Deborah Spalding

Deborah Spalding is the Global Head of Nature Finance for Conservation International where she oversees a team that mobilizes investment for nature, encompassing long term finance for target conservation areas, carbon and nature finance, impact advisory services to commercial and nature focused investment vehicles, financing of nature positive economies through loans,  equity and flexible financing, and other innovative financial structures that unlock funding for nature at national or regional levels.

Previously, she served as Chief Investment Officer of Commonfund OCIO, an investment manager for endowments, foundations, and other nonprofit institutions. Prior to that, Spalding was the Chief Investment Officer of the State of Connecticut’s $30 billion Retirement Plans and Trust Funds. In 2007, Spalding co-founded Working Lands Investment Partners, LLC, an independent investment management firm that invests in rapidly growing environmental markets for wetlands mitigation credits, water quality and quantity instruments, and habitat banking. Prior to that, she held a number of executive-level positions including Executive Vice President and Head of International Investments for Schroders Investment Management N.A. and Managing Director and Head of International Institutional Investments at Scudder Kemper Investments. She began her career as an equity analyst at SKB & Associates in San Francisco.

Deborah currently serves on the board of the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities and is an advisory board member for the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. She is a former Independent Board Member for Resource Management Service, a timberland investment manager,  past Board Chair of the National Wildlife Federation, and former trustee for the Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation.