Steve Ruddell’s 35-year career includes public and private forest resource management, forest policy, forest economic & market research, manufacturing management, and supply chain management. Steve has led the start-up of five organizations including four US-based for-profit companies/business units, and one international not-for-profit nongovernmental organization.

Steve is currently the Founder and Principal at CarbonVerde, a bio-carbon project and policy consulting firm with headquarters in Durango, Colorado. Over the past 18 years Mr. Ruddell has lead several private sector companies and organizations in investing in forest conservation and sustainability initiatives using market-based mechanisms that include carbon asset management strategies for trading emission reduction credits, and investing in sustainable forest management domestically and internationally. Mr. Ruddell’s international work spans 20 countries.

Working in voluntary and compliance forest carbon markets since 2003, Mr. Ruddell has influenced the development of sustainability standards, and US and regional forest-climate policies through his involvement and leadership in; the Forest Climate Working Group, the Society of American Foresters Climate Change Task Force, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative forest management standard, the Chicago Climate Exchange’s forest offsets protocols, and the North American Forest Carbon Standards Committee. In 2009 Mr. Ruddell provided testimony before the House Agriculture Committee on pending climate change legislation, and briefed Senate and House Agriculture Committee staff as part of a panel on the role of forests and forest offsets in US climate legislation.

Steve holds a BS in Forest Management from Utah State University, an MS in Forestry and MBA in Supply Chain Management from Michigan State University, and has completed three years of post-graduate work towards a PhD in natural resource economics.