BTG Pactual hires new head of impact finance

BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group has hired Charlotte Kaiser to the newly created role of head of impact finance.

Kaiser joins from The Nature Conservancy, a US-based environmental non-profit, where she was managing director of NatureVest. The NatureVest unit is TNC’s impact investment arm that sources and closes deals designed to deliver financial returns and natural conservation.

Kaiser’s new role will see her structure and execute impact-focused transactions, strengthen TIG’s partnerships with the conservation community, lead impact-focused capital formation efforts, and support impact-focused initiatives across TIG’s existing $4.9 billion investment portfolio.

“There is rising demand from the marketplace for people with finance backgrounds who have experience with nature-based solutions, conservation and impact investment,” TIG chief sustainability officer Mark Wishnie told affiliate publication Agri Investor.

“This is becoming an increasingly competitive space as more organizations look to build the expertise to develop approaches that deliver climate and environmental outcomes alongside returns. We’re excited to be at the head of this shift and are thrilled to have Charlotte, whose experience and skillset is perfectly matched to our mission at TIG.”

Wishnie added that Kaiser’s initial focus will be on the firm’s current portfolio working on “partnerships to amplify and maximize the impact of what we are already doing, and from there build to new capital and new deals.”

During Kaiser’s tenure as managing partner of NatureVest, TNC grew its impact investment portfolio to more than US$ 2.5 billion of capital committed.

Kaiser said of her new role in a statement: “I’m very excited to join TIG to continue to dismantle the assumption that investments have to sacrifice returns-based outcomes for environmental and social outcomes, or vice versa.”

TIG has also hired director of policy and external affairs Caitlin Clarke from TNC, where she worked on the development and delivery of natural climate solutions strategies as a senior fellow.

Clarke will help lead TIG’s engagement with the conservation community, as well as multistakeholder and industry initiatives focused on helping the forest sector deliver on its potential to address climate change and biodiversity loss.

“Biodiversity loss and the climate emergency demand focused, urgent and collective action to build the framework for a safe and prosperous shared future,” commented Clarke.

“I’m thrilled to be joining the TIG team to advance the policy architecture we need to deliver the full potential of forests as a solution.”

Clarke has also served as a technical expert on working groups and advisory committees focused on sustainable land use, carbon accounting, forest certification and deforestation-free commodity sourcing.