Our People
Our diverse expertise and experience across industries including finance, conservation, soft commodities trading, law, international development and fund management means we can connect our investors with outstanding investments in the Amazon rainforest that genuinely make a difference.
Aldo Soto
Co-founder and Managing Director
Aldo brings over 15 years of experience leading initiatives in conservation, regenerative agriculture, and innovative finance across the Amazon rainforest. He has developed results-based financing instruments, including Latin America’s first development impact bond. A trained biologist, Aldo also holds specialised studies in forest conservation, rural enterprise development, and social finance.
Adam Smith
Sustainable Trade Director
Adam is an experienced business development professional. He co founded, developed and successfully exited a soft commodities business focused on trading, transport, storage and warehousing of commodities from Latin America. He is currently a director of two listed Real Estate investment funds and is a member of the audit and investment committees of both companies.
Pajani Singah
Co-Founder and Investment Director
Pajani has over 15 years investment management experience. He is a partner and COO of Inflection Point Investments, a boutique fund management company investing in listed global technology companies. He is a Certified Chartered Accountant, Executive Board Member of Cybernaptics Ltd., President of the Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) UK, and Mentor of Unreasonable.
Lucy Singah
Chief Financial Officer
Lucy is a finance professional, with 20 years’ experience across large corporate, start-up environments and professional services. Lucy has spent the majority of her career in purpose-driven Healthcare industry with 11 years at GlaxoSmithKline plc (Corporate Development, Investor Relations, and CFO/FD roles) and as Finance Director of a Med Tech start up. Lucy trained as a Chartered Accountant with EY, advising clients across industrial and consumer sectors on M&A and Financial Due Diligence.
Carla Koffel
Governance and Impact Director
Carla is a corporate lawyer and international development professional with more than 20 years’ experience working with the private sector, international development organisations and philanthropic initiatives. Areas of expertise include promoting good corporate governance practices within both global companies and SMEs, ethical supply chain management and human rights. She has conducted social impact assessments across multiple jurisdictions and managed grants for international donors such as United Nations agencies.
Nelson Torres
Investment Officer
Nelson brings over 20 years of experience in the financial and rural business sectors, particularly with smallholder farmers' organisations. He has designed rural credit products, structured credit operations for various supply chains, designed credit evaluation procedures, and developed climate-smart investment cases for cooperatives. Nelson has worked for rural microfinance institutions, savings and credit cooperatives, NGOs, and development banks. He is also a researcher in microfinance and rural development.
Majda Radovanovic
Senior Investment Associate
Majda brings over seven years of deal execution expertise across impact and climate-focused sectors including sustainable agriculture, climate tech, and circular economy. Her experience spans equity analysis at climate tech VC, investment banking at Citigroup, and development finance at DFC and LISC. Majda holds dual Columbia University degrees an MBA and international affairs degree.
David de la Cruz
Conservation & Agroforestry Specialist
David has worked for the National Forest Conservation Programme of the Ministry of the Environment of Peru for more than 10 years. The programme implemented forest conservation agreements along the Peruvian Amazon. David has vast experience working with indigenous communities implementing coffee and cocoa agroforestry farms and others community investments plans, leading forest conservation commitments and land use planning processes.
Paula Perrelli dos Anjos
Communications and Social Media Manager
Paula Perrelli dos Anjos has extensive expertise in press journalism and PR management within the corporate and government sectors in Brazil. For the past 18 years, Paula has been living in the UK, where she has been consulting in global marketing and brand reputation for the third sector and start-ups. She joined AIV to enhance our communication with stakeholders and expand our social media presence. Paula also serves as the Managing Director of Projtech, an IT consulting firm. She studied Journalism, Marketing, and International Affairs, and is passionate about impactful storytelling, envisioning a sustainable future, and connecting with people from around the world through communication.
Joaquín Sancho Ferrer
Strategic Communication Consultant
Joaquin is a specialist in corporate communication and communication for development. He is an expert in conceptualizing, designing and executing creative solutions for clients internationally. Joaquin has successfully developed brands for indigenous enterprises and managed marketing campaigns for conservation and development organisations.
He is also a university teacher in Peru and Spain and has directed several documentaries in the Amazon.
Our advisors
Dieter Wittkowski
Dieter has more than 30 years of experience in the areas of rural and agriculture finance, impact investing, innovative financing mechanisms, green finance, financial inclusion and social entrepreneurship, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean. He recently retired from a 23-year career at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where he worked at the IDB Lab investment unit, Social Entrepreneurship Program and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Division. He holds a master’s degree in International Development from Harvard University. Read his full bio here.
Juan Carlos Jintiach
Juan Carlos is a member of the Shuar indigenous people from the Amazon Rainforest of Ecuador. He is the Executive Secretary of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities and former advisor of COICA (Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin). He has been nominated as a candidate for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, has also been elected official representing the indigenous peoples of Latin America in the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Green Climate Fund, and a focal point in the Indigenous Peoples Caucus within the UNFCCC and in the World Bank’s Forest Investment Programme.
Mark Campanale
Mark is the founder of the Carbon Tracker Initiative, best known for its work on ‘stranded assets’ and the ‘carbon bubble’. Previously, he spent twenty years in the sustainable financial markets as a co-founder of some of the first responsible investment funds such as Jupiter Asset Management, NPI, AMP Capital and Henderson Global Investors. Mark was member of the Steering Committee of UNEP Financial Sector Initiative and is founder of the UK Sustainable and Responsible Investment Forum (UKSIF). Currently, he serves on the Advisory Board of GFANZ (the Glasgow Finance Alliance for Net Zero). In 2021, Mark was winner of the CEREs/Trillium Capital Lifetime Achievement Award on Sustainable Finance, was made a Sorenson Impact Fellow, and an Ashoka Fellow in 2020.
Richard Woodhull
Richard is an emerging market private credit and impact investing professional. He currently serves as an Investment Director at British International Investment in their Financial Services Group. Before that, he spent a decade as an Investment Officer at the US International Development Finance Corp. Prior roles centered on emerging market private equity, international development consulting and impact investing. Richard serves as a board member of Working Capital for Community Needs (WCCN). Read his full bio here.
Gayle Peterson
Gayle is Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School, Oxford University, where she is programme director of Oxford Impact Investing and Social Finance Programmes. With more than 20 years’ experience as a strategist, philanthropist, and trusted adviser to social investors worldwide, Gayle has managed and assessed more than US$15 billion in philanthropic and impact investments.
She has advised social investors in more than 45 countries and has taught social investing classes worldwide.
Florian Kemmerich
Florian is an impact investor, board member
& business growth strategist. CurrentlyManaging Partner at KOIS, previously Managing Director and Capital Mobilization at Palladium, Managing Partner at Bamboo Capital Partners, and Co-Founder of Resilienture. As an active member of the Young Presidents’ Organization he is Chair of the Impact Networks Council. Florian previously held C-level positions at Partner Capital, Olympus, SBi (Stryker), and B|Braun.
Jessica Villanueva
Jessica is the Senior Director of Technical Areas of Practice at MEDA. She has more than 20 years of management experience on inclusive and sustainable agri-food market systems and innovative finance projects in LATAM, Africa and Asia. Her experience includes designing and structuring blended finance transactions that utilize different asset classes and technical assistance approaches to achieve gender equality and environmental sustainability in agri-food systems. Jessica is member of the prestigious 2X Global Forum for her expertise and commitment to accelerating gender lens investments to create a positive impact on women.
Jessica has also worked for WWF Peru (Conservation Finance Director), ResponsAbility and the IADB.
Our values
Our values guide the approach adopted by AIV’s global team, emphasising the importance of working collaboratively with indigenous communities and our other partners, challenging the status quo and finding opportunities for finance to overcome environmental and social challenges.
Empowerment
Empowering indigenous peoples and local communities is essential to protect their lands and forests.
Innovation
Promoting innovation and entrepreneurship leads to solve social and environmental challenges.
Partnership
Building meaningful long-term partnerships, based on sharing responsibilities, risks and returns.
Impact First
Using finance for good to invest in social enterprises and maximize their impact.