From Yale to Alder Point: How Three Alumni are Redefining Farmland & Timberland Investment
In the competitive and ever-evolving field of natural resource investment, the team at Alder Point Capital stands out as pioneers blending conservation and rural community impact with innovative financial strategies.
Yale alumni Chris Larson (SOM '09), Spenser Shadle (YSE/SOM '13), and Jessamine Fitzpatrick (YSE/SOM '12), credit their time at the Yale School of Management, Yale School of the Environment, and with the Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) with helping to shape their unique career paths.
We sat down with the team to learn more and discuss how their journeys showcase the power of interdisciplinary education, professional networks, and a shared vision for sustainability.
Meet the team:
Chris Larson: Building Bridges Between Business and Forestry
Chris brought an unconventional background to Yale SOM. Before graduate school, he spent years working in community-based watershed restoration, building a practical understanding of forestry and natural resource management. Although not a formal joint-degree student, Chris immersed himself in YSE courses, forming strong connections and pushing the boundaries of traditional business education.
“I was in spirit a joint degree student,” Chris shared. “I took full advantage of the Forestry School while on campus, and some of my most meaningful academic relationships were with folks from YSE.”
Chris’s innovative thinking was evident early on. He distinguished himself during the first Sustainable Venture Prize Competition (now the Yale Planetary Solutions Prize), where his pitch demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of conservation finance. “People didn’t quite know how to evaluate his idea because it was so far ahead of its time,” one faculty member recalled.
Spenser Shadle: Research That Resonates
For Spenser, the path to Yale began with a desire to bridge the gap between sustainability and business. After starting his career with international development projects and working at the World Wildlife Fund on their business and industry team addressing climate change issues, he realized he needed to build a stronger business case for sustainability. Funded by a CBEY grant, he joined a fellow joint degree student in conducting a pivotal study on investing in wetland mitigation markets, culminating in a white paper that caught the attention of major industry and media outlets, including the New York Times.
“With CBEY’s support, I was able to step out of the classroom and connect directly with leaders across a relatively opaque industry, where I was then able to identify and articulate the risks confronting investors, asset managers, and regulators. I hadn’t anticipated just how much industry access and insight I could gain while still a student.”
His upbringing in remote northeastern Oregon continues to inform his work, grounding his strategies in practical solutions that benefit both rural communities and ecosystems.
Jessamine Fitzpatrick: Innovating Conservation Finance
Jessamine’s contributions to Yale—and now to Alder Point—have always been marked by a blend of creativity and practicality. As a joint-degree student, she found a home at CBEY, where she worked on various projects, including organizing a speaker series on sustainable rangeland and grassland management and broader environmental finance work.
Throughout her time at Yale, Jessamine also worked closely with Professor Brad Gentry, whose expertise in conservation finance and private equity models helped shape her approach.
“Brad’s focus on conservation finance and how private equity models work within timberland and farmland investing gave me the foundation I needed,” she explained.
Her master’s project focused on an unconventional but increasingly relevant topic: green burial as a conservation finance tool for land conservation organizations. “I researched what the market looked like, what the financials entailed, and how this concept could be applied to real-world conservation efforts,” she said. This experience later proved pivotal when she was interviewing with Chris Larson for a job at New Island Capital.
“That research allowed me to talk about market analysis, financial modeling, and investment diligence—all skills that became essential in my work at the family office.”
A Shared Beginning: The Start of Alder Point
The roots of Alder Point Capital stretch back long before its official founding in 2022.
The three co-founders—Chris Larson, Jessamine Fitzpatrick, and Spenser Shadle—officially first worked together at New Island Capital Management, a family investment office focused on sustainable and impact-driven investments.
Chris was the first to join New Island Capital, bringing with him a strong background in forestry and land conservation finance. A year later, he hired Jessamine as a summer associate while she was completing her joint degree at Yale, and she later accepted a full-time role. Together, they built out the firm’s real assets investment portfolio, focusing on farmland, timberland, and environmental markets. When the time came to expand the team, Jessamine recruited Spenser, a classmate from Yale, whom she had recently bumped into at a joint-degree holiday party.
"It was right around this time 13 years ago—December 2011—that I was at a joint-degree holiday party, standing in a classmate’s kitchen by the oven, talking to Jessamine about her past summer internship," Spenser recalled. "She had been working with a brilliant alum named Chris Larson, doing impact investing in real assets. It sounded too good to be true, and I was immediately eager to get my foot in the door and follow the trail they were cutting. And here we are."
Their collaboration at New Island Capital spanned nearly a decade, during which they collectively developed what they describe as one of the first diversified impact-focused portfolios in timberland, farmland, and environmental markets.
"We were part of an early movement proving that investing in land conservation and working lands could be both profitable and impactful," Chris said. "We pioneered some new models, built an incredible network, and saw firsthand what worked and what didn't in sustainable finance."
Over time, their careers diverged slightly—Jessamine left in 2018 to take on a leadership role at a microgrid solar company and later joined RMI’s Center for Climate-Aligned Finance, while Spenser stayed until 2020 and Chris until 2021. But despite leaving New Island, they remained close, exchanging ideas and staying connected through their shared commitment to conservation finance.
In early 2022, their paths converged once again. Chris had recently left New Island and was considering the next chapter of his career when a conversation with Spenser reignited the idea of building something together. Around the same time, Jessamine reached out to discuss a professional opportunity. That conversation quickly evolved into something bigger: a realization that they had the right experience, trust, and vision to launch their own firm.
"It wasn’t a sudden decision—it was more of an inevitability," Jessamine said. "We had spent years refining an investment model, developing expertise in this niche space, and proving that sustainable land investment could work at scale. We knew we wanted to build something of our own, something that reflected our vision for the future of this industry."
A Firm Built for the Long Haul
Thus, Alder Point Capital was born, with a mission to invest in farms and forests that generate strong financial returns while delivering measurable climate, biodiversity, and rural community benefits. The firm was founded on a simple but powerful premise: that investing in farmland and timberland could be both profitable and a force for environmental resilience.
“Taking on such an entrepreneurial pursuit—one with a lot of uncertainty—was a big risk,” Spenser said. “But having known each other for over a decade, first as classmates and then as long-time colleagues, gave us the confidence to take that leap.”
“We’re building this for the long haul,” Spenser continued. “This is the company we want to run for the rest of our careers. And when you’re building something on the horizon, you want to do it with the people you trust most and respect the most. That’s exactly what we have at Alder Point.”
As Alder Point grows, the team remains deeply committed to mentorship and leadership development, drawing on each of their individual experiences at Yale. The team regularly connects with joint-degree students, and Alder Point has already hosted a joint-degree intern.
“We want to build the company we wished existed when we were students,” Jessamine said. “That means not just leading in the field but creating a workplace culture that reflects our values.”
As YSE celebrates its 125th anniversary and SOM its 50th, the story of Alder Point offers a compelling glimpse into the future of sustainable innovation—and a reminder of the extraordinary possibilities that can emerge when passion meets purpose.