Jade Saunders

Executive Director

Jade has worked on forest governance, trade and environmental crime for nearly 20 years, most notably as an Associate Fellow of the Environment and Society Programme at Chatham House and as Senior Policy Analyst at Forest Trends. As Executive Director of World Forest ID, she is responsible for developing the organization’s overall strategy with a particular focus on expanding its analytical capacity and rigor.

Marigold Norman

Director of Research

With over 15 years of experience in forest governance and climate finance, Marigold is an internationally recognized expert in her field. She has previously worked in policy roles in government as well as research roles in the think tank and non-profit sector, including ODI and Forest Trends. Marigold is a Geographer by training.

Victor Deklerck

Director of Science

Victor obtained his PhD in Bioscience Engineering: Natural Resources at Ghent University in collaboration with the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Belgium). He leads the World Forest ID science team on developing timber identification and tracking technologies, data integration, and machine learning efforts.

Eszter Bodnar

Director of Communications

Eszter leads World Forest ID’s communications efforts ranging from brand management to stakeholder outreach and media presence. In her most recent role, Eszter served as Senior Communications Advisor at Forest Trends, prior to which she ran her own communications and design consultancy serving over two dozen public and private environmental organizations.

David Stewart

Director of Finance and Grant Management

David is the Director of Finance and Grant Management at World Forest ID. He has over 10 years of experience in finance and operations and has previously worked in Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Turkey, and Kenya. David holds an MBA from George Washington University.

Caspar Chater

Forest-Risk Commodity Project Lead

Caspar leads World Forest ID’s non-timber forest risk commodity traceability project. A Research Leader in the Crops and Global Change team at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, Caspar obtained his PhD from the University of Sheffield and has expertise in plant molecular genetics and crop physiology.

Lydia Prior

Research and Collections Associate

Lydia is responsible for tracking and supporting collections alongside policy and research work. She has experience in the environmental and international NGO sector. Lydia previously worked at Friends of the Earth in communications, fundraising and donor support as well as in research for an agro-ecological farm in the UK.

Sarah Richardson

Program Officer

With a background in environmental science, policy, wildlife management, and ecology, Sarah specializes in collecting, analyzing, and displaying geospatial data. After graduating from the University of Maryland, Sarah joined World Forest ID to assist efforts of mapping native and planted forests and visualizing target species ranges.

Alfredo Rodriguez

Asia Pacific Collections Coordinator

Alfredo has a long track record working with development institutions, international cooperation agencies, competent authorities, and the private sector developing strategies for strengthening sustainable supply chains and forest-commodities legality assurance systems. He leads World Forest ID’s collection efforts in the Asia Pacific region.

Rosario Carrasco

Latin America Collections Coordinator

Rosario has more than 18 years of experience in planning and executing logistics processes, managing tenders, and monitoring administrative and legal documentation both in public and private Peruvian sectors. At World Forest ID Rosario manages the global sourcing of sampling kits and tools, and provides administrative and operational support for expeditions in Latin America.

Jakub Truszkowski

DATA SCIENTIST

Jakub holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Waterloo, Canada. His background is in computational biology, machine learning, and algorithm design. At World Forest ID, he is responsible for developing machine learning methods for determining timber harvest origin. He is based at the Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Thomas Mortier

DATA SCIENTIST

With a PhD in Bioscience Engineering: Mathematical Modeling and a Master of Science in Computer Science Engineering and Statistical Data Analysis, Thomas is currently supporting the World Forest ID science team by contributing to the development of the data analytics pipeline. He is also working as a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University, where his research concentrates on the modeling of uncertainty in machine learning.

Meaghan Parker Forney

CO-FOUNDER AND SCIENCE ADVISOR

Meaghan brings over 20 years of expertise in the fields of conservation and genetics and has helped to drive the development and uptake of identification databases for wood products. Meaghan focuses on building partnerships with academic, government and private sector scientists to support World Forest ID’s mission and goals.

Peter Gasson

SENIOR WOOD ANATOMIST

Peter is the research leader in wood and timber at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He has more than 40 years of experience working in systematic wood anatomy and the identification of fragmentary plant material, especially timbers, for a wide variety of enquiries including enforcement, timber importers, antique dealers and archaeologists. As the lead wood anatomist for World Forest ID, Peter uses his expertise to confirm or refute wood identity and provenance.

Scot McQueen

TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR

Scot joined FSC as the Senior Technology Officer in July of 2021, coming from Esri, where he was the Senior Account Executive responsible for global sales strategy, messaging and major account development within the commercial forestry sector. For World Forest ID, Scot brings extensive experience with strategic planning, project management and partner–client relationship building.

Jill Wegrzyn

ANALYTIC DATA ARCHITECT

Jill is an Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut. Jill leads the TreeGenes Database, which represents an integrated genomic and phenomic community resource for forest health and breeding. For World Forest ID, Jill’s team is developing map-based applications to both view and analyse genetic, chemical and anatomical data for timber species.

Alexandru Galupa

Collector, Moldova

For over 25 years, Alexandru’s work has been focused on forest management and cadastre at the Forest Research and Management Institute in Chisinau, Moldova. He is also a member of the plant diversity and climate change research team at the National Botanical Garden of Moldova. As a collector, Alexandru has been supporting World Forest ID’s Eastern European operations. 

Arthur La Rosa Sánchez

Collector, Peru

Arthur has extensive experience working in conservation, including the planning and execution of forest censuses and the processing of cartographic information for forest concessions, protected areas, and native communities. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Forest Sciences from the National Agrarian University of La Molina and is World Forest ID’s lead collector in Peru.

Cynel Moundounga

COLLECTOR, GABON

Cynel currently works for the Tropical Ecology Research Institute of the National Center for Scientific and Technological Research of Gabon. He is pursuing his PhD in plant ecology and will join the faculty of the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon. As a collector for World Forest ID, Cynel leads expeditions in Gabon, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo.

Alejandra Maria Ramirez Arango

Collector, Colombia

Alejandra Maria Ramirez Arango is an Assistant professor of Wood Technology at the University of Tolima, Colombia. She has over 20 years of experience in the identification of wood from tropical forests. Alejandra supports World Forest ID’s as a coordinator of our Colombian expeditions.

Lee Grace

Collector, USA

Lee has been working in land management and conservation for over ten years. Before joining World Forest ID, Lee managed an orchard and a nature preserve. He has been collecting samples for World Forest ID since September 2021, and is focused on troubleshooting and perfecting the various collection techniques.

Herman Zanguim

Collector, Cameroon

Herman currently studies at the Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences of the University of Dschang in Cameroon pursuing a doctoral program in sustainable management of natural resources for the Congo Basin. He has participated in several timber sample collections for World Forest ID in Cameroon, Republic of Congo and Gabon and continues to support World Forest ID expeditions in Central Africa.

Gael Bouka

Collector, Congo

Gael Bouka is currently assistant professor and permanent lecturer at Marien Ngouabi University in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. He collaborates with World Forest ID collections in the Republic of Congo while pursuing his research and studies in Botanical Ecology with the University of Montpellier, France and at Marien Ngouabi University.

Daniela Texeira Vilela

Collector, Brazil

Daniela has been working in the forestry sector for 11 years, supporting responsible forest management. She joined FSC Brazil in 2018 as technical coordinator and since 2020 also acts as executive director. For World Forest ID Daniela leads and coordinates expeditions in Brazil to collect timber samples in FSC-certified forests.

Eli Pariente

Collector, Peru

Throughout his career, Eli has carried out extensive research around forest vegetation, species management, and environmental conservation. He is a forest engineer and a professor at the Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza National University, as well as the author of three books and more than a dozen scientific articles. Eli is one of World Forest ID’s collectors covering the Peruvian Amazon.

Ellen Crocker

Collector, USA

Dr. Ellen Crocker is an Assistant Professor of Forest Health Extension in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Kentucky. Her focus is on education and outreach related to forest health issues such as invasive plants, insects and pathogens.  Her lab has led multiple collection of samples for World Forest ID.

Somporn Khongthanakrittakorn (Koki)

COLLECTOR, THAILAND

Koki has spent 20 years working in the forestry sector in the Mekong Delta. He has experience as a forester, auditor and researcher, focusing on the unique challenges of micro-enterprises and smallholders in the global market. Koki was one of the first collectors for World Forest ID and subsequently contributed to the development of field protocols and virtual training.

Wilson Tiubule

COLLECTOR, SOLOMON ISLANDS

Willie has spent his career working for Kolombangara Forest Products Ltd, an FSC-certified forest in the Solomon Islands. Willie is the Forestry Research Supervisor and is a native of Kolombangara Island. He leads World Forest ID field trials, sample collections and testing of sampling kits.