Our Mission:
The Earth Partners works to simultaneously maximize environmental, social, and financial outcomes by driving large-scale investment through public-private partnerships and new market development, and by advancing policies that support market-based solutions. TEP targets and scales ecological restoration and conservation projects to improve water quality, reduce carbon emissions, create wildlife habitat, and build resiliency to the impacts of a changing climate.
Our Approach:
The Earth Partners develops scalable new markets and investment opportunities through the development of large-scale land restoration projects. We bring multiple revenue streams to a single acre, including agriculture and forestry, water rights, and environmental credits. At the same time, we work with multiple landowners in a single watershed or ecosystem to create meaningful ecological improvements. Taking this holistic approach allows us to scale sustainable land management strategies across entire landscapes while generating attractive returns for both landowners and investors.
Our Team:
Our combined decades of experience in finance, project development, project management, policy advocacy, and sales ensure The Earth Partners’ projects generate strong returns for our investors, our partners, and the natural world.
David Tepper
As CEO, David has spent more than a decade growing The Earth Partners into a portfolio of operating companies supporting land restoration across the U.S. He is also a senior executive at Forest Trends, an NGO that uses markets and policies to create value for ecosystem services. David previously served as Head of Markets for Climate Change Capital in London, raising what was the largest private sector environmental market fund and investing over $800 million in carbon-reduction projects. He also served as Executive Chairman of the Consodata Group, a 600-person Paris Stock Exchange-listed company that he successfully restructured and sold in 2004. David oversaw $20 billion of financing transactions as a Director of Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch in London and New York from 1987-1999.
Dave Groves
Dave leads TEP’s business development function where he identifies new opportunities and markets to scale ecosystem restoration. Prior to TEP, Dave was a senior policy advisor in President Obama’s White House, advancing policies to create the enabling conditions necessary to scale environmental markets and drive private investment toward natural resource conservation and restoration. Dave also founded a nonprofit that led to the creation of the first-ever Forest Resilience Bond, a financial instrument to scale forest restoration.
Andy Newman
Andy is Chief Ecologist at The Earth Partners with 15 years of experience working across diverse ecosystems and project types. Andy leads the ecological restoration process of TEP’s projects, overseeing construction and adaptive management, and helping clients to meet their compensatory mitigation requirements. His background includes environmental restoration planning, construction, planting, and ecological uplift assessment and his specialties include wetland delineations and jurisdictional determinations, threatened and endangered species identification and consultation, NEPA compliance, and plant community classification. Andy’s favorite ecosystems include longleaf pine savannas, coastal prairies, and southern Appalachian forests.
Meg Madden
Meg manages all of TEP’s financial operations, overseeing corporate finance, budgeting, and contract management, with an eye to maximizing portfolio value. She has 20 years of progressive financial management experience with multiple organizations, including non-profits, higher education, and entertainment companies. Meg is a licensed CPA in the District of Columbia.
Chris Norman
Chris’s expertise is in biomass procurement, supply chains, land management, and harvesting techniques. He manages large-scale biomass removals in complex environments, including on the 2 million acre Lax Kw’alaams First Nation-owned forest estate in British Columbia. Chris also serves as business development manager at the Brinkman Group, a TEP operating partner and co-founder. From 1995 to 2005, he managed large-scale forestry operations in Western Canada.
Chas Taylor
Chas is a TEP co-founder and currently serves as a board member. He supports strategy on corporate partnership development and expansion into new markets. Chas is also on the board of Drylands Natural Resource Centre, an agro-forestry and environmental organization in Kenya, and has consulted for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation within their agricultural development group. He previously worked for Bank of America Merrill Lynch and McKinsey & Company.