Lauren Ferstandig
Managing Director, NatureVest
Italy
Lauren Ferstandig © TNC
Areas of Expertise
capital markets, private equity, transaction structuring, nature-based solutions
Biography
Lauren was named NatureVest’s Managing Director in 2022. In this role, she oversees NatureVest, The Nature Conservancy’s Impact Investing Team, whose mission it is to source, close and manage transactions that generate financial, environmental and social returns that directly support TNC’s global conservation strategies.
Lauren is dedicated to developing a broad suite of market solutions. In addition to the existing Investment Origination and post-close Impact Management teams, Lauren will oversee the launch of the new Sustainable Financial Advisory team, which will include dedicated Carbon Finance capacity. These new teams will enable NatureVest to work with a broader suite of financial solutions to help address conservation challenges across all of TNC’s conservation priorities.
Lauren joined NatureVest in 2014 as the Director of Product Development, focused specifically on water and agricultural investments and went on to become the Managing Director of NatureVest’s Origination Team, which focuses on identifying and structuring impact investment transactions across all of TNC’s conservation priorities. Under her leadership the Origination team has worked collaboratively with Conservancy colleagues to structure and close deals across Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas. In the near term, Lauren will continue to oversee the Origination team as they develop the pipeline of commercially viable private investment vehicles to support priority conservation outcomes.
Lauren has a BA from Middlebury College and an MA in International Relations from the London School of Economics where she focused on issues related to East African water resource management.