Jatropha Foundation Management Team
Chairman of the Board - Warren A. Jackman
Warren Jackman serves as Chairman of Jatropha Foundation. He is an International law attorney in areas of trade, transportation, and major commercial projects with 45 years experience as International transportation attorney and has traveled extensively in Haiti. He has served on corporate boards and executive committees of various worldwide shipping companies, terminal and trading companies. Warren served as an officer and senior member, The Maritime Law Association of the United States, and Standing Committee on Admiralty Law, American Bar Association. He initiated private port facilities operating agreement for Port-au-Prince, and the establishment of Haitian National Shipping Company, and a proposed plan for Offshore International Ship Registry. BS Nautical Science, US Merchant Marine Academy, BS Engineering, Purdue University and Doctor of Jurisprudence, Indiana University.
Executive Director - Dr. Johanna Mendelson Forman
Johanna Mendelson Forman is also a senior associate at CSIS, with a focus on renewable energy, for the Caribbean and the Americas. A former co-director of the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project, she has written extensively on security-sector reform in conflict states, economic development in postwar societies, the role of the United Nations in peace operations, and energy security. In 2003, she participated in a review of the post-conflict reconstruction effort of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq as part of a CSIS team.
Mendelson Forman also brings experience in the world of philanthropy, having served as the director of peace, security, and human rights at the UN Foundation. She has held senior positions in the U.S. government at the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Bureau for Humanitarian Response, and the Office of Transition Initiatives, as well as at the World Bank’s Post Conflict Unit. She has been a senior fellow with the Association of the United States Army and a guest scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Most recently, she served as an adviser to the UN Mission in Haiti.
She holds adjunct faculty appointments at American University and Georgetown University. Mendelson Forman is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the advisory boards of Women in International Security and the Latin American Security Network, RESDAL. She holds a J. D. from Washington College of Law at American University, a Ph.D. in Latin American history from Washington University, St. Louis, and a master’s of international affairs, with a certificate of Latin America studies, from Columbia University in New York. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.
Senior Vice President: Haiti Program - Pierre Brisson
Pierre Brisson resides in Port -au -Prince, Haiti. Pierre is educated in the US with a Masters in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a Bachelor’s degree in Languages and Government from Wilmington College He has spent his career in the private sector, government and education areas in export, manufacturing, trade relations and representations, consulting and advisory services and economic development matters. He currently is Administrative Director for a Handicraft and Hand painted Needle Craft export company in Haiti and recently served as General Manager for an Internet Service Provider Company in Haiti. He also previously served as Executive Director for Haiti Presidential Commission for Growth and Modernization and served as a consultant to the Haiti Agriculture and Industrial Development Institute. He was a Professor of Planning on the faculty of Law and Economic Sciences for University of Haiti and served the USAID advising the Government of Haiti on projects and economic development matters as well as serving the USAID in Zaire. Pierre is fluent in French and English with a strong knowledge of Spanish.
Vice President of Programs - Zachary M. Clemens
Zachary M. Clemens serves as COO to Jatropha Capital, LTD with experience in international business, entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, sustainable business and not‐for‐profit organizations. Particular to project development, Zach has designed and managed, sustainable business operations in Mexico, and import operations from Italy to the United States and developed the technical aspects of commercial jatropha production systems. Geographically, he has worked in Central America, South East Asia, Europe, and North America, primarily in international entrepreneurship. Zach holds double BBA’s in Real Estate & Urban Land Economics and Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Wisconsin, Madison School of Business. He has guest lectured at the University of Wisconsin Madison on topics of international business, sustainable business and social entrepreneurship. Zach resides in Madison, WI and maintains conversational proficiency in both Spanish and Indonesian.