David Tepper serves as the CEO of The Earth Partners. Before joining The Earth Partners, David served as Head of Carbon Markets for Climate Change Capital in London from 2005-2007, where he built a team of thirty five investment professionals. During this time he invested over €500 million in carbon reduction projects, and his overall team managed over €800 million across a number of renewable energy and other low carbon projects such as waste-to-energy and methane gas capture. Since 2007, David has been a senior executive at Forest Trends, where he oversees the carbon and water programs, and has been a senior fellow of Forest Trends since 2001. Forest Trends is a Washington, D.C.-based NGO specializing in project-based activities that inform policy and build capacity in emerging markets for payment for ecosystem services. David also advises several large family offices on their sustainable land and climate change investments and philanthropic initiatives. David also served as Executive Chairman of the Consodata Group, a 600 person Paris Stock Exchange listed company where he successfully restructured the company and sold the business in 2004. Previously, David worked on over €20 billion of financing transactions as a Director of Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch (London, New York) from 1987-1999.
Chas Taylor is Director of Business Development of The Earth Partners. His background is in finance, real estate, agriculture, and natural resource development. Prior to joining The Earth Partners, Chas consulted for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation within their agricultural development group, where he worked on input supply chain development and financing issues. Previously, Chas worked for McKinsey & Company, the international management consulting firm, serving clients across four continents. Chas also worked on the fixed-income trading floor with Bank of America in New York. He graduated with High Distinction from the University of Virginia.
Steven Apfelbaum leads The Earth Partners Science Team and is Chairman and Founder of Applied Ecological Services, Inc. He has conducted ecological research, designed award-winning projects, successfully navigated regulatory programs, and contributed his creative scientific expertise and leadership to over 6,000 projects across North America and beyond. He is one of the leading ecological consultants in the U.S., providing technical restoration advice and win-win solutions where ecological and land development conflicts arise. Steve has authored hundreds of technical studies and has peer-reviewed technical papers, books, reports, ecological restoration plans, regulatory monitoring and compliance reports.
Dirk Brinkman is a Lead Advisor for The Earth Partners and is the co-founder and CEO of the Brinkman & Associates Reforestation Group of companies and its international subsidiaries. Since 1970, Dirk has been a core contributor to the innovation of operational practices and policy in reforestation and ecosystem restoration in Canada and the tropics. He has been a speaker at numerous conferences, forums and workshops, published over one hundred articles and editorials and contributed to many workshops and working committees in forestry. His company, which has planted nearly a billion trees, is the reforestation leader in Canada and is an FSC Resource Manager in Central America. Brinkman now operates in seven countries.
Will Raap serves as Chairman of The Earth Partners. He is also Chairman and Founder of America's Gardening Resource, Inc., the leading gardening products direct marketer in the world with operations in North America, Europe, and South America. As the largest distributor of organic gardening supplies, composting equipment, water-saving solutions, and healthy backyard habitat products, AGR has promoted environmental restoration at home for 25 years. Will also founded the non-profit El Centro Verde agro-forestry training center in Costa Rica and Intervale Center in Vermont.
Charlie Kireker is a Lead Policy and Strategy Advisor for The Earth Partners. Charlie is a co-founder of and senior advisor to FreshTracks Capital, L.P., which manages $25 million in Limited Partner capital. Before launching FreshTracks in 2000, Charlie co-founded in 1993 Green Mountain Capital, L.P., a mezzanine Small Business Investment Company that invested in some 30 companies in northern New England. Kireker also co-founded North Country Angels in 1999. He is an experienced Board member and consultant to emerging growth companies in Vermont, which have included VEMAS, Eating Well, Vermont Teddy Bear Company and Autumn Harp.
Carl Korfmacher is the President of AES and coordinates the relationship between TEP and AES. Carl joined Applied Ecological Services in 1995, serving as Field Services Manager, Consulting Division Manager and for the past decade, as General Manager. He has worked in team settings to design and implement a wide variety of complex projects including the Flambeau Mine reclamation in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, and a 7,000-acre prairie and wetland restoration project for The Nature Conservancy in northwest Indiana.
