The board of Climate Asset Management is delighted to announce the appointment of Martin Berg as Chief Executive Officer

Mr Berg has been a key member of the leadership team since the firm’s inception. Formerly a partner at the global climate change advisory and investment firm, Pollination, which launched Climate Asset Management as a joint venture with HSBC Asset Management in August 2020, Mr Berg has over twenty years’ experience formulating and leading carbon credit, carbon finance and other environmental investments in the private and public sectors. He has held leadership roles previously at the European Investment Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, while his early career saw him working at the OECD and the UNFCCC.

Commenting on his appointment as CEO, Mr Berg said: “I am thrilled that the board has entrusted me to continue the excellent work Christof has started.  At Climate Asset Management we are passionate about the conservation and restoration of nature.  It is testimony to the strength, diversity and experience of the team we have assembled, that we were able to announce an initial raise of $650 million across our two natural capital strategies last December.  We continue to fundraise and deploy capital and are working tirelessly with our clients to invest in landscape transformation projects at scale, to help turn the tide on the catastrophic destruction of nature around the world.”

See related article: Morgan Stanley Raises $500 Million for First Close of 1GT Climate Private Equity Strategy

Last month, Apple announced it had appointed Climate Asset Management to manage an up to $200 million expansion of its Restore Fund, to support a broad portfolio of high-quality nature-based carbon removal projects that scale up carbon removal with the aim of removing one million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year at its peak.  A unique blended vehicle structure will pool two types of investments which align to Climate Asset Management’s existing investment strategies and aims to achieve both financial and climate benefits for investors while advancing a new model for carbon removal that more fully addresses the global potential for nature-based solutions.

Christof Kutscher, who is stepping down as CEO and Executive Chair, added: “I am genuinely proud to have been part of the team that created Climate Asset Management and to have led it through its formative years.  The recent mandate from Apple is a vote of confidence in our model and our team.   I am looking forward to supporting Martin and the management team in an advisory capacity over the next period of growth.”

Mr Berg was appointed on 1 May 2023 and has joined the Climate Asset Management board with immediate effect.  He will continue to lead the firm’s Nature Based Carbon Strategy until a new appointment has been made. An independent chair of the board of Climate Asset Management will be appointed in due course.