BEZOS EARTH FUND - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Energy and Industry Program Officer
- Program Officer, Energy and Industry
Ally Friedman is an Energy and Industry Program Officer at the Bezos Earth Fund. Earlier, she worked at the Soros Fund Management as an analyst focused on research and engagement to achieve the Fund's ambitious net zero portfolio emissions goal. Ally started her career at the World Resources Institute, working across various environmental themes and projects. She has consulted on climate-related strategies and stories for Gap Inc, Mercato Metropolitano, and several research projects at The Fletcher School. Ally's first environmental job was as a counselor and director at YMCA Camp Orkila on Orcas Island, her favorite place in the world.
Ally holds a Master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she studied Business for Social Impact and Environment and Natural Resources Policy. She has a B.A. in Global Studies from St. Lawrence University.
Job Titles:
- Director of Equitable Urban Solutions
Amanda Eichel is the Bezos Earth Fund's Director of Equitable Urban Solutions. She has championed the cause of urban climate action over the past two decades, working for two of the world's leading cities on sustainability, first in Seattle and then in New York City. She pioneered efforts to develop city networks to rapidly scale climate change solutions, most recently as Executive Director of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy.
She founded, built, or led some of the world's most impactful initiatives to deliver city action on climate change, including the Compact of Mayors, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and the Urban Sustainability Directors Network.
Amanda was a senior advisor to Mike Bloomberg as the Special Envoy on Climate Action to the Secretary General of the U.N. and has spearheaded numerous collaborations and innovations to drive climate action at the local level.
Job Titles:
- Director of Data Strategies
Amen Ra Mashariki is the director of data strategies at the Bezos Earth Fund, where he works to identify strategies and solutions that will help environmental justice organizations use data to solve complex issues. Dr. Mashariki was previously the Global Director of the AI Lab at the World Resources Institute. He has also served as Head of Machine Learning at Urbint, adjunct faculty at NYU's Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), and Fellow at the Harvard Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.
Dr. Mashariki served as the first Chief Analytics Officer for the City of New York under the de Blasio administration and the Director of the Mayor's Office of Data Analytics. He was appointed to be a White House Fellow and the Chief Technology Officer for the Office of Personnel Management of the United States in the Obama Administration. Amen earned a Doctorate in Engineering from Morgan State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Howard and Lincoln University, respectively.
Job Titles:
- Director of Future of Food
Andy Jarvis has worked for over 20 years in research for development to support the delivery of food security and environmental sustainability in the food system. His research has focused on data-driven policy analysis on a variety of topics from agrobiodiversity conservation to climate impacts and adaptation. Andy joined the Bezos Earth Fund from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, a CGIAR center, as the Associate Director General for Research Strategy and Innovation where he oversaw research that spans from crop breeding and genetics to landscape management, climate adaptation and mitigation through to dietary shifts and consumer behavior.
Andy holds a PhD in Geography from King's College London, and is located in Cali, Colombia.
Job Titles:
- Program Engagement Manager and Special Assistant to the VP & Deputy CEO
Anna is the Program Engagement Manager and Special Assistant to the VP & Deputy CEO at Bezos Earth Fund. In this role, she works closely with executive leadership and program directors to advance the Earth Fund's tactical objectives and strategic priorities. Before joining the Earth Fund, she spent five years at Conservation International in philanthropy, managing institutional and strategic donor engagements.
Earlier, Anna worked at the D.C. Environmental Film Festival, The George Washington University, and the Peace Corps. Anna holds a B.A. in International Affairs and Geography from The George Washington University.
Job Titles:
- Associate, People & Culture
Ashley Pratt-Gallo is the People & Culture Associate at the Bezos Earth Fund. In this role she supports the coordination and implementation of HR procedures and policies which contribute to organizational success.
Prior to joining the Earth Fund, Ashley had multiple HR-based internship roles at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and was an Onboarding Team Member at the American Red Cross. She holds a bachelor's degree in business administration with a minor in human resource management from University of Maryland Global Campus.
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to the Managing Director and Leader of Nature Solutions
Before joining the Earth Fund, Beatrice spent five years at Conservation International where she provided logistical, strategic, and global program support companywide. Prior to Conservation International, Beatrice supported the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Natural Resources Conservation Service with their staffing and personnel needs. Additionally, she has volunteered with the Smithsonian at the Museum of Natural History and National Zoological Park.
Beatrice has a B.S. in Environmental Science with a focus in aquatic ecology and a minor in Conservation from George Mason University. She is fluent in English and Spanish and is currently learning Portuguese.
Job Titles:
- Senior Film Producer
- Senior Producer at Film45
Brian Cimagala is a Senior Producer at Film45, working closely with the Bezos Earth Fund to tell important, character-driven stories around climate and nature. A voracious consumer of stories for as long as he can remember, Brian Cimagala has enjoyed working as a professional storyteller for 15+ years.
Catherine Zuckerman is Editorial Manager at the Bezos Earth Fund. In this role, she shapes the Earth Fund's storytelling, highlighting thought leadership, grantee impact, and the organization's overall narrative.
Prior to joining the Earth Fund communications team, Catherine was a senior writer at Long Story Short Media (LSS), a woman-owned, D.C. - based creative agency, where she helped a range of clients, from Google to USAID, tell their most important stories to reach a variety of audiences for the biggest possible impact.
Before LSS, Catherine was a staff writer at National Geographic Magazine for more than a decade. Working there, alongside some of the world's most acclaimed journalists, taught her that great storytelling requires the ability to listen carefully, report accurately, and translate complicated jargon into engaging prose. When combined, these elements have the power to open readers' minds as well as hearts.
Catherine has written for many other prominent publications, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. She has also been published multiple times in Nature Conservancy Magazine. A lifelong lover of language and die-hard believer in the power of words, she holds a B.A. in French from Siena College.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Communications Associate
Claire is the Communications Associate at the Bezos Earth Fund. In this role, she collaborates with the Chief Communications Officer and Director of Digital and Content Strategy to advance the organization's thought leadership and amplify the stories of grant recipients. Before joining the Earth Fund, she managed communications at a venture-backed, affordable housing startup focused on off-grid operations and rural energy security.
Previously, Claire worked for Sierra Club, supporting environmental justice legal cases related to U.S. coal mining and export operations within the organization's Environmental Law Program. Claire holds a B.A. in International Development from UCLA.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director and Leader for Nature Solutions
Cristián Samper is the Managing Director and Leader for Nature Solutions at the Bezos Earth Fund, overseeing our work related to the protection and restoration of nature, as well as the transformation of food systems.
Prior to joining us, he served as President & Chief Executive Officer of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) for a decade from 2012 to 2022, overseeing the largest network of urban wildlife parks, hosting four million visitors each year, and carried long-term field research and conservation programs in more than 60 countries.
Prior to joining WCS, Dr. Samper served as Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History from 2003 to 2012 and was the founding director of Colombia's Alexander von Humboldt Biodiversity Institute in 1995. He served as Chair of the science advisory body of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and was one of the leaders of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Raised in Colombia, Dr. Samper studied biology at the Universidad de Los Andes and earned his MA and PhD from Harvard University.
Job Titles:
- Advisor for Sustainable Finance
Dan Firger is the Advisor for Sustainable Finance at the Bezos Earth Fund. He is also the Founder and Managing Partner of Great Circle Capital Advisors, which works with investors, businesses, and other partners on projects and transactions to accelerate the transition to net zero emissions before midcentury. Additionally, Dan is the co-founder and lead advisor of the Venture Climate Alliance, a group of venture capital firms committed to net zero.
Earlier, Dan led climate and sustainable finance programs at Bloomberg Philanthropies, where he was responsible for over $100M in a global portfolio of grants, spanning dozens of partners and a variety of organization types. He supported Mike Bloomberg as UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions and Co-Chair of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Before joining Bloomberg, Dan was an attorney at an international law firm focused on renewable energy investments and voluntary and compliance carbon market transactions.
Dan holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law and an M.P.A. from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
Job Titles:
- Director of Grants Management
Dan Schoenfeld is the Director of Grants Management at the Bezos Earth Fund, where he facilitates and oversees the grants management functions.
Before joining the Earth Fund, Dan was the Vice President of the ASCM Foundation, where he developed the strategic direction for the foundation's global health and philanthropic investment programs. He also led the foundation's global impact funding strategy of building corporate, foundation and investor partnerships. Dan also served as the Vice President of strategic development for Fluxx Labs, a grants management technology company, and held positions at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, where he oversaw the organization's grants management department and information technology functions.
Dan serves on various boards and steering committees and holds a B.S. degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University.
Job Titles:
- Controller
- Director of Finance and Accounting / Controller
Dave is the Director of Finance and Accounting/Controller for the Bezos Earth Fund. In this role, he works closely with the Chief Financial and Operating Officer and senior leadership to provide guidance and oversight of compliance and financial stewardship. Before joining the Earth Fund, Dave spent 17 years with the United Nations Foundation as Executive Director of Business Services. He focused on business and financial operations, budget tracking, contract review, and UN partner and fiduciary management during his tenure. Dave holds a B.S. in Finance from George Mason University.
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to the Cecilia Martinez
- Executive Assistant to the Chief of Environmental and Climate Justice
Dominique Hite is the Executive Assistant to the Cecilia Martinez, the Chief of Environmental and Climate Justice at the Bezos Earth Fund. She manages the administrative needs of the Chief of Environmental and Climate Justice and assists with aligning with leadership and the organizational members to execute tasks efficiently.
Prior to joining the Earth Fund in 2024, Dominique supported the executive and program leaders of Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Emory University - Advancement and Alumni Engagement and the City of Atlanta, Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs.
Dominique attended Old Dominion University, and is currently in Graduate School for Project Management at Northeastern University. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Doug Varley is General Counsel of the Bezos Earth Fund. Before joining the Earth Fund, Doug was a member of the DC-based law firm of Caplin & Drysdale where is served most recently as President and head of the exempt organizations practice. For more than 25 years, he has worked with national and international environmental organizations on a wide range of legal matters and has served on multiple nonprofit boards. He holds B.A. and JD degrees from the University of Virginia and an MA from the University of Chicago.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- President
- Meet Bezos Earth Fund President & CEO
Dr. Andrew Steer is the President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund.
Andrew joined the Bezos Earth Fund from the World Resources Institute, where he served as President & CEO for over eight years. Prior to this, he served as the World Bank's Special Envoy for Climate Change from 2010 - 2012. From 2007 to 2010, he served as Director General at the UK Department of International Development. This followed 10 years in East Asia, where he was Head of the World Bank in Vietnam and Indonesia.
Dr. Steer is a Global Agenda Trustee for the World Economic Forum, a Commissioner of the Energy Transitions Commission, a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), co-chair of the Greening the Belt and Road Coalition, and board member of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet. He is also a member of the Advisory Committees of the Asian Development Bank and on the leadership council of Concordia.
Andrew was educated at St Andrews University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cambridge University. He has a PhD in international economics and finance. He is married to Dr. Liesbet Steer and is the father of Charlotte and Benjamin.
Job Titles:
- Advisor, Energy Technology
Dr. Arun Majumdar is the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor at Stanford University and Senior Fellow and former Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy. He served in the Obama administration as the Founding Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) and as the Acting Under Secretary of Energy. He served as a Science Envoy for the US Department of State and currently serves as the Chair of the US Secretary of Energy Advisory Board.
Dr. Majumdar was also the Vice President for Energy at Google and advises numerous businesses in the energy innovation ecosystem. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, US National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 1985 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989.
Job Titles:
- Chief of Environmental and Climate Justice
Dr. Cecilia Martinez is the Chief of Environmental and Climate Justice. Cecilia joined the Earth Fund after serving as the Senior Director for Environmental Justice at the White House Council on Environmental Quality in the Biden Administration. In this role, she helped to establish a whole of government approach to equitable climate and environmental policy.
Before this, Cecilia served as the Executive Director of the Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy where she helped launch the Equitable and Just Climate Forum. She has directed numerous projects at the local, state, and national levels. She received her B.S. from Stanford University, MPA from New Mexico State University, and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware.
Job Titles:
- Advisor for Sustainable Economic Development
Dr. Daniel Schensul is the Advisor for Sustainable Economic Development. He joined the Earth Fund after 14 years in the United Nations. Most recently, he was Senior Programme Officer with the Climate Action Team in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, where he was responsible for strategic advice and stakeholder coordination on climate change and nature, as well as peace and security, humanitarian affairs, cities, and multilateralism.
Before joining the Secretary-General's Executive Office, he served in multiple capacities with the UN Population Fund, including data, research and policy support to developing countries on climate change, population, and sustainable development, support to intergovernmental negotiations on sustainable development, climate change, health, gender and population issues, and humanitarian assistance with a focus on data systems for emergency response, climate-related risk assessment and reduction, and COVID-19.
Daniel has published extensively on climate change and sustainable development, including multiple reports of the UN Secretary General, The Demography of Adaptation to Climate Change and Population Dynamics and Climate Change. He received his B.A. from Columbia University and his Ph.D. in Sociology with a focus on international development from Brown University.
Job Titles:
- Director of Decarbonization Pathways
Dr. Leon Clarke is the Director of Decarbonization Pathways at the Bezos Earth Fund. Leon joined the Earth Fund from the University of Maryland (UMD), where he served as the Research Director for the Center for Global Sustainability and Acting Director. He held a joint appointment with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Before UMD, Dr. Clarke worked for 16 years at the Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI), a collaboration between PNNL and UMD. He led the Integrated Human Earth System Science Group at JGCRI for 10 years.
Dr. Clarke has served as an author and coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the National Climate Assessment, and the National Research Council. Dr. Clarke holds a Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University and a master's and bachelor's degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.
Job Titles:
- Director of Tech Acceleration
- Senior Policy Advisor
Dr. Noël Bakhtian is the Director of Tech Acceleration at the Bezos Earth Fund, leading our work in identifying high-leverage opportunities to accelerate climate change solutions.
Noël joins us from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she was the inaugural executive director of the Berkeley Lab Energy Storage Center.
Over the past decade, Noël has served as a senior policy advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, a senior leadership team member at DOE's $1.5B Idaho National Laboratory, and in critical roles in DOE's Office of International Affairs and Office of Wind and Water Power Technologies.
Noël is a member of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Science Committee and the National Academies Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) Board.
A first-generation American, Dr. Bakhtian earned her engineering doctorate in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University and holds master's degrees from Stanford University and the University of Cambridge, where she was a Churchill Scholar. She completed her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and physics at Duke University.
Eda Lee is Operations Manager at the Bezos Earth Fund. She manages all administrative needs of the President & CEO and works closely with the leadership team to ensure smooth operations across the executive office. Before joining the Earth Fund, Eda was Executive Assistant to the President & CEO of the World Resources Institute (WRI), where she worked in the executive office for over four years. Prior to WRI, she worked with Family Planning 2020 as assistant to the Executive Director. Eda holds a B.A. in International Relations from Wellesley College, and an M.A. in Public Management from Johns Hopkins University.
Job Titles:
- Program Officer for Land Restoration
Emily is the Program Officer for Land Restoration at the Bezos Earth Fund, where she develops strategies and builds partnerships to deliver climate benefits, economic growth, and biodiversity protection at scale. Together with the Managing Director of Nature Solutions, she manages the Earth Fund's $1 billion landscape restoration portfolio. With an initial focus on Africa and the U.S., restoration efforts include planting trees on degraded landscapes, revitalizing grasslands, and integrating trees into farmland.
Before joining the Earth Fund, Emily spent nearly a decade at the World Resources Institute (WRI), working to advance global sustainable development. Most recently, Emily managed WRI's contributions to the African Land Restoration Initiative, AFR100, which aims to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land across Africa by 2030. She worked with the African Union Development Agency in Johannesburg, South Africa, to secure political commitments and financing for large-scale restoration. Emily holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Washington University in St. Louis.
Erin Jones is Deputy General Counsel of the Bezos Earth Fund. With extensive legal and senior management experience at nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, Erin joined the Earth Fund from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a leading supporter of biomedical research and science education, where she was Associate General Counsel before serving as the organization's first Chief of Staff. She was previously Associate General Counsel at the American Red Cross.
Erin began her legal career in the Corporate & Securities group at Arnold & Porter LLP after earning a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Senior Manager and Advisor to the President & CEO
Fiona McRaith is the Senior Manager and Advisor to the President & CEO at the Bezos Earth Fund. In this role, she works across internal and external teams to weave together narratives and advance strategic objectives and initiatives. Before joining the Earth Fund, she spent four years at the World Resources Institute, first in the cities team and then with the office of the President & CEO.
Fiona has previously held roles with the White House Office of Management and Budget during the Obama Administration, the Alliance for the Great Lakes, and Action for the Climate Emergency. She is a member of the Board of Directors of The Climate Initiative. Fiona holds a B.A. in International Development and Environment from McGill University. She lives in Washington, D.C.
Gloria Jované is a grants manager for the Bezos Earth Fund. Previously, she led the Wildlife Conservation Society international travel program for Trustees, major donors, and key partners for almost a decade. Prior to joining WCS, Gloria worked at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama, for 22 years. Before to starting her career at STRI, she worked at the US Agency for International Development and Bank of America. For most of her career, Gloria has been involved in science administration and project management.
She holds an MBA in Leadership and Management Development from the Universidad Latinoamericana de Comercio Exterior (2005), a Bachelor's degree in Hotel Administration from the Latin America Science & Technology University (2001), and she is licensed as an Authorized Public Translator (Spanish-English and vice-versa)from the Ministry of Education, Panama (2010).
Former Colombian President Iván Duque is a Distinguished Fellow at the Bezos Earth Fund. While President of Colombia from 2018 to 2022, he spearheaded environmental protection efforts, most notably in the Amazon.
As president, his environmental achievements include the expansion of environmental protection to conserve 34% of Colombian territory, part of the global 30x30 conservation effort; the declaration for the Conservation and Management of Ecosystems included in the Eastern Tropical Pacific marine corridor; the launch of Operation "Artemisa" to combat deforestation and the creation and promotion of the Leticia Pact to protect the Amazon.
Before his presidential election, former president Duque was a senator of the Republic of Colombia from 2014 to 2018. From 2011 to 2013, he served as the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) head of Culture, Creativity, and Solidarity. He was Colombia's senior advisor to IDB between 2001 and 2010 and served as an advisor at the Colombian Ministry of Finance.
Job Titles:
- Associate for the Environmental
- Program Associate, Environmental & Climate Justice
Jacquelyn Lewis is the Program Associate for the Environmental and Climate Justice Program. She supports implementing activities, research, and collaborations with internal and external partners to advance the program's initiatives and priorities. Jacquelyn earlier was an executive assistant for multiple directors within the organization.
While completing her undergraduate degree, Jacquelyn researched indoor microbial pollutants and related respiratory disease symptoms within rural Georgia communities for the College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University. Earlier, she was a certified nursing assistant in underserved urban communities in rural Georgia.
Jacquelyn has a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry from Georgia Southern University. She also holds a dual master's in Business Administration and Healthcare Administration with high honors from South University.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994. Amazon's mission is to be Earth's most customer-centric company. In 2019, under Bezos' leadership, Amazon and Global Optimism co-founded The Climate Pledge, a commitment for companies to achieve net-zero carbon by 2040-with 300+ signatories to date and counting.
In 2020, Bezos founded the Bezos Earth Fund, a $10 billion commitment to fund scientists, activists, NGOs, and others to drive climate and nature solutions in this decisive decade. Funds will be fully allocated by 2030, the date by which the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals must be achieved.
He also founded the Bezos Day One Fund to provide grants to nonprofits to help homeless families and is creating a network of preschools in low-income communities. Bezos is also the founder of aerospace company Blue Origin, which is working on the long-term goal of moving all polluting and heavy industry off Earth to preserve the planet.
He is the owner of the Washington Post. Bezos graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University in 1986 and was named TIME magazine's Person of the Year in 1999.
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to the President & CEO and Special Project Coordinator
Jen Manaloto is the Executive Assistant to the President & CEO and Special Project Coordinator at the Bezos Earth Fund. She manages the administrative needs of the President & CEO and collaborates with the leadership team to ensure smooth operations across the executive office.
Before joining the Earth Fund in 2023, Jen worked closely to empower executives and global teams at McKinsey & Co., E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, The Nature Conservancy, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Jen attended DePaul University. She lives in Northern Virginia with her spouse, a U.S. Navy Veteran, and two children.
Job Titles:
- Fellow
- Fellow, Conservation, Restoration & Food Systems
Jim Leape is a fellow at the Bezos Earth Fund, focusing on conservation, restoration and food systems. He is also the William and Eva Price Senior Fellow and co-director of the Center for Ocean Solutions in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, part of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. Before coming to Stanford in 2014, Jim was Director General of WWF International and leader of the global WWF Network, one of the world's largest conservation organizations. Previously, he directed the conservation and science programs of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation; served as executive vice president of WWF-US; and was a legal advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya.
Jim has served on several boards; from 2007 to 2017, he was a member of the China Council for International Cooperation in Environment and Development, which advises the Premier of China. He has an A.B. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Job Titles:
- Director of Information Technology
José is the Director of Information Technology for the Bezos Earth Fund. In his role, he is establishing all aspects of IT operations, including system planning, implementation, training, and continuous quality improvement. Before joining the Earth Fund, José spent 10 years at The Rockefeller Foundation, most recently serving as their Director of IT - Solution Delivery. He oversaw all of Rockefeller's core business applications and incorporated industry best practices in product, project, and Agile management. Earlier, José worked in the private sector, focused on enterprise software implementation and project management.
José holds an M.S. in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management from The New School and a B.S. in Information Systems from Marist College.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director of Corporate Action and Markets
Kelley Kizzier is the director of corporate action and markets at the Bezos Earth Fund. In this role, she works to identify strategies and solutions for ambitious corporate action, environmental markets, and hard to abate sectors. She was most recently Vice President for Global Climate at the Environmental Defense Fund, where she promoted ambitious and effective global climate and company action. Her work included multilateral climate agreements and global cooperation through carbon markets.
Kelley is a former official at the European Commission's Directorate for Climate Action, working on international carbon markets, GHG accounting and transparency, and EU climate commitments. She was a lead negotiator for the EU in the international climate negotiations for more than a decade and served as the co-chair of the Article 6 negotiations under the Paris Agreement. Kelley currently plays a leading role in several voluntary carbon market initiatives.
Job Titles:
- Chief of Science, Data and Systems Change
Kelly is Chief of Science, Data and Systems Change for the Bezos Earth Fund. In this role, she brings data, analysis and evidence to inform the Fund's strategic direction. Kelly is also Co-Director of the Systems Change Lab, which monitors, learns from and accelerates the transformational change required to protect people and the planet.
Before coming to the Earth Fund, Kelly spent 12 years at the World Resources Institute, where she was the Director of Tracking and Strengthening Climate Action in WRI's global climate program. Kelly holds a PhD and Master of Environmental Management from Yale's School of Environment and a B.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale College.
Kirsten Barker is the IT Service Delivery Lead for Bezos Earth Fund. She provides the delivery and support of IT products and services to The Bezos Earth Fund user community. Before joining the Bezos Earth Fund, Kirsten worked for Evolent Health as an Associate Director on their Technology Services team where she led an international team of analysts in supporting the business applications.
Kirsten holds a bachelor's degree in French with a minor in Information Technology from Georgia Southern University.
Kristopher LeCorgne is the Grants Manager for the Bezos Earth Fund. He manages and executes projects in support of the grants management functions of the organization.
Before joining the Bezos Earth Fund, LeCorgne worked with several philanthropic and nonprofit organizations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Fluxx Labs, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the New World Symphony, the Technology Foundation for the Americas (eMerge Americas), and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. In these positions, he led and executed special projects in strategic marketing, grants management, technological innovation, digital analytics, and arts administration and grantmaking.
LeCorgne studied flute performance at Rollins College and earned a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in music. He also earned a Master of Business Administration from the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins, dually specializing in Marketing and Management. He has also completed two Certifications in Web Development at the Wyncode Academy, and is a Grow with Google Challenge Scholarship winner.
A native of Miami, LeCorgne has lived in cities across the United States, including Atlanta, Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, Sewanee, TN, and Orlando, FL. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. He serves on the board for the Technology Association for Grantmakers and has participated on the Membership Committee and mentored through the Emerging Leaders Initiative.
Job Titles:
- Vice Chair
- Emmy Award - Winning Journalist
Lauren Sánchez is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and former news anchor. Following a successful news career, Sánchez, a licensed pilot, founded Black Ops Aviation in 2016. The company is the first female-owned and operated aerial film and production company with a focus across television and film.
Sánchez serves as the Vice Chair of the Bezos Earth Fund and is dedicated to fighting climate change and the protection of nature, as well as early childhood education, programming, and housing support. She also works with organizations including This is About Humanity, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and providing support for separated and reunified families at the U.S.-Mexico border, and the Bezos Day One Fund, which encompasses shelter, hunger, and tuition-free preschool education support for underserved communities via the Day 1 Families Fund and Day 1 Academies Fund, among others.
Job Titles:
- Senior Program Officer of Sustainable Finance
Lucy Kessler is Senior Program Officer of Sustainable Finance for the Bezos Earth Fund. In this role, she works closely with the Director of Sustainable Finance, Industry, and Diplomacy in developing large-scale initiatives to increase the flow of climate and nature positive finance globally, and improve the alignment of financing flows with Paris and SDG goals.
Lucy comes to the Earth Fund from the Center for Climate-Aligned Finance at RMI where she focused on the advancement of climate finance standards and insights across the financial sector to drive industrial decarbonization. During her time at RMI, Lucy orchestrated several groundbreaking climate lending agreements among global banks for the steel and aviation industries, and helped establish the Climate Finance Access Network, designed to increase access to climate finance across developing countries. Additionally, Lucy led a working group of nearly 10 global financial institutions in examining the credible deployment of transition finance.
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant
- Executive Assistant to Kelly Levin
Marianne Fives is the Executive Assistant to Kelly Levin and Noël Bakhtian. Before joining the Earth Fund, she spent two years as the Executive Administrator for the Berkeley Lab Energy Storage Center. Earlier, Marianne worked in development for several educational, environmental, and arts nonprofits in San Francisco, Houston, and D.C.
Marianne has a B.F.A from Cornell University and an M.A. in Arts Management from American University.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Head of Strategic Partnerships
Maxime Nzita is the Congo Basin Advisor at the Bezos Earth Fund and Congo Basin Regional Head of Strategic Partnership at Wildlife Conservation Society.
Previously, Maxime was the Regional Head of Mission in Libreville, Gabon for the European Commission's ECOFAC6 Program - a green economy initiative for conservation in priority landscapes across Africa. Before that, he served two terms as the Co-Facilitator of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership between the European Union and Belgium. Maxime has more than 18 years of experience in natural resource management and conservation in Central and East Africa.
He holds an MBA from IAE Paris Sorbonne Business School and a B.S. degree in Agro Economics and Engineering from Université of Kinshasa.
Job Titles:
- Research Associate With the System Change Team
- Research Associate, Systems Change Lab
Meghana is a Research Associate with the System Change team at the Bezos Earth Fund. She was previously a program officer with the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA), working on their natural carbon capture program. Meghana served as a program officer at the Tata Trusts, focusing on land use and restoration.
Her career began as a management consultant at EY's Climate Change and Sustainability practice in Mumbai, where she developed water and land use policies and interventions with Indian state governments and the private sector. Her first foray into the environment and conservation field was as a youth volunteer with India's Save the Tiger campaign.
Melissa Harman is the Accounting Manager at the Bezos Earth Fund. She works closely with the Director of Finance/Controller and is responsible for the daily management of accounting functions and operations. Melissa manages the monthly and year-end accounting cycles and supports the preparation of annual financial statements and other IRS tax documents.
Before joining the Earth Fund, Melissa spent 10 years in public accounting providing finance, accounting, tax compliance and assurance services. Previously, she was a Manager at BDO where she managed international engagements, in addition to providing outsourced accounting and consulting services to nonprofits and businesses. Her experience also includes consulting in the Government and Public Sector at a Big Four firm. Melissa holds a B.S degree in Accounting and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Virginia.
Job Titles:
- Director of Energy Innovation
Nicole Iseppi is the Director of Energy Innovation at the Bezos Earth Fund. Nicole was previously at ENGIE, a leading global energy company, for over 12 years where she was a Senior Executive Advisor and Managing Director for Operations & Performance for Global Transformation. Before ENGIE, Nicole was a Senior Advisor and Project Manager for Global Energy Infrastructure at Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). During Nicole's time in Japan, she was also appointed as adviser and coordinator for the creation of the green financial institution, Japan Carbon Finance (JCF), launched by the Japanese Ministry of Finance. Nicole has previously been appointed both by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) to co-lead a global renewable initiative for the industry and as a member of the Management Committee of Terrawatt Initiative (TWI), an independent global non-profit foundation established from the COP21 Paris Agreement.
She serves on industry advisory committees and boards, focusing on accelerating solutions for the global energy transition. Nicole is the recipient of multiple awards from her industry peers. In 2022, she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Monash University for her contribution to international sustainable energy development and transformation.
Job Titles:
- Fund Program Manager
- Program Manager, Tropical Andes at Re
Padu Franco is the Bezos Earth Fund Program Manager for the Tropical Andes at Re:Wild. In this capacity, Padu steers the Bezos Earth Fund's investments in the 30x30 initiative across the countries of the Tropical Andes region, including Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. He oversees diverse investments, fosters collaboration, and forges connections across a wide spectrum of stakeholders from Indigenous communities to governmental bodies.
Prior to his work at the Bezos Earth Fund and Re:Wild, Padu spent 15 years at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), including positions as the Country Director for Colombia and the Regional Director for the Andes, Amazon, and Orinoco regions. At WCS, Padu led an array of biodiversity research and conservation programs while fostering public-private collaborations in the pursuit of conservation.
He lives in Cali, Colombia and finds inspiration as a nature photographer.
Job Titles:
- Program Manager, Eastern Tropical Pacific at Re
Job Titles:
- Director of Sustainable Finance, Industry, and Diplomacy
Job Titles:
- Director of Digital and Content Strategy
Job Titles:
- Digital Communications Manager
Job Titles:
- Chief Communications Officer
Job Titles:
- Advisor, International Climate
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial and Operating Officer