IMPROVING THE AMAZON IMPACT BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM (PLENARY)
December 5th, 11:00 AM ET
The Amazon impact business ecosystem has matured in recent years, increasingly vibrant and full of opportunity. What is needed next? How can the diverse stakeholders involved unite their efforts and prepare for ever greater integration with international markets? How can investment, philanthropy and blended finance work together? Join us to meet some of the primary organizations in the sector and learn how to help.
Mariana Lima
Amazon Investor Coalition
Mariana Paulino Lima is an agriculture engineer with a Masters degree in Sustainability from Fundação Getulio Vargas, a Brazilian higher education institution and think tank with a mission to stimulate Brazil’s socioeconomic development. She has 10 years of experience in financial markets, social impact entrepreneurship, and nature-based solutions for climate change. Most recently, she managed projects focused on the Brazilian Amazon working for Partnerships for Forests, a UK- government program implemented by Palladium. She was involved in several projects focused on biodiversity and non-timber forest products, working with potential investors and developing business plans and operations for the businesses. Previous experience includes work with local and indigenous communities in the Amazon. She speaks Portuguese, English and Spanish.
Rafael Kamke
CERTI
Rafael is a biologist, with a master degree. Since 2010 he has been serving as a Bioeconomy Solutions Architect at the CERTI Foundation, structuring and developing projects in Bioeconomy, including the Amazon Journey Initiative. CERTI is a Brazilian-based nonprofit with 37 years of experience nurturing and developing innovation ecosystems in Brazil. It created the 1st business incubator in Brazil, resulting in one of the largest in Latin America and Brazil’s most highly awarded accelerator.
Augusto Correa
Partnership Platform for the Amazon
Augusto Corrêa has been the Executive Secretary of PPA since April 2020. A graduate from the University of São Paulo, he attended the Executive MBA program in Digital Innovation and Sustainability, in addition to having participated in several specialization courses. In his current position, Augusto aims to expand the number of companies and other representatives of the private sector that participate and contribute to the sustainable development and preservation of biodiversity in the Amazon. He is responsible for attracting more investors and increasing support for high-impact projects, monitoring, and reporting results.
Andre Wongtschowski
World-Transforming Technologies
Andre is Innovation Director at World-Transforming Technologies (WTT), a non-profit foundation dedicated to fostering innovation as a tool for solving social and environmental challenges. Through his work at WTT Andre accelerates the development, experimentation and dissemination of innovations that offer effective responses to critical social and environmental challenges of our time, particularly in energy, water, biodiversity and agriculture. Before joining WTT Andre worked extensively at the private and social sectors, performing various roles at Unilever in Brazil, Colombia and England, at the pharma industry and in the financial sector. Andre holds a master’s degree in Development Administration and Planning from University College London and a degree in Economics from the University of São Paulo. He is an Eisenhower Fellow and an MIT/D-Lab Innovation Ecosystem Builder Fellow.
Carina 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. The Sustainable Connections Institute (Conexsus) is a non-governmental, non-profit organization, created in 2018 with the mission of activating the socio-environmental impact business ecosystem, especially those based on the community, to expand its contribution to income generation in the field, conservation of threatened biomes and maintenance of the forest standing. Work is based on three axes: development of impactful businesses, solutions innovative finance, and broadening and strengthening connections between community businesses and markets.
Marcelo Cwerner
NESsT
Marcelo is an entrepreneur based in the Amazon Forest and co-founder of Instituto Aquífero, focused on raising environmental consciousness and protection. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and after 12 years working in the financial markets and 7 years as an entrepreneur in eco-tourism, he joined NESsT as Portfolio Manager and now offers consulting and incubation to social and environmental organizations in the Amazon. NESsT is a catalyst for social enterprises in emerging markets and worldwide. We achieve our mission by providing financial capital, training and mentoring, and access to markets for a high-impact portfolio of social enterprises in emerging markets.
