Team
Earth Capital (EC) strongly believes in promoting diversity. We are an equal opportunities firm and our colleagues around the world are experts in their local markets. In addition EC has signed the UK Government’s Charter on Women in Finance.
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.
Gordon has over 30 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 247 investments made over the last 34 years, generating an IRR of 28.4 per cent. During this time he has made several sustainable technology investments in areas such as forestry, plastic recycling and eco-friendly building materials and brand packaging. Gordon has generated an IRR of 45% from 30 sustainable private equity investments.
Edward Collins
Chief Executive
At EC, Edward runs the business and is responsible for strategic direction; he is also a member of the investment committee.In addition Edward is the Group CEO.
Edward has over 16 years of investment management and CEO experience. Prior to joining in 2018 Edward was the CIO of Aldbourne Investment Management. Prior to this for five years he was the Managing Director of Hanson Asset Management, an investment management and advisory firm for UHNWIs and for 6 years the CIO of Hanson Family Holdings which coordinated the investment activities of the Hanson family. Edward started his career as a fund manager at New Star Asset Management in 2002 where until his departure in 2009 he ran a mixture of growth, hedge and special situation funds.
Edward studied Politics at Durham University.
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
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 ECP 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.
Richard Burrett
Chief Sustainability Officer
Richard is responsible for Sustainability and the Earth DividendTM. He is also a member of the investment committee.
Richard has spent over 30 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 a Senior Adviser to the Earth Security Group and a Dutch Development Bank (FMO) nominated non-Exec Board Director of Union Bank of Nigeria.
Elaine Dearson
Office Manager
Elaine is the office manager and is responsible for HR.
Elaine started her career at Morgan Grenfell Asset Management in 1995 supporting the Head of the European Team. She subsequently worked at JO Hambro Investment Management and Deutsche Asset Management (previously Morgan Grenfell). Elaine joined ECP from Close Group where she ran the CEO and Finance Director’s office at Close Investments.
Gehane Tewfik
Administration Manager
Gehane has 30 years’ experience in investment and asset management, project management and financial services.
Kathryn Duffy
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
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 ECP 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
Company Secretary
At EC Sue is the Company Secretary and helps coordinate fund raising.
Sue 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.
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 Managing Director of Boundes Sustainability Limited. He was Chair of the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), on behalf of Standard Chartered Bank plc, where he worked previously for 27 years. Whilst with Standard Chartered, Robert most recently led their position on environmental risk management policies 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 specializing 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)
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.
Lina Lisbona
Chief Operations Officer, Earth Capital Brasil
Lina has over 15 years experience of capital markets and sustainability. Before joining she consulted to a wide range of companies, developing investment memorandums, business plans, market analysis and due diligence. Lina started her career at the Institute for Sustainable Business Development identifying local projects, raising the funds and then implementing them.
In 2005 Lina moved to Merrill Lynch as a Senior Client Associate managing offshore clients including trading activities and back office. She then became an Associate Investment Advisor at GPS Wealth Management where she managed the relationship with key clients and developed investment solutions with the analytical team.
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. He is on the Boards of Guardian Ceylon Investment Trust Plc, Smith Tan Asia Phoenix Fund and, as co-founder of Emerisque Brands (East/West management buy-in company) for whom he chairs its 3 Chinese joint ventures and until January 2018 was Chairman of the JP Morgan Chinese Investment Trust PLC.
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.
Nick Pople
Chief Investment Officer, Earth Capital Asia
Nick has 25 year’s sustainable energy and technologies experience across private equity, corporate finance advisory and capital raising with an IRR of 36% from 23 sustainable PE investments since 1997. He co-founded Ludgate Investments in 2001 and helped establish Ludgate’s reputation as a leading European investor in resource efficiency, having raised and deployed over £75m in the space and launched the Ludgate Environmental Fund in 2007.
Prior to Ludgate, Nick spent 8 years working within the commercial and investment banking divisions of Barclays Capital (formerly BZW), including two years (1994/95) in Hong Kong focused on infrastructure project finance across Asia.
Nick graduated from the University of Durham with a degree in geography.
Sabina Largerkranser
Chief Operations Officer, Earth Capital Asia
Sabina has 16 years experience in global banking, financial markets and alternative investments. In 2012 she joined HSBC Hong Kong where she spent 4 years implementing investment solutions, together with the alternative investment and portfolio construction teams, for both institutional and private investors. Sabina started her career at J.P. Morgan as a financial analyst in Geneva in 2001 and later moved to New York and Los Angeles where she worked closely with family offices and institutional investors.
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.
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.