Tim Brown

Chief Executive Officer

Tim is a founder and the CEO of Tradewater. He provides strategic direction for the firm in all business areas. He is developing new programs to further Tradewater’s mission and expand its impact. He is working to open new markets and facilitate the firm’s international expansion. Tim brings to Tradewater 40 years of experience in carbon programs, environmental policy, hazardous waste cleanup, and pollution prevention. He founded Wabashco in 2008 to develop carbon offset and renewable energy projects in the Midwest, and in 1998 he co-founded the Delta Institute, a nonprofit organization to improve environmental quality and promote community and economic development in the Great Lakes Basin. He ran the Delta Institute’s environmental program, which included a wide range of water quality, pollution prevention, toxic reduction, and carbon sequestration work. Tim has worked for a range of environmental organizations in both the private and non-profit sectors including Clean Sites, ICF, and the Center for the Great Lakes. He was a Dana Meadows Sustainability Leadership Fellow with the Sustainability Institute. Tim holds a B.S. from Northwestern University. He has held leadership positions on many boards over the years including the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Rebuilding Exchange, Delta Institute, and the Alliance for the Great Lakes, among others. He currently serves on the board of the Lochland School.

Gabriel Bankier Plotkin

Chief Operating Officer

Gabe is a founder of Tradewater and currently serves as the COO. He oversees implementation of Tradewater’s domestic carbon offset projects and collaborates with the CEO to expand existing greenhouse gas mitigation programs and establish new ventures related to innovative technology and international carbon markets. Gabe began working in environmental project development at Wabashco, LLC, after a 12-year career as an attorney. He served first as a staff attorney with the Federal Defender Program for the Northern District of Illinois. He then joined the law firm of Miller Shakman & Beem, a commercial litigation boutique, where he became a partner and served as an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago Law School. Throughout his career, Gabe has served in various leadership roles in the non-profit world. While in law school, he founded Youth Rights Media, a non-profit in New Haven, Connecticut, dedicated to empowering youth to protect and advance their legal rights, and served on their Board of Directors for close to ten years. He also served for six years on the board of the Rebuilding Exchange, a Chicago non-profit committed to developing a market for the reuse of building materials, including spending four years as Board Chair. Gabe holds a B.A. from Brown University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Nicholas Cade

Director of US Programs

As Director of Tradewater Refrigerant Solutions, Nick primarily oversees operations at Tradewater’s aggregation and reclamation facilities. Prior to joining Tradewater, Nick was an attorney for several years in both private practice and as an active duty service-member in the United States Navy Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. Before law school, Nick taught middle school social studies in Brooklyn, NY as a Teach For America corps member. He holds a B.A. in both History and Government from Colby College, an M.S. for Teachers from Pace University, and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. Nick continues to serve as a reserve officer in the JAG Corps, sits on the board of directors of Volunteers of America of Illinois, and is active in a number of civic organizations.

Katherine Chavarría

Finance and Administrative Coordinator

Katherine joined Tradewater’s international team in 2019. She works on transboundary movement matters and provides general administrative support related to the program. Katherine enjoys working on environmental protections towards a goal of achieving sustainable development. Katherine lives and works in Costa Rica.

Xiomara Crespo

Environmental Program Associate

Chad Dorger

Program Manager

Chad Dorger is a Program Manager at Tradewater working on carbon offset development. He holds a B.S. from Loyola University Chicago’s School for Environmental Sustainability. Previously at Tradewater, Chad worked as an Environmental Program Associate, traveling the United States collecting refrigerants from 47 states!

Juan Gallardo

Warehouse Associate

Juan joined Tradewater in 2023 as a Warehouse Associate.His previous experience includes ten years working in the railroad industry, recycling oil and coolants. Juan enjoys working on cars with his brother in his free time. He is excited to support Tradewater’s mission of improving our environment by collecting and destroying high-impact greenhouse gases.

Peter Garcia

Environmental Program Associate

Beau Garrett

Program Manager

Beau joined Tradewater in 2019. As a Program Manager, he focuses on providing refrigerant management solutions to portfolios of buildings through Tradewater’s Catalytic Coalition. He is also responsible for carbon accounting and target setting initiatives both internally and externally. Beau holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Environmental Engineering from Northwestern University. Prior to joining Tradewater, he managed sustainability projects for large, complex buildings with Delta Institute, and helped hundreds of commercial buildings achieve LEED certification, ENERGY STAR awards and city ordinance compliance while at Goby. Beau previously served as co-chair of the Delta Emerging Leaders, offers pro-bono energy benchmarking consulting, and is a co-founder of REVIVEcollective, a creative community based in multiple cities.

Clarissa Gregg

Environmental Program Associate

Clarissa joined Tradewater in 2018 as a Customer Service Representative and supports the work of the U.S. Ozone Depleting Substances program. She earned a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from Millikin University. She also holds an Associate’s Degree in World Languages from City Colleges of Chicago, where she focused on French and Spanish. Prior to Tradewater, she worked in theatre, as a vocalist, in retail, and as an administrative assistant.

Chris Gross

Courier

María José Gutiérrez Murray

Senior Director of International Programs

María José joined Tradewater’s work in 2018 when she was approached by the CEO and COO to partner and help with expanding work to Latin America. María José directs Tradewater’s international work in Asian, African, Latin American and Caribbean countries. Her roles include overseeing, finding, collecting and destroying ozone depleting substances from all over the world. Prior to joining Tradewater, she has collaborated as a climate change and sustainability consultant in numerous projects and programs relating to climate change adaptation, greenhouse gas accounting and management, corporate sustainability, and climate policy. For seven years, she was a Technical expert for the Secretariat of the Low Emission Development Strategies Global Platform (LEDS GP) Latin American and Caribbean Regional Platform (LEDS LAC), where she took on various coordinating and advisory roles around climate policy and action. She is also the founding member of the Costa Rica based NGO, Center for Urban Sustainability, and a member of the Balaton Group. María José holds an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Costa Rica, and a M.S. in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford. María lives and works in Costa Rica.

Justin Jetton

Process Technician

Justin Jetton joined Tradewater in 2022 as a Process Technician. Justin spent 8 years in the United States Naval Reserves as an Master-At-Arms and completed a tour in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2013. Justin also worked as a Non Destructive Technician in the oil and gas industry for 8 years. Justin spends his time working on DIY projects at home and enjoys craft beer. He loves spending time with his wife and 2 daughters, and traveling the world. He’s been to Australia and the United Kingdom and is ready for his next adventure!

Rachel Kanan

Controller

Rachel joined Tradewater in 2016, and currently serves in the capacity of Controller. In this role, she manages the organization’s accounting operations including financial statement preparation, payroll, accounts payable and accounts receivable. Previously, she served as the Director of Business Operations and Verification where she led a team that was responsible for managing the verification of Tradewater’s carbon projects, overseeing logistics, operationalizing new business ventures, and providing further support to the firm’s carbon offset projects. Prior to joining Tradewater, Rachel spent 9 years as a middle school math teacher, and also served as a bookkeeper for other businesses. Rachel has a B.A. from Saint Xavier University in Chicago and a MS from the University of Illinois.

Sean Kinghorn

Senior Director of Market Development

Sean Kinghorn is a solutions-oriented leader with 20+ years of experience in sustainability strategy, sustainable business practices, green building consulting, and environmental planning.  He is an expert in “profitability through sustainability” by integrating sustainable business practices with financial goals and objectives.  He has led efforts across a broad range of sectors; most recently spending a decade in leading tech companies as the head of sustainability. He thrives in combining his creativity and problem-solving skills to provide solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental issues.

Kirsten Love

Director of Market Development

Kirsten joined the Tradewater team in 2019 as the Director of Market Development. In her role, she leads the effort around making carbon offset credits available to new markets. This includes not only making carbon credits available to corporations, but also to individual consumers who want to make an impact on climate change. Prior to joining Tradewater, she worked in the Foodservice Industry for a Supply Chain solutions company. Here she worked in a number of different functional roles which included account management, promotions and project management, marketing analytics, resource management, and business development strategy. Kirsten holds a B.S. degree in Psychology and a B.S. degree in Business and Applied Math from The Illinois Institute of Technology. Outside of work, Kirsten is a devoted mother to two and coach to many in her passion to mentor and develop youth through sports such as football, soccer, and basketball.

Samantha Marquette

Digital Marketing Strategist

Samantha joined the Tradewater team in August 2021 as the Digital Marketing Strategist. She is responsible for the digital marketing efforts in the Communications department. Prior to joining Tradewater, she managed the digital media division for a nationwide behavioral health program. Outside of her career, Samantha spent five years living abroad volunteering for environmental advocacy programs across the globe. She is excited to continue this mission to combat climate change with Tradewater.

Victor Molina

Senior Process Technician

Victor joined Tradewater in 2017 as a Process Technician and works in the aggregation and processing of a variety of refrigerants. He also served in the United States Air Force as a Fuels Specialist, working with petroleum and associated equipment. Prior to joining Tradewater, Victor operated hydroprocessing units at a Research & Development plant.

Jenny Morgan

Market Development Manager

Sreya Pedamalla

Manager of Data & Analytics

Sreya joined Tradewater in 2020 as a Data Developer. She handles the development and analysis of Tradewater’s data systems. She has a Master’s Degree in Data Analytics Engineering from Northeastern University, Boston. Prior to joining the Tradewater’s team as a full-time employee in 2020, Sreya worked as an intern in 2019. She gains inspiration knowing that her work contributes to the efforts the company is achieving to fight climate change. She loves traveling and learning about people and the places she visits.

Rebecca Pessoa

Data & Analytics Associate

Rebecca joined Tradewater’s International team in 2021 and had recently began a new role as a Data & Analytics Associate. Most of her professional experience has focused on developing strategies to manage data and high volume of information. This includes internal auditing processes related to the environmental management system and conformity assessments and working to develop a life cycle assessment in compliance with international standards as ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 in the cleaning manufacturing industry.

Aside from her formal qualification she has had the opportunity to work with a non-profit intercultural organization as a volunteer. She supported international students and Costa Rican host families along with the whole intercultural exchange experience, helping her to open her perspective and understand that despite all our diverse backgrounds, we can also share singular interests as global citizens.

Mark Reddy

Director of Communications

Mark serves as the Director of Communications and leads the development of communications and brand strategy for Tradewater.

He has spent more than two decades honing his craft of storytelling and helping organizations find their voice. Before joining Tradewater, Mark served as Vice President at Pinkston (a strategic communications firm), senior vice president of brand and communications at World Relief (a humanitarian organization), and executive director of The Justice Conference. He also serves as chairperson for Chasing Justice, a movement he co-founded to mobilize BIPOC communities to pursue social justice issues.

Mark is passionate about safeguarding the future of our planet and our communities. Born in Fiji, Mark spent most of his life in New Zealand and Australia. He now lives in Chicago with his daughters.

Mith Rinker

Environmental Program Associate

Mitchell joined the Tradewater team in 2022 as an Environmental Program Associate. He graduated with a M.S. in Environmental and Resource Management from Arizona State University in 2021. Prior to working with Tradewater, he worked in the mortgage industry as a loan processor and has done volunteer work with the National Park Service in Maryland. He is excited to be a part of the fight against climate change and hopes his work will make a lasting difference.

Valeria Rios-Maldonado

Program Manager

Valeria joined Tradewater in 2020 as an Environmental Program Associate and was promoted to Program Manager in April of 2022. She currently oversees identification and collection efforts of CFC refrigerants within the United States. Valeria holds a Master of Public Health in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. Previously, Valeria worked at UIC’s Environmental Health and Safety Office as well as did research looking to see if “green” rehabbing of low-income housing in the Chicago area is associated with environmental and personal health indicators.

Aside from her formal qualification she has had the opportunity to work with a non-profit intercultural organization as a volunteer. She supported international students and Costa Rican host families along with the whole intercultural exchange experience, helping her to open her perspective and understand that despite all our diverse backgrounds, we can also share singular interests as global citizens.

Rebeka Romanovsky

Projects and New Developments Manager

Becky joined Tradewater’s international team in 2023, and her responsibilities include overseeing, finding, collecting, and destroying ozone-depleting substances and GHGs from all over the world. Before joining Tradewater, Becky earned her master’s degree in International Development from IE University in Spain, specializing in Sustainable Business & Climate Action.

In her professional career, she worked with all four sectors on issues of carbon offsetting and decarbonization, blue carbon credits, ocean health projects, net-zero targets, ESG and carbon reporting, and scope three accounting in both developed and emerging markets. She founded two start-ups focused on climate action in Toronto and Madrid and headed the ESG product department in a Singapore-based start-up. Becky is passionate about climate innovation and social entrepreneurship and sees Tradewater’s work as one of the most impactful and necessary efforts to stop the climate change emergency.

Becky sees Tradewater as a prime example of how close collaboration between social entrepreneurs, the private sector, civil society, governments, and NGOs can together drive the required systems to change for the climate-smart transition.

Gina Sabatini

Manager of Verification and Logistics

Gina joined Tradewater in 2018 as an Administrative Assistant and later supported the Business Operations and Verification team with verification of offset projects, logistics implementation, and development of internal processes. In 2022, she began a new role as Manager of Verification and Logistics under the Department of Verification and Logistics. This department leads the verification activities for Tradewater’s carbon offset projects on a global scale. Gina received a B.A. in Human Ecology in 2013 from College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Josué Segura

Communication Strategist

Josué joined Tradewater’s international team in 2021 as a Communication Strategist. He has degrees in both advertising and social communication and has worked, mainly, in projects with social inclinations. Most of his professional experience has focused on developing and supporting communication strategies focused on social causes. According to him, his most important experience was working in Era Verde as an editor and production assistant, where he began to understand the potential that communication has towards making social issues visible.

Georgia Sparks

Environmental Program Associate

Georgia joined Tradewater in 2022 as Research & Development Associate. She works on the scoping, innovation, and development of new programs focused on reducing methane emissions. She also worked at Tradewater in 2019 and 2021 before joining full-time. Georgia recently graduated from Barnard College-Columbia University with a B.A. in Environment & Sustainability. She has worked on climate research, political campaigns, and immigration law. Georgia lives in New York City where she enjoys exploring parks and seeing live music.

Tip Stama

Director of Verification and Logistics

Tip joined Tradewater in 2022 as the Director of Verification and Logistics, a new vertical in Tradewater’s growing family. Tip oversees a team responsible for implementing global project-level regulatory compliance and successfully generating environmental commodities from Tradewater’s longstanding halocarbon offset programs and emerging methane program.

Tip comes to Tradewater with a diverse background in climate commodity and project development achievements. He has fostered emergent environmental markets and rulemaking for the past seven years to bolster environmental value streams and climate action worldwide. Tip also volunteers with civic and educational missions in environmental action and climate adaptation and chairs a regional sustainability committee in his home state of Pennsylvania. Tip holds a bachelor’s degree in Energy and Sustainability Policy from Pennsylvania State University and is certified as a commercial aviator and flight instructor.

Panjamas Thaengthonglang

SEAP Program Manager

Donovan Tomony

Environmental Program Associate

Daniel Ulloa

Projects Coordinator

Daniel joined Tradewater International in 2021 as an operations executive. He is a chemical engineer from the University of Costa Rica and is currently studying to obtain a Master´s degree in Integrated Water Resource Management. Most of his professional experience is in the private sector as an industrial consultant first and later working at the Standardization Institute in Costa Rica (INTECO). He experienced firsthand the process of developing standards for the refrigeration, environmental, and food sector, among others, and learning about certification processes. Aside from professional qualifications, he is a SCUBA diver. Being able to observe how fast marine life is declining is one of his many motives to pursue a career in the environmental sector, where he can fight against climate change.

Thom Van Ermen

Program Manager

Thom joined Tradewater in August 2016 and serves as an associate in the company’s CFC collection program. Prior to joining Tradewater, he spent 30 years as an actor, director, stage manager, technical director, and production manager for various non-profit theater organizations.

Moises Valle

Process Technician

Moises joined Tradewater in 2022 as a Process Technician in our Elk Grove Village facility. He supports our work in the aggregation and processing of a variety of refrigerants. Moises’s years of technician and management experience will be an added asset to the team.  Moises has been teaching 4-6 year olds T-ball for six years.  In his free time, he is busy with his three sons. He also loves to grill and eat sushi.

Adriana Vargas

Verification & Logistics Associate

Adriana joined the Operations & Verification team in 2022, to support the validation and verification work of Tradewater’s international projects. She has studies in Environmental Engineering from the Technological Institute of Costa Rica and experience in Inventories of Greenhouse Gases, Carbon Neutrality and environmental management in the food and agricultural industry.

She is passionate about the fight against climate change through innovative and global solutions, as well as the role of environmental education as a tool for change. Her other interests include languages and music.

María José Vargas

Projects and New Developments Manager

María José joined Tradewater’s international team in 2019 as the Coordinator of the Ozone Depleting Substances program for Latin America and the Caribbean. She is responsible for coordinating the implementation of the program in the region and seeking for new collaboration opportunities. Clear on her passion towards sustainability, she studied Environmental Engineering at the Technological University of Costa Rica. Her role with Tradewater is more than a job, but an opportunity aligned with her purpose of bringing solutions to fight environmental issues and building a better life quality for all. Prior to joining the team, María José worked in the hospitality industry, developing projects to reduce the environmental impact and optimize the use of natural resources in the hotel sector and extending this knowledge of good practices to local communities. María lives and works in Costa Rica.

Cassandra Whitford

Methane Project Development Manager