Team

Olaf leads the First Climate group as CEO. Furthermore, he is the managing director of Metis Beteiligungen GmbH and among others responsible for business development. He initially joined First Climate as group CFO while leading the Corporate Services departments (Finance, IT, Legal, HR / Organizational Development). Before joining First Climate, Olaf held senior positions in the Finance and Strategy arena with one of the Big four Audit and Consulting firms as well as German and International Blue Chips. A seasoned specialist in strategy, restructuring, transaction support, controlling, audit and tax advisory. He has extensive international experience and worked over the past 20 years on all continents. Olaf holds university degrees in business-management and economy.

Being the CEO of First Climate Markets AG, Sascha is responsible for the strategic development of First Climate’s carbon neutral activities, the development of the company’s water services including the market development for Water Benefit Certificates, First Climate’s green electricity products, and First Climate’s business development outside of Europe. So far, he has overseen the commercialization of over 100 carbon and water projects.

Before founding First Climate, Sascha was Head of Dresdner Bank’s Climate Change Strategy and worked as a consultant for international environmental politics at UNEP in Paris.

Sascha was co-chair of the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) in 2011-12.

He currently acts as official advisor to the UNEP Financial Initiative (UNEP FI) (since 2004). He is also a member of the Water Technical Advisory Committee (WTAC) at the Gold Standard Foundation, and sits on the Steering Committee of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Water hosted by the European Commission.

Jochen Gassner is a Member of the Executive Board at First Climate Markets AG.

He has been with the company for the last six years and is responsible for international business development and the management of the company’s portfolio of voluntary carbon credits.

During 2008 and 2009 and again in 2015, Jochen Gassner has been a member of the Executive Committee at ICROA - the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance.

Jochen has 15 years of experience in Environmental and Carbon Footprinting, Life Cycle Assessments and National Environmental Accounting.

Before joining First Climate he has held the position of a sustainability manager at an international plastics manufacturer and has worked as an environmental consultant with industry clients.

He obtained his master in environmental engineering from Leoben School of Mining and his PhD from Graz University of Technology, both in Austria.

Urs is responsible for the Carbon Investment Advisory and the Consulting businesses of First Climate. He oversaw carbon purchase and sales transactions in excess of 50 m t CO₂e and the development and registration of First Climate’s CDM projects. Urs led several large technical assistance programs for greenhouse gas abatement and carbon markets in India and Latin America. He also advised numerous government and corporate clients on climate policies and carbon markets. Until 1999, Urs worked with a leading Swiss consultancy firm, where he advised corporate and public clients in the fields of energy, environment and emissions trading.