Gary Zed, Founder and CEO of Canada’s Forest Trust Corporation (CFT), today announced the appointment of Peter van Dijk as Chief Sustainable Finance and Policy Officer. In this role, Peter will lead all carbon-related aspects of CFT including strategy, policy, thought leadership, voluntary and compliance markets, credits, taxation, technology, and innovation. Peter will also chair the ESG company’s Innovation, Science and Policy Advisory Board.

“Peter’s extensive experience combined with his enthusiasm about nature-based solutions as necessary for Canada to be a low-carbon country will accelerate the unique solution CFT has to offer to governments, businesses, schools, families and individual Canadians who are committed to offsetting their carbon footprint,” said Zed.

“I am delighted to join CFT in this role,” said van Dijk. “By leveraging forests to fight climate change, protect and improve biodiversity, and strengthen communities, CFT has built a very practical and powerful solution to the climate crisis we are facing in Canada and around the world.”

Currently, Peter is an advisor to Manifest Climate, a leading climate change solutions technology provider and a Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute. Most recently, Peter was Director, Climate Risk & TCFD Reporting at Anthesis, a global sustainability consulting firm, and an Executive in Residence at the Global Risk Institute in Financial Services (GRI).

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Peter was a Partner at PwC, leading the National Tax Policy Practice and an International Tax Partner at EY. He has also served as Senior Vice President, Finance at TD Bank Group, where he led the global tax function and Senior Vice President, Finance at Sun Life Financial.

Peter has a Dutch and a Canadian Master of Laws degree (University of Leiden Law School and Osgoode Hall Law School) and a Canadian Master of Business Administration degree (Richard Ivey School of Business). He also holds the SCR (sustainability and climate risk) and ICD.D (corporate governance) designations.

Source: Canada’s Forest Trust