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Vanderbilt University: B.A., Environmental Public Policy
George Washington University: M.B.A., Marketing and Finance
Amy Skoczlas Cole has spent over a decade engaging multinational corporations in biodiversity conservation. She most recently applied this expertise on an assignment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she helped to create Instituto BioAtlantica, a new organization focused on involving the private sector in the conservation of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest Hotspot. Upon her return to CELB, she assumed leadership of the Conservation Investments program, which creates innovative strategies for leveraging business assets – human, in kind and financial – to ensure long term conservation success on the ground. In this role, she oversees CI’s strategic corporate contributions, ecosystem service investments, and corporate communications and marketing programs.
While in Brazil, Amy focused on watershed protection and reforestation, work with the forestry and energy sectors, and emerging carbon and water markets. She developed the Forests for Life: Espirito Santo Watershed and Biodiversity Conservation project in partnership with the World Bank, Espirito Santo state government, leading Brazilian companies and NGO partners. The project will improve water quality and availability to the two million residents of the state capital by providing incentives to upstream small-scale farmers to protect and restore riparian zones and important forested habitat. She also led the creation of the US-AID sponsored Conservation on Private Lands program with forestry partners Aracruz Celulose and Veracel, in which forestry partners and conservation organizations jointly identify and protect “stepping stone” areas for habitat protection and conservation corridors on their own lands. In partnership with the international Forests Dialogue, she created the Atlantic Forest Dialogue, a first of its kind Brazilian forum for the forestry industry and conservation groups to identify mutual interests and implement joint conservation projects. Amy was also a key member of the Brazilian Carbon Fund design team, which develops and markets land based carbon projects, taking advantage of Brazil’s competitive position in this emerging market. During her time in Brazil, Amy presented on business and biodiversity issues at over 15 national and international events and conferences.
Prior to moving to Brazil, Amy was a founding member of CELB, developing and expanding relationships with key partners including Starbucks, Ford Motor Company, McDonald’s, Citigroup and others. She was also responsible for marketing CELB’s results to key audiences in the business, media and environmental communities.
Before joining CELB, Amy spent five years managing CI's Corporate Partnerships Program, where she spearheaded CI fundraising and cause marketing with corporations. In this position she launched several new conservation initiatives with companies including Discovery Communications, Bank of America, United Airlines, Intel Corporation, Anheuser-Busch and Walt Disney Company.
Amy was the assistant editor of Footprints in the Jungle: Natural Resource Industries, Infrastructure, and Biodiversity Conservation, published in 2001 by Oxford University Press. She is also on the advisory board of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at University of North Carolina’s Keenan-Flagler School of Business.
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© CI, Frank Stewart
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