Stephen Lansdown

Co-Founder

Stephen was co-founder of the private client business Hargreaves Lansdown (HL), the UK’s largest independent private client brokerage, and a FTSE100 constituent. He co-founded Earth Capital Holdings with Gordon Power in 2008 to focus on sustainable technology investments and stepped down as executive director of HL in 2010.

Gordon Power

Chief Investment Officer

Gordon is responsible for the investment activities of the firm. He is also a co-founder of Earth Capital Holdings with Stephen Lansdown, EC's holding company.

In addition, Gordon is also Director & Investment Committee member at Berkeley Energy Ltd (BEL) and Director of Sustainable Development Capital Ltd (SDCL).

Gordon has over 34 years’ of private equity experience. He founded the private equity business ProVen Private Equity (now re-named Beringea) and led its buy-out from Guinness Mahon in 1997 acting as CEO and CIO until the firm’s sale in 2004. In 2003 ProVen had funds under management of $340m. Gordon’s investment track record extends to over 256 investments made over the last 34 years, generating an IRR of 28.5 per cent. During this time he has made 33 investments in sustainable technology within areas such as forestry, plastic recycling and eco-friendly building materials and brand packaging which have generated an IRR of 45%.

Richard Burrett

Chief Sustainability Officer

Richard is also a member of the investment committee.

Richard has spent over 35 years in international banking. In his 20 years with ABN AMRO he was Head of UK Structured Finance and Corporate Banking and sat on the UK Executive and Credit Committees. As Global Head of Project Finance, he was responsible for ABN AMRO’s award-winning business franchises in Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and Brasil. In this role he was also instrumental in the creation of the Equator Principles, a market recognised standard for managing environmental and social risk issues in project financing. Latterly, as Global Head of Sustainability, he chaired the group’s Sustainability Council and developed the bank’s strategy on climate change and the carbon markets. He is former Chair of the UNEP Finance Initiative, a former Steering Committee member of Renewable Energy Networks for the 21st Century and external board member of Forest Renewables (part of the Forestry Commission in Scotland).

Richard is currently a Fellow of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and holds a BA and MBA from Durham University. He is an Independent Non-Exec Director of Triodos Bank UK, a Senior Adviser to the Earth Security Group and a Dutch Development Bank (FMO) nominated non-Exec Board Director of Union Bank of Nigeria.

Neil Brown

Chief Risk Officer

Neil was a founder of EC and is responsible for risk, compliance and operations. He is also a member of the investment committee.

Neil has over 35 years’ experience as a trader, broker, management consultant and asset management risk manager. He has previously worked at James Capel & Co, Hoare Govett, Lloyds Bank, HSBC and Credit Suisse. Prior to EC Neil was Global Head of Risk Management for Credit Suisse Asset Management, which had assets under management of US$335 billion when he left. At CSAM he established their independent risk function, sat on the Credit Suisse Group Risk Committee and was a trustee director of the Credit Suisse UK pension schemes. Previously to Credit Suisse Neil was Global Head of Risk Management at HSBC Asset Management, where he established an independent risk function for that business.

Neil is a Chartered Fellow of the CISI. For the past fifteen years he has chaired the CISI diploma panel for the Financial Derivatives paper and chairs the CISI Bond Forum. He graduated from UCL with a degree in Economics.

Phil Culver Evans

Chief Financial Officer

At EC, Phil is responsible for financial controls and reporting; he is also a member of the investment committee. In addition Phil is the Group CFO.

Phil has over 25 years’ experience of managing fast growing and changing businesses in both financial and operational senior management. For some years he has run his own consulting firm. Previously he was Finance Director of College Hill (now Instinctif) and then as a Consultant Director at Conduit PR and Tavistock Communications. Prior to this, Phil was the Finance Director of Huntsworth Group PLC. Previously he was a General Manager at the then largest worldwide PR and Marketing Services agency, Burson Marsteller. His corporate career started with the executive recruitment firm Robert Walters.

Before starting his business career, Phil was a soldier in the French army. He is also an FCCA

Caroline Butler

Investment Committee

At EC, Caroline is the Senior Independent member of the Investment Committee.

Caroline is a Director of Walcot Partners Ltd, an FCA authorised investment adviser to single family offices and university endowments. She was previously a Director and Head of Risk in a leading multi-family office.

During her 20 year career in banking based in London and New York, Caroline worked at N.M.Rothschild and Sons, S.G.Warburg & Co Ltd, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. The first woman elected to the Board of S.G. Warburg, Caroline was later Head of UK Private Wealth Management at Deutsche Bank, London. Currently she is a member of the Investment Committee of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford and on their Investment and Finance Committee, a Trustee of the Art Fund and on their Finance and Investment Committee, a Trustee of The Pilgrim Trust and on their Investment Committee and an Advisory Board member of OMFIF (the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions’ Forum).

Caroline read History and Economics at Oxford

Kathryn Duffy FCCA

Financial Controller

Kathryn is the Financial Controller and in addition works with a number of the investee companies.

Kathryn has 15 years’ finance experience in Private Equity, Venture Capital and Media. Previously to joining the group Kathryn was Financial Controller at Sports Revolution Ltd, Everywoman Ltd and Sales Activation Solutions.

Kathryn is an FCCA

Elise Hockley

Investor Relations & Marketing Manager

Elise is responsible for investor relations and digital marketing.

Elise started her career as a theatrical agent at Burnett Granger and Jorg Betts. In 2012 she joined Edge Group and whilst there took on responsibility for Investor Relations. In 2013 she joined KKR and became the Office Operations Co-ordinator. In 2016, she relocated to India and worked for a number of NGOs at Parmarth Niketan where amongst other duties she handled relations between the projects and the donors. Elise joined EC in 2018.

Elise studied Drama and Theatre at Middlesex University and has a Foundation Certificate in Environmental Management from the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment.

Sue Main

Executive Assistant

Sue is the Executive Assistant to our Chief Investment Officer.

She has worked in the financial sector for over 25 years. In 1994 she joined Gordon Power at ProVen Private Equity as Facilities Manager. She previously worked as the events co-ordinator for Palamon Capital Partners and Warburg Pincus International. More recently she has been a freelance consultant before returning to work for Earth Capital.

Gehane Tewfik

Office Manager

Gehane is responsible for Human Resources and assists the Investment team

Gehane has 30 years’ experience in investment and asset management, project management and financial services.

Gemma Hopkins

Office Administrator

Gemma is responsible for Office Administration.

Prior to joining Earth Capital, Gemma worked at Hugh James Law Firm in Cardiff gaining experience in financial compliance and office administration.

She also holds a BA in Theology and Religion from the University of Exeter.

Bryan Lemar

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Earth Capital Africa

Bryan is founder CEO of Earth Capital Africa where he manages the day-to-day operations of the firm. He has over 30 years of experience in building businesses and sourcing new business opportunities in the Southern African region. Bryan was previously General Manager responsible for building and managing Owens Corning’s’ first pipe manufacturing facility in Africa. He served on the Board of BEDIA (now Botswana Investment Trade Centre).

Bryan has a degree in Polymer Chemistry and Technology from the South Bank University London

Katrinah Mmusi

Investor Relations Executive

Katrinah is a finance professional with a proven history of working in the financial services industry in Botswana. She has worked in investment consulting with both institutional and retail clients. She is skilled in investment advisory, investment marketing, research and data analysis, portfolio construction and investor relations.

Katrinah holds a BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance from the University of Derby and a CISI Level IV International Certificate in Advanced Wealth and Investment Management.

Kemmonye Baitse

Project Engineer

Kemmonye joined Earth Capital as a water engineer. He is tasked with developing projects, utilising global technologies, within the water sustainability sector across the SADC region. He also provides support for engineering and project management functions in Earth Capital Africa.

He holds a Mechanical Engineering Degree (Hons) from Multimedia University (MMU) in Malaysia, a Project Management certificate (Prince 2) awarded by AMPG International and a Microsoft Project course training certificate from Microsoft.

Nunu Garebamono

Finance

Nunu originally joined the company as an Accounts Assistant and she is now handling the day to day financial/accounting activities of the group. This includes AP, AR, payroll, taxation, treasury and management and upkeep of general accounting information. She also manages and prepares reports on asset, liability and capital accounts entries.

She currently holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accountancy from University of Botswana.

Lesole Maitshwarelo

Investment Executive - Renewables

Lesole is highly knowledgeable and well trained in various areas of finance and investment including financial modelling, financial statements analysis, risk management, and business development. He is involved in developing investment pipelines, deal origination, drafting business proposals of potential investee companies and research into the related target markets and technologies. He is currently tasked with developing and managing Earth Capital Botswana’s renewable energy portfolio.

Lesole holds a Financial Engineering (Honours) degree from Multimedia University, Malaysia.

Tlamelo Ogotseng

Investment Executive - Sustainability

Tlamelo joined Earth Capital Africa as an investment analyst. He is tasked with the financial management of Earth Capital Africa portfolio companies where he manages operations including budgeting, accounting, and implementation of internal controls.

He holds a BA (Hons) degree in Finance and Accounting from University of Derby as well as a Project Management certificate (Prince 2) awarded by AMPG International. He is a member of Botswana institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA).

Khumo Pitso

Human Resources, Administration, Governance and Compliance

Khumo joined Earth Capital Africa as a Human Capital specialist with more than a decade of successful experience both in the public and the private sector working within the intricacies of people management. She has used her blend of experience in various positions to effect change in the organisations she has worked in. She is especially skilled in industrial relations, change management and strategic planning.

Khumo holds a BComm degree (HRM) from the University of Botswana.

Dr Jin Guo

Chief Executive, Earth Capital Asia

Jin has over 25 years of experience in China and Europe in the industrial and financial sectors. Before joining EC Jin split his time between the SDIC (State Development & Investment Corp) and CISM (China Institute of Strategy Study and Management). He was, until 2013, the General Manager at RWE AG in China, responsible for the group’s business activities particularly in project development, climate protection, carbon reduction and trading. Previously through his own consultancy he has established official links between international companies and Chinese central and provincial governments and developed business relationships within the energy and power sectors. Previously he lived and worked in London for over 10 years trading commodities and derivatives at F&G International.

Jin has a BSc in Mechanical and Automation Engineering from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a MSc in Management Science from the University of Hill and a Phd in Transportation from the University of Westminster.

Wei He

Chief Technology Officer, Earth Capital Asia

Wei joined from General Electric Beijing where he was a Business Development Manager in their oil, gas and power business for 4 years. Prior to this he was a senior project manager at RWE China in Beijing until 2014. Wei started his career as a project technology manager at Azure International.

Wei is a graduate of the Harbin Institute of Technology and holds a BSc in electronic engineering, of Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences where he gained an MSc in electronic engineering and of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business where he was awarded an MBA in Finance.

William Knight

Chairman, Earth Capital Asia

William’s career spans over 40 years involvement with financial development in emerging economies and financing major capital projects. He was initially at Lazard Brothers and then for 18 years in various senior positions within the Lloyds Bank Group based in Europe and in Asia including establishing the first merchant banking office outside London for Lloyds Bank International in Hong Kong.

Since 1991, he has held a wide range of Asia orientated non-executive positions covering predominantly the Indian sub- continent and East Asia. He is currently on the Boards of Guardian Ceylon Investment Trust Plc and Smith Tan Asia Phoenix Fund. As a co-founder of Emerisque Brands (East/West management buy-in company) he chaired its 3 Chinese joint ventures and for a number of years was Chairman of the JP Morgan Chinese Investment Trust PLC. He has been a regular visitor to China since 1978.

Zida Qi (Toni)

Head of Operations, Earth Capital Asia (China)

Prior to joining Toni was a senior investment manager at Taikang Community (Beijing) Investment Co. Ltd (2013-2016) in their Healthcare team. His team were responsible for several projects totaling billions of RMB in health care, hospitals and real estate. In particular he led the establishment of 1bn RMB Healthy Industry Fund with the Vanke Group. Before Taikang, he acted as the project manager of Reignwood Group.

Toni graduated from Renmin University of China with a masters degree in Applied Economics & has a Bachelor of Science from Beijing Forestry University.

Jianfeng Guo

Assistant General Manager

Former employee of Diamond Wipes International Inc., (U.S.A.) as accountant, mainly responsible for general ledger and cost accounting. Participated in the company’s equity change project, EPR system upgrade, Auto AP overall upgrade and daily cost monitoring for thousands of products. Regularly participated in company’s annual financial audits and inventory counts, improving the counting methods and work model with a designed daily monitoring system for multiple departments. Participated in the preparing the company’s annual budget and the design of the monthly KPI for each department.

Graduated from University of La Verne with a master’s degree and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting.

Dr Marcelo de Andrade

President, Earth Capital Brasil

Marcelo has world wide recognition as an expeditionary, businessman and environmentalist. During his expeditions, Marcelo discovered situations of extreme poverty and deforestation in regions of highest biological diversity. He therefore decided to help bridge the gap between economic development and social / environmental wellness, harnessing financial and corporate know-how to the task of creating sustainable solutions for development of human kind's life quality. As a result, in 1985, he founded a non-profit sustainable development agency named Pro Natura as a contribution to solving these problems attacking its direct cause: the world's outdated model of economic development. Marcelo has won numerous awards world wide for his efforts on Sustainability.

In his business life Marcelo co-founded Terra Capital in 1994, the first Venture Capital Fund dedicated to investing exclusively in private-sector biodiversity businesses. He has also been involved with Axial Bank, Eco Carbon, Ecoinvest and Social Capital Group.

Marcelo graduated from the Gama Filho University Medical School as a Doctor of Medicine and represented Brasil for Rowing in the Olympic Games.

Rodrigo Mortagua

Director of Investments, Earth Capital Brasil

Rodrigo has over 17 years of professional experience in the Brasilian capital markets and private equity covering deal sourcing, structuring and fund management. From 2011 to 2016, Rodrigo was a managing partner of the Triscorp Ativos Florestais PE fund (BRL 200 million AUM) dedicated to greenfield projects focused on agribusiness, bioenergy generation and forestry (eucalyptus) in a total of 90,000 hectares of land bank in Brasil.

Previously Rodrigo was on the Board of Directors of Termobahia, Canto do Buriti Bioeletricidade and a member of various PE & VC investment committees at CSFB Brasil PE, GP Investments Brascan Energia, Pactual Internet and Fator Sinergia.

Rodrigo has a degree in Economics from the Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro.

Eusebio Guell

Managing Partner

Eusebio has over 20 years experience of Private Banking and Private Equity as well as expertise in energy efficiency. He was previously Director of Private Banking at Riva y Garcia and a Vice President at Degroof Petercam in Barcelona.

Eusebio studied at the Universidad Commercial de Deusto and has an MBA from the Barcelona Management School.

Sebastian Walburg

Managing Partner

Sebastian has over 20 years experience of energy finance. He was previously a Director of Riva y Garcia Private Equity and prior to that worked in project finance & energy M&A at Schroders Investment Bank.

Sebastian has an MA in Social Anthropology from SOAS University of London and an MBA from IESE Business School, University of Navarra.

Lorena Masia

Legal Counsel

Lorena joined SI Capital in 2010 and is a commercial lawyer working in venture and private equity. Previously she worked for 8 years at the legal firms Garrigues Andersen and Cuatrecasas Abogados before becoming an inhouse lawyer at DIR Fitness.

Lorena studied at the Abat Oliba CEU University and the London School of Economics.

Erik Jansen

Partner & Executive Chairman

Erik has more than 20 years of successful technology investing experience, principally focused on private equity and debt. He co-founded the venture capital arm of Pequot Capital, a leading technology hedge fund. Following Pequot, he co-founded and was Managing Partner of RockRidge Capital, which actively managed investments in small-cap public technology companies on behalf of a major European bank. He subsequently co-founded, and was Chairman of, ULTRA Capital LLC, an innovative investment firm focused on sustainable real asset projects in the growth sectors of energy, water, waste and agriculture. For the past decade, he has served on the Eli Whitney Investment Advisory Committee of Connecticut Innovations, the State of Connecticut’s venture and economic development fund.

Erik holds a BBA from Nijenrode, the Netherlands School of Business, and an MBA for the Edwin L Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas.

Dr Jeffrey Feldman

Partner

Jeffrey has over 25 years as a successful technology venture capital fund investor and entrepreneur/operator. He has been involved in several sustainable investment projects since 2005 in the areas of energy management, food sustainability and AgTech. He was a key team player at Digital Media Capital and as a member of the founding team at Pequot Venture Partners. He was also the Founder & CEO of a venture-backed broadband service provider, Founder & Managing Member of Primary Succession Capital LLC providing Interim C-level change management services, and Managing Director & Founding Member of Bulldog Innovation Group, a seed-stage venture fund.

Jeffrey has an MBA from Yale University and a PhD in Polymer Science from the Institute of Materials Science at the University of Connecticut.

Jeff Nixon

Partner

Jeff is an entrepreneur, attorney, and investment banker who has created, financed and built over 30 technology companies over the past 30 years in the Internet, Nanotechnology and Cleantech industries. Started in 1997, Interactive Capital Partners (ICP) has helped finance and build companies based on disruptive technologies and business models that make people's lives better in the Internet, Nanotechnology, Cyber Defense and Environmental Sustainability industries.

Jeff has a BA in English from Colgate University and studied Law at the Boston University School of Law.

Jill Watz

Partner

Jill has over 20 years of experience in energy and environmental technology, business and policy. She is a founder of Ascian Technology Advisors which advisies early and growth-stage companies in the energy technology and natural resource sector. Jill was a Venture Partner at Vulcan Capital from 2009-2014 (private group of Microsoft co-Founder Paul Allen, with over $10B AUM) - responsible for investment strategy, due diligence and portfolio management in the clean technology sector, with specific emphasis on solar, geothermal, nuclear, advanced materials, energy efficiency/smart grid technologies and emerging market distributed electricity generation.

Jill has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California – San Diego, an S.M. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Technology Policy, Environmental and Civil Engineering.

Avent Bezuidenhoudt

Investment Director

Avent's responsibilities include making new investments with a particular focus on new technologies in the sustainability sector, as well as working with the management teams of our portfolio companies to develop and deliver on their strategic plans.

Avent has over 25 years’ experience in investing, portfolio management and corporate finance advisory, with a particular focus on high growth technology businesses and 16 private equity technology deals.

Prior to joining Earth Capital, Avent was a Senior Fund Manager at The FSE Group and before moving into investment management, was an Assistant Director in the London Corporate Finance team at BDO UK.

Dr Simon Crook

Investment Director

Simon is a Director on Earth Capital’s biomass, biogas, and renewable assets.

He has 18 years’ experience in Clean Technology and Sustainable Finance. Previous experience includes Operating Partner at Greensphere Capital, Senior Manager at Grant Thornton and Senior Scientist at Exxon Mobil.

Simon has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham.

Joshua Hope

Investment Associate

Joshua has a Cleantech background, having previously worked with a number of start-ups based in the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation. He joined Earth Capital after completing an MSc in Climate Change, Management and Finance at Imperial College Business School.

Joshua also holds a BSc in Geography from the University of Edinburgh.

Tom Burke CBE

Tom is a Founding Director of Third Generation Environmentalism and serves on the boards or advisory boards of a number of environmental and other organisations. He is Chairman of the Editorial Board of ENDS magazine. He was formerly an Environmental Policy Adviser to Rio Tinto plc and a Visiting Professor at Imperial and University Colleges, London. He has been a Senior Business Advisor to the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change.

Marga Hoek

Marga is the CEO and founder of Business for Good. She is a prominent business leader and thought leader with profound knowledge, experience and vision on both sustainable business and capital. Over the last 20 years, Ms. Hoek has held multiple CEO and board positions for both mid-sized and large corporations. She founded and was the CEO of the Dutch Sustainable Business Association from 2010 to 2016 and holds several international Advisory and Supervisory Board positions in which she has impact on business, science and capital.

James Stacey

James is currently a Partner at ERM, the world’s leading sustainability consultancy. During the period 2006–2015 James was Global Head of Sustainable Business at Standard Chartered Bank Plc and then a Partner at Earth Capital Partners. James previously led KPMG’s UK sustainability consulting and Global environment transaction services (M&A) practices. He began his career as an environmental engineer. James is a Fellow of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)

Anna Swaithes

Anna is currently an independent sustainability adviser, an Associate of Earth Security Group and a Principal of Rogers MacJohn. Until November 2016 Anna was Director of Sustainable Development for SABMiller plc, leading SABMiller’s SABMiller’ Prosper strategy. She had previously led SABMiller’s sustainable agriculture strategy. Prior to joining SABMiller in 2012, Anna led the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership for Cadbury and then Kraft Foods. Her early career was in strategy consulting for corporate clients, with a particular focus on the food and beverage sector.

Robert Tacon

Robert is a consultant and trainer concentrating on bank credit risk including risks resulting from environmental, social and climate change issues. As such he has worked with a range of organisations including Standard Chartered Bank, WWF, UNEP FI, various universities and banks globally. He was Chair of the United Nations Environmental Programme Finance Initiative (UNEPFI), representing Standard Chartered Bank plc, where he worked for some 27 years. Whilst at Standard Chartered, Robert led their position on environmental risk management policy and processes including the Bank's adoption of the Equator Principles in 2003. He represented the Bank on a range of UNEP FI working groups, including human rights, public disclosure and reporting.

Christof Walter

Christof runs a consultancy specialising in sustainable agriculture and agri-investment. He mainly works with clients from the consumer goods, retail and banking industries. An agronomist by training Christof worked for Unilever for 12 years before setting up his consulting business. He is the vice-chair of the governing body for the CGIAR’s Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security Program (CCAFS)