Chandler Van Voorhis
CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER
Chandler Van Voorhis
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
“My parents instilled in me a simple truth — the two greatest joys in life are the tilling of the land and the cultivation of character. One anchors us, and the other elevates us. For centuries, we have understood the tilling the land, but we have only faintly grasped how the cultivating of character deepens the soil of the mind and spirit.”
Chandler Van Voorhis is widely acknowledged as a leading expert in conservation and ecological markets. He has given a recent TEDx Talk, guest lectured at Princeton & Yale, and authored several publications on the emergence of natural capital, including:
- “The Rise of Natural Capitalism and the New Frontier of Conservation Finance” in the book Wilderness, Wildlands and People: A Partnership for the Planet, published in 2008
- “Finding New Ways to Think About the Environment and Economy” in the book Global Climate Change: A Senior-Level Debate at the Intersection of Economics, Strategy, Technology, Science, Politics, and International Negotiation, published in 1998.
Prior to co-founding C2I, Chandler was co-host of GreenWave Radio, a nationally syndicated radio talk show on the environment and business. In 2002, he was awarded, along with Mr. Crane, the nation’s most distinguished private conservation award, the ChevronTexaco Conservation Award.
Chandler is former President of the Alliance for Environmental Education, an international non-profit that played a key role in getting environmental education in K-8 over the last 30 years. Currently, he serves on the advisory boards of IETA Natural Climate Solutions and RenewWest. He is also a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America.
Tim Hess
CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER
Tim Hess
C2I: Property Owner and Relations Manager, Conservation Plus: Co-Manager
Tim’s background has been in planned community development and sales. Tim and his partners are the master developers of Wintergreen, a 10,900-acre year-round recreational community with over 6,000 acres of open space located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Being an avid outdoorsman, Tim has had a keen interest in many conservation efforts and has donated and developed numerous properties for conservation use.
Tim currently works closely with C2-Invest and is a co-manager with Chandler Van Voorhis for Conservation Plus, LLC. This group is involved in large-scale, multi-faceted, wetland, carbon, and species projects in the U.S. Tim is a co-founder of the American Conservation Legacy Fund, a nonprofit group that holds unique properties, such as, the Natural Bridge Caverns in Natural Bridge, Virginia.
Rick Gould
PARTNER
Rick Gould
Partner
Rick Gould is the founder & CEO of Sand Hill Development Group, Inc. (and Sand Hill Consulting Group, Inc.). Rick spent 16 years at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets as an investment banker focusing on corporate finance and mergers & acquisitions, where he led the firm’s world-wide efforts in the aerospace & defense industry, after beginning his business career in resort development and management at Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head Island, SC and Wintergreen Resort, outside of Charlottesville, VA. From 1998 to 2001, Rick ran The Center for Strategic Transactions in Palo Alto, CA at Ernst & Young, where he provided strategic consulting services for both emerging venture capital-backed companies, and medium to large-cap companies, as well.
Rick has a B.A. from Colgate University, a B.S. in Hotel Management from Cornell University, and an M.B.A. from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.
Carey Crane
CO-FOUNDER
Carey Crane
Co-Founder
“If it pays, it stays.”
A longtime conservation expert, Mr. Crane comes from a family that has been active at the top levels of the American conservation movement for over fifty years and has been the lead participant in large public/private partnerships. Mr. Crane was for seven years co-host of GreenWave Radio, a nationally syndicated environmental talk radio show. In 2002, both Mr. Crane and his co-host, Chandler Van Voorhis, received the nation’s most distinguished private conservation award, the ChevronTexaco Conservation Award. In his capacity as a conservation and environmental expert, Mr. Crane has participated in numerous foundations and non-profit boards over the last twenty-five years. He has served on the Board of the Isaac Walton League, and of the Board of Trustees for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Inger and Walter Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences which is dedicated to the study of river ecosystems. Internationally, Mr. Crane has sat on the Board of Directors of REC (Regional Environmental Centre) Moldova which acts as the bank of conservation in that country. Mr. Crane’s numerous past experiences involved serving as President of his family’s private financial and asset management company, Lochnau, Inc. until 2003 and on various Boards such as D.E.L.T.A. and Tara Wildlife, Inc.
Rob Banner
SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER
Robert Banner
Senior Project Manager
Rob joined us after 11 years as President of Great Meadow Foundation, a 375-acre equine event park and 501(c)3 non-profit. In his tenure there, he raised more than $5 million to double the park’s size and hosted more than 40 events that drew over 200,000 people through the gates each year. One of his last fundraising projects was with Conservation Plus (a division of ACRE Investment Management,) and it did so well, Rob had to join the team! Combine event management and fundraising with 30 years of publishing national equine magazines like The Chronicle of the Horse, and Rob is uniquely equipped to spread the word to landowners and media outlets alike. He also serves as a Director for the Virginia Horse Industry Board and the Equine Land Conservation Resource. A consummate horseman, Rob foxhunts and showjumps on weekends. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a BA in English.
