Forestry and nature-based investments

Olly Hughes has been Managing Director and an Investment Committee member of our Forestry division since January 2019. He is responsible for managing the growth and development of Gresham House’s forestry activities including acquisitions, fund and private client management and forestry asset management.

Prior to joining Gresham House, Olly was a Partner and Head of Infrastructure at Oxford Capital for six years where he built and managed a portfolio of over £300mn of solar and wind renewable energy assets. He started his career at ING Barings in 1995 focusing on asset backed structuring and since then has focused his career on real asset investment management.

Olly has over 26 years of investment experience and holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master’s degree from the University of Oxford in Biological Science. He also obtained the Investment Management Certificate from the CFA Society in the UK.

Rupert has been the Managing Director of Gresham House Asset Management Ltd since September 2015. He is a member of the Group Management and Investment Committees.

Rupert has a proven track record of delivering significant value to shareholders and has over 32 years’ experience in asset management, private banking and wealth management, focusing on product innovation, investment management, business development, banking and wealth structuring.

Before joining Gresham House, Rupert was CEO and CIO of Schroders (UK) Private Bank for 11 years, and spent 17 years at Rothschild, where latterly he was Head of Private Clients for Rothschild Asset Management.

Simon is a Chartered Forester with over ten years of private and public sector experience.

He holds a BSc in Forestry from Bangor University, graduating in 2008.

Tom joined Gresham House plc in June 2021.

He works within the asset management team, covering all aspects of operational forestry for several individual and portfolio clients. He has worked in the UK forestry sector since 2013 and, prior to joining Gresham House, was leading a three-person forest management team covering south west Scotland.

Tom has a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cape Town and later went on to gain an MSc in Forest Management from Newton Rigg

Fund Manager; responsible for management of in-forest operations and fund reporting. Post qualification, he worked as a forest manager on the full spectrum of forest activities, with a particular emphasis on adding value through bare land planting. In 2004, he moved to the Forestry Commission where he held various responsibilities including regulatory compliance role over the industry’s private sector. Latterly he was project manager of an IT project, and represented the Forestry Commission on the SEARS (Scotland’s Environmental & Rural Services) programme of organisational change. In 2012 he joined Gresham House Forestry and is one of the teams qualified chartered foresters.

Rob joined Gresham House in November 2015. He is a member of the Forestry Investment Committee.

Rob joined the group from Aitchesse Ltd where he was a Company Director for two years and Head of Acquisitions for three years. Prior to joining Aitchesse Ltd, Rob spent five years at CNBC Europe as a technical analyst covering financial news. Following this, he was managing his own consultancy business specialising in carbon management and commercial forestry for two years. Rob has 11 years of investment experience in the commercial forestry sector, investing in the UK and globally.

He holds a Master’s degree in environmental economics from Glasgow University and a Bachelor of Art in engineering from Southampton Solent University.

Graham is an experienced forestry professional, responsible for all operational aspects of the Gresham House forestry funds. After a short period of practical experience in the UK, Sweden and New Zealand, he joined UA Forestry Ltd (a division of United Auctions Group) as a forest manager, progressing to become their managing director in 1997.

In 2001, he left UA to found his own forestry management company, Aspen Forestry Ltd, which specialised in providing forest management services across Scotland. Following the successful sale of Aspen, Graham joined Gresham House in 2007. His specialism is in developing, negotiating and managing non-forestry ‘higher and better use’ investments on behalf of client funds, particularly renewable energy developments, telecom rentals, power line access and compensation and residential developments.

Richard is a Chartered Surveyor whose experience covers all property issues. His expertise includes: complex documentation and due diligence matters, developing and implementing investment schemes – particularly those based on tax-efficient structures – and managing a wide range of investor contacts established through FIM’s investment business. Richard is a registered adviser with the Financial Conduct Authority.

Anthony’s background is in investment banking, having previously worked for international firms in London, New York and South America, including Macquarie and Merrill Lynch. At Gresham House, he is responsible for business development, marketing and sales for our forestry and new energy assets, also managing one of the funds.

Anthony has a BA (Hons) in History from Newcastle University and is an Investment Management Certificate holder. He is also a registered adviser with the Financial Conduct Authority.

Brent Donaldson joined Gresham House as a Forestry Consultant in August 2022, and comes on board with a focus on our international investments in Australia and New Zealand. He has extensive experience in all aspects of forestry operational activities including silviculture, distribution, planning, harvesting and wild fire management. Brent’s career has been spent working in New Zealand, and the states of Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia.

He was one of the founding members of the Central North Island Wood Council in New Zealand, and managed the Generation Programme in the Central North Island, the purpose of which is to introduce a range of employment opportunities in the forest industry through a ‘real world’ learning experience combining training and employment, with particular focus on NEETs. Brent was central to getting the programme up and running and getting local contractors on board and to engage Generation Programme graduates, after their initial induction, into the forestry sector.

Brent holds a Bachelor’s degree in Forest Science from the University of Canterbury (NZ) and is a voting member of the NZ Institute of Forestry.

Katie joined Gresham House in August 2023.

Prior to joining Gresham House, Katie completed a Corporate Finance Graduate Programme with the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which involved three eight-month rotations in Irelands Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), NewERA and the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA).

Katie holds a MEconSc in International Finance and completed a six-month study abroad at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

David Gardner has been CIO, Forestry and a member of the Forestry Investment Committee at Gresham House since May 2020.

He joined from Global Forest Partners LP, a US based timber management and investment company, where he worked from 2009 to 2019. David was responsible for developing the company’s international growth as well as supporting the management of the existing forestry investments. While at Global Forest Partners, David served as an Investment Director as well as being a partner and serving on the Investment Committee. Prior to that, he was President of Asia Pacific (Forest Industry) at the international management consulting firm Poyry, based in Singapore.

David has over 30 years of experience in the global forest industry, with the last ten years focused on international institutional investment and asset management in forestry.

David holds a Bachelor of Science, a Master’s degree in Forestry and is an MBA graduate from Cranfield University.

Matthew Giles has been an Investment Director and the Head of the Forestry Asset Management Team at Gresham House since November 2015 following the successful acquisition of Aitchesse by Gresham House. The team oversees the management of Gresham House clients’ forestry investments where he has the primary responsibility of managing two major portfolios in both the UK and Ireland and leading the ESG initiatives for forestry. Prior to joining Gresham House, Matthew was a Senior Forest Manager for 12 years covering all aspects of forest management across the UK for family offices and high net worth individuals. His previous experience includes the responsibility for FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) audits on all the forest areas. He has over 20 years’ experience in forestry and qualified as a Professional Member of the Institute of Chartered Foresters (MICFor) in 2004. He holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Forestry from Newton Rigg, graduating in 2000.

Matt is a chartered surveyor with over 13 years’ experience in investment management. He is responsible for the asset management of Gresham House’s forestry portfolio and for family office and high net worth individuals’ forestry and renewable portfolios worth over £571m. Matt is also responsible for the valuation and acquisition of investment opportunities.

Prior to Gresham House and FIM, Matt worked for Smiths Gore as a rural estate manager, advising a number of private clients on the management of their diverse property portfolios. Before this, he worked for Jones Lang LaSalle in their financial services team advising on the formation of joint venture property development companies. Matt holds the Certificate in Investments and is a registered adviser with the Financial Conduct Authority.

Luke joined Gresham House in November 2021 and is an Investment Manager in the Forestry division.

Prior to joining Gresham House, Luke spent several years valuating assets and building valuation templates across the financial services industry. This includes within asset management, private equity, venture capital and forex brokerage.

Luke holds an MSc in Statistics and another MSc in Economics from the University of Nottingham and is a level 3 candidate for the CFA programme.

Francis joined the Forestry division of Gresham House in February 2021.

Francis obtained a 1st class degree from the University of Manchester reading International Business, Finance & Economics. Following this he completed a Master’s in Finance, also at the University of Manchester, for which he was awarded a Distinction and the Alliance Manchester Business School Academic Scholarship.

William joined Gresham House in January 2022 as Senior Investment Manager, Forestry.

Prior to Gresham House, William worked at Tilhill, advising clients on commercial forestry and woodland investments, new woodland creation, woodland carbon investment, and portfolio modelling for individual and institutional investors.

Before this, he spent five years at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, managing low-risk European equity portfolios, including launching and co-managing a sustainable equity fund. He has also worked at KPMG Corporate Finance, focusing on long-term project finance investments. He spent his early career as an infantry officer in the British Army.

William holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Oxford, a Master’s degree in Environmental and Forest Management from the University of Aberdeen, and is a CFA Charterholder. He also has a year of postgraduate research experience at Newcastle University, focused on tropical forest carbon cycling, ecosystem functioning and biodiversity relationships.

Miranda joined Gresham House in May 2023.

Miranda previously spent 7-weeks in the Forestry team as an intern in the summer of 2022.

Miranda holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of St Andrews.

Ed is an Investment Director and Head of Fund Management for the Forestry Division at Gresham House, overseeing c.£1bn of equity capital allocated to sustainable investments. Ed manages several funds and is primarily responsible for recommending and implementing fund strategy, portfolio construction and investor reporting. His role also involves the valuation of UK forestry assets and overseeing fund deal flows.

Ed joined Gresham House in May 2018 following the acquisition of FIM Services Ltd. Ed worked at FIM Services Ltd as an Assistant Fund Manager from 2012 and was appointed Fund Manager in 2016.

Ed has 14 years of experience and holds a postgraduate diploma (PG Dip) in Financial Strategy from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and a RICS accredited BA (Hons) in Real Estate from Oxford Brookes University. He is a qualified Chartered Surveyor and a RICS Registered Valuer. He is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.

Adam joined Gresham House in April 2019 as part of the Forestry asset management team. He deals with all aspects of operational management across several forest portfolios and has varied experience across forest management and timber harvesting and marketing.

Adam holds a first-class BA (Hons) in History from the University of Nottingham, and an MSc in Forestry from the University of Aberdeen.

He has worked in commercial forestry in a variety of locations and roles.

Joe joined Gresham House in September 2022 and is an Investment Director in the Forestry team.

His 30-year career spans forestry, manufacturing, energy and technology. With some short spells in the Public Sector, he has spent most of his career in StartUp and Scaling businesses. Having sold a bioenergy business to a multi-disciplinary energy company in 2014 he set up and ran its solar and biomass division. In 2016, he was appointed Chief Commercial Officer for the Group, with responsibility for EBITDA growth across the energy trading, power marketing, asset management and energy solutions businesses as well as developing a pipeline of pre-qualified development opportunities in offshore wind, onshore wind, solar, biomass and energy storage.

Joe holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Science from University College Dublin and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from University College Cork. He recently completed a Diploma in Company Direction as part of the IoD Chartered Directors’ Programme.

He is a Climate Reality Leader with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project and a Member of the Jury of the European Innovation in Politics Institute. He is an active investor in early-stage Technology companies, particularly in the eMobility, EdTech and FinTech sectors.

He is on the Board of Directors of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and also sits on its Audit & Risk Committee.

Joshua joined Gresham House’s Forestry Division in early 2019, focusing on forestry acquisitions and the fund management of the Forestry Limited Partnerships. Josh was appointed Fund Manager of Gresham House Forest Growth & Sustainability LP in 2021 and Gresham House Forest Fund VI LP in 2022. He is primarily responsible for implementing fund strategy, financial management, investor reporting, portfolio development and renewables development/oversight.

Josh has over 10 years experience in the financial industry. Prior to joining Gresham House, Josh worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP specialising in Pension and Insurance audits. He then moved onto Hazlewoods LLP to focus on mergers and acquisitions, concentrating on corporate due diligence.

Josh is an ACA Chartered Accountant and holds a BA (Hons) in Accounting and Business from Henley Business School, University of Reading.

Stephen joined Gresham House in 2015.

Prior to joining Gresham House, Stephen was at Aitchesse Ltd as an Assistant Forester Manager, before being promoted to Timber Marketing Manager in 2014. Stephen is a specialist in planning, marketing and harvesting timber and has responsibility for the marketing and management of client timber sales. Prior to joining Aitchesse Ltd, he worked for three years at Smiths Gore (now Savills) managing woodlands on behalf of private clients as well as undertaking tree safety surveys.

Stephen has over 15 years of experience in UK forestry and has been a Professional Member of the Institute of Chartered Foresters for 13 years. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Forestry from the University of Wales, Bangor, graduating in 2007.

Nick joined Gresham House in July 2022.

Prior to joining Gresham House, Nick spent six years working at Royal Bank of Scotland. He initially trained in audit, before spending three years working in corporate banking.

He holds a first class LLB (Hons) in Law from the University of Strathclyde, is a Chartered Accountant with ICAS, and in 2021 completed the Climate Change Transformation Programme at Edinburgh University.

Henrietta joined our Forestry division in May 2018, following the acquisition of FIM Services Ltd.

Henrietta manages existing assets and portfolios on behalf of Gresham House private clients. She takes an active role in the day-to-day management including reporting, financial management and portfolio development. Prior to joining FIM, Henrietta worked as a Rural Chartered Surveyor for private clients, responsible for managing rural estates and property in the UK.

Henrietta has over 17 years of experience in rural property.

She holds a BSc (Hons) in Land Management from the University of Reading and is a member of  The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) (MRICS) and is a retired Fellow of Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (FAAV).

Jason Sinden is an Investment Director in Gresham House Forestry, where he primarily focuses on acquisitions. Jason was the Forestry Director for FIM Services Ltd which was acquired by Gresham House in May 2018. Jason began working in forestry investment with FIM Services Ltd as an Investment Manager in 2000, before leaving to join Tilhill Forestry in 2005. At Tilhill Forestry, he developed the forestry investment business, and was promoted to Investment and Property Director in 2015 before re-joining FIM Services Ltd in 2017 as a Forestry Director. Jason has over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, together with a further five years in the forestry and timber processing industry. During his career, he has worked on many high-profile forestry acquisitions and woodland creation projects in the UK, as well as investment projects in Scandinavia and eastern Europe. He graduated from the University of Aberdeen with an Honours Degree in Forest Management, before completing an MBA from the Open University. This was followed by the Senior Management Development Programme at IMD (Lausanne). Jason is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters and a Chartered Surveyor.

Izzy leads on sustainable forestry and real asset investments in the UK and internationally, and is author of various thought leadership pieces including the Global Timber Outlook. He joined Gresham House in May 2018 following the acquisition of FIM Services Ltd.

Prior to joining Gresham House, Izzy worked for six years in commercial real estate advisory, building out investment and agency team platforms at Cushman & Wakefield (and formerly DTZ), Knight Frank, and Strutt and Parker. Prior to this he worked as an Investment Analyst at European equity hedge fund Libra Equity.

Izzy is the youngest visiting professor at the prestigious IEB University in Madrid, teaching the CFA curriculum for five years. He has a combined 14 years’ of experience, is a CFA charterholder, and has an MSc in Finance from the University of Exeter. He is also fluent in Spanish and Dutch.

Ciarán joined Gresham House in March 2021.

He began his forestry career as a timber harvesting manager in Ireland and over the past nine years has worked in a variety of roles in commercial forest management and regulation. He has experience in both the public and private sectors in the UK and Ireland working within the forestry regulatory environment and in large scale commercial forest management, resource planning and timber harvesting.

Ciarán holds a first-class degree in forestry from University College Dublin.

Emma joined Gresham House’s Forestry Division as an Associate Director in May 2022.

Emma has over 10 years experience in the financial industry. Prior to Gresham House, Emma has held Head of Finance positions at ClimateCare, who manage carbon reduction projects and trade carbon certificates, and at Novitas Loans, Close Brothers, where she was responsible for financial analysis, strategy development, accounts, budgeting, forecasting and leading and building Finance functions during times of rapid growth. Previously, Emma worked as a Fund Accountant at Foresight Group.

Emma is a Chartered Accountant (ACA) and holds a first class BSc in Mathematics from the University of Exeter.