Samantha Power

Samantha Power is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Finance for Gaia. She is a Nature Finance Specialist and Ecological Economist based in Oakland, CA on the ancestral land of the Ohlone people. Through Finance for Gaia, she supports clients to: pursue cross-sector collaboration and cooperation, develop and implement visions and strategies that lead to transformative economic change, and put finance in service to life. It is her personal mission to heal how humans interact with the Earth through the economy – moving from extraction and destruction to regeneration.

Samantha believes that our biodiverse ecosystems are the organs of the Earth and must urgently be protected to ensure resilience to climate change, meet the needs of all, and to provide humanity the continued ability to thrive. She believes in the criticality of a just transition to the zero-carbon, nature-positive economy that puts the needs of the most vulnerable at the center and builds on the wisdom of indigenous practices. She is working to drive a global economic and social transformation that fundamentally shifts how we relate to and value the natural world.

Samantha worked with the World Bank for more than 5 years where she was a leading voice on nature finance and an author on multiple reports on the topic. She has advised finance ministries, central banks, and investors. Her previous work includes consulting on climate and nature finance and policy at consulting firms and for a political candidate. Samantha holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs and International Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in International Economics from Louisiana State University.