Étienne Desmarais

Co-Founder and CEO
Ecotierra

Étienne Desmarais is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ecotierra, where he has spent his career proving that climate action and rural prosperity can advance together. With 30 years of experience in coffee production alongside smallholder producers and cooperatives, including seven years living in Nicaragua and Peru, working hand-in-hand with farming communities, Étienne has built a rare depth of on-the-ground expertise. Before co-founding Ecotierra in 2010, he co-founded several successful NGOs.

Throughout his career, he has developed eight large-scale forestry and agroforestry projects across Canada and Latin America, transforming degraded land and underserved communities into thriving, regenerative value chains.

Etienne has been the General Partner of the Urapi fund since 2010, which has deployed US $50M across 4 projects in agroforestry value chains.

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