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’ experience leading conservation and sustainable livelihoods programmes in the Amazon to protect indigenous and local communities’ lands from illegal logging, mining and deforestation. Aldo worked hand in hand with indigenous communities, smallholder farmers, public and private stakeholders. He has played strategic roles in developing partnerships between indigenous peoples and conservation organisations, rural businesses and ethical buyers.
Aldo is a biologist with studies in forest conservation, development of rural enterprises and social finance. He structured the first Development Impact Bond in Latin America to support indigenous farmers.
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, President of the Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) UK and Executive Board Member of Cybernaptics Ltd.
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.
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.
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. Lucy brings strong analytical capability, supporting AIV across the financial space from strategic financial modelling and cash flow forecasting to accounting & new systems implementation.
Nelson Torres
Investment Officer
David de la Cruz
Conservation & Agroforestry Specialist
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.
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.
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
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.
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 advisor of COICA (Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin).
He is also the elected official representing the indigenous peoples of Latin America in the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Green Climate Fund as well as a focal point in the Indigenous Peoples Caucus within the UNFCCC and in the World Bank’s Forest Investment Programme.
Mark Campanale
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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.
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.
Marc Weissgerber
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Marc is strategy adviser to global start-ups, investment funds and institutions on scaling climate solutions and investments. He is co-founder and partner at Bauhaus Earth, the international organisation focused on transforming the built environment.
He has worked as an international executive for one of the world's leading energy groups, was the Managing Director and CFO of one of the largest environmental services companies in Europe and Managing Director of Climate-KIC, Europe`s leading climate innovation organization. He holds an MBA from Cambridge University.
Jessica Villanueva
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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.
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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.
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Innovation
Promoting innovation and entrepreneurship leads to solve social and environmental challenges.
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Partnership
Building meaningful long-term partnerships, based on sharing responsibilities, risks and returns.
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Impact First
Using finance for good to invest in social enterprises and maximize their impact.