Bridgitte Backman holds a B Sc. (Chemistry) from the University of Cape Town in South Africa and an MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands with an exchange final semester at the Haas Business School, University of California at Berkeley in the USA. She speaks English, German and Afrikaans and has set her next language as Spanish. She has worked across industry sectors and business functions as diverse as Development Finance, Energy (Oil and Gas), FMCG (Food and Beverages), Elections Management, Sustainability, Corporate Affairs and Public Policy, General Management, Innovation, Supply Chain and HR. She serves on the UNGC Network South Africa’s board where she gets to live and breathe sustainability as well as foster cross business collaboration for the greater good at a country level. She previously lectured for Duke Corporate Education via Rhodes University.