbing trees. He lives in Berlin, Germany.

Florian Wall serves as our Senior Associate overseeing Madre Brava's initiatives in Germany. He embarked on his academic journey studying economics and sociology, providing a diverse foundation for his approach to systemic change.

Florian kickstarted his career by spearheading the mobility transition as the first employee and Marketing Manager of Miles Mobility, a car sharing company, driving its early success during a phase of rapid growth. Transitioning his focus to the food industry, he held positions across various for-profit entities within the food supply chain. Simultaneously, he initiated grassroots movements in Western Europe, advocating for land stewardship and regenerative agriculture concepts, showcasing his commitment to holistic and sustainable change practices. His desire to contribute to more rapid change in the food system, brought him to Madre Brava. Florian identifies the protein transition as the single biggest lever to trigger a socio-ecological transformation of food systems.

Jon Bennett, Global Director of Communications

Jon is a communications expert who began his career as a local journalist. He “enjoys” triathlons and lives with his partner, two children and rescue dog Casper in Kent, UK.

Jon is Madre Brava’s Global Director of Communications. He leads and supports the team on all strategic and digital communications. 

After local journalism, Jon spent several years at farm animal welfare charity Compassion in World Farming, working with colleagues across the globe to campaign for an end to factory farming.

From there, he moved to environmental law charity ClientEarth, where he built and led a global communications team.

Jon believes systemic change is a powerful way to create lasting, just and sustainable shifts in our relationship with the planet.

Katrien Martens, EU Policy and Projects Fellow

Katrien loves nature and sports - particularly running, cycling, triathlon, tennis and hiking. She lives in the Belgian countryside. 

As a Fellow of The School for Moral Ambition, Katrien is focused on the future of food.

After her studies in bioscience engineering, she spent several years as a consultant with Accenture, most recently working with major businesses helping them assess and improve the sustainability of their value chains. 

Katrien subscribes to the vision of the School for Moral Ambition that holds that small, passionate teams can drive substantial global change.

She brings perseverance, strategic thinking and communications experience to Madre Brava, as well as experience in complex supply chain collaborations and project implementation.

Dr Sarah Ison, Global Director of Research

Sarah is a researcher with a love of using data to inform the public and decision makers to inspire them to make the right choices. She is a keen mountain biker and lives with her partner and two children in Bath, UK.

As Global Director of Research, Sarah leads and executes research initiatives to drive Madre Brava’s goal to achieve 100% sustainable, healthy, affordable food for all. 

Sarah has almost 20 years of experience in academic research, campaigns and advocacy for sustainable food systems. 

As a farm animal welfare specialist, Sarah worked globally, providing expertise directly to farmers, sharing best practice and influencing policy with the aim of improving the health and welfare of animals.

Since leaving academia, Sarah’s research has focused on the interconnections between the health and welfare of animals, people and that of the environment, including the consumption of animal sourced foods and the consequences of intensive animal farming, such as the overuse of antibiotics.

Board Members

William Todts

William is the Executive Director of T&E, steering the organisation to promote, at EU and global level, an emissions-free mobility system. He joined the organisation in 2011, working first on cars and then taking over as T&E's freight director. He led civil society's efforts to have CO2 emissions from trucks regulated for the first time in Europe.

William has been T&E's executive director since 2017 and in that time the team has grown from 28 to 100+ staff and the organisation has opened offices in six European capitals. T&E also started working in new areas such as sustainable finance, green batteries and clean cities. A Belgian native, William studied history and European studies. He started his career in Brussels working for a MEP, after which he joined Belgium’s EU presidency working on climate and environment.

Alexis Fox

Alexis Fox is the Executive Director of The Pollination Project Foundation. Fox brings over 24 years of experience working to fix our broken food system serving as an attorney, political leader, active Board Member at Balanced and Mercy for Animals, the Founder of The Massachusetts Healthy School Lunch Coalition and the Founder & CEO of Lighter, an ecosystem of software and services that has helped people in 134 countries transition toward more sustainable food choices while generating millions in recurring revenue. Fox, also spent three years teaching Leadership at Emerson College and is particularly passionate about increasing the leadership capabilities of advocates to drive a global transformation.

Shannon Campion

Shannon brings a wealth of experience and passion to our team as the Executive Director of Farmed Animal Funders, a funder network committed to replacing factory farming with a more humane and sustainable food system.

Before joining Farmed Animal Funders, Shannon spent twenty years in the public education advocacy space, most recently as President at Stand for Children, a national organisation at the forefront of the fight for educational equity. She helped build Stand for Children into a highly impactful advocacy organisation with 115 staff and a $20+ million combined 501c(3) and c(4) budget. Shannon is also Board Chair for The Humane League (THL) and has been on THL's Board since 2020. Shannon is a true force for change!

She lives in Washington State with her husband and rescue pup Ellie and has two kids off at college.

Lies Craeynest

Lies Craeynest is Head of Private Sector Engagement at Oxfam International. She works across the Oxfam confederation to support and coordinate Oxfam’s relations with Multinational Companies (MNCs) and large businesses, speaking out and campaigning against them when needed, and collaborating where this is possible.

 She has been working with Oxfam for nearly 13 years, starting off in Oxfam's GROW campaign (www.grow.org) which campaigned on climate change and social injustice in the global food system. Her focus then was on European policies on aid to agriculture as well as on European climate policy and international climate negotiations. She has taken the Brussels government to court on air quality breaches and won, and has been an active leader in a local clean air school movement, protesting every week in front of the school gates with kids and parents.

Lies has worked for over 20 years in the NGO sector, in both development and environment NGOs in the United Kingdom and internationally (Brussels-based). She has a Masters in Anthropology of Development and a Masters in Psychology.

Funders

• ClimateWorks Foundation
• Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA)
• Open Philanthropy
• Robertson Foundation
• Greenbaum Foundation
• HighTide Foundation
• Craiglist Charitable Fund
• Mobius
• Healthy Food Healthy Planet Initiative