About

Contributors

• Ricardo Bayon
• Maria Bendana
• Nathaniel Carroll
• David Diaz
• Katherine Hamilton
• Becca Madsen
• Molly Peters-Stanley
• Jason Scott
• Tracy Stanton
• Steve Zwick

Ricardo Bayon

Ricardo Bayon is a Partner and co-founder of EKO Asset Management Partners. Previously, he helped found and served as the Managing Director of the “Ecosystem Marketplace,” a web site and information/analysis service covering these emerging environmental markets. In that capacity he co-authored a number of publications on voluntary carbon markets, including “The State of Voluntary Carbon Markets 2007: Picking up Steam” and “Voluntary Carbon Markets: An International Business Guide to What They Are and How They Work.” His most recent publication on markets for biodiversity, entitled “Conservation and Biodiversity Banking: A Guide to Setting Up and Running Biodiversity Credit Trading System” has just been published by Earthscan in London. For over a decade he has specialized on issues related to finance, banking, and the environment. He has done consulting work for a number of organizations, including Insight Investments, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank, IUCN, The Nature Conservancy, Domini Social Investment, among others. His articles have appeared in publications such as The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, and the International Herald Tribune. He has also written numerous publications and chapters on mitigation banking, biodiversity markets, markets for water quality, and other environmental markets. He was born in Bogota, Colombia, and is currently based in San Francisco.

Maria Bendana

Maria Bendana is the Forest Carbon Associate in the Carbon Program of the Ecosystem Marketplace. Prior to joining the carbon program, she worked for Forest Trends’ Tropical America Katoomba Group in support of its network of incubator projects and capacity building workshops in Latin America. In that role, she conducted research for legal and institutional studies and translations of Forest Trends’ publications regarding Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES). Prior to joining Forest Trends, Maria was a graduate assistant for an immigrant’s advocacy non profit at the University of Maryland and has interned at the International Economic Development Council, the Office of the Governor’s Delivery Unit in Maryland and the United Nations Secretariat in New York. She holds a Master of Community Planning degree from the University of Maryland with a focus on international development. Maria speaks Spanish, French and English.

Nathaniel Carroll

Nathaniel is Project Director for Ecosystem Marketplace. He has helped developed the biodiversity market program, co-authoring the book Conservation and Biodiversity Banking and spearheading the design and launch of SpeciesBanking.com. Nathaniel currently directs the development of market-crosscutting projects for Ecosystem Marketplace, including the Ecosystem Services Matrix and MarketWatch, which help stakeholders understand the shape, relationship, and scope of ecosystem markets. In addition to his work with Ecosystem Marketplace, Nathaniel has worked with Forest Trends’ Business Development Facility and consulted to several eco-asset investment groups. Before joining Forest Trends, Nathaniel worked with a private forestry and real estate company in Panama, channeling private investment to restore degraded lands. Nathaniel spent two years with Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program and Conservation Tools Program. He has experience conducting ecological research, from the Rocky Mountains to Andes, from the Northwest Hawaiian Islands to the Penobscot Bay. Nathaniel holds a Bachelor of Science from Tufts University and a Master’s in Forest Science from Yale University.

David Diaz

David Diaz joined Ecosystem Marketplace’s Carbon Program as a Forest Carbon Associate in February, 2010. Specializing in carbon cycling and ecosystem science, David has applied his science background to forest conservation and climate change issues since receiving his MS in Soil Science from Oregon State University in 2008. Before moving to DC, David worked at Portland-based Ecotrust in forest carbon offset project development including forest modeling. He has also worked for the USDA Forest Service where he published a guide synthesizing scientific research concerning carbon-oriented forest and range management in the US West that also introduced the history and emerging opportunities for landowners to access carbon markets. He received his BA in Environmental History from Harvard University in 2006.

Tracy Stanton

Tracy Stanton is the Water Program Manager of the Ecosystem Marketplace. Her work focuses on expanding the coverage of water issues. Recently, she worked as a consultant for the National Academy of Public Administration where she collaborated on an assessment of US EPA’s delivery of environmental services using the Chesapeake Bay watershed as a learning platform. From 1995-2003, Tracy worked at the University of Maryland in the School of Public Policy and Center for International Economics developing programs aimed at improving the effectiveness of government policies and programs in the environment and financial management arenas. She holds a masters degree in Public and Environmental Policy from the University of Maryland and a BA from The Ohio State University.

Katherine Hamilton

Katherine Hamilton is the Managing Director of Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace. At Ecosystem Marketplace, she’s authored numerous pieces on carbon and water markets, as well as co-authored the book Voluntary Carbon Markets and three annual State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets reports. Before joining Ecosystem Marketplace, Katherine worked as a Hixon Center for Urban Ecology Fellow with the United Nations Development Program-Latin America/Caribbean and as a lead research assistant at the Yale Environmental Law and Policy Center. She has also held positions with Natural Capitalism Inc. in Boulder, Colorado, the International Council for Science in Paris, France, and teaching outdoor environmental education. Katherine holds a Master of Environmental Management degree from Yale University and bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan.

Becca Madsen

Becca joined Forest Trends in August 2008 as the Biodiversity Program Manager of Ecosystem Marketplace. Prior to joining Ecosystem Marketplace, she was a Presidential Management Fellow with the US Forest Service, informing mitigation banking business proposals while on loan to Environmental Banc & Exchange and analyzing demand for water quality trading. Becca completed a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University, where she was selected as a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow. Before attending graduate school, she served as a small business volunteer with the Peace Corps in Mali and worked on water quality and land conservation issues in city government in Texas.

Molly Peters-Stanley

Molly Peters-Stanley is the Voluntary Carbon Associate in the Ecosystem Marketplace’s Carbon Program. Previously, Molly analyzed voluntary and compliance carbon markets as a climate policy officer in South Australia’s Department of Premier and Cabinet, Sustainability and Climate Change Division. There, she researched and wrote recommendations on behalf of the Division addressing the intersection of federal climate policies and the voluntary carbon market. Molly also composed South Australia’s contribution to the international States and Regions Statement of Action on Climate Change presented to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer in Poznan, Poland, December 2008. Molly’s expertise also includes regional resource accounting and spatial analysis of climate change projections and adaptation strategies. Molly received her Master of Science in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, School of Public Policy and Management. She pursued this degree as a Public Policy and International Affairs fellow.

Jason Scott

Jason Scott is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of EKO Asset Management Partners. Jason has more than a decade of experience developing and managing firms seeking to sustainably manage and invest capital. He was most recently an investment analyst at Generation Investment Management, co-founded by David Blood and former Vice President Al Gore, Jr. Jason was a founding Director of Generation and as its first employee helped build the firm, and its first and second products. Generation’s global equity and climate solutions funds seek to maximize financial returns by integrating sustainability analysis into traditional investment management processes. From 1999 to 2004, Jason worked as an executive and advisor with Acumen Fund, a global social investing project incubated by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Blue Ridge Foundation, an affiliate of hedge fund Blue Ridge Capital, and the Flatiron Future Fund and the Flatiron Foundation in New York City. From 1996 to 1999, Jason was the President and COO of Togglethis, software company based in New York City. From 1991 to 1996, Jason helped found and build Public Allies, a community leadership program for young adults. Prior to Public Allies, Jason worked in organizing positions for several political campaigns.

In 1998, the Rockefeller Foundation selected Jason as a fellow in its Next Generation Leadership Program. Jason served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Duke’s Sanford Institute of Public Policy in 2000. He serves on the board of youth development programs Groundwork, Inc., in Brooklyn, N.Y. and Public Allies. Jason received a BA cum laude from Duke University with honors in History in 1990. He received an MBA with Distinction though a joint Global Executive Program of Columbia and London Business Schools in 2004.

Steve Zwick

Steve Zwick is the Managing Editor of the Ecosystem Marketplace. Before joining the Ecosystem Marketplace, Steve was a contributing writer to the site, as well as to several other magazines and newspapers, including Time Magazine, Fortune Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. He also hosts the current affairs program Newslink on Deutsche Welle Radio, and has been short-listed twice for the World Leadership Forum’s Business Journalist of the Year Award. Prior to his career in journalism, Steve was an independend currency trader based in Chicago. He attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.