Key Personnel

Anko Stilma

Anko is a Dutch national, who has a master degree in forestry from Wageningen University, Netherlands, and has almost 20 years of experience in; design, implementation, management and financing of sustainable forestry and land use projects.  He has been living and working in Bolivia for 16 years and his experience covers both private sector as well as non-profit organizations including the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Since 2006,  Anko was the founder and since then general manager of Sicirec Bolivia, , the company which provides forestry related services and acts as the project manager for the ArBolvia project, as well as other innovative programmes on reforestation, forest management, conservation and climate smart agriculture in the Bolivian low lands.

Jorge Goitia

Jorge has a degree in forestry from the University “Juan Misael Saracho” Tarija, Boliva and a master degree in watershed management from the renowned international institute on tropical agriculture (CATIE), Turrialba, Costa Rica. He has over 20 years of experience in land use management, sustainable forest management and timber trading. His experience covers both private sector as well as non-profit organizations, including the Food and Agricultural organization of the United Nations (FAO).

He has been the technical manager of Sicirec Bolivia ltda since 2009, a role which includes the daily technical management of the ArBolivia-project.

Giovanna Verduguez

Giovanna has a degree in business administration from the University “San Simón” in Cochabamba, Bolivia. She has over 15 years of experience in business administration and financial planning and control in the private sector as well in international organizations including the the Food and Agricultural organization of the United Nations (FAO). Giovanna became financial manager of Sicirec Bolivia in 2008.

David Vincent

David is a graduate of Sheffield University, a former teacher and financial adviser with 12 years experience in forestry investment. He began working with Sicirec Bolivia in 2008 and since that time has developed a high level of experience of working in Bolivia, tropical forestry and land use management involving smallholders and the voluntary carbon market.

He has also been involved in forestry and agro-forestry projects in Brazil, Peru and the Far East. David has experience of designing and promoting forestry and agroforestry investments in the UK.

Robert Pothoven

 

Robert’s main job is as an agricultural commodity trader with ABN Amro but he also works on a part time basis as a non-executive director. His experience in commodities such as coffee and cocoa is invaluable but he was also originally trained as a lawyer and his legals skills, together with his objective and methodical approach are a great asset to the team.  Robert also has a great deal of experience with advising on overseas development project around the globe and has an interest in promoting sustainable business practices in his home city of Rotterdam.

Popko van der Molen

Popko is the founder of Sicirec Group BV, based in the Netherlands, which provided the initial design consultancy and funding at the start of the project. He, has a masters degree in Biochemistry from the State Universoty of Grongingen with a doctoral study in Behavioural Genetics with Applied Mathematics, Ethology, Population Genetics and Forest Ecology

He founded Sicirec S.A in 2001 as a consumer organisation for private investors in plantation forestry projects, giving information, representation and trading services, licensed and controlled by AFM, Authority on the Financial Markets in the Netherlands .  From 1996 – 2001 he led a successful salvaging operation of Bosque Puerto Carrillo, Costa Rica, the largest plantation forestry company of Central America at that time, which later became  PanAmerican Woods (PAW); of which he was vice president from 1997-01. He was also the founder and interim director (1998-1999) of NIBO N.V. (Nederlandse Internationale Bosbouw-Onderneming), the participation company, which still controls PAW.

He founded Sicirec Group BV and its 4 subsidiaries  in 2007, providing services in forestry management, asset-selection and portfolio management, according to the innovative “Sicirec-Formula” followed by the ArBolivia project.