Leadership team

Marco Hirsbrunner is a Co-Founder of South Pole, where he served as Chief Operating Officer, guiding operations, technology, and executive leadership functions. Marco established South Pole’s Beijing office, spearheaded climate projects across China, Vietnam, and Thailand, and led the global project and consultancy portfolio. He developed a key project management software now integral to South Pole’s operations that became instrumental in managing over 1,000 projects and several thousand consultancy initiatives. Marco also served on the board of South Pole Carbon Asset Management Ltd. He holds an MA in Media & Communications and Chinese Studies from the University of Zurich and completed executive education at the University of St. Gallen.

Silvia Garcia leads Svarmi’s operations, focusing on data collection, processing, analytics, and delivery. She has an M.Sc. in Environmental Science and has a strong background in using remote sensing technology to measure natural assets such as forests and animal habitats. She participates actively in further product development and is responsible for Svarmi’s sustainability strategy and monitoring program.

Tryggvi Stefánsson, Svarmi´s CTO and founder, graduated from KTH Stockholm with an M.Sc in Mechanical Engineering. He founded Svarmi while at university and has led on the development of Svarmi's technology and vision from day one, including the development of Svarmi´s advanced software, algorithms, and hardware. Tryggvi is an aerospace and earth observation expert and has led multiple large international research and development projects on a variety of topics including on drones, automation, and earth observation.

Kolbeinn Hilmarsson, Svarmi´s CEO, began his career as a pilot and project manager within the commercial aviation industry. An early “enviropreneur”, he co-founded the leading nature-based carbon project developer in Iceland working against global standards in building land-based carbon credits from afforestation, reforestation & wetland, soil, and vegetation restoration. Kolbeinn has diverse knowledge across aerospace and space-tech business development, sustainability, and emerging frameworks for nature reporting. Kolbeinn also sits on the board of Festa, the Icelandic Center for Sustainability.