Rene began his career in environmental markets back in 2008, starting in advisory and intermediary roles. He has advised clients throughout on the development and implementation of net zero strategies at Climate Friendly and First Climate, before joining CBL in 2015 where, as Head of Global Carbon, he has overseen the exchange’s growth and helped establish CBL as the premier marketplace in the voluntary carbon market. Recently, Rene has returned to an advisory role, as Managing Director at CFS, a wholly owned subsidiary and principal trading arm of Xpansiv.
Throughout his career, Rene has worked with market participants across the entire spectrum including project developers, brokers, intermediaries, traders, hedge funds, banks and corporates.
Since 2015, he has played an active role in helping to build capacity within the aviation sector, as the industry prepared to launch the first sectoral-based emissions trading system for international aviation—the Carbon Offset Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). He has advised multiple airlines within the context of the industry’s transition toward a more sustainable future, specifically managing voluntary-emissions programs, and more recently, how to prepare for a compliance future under CORSIA. Rene also led the CBL team that delivers the operational solutions to IATA’s Aviation Carbon Exchange (ACE).
Rene also participated on the team that developed the GEO, N-GEO and C-GEO standardized contracts. The contracts are traded on CBL’s spot market, they underlie futures traded by CME Group, and they are widely followed by market participants, analysts, and the news media.
He has worked across 4 continents, speaks 3 languages fluently and is, most importantly of all, a Dad to a beautiful 2 year old girl named Valentina.
Rene holds a Master of Commercial Law from University of Melbourne, from which he also graduated with an undergraduate double degree in Science (Honours) and Arts.