BLENDED FINANCE TO REGENERATE AMAZON ECOSYSTEMS
December 7th, 2022 at 12:30 PM ET
What blended finance structures are at play in the Amazon? How can we create new opportunities for conservation and large-scale regeneration? In this session we will explore experiences in Latin America and identify ways to innovate based on the international experiences that have come before us.
Carolina Pimenta
Conexsus
Carina Pimenta is the Executive Director at Conexsus and is currently developing the Conexsus Impact Fund within the Lab. The instrument creates a business platform that can develop a variety of financial products tailored to specific communities and enterprises, addressing the gap in the way small-scale farms and forest-dwellers in Brazil access available financing. Carina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business from Fundação Getúlio Vargas and a MA in Social Development from the University of Sussex.
João Pacifico
Gripo Gaia
João Paulo Pacifico is CEO of Impact Investments at Grupo Gaia, which has issued more than BRL 20 billion credit operations. After 13 years successfully operating in the capital markets, mainly in Agribusiness and Real Estate securitization, Grupo Gaia becomes a social business and focuses on impact investments. A certified B Corporation since 2014, Gaia was initially known for its strong culture of happiness. In more recent years, the company has gained prominence as an activist business, performing transactions like CRA Tabôa Cacau and CRA Cooperativas MST, financing sustainable family farming. Pacifico is also the author of the books Onda Azul and Seja Líder Como o Mundo Precisa (HarperCollins), Co-founder of the NGO Gaia+, Board Member of Greenpeace Brazil and a LinkedIn Top Voice (460k followers).
Carolina Suarez
Latimpacto
Carolina is a passionate Latin American convinced of the value of partnerships to generate impact. She is a lawyer with an LLM in international business law and more than 16 years of experience in the fields of private social investment and philanthropy. She is recognized for her commitment to generating strategic transformations through exchanging knowledge and fostering new alliances. She co-led the creation of Latimpacto after supporting the due diligence with the International Venture Philanthropy Center -IVPC-. Prior to that, she was also co-founder of the Association of Family and Corporate Foundations -AFE Colombia-, where she was director for its first ten years (2008-2018). Carolina is a member of the Editorial Committee of the Journal Alliance, a board member of the National Advisory Council for Impact Inversions of Colombia (NAB Colombia), and the IC Foundation. She is a lawyer at the Universidad del Rosario in Colombia with an LLM from the Bond University in Australia, speaks English and Spanish, and is taking Portuguese classes! She is married to an entrepreneur, has two children, and lives in Bogotá. Carolina enjoys reading and is grateful for her family and her work.
Caio Sergio de Mello Sarhan
Natura
Graduated in Business Administration from FGV-SP with an MBA from Duke University-US, he has extensive experience in financial structuring, investments, and business management at different stages of maturity, having gone through groups such as Patria Investimentos, ALL-Logística (now Rumo, Cosan Group) and Omega Energia. At Natura he is Finance Business
Partner, supporting the development of the Company’s Sustainability and Innovation projects.
Guilherme Karam
Fundação Grupo Boticário
Biodiversity Economics Manager at the Boticário Group Foundation. Guilherme holds a degree in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Paraná and a specialization in Environmental Analysis from the same University. In 2007, he completed the Master in Natural Protected Spaces at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) and, in 2017, he became a Kinship Conservation Fellow. Over the last 15 years, it has been involved in biodiversity conservation projects, with an emphasis on socio-environmental impact businesses, climate change, payment for environmental services and management and enhancement of natural areas. Since 2010, he has been a member of the Boticário Group Foundation team, where, in 2014, he began coordinating the Conservation Strategies area, in 2018, the Business and Biodiversity area, and, in 2021, he became manager of Biodiversity Economics.
