| Luisa Montes - RainTrust Advisor Mexico | |||
Luisa Montes, previously worked in the Mexican Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources as director of biodiversity and genetic resources developing legal, economic and financial instruments to promote sustainable use. She has majored in economics and finance in Mexico City and has an MSC in environmental and economic development from the London School of Economics and Political Science. |
| Juliana Larenas - RainTrust Advisor Brazil | |
Juliana worked for The State Government of Bahia, Brazil and was responsible for new business and investment development for the State. She studied business in Australia and received a degree in Business Administration in Brazil. She also has two Masters Degrees; one in Corporate Finance from Fundação Getulio Vargas in Brazil and the other in Business and Public Management from the University of Alcala in Spain. Juliana has traveled extensively and is aware of the different cultural and business nuances for foreign companies doing business in Brazil. Since 2006 she has been a business consultant for Raintrust in Brazil and in 2010 she was invited to be the Managing Director Brazil. |
| David Vander Gullik - RainTrust Advisor Indonesia | |
David has nearly 20 years experience working with reclaimed wood in the Indonesian archipelago. As one of the first in Indonesia to bring reclaimed wood products to the west, his concern over unsustainable logging practices solidified his commitment to working only with salvaged and reclaimed woods. After graduating from the University of British Columbia with a degree in Agricultural Economics, he went on to do contract work for the BC government, gaining extensive experience in farm management consulting. As his passion for protecting the forest and its people became his driving force, he moved his business attention to Indonesia in 1997, founding a partnered venture in East Java, focused on sourcing, designing and producing furniture and houses from reclaimed wood. Later expanding to a second production facility and retail business in Bali, he spent the subsequent years working directly within the local trading network of reclaimed woods in Bali, East Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan, and came to have a deep understanding of the complex business culture of Indonesia at the ground level. |
| Wolfgang Broge - Eco-Tours Director of Brazil | |
25 years of South America and the Amazon have made this region his second homeland. On location for his numerous films he spent many months on the rivers and in the forests of this area. While shooting the four-part series on Alexander von Humboldt "From the Orinoko to the Andes", for example, he followed the route of the famous explorer from Venezuela over Columbia and Ecuador to Peru, for his five-part documentary "A Myth of 7,000 Kilometres – The Amazon River" he followed the course of the entire River Amazon from its source in the Andes to its estuary. He revealed "The Secret of Tatunca Nara", the alleged chieftain of the Uga Mogulala, in reality, however, the German Hansi Hauck. Together with Rüdiger Nehberg (Germany's most famous adventurer "Sir Vival") he mingled with gold-diggers who had penetrated the region of the Yanomani Indians, an extremely dangerous operation, which resulted in the making of the film "Gold Fever In The Amazon". In the past Wolfgang worked as a state-certified mountain and skiing guide. As an extreme mountaineer he climbed, among other mountains, the 8,000-metre Annapurna in the Himalayas complete with film equipment, and he also scaled the most difficult sheer rock faces of the Alps, for example, the north face of the Eiger. He crossed the Sahara from Egypt to the Sudan and then went on to Kenya. In Africa he survived several adventures together with Rüdiger Nehberg, and he has worked for thirty years as a camera man and film author. |
| Josiah Paten - RainTrust Advisor | |
Josiah has developed an advertising network reaching across Southeast Asia and is currently expanding the business into the European and American markets. Josaih also is a director in a new Search Engine Optimization training company located in Thailand. Josiah has always wanted to make a difference, so working with the RainTrust project was an obvious choice. |