Leaders & Innovators From Across Industry

CEO & CO-FOUNDER

Robert Gardner is on a mission to make Nature the world's next investible infrastructure class. With 25 years in pensions and sustainable finance, he co-founded Redington, Mallowstreet, and RedSTART, and served as Director of Investments at St. James's Place overseeing £150 billion. He argues Nature loss could wipe 12% off UK GDP. Today, Robert scales Rebalance Earth, the UK's first dedicated Natural Capital fund manager backed by West Yorkshire Pension Fund. He leads a 17-strong team restoring ecosystems across the British Isles, proving companies will pay recurring fees for ecosystem services while investors earn resilient, contractual returns.

CTO & CO-FOUNDER

Walid Al Saqqaf is CTO and Co-founder of Rebalance Earth, building the technology to make nature an investible asset class. He applies digital technologies to solve complex business challenges. Walid leads development of GPAP, the platform identifying climate liabilities and turning them into investible assets, while building internal data and AI systems as a 'force multiplier'. Previously, he created one of the largest enterprise blockchain podcasts. Driven by his mission to build a better world for his daughters, Walid ensures every investment is underpinned by robust, scalable technology aligning finance with planetary health.

COO & CFO

Kirsty Wilman is COO of Rebalance Earth and a Chartered Accountant, pioneering capital direction into nature-based solutions. She brings deep experience as COO of a Real Estate division supporting a £7bn portfolio and serves as Non-Executive Director of a FTSE 250 REIT. Witnessing how nature degradation manifests as water risk—too much, too little, or too dirty—drives her mission. At Rebalance Earth, returns are generated by companies paying for nature restoration benefits. She believes investing in nature restoration is essential to reduce risk, protect supply chains, and create a world worth living in.

CIO

Eoin Murray is Chief Investment Officer at Rebalance Earth, pioneering nature finance by treating ecosystems as business-critical infrastructure. With over 25 years of investment leadership including CIO roles at Federated Hermes and Old Mutual, he's been at the forefront of financial innovation. Currently pursuing a PhD in Finance at Bayes Business School, he served as Managing Director of the SEED Biocomplexity Index at ETH Zurich's Crowther Lab. Chair of Exmoor Search and Rescue Team, Eoin leads the mission to deploy £10 billion over the next decade, transforming degraded UK ecosystems into investible assets delivering contracted returns.

HEAD OF INVESTMENTS

James Hurrell is Head of Investments at Rebalance Earth. After a decade of private equity impact investing at Bridges Fund Management, where he was a Partner, he now sees an opportunity to institutionalise Nature as an asset class. Previously at LivingBridge and DC Advisory, James recognises that Nature loss and climate change destabilise companies, communities, and economies. His aim is to build the best portfolio of Nature finance investments in the world, proving nature as an investible asset class by channelling private capital into nature-based solutions to restore nature and solve the climate crisis.

HEAD OF COMMERCIAL STRATEGY

Anne Reaney is on a mission to turn Nature from an externality into an investable asset. With over 15 years in ESG data, climate tech, and commercial strategy, she's built and scaled high-growth businesses worldwide. She spent 12 years at IHS Markit, growing it into a £40 billion company acquired by S&P Global, led Truvalue Labs' European expansion through acquisition by FactSet, and headed global sales at Persefoni. She believes most businesses face escalating nature-related risks yet lack credible strategies. At Rebalance Earth, Anne builds the commercial engine enabling companies to align with a nature-positive future.

HEAD OF SCIENCE

Neil Entwistle is Head of Science at Rebalance Earth, a Chartered Geomorphologist with a PhD in Environmental Science and Remote Sensing. He's spent his career understanding and restoring rivers, progressing from undergraduate to Professor of River Science and Climate Resilience, conducting international research from the Himalaya to Andean floodplains. His work has contributed to several UK River Prizes, two European River Prize finals, and a World River Prize final. With floods, droughts, and pollution costing billions annually, Neil's goal is to scale restoration from source to sea, making nature the foundation of resilience for future generations.

HEAD OF MARKETING

Raheem Mirza is Head of Marketing at Rebalance Earth, demonstrating that investing in Nature is essential for resilient economies, societies, and portfolios. He began his career in investment product & proposition design at a FTSE 100 wealth manager before moving to a FTSE 250 asset manager, where he helped grow assets through investment communications and sustainable fund development. Combining his grounding in finance with lifestyle branding experience, Raheem uses multi-channel storytelling to make Nature finance accessible. He leads marketing efforts to build awareness of Nature as an investible asset class and grow investor appetite.

HEAD OF FINANCE

Kay Nelson is Head of Finance at Rebalance Earth, responsible for strategic financial management, regulatory compliance, and ensuring growth is matched by rigour, transparency, and long-term stability. With more than 20 years' finance experience, Kay spent a decade at KKR before joining Earth Capital as Head of Finance, overseeing sustainable investment portfolios and fund structures. Her experience across private equity and sustainable finance provides the skills to support Rebalance Earth's ambition to make Nature an investible asset class capable of delivering measurable impact at scale.

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Lucy Clark is Executive Assistant supporting Rob Gardner and the team at Rebalance Earth. She helps make things happen seamlessly, from coordinating meetings and events to keeping projects running smoothly, so the team can stay focused on restoring and investing in nature to build a more resilient future. Lucy ensures operations run efficiently at this UK-based boutique asset manager pioneering Nature as a core investable asset class.

HEAD OF STRUCTURING

As Head of Structuring at Rebalance Earth, Vijyanti leads the design and delivery of fund and investment structures that make nature investible. A qualified chartered accountant with over 15 years of experience, Vijyanti spent 3.5 years at Federated Hermes as Associate Director in Real Estate Fund Management, leading structured investments, corporate restructurings, and joint ventures across an institutional UK real estate portfolio. Prior to this, she spent six years at Intu Properties Plc, executing approximately £1.3 billion of transactions across corporate development and investment roles. She began her career at KPMG auditing large property, infrastructure and construction companies. Vijyanti brings deep multi-disciplinary expertise in structuring complex assets for institutional investment.

INVESTMENT MANAGER

Ryan Lewis is an Investment Manager at Rebalance Earth, supporting the growth of the investment team, leading investment processes, and structuring nature projects and companies into investible assets for UK pension funds. With over 7 years of experience in infrastructure finance, Ryan spent 4 years at Santander CIB across Project and Corporate Finance with a focus on Infrastructure, followed by over 3.5 years at Infranity debt financing European Infrastructure projects, from renewable energy to mobile towers to emergency service aircraft. Ryan brings deep expertise in structuring complex infrastructure investments, now applied to making nature an institutional- grade asset class.

INVESTMENT ASSOCIATE

Sacha Tchen is an Investment Associate at Rebalance Earth. Coming from the climate tech investment world, he sees how nature is following the same mainstreaming processes. He led the fund's first investment into an Oyster Reef Restoration in Norfolk. Recognising that nature provides valuable services that are degrading without investment to fix them, Sacha invests into projects delivering four returns: financial, natural, social, and inspirational - making nature an investable asset class by building projects where companies pay for the benefits they receive from nature restoration.

INVESTMENT ANALYST

Liberty Scutcher is an Investment Analyst at Rebalance Earth, part of the early team working closely with CEO Rob Gardner. With a background in innovation and psychology, she supports the senior team across fundraising, investor relations, fund launch materials, commercial pitches, and event development. Liberty translates complex ideas into clear concepts that resonate with investors and corporates. Nature doesn't currently generate direct revenue, making it hard to treat as investible. Her aim is to help make investing in nature as mainstream and valuable as investing in traditional infrastructure by proving nature is a strategic, revenue-generating asset.

INVESTMENT ANALYST

Dheeraj Sara is an Investment Analyst at Rebalance Earth, turning nature risk into investable resilience. With a Master's in Law, he translates complex regulation into investable pathways, bridging finance with nature restoration. Dheeraj works on demand-led projects designing targeted restoration around companies' critical sites and catchment-scale programmes reducing water risk across river systems. As exposure to flooding, supply chain shocks, and tighter regulation rises, he helps corporates move from pledges to credible action. He's building a robust business case for paying for nature at scale, channelling capital into landscape-level restoration that secures supply chains.

INVESTMENT ANALYST

Harriet Spence is an Investment Analyst at Rebalance Earth, working across fundraising with CEO Rob Gardner and contributing to policy work shaping infrastructure for nature recovery at scale. The UK faces worsening extreme weather while being one of the most nature-depleted countries, driving risks across assets, supply chains, and public finances. With a background in economics and a focus on clear communication, Harriet guides how the firm's work is expressed, making their multi-stakeholder proposition digestible. She helps companies, investors, and communities value ecosystem services and support restoration at scale across the British Isles.

INVESTMENT ANALYST

Max Welch operates at the intersection of AI and geospatial technology's accelerating power and the urgent need for planetary investment. His background in Social Policy at the University of Bristol taught him to identify levers for societal change, which he now applies to Rebalance Earth's mission. His early climate technology work won recognition leading to a Bank of England project. Max focuses on applying AI for efficiency gains and advancing GPAP, the firm's proprietary tool mapping where climatic risk and economic activity intersect. He's committed to building an investment-led approach framing Nature as essential infrastructure and institutional-grade asset.

INVESTMENT ANALYST

George Robson is an Investment Analyst at Rebalance Earth with an integrated master's in biology from the University of Oxford, specialising in tree food source distribution for the critically endangered Great Green Macaw. Just as he put ecology at the centre of macaw conservation, he now puts science at the heart of investment into nature. With the world in a biodiversity crisis at the precipice of a sixth mass extinction event, George focuses on channelling investment to fund science-grounded restoration from source to sea, transforming the state of nature across the British Isles.

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Jai-dene is a Law and Criminology graduate with experience supporting operational excellence and organisational efficiency. At Rebalance Earth, she ensures seamless workflows and coordination by supporting the team. Detail-oriented and proactive, Jai-Dene streamlines processes to enhance productivity and collaboration. Her volunteer work with human rights charities reflects a strong commitment to social justice and global sustainability.

CHAIR

Ruston Smith is a highly respected leader in the UK pensions and investment industry with extensive experience spanning governance, fiduciary responsibility, and long-term capital management. He chairs the Tesco Pension Fund, serves as Non-Executive Chair of J.P. Morgan Asset Management (UK) and the Pensions Management Institute, and is independent Trustee Director of BAE Systems Pension Scheme. A former PLSA Chair and vocal advocate for financial wellbeing, Ruston led the Simpler Annual Statement initiative and served on the government's 2017 Automatic Enrolment Review. At Rebalance Earth, he brings governance expertise and strategic insight as the firm scales institutional investment into Nature-based infrastructure, delivering long-term, risk-adjusted returns with measurable environmental impact.

BOARD MEMBER & DIRECTOR

Darran Ward is Head of Alternatives at West Yorkshire Pension Fund (WYPF), leading the development and management of the fund's Alternatives mandate. He is responsible for building WYPF's capabilities in private markets and innovative asset classes, with a focus on long-term value creation, diversification, and sustainable outcomes. A CFA charterholder and qualified accountant, Darran brings extensive experience across private assets, growth capital, and impact-driven investments. He plays a key role in advancing WYPF's internal investment management model and establishing strategic partnerships that align with the fund's long-term objectives and commitment to delivering sustainable returns.

SPECIAL ADVISOR

Jonathan Kini is Group Chief Marketing Officer at Tarana Wireless in the United States, leading global go-to-market strategy and customer adoption of next-generation fixed wireless access technology. He is also Chief Executive Officer of Twist Broadband, a Tarana spin-out scaling new broadband deployment and commercial models. Jonathan serves as Non-Executive Director of the UK's energy (Ofgem) and water (Ofwat) regulators, bringing direct experience of commercial, regulatory, and investment challenges facing infrastructure-intensive sectors. This system-level perspective is directly relevant to Rebalance Earth's work. At Rebalance Earth, Jonathan focuses on clearly demonstrating the commercial case for investing in nature, showing that nature-based assets can be good business and attractive to long-term investors.