Perspective
Magdalena’s peripatetic life has given her a great freedom to cross borders of all sorts: between countries, cultures, industries, religions, ideologies, etc. Thanks to the range of personal and professional experiences, Magdalena has a pragmatic and yet philosophical view of life. She maintains that we all have the pleasure and the duty of exploring the ideas and ethics surrounding humanity and the concept of “How Then Shall We Live” in our times.
She runs a real estate development company, VALDE, through which she revives historic places. She serves as both general contractor and craftswoman on projects, expressing the significance of humans being active in shaping their own shelters. She stewards the Heidarvatn valley in southern Iceland, with an emphasis on both water and land conservation. Guests are invited to fly fish the waters, as a means of interacting with the life of the place. Magdalena is involved in a regenerative farm in Central America, having first gained exposure and experience in large scale food production there through past corporate work, and now has a deep desire to participate in excellent stewardship.
“A connection to land is a constant and vital part of life for me. I believe that is only in participating with nature can we recognize our dependence on the land, our responsibility to it, and the beauty in it.”
Magdalena recognized the intricacies and complexities of human beliefs and thoughts from her earliest age, having been raised in a Muslim country as the daughter of Swiss atheists while attending school among American missionaries. She lived also in Sweden and Mongolia, before spending decades in the USA where she built a professional and personal life that remained international, active in Asia, Central America, USA, and Europe.
Magdalena, with her children, now lives in Switzerland, from where she continues her for-profit and non-profit work, in the areas of architecture, food production, and AI.
She also leads the Gottlieb Naef Foundation, which funds and advises educational and skill training among the poorest of the poor worldwide. Magdalena focuses particularly on the rural poor, strengthening their agricultural knowledge and their sense of ownership of the resources that are theirs to use and leverage.
“Despite a graduate degree in global public health, I spent many years as a global executive in large scale food production, running sales and supply chain for the world’s largest vertically integrated fish farm. Supply chain work led to artificial intelligence and investments in tech… During the global corporate years, I worked with local NGOs and community leaders to address sexual abuse, malnutrition, deforestation and education in our communities in Mexico, Honduras, and Indonesia. After a period of disillusionment with philanthropy, I am now all the more aware of its necessity. To solve problems, we need for-profit, governmental, and NGO actors collaborating.”
We are Responsible
“It is our duty to ask ourselves how we live in our land, produce our food, and develop our tools, regardless of our position or resources.” -Magdalena