Marcelo de Andrade is a co-founder of the Amazon Rainforest Tipping Insurance Consortium (ARTIC). Over four decades, he has built institutions, financial instruments, and operational platforms at the intersection of sustainable development, conservation finance, and private capital — working across more than 67 countries and deploying in excess of $2 billion, with blended capital leverage of 20 to 50 times that figure.
In 1985 Marcelo founded Pro-Natura International (PNI), a non-profit regional development agency that promotes de-risked investment opportunities, offers capacity building and financing strategies, and coordinates implementation for large-scale sustainable growth programs. In 2013, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group formally recognized PNI's methodology, leading to the co-creation of the Shared Value Platform (SVP) — a blended finance structure that aggregates small-to-medium-scale sustainability and decarbonization projects into special purpose vehicles for regional development. The SVP has been implemented across more than 130 projects, directly impacting over 6 million lives.
He co-founded Earth Capital Partners in 2007, a private equity asset management firm investing exclusively in sustainable businesses, which grew to $3.5 billion under management. Earlier ventures reflect a consistent pattern of building firsts: Terra Capital Fund (1994), co-founded with the IFC, was the first venture capital fund dedicated to biodiversity-positive businesses in Latin America; Axial Bank (1996) was the first financial institution in South America focused on sustainable investment; and Eco Carbon (1995) executed what was at the time the world's largest carbon capture project, in partnership with Peugeot and the French government's Office National des Forêts.
Marcelo's advisory relationships have spanned the boards of Shell, Procter & Gamble, DuPont, and BHP Billiton, where he worked with CEOs and board-level executives on sustainability and ESG strategy across every inhabited continent. He serves as Lead Ambassador for Latin America of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, created and led by King Charles III, and has represented the Nobel Sustainability Trust in Latin America since the mid-2000s. Marcelo was appointed Special Advisor to the Brazilian government and the World Bank for COP 30.
He received the United Nations Earth Day International Award in 1993 — alongside Al Gore, Jacques Cousteau, and Ted Turner — and was elected by Time Magazine and CNN as a Young Global Leader for the Next Millennium. Earlier honors include the George and Cynthia Mitchell International Sustainable Development Prize (1997) and First Prize at the First Anglo-Brazilian Tropical Forest Environment Ministers Conference (1989).
A medical doctor by training and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Marcelo has led 29 major expeditions worldwide and was a member of Brazil's Olympic rowing team for eight years.
Brazilian national. Based in Rio de Janeiro.
Languages: Portuguese, English, Spanish, French.
Manuel Magalhães
Co-Founder, ARTIC | Founder & CEO, Materra Systemic Labs
Manuel Magalhães is a co-founder of the Amazon Rainforest Tipping Insurance Consortium (ARTIC). He is also founder and chief executive of Materra Systemic Labs.
The problem Manuel works on is specific: adaptation and resilience infrastructure remains uninvestable not because underlying value is absent, but because it cannot be measured, contracted, or transferred. No instrument. No market. No price. He builds the architecture that closes that gap.
At Materra, his practice spans sovereign advisory, corporate strategy, and financial structuring across the water-food-energy nexus. Manuel has directed more than $4.5 billion in institutional capital toward agribusiness transformation and energy transition, structuring multi-asset strategies that convert unpriced systemic risk into portfolio positioning and lower-cost capital. He structures adaptation-linked investment strategies for Mitsui & Co., advises Kilara Capital on resilience-as-infrastructure deployment, and works alongside the EBRD and other development banks to strengthen sovereign fiscal resilience and mobilize institutional capital into adaptation at scale.
Before Materra, Manuel spent nearly two decades at the intersection of national security, defense technology, and transaction advisory. As Vice President for National Security Programs across Asia at a London-listed defense technology firm, he co-architected a multi-acquisition growth strategy, built a regional business from inception to participation in critical defense programs, and led an Anglo-Korean joint development initiative producing frontier surveillance and intelligence capabilities. He advised heads of state, defense ministries, and allied intelligence services on geoeconomic fragmentation, adversary doctrine, and the convergence of climate and security risk.
Earlier, he held practice director roles in aerospace and defense advisory, executing private-equity transactions, sell-side mandates, and industrial strategy assignments for Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Airbus, BAE Systems, Thales, and Leonardo. Manuel began his career in aerospace and defense equity research at Credit Suisse First Boston.
Portuguese national. Based in London.
Languages: English, Portuguese, Cantonese.
