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.

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.

Kyle is the Senior Director of Finance at NCX. He leads the financial planning and analysis, accounting, and treasury functions of the company and supports the COO in various strategic initiatives. He graduated from Wake Forest University with a BS in finance and an MS in accountancy.

After beginning his career as a CPA at PwC, he has spent nearly a decade working in the investment management industry as a fund controller and investment professional. Most recently, he was a director in the forestry and agricultural group at a global asset management firm and served on the investment committee overseeing the ~$2 billion portfolio. He currently lives in Richmond, Virginia where he enjoys spending time with his wife and dog, going for hikes along the James River, and in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Dr. Nan Pond serves as the Science Director of Forestry at NCX. She is responsible for ensuring that our natural capital products reflect the highest quality science as we hone our existing methods and expand into new credit types and new geographies. 

She is the recipient of the 2020 SAF Young Forester Leadership Award and has held multiple leadership roles within the Society of American Foresters.

Dr. Pond earned a PhD in forest biometrics from Michigan Technological University and a Bachelor of Science in forest ecosystem science from SUNY ESF.

Dr. Spencer Meyer is the Director of Science Strategy and Stakeholder Engagement at NCX. Spencer is responsible for working with stakeholders to link the science and business of natural capital markets. He also leads the company’s development of new ecosystem service credits including biodiversity, habitat, water quality, and wildfire mitigation. 

Spencer is an innovator and leader with 20 years of experience working collaboratively with NGO, government, private sector, and academic partners to solve natural resource challenges. He is a co-founder of Sebago Clean Waters, an advisor to conservation NGOs and private foundations, and a frequent speaker on forest management, watershed protection, natural climate solutions, conservation finance, and partnership development. 

Spencer previously worked at the Highstead Foundation, Harvard Forest, Yale School of the Environment, University of Maine, and The Nature Conservancy. He earned his A.B. from Dartmouth College and his M.S. and Ph.D. in forest management and sustainability science from the University of Maine.

Bianca leads expansion of NCX into new markets. In this capacity, she is responsible for identifying opportunities in natural capital markets outside the U.S, establishing pilot programs and scaling operations and technology to meet global needs. 

Prior to NCX, Bianca held leadership roles in business development and product development at Palantir Technologies. She launched projects with large manufacturing and industrial customers in Europe and expanded operations into Asia. As Head of Foundry Product, she led the development and roll-out of a new software suite that enabled the company to rapidly scale deployment to operational users across public and private sector customers. Bianca also held the role of Sustainability General Manager, overseeing the first public climate pledge and reporting cycle as well as development and sales of a carbon accounting module.

Bianca holds a BSc and MSc in environmental engineering from Columbia University. She was part of the inaugural Sustainable Engineering Graduate Scholars program funded by the NSF, and completed her thesis research at the Columbia Water Center.

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.

Luciana is our General Counsel. She has over 20 years of experience counseling private investors, investment funds, entrepreneurs, and public companies on a variety of matters including formation, governance, financings, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures.

Luciana has extensive international experience, including in emerging markets such as Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe. Previously, as a partner at Goodwin Procter LLP, she developed a new practice area for the firm focused on impact and responsible investing. Prior to rejoining Goodwin in 2015, Luciana was Senior Vice President of Natural Resources at Harvard Management Company (HMC) where she was involved in all legal aspects of HMC’s global forestry and agriculture portfolio. Prior to joining HMC, Luciana practiced law at Goodwin’s Boston office and, before that, at Linklaters’ New York office. She began her legal career at Le Pera & Lessa in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Luciana is a Senior Fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (Columbia University) and teaches a course on Sustainable Finance at Boston University School of Law. Luciana holds a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, an LL.M. from Columbia Law School, and a law degree (Abogada) from the Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Loren is the NCX Director of Business Operations. He is focused on refining the NCX business model, improving our forest carbon program design, and executing our ongoing field operations. Previously, Loren was a management consultant primarily focused on financial services and digital transformation. Loren earned a dual BA from Columbia University in mathematics and Italian literature, and was a member of the United States Marine Corps.

Andy is the Director of Product at NCX, responsible for delivering great digital product experiences to landowners and customers. He currently leads the roadmap for our landowner platform. As a landowner himself, he strives to make the NCX program accessible and intuitive for landowners who sign up and participate through our platform.

His prior work experience includes nearly 10 years at Microsoft in a variety of sales, customer success, and product management roles. He is originally from the southeastern United States and earned his BS from Georgia Tech.