Brian Shillinglaw

Brian Shillinglaw is a Managing Director at GDI Americas, where he leads a portfolio of initiatives focused on climate mitigation and carbon removal. Over the past two decades, Brian has focused his work on financial and technical strategies to scale implementation of natural climate solutions, ecosystem restoration, and climate impact investment, with a throughline of advocacy and support for community-based natural resource management.

Prior to GDI, Brian was a Managing Director at New Forests, where he led the company’s North American business and was a member of the organization’s global executive team overseeing approximately USD 7 billion in capital and assets across over 3 million acres of FSC-certified forests and rural land in the Asia-Pacific and North America. At New Forests, Brian led teams that accomplished over 430,000 acres of sustainable forestry investments and over 375,000 acres of forest carbon investments in North America, created one of the largest investment platforms for carbon-financed forest conservation in the Western Climate Initiative carbon market, repatriated thousands of acres of land to the Yurok Tribe in Northern California, protected old-growth forests on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, and secured the permanent retirement and conservation of the Bering River Coal Field, one of the largest proven coal deposits in Alaska. Brian has also supported multiple non-profit and start up organizations in organizational strategy and natural climate solution product development, including work with Conservation International, Save the Redwoods League, and the Native Conservancy. Brian’s current board memberships include the Native Sea Trust, an organization founded by the Native Conservancy in 2024 to protect near-shore ocean access rights for Alaska Native coastal communities and to build a thriving industry of Native-owned and operated kelp farms in Alaska. Brian holds a joint JD/MS from Stanford Law School and the Stanford Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources and an AB in Social Studies from Harvard University. He sings in a community chamber choral group and can often be found gardening or rambling about California with his family.