Dr. Tundi Agardy is a leader in marine conservation, with extensive field and policy experience in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, North America, and the Pacific. Her work has focused first and foremost on articulating the value of the ocean for humanity and the planet. In 2004, Tundi launched Forest Trends’ MARES Program, harnessing ecosystem services assessment, coastal and marine planning, protected areas/ocean zoning, and innovative financing – all for the effective conservation of the earth’s most critical ecosystems.

Clark Binkley has been involved in forestry for over forty years, first as an academic at Yale University and the University of British Columbia, and then in the timberland investment business as Chief Investment Officer for both the Hancock Timber Resource Group and GreenWood Resources. In 2005, he founded International Forestry Investment Advisors (IFIA) to develop and implement innovative, socially responsible high-return timberland investment strategies.

Victor Bullen recently retired as the Agency Environmental Coordinator at USAID, following a 28-year career there. During that time, Victor was also the Regional Environmental Advisor for South America, the Bureau Environmental Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, served on the National Invasive Species Council, and represented USAID at the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, among other roles. Prior to joining USAID, he was a natural resource management consultant at the Organization of American States, Senior Program Officer at World Wildlife Fund – USA, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer/National Park Specialist in Paraguay.

Mark is the founder of the Carbon Tracker Initiative, a non-profit think tank with offices in the US and UK, having enjoyed a career in sustainable finance for 20 years. Carbon Tracker is best known for its work on ‘stranded assets’, the ‘carbon bubble’ and how to set decarbonization pathways for the fossil fuel sector.  He is also founder of its sister organization, Planet Tracker, which focuses on land use, agriculture, and oceans.

Mark has served on the World Business Council for Sustainable Development working group on capital markets leading up to the 1992 Earth Summit; was a Member of the Steering Committee of UNEP Financial Sector Initiative (1999-2003); founder of the UK Sustainable and Responsible Investment Forum (UKSIF), 1990-2006; and is now on the Advisory Board of GFANZ, the Glasgow Finance Alliance for Net Zero. He is an Advisor to Faith Invest; Visiting Lecturer at the University of Cambridge’s sustainable finance programme; and in 2021 and winner of the CEREs/Trillium Capital Lifetime Achievement Award on Sustainable Finance.  Mark has a BA in Politics & Economic History and an M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics.

Michael Cantor is Co-Founder and Managing Partner Equator Capital Group, a Washington DC-based private equity firm investing in renewable energy projects, plant-based solutions, historic assets, and sustainable real estate development. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Carbon Nation and China Folk House Retreat, Inc.

Dr. Pedro Moura Costa has been involved in all aspects of climate policy, carbon finance, and GHG mitigation projects since 1991, when he developed and ran the first carbon-funded projects worldwide. These involved nature-based solutions implemented by the Sabah Foundation in Malaysia. In 1996, he co-founded EcoSecurities Group Plc, the world leader in carbon trading listed on the London Stock Exchange, and a portfolio of more than 700 GHG mitigation projects in >50 countries around the world.

More recently, Pedro co-founded BVRio Environmental Exchange, a Brazilian non-profit organization aimed at promoting market mechanisms to facilitate compliance with environmental laws. Through BVRio, he developed the Responsible Timber Exchange to facilitate the trading of legal timber products; Circular Action Hub, the first global platform to promote the circular economy; and the Responsible Commodities Facility, an initiative to promote the production and trading of zero-deforestation soy in Brazil.

Pedro is a director of Oxford Climate Policy, a Fellow of the IETA, a member of the Steering Committee, a member of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), and a Business Fellow of the Smith School at Oxford University. He has over 100 publications and articles on climate policy, the science of GHG mitigation, and carbon trading, including as a Lead Author in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that were recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

Bill Eacho, former US Ambassador to Austria, is CEO of the Partnership for Responsible Growth, which leads the effort in Washington to educate policymakers on the merits of putting a price on carbon emissions. He is also Treasurer and a board member at Friends of Acadia, Vice Chairman of Pixspan, Inc., and a member of the board of IFES. 

Alex Echols is the Program Director of Agriculture for the Campbell Foundation. Prior to joining the Campbell Foundation, he was Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Ecosystem Services Exchange Deputy for ten years, Acting Executive Director the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and Principal Staff Lead in developing the Conservation Title of the Farm Bill with the US Senate.  

Michelle Floh is a global philanthropy leader who helps ultra-high net worth donors, foundations and Fortune 500 companies increase the clarity, impact, and joy of their charitable giving. She is the Managing Director at Castlefield Consulting, a private firm dedicated to assisting her clients to crystalize clear goals in their giving strategies; she also helps by analyzing giving models and structures that would be most efficient and effective. Michelle is a builder and focuses on attracting philanthropic collaborations to leverage her clients’ intellectual assets, financial resources, programmatic reach with impact investments to deepen their impact, multiply their reach and scale the initiatives close to their heart. Michelle is recognized for her ability to identify social gaps, work with grantees to develop & implement programs and services designed to address their social goals.

Michelle’s experience building and customizing collaborative and like-minded alliances spans the spectrum of the global health and wellness care commercialization value chain. She has deep expertise in digital, omnichannel initiatives, business development, healthcare system management, program management, Wellness and Life-style management, and venture capital initiatives. She has held leadership positions in organizations such as The Jeffrey and Rona Abramson Foundation, Schwartz Family Foundation, Alberta Innovates, and IntelliCentrics.

Michelle holds a Post-MBA Diploma in Advanced Management (PDAM) from Schulich School of Business joint program with Kellogg School of Business in Toronto, Ontario; a master in business administration (MBA) degree from the Schulich School of Business; and a bachelor’s degree from York University.

She is fluent in English and Spanish.

Brad Gentry is the F.K. Weyerhaeuser Professor in the Practice at the Yale School of the Environment and the Yale School of Management, Senior Associate Dean for Professional Practice at the Yale School of the Environment, and a Director of the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. As both a biologist and a lawyer, his work focuses on strengthening the links between private investment and improved environmental performance, with a particular focus on increasing investment in natural areas. 

 Alastair Handley is the Founder of Radicle and a leader in global carbon markets. His personal mission is to help governments implement environmental market frameworks that accelerate emission reductions while creating employment opportunities. Alastair designed and developed one of the world’s first software platforms for aggregating and quantifying large-scale emission reductions to generate carbon credits in Alberta in 2008. Over his career, he’s founded and supported multiple businesses, the successes of which have proven that emissions reduction markets can simultaneously build wealth, generate jobs, create export opportunities, and protect the environment for future generations.   

Jamie Harrison is an environmental consultant specializing in natural resource damage assessment and restoration. She has a strong background in terrestrial ecology, completing her PhD research on the effects of climate change across seasons on the forests of New England, particularly focusing on forest ecosystem services. She subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship examining atmospheric chemistry and forest carbon uptake. Jamie’s current work quantifies injuries to natural resources and identifies potential restoration projects to compensate for losses due to the impacts of oil spills and hazardous waste sites.

Jackson (Jack) Kimani is the Founding CEO of the Climate Action Platform for Africa (CAP-A), a novel platform of initiatives focusing on climate action opportunities as drivers of economic growth in Africa. It is rooted in a strong conviction that the African continent can play a key role in combating climate change as it is well positioned to competitively deliver many of the things the world needs. Jack has over 20 years of corporate finance and development experience working across Sub-Saharan Africa, North America, and South-East Asia, for major multinational organizations.

Eugene Linden is an author whose non-fiction books have covered topics ranging from animal intelligence to the forces that will shape our future. His tenth non-fiction book, Fire and flood: The True History of Our Epic Failure to Confront the Climate Crisis — and Our Narrow Path From Here will be published by Penguin in spring 2022. He has written for many magazines and journals, including TIME, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, and National Geographic. Apart from his writing, Linden served for fifteen years as Chief Investment Strategist for Bennett Management, a family of investment funds specializing in distressed investments and bankruptcies. 

Bruno Mariani is Founding Partner and CEO of Symbiosis Investimentos e Part. S.A., a privately-owned Brazilian reforestation company focused on rare Atlantic Forest tree species. Bruno was also the Chairman of the Board of Funbio –The Brazilian Biodiversity Fund. Prior to that, he was managing director of BBM Bank S.A. for twenty years.

Alice Ruhweza has served as the Senior Director for Policy Influence and Engagement in Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe at WWF since January 2023. Before this, she was the Africa Region Director at WWF. Prior to joining WWF, she led various conservation and environmental portfolios at Conservation International and led the UNDP’s Global Environment Finance Unit in South Africa for six years. A multicultural leader, Alice has worked across the globe for organizations such as the National Environment Management Authority in Uganda, Forest Trends, Sprint Corp., the World Bank, the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development, and others, on a wide range of issues ranging from the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity to innovative finance. 

Jim Salzman is the Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law, with joint appointments at the UCLA School of Law and the UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. He is a leading international authority on the laws and institutions supporting payments for ecosystem services.

David is a pioneer and leader with 25 years of experience developing and leveraging environmental markets to support ecological restoration and conservation. He is an experienced partner with institutional investors who have successfully invested in portfolios of projects that have delivered above-average financial returns in ecological restoration and exceptional ecological returns. He has developed and invested in projects using carbon, water, biodiversity, and bio-energy markets. His experience includes forest, grassland, wetland, and stream restoration projects across the US and conservation projects in Africa and Latin America. He has worked with NGOs and governments over this period to help develop standards and enabling conditions for markets and private investment as well as mechanisms to transfer implementation risk from the public sector to the private sector to support nature-based solutions. He raised the first institutional carbon fund in 2004 and invested over $1bn in carbon projects as head of Markets for Climate Change Capital. For the last decade, he has partnered with mission-driven investors and large corporates as CEO of The Earth Partners with the objective of restoring over one million acres in the US. He has worked closely with Forest Trends for the last 25 years in various executive and advisory positions and is currently a Fellow at Forest Trends.

Sudip Thakor is a senior financial and investment executive with 25 years of international experience in sourcing, structuring, and investing in private debt and equity transactions. Sudip founded Pumori Capital in 2014, an Investment and Advisory boutique focusing on impact and emerging market transactions and serves as Managing Partner. Prior to founding Pumori Capital, Sudip held several leadership positions at Credit Suisse, including Managing Director of Emerging Markets Products, contributor to the Asset Management Operating Committee, co-lead of Emerging Markets and High Grade Credit Businesses, and leader of the Global Structuring Group. Sudip has an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics from Cornell University.

Holt Thrasher is Founder of Synovia Capital, where he currently focuses on investing in the information technology sector supporting advanced ecosystem data analytics. Holt is an active conservationist and currently serves as Trustee and Treasurer of the National Marine Sanctuaries Foundation, an advisory board member of the Lincoln Land Institutes Center for Geospatial Solutions, a member of the President’s Council of Ceres, and board Chair of Mongabay. He was formerly Chairman of the National Audubon Society and Audubon Connecticut. Holt has a BA from Colby College and an MBA from the International Institute of Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Wouter Veening is Co-Founder, Chairman, and President of the Institute for Environmental Security, where he promotes environmental protection from an international law and security perspective. His current foci are preparing an overview (cartographic) of the global hotspots where ecological disruption affects security and stability, advocating the adoption and prosecution of ecocide by the International Criminal Court, and promoting a Global Ecological Investment & Management Agenda based upon the obligations from international law and long-term financial arrangements. 

Jeff Wright, DPhil Oxon, is a Senior Forester at Terraformation. He was previously the Director of Forest Operations at InfiniteEARTH, with forest carbon capture projects Rimba Raya and MarVivo in Indonesia and Mexico, respectively. Jeff is recognized as a world leader in the development of sustainably managed planted forests for financially successful processing into products such as pulp, paper, bio-energy, and lumber.