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
Senior Project Manager
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
Carbon Expert
Guy has been working in climate finance, sustainable forest management and conservation land management for over 15 years.
His recent projects include the technical due diligence of three cookstove projects located in Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria, the development of a Gold Standard programme of activities improved cookstove project in Democratic Republic of Congo in addition to project managing the certification of a REDD + project in Zambia with the VCS and CCB, project managing the certification of ARR projects in Philippines, Argentina and Indonesia, the provision of strategic advice on Scope 3 emissions, target setting and related intervention agroforestry/restoration projects in Cote-D’Ivoire and the development of a domestic carbon Standard for Mongolia.
He has managed commercial forestry and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in the UK and overseas and was a member of the Forest Advisory Committee of the Forestry Commission of England for 5 years.He was invited to present his ideas on novel forms of finance to the Independent Panel on Forestry and the Department for Food and Rural Affairs in England (DEFRA).
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.
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.
Pocholo Espina
Philippines Country Manager
Pocholo Espina is a dedicated entrepreneur and environmental advocate committed to driving positive change. He founded Sip PH and Loop, social enterprises that pioneered eco-friendly alternatives such as metal straws and menstrual cups through retail and corporate partnerships in the Philippines. Over 8 years, these companies have collectively diverted over a million of tons of plastic waste through transitioning individuals and companies into using reusable alternatives.
He has also consulted companies on how to do their sustainable procurement for their supply chains and employee engagement programs. Pocholo's expertise spans social enterprise strategy, digital impact marketing, and operational excellence, leading to remarkable growth and impact in his work. As a sought-after public speaker, he engages audiences on environmental issues, amplifying his impact in creating a more sustainable future.
Poch holds a bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences and a minor in Data Analytics from Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines.
Valentina Bobi
Carbon Projects Analyst
Valentina studied History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Vienna and Sustainability at the University of Bergen, Norway with special focus on post-normal science, complexity, and the interface between climate research and activism.
She has a varied working background, spanning from academic research, development aid, publishing and journalism. Furthermore she has a Bachelors Degree in German Philology.
Billy Mukwikwi
Malawi Country Coordinator
Billy has worked on a full-time basis in the development sector with International and local NGOs and directly reporting to the Director of Programs, Country Director and Head of Finance and Internal Controls.
His core responsibility in summary is to ensure effective and efficient delivery of the Program and project goals which contributes to the Strategic Plan while ensuring the long-term viability and financial sustainability of the organization, quality program and deepening impact. He has also worked in youth and gender programming for over 6 years, providing technical expertise to various organizations as a Livelihood and Climate Change specialist.
He holds Master in community development, a diploma in agriculture and natural resources management and certificates in project management and forestry.
Contact us.
Futures Inc.
Sankyo Building 3F,
3-27-1, Shimorenjaku,
Mitaka-shi, Tokyo 181-0013, Japan