Our team

Priya is a passionate advocate for sustainability with over twenty years of experience working with UN agencies, the trade union movement, academia, and the federal government on issues related to natural resource governance, corporate sustainability performance, and sustainable finance.

She holds an MA and PhD in Political Science from the University of British Columbia, as well as an MA in Conflict Analysis and Management from Royal Roads University. She currently serves on the advisory boards of Diversity in Sustainability and the Academy for Sustainable Innovation.

Priya cherishes her South Asian roots and has varied interests in art, travel, hiking, and transformational leadership practices.

Paige is an environmental scientist whose research focuses on how we account for, make decisions about, and value nature – from a personal as well as economic standpoint. At SPI Paige is leading the conservation finance initiative, examining financial mechanisms and enabling conditions to catalyze interest and investment to support ecosystem services and the natural environment. Her expertise centers around ecosystem services, nature-based solutions for climate change, ecological economics, and environmental and relational values. With a common thread of connecting people and nature, her work has spanned rural agricultural settings in Latin America and South East Asia, to advocating for change in international policy settings, to providing sustainability guidance to private sector actors. In this work and past positions at the Earth Institute in New York City and UNEP in Geneva, she enjoys working with a range of stakeholders to address conservation challenges — including local communities, NGOs, various scales of government, academia, and the private sector. Paige maintains affiliations with the CHANS (Connecting Human and Natural Systems) Lab at UBC, and the Copenhagen Business School as part of the Impact for Innovation Lab. She holds a PhD from the Institute of Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC and a Master’s of Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University.

Hamish is a Senior Advisor on Oceans Investment, with a focus on corporate and sovereign blue bond opportunities, and blended finance structures. Since 2014 he has worked with leading investors, insurers, and banks on climate risk strategy, reporting, and product structuring. Alongside his work with capital markets and investment industry leaders, Hamish advises fintech, ocean deep tech and nature based solutions startups. He has worked with issuers and investors on projects covered by the ICMA Guidelines for Blue Finance and the IFC Guidelines for Blue Finance, among other standards, and is passionate about channelling finance into climate solutions and supporting healthy ocean ecosystems. He recently participated in the drafting and launch of the Climate Financial Risk Forum’s 2025 suite of publications on adaptation and resilience. Hamish holds an MSc from the London School of Economics.

Rishi Basak is an environmental economist with over 25 years of experience at the intersection of policy, international development, and innovative finance. Based in Songdo, South Korea, he currently serves as a senior consultant and advisor to leading international organizations including the Green Climate Fund, Global Green Growth Institute, FAO, World Bank Group, and UNDP, and sits on the Advisory Board of Lester Asset Management, where he advises on sustainable investing and the Lynx Global Biodiversity Fund — Canada’s first pure-play nature-positive fund.

Before entering consulting, Rishi spent 14 years as a senior executive in the Government of Canada, leading domestic and international programs across several federal ministries, mostly focused on biodiversity conservation and climate change. As Director and interim Director General of the Office of Greening Government, he directed government-wide mitigation initiatives across 26 federal ministries. At the Canadian International Development Agency, he oversaw a $1.2 billion climate finance portfolio and contributed to the establishment of the Green Climate Fund. He also served as an advisor in the Privy Council Office, where he provided advice on innovative public policy instruments.

Rishi holds a PhD in Economics, Public Administration and Policy from Wageningen University, focused on climate finance governance and accountability, as well as undergraduate and Master’s degrees in Environmental Economics from McGill University. He has worked across more than 15 countries and has a strong track record of mobilizing public and private finance. He is equally at home engaging angels, family offices, venture capital firms, and impact investors, drawing on direct experience advising and launching start-ups across multiple sectors.

Rishi has called Canada, Mexico, and Nepal home and has been based in Songdo, South Korea since September 2023.