About us
Leave the world a bit better than we found it.
Our vision of leaving the world a bit better than we found it has brought us all over the world, developing social businesses that not only utilize a wide range of financial and carbon market but also makes significant positive impacts on the environment and society.
Our Mission
We have not only lived and worked in developing countries for over 20 years, we have witnessed the situations of farmers, small businesses, and women, to name a few, who live in remote villages struggling to make a living while bearing the adverse impacts of climate change.
Fortunately, with our combined insights and expertise gained throughout our careers in economics, humanitarianism, environmental science, international business development, and the United Nations, we believe that more than 70% of the "philanthropic" projects in these countries can be made through "investments" that create significant impacts and provide economic returns. We also believe that supporting people through investment and markets is a more dignified way of being involved while capacitating them.
Furthermore, we believe that there is no shortage of capital (currently, the world's negative yield bond balance is more than $10 trillion). What the world lacks is an effective way of getting involved in developing countries and solving problems at a large scale using smart investments. This can be done by establishing long-term relationships locally.
At Futures, Inc., we have the benefit of having established, long-term personal relationships with accomplished and trustworthy local partner organizations in many of the nations and regions we have worked in, empowering these communities to play a critical role in future global climate commitments. Climate change and income inequality are one of the most critical issues that has characterized our generation. We believe it is our responsibility to address this issue so that our achievements in areas such as poverty, health, and education that have been achieved through efforts over the past 50 to 100 years are not put to waste.
Our Team
Our team has a breadth of experience and expertise in carbon offsets, carbon markets, climate change policy, sustainability, environmental science, renewable energy, energy conservation, and blockchain.
Haruka Yamazaki
Co-founder & CEO
Haruka has served in various international and diplomatic posts over the last decade. Most recently she worked as Partnership Officer for the Asia and the Pacific region in International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome, Italy and mobilized resources for IFAD’s programmes. She was also involved in facilitating innovative private-sector relationships.
Prior to IFAD, she worked with the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations in New York and engaged in negotiations mostly around the rights of women and children in the Third Committee.
She also served as Aid Coordination Officer at the Embassy of Japan in Sudan, overseeing Japan’s Development Assistance to UN agencies in the country. Earlier she also worked for the energy and environment team at the British Embassy in Tokyo, supporting UK’s policy engagements particularly on climate change in Japan. She has a Master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford, UK.
Dr. Mack Ramachandran
Co-founder & Director
An entrepreneur and an early carbon offset business owner with over 25 years of experience building community programs in developing countries for emergency relief and long-term sustainability. He ran large teams (hundreds of staff) across many countries (Sudan, DPR Korea, etc.), delivering on complex food security programs. His expertise is large-scale project management in developing countries and leveraging markets and technology for the greater good.
He has worked for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) for about 20 years. He has held senior positions in supply chain planning and retail supply chain operations at the Rome headquarters and program operations at his local office, where he has worked on humanitarian aid and long-term poverty resolution. From 2011 to 2013, he established a company called offset4poor in the United States, utilizing WFP's leave of absence system. The company has launched a carbon offset business that enables the efficient use of fuel-efficient cooking stoves for women in Bangladesh and Mongolia.
Mack also ran his own carbon offset business out of New York (2011-2012), developing an iPhone app that allowed Americans to offset their carbon footprint while paying women in Mongolia and Bangladesh to make fuel-efficient cookstoves. He was also part of the 95,000 cookstove project in Darfur, Sudan (2010). He was involved in soil carbon projects in Ethiopia in 1997, and many tree planting projects across many countries.
He has previously worked in the Philippines while he was working for the United Nations WFP. The project aimed to support the peace process by providing food assistance to conflict-affected areas in Mindanao.
He holds Ph.D. in Economics, Clark University, USA.
N “Gopi” Gopalakrishnan
Chief – Operations
Gopi is a seasoned Management and IT consultant with varied experiences during his illustrious career. He has launched two IT and Management consulting services business and was in-charge of the topline for these organizations. He has developed them from startup and has played a key role in developing them into multi- million dollar businesses with operations in seven countries including USA, UK, Singapore Middle East and India. He has been a pioneer in bringing offshore development to the Midwest states in USA. Gopi has invested in multiple international ventures and has been guiding them from a business development perspective since inception to take their products and solutions to USA. He has used his experience in the USA to implement culturally relevant best practices that prioritize and customize the needs and environments of international businesses. Gopi has been an advisor for a Cross Border Venture fund based out of UK to identify good technology start-ups to invest in.
He has been investing and working with a social impact venture that provides services for over 4MM customers across 30K villages in rural India. He has been a strategic advisor for this company that provides opportunities for women in rural India. He has been working with educational institutions and has organized partnerships with Universities and Community colleges to offer their courses in developing countries. Gopi has been mentoring startups and has been involved with universities to guide them on Executive MBA programs.
He has been a volunteer at Do Space- a Tech incubator - and is the Treasurer at the Hindu temple in Omaha. His hobbies are traveling and reading.
Shotaro Kubo
Head of Business Development
Shotaro spent his childhood in the United States. While attending Keio University Faculty of Law, he launched an E-Commerce business with the founder of Excite Japan Co., Ltd.(one of the biggest Japanese IT companies), and continued to work as a project manager after his graduation in Taiwan and other Asian countries such as Hong Kong and China. While studying in Beijing, he started a service apartment business and expanded it from 1 room to 120 rooms. His clients include major corporations such as the Japan Olympic Committee, NHK, Omron, Itochu, and Fuji Television. With a global professional experience in Europe, the U.S., and Asia, he is currently involved in a variety of businesses based in Tokyo. His cross-border E-Commerce business led him to start a blockchain business, and he joined Futures Inc. as a head of business development in 2021.
Kayaja Ryang
Decarbonization Consultant
Kayaja completed the Executive Master Program in Sustainable Development at the Dauphine University in Paris, France. She holds an MBA from Aston University in the UK. With her multicultural background, she has been responsible for marketing and project management for a wide range of Japanese and multinational companies, from start-ups to large corporations. At the University of Paris Dauphine, she studied sustainable development and the role of business and non-governmental organizations from the perspectives of economics, politics, and sociology. She specializes in climate change and carbon markets.
Ian Shimizu
Decarbonization Consultant
Ian Shimizu is an environmental/decarbonization consultant who has been involved in the environmental field for almost a decade. Ian has experience ranging from founding a local division of international nonprofits, to consulting listed corporations on their carbon strategies.
Dr. Aaron Savio Lobo
Senior Advisor - Ecosystems and Livelihoods
Aaron was trained as a conservation scientist with a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He currently works at the interface of conservation and development.
He has worked in a range of countries and contexts on coastal/marine sustainability issues providing guidance to Govt, NGO´s, development cooperation and private clients. His work has included the conservation and restoration of mangrove ecosystems, setting up participatory models for the management of Marine Protected Areas, providing advice on implementation of fisheries and aquaculture projects, supporting urban planners in mainstreaming nature-based solutions into city planning.
He is a member of the IUCN(International Union for Conservation of Nature) SSC Marine Conservation Committee. He also consults as the senior advisor with the Wildlife Conservation Society in India where he provides strategic technical advice to their marine program.
Guy Warren
Forest Carbon Expert
Guy is a qualified lawyer and holds a BSc (hons) in Forestry from the University of Wales, Bangor and the University of British Columbia. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters and has held several high-profile roles with leading forestry and land management businesses in the UK and Finland. He has contributed to and authored numerous research papers on forestry markets and investment trends.
He was invited to present his ideas on novel forms of finance to the Independent Panel on Forestry at DEFRA and he coordinated the Institute of Chartered Foresters National Conference in Glasgow entitled Woodlands in the Green Economy. Most recently, his interest in climate finance and its contribution to delivering natural capital gain saw him involved in a vanguard UK based afforestation project utilising the leverage of the Woodland Carbon Guarantee to subsequently secure debt financing.
At Futures inc., Guy’s role as a forest carbon expert is mostly to develop, supervise and deliver high quality carbon, biodiversity and social impact land use projects (e.g., forestry and agriculture) funded through carbon and climate finance.
Olivier Levallois
Senior Advisor Carbon Offset Projects
Olivier has been helping project developers, climate funds and corporates navigating and benefiting from the compliance and voluntary carbon markets and climate finance since 2009. He is one of the few professionals who has been involved in each market segment of the compliance and voluntary carbon markets (from origination, deal structuration, certification, intermediation, project implementation, and sale of carbon assets). He has been involved in more than 120 transactions on the carbon markets. Olivier has assessed and technically supported 50+ mitigation and adaptation projects and managed numerous complex and large projects such as components of national REDD+ programmes. He was previously the climate finance services lead at EcoAct UK, and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance and of the World LPG Association’s Cooking for Life campaign. Olivier is currently a member of the roster of climate experts of the Gold Standard, NORCAP, World Health Organisation and ISO. He holds a master’s degrees in management and finance and a MSc in policies and economics of environment and international development.
Blessing Chipfunde
Chief Operating Officer, Zimbabwe Operations
Blessing has over twenty years of experience spanning corporate finance, financial services and financial technology solutions covering capital markets in much of east and southern Africa. He has a long record in project management, transaction management, investment administration, securities registry, investor services and corporate actions riding on innovative digital platforms. In the course of his career, Blessing has supervised securities listings, securities trading as well as securities settlement; he has administered securities depository and custody; he has managed securities registry; and he has participated in numerous transactions in equity and fixed income markets across East and Southern Africa.
Blessing has previously served as Assistant General Manager of Custody and Registrar Services in Kenya (2008). He also served the Escrow Group in various capacities including as Deputy Managing Director of Corpserve Registrars (2006) and Head of Trading Operations of the Financial Securities Exchange (2016). Between 2019 and 2020, Blessing served as Project Coordinator in a Feasibility Study commissioned by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). The project investigated the feasibility of harnessing mobile money data, other data sources and securities exchange infrastructure in the mobilisation of long-term capital into micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Blessing holds a BSc. Economics Honours Degree from the University of Zimbabwe and a Master of Business Administration Degree from the National University of Science and Technology (Zimbabwe). He is a Professional Banker of the Institute of Bankers in South Africa.
Mennard Ruzvidzo
Chief Financial Officer, Zimbabwe Operations
Mennard Ruzvidzo is an associate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (Zimbabwe). He joined Medtech Holdings in 1998 and served Medtech Distribution, Medtech Medical and Medtech Plastics in a number of roles that included administration, accounting and financial reporting. He moved to Silky Touch International and served as Accountant between 2007 and 2009. Mennard then joined Corpserve Registrars as Finance Manager and Company Secretary and later moved to the Escrow Group to head the Group Finance and Administration Department.
Mennard is ACCA certified and a qualified Chartered Secretary.
Dr. Amit Singh
Senior Advisor Carbon Projects (Pro Bono)
Amit has more than 18 years of experience managing and leading large-scale renewable energy technology programs and projects in Asia, Africa, Middle East, and the Caribbean regions. He holds a PhD degree in Renewable Energy and a Masters in Climate Sciences with technical expertise in clean cookstove technology, climate change mitigation, carbon finance, energy policy, rural energy, natural resource management, pollution, and food security.
Amit has led projects for installation of renewable energy technologies, clean cookstove technology, adaptation of energy-efficient technologies, installation of biogas stoves and generators, solar lighting systems, and renewable energy and climate change in humanitarian settings. Amit has successfully implemented clean cookstoves installation and carbon financing in the conflict-affected Darfur region in Sudan, supporting more than 100,000 households. Amit has managed a clean energy program in Somalia where schools have been supported with institutional fuel-efficient stoves and are in the process to access carbon finance.
Pranav Ramkumar
GIS Analyst and Part-Time Advisor
Pranav worked as a counterparty credit risk analyst, a risk data manager and a client coverage generalist at Standard Chartered Bank based in Singapore, during two stints between 2009 - 2018.
He then completed a Masters in Public Administration from Columbia School of International and Public Affairs in 2021, focusing on International Economic Policy and Quantitative Analysis, with additional specializations in UN Studies and International Conflict Resolution.
He specializes in quantitative methods for financial risk, econometrics, remote sensing and climate analytics. He is currently also a student of Financial Engineering and the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Program.
Kudakwashe Manyanga
Project Coordinator
Mr Kudakwashe Manyanga is a qualified and highly experienced Environment and Climate Change Scientist from Zimbabwe. He holds a B.A Honors Degree in Environmental Studies from Africa University and A Masters Degree in Development Studies from the National University of Science and Technology all in Zimbabwe. He is currently enrolled for a PHD In Governance (Climate Change) at Africa University.
A former Global Co-Chair of the Clean Development Mechanisms DNA Forum of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (2019 to 2022), he has also had various responsibilities including being the National Focal Person on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement (Market Mechanisms), National Baseline Surveys for National Climate Change Research Team Leader, lead writer of the National Climate Change Communications and awareness Strategy, co-writer Children and Climate Change policy with UNICEF Zimbabwe, co-researcher on the Nationally Determined Contributions. Mr Manyanga has also been offering advisory services for African countries on Article 6 of the Climate Paris Agreement and Carbon Credit F rameworks.
He is the founder of Grow A Tree Foundation- @growa_tree @Growatreefoundation-GTF, a non-profit organization seeking to empower marginalized communities across Africa through climate-smart interventions and Nendoro Holdings an Environmental Services company covering environment and climate change programming. Currently Mr Manyanga is working towards bridging the gap between climate finance and community adaptation needs through carbon offset and livelihood projects.
Sample of Our Partners
Collen Tapfumaneyi
Collen Tapfumaneyi is the founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of the Escrow Group comprising Financial Securities Exchange, Escrow Systems, Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange and Corpserve Registrars. The business units have a vast interest in Registry, Investment Administration, Technology development and deployment and Commodities & Securities Trading. The Group has operations and systems running in Eastern, Southern, Western Africa & an Asian country.
He was previously CEO of Custody and Registrar Services Limited (Kenya) following the acquisition of the company from Barclays Bank of Kenya. He has a long and successful track record in the capital markets as a provider of capital markets and financial services solutions in Africa.
Kaarina Rugiero
Kaarina works at GreenTec Capital Partners where she serves as a pathfinder to identify and evolve winning SDG-aligned projects for customers and partners. She has 25 years of experience in the fields of business, organizational and ecosystem development linked to sustainability challenges and innovation opportunities, and has served MSMEs, large corporates, government agencies and NGOs in Africa, East Asia, Europe and South America. Projects have spanned many sectors including transportation and logistics, public and private procurement, employment of socially left-behind persons, and product and service development.
In the late 1990s, she was one of the first in the world to hold a management position in corporate social responsibility, at Volvo Car Corporation. She is fluent in English, French, Portuguese and Swedish, and can also speak Chinese and German, and has a MSc in Business & Sustainability.
R Venkataramanan
Venkataramanan is the Founder and CEO of Karkinos Healthcare, a technology driven Oncology platform to establish a distributed cancer care delivery network in India and abroad. He was formerly the Managing Trustee of the Tata Trusts where he led several transformational programs in the areas of rural livelihoods and healthcare. He was the Executive Assistant to Ratan Tata, former Chairman of the Tata Group for several years.
Venkat has over 25 years of experience across philanthropy and business, and very a strong background in strategy, finance, venture capital and private equity investments.
Contact us.
Futures Inc.
Sankyo Building 3F,
3-27-1, Shimorenjaku,
Mitaka-shi, Tokyo 181-0013, Japan