Mark S. Laska, Ph.D., Managing Partner
Dr. Laska’s areas of expertise include:
- Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration
- Brownfield, contaminated, and urban site restoration and management
- Permitting, design and financial market assessment of mitigation banking projects
- Ecological resource strategic planning
- Restoring and enhancing ecological functionality of wetlands and other habitats
- Executive management of an ecological restoration firm
Mark S. Laska, Ph.D. has over 25 years of experience as an ecologist, businessman, investor, innovator, collaborator, and industry leader. He is the Founder and President of Great Ecology, an environmental/ecological design consulting firm that focuses on habitat restoration and permitting, ecological studies, and Landscape Architecture and design. Through this work, Dr. Laska has become an expert in mitigation projects – from the development and business planning stages through the final days of monitoring and site closure focusing on New Jersey, California, the Gulf Coast, and Rocky Mountain states. He has also worked on a variety of permitee-responsible mitigation projects, Natural Resource Damages strategy, planning and restoration, and equity investments in wetland mitigation banks.
Dr. Laska holds a Doctorate in Ecology and Evolution from Rutgers University and serves on the Board of Directors for the National Mitigation Banking Association.
Eric Williams, Managing Partner
Eric Williams’ areas of expertise include:
- Intersection of real estate, environmental, and finance
- Ecological resource management
- Reuse and redevelopment of environmental properties
- Brownfield/surplus site solutions
- Deal structuring for complex deals
- Executive management of brownfield firms
Eric Williams has had a successful, 30-year career in the environmental and real estate fields. His primary expertise combines real estate, environmental, and finance. Eric’s focus for the past couple decades has been the reuse or redevelopment of surplus properties that include Brownfields and/or ecological resources.
In addition to being the Managing Partner of Tellurium Partners, Eric is the Executive Director of EnviroFinance Group, a premier land re-use, redevelopment, and mitigation banking firm.
Prior to EnviroFinance Group, Eric spent eight years as the Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Renewal, a brownfield redevelopment company he founded in 2008, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Frontier Environmental Management, an environmental risk management company he founded in 2011. He has sponsored more than $100M of debt and equity investments.
Eric was the 2015 winner of the Powerbook Award for Commercial Real Estate sponsored by the Denver Business Journal.
Tellurium Partners leverages the technical and administrative resources of Great Ecology.
Great Ecology, a pioneering environmental consulting firm founded in 2001, integrates science and design and focuses on habitat mitigation and restoration projects. Great Ecology has been on the Inc 5000 list of fastest privately held companies in the US for 5 straight years from 2010-2015. Great Ecology has strategized, designed, built and worked on dozens of restoration projects over the past 15 years including at least a dozen mitigation banks in 6 states. The Great Ecology team is comprised of scientists, ecologists, landscape architects, and designers who collaborate to transform landscapes. They will support Tellurium Partners by providing biology, GIS, habitat restoration designers, engineering, hydrology, permitting, botany, wildlife ecology, ecological modeling, and a variety of other technical skills to make any ecological development project successful.
Great Ecology has offices in New York, Denver, and San Diego.
Dr. Laska, Managing Partner of Tellurium Partners, is the Founder and President of Great Ecology.
Tellurium Partners maintains a strategic partnership with Eco Endowment Solutions for conservation endowment management.
Eco Endowment Solutions (EES) is a financial management company providing investment advisory services for your conservation endowments. EES offers an improved, alternative solution to the foundation model that protects and grows your assets, leading to financially secure long-term site management.
EES is headquartered in San Diego and is a sub-division of Carmel Capital Partners.
Dr. Laska, Managing Partner of Tellurium Partners, is the co-founder of EES.