The Swiss impact investor has appointed Nadia Nikolova as its new CEO | KOLTIVA appoints Joe Keen Poon as executive chairman | LeapFrog makes healthcare hire with Swati Mehta.
Nadia Nikolova has been appointed CEO of Zurich-based impact investor responsAbility. Nikolova, who will take over the role from September 2025, joins the firm from Alliance Global Investors, where she was head of direct lending. She will succeed Rochus Mommartz, who is retiring after being with the company since its inception in 2003.
Nikolova spent more than a decade at Allianz Global Investors working in private markets across infrastructure debt, credit and real assets and, in 2019, established its sustainable and impact credit investment team.
“Since then, Nadia successfully scaled its blended finance strategy, led co-investments alongside development finance institutions, with two flagship funds and raised over €4.5bn in capital, including the launch of an impact private credit strategy focusing on small cap impact companies in Europe,” said responsAbility.
responsAbility, which was acquired by the UK group M&G in 2022 and has assets under management of approximately €5.6bn, focuses on three major investment themes – financial inclusion, climate finance, and sustainable food.
“We look forward to welcoming Nadia to responsAbility – a business that is important to the growth of our private markets strategy as investors seek managers with proven track records in financial inclusion, climate finance and sustainable food,” said Emmanuel Deblanc, chair of the board of responsAbility and chief investment officer of M&G’s private markets business.
Joe Keen Poon becomes executive chairman of KOLTIVA
KOLTIVA, the Indonesian and Swiss-based agritech firm, has appointed Joe Keen Poon as executive chairman, as it aims to accelerate its mission to build inclusive, deforestation-free and fully traceable supply chains, it says.
Koon, who has over 30 years’ of experience working in global organisations such as Microsoft and Deloitte, will be responsible for strengthening the firm’s governance, as well as driving investment expansion into key markets across Asia, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Founded in 2013, KOLTIVA works with over 1.9 million agriculture producers across 65 countries.
“We’ve built a strong foundation rooted in data integrity, human-centred technology intelligence, field operations, and client trust,” said Manfred Borer, CEO of KOLTIVA. “Now, we’re scaling. With Joe Keen Poon on board, we gain a partner with the global foresight and experience to guide us through this next chapter—one that will see us expand across continents while remaining deeply connected to rural farming communities.”
LeapFrog hires Swati Mehta as director for healthcare
Zurich-based impact investor LeapFrog Investments has appointed Swati Mehta as director in its healthcare investment team. Based in India, Mehta joins the firm’s leadership team and will report to Biju Mohandas, global head of healthcare.
Mehta will also work closely with fellow director Michael Jelinske and the wider team to support the expansion of LeapFrog’s healthcare strategy across growth markets, according to the firm.
She brings close to two decades of healthcare investment banking experience, having worked at o3 Capital and IDFC Group as well as at Equirus Capital and UBS Securities. Over the course of her career, Mehta has closed 20 transactions with a cumulative deal value of approximately $2bn (€1.7bn), including M&A, private equity advisory, and capital markets mandates, according to LeapFrog.
With the appointment, LeapFrog has grown it’s India-based team to ten-strong. The firm says it sees India as a “key engine for innovation and opportunity in emerging markets across healthcare, financial services and climate solutions”.
“Swati is someone many of us have known and respected for years. We’ve had the pleasure of working closely with her on several occasions and have seen first-hand the strategic insight and commitment she brings to every engagement. I’m delighted she’s joining us as we build a lasting, high-impact healthcare franchise at LeapFrog,” said Mohandas.
