Our Team  

Unique Places houses a team of professionals dedicated to generating economic and public value through permanent protection for natural and cultural resources. As a team we have over 50 years of collective experience, we provide expertise in real estate management, land protection, real estate design and development, conservation planning, comprehensive ecosystem asset evaluation, and conservation finance.

Jeff Fisher

CEO

Jeff Fisher is the owner and CEO of Unique Places, where he provides leadership in business development and design. With 13 years of experience in land conservation and real estate development, Jeff has been involved in facilitating $100 million in land transactions and raised over $50 million for land conservation. Before co-founding Unique Places, Jeff served as Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Delta Project in Arkansas and as Executive Director of the Tar River Land Conservancy. Jeff holds a J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.E.M. from Duke University’s Nicholas School for the Environment. He also received a Political Science B.A from North Carolina State University.

Bret Frk

Director of Conservation Design

Bret Frk oversees all aspects of conservation design and development. This includes GIS analysis, conservation asset assessment, land planning and site design. Before joining Unique Places, Bret was an associate at Design Workshop, Inc., where he designed and managed a wide variety of project types ranging from environmentally sensitive large scale residential to intimate mixed-use urban design. Bret earned his B.A. in Urban Planning and Design at the University of Cincinnati after completing six internship quarters at some of the leading design firms in the nation. He has served on the Land O’ Sky Regional Council of Government's "Hillside and Steep Slope Development Advisory Committee" among other community design initiatives serving Western North Carolina.

Svetlana Andrianova

Real Estate Finance Specialist

Svetlana Andrianova provides investment and real estate transaction management services. Svetlana leverages her background in financial services to assist clients of Unique Places throughout all stages of property acquisition or sale - from negotiations and due diligence to closing. Svetlana has several years of experience in the banking industry in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where she worked at ING Bank as a market risk analyst and at Amsterdam Trade Bank as a client relationship manager. She holds a MBA from Duke University, an MSc in Management Research from Oxford University and a B.S. in Financial Management from Plekhanov Academy of Economics in Moscow, Russia.

Ragini Gupta

Project Manager

Ragini Gupta assists the team with project implementation, design and financial management. She has 6 + years project planning experience and has been involved in numerous urban revitalization projects across the Carolinas including community parks, public spaces, and historic rehabilitations. Ragini holds a certificate in Historical Preservation from Rhode Island School of Design and received her B.A. in Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. Ragini's work has always centered on sustainability. At Unique Places, she continues to manage projects that are rooted in a deep commitment to social and environmental responsibility.

Jason Payne

Land Manager

Jason Payne provides expertise in natural resource management as a NC Certified Prescribed Burner, Registered Forester, and Licensed Soil Scientist. Jason manages diverse projects ranging from Longleaf Pine Forests in the lower Coastal Plain to pristine Oak-Hickory Forests in the Foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He has experience in preparing forest management plans, timber valuation, planning and coordinating timber sales, wetland and stream delineation, wetland mitigation, soil mapping, and prescribed burning. Jason holds a B.S. in Forest Management from North Carolina State University.


Jeff Stewart

Land Manager

Jeff Stewart provides expertise in land conservation practices as a field technician and land steward for Unique Places. After college, Jeff worked for the Southeast Exotic Plant Management Team, where he helped eradicate exotic invasive plants in 18 National Parks throughout the Southeast. From there, he moved on to work with the NC Plant Conservation Program, gaining valuable experience in the protection of endangered species and their habitats. Through his work experiences, Jeff has received extensive training with all types of land management tools. Jeff holds his NC pesticide applicators license, and is a NC Certified Prescribed Burner. Jeff holds a B.S. from the University of North Carolina Asheville, in Environmental Studies, with a concentration in Ecology and Environmental Biology.

Collaborators  

Pat Dale

Land Management Consultant

Pat Dale has over 30 years of experience with forest management and logging operations. He also has extensive service working with and managing hunt club operations, which he brings to bare in the properties Unique Places leases for hunting.

Michael Scisco

BioGeoCreations, LLC

Michael Scisco has nearly ten years of experience in cartography and mapping technologies. He received a Graduate Certificate in GIS from Portland State University in Portland, Oregon and has operated BioGeoCreations (a GIS and Cartography Company) for five years. Mr. Scisco has also worked in the field of private land conservation for over eight years and has a B.S. in Environmental Science from Western Washington University, Huxley College of the Environment.


Kevin Caldwell

Mountains-to-Sea Ecological, Inc

Kevin is the owner and founder of Mountains to Sea Ecological. He has 18 years experience in natural resource inventory, assessment, and hands-on management of landscape level projects in mountain and piedmont habitats. Kevin specializes in botanical and wildlife surveys including rare species surveys, breeding-bird surveys, natural community classification, old growth forest delineation, least-impact development planning, forest and habitat restoration, exotic species removal, GIS mapping, and applied land-management techniques. Mr. Caldwell holds a B.S. in Environmental Science / Ecology from the University of North Carolina, Asheville. He formerly served as Chair of the Land Management Committee of the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, and he was named a lifetime trustee of the Pioneer Farm Educational Center of Colebrook, New Hampshire.

Clay Nelson and Lynnette Batt

Sustainable Stables, LLC

Clay and Lynette are the founders of Sustainable Stables, LLC, a company that offers professional services on the planning, design and management of equestrian farms and facilities. They help their clients create highly functional horse properties that provide a safe and healthy home for horses, while emphasizing thoughtful use of the land and natural resources. They specialize in working with private landowners, including those who may be just getting into horses, or are updating their facilities. Principals, Clay Nelson and Lynnette Batt bring a unique combination of expertise in horse keeping, facility planning, environmental conservation and sustainability to every project.


Kenneth Marks

High Rock Partners, Inc.

Kenneth Marks serves as Chief Financial Officer at Unique Places. As managing partner of High Rock Partners, Inc., he has served as manager, advisor or board member with more than 18 emerging growth companies. Kenneth's past positions include President of JPS Communications, Inc. and Director for a N.C. investment bank. He teaches graduate level courses focused on managing and financing emerging growth companies at the Hult International Business School and N.C. State University. He earned his MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and has attended executive programs at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the lead author of the "Handbook of Financing Growth: Strategies & Capital Structure" and a Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor (CM&AA).

Lloyd Raleigh

Helia Environmental, Inc.

Director of Helia Environmental consulting group, Lloyd Raleigh has over fifteen years of environmental and ecological experience working with international organizations, government agencies, research institutions and national, state, and local conservation organizations, as well as conducting in-depth studies of the natural world. Lloyd is the owner of Helia EnvironmentalLloyd received his master’s degree in Forest Science (MFS) from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies with a focus in management planning and ecosystem management. He graduated from the University of South Carolina, where he received a B.A. and a B.S. in interdisciplinary studies combining physical and biological sciences with writing and socioeconomics.

David Harper

Land in Common, Inc.

David Harper helps manage Unique Places' strategic conservation planning, easement projects, grant writing, model ordinances and land trust partnerships. David has 20 years of experience conserving land in rapidly developing urban areas and has raised over $4 million for conservation planning and restoration projects. He is director of Land in Common, which supports landowner and land trust stewardship of landscapes and watersheds. Prior to joining the Unique Places team, he was the Watershed Conservation Program Manager with the Natural Lands Trust and the Senior Planner with the Brandywine Conservancy, both in Pennsylvania. David earned his M.R.P. from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Political Science/City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. He teaches Conservation and Land Management in the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Environmental Studies program.

Wendy Jacobs

A former member of the Durham County Planning Commission and a current candidate for Durham Board of County Commissioners, has extensive knowledge of conservation subdivision ordinances and zoning issues. As chair of the Erwin Area Neighborhood Group, she coordinated a successful multi-jurisdictional campaign to create a new regional park/preserve along the New Hope Creek Corridor. Wendy is also chair of the New Hope Preserve Master Plan Committee and a member of the New Hope Creek Corridor Advisory Committee, which is responsible for implementing the plan. Wendy graduated from Duke University and earned a teaching certificate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.