Our Team
Amanda Zakharov
Director of Investments
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Amanda joined Dirt Capital Partners in 2022 and is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and closing new investments. She has a background in commercial real estate acquisitions and a passion for impact investing in sustainable agriculture. In roles at Strategic Office Partners (a platform of TPG Real Estate), Angelo Gordon, and W. P. Carey, Amanda acquired ~$2B in predominately single tenant real estate, including office, industrial, and retail properties. Additionally, she worked on social impact investments in the food and agricultural sphere as an angel investor, consultant, and entrepreneur, with groups such as Slow Money NYC, Blue Marble Ice Cream, and Local Farms Fund.
Amanda received a B.S. in Finance and Accounting and a M.A. in Food Studies from New York University. She is also a CFA® charterholder and serves on the board of Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders (SAFSF). Previously, she served as a board member of the CFA Society of Phoenix and the Orange County Land Trust.
Dominick Grant
Partner and Managing Director
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Dominick joined Dirt Capital Partners in 2021 and oversees investment and portfolio management activities. He has worked extensively in land-based investing, including for seven years at BioCarbon Group, a global private-equity impact investment firm backed by institutional investors. Previously he worked at Working Lands Investment Partners, a private-equity real asset investment firm specializing in complex projects with value derived from agriculture, timber, and ecosystem services; the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Environmental Markets; and was a lecturer in Forest and Ecosystem Finance at the Yale School of the Environment.
Dominick serves on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Green Bank and the CT Department of Agriculture Diversity Equity and Inclusion Working Group. In addition, he and his wife operate a small diversified organic farm in Connecticut. He holds an MBA, an M.E.M. and BA with distinction from Yale University.
Jacob Israelow
Founder and Managing Partner
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Jacob started Dirt Capital Partners in 2013 as a platform to channel private investment in support of farmland access, conservation and long-term land security for sustainable farmers. Previously, he was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in Asia, where he spent five years acquiring and developing real estate and infrastructure on behalf of the firm.
Jacob chairs Dirt Capital’s Investment Committee and also serves on the New York Advisory Council of American Farmland Trust, the Investment Committee for Belltown Farms. He previously served on the Board of the National Young Farmers Coalition for 10 years from 2013-2023 including several years as Treasurer. He has an MBA from Columbia Business School, an MA from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a BA from Williams College.
Jason Kenny
Chief Financial Officer
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Jason joined Dirt Capital Partners in 2018. Previously, he spent three years as the CFO and CCO of Kings Peak Asset Management, a currency and rates-based investment manager in New York. Prior to this, he spent seven years at Metacapital Management, a fixed income investment manager in New York in a similar role. Jason has public accounting experience through his time spent as an auditor at Anchin, Block and Anchin.
He holds a Bachelors in Business Administration and Finance from Marist College and is a CPA.
Martín Lemos
Director of Impact and Agriculture
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Martín joined Dirt Capital Partners in 2023 and leads the firm's impact strategy and farm advisory services. His deep background in agriculture stems from a decade farming across the U.S., including managing a 50-acre organic farm outside of Chicago. He also coordinated field research programs in support of SME investment in Ghana as senior agronomist at AgDevCo. He later joined BSR where he advised major food and agriculture companies on sustainability strategy, ESG integration, and responsible sourcing.
Prior to joining Dirt Capital, Martín served as Co-Executive Director of the National Young Farmers Coalition. During his tenure, the coalition grew significantly and delivered on historic funding for equitable land access, COVID relief benefiting community-scale farmers, and expanded resources for young and BIPOC producers.
Martín serves on the boards of FWD Impact and Farm Generations Cooperative. He is an alumni of the Castanea Fellowship of leaders working for a racially just food system. He holds an MBA in Sustainability from Bard College and a BA in comparative literature and mathematics from Hamilton College.
Shannon Nolan
Investment Associate
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Shannon joined Dirt Capital Partners in 2024 to support new investments and portfolio management as well as broader business initiatives. With a diverse background spanning financial services, consulting, and agricultural research and technology, she offers a unique perspective and skill set.
Previously, Shannon worked at Bank of the West (now BMO) in Corporate Strategy & Development, where she evaluated investment opportunities and supported the Office of the COO. Her commitment to agriculture is reflected in her work with agricultural non-profits, including the Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development in Peru and California Farmlink. Shannon also founded Open Regen Ag, a pioneering platform that uses AI to promote the adoption of climate-smart and regenerative agricultural practices, essentially serving as a 'Yelp' for agriculture.
Growing up in an agricultural community, Shannon has always been captivated by the intersections of agriculture, environmental conservation, economic development, and human health. She holds a BA in International Studies from the University of Washington and an MBA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Outside of her professional work, Shannon is an avid small-scale organic vegetable and fruit grower and aspires to become a master gardener.
Investment Committee
Anders Ferguson
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Anders Ferguson is a founding principal of Veris Wealth Partners. He is a seasoned entrepreneur and financier building sustainable companies and nonprofits since 1978. Anders specializes in sustainable alternative assets, capital formation, and business strategy. Prior to Veris, Anders chaired Uplift Equity Partners, a firm specializing in sustainable private equity. He speaks frequently about sustainable leadership and investing.
Anders is a principal consultant to the Envestnet Sustainability Platform. Headquartered in Chicago, Envestnet Asset Management is a leading provider of innovative practice management and asset management solutions for independent financial advisors.
In 1999, Anders achieved an important personal milestone with the success of a consulting company he founded. Rather than rush quickly into a new venture, he took time off to contemplate a deeper application of his business skills to his personal passion for social responsibility. Anders went on retreat to a small rural village on the border of Tibet and China where he witnessed firsthand the environmental impacts of an ascending Chinese economy. Forests were stripped of trees, rivers were dammed for hydro-electric projects, and the air in major cities was growing visibly toxic. All the good works of the small and medium-sized sustainable companies he advised were no match for what was occurring on a global scale. Anders knew he needed to engage major, mainstream business leaders in the next phase of his life’s work. With this in mind, he co-convened an extraordinary conference and NGO that brought together Fortune 500 executives and the Dalai Lama to explore the intersection of leadership, spirituality, mindfulness, and business performance. It was the beginning of a journey that continues to this day.
Anders is a co-founder of the Dalai Lama Fellows, Chair of Friends of The Oberlin Project, Oberlin College, and co-founder of the Global Leaders Academy. He was an advisor to the Evergreen Cooperatives initiative in Cleveland, OH, and served as a director of the National Cooperative Business Association and Foundation for 12 years. Anders studied agriculture at Purdue University and graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in History and Environmental Studies. He lives with his family in Leyden, MA.
Elisabeth Keller
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Elisabeth Keller is President of Inglewood Plantation, LLC, a 3,600-acre farm in Louisiana that has been in her family since 1926. Until 2012, Inglewood was a conventional commodity crop and livestock operation. Five years ago, she initiated the transition of the farm toward a fully sustainable, organic farming enterprise that includes organic vegetables, grains and pecans, along with grass-fed beef and pastured pork. Inglewood is now the largest organic farm in Louisiana and sells produce and meat through farmers’ markets, CSA sales, restaurants, and wholesale channels.
From 2012-2017, Elisabeth was Chairman of the Board of Keller Enterprises, and she is a current Board Director at Murphy Oil Corp. She has adopted something of a farming approach to managing her personal portfolio of investments, considering this question: What do I want to grow that will be sustaining and life-giving to the community, the world and the planet? She is driven by the vision of a family company whose ventures create sustainable economic vitality, promote environmental stewardship, and strengthen the communities where they are based.
Elisabeth came to Keller Enterprises after working for many years in the field of public health as a certified nurse-midwife. She holds degrees from Williams College, Yale Divinity School and the Yale School of Nursing. Elisabeth spends her volunteer time working with organizations focused on health and education in East Africa. She serves on the boards of Re-Entry Solutions, an organization in Louisiana supporting citizens returning from incarceration, and CHERA (Community Health & Education in Rural Africa).
Esther Park
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Esther is the CEO of Cienega Capital, a regenerative investment firm utilizing an integrated capital approach to systemic change in the areas of soil health, regenerative agriculture, and local food systems. Cienega Capital is also part of the #NoRegrets Initiative, a regenerative asset strategy focused on the health of agricultural soils and agricultural communities of North America. Esther has 20 years of experience in mission-based financial services ranging from microfinance to risk capital investments, in partnership with financial institutions, family offices, foundations, and investment advisors. She also serves as a Board member at City Fresh Foods, Custom Food Solutions, Carman Ranch Provisions, Eden Cider, Civil Eats, and Grassfed Alliance.
Esther has also served as the Vice President for Strategy and Business Development at RSF Social Finance, and oversaw all lending activity from 2007-2011, which resulted in a tripling of the loan portfolio, and the development of a mezzanine debt fund. Prior to joining RSF, Esther was a senior consultant for ShoreBank Advisory Services, where she provided strategic and capital planning advice for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), particularly small business and affordable-housing loan funds. She also trained lenders internationally in small business lending practices, and underwrote Program Related Investments (PRIs) for private foundation clients. And in a previous life, Esther lived in Nukus, Uzbekistan, teaching English and conducting program evaluation work for the United Nations. Esther received her MPP from University of Chicago, and BA in Social Welfare from the University of California Berkeley. She lives in Berkeley, California with her husband, Greg, and their two children, Evangeline and Bryce.
Jacob Israelow
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Jacob started Dirt Capital Partners in 2013 as a platform to channel private investment in support of farmland access, conservation and long-term land security for sustainable farmers. Previously, he was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in Asia, where he spent five years acquiring and developing real estate and infrastructure on behalf of the firm.
Jacob chairs Dirt Capital’s Investment Committee and also serves on the New York Advisory Council of American Farmland Trust, the Investment Committee for Belltown Farms, and served on the Board of the National Young Farmers Coalition for 10 years from 2013-2023 including several years as Treasurer. He has an MBA from Columbia Business School, an MA from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a BA from Williams College.
Tom Sargent
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Tom spent the last 30 years working on innovative community-oriented projects that bring to life underutilized urban areas. As a founding principal of Equity Community Builders LLC (ECBSF.com) in 1993, he led the development and ongoing management of such award winning projects as the Thoreau Center for Sustainability in the Presidio of San Francisco, the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market in San Francisco and Cavallo Point Lodge in Sausalito. The firm, which has completed over $600 million in real estate projects, is committed to responsible development, and focuses on historic rehabilitation, non-profit multi-tenant centers, affordable housing and green building practices.
Tom also participates actively as an advisor to the non-profit sector and as an investor in social enterprises through his firm Highlands Associates (HighlandsSRI.com), which has a particular focus on local sustainable agriculture and food production. He believes that public/private partnerships and creatively structured, patient capital investment strategies provide a significant opportunity for serving both human and natural communities. He is co-founder and Board President of the New Field Foundation (Newfieldfound.org), which supports rural women’s groups and agro-ecological projects primarily in West Africa; and Trustee of the Tamalpais Trust (Tamtrust.org), which supports the strengthening of Indigenous People’s led initiatives and institutions that promote and serve traditional cultures, values, knowledge, rights, and lifeways.
He has always had a passion for learning about rural life and the natural world. After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1973, he worked on a dairy farm in Bridport, Vermont and then owned a farm in Quebec, both of which were inspiring, but humbling, experiences. He studied landscape design at the Conway School in Massachusetts, and has deep roots in New England where he grew up.
