ABOUT US
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F4B CORE TEAM BIOGRAPHIES
Principals and Executives
Simon Zadek
F4B Chair
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Dr Zadek is Chair of Finance for Biodiversity, Director of Migrant Nation, Senior Advisor to the Task Force on Nature Related Financial Disclosure, and co-lead of the Taskforce on Nature Markets. He was Head, Secretariat, UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals, Senior Advisor on Finance in the office of the UN Secretary General, and Co-Director of UNEP’s Finance Inquiry. He co-Chaired China’s Green Finance Task Force, and led the Green Finance Study Group secretariat under the Chinese, German and Argentinian G20 Presidencies.
Prior to this, he was Senior Advisor to the World Economic Forum and the Global Green Growth Institute, founder and CEO of the international think tank, AccountAbility and Development Director of the New Economics Foundation. He was Visiting Professor at the Singapore Management University and the Copenhagen Business School, and has been a senior fellow at Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, Harvard`s Kennedy School of Government, and the University of Southern Africa.
He has worked with many corporations, governments and multi stakeholder initiatives on their sustainability and broader strategies, been a member of the International Advisory Board of Generation Investment Management, and has published extensively, including the award winning book, The Civil Corporation
Contact: simon.zadek@f4b-initiative.net
Nathalie Nathe
F4B COO / Principal
Nathalie Nathe is a Principal on the Finance for Biodiversity Initiative and the initiative's COO. She works across the full portfolio of projects and is a member of the Strategy Group, Grants Committee and Leadership Group. She oversees the secretariat and Communications Group.
Nathalie has a track record in the design and delivery of large-scale projects, programmes and international consortia, as well as stakeholder engagement and business development strategies. She currently works as a Portfolio and Stakeholder Manager at Vivid Economics where she works across a diverse client portfolio, including investors, corporations and policymakers to help them build resilience across investment portfolios and accelerate climate policy action to shift to a low-carbon economy globally. Prior to joining Vivid, Nathalie held related roles at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the New Climate Economy (the secretariat of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate), the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), and for Forum for the Future – where she contributed to and presented project content to key audiences.
Nathalie holds a BSc in Geography from University College London (UCL), a Masters (MSc) in Strategic Planning, Leadership and Sustainability from the Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, and is PRINCE2 and HEAT certified.
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Contact: nathalie.nathe@f4b-initiative.net
Holger Schmid
F4B Strategy and Leadership Group Member
Mava Foundation
Holger Schmid sits on the Leadership Group, Strategy Group and Grants Committee at F4B. He is also the director of the sustainable economy programme at the MAVA Foundation, a private family foundation based in Switzerland. He leads MAVA’s strategy development and portfolio management on natural capital, green finance and circular economy. He facilitates and provides advice on collaborative civil society and cross sectoral initiatives with a diversity of partners in various European countries. He is co-initiator of the national Swiss Circular Economy movement and founding member of the European donor collaboration on circular economy. He also serves as a board member for the Plastic Solutions Fund.
Holger holds a Masters degree in Biology. He started his career in conservation and restoration research in central America and central Asia and worked for WWF in Mongolia and in the Mediterranean on landscape and river basin conservation before moving on to address the underlying causes of biodiversity decline.
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Tom Brookes
F4B Strategy and Leadership Group member
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Tom Brookes sits on F4B Leadership Group and Strategy Group and is also a Senior Adviser on International Strategic Communications to ClimateWorks. Tom advises Mava’s finance for biodiversity funding programme. He started his career as a journalist, covering technology, regulation and broader European politics and moved into communications, public affairs and media relations in the late 90’s.
Following regulatory and standards work for Alcatel, and others, Tom joined an international public affairs consultancy. Tom worked on the Microsoft competition case in Europe from 2002, representing Microsoft as press spokesman on the case and acting as political advisor to Microsoft’s CEO and General Counsel. He later joined Apple as Director of Government Affairs, Europe, Middle East and Africa. In 2009 Tom became Managing Director of the Energy Strategy Centre at the European Climate Foundation (ECF). He works to progress the political response to climate change, with responsibility for external communications, public affairs and political communications strategy for the ECF, its affiliates and network. Tom joined the Executive Management Team of the ECF as Executive Director, Strategic Communications.
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Jeremy Eppel
F4B Principal
Eppel Sustainability
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Jeremy Eppel is an F4B Principal and sits on the Leadership Group. Jeremy is the co-founder of Eppel Sustainability, a consultancy established in 2016 to help organisations tackle global sustainability challenges and secure funding. He is a member of the CBD’s Expert Panel on Resource Mobilisation for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Jeremy has advised the World Bank’s Global Wildlife Program, the Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit, UN Environment Programme, CITES and a range of non-Governmental and private sector organisations. Until 2016, Jeremy was Deputy Director International in the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). In this role, he led the UK delegation to CBD COP 11 and COP 12 and, as a member of the Bureau, co-chaired the contact group on resource mobilisation at COP 12. Jeremy also led pioneering efforts to tackle the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) through his oversight of the London and Kasane Conferences, and by funding frontline projects under the IWT Challenge Fund and the Darwin Initiative. Jeremy has almost four decades of experience advising Ministers and providing leadership in international and domestic policy making, including eight years spent as Environment Counsellor in the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation (OECD), Paris. Jeremy is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Trustee of IUCN UK and of TRAFFIC International.
Contact: jeremy.eppel@f4b-initiative.net
Mark Halle
F4B Principal
Better Nature
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Mark is an F4B Principal, and sits on the Leadership Group. Mark holds a degree from Tufts University in the US and a post-graduate degree in History from the University of Cambridge. Following two years with the Diplomatic Secretariat of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) he has devoted his career to environment and sustainable development, beginning with five years in the United Nations Environment Programme’s Policy Planning Division. He spent four years in WWF-International’s Conservation Division, with responsibility for building its programmes in China and as conservation advisor to HRH The Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh. There followed fourteen years at IUCN, first in the Conservation for Development Centre (integrated into IUCN as the Field Operations Division), then as Director of Development and, finally, as Director of Policy and Partnerships. He left IUCN to establish the International Institute for Sustainable Development (Europe) which he directed until retirement in 2016 and where he remains a Senior Fellow. Mark was a Senior Advisor to the UNEP Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System for the four years of its mandate, taking special responsibility for developing countries. Mark writes and lectures on the subject of sustainable development. He chairs the Board of Trustees of TRAFFIC International and the Swiss NGO Aquasis and sits on the board of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network-Switzerland, the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) in the United States, the International Bamboo and Rattan Organization (INBAR) in China, and Sustainable Finance Geneva. He is founder of the Geneva 2030 Ecosystem, a platform for dialogue and cooperation about the challenge of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals.
Contact: mark.halle@f4b-initiative.net
Rupesh Madlani
F4B Principal
GSCM
Rupesh is an F4B Principal and sits on the Leadership Group. Rupesh is a co-founder of Global Sustainable Capital Management, a dedicated impact investment asset manager based in London. Prior to this, Rupesh spent nearly a decade at Lehman Brothers and Barclays in equity research in sustainability and clean technology sector, ranking first in the Institutional Investor survey in his last year. Prior to this, Rupesh worked at PwC in the corporate finance practice. Rupesh co-founded Bankers without Boundaries, to utilise former investment bankers for the benefit of the environment and social good.
Rupesh graduated in economics from the London School of Economics, is a chartered accountant and Freeman of the City of London.
Rupesh has been an expert reviewer in various publications with the World Economic Forum, the OECD, Prince of Wales ISU and the UN relating to sustainable development. Rupesh has spoken at COP climate summits, sustainable investment panels and impact events around the world.
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Contact: rupesh.madlani@f4b-initiative.net
Marcelo Furtado
F4B Principal
Marcelo has over 30 years of experience working in the sustainability field, committed to advancing environmental and social justice through advocacy and philanthropy. Most recently, he became a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University – ILAS (Fall 2021).
A founding partner at the start-up ZCO2/BlockC, a traceability platform for environmental assets using blockchain technology. He was the CEO of Alana Foundation and Arapyaú Institute, family foundations that promote sustainability, social justice and education. Marcelo is a co-founder and was the facilitator of the Brazilian Coalition on Climate Forest and Agriculture, a multi-stakeholder forum with representatives from academia, business and civil society to implement a just and sustainable low carbon economy focused on land use issues. He is also a co-founder of the Climate & Sovereignty Centre, a think tank on Defense and Climate issues.
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Marcelo also spent twenty-four years at Greenpeace where he served as Executive Director of Greenpeace Brazil, and was previously Head of the Forest, Climate & Energy, and Toxics and Oceans campaigns in Brazil. At Greenpeace International, he coordinated the global Toxic Trade Campaign on the promotion of clean technology and the worldwide ban on hazardous waste trade and industrial pollution and later worked as a policy adviser on Climate & Energy.
Marcelo is a chemical engineer by training with a master’s degree in renewable energy. He is a Yale World Fellow and currently serves as the Board Chair at World Resources Institute (WRI) Brazil. He is also a Board member of Conectas Human Rights. He is also a member of the sustainability committees of Dexco SA and Marfrig SA.
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Contact: marcelo.furtado@f4b-initiative.net
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Jason Eis
F4B Leadership Group member
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Jason is the Executive Director at Vivid Economics. He leads Vivid’s work on sustainability and private finance, supporting a variety of financial institutions. Jason brings deep expertise on climate and biodiversity related risks, and the interaction between policy, technology and consumer behaviour across major regions and sectors, including energy, mining, agriculture, real estate and manufacturing. He has worked with asset owners and managers in assessing risk exposure of asset portfolios and their correlation across diversified asset holdings; with banks in conducting asset and company due diligence that integrated climate-related risks; with private equity funds and banks in assessing the investment opportunities from a low-carbon transition; and with insurance companies assessing market risks and opportunities associated with climate damages. Jason has also led prominent initiatives supporting groups of leading investors through UNEP-FI and PRI. He has spent over a decade leading scenario-based analysis of the low-carbon transition using and developing a variety of systems models. His prior experience includes Associate Director at the Carbon Trust and Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Co. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. from Yale.
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Non-Executives and Advisors
Ralph Chami
F4B Senior Advisor
Ralph has over 30 years of experience as a financial economist, with 23 years at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and currently Assistant Director in the Institute for Capacity Development. He is the co-founder of Rebalance Earth, who has developed a novel way to tackle both climate change and biodiversity loss. Namely, to reposition species such as whales and elephants as crucial allies in the quest to sequester carbon, secure climate-resilient ecosystems and generate income for local communities.
Ralph brings decades of operational expertise working with low income and fragile states across the world and providing policy advice, training and capacity development on macro financial economic policy. He boasts a broad range of expertise including remittances, fragile states, inclusive growth, financial markets development, banking regulation and most recently how to value natural capital so as to build markets and an economy around a living and thriving nature.
Ralph Chami has a BS from the American University of Beirut, an MBA in Finance and Statistics from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University.
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Contact: ralph.chami@f4b-initiative.net
Marianne Haahr
F4B Non-Executive
Green Digital Finance Alliance
Marianne Haahr is an F4B Ambassador and sits on the Leadership Group. She is the Executive Director of Green Digital Finance Alliance, prior to this she was Advisor to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Denmark on digitalisation in emerging markets finance. She was also Director of Sustainia a think tank deploying digital technology for impact. Marianne started her career building climate adaptation projects in West and Southern Africa. She holds an M.Sc. Environmental Science and a second Masters in International Human Rights Law.
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Contact: mh@sustainabledigitalfinance.org
Louis de Montpelier
F4B Senior Advisor
Louis de Montpellier has extensive experience in international finance with senior roles in both public finance and the investment banking world. He is an expert in the management of government debt and sovereign wealth, ESG, impact and green finance, sustainable economics, and inclusive capitalism. He presently serves as Chair of the Board of rePLANET and vice-Chair of the Biodiversity Credit Company, two firms he helped found in 2020 to drive large-scale ecological restoration and preservation through private sector funding. He also serves as an independent board member and advisor of financial firms and think tanks engaged in sustainable economics and impact finance, including the Finance for Biodiversity Initiative (F4B). His public sector roles have included Member of the Executive Committee of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS); Executive Director of the Belgian Government Debt Agency and Director of Funding at the EBRD. In the private sector, he has held senior positions at State Street, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. Louis holds a Master of Law and a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Louvain (Belgium) and an MBA from Cornell University (US).
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Robin Smale
F4B Leadership Group member
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Robin Smale sits on the Leadership Group at F4B and is a director with responsibility for finance, leading project work in natural resources, earth observation, cities and infrastructure and energy. His clients include multi-national companies, international organisations, NGOs and governments.
His work takes him across the EU, Africa, North America and Oceania from a London base and often involves partnerships with clients lasting many years. Robin was advisor to the Economic Sub-Committee of the UK Cabinet as a founder member of the Natural Capital Committee, 2012-15.
Before co-founding Vivid Economics in 2006, Robin led the energy, environment and water practices of another leading consultancy. Robin has degrees from the University of Oxford and University College London.
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Workstream and Project Managers
Gregor Pipan
F4B Sovereign Debt Project Manager
Gregor has over 15 years of experience in the asset management industry. He holds a MSc degree in Risk & Asset Management from EDHEC Business School and an MBA degree with the specialization in sustainable businesses from the University of Bologna.
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Contact: gregor.pipam@f4b-initiative.net
Ceandra Faria
Communications and Engagement Lead
Ceandra has over 15 years of strategic communications and engagement experience across sustainable development, human rights advocacy, and the cultural sector. She was previously a communications specialist at the United Nations Development Program, driving awareness of new pathways to finance the Sustainable Development Goals, including inclusive insurance and digital finance governance. Before this she worked with the OECD Development Cooperation Directorate’s Financing Sustainable Development unit, leading efforts to share research, guidance and tools with the public and private sector. Ceandra’s wider portfolio includes projects undertaken with the Multilateral Organisation Performance Assessment Network, the OECD Sahel and West Africa Club and Global Affairs Canada. Her early career in Australia focused on non-profit communications and advocacy at the Starlight Children’s Foundation, Save the Children Australia and Creative Partnerships Australia. Ceandra has also worked as a contemporary art journalist and held board positions at The Lester Prize, A Maze of Story and Amnesty International Western Australia.
Ceandra holds an MBA specialising in Digital Transformation from the University of Southern Queensland, a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Journalism from Monash University, Melbourne and a minor in French Literature from La Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III. She is based in Paris and is a mother of two.
Contact: ceandra.faria@f4b-initiative.net​​
Matthew Doncel
F4B Nature Crimes Project Manager
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Matthew comes to F4B from KPMG Dublin. He has a strong background in both law and finance, with a focus on environmental policy. He is currently finishing his masters in Environmental and Natural Resources Law at University College Cork where he is completing his dissertation on the emerging rights of nature.
Monique Antouguia
Knowledge Manager, Taskforce on Nature Markets
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Monique is a writer and researcher who specialises in conflict resolution, consensus-building, multi-stakeholder relations and policy advisory. She led and coordinated the African Leadership Initiative’s Project Pakati, which advocated for the continent’s leaders to address the governance gap with greater urgency. Prior to, Monique worked as a Policy Analyst at the Centre for Development and Enterprise, South Africa’s leading developmental think tank. Monique is completing her Masters in Organisational and Institutional Studies (Wits), has a BA Honours (with distinction) in Justice and Transformation (UCT) and a BA Undergraduate in Economic History, Political Science and English Literary Studies (UCT).
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Coordination Team
Joanna O'Malley
F4B Project and Communications Officer
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Joanna is the Project & Comms Officer for F4B, supporting on granting and providing project and comms support across the full F4B portfolio.
Joanna holds a MSc in Climate Change, Policy, Media and Society from Dublin City University, graduating in December 2021, with a particular focus on how societies are responding to climate change and how that response can be strengthened. Joanna also holds a Bachelor's degree in Zoology, paying particular attention to biodiversity and conservation.
Joanna has worked with a number of NGOs, including Proudly Made in Africa, The Irish Development Education Association (IDEA), Bridge 47, and Global Action Plan Ireland. She has a background in communications, leading on social media campaigns with a specific focus on the Sustainable Development Goals and developing environmental education programmes.
Contact: joanna.omalley@f4b-initiative.net​​
Eva Sirp
F4B Administrator
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Eva is the Administrator for the F4B project, responsible for coordination and logistics, including scheduling, travel arrangements, contact database maintenance and event administration.
Eva has worked as an Administrator in various sectors including marketing, graphic design and health services.
She holds an MSc in Psychology and is a BACP-registered counsellor.
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Contact: eva.sirp@f4b-initiative.net
Christine Wood
F4B CNM Administrator
Christine is responsible for coordination and logistics across portfolios with a focus on Catalyzing Nature Markets.
Christine has over 10 years of experience in office management, program support and stakeholder relations. Previously, she worked at Ocean Conservancy where she specialized in building out a network of over 600 ocean stakeholders in support of US regional ocean planning activities.
She holds an MBA from Salve Regina University in Rhode Island with a focus on nonprofit management.
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Contact: christine.wood@f4b-initiative.net