Jessica Villanueva is currently the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Regional Lead for Sustainable Finance at WWF International. In this position, Jessica is supporting LAC offices on implementing greening finance (Influencing financial systems to integrate nature and climate into decision making), and financing green (mobilizing and deploying capital for conservation and nature-positive activities on the ground), working with the financial sector to create opportunities for private sector investment in nature that will help unlock the trillions of dollars we need to close the nature finance gap.

Jessica has more than 20 years of management experience with emphasis on agri-food systems, financial inclusion programs and gender and climate lens investment in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Leadership roles include 2X Global Forum, and Board advisory roles in impact investment funds. Her experience includes designing and structuring blended finance transactions that utilize different asset classes and technical
assistance to achieve inclusive development outcomes, and providing management, financing and technical assistance to agribusinesses and financial intermediaries. Prior to WWF, Jessica worked at MEDA leading technical areas of practice globally (gender, environment and climate change, market systems, and innovative finance).

Prior to MEDA, Jessica was working for WWF Peru as Conservation Finance Director. In this position, she was supporting green finance in the Amazon region. Prior to joining WWF, she worked in responsAbility, structuring investment opportunities in agribusiness, with positive social and environmental impacts. Prior to joining responsAbility, she worked in the Inter American Development Bank (IADB Lab), leading and supporting project
teams in designing loan and technical cooperation projects to finance rural businesses in Latin America.