We are Cultreevate

Nikolaus had managed a family forest estate in Romania. Next to overseeing all forest management, he contributed part of the forest to create the very first European voluntary carbon project to be certified under the VERRA VCS standard. He advises private and institutional forest owners on how to navigate and successfully implement and distribute VCUs deriving from forest land.

Nikolaus has over 20 years’ commercial real estate and asset management experience and worked until 2018 at BentalGreenOak’s European platform as Senior Advisor. Nikolaus began his career at JPMorgan’s London office in real estate investment banking and is a former Director of Lehman Brothers’ global real estate group, where he was responsible for originating, underwriting and distributing €3bn of European debt and equity transactions. 

Nikolaus has a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Paul has over 20 years’ investment management, banking and legal experience on large and complex international transactions. Paul recently managed the work-out of a $20bn portfolio of securities for a syndicate of major German banks and a State Government, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros in the process. Outside the corporate world, Paul has a passion for nature and tree conservation and has worked with Nikolaus Pongracz on the Rotunda forest project for the past decade. Paul structured the successful placement of the very first VERRA-certified European forest carbon offsets (VCUs) to be issued. Paul began his career with international law firm Linklaters and is a former director of Lehman Brothers’ global real estate group. He is currently also a consultant at Neuberger Berman and is a seasoned company director. Paul received First Class honours in European Law from the University of Warwick.

István has almost two decades of experience in ecologically-based forest management and restoration. He brings his experience gained working in the private sector and for non-profit organizations to help support the team in delivering state-of-the-art, forest based carbon mitigation solutions. István has been supporting the owners of a large forest estate including the biggest privately owned virgin forest (>3000 ha) in Europe and has coordinated the field work supporting the first VERRA-certified European improved forest management carbon offset project. István has a Master’s degree in Ecology and Conservation from the"Babes-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca.

Josef is a highly experienced investment advisor to institutional clients, including family offices, on timberland, biomass plantations and farmland investments. He is member of the Investment Committee of the Adohi Forest Partnership (USA) and Kauri Forestry LP (New Zealand). Prior to that, Josef worked in global capital markets for more than 30 years, including at Deutsche Bank (Frankfurt/London) and Deutsche Börse. He has relevant experience in the creation of investable real assets strategies for capital preservation as well as in developing global carbon offset strategies. Josef has family roots in agriculture and forestry. Josef is also a founding partner of GlenSilva GmbH.

Glenn is one of the most experienced timberland lawyers in the world, with more than 40 years of focused experience representing industrial landowners, institutional investors and timberland investment managers. He has handled investment projects throughout the US and internationally, including all of the major timberland investment jurisdictions in Central and South America. He has developed and maintains an extensive network of trusted partners in the key investment destinations to facilitate the efficient handling of transaction opportunities. For the last 12 years, Glenn has also provided consulting services to institutional investors seeking to develop and manage global timberland portfolios and has arranged numerous acquisition and disposition transactions for these clients. Since 2018, he has focused principally on ecological aspects of forestry investments, especially carbon development and distribution opportunities in the voluntary market, but also including wetlands mitigation banking and renewable energy as integral components of commercial forestry investment.

Brian has over 25 years’ experience with timberland as an asset class, originating and executing highly structured transactions with corporate and institutional clients. Brian advises clients on the identification, pursuit, financing and execution of timberland portfolios on a global basis. Brian is a former forest investment manager within Wells Fargo’s Corporate Real Estate team and is also a founding partner of TerraVista Consulting, LLC.