Expertise, experience, and a deep understanding of natural capital & food systems.
A small, cost-efficient core team connected to an on-demand network of proven local operators.
Dr. Schumacher has held senior executive roles across real estate, timberland, agriculture, and private markets. Until mid-2024, he served as Global Head of Real Assets, Private Markets, and President & CEO of Manulife Investment Management Timberland & Agriculture (Boston/Zurich). Prior to Manulife, he was Global Head of Real Estate at Credit Suisse Asset Management and, from 2011 to 2017, CEO of Union Investment Institutional Property GmbH, where he led the institutional business and served on the investment committee. Earlier in his career, he worked at Generali Real Estate across Cologne, Luxembourg, and Paris, and practiced law at Linklaters in Berlin and London.
He currently serves as an Independent Investment Committee Member at CBRE Investment Management, a Member of the European Board of the Urban Land Institute, and as Managing Partner at BLACKLAKE Investment Partners. Dr. Schumacher studied at the universities of Freiburg, Geneva, and Bonn, and holds a PhD from the University of Münster in International Business Law.
Mrs. Berner’s career spans business leadership, public service, and international board governance. She began her career at Vallila Interior AB, a family-owned interior design company she joined in 1986 and led as CEO and Chairwoman from 1989 to 2012. Alongside her business career, she served as a Member of the Finnish Parliament and as Minister of Transport and Communications (2015–2019). She has since held board and chair roles across sectors including forestry and paper, insurance, building materials, energy, logistics, healthcare, and financial services.
Currently, she serves on the boards of Kühne + Nagel AG, SEB AB, Grifols S.A., and Medicover AB, and has chaired the Advisory Board of Getec Energie Holding GmbH since 2022. She is also Chairwoman of the Board of the Foundation for Children’s Trauma Hospital Nadija sr in Helsinki. Mrs. Berner holds an MSc in Business Administration and Economics from Hanken School of Economics.
Jim Cain’s career spans law, business, sports and international diplomacy. From 2005 to 2009 he served as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark. Prior to his diplomatic service he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of the NHL Carolina Hurricanes, as a partner in the international law firm Kilpatrick Townsend, and in leadership roles at various civic and business organisations. Since leaving diplomatic service, working through his company Cain Global Partners and his law firm Kilpatrick Townsend, Ambassador Cain has worked on global economic and infrastructure development projects, supporting investment and collaboration in the agribusiness, security and defence, and life science sectors, and assisting North American and European companies expand their operations into markets in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, as well as bringing foreign investment into the United States.
Ambassador Cain serves on the Board of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an S&P 500 company focused on early-stage innovation in the AgTech and BioTech sectors. He serves on the Advisory Boards of The National WWI Memorial Commission and the Global Leadership Council. Before leaving North Carolina for his diplomatic post, Ambassador Cain served in leadership positions for numerous civic and non-profit institutions and was named "Business Leader of the Year" by Business Leader Magazine.
Ambassador Cain grew up in a farming family in North Carolina. His political activities began with the 1976 Reagan for President campaign, included a term as RNC National Committeeman from North Carolina, and service as Presidential Emissary to the Philippines in 2004. His novel “Reign of Secrets” was released in February 2026.
Marcus Wignell is a co-founder of NewAg and serves as a Senior Advisor to the company. In his prior role at NewAg, he negotiated and closed a vertically integrated tree fruit transaction in Washington State in 2022 alongside Goldman Sachs Asset Management, then served as Head of Acquisitions for Manulife’s Farmland Plus investment group within the Manulife Timber and Agriculture platform.
Prior to NewAg, he worked at Amherst Capital as a senior Managing Director, served on the Executive Committee, and was responsible for forming, investing in, managing and exiting a US single-family rental (SFR) portfolio that generated strong returns for investors.
Prior to Amherst Capital (at the time part of BNY Mellon) Marcus worked at Capital Dynamics, RREEF/Deutsche Bank and while still practicing as a lawyer at Clifford Chance in London. He graduated from the University of Melbourne and was awarded his law degree from La Trobe University. Marcus is qualified to practice Law in England and Wales, is a Barrister and Solicitor in Victoria, Australia and is an Attorney of the New York Supreme Court.
Ricardo Madureira has worked as a corporate executive and entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Orfeu Cafés Especiais. Having worked as CEO and in other C-level positions in Vogel (Telecom), Patria Investimentos, Votorantim, AmBev, Monsanto and CanaVialis, he served as board member at NextStepe and other companies in the portfolios of VC funds.
Ricardo holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering with specialisation in brewing technology from the Sibel Institute of Technology (Chicago) and an MBA from FDC (Brazil). He also graduated from the OPM programme at Harvard Business School.
Will is a climate finance and impact professional with over 20 years’ experience across carbon markets, clean energy, and venture development. He was part of the founding management team of Respira International, a carbon investment firm where he led sourcing, business development, and carbon credit sales for a nature-based portfolio of 20m tons. He has structured multiple carbon credit transactions, including pilot programmes to support the adoption of regenerative farming approaches in the UK and the US. Formerly a carbon lawyer, Will has closed carbon credit transactions across both regulatory and voluntary markets.
Sari Miller has invested in numerous startups and ventures and has held leadership roles at several large financial services companies. She was a Partner/EVP/CFO of an insurance company that was sold to AIG, and she was a lead founder in an insurance company and data centre company (both IPO’d).
In the last decade, Sari has focused on impact-for-profit ventures. She was the first angel investor and general partner in Leapfrog Investments, a leading impact investment firm, founding limited partner and Member of the Advisory Councils at Rebalance Capital and Grassroots Business Fund. Select angel investments with advisory include Gigawatt Global, Code Ocean, Purpose Global, Akagera Medicines, RubyWell, Biotia, Hyro.
BA, Barnard College, Columbia University; MBA, Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania.
Detlef Schoen is the Founder of NewAg, a regenerative farming and natural capital investment platform launched in 2019 after he stepped down as Head of Real Assets at Insight Investment, a BNY Mellon subsidiary and one of the world’s largest asset managers. He has 40+ years of experience in global agribusiness and investment, spanning hands-on farming, commodity trading, M&A, and institutional asset management.
Previously, he held senior roles at Cargill, founded and exited a German grain export business, ran the global grain book at NIDERA, and built a large-scale farmland investment platform at Aquila Capital, becoming one of the largest foreign investors in New Zealand agriculture. At Insight, he oversaw a 600,000-ha global farmland portfolio and led the first Guernsey Green Fund-accredited farmland strategy. NewAg’s flagship investment, New Columbia Fruit Packers (Washington State apples & cherries), is anchored by Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Carl-Fredrik Wachtmeister was raised in Sweden and Switzerland and holds a BSc in Business from Lund University, with additional agricultural training from Skurups Lantbruksskola. In 2009, he joined Trolle Ljungby, one of Sweden’s largest privately owned estates (12,900 ha), encompassing forestry, livestock, dairy, arable farming, and related enterprises. After managing multiple parts of the business, he became CEO in 2017 and turned sustained losses into profitability within three years through changes to governance and cost control. From 2017 to 2019, he served as a landowner representative on the Skåne and Blekinge Tenant Court and currently acts as Deputy Auditor of the Swedish Fideicommissary Association. Since 2009, he has also served as a board member of Autokaross i Floby AB. As COO, Carl-Fredrik is responsible for executing investments across regenerative farming, sustainable food systems, forestry, silviculture, and carbon sequestration initiatives.
Effie Datson has 28+ years of experience in banking, asset management, and wealth management, with a focus on alternative investments, product origination, and structured solutions across liquid and illiquid strategies. Most recently, she served as Global Head of Family Office at Barclays Private Bank, having previously led a large hedge fund investment platform at Union Bancaire Privée.
Earlier in her career, she spent eight years at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management as Head of Hedge Fund Sales and Product Head of the dbSelect platform, while also leading sustainable investment sales efforts. She began her career at Goldman Sachs in FX sales and e-commerce, and has held roles in trading, research, business development, and alternative investing, including work for the Rothschild family.
Effie is a Founder of 100 Women in Finance EMEA, serves on the boards of Wienerberger AG and Chia Network, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an A.B. (magna cum laude) from Harvard College, and the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing.
TORR — Brazil’s largest cocoa consultancy, now integrated into NewAg Cocoa Brazil, overseeing 12,000+ ha. A fourth TORR partner is retained under NDA and not named publicly.
Mr. Maestri is a forestry and agribusiness professional with technical and operational experience across plantation forestry, agricultural production, and investment management. He holds a degree in Forest Engineering from the Federal University of Paraná, a Master’s degree in growth and production modelling of Black Acacia, and a PhD in eucalyptus growth and production modelling related to environmental variables. Early in his career, he was a researcher at EMBRAPA’s National Center for Forestry Research, followed by six years as a senior researcher at Aracruz Celulose, focusing on eucalyptus.
He then served for 13 years as Forest Planning Manager at Pisa Florestal with a primary focus on Pinus plantations, before becoming a partner in São Pedro e Santana Agropecuária. Since 2005, Mr. Maestri has been a Partner at Granflor Agroflorestal, providing investment, property, and project management services. Granflor has managed and maintained FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification across more than 44,000 hectares of forestry assets, at peak employing over 500 staff, and serving institutional clients including Harvard Management Company, Folium Capital, BTG, and Klabin.
Mr. Rocha, an agronomist and third-generation cocoa farmer, is the founder of TFR agricultural consultancy, specialising in cocoa cultivation. Since 2014, he has held technical positions in cocoa plantations. Mr. Rocha currently works in nine Brazilian states and four biomes (cerrado, caatinga, Atlantic forest, Amazon forest). He has developed technologies for planting cocoa in non-traditional environments. Mr. Rocha consults on cocoa planting projects in semi-arid regions of Brazil.
Mr. Kuhn has nearly two decades of experience in the retail sector and is a partner in a business group that manages multiple companies. Sixteen years ago, he took over management of a large cocoa production farm and introduced changes that raised its productivity. Orlando also leads agricultural operations across several of the group’s farms, with a focus on productivity and the use of technology. He is responsible for TORR’s day-to-day operations.
Mr. Yeo is a British national with a farming and farmland agency background in the UK, based in Brazil. He has experience across agricultural production regions and has studied crop and permanent tree production systems in tropical and subtropical regions, with a focus on micro-climates, irrigation, and domestic and export markets.
Mr Ortmeyer is a Danish national based in Brazil since 2011, fluent in English, Portuguese, and Danish. With a background in business administration and experience in overseeing operations, translation, and communication across international agribusiness projects, Kent coordinates collaboration between investors, partners, and producers. As responsible for the NewAg Brazil Office, Kent supports on-the-ground execution and stakeholder relations in Brazil.
Gisele Darski has experience in controllership and administrative management across agribusiness, industry, and services, in medium and large companies, including foreign investments in Brazil. Her background includes structuring organisational processes, implementing internal controls, and overseeing accounting and tax operations. Her career includes senior roles at Grant Thornton Brasil and, most recently, Grupo Granflor, where she served as Chief Controller from 2021–2024, managing controllership for foreign investments in Brazil and acting as liaison between investors, legal support firms, and Big Four auditors.