Management Team - Forestry and Climate Change Fund

Kaspar Wansleben

Executive Director

Kaspar Wansleben is the Managing Director of Investing for Development, the asset management structure of the Forestry and Climate Change Fund. Kaspar has a strong background in development finance and microfinance in particular where he worked at the International Labour Organisation (2002) and at PlanetRating (2004) and as fund manager of the Luxembourg Microfinance and Development Fund since 2009.

Kaspar’s background is in finance and he is a chartered accountant of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. He worked for KPMG for 5 years. Kaspar is a visiting lecturer at the University of Luxembourg on social entrepreneurship and is an board member of the International Climate Finance Initiative Luxembourg.

Alejandro Vazquez Ortega

Fund Manager

Alejandro is Fund Manager at FCCF and has more than 7 years of experience in Corporate and Project finance. Prior to joining the Fund in 2021, he acted as the Head of Corporate, Project finance and Treasury at Vallair Solutions S.à.r.l., where he also acted as interim deputy CFO for a couple of years. During this period, he managed the investment processes and raised more than USD 100m for CAPEX and Project finance Investments through different finance structures. Prior to having completed his MBA at the HEC Paris business school, Alejandro held several positions managing research and innovation projects working with Akzo Nobel, in the U.K. and Dupont Coatings, in Mexico.

He has a MSc in Chemical Engineering from the Loughborough University and holds a certificate on “Challenges on Global Poverty” from M.I.T. From 2013 to 2014, he acted as co-president of the HEC Net Impact Club. Alejandro is currently pursuing his CFA certification (sitting for Level II examination) and is fluent in Spanish, French and English.

Chiara Pescatori

Fund Manager

Chiara is Fund Manager at FCCF and has been working in the microfinance sector for over 15 years. Her experience in financial inclusion spans different markets and financial service providers. She has worked few year as a independent consultant and advises financial services providers on customer-centric design, ESG, client protection and social performance. Chiara has experience in facilitation of decision-making and strategic reflections, organization design, and business modeling.

Prior, Chiara worked for more that 10 year at MFR (MicroFinanza Rating), where she successfully managed social business activities, including the various certification schemes (Smart Campaign Certification, GSMA Mobile Money Certification, etc.). At MFR, Chiara evaluated and advised more than 100 financial companies in different markets and regulatory environments.

Jennifer Popescu-Urbain

Manager – Shareholder Relations & Communications

Jennifer Popescu-Urbain is Manager – Shareholder Relations & Communications at FCCF. Prior to joining the Fund, Jennifer worked since 2010 at ADA asbl as executive secretary. She has also worked (2007-2010) in the field of international Radio / Television as an administrative assistant in the first place, and then as an assistant to the antenna / support.

Graduated in tourism in 2007, Jennifer is multilingual and speaks seven languages, including French, Luxembourgish, German, English, Portuguese, Spanish and Romanian.

Dr Ronnie de Camino Velozo

Senior Adviser

Ronnie has over 50 years of forestry experience in Central America and studied in Freiburg and Göttingen. He has substancial experience in the management of forests, including natural forests in Venezuela and Brazil. He is board member of forestry companies, President of the Iberoamerican Model Forest Network and member of the advisory committee of 20×20 initiative.

Ronnie held the Territorial Forests Chair at CATIE (funded by the Swiss Cooperation) and is a member of CATIE’s graduate faculty.

Cynthia Léon Herrera

Adviser

Cynthia holds university degrees in business administration, from ULATINA and an MBA in Finance from ULACIT in Costa Rica. She has dedicated the last 18-years to project analysis, implementation of technical assistance, and social impact investments. She worked extensively as a consultant for the Multilateral Investment Fund and the IADB´s Social Entrepreneurial Program, as well as for the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre (CATIE).

Cynthia previously worked as an Investment Officer at Omtrix, Inc. for a period of 8 years, where she was part of the team that designed and structured the Higher Education Finance Fund (HEFF) and was later responsible for the implementing the fund´s technical assistance program. She also did substantial work in energy efficiency and renewable energy with E+Co, where she worked as an Investment Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean for a period of 6 years.