Chris Zinkhan

Chris Zinkhan co-founded The Forestland Group (TFG) in 1995 and served for roughly 27 years as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Under his leadership, the Chapel Hill, NC–based firm grew into one of the largest timberland investment management organizations in the United States — frequently cited as the sixth-largest TIMO — with a portfolio of roughly 3.5 million acres of predominantly hardwood timberland spread across the U.S., Canada, Belize, Panama, and Costa Rica. TFG was also described as the country's biggest seller of forest carbon credits, reflecting Zinkhan's early push to monetize standing forests through carbon markets in addition to timber.

Zinkhan trained as both a forester and a finance professional. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Franklin & Marshall College (late 1970s) and went on to Duke University, where he received an MBA and a Master of Forestry (both 1981). Before and alongside his investment career he was a faculty member conducting applied research in timberland investing and finance at the University of Georgia and Campbell University. He is the co-author of the pioneering academic/practitioner text *Timberland Investments: A Portfolio Perspective* (with William R. Sizemore and others), an influential early work on the role of timberland in institutional portfolios.

In November 2022, entities managed by The Forestland Group — a roughly 1.7-million-acre portfolio (growing toward ~1.9 million acres) — were acquired for approximately $1.8 billion by Blue Source Sustainable Forests Company (BSFC), a joint venture between Anew Climate and Oak Hill Advisors, in one of the largest private conservation-focused forest transactions in U.S. history. In recognition of Zinkhan as TFG's founder, the buyers established the TFG Foundation with an initial $4 million contribution to fund sustainable-forestry education and pathways into the green economy.

Following the sale, Zinkhan founded and now runs Timberland Options, a consulting firm advising clients on timberland investment strategy. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Georgia Center for Forest Business.

• Asset class: Institutional timberland as an alternative/real asset — direct acquisition and management of working forests, not venture or seed equity in operating companies.
• Specialty: A distinctive focus on hardwood timberland (versus the industry's more common softwood/pine plantations), managed for long-rotation, sustainable harvest.
• Return drivers: Combines biological timber growth, land appreciation, and — notably — forest carbon credits. Zinkhan positioned TFG as a leading seller of carbon offsets, while cautioning publicly that "a carbon deal is not a free lunch," i.e., carbon monetization involves real trade-offs against timber harvest revenue.
• Scale: Managed portfolios reaching ~3.5 million acres across North and Central America on behalf of institutional (pension/endowment-style) capital, with fund-level capital raises rather than individual angel checks.
• Current activity: Through Timberland Options, advises institutions and landowners on timberland acquisition, valuation, and carbon strategy rather than deploying his own venture capital.