SBP Board

Francis joined SBP as its first independent, non-executive chair in July 2018.

With a background in environmental science, specialising in forestry and land use, Francis spent the first 16 years of his career with WWF, the conservation organisation, in various leadership roles within WWF-UK, WWF International and WWF Netherlands. During his time with WWF, Francis played a major role in establishing the Forest Stewardship Council.

Moving to HSBC, the multinational bank, Francis spent 14 years as a Senior Adviser leading the bank’s work on integrating sustainability and climate change mitigation perspectives into the business.

Francis holds a BA (Hons) in Agriculture and Forest Sciences and an MSc in Forestry and its Relation to Land Use from St John’s College, University of Oxford, UK.

Arnie is recently retired from his position as President of the Public and Private Workers of Canada, a British Columbia based pulp and forestry union. He has worked with indigenous communities and environmental organisations to promote sustainable forestry and environmental stewardship to save old growth forests on Vancouver Island.

Winner of a 2019 Delta Clean 50 Award, which recognises clean capitalism and sustainability of industrial output in Canada. He has been involved for most of the last 20 years promoting the Forest Stewardship Council of Canada. Much of that time was spent as a sitting board member of the Social Chamber.

Martin is the Executive Chair of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). Martin joined CISL from the European Climate Foundation, where he was working as Europe Group Co-ordinator from 2015, and also led their Industry and Innovation programme.

Martin has a long track record of working on industry, environment and sustainability issues. He is also an expert advisor to the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 on climate and resource issues, a representative on the Economic and Social Committee’s Commission on Industrial Change, and a member of UCL’s European Institute Advisory Board.

Annawati (Anna) is a green growth professional with almost two decades of international experience integrating the value of nature in economic and financial decisions. Her work with various international NGOs and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) has covered projects in the Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America regions.

Anna has a long track record of working with governments, business and communities to design investment and policy solutions that shape resilient and sustainable landscapes, where biodiversity is valued and climate risks are managed. She holds several advisory roles in support of boards, committees and expert coalitions, including the Predator Free Hauraki Coromandel Community Trust, The International Advisory Council on Global Bioeconomy, and the Natural Capital Working Group at the Green Growth Knowledge Platform.

Anna holds an MSc in Geo-information Science and a BSc Hons in Environmental Science. Anna is of Dutch/ Indonesian origin and sees herself as a citizen of the planet. She spent many years living in remote parts of Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian archipelago, followed by Europe, Australia, China, and South Korea. She is currently based in New Zealand.

John is a co-founder and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Enviva, the World’s largest producer of woody biomass fuels. The company’s portfolio of facilities includes approximately 3.5 million metric tons of production capacity with more under construction and ships its product to customers around the world from purpose-built and third-party marine terminals in the US Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.  In April 2015, John led Enviva Partners, LP (NYSE: EVA) to its initial public offering on the NYSE, making it the first publicly-traded company in the industry.

John understands sustainability’s place at the core of Enviva’s business and the industry at large. In 2016, Enviva introduced its Track & Trace ^TM program, a state of the art tool that identifies the source of every ton of purchased wood. He also led the creation of Enviva’s Forest Conservation Fund, a program dedicating $5 million over 10 years to the protection and conservation of critical bottomland forests in the Southeastern US.

John holds a BA in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley and a MBA from the University of Virginia, both located in the US. He is frequently sought out as a speaker and thought leader at industry and financial conferences.

Raul founded Europe’s largest pellet producer, AS Graanul Invest, in 2003 and has been the company’s CEO and managing director ever since. He is also a shareholder of the largest privately owned forest in Estonia and has investment interests in technology companies providing solutions to the bioeconomy, OÜ Fibenol, and renewable energy market, AS Elcogen.

Raul has been active in the wood and forest sector for more than 20 years and has served in various public roles in Estonia. Amongst other interests, he is currently Chairman of the Board of the Estonian Forest and Wood Industries Association, a member of the Steering Committee of the Estonian Renewable Energy Association, a member of the Advisory Group of Innovation and a member of the Senate of the Estonian University of Rural Sciences.

Raul has a BA in Law from the University of Tartu, Estonia.

David has been an Executive Director of PIO Hardwoods since 2002 and an Executive Directive of Rainbow Pellet since 2016. He has 20 years’ experience of manufacturing and export of timber products to Europe and South Africa, and since 2014 has been involved in wood pellet production.

David oversaw the construction of Rainbow Pellet’s four pellet production facilities, which make the company the largest wood pellet producer in Malaysia. Managing the export of wood pellets to Europe and Asia is amongst David’s responsibilities.

Since 2019, David has been a committee member of the Timber Exporters Association of Malaysia.

David has a BSc in Marketing and Finance from the University of Bradford, UK.

Thomas is the Director and Head of the Fuel and Logistics teams in Ørsted Bioenergy. He has more than 15 years’ experience from different commercial and management roles in Ørsted (formerly known as DONG Energy).

Previously, Thomas worked as a consultant to the energy sector at PwC and Deloitte.

Thomas is a trained economist from the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

Peter-Paul is the Head of Environment, New Energy, Regulatory Affairs and Stakeholder Management at RWE, and has been responsible for the company’s bio-based economy project since 2010.

Prior to that Peter-Paul spent over ten years as Vice-President Biofuels & Development within Essent Trading International SA in Geneva, with responsibility for sourcing, trading and the development of biomass materials (solids and liquids) for electricity production on a global scale.

Peter-Paul holds a number of positions on bodies leading on biomass and sustainability and is currently a Director of TKI Bio-based Economy in the Netherlands, a consortium for knowledge and innovation directed at the production of bio-based innovation across the entire biomass value chain.

Peter-Paul has a legal and business administration background.