What are the responsibilities and job description for the Transactions Intern position at Aurora Sustainable Lands?
About the Organization: Aurora Sustainable Lands (Aurora), was formed in the fall of 2021 as a joint venture of the global investment firm Oak Hill Advisors and Anew Climate, LLC, the largest marketer and originator of carbon and environmental credits in North America. Aurora’s mission is to purchase and more sustainably manage high value forestland. In total, Aurora now owns and manages some 1.7 million acres of forestland spread over 17 U.S. Eastern states, and the firm is now one of the 10 largest forestland owners in the U.S.
We are a passionate group of people dedicated to delivering real GHG emission reduction and efficiency projects, services, and strategies, and we are looking for enthusiastic, personable, and like-minded team players to join our team to help us increase our positive impact.
General Summary: Aurora seeks an intern to support the company’s transaction and analytics team. This is an excellent opportunity to gain exposure to timberland investments and carbon markets. Preferably, the candidate will have experience in financial and forest modeling, growth and yield modeling, an awareness to forest product market dynamics (particularly in mixed hardwood regions), knowledge of nature-based climate solutions, and an understanding of the timber investment landscape. Success will require strong data processing skills. The Transactions Intern reports to Jack Durgin, Director of Strategic Analysis for Aurora.
Primary Responsibilities and Competencies:
- Help maintain functional databases that improve efficiency of use for historical Aurora data, including stumpage prices, timberland transactions, and other items related to transactions and portfolio management.
- Ad-hoc analyses, such as project & strategy evaluation, benchmarking, scenario analyses etc.
- Learn appraisal review process and become familiar with timberland appraisal methodologies.
- Generate yield tables in FVS for use in forest estate models.
- Help develop forest estate model templates in Woodstock and/or R.
- Produce capstone memo to be shared with executive team detailing internship experience.
Required Education, Experience and Certification:
- In pursuit of or having completed an undergraduate degree in Forestry/Natural Resource Management, Forest Business, Economics, or a closely related subject.
- A strong work ethic.
- Ability to work independently.
- Ability to work in collaborative and team environments.
- Excellent verbal and written communications skills.
- Self-motivated, organized, and able to efficiently manage several diverse tasks at the same time to meet required deadlines.
- Experience working with Excel.
- Familiarity with core forestry concepts and terms.
Preferred Education, Qualifications & Experience:
- Completed or is currently in pursuit of an MBA or graduate degree in Finance, Economics, Forestry, or Forest Biometrics
- Experience with financial modeling
- A basic understanding of linear programming and harvest scheduling concepts
- Experience working with Woodstock and/or FVS.
- Programming skills in R and SQL
Skills:
- Financial modeling
- Statistical analysis
- Programming skills
- GIS skills