James W. Hourdequin
CEO and Managing Director
Jim joined Lyme in 2005 and leads the Company’s investment and business strategies. Over the past 17 years, he has managed the acquisition of over 1.6 million acres of timberland throughout the US and Canada. Jim has expertise in structuring transactions that combine conservation outcomes with attractive income yields from sustainable timber harvesting. He has led Lyme’s focus on strategic supply chain investments, including sawmills, logging businesses, and log marketing operations. Prior to Lyme, Jim co-founded Long View Forest Inc., a logging and forestry services business based in Vermont, where he remains involved as an owner and member of the management team. He serves on the Board of the National Alliance of Forest Owners, the Finance Committee for the Montshire Museum of Science, and was a founding board member of the Center for Woodlands Education, publisher of Northern Woodlands. Jim earned an M.B.A. with Distinction from the Harvard Business School and a B.A. cum laude in Biology from Dartmouth College.
David P. Hoffer
President and Managing Director
David joined Lyme in 2011 and oversees Lyme’s high-priority conservation land and mitigation bank strategies. He also serves as general counsel and Chief Compliance Officer to the firm. Prior to joining Lyme, David spent ten years as a partner at one of the oldest middle-market investment banks in Boston, where he directed all aspects of deal execution, originated new business, and oversaw the finance, legal, and human resources functions for the firm. Before that, he was an executive at two Boston-based technology companies, a practicing lawyer, and an entrepreneur. From 1988 until 2013, David served on the board of the Ninevah Foundation, a land trust that has conserved thousands of acres of Vermont forestland using a variety of innovative financing tools. In 1995, David was part of a small team that secured financing for one of the first conservation easements under the federal Forest Legacy program in Vermont. David earned an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1996, and an A.B. magna cum laude in 1991 from Harvard College.
Peter R. Stein
Managing Director
Peter joined Lyme in 1990 and has significant experience in conservation-oriented forestland and rural land purchases and dispositions. Peter develops conservation sale strategies on properties being evaluated or managed by Lyme and also leads Lyme’s conservation advisory business. Prior to his career with LTC Partners and Lyme, Peter was Senior Vice President of the Trust for Public Land where he directed conservation real estate acquisitions in the Northeast and Midwest. Peter lectures frequently at graduate schools and professional conferences on conservation investment structures and strategies. Peter serves on the Investment Committee of Sustainable Land Management Partners’ US focused agricultural land investment fund. He also serves on the advisory boards of the Appalachian Mountain Club, Rose Smart Growth Real Estate Fund No. 1, Upstream Technology, and Quantified Ventures. Peter is the co-founder of the Conservation Finance Network and the International Land Conservation Network. In addition, he is a former Board Chair of the Land Trust Alliance, served as a founding Commissioner of the Land Trust Accreditation Commission. Peter earned a B.A. with Highest Honors from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1975 and was a Loeb Fellow and received a Certificate in Advanced Environmental Studies from Harvard University in 1981.
Thomas Morrow
Managing Director
Tom joined Lyme in 1983. He has deep experience managing the acquisition, operation, and disposition of forestland and conservation easements. Tom manages property due diligence efforts and acquisition negotiations. He also leads the negotiation of working forest conservation easements and other conservation sales. Over the past fifteen years, Tom has negotiated conservation transactions on over 750,000 acres of land. He has managed timber and rural land holdings throughout the Northeast. Tom worked as a consulting forester prior to joining LTC Partners and Lyme. He earned a B.S. cum laude from the SUNY School of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse in 1977.
Sean Ross
Managing Director
Sean joined Lyme in 2004. He leads the development of forest management goals and objectives and forest management plans, secures and oversees third party forest certification (both FSC and SFI), and ensures that forest management complies with applicable forest management plans, conservations easements, and investment objectives on Lyme’s holdings. In addition, Sean engages in forest policy discussions in the various states where Lyme has operations. Prior to joining Lyme, Sean worked as a consulting forester, directing forest inventory projects and managing timber harvesting operations, as well as purchasing standing timber and selling logs. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Empire State Forest Products Association, the Pennsylvania Forest Products Association, and the Northern Forest Center. He is also a member of the Society of American Foresters and Forest Stewards Guild. Sean earned a B.S. in Forestry from the University of Vermont in 1997.
Sarah (Mahlab) Kitz
Managing Director
Sarah returned to Lyme in 2019 and is responsible for managing existing investments and evaluating new timberland investment opportunities. Immediately prior, Sarah served as Manager of Business Development for Green Diamond Resource Company, where she evaluated and managed timberland acquisition activities, new partnership opportunities, conservation sales, and other new business opportunities. Before Green Diamond, Sarah worked briefly at Canopy, a place-based investment platform in the Pacific Northwest, and Threshold Group, a family office with a focus on building impact investment portfolios. Sarah started her career at Lyme, where she managed investor relations from 2009-2013. Sarah earned her M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in 2015 where she was a Tuck Scholar and a B.A. in Environmental Analysis from Pomona College in 2009.
Deirdre B. Goodrich
Director of Finance
Deirdre joined Lyme in 2016 and is responsible for financial statement reporting and tax compliance. She also oversees payroll functions for Lyme’s operating portfolio companies. Prior to joining Lyme, Deirdre was a principal and a member of the management team at a regional public accounting firm, servicing the audit and tax needs of pass-through entities and high net worth individuals. Deirdre began her career at Deloitte in Boston, and she is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in New Hampshire and Vermont. Deirdre has served on the Board of Directors of Mascoma Bank in Lebanon, NH since 2013. She is currently Chair of the Board and of the Executive Committee. Deirdre earned a master’s degree in accounting from Northeastern University and a B.A. cum laude in mathematics from Wellesley College.
Thomas W. Goodrich
Senior Advisor
Tom joined Lyme in 2023 and assists the firm with business development, client management and strategic planning matters. He was previously Executive Vice President, Corporate Development with Resource Management Service, a timberland investment manager with extensive holdings across the US South. Prior to RMS, he was a partner with Stafford Capital Partners, where he was responsible for the origination and negotiation of institutional timberland investments, primarily in the secondary market but also structured as co-investments and separate accounts. He also held various positions with Global Forest Partners, a timberland manager focused on non-US investment strategies. Before joining GFP, he worked in a variety of roles in the investment banking industry. He started his career with Lehman Brothers, and was later an analyst and associate in the M&A practice of Chase Securities prior to attending business school. He holds a BS from Lehigh University, an MBA from the University of Michigan and is a CFA charterholder.
Robert St. James
Controller
Bob joined Lyme in 2001. He is responsible for portfolio-company and fund level accounting and reporting. He has special expertise in mitigation bank accounting and is responsible for supervising accounting staff at portfolio companies and third party management firms. Prior to joining Lyme, Bob was Controller and MIS Director for Sullivan Industries in Claremont, NH. He held the same positions for Vermont Diamond Instruments in Bridgewater, VT, and Loctite Luminescent Systems in Lebanon, NH, before that. Bob studied Applied Mathematics at MIT.
Kit Burgin
Portfolio Analyst
Kit joined Lyme in 2022 as a Portfolio Analyst and is responsible for managing existing investments. Prior to joining Lyme, Kit was a Forest Finance Analyst and Real Asset Manager for Campbell Global, where he assisted in the evaluation and management of industrial timberlands in the US South and Pacific Northwest. Before his career in forestry, Kit worked as an experiential educator for high school students in the Adirondacks, Alaska, Thailand, and Ecuador. Kit serves on the Finance Committee for the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust and is a member of the Society of American Foresters. He earned a Master of Forest Resources degree from the University of Georgia in 2018 and a B.S. in Business Administration from Washington and Lee University in 2012.
Fan Chen
Staff Accountant
Fan joined Lyme in 2008. She is responsible for accounts payable, bank reconciliations, and other accounting functions. Prior to joining Lyme, Fan served as an administrative assistant at Flow Analysis, a software company in Tennessee. Fan worked as a certified accountant in China for seven years. She earned her Bachelor of Economics/Accounting from Guandong Institute of Commerce in 1993. In 2007, Fan received an Accounting Certificate from Franklin Pierce University.
Lindsay Coker
Manager of Investor Relations & ESG
Lindsay joined Lyme in 2022 and is responsible for investor relations. She also manages Lyme’s ESG (environmental, social, and governance) program, which includes coordinating and reporting on Lyme’s sustainability, social impact, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Prior to joining Lyme, Lindsay worked as an attorney and non-profit management professional. As an attorney, Lindsay was an associate in the New York City office of Weil, Gotshal, and Manges LLP and a judicial clerk for the Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She later worked as a consultant and leader in non-profit organizations focused on civil and human rights where she developed expertise in organizational development, coalition building, communicating across diverse stakeholder groups, and creating and implementing systems through a lens of equity. Lindsay earned a J.D. cum laude from Howard University School of Law in 2008 and a B.A. in U.S. History from the College of Charleston in 2001.
Paul Cousar
Senior Manager of Forest Analytics
Paul joined Lyme in 2023 to lead long-term planning and forest analytics at Lyme. Paul has 25 years of experience working as a decision support analyst for timberland investments and ongoing management operations. Prior to Lyme, Paul worked at SIG as lead biometrician, responsible for forest inventory design and statistical analysis, growth and yield modeling using Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS), linear programming and harvest scheduling, and database design and management, in support of voluntary and compliance forest carbon offset projects, timberland valuation, and forest inventory operations. Prior to joining SIG, Paul worked for some of the largest timberland investment and management companies in the US, including Hancock Forest Management and Forest Capital Partners. Paul holds a B.S. in Forest Management/Business Administration from Colorado State University and an M.S. in Forest Management from Oregon State University.
Katherine Czaplicki
Senior Staff Accountant
Katherine joined Lyme in 2018. She is responsible for supporting the portfolio-company and fund level accounting processes. She also supports various tax reporting processes and performs other accounting functions. Prior to joining Lyme, Katherine was a Financial Analyst at Holman Automotive Group in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. Preceding this position, she was a Senior Accountant at Holman Parts Distribution, a division of Holman Automotive. During her time in New Jersey, she obtained her Masters of Business Administration from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, with a focus in Business Intelligence and Analytics. She earned her Bachelors of Accounting/Management from Castleton University in Vermont.
Ben Drye
Staff Accountant
Ben joined Lyme in 2022. He is responsible for cash, accounts payable and other accounting functions. Before joining Lyme, Ben worked as a governmental staff auditor at a public accounting firm. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting, summa cum laude, from Plymouth State University and holds an A.S. in Business Management, summa cum laude, from River Valley Community College. He volunteers with the American Legion New Hampshire Boys State as a senior counselor.
Taryn Hubert
Office Manager
Taryn joined Lyme in 2023. She oversees human resources administration and information technology and provides administrative support to the Managing Directors. Taryn brings seven years of office management experience from her time at Siemens PLM Software and ALPS Advisors Inc. She also brings years of customer service and team management experience from the River Valley Club, where she was promoted to Membership Director.
Taryn graduated cum laude from Johnson and Wales University in 2014 and grew up in the Upper Valley area.
Brendan Moore
Director of Forest Information Systems
Brendan joined Lyme in 2018. He works with Lyme’s forest managers to support and improve forest operations and takes on special projects relating to forest inventory, technology, mobile GIS, and harvest operations projects. In addition, Brendan participates in acquisition and disposition due diligence with a focus on forest inventory work conducted by third party consultants. Prior to joining Lyme, Brendan worked as a consulting forester, conducting forest inventory projects and managing timber harvesting operations, as well as designing and managing GIS and database systems for timberland owners. Brendan earned a B.S. in Forestry and a B.S in Forest Ecosystem Science from the University of Maine in 2003.
Jess Phelps
Associate General Counsel
Jess joined Lyme in 2019 and serves as associate general counsel to the firm. Prior to joining Lyme, Jess most recently worked for a leading Vermont law firm in its real estate and environment practice groups. Before that, he served as an Attorney-Advisor in the USDA’s Office of General Counsel, Natural Resources and Environment Division, in Washington, D.C., where he advised NRCS and the Forest Service on various issues, including conservation easement transactions, and with Historic New England, the nation’s oldest and largest regional heritage organization, as Team Leader for Preservation Services. Jess frequently writes on conservation easement-related topics with representative articles appearing in the Harvard Environmental Law Review, Ecology Law Quarterly (at the University of California-Berkeley), N.Y.U. Environmental Law Journal, Virginia Environmental Law Journal, and the Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the Vermont Law School and is on the Board of Trustees of the Vermont Land Trust. Jess earned a J.D. from Drake University Law School (with highest honors and service as Editor-in-Chief of the Drake Law Review) and a B.S. from Iowa State University.
Christine Tongol
Senior Portfolio Accountant
Christine joined Lyme in 2014. She is responsible for portfolio-company and fund level accounting and reporting. Prior to joining Lyme, Christine served as Controller at GMO Renewable Resources, LLC, a Boston-based TIMO. She also worked for Prague & Company as a senior tax associate and Grant Thornton LLP Boston as a senior auditor. Christine graduated from Babson College with a B.A. in Accounting.