Our Story

Zack Parisa is the co-founder and CEO of NCX. Over the last decade, he has developed and pioneered precision forestry tools that are revolutionizing the way that forests can be measured, valued, and managed. Using satellites, cloud computing, and machine learning, NCX worked with Microsoft to create “Basemap,” the first high-resolution forest inventory of the United States. It is now using this data to build new markets for forest values beyond timber, such as carbon, wildlife habitat, and fire risk. Zack is a forester and biometrician by training. He earned an MFS from Yale University, and a BS in Forestry from Mississippi State University.

Max Nova co-founded NCX over a decade ago. He built many of the Natural Capital Exchange’s core technical systems that power the largest forest carbon projects in the US. Now Max serves as the COO of NCX and helps connect American forest owners with net-zero pioneers like Microsoft. Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Max earned a degree in computer science from Yale.

Dr. Jennifer Jenkins is the Chief Sustainability Officer at NCX. She is broadly responsible for environmental stewardship and stakeholder engagement, and working with the team to ensure that the methodologies and systems used by the company are of the highest caliber and impeccable quality. With a technical background in carbon cycling and ecosystem science, Dr. Jenkins brings more than 25 years of experience on matters at the intersection of forests and climate across government, academia, and the private sector.

Prior to her role at NCX, Dr. Jenkins served as Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Enviva, the world’s largest producer of sustainable wood pellets. In 2007, Dr. Jenkins was part of the IPCC team that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with former Vice President Al Gore for their collaborative efforts on climate change.

Dr. Jenkins earned a Ph.D. in ecosystem science and natural resources from the University of New Hampshire, a Master of Business Administration from the RH Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, a Master of Forest Science from Yale University, and a Bachelor of Arts in biology and environmental studies from Dartmouth College.

Gordon is our Chief Financial Officer. He earned his MBA from UC Berkeley-Haas with a focus on finance and natural capital markets. He began his career at the forestry and farmland investment arm of GMO, performing research and analysis relating to a $2 billion global portfolio of rural landholdings.

Mike serves as our Chief Technology Officer, and leads the engineering team at NCX. Responsibilities include the processing pipeline for forest predictions (Basemap), as well as the digital experiences of both our landowners and offset buyers. He earned a degree in Computer Science from Yale University.

Nan serves as NCX’s Chief Data Scientist. She is responsible for the integrity and improvement of the estimates underpinning the NCX program, including Basemap and business-as-usual assessments. She received the annual SAF Young Forester Leadership Award in 2020 and has held multiple leadership roles within SAF. She earned a PhD in Forest Biometrics from Michigan Technological University and a BS in Forest Ecosystem Science from SUNY ESF.

Alex leads our U.S. Origination team and is responsible for increasing the participation of landowners and consulting foresters in the NCX program. Alex and his team also focus on improving and evolving the NCX landowner experience as we grow. Alex’s prior work experience is focused on product management, most recently at an agriculture services company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Born and raised in British Columbia, Canada, Alex earned his BA from Harvard University.

Julia has worked across the non-profit, public and private sectors to advance positive impact at the intersection of climate change, natural resource management, and finance including at The Nature Conservancy, the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, Blue Forest Conservation and New Forests. Her background is rooted in conservation, environmental science, and business. Julia earned her MBA-MS in Environment and Resources with a focus on land use from Stanford Graduate School of Business. At Stanford, she co-led GSB’s Sustainable Business Club, co-founded the GSB’s business, climate and innovation summit and partnered with The Natural Capital Project and the InterAmerican Development Bank to advance investment in nature-based solutions. She earned a BA in environmental studies with a focus on biodiversity conservation from Yale University.

Cheryl is Director of Marketing at NCX. Prior to joining NCX, Cheryl was a marketing leader at global customer experience management company, Merkle. She was nominated as a “Mobile Woman to Watch” for helping to shape the emerging mobile technology space while at a mobile technology start-up and worked in production for feature animated films. Cheryl has her MBA from University of San Francisco’s Business School.

Lora heads the People Operations team and is responsible for our end-to-end people function. She leads strategy and execution of talent attraction, retention, engagement, culture, employee productivity, and growth.

She has over a decade of experience in the impact investing space working in venture capital, non-profit, and private equity in Silicon Valley, across the United States, and in emerging markets. Lora has led in the areas of talent acquisition, performance management, recognition, career development, organizational development, total rewards, and strategic leadership development.

Prior to joining NCX, Lora was the VP of People at a SaaS drone technology company. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University.