IIRR appoints David Brand to Board of Trustees

IIRR welcomes CEO of New Forests to Board of Trustees 

NEW YORK, December 14, 2021 / — IIRR is delighted to announce the appointment of a new member to its Board of Trustees: David Brand, the Founder, Chair, and CEO of New Forests, a forestry investment management business.

“On behalf of the Board, I warmly welcome David to IIRR. David’s skills, experience, and innovation will make a real impact within our team, and we are looking forward to working alongside him. He has spent the past 16 years building up New Forests, which now manages $5 billion in forestry, conservation, and wood processing assets. Our rural empowerment mission can only be enhanced by the dynamic and unique perspective he brings from his environmental markets and public policy background. David’s decades of work on sustainable development align him directly with IIRR’s commitment to improving the lives of rural communities across the globe” says Ricardo Anzaldua, board Chair.

New Forests is a forestry investment management business operating across Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and the United States. Prior to founding New Forests, David worked at Hancock Natural Resources Group, integrating forest management with emerging environmental market opportunities. He was also formerly the Executive General Manager of State Forests of New South Wales, where he spearheaded novel transactions focused on commercial development of environmental markets.  

“Every board member brings a different wealth of experience to the team”, says Peter Williams, IIRR President. “I know that David will be a valuable asset to IIRR, with his 40 years of remarkable work within sustainable forest management. His skillset and dynamism are welcome additions to our organization, particularly as we seek to further our Mission Net Zero project. I am motivated for our future relationship together, as the board continues addressing the challenges and opportunities at the heart of IIRR and the sustainable development of rural communities”.

David’s work within environmental policy and sustainable development has been multi-scalar. On a national level, he worked with the Canadian Department of Natural Resources for ten years, during which he coordinated all the national forest research science programs and eventually became national Director-General of Science and Sustainable Development. On an international level, he established and managed the Canadian and International Model Forest network, as well as acting as technical chair of the Montreal Process related to conservation management of temperate and boreal forests.

“I look forward to joining the Board of Trustees of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction”, says David. “The inter-twined challenges of rural development, sustainable land use and climate change require substantial new effort and investment.  The work of IIRR, which has evolved though decades of practical on-the-ground support for communities, needs to be expanded further.  I hope that I can help support that expansion and also bring some new ideas, for example in the areas of agroforestry, blended finance and fintech to the IIRR programs.”

Currently, David serves on the Board of Directors of the NGO Forest Trends, the Board of Trustees of the intergovernmental organisation The Centre for People and Forests, and is Chair of Timberlink Australia, a wood processing business. David holds a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from the University of Toronto in Canada.