The Team
We are a huge collection of passionate climate volunteers from around the world that have come together to help solve this issue.
Experience comes from: NASA, Facebook, Whatsapp, Sky, Airbus, IBM, the NHS, rapid-scale start-ups, climate scientists with PHDs and degrees from psychology to science.
If you would like to join the team, get in touch!
We are hiring! See available roles here
Samuel Naef
CEO/Founder
Sam has been an entrepreneur for the last ten years, most notably creating 8billionminds, a free live-learning platform. Sam taught sciences and maths while travelling the world, holds a physics degree and space studies masters, and has worked at NASA and Airbus. He has earned several entrepreneurial awards, including for a new propulsion system for spacecraft. His current focus is ensuring the success of The Climate App.
Matt Sawyer
Climate Scientist
Matt is a GP by day but also runs his own sustainability consultancy (seesustainability.co.uk) helping SMEs improve their triple bottom line - providing information and practical knowledge to overcome barriers to sustainability. His current work includes carbon footprinting and carbon literacy for primary care and providing bespoke, practical and workable solutions to reduce carbon to Net Zero. BSc (First) in Environmental Science, Msc (Distinction) in Corporate Sustainability and environmental Management.
Nayomi Illansinhage Don
Community Builder
Nayomi is an enthusiastic researcher working on genetically modifying the main vector for malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Anopheles gambiae mosquito. Passionate about global health and environmental and social justice issues, Nayomi has experience in outreach and fundraising for NGOs (such as Doctors Without Borders), volunteering in her local community, especially with Extinction Rebellion. She hopes to be part of the change that our planet so desperately needs, and she sees in The Climate App the opportunity to bring widespread positive change.
Vanessa Sangiorgio
UI/UX Designer
Vanessa is a friendly, creative and enthusiastic UI/UX Designer with a great eye to details and great ability to develop wireframes and task flows based on user needs. She loves collaborating in a team of designers and developers to create usable and accessible products. She has two rescue dogs from Italy and she has been a vegetarian for more than 5 years. Her main concern at the moment is the urgency to help to save our planet before it’s too late.
Zhonghao (Sergio) Lin
Developer
Sergio is a software engineer currently working at IBM as Cloud Microservices Engineer. Previously, he completed a master's degree in Computer Science and worked for Saber Interactive as a backend programmer for AAA video games. He has also been participating in multiple tech startups. In order for The Climate App to be a success, he is mainly developing the App for Android devices.
Xingjian Ye
Developer
Xingjian is a software engineer with many years of experience in building android apps. She has completed a CS bachelor degree at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and has worked on an IoT platform as an intern. She is helping to develop The Climate App.
Tim Coombe
Development Lead
Tim has been a software engineer for thirty years. Working in a diverse range of industries such as Finance, Insurance, Publishing, News, Broadcast Media and Entertainment has given him a deep understanding of the application of technology. His most recent experience has been at Sky helping to architect and design leading edge solutions. He has followed the climate change ‘debate’ for almost as long as he has been writing software and hopes to help The Climate App become a huge success.
Yara Alamin
Outreach Coordinator
Yara is a final-year student at SOAS University of London majoring in International Relations and Chinese. Her passion lies in addressing the urgent global challenge of climate change and advocating for climate justice. Her diverse cultural background and multilingual proficiency equip her with a unique skill set for effective communication and engagement. In her free time, Yara indulges her creative side through photography, music, and art.
Tim Kachko
UX Designer
Tim is a UX Designer with strengths in research & testing, thinking through complex problems and achieving the most with the least. Currently he's teaching UX at a design school while volunteering for mission-driven projects like The Climate App. Multi-passionate, buys more books than he can read and is quite a nerd but with an adventurous side.
Nikhila (Nikki) Chaudhari
Software Engineer
Nikhila is an experienced software engineer (for 6+ years) and will be helping take forward our Android App! She's from the outskirts of Mumbai (Dombivli) and currently lives in New York - working for Meridian Link (on a loan origination project connecting dealers and financial institutions). She also loves origami and hiking (having hiked most of the nearby mountains in NY). She hopes to help resolve the climate crisis and leave this world in a better place!
Mariia Rubashkina
iOS Developer
Mariia is an iOS Engineer with over 3 years of experience in prominent tech companies (ex Yandex). She is genuinely inspired to contribute to a meaningful mission that supports our planet's well-being. Working alongside dedicated and talented individuals in a collaborative team excites her and presents excellent opportunities for professional growth.
Antonia Di Pauli-McClintock
Community Builder
Antonia is a multilingual professional who has worked in business development, project delivery and management in the renewable energy and consumer goods industries for about 9 years. More recently, Antonia was working for Jan De Nul in Belgium on the construction of major, complex and high-value offshore energy infrastructure projects, both on the commercial and contractual side. She studied Law and Chinese at SOAS in London, followed by a post-academic yearly course in Offshore Wind Energy at Ghent University. Antonia is purpose-driven, curious and loves adventurous travelling, nature and trees in particular, learning about natural resources, hiking, horse riding and team sports.
Sophie Wisburn
Advisory Board
Positive Change Catalyst - Regenerative Entrepreneur - empowering CEOs, Founders & their teams to accelerate sustainable transformations and activate Purpose leaving a positive legacy creating a regenerative future!
Sophie is a positive change catalyst for regeneration, a sustainable business and leadership transformation coach, trainer, facilitator, educator, keynote speaker, purpose expert and board advisor.
She is on a mission to empower people and organizations to activate Purpose, realizing positive impact to accelerate change to a better - more sustainable - regenerative world for all!
Rob Evans
iOS Developer
Rob is support engineer with Microsoft on the Outlook iOS and Android app and freelances as an iOS developer working in Swift and SwiftUI. Rob resides in South Carolina, US and when not coding he enjoys spending time with his two boys and wife, travelling, & long distance running.
Johanna Perraudin
Community Builder
Johanna is an editorial assistant for a scientific publishing company. She studied history, linguistics, and literature and got her Master of Arts by Research in English Studies in 2021. She loves to learn and to pass on knowledge. She is the most passionate about the environment and gender equality. When she is not working or volunteering, you can find her at the gym, at the choir singing her heart out, or at the theatre watching musicals. Passionate about writing and creating visual content, she is happy to put her skills at the service of The Climate App. She believes that small gestures from individuals will push companies, universities that shape the workers of tomorrow, and politicians to act. She is very excited to be part of this project!
Kristin Martin
Content Team
Kristin is a high school senior from Arizona, USA. She is planning on studying environmental science in the fall of 2024. She is passionate about the environment, climate, and the effects our actions have on them. She has been a vegetarian for 8 years, starting when she was 9. Seeing the effects carbon emissions have had on the earth growing up has motivated her to try to reach a wider audience to explain the reality of the climate crisis and what they can do to help. She has previous experience in web development and social media content creation. She is excited to be a part of this team and will continue to learn more every day and use her skills to contribute to this project
Mehedi Hasan
Full Stack Engineer
Mehedi is a full stack developer from Bangladesh, currently living in Ontario, Canada. He is passionate about programing, and loves to read fictions. He has worked in various technology like Node Js, Spring boot, React and Angular. In free time, Mehedi enjoys playing with his daughter and watching movie.
Ann Gibson
Community Builder
Ann’s 20 plus year career spans the built environment: commercial real estate sales, and commercializing energy efficiency technologies in buildings with the U.S. Department of Energy. She brings her writing and project management skills to develop social media content and strategy, and assist with partnership development. Outside of work, you’ll find Ann cooking, hiking with the dogs and traveling.
Paul Dixon
Animator
Paul is an award-winning freelance motion graphics designer and animator based in and around London. In a career spanning 20 years he has helped develop Brand idents, UI for pioneering Video-on-demand TV channels, TV ads and digital marketing. He is currently involved with designing the crowd-funding video for The Climate App. He feels that helping The Climate App to become a world-wide success will make a very significant contribution to changing our future for the better.
Arkadiy Matsekh
Physicist
I hold a PhD in physics obtained from the Institute of Thermophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences with a major in thermal physics and theoretical thermal engineering. I worked as a postdoc research fellow at Kyushu University, Japan studying applied superconductivity for energy applications and later moved to Australia to join a privately-funded project of a large superconducting homopolar generator. I have also completed a Graduate Certificate in Renewable Energy Technology from the Energy Institute of Technology. Currently I design and study electric propulsion systems. I am particularly interested in light electric vehicles in general and electric bicycles in particular, and I see them among the key components of sustainable transport. Also, I love cycling and ride push bikes a lot!
Deise Sulzbach
Business Strategist
Deise is a nature-lover, a relationship builder, and she is helping The Climate App with business and finances. She has a Bachelor's in Biology with a focus on Environmental Education and is now pursuing a second Bachelor's in Business Administration, focusing on sustainable economics.
Jessalyn Li
UI & Visual Designer
Jessalyn is the UI/Visual Designer for The Climate App. Coming from a background in marketing and Environmental Science she understands the crisis of global climate change and the challenges of developing practical solutions. She thinks The Climate App is part of that solution, and is eager to see this movement make an even bigger impact.
Kristin Murray
Developer
Kristin is an Android developer originally from the USA but currently based in London. She has over 5 years of experience building apps on a variety of mobile platforms. She is passionate about tackling the climate crisis and empowering individuals to make a change.
Hayden Postle-Floyd
Clean Energy Specialist
Hayden’s career has been focused around clean energy technology, working on a wide variety of projects across the globe, from microgrids to grid-scale projects that include award-winning developments. With an academic background in climate change analysis, including published work, Hayden sees no greater problem to solve than that of the impending climate crisis.
Tiffani Lewsley
Community Builder
Tiffani has worked in live TV broadcasting for the last 17 years and teaches yoga in her spare time. Tiffani is an animal rights activist, keen environmentalist and fosters her strong interest in sustainability by growing her own food in her allotment. She joined Extinction Rebellion last summer after realising that the public have to take action now into our own hands to avert a climate catastrophe. Tiffani believes The Climate App will be a key way for everyone to do their bit and more for our planet going forward.
Rosemary Grant-Muller
Community Builder
Rosemary has over nine years of experience in sustainability consulting and research, focusing on the built environment and events sectors. She is a Chartered Environmentalist with MA in Environmental Management and Consultancy, holding certifications in Environmental Reporting, Sustainability Strategy, and Climate Policy. She is passionate about creating more sustainable communities. She has developed engagement and low carbon strategies, sustainable design solutions, and carbon reporting frameworks for various clients and stakeholders. She is skilled in project coordination, communication, and collaboration, and I aim to facilitate and empower positive environmental and social change.
Lua Stee
Graphic Designer and Illustrator
Lua Stee is a graphic designer and illustrator who specializes in packaging and digital design. She has developed marketing and branding for various organizations and helped promote brands using social media and email marketing. She is most passionate when working on projects that give back to the community. When she is not designing, Lua loves travelling, cycling, and petting all the dogs.
Andy Liu
Outreach Coordinator
Andy is a recent graduate of UCL. He previously served as a London coordinator for the British Conservation Alliance, promoting environmentalism through hosting speaker events and debates on university campuses. Convinced by TCA's cause and action, he is keen to create partners and supporters for the app's hard launch as part of the community-building effort, as well as learn new skills through this volunteering experience. Andy enjoys playing tennis, playing the piano, and going on hikes in his spare time.
Soufiane Benkhaldoun
iOS Developer
Soufiane is an iOS developer currently working as a freelancer and on some of his own projects. From those things that he enjoys the most there are coding and reading information about environmental science innovations. Based in London but raised in Italy, nature and climate change have always been important points for him. If he’s not working on Swift, you can find him going out in London and taking pictures of the city.
Alexis Issaharoff
Advisory Board
CEO at Antah Solar | Board Director | Accelerating Clean Energy Transition | Sustainability & Environment Advocate
Alexis is currently CEO of Antah Solar (APAC region), and has been working in the solar & renewable energy sector for the last 14 years: as VP for the Nasdaq US firm Premier Power, VP for the German Holding WSTECH (Wind & Sun Technologies), and 10 years previously as Senior Corporate Executive for HSBC in LATAM.
Chen-Chen Tung
Sustainability Lead
Chen-Chen is a senior sustainability consultant at Bridge Partners, a management consulting firm working at the intersection of climate science and business strategy with the world’s largest and most innovative tech companies. She is currently advising Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund on impact investing strategy. Previously, Chen-Chen worked at the World Back, think tanks and venture capital. She managed the first carbon fund created in the world to protect natural forests, and participated in the global launch of the World Bank’s Environmental and Social Framework.
Chen-Chen believes passionately that we have to find economic and business models that place nature at the center of the climate discussion. Outside work, she finds her peace and grounding in yoga, and promotes mind-body-nature connection in her yoga classroom.
Chen-Chen received an MA in International Economics specialized in Energy, Resources and Environment from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a BA with dual degrees in International Relations and English Literature from National Chengchi University in Taiwan.
Kate O’Brien
Motion Graphics Designer
Kate is a graphic and motion graphics designer from London working recently in tech. Her worry about our environment has led her to try and make positive changes where she can, including becoming a vegetarian in 2015. She is enthusiastic about using her skills as a designer to merge with a positively impactful goal so is delighted to contribute to the Climate App and help bring it to life.
Frédéric Helfer
iOS Developer
Frédéric is an iOS developer residing in Brazil, is driven by the passion to change the world through code. With experience working on Greenstand and some indie apps, he is committed to leveraging technology for positive environmental impact. Besides being a student of software analysis and development, Frédéric loves spending time outdoors, cycling, and finds joy in playing the drums during his free time.
Leticia Suarez
UX/UI Designer
Leticia is a UX/UI designer with an industrial design and sustainability background. She has worked in several industries within multi-national and start-up companies where she has been responsible for designing and managing a wide range of projects from concept to market. As an industrial designer, she was exposed to the alarming environmental impact that mass production is having to the planet which inspired her to pursue a career change in sustainability and user experience. Outside work, she likes painting and doodling, playing catch with her dog Tilly, hiking, and volunteering for Incredible Edibles.
Jessica White
Content Team
Jessica is a recent graduate and Manchester based writer. She holds a first class BA in English from the University of Exeter, and has just completed an MPhil in English Studies: Criticism and Culture at the University of Cambridge. She has previous experience in managing editorial teams and content creation for social media, and has also published by-lines in several media outlets, including the Observer New Review. She is excited about the opportunity to contribute to TCA’s innovative approach to addressing the climate crisis, and believes that her skills and creativity will allow her to provide a valuable contribution. Beyond this, Jessica enjoys yoga and hiking, and occasionally dabbles in creative whims, such as creative writing, web design, and lino printing.
Phil Vigus
Backend Developer
Phil is a backend developer working as a consultant at Devoteam Creative Tech in Stockholm. He has worked with various technologies including PHP/Laravel, JavaScript, and React, and is currently focused on Java, AWS and Terraform. Outside of work, he loves watching films, playing board games, and when he has time he composes his own music.