World Tree

The New Faces of World Tree

employee @ World Tree

Published on Feb 21, 2020

The last six months have been a time of change and expansion. I have some exciting news to share with you with regards to the company, our team, what we have accomplished since the last update, including what is ahead.

Introducing:

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) - Doug Willmore


We are delighted to announce that World Tree has hired a new CEO, Doug Willmore. Doug is leaving a successful career as a County and City Manager, where he has turned around bankrupt cities and managed annual budgets as large as $800M. In addition, he has been a sought-after performance consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and as CEO, built and sold a highly successful, profitable, and fast growing company in the healthcare field.

Most of all, he really fits with us – our team, our commitment, and our values. I wanted to bring Doug on to continue to build the strength of our team as World Tree continues to rapidly grow. We are so excited to have him.

You might be wondering what has happened to my role in the company? You will be pleased to know that I am not going anywhere and I will continue to be involved in setting the direction of the company as well as day to day operations. As Founder and Chair, I will continue to be the voice of the Empress tree and the public face of World Tree. As World Tree continues to expand, I am seeing an even greater demand on my time to present and represent World Tree to the world.

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) - Deborah Cullen

Deborah Cullen has also joined World Tree as our new Chief Financial Officer. Deb is an accomplished finance executive with over 30 years of experience in finance, budget, accounting, strategic planning, capital development and relationship building, for organizations with budgets up to $500M.

Her recent experience includes working with Doug in several California cities for the last 9 years.

Deb is a tenacious leader with a proven track record in achieving goals and identifying solutions and improvements to strengthen organization effectiveness. She is also very skilled at bringing together cross-functional teams to solve complex problems and understanding priorities and motivation of stakeholders clearly presenting recommendations to the executive team. We're are so fortunate to have her on our team as we expand to the next level.

Expanding the team in Costa Rica

This year we are expanding our planting in Costa Rica. Our research has shown us that we can plant in the lowlands of Costa Rica and be successful, and we have been testing out new varieties of trees that have been performing extremely well in the field.

To assist in this expansion, we have brought on some new team members: Alejandro Quesada (on the left) and Juan Luis Quiros Valenciano (on the right) to assist Mariana.

Alejandro has worked in many areas related to forestry and plantation operations including plantation management, forest management, design of agroforestry and silvopasture systems and soil studies. He is a qualified Agricultural Technician and has a university degree in Forest Engineering.

Juan Luis operates our nursery in Costa Rica and previously worked with the Eco- Paulownia company. He is a certified technician in Organic Agriculture and Livestock and is currently finishing a university degree in Business Management.

Welcome Alejandro and Juan Luis!

Invest now for the future

As you can see, our World Tree team is growing. We have been presented with tremendous opportunities that have facilitated this growth. Throughout these developments we’ve been fortunate to partner with individuals that are closely aligned with our mission and truly care about the vision and commitments that World Tree is built from.

In looking back, we are almost through the first 6 months of our offering with only a few months left to achieve our minimum funding goal. Reflecting over this short period of time we can see how much has changed, and more noticeably, how quickly the time went by.

There’s a popular Chinese proverb that states: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” If you, or someone you know has been thinking about investing, now is the time!

Thank you for reading. I look forward to sharing with you again soon. Have a wonderful weekend!