Supporting People, Conserving Nature, In The Caucasus

Caucasus Nature Fund
54 rue de Clichy
75009 Paris | France
Tel.: +33 (0)1 48 74 31 93
Fax: +33 (0)1 48 74 62 52
contact@caucasus-naturefund.org

LEGAL INFORMATION

Board and Director Profiles

CNF has a distinguished board of directors and advisory board to guide its operations.

David Morrison – Executive Director

CNF was launched in 2008 when David Morrison agreed to lead its initial phase of development as its first Executive Director. In January, 2011 David agreed to a two year extension of his contract.

Prior to joining CNF, David was widely recognized as one of Europe’s leading financial lawyers. During his 28-year career at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP (S&C), he advised principally on capital markets transactions of all kinds, including many of Europe’s most important privatizations, as well as mergers and acquisitions both large and small. David was a driving force behind his firm’s expansion into French and German law during the 1990s, opened its Frankfurt office in 1995, and managed S&C’s organic expansion in continental Europe from 13 employees on in 1989 to well over 100 employees in 2007. He retired from S&C as an active partner in 2007 to pursue his other interests.

David also serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Georgia, the Republic of Georgia's leading commercial bank. For more than 20 years ending in 2007 when KfW International Finance ceased its operations as KfW's international financing subsidiary, David was a member of the board of that company.

A citizen of the United States, David graduated from Yale College, received his law degree from UCLA, and was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Frankfurt. David currently lives in Paris and has lived most of his adult life between France and Germany.

Board of Directors

Eva Witt – Chairwoman Eva Witt is the Director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia at KfW Development Bank. In that role, she oversees KfW's development finance work in this region, which focuses on the financial sector, energy, urban development, environment and health. Eva has been with KfW since 1995, having previously been involved both in KfW Development Bank's work in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in KfW's own re-financing program in the international capital markets. Prior to joining KfW, Eva was a consultant specializing in micro-finance in Latin America. Eva is a German citizen and holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Giessen. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Access Holding, a microfinance holding Company that invests directly into microfinance banks word-wide.
Christoph Heinrich – Vice Chairman Christoph Heinrich is the Executive Officer Conservation at WWF Germany. Prior to joining WWF Germany in 2004, Christoph Heinrich spent 7 years with NABU holding various positions first at regional, then at federal level. Christoph Heinrich is a German citizen and has a Master in Geography and also attended law school at the University of Gießen with focus on environmental law and public law.
Jorgen Thomsen – Treasurer Jorgen Thomsen is the Director of Conservation & Sustainable Development in the MacArthur Foundation’s International Programs. Prior to joining the the MacArthur Foundation in 2009, Jorgen spent 14 years with Conservation International as Senior Vice President of the organization’s Conservation Funding Division and as Executive Director of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, which included leading a $260 million grantmaking and partnership development facility for civil society organizations in the most biodiversity rich areas of the world. Before this he was the chief executive of TRAFFIC, an organization that monitors trade in natural resources, and he held positions at WWF and IUCN, and in the Danish ministry of environment. Jorgen has a Master of Science in zoology and also attended law school at the University of Copenhagen in his native Denmark. He has lived the last 20 years in the United States.
Scott Dresser Scott is currently General Counsel and Company Secretary of Virgin Media. Scott joined Virgin Media in 2006 after nearly 15 years of practicing law in New York and Washington DC. Over the years, Scott has been instrumental in the advancement and development of conservation finance, working closely with and advising many of the key players in the conservation community to promote and develop national, regional and site specific protected areas and funds (including donors such as the World Bank, UNDP, the MacArthur Foundation, KFW and conservation organizations such as Birdlife International, WWF and Conservation International). Scott was recruited by Conservation International in 2001 to help develop and structure the Global Conservation Fund, a $100 million fund aimed at supporting the creation and long-term sustainability of protected areas. During his tenure with the GCF, Scott actively supported the creation of the Madagascar Fund for Protected Areas and Biodiversity and the Caucasus Nature Fund and oversaw the approval and issuance of grants to more than 20 projects in 15 countries. He also played a lead role in completing debt for nature swaps in Peru and Columbia, resulting in the conversion of over $14 million in debt into more than $20 million earmarked for use in managing protected areas. Scott graduated from Vanderbilt University Law School and has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New Hampshire (with a major in finance and a minor in history). He is a citizen of the United States and currently lives in London.
Ronald Kent Ronald Kent is the Chief Risk Officer at London based fund management operation Aperios Partners. The fund invests in companies that will benefit from the growth of data and voice traffic in the emerging markets, particularly in Asia and Africa. Until mid 2011, Ronald was CEO of NYSE Euronext London and Executive Vice President and Head of International Listings for NYSE Euronext. Ronald was responsible for NYSE Euronext’s new London exchange and for all of NYSE Euronext’s European and US markets for issuers from Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia. Prior to NYSE Euronext Ronald was a Managing Director with Goldman Sachs where he was Head of New Markets Corporate Finance. Prior to Goldman Sachs Ronald was a Managing Director with Morgan Stanley. Over more than 20 years in investment banking, he has held senior positions in the Investment Banking Global Capital Markets and Institutional Equities and Derivatives businesses of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Ronald has been based in the US, Asia and Europe and has advised corporate and government clients in both developed and emerging markets in those regions. Prior to Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, Ronald was a lawyer with the New York law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell. Ronald graduated from Oxford University and the University of Chicago. He is a citizen of the UK and currently resides in London.

Advisory Board Gabriela von Habsburg Georgian Ambassador to Germany Sculptor Ian Hague Principal, Firebird Management Nina Hovnanian President and Chief Designer, Nina Hovnanian Couture Dr. Hartmut Jungius Conservationist Chairman, Caucasus Biodiversity Council Senior Advisor WWF-International Paul Rodzianko CEO, Kavkaz Cement Chairman, Hermitage Museum Foundation Willard Taylor Professor, Adjunct Faculty, New York University Law School Of Counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP