What is Emergent?

International expert in environmental markets, climate finance, and impact investing. Inaugural faculty of the MSc in Sustainability Management, now adjunct professor at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Founder of Climate and Forest Capital LLC, Former Partner at Encourage Capital and Portfolio Manager of the EKO Green Carbon Fund, President of Environmental Markets at Equator LLC, and U.S. Country Director at EcoSecurities.

Jon is the Chief Operations Officer for Emergent. Previously, Jon was a Director at EY, where he conceived and set up a global non-profit unit that worked with leading impact entrepreneurs in low and middle-income countries. Earlier in his career, Jon worked for Accenture, The Prince’s Trust – a leading youth development NGO in the UK – and was an infantry officer in the British Army.

Sean joined Emergent from the UK Government, where from 2013-2022 he built up the BEIS forest, land use and carbon markets teams, overseeing $900M of new partnerships with businesses, governments and communities. This included overseeing the development and operational delivery of the world’s first multilateral Jurisdictional REDD+ agreements. As well as innovative instruments to leverage private capital into sustainable land use funds and tackle deforestation in conflict zones. Sean played a central leadership role in the international policymaking and diplomatic efforts behind the forest commitments announced at the COP26 World Leaders Summit. A biologist and environmental economist by training, Sean has spent over 15 years working at the intersection of climate change, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in all of LEAF’s key regions – particularly Latin America where he oversaw the creation of the UK government’s forest and climate units in Colombia, Peru and Brazil.

Eric Pitt is an experienced capital markets and technology leader with a deep interest in addressing climate change.  Eric was most recently with Ceres, advocating for pro-growth, climate-aligned financial policies. Previously, Eric was a Managing Director in the fixed income markets at JP Morgan for 15 years. During the first decade of his career, Eric worked in software. He graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Physics and has an MBA from Columbia University.

Katherine is Emergent’s Chief Financial Officer. Katherine has two decades of investment and operating experience in private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, and real asset investing. Most recently, she has been a CFO of an aerospace logistics company, which she helped build from the ground up. In her prior roles, Katherine managed fund-to-fund portfolio allocations at AIG, built a $70 billion-dollar alternative investment platform and its fintech at Merrill, and was a board member at premier funds. She also developed a national real asset portfolio at a family office and deployed eco-friendly property improvements. Katherine also co-founded an impact venture fund investing in industrial technologies reducing emissions. She holds an MBA from Columbia University and, as her primary hobby, is a guest lecturer/advisor to several colleges, accelerators, funds, and startups.

Shazia is a strategic and innovative Global HR Executive with a proven track record for translating business requirements and vision into HR initiatives that improve performance, profitability, growth, and employee engagement. She has 20-years of global HR, immigration, and global-mobility experience working at world-renowned academic, legal, and financial institutions with over 40,000 employees worldwide. Working with large companies and startups, she has in-depth expertise in expanding operations into new markets at a global scale, managing global M&A activities from due diligence through integration, and streamlining all HR processes for smooth and successful outcomes. She loves to empower companies, leaders, and C-level executives with a unique perspective and appreciation for their employees, every organization's most valuable asset. She is a diverse thought leader that is passionate about creating an inspiring and inclusive culture to build high-performing teams.

Juliana leads Emergent's engagement strategy with Brazil. She has +15 yrs of experience in financing Brazil's sustainable development in areas related to forests conservation, climate, social inclusion, sanitation and public management. From 2013 to 2018, she was the head of the Amazon Fund at the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), a US$ 1.3 bn global REDD+ fund that supported initiatives and public policies for the conservation, social inclusion, and sustainable use of the Amazonian biodiversity. She holds a Masters in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida, with special certifications in Tropical Conservation and Development and in Sustainable Development Practice.

Rocio Sanz Cortes serves as Emergent's Executive Vice President, Global Origination. Rocio is an agriculture and forestry specialist. Her work focuses on nature-based solutions and climate finance. She has over 15 years of work experience advising organizations such as FAO, UN-REDD, UNDP, GCF, World Bank and Indufor. She holds a Masters of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and a Bachelor’s degree on Agricultural Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia.

Phil has over 20 years of experience of developing marketing strategies and campaigns for businesses and organisations across a wide range of sectors from transport to food, energy, manufacturing and the public sector. Based in London, Phil joined Emergent from leading London communications agency VCCP, where he was a strategist, advising a range of clients, including Shell on marketing strategies to communicate their climate commitments to customers and stakeholders.

Edwina is Executive Vice President, Corporate Engagement for the Americas, based in Washington D.C. Edwina has over 15 years of experience working with the private sector to integrate responsible business practices and build demand-led sustainability solutions through multi-stakeholder collaboration. She has worked in corporate, non-profit, and advisory roles. Most recently she has facilitated sectoral approaches with consumer sector companies, working in partnership to build collective action for supply chain transparency and sustainability performance, and pooled financing to support initiatives in production landscapes focused on conservation, sustainable production, and community and worker livelihoods. She has a master’s in environment and development from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s in environmental science and international development from the University of Sussex.

Georgie supports Emergent in strategy and planning. She has a background in commercial consulting and within international development, primarily in leading strategy engagements and delivering economic development projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. She's worked with clients from governments, donors, and philanthropic foundations through to FTSE 100 companies, and seed to series A start-ups. She's worked on high-level organizational strategy, the design and delivery of complex programs, and in building thoughtful and effective teams.

A Senior Associate at Emergent, Katie has experience in climate change mitigation technologies, clean energy research, scientific modelling, and data analysis. Prior to Emergent, Katie completed her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, where she researched materials for clean energy applications including carbon capture and hydrogen storage. She carried out part of her doctoral work at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. Before her Ph.D., Katie did computational chemistry research at University Pablo de Olavide in Spain under a Fulbright grant.

Paz Lozano is Senior Vice President, Origination at Emergent and is based in Oakland, California. Before joining Emergent, Paz spent eight years at EP Carbon managing the technical development of over 11 successfully validated and verified forest carbon projects under the Verified Carbon Standard and Climate, Community, and Biodiversity Standard. Paz led the successful verification of over 33 million tonnes of net emissions reductions across these projects, resulting in carbon credit revenue for the protection of over 600,000 hectares of tropical forest and the generation of positive social and biodiversity impacts across all 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals. Paz has worked in the REDD+ sector in countries across Central America, South America, Southeast Asia, and Central Africa. She holds a degree in environmental science from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on forestry and geographic information systems.

Anwen is an Analyst for Strategy and Special Projects at Emergent, based in the UK. Prior to joining Emergent she worked as a Geospatial Analyst at an engineering consultancy, providing data analysis and strategic insights on medium and large infrastructure projects. She holds a MA (Hons) in Geography from the University of Edinburgh and a MSc in Human Geography from Lund University, where she received a grant to conduct her thesis research on the political economy of the tourism landscape in rural Jamaica.

Sofiya was born in Tbilisi, Georgia and is currently based in New York City. Prior to joining Emergent, Sofiya was a research analyst at the Harris Poll and a business development coordinator at John Wiley & Sons, providing strategic insights to research associations and private sector clients alike. Volunteering for Rainforest Partnership’s Law & Policy Team, Sofiya enjoys researching corporate climate policies and rallying companies around the goal of net zero deforestation by 2040. She has completed a Public Policy Analysis Certificate from the London School of Economics.

Blaise works on the Global Origination team at Emergent and is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and focusing on jurisdictions in Brazil and Latin America. He has over 10 years of experience working with a wide range of international organizations such as the European Investment Bank, the UN-REDD Programme, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Blaise has extensive experience in REDD+ readiness, capacity-building and in the functioning of negotiations under multilateral environmental agreements, and has worked in a variety of forest countries across Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. He holds a Bachelor in Law, a master in Public International Law from the University of Paris II and Master in Environmental Change of Management from the University of Oxford.

Nina is a Senior Executive Assistant at Emergent and is based in Sitges, Spain. Prior to joining Emergent, Nina provided executive, operational and administrative support across a range of different industries and has completed certifications in team and project management. With an academic background in Psychology and Social Sciences, Nina previously worked as a Research Assistant at Newcastle University, contributing toward published academic reviews funded by Public Health England and the National Institute for Health Research. Nina is passionate about social and environmental issues and is inspired by work that aims to build a better future.

Steven is Associate for Corporate Engagement at Emergent with over 10 years of experience in sustainability, technology & innovation sectors. He has worked as a national expert on research and innovation programmes for the European Commission, as well as providing strategic support in scaling up deeptech startups, managing innovation support programmes with investors, VCs and innovation hubs within Europe and spearheading project development in renewable energy research worldwide. With experience spanning across Asia, Africa and Europe, Steven has previously led capacity building programmes on environment, renewable energy and climate change in developing economies on behalf of institutional donors. Steven holds a Masters degree in Economics in Innovation and Technology from the Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.

Amybeth is Emergent’s VP of Compliance & Risk and Corporate Secretary. She is a legal and business professional experienced in advising companies from start-ups to Fortune 500s in developing and implementing governance policies and practices aligned to business objectives and transactional risk management. Amybeth previously served in the Enforcement Division of the SEC, where she led regulatory investigations of potential violations of federal securities laws, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and founded and ran a successful social mission-focused capital venture in Lima, Peru.

Daisy is a marketing and communications specialist who holds an MSc in Climate Change. Before joining Emergent, Daisy worked in the Communications team at Global Canopy across the Trase, Forest 500, Natural Capital Finance Alliance and TNFD programmes. In 2020, Daisy was awarded a Distinction for an MSc in Climate Change from University College London where her thesis explored the relationship between above-ground biomass and tropical forest health in Caribbean protected areas. Before this, she spent 16 months years living in Guyana and working with the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and development after initially starting her career in marketing at L’Oreal UKI in 2013.

Dion Ward is a monitoring and fund management professional with deep experience in philanthropic giving and grant reporting for sustainable development initiatives in Latin America. Dion’s recent experience includes serving as Country Project Lead in Brazil for a USAID-funded, Amazon Indigenous Rights and Resources project, focused on bioeconomy and territorial protection to empower indigenous communities while reducing forest degradation. At WWF-Brasil, Dion designed and reported on complex, landscape-level climate-change mitigation initiatives, and supported multi-stakeholder platforms toward significant results, in alignment with the conservation objectives of key funders-- including, NICFI, BMZ, DFID, and USAID.

Emma was born in Brittany, France and is currently based in Barcelona. Prior to joining Emergent as a Transactions Analyst, she worked at a climate finance consultancy where she provided support remotely on a range of sustainable development projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. She holds an MA in Geography from the University of Glasgow, with a focus on climate science and carbon sequestration in tropical forests in her last year. Emma also has an interest for languages and has studied Mandarin and Chinese Geography in Bordeaux, and Arabic during her degree in Glasgow.

Anne de Valence is Director, Origination for Emergent, based in Miami, Florida. Prior to joining Emergent, Anne was a Consultant for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in the Forest team where she managed forest ecosystem restoration projects on four continents to help inform national policy on forest conservation and restoration, as well as leverage public and private funding for forests including REDD+. Anne was previously a Research Professional at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, assisting with a range of research in economics and public policy. She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy from Sciences Po Paris and a Bachelor’s in International Relations from the University of Geneva. In her free time, she enjoys camping with her family in their 1986 VW campervan and paddling the mangrove trails of South Florida.

Thor-Jürgen is a seasoned development practitioner with 25+ years’ experience in results planning and management, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and performance measurement among an array of other thematic and functional areas. Previously, Thor-Jürgen worked in Norway’s Development Fund supporting climate resilient agriculture and sustainable forestry in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. His responsibilities as a Partner with a development consulting firm in Oslo over several years included evaluations of development interventions supported by institutional donors – including local/nested REDD+ projects, REDD+ readiness and MRV capacity development, and innovative climate finance mechanisms. Thor-Jürgen also provided real-time specialist support to Norway’s Ministry of Climate and Environment (NICFI) on optimal institutional, financial and partnership frameworks.

Joana joined Emergent as Vice President of Transactions. With more than ten years of experience and a background in Economics and Finance, Joana started her career at KPMG Portugal as a Corporate Finance advisor, where she gained extensive experience in financial modelling, negotiation and managing transactions, having participated in multiple deals across various sectors, including cross border transactions. Prior to joining Emergent, Joana worked for a private project developer, where she started managing sustainable forestry related transactions, later evolving to managing the efforts on the pre-development of several large-scale Reforestation and REDD+ projects in Latin America, including one of the largest ARR and REDD+ projects in Colombia.

Zoe Bienvenu is Director of Origination at Emergent based in Spain and focusing on jurisdictions in Asia. She has over 10 years advising multilateral organizations such as the European Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Interamerican Development Bank on forest and climate policy and finance, in particular REDD+, in countries across Central and South America, West and East Africa, and Southeast Asia. She holds a Master’s degree of Environmental Policy from King’s College London, a Master’s degree of Geoscience from Edinburgh University, and a double major Bachelor’s degree of History and Political Science from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University.

Walid is Emergent's Vice President, Finance and Operations. He is responsible for managing the organization's revenue and expenses, grant management, contributing to grant reporting, budgeting, and maintaining a sustainable and transparent finance department. With previous roles at several educational organizations and international development organizations and NGOs, Walid possesses more than ten years of experience in non-profit finance, accounting, and operations. He brings direct knowledge of the day-to-day financial management of non-profits, including audits, compliance with federal grants, payroll, financial reporting, and budgeting. Walid earned a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from the City College of New York.

Christopher Coman-Manu is Director of Transactions at Emergent, based in Barcelona, Spain. He has over 10 years of experience working in M&A, private equity, corporate finance, strategy consulting and consulting on climate change adaptation issues. He has worked as an entrepreneur and employee across industries including asset management, renewable energies, smart cities, telco infrastructure. He holds an MSc in Management from ESSEC Business School, France, a BSc in Life Sciences from Aix-Marseille University and is currently enrolled in a MSc in Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution at Aix-Marseille University.

Kat is Emergent’s VP of Corporate Engagement, based in Spain and focused on account management and demand generation. Prior to joining Emergent, she led partnerships for ClimateTrade. Before that, she spent 11 years primarily in NYC working in partnerships, marketing and business development across sectors at Mastercard, ESPN, Samsung Pay and the startup Polaroo. She has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania's Lauder Institute, and a BA in Government and International Studies and Spanish from the University of Notre Dame. In a past life at the start of her career, she was a sports reporter. For fun, this Iowa native enjoys running and the beach.

Josh Margolis serves as Senior Commercial Advisor at Emergent. He provides advice to Emergent and its private sector clients on climate solutions that are commercially relevant, beneficial, and impactful. Josh has provided brokerage, advisory, and capacity building services to stakeholders involved in voluntary and compliance-focused emissions trading systems (ETS) in the Amazon, Australasia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Mexico, Chile, China, Korea, Japan, Canada, and the US. Before joining Emergent, Josh was with the Environmental Defense Fund where he supported efforts to launch Emergent, supported China’s efforts to roll out the carbon trading pilots and the national ETS, developed CarbonSim, and trained thousands of ETS stakeholders. Josh is also a co-inventor of a patent that provides for the neutralization and offsetting of equities. He graduated from Duke University and has lectured at and has run carbon market simulations for a dozen universities and secondary schools.

Natural resource economics and climate policy expert, widely recognized for analyzing and modelling land-use changes and policy approaches for reducing emissions through forestry, agriculture, and bioenergy activities. Chief Natural Resource Economist at EDF, with prior research and policy leadership at UDSA’s Economic Research Service, the UN Development Program and the World Bank.

Jon Anda serves as a Special Advisor to Emergent. Jon is a former Vice Chairman and head of Global Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley, where he served for over twenty years in New York, Hong Kong, and Chicago. Jon left Morgan Stanley in 2007 with a personal commitment to climate finance and climate change. He served at the Environmental Defense Fund as President of the Environmental Markets Network and was a Visiting Fellow at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute. He testified before the U.S. House of Representatives on the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill and published “US Carbon Market Design” and “Strategic Reserve Coupons” for Nicholas as well as “Economics of climate policy under uncertainty” for the Journal of Energy Policy. He also served as EVP Strategy for an energy analytics startup.

Guillaume Malle is a retired banker who is active on financial, environmental and artistic matters. He is currently the Chair of the Council of Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, and serves on the board of the American Center of Research in Jordan. Guillaume has worked in the financial sector for over 25 years, mostly with Credit Suisse, which he joined in 1992. At Credit Suisse he served in a variety of roles, mostly focused on energy and Latin America. His last two roles were Country Head in Mexico and co-creator of the Energy Trading and Marketing Group, with direct responsibilities over marketing and structuring for the Americas and Europe.