Julius drives The Climate Trust’s strategy and investments to effectively deliver market-based climate solutions to our partners and demonstrate scalable approaches to combat the climate crisis. Prior to his work at The Climate Trust, Julius was the Forest Manager for the Yale Forests and a U.S. Fulbright scholar investigating climate-smart agroforestry techniques in France. Julius is a Certified Forester and holds a Master of Forestry from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He has been with The Climate Trust since 2017.
Karen is responsible for managing The Climate Trust’s accounting and finance activities and related compliance. Karen is a Certified Public Accountant, a Chartered Global Management Accountant and a member of both Oregon Society and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She has more than 20 years’ experience in public accounting with the international CPA firm, Deloitte & Touche, LLP; supervising and managing the audits of a wide range of clients in various industries. Prior to The Climate Trust, Karen served as the Executive Director of two nonprofit organizations overseeing mergers, contract negotiations, grant reporting and overall strategic planning. She has been with The Climate Trust since 2016.
Kyler manages The Climate Trust’s carbon offset projects in the biogas digester sector and provides technical analysis, including greenhouse gas modeling, to support the Trust’s carbon project development in grasslands, forestry and wetlands. She also manages The Trust’s offset project portfolio account registries and internal credit tracking registries. Kyler holds a Masters of Greenhouse Gas Management and Accounting and B.S. in Natural Resource Management from Colorado State University. Kyler has been with The Climate Trust since 2018.
Ryan believes that renewable energy is good for local communities, good for America, and great for our environment. With that belief in mind, Ryan has spent his career developing and constructing over 2,000 megawatts of utility-scale renewable energy projects and managing over $1 billion in operational renewable energy assets. His educational background includes a JD from Willamette University College of Law, an MBA from Atkinson Graduate School of Management, and a BS from University of California, Davis.
Amrita Vatsal is a Managing Director, Business Development with EFM. She joined the firm in 2011 to lead the development of private impact investment vehicles that aim to accelerate the adoption of climate-smart forestry across the western United States. Amrita now also spearheads the development of carbon projects and conservation finance strategies on EFM’s 100,000-acre portfolio and she leads EFM’s advisory initiatives. She is a member of the company’s management team and investment committee. Amrita has worked at the intersection of finance and the environment throughout her career, At EFM she led the development of the first forest carbon project to be registered and validated on private lands in Oregon and Washington, under the VCS Standard. In previous roles she has helped develop carbon projects to finance avoided deforestation projects in Indonesia (the Katingan project), and the adoption of clean efficient cookstoves in West Africa (E+Carbon). Amrita is a Fellow of the Erb Institute of Global Sustainable Enterprise and graduated from the University of Michigan with an MBA and an M.S. in Natural Resources. She was named the Journal of Environmental Investing’s first Graduate Scholar, and is a co-author of ‘Evolutions in Sustainable Investing’, published by Wiley in 2012.
Morgan is an environmental engineer with over 25 years’ experience working with government, nonprofit and private organizations on a variety of environmental and natural resource related issues. Morgan believes the best way to affect long-term behavior change is through amazing creative visuals, simple messaging, and great storytelling. Morgan serves as a Board Member for the Wetlands Conservancy, the Chair, Clean Fuels Rule Making Advisory Committee, and on the Advisory Committee Climate Chaos | Climate Rising, Northern Lights. She has a degree from Cornell University, in Civil & Environmental Engineering.
Brad is a senior lender with Craft3 and manages Craft3’s Clean Tech Investments, as well as the Conservation Bridge Fund that provides financing to accelerate land conservation in the region. Prior to joining the Craft3 team, Brad worked for GreenWood Resources as a business analyst. Previous work experience includes commercial lending with GE Capital and forest management/timberland valuation for Green Crow and American Forest Management. Brad received his B.A. in History from The University of the South. He also has a Master of Forestry from Yale University and an MBA from University of North Carolina.
Odin has retired from President/CEO and founder of Real Options International where he helped clients transform environmental compliance and other regulatory liabilities into assets through a comprehensive approach to risk management and the use of options in investments and portfolio decisions. Odin also started J.P. Morgan’s leading environmental markets business. Odin has nearly three decades of experience at the World Bank, where he was Deputy Vice President and Senior Advisor and oversaw the bank’s carbon finance business, growing carbon offset transactions from $140 million to over $1 billion, with nearly $2 billion of funds under management in the carbon offset market.He holds a PhD in Applied Economics and several engineering degrees from Stanford University and advanced management and financial training from Harvard’s and Stanford’s business schools.
David is an attorney with his own policy and law practice in Portland, Oregon. His practice focuses in the areas of sustainability, renewable energy and climate policy, drawing from his experience as Sustainability Policy Advisor to former Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and ten years of practice at Stoel Rives and Lane Powell law firms. With the Governor’s Office, David led the state’s participation in the Western Climate Initiative, the framework for a regional cap and trade program, and in developing the state’s nationally recognized climate change and renewable energy policies. David has served on numerous renewable energy and energy efficiency non-profit boards, including Climate Solutions, and also works with non-profits on a contract basis both providing legal and policy expertise. David earned his law degree (J.D., cum laude, 1994) from the University of Michigan Law School and his undergraduate degree (B.A. Philosophy, Phi Beta Kappa, 1988) from Trinity College, Hartford CT.
Kelley is passionate about the role of nature in providing climate solutions. She leads COLT, a statewide coalition of non-profit land trusts that protect Oregon’s special places. During her nine years at COLT Kelley has built a powerful statewide network to support land conservation in Oregon and nurtured the growth and development of 21 non profit organizations. Kelley has more than 15 years of experience developing strategic advocacy campaigns to unite people from diverse backgrounds. Prior to joining the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts, Kelley worked at Cascadia Green Building Council and Friends of Columbia Gorge. Kelley holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame and a Masters of Arts in Environmental Policy from American University.
Alexis’s professional background spans the industries of venture capital, agricultural and clean
technology, adventure tourism, and investment management. Her functional expertise includes
economic and financial analysis, investment strategy, and business and corporate development.
She is passionate about optimizing profitability while maximizing the positive social and
environmental impact of innovative products and services.
Alexis is currently the Head of Finance and Corporate Strategy at a cleantech company called
Gybe. Gybe is focused on water conservation and monitoring and securing a clean water future
for all. Further, she serves on the investment committee of Portland State Impact Ventures, a
student-led impact venture fund she founded in 2019. And she is on the advisory committee of
a three-year phase-II project funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) focused on catalyzing investment in the US Aquaculture industry.
David Yeh for the last 25 years has been solving global challenges as an investor, innovator, and White House executive. In the Obama White House, he helped guide the nation’s sustainable investing efforts including a $76B program that funded Tesla and many of the largest renewable projects in the world. He also convened a $7T roundtable of sovereign wealth funds to invest in sustainable and innovative infrastructure. His work as a multi-asset investor (infrastructure, private equity, public equity) in Beijing, London, and New York include Generation IM (Al Gore cofounded) and the launch of a $100B+ Chinese energy efficiency public private partnership at the World Bank. David graduated from Dartmouth College and received his MBA from the Wharton School of Business. David is an Advisory Board Member at Dartmouth’s Irving Institute for Energy and Society, Confluence Philanthropy, IP Group, and Terra Alpha. He is also an active speaker and writer featured at the Wall Street Journal, Council of Foreign Relations, SXSW, and World Economic Forum
©2020 The Climate Trust. Crafted by ILLUSIO