TEAM

We apply our 30+ years of experience in water management, new technologies and business development to build innovative ventures for a climate-resilient world.

Duska Disselhoff

FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR

Duska is passionate about applying state-of-the-art technology and innovative business models to transform the water and nature conservation sectors. Frontier Ventures B.V. was proclaimed “Water Innovator of the Year 2020” for the development and commercialization of AquaVest.

Background
Before founding Frontier Ventures B.V. in July 2018, Duska gained 12 years of work experience with Shell International in The Netherlands, Singapore, Brunei, and North America. In her last role as Green Infrastructure (GI) programme manager, she:

Spearheaded the development and deployment of sustainable solutions in the water-energy-land context
Integrated the GI business case into the Shell project and engineering decision-making frameworks
Pioneered the application of a techno-economic optimisation algorithm to develop innovative water management strategies
Partnered with Dow Chemical USA, SwissRe and The Nature Conservancy to develop innovative business approaches for nature conservation
Collaborated with the WBCSD and several EU groups on policy developments in the area of water and natural capital accounting

In 2018, she was asked to become partner at QStone Capital B.V. She contributed to the development of innovative dealflow in the water infrastructure investment space. Examples include:

Development of a business/ investment plan for an American company that develops innovative gold mining techniques to reduce mercury pollution in riverways. Mercury pollution has a detrimental impact on the health of local communities and the environment (Honduras, equity finance of $4-6 mln)
Development of a business/ investment plan for a Dutch company that manufactures low-cost decentralized sewage treatment solutions to improve sanitation for small to medium-sized villages in developing countries. We looked at pricing mechanisms of the effluents to improve cost recovery (Oman, project finance of €2-5 mln)

In the early stages of Frontier Ventures BV, she assessed multiple venture capital investment opportunities in the water technology space. Examples include:

Presenting an investment opportunity in a Dutch company that manufactures decentralized water treatment solutions to multiple venture capital investors in The Netherlands
Assessing crowdfunding options for a Dutch company to deploy a solar/wind-powered decentralized water desalination system for use in agriculture in Bonaire

Duska contributed to the following publications:

ADVISORS

Tom Paffen

Tom is a Venture Capital professional and an experienced board member in several high techn companies. He co-founded Capital-C Ventures in 2003 as a spin-out of Residex B.V. (Private Equity Captive of Achmea) and founded Byblos Ventures.

Specialties include private and public fund management, entrepreneurial finance and innovation management.

MSc, Electrical Engineering, Delft University of Technology
PhD candidate, Management of Innovation, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Lennart Rommens

Lennart has 10+ years of business experience in building and leading start-ups, and in advising scale-ups and corporates. As former managing director of Shareship, he set-up a new business from scratch in the logistics sector. He is a strategic thinker and enjoys creating links between business and technology.

Specialties include the development of innovative collaboration models, digital platforms and supply chain optimization.

MSc, Industrial Engineering & Management, University of Groningen

Jaap Evers

Jaap is senior lecturer Water and Environmental Policy at IHE Delft – Institute for Water Education. At IHE Delft he is responsible for coordination and teaching of the courses Environmental Planning and Implementation and Strategic Planning for River basins and Deltas.

Specialties include environmental and water policy making and implementation, river basin governance, and Integrated Water Resources Management.

PhD, Public Administration / Water Governance, University of Twente
Post-graduate diploma, Political Science and Public Administration, Erasmus University Rotterdam
MSc, Tropical Landuse / Irrigation and Water Engineering, Wageningen University & Research

João Augusto Batista

João is an experienced data analyst. He currently works at Rio de Janeiro’s Int’l Airport providing intelligence based on data and algorithms. He’s looking to contribute to innovative projects that create social and economic value. In the past Joao was consultant with the IFC – International Finance Corporation.

Specialties include data science, machine learning and the development of several business improvement tools based on AI.

MSc, Public Policy Management and Economics, FGV, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Christian van Maaren

Christian is co-founder of Excess Materials Exchange (EME); an award-winning digital matchmaking platform for secondary materials. Through his work with EME, he has seen the valuable materials that can be extracted from wastewater. He has worked for Shell for 7 years and a.o. looked at Natural Capital and Green Infrastructure opportunities.

Specialties include business strategy & development, and community building.

MSc, Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology

Jan Zander

Jan is a water treatment and utilities expert. He has worked 30 years for Shell in petrochemical complexes in the Netherlands, UK and Malaysia. Jan performed consultancy, trouble shooting and facility design for all continents. His passion is in making existing water treatment and utily plants as efficient and reliable as possible.

Specialties include raw water and cooling water treatment, demineralisation, steam systems, effluent treatment and reuse.

MSc, Mechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology