Team
OLAF POSTEN, Managing Director
Olaf holds a Law Degree of the University of Münster and is admitted as Attorney- at-Law (Frankfurt).
During his University education he has spent some time in the United States where he successfully passed the internal Management Training Program of Huntington National Bank in Columbus, Ohio. He then started working in the Legal and Compliance department of Lehman Brothers in Frankfurt and London before he headed the Legal and Special Legal Affairs team of an independent German Asset Management Group, where he also served as Member of the Private Equity Committee and worked as Operating Officer. Olaf then became partner and joined a Swiss M&A and Private Equity Boutique and co headed the offices in Frankfurt.
In 2006 be became founder and Managing Director of Caudex Capital GmbH and Caudex Capital Timber Investments GmbH.
Olaf has served as member of the Supervisory Board for several companies including VEM Aktienbank AG (Investment Bank), a Computershare company (Vice Chairman) and he has been invited as speaker at conferences regarding sustainable investments and timber investments including the Timberland Investment World Summit; Tropical Forest Investments (New York 2008) and the Geneva Forum for Sustainable Investment 2009.
MIKE BAYER, Managing Director and Head of Portfolio Management
Mike holds a University Degree in Business Administration from University in Mainz and a Post Graduate Degree in Investment Analysis and Asset Management (DVFA).
He worked as an Equity Analyst, in Frankfurt, Germany before he started his career as Portfolio Manager (in charge of the Management of an Emerging market equity fund) with an independent German Asset Management Group in Frankfurt.
In 2006 be became founder, Managing Director and Head of Portfolio Management of Caudex Capital GmbH and Caudex Capital Timber Investments GmbH.
Mike has been invited as speaker at conferences regarding sustainable investments and timber investments including the Swiss, German & Austrian Pension Funds Meeting (Luzern) 2008 and the Geneva Forum for Sustainable Investment 2009.
With Mark Campanale and Matthias Rhein two independent forest investment experts have joined the Luxembourg team of directors of the Timber Opportunities Fund S.C.A. SICAV-SIF:
MARK CAMPANALE, Manager
Mark holds a Master’s Degree in Agricultural Economics from Wye College with thesis on “Environmental Cost Accounting Techniques” (as part of an EU funded programme on Soil & Water Conservation in Showa Province, Ethiopia).
He has guest lectured on forestry finance at The Oxford Forestry Institute and given seminars on forest finance at the Department for International Development (DFID), the UK Tropical Forest Forum and at The Forest Philanthropy Action Network (FPAN). Mark also acted as a member of the Business Advisory Board of the Iwokrama forestry project in Guyana and advised the Prince of Wales Rainforest Initiative on capital markets work. In addition he has been the Hon Treasurer for The Rainforest Foundation (UK) and founded the ‘Ecosecuritisation’ research project into forest backed bonds with Enviromarkets and the IFC Sustainable Financial Markets Trust Fund. Mark also advises some foundations and family offices in sustainability investments.
MATTHIAS RHEIN, Manager
Matthias holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law and Master’s Degree in Tropical Forestry from Georgia- Augusta University Goettingen in Germany.
He has now more than two decades of experience in environmental and tropical forestry investment ranging from microfinance to large-scale industrial investments. Matthias has long-term work experience in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. He started his career as an economist with the Asian Development Bank, where he managed a $240 million forestry investment portfolio. Matthias has advised the Commonwealth, the Environmental Transformation Fund (£800 million), the Congo Basin Forest Fund (£100 million) and several private investors on forestry and climate finance. He has led the development of several innovative environmental financing instruments (e.g., forest bonds) and is presently engaged in structuring the strategic climate funds for the World Bank. Today he works as a senior policy adviser for the UK Government, DFID, leading on issues related to climate protection, environmental, carbon and forestry finance and serves as the government liaison person to the investment and banking sectors.
In addition Matthias advises the finance ministry of Indonesia in Jakarta on investing in sustainable forestry investments/conservations.