Clark Binkley

Dr. Clark S. Binkley is an internationally recognized expert in forestry investment and forest economics, with a career spanning more than 40 years across academia and institutional timberland investing. He earned bachelor's degrees in Applied Mathematics and Engineering from Harvard University and advanced degrees in Forestry and Environmental Studies from Yale University. He was a Yale faculty member from 1978 to 1990 and held the Frederick K. Weyerhaeuser Professorship of Forest Resource Management. From 1990 to 1998 he served as Dean of the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia.

He moved from academia into the timberland investment business, serving as Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at Hancock Timber Resource Group (Hancock Natural Resource Group, ~1998–2005). In 2005 he founded International Forestry Investment Advisors, LLC (IFIA) to develop socially responsible, high-return timberland investment strategies. In 2012 IFIA merged with GreenWood Resources, and TIAA-CREF (now Nuveen Asset Management) acquired a majority interest in the merged entity.

From 2012 to 2017, Binkley was Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director at GreenWood Resources, Inc. (GWR), which managed roughly $2 billion of timberland assets across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. In that role he helped develop high-yield tree plantations in Eastern Oregon, Chile, and Poland, and worked with Global Environment Fund on the Global Emerging Markets Forestry Fund. GreenWood Resources has since become part of Nuveen Natural Capital.

Beyond his investment roles, Binkley has served on the boards of West Fraser Timber, TimberWest Forest Corp., Pacific Forest Products, and CellFor. He has authored more than 100 books and articles on forest economics and is a frequent speaker and panel moderator at industry conferences on timberland returns and forest-carbon markets.

• Invests in and manages institutional timberland and forestry assets — not early-stage tech; his strategies target "attractive risk-adjusted returns in selected regions of the world."
• Emphasis on "innovative, socially responsible, high-return timberland investment strategies," the stated founding mission of IFIA.
• Focus on high-yield, intensively managed tree plantations using improved plant material and advanced silviculture (e.g., Eastern Oregon, Chile, Poland).
• Active interest in forest-carbon markets and the "joint production of carbon and timber" as a driver of optimal timberland portfolios; he has moderated panels on carbon-offset challenges, controversies, and project viability.
• Global diversification across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia rather than a single region.