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.

Apricot Wilson

Deputy CEO, Head of Risk & Impact

Apricot is a Deputy Director at FCCF. She has worked with the organisation since 2016 and specialises in risk and impact management. She started her career at Aberdeen Asset Management, where she completed the graduate training scheme. Apricot has also worked with UNESCO Bangkok, in the education policy department, and with Roland Berger.

She completed her MA in Modern Languages with the University of Cambridge and has an MBA from the China European International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai. She is a CFA Charterholder, a Certified Expert in Microfinance from the Frankfurt School of Management and has also completed the CFA ESG Cerificate.

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.

Jennifer Popescu-Urbain

Shareholder Relations Deputy Manager

Jennifer Popescu-Urbain is shareholder relations deputy manager. 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.

Carla Navarro Díaz

Associate operations and communications

Carla Navarro Díaz has a degree in Social Education and a Master in International Cooperation from the HEGOA Institute, University of the Basque Country (Spain). Prior to joining FCCF Carla completed several internships in different fields: on at the University of Córdoba, in Argentina, among others. She arrived to Luxembourg in 2016 where she did an internship at the Cercle de Coopération des ONGD du Luxembourg, followed by a second internship at the Fund.

Carla joined the Fund in 2018 and speaks English, French and Spanish.

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.