Emergent Asset Management

Susan Payne, as CEO and co-founder, leads investment decisions alongside co-founder and Managing Partner Jimena Vallejo. Payne's career includes senior roles in emerging-markets finance and natural resources, while Vallejo brings structuring expertise in sustainable investments. Their combined experience shapes the firm's focus on natural capital opportunities across developing economies.

Emergent's mandate excludes sectors that do not align with natural-capital outcomes. It does not invest in extractive industries, conventional fossil-fuel infrastructure, or industrial activities that degrade land and water resources. The firm applies negative screening to avoid projects with net-negative environmental externalities that cannot be mitigated through sustainable practice adoption.

Emergent participates in co-investment arrangements where deal size or risk-sharing warrants collaboration with development-finance institutions, impact investors, or regional fund managers. The firm acts as both lead investor and co-investor depending on transaction scale, and its emerging-markets focus means it frequently co-invests alongside partners with complementary local operating capabilities or concessional capital mandates.