Steve Gretzinger

Managing Partner
Zak Forest Resources

For over 30 years, Steve has built, managed and invested in forestry enterprises, and provided technical assistance to indigenous communities, private companies and environmental organizations in some of the most challenging environments around the world.

At Conservation International (CI), Steve led due diligence for the Apple, CI and Goldman Sachs “Carbon Solutions Fund” resulting in $200 million invested in 5 forestry companies across Latin America.  He also led CI’s Impact Advisor role to support Mombak’s restoration-based carbon project in the Brazilian Amazon. 

At Greenwood Resources (TIAA/CREF), he successfully led investments to restore 14,000 hectares (ha) of degraded cattle lands in the Brazilian Cerrado and acquire a 3,000 ha FSC-certified forestry operation in Panama’s Darien region.  Steve also orchestrated the first capital allocation by a blue-chip European carbon investor in a 25,000 ha native species restoration project with a leading Brazilian forestry company.

As CEO of a heavily indebted, 180,000 ha FSC-certified forestry concession in the Peruvian Amazon, Steve turned the company around and orchestrated its sale to European institutional investors.  As IFC’s Global Forestry Specialist, he built a cooperative-based model to stabilize wood flows from 25,000 ha of small-farmer plantations to investee clients in Maharashtra and Orissa States. 

As WWF’s Central American Forestry Director, he built diverse local teams that provided technical assistance for Nicaragua’s Caribbean and Panama’s Darien autonomous regions resulting in over 40,000 ha of natural forest actively managed by indigenous communities, and developed a Payment for Environmental Services program with Coca Cola in Guatemala which received a Swiss-Re award for sustainable watershed management.

Steve has been a Wilderness Ranger and fire fighter with the US Forest Service, managed his own timberlands in Oregon, and is personally invested in innovative forest carbon projects in the U.S. and globally.

Sessions